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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All Posts filed under »Inside Labour Column«
2020: Tumult lies ahead — but hope too
Hope for the future lies in placing the massive advances in technology and AI under democratic, accountable and transparent control. Failure to do so could result in a dystopian future that only the most pessimistic of speculative fiction writers have imagined.
Time to stop thinking & acting in silos
December 15, 2019
If wishes were dinners, the hungry would eat. It's a variation on an old Scottish proverb about beggars and horses, but it seems worth bearing in mind as this year draws quite grimly to a close. Because wishes and hopes are, in themselves, futile at a time when clarity of thought and analysis, followed by appropriate action is called for.
Journalism & the media: time to be afraid, very afraid
December 2, 2019
Honest, evidence-based journalism is under increasing pressure, especially with so many media outlets compromised or captured. South African provides classic examples and reasons why fulsome support should be given to the fight for continued — and expanded — access to information.
Beware the laws that muzzle media
December 1, 2019
Forget, for the moment, state capture. Think instead of media capture and the impact it can — and does — have on all our lives. At the same time, consider too the ongoing attempts to discredit journalism and the media. That we should all do so was highlighted last week by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng […]
Knaves, fools and responsibility
November 19, 2019
It may be too simple to say that only fools institutes the same policies time after time, on each occasion expecting a different outcome. This could be knavish behaviour, with the policymakers and their backers — the few — continuing to benefit at the expense of the many they profess to support.
Who is really responsible for the economic mess
November 17, 2019
Workers and their organisations are not responsible for the debt trap and the economic muddle the country now finds itself in. And while sections of the public sector may be bloated, perhaps the excess lies in areas that do not impact on the facilities required by the majority of the population.
A fight for the many, not the few
November 15, 2019
Workers and their unions will once again be castigated as greedy, selfish and unpatriotic as they fight back against having to pay for the maladministratio0n, incompetence and corruption of the existing order. But they are, for all their faults, battling to protect the many from the increasing predations of the few.
The political voice labour must find
November 5, 2019
Riven by ideological squabbles and apparently unwilling to face up the technological realities of the 21st Century, the once militant South African trade union movement is in danger of becoming increasingly less relevant. Yet this was a m ovement that played a significant role in the anti-apartheid struggle.
Terry Bell Writes 
January 17, 2020
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