politics | Terry Bell Writes

Browsing All posts tagged under »politics«

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.

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.

The political voice labour must find

November 5, 2019

Riven by ideological squabbles and apparently unwilling to face up the technological realities of the 21st Century, the once militant South African trade union movement is in danger of becoming increasingly less relevant. Yet this was a m ovement that played a significant role in the anti-apartheid struggle.

SA unions: still seeking a coherent political role

November 2, 2019

Ever since making a tentative move toward principled unity 23 years ago, South Africa's modern and militant trade unions, once to the forefront of the struggle against apartheid, have steadily weakened, with a degree of fragmentation. Now, with the realities of the digital revolution being felt, time is not on their side if they wish to remain relevant and play a role of protectors and extenders of democracy.

Race & the colour of money

July 28, 2019

Populist demagogues tend to emerge during times of economic and social crises. They use the age-old method of divide and rule to prey on the fears and insecurities of the working class battered by a system of exploitation that the demagogues fundamentally support. But at the root of the problems faced by the global majority is not race, religion, language or ethnicity: it is capitalism where the colour of money is all that matters.

Exploitation: a case of money, not melanin

July 26, 2019

Ten years ago, the “Celtic Tiger” economy started to collapse amid the stench of corruption. Its demise underlined how dangerous it is to welcome corporate pirates with “investor friendly” policies. Yet today, these — or very similar — policies are being proposed as a means to lift South Africa out of the economic mire into which it has slid. In the process, the melanin rather than the money card is being played.

4IR & the ideological prison

July 12, 2019

The business and political elites are trapped within an ideological prison that does not allow for them to consider ther need to break out in order to salvage both themselves and the world at large. And so they continue to prattle away about how best to reform the system from within when, in fact, it is the system itself that is at fault.

Journalism & the antidote to horror

July 1, 2019

A free and truthful media is essential for the maintenance, let alone extension, of what democratic rights exist in parliamentary systems. Yet everywhere it is under attack, lumped together in the public mind with those clearly compromised elements peddling levels of absurdity. It is time to fight back.