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News & Views by Terry Bell
Some real costs in the EV revolution
(First published on Fin24) There was international media coverage this week when President Joe Biden, megaphone in hand, stood on a picket line with striking car workers in Detroit. Being the first US president to take such action warranted the coverage. But the strike itself and the issues raised have lessons for workers everywhere. However, […]
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A tale of two countries (in decline)
September 4, 2023
It may sound melodramatic to claim that Britain is a country sliding steadily toward the ranks of developed nations. Yet that, in effect, is the clear headed assessment of UK political economist and leading commentator, Will Hutton. And it is a worrying assessment shared by many in the British labour movement as workers in the […]
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SA’s real gold mining problem is not Zama-Zamas
August 14, 2023
Zama-Zamas, are not the problem claimed by the police, the government and highlighted by the media.. These “illegal miners” are, for the most part, thousands of men and a very few women, who risk life and limb to harvest what is left of one of the bounties of nature. The name they have been given, […]
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Chaos, calamity and AI
July 23, 2023
(First published on Fin24) he past week has thrown into sharp relief the impact that the rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) is having — and will potentially have — on all our lives, now and into the future. But it does seem almost ironic that this fact has reached global attention because of the […]
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Obituary: Blanche La Guma
July 10, 2023
Blanche La Guma who died on Thursday (July 6), aged 95, was one of the most unacknowledged veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle. A nurse and midwife, principled, dedicated and intensely loyal, she gladly lived in the shadow of her writer husband Alex who died and was buried in Cuba in 1985. One of her proudest […]
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Bloody start for SA’s newest union
July 3, 2023
(First published on Fin24 and in City Press) Last weekend (June24/25) I sat down to review my research for what promised to be an optimistic column about signs of an effective back to the future move toward reclaiming the democratic traditions of trade unionism. By the Sunday morning, bloody echoes of the past came to […]
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An answer to inequality and waste of human potential
May 29, 2023
South Africa has a history of massively damaging and racist social engineering, the effects of which are clearly evident in our grossly unequal shambles of an education system. Evidence was again provided last week in the latest international Grade 4 reading for meaning rankings. But the fact that the effects remain so pronounced, nearly 30 […]
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May Day sadness in 2023
April 30, 2023
(First published in City Press, April 30, 2023) Tomorrow is May Day. And, for the first time in a long and quite active life as a social campaigner I shall approach that historic occasion not with jubilation, pride and determination, but with sadness. And I will not be alone: there appears to be a growing […]
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Terry Bell Writes 
October 1, 2023
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