Contrary to Authority

Tariffs and Treachery

2008-05-21T10:04:00.001+02:00

Editorial on SA Energy News: Tariffs and Treachery

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) will hold a public hearing on Friday (23/05/08) on the proposed Eskom tariff increases. The SECCP will be there, as will 200 community members from Soweto and Soshanguve, demonstrating against Eskom’s unwise, ill-timed and anti-poor price increases.

This Special Edition of SENSE carries our submission to NERSA instead of the usual press reports.

The case against Eksom’s proposed tariff increases has a few key components: First, the tariff increases do not adequately protect poor consumers and will bring new hardships to communities already struggling for mere survival. This could be avoided through the implementation of a step-block tariff and an increase of the Free Basic Allocation to 100kWh per person per month.

The second main reason to reject Eskom’s tariff increases is the unwise financial planning that structures the increases. By committing itself to a new build programme of coal and uranium power sources, Eskom is effectively locking the entire country into a fossil fuel economy for the next fifty years. Within ten to fifteen years, the costs of solar and wind generation per kWh produced will be below that of coal and uranium, mostly due to the long-term rise of coal, uranium, gas and petroleum stocks. As previous editions of SENSE have pointed out, these fossil fuel commodities are finite, dwindling, and increasingly in demand. An economic genius one needs not be to understand the long-term price implications.

The third reason is that Eskom has failed to show any meaningful commitment to cost-cutting measures; the ten million rands in bonuses to top management (who have managed to get coal stockpiles horribly mixed up, invested money in financial instruments instead of maintenance, and have cost the country billions through some bizarrely-timed blackouts) would be a great place to start.

The final reason is that the Developmental Electricity Pricing Programme (DEPP) and the related Alcan contract remain on the books. It is economically unsound, socially evil, and environmentally ill-conceived to provide power subsidies to a foreign corporation with minimal job creation while raising prices on the rest of South African society. In effect, why should South African citizens and small businesses have major price increases while foreign corporations are guaranteed profits through artificially low prices?

Speaking of the DEPP, SENSE must make mention of a recent agreement between Rio Tinto Alcan and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), the Zwartkops Trust, the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) and the Wilderness Foundation. Apparently, these so-called environmental organisations have agreed to welcome in and work with a corporation that was forced out of India by activists, and has laid economic ruin upon the Canadian town of Kitimat. In the name of environmental and social justice, these organisations are willing to essentially build a new coal-fired power plant to service Alcan’s proposed smelter. In the name of combating global warming—a hotter and drier Africa will negatively affect the critters these organisations are committed to saving—they are willing to increase South Africa’s CO2 emissions. Oh thank you, you fine environmental organisations. Thank you for listening to local environmental activists like the Nelson Mandela Bay Local Environmentalists (NiMBLE), who have been campaigning against Alcan for over a year.

Further, EWT, the Zwartkops Trust, WESSA, and the Wilderness Foundation have accepted Alcan and the Government’s penchant for secrecy surrounding aluminium smelting. Article 10 of the MOU signed between these organisations and Rio Tinto Alcan states, “…members are expected to refrain from public comment regarding internal debate and deliberations of the NMBCAEA [Nelson Mandela Bay Coega Aluminium Environmental Alliance]…”

That’s it for now. I have to attend to my sore and bleeding back….

Tristen Taylor
Editor
SECCP

Read the rest (pdf) here.

March against xenophobia and hate

2008-05-21T10:01:00.000+02:00

Social Movements Indaba
March against xenophobia and hate
21 May 2008

The SMI is mobilising social movements, immigrant communities, NGOs, unions, concerned residents from poor areas around the province for a march this Saturday, 24th of May. The march will gather at Marks Park (Empire and Hospital Road) from 9a.m., proceed through Hillbrow and stop at the Departments of Home Affairs and Housing before ending at the Library Gardens. The message marchers will be conveying is that our struggle is common and knows no borders. Everyone who wants to make their voices heard should join us – our struggle knows no borders.

The Social Movements Indaba (SMI) – a co-ordinating national body of social movements, civil society and activist organisations – is organising with its affiliated organisations and immigrant communities to roll back the groundswell of xenophobia. In the years since its formation in 2002, the SMI has linked organisations of the poor in struggle for basic services, international solidarity and against police repression. At its last national meeting in December in Cape Town, the SMI identified xenophobia as a pervasive problem in communities and undertook to campaign against hatred of foreigners. Now that the crisis of hate crime is no longer foreboding and is terrifyingly HERE, there is no time to stall and wish we were better prepared. We are without hesitation committed to the struggles for social justice, internationalism and solidarity with all repressed people.

While the police have been deployed to try keep a lid on the pressure that has boiled over, this is no solution to the safety and security of all. As a xenophobic force in Johannesburg pre-existing the outbreak of violence, the police cannot be trusted to be more than the brute barrier between perpetrators and their targeted victims. The South African Police Services and Johannesburg Metro Police harass immigrants to solicit bribes as a matter of practice. Calling on the police to 'do their work' as president Thabo Mbeki and his government have done does not, therefore, address the issues of safety and security amongst immigrant communities. The refugee communities do not trust the police as impartial arbiters of the conflict. The police conducted a brutal raid on the Central Methodist Church on the 31st of January 2008 under the pretext of crime prevention. Criminalisation of immigrants is a smokescreen for deportation and bribery that the police has not cleared.

Long-lasting safety and security for all does not include deportation of foreign nationals, whether voluntary or not. Xenophobia's origins lie within the conditions of poverty in which the majority of South Africans live. Immigrants have been targeted for their ethnic difference and for their very similarity with their persecutors. Seen as competitors for scarce jobs and housing, south Africans have misdirected their anger at conditions of poverty that are unchanging. Their fellow brothers and sisters who are enduring the same cannot be responsible for what the economic and political system has created.

While we struggle for a change to the neo-liberal capitalist system that has created this reality, rearguard struggles for safety and security of immigrants in the country must continue. The SMI gives thanks for those humanitarian organisations, emergency services and churches that are trying to stem the tide of bloodletting and forced removals. We will organize against the creation of refugee camps and work towards the reintegration of immigrants in our communities. In working to recover our common humanity and restore calm, delegations from the SMI are meeting with community-based organisations in Alex and the inner city, and as the programme of action to roll-back the hate unfolds, the SMI will be going further afield to speak to affected communities.

— No one is illegal —

The SMI will be convening a press conference about the wave of xenophobic violence tearing through Gauteng and what civil society organisations and social movements are doing to combat it. The press conference will be taking place tomorrow, Wednesday 21 May 2008 - APF offices - 7th floor of Vogas House, 123 Pritchard Street (cnr Mooi) Johannesburg at 11a.m.

For directions or other enquiries, please contact the Anti Privatisation Forum on 011 333 8334.

For comment, please contact: Silumko Radebe (APF) 0721737268; Mhlobo Gunguluzi (Khanya College) 0843773013; Brian Burayai (Refugee Fellowship) 0732865667

------------------------------

The Social Movements Indaba includes amongst other organisations: the Anti Privatisation Forum, Jubilee South Africa, Imbawula Trust, Sounds of Edutainment, Umzabalazo we Jubilee, Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, Inner City Resource Centre, Kliptown Concerned Residents, Khanya College, Earthlife Africa (Johannesburg), Palestinian Solidarity Committee, Golden Triangle Crisis Committee, Samancor Retrenched Workers Crisis Committee, African Renaissance Civic Movement, Group of Refugees Without Voice

Zabalaza

2008-05-06T10:33:00.002+02:00

Some interesting posts online from Jonathon and the crew at Zabalaza (the self-declared home of Southern African Anarchism).

For everyone outside of the South African left, try this.

For those in the SA left, there's been a tit for tat exchange between Zabalaza and Trevor Ngwane.

End of Prepaid Water Meters: VICTORY!

2008-05-05T15:21:00.000+02:00

COALITION AGAINST WATER PRIVATISATION
PRESS RELEASE

Wednesday 30th April 2008

Johannesburg High Court declares prepaid water meters unlawful & unconstitutional

Court finds enforced choice between pre-paid meter and standpipe to be unlawful and unconstitutional and orders City of Johannesburg to provide full range of water delivery service options

Limitation of free basic water allocation of 6kl per household, per month is set aside & City of Johannesburg ordered to provide 50 litres per person, per day.

JOHANNESBURG, 30 April 2008 — In a historic and ground-breaking judgement, the Johannesburg High Court today declared that the City of Johannesburg’s forcible installation of prepaid water meters in Phiri (Soweto) is both unlawful and unconstitutional. Judge Tsoka further ordered that the limitation of free basic water to the present 6 kilolitres per household per month, be set aside and that the City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Water must supply Phiri residents with 50 litres per person per day. Furthermore, the court declared that the choice given to residents of either a prepaid meter or a standpipe for water provision in Phiri is also unlawful and directed the City to provide residents of Phiri the option of an ordinary credit metered water supply. Judge M.P. Tsoka also determined that the City should bear all the legal costs of the applicants since 2006.

As jubilation at the judgement ripples across Phiri and the rest of Soweto, the City will be sitting shell-shocked. Johannesburg Water's Operation Gcin'amanzi cannot continue in its present form and an entirely new system for water provision has to now replace it. The pitiless pre-paid meters have finally been consigned to the dustbin they deserve. If the City had followed the writ of the law in implementing their water services, consulting with the community and listening to the voices of protest, they would not be sitting with egg on their faces and a R320-million loan for pre-paid meters they now can't install. The City chose rather to deploy the Red Ants, private security companies and police in Phiri at the onset of Operation Gcina'manzi in August 2003 to protect their misshapen project. The fact that Phiri residents were gagged in their own homes as work proceeded against their wishes, enduring arrest and detention, has redounded to the City's loss. What needless waste! This crisis is one of their own making.

