South African women protest massacre

Reports don’t say who these South African women are--if they are survivors of the murdered miners, part of the miner’s community, human rights protestors, or outraged South Africans. But it is immensely courageous for the women to defy the cops even with placards protesting the massacre. Placards could be declared a deadly weapon threatening the public order. Except that newspaper headlines in South Africa declare, “Bloodbath”, “Killing Field”, “Mine Slaughter” with damning photos of heavily armed cops walking casually past the crumpled bodies of those they shot in cold blood. This massacre isn’t just resonating with South Africa’s apartheid past; it is putting a spotlight on its neoliberal present--& damning it. (Photo by Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters)