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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All Posts filed under »Archive – 2008«
GETTING TO THE ROOTS OF CRISIS (10.04.2008)
One of the great problems with the politics of protest is that it all too often targets the symptoms of an ill rather than the cause. In other words, much protest aims to prune the possibly poisonous twigs and branches of a noxious plant, without getting to the stem, let alone the root. This is […]
THE PUBLIC PAYS FOR POWER BLUNDERS (03.04.2008)
October 2, 2010
The blundering mismanagement and incompetence of Eskom management and the government have together caused the current energy crisis which consumers are now expected to pay for via massive tariff increases. Yet, at the same time, this situation has ironically highlighted another factor: that a state-owned utility can efficiently produce the cheapest possible electricity. For, as […]
SCARE STORIES AND POWER PRICES (27.03.2008)
October 2, 2010
Public enterprises minister Alex Erwin jumped the gun with his “scare stories” of electricity price increases. And, in the process, he has lost whatever residual confidence the trade unions had in him. Not that there was much left. “Ever since he cried sabotage to justify the power outages in 2006, instead of the negligence and […]
DEFINING UNIONS AND AWAITING TRANSFORMATION (13.03.2008)
October 2, 2010
Cosatu is not a socialist party or organisation. It is a trade union federation; an organisation of workers fighting for and protecting the interests of workers. That point was highlighted this week by Gwede Mantashe, former National Union of Mineworkers general secretary and now secretary-general of the ANC and national chair of the SA Communist […]
SA PUBLIC SECTOR DISPUTE RUMBLES ON (06.03.2008)
October 2, 2010
The massive public sector dispute last year did not end with the calling off of the strike in June. It has continued to rumble on in a series of negotiations with teacher unions — and now there is the prospect that the public sector unions will make another set of double digit pay demands by […]
WHY MURK STILL SURROUNDS MADISHA’S AXING (28.02.2008)
October 2, 2010
The axing of Cosatu president Willie Madisha this week. raises many more questions than answers. Confusion still reigns. Which is scarcely surprising since the entire affair has been clouded by conspiracy theories in an atmosphere thick with allegations of financial impropriety, lies and innuendo, The knives have been out for Madisha for nearly two years. […]
CLASS DIVISIONS ON THE SA ECONOMIC TRAIN (21.02.2008)
October 2, 2010
Finance minister Trevor Manuel’s insistence in his budget speech that “we are all in it together” in “this shared future” rang rather hollow for a number of trade unionists. Some members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) regard it as particularly ironic. These are the NUM members at mine services group, Teba Limited, where […]
A DANGEROUS AND DAMAGING FUNDAMENTALISM (14.02.2008)
October 2, 2010
Forget the protestations of unity, the stress on solidarity within Cosatu and the governing, ANC-led alliance. Knives are still out and mud is being thrown as attempts continue to be made to settle political scores. There is more than a hint of Biblical orthodoxy about the whole exercise. To paraphrase a verse from the Book […]
Terry Bell Writes 
October 2, 2010
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