The Coalition Against Water Privatisation would like to extend its heartfelt thanks and congratulation to our advocate in the case, Wim Trengove, and to all the attorneys and paralegals at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at Wits University who pulled together the legal arguments that proved so persuasive. When government implements by managerialist command and disregards the interests of the people it is meant to serve, the Bill of Rights can mean little more than the paper it is written on. Thank you to the Coalition's legal team for helping to make the Constitution real again.

As CALS stated in an earlier press release, this is the first time, ‘in which the constitutional right to water has explicitly been raised’ and the judgement itself provided meaningful and clear reasons for the orders issued. Judge MP Toska ‘criticised the municipality for its discriminatory approach to the provision of water’, finding that: “the underlying basis for the introduction of prepayment meters seems to me to be credit control. If this is true, I am unable to understand why this credit control measure is only suitable in the historically poor black areas and not the historically rich white areas. Bad payers cannot be described in terms of colour or geographical area”. The Judge went on to say that, “25 litres per person day is insufficient for the residents of Phiri …to expect the applicants to restrict their water usage, to compromise their health, by limiting the number of toilet flushes in order to save water is to deny them the rights to health and to lead a dignified lifestyle.” The Judge further found that the consultation leading up to the adoption of pre-paid meters was inadequate, stating that the process was “more of a publicity stunt than consultation”. He also criticised the City’s “big brother approach” to the residents of Phiri.

The greatest credit for this extraordinary legal victory must go to the residents of Phiri that resisted the installation of the pre-paid meters, and to all the other residents of poor communities, both in Johannesburg and across the country, who have been fighting for accessible, affordable and sufficient water provision/delivery . The Coalition Against Water Privatisation formed around the water crisis in Phiri and the struggle was given life by Phiri's strength.

While the Coalition knows that this judgement will most probably be appealed by the City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Water all the way to the Constitutional Court, this does not detract from the political and social significance of this victory. We are confident that this judgement will be upheld and that water provision will now no longer be delivered in a discriminatory, patronising and inhumane manner. The fact is that water service delivery, not only in Johannesburg but across the entirety of South Africa, can never be the same.

WATER IS LIFE

Press Release: Resistance Against Unfair Tariff Hikes Grows

2008-04-24T11:53:00.001+02:00

I'll post some pictures soon (I hope).

Press Release: Resistance Against Unfair Tariff Hikes Grows
Earthlife Africa Jhb, Anti-Privitisation Forum
21st of April 2008

On the 23rd of April 2008, approximately 2,000 members of the Anti-Privitisation Forum (APF), Earthlife Africa Jhb (ELA Jhb), the Landless People's Movement and The Greenhouse will be hitting the streets in Johannesburg to protest against Eskom’s proposed and unjust tariff hikes.

The march will begin at Library Gardens at 10am, moving to City Power (Jorrisen Street) and then to Eskom (Smit Street). In addition to this protest in Johannesburg, protests will take place in Pretoria (to DME and NERSA), Durban and Cape Town on the same day.

These events will be preceded by pickets on Tuesday (22nd of April) in Pretoria (DME & NERSA), in Johannesburg (Eskom & DME) and the Vaal (Eskom). All of these pickets will commence at 10:00am, please contact APF Organiser, Silmuko Radebe (see below) for more information.

The proposed tariff hikes of 60% in real terms will negatively affect the living standards of poor households and will be at odds with efforts towards poverty reduction. Eskom will be placing a burden on consumers who cannot already afford electricity. Despite the Government and Eskom’s repeated boasts about electrification, 30% of South Africans are still without electricity. Of the 70% who do have electricity, many poor users suffer from disconnection. Furthermore, users of prepaid meters disconnect themselves (due to lack of funds to feed the meter), thus transferring the onus of disconnection from the state to the citizenry. The Free Basic Allocation of 50kWh a month per household is widely regarded to be inadequate; 50kWh doesn’t stretch that far between six to eight people.

APF Organiser, Silumko Radebe, states that, “The restructuring and preparation for the privatisation of ESKOM has led to the present crisis. Following the dictates of GEAR and ASGISA and the Washington consensus that gave birth to the neoliberal policies, the energy sector was opened to foreign investments through privatisation and deregulation. The motivation for restructuring Eskom was that there is a need to introduce competition into electricity provision. Eskom was, therefore, broken up into its generation, transmission and distribution divisions and corporatised. The current crisis is borne of these efforts to create a power market where scarcity of energy resources ensures a ‘competitive environment’ and profitability for the generators and distributors of electricity. The restructuring of the distribution division set up regional electricity distributors (REDs) that would be financially and organisationally independent of one another and the state. In other words, electricity is treated as a commodity rather than a public service.”

A social ill will only be increased by the proposed tariff structure. In response to rising electricity prices, many poor consumers will turn towards alternative energy sources such as paraffin, coal, and biomass. This will have enormous financial and social consequences: For example, in 2000, there were 46,000 paraffin fires, 50,000 paraffin burns, and at least 4,000 children died from drinking paraffin. The total cost to the economy of paraffin related incidents is R100 billion a year. Our children are being physically scarred for life or are dying because Eskom refuses to supply adequate electricity to its poorest and most marginalized citizens.

This move of Eskom’s is surprising and foolhardy. There exists a set of reforms, which if implemented, can alleviate the power crisis and the lack of access crisis that besets this country. They are:

1) A step-block tariff with a free basic allocation of 100kWh per person per month.
2) The opening up of Eskom’s secret contracts with large-scale users and tariff increases on the 25 companies that consumer 40% of our electricity generated.
3) The scrapping of subsidised electricity for foreign corporations under the Developmental Electricity Pricing Programme, and, in particular, the Alcan contract.
4) The abolishment of pre-paid metres.
5) The reorganisation of Eskom within the state so that it operates as an agent of social construction and not a profit-making business.
6) Investment in renewable energy instead of the costly fossil fuels of coal and uranium.
7) No member of Eskom management shall be paid a bonus.

Tristen Taylor, Earthlife Africa Johannesburg’s Energy Policy Officer, states, “As much as electricity tariffs needs increase to address infrastructure maintenance needs, the proposal from Eskom is either vague or at odds with endeavors for poverty eradication. It is of utmost importance that Eskom addresses the issue of indigent users access and affordability of electricity supply and unless Eskom adequately addresses its electricity-generation strategy that is at the heart of its long-term financial ill health, Eskom’s proposals should be rejected by NERSA.”

For more information, please contact:

Tristen Taylor
Energy Policy Officer
Earthlife Africa-Johannesburg Branch
Email: contrarytoauthority@gmail.com

Silumko Radebe
Organiser
Anti-Privatisation Forum
Email: khethokuhle@gmail.com

Press Release: SA Lesbian and Gay Community on Zimbabwe

2008-04-16T13:18:00.003+02:00

16 April 2008
LGEP PRESS STATEMENT: SA LESBIAN AND GAY COMMUNITY CONCERNED ABOUT DEMOCRACY CRISIS IN ZIMBABWE

The South African Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP), formerly known as the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE), is concerned about the deepening political, economic and social crises in Zimbabwe. We express our full solidarity with the lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, women, workers and all the people of Zimbabwe. We add our voice in condemning the unjustified delay in the release of the 29 March elections. As Zimbabwean Independence Day approaches on 18 April 2008, Zimbabweans have nothing to celebrate in honour of their heroic liberation struggle and historic achievement of freedom and democracy.

The actions of the government of Zimbabwe, the police, the army, the judiciary and the Zimbabwean Elections Commission are against universally accepted democratic principles and practice. The Zimbabwean government is responsible for the social and economic crises facing that country. The crises are rooted in actual social stratification processes and ZANU-PF policy choices that support them. These originate from the early 1990s adoption of neo-liberal Structural Adjustment Programmes by Mugabe's government. They have been reinforced by the failure of that government to transform that country's economy into one at the hands and service of the needs of the overwhelming majority of the people. It is under such conditions that principles of democracy, equality and non-discrimination get sacrificed and political leaders look for easy scapegoats to hide their failures. No wonder then that Mugabe's first targets were lesbian and gay people in Zimbabwe.

The homophobia promoted by ZANU-PF is not divorced from the oppression of women, the exploitation of workers and the gross violation of human rights that the same government has been responsible for. Beyond majority numbers, democracy is also about progressive values of equality, freedom, human rights and non-discrimination.

We call on the lesbian and gay community in Zimbabwe to emerge and add their principled voice in the struggle for democracy, freedom and equality in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwean political protagonists will have to map out their own process and ordinary Zimbabweans must settle their scores with their oppressors. But South and Southern Africans have an important role to play:

1. First, the South African government must take a principled position on Zimbabwe, an approach that is radically different from its current approach. Whilst continuing to foster dialogue and negotiations between various Zimbabwean forces, the South African government must make it clear that democratic principles are not for sale and must not show any equivocation in publicly condemning the undemocratic actions of the Zimbabwean government. It is for these reasons that the LGEP welcomes the 14 April 2008 statement of the ANC National Working Committee.

2. Secondly, a wide range of progressive forces and voices in South Africa must do more to build and express solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe. This must start with political pressure on the South African government and the diplomatic representatives of Zimbabwe in South Africa.

3. Finally, as progressive South Africans we must engage our Zimbabwean and Southern African comrades in struggle around the affirmation of democracy, people’s power, social justice, equality, non-discrimination, and the removal of all forms of oppression in the much-needed new constitutional framework that Zimbabwe needs.

We therefore call on the entire lesbian and gay community in South Africa to add their voice in support of democracy, freedom and equality in Zimbabwe.

