SOUTH AFRICA

When losing your job means losing your home

Former farm worker battles to keep house on Ceres farm but farmer says there is a shortage of homes for current workers. groundup.org.za/

[BOOK] Towards a new vision for post-school learning in South Africa

In the context of deepening inequality, poverty and unemployment, the need for a humanising, liberating and critical approach to learning and pedagogy in post-school education is becoming urgent. The rural and urban voices that speak in this book tell us that the current system is out of touch with the ways in which they are making a life. hsrcpress.ac.za/

Saftu Has Donned The Militant Mantle That Was Once Cosatu’s

The South African Federation of Trade Unions last week successfully threw down the gauntlet to the three established labour federations in South Africa. The turnouts in major centres around the country for the protest strike called on 25 April revealed clearly that Saftu has substantial support. huffingtonpost.co.za/

INTERNATIONAL

Iran Sanctions, Imperial problems

Trump’s anti-Iran move on Tuesday was deeply worrying for those European allies of the US that were hoping to build on the big expansion of trade with and investment in Iran after the July 2015 nuclear deal was signed. With nationalism and protectionism, Donald Trump is gradually eliminating the world order shaped by the USA. economicsofimperialism.blogspot.co.za/

[VIDEO] John Pilger special – Beyond the headlines on Syria, Salisbury, Yemen & North Korea

We speak to the legendary journalist and filmmaker John Pilger about the events behind the mainstream media headlines on Syria, Salisbury, Yemen and the Korean peninsula. rt.com/

Cameroon military court orders radio journalist to be held for at least 6 months

Police on March 20 arrested the journalist while he filmed police allegedly harassing taxi drivers and commuters in Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest region. cpj.org/

The 1% grabbed 82% of all wealth created in 2017

That’s according to a new report from Oxfam International, which estimates that the bottom 50% of the world’s population saw no increase in wealth. Oxfam says the trend shows that the global economy is skewed in favor of the rich, rewarding wealth instead of work. money.cnn.com/

Resist-Occupy-Produce: What can Anarchists and Syndicalists Learn from Factory Take-Overs and Worker Cooperatives in Argentina?

The remarkable “recovered factories” movement saw hundreds of closed factories reopened by the workers, run democratically, creating jobs and helping working class and poor communities. It showed that there is only so much protesting can accomplish – at some point you have to create something new. anarkismo.net/

PALESTINE

Israel Banishes a Columbia Law Professor for Thinking Differently

This is a column about Israel’s appalling treatment of a Columbia University professor, Katherine Franke, detained for 14 hours at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and then deported. nytimes.com/

NEW TECHNOLOGIES / NEW FORMS OF LABOUR

Organizing the tech sector

The gap between tech theory and tech practice has grown increasingly difficult to ignore. Even the tech press — Wired and its ilk — has lost faith. Many now know the tech elite as a hive of misogynists and sociopaths, and their companies to be indiscriminate vacuums of sensitive personal data that they package and sell to the nation’s intelligence agencies. nplusonemag.com/

The internet is designed for corporations, not people

The author argues that the Internet is designed in its very architecture to be hostile to the people who use it. Sites like Facebook supposedly protect user privacy with a practice called “notice and consent.” The problem is that these policies are nearly impossible to understand. theconversation.com/

Gig economy faces shakeup after California high court ruling

BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF MARX

Karl Marx 200th anniversary: The world is finally ready for Marxism as capitalism reaches the tipping point

Towards a Marxian Theory of Communication

Marx’s economic theory grounds a communicative materialism that helps us to understand the role of the means of communication and communicative labour in capitalism. triple-c.at/