democracy | Terry Bell Writes

Browsing All posts tagged under »democracy«

Lying our way to catastrophe

November 16, 2018

The global economy that affects us all is based on lies; on the distortion and misrepresentation of the views of usually much lauded economists. It seems crucial to drive this point home as we continue to be told that greater productivity and the up-skilling and re-skilling of workers will vanquish poverty and unemployment. In a […]

‘Fallism 2016’ – when SA students challenged the status quo

November 11, 2018

Everything Must Fall, the hard-hitting, thought provoking documentary film that provides perhaps the best insight possible into the tumultuous events that disrupted South African university campuses in 2016 will feature in the Netherlandsat the world’s largest documentary film festival from November 15 to 25. It will be part of a programme section entitled Frontline at […]

The democratic centralist curse

April 30, 2018

Democratic centralism is one of the most abused concepts within the South African political and labour arena. It has come to the fore again in debates around the strike protesting a proposed minimum wage and amendments to the labour laws. Hopefully, such debate will lead to the democratic reforms needed in much of the labour movement.

A democratic back to school message for SA

January 20, 2018

Whatever democratic power ordinary people have should always be defended — and fiercely. So SA ctizens, importantly organised labour, should prepare to do battle with a government that proposes abolishing elected school governing bodies that have admittedly failed, but largely because government has failed them.

Worker hope for SA public broadcaster

November 13, 2017

The corporatisation of trade unions and the development of an almost symbiotic relationship between union leaders and employers, pubic and private, is a major problem for the labour movement. It can lead to an industrial relations mess such as that in the SABC. But the hope — and the remedy — still lies with united workers.

The SABC & a democratic future

October 21, 2017

In common with much of the rest of the world, South African media freedom is being eroded. And a prime focus in the battle for freedom of information and of the Press is the SABC. It is a battle that should be joined by everyone hoping for a better, more democratic future.

How ‘the people’ can capture the state

April 9, 2017

Direct democracy, a system where the citizens as a whole have control over their lives and welfare is not only desirable, it is possible, given the very technology that is now destroying jobs. But it requires education and organisation.