ANC
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Democratic Left Front: Justice now for the Marikana workers and community!
On August 16, 2012, post-apartheid democracy lurched into a horror. It was estimated 34 mineworkers at the Lonmin mine in the North West province were brutally gunned down by police, and in total over 70 workers have been injured. The death toll at this stage is still not completely verified, with the community still reporting… Continue reading
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South Africa’s Unfinished Revolution and the Massacre at Marikana
The massacre of 34 miners at Marikana lays bare the central contradiction of the South African “arrangement.” Back in 1994, “the ‘revolution’ was put on indefinite hold, so that a new Black capitalist class could be created, largely from the ranks of well-connected members of the ruling party and even union leaders.” The regime now… Continue reading
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Turmoil at South Africa’s Platinum Mines by Pratap Chatterjee
Clashes between South Africa’s powerful mining companies and the government are only part of the story. A battle to win membership between two rival unions – the older establishment affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the newer more radical Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) – is also reported to be a major… Continue reading
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Echoes of the Past: Marikana, Cheap Labour and the 1946 Miners Strike Chris Webb
On August 4, 1946 over one thousand miners assembled in Market Square in Johannesburg, South Africa. No hall in the town was big enough to hold them, and no one would have rented one to them anyway. The miners were members of the African Mine Worker’s Union (AMWU), a non-European union which was formed five… Continue reading
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Reflections As Nelson Mandela Turns 94 July 18th By Danny Schechter
Cape Town, South Africa: Nelson Mandela was released from prison 22 years ago. He has been “free” ever since. At the same time, I sometimes feel as if I became his prisoner—imprisoned by the work I have been doing enthusiastically in service to the struggle he led ever since the mid 1960’s. Continue reading
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South Africa's Political Wars Begin To Resemble Our Own By Danny Schechter
The Mail & Guardian reports political scientist Achille Mbembe saying in a debate in Johannesburg, “after 18 years of relative complacency and self-congratulatory gestures” the ANC was realizing South Africa was an ordinary country and not a miracle. Continue reading
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VTJP Palestine/Israel Newslinks 26 March 2012: Hospital ‘may consider force-feeding’ Shalabi
26 March 2012 — VTJP News International Middle East Media Center Ashrawi Condemns Israeli Threats of Cutting Tax RevenueIMEMC – On Monday Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, member of the PLO executive committee, slammed the Israeli government threats to cut tax revenue as part of Israeli response to the last week UN council for Human Rights decision to investigate Continue reading
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A Poisoned Chalice: Liberation, ANC-Style By John S. Saul
There is good and obvious reason to celebrate the long history of the African National Congress (ANC): the organization’s marked dedication over one hundred years to the cause of the betterment of the lot of the oppressed African people in South Africa. It has also sustained an honourable commitment to a multi-racial, pan-ethnic outcome to… Continue reading
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Libya, Africa, and the New World Order: An Open Letter to the Peoples of Africa and the World from Concerned Africans
We, the undersigned, are ordinary citizens of Africa who are immensely pained and angered that fellow Africans are and have been subjected to the fury of war by foreign powers which have clearly repudiated the noble and very relevant vision enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. Continue reading
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21 YEARS AFTER “FREEDOM:” SOUTH AFRICA’S CANCER OF CORRUPTION AND ‘CULTURE OF CONCEALMENT’ By Danny Schechter
Twenty one years after Nelson Mandela walked free, corruption has become the issue du jour in South Africa. Continue reading
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Moeletsi Mbeki: On Wealth creation in South Africa
I CAN predict when SA’s ‘Tunisia Day’ will arrive. Tunisia Day is when the masses rise against the powers that be, as happened recently in Tunisia. The year will be 2020, give or take a couple of years. The year 2020 is when China estimates that its current minerals-intensive industrialisation phase will be concluded. Continue reading
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The Lies behind the West's War on Libya By Jean-Paul Pougala
Africans should think about the real reasons why western countries are waging war on Libya, writes Jean-Paul Pougala, in an analysis that traces the country’s role in shaping the African Union and the development of the continent. Continue reading
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South African Public Sector Strike Highlights Society’s Contradictions By Patrick Bond
The two major civil service unions on strike against the South African (SA) government vow to intensify pressure in coming days, in a struggle pitting a million members of the middle and lower ranks of society against a confident government leadership fresh from hosting the FIFA World Cup. Continue reading
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South Africa loses its ‘War on Poverty’ By Patrick Bond
Shortly before Pretoria’s presidential power change from Thabo Mbeki to Jacob Zuma two years ago, the South African state announced its War on Poverty. What news from the front, in the immediate wake of World Cup host duties that showed observers how very pleasant life is for the rich and middle class here? We don’t… Continue reading
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Neville Alexander: South Africa – An unfinished revolution
In the Marxist paradigm, the word “revolution” has very precise meanings. Most often, it is used to refer to a “social revolution”, i.e., the displacement of the rule of one class by that of another, usually by violent means, i.e., in the course of a civil war or an armed struggle. Thus, for example, the… Continue reading
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The Bank Loan That Could Break South Africa's Back By Patrick Bond
Notwithstanding South Africa’s existing $75 billion foreign debt, last Thursday the World Bank added a $3.75bn loan to Eskom for the primary purpose of building the world’s fourth-largest coal-fired power plant, at Medupi, which will spew 25 million tons of the climate pollutant carbon dioxide each year. Continue reading
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Fatima Meer, 1928-2010: `Regardless of how many years we have spent in this life, we must get up and shout' By Patrick Bond and Orlean Naidoo
Within a year, Meer would be sucking in the smell of post-apartheid tear gas that became so familiar in Chatsworth, her eyes streaming tears of anger, her throat coughing up disgust at the local ANC rulers whom she had helped put into power with unmatched courage during the bad years when she was beaten and… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 