For the leadership of the ANC and SACP an independent and militant worker controlled and independent trade union federation is too dreadful to contemplate– especially as we approach the 2014 national and provincial elections. What if COSATU refused to campaign for or...
trade
Is Bureaucracy killing COSATU?
Bureaucracy is defined as management or administration marked by hierarchical authority among numerous offices and by fixed procedures. The abuse of power by officials is a very old phenomenon in the labour movement worldwide. Bureaucratisation is seen in this article...
After Marikana: what way forward?
The crisis of profitability in the platinum industry is a misleading phrase to describe the current situation. Platinum companies are still in fact making a profit. The issue is rather that they are no longer making the huge profits they did during the boom years of...
Selections from NUMSA’s scathing response to the SACP and ANC leadership
Some choice bits from NUMSA's response to COSATU The full text can be found here 13. We have boldly maintained that at the heart of the crisis in COSATU are two opposing forces: the forces of capitalism and the forces socialism. The capitalist forces within the...
News Brief – Egypt
Egypt is in the midst of the biggest crisis since the revolution toppled Mubarak in 2011. Last month somewhere between 12 and 20 million Egyptians took to the streets demanding the removal of the Islamist President Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, who came to power...
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...
Rana Plaza Amandla
On the 24th of April, one day after inspectors ordered the owners to evacuate the building, the Rana Plaza textile factory in Savar Bangladesh, employing over 3,000 workers, collapsed. Over a third of those inside were killed and many others sustained major injuries....
Thatcher: an Obituary from Below | by Richard Seymour
Thatcher's great achievements were also what made her so vile. Her many talents were harnessed to bigoted, class-supremacist ends. Obituaries are typically concerned with the accomplishments and worthwhile qualities of the deceased. Thatcher's achievements are...
Let’s talk about a new agenda for the BRICS | by Carlos Aguilar
It is significant that the Fifth BRICS summit took place in South Africa. Until relatively recently, South Africa wasn't considered part of the club of emerging economies. In the past decade, some countries had begun to show an important role in the global growth...



