Dear Friends, I just returned from a trip to Haiti. I went there to participate in one congress of the Haitian peasant movement and used the opportunity to visit several regions of the country and the projects that La Via Campesina/ALBA brigade is developing in...
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Political Economy of Gender and Climate Change
Abstracts Gender Concerns in Climate Change need serious attention of all interested in sustainable development. Women in many developing countries are responsible for climatically sensitive tasks such as securing food, water and energy which ensure the life and...
Embryos of working-class power and grassroots democracy in Marikana
The formation of a workers' committee is an act of power by the working class. It has shaken capital by advancing far beyond trade union bureaucracy. The workers' committee in Lonmin had only been in existence for a week when the Marikana massacre took place on the 16...
Michael Moseki, strike leader
Michael Moseki, an elected strike leader at Samancor Western Chrome Mine, sits inside his tin shack and talks about the challenges of raising his five children on R4,700 a month. Just like other mine workers, strike leaders at various mines in the North West province...
Tebogo: the plight of a female mineworker| by Jeanne Hefez
My name is Tibugo, I'm one of the strike committee leaders at Anglo American in Rustenburg. I work as a PTV (personnel transport vehicle operator) at Amplats, I do mostly pipe work. Sometimes I clean the tunnels. It's extremely labor intensive. I've been here for a...
What the frack: will shale gas develop or retard the Karoo? | by David Fig
The South African government lifted the moratorium on fracking on 7 September, opening the way for exploration of what's been sold as a massive shale gas resource beneath the beautiful, sparsely populated Great Karoo. Fracking (short for hydraulic fracturing) is a...
Personal Income Taxation and the struggle against inequality and poverty | by Dick Forslund
Tax is a most personal matter. It seems that the more rich one is the greater is the resentment about 'my' hard-earned income being taken from 'me' to pay for 'them'. For the majority, on the other hand, tax is indirectly experienced in the increasing poverty of the...
Social and environmental impact of mining
A Mining company can uproot an entire community for the meager sum of R600: a prospecting permit from the Department of Mineral Resources costs only R500 and a mining permit is R100. In contrast, tribal, cultural and community structures in rural areas have been...
Social and environmental impact of mining
A Mining company can uproot an entire community for the meager sum of R600: a prospecting permit from the Department of Mineral Resources costs only R500 and a mining permit is R100. In contrast, tribal, cultural and community structures in rural areas have been...








