The Health Workers Society (HWS), founded in 1980, was one of several progressive health organisations that fought for a democratic health system in South Africa. We document the sociopolitical context within which it operated and some of its achievements. HWS, many...
strike
How hunger strikers “tied the hands of the occupation”: a view from Israeli prison | by Ameer Makhoul
Palestinians have achieved three consecutive victories in the last few months. In October 2011, there was the release of prisoners (the exchange deal involving the kidnapped Israeli soldier). Then there was a series of individual hunger strikes, which lasted for...
Spain: After austerity, the rescue? | by Sofia Tipaldou
The pain in Spain is falling mainly on the poor, says Sofia Tipaldou, but they are resisting on a wholly new scale It’s happened again. Now it is Spain’s turn to get rescued. After half a year of austerity from the ruling centre-right party, Partido Popular (PP), the...
What’s Wrong with a 30-Hour Work Week? | by Don Fitz
There is something problematic with advocating a 30-hour work week at the beginning of the 21st century: a 30 hour week is not short enough! With millions of jobs lost during the first part of 2009, who is calling for a shorter work week to spread the work around? Not...
The War on Palestinian Soccer: Free Mahmoud Sarsak | by Ramzy Baroud
On June 3, Palestinian national soccer team member Mahmoud Sarsak completed 80 days of a grueling hunger-strike. He had sustained the strike despite the fact that nearly 2,000 Palestinian inmates had called off their own 28-day hunger strike weeks ago. Although the...
Egyptian workers’ movement and the 25 January Revolution | by Anne Alexander
“It is midnight in Cairo”, intoned the BBC reporter on the Ten O’ Clock News bulletin, “and still tens of thousands are in Tahrir Square. One chant echoes again and again: ‘Go, go, go’. But this time it is not Mubarak they want to quit, but Egypt’s military ruler...
Students Starve in a Show of Solidarity | by Micah Roshan Reddy
This year has borne witness to some staggeringly large student protests, with over 200,000 recently taking to the streets of Montreal in opposition to tuition fee hikes. But a less spotlighted action took place last week at the University of the Witwatersrand in...
Egypt’s working class and the question of organisation | by Hossam El-Hamalawy
The nascent trade union movement in Egypt will need to develop political structures for the voices of the working class to be heard in electoral processes. ‘Who is the labour candidate in this presidential election?’ This is a question I have been asked frequently in...
Spain: Huge general strike could mark turning of tide | by Dick Nichols
Since the global economic crisis broke out in 2008, the many-sided protest movement against neoliberal austerity has yet to gain enough strength to force any real retreats from governments doing the bidding of capitalism’s ruling elites.But the March 29 general strike...




