e-News bulletin 4 September 2020

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For the second time under the covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, community care workers in Khayelitsha protested for better conditions of work.
LILITA GCWABE

COVID-19 and Casual Workers

In this feature we look at and discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on casual and part-time workers and what can be done to improve their situation.

                SOUTH AFRICA

#StoptheSale activists celebrate Tafelberg victory

It could be a huge stride against Apartheid spatial planning in Cape Town. The Western Cape High Court set aside the sale of the well located Tafelberg property to a private buyer.
FATIMA MOOSA | THE DAILY VOX

Cape Town activists call for abolishment of City’s law enforcement unit

The activists say that the City’s land policies and spatial development disadvantage anyone who is not white. They also say that the City is victimising homeless people and criminalising their attempts to find land and shelter.
ZUKISWA PIKOLI | DAILY MAVERICK

Want a job at Sean McCarthy Group? Only white people (preferably males) welcome

A Durban-based recruitment agency sent out an email to his three consultants asking for an “ideal candidate youngish white Male or Female (slightly prefer male).” The head of the recruitment agency says he is not racist. How now?
NIREN TOLSI | M&G

Mine bosses profit from ‘vulnerable’ workers

As gold increases in value, the mining sector is about to make a lot more money – but plans to dismiss vulnerable workers.
LEV BLISSETT |  NEW FRAME

Patel hands evidence in lottery probe over to police

The dossier contains evidence of what happened to Lottery funds given to Denzhe Primary Care to build a drug rehabilitation centre near Pretoria. The centre has never been completed and over R20 million is unaccounted for.
RAYMOND JOSEPH | GROUNDUP

               INTERNATIONAL

A Colombian Activist Is Killed Every 20 Hours

A recent increase of violence in Colombia targeting social leaders, peasants, indigenous and Afro Colombians is generated by the illegal armed forces present in their communities.
ALLIANCE FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE

Mexico: First The Poor

A popular nation-wide movement rose against four decades of brutal neo-liberal rule in Mexico, and in 2018, the first anti-neoliberal President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (“AMLO”), won a landslide victory. Considering the political and economic millstones around its neck, the government’s achievements in its first year-and-a-half are striking.
ROGER STOLL | POPULAR RESISTANCE

Pennsylvania Will Rule On Mumia’s Case, After Proceeding In Secret

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has put Mumia Abu-Jamal’s evidentiary hearing on hold.  The case is under seal and is proceeding in secret! This spring Mumia Abu-Jamal was back in court with a chance for freedom! 
NOELLE HANRAHAN | PRISON RADIO

               OPINION

Echoes of the Hani revolt – and the Broederbond – in the current mess within the ANC

Luthuli House, and not the people of South Africa, is in control of the ANC, and that mirrors the situation pre- and post-1948 when the Afrikaner Broederbond was the puppet master behind the National Party and the apartheid regime.
TERRY BELL | DAILY MAVERICK

The U.S. is Determined to Make Julian Assange Pay for Exposing the Cruelty of Its War on Iraq

The war remains alive and well in a courtroom in London; there Julian Assange—who revealed the truth of the killing—will struggle against being one more casualty.
VIJAY PRASHAD | COUNTERPUNCH

Documentary
The War On Journalism: The Case Of Julian Assange

Julian Assange is facing a 175 year sentence if extradited to the United States. The Trump administration has gone from denigrating journalists as ‘enemies of the people’ to now criminalizing common practices in journalism that have long served the public interest.
CONSORTIUM NEWS

               ENVIRONMENT

Big Oil Is in Trouble. Its Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic.

Faced with plunging profits and a climate crisis that threatens fossil fuels, the industry is demanding a trade deal that weakens Kenya’s rules on plastics and on imports of American trash.Hiroko Tabuchi, Michael Corkery and Carlos Mureithi
HIROKO TABUCHI, MICHAEL CORKERY, CARLOS MUREITHI | NY TIMES

Rampant destruction of forests ‘will unleash more pandemics’.

Scientists are to warn world leaders that increasing numbers of deadly new pandemics will afflict the planet if levels of deforestation and biodiversity loss continue at their current catastrophic rates.
ROBIN MCKIE | THE GUARDIAN

               ISRAEL / PALESTINE

Reflecting On 12 Years In Palestine

In Palestine, I have split my time between working on human rights issues for Palestinians and working for the environment. These are not mutually exclusive as there is significant overlap. There are issues of colonizer assaults on the environment and environmental justice.
MAZIN QUMSIYEH | POPULAR RESISTANCE

               NEW TECHNOLOGIES / NEW FORMS OF LABOUR

‘A totally different ballgame’: Inside Uber and Lyft’s fight over gig worker status

Labor activists are targeted in a social media campaign as gig economy companies spend millions to prevent workers from becoming employees.
DARA KERR | CNET

Protesters set up a guillotine outside Jeff Bezos’ mansion and demanded higher wages for Amazon workers after the CEO’s net worth surpassed $200 billion

AARON HOLMES | BUSINESS INSIDER

Facebook’s Ban on Far-Left Pages Is an Extension of Trump Propaganda

Facebook announced a sweep to ban some user groups — and it equated violent white supremacist militias with antiracist organizing.
NATASHA LENNARD | THE INTERCEPT

Inside Amazon’s Secret Program to Spy On Workers’ Private Facebook Groups

The company has a sophisticated and secret program that is surveilling dozens of private Facebook groups set up by workers, internal documents and reports show.

DLAUREN KAORI GURLEY, JOSPEH COX | VICE

               THEORY

Race and class / Reed and reductionism

An interview with Asad Haider, author of “Mistaken Identity; Race and Class in the Age of Trump”. Haider defends the analytic value of the categories of race and racism, while also defending the strategic (and ethical) value of an explicitly anti-racist politics.
AARON AMARAL AND LILIAN CICERCHIA | TEMPEST

Humans aren’t inherently selfish – we’re actually hardwired to work together

Why do present day humans often behave so selfishly and ruthlessly? Perhaps these traits should be seen as the result of environmental and psychological factors.
STEVE TAYLOR | THE CONVERSATION

               ARTS

Obituary: The pointillist detail and zen brush strokes of Jürgen Schadeberg

The legendary photographer, who passed away on Saturday at the age of 89, was not a natural-born homeboy. But his images immortalised some of the most epochal moments of South African modern history, in all its brutality, banality and exuberance.
HAZEL FRIEDMAN | M&G

Dumisa Ntsebeza demonstrates ‘The Art of Being Human’

A film about the human rights lawyer from Cala, free to watch online during the Encounters Documentary Festival, chronicles the deep sense of justice that shaped his life.
NIREN TOLSI | NEW FRAME

Book shines light on Dennis Brutus, one of South Africa’s most underrated poets

Brutus is one of the most underrated poets of South Africa. Tyrone August’s welcome, and overdue, biography – Dennis Brutus, The South African Years – gives readers the most thorough presentation to date on Brutus.
KEITH GOTTSHALK | M&G

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is intended to serve as a channel of special and alternative news, information and knowledge source for all those interested in issues relevant to promoting political, social and economic equality and the eradication of poverty. The articles contained herein are obtained from various electronic media platforms and do not necessarily reflect the views of WWMP.