Gold Strike, Relating To Cry, :: essays research papers

Gold dig union plans one-day Free State strikeAn article dated March 17, 2000NUM, or South Africas National Union of Mineworkers, is organizing a one-day strike at Free State gold mines. They are protesting the poverty and job losses from the mines. NUM is the countrys biggest mining union with 50,000 members, and on March 22 the strike would affect five gold companies AngloGold Ltd., Gold Fields Ltd., Harmony Gold Co., Avgold and African Rainbow Minerals. NUM spokesman Ikaneng Matlala didnt say, however, how umpteen members of the union would participate on the strike, but did say All the gold mines in the Free State gold fields are going to participate on a strike. The protest is against the gold mines because of the huge job losses in the last fifteen years. In 1987, gold, being the backbone of the economy, employed 530,000 miners. by and by the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africas economy was open to foreign competition, and the gold industry had to be restructured. The g old price has been decreasing as well, and instantly only 200,000 miners are employed. This current event relates to Alan Patons, Cry, the Beloved Country, because mining supported Johannesburg, and references were made to the mining industry throughout the book. Many characters voiced their opinion that it was the foul men that economically supported the white men in South Africa, and they were diseased and injured by it. That they worked for cheap, were exposed to dangers, and then when they needed medical oversight the non-European hospitals were less than inadequate. John Kumalo gave speeches on strikes against the gold mines. Gold was found in a new area, Odenaalrust, and the white men wanted to change the name because it was too hard to pronounce.