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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All posts tagged under »Cosatu«
Spearing labour history
The charade surrounding the satrical The Spear painting swamped an importnt anniversary in South African labour history, the centenary of Alexandra twonship, site of perhaps the only "liberated zone" at the height of apartheid repression and example of trade union and community collaboration.
A glimmer of hope for youth unemployment
May 24, 2012
There seems consensus that steps should be taken to alleviate some of the worst aspects of youth unemployment, a crisis that affects more than 75 million young people worldwide. But evidence exists of at least one highly successful project in South Africa of youth training and job placement in the current climate.
Fact, fiction, subsidies & jobless youth
May 20, 2012
Facts, fictions and often emotional assumptions pepper the current intense debate in South Africa about a youth wage subsidy. But there is one fact about which all parties agree: there is a massive problem of youth unemployment. Millions of young men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 simply do not have jobs; they also happen to constitute a potentially crucial voting bloc in any future election.
Unions challenge govt — and the opposition
March 9, 2012
The mass strike in South Africa on Wednesday, March 9, was only nominally about e-tolling on public roads and the problem of labour brokers. It was, in fact, a challenge to both the government and the parliamentary opposition who both support a system that allows for road tolls and creates an environment in which unscrupulous labour brokers can thrive.
A chance to argue for real union principles
February 3, 2012
The state sponsored Chinese and North Korean unions will be part of the WFTU gathering in Johannesburg, hosted by four Cosatu-affiliated unions. Will this be a move to Soviet-style "conveyor belt unionism" or an opportunity to promote change and real labour principles?
A strike that should never have happened
August 19, 2011
The responsibility for causing the current strike by municipal workers rests with the refusal of the employers, the SA Local Government Association, Salga, to negotiate with the unions. But much of the sympathy for the strike was lost when marches by strikers were accompanied by "trashing" and by the looting of the stalls of hawkers.
Seeking union relevance in a world in turmoil
June 30, 2011
With the global economy in turmoil, the labour movement everywhere is having to adapt to changed — and changing — circumstances while avoiding the bribes, blandishments and bullying of governments, political parties and business. It could be a question of: adapt, fragment or fade away to irrelevance.
ANC faces a turbulent post-election period
May 29, 2011
The government as employer, together with the governing ANC, could be sailing into some turbulent post-election waters. A series of meetings, some of which started this week, will determine quite how turbulent, but the prospects for smooth sailing look remote. On May 26 representatives of the 14 unions in the public service were in Cape […]
Terry Bell Writes 
June 1, 2012
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