socialism | Terry Bell Writes

Browsing All posts tagged under »socialism«

What about the workers?

May 8, 2019

Much has changed on the South African political scene since the transition from apartheid in 1994. In the sixth national election since then, the votes of more than 2 million unionised workers could be crucial to the final outcome.

Labour, socialism & the search for a party

April 5, 2019

History stalks us and the labour movement, especially, would do well to pay heed to what lessons it provides as South Africa heads toward it May 8 national and provincial elections faced with a confusion of 48 parties. Two, in particular, contain echoes of the ideological battles that raged in the labour movement for decades.

Austerity and the lack of a real alternatve

February 24, 2019

A social compact is not an alternative to the present social and economic system. It is a variation on the same theme — a bad one from the point of view of labour — and it does pose as an alternative. Time perhaps for labour to counter with a clearly costed and articulated route to a real alternative that would benefit the many rather than the few.

As SA elections loom: a call for clarity & organisation

January 13, 2019

It's swings and roundabouts for the workers of the world, with the overall trajectory being fewer jobs and lower pay. This is the reality as the World Bank claims — citing China and India as prime examples — that global poverty is declining; the implication being that the economic system is working. It is not and it is, in fact, becoming increasingly destructive.

Looking to real alternatives

August 31, 2018

As the global economic crunch continues and seems to be worsening, perhaps it is time to look to the examples of democratic control manifest in the recovered factories movements of Latin America. There may even be sound lessons to be gained by researching what happened in Paris in 1871.

Hope amid the gathering fog of populism

August 13, 2018

gathering fog of poisonous populism that already threatens everyone. However, there are some straws of hope to cling to in an increasingly turbulent political sea.

Thuma mina and social class

July 14, 2018

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That French expression certainly applies in South Africa where there has been major change in the legal deracialisation of society, but where the fundamental class divide is perhaps even more starkly evident.

Trade unionism, Marx & Chavez

February 11, 2018

Trade unions that claim to be "Marxist-Leninist" (especially without any real attempt at definition) and that uncritically support the "Bolivarian revolution" of Hugo Chavez tend to do so out of blind emotion rather than rational analysis. And this is an extremely dangerous and divisive road for organised labour to follow.