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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All Posts published in »2011«
Defining workers and the working class
Who is a worker? And what constitutes the working class? These questions were thrown into sharp relief last month by a Cape Town reader, Tim Anderson. In a letter to the editor he asked me to explain the criteria that distinguishes someone as a worker. And he introduced the element of trade unions, organisations that […]
Playing the race card as polls loom
March 18, 2011
(First published 11 March, 2011) Whenever an election looms, the rumour mills tend to grind away, often fuelled by ill-considered comments by politicians. It’s the same the world over, compounded by media manipulation, distortions of fact and outright falsification being all too often the order of the days leading up to polling time. But there […]
Sensational slogans and reformist reality
March 18, 2011
(First published 25 February, 2011) Never judge a book by its cover. Nor, for that matter, the prospect of revolution by the labels given to mass protest, the radical tone of slogans or the harshness of repression. In a South African context, it also means not jumping to the conclusion that our liberal parliamentary democracy […]
Sensational slogans and reformist reality
March 13, 2011
(First published February 25, 2011) Never judge a book by its cover. Nor, for that matter, the prospect of revolution by the labels given to mass protest, the radical tone of slogans or the harshness of repression. In a South African context, it also means not jumping to the conclusion that our liberal parliamentary democracy […]
Casual work and ‘a man for all reasons’
March 1, 2011
This column resulted in Phillip Dexter MP maintaining that it consisted of "lies, innuendo and journalism for hire" and that I was "an alleged apartheid agent" and that I quoted "dubious sources". I leave it to you to decide.
Uncovering the spy known as RS452
February 19, 2011
In 2003 South Africa's director of public prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, was accused of having been a spy — RS452 — for the apartheid state. But the search for RS452 revealed that the spy with that designation was a woman, a lawyer who was once considered a stalwart of the anti-apartheid movement.
The role of workers in Egypt’s revolution
February 18, 2011
Organised workers played an important role in the unfolding Egyptian revolution and are now, with the army, probably central to what happens over coming weeks and months.
Terry Bell Writes 
March 18, 2011
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