Browsing All Posts published on »March, 2019«

Evasion & the potential of taxes

March 27, 2019

2

We live with endemic corruption, along with to obscene wealth on one hand and equally obscene poverty on the other. Much of this is the result of capital flows into private pockets — theft through tax evasion — by rich individuals and corporates around the world. Church-based tax justice groups are now trying to end this practice.

Democracy & ‘Father Christmas socialism’

March 22, 2019

0

It t is time to take stock of where we are and where we, in nation states everywhere, may be going. This should apply in particular to trade unions and various political groups outside of Brazil and Venezuela, that have, in recent years, touted those countries, under Chavez and Lula, as models of “socialist alternatives”.

A union investment dream revisited

March 10, 2019

1

In South Africa, an innovative investment scheme rejected by Cosatu 27 years ago as “too capitalistic” is again being discussed as austerity bites still harder. It involved settling up a co-operative bank using union pension and provident funds to be invested in residential property, so providing decent homes for workers and breaking down residential apartheid while providing a non-exploitative return on capital.

Election 2019 & back to basics

March 10, 2019

0

Increasingly, it seems, South Africa's proclaimed democracy is being seen domestically as a sham, with current political parties regarded as mere vehicles for self enrichment. But getting back to basics — a slogan initially adopted by Cosatu — is very much on union minds as austerity threatens to bite still harder. These “basics” also extend well beyond the “nine wasted [Zuma] years” mentioned by President Cyril Ramaphosa, back, in fact.to 1991.