Amandla! interviewed two SACP members from the Eastern Cape where contestation ahead of this year's conferences is heating up. They responded by email. Amandla! (A!): What are the major issues and debates at stake at this Congress of the SACP? SACP Activists (SA): I...
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The ANC’s Second Transition: Another Dead-End? | by Vishwas Satgar
The ANC heads to its policy conference in June, after being South Africa’s ruling party for almost two decades. There are many ideas and policy perspectives up for discussion but the ‘big idea’ framing the discussion is the notion of a ‘second transition’. A whole...
Rio+20 Draft Text Is 283 Paragraphs Of Fluff | by George Monbiot
In 1992, world leaders signed up to something called "sustainability". Few of them were clear about what it meant; I suspect that many of them had no idea. Perhaps as a result, it did not take long for this concept to mutate into something subtly different:...
Book Review: ‘Gaza in Crisis’ by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe | by Azhar Ali Khan
British human rights activist Frank Barak cooperated with Noam Chomsky, perhaps the world’s most insightful and conscientious thinker, and with Ilan Pappe, Israel’s sharpest, bravest and most conscientious historian, to present to the world a balanced narrative of the...
Saving resources and the environment: A modest proposal | by Fred Magdoff
There are significant numbers of people in the wealthy countries who believe that the great issues of resource depletion and global environmental pollution are caused primarily by the huge number of people on the globe — currently about 7 billion — and that things...
Forty years of ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ | by Nigel Westmaas
Walter Rodney’s seminal work remains a compelling and persuasive living history and totem of critical resistance to the exploitation and underdevelopment of the African continent. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Walter Rodney’s How Europe...
UPM Statement on the Youth Wage Subsidy and the Clash between the DA and COSATU | by UPM
The Unemployed People’s Movement rejects the Youth Wage Subsidy as a solution to the unemployment crisis that is leaving millions of young people without a future. We note that there has been a concerted attempt by big business, their academic and media allies and the...
Riding victimhood to power | by Justice Malala
Many have been outraged and sad for President Jacob Zuma over The Spear saga but in truth he could not have asked for a better week. With just seven months to go to the ANC's Mangaung conference, Zuma's battle over The Spear has given him a party that is firing on all...
The Spear asks many questions, also about our view of human dignity by | Pierre De Vos
The Spear – as I have written before – has become about far more than about whether a painting resembling President Jacob Zuma with his penis hanging out should be banned because it humiliates Zuma, his many wives and children as well as affronts the dignity of all...





