Revolutions distinguish themselves as phenomena that change those who wield social power, replacing old ruling classes with new classes of rulers. In South Africa, the revolution that culminated in the 1994 April Democratic Breakthrough is always thought of as having...
cheap
The State of Labour: 20 Years Later
To pose questions about the conditions of labour under South African democracy is to question the success of the ANC's national project itself. As the liberation party embraced a liberalised economic system, it turned away from the more radical restructuring and...
The State of Labour: 20 Years Later
To pose questions about the conditions of labour under South African democracy is to question the success of the ANC's national project itself. As the liberation party embraced a liberalised economic system, it turned away from the more radical restructuring and...
What the Marikana Massacre Highlights
by Shawn Hattingh The sight of policemen gunning down striking workers at Marikana was truly galling. Reports too have now emerged that on the day of the shooting some workers may have been executed far from the view of the press’s cameras; and allegations have also...
A mineworker’s wage: The only argument against the R12 500 is greed
Marikana has left the nation in shock. Everyone hopes that the judicial commission of enquiry set up by President Zuma will shed light on what led to the police killing of 34 workers on the 16 August 2012. Lest we forget, eight workers and two policemen were killed...
It’s the coal, stupid
South AfrIca's coal-fuelled development path delivers jobs that are less than decent and results in massively negative externalities – water contamination, air pollution, loss of farmland and community commons and livelihoods. With theexception of Sasol, coal is still...
Echoes of the Past:Marikana, Cheap Labour and the 1946 Miners Strike
Chris Webb On August 4, 1946 over one thousand miners assembled in Market Square in Johannesburg, South Africa. No hall in the town was big enough to hold them, and no one would have rented one to them anyway. The miners were members of the African Mine Worker's...
Cheap Labour, Cheap Lives: Contextualizing Farm Worker Deaths in South Africa and Canada.
by Chris Webb There is a passage from Olive Schreiner’s 1883 novel The Story of An African Farm where she describes the isolated existence of the rural Karoo, with its “weird and almost oppressive beauty...the stone walled sheep kraals and kaffer huts.” This cursory...
Can capitalism survive the end of growth? | by Cy Gonick
Richard Heinberg. The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality New Society Publishers, 2011 Publisher & Coordinating Editor of Canadian Dimension Industrialized economies have grown most years since the mid-19th century. Globally, economic output per...






