Open letter from SAFTU to the SACP on invitation

As the second largest and fastest growing trade union federation in the country, and one with an unambiguous socialist orientation, it would be entirely proper for a Communist Party to invite SAFTU to its Congress. However we are unable to accept your invitation for a number of reasons including the following:

Firstly, it would appear that the SACP leadership has been unable to seriously reflect on the consequences of their decision to actively support the destruction of the unity of the trade union movement. saftu.org.za/

SAFTU dips its banners in honour of Emma Mashinini

The South African Federation of Trade Unions mourns the passing of Emma Mashinini, one of the greatest heroines of the struggle for workers and national liberation. saftu.org.za/

Defend US farmworkers’ right to organize!

Following a series of recent farmworker wins in the Southern United States, farmers elected to the North Carolina State Legislature are trying to use their legislative power to stop workers on their own farms from organizing for better wages and working conditions. iufcampaigns.org/

Modern Slavery ‘Alive and Kicking’ in Merseyside According to Union

Seafarers onboard a flag of convenience ship detained in the UK port of Runcorn have been suffering atrocious conditions in British waters, being paid wages as low as US$0.85 an hour. They were also found to be owed almost US$43,000 in back pay following checks by a maritime union inspector. hellenicshippingnews.com/

Why is Africa so poor? You asked Google – here’s the answer

Why is it that arguably the world’s richest continent – in terms of natural resources – has some of the world’s poorest people? To answer it, we’d need to take a trip down memory lane. theguardian.com/

The Qatar crisis has nothing to do with Al Jazeera and everything to do with the war in Syria

Robert Fisk on taming the one Gulf nation which has the potential to outshine the Saudi kingdom and dictate the outcome of the Syria war. independent.co.uk/

Why grassroots activists should resist being ‘professionalised’ into an NGO

Activists from the global south hear, far too often, from our donors that we should “learn how to become professional” and “make NGO management efficient”. Let’s decode what that means. theguardian.com/

PALESTINE

Palestine Remains ‘the Greatest Moral Issue of Our Time’ – John Pilger

When I first went to Palestine as a young reporter in the 1960s, I stayed on a kibbutz. The people I met were hard-working, spirited and called themselves socialists. I liked them.

One evening at dinner, I asked about the silhouettes of people in the far distance, beyond our perimeter.

“Arabs,” they said, “nomads.” truthdig.com/

Education Technology, Surveillance, and America’s Authoritarian Democracy

“The NSA has nothing on the monitoring tools that education technologists have developed to ‘personalize’ and ‘adapt’ learning for students in public school districts across the United States.” dissidentvoice.org/

(Re)producing inequality: production and consumption under the imperial mode of living

There is a strong similarity between the social and the ecological issues in capitalism. Both nature and the worker are affected by the expansionary tendencies of capitalist production and valorisation. Consequently, it is in the interests of both workers and environmental protection to contain or overcome those tendencies.

This is, however, only one side of the coin. The other is a more contradictory relation between labour and the environment, particularly regarding the early industrialising countries: the very reproduction of the working class as part of the capitalist societies of the Global North is based on socio-environmental destruction. global-labour-university.org/