Jacob Thank you for the recent state visit. Joburg’s changed quite a bit since I was last there. (I was expecting to get hijacked, lol!) Sorry not to get to Nkandla and meet your people. But, please can you speak to your king? He’s causing chaos for my people on...
protests
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...
20 years of democracy: not yet Uhuru
As we mark 20 years since the end of apartheid and the advent of democracy, there is a deep rupturing of the post-apartheid social consensus in the face of intensifying class struggle. The signals for its end are the Marikana massacre, the great mineworkers' strike...
Venezuela
Venezuela is once again in the grip of violent protests, targeting the post-Chavez administration of Nicholas Maduro and which have claimed at least 19 lives as of writing. The official reasons for these protests range from a high crime rate (particularly violent...
The phony war in Ukraine
By Boris Kagarlitsky March 4, 2014 Why, do you suppose, war has not yet broken out between Russia and Ukraine? The answer is very simple: no one plans to go to war, and no one can. Kiev for practical purposes does not have an army, while the government that has...
The Kurdish Question in the Syrian Arab Spring | by Joe Lombardo
Calls resounding in the halls of power and in the media for American intervention in Syria have opened up a debate that has been over two years in the making: exactly who are the Syrian rebels? According to Moscow and some segments of the left, they are radical...
The View From Gezi Park | by Olivia Walton
Over a month has passed since police first attacked peaceful protestors in Istanbul's Gezi Park in June 2013. Already analysts are trying to explain, predict, and measure the protests that were triggered across Turkey by that moment. The international press suggested...
‘Jumping the Queue’, Waiting Lists and other Myths | by Kate Tissington
Senior Research and Advocacy Officer at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) www.seri-sa.org Since 1994 the South African government, through its National Housing Subsidy Scheme (NHSS), has embarked on the large-scale provision of...
Occupy with Turkish features
By Joe Lombardo For Turkey, Occupy Gezi is an historically unprecedented event as each declaration of defiance issued from the protesters is met with an equally forceful response from the state and the police. These protesters are unique in that their participants are...
