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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All posts tagged under »economics«
The road from 1996 to Mangaung
December 13, 2012
The tortuous road to the governing ANC’s centennial conference at Mangaung ends next week. And, not to put too fine a point on it, much of the country is gatvol with the route it has taken and where it has arrived.
A route to a truly democratic society
December 7, 2012
South Africa's Bill of Right provides the cornerstone on which a truly democratic society can be built. The technical resources exist in a world of surpluses. Only imagination and political will are missing.
The myth of a ‘Lula moment’
November 30, 2012
Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of South Africa's major trade union federation, Cosatu, has proposed a "Lula moment" to defuse the country's "ticking time bomb" of poverty and unemployment. But there is a growing band of doubters who see this belief that Brazil's former president has — or had — a cure-all recipe for poverty, unemployment and economic growth as a myth.
SA unrest: explosions waiting to happen…
November 16, 2012
There should have been no surprise or outrage expressed by mining companies, agribusiness, and government officials about the recent explosion of strikes and protests on mines and farms. And trade unionists across the board should not have been caught flat-footed by the outbursts of anger that erupted in the North West, Limpopo and now in […]
Trade unions and the need for transformation
November 8, 2012
It can be argued today that trade unions are more necessary than ever; that the organisations that played major roles in improving the political and economic lot of people around the world, have a huge task ahead of them. Yet much of the labour movement internationally is in a state of flux or stagnation and, in South Africa, there are signs of considerable disarray.
End of the “rainbow nation” fairy tale
November 6, 2012
The last remnants of the South African fairy tale were put to rest in London’s influential Frontline Club in October. A packed audience comprising mainly media workers and more than a handful of public relations and investment advisers clearly concluded that the rainbow nation was no more than a myth. Yet, once upon a time, and not very long ago, when concerned investment groups started casting about to find somewhere outside of the industrialised world to increase the size of their cash piles, they looked to South Africa.
The role of unions in a time of crisis
November 5, 2012
In a world wracked by ongoing economic crises, what is the role of trade unions? These questions came to the fore again in South Africa in the aftermath of the bloodshed at Marikana on August 16. But they are also being asked around the world as unions become embroiled in increasingly fractious relations with employers, governments and, all too often, their own members.
Terry Bell Writes 
Citizens’ coaltion infrastructure is in place
December 31, 2012
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In South Africa, all the infrastructure exists to institute the modern world's first attempt to extend the partial democracy we now have into the real thing: a truly egalitarian system that could make a reality of the values of human dignity, equality and freedom. All it requires is organisation.