FOR COMMENTS, CONTACT:
Phumzile S. Mtetwa
Email: phumi@equality.org.za // admin@equality.org.za
Website: www.equality.org.za

Press Release: Zimbabweans Demonstrate and March To Call for Urgent Intervention

2008-04-16T09:26:00.001+02:00

MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT
15 April 2008

Zimbabweans Demonstrate and March To Call for Urgent Intervention

PROGRAMME

Tuesday 15 April - underway as of today until Friday

# March from Bela-Bela (outside Pretoria) to Musina. Marchers are due to arrive in Musina on Friday 18 April (Zimbabwean Independence Day). Co-ordinated by The Peace and Democracy Movement of Zimbabwe. Includes members of the Zimbabwe Exiles' Forum, the Zimbabwe Action Movement and the Southern African Women's Institute for Migration Affairs (SAWIMA).

Contact: Diyani Ncube - Acting Project Co-ordinator
Cell: 074 434 6008 or: 079 665 8870 - Gilbert Moyo's phone

Wednesday 16 April from 10h00

# Demonstration outside Zimbabwean Embassy, Pretoria. Time: 10h00
# Demonstration outside the Union Buildings, Pretoria (time to be confirmed)
# Demonstration outside the UN offices, Pretoria (time to be confirmed)

Participants include Zimbabwe Exiles' Forum, Global Diaspora Forum, SAWIMA.
Contact: Gabriel Shumba - Zimbabwe Exiles' Forum / Human rights lawyer. Mr Shumba was personally tortured by the regime.
Cell: 072 6393 795

Contact: Grace Kwinjeh - Chairman of The Global Diaspora Forum. Ms Kwinjeh was seriously beaten en route to the Save Zimbabwe prayer meeting on 11 March 2007.
Cell: 079 434 4508

Contact: Mrs Joyce Dube - Director, Southern African Women's Institute for Migration Affairs (has recently been in Zimbabwe and is fully up to date).
Cell: 079 873 9021

Thursday 17 April from 11h00

# Demonstration outside the Pan African Parliament in Pretoria. From 11h00. Revolutionary Youth Movement of Zimbabwe.

Contact: Simon Dread Mudekwa - President of the RYMZ
Cell: 079 619 2955

The message of the marches and demonstrations:

# The situation in Zimbabwe is no longer serious, it is desperate
# United Nations intervention is needed immediately
# Thousands of lives, livelihoods and homes are at stake
# The healthcare system has collapsed and the hospitals cannot cope with the mounting injuries
# The crisis poses a serious threat to the region.
# If the violence perpetrated by the Zimbabwean regime is not halted, the refugee crisis will escalate dramatically

Note: Demonstrations are also taking place at the Zimbabwean Embassy in London.

Mugabe and Zanu PF now constitute a coup

2008-04-15T10:09:00.002+02:00

By permission of Briggs Bomba...

Mugabe and Zanu PF now constitute a coup
Briggs Bomba
April 07, 2008

The unfortunate, yet predictable drama unfolding in the wake of Zimbabwe’s March 29 elections resurrects Josef Stalin’s ghosts reminding us of his uncanny words that ‘Its not who votes that counts, its who counts the votes’. Mugabe’s crafty actions since the elections evidently show that he is determined to win the count after losing the elections.

Seven days after peacefully casting votes in the most anticipated election since 1980, Zimbabweans still await the official announcement of the results. The profound sense of hope that characterized the voting day is now turning into downright bewilderment as it becomes clear that President Mugabe and his Zanu PF are doggedly bent on disregarding the people’s sovereign will as expressed on March 29.

The revelation from State media that Zanu PF ordered the Zimbabwe Elections Commission (ZEC) not to announce the presidential election results is baffling to anyone with a sense of how the Zimbabwean elections process must work. ZEC is a constitutionally mandated body tasked to independently administer elections. For such a body to take orders from Zanu PF whose legal status in this case is a mere contestant demonstrates what is wrong not only with elections but with everything in Zimbabwe. It is this rotten state of democratic institutions and the subordination of state bodies to the ruling party that is at the heart of the country’s decay.

The important point that must be made now is that President Mugabe’s continued hold on power, after an election he visibly lost, now constitutes a coup. Zimbabweans, supported by the international community must immediately act to thwart this violation of the people’s democratic will. The unprecedented and unconstitutional move by Zanu PF’s to bar the ZEC from announcing the presidential election results is clear evidence of mischief and unwillingness by hardliners in Mugabe’s regime to respect the sovereign will of the people of Zimbabwe. By heeding this illegal request, ZEC has failed the crucial test of independence, thus confirming the longstanding fears by Zimbabwe’s civic society that the elections body will sacrifice Zimbabwe’s democracy at the alter of partisan interests.

Zanu PF’s calls for a recount and already ongoing preparations for a presidential election rerun, before the results are known, is not only bizarre but also evidence of utter contemptuous disrespect to not only Zimbabweans but also the whole world. With the current machinations, the Mugabe regime has reached the height of illegality because they have in actual fact staged what is essentially a ‘veto coup’. By definition this is when ‘people’s mass participation and social mobilization to govern themselves’ is vetoed.

By refusing to bow to popular will Mugabe is daring the people of Zimbabwe who have demonstrated legendary restrain and patience under the most unbearable living conditions. The March 29 elections presented a singular opportunity for many to peacefully speak out and entrust the future of the country in a leadership of their choice. The consequences of frustrating and thereby rendering irrelevant such a democratic arena of struggle are dangerous not only to Zimbabwe but, potentially to the whole of Southern Africa. Mugabe’s reckless actions risks destabilizing the whole region by provoking people to extra democratic means in Zimbabwe with certain adverse spill over effects in the region. As such the responsibility to defend the March 29 vote goes beyond Zimbabweans. SADC, the AU and the United Nations, as bodies with longstanding commitment against illegal usurpation of power must play a key role in breaking the impasse in Zimbabwe. If these bodies are to remain relevant it is they speak out now to pressure Mugabe to release and accept the election results, otherwise they will be faced with a serious crisis of legitimacy.

At this very late hour, statements by South African President Thabo Mbeki that ‘the situation in Zimbabwe is manageable’ and that ‘it is time to wait’ are not only unhelpful but a slap in the face for long suffering Zimbabweans, who at considerable risk and sacrifice went out to vote on March 29. There cannot be any plausible reason why results are not known seven days after voting! No, Mr President, this is not ‘a time to wait’; neither is it a ‘manageable situation’. This is more like a time bomb that can only be defused if the people’s vote is respected.

President Mbeki’s unfortunate statements and the deafening silence from other African leaders in SADC and the AU raises serious problems of accountability with the current crop of African leaders. Where is the moral outrage in this clear case of daylight robbery? Diplomacy seems to have been redefined to ‘see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil’ within the old boys club. Africa is not helped by this blind, uncritical support amongst its leaders.

The opposition in Zimbabwe must now show decisive leadership. While it is commendable that we have not seen ‘Kenyan style’ violence in the post election period, Zimbabwe’s opposition must learn from Kenyan opposition that the business of appealing to an incumbent’s courts does not work. There are pending cases in courts from the 2000 elections. In fact, with a compromised judiciary, such as Zimbabwe’s, court appeals only serve the purpose of disarming people’s vigilance by creating a distracting sideshow and reinforcing illusions of mitigation. Already a dilly dance has started in the courts with all sorts of delaying tactics meant to buy Mugabe time until its too late, rendering the court challenge academic. The opposition is best advised to resort to peaceful mass mobilization of people power to defend the vote. The opposition must lead unions, students and the full range of civic society in defending the people’s vote. Mugabe will only pay attention if he is convinced that he can no longer govern in the old way, therefore the strategy must be to paralyze the state through effective, peacefully direct action. I personally hope that Professor Masunungure will be proved wrong on his recent assertion that Mugabe will get away with mischief and fraud because Zanu PF is ‘risk taking’ whereas the opposition is ‘risk averse’.

The despicable levels of suffering by many Zimbabwean make resolving the current impasse in Zimbabwe an urgent matter. Having been on the ground myself for two weeks around election time, I can attest that the humanitarian disaster I witnessed is heartbreaking. An old man I talked to in one of the rural areas told me that “now we wait to see which bush the goats are feeding on, and we eat that because we know it will not be poisonous”. Their village had always voted Zanu PF, this time they voted out one of Mugabe’s ministers despite all their fears of what could happen. They voted to restore their dignity.

It is time to defend the vote.

* Briggs Bomba is a Zimbabwean born Economist working for Africa Action in Washington DC, and writes here in his personal capacity. He can be contacted at briggsbomba@yahoo.com

*Originally posted at: http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/opin/080407bb.asp?sector=OPIN

Tibetan Feudalism

2008-04-11T11:48:00.003+02:00

Go here for a very good left analysis of historical Tibetan feudalism. Here's an snippet:

One common complaint among Buddhist followers in the West is that Tibet’s religious culture is being undermined by the Chinese occupation. To some extent this seems to be the case. Many of the monasteries are closed, and much of the theocracy seems to have passed into history. Whether Chinese rule has brought betterment or disaster is not the central issue here. The question is what kind of country was old Tibet. What I am disputing is the supposedly pristine spiritual nature of that pre-invasion culture. We can advocate religious freedom and independence for a new Tibet without having to embrace the mythology about old Tibet. Tibetan feudalism was cloaked in Buddhism, but the two are not to be equated. In reality, old Tibet was not a Paradise Lost. It was a retrograde repressive theocracy of extreme privilege and poverty, a long way from Shangri-La.

Finally, let it be said that if Tibet’s future is to be positioned somewhere within China’s emerging free-market paradise, then this does not bode well for the Tibetans. China boasts a dazzling 8 percent economic growth rate and is emerging as one of the world’s greatest industrial powers. But with economic growth has come an ever deepening gulf between rich and poor. Most Chinese live close to the poverty level or well under it, while a small group of newly brooded capitalists profit hugely in collusion with shady officials. Regional bureaucrats milk the country dry, extorting graft from the populace and looting local treasuries. Land grabbing in cities and countryside by avaricious developers and corrupt officials at the expense of the populace are almost everyday occurrences. Tens of thousands of grassroot protests and disturbances have erupted across the country, usually to be met with unforgiving police force. Corruption is so prevalent, reaching into so many places, that even the normally complacent national leadership was forced to take notice and began moving against it in late 2006.

