On October 14, at least 41 miners in the Amasra province of Turkey died and many others were wounded following an explosion in a state-owned coal mine, Amasra Hard Coal Enterprise.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation stands in solidarity with the families of the miners who died or were wounded and the whole working class of Turkey. We also wish the wounded miners who survived a speedy recovery.
This is not an accident but an outright massacre of miners. The deaths were avoidable if adequate safety provisions and risk management processes were in place. In Turkey, more than 1,900 miners were killed in the mines in the last 20 years despite a decrease in the number of miners employed overall.
These deaths are a result of decades of ruthless privatization policies with the insatiable drive for more and more profit that made non-union subcontracted labor the norm and did away with most safety regulations. This resulted in a significant deterioration of work conditions including in the state-owned mines like AHCE.
We are extremely saddened and angered by this massacre, and it also serves to deepen our resolve in the fight to do away with capitalism and replace it with socialism. Only this can end the exploitation and misery of workers whether in Turkey, the United States or anywhere else.
