Vol. 74/No. 41      November 1, 2010

“It needs to be said,” declared an October 14 opinion-page piece. “The rescue of the Chilean miners is a smashing victory for free market capitalism.”

Columnist Daniel Henninger argues that the technology used to drill a hole to the trapped miners, create a capsule to transport them to the surface, and communicate with them via sophisticated cell phones shows that the profit system is necessary to advance humanity. “Without the year-over-year progress embedded in these capitalist innovations, those trapped miners would be dead,” he contends.

Henninger leaves out one thing: everything he points to that aided the miners’ rescue was created by the labor of the working class, which produces all wealth in society.

Capitalism didn’t save the miners—the capitalist drive for profit at all costs is what put their lives in danger. The Chilean mine bosses reopened the San José mine, which had been closed because it was unsafe. The price of gold and copper had gone up and they wanted to make money.

Massive media attention has been given to the Chilean government and President Sebastián Piñera, a billionaire businessman, for an “expertly managed rescue mission.” But the media says little about the deplorable conditions miners are forced to labor under every day. The San José miners risked their lives to go underground with little to no training in order to earn enough money to live. After their rescue they returned home to neighborhoods lacking sewage systems, running water, or paved roads.

It is possible today, with the science and technology developed by social labor, to lessen the burdens and dangers of work and provide quality food, clothing, shelter, and health care to every human being.

Far from looking to capitalism to bring about an end to poverty, wars, and oppression, workers and farmers need to look to waging a struggle to take political power into our own hands.

With state power the working class will use technology to advance society in the interests of the world’s majority, not to exploit human beings for the profit of a few. We will end the deaths and maiming on the job, along with the slaughter in wars of conquest and the needless deaths of millions from disease and malnourishment.
 
 
Related articles:
45 miners killed on the job in United States this year
Company disregarded safety in Chilean mine  
 
 
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