April 2012

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A Clarion Call for the Renewal of the African National Congress?

Picture: Foreign Policy Richard Pithouse - As the African National Congress heads to its centenary conference in Mangaung and on to the end of its second decade in power there is still considerable popular fidelity to the ANC as an idea and as an identity. But the ANC does face declining electoral support, escalating popular protest and increasing hostility from the media, intellectuals and much of civil society. The authoritarian currents in the party like to blame all of this on sinister attempts to oppose a democratic government....

Racism and the Political Economy of Domination

Picture: African Encyclopedia Charles W. Mills & Tom Mills - Charles W. Mills is John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Racial Contract and has written extensively about racism and political theory. In an interview with Tom Mills he discussed his views on race, liberalism, capitalism and the potential for social change. TOM MILLS: The concept of race as an objective category has long been discredited by anthropology and biology, yet the social sciences show that racial...

European Debt Crisis: Austerity Measures Cripple Economic Activity & Hinder Job Creation

Picture: www.kauppalehti.fi Video In early April 2012, Fazila Farouk, executive director of the South African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS) made an input at a roundtable discussion in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which focused on how to build "sustainable democracies". On the sidelines of this event hosted by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, she caught up with Jan Kreutz, advisor to the Party of European Socialists, and talked to him about the debt crisis in Europe. Kreutz argues that the crisis in Europe is...

American Graffiti Artist Protests Blood Diamonds at Johannesburg's Jewel City

Picture: ABOVE Video American graffiti artist, ABOVE, was recently in Johannesburg. It is reported that he “convinced the traders at Johannesburg’s Jewel City - the southern hemisphere's largest exporter of diamonds…to let him paint a wall with the slogan ‘Diamonds Are A Woman’s Best Friend’.” But ABOVE wasn’t entirely honest with the owners of Jewel City and made an addition to the mural in protest against blood diamonds, which it is claimed are traded at this...

The ANC's ICT Techno-fix

Picture: Global Broadband and Innovation Jane Duncan - Recently, the African National Congress (ANC) released a discussion document on communications, entitled ‘Building an inclusive society through information and communication technology (ICT)’, in preparation for its elective conference in Mangaung.   Many media commentators will probably focus on whether the ANC has varied its position on the statutory Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). However, the document as a whole merits serious consideration, as it is likely to have an...

International Criminal Court Rejects Palestinian Statehood Bid

Picture: Alamay Video On Tuesday, 3 April 2012, after three years of deliberations, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it has finally reached a decision to reject the the Palestinian request to join. If it were accepted it would not only give the Palestinian Authority (PA) the possibility of inviting the ICC to prosecute Israelis or Palestinians accused of war crimes, Genocide, or crimes against humanity, but would have also forced the ICC to establish whether the Palestinian territories...