As this issue of Amandla! goes to press, we read disturbing accounts of South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) shop stewards being prevented by private security personnel from entering the union's Johannesburg headquarters, and being physically attacked with...
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Can the Kurds emerge from the political wilderness?
Kurdish Human Rights Action Group, South Africa Amidst political turmoil in the Middle East, the fledgling peace process aimed at resolving the Kurdish question in Turkey remains on the agenda. A process has begun in Turkey which has the potential to find solutions to...
Remembering Edward Said ten years after his death
On 19 March 2003, the United States declared war on Iraq. Six months later, on 25 September, Edward Wadie Said passed away at the age of 67 in New York City after a decade-long struggle with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. The loss of one of the most elegant minds of...
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...
‘Jumping the Queue’, Waiting Lists and other Myths | by Kate Tissington
Senior Research and Advocacy Officer at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) www.seri-sa.org Since 1994 the South African government, through its National Housing Subsidy Scheme (NHSS), has embarked on the large-scale provision of...
The Racist Undertones of Guptagate
The City Press made an astonishing error of judgement in deciding to publish Phumlani Mfeka's more or less fascist rant on Sunday. Presenting this extraordinarily crass form of ethnic chauvinism under-girded by a clear threat of violence as if it were a legitimate...
Flames of turmoil in Tunisia| by Fathi Chamki
Two years after the revolutionary insurrection that caused the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee Tunisia, the situation in the country remains precarious. In fact, it has deteriorated. The great hope for better living conditions raised by the fall of the...
“The World Social Forum: Still Meeting Its Challenge” | by Immanuel Wallerstein
The World Social Forum (WSF) has just ended its now biennial meeting, held this time in Tunis. It was very largely ignored by the world's mainstream press. It was attended by many skeptics who pronounced its irrelevance, something that has occurred at every meeting...
Knowledge. The final frontier
Some suggest that unemployment rates are high because of laziness or a dependency effect created by social grants, but numerous studies have failed to find empirical support for these claims. The one drum of this kind that continues to be beaten is the claim that...



