After a crushing defeat of its proposed constitution, Chile’s Left must regroup around universal material reforms. CHILE’S CAPTIVATING PROCESS OF systemic change has derailed. A mass rebellion forced politicians to concede a constituent process, after elections gave...
IN 2017, THE 14TH NATIONAL Congress of the SACP adopted a resolution “SACP and state and popular power” which resolved that: the 14th Congress mandates the Central Committee to establish a Road Map that must be adopted, with clear, indicative time-lines, by the...
The Working Class Summit bounces back LAST MONTH, 600 ACTIVISTS packed into a Johannesburg hall for the first meeting in several years of the Working Class Summit. It was a welcome sight for the many sore eyes on the South African Left. The WCS’s main convener is the...
DOZENS OF SOUTH African civil society organisations, trade unions, academic and research bodies –and influential observers like the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development - have been calling on the government to phase in a universal basic income by...
THE NATIONAL SHUTDOWN OF 24th August 2022 highlighted the potential of the Working Class Summit (WCS) to mobilise trade unions and community movements behind a campaign against the multiple attacks on the lives of the poor majority. In this sense, it built on the...
A key element of the crisis of politics in South Africa lies in the great levels of disillusionment and apathy toward politics of millions of working class people. The “protagonists of the revolution” don’t believe politics is for them. Many believe today that “all...
IN JUNE, THE UNITED STATES Supreme Court overturned its previous Roe v. Wade decision which declared the constitutional right to an abortion. Because of this, abortions are now regarded as illegal in certain US states, where the historic ruling was the only law that...
GIVEN ALREADY RAPIDLY RISING food, electricity and transport prices, the August reduction in the petrol price is said to be a drop in the ocean. It will offer little relief for cash-strapped and indebted South Africans. Making light of the tumultuous situation, there...
IN 2022, THERE ARE A LOT OF BOOKS about climate change and a lot of books that purport to tell us how to address it. Matt Huber’s book is not like most of these. It unambiguously centres class struggle, reconstituting materialist analysis as ecological politics. By...
This article has been jointly published with Daily Maverick. Comrades who have been unlawfully suspended by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) have been repeatedly asked one question over the past couple of weeks: “Why is this happening?” Why...
ON 7TH AUGUST 2002, THE Colombian Left will take over the national government for the first time in the country’s troubled history. The presidential election of June 2022 marked a significant turning point in a Latin American nation characterised by a long history of...
This article was first published by Africa is a Country. In the 2018 Mexican general election, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as “AMLO”) swept to victory. His presidential victory coincided with the historic collapse of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional...
THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST Party has recently emerged from its 15th National Congress (13-16 July 2022) with a resolution to build a Left popular front or a powerful, socialist movement of workers and poor. The South African Struggle for Socialism, the SACP’s draft...
THE TEMBISA SHUTDOWN, following the Nguni meaning of the township’s name, was promising. It was sparked by the community’s rebellious response to the crisis faced by working class people in South Africa and the world especially in the post-Covid socioeconomic...
THE NUMSA PRESIDENT CALLED his fellow comrades snakes and enemies for daring to demand adherence to the Union’s constitution and accountability for the union’s investment arm, the Numsa Investment Company (NIC). This can lead us to no other conclusion than that this...
This article is adapted from a statement on Ramaphosa’s speech, arising out of a meeting held on the 27th of July 2022. The meeting’s participants included representatives from AIDC, Amcu, Assembly of the Unemployed, Giwusa, Naledi, Nehawu, Num, Nupsaw, Rural Women’s...
AMANDLA! INTERVIEWED MEMBERS OF THE BOTSHABELO UNEMPLOYED MOVEMENT (BUM) ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES AS UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE. THESE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS THEY HAD TO SAY. Unemployment and jobs Amandla asked them about their experience of unemployment and looking for jobs....
ALL WORKING-CLASS communities suffer from the capitalist crises of climate change, unemployment, poverty, and inequality. But women suffer the most. As capitalism advances, it also benefits patriarchy and helps it to flourish. As such, patriarchal capitalism imposes...
SOUTH AFRICANS ARE CONTENDING with a rapidly unfolding food crisis, marked by rising transport and food prices. As they do so, high levels of unemployment, unchecked inequality and deepening poverty continue under the watch of the South African State, threatening the...
AS THE ONGOING SOCIAL and economic crisis intensifies in South Africa, it is worth reflecting on the policy choices that have brought us here. Many politicians, liberal economists and others who hold immense power would have us believe that history doesn’t matter and...
THE GANG RAPE OF EIGHT WOMEN in Kagiso is an outrage. It is even more of an outrage when you consider this is not an isolated incident. So many women are raped, and gang raped in South Africa. It is estimated that a woman is raped every 26 seconds. Adding insult to...
POLITICIANS ACROSS THE WORLD make efforts to mobilise support from low-waged, precarious and otherwise marginalised workers. They do this by claiming that they will protect them from the depredations of “migrants”, foreigners who take resources from citizens. This...
My name is Siphiwo Mathys. I am a community activist in Thembalethu township in George and I am a member of the Active United Front. Siphiwo Mathys: In my community, we have been residing with people from other tribes, other nations for years. They have been working...
THE 13TH OF JUNE 2022 marked 42 years since the brutal assassination of Walter Rodney, the Guyanese activist and historian. His most influential book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, has been described as “a priceless weapon of theory and history that restores the...