Five years after the Marikana massacre, many of those legally and morally answerable remain unscathed. No police officers or commanders have been held criminally responsible. Lonmin, the platinum-producing multinational that refused to negotiate a peaceful end to the 2012 strike, still operates on the platinum belt and indeed recently secured a renewed 20-year license from the government. lareviewofbooks.org/
While interrogating the former Lonmin chief operating officer, Mahomed Ismail Seedat, at the Farlam Commission on the company’s failure to honour its obligation to build 5,500 houses for workers, Lonmin’s financials came under scrutiny. In particular the Commission was interested in the high number of financial transfers to subsidiaries abroad. Posted on facebook group Justice Now for Marikana Miners
To this day, the living conditions in Marikana have not improved. The majority of Lonmin’s workers continue to be housed in shacks of corrugated iron built in tight clusters with limited access to piped water, poor or no sanitation facilities, inadequate refuse removal and illegal electricity connections.Justice Now for Marikana Miners
To fully understand Marikana the event, one has to understand Marikana the location, and hence realities and conditions on the ground. Such an analysis is useful because it sheds light on the space of social reproduction and allows us to look at the position of women who are usually ignored when talking about the mines. aidc.org.za/
On 22 June, domestic worker Tamara Marman was allegedly assaulted and kept hostage for six hours by her employers in the Cape Town city centre, after they accused her of stealing 100 US dollars from their cupboard. groundup.org.za/
Although SA’s digital migration project has started, the process has been bogged down by legal battles over the standards of set-top boxes, bribery and corruption allegations relating to the procurement process of government-subsidised decoders, as well as party politics over the amendments to the African National Congress broadcasting digital migration policy. itweb.co.za/
Local news from Khayelitsha, East London, Port Elizabeth, Alexandra and Orange Farm in isiXhosa and English
The crisis in Venezuela could prompt a US military response, President Donald Trump has told reporters. The Pentagon, however, has reportedly not been directed on any such plans. rt.com/
If you want to tackle inequality, the first thing you should do is join a union – a report puts the premium on wages for private sector union workers at 20%. theguardian.com/
It’s ten years on to the day since the global financial crash began with the news that the French bank, BNP had suspended its sub-prime mortgage funds because of “an evaporation of liquidity”. thenextrecession.wordpress.com/
The elite pretends it saved us from ruin. But while the rest of us endure austerity, the economic and business model that created the crash remains intact. theguardian.com/
The Teamsters successfully lobbied to exclude vehicles over 10,000 pounds. Yet the technology is rapidly advancing. Daimler was testing a self-driving rig in 2015. Last year, Otto, a start-up now owned by Uber, made one of the first known deliveries by an autonomous truck — 50,000 cans of beer. This week, Reuters reported that Tesla was developing an electric, driverless semi-truck. nytimes.com/
A Wisconsin company is offering its workers the chance to toss their employee ID card and chuck all their passwords. In exchange, each employee will insert a tiny microchip: Under their skin. cnbc.com/
Leon Trotsky’s The History of the Russian Revolution analyses the build-up to and happenings of both the February 1917 and October 1917 revolutions, a critical insight into the overthrow of the bourgeois state and the establishment of a workers’ alternative. aidc.org.za/
Some might remember that Eastern bloc women enjoyed many rights and privileges unknown in liberal democracies at the time. There’s one advantage that has received little attention: Women under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure. nytimes.com/
To be sure, the whole of Western culture is complicit, but what astounds is the complicity of what defines itself as left. Notably, the complicity of those among the left’s comfortable and intellectual “tendencies,” usually called “liberals.” But in general, a whole language has vanished from the Western left’s vocabulary: class struggle, international solidarity, peace among peoples, social justice, exploitation, poverty. counterpunch.org/
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Five years after the Marikana massacre, many of those legally and morally answerable remain unscathed. No police officers or commanders have been held criminally responsible. Lonmin, the platinum-producing multinational that refused to negotiate a peaceful end to the 2012 strike, still operates on the platinum belt and indeed recently secured a renewed 20-year license from the government. 
To this day, the living conditions in Marikana have not improved. The majority of Lonmin’s workers continue to be housed in shacks of corrugated iron built in tight clusters with limited access to piped water, poor or no sanitation facilities, inadequate refuse removal and illegal electricity connections.
The crisis in Venezuela could prompt a US military response, President Donald Trump has told reporters. The Pentagon, however, has reportedly not been directed on any such plans. 
If you want to tackle inequality, the first thing you should do is join a union – a report puts the premium on wages for private sector union workers at 20%. 
The Teamsters successfully lobbied to exclude vehicles over 10,000 pounds. Yet the technology is rapidly advancing. Daimler was testing a self-driving rig in 2015. Last year, Otto, a start-up now owned by Uber, made one of the first known deliveries by an autonomous truck — 50,000 cans of beer. This week, Reuters reported that Tesla was developing an electric, driverless semi-truck. 
Leon Trotsky’s The History of the Russian Revolution analyses the build-up to and happenings of both the February 1917 and October 1917 revolutions, a critical insight into the overthrow of the bourgeois state and the establishment of a workers’ alternative. 
Some might remember that Eastern bloc women enjoyed many rights and privileges unknown in liberal democracies at the time. There’s one advantage that has received little attention: Women under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure. 
