Browsing All Posts published on »October, 2010«

Only the latest incident in centuries of persecution

October 4, 2010

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The 2010 expulsions of Roma families from France was only the latest — and more widely publicised — example of the persecution suffered by this community over centuries.

The real basis of the global economic crisis (11.11.2009)

October 2, 2010

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Analysing the crisis and arguing that it may amount to a choice between planetary survival or annihilation.

South Africa’s educational confusion over evolution (11.11.2009)

October 2, 2010

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Confusion exists in South African schools where blind. creationist belief is equated with evidence-based science.

WHY PROBLEMS LIE WITH THE POLICIES (08.08.2008)

October 2, 2010

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To obtain answers that may be correct and useful, it is first necessary to ask the right questions. Yet every time there is a a strike, particularly at the national level, the same questions are asked of the same business people, economists and politicians and the same trite answers are trotted out. The main query […]

THE TROUBLE WITH WEARING TWO HATS (01.08.2008)

October 2, 2010

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A sad chapter in labour movement history ended this week with the formal dismissal of Willie Madisha as president of the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu). And while there has been much concentration of the machinations, claims and counter claims surrounding his case these are merely symptoms of a fundamental contradiction at the heart of […]

WHY A R17M WIN COULD BE A PYRRHIC VICTORY (25.07.2008)

October 2, 2010

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This week’s R17 million award against a KwaZulu-Natal textile company for not paying wage rates agreed by the bargaining council highlights yet again a fundamental, obvious and yet frequently unrecognised reality: the conflict between societal demands, government policies and business principle. It has been said often enough, in this column and elsewhere, that the only […]

IS ANOTHER ANTI-POOR INFLATION MASSAGE LOOMING? (18.07.2008)

October 2, 2010

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Forget all the arguments that have raged this week about weightings and rebasing, about dangerously high pay rises and the technical details of recalculating inflation. So far as the labour movement is concerned, there is only one simple fact to bear in mind: the cost of surviving, let alone living, especially for the working poor, […]

WHY PROTEST TACTICS NEED STRATEGIC GOALS (11.07.2008)

October 2, 2010

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According to an old English rhyme, the famous Duke of York marched ten thousand men to the top of a hill — and marched them down again. This has come the represent an exercise in futility, the amassing of collective strength to attain a goal to no ultimate purpose. What it has all too often […]