Conflict stemming from collusion between management and a yellow union, attempting to weaken IndustriALL's affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), escalated into tragedy yesterday as at least 35 workers were shot dead by police at the Marikana platinum mine....
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Rio+20 or Rio-20: Green economy vs Ecological debt | by Rikard Warlenius
The high-level UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last week was called an "epic failure" by Greenpeace and other environmental organizations, their disappointments reminiscent of the "epic failure" of the UN Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa only half...
Rio+20: A Crisis Is A Terrible Thing To Waste | by Tina Gerhardt
Rio+20 agreement failed to demand an end to fossil fuel subsidies; critique nuclear energy Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL – On Friday afternoon, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development convened. Dubbed Rio+20, the conference was the largest UN summit ever...
Rio+ 20: Greed Economy alive and well in the hotels of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil–Alongside the multilateral government negotiations happening at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development are business negotiations and so-called “public-private partnerships” being driven by corporate networks such as the Consumer Goods...
Book Review: ‘Gaza in Crisis’ by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe | by Azhar Ali Khan
British human rights activist Frank Barak cooperated with Noam Chomsky, perhaps the world’s most insightful and conscientious thinker, and with Ilan Pappe, Israel’s sharpest, bravest and most conscientious historian, to present to the world a balanced narrative of the...
A Discussion Of Systemic Challenges For A Just Transition Towards A Low Carbon Economy Authored | by Alexis Scholtz
This paper is the third in a series of six briefing papers commissioned by the WWF-SA and is aimed at deepening the discussions needed to facilitate South Africa’s transformation to a low carbon economy. The term “Just Transition” first surfaced in the late 90s when...
Africa’s Biggest Landfill Site: The Case Of Bisasar Road | by Patrick Bond and Khadija Sharife
Bisasar Road is Africa’s largest landfill site, and one of only three landfill sites in Durban with a full permit. It was opened for business in 1980 under South Africa’s apartheid regime. The Group Areas Act, a crucial pillar of the segregation agenda, meant that...
The Nobel Price for (SA) Peace
The latest furore about statements made by former apartheid president FW de Klerk has raised one very pertinent point: the political considerations that go into the decisions regarding the award of the Nobel Peace Prize. It also raises again the circumstances in which...
Francafrique goes democratique? | by Khadija Sharife
Several years ago, Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) published an article called ‘Propping Up Africa’s Dictators’. The article unpacked the basic commonly known building blocks for France’s Françafrique policy, ‘designed to create structural dependence and domination by...

