The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
SACSIS promotes the principle of just economies. We are opposed to economic development that violates social and economic rights and increases inequalities in the pursuit of economic growth.
Colette Francis Ashton -
Book: Choice, Not Fate: The Life and Times of Trevor Manuel
Author: Pippa Green
Publisher: Penguin Books
Reviewer: Colette Francis Ashton
When I sat down to read the biography of Trevor Manuel I knew that, for me, it would stand or fall on how well it answered three nagging questions I had about the Finance Minister. Firstly, what exactly was Manuel’s role in the arms deal? Is he really a ‘neoliberal’? And lastly, what was the personal motivation behind his resignation...
Glenn Ashton -
Last year in the run up to the global economic meltdown, all commodities became fair game for the financial casinos of Wall Street, London, Tokyo and points between. The prices of food sky-rocketed around the world, driven by several triggers but primarily by the ability to trade futures, speculative financial instruments linked to international food commodities in the same way as resources like iron, coal, oil and gold are speculated upon as a hedge against market uncertainties.
This...
Fazila Farouk -
Although important work is carried out in this field, we certainly don't hear enough about holding corporations accountable for the profits they pocketed during South Africa's apartheid years.
The focus of South Africa's negotiated democracy has been finding unity in forgiveness. This is important for a country looking forward and trying to construct a civilised society, but it comes with a cost.
This cost is a lack of acknowledgement for the ongoing suffering of South Africans whose human...
Dean Baker -
Imagine that the United States was researching biological weapons and it inadvertently allowed a deadly bacteria to get into the atmosphere. The bacteria quickly spread around the world, leading to sickness and death everywhere.
Fortunately, US scientists have developed a drug to treat the disease, which the United States generously shares with the other wealthy countries and a select group of developing countries. Unfortunately, there are a number of developing countries with whom the...
Saliem Fakir -
Ida Tarbell is long forgotten and very few know of her. Tarbell left us with a seminal work -- a piece of investigative journalism that led to the publication of the first expose of the doings of the Standard Oil Company.
She carved a new style of investigative journalism in which personal ethics played a big role. Tarbell was also a feminist and undertook some insightful appraisals of the working of corporations and the business world.
Tarbell was one of the few brave investigative...
Glenn Ashton -
The time has come to shift towards a more equitable society.
The present disruption in the marketplace will continue to rock the global financial system for years. This economic shake-out signals many things, perhaps even the end of capitalism as we know it. After all, free market capitalism is meant to stand on its own two feet, independent of state interference. It was never meant to have been rescued by taxpayers funds, as is now the case. The average citizen was never consulted about...
