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?
Richard Pithouse -
The rebellions in the ANC against Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma have broken the hermetic seal that had been tightly wound around electoral politics by the dominance of the ANC since 1994. It is not yet clear which social forces will be able to manoeuvre most effectively on this new and, for the moment, more open terrain. It is possible that once a deal is brokered between the ambitions and principles of the unruly mix of corrupt crony capitalists, conservative patriarchs, liberals, social...
Trade is very imbalanced against the poorest countries says Mary Robinson of Realizing Rights; and part of the reason is the subsidies on agricultural products in rich countries. She argues for more coherence between the aid and trade policies of rich nations.
This clip is from John Pilger's documentary 'The New Rulers of The World'. It is argued that debt is being used as an instrument by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to get their policies implemented in the poorest countries of the world, opening up the way for the natural resources of the South to be plundered by corporations from the North.
Michelle Pressend -
In this time of multiples crises often referred to as the ‘FFF’ - food, fuel and finance crisis - more than ever before, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7, which is to ‘Ensure Environmental Sustainability’, is a critical goal to achieve.
In the planetary ecological crisis, both the North and South continue to prioritise economic growth based on conventional economic models -- the North wants to maintain its high growth rates and the South wants to play...
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 -
It would be a squint-eyed view to read in Obama’s victory just a historic moment for African-Americans in the United States of America (USA).
It should be granted that Obama’s entry through the front door of the White House rather than the back door, once reserved for black cleaners only, does mark a turning point in black history.
African-Americans have come a long way since the days of slavery, the civil rights movement and many other sacrifices they have had to make to claim...