Comparing Israel and Tibet- Absurd!

2008-04-08T19:48:00.000+02:00

Comparing Israel and Tibet- Absurd!
By Tristen Taylor, Tibetan Solidarity Activist

The recent South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS) advert in the Vuvuzela (University of the Witwatersrand, 04 April 2008) showing the Dalai Lama praying at the Wailing Wall and comparing the plight of repressed and brutalised Tibetans to that of Israeli Jews is propaganda at its most vile.

As the latest protests in Tibet have shown, Tibetans have a genuine desire to self-government, religious independence, and freedom from the yoke of repression. The people of Tibet have flooded onto the streets, armed only with their religion and the knowledge of a just cause, and have stood up against the superior military might, arbitrary detention, and extrajudicial killings of the Chinese military. Tibet is a country invaded, economically and environmentally exploited, and whose culture is being swamped by hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese migrants. Tibetans are prisoners within their own country.

Are Tibetans really like Israelis? Is the condition of Tibetan protesters that of Israeli soldiers enforcing collective punishment on an entire people- the Palestinians? No, and to compare the two is not only misleading but also an outright lie.

If SAUJS were prepared to admit the truth, it would see that the conditions of Tibetans and Palestinians were very comparable. Both groups of people are ruled over by an external military force which illegally invaded their country. Both Tibetans and Palestinians are marginalised economically, are subjected to religious and racial persecution, and live in Apartheid-like societies. The arguments for Palestinian and Tibetan liberation are fundamentally the same.

If one were genuinely willing to look at the facts, one would have to admit that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is nothing but a series of crimes against humanity; similar to Chinese crimes against Tibetans.

A more appropriate ad—an ad seeking to expose the suffering of innocents— would be of Ehud Olmert and Wen Jiabao standing respectively over a Palestinian and Tibetan child, and betting who could crush that child’s skull the quickest with their jackboots.

Oh, and by the way, SAUJS’s interest in the plight of Tibetans was witnessed by its conspicuous absence from a recent Free Tibet activity on campus last month.

Press Release: Electricity is a right and the poor must have access to clean, alternative energy. South Africa needs democratic control of energy for

2008-03-28T11:05:00.000+02:00

Press Release: Electricity is a right and the poor must have access to clean, alternative energy. South Africa needs democratic control of energy for all!
Anti Privitisation Forum
20th of March 2008

The issue of electricity in South Africa, in particular with ESKOM, is about the generation and distribution of electricity in Africa. As indicated in our country’s Constitution (in the bill of rights) electricity is a right. ESKOM has an attitude that electricity is a privilege not a right hence the ridiculous tariff increment of wanting to charge more than 53%. The Anti Privatisation Forum is condemning this increase and it is mobilising its constituencies against this proposed increase. This comes after ESKOM last year proposed an 18% tariff increase and the National Electricity Regulator of South Africa granted a 14% increase. The recent electricity black-outs in the country has promoted a public debate around the issue of the consumption of energy but have ignored the main source of the problem. The Anti Privatisation Forum (APF) has been struggling for the past eight years to ensure that poor communities have access to basic free electricity and that the poor are aware of their constitutional and human rights in attaining this service.

Many of our people in the country are unemployed and live below the poverty line. It is a fact that at least 50% of the population has become worse off since 1994, with most struggling to survive on a daily basis. Many of our constituencies have been living in squalid conditions where they have no roof over their head, use coal & paraffin for fire, candles for studying at night and little or no access to water & sanitation. Despite recent reports from the government on achieving their targets, many communities (Kliptown, Boiketlong, Kwa-Masiza, Tembalihle, Protea South, Khayelitsha QQ residents, Joe Slovo, Ikageng, Delft, Kennedy Road & Crossmoor) and many more informal settlements are at a disadvantage and have lost hope. Around 30% of South Africa’s population has absolutely no access to electricity, while many more than do have access will not be able to afford the proposed tariff increases.

The recent noise about load-shedding in the country is because big-business has been affected (where some have been forced to run their operations at 90-95% capacity). This has been viewed as a problem because it will affect production and decrease profitability resulting in a decline in the country’s economic growth. Even louder noises have been made that this will result in job losses and investors will be scared to risk their investments in the country.

WHO IS TO BLAME?

It comes as no surprise that ESKOM CEO, Jacob Maroga, who recently met with 131 business executives from the ESKOM’s top 38 industrial and business customers in Midrand to discuss solutions to the power crisis, consciously excluded community and social movement organizations. Agriculture and the business sector combined get 83% of all electricity while the citizenry must scavenge for the remaining 17%. Then we wonder why the community is told to sleep early, switch of the geyser, use light saving bulbs, report illegal connections (“izinyoka”) and utilise less electricity during peak hours when they only use 17% of electricity. But also the message is directed to the poor who use minimal amounts of electricity as compared to the rich who have Jacuzzi’s, warm swimming pools, air conditioners, under floor heaters and many other electricity-eating gadgets. But this is not the point, we can’t compare this consumption to that of big business who clearly are being given first preference by ESKOM in terms of pricing policy. While big business is being provided electricity at less than 15 cents per kilowatt/hour, poor rural residents have long been charged 48 cents per kilowatt/hour. During recent power cuts, we have seen President Mbeki saying that it is a national crisis and all must play a role in taking equal responsibility for the crisis – we agree, there is a crisis, but it is not poor people who should bear equal burden for that crisis. The APF backs the call of the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) for ‘civil society’ to be part of the Electricity Forum – the voices of the poor must be heard.

The main sources of energy consumption/use in our modern lives are petroleum, natural gas and coal - all fossil fuels which are diminishing and with few/no alternatives energy sources in mind. In addition, ownership and control of present energy sources is monopolized by a few corporates and ultra-wealthy individuals. In South Africa, the government is responsible for producing 90% of the country’s electricity output, mostly all through coal-fired power stations. The additional 5% comes from nuclear-generated power (Koeberg) and hydro resources. This means that our government, through ESKOM, has the sole discretion as to how to distribute electricity output – and we can all see what decisions that have taken (agriculture gets 3%, commerce gets 10%, transport gets 2% and industry, a whopping 68%). The government’s macro-economic policy -GEAR – provides the overall framework for such choices of electricity distribution.

A classic example of this is the recent ALCAN-Coega deal with ESKOM that was signed on the 24th November 2006 (but which has since been delayed). The proposed Alcan-Coega aluminum smelter requires 1300MW of coal-generated power, enough to supply a small city, with Alcan only paying 0.02 to 0.06 cents per kilowatt/hour. What this clearly reveals is that there is no democratic process in decisions regarding electricity generation, distribution and pricing.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

The only long term solution is to address both the environmental and human justice concerns, as part of addressing the political economy of energy/power. One of the factors that most all are agreed on, is that there are major socio-economic inequalities in South Africa. For example, poor people have been, and to a lesser extent continue to be, deprived of quality education and thus of the possibilities of being able to learn about the political economy of energy. Issues of energy have to be taken down to the community level. In the APF local government electricity platform we have clearly outlined our demands and alternative sources of energy. Addressing the immediate nature of the present crisis and its anti-poor ‘solutions’, requires a change in the distribution policy of ESKOM and government, reduction of electricity cut-offs, lower residential tariffs (especially for the poor) and an increase in the life-line allowances.

We need to be clear that there is no shortage of energy. There are existing alternative energy sources/ technologies (solar, wind, biogas etc.) and there are also methods of using energy with much greater efficiency, which have the potential to change the political economy of power. Moving forward on this front is going to require public sector/state support and subsidisation - especially for further research and development. We need to decentralise the generation of electricity to the local level of municipalities, town villages and households. Wind and solar energy provide two of the potentially best alternative sources, because they are free to all and they can’t be controlled by a few. Individual citizens and communities must have the ability not only to set their own electricity requirements but also to meet their own needs. People must have direct control of the electricity sector.

As the APF we say:

Forward to democratic control of renewable energy for all!

For more information please call Silumko Radebe (APF Organiser) @ 011 333 8334; Patra Sindane (Coalition Against Water Privatisation) @ 011 333 8334 Also contact Tristen Taylor (Earthlife Africa) @ 011 339 3662

Earthlife Africa Welcomes Delay of Alcan Smelter

2008-03-17T15:26:00.002+02:00

Press Release: Earthlife Africa Welcomes Delay of Alcan Smelter
Earthlife Africa Jhb
17th of March 2008

In this time of electricity supply crisis, the reported (SABC, 17/03/08) construction delay of the Alcan smelter at Coega is to be welcomed as a first step towards a rationalised electricity supply and distribution system.

For over two years, Earthlife Africa Johannesburg has been campaigning against the sale of bulk electricity to Alcan at low tariff rates. In late 2006, the Government & Eskom signed a host of deals with Alcan under the Developmental Electricity Pricing Programme (DEPP). These deals ensured Alcan 1350MW of power (enough to run a small city) at low rates. The estimated special tariff for Alcan is 12c/kWh.

While the details of these deals remain secret—due to dubious confidentiality clauses within the DEPP policy—delaying construction of the proposed smelter gives the Government the time to scrap the DEPP. This will enable the Government to replace the DEPP with an open, transparent policy on industrial electricity supply that will ensure industrial customers meaningfully contribute towards paying for the expansion of Eskom’s generating capacity.

In particular, the time has come to ensure that Eskom increases the generation of electricity from renewable resources, in particular Concentrated Solar Thermal, and that the tariff system is brought into line with the new realities.

Earthlife Africa Jhb believes that as commodity prices rise over the next five years (oil, coal, natural gas, and uranium) and as South Africa comes under increasing pressure to cut CO2 emissions, South Africa will have to transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable forms of energy.

