Over 300 Killed in Turkey Coal Mine Disaster: "It was not an accident, it was murder"
May 19, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On May 13, an explosion probably due to a faulty electrical system touched off deadly fires in the tunnels at a large coal mine in Soma in western Turkey, killing hundreds of miners. The official death toll is 301—the worst single industrial disaster in Turkish history. The grief of the families of these miners has reverberated throughout the country and the world.
Protesters in Soma, Turkey, May 14. Photo: AP
The head of the government of Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, went to Soma on May 14 and openly expressed how the system of capitalism he represents looks at such disasters: He gave a list of coal mine accidents in England in the 1800s and then said, "This is what happens in coal mining. There is no such thing as accident-free work." His cold-blooded message: This is the way it's been since the early days of capitalism, and the way it always will be—so just accept it.
Erdogan was booed, there were scuffles with angry protesters who demanded he resign, and he ended up seeking refuge in a nearby shop. Erdogan's remarks fueled people's anger and on May 16, over 1,500 protesters in Soma clashed with riot police, who used tear gas, plastic bullets, and water cannons. More than 20,000 marched and fought police in Izmir, the largest city near Soma.
Protests have also spread to other cities, and the widespread sentiment was expressed on one banner that said, "It was not an accident, it was murder."
In Istanbul, several thousand took to the streets, shops closed down in solidarity, and metro commuters played dead on platforms. Twenty thousand protested in İzmir. In Ankara, 3,000-4,000 marched, hurling rocks. In all these places, the police responded with tear gas and water cannons.
On Saturday, May 17, the Turkish police put Soma on virtual lockdown, setting up checkpoints and detaining dozens of people to enforce a ban on protests.
The quickened pace of imperialist globalization in recent decades has pushed the intensification of capitalist development in Turkey, including development of energy sources at a breakneck pace, especially of coal, with little regard for workers' safety and conditions.
One protester was quoted in the press, "They don't put any value on a human life. All they care about is profit, and nothing else."
The Soma mine disaster was a crime of the capitalist system that, from its earliest days, has ground up the lives of the exploited and oppressed—and today does so intensely and destructively on a global scale, including driving the ever more fierce competition for and exploitation of resources that is leading the world to the edge of environmental catastrophe from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels. As Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, says, "Despite what is constantly preached at us, this capitalist system we live under, this way of life that constantly drains away—or in an instant blows away—life for the great majority of humanity, does not represent the best possible world—nor the only possible world."
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