by Jeremy Vearey The mission of 'people's policing' in Mitchells plain, and the notion of community policing in general, seeks to correspond to community needs and priorities mandated by grassroots community structures such as street committees, neighbourhood watches...
grassroots
The end of NUM’s hegemony: AMCU and new mlitancy
The Association of Mining and Construction Workers (AMCU) was born in 1998 out of a strike at Douglas Colliery, one of the oldest mines belonging to Ingwe Coal, when 3,000 workers occupied the underground works of the mine in protest against the dismissal of Joseph...
Embryos of working-class power and grassroots democracy in Marikana
The formation of a workers' committee is an act of power by the working class. It has shaken capital by advancing far beyond trade union bureaucracy. The workers' committee in Lonmin had only been in existence for a week when the Marikana massacre took place on the 16...
The “second phase of the transition”: another dead end? | by Vishwas Satgar
The ANC held a 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 captured in a 47-page long document entitled: `The...
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...
Contentious Politics and the Climate Justice Movement | by Jacklyn Cock
‘Ask for a camel when you expect to get a goat’ Introduction The climate crisis is deepening. Despite 17 years of multinational negotiations there is no binding global agreement on the reduction of carbon emissions. In fact carbon emissions are rising which means...
Egypt’s working class and the question of organisation | by Hossam El-Hamalawy
The nascent trade union movement in Egypt will need to develop political structures for the voices of the working class to be heard in electoral processes. ‘Who is the labour candidate in this presidential election?’ This is a question I have been asked frequently in...
James Claassen – an icon of health transformation | by Professor Gregory Hussey
James did his medical training at the University of Cape Town in eighties, a period that saw an exciting new development in South African politics manifested by the emergence of an organised and highly motivated progressive health and social services movement across...
Freedom never rests an interview with James Kilgore | by Andre Marais
Kilgore’s remarkable debut novel We Are All Zimbabwean Now (2009) is a wonderful piece of fiction. It tells the story of an idealistic young American’s growing disenchantment with Mugabe. A member of the SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army, a US left-wing urban militant...