Government policies like the DEPP prevent this. The underlying assumption behind the DEPP and the subsequent Alcan deal is that the Apartheid system of providing heavy industry with dirty, cheap electricity from coal-fired power stations is applicable in the 21st Century. This is not the case. South Africa cannot afford the Apartheid-style of electricity system under current global energy trends.

However, the converse is also true. South Africa can afford to invest heavily in an industrial plan to design and manufacture renewable energy technology. Only last week, the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies in the Western Cape announced the possibility of generating 10,000MW of electricity from wave power alone.

Our national resources should be invested in promoting this kind of research and development. Showering tax credits and cheap, polluting energy on foreign users in return for very few jobs is an economic model best left in the 1980s.

For more information, please contact:

Tristen Taylor
Energy Policy Officer
Earthlife Africa-Johannesburg Branch

Editorial on SA Energy News

2008-03-17T10:16:00.001+02:00

March Editorial on SA Energy News

Two issues of SENSE (#47) ago, SENSE warned about the coming global shortage of petroleum. Those who still don’t believe have yet to fill up their gas-guzzling four by fours; bigger shocks ahead folks, like the possibility of petrol going to R10 a litre in the near future.

The peak of oil production is not alone; the coal price is going through the roof with the price of thermal coal tripling in the last year, while the price of coking coal doubling over the same period. This has prompted Eskom to call for another round of tariff increases.

The collective belt tightening that Eskom management calls for does not extend to their own corporate bonuses; maybe the top execs need the extra millions to pay for the increased power costs of running their mansions, swimming pools and ten-metre plasma TV screens.

Which brings us to the Eskom approach to domestic tariffs in general; a.k.a. the sledgehammer approach. Eskom raises tariff prices with barely a nod of the head to South African’s social and economic conditions. Fifty percent of the population lives in poverty, and can hardly meet their nutritional requirements, let alone the municipal electricity bill. Without employing the insanely revolutionary, utterly insurrectionary and wickedly irresponsible tactics of an increased free basic allocation and a step-block tariff, Eskom’s tariff increases will squash any hopes of eradicating poverty this side of the new millennium.

Turning to one of the SECCP’s favourite topics—the proposed Alcan smelter at Coega—it seems that it is only Cabinet and Alcan that are in favour of the actual smelter and its fantastic consumption of electricity at low, low rates. Veteran energy analyst Andrew Kenny stated recently that, "SA's number one thing for investment was cheap power. We have lost that. The Coega smelter must be scrapped."

On the nuclear side of things, Patrick Moore has been in South Africa touting his Greenpeace credentials (he says he’s a founder) and punting the joys of reactors, cost overruns, nuclear proliferation worries, and the long-term health benefits of nuclear waste. Here’s what Greenpeace has to say about its self-declared founding fathers:

“Patrick Moore was one of the people involved in sailing the ship 'Phyllis Cormack' to Amchitka to protest planned US nuclear weapons nuclear tests in 1971. However, his claim to be a Greenpeace co-founder is untrue. The initiative against those nuclear tests began in 1969, and only two years later did Moore send a letter in which he introduced himself as a student and asked if he could join.

“Since leaving Greenpeace in 1985, Moore has been a paid propagandist for a number of polluting industries, including: defending clear-cut logging of forests in British Columbia, downplaying deforestation in Amazonia, supporting controversial mining projects, and promoting genetic engineering. On some occasions he has even been in the Climate Sceptic camp.”

The good news is that scientists at the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies might have found a way to generate 10,000MW of electricity from wave power alone.

We have alternatives to fossil fuels.

Tristen Taylor
Energy Policy Officer
SECCP
Earthlife Africa Jhb

Read the entire newsletter here.

Press Release: Poor residents of Rammolutsi (Free State) resist evictions by Municipality

2008-03-14T08:10:00.000+02:00

COALITION AGAINST WATER PRIVATISATION
PRESS STATEMENT
Wednesday12th March 2008

Poor residents of Rammolutsi (Free State) resist evictions by Municipality - 4 arrested this morning

Johannesburg- Yesterday residents of Freedom-Park Square (Rammolutsi) near the small farming town of Viljoenskroon (Northern Free State) faced evictions by Moqhaka Municipality. Three men and one woman, including CAWP activist, Bramage Sekete, were arrested for resisting the evictions and will appear before the local magistrate’s court on 19 March 2008.

Residents were officially given the land on the 26th of October 2006 by the Mayor of Moqhaka Municipality, Mantebo Mokgosi. Soon after however, the community were surprised to find out that the land had been leased back to the previous farm-owner, Mr. Roux, for a period of five years, evidently for “agricultural purposes”. Residents then decided to occupy the land on the 26th September 2007 after a community meeting, attended by the Mayor.

Late in 2007, the High Court ruled in favor of the Municipality, which had brought an application seeking to legalise evictions. Yesterday, despite community resistance, a municipal tractor was used to destroy and demolish the shacks which residents had been living in. The four comrades who were subsequently arrested and locked-up in police cells, had earlier tried to negotiate with the police. This morning, the four made their first appearance in court, were denied bail, and informed that their case will be heard on Wednesday 19th March.

The CAWP, which has consistently supported residents of Rammolutsi in their ongoing struggles for clean and accessible water from the Moqhaka Municipality, is now supporting the community’s struggle for decent housing and the right not to be evicted from their homes. CAWP unreservedly condemns the Municipality’s unwarranted and inhumane actions in destroying the homes, and evicting, poor residents. The poor should not be punished for government’s failure to provide land and houses. The actions in Rammolutsi are part of a national crisis in which poor communities across our country (some of the latest examples being communities like Delft & Joe Slovo in Cape Town and Kennedy Road in Durban) are being treated as criminals and deprived of their democratic and human rights. In the face of the unwillingness of the various levels of government to deliver what they have long-promised and to uphold the rights of the poor, resistance will continue.

For more information please contact CAWP Organiser - Patra Sindane on 073 052 7005

Free Tibet Speech

2008-03-12T07:23:00.000+02:00

Below is a short speech I made on Tibet at the University of the Witwatersrand last week. Btw, I'm not a Buddhist, died black in materialism.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the Tibetan Photo Exhibition hosted by Students for a Free Tibet. Thank you for coming, and I hope that you enjoy these excellent representations of Tibetan culture.

My name is Tristen Taylor, and I am a South African human rights campaigner. I have been asked by the Office of Tibet in South Africa to briefly discuss human rights abuses in Tibet.

The situation in Tibet continues to deteriorate in regards to the basic human rights of the Tibetan people and the prospects for self-rule or independence are still remote.

In 1950, the People’s Republic China invaded the independent nation of Tibet, with the public aim of abolishing feudalism within Tibet. It was assisted in this invasion—an invasion that killed between 400,000 and 1.2 million Tibetans—by Tibetan communists, also seeking to end serfdom within Tibet. In a sign of the repression that has come to dominate Chinese oppression, many of these Tibetan communists were arrested by the Chinese for advocating a free and independent Tibet.

In 1959, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was forced to flee from Tibet, and throughout the reign of Mao Zedong the predominantly Buddhist religious and cultural institutions of Tibet were systematically attacked and destroyed; approximately 6,000 monasteries were destroyed. Detention, forced labour in re-education camps, executions, torture, forced relocations and extra-judicial killings became depressingly commonplace. These crimes are still being committed today. Right now, as I speak to you, it is a crime to possess a picture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Tibet.

Today, several key human rights are being violated in Tibet by the Chinese Government.

The right for workers to organise and assemble is denied to Tibetans and other Chinese workers. There is one trade union in Tibet, subordinate to the Chinese Central Government, and its current aim is to facilitate business, not stand up for the rights of workers. Tibetan workers must be allowed to form their own independent trade unions.

The right to religious freedom is being denied on a whole-scale and systematic basis. Monks are permitted to practice Buddhism only if they do not challenge China’s rule of Tibet, renounce the Dalai Lama, and stay within proscribed boundaries. Recently and in a widely distributed film clip, Chinese soldiers shot and killed monks as they were attempting to flee to India. Tibetan civil servants are not allowed to practice Buddhism.

And, Tibetan Muslims have been forced into exile for practising their faith as they see fit, not as Beijing wishes Islam to be practiced. Tibetans must be allowed to practise their religions as they desire.

Tibetans human rights are being violated by China’s current policy of forced land evictions and the destruction of the Tibetan herding economy. Tens of thousands of Tibetans have been forced off their land, forced to slaughter their herds, and relocated to Chinese built and controlled urban settlements, where they have sunk into poverty and dislocation. This Chinese policy aims to reinterpret Tibetan society into a more acceptable society; i.e. turn self-sufficient Tibetans into low-wage construction and service workers, marginalised and dispossessed. Over 350 people a day die in Chinese factories.

The right to a clean and healthy environment is being made a mockery of by the Chinese State. Currently, China uses Tibet as its industrial backyard, locating heavy and polluting industry within Tibet. In particular, aluminium smelters are poisoning harvests and grasslands with fluoride emissions. With over 150 millions tons of oil located in the Tibetan basin and one-third of China’s copper reserves, China is seeking to exploit Tibetan natural resources for use in China’s eastern provinces. This is an example of the brutal colonialism that we Africans only know too well. China will exploit and use Tibet’s resources to enrich itself; little of this wealth will remain in Tibet.

As His Holiness the Dalai Lama has pointed out, there is a form of Apartheid existing in Tibet. The Chinese Government brings Han Chinese migrants into Tibet, drastically changing the demographic dynamics, and favours Han Chinese in the business and political realms. For example, the powerful Central Communist Committee of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, is dominated by Han Chinese. An overclass of Han Chinese has emerged in Tibet; a racial power relationship eerily similar to Apartheid.

At the heart of all these human rights abuses is the fervent desire of Tibetans to democratically administer their own country. This right is well-recognised within international relations. If Kosovo, Palestine, Ireland, Catalonia and Kurdistan can all have either independence or self-rule, why not Tibet?

We can understand this desire for freedom in Africa. For hundreds of years we have been exploited and colonised by foreign powers in the name of civilisation. Our resources have been stripped and provide the basis for Europe’s current development. Our labour, rubber, gold, oil, timber, and diamonds have made Europe wealthy and Africa poor. We have been trapped in foreign, illegitimate debt for generations; food and medicine has literally been stolen from our children’s mouths.

It is in the spirit of solidarity against repression and colonialism that all South Africans must support Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s call for China to recognise the inalienable right for Tibetans to administer their own affairs. Like millions of ordinary people across the world supported our struggle against Apartheid, we millions of South Africans should support the Tibetan struggle for democracy and freedom.

Thank you very much.

Earthlife Africa and Greenpeace on Patrick Moore

2008-03-11T12:24:00.000+02:00

Press Statement - Patrick Moore in South Africa
Earthlife Africa Cape Town

Cape Town, 10 March, 2008 - Patrick Moore is in South Africa at a time when the country is experiencing electricity shortages and when decisions must be made about investing substantial amount of resources into new energy capacity. Patrick Moore's visit is also at an opportune time as South Africa reviews its premier energy policy document - the 1998 white paper on energy
policy.

As much as Patrick Moore has the right to an opinion, Earthlife Africa Nuclear Energy Cost the Earth Campaign (NECTEC) object to a number of matters associated with his visit to South Africa. Firstly, we would like to clear that Patrick Moore is not a Greenpeace founder and that he is simply providing public relation services to the nuclear industry and other controversial issues including genetically modified organisms (GMOs). We are concerned that the public is being misinformed that Patrick Moore, who left the organisation more than 20 years ago, is paraded as a Greenpeace founder.

"Patrick Moore was one of the people involved in sailing the ship Phyllis Cormack against Amchitka nuclear tests in 1971, but his claims that he is a co-founder are not true. The initiative against those nuclear tests origins in 1969, and only two years later Moore sent a letter in which he introduced himself as a student and asked if he could join. Both his application from March 16, 1971, and a response from "Greenpeace/Don't Make a Wave Committee" dated March 24, 1971 have been archived. And it is a matter of fact that co-founders do not have to write applications to join" said Jan Beranek, Greenpeace International nuclear campaigner.

Moore, who once denied the existence of climate change, is in South Africa on a mission to save the world from the wrath of global warming by pursuing rigorous nuclear programs, as well as projects to plant genetically modified trees that can absorb more carbon from the air. "This comes from a man who carries a counterfeited Greenpeace co-founder card which he uses to hide the fact that he came to South Africa to mislead the nation aided by the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (NIASA)," said Sibusiso Mimi acting nuclear spokesperson.

For more information visit: www.earthlife-ct.org.za

From: Earthlife Africa
Nuclear Energy Cost the Earth Campaign Media Desk
021 447 4912

Press Release: Patrick Moore's pro-nuclear tour of South Africa
Greenpeace

Cape Town, 6 March 2008 - Greenpeace today, urged South Africans to ignore the highly paid pro-nuclear preaching of Patrick Moore, who uses a false claim of being one of the organisation's founders to bolster his opinion for industrial hire.

Patrick Moore was one of the people involved in sailing the ship 'Phyllis Cormack' to Amchitka to protest planned US nuclear weapons nuclear tests in 1971. However, his claim to be a Greenpeace co-founder is untrue. The initiative against those nuclear tests began in 1969, and only two years later did Moore send a letter in which he introduced himself as a student and asked if he could join.

Since leaving Greenpeace in 1985, Moore has been a paid propagandist for a number of polluting industries, including: defending clear-cut logging of forests in British Columbia, downplaying deforestation in Amazonia, supporting controversial mining projects, and promoting genetic engineering. On some occasions he has even been in the Climate Sceptic camp.

Moore is listed and offered by the Global Speakers Agency that asks big money for public performances.

Greenpeace has reviewed its anti-nuclear stance in light of both global warming and energy security and found that nuclear power is a deadly distraction from the real energy solutions to these problems. While world-wide climate change is being used as the new rationale for nuclear power, in South Africa, the rolling black outs are the most pressing problem, but power cuts cannot be addressed by nuclear power which will not be available until 2016, at the earliest. Renewable energy and energy efficiency can deliver quickly and cheaply.

Nothing has changed with the nuclear industry, it remains deadly, dangerous, expensive, a nuclear proliferation threat and leaves a legacy of nuclear waste that will threaten the lives and livelihoods for many generations to come. South Africans would be well advised to ask what is happening to the deadly nuclear waste pilling up at the Koeberg plant and to ask how in the event of an accident the residents of Cape Town are to be evacuated and to see the nuclear books of Eskom?

Greenpeace has shown that there is a path to achieving a 50 per cent reduction in the world's global warming emissions by 2050, while at the same time phasing out nuclear power. Greenpeace's Energy [R]evolution blueprint shows that renewable energy, combined with greater energy efficiency, can deliver half of the world's energy needs by 2050.

Notes to editors:

To find out more about Greenpeace's Energy revolution see:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/climate-change

Contact information:

Jan Beranek, Greenpeace nuclear campaigner
Tel: 00 31 65 11 095 58

Press Release: Namibian Government Approves Nukes

2008-03-07T11:14:00.000+02:00

PRESS RELEASE
Earthlife Namibia
05.03.2008

In response to a recent announcement by Cabinet regarding power generation and uranium beneficiation in Namibia, Earthlife Namibia wants to express its absolute shock about Government’s approval to build a nuclear power plant and to allow uranium enrichment in Namibia. There are many reasons speaking against nuclear power generation in our country.

Nuclear energy is unsafe and dangerous!

High-level nuclear waste remains radioactive for a long time. Worldwide there is no solution of safe disposal. Nuclear waste is a problem that does not go away because it remains dangerous for at least 200 000 years. Thus we burden many generations to come with a problem we create today.

There is a risk of low-level radiation in all stages of the nuclear power process. Research shows that low-level radiation does have health and environmental implications.

Nuclear accidents are mostly a combination of technological and human failure, so they can never be ruled out completely. A nuclear accident can have terrible impacts on many generations to come. The consequences of the nuclear explosion at the power station of Chernobyl 20 years ago still burden many people and the environment.

Nuclear energy is not the answer to climate change!

Cabinet in its press release states: “Energy produced by nuclear power stations is considered carbon free, especially if its fuel is processed using nuclear generated electricity. Products made or mined using this power qualifies for special consideration in terms of carbon credit.”

The nuclear industry lobby and pro-nuclear politicians want to make us believe that nuclear power is climate friendly. This is not true. On the international market no carbon credit is given for nuclear power generation.

The whole fuel cycle of nuclear power, from mining uranium to the decommissioning of the power station, releases three to four times more carbon dioxide per unit of energy produced than renewable energy.

Nuclear energy is very costly!

Nuclear energy is, on average, between two and four times more expensive than electricity produced from fossil fuels. The enormous costs of decommissioning the nuclear power station and dealing with nuclear waste are not included. The social and environmental costs associated with nuclear power, from uranium mining to disposal of nuclear waste, are never included in the project costs.

Nuclear energy needs high skills!

Technology for renewable energy is available and already proved itself in Namibia and intensive research for local application is taking place while the high technological capacity for nuclear power generation is completely absent in the country and would have to be developed in Namibia or imported at very high cost.

Nuclear energy is not sustainable!

Given current global demand, it is estimated that the world’s uranium resources - both those currently available and possible new reserves – will be exhausted within 60 to 70 years.

Earthlife Namibia urges Government to not make nuclear energy generation an option. Namibia has many sustainable and climate friendly resources which should be utilized to the benefit of the country, its people and the environment.

Enquiries:
Earthlife Namibia
Bertchen Kohrs
Tel: 061 – 227913
Cell: 081 293 8085
E-mail: earthl@iway.na

Ski Slopes of Mars

2008-03-05T17:30:00.000+02:00

With global warming threatening skiing on Earth--the slopes are melting, go here and here--you would have thought that the in-crowd would start wondering about their carbon footprints and general rape of the planet (including 99.5% of the human population, they've been giving it to me since before I was born). But, no. They've got a better plan, a master plan to get the hell off of Earth and enjoy a new start, while the rest of us stay behind and choke down toxic waste from their industrial, radioactive, nightmare of a global theme park.

NASA recently released the first pictures ever of an avalanche on Mars. Yup, prime powder to be plowed there, and no poor people to get in the way.

A Government Deluded

2008-03-03T11:04:00.003+02:00

This was published by enviropaedia today.

A Government Deluded: Alcan’s Continued Threat to South Africa’s Energy Security
- 28 February 2008
By Tristen Taylor
Energy Policy Officer, Earthlife Africa Johannesburg

The recent energy shortage highlighted the utter economic insanity of the proposed Alcan aluminum smelter at Coega. The proposed smelter will consume 1350MW of electricity, or 4% of the nation’s total usage. One smelter employing a thousand people will need as much electricity as the entire city of Port Elizabeth requires.

Simply put, there is not enough electricity in the current system to supply present needs, as witnessed by the recent rolling blackouts that plunged this nation into a crisis and surely whittled down the prospects of economic growth for 2008. Adding another large scale user into the system will add further pressure to an already shaky electricity supply situation, resulting in more blackouts and possible job losses. In fact, there would have been no blackouts in December 2007 and January 2008 if existing aluminum smelters had been turned off.

Local and national opposition to the proposed smelter has been ongoing since 2006, and the question of Alcan’s electricity grab is now part of the national agenda. The technical experts, civil society, unions and the general public are all in agreement, power for existing users before multinationals like Alcan. Even the business press—natural supporters of industrial development and foreign direct investment—has rounded upon the Government and Alcan....

