SOUTH AFRICA
The recent wave of occupations started in April/May 2017 in Gauteng, in townships south of Johannesburg such as Eldorado Park and Freedom Park, and quickly inspired occupations in surrounding areas. Occupations continue to spread in the Gauteng region, such as in Olivenhoutbosch and other areas in the City of Tshwane. In the Western Cape, occupations are underway in Hermanus, Gugulethu, Philippi, Mfuleni, Delft, Makhaza and Kraaifontein. ilrigsa.org.za/
The South African Human Rights Commission delivered the 2017/2018 equality report on Thursday morning. It says while income inequality marginally decreased by 0.01% in the past four years, the gap in wealth inequality continues to widen in the country.
PwC report that the 342 Chief Executive Officers of the country’s ten biggest JSE-listed companies earned average total remuneration packages of R24.9m a year in 2017. For Chief Finance Officers the figure is R15.1m and for executive directors R8.7m. saftu.org.za/
For a long time South Africa’s level of unemployment has been critical. Unemployment disproportionately affects black people along the Apartheid era racial classification lines. Over the years the government has come up with several economic policies that promised mass job creation but these have all failed – Workers on Wednesday, 18 July, with guests Ivor Baatjes and Nhlanhla Ndlovu. wwmp.org.za/
About 200 former workers for the municipality picketed outside the Civic Centre in Germiston on Thursday morning. They are demanding that Ekurhuleni Municipality make them permanent employees. groundup.org.za
What so often makes a mockery of official unemployment statistics are true life stories of workers who, although officially “employed” earn less than a poverty wage. Or others, who, in what amounts to a massive amount of casualised outsourcing, work on daily “contracts” for sometimes the same employer for years or even decades. terrybellwrites.com/
There seems to be a consensus among labour and business that “we” – meaning the majority of South Africans – are in for a tough time. Even Klaus Schwab, the head honcho of that rich boys’ club, the World Economic Forum, breezed into Johannesburg late last month to note: “The country [South Africa] is not any more considered in the right terms.” fin24.com/
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Every year, hundreds of families are forced out of their homes by government departments, municipalities, private individuals or corporations. Evictions are a common occurrence in South African cities, informal settlements and townships. Tina Schoor, a resident of the Steenvilla social housing complex in Cape Town, gave us this in-depth interview on how evictions have impacted her community. wwmp.org.za/
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INTERNATIONAL
In May, three young progressive women running for the state Legislature in Pennsylvania, each endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, won decisive primary victories over men heavily favored by the political establishment. Two of the women ousted incumbents and are members of an iconic Pennsylvania political family. nytimes.com/
Cuba’s current constitution only recognizes state, cooperative, farmer, personal and joint-venture property. But former President Raul Castro’s market reforms, aimed at boosting the economy and making socialism more sustainable, prompted hundreds of thousands of Cubans to become self-employed since 2010, in new privately-owned businesses ranging from restaurants to beauty salons. telesurtv.net/
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PALESTINE/ISRAEL
The new law defines the country as Jewish homeland, further marginalising 1.8 million Palestinian citizens of Israel. It makes Hebrew the country’s national language and defines the establishment of Jewish communities as being in the national interest. aljazeera.com/
There’s no bigger problem in the United States today than the citizenry’s widespread mis-education into political gullibility, not to say stupidity, and it’s the height of foolishness to think this is only a problem of Republicans and rightists, of those who read Breitbart and not those who read The New Yorker. America is now a ship of fools, with a thousand captains barking fake orders. Reader, beware. counterpunch.org/
Israel’s largest military operation since the aggression of 2014 in the besieged Gaza Strip took the lives of two teenagers, who were killed as they played in a public park in the al-Katiba area of Gaza City, and at least fifteen others were wounded when Israeli warplanes targeted various areas in Gaza. dci.plo.ps
Were it not for the Gaza Strip, the occupation would have been long forgotten. Were it not for the Gaza Strip, Israel would have erased the Palestinian problem from its agenda and continued on blithely with its crimes and annexations, with its routine, as if 4 million people were not living under its heel. peacenow.org/ |
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According to five sources close to the trade talks, the U.S. is near to signing off on a digital trade chapter that would give Internet service providers like Comcast and platforms like Facebook broad immunity from liability if their users post illegal or pirated content. inthesetimes.com/
There’s nothing wrong with madly optimistic appraisals of how technology might benefit human society. But the current drive for a post-human utopia is something else. It’s less a vision for the wholesale migration of humanity to a new a state of being than a quest to transcend all that is human: the body, interdependence, compassion, vulnerability, and complexity. medium.com/
Facebook, Amazon, and Google will resist attempts to restrain their market power. But for the sake of our collective prosperity and our personal privacy, it’s a fight we can’t afford to lose. technologyreview.com/
California is the future of the United States, goes the oft-cited cliché. What the US is doing now, Europe will be doing in five years, goes another. Given those truthy maxims, let’s examine the socioeconomics of the “City by the Bay” as a harbinger of what’s to come. wired.com/
After factoring in people’s quality of life, economic well-being, family structures and employment, economic researchers found that individuals who worked an average of 25 hours per week tended to perform the best. theheartysoul.com/
Life for the medieval peasant was certainly no picnic. His life was shadowed by fear of famine, disease and bursts of warfare. His diet and personal hygiene left much to be desired. But despite his reputation as a miserable wretch, you might envy him one thing: his vacations. businessinsider.com
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Korean Oracle workers have been on strike since May 16, 2018 over health and safety conditions and wages. The average working hours at Oracle Korea is about 80-100 hours per week, yet most workers have seen no wage increase over the last 10 years. These workers are calling on international support in their struggle for justice and human rights. This video was distributed on 8 July 2018.
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It’s fair to say that “Sorry to Bother You” sticks to its own script, but crucial to add that the script in question flips, swerves, meanders and all but explodes in a flurry of ideas and inspirations. If Mike Judge’s “Office Space” and Robert Downey Sr.’s “Putney Swope” hooked up after a night of bingeing on hallucinogens, Marxist theory and the novels of Paul Beatty and Colson Whitehead, the offspring might look something like this. nytimes.com/ |
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Early on the morning of June 14 1985, the South African Defence Force (SADF) launched an attack on the ANC in the sovereign state of Botswana, killing several people. One of the casualties was 37-year-old Harry Thamsanqa “Thami” Mnyele. mg.co.za/ |
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