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CounterPunch
January
9, 2003
War and Carnage in the Workplace
By GLORIA BERGEN
The media plays a critical role in prolonging
the theatre of war that takes place inside the workplace everyday.
On May 15th 2002, a worker for Montreal
transit died after being struck by a train at the St-Michel Metro
station. On the same day, a passenger in Toronto fell onto a
subway rail. She didn't die; she simply rolled under the platform,
let the train pass over her and abided her time until she was
rescued. It was big news for the mainstream media here in Toronto
- CTV, CBC, The Star, The Sun...all the big names carried this
fascinating story. I'm happy the lucky woman had her wits about
her and survived, but where was the coverage about the transit
worker killed by a subway train?
Come to think of it, what about the other
four workers who died within short days of each other in the
same month? Did the media carry news of their tragic deaths?
Jean Rheaume, a maintenance worker fell off the top of a dam
and into the Ste-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier River after
being struck by a beam carried by other workers; two Newfoundland
fishermen from a seven member crew were poisoned to death by
CO on their fishing boat; two construction workers on a 15 story
Toronto condo construction site fell down an elevator shaft;
They ended up as pulp two stories underground.
And the carnage continues. January 03,
2003, a worker was run over by a truck in the Heinz plant in
Leamington Ont. There was no coverage in the main press for this
tragedy, but what do we expect? The mainstream media, like a
lover with no libido, cannot ultimately provide everything we
need. We may turn to it in a tight spot, but it's not our main
source of strength and renewal. (Why did these workers die? Why
are their deaths not important to the mainstream media? ) The
independent media is the source, the secret lover giving us what
we need, what we know is true of ourselves.
Those in the know, know that the media
is under the direct corporate control of individuals and corporations
with an agenda. The "News" is only that information
that they want to pass off to support their own goals. News is
power. Non-news and ignorance is more power.
The major Canadian Daily's reports cover
house fires in Mississauga, car crashes on the 407, house-break
ins, husbands killing their wives in Scarborough. These stories
are not news. They are tragic for the people involved, but they
are not "news". These events happen every day. Everyday
someone's house goes up in smoke. Everyday of the week a husband
kills his wife or girlfriend, somewhere. Every single day there
is carnage on the highways and byways. Why are we saturated with
these stories and hear naught about death and maiming on the
job?
Is it possible that the Canadian Media
doesn't cover worker's deaths because they don't want us to connect
with other workers, to bond with, or relate to them? We can shed
tears over the media story of the poor little mutt that was tied
up in a backyard in the cold, or to the victim of a robbery but,
don't feel sorry for those dam lazy workers. If they die on the
job, it's their own stupid fault.
It has been ten years since the last
completed statistics on occupational injuries and deaths have
been kept in Canada. At that time a Canadian national task force
indicated that occupationally induced cancer alone would account
for 5400 workers' deaths per year, and that the true number of
occupational deaths may well be over 10,000. If this isn't a
human tragedy that should be on the news every single night,
I don't know what is.
No, under capitalism, capitalists and
their controlling arm - the media conspire to keep information
about workers and the brutality of work under capitalism out
of the "news". They do not want workers to know the
background and the history of worker's struggles in Canada, or
anywhere for that matter. To make worker's health and safety
an issue in the mainstream press would mean that workers could
see the carnage, organize to change it, and overthrow the entire
rotten system.
It was only after wildcat strikes by
miners in Elliot Lake in 1976, that a Royal Commission was struck,
which eventually led to Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety
Act. If workers could fight back then over basic human rights
and win, they can do it again! Now, workers must fight with all
layers in the working class: students; unemployed; secretaries;
white-collar workers; unionized workers and non-unionized workers
to fight against capitalism, and the neo-liberal agenda.
All out for peace - and against war and
carnage in the workplace: North America Anti-War Week: January
15 -20, 2003.
Gloria Bergen
writes about environmental health and safety. She lives in Toronto,
Ontario and can be reached at: globerg@sympatico.ca
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January
4, 2003
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Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
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Whiteout:
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by Alexander
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and Jeffrey St. Clair
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