Subscribe:
RSS feed
News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All Posts published in »2011«
South Africa, nationalisation and Zambia
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.
The most exploited — and largely ignored — workers
July 29, 2011
Fancy being able to walk to work and to pay just 10% of your wages for accommodation? Sounds idyllic? Perhaps. Unless you are a farm worker in South Africa where the latest pay increase of 4.5% made the minimum wage just R1,375 a month and where between R400 and R700 could be charged for electricity alone.
Still fighting the war against Wal-Mart
July 24, 2011
With the decision in June by the South African Competitions Tribunal to allow WalMart to take control of the South African-based Massmart chain, the world’s largest retailer cleared the last of the major hurdles it faced to gain entry to African markets. And despite threats from trade unions and consumer groups that they would appeal […]
Acid water that tarnishes the glister of gold
July 24, 2011
Gold mine ownership, especially in this day and age, is not for the faint hearted. Nor is it for those without deep pockets or without considerable expertise and experience. And gold remains, potentially, a very volatile commodity since it has little practical use outside of jewellery.
Terry Bell Writes 
August 20, 2011
2