by S’bu Zikode, Presented in Mexico City on 6th August 2012 Before Abahlali baseMjondolo was formed the shack dwellers in South Africa wereconsidered by government and some other people in our society to be theundeserving poor. This claim came as the result of the...
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The Emperor is naked | by Njabulo S Ndebele
A reincarnated Hans Christian Andersen may have painted The Spear for those denying the testimony of their eyes ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes” is one of the most enduring tales by Hans Christian Andersen. It tells the story of a fashion-obsessed Emperor who has no time...
A Festival of Resistance
first published in Mahala This was the third time I attended the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, now as a fourth year student at Rhodes University. The role that the festival plays for the town has become increasingly apparent as my own interests and work have...
Book Review: 2010 and South African Denial | Reviewed by Mark Fredericks
South Africa's World Cup A Legacy for Whom? Edited by Eddie Cottle Published by UKZN Press, Durban. 2011. Benito Mussolini once described fascism as "the merger between corporate and state power". If we are to seriously consider Il Duce's words, then surely, South...
Barclays, the City, and a system in crisis | by James Meadway
Barclays was fined after admitting attempting to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), a measure of how much it costs banks to borrow from each other. Libor is calculated by taking an average – each morning - of the rate that banks report they can borrow at....
An All-Consuming Occupation | by Rebecca L. Stein
On June 6, 2012, the Jerusalem Development Authority launched its fourth annual Jerusalem Festival of Light in the Old City. The previous year’s show had been a resounding success, according to sponsors quoted in the Jerusalem Post, with over 250,000 visitors enjoying...
Uneven and combined Marxism within South Africa’s urban social movements | by Patrick Bond, Ashwin Desai and Trevor Ngwane
(Another contribution to the debate about what's wrong with those pesky urb soc mvts: We agree with Andrew Nash that the answers to these questions will not come through the elaboration of a new, ‘proper’ Marxist line by mainly university-based, white intellectuals,...
Nurit Peled-Elhanan’s moving reflections on the occupation’s 45th birthday | by Henry Norr
Nurit Peled-Elhanan, daughter of a prominent Israeli general and mother of a suicide bombing victim, and her brother Miko Peled have long been among the most courageous Israeli critics of their nation's treatment of the Palestinians, but this year they're really on a...
ANC vs City Press: What lies beneath | by Mandy de Waal
Some say it was the ANC's best chance to steer public attention away from its disastrous handling of the economy. Some say they just couldn't wait to spark an outrage so people would stop talking about textbooks being five months late in Limpopo. Some say the public...



