Just over a year has passed since the Marikana massacre and the amount of critical reflection on the worst act of state violence since the end of apartheid is minimal at best. Other scandals have dominated the news cycle, from Nkandla to Guptagate, along with endless...
society
There is no liberal tradition in South Africa | by Z. Pallo Jordan
Liberalism regards the individual as the ultimate social and political agent, endowed with a number of rights. The ideology also acknowledges that individuals live in societies and are not totally autonomous. Consequently it also recognises a number of societal...
Blaqpearl: The new voice of the Cape?
WHY THE NAME BLAQPEARL? Back in the day I was part of a hip hop group called Insidious Inc. The three males in the group, including my late brother, Mr Devious, all had stage names – of course I also wanted one! So being rarely aware of myself from a very young age...
Mandela’s Democracy
By Andrew Nash from Monthly Review The Tribal Model of DemocracyIn his speech from the dock, at his 1962 trial for inciting African workers to strike and leaving the country without a passport, Nelson Mandela described the initial formation of his political ideas....
The Weapon of Theory- Amilcar Cabral
Address delivered to the first Tricontinental Conference of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America held in Havana in January, 1966 by Amilcal Cabral If any of us came to Cuba with doubts in our mind about the solidity, strength, maturity and vitality of the...
Every Cook can govern
The Greek form of government was the city-state. Every Greek city was an independent state. At its best, in the city state of Athens, the public assembly of all the citizens made all important decisions on such...
Tunis, the Birthplace of the Arab Spring, 2 Years On| by Boris Kagarlitsky
I first visited Tunis four years ago. I liked its French-Arab feel, the streets that still carried such French names as Lafayette, Jaures and Pasteur, and the tram connecting the city center to the residential area that the locals proudly referred to as a "metro."...
BLACK NOISE
Black Noise is a new column that features young black writers dedicated to critiquing and undermining racism, sexism and economic exploitation in South Africa and beyond. I can't even imagine the terror Anene must have felt on that construction site. The details of...
Leftstyle: Darkness at noon by Arthur Koestler
DARKNESS AT NOON A novel by Arthur Koestler Comment by Allan Kolski Horwitz 'Originally published in 1941, Arthur Koestler's modern masterpiece, Darkness at Noon, is a powerful and haunting portrait of a Communist revolutionary caught in the vicious fray of the Moscow...






