ON 18TH MARCH 2022, THREE days before Human Rights Day, Judge Patricia Goliath delivered a ground-breaking judgement. It confirmed that economic benefits can never outweigh the cultural and heritage rights of indigenous people. The judgement concerned a unique and...
Interview with Thapelo Mohapi, General Secretary of Abahlali baseMjondolo. Thapelo Mohapi: Abahlali is based in Durban, and that’s where our headquarters are. But we organise in four other provinces. The movement, of course, has grown. The latest statistic was...
Interview with Amcu President, Joseph Mathunjwa Amandla!: Amcu has conclude a three-year agreement with Sibanye-Stillwater Gold after a gruelling strike. What were the gains for gold workers and what were the main lessons you take from the strike? Joseph Mathunjwa:...
THE STUDENT UPRISING OF 1976 was a pivotal moment in the liberation movement against apartheid. For the first time high school students en masse across the country mobilised against Bantu Education and apartheid. The march by thousands of students and subsequent...
This article was written before the publication of the final report of the Zondo Commission on 23rd June. THE ZONDO COMMISSION HAS made serious findings of criminality against individuals, politicians, and private companies that enabled and benefited from state...
THE FIGHTBACK HAS BEGUN, BUT it will be a long road. In our last editorial we described how the labour movement has degenerated. How its leadership has become largely detached from the members. And how they have become corrupted by the lure of material benefits, in...
THE 2021 AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS (Afcon 2021) finally took place in January and February 2022. In 2018, Cameroon had been stripped of its hosting rights by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) who stated that the “Africa Cup of Nations could not be exposed to any...
ON THE LAST DAY OF FEBRUARY, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their latest report. Previous versions have warned of impending climate chaos. The current report rings the death knell for people and planet. Governments and scientists agree...
This article was first published on Michael Roberts’ blog. “The war in Ukraine is like a powerful earthquake that will have ripple effects throughout the global economy, especially in poor countries”. That’s how IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva described the impact of...
RUSSIA’S WAR WITH UKRAINE HAS invited widespread calls for de-escalation and diplomatic resolution. Still, countries worldwide are more reluctant to express outright condemnation for Putin’s aggression, or to join the West’s efforts in actively deterring Moscow...
PIERRE BEAUDET, ACTIVIST, strategist, intellectual, friend and comrade died earlier last month. As well as the loss to me of a friend and comrade of 35 years, he is a loss to many in the progressive and revolutionary movements across the world. Pierre was a friend of...
SINCE FEYA FAKU BEGAN HIS month-long national tour of five South African cities, there is a scramble amongst young jazz musicians for membership in his bands. As he moves from one city to the other, the celebrated trumpeter assembles local musicians and invites them...
ON 14TH MARCH 2022, THE Appeal Court ordered the Makana Municipality and the Eastern Cape Government to come up with a financial recovery plan (FRP) to improve the financial and management position of the failing municipality. In 2020 the Makhanda High Court had...
IT IS COMMON FOR THE STATE OF THE Nation (SONA) to begin with a poetic quote or reflection on the fearlessness of the late Nelson Mandela, and our journey into freedom. In 2020 for instance, the President eloquently reminded us of Madiba’s spirit of fearlessness and...
ON 23RD FEBRUARY, FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana delivered the third extremely harsh austerity budget in three years. In this budget, the Treasury and the whole government follow through on the budget cuts announced in the Mid Term Budget in November. And they are...
A successful 10-week strike by Student Workers of Columbia displayed the power of an insurgent rank-and-file. SINCE THE 1970s, WORKER participation in labour unions in the United States has been in serious decline. In 1954, a high of over 28% of all US workers...
In late February, Amandla interviewed Comrade Montwane Ngoato, a Giwusa shop steward who works at the Clayville Plant as a Load Controller, checking stock into the trucks. He stays in Tembisa with his family. Amandla!: The strike that’s been going on, since the end...
Amandla! interviewed Nehawu’s Sidney Kgara Amandla!: The Constitutional Court recently ruled that government does not have to honour collective bargaining agreements if they “can’t afford” to do so. From Nehawu’s point of view, what are the key elements of this...
This is part of an interview with Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko, conducted by Jerko Bakotin and first published in Jacobin. The article was translated into English by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. Jerko Bakotin: The West reacted decisively with a strategy...
This is an edited version of an article first published in Counterfire. RUSSIA’S INVASION OF UKRAINE IS a war of imperial subjugation. Its brutality is only too familiar from the terrible wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We must condemn it, demanding a ceasefire and...
Interview with Oksana Dutchak, researcher based in Ukraine and activist of Essential Autonomous Struggles Transnational (E.A.S.T). She tells about the current ever-changing situation in Ukraine and local attempts at self-organisation to cope with the war. This is an...
WHAT WE ARE WITNESSING IN the labour movement today is quite simply a tragedy. At a time when the working class is suffering as never before, leaders of Saftu are tearing the young federation to pieces. The working class needs this federation to strengthen and grow....
THE CLIMATE CRISIS, DRIVEN BY the expansionist logic of capitalism, is intensifying the work involved in social reproduction. This is work done mainly by women to maintain life on both a daily and a generational basis. It involves daily tasks such as cooking and...
Brian Ashley interviewed Sean Sweeney from Trade Unions for Energy Democracy Amandla!: Globally, and particularly after COP 26, there is a great urgency for addressing climate change and moving away from fossil fuels, particularly for countries with a high carbon...