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?
Glenn Ashton -
So it looks like Wal-Mart may establish its African beachhead in South Africa. Rumours have flown around the South African business community for more than six months that Massmart, the South African based retail giant that includes well-known brands such as Dion, Game, Makro and Builders Warehouse, was a target for acquisition by the world’s biggest company, the retail behemoth Wal-Mart.
At the end of September the rumours were put to bed as Wal-Mart made a formal but...
Wal-Mart is about to arrive in South Africa. Its imminent establishment highlights serious concerns about the company's impact on South African labour rights.
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price is a feature length documentary that uncovers the retail giant's assault on families in America, where Wal-Mart's workers are among the most impoverished workers in the country. The film dives into the personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities struggling to fight...
In recent days, the Venezuelan people elected a new national assembly.
The Socialist Party led by Hugo Chavez and the opposition party, under the banner of Democratic Unity, more or less split the vote with a slight one percent advantage to the Socialist Party.
Paul Jay of the Real News Network speaks with Gregory Wilpert, editor of Venezuelanalysis.com, to make sense of this latest development in Venezuelan politics.
Is this a win or a lose for Chavez?
According to Wilpert,...
Democracy Now -
In Brazil, some 135 million voters cast ballots on Sunday in a closely watched presidential election. Dilma Rousseff, the leading candidate to succeed President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, won the race but failed to gain the 50 percent of votes needed for an outright victory. If Rousseff wins the runoff, she will become the first woman to lead Brazil, the world’s fourth most populous democracy.
for some insight into the consequences of these election results, Amy Goodman of...
Jane Duncan -
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) did what most people suspected at its recent National General Council (NGC) meeting, and endorsed a Parliamentary investigation into the feasibility of setting up a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). However the resolution that was passed by the NGC softened many of the more extreme positions taken by some ANC members in the recent past.
The dust had hardly settled on the NGC meeting, when South African Communist Party (SACP) General Secretary...
Watch part two of this interview here.
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now speaks to the acclaimed Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef, who won the Right Livelihood Award (the alternative Nobel Prize) in 1983, two years after the publication of his book Outside Looking In: Experiences in Barefoot Economics.
Max-Neef explains how he came to understand and conceptualize what barefoot economics is.
MANFRED MAX-NEEF: It's a metaphor, but a metaphor that originated in a concrete experience. I worked...
