NYC: Protest Wed., Aug. 29: No Blood for Platinum in South Africa!

No Blood for Platinum!
Lonmin Platinum massacres 34 striking miners
in South Africa!

Thirty-four African miners were killed by police on Aug. 16 in Marikana, South Africa. Another 78 were wounded and 259 were arrested.These platinum miners were striking against Lonmin PLC-based in London-for living wages and safety. Every month a worker dies in the mines owned by Lonmin.

Platinum is as valuable as gold. While Lonmin CEO Ian Farmer got $911,000 in 2009, miners digging underground in dangerous conditions make only $480 per month. The sweat and blood of South African miners allowed Lonmin to make $307 million in profit last year. These profits go overwhelming to the 1% in Britain and the U.S.
 
After the Aug. 16 massacre, Lonmin has threatened to fire the strikers. As the African National Congress Youth League stated, "South Africa's exploitative mining regime, capitalist greed and the poverty of our people are the cause" (of this massacre). "How many more people must die before we accept that the festering conditions of inequality and ownership by a select few, a white few in particular, is a time bomb that no longer just ticks…"
 
Protest this atrocity at the headquarters of Bank of New York Mellon that makes money selling Lonmin's "American depository receipts" (shares in non-U.S. based companies) while African workers are massacred.

Demonstrate ►Wed ►August 29 ►5 pm
Bank of New York Mellon
Broadway & Wall Street
 

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