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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All Posts published on »August, 2011«
Libya: battles won, a war still simmers
Twice over the past week following the claimed fall of Tripoli to rebel forces, Muammar Gaddafi has broadcast on radio calling for his loyalists to rise up against the “rats”. He has vowed "martyrdom or victory" and death certainly seems to await him given the solemn pledges by rebel fighters to "cut him to pieces" if and when he is found.
International focus stirs media on farm workers’ plight
August 27, 2011
It took a report from an international human rights body before the plight of a probable majority of farm workers in South Africa made front page news. But the abuse and mistreatment listed has been complained about for more than a decade by trade unions and welfare organisations working in the agricultural sector.
South Africa, nationalisation and Zambia
August 20, 2011
Produced for the Bulletin & Record (Zambia) Zambia — and different versions of the Zambian experience — has become a prime topic in South Africa’s increasingly strident debate about the possible nationalisation of the country’s mineral resources and, in particular, a range of older gold mines. In July, the claimed pros and cons of Zambia’s […]
A strike that should never have happened
August 19, 2011
The responsibility for causing the current strike by municipal workers rests with the refusal of the employers, the SA Local Government Association, Salga, to negotiate with the unions. But much of the sympathy for the strike was lost when marches by strikers were accompanied by "trashing" and by the looting of the stalls of hawkers.
Nationalisation, socialisation & worker control
August 12, 2011
To nationalise or not to nationalise? That is the question — and increasingly so in South Africa today. But what does this mean? And what about socialisation? Or real, democratic, worker control?
Time to slay the market monster
August 10, 2011
Global financial markets, along with the other manipulated casino operations such as Stock Exchanges, are in a completely predictable crisis. This market monster is badly diseased and dangerous: how it should be slain, how to dispose of the corpse and how to build a real alternative is what we should now be debating.
Hope on the domestic slavery horizon
August 5, 2011
The International Labour Organisation has finally placed domestic workers — the nannies, maids, chars and house helps — on the same footing as other workers in terms of a decent work agenda. At least in theory. But, as the South African experience shows, there is a very long was to go in practice — and not only for domestic workers.
Terry Bell Writes 
August 30, 2011
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