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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All posts tagged under »trade unions«
Failing the children of the poor
South Africa continues to fail the children of the poor and is once again reaping the results of that failure. Nowhere is this more evident than in the recurrent violent eruptions in the fruit and wine farm regions of the Western Cape.
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.
Another front opens in SA arms deal scandal
November 27, 2012
Another crack has opened up in the facade of secrecy surrounding South Africa's controversial multi-billion dollar arms deal. It came on November 21 on Sweden’s TV4 channel in the first of two special reports by the Kalla Fakta (Cold Facts) investigative team.
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.
A Cold War shadow looms in South Africa
November 6, 2012
In the face of the ongoing global economic crisis, with massive unemployment and a wage and welfare gap perhaps second to none anywhere, South Africa is now confronting the shadow of the Cold War. And it looms large in the background, despite most of the current media focus on the recent strike wave and the impending elective conference of the governing African National Congress.
Terry Bell Writes 
January 15, 2013
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