SOUTH AFRICA

Teargas and handcuffs at Mantashe’s meeting near Xolobeni village

Human rights attorney Richard Spoor was arrested and charged with ‘incitement’ after an altercation with the Mining Minister during the his weekend tour to KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape to address community tensions over several coal and dune mining ventures. businesslive.co.za/

Amadiba Crisis Committee – Statement on Mining Minister’s Xolobeni visit

“Mr Mantashe. If you want to speak to us about mining, you must come without ANC bringing bus-loads of people from outside and without one hundred police with dogs.” facebook.com/amadibacrisiscommittee/

Amnesty International – SAPS must investigate events at Xolobeni without delay

The excessive use of force by the South African Police Service during a peaceful anti-mining protest in Xolobeni, Eastern Cape, yesterday is intolerable and must be investigated immediately – .
aidc.org.za/

Con Court Holds Minister Dlamini Personally Liable For Social Grants Crisis

The Court today ordered that Minister Bathabile Dlamini should pay a portion of the costs of the litigation resulting from last year’s social grants crisis. The Court also called on the NPA to consider whether Minister Dlamini lied under oath and should be prosecuted for perjury. blacksash.org.za/

Whistle-blowers’ courage is undermined by FSCA being let off the hook

The undisputed facts of this case should be of grave concern to all South Africans. Between 2007 and 2013, the Financial Services Board (since replaced by the FSCA), the regulator of the financial services sector, cancelled the registrations of approximately 4,600 “orphan” pension funds that had ceased to have functioning boards of trustees. businesslive.co.za/

Court rules Infinity Media Networks must reinstate employees

The news channel Afro Worldview – previously known as ANN7 – shut down in mid-August after its contract was terminated by pay TV operator MultiChoice. The Labour Court said that owners of the channel must reinstate people that were fired with immediate effect. fin24.com/

Capital Crimes: Illicit financial flows, tax evasion and transfer pricing

Workers On Wednesday 26 September with guests, Zwelinzima Vavi and Dick Forslund, an economist with the Alternative Information and Development Centre.

Colonialism did not end when European administrators and settlers relinquished political control over their assets and granted them independence. Value continues to be extracted from the developing world, particularly the African continent, in the form of profits that are not declared and value that is hidden and smuggled out to a metropole in the global North. wwmp.org.za/

Profitability and Crisis in the South African Economy

REGION

Communist Party of Swaziland: All Power to the teachers, students protesting Mswati’s crisis-ridden rule

Swaziland is in meltdown. It is increasingly clear that the regime cannot hold onto power indefinitely. Its grip is already slipping. More and more workers are ready to act against the autocracy and to make it unworkable. wwmp.org.za/
For the latest from the Communist Party of Swaziland (if that should not be eSwatini) check its Facebook page.

INTERNATIONAL

Destroying Yemen as Humanely as Possible

On September 12, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo certified that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are “undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure” in their war on Houthi rebels in Yemen. This was demonstrable horseshit. counterpunch.org/

Workers reveal poverty wages and labour law violations in H&M’s supply chain

Workers making H&M’s clothes live below the poverty line — despite H&M’s promise of a living wage by 2018, and despite the brand’s recent deceptive claims of progress. Interviewed workers in India and Turkey earn about a third and in Cambodia less than one-half of the estimated living wage. In Bulgaria interviewed workers’ salary at H&M’s “gold supplier” is not even 10% of what would be required for workers and their families to have decent lives. turnaroundhm.org/

ITF and ETF end talks with IKEA citing lack of meaningful action

The ITF and ETF have pulled out of further meetings with IKEA after the company showed little willingness to tackle labour abuses in its supply chain. tfglobal.org/

ISRAEL / PALESTINE

The Sabra and Shatila Massacre: New Evidence

The Institute for Palestine Studies has made public documents from the secret appendix to the report of the Commission of Inquiry, headed by Israeli Supreme Court president Yitzhak Kahan, which was created to investigate the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre. Uncertainty has surrounded the exact nature of the interaction between the Lebanese Forces, which perpetrated the massacre, the Israeli military, which was in control of the camps and introduced the LF into them, and the US government, which provided guarantees for the safety of Palestinian civilians to the PLO as a condition for the evacuation of its forces from Beirut. palestinesquare.com/

‘Israel will erase my community unless the world spells out the cost’ — Khan al-Ahmar leader appeals to Europe

With the UN General Assembly convened in New York this week, one hot issue was the response to Israeli plans to demolish the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank, adjacent to Israeli settlements east of Jerusalem, by October 1. Israel has called on the residents to demolish their houses themselves, and its courts have rejected appeals by the village to stop the demolition. mondoweiss.net/

D.C.-Based Pro-Israel Group Secretly Ran Misleading Facebook Ads to Target Pro-Palestinian Activist

Despite their names, the Facebook campaigns were run by professional Washington D.C. political operatives who work for a group called the Israel on Campus Coalition, according to their promotional materials. propublica.org/

25 Years After the Oslo Accords, Independence Remains More Elusive than Ever for Palestinians

September 13, 2018, marks 25 years since the first of the Oslo Accords was signed by Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn amid great fanfare. Many Palestinians hoped that they would finally be free of Israel’s then-quarter-century-old military rule and have a state of their own. socialistproject.ca/

Now Israel Has a Race Law

Even if it had until the end of time, Israel and the Jewish nation will never be able to compensate the Palestinian nation for all the harm they have done to it. Nothing can be expected from an occupier that calls itself the victim, that blames everyone but itself for every injustice that it does – by Gideon Levy. (freed)haaretz.com

NEW TECHNOLOGIES / NEW FORMS OF LABOUR

Leave no dark corner

China is building a digital dictatorship to exert control over its 1.4 billion citizens. For some, “social credit” will bring privileges — for others, punishment. abc.net.au/

Hotel Workers Fret Over a New Rival: Alexa at the Front Desk

FILM