Strong Unions Are The Best Hope Inside Capitalism

The San Jose Mine incident in Chile has again brought forward old questions related to labor and capital. In the backdrop of the San Jose Mine incident, the 33 miners' struggle to win life, Michael D Yates , Associate Editor of Monthly Review , was interviewed by Farooque Chowdhury. Michael D Yates was for many years professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown , USA . He is the author of In and Out of the Working Class (2009), (with Fred Magdoff) The ABCs of the Economic Crisis (2009), Cheap Motels and a Hotplate (2007), Naming the System (2004), Why Unions Matter (1998), Longer Hours, Fewer Jobs (1994), all published by Monthly Review Press. Following are Michael Yates' responses to the questions:

Question : From your writings it stands that miners' life is well known to you. What's your reaction to the episode that the world witnessed in the San Jose Mine in Chile ?

Michael D Yates : There is a special solidarity in mining communities, because of the danger of working underground, where at any time you could die.  People live in constant fear of this.  My reaction was to assume that the owners were lax in terms of safety, and this appears to be the case. Hopefully this episode will fuel more militancy among the miners and their communities.  On a purely human level, I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be trapped like that.  But now the men will be expected to work as always, and the fame they have now will soon enough fade. They will be affected in many negative ways, psychologically not the least.  However, the media won't be around to report on that, and the concern the world has now will disappear.

On the basis of statistics it can be deduced that mining is one of the deadliest occupations. Then, why people enter into mine? What is the hard fact?

People work in mines because they need work.  Their mobility is not great, and if their communities have always sent men into the mines (I don't know if women work in the mines there or not), then it is a natural thing for young men to follow suit.  There may even be notions that mining is a way to win your manhood.  Then too unions are usually strong in mining, so the pay, etc, are usually above average.  Working class life is hard and full of dangers in any event.  It is not as if the average worker has unlimited opportunities.  Quite the contrary.

As one searches the pages of mining history one will find that a lot of changes have entered into mining, and into miners' life. On the contrary, a lot of “things” have not changed. What are those, on both sides, changes and unaltered?

Mining technology has changed considerably, with a good deal of mechanization replacing hand labor.  Much more of this should occur, so as few people as possible have to be miners.  This won't happen under capitalism, however.  What has remained the same in most of the world is the constant danger, the callousness of the owners, and the collusion between the owners and the government.  Where the unions of miners are strong, conditions are always better, but this is a constant struggle that waxes and wanes over time.

What are the reasons behind?

Always the profit motive, the goal of accumulating capital is behind nearly everything that matters in working class life.  You see what happens when capitals is in charge in a country like China , where mining disasters are not at all uncommon, all the roe so as the nation becomes increasingly capitalist.

Is there no way out from the life miners are entrapped into?

Strong unions are the best hope inside capitalism.  Only the abolition of capitalism can liberate miners and all other workers. 

What are the hindrances in improving the working and living conditions of miners?

They are the same as for all workers: the power of capital, the power of the state, divisions of all sorts among the workers.  As miners overcome their divisions and come to see more clearly the root causes of their oppression, they begin to take actions to get out of the trap. 

Is improving working and living conditions for miners costlier than the “cost” for lives? How it affects productivity and, essentially returns?

Of course, a life is always worth more than profits. The owners don't see it this way, and that is why the miners must organize and force the owners to accept a different calculus.  Then the owners will try to keep profits up in the face of higher wages and better conditions, including safety.  The owners always have the upper hand at the workplace since they own the capital.  So miners have to organize politically as well. In purely technical terms, union miners are probably more productive as they will be better trained, etc. But they may not be more profitable.  Hence, there is constant class struggle .

In Capital, Marx refers to a note by Liebig that tells the mine owners compelled the miners to consume bread and bean though the miners disliked beans which was liked by horses. But the owners' choice was dictated by the interest of return as beans provided the power the miners needed to bring up metal load from deep down. Now, it seems, labor is less important than material, the support systems in mines, and the life they have been pushed into, meager wages, ramshackle congested homes without water, sewage system, and proper ventilation system, diseases, etc., constant fear of unemployment, the abject poverty. In many lands, these are not different from the condition of the working class in England Engels described, rather miserable than that. These are now a bit documented. Even the mainstream media sometimes mention this fact. Is it that miners' living condition is now not a factor for capital regeneration as there is a huge reserve army of labor?

This may be true in many parts of the world.  We have to expect owners to calculate costs with no concern for the workers, as they think of the workers as implements of production, no different that the materials and machines used. Whatever lowers costs and raises profits will be done, absent strong class organization.

And, has that intensified the rate of appropriation of surplus labor?

Yes, it always does.

We know legendary John Henry, the “steel-driving man”, who swung a 4.4-kg sledge hammer with each hand for 12 hours a day, pounding steel chisels as deep as 14 ft 4.2 m into solid rock. He is a hero of labor, and a symbol of humanity's determination. How the San Jose miners shall be remembered by the present period that finds deep in the Moon and the Mars being explored, and by posterity?

Unless the miners force the issue by radically strengthening their organization, they will be just another footnote in history.

And, how humanity shall remember this crude, callous capital that called in this cruelty in the San Jose mine?

The answer is the same as for the previous question. As Mother Jones, the legendary miners' angel and organizer, said, Don't mourn, organize.

Thank you.   

You are welcome!  Solidarity ! 
 -----
This article published at Monthly Review, an Independent Socialist Magazine
A different version of the same interview was first published in the 4 November 2010 issue of New Age, one of the leading English dailies in Bangladesh. 

Chilean miners who defied death

Trapped Chilean miners

An October witnessed: labour stands unvanquished in Chile. And, the mines there symbolize cruel capital, whose motive force is profit.

The 33 miners defied death brought down by hundreds of thousands of tons of rock, and essentially, by profit-hunger. The mining magnates stood against miners, bent on breaking their backbones. But they, the billionaires, failed. The miners rode up from deep underground, stood under the sun, under the star studded sky, and proclaimed: “We have to change the way we work. The working world needs lots of changes. We, the miners, we won’t let it rest.”

The undaunted San Jose miners in the Atacama Desert brought to light plight the miners pass through, the compulsions created by the reality of profit and deprivation, the compulsions that compel them to work in places feared even by death. These miners now stand as heroes of our time.

Time, a mainstream US weekly, however, informs: “Chile rarely if ever regarded labourers as heroes …Chilean workers need 60 percent more earning power to afford [the higher cost of living]. Chile’s working class…has a high rate of stomach cancer, which doctors attribute in no small part to a lack of vegetables in their diet…Only 10 percent of Chile’s workforce is unionised.” The minimum wage of about $300 a month tells of inhuman hardship. “Produce for export”, the motto attractive to almost all the poor countries, denies the poor to get hold of many essentials of life. Vegetables are one of the major commodities that Chile exports. A study last year cited Chilean employers’ pervasive distrust “in the ability of workers” to justify “to keep wages low.”

Now, president PiÑera, a billionaire with stakes in mining, real estate, etc., admits needs for labour reforms: “We have to adopt the [labour] standards of the developed world…Our principal wealth… is …the miners.” To him also the work condition “in the San Jose mine and … in many other places” is inhumane. (The Santiago Times, Oct. 15, 2010) He now tells the truth: It is the labour that produces wealth, and the inhuman condition for labour carries conditions for less regeneration of capital. His message is directed at the crude capital in Chile, the mineral rich country with memories of prosperity after the opening of the Panama Canal, the country once a chief source of natural nitrate and iodine.

Risking lives into the unstable mines for just about $1,600 a month comes forward as an easy option for many poor as the salary is better than construction. Death is a frequent visitor in mines. Since 2000, about 34 people have died every year on average in mining accidents in Chile — with a high of 43 in 2008. That is roughly about 3-4 deaths a month. The unofficial data provide a higher rate. All this is for gold, for copper, for profit, profit in exchange of “expendable” human life.

The miners’ relatives vigorously oppose working in mines. But the miners could not be stopped. “If they need the work”, said a press report quoting a miner’s relative, “they will return to the mine.” Miners, as all workers followed by a huge reserve army of labour, have no choice between low wages and weak safety standards. A Roman Catholic priest told The New York Times: “These miners are …victims of a great injustice in work conditions”. But the “innocent” mine magnates’ “minds” are “transparent”! Alejandro Bohn, Time reported, the San José mine owner, “is claiming bankruptcy even though a judge has ruled he has almost $2 million on hand with which to aid the 33 miners and their families.”

The San José mine was closed for safety concerns in 2007. But it was reopened in 2008. No explanation has been provided. There was no ladder, mandated by government, for escape shafts in the mine, the dungeon from which miners made the epic march. Many of the mines use “techniques that are little changed from the 19th century.” The owners don’t buy better overalls and install ventilation and support systems; the workers have to strip down to bare chests in heat that sometimes exceeds 120 degrees F. Only 16 safety auditors for about 4,000 mines, and only four for the 844 registered mines in the desolate Atacama Desert! (The Santiago Times, Oct. 15, 2010)

Jonathan Vega, brother of Alex Vega, one of the trapped miners, worked in the San José mine from 2003 to 2008. A safety check was made once a year “if you were lucky”, he told The Santiago Times. Accidents are neighbours of miners in a land where the mining magnates and many-made-billions-of-dollars under General Pinochet, a land sharply divided along class line, a land that experienced the “shock therapy” by the “famous” Chicago Boys, the disciples of Friedman.

The entrapped San José miners faced difficult time for about 70 days. One can draw a parallel: Spartacus’ days into a desert mine. Spartacus knew the only desire was “to endure, to survive …” So, he did not gulped water given to him, he sipped “it for hours, so that every possible drop of it may sink into the tissues of his body …every small speck and stain of food is survival.” He survived the hellish mine, he survived to revolt against Rome. The Chilean miners have survived, unparallel in human history. They thus symbolise labour’s strength and endurance, labour’s unity and hope, labour’s determination and courage.

Then, as the miners were struggling every moment for survival about half-a mile beneath the earth, where no human being has ever lived, came in money and valuable sexy gifts for their poverty stricken relatives and children. There in the desolate desert stepped in profit driven media with tempting offers for interviews, etc. Capitalist connections spread its web among the agonised humanity. Alluring money began corrupting human spirit with its destructive and corrupting power. Media started selling stories with lurid linings. Entrapped miners were made subject of saucy stories. A naked show of hunger for profit! José Zalaquett, a prominent Chilean human rights lawyer, professor of international law at the Universidad de Chile, and former president of the International Executive Committee of Amnesty International, said: “It is reprehensible that the private life and personal communication of the miners and their families have not been respected.” (La Tercera, Oct. 12, 2010) A free liberal media indeed!

But defying all obstacles, denying all unbearable pain and corrupt system the miners emerged from the chamber of death. The system, it seems, Bottom of still has failed to corrupt them. The brave 33 have decided to equitably distribute the earnings that are expected to come from interviews, media appearances, movies, books. A triumphant Urzua, one of Los mineros de Chi-LE, Miners of Chile, the foreman who led the survival saga said: “We have done what the entire world was waiting for. The 70 days that we fought so hard were not in vain. We had strength, we had spirit, we wanted to fight … and that was the greatest thing.” Then, there in the desert reverberated: A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

This article published as an opinion at bdnews24, Bangladesh's first online newspaper.October 19, 2010