Alexander Cockburn, one of my journalistic and literary heroes passed away yesterday, after a prolonged battle with cancer. Cockburn's acidic criticism, flourishing prose and general contempt for all that was orthodox, safe and banal, made him one of the greatest...
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The Spear: SA won’t overcome fear by surrendering to it | by Alexander Matthews
Alexander Matthews says ANC trying to place a taboo on discussions of Zuma's version of masculinity Brett Murray's defaced The Spear stands as a monument to intolerance. After thousands of ANC supporters marched to the Goodman where it had once been on display, the...
The Spear: The ANC’s Pyrrhic victory | by Alexander Matthews
Alexander Matthews says City Press can be bullied but the internet is beyond its reach In a brave new world, the ANC's bullying tactics will fail There has been much gnashing of teeth at the decision made by the editor of City Press, Ferial Haffajee, to remove a photo...
Letter to the Editors of Amandla! | by John S. Saul
Although all too familiar with the hard, even bitter, kind of South African political “debate” on the left and centre-left that too often turns potentially comradely exchange into a mind-numbing dialogue of the deaf, even I was a little taken aback by the tenor of...
Protests and Police Statistics: Some Commentary | by Prof. Peter Alexander
On 19 March the Minister of Police, Mr. Nathi Mthetwa, informed parliament about the number of ‘crowd management incidents’ that occurred during the three years from 1 April 2009. Table 1, compares the new data with similar statistics for the preceding five years.In...
John Saul’s empty chalice | by Jeremy Cronin
As we mark the centenary of the ANC there are, as we might expect, idealised versions of its history being trotted out. These tend to present the ANC’s hundred years as a righteous procession from early beginnings, through persecution and heroic resistance, to...




