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News & Views by Terry Bell
Strap in — it’s the rise of the machines
Artificial Intelligence and the technology employing it is not our enemy; it is who controls it and to what end that will determine whether humanity benefits or finds itself in the sort of dystopian world only imagine4d by the most pessimistic speculative fiction writers. The technology now being developed, displaces human labour; it does not (as in previous industrial revolutions) provide machines that make human labour more productive. It has never been more imperative for working people to take democratic control and perhaop liuberate humanity.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
2020: Tumult lies ahead — but hope too
January 17, 2020
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.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
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.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
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.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
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 […]
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
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.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
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.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
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.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
Terry Bell Writes 
January 21, 2020
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