Browsing All Posts published on »June, 2012«

Rewriting history and mangling facts

June 29, 2012

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Historical distortion and emotive rhetoric characterised the ANC policy conference that ended this week. In fact, it could be argued that the new transition or phase is along the lines advocated by the labour movement 16 years ago in the Social Equity and Job Creation document.

SA Inc and the search for a real alternative

June 21, 2012

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South Africa Inc is a “fronting” exercise in which the people of the country are the hapless stooges giving credibility to a governing elite. That is one of the reactions within the labour movement following the announcement of the government’s $2 billion pledge to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Missed chance as our Rome starts to burn

June 15, 2012

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When the governor of any central bank starts a speech by acknowledging that the global economic crisis is not only continuing, but is getting worse, every trade unionist should sit up and take notice. That Numsa delegates did not when SA Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus spoke at their congress might be described as the Nero syndrome, after the Roman emperor who supposedly fiddled while his city burned about him.

Of nationalisation, land grabs & vanguards

June 8, 2012

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Nationalisation and the expropriation of land without compensation are back on the South African political agenda. However, these demands seem to entail a one-sided interpretation of the contradictory clauses in the Freedom Charter and a misreading of the relevant section in the Constitution.

Discussing The Spear and satire

June 3, 2012

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Her is a contribution to a better understanding of the row over the satirical artwork, The Spear, that has dominated discourse in South Africa over recent weeks.

Spearing labour history

June 1, 2012

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The charade surrounding the satrical The Spear painting swamped an importnt anniversary in South African labour history, the centenary of Alexandra twonship, site of perhaps the only "liberated zone" at the height of apartheid repression and example of trade union and community collaboration.