Inside Labour Column | Terry Bell Writes

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SA — still awaiting a workers’ party

May 21, 2019

South Africa’s May 8 national and provincial poll effectively demolished an enduring myth, beloved of many bosses and union-bashing free marketeers: that union bosses call the shots and members blindly follow, doing exactly what they are told.

SA elections – a cry for a real alternative

May 17, 2019

Last week, if nothing else, most workers, employed and unemployed, showed that they are not gullible voting fodder; that they are dissatisfied with what is on offer in the parliamentary dispensation. This applied particularly to those in that important adult age bracket of 18 to 30. Most South Africans are probably more than ready for an alternative political dispensation

Land & outlandish promises in SA

April 24, 2019

Land and its expropriation remains a common theme, along with the need to amend Section 25 of the Bill of Rights, as South Africa heads toward its sixth non-racial parliamentary election. But this is flawed sloganising: Section 25 allows for the expropriation of ANY PROPERTY, provided it is "in the public interest", for "a public purpose" and to provide "equitable access to the country's natural resources". Property, the section notes, "is not limited to land". The only proviso is that expropriation should be "just and equitable".

Time to shun the financial kakistocracy

April 9, 2019

Institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, the ratings agencies and such private influence peddlers such as the World Economic Forum are often seen as a global financial aristocracy. A more correct term would be kakistocracy since the solutions they offer merely compound the problems created by the system they exist to support.

Labour, socialism & the search for a party

April 5, 2019

History stalks us and the labour movement, especially, would do well to pay heed to what lessons it provides as South Africa heads toward it May 8 national and provincial elections faced with a confusion of 48 parties. Two, in particular, contain echoes of the ideological battles that raged in the labour movement for decades.

Evasion & the potential of taxes

March 27, 2019

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

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”.

Unions.bureaucrats & investment companies

February 24, 2019

Was a cut-price share deal in a controversial company that was given to the general secretary of South Afica's Federation of Unions (Fedusa) a potential bribe or a welcome contribution to another — and still-to-be-established — trade union investment company? And was it in order for Fedusa general secretary Dennis George to become a dirctor of the same company? TAnswers to these questions should be available on Tuesday.