SOUTH AFRICA

#Budget2019: Out of the Zuma frying pan straight into the privatisation furnace

The break with the Zuma regime is not just in relation to corruption and cronyism, but towards reconciliation with big foreign and domestic capital. aidc.org.za/

SAFTU condemns Mboweni’s bosses’ budget

The South African Federation Trade Unions condemns the budget as a savage attack on the workers and poor and as an attempt to appease international big business and the wealthiest South Africans. saftu.org.za/

The Budget Justice Coalition reaffirms the need for a rights-oriented budget

While we recognise the tight financial spot the Treasury has been painted into by widespread corruption, under-delivering departments and failing SOEs, especially Eskom – we urge government to recall its first duty: to ensure the progressive realisation of people’s Constitutional rights. section27.org.za/

The Black Sash Responds to the 2019 Budget Speech

The Black Sash takes issue with the social support grant increases and petrol price increases, and reminds government of the high unemployment. blacksash.org.za/

Unbundling Eskom is code for privatisation

Unbundling serves a privatisation agenda by making electricity and its provision a commodity rather than a public service and human right. businesslive.co.za/

Stats SA’s confusing mining employment statistics

The Quarterly Labour Force Survey is the most reliable source of employment statistics, but it has a serious flaw: its mining employment data is wrong. It states that the number of mining jobs rose 13% between the first quarters of 2008 and 2018. groundup.org.za/

Open letter to the commission of inquiry on State Capture

The Right2Know campaign calls on the Zondo Commission to investigate evidence and allegations of state capture and associated corruption in South Africa’s broadcasting sector. wwmp.org.za/ [143KB pdf]

Workers in finance department down tools in Pietermaritzburg

Municipal employees say they work in terrible conditions and their office equipment and computers do not function. Pick n Pay becomes their only place to refer people wanting pay their municipal accounts. groundup.org.za/

Inequality caused by Macro-Economic Policies During an Era of Durable Overaccumulation Crisis

A journal article by Patrick Bond and Christopher Malikane on a pivot of Marxian economics and a plague of postapartheid South Africa, the problem of overaccumulated capital. wwmp.org.za/ [801KB pdf]

INTERNATIONAL

Children are so hungry in one British town they are eating from bins

This is the situation being reported by teachers in communities across the UK – children arriving at school so hungry that they are filling their pockets with food, or even scouring bins for scraps. weforum.org/

Strikes close or slow production at dozens of assembly plants and factories as workers demand better salaries. theguardian.com/

The Bangladesh Accord, which was a response to the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013 that claimed more than 1000 lives, is set to be thrown away by the government despite achieving better safety protections for workers in the garment industry. industriall-union.org/

Overlooked No More: Dorothy Bolden, Who Started a Movement for Domestic Workers

An obituary for Dorothy Bolden who adapted the organizing techniques she learned as a civil rights activist to secure protections for domestic workers, a largely unregulated part of the work force. She died in 2005; The New York Times is supplementing its archive. nytimes.com/

VENEZUELA

Inside the neoliberal laboratory preparing for the theft of Venezuela’s economy

US foreign policy mobilizes every available resource for regime change and for counterinsurgency. Among those resources, you will always find academics. The pen may not always be mightier than the sword, but behind every US-backed war on a foreign people there will be a body of scholarly work. podur.org/

Venezuela: What Activists Need To Know About The US-Led Coup

Two things stand out about the US coup in Venezuela. First, it is unusually open. Typically, the US tries to hide its coups. Second, the coup is built on a series of obvious falsehoods. popularresistance.org/

“U.S. Hands off Venezuela!”

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

NEW TECHNOLOGIES / NEW FORMS OF LABOUR

What Happens if Russia Cuts Itself Off from the Internet

The world’s internet infrastructure has no central authority and the Russian state wants to control it, but it’s much more difficult than Vladimir Putin may think. wired.com/

ENVIRONMENT

Renewable Energy under Capitalism: Why It Won’t Happen

Renewable energy is usually agreed to be the way forward. However, we haven’t adopted these sources of energy in any systematic, widespread way. To understand why, we will need to explore the basic foundation of Marxism. hamptoninstitution.org/