OL web-02-01

"It is certainly not our task to build up the future in advance and to settle all problems for all time, but it is just as certainly our task to criticise the existing world ruthlessly. I mean ruthlessly in the sense that we must not be afraid of our own conclusions and equally unafraid of coming into conflict with the prevailing powers."
Karl Marx, 1844

ARTICLES

This Buttons display articles based on year published.

8 April 2021

‘CONTEXT MATTERS’ – SMOKES AND MIRRORS IN THE DEFENCE OF HABIB

In a predictable turn of events, after the initial ‘shock’ of Adam Habib’s suspension as Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, the South African elite establishment is putting out a stream of defences for Prof Habib and demanding his reinstatement. … Read more.

 
27 March 2021

THE FRUITS OF ARROGANCE AND NEOLIBERALISM

While the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) was calling the police to come silence students whose only demand was free education, another ex-VC of Wits threw a political grenade coated with racism in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in Britain. …Read more.

 
27 February 2021

ADVICE CENTRES ON THE MOVE AGAIN

Labour and community advice centres have a long history of being centres of resistance in the struggle against apartheid and capitalism. … Read more.

14 February 2021

SECOND WAVE EXPOSED GOVERNMENT NEGLECT

After a three-month decline in infections and deaths due to COVID-19 between September and early November 2020, a second wave of rising infections and deaths began from mid-November 2020. …Read more.

30 November 2020

NEW PATHS FOR THE JOZI BOOK FAIR IN 2020

The 2020 edition of the Jozi Book Fair (JBF) with the theme “Literature in the Time of COVID-19” came to a close on 29 November 2020 after being on the road for the best part of three months. …Read more.

 
10 July 2020

INTERVIEW: SPECIAL COVID 19 BUDGET RECEIVES CRITICISM

We’re going to be talking about the budget speech that the minister had pronounced on yesterday, despite identifying debt as a weakness and it eating away at the inheritance of South Africa’s children. … Read more.

 
14 May 2020

INTERVIEW: CONTESTING THE POST- COVID-19 ECONOMY

We can’t help but wonder what needs to be done to have the economy turned around after this lockdown period and taking into consideration South Africa’s economy being downgraded to junk status…Read more.

 
1 May 2020

INTERVIEW: COVID-19 AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SOUTH AFRICA

While there is a broad merging consensus around the needs of the city practical health related measures that need to be taken to contain the pandemic. There is serious and growing divergence around the political, social and economic framing, application content and impact of those and related measures. …Read more.

 
1 April 2021

THE PRESIDENT, THE FINANCE MINISTER, AND THE ECONOMISTS

On 30 March about 76 economists and 29 other academics and experts in various fields of study published an Open Letter to President Ramaphosa on the COVID-19 crisis. …Read more.

 
24 March 2020

GOVERNMENT PROTECTS PRIVATE HOSPITAL PROFITS AS COVID-19 RAGES

Early on a rainy Sunday morning (22 March 2020) Community Health Workers waited for busses to take them to training on Covid-19 from various pick-up points around Gauteng. …Read more.

 
21 March 2020

WORSHIPPING THE MARKETS WHILE SOUTH AFRICA BURNS

On Sunday 15 March, after a wait of two hours, the nation finally got to hear what the government was going to do to combat a pandemic that had swept across the entire globe. … Read more.

24 April 2018

INTERVIEW: GOVERNMENT SETS TRILLION RAND INVESTMENT TARGET

President Cyril Ramaphosa hopes to raise over a trillion rand new in investment over the next five years to boost the economy. …Read more.

 
31 January 2018

STEINHOFF BEATS THE GUPTAS IN THE CORRUPTION RACE

​The year 2017 was a year in which white big business laid its claim to leadership, this time of corruption in South Africa. …Read more.

 
31 January 2018

ZUMA CAPITULATES AND APPOINTS STATE CAPTURE COMMISSION

On the evening of 9 January 2018 President Jacob Zuma finally gave in to pressure to appoint a Judicial Commission of Enquiry into State Capture. …Read more.

 
31 January 2018

AFTER THE NASREC CAPITULATION, WHERE IS THE ANC GOING?

Since coming to power in 1994 the African National Congress (ANC) has been caught between the aspirations of the majority and the reality of power in a global capitalist world. …Read more.

31 January 2018

BRAZIL AWASH WITH CORRUPTION

On 24 January 2018 the court of appeal in Brazil confirmed a 10-year sentence handed down to former Brazil president Lula da Silva in July 2017. …Read more.

31 January 2018

SLUMLORDS, HIGHJACKERS OR  GENTRIFICATION?

Over the last few years there has been a growing problem of “highjacked” buildings in the inner-city of Johannesburg. …Read more.

9 October 2017

THE RETURN OF THE WORKING CLASS

The British general election of 8 June 2017 is probably the most important event of 2017. In the general elections of 8 June, the Labour Party of Britain, led by Jeremy Corbyn, almost won the general elections. …Read more.

 
14 April 2017

RATING AGENCIES – THE EYES AND EARS OF THE RICH

Over the past two weeks South Africa has been gripped by fear of “Junk Status”. On Friday, 31 March President Zuma dismissed Pravin Gordhan as Minister of Finance, and appointed Malusi Gigaba in his place. …Read more.

5 April 2004

DEBATING THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM-MUMBAI AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN SOUTH AFRICA

The year 2004 has up to now (April 2004) been marked by three key developments of significance for the social justice movement in South Africa. The first two of these developments are also of particular significance for the global justice movement. The first important development was the move of the World Social Forum to Mumbai, in India. ..Read more.

5 April 2004

MUMBAI RESISTANCE 2004: TOWARDS A NEW INTERNATIONAL?

Oupa Lehulere* takes a critical look at Mumbai Resistance 2004, and argues that it fails to contribute to the debate on building an international anti- globalisation movement. Since its first meeting in Porto Alegre a few years ago the World Social Forum (WSF) has generated a lot of debate. By the end of its second meeting in 2002, left militants began to advance many criticisms of the WSF. … Read more..

5 April 2004

THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM IN MUMBAI: A FESTIVAL OF THE MASSES

Mondli Hlatshwayo and Oupa Lehulere reflect on the WSF in Mumbai, and argue that Mumbai marks an important step in the international regroupment of left forces. The World Social Forum (WSF) was held between 16 and 21 of January 2004 in Mumbai, in the Indian state of Maharastra. … Read more.

4 June 2003

BUILDING BLOCS TOWARDS REGIONAL SOLIDARITY

Every July Khanya College hosts a Winter School for activists in the social movements and other mass organisations. The Winter School was launched in 1999 and represents an important aspect of Khanya’s response to the changing political and economic environment within which social movements, community based organisations, trade unions and non-governmental organisations have to work. … Read more..

14 February 1998

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

As the papers reported the break-up of FW de Klerk’s marriage of 39 years on Valentine’s Day as a result of a new love, on the political field an old love that had fallen on the rocks was being rekindled. After close to twenty years following a violent break-up, the ANC and the IFP are again engaged in a mating dance. Like De Klerk, it would appear that much as the ANC and the IFP try to deny their love, the flame refuses to die. Even Jeremy Cronin, in an intervention in a weekend newspaper, could not but admit that with a love-affair of this intensity, well, “…who knows”.Read more.

"Ideas that enter the mind under fire remain there securely and forever." -Leon Trotsky

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