An earthquake has hit the ANC. A new leadership has wiped out the Mbeki regime in the ANC leadership race. This is comparable to a landslide victory for an opposition party in a general election. Except in this case the opposition party was a broad coalition of...
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Till death do us part? The future of COSATU
For the leadership of the ANC and SACP an independent and militant worker controlled and independent trade union federation is too dreadful to contemplate– especially as we approach the 2014 national and provincial elections. What if COSATU refused to campaign for or...
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...
A Namibian tribute to Neville Alexander: Revisiting the National Question | by Shaun Whittaker
It is a remarkable historical coincidence that Neville Alexander was laid to rest on the very same day that some Marikana workers – most of whom were also from the Eastern Cape - were buried. This tragic incident of the miners represents a turning point in the...
Victim of its own success? The platinum mining industry and the apartheid mineral property system in South Africa’s political transition by | Gavin Capps
(Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa) Source: ROAPE The South African platinum industry has grown phenomenally since the mid 1990s to become the single largest component of the national mining sector in employment and...
Brett Murray’s depiction of Zuma disgusting – The Presidency by | Mac Maharaj
Mac Maharaj says nobody has the right to violate the dignity and rights of others Presidency disgusted at violation of President Zuma's rights The Presidency is shocked and disgusted at the grotesque painting by Brett Murray depicting President Jacob Zuma in an...
Arab Left: paying the price for Stalinism | by Marcus Halaby
The Arab Spring of 2011 inspired millions around the world through its acts of heroism. But now the revolutions have stalled. In the spirit of solidarity with these movements and communist internationalism, Marcus Halaby takes a critical look at the far left in these...
The need to understand history
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived. But if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” So wrote the American author Maya Angelou. A fellow writer, James Baldwin also noted: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed...
The ballot box and a youth wage subsidy
The battle for the electoral support of the millions of unemployed, unskilled and mostly ill-educated youth — perhaps the most crucial voting bloc for the 2014 elections — is now in the open. It came with the decision by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to march on Cosatu...


