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?
We live in a time when at the click of a mouse goods from around the globe can arrive conveniently at our doorstep. Mega-retailers like Walmart and Amazon have created a seamless and efficient system to get our goods to us quickly.
Last year, during the busiest day of the Christmas rush, customers from around the world ordered more than 300 items per second from Amazon. What's not seen are the people who actually make this possible. Kept out of the public eye temp workers, employed without...
The shadow of the Marikana massacre hangs over Cosatu as its 11th Elective Congress takes place a month after the police brutally killed more than 34 miners who worked at Lonmin mine. Ighsaan Schroeder, Director of the Casual Workers Advice Office talks about the meaning of Marikana for Cosatu and trade unions in general. This interview was recorded on September, 17, the opening day of Cosatu's 2012 congress.
Schroeder argues that Marikana signals the death rattle for Cosatu. He is not...
Leonard Gentle -
The spectacle of the blows between a Democratic Alliance-led crowd and COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) would have been the stuff of farce if it weren’t so tragically unedifying. The DA has every right to march and be “provocative”. COSATU’s response betrays its own hard-won struggles in the past for the right to march, assemble and protest.
This was no kristalnacht or fascist street gang about to storm the workers’ movement. This was a DA...
Over the last 15 years we've seen the emergence and growth of the practice of labour broking in South Africa, which places workers, particularly those employed on the lowest rungs of the South African economy, in a very precarious position with respect to job security and a host of related quality of life indicators.
Ighsaan Schroeder of the Casual Workers Advice Office explains Why Cosatu called for a general strike against the practice of labour broking. However, he argues that the trade...
