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?
International NGO, GRAIN, argues that the food crisis facing the world and particularly the developing world can be linked to more than three decades of IMF and World Bank inspired structural adjustment programmes. The current problem is more than one of a food shortage or a price blip. It is one where the food system is experiencing a structural meltdown. At the same time, big profits are being made by several food corporations and investors.
The National Labour Committee puts a human face behind the global economy which the big companies try to hide. Bangaldeshi garment workers work 20 hours in a 24 hour cycle, then take an hour's break and push on for another 16 to 18 hours, producing clothes for the American market. There are 1.8 million garment workers in Bangladesh, mostly young women. Eighty percent of them are between the ages of 16-25.
Richard Pithouse -
The crisis of social exclusion in our cities is a key factor in the ferment in grassroots political society. It has been central to much popular protest in recent years, to the emergence of well organised grassroots movements to the left of the ANC and, also, the catastrophic pogroms in May.
Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma both support a coercive response to this crisis. Their support for legislation to eradicate shack settlements is, ultimately, support for the state to send in men with...
Dan Hazen -
New Yorker magazine hit the newsstands with a shocking cover -- a caricature of Barack and Michelle Obama depicting the presidential candidate in a turban, fist-bumping his wife who has a machine gun slung over her shoulder, while the American flag burns in the fireplace. The cover is shocking in that it depicts the Obamas in bizarre, caricatured images and associations that reflect the very stereotypes with which the conservatives, particularly Fox News, have been trying to frame both...
Using dark humour to great effect, this critique of Facebook, produced by Idiotsofants, reveals that the online fad that has become the social phenomenon of the new millennium, offers many risks for unsuspecting members. For a more damning account of the onslaught on personal privacy spearheaded by Facebook, see here.
Editor's Note: This clip has been removed from You Tube due to a copyright claim. We did, however, manage to transcribe the interview before it was removed and it's well worth a read. This rare interview with Nelson Mandela in 1961 shows a young spirited leader, who cuts a different figure to the conciliatory old man we all know and love. The memory of Mandela the freedom fighter is inspirational for the new generation of activists fighting in the struggle against social injustice, which...
