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?
Jason Hickel -
The news that a Romanian sweatshop manufactured one of Kate Middleton’s most famous dresses has inspired renewed popular interest in the ethics and economics of outsourcing jobs to utilize super-cheap labor. This is only the most recent of a string of cases that exemplify the shocking proliferation of sweatshops — even across Europe — over the past few decades. But the truly troubling part of the story is the logic that Kate’s defenders have invoked to justify this...
Parodying the "priceless" MasterCard advertisements, WikiLeaks releases their latest promotional advertisement. MasterCard is one of four companies that suspended services to WikiLeaks making it difficult for the organization's supporters to donate funds in the aftermath of Julian Assange's arrest on alleged sexual assault charges.
As this Democracy Now broadcast went to air, lawmakers in Greece were voting on — and later approved — a new round of sweeping austerity measures amidst a general strike that’s brought tens of thousands into the streets.
Riot police have fired volleys of tear gas, smoke bombs and stun grenades in a bid to clear the masses of Greek protesters surrounding the parliament in Athens. The chaotic standoff began Tuesday when police stormed the adjacent Syntagma Square, where...
Liepollo Pheko -
The race which decided who would be heading up the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is finally over. Yesterday, France’s finance minister, Christine Lagarde, who beat Mexico’s Agustín Carstens to the post, was announced as the new managing director of the international financial institution. You will likely recall that our very own Trevor Manuel dropped out of the race at an early stage, recognising perhaps that he was no match for the determined Europeans’...
Saliem Fakir -
There may be some scepticism about COSATU’s noise on corruption and its criticism of the ANC. Some may be thinking that COSATU’s strategy is to create the façade of a critical alliance partner.
It was all done to play to the public gallery and soften the blow of those outside of the tri-partite alliance through a process of civic engagement, as the ANC has lost its foothold in civil society.
The extent to which COSATU has to continue playing the “insider” role...
Richard Pithouse -
The repressed, any Freudian will tell you, cannot be contained indefinitely. It will always return. And if its first murmurings in jokes and slips of the tongue are not heeded it will be distorted and return, with increasing vehemence, as a symptom, a symptom that may come to constitute a threat, even a crisis.
It’s difficult to think of a country that wasn’t founded with blood and iron. If countries have a collective unconscious, ours is hardly the only one that is likely to be...
