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...
IN A 2011 EDITORIAL IN THE BRITISH Medical Journal (BMJ), Fiona Godlee, editor-in-chief, wrote that “the greatest risk to human health is neither communicable nor noncommunicable disease — it is climate change”. Writing this took courage: at that time, only 10 years...
This is an edited version of an input made at a conference in November on climate, extractivism, Covid-recovery and the Just Transition. VERY CLEARLY raw materials and cheap labour were at the heart of colonisation. And it’s so amazing how things have remained the...
WHAT WE FACE TODAY IS NOT just a “crisis” in the normal sense of the word - “a time of intense difficulty or danger”. We also face a crisis in the sense of the word’s etymological roots in the Greek word krisis. This refers to a turning point in the course of an...
THREE NEW EXPERT REPORTS were commissioned by the Centre for Environmental Rights. They look at the future effects of climate change on mental health, as well as what basic lifestyles and services will look like for future generations in South Africa by 2030, 2040...
DURING THE WEEK of September 20th 2021, thousands of people in every province of South Africa mobilised under the banner of #UprootTheDMRE. They were protesting against the polluting, unjust and harmful energy and mining agenda of Minister Gwede Mantashe’s Department...
The majority of South Africans, especially black working class and poor communities, issued a resounding vote of no confidence in the ANC on November 1st: in 1994 the party won 12.2 million votes; in 2021 only 5.2 million votes. Fewer than 12 million out of an...