Read the rest here.

Eskom's War on the Poor

2008-02-28T09:25:00.002+02:00

I wrote a piece last year for Amandla! magazine--a new progressive magazine in South Africa--on Eskom's tariff increases and their effects on the poor. Amandla! mutilated the piece; so, if you read it and wondered what the hell, trust me, you are as confused as I am. Anyway, SANGONeT has just published the entire piece. Go here to read it, and this is how it starts:

“Any civil, religious, or military official in government employ, who serves the state from vanity, or, as is most often the case, simply for the sake of the pay wrung from the harassed and toilworn working classes (all taxes, however raised, always fall on labor), if he, as is very seldom the case, does not directly rob the government in the usual way, considers himself, and is considered by his fellows, as a most useful and virtuous member of society.” - Leo Tolstoy

On 22 November 2007, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) held its last public hearing on Eskom’s massive rate hikes. The outlook for poor users of electricity is grim and marks yet another salvo in the Government’s unrelenting war on the poor.

Eskom and municipalities are planning to increase dramatically electricity tariffs to poor households (defined by NERSA as domestic low users, 100kWh of usage), often at rates above that of domestic high users (800kWh). The new average tariff for domestic low users, based on the projected 16.5% rate hike, will be 48.17c/kWh. For domestic high users, the average tariff will be 45.5c/kWh.

Earthlife Africa Johannesburg, an environmental and social justice NGO, opposed this rate hike for poor users in written submissions to NERSA and made an attempt to speak at the public hearing in Pretoria. When an Earthlife Africa representative (Sibusiso Mimi) tried to make a presentation, NERSA officials denied him the right to do so. Mimi summed up the public hearing as, “A NERSA and Eskom tea party.”...

Say Goodbye to Butterflyfish, Sharks, and Antarctic Marine Life

2008-02-27T10:06:00.000+02:00

I haven't done a "Goodbye to" post for a while, it is a truly depressing activity. Anyway, no good news this time. The Butterflyfish, nine species of shark (including the hammerhead), and the Antarctic marine ecology are all on the way out, most likely within our lifetimes. The cause, as usual, is us.

The Butterflyfish is out because we are destroying its food supply:

The case of the Chevroned Butterflyfish is a stark example of how human pressure on the world’s coral reefs is confronting certain species with ‘blind alleys’ from which they may be unable to escape, says Dr Morgan Pratchett of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

In a study published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology Dr Pratchett and Dr Michael Berumen of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA) warn that the highly specialized nature of the feeding habits of this particular butterflyfish – the distinctively patterned Chaetodon trifascialis - make it an extinction risk as the world’s coral reefs continue to degrade due to human over-exploitation, pollution and climate change.

“The irony is that these butterflyfish are widespread around the world, and you’d have thought their chances of survival were pretty good,” Dr Pratchett said.

Link

Sharks are out due to bycatch and the love of shark fin soup:

Nine more species of shark are to be added to the endangered list as scientists warn that oceans are being emptied of the fish by overfishing and finning.

The scalloped hammerhead shark, which has declined by 99% over the past 30 years in some parts of the world, is particularly vulnerable and will be declared globally endangered on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) list.

"Sharks are definitely at the top of the list for marine fishes that could go extinct in our lifetimes," said Julia Baum of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California and a member of IUCN shark specialist group. "If we carry on the way that we are, we're looking at a really high risk of extinction for some of these shark species within the next few decades."

At the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston yesterday, Baum said that in addition to the scalloped hammerhead, other shark species that will be added to the revised IUCN endangered list later this year are the smooth hammerhead, shortfin mako, common thresher, big-eye thresher, silky, tiger, bull and dusky. There are already 126 species of shark on the IUCN's list.

Link

The sharks demise is happening in African waters:

"While the shark net catches have impacted on some species more heavily than others, most of the species that are caught in the shark nets are wide-ranging, with the tropical species inhabiting Mozambican and Tanzanian waters, where exploitation levels may be very high."

For example, their data showed that the great hammerhead shark not one of the nine had undergone a significant decline in catch rates in the nets, Cliff said.

"Between 1978 and 1993 we caught an annual average of 13 great hammers. Since 2000 we have only caught two per annum, with none since 2004.

"This species, very much a tropical one, has either changed its dispersal habits and is no longer visiting our waters, or it has been heavily fished to the north of us."

The local nursery ground of the scalloped hammerhead included the Tugela Banks, where the prawn trawlers had caught large numbers of neo-nates (baby sharks), he added.

Link

Global warming is heating up Antarctic seas, allowing predatory crabs and fish to move in on a marine system unprepared for such an assault.

Predatory crabs and fish are poised to return to warming Antarctic waters for the first time in millions of years, threatening the shallow marine ecosystems surrounding Antarctica. Antarctic marine communities resemble the primeval waters of millions years ago because modern predators - crabs and fish - are missing.

...Antarctic marine communities are functionally Paleozoic - typical of around 250 million years ago,' says paleobiologist Rich Aronson. 'If the crabs' invasion succeeds, they will devastate Antarctica's spectacular Paleozoic-type fauna and fundamentally alter its ecological relationships.'

In January 2007 Dr Sven Thatje and a group of ocean biologists from NOCS and BAS discovered crabs massing in deeper slightly warmer waters, ready to move into the Antarctic shallows should they warm up sufficiently.

Link

Oh fuck.

From Resistance to Alternatives. Historical overview by Éric Toussaint

2008-02-22T18:29:00.000+02:00

CADTM has published a paper by Eric Toussaint (whom I worked with during my Jubilee days) on globalisation and resistance, worth a look at. Here's a snippet:

Clearly, the living conditions of a significant part of the population are deteriorating, as much in highly industrialized countries as in other parts of the world. This deterioration affects salaries, employment, health, nutrition, the environment, education and access to culture. It affects people’s fundamental rights too, whether as individuals or communities. The decline is also evident in ecological equilibrium and in relationships between States and citizens, with the large powers resorting to military aggression. The United States is not the only aggressor; it has allies in Europe, where several countries participated in the aggressions against Iraq and Afghanistan, and some are still actively participating today. And then there is state terrorism exercised by the Israeli government against the people of Palestine, and the Russian authorities’ intervention against the Chechen people.

Signs of barbarity surround us every day

Goods, services and capital flow freely across the globe, but people from impoverished countries are blocked from going to wealthy countries. It is a form of contemporary barbarity to grant complete free circulation to capital and goods and to deny it to human beings.

In Western Europe and in the United States, it is particularly deplorable to see how asylum seekers are denied justice.

It is especially disgusting to hear many political leaders, including on the left, give credit to the idea that we cannot accommodate all of the world’s suffering and therefore it is acceptable for countries of the North to massively refuse asylum and to collectively turn away or bar entry to anyone not benefiting from this right. This type of barbarity leaves asylum seekers stranded at the European Union’s borders. Consider the people killed by firearm while trying to climb over EU-erected barriers in the Spanish enclaves in Morocco in 2005. Consider the thousands of people who lose their lives trying to cross the Strait of Gibraltar or attempting to reach the Canary Islands. This situation is obviously not limited to Europe. It is also happening along the Rio Grande at the southern United States border.

Link

Patrick Moore in SA

2008-02-22T11:37:00.002+02:00

The sellout is coming to SA. See the Antidote for details, and here's a taste:

Having been in the doldrums for decades after the nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the atomic energy industry in the USA, in a now rather familiar strategy, has been spending millions of dollars on political lobbying, establishing pro-nuclear organisations and “media outreach”. In 2006, the Nuclear Energy Institute, representing the US atomic energy industry, launched the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, which is co-chaired by Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace.

Moore, who left Greenpeace in 1986 to start a consulting firm that has worked for the logging, mining, biotech and nuclear industries, is frequently quoted in the media as an environmentalist and former Greenpeace activist who has come to the conclusion that atomic power is our only solution. The media also very commonly forget to mention that Moore now happens to be employed by the atomic power industry.

In a pro-nuclear article in this year’s January to June [2007] issue of the South African glossy magazine Greenprint, for example, Moore is quoted as a co-founder of Greenpeace, while his financial attachment to the industry he promotes is not mentioned.

Enough said.

SAMWU statement on The Budget

2008-02-22T07:23:00.001+02:00

SAMWU Press Statement
20th February 2008

SAMWU statement on The Budget

Trevor Manuel’s ‘stormy’ budget speech represented continued downpour on the poor and balmy weather for the rich. His defence of the conservative macro-economic programme of GEAR shows that despite what happened in Polokwane, government is still committed to furthering the interests of the wealthy against that of the poor.

The argument that GEAR macroeconomic policy implemented since 1996 has prepared a cushion for the general population against the current storm in the global economy is plainly wrong. GEAR has led to close to two million job losses, the destruction of large parts of the manufacturing sector, high interest rates, relaxed exchange controls that has deepened poverty in the country. South Africa is the third most unequal country in the world and this is because our government refuses to spend suficient amounts on the poor. SAMWU does not believe that the government should be perpetuating the notion that a budget surplus is healthy. The budget “surplus” must be spent on job creation, basic services, housing and relief for those in need.

The fact that VAT remains at 14% despite it being a regressive tax falling more heavily on the poor is contrary to government’s stated intention of providing poverty relief. Government income through VAT increased by 5c to 76c per loaf of white bread after the recent bread price hikes. Government will earn R1,29 billion in VAT on white bread alone this year. This is unacceptable given that it is a staple food in the country.

Whereas the Finance Minister refused to give up the R1, 29bn in white bread VAT, he has willy-nilly increased the allocation to the 2010 World Cup by R2bn, bringing the 2008/2009 budget for the World Cup to over R19 billion. Last year’s allocation was already over R5 billion more than the predicted 2009/2010 expenditure on housing, which Manuel said would be R12.5 billion. It was 29 times or R16.8 billion more than last year’s allocation for the electrification programme, and R16 billion or almost 13 times the amount allocated for bulk water and sanitation infrastructure last year. With service delivery protests reaching record highs, it is astonishing that Manuel has continued to fritter away the country’s budget on a sports event that will benefit mainly multi-national corporations.

SAMWU is also dismayed that there is no specific emphasis on eradicating the bucket system. Last year a Municipal Infrastructure Grant of R400 million was allocated for a “final push to eradicate the bucket system”. This did not eradicate the bucket system. Instead the goalposts were shifted to say that this money was for eradicating the bucket system in “formal” informal settlements only. Government failed to do even that and now has not allocated any money to complete the programme.

Instead, an additional R6 billion was allocated for housing, water and general built environment infrastructure. This will have to cover the eradication of the bucket system and the housing and water backlog. Given that the housing backlog has been costed at R50 billion, with an additional 200 000 homes per year adding to the backlog, the union believes that the additional R6 billion for housing, water and general built environment infrastructure is a pathetic drop in the vast ocean of need.

Last year, government said that they were planning for a budget surplus in the coming fiscal year to “create space for our future social security reforms and allows for rising funding levels for public sector infrastructure, improvements to education and other government priorities”. However, there is no social security reform! There is no basic income grant. And pensions and disability and child support grants have increased by only R70 and R20 per month respectively (with the R20 being phased in). Pensions have thus increased by a measly 8% whereas inflation currently stands at 9%. This means that state pensioners receive a 1% cut in real term. Child support grants increase by an annualised amount of 7,5%, a 1,5% cut in real terms. These measures are currently the major source of redistribution and their below inflationary increases will impact negatively on working class communities.

SAMWU notes that the equitable share of revenue to local government is again not equitable at all given the vast array of services local government is expected to provide. Only R6.5 billion has been allocated to local government through the equitable share, whereas defence and intelligence get R30.4 billion!

The Finance Minister referred to the inflation rate as being 7% and then later in his speech said the rate was somewhere between 5% and 11%. In fact the CPI rate is currently 9%. The budget increases are therefore not meaningful increases in real terms once inflation and the backlog in services is taken out.

On the other hand, business has once again benefitted from the budget. A further reduction in company tax rate from 29% to 28% shows us who the real winners are in Trevor’s budget. Capital does not have to give Trevor tips, he does it all for them.

Because of the failure of the government to sieze upon opportunities for redistribution, we are preparing ourselves to campaign for them. We cannot accept further delay, our people have waited long enough, and now is the time to enforce redistribution from below.

For comment please call the SAMWU National Collective Bargaining Officer Dale Forbes on 021 6971151

Power to the People

2008-02-19T08:35:00.000+02:00

Here's a new blog for you all to check out: Power to the People, an African anarchist stranded in America.

More on Africom

2008-02-18T02:50:00.000+02:00

Two decent articles on Africom and Bush's desire to turn Africa into some sort of Latin America meets Afganistan meets Guam have appeared on Pambazuka's webiste. Go here and here. At taste from Hamza Njozi's piece.

To achieve this end, they have stationed military bases all over the world. The goal of their grand strategy is to prevent any challenge to the power, position, and prestige of the United States. Since securing the supplies of oil enables the Americans to have power over her rivals and competitors, successive US governments have bombed, occupied or controlled countries with rich oil deposits. According to a government daily newspaper Habari Leo of 21 July 2007, an American oil company Helvey International and Petronet International of South Africa have signed a $313 million oil exploration contract in Tanzania. In view of how American oil companies have fleeced other oil rich countries like Ecuador, this does not augur us well.

Ted Turner's Argentina

2008-02-13T19:14:00.000+02:00

In the name of conservation, rich folks from the First World have been buying up huge tracts of the Third World for the last couple of decades. There is a distinct irony here; the very same people who have benefited from a set of economic policies that have impoverished the Global South are now buying up the South at fairly low prices.

A little while ago, CNN linked to this blog. Well, screw CNN and Ted Turner. Old Ted is now the biggest landowner in Argentina and controls the world's greatest supply of underground water. The man made his big money on dead Iraqis (Gulf War I), has repeated punted the line that US imperialism is good for the world and that ordinary people should be made into soulless wage slaves serving only the glory of Ted, Bill and the whole damn rest of that elite, rent-seeking, tax dodging crowd. Now, he physically owns a good chunk of a country that was sent down the economic ladder because of the unjust debt policies of the IMF and World Bank. Oh, hurray. Forgive me for being less than impressed:

Their near neighbours, with only slightly less eco-ambition, are the founder of CNN, Ted Turner, the financier George Soros, the fashion tycoons Luciano and Carlo Benetton, and the actors Sharon Stone and Christopher Lambert. Together, they have created vast new private wetland, coastal and mountain parks, some of which they say they plan to give to the state. Indeed, last year Turner became the largest landowner in Argentina, now owning 2m acres of Patagonia, which, he says, will be farmed "ecologically". However, some of the land sits on top of one of the world's greatest underground stores of water and he has been accused in the Argentinian press of trying to seize control of water supplies and putting Argentine farmers out of business, both of which he denies.

Link

South Africa in the dark about global warming

2008-02-12T14:11:00.000+02:00

South Africa in the dark about global warming
by Patrick Bond
The Mercury
Columnists: Eye on Civil Society
February 12, 2008 Edition 1

It is tragic but understandable that South African society ranks - with the United States and China - at the bottom of a recent worldwide climate-consciousness survey by polling firm Global Scan: only 45% of us believe global warming is a "serious problem".

Latin Americans rank above 80%, and Europeans near 70%, while the US's consciousness is at 48% and China's is at 39%.

It is understandable that we have been kept in the dark, because even in the midst of the worst national energy crisis in South Africa's living memory, the simple act of questioning who abuses our coal-burning power generators is off the agenda. Instead, to get a meagre conservation reduction of 40MW, energy minister Buyelwa Sonjica tells us: "Switch off all lights in the home when not in use and go to sleep early so that you can grow."

Critics rightly call this a trivialising blame-the-victim game, whose broader aim appears to be distracting attention from those who are most to blame: the government and crony corporations like BHP Billiton.

In a presentation he delivered to big business on January 21, Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga bragged that at $0.03 (23c) per kiloWatt hour for industrial customers after 2007 increases, his prices still remained competitive.

That's the understatement of the year, given that US electricity is three times and Danish electricity eight times more expensive than what the average firm here pays.

South African households pay more than double the industrial rate; with BHP Billiton trying to take over Rio Tinto, which is taking over Alcan, Eskom's smelter incentive at Coega will offer even cheaper power, less than $0.02 (15c) per kWh.

So it is not surprising - though something of a secret from the public - that measured by carbon dioxide emissions per unit of per-person economic output, South Africa emits 20 times more carbon dioxide than the US. That's correct: Our economy's carbon intensivity is 20 times worse than that of that Great Climate Satan, the US.

Smelters

Although most electricity consumers, the service industries, manufacturers and some gold mines have taken a hit, it appears that the foreign-owned electricity-guzzling aluminium smelters have been
untouched by the crisis. According to business journalist Mathabo le Roux: "For the duration of the power cuts, BHP Billiton's Bayside, Hillside and Mozal smelters received their full electricity complement - a formidable 2 500MW."

The smelters' consumption of electricity is hedonistic; their metals prices are 10% higher for local consumers than for international markets; they employ only a few hundred workers; their profit streams go to Melbourne; and their employees have, in the past decade, included former finance minister Derek Keys, former Eskom treasurer Mick Davis, and former national electricity regulator Xolani Mkhwanazi.

That wide a revolving door with the state tells you something about what academics term "captive regulation".....

Africom: Another US Invasion of Africa

2008-01-25T07:31:00.001+02:00

The American conquest of Africa continues on with the upcoming establishment of Africom, a permanent US military central command on the continent. The establishment of this regional military command has nothing to do with the Global War of Terror, but everything to do with Africa's oil. As I've previously stated (see "Petroleum Murder", link to the right), Africa is under a new wave of exploitation, this time, instead of people, rubber and gold, it is Chinese and American interests competing for oil.

Anyway, here's what the National Conference of Black Lawyers has to say abut Africom:

The list of Africa’s valuable mineral resources is endless: gold, diamonds, chromium, copper, etc. However, the continent’s vast oil reserves have attracted perhaps the most attention from the U.S. government. In 2002, Walter Kansteiner, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa, declared: “African oil is of strategic national interest to us and it will increase and become more important to us as we go forward.” It is easy to understand why that perception exists. Currently, the amount of oil imported by the U.S. from the Persian Gulf is about 16 percent of its total imports. By the year 2015, it is projected that 25 percent of U.S. oil imports will be from West Africa.

It is clear that, on this issue, the U.S. puts its money where its mouth is. There is a stark correlation between U.S. aid to African countries and the oil producing potential of recipient African states. To be more concrete, as the two largest oil producers on the continent, Nigeria and Angola receive the most U.S. aid.

More disturbing however (particularly for purposes of this discussion) is the level of U.S. military involvement in the protection of access to Africa’s oil. The U.S. spends about $250 million a year on military assistance programs in Africa.

This assistance is not only in the form of “peacekeeping training” but it also involves direct arms sales. As a major oil and natural gas supplier Algeria has been allowed to acquire large quantities of counter-insurgency weapons.

Link

Another bout of relentless self-promotion

2008-01-23T13:37:00.001+02:00

Go here for a podcast (direct mp3 link) of me vs. a libertarian economist on Summit TV. The topic was South Africa's energy crisis, and the debate ended on state vs. market ownership of the electricity sector. Transcript and link to mp3 file here.

Press Release: The WSF Global Day of Action in Johannesburg

2008-01-23T07:23:00.000+02:00

Press Release: The WSF Global Day of Action in Johannesburg and against neoliberal South Africa
Social Movements