struggles

Chris McGregor and the Brotherhood of Breath

The morning of our father's 82nd birthday dawned with the news of Chris's death. We had known for some time that he was desperately ill and so had already booked a flight to France to go and visit him – ironically the flight was due to leave that very evening. Chris...

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Farmworker Housing | by Benjamin Fogel

The housing crisis is not merely confined to the cities and towns of South Africa; it is at the heart of political struggles in rural areas as well. Farmworkers not only face the same types of issues as those who dwell in urban areas, but also face some that are...

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The housing crisis

As demonstrated in these pages the housing crisis is complex and multi-layered and cannot be separated from the wider social malaise facing South Africa. The causes of this crisis include policy confusion, market-based mechanisms for service provision, and the...

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A Hundred Years after the 1913 Land Act

A Hundred Years after the 1913 Land Act

By Richard Pithouse  In 1652, the year that Jan van Riebeck first stepped on to these shores, Gerrad Winstanley, an English radical, published a pamphlet called The Law of Freedom in a Platform. Three years earlier he had led a land occupation on St. George's Hill in...

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COSATU’s precarious challenge

COSATU’s precarious challenge

It is true we in live a world where technology and globalisation give the impression of rapid change and constant flux. The mouthpieces of capital, marching under the banner of 'labour flexibility', insist that this reality must be reflected in the world of work....

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Centenary of the 1913 Land Act | By Colin Bundy

Centenary of the 1913 Land Act | By Colin Bundy

Why consider the history of a hundred-year old law? Surely the Marikana massacre and farm-workers' strikes are more urgent? In fact, there are direct links between the Natives' Land Act of 1913 and current struggles. The Land Act and its consequences still shape rural...

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Two years after Fukushima | by Pierre Rousset

The triple disaster of 11 March 2011 constituted a major turning point in contemporary Japanese history — its political impact is not however unequivocal. It has provoked a radical break in the way in which many Japanese people perceive the authorities and...

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Why socialists need feminism | by David Camfield

Why socialists need feminism | by David Camfield

The relationship between socialism and feminism has been getting more attention in online discussions recently. This is both for good reasons — such as the article by Sharon Smith of the International Socialist Organization in the US that looks critically at how the...

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