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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All Posts filed under »Inside Labour Column«
A May Day lesson for SA labour
The tumultuous events during May Day in South Africa illustrated more starkly than ever before the huge rifts within the ANC-led alliance. They should also have raised questions, especially in the labour movement, about united fronts or so-called “broad church” alliances.
The danger in unprincipled unity
April 29, 2017
To rally around a flag, an individual a label or a brand, and to follow blindly, is a recipe for disaster. Yet this is a call being loudly trumpetted today in South Africa and there will certainly be such calls to blind loyalty on May Day.
New SA labour fed: a new wheel or a retread?
April 9, 2017
Will the launch in two weeks of a new labour federation in South Africa herald a new era for local trade unionism or will it merely signal the arrival of just another federation in the existing mould? Time alone will tell.
Political interference and the unions
February 11, 2017
The attempt by labour minister Mildred Oliphant — including a couple of lengthy and costly court battles — to interfere in trade union administration was slapped down hard on January 26. The labour appeal court ruled that her instruction to the registrar of labour relations to withdraw action against a defaulting Cosatu union and her […]
A luta continua — for 22 years
January 27, 2017
A labour dispute at the then Midrand municipality in 1994 has rumbled on for 22 years and has again, this year, come to the fore. In the process it has thrown into sharp focus some serious problems facing the South African labour movement.
Resilence amid the doom & gloom
January 16, 2017
The almost meaningless display of verbal pyrotechnics that annually accompanies South Africa’s secondary school matriculation results is thankfully behind us. But the reality of a potential 700 000-plus school leaving job seekers is most definitely not. Along with double that number who dropped out before Grade 12, they highlight the most volatile element in the […]
Why free speech should be a priority
December 10, 2016
This week ends with the 20th anniversary (December 10) of the adoption of South Africa’s Bill of Rights and justly lauded Constitution. But it comes at a time of considerable political and economic turmoil, nationally and globally, and when some of the rightly praised clauses of the Bill of Rights are under threat.
A week of dashed expectations
November 26, 2016
There were hopes in South Africa over the past week that the growing disgruntlement with President Jacob Zuma would result in positive moves for his removal. And there were also hopes, especially among the low paid, that a minimum wage declaration would result in quite prompt relief. But such hopes were dashed.
Terry Bell Writes 
May 6, 2017
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