South Africa
South Africa: The state, xenophobia and nationalism
By Dale T. McKinley
In defence of Naomi Klein's analysis of South Africa
By Patrick Bond
In response to Beware Electocrats: Naomi Klein on South Africa by Ronald Suresh Roberts in Radical Philosophy commentaries, July-August 2008, http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/default.asp?channel_id=2187&editorial_id=26668
Klein’s chapter on South Africa follows this exchange.
Johannesburg Declaration of the African Conference on Participatory Democracy
August 16, 2008
SACP leader Blade Nzimande addresses the conference.
As comrades and compatriots, gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa, August 14-16, 2008, from all parts of the world, at the African Conference on Participatory Democracy, hosted by the South African Communist Party and the Swedish Left Party under the auspices of the International Left Forum declare the following:.
Zimbabwe: A `power-sharing' deal for whom?
By Shawn Hattingh
South Africa's activist social justice research centre under attack
By Dennis Brutus and Patrick Bond
August 6, 2008 -- Durban's University of KwaZulu-Natal vice-chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba is expected to deliver an edict that the Centre for Civil Society will close on December 31. The reason given by dean Donal McCracken to a sceptical School of Development Studies (where the centre is housed) is that staff do not have "permanent" funding. But neither do most of the university's research units, and there is money in centre reserves for at least a couple of years, plus ongoing donor support for many of our projects.
Hence this "execution" will be doggedly resisted because UKZN still has many staff and students who remember the struggle for non-racial democracy and don't mind speaking out to challenge misguided decisions.
As the two most senior academics in the centre, holding an honorary professorship and tenured research chair, respectively, we will resist, despite what a UKZN internal report recorded -- an environment of "intimidation and bullying", in which management "deploys power rather than intellect", as Rhodes professor Jimi Adesina put it.
| Photographs by Oliver Meth, from the exhibition 'Breathing Spaces |  |
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Breathing Spaces exhibition can be viewed at UKZN Centre for Civil Society from 1 August - 3 September 2008.
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Southern African People's Solidarity Network's SADC Peoples' Summit 2008, Joburg, August 14-17, 2008
Announcing….
The SADC Peoples' Summit 2008
As the SADC Heads of State will be meeting in Johannesburg, South
Africa in 2008, the ordinary peoples of Southern Africa will also
converge in Johannesburg, South Africa from the 14th – 17th of August
2008 under the auspices of the Southern Africa Peoples' Solidarity
Network (SAPSN) to reclaim SADC for peoples' development and
solidarity.
The Peoples' Summit serves as a social movement planting and
strengthening forum in the SADC region. Alternative Information
Development Centre (AIDC), Economic Justice Network (EJN) and the
SAPSN Secretariat will co-host the Summit. The 2008 Summit will be
held under the theme ''Reclaiming SADC for People's Development in the
Southern Africa Through People to People Solidarity".
The following issues will be the main focus areas for the 2008 Summit:
South Africa: Treatment Action Campaign 10th Anniversary Conference, Cape Town, December 8-9, 2008
Treatment Action Campaign 10th Anniversary Conference and Edited Volume Cape Town, 8-9 December 2008 [provisional dates]
The xenophobia outbreak in South Africa: Strategic questions facing the new social movements
June 2008 – The township of Alexandra outside Johannesburg, South Africa, has a long history of resistance to oppression and exploitation.
African Participatory Democracy Conference, Soweto, South Africa, August 14-16, 2008
AFRICAN PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY CONFERENCE
14-16 August 2008, Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa
See http://www.sacp.org.za/ for updates in due course.
1. Conference Details
1.1 Open invitation
1.2 Draft Conference Programme (see SACP web site)
1.3 Conference Themes
1.4 List of Speakers
1.5 List of participants
1.6 Media Accreditation
2. Registration details
2.1 Registration Form
2.2 Registration Fees
3. Call for papers
3.1 Conference Themes
3.2 Submission guidelines
4. Important dates (table omitted)
5. Conference Tour for Guests/Participants
6. Conference Invitation
6.1 Invitation to Exhibit company or organisational materials
7. Conference Gala Dinner
7.1 Invitation to Gala dinner
7.2 List of table hosts and guests
8. PLEDGES AND DONATIONS
1. CONFERENCE DETAILS
1.1 OPEN INVITATION
To: All Interested Organisations in Africa
INVITATION TO THE AFRICAN PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY CONFERENCE, 14-16
Dennis Brutus, veteran anti-apartheid campaigner, describes how US, British and other major multinational corporations colluded with the racist regime of apartheid South Africa. Brutus is attempting to win reparations for superprofits made through the exploitation and repression of black South African workers. For further background to this, go to ``Can reparations for apartheid profits be won in US courts?''.
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Friday, July 11th, 2008
SOUTH AFRICAN POET DENNIS BRUTUS ON STEAL THIS RADIO!
Can reparations for apartheid profits be won in US courts?
By Patrick Bond
Dennis Brutus
Durban, July 6, 2008 -- A telling remark about US imperialism's double standards was uttered by Clinton-era deputy treasury secretary Stuart Eizenstat, who a decade ago was the driver of reparations claims against pro-Nazi corporations, assisting plaintiffs to gain $8 billion from European banks and corporations which ripped off Holocaust victims' funds or which were 1930s beneficiaries of slave labour (both Jewish and non-Jewish).
But how about reparations for corporate profits made under South Africa's racist apartheid system? As a November 2002 keynote speaker for the “USA Engage” lobby of 650 multinational corporations organised to fight the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), Eizenstat warned that South African reparations activists “can galvanise public opinion and generate political support,” and “may achieve some success despite legal infirmities''.