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Thoughtleader: Juju does Guy Fawkes?

Behold, the end of the world is nigh. The barbarians have breached the gates. Savages are redrawing maps without the superpowers. Journalists' heads are rolling - and not only at Independent Newspapers. Jihadists now speak with English accents. The Generations cast...

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Ukraine:Civil War or Revolution

Russsian bureaucrats have been honestly surprised at the reaction by the official West – they did not expect such anger or unanimous condemnation. European politicians are beside themselves with fury. The mainstream press is relating appalling stories to its readers...

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Platinum Strike: Where to now?

For all his initial 
enthusiasm, Minister of Mineral Resources Ngoako Ramathlodi's attempts to resolve the platinum strike met the same fate as those of the CCMA, the minister of labour and the Labour Court. The parties downing tools rejected the minister's proposal...

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A new Cosatu a new future?

The probable expulsion of Numsa from Cosatu marks the beginning of a profound re-organisation and possible renewal of the workers' movement. The most likely outcome will be the emergence of a new federation organised around Numsa, along with the eight other unions...

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ZUMA Victory a Call for the Left to Vuka

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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Numsa and the crisis in the Cosatu: What now?

by Benjamin Fogel During the 1980s the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) was the figurehead of the so-called 'workerist' tendency within the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and has always been on the left in Cosatu. Although Numsa...

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Responses

Sakhela Buhlungu: It has taken more than 20 years for the dominant current of South Africa's labour movement to begin to emerge from stasis resulting from its embeddedness within the ruling political block led by the African National Congress. The massacre 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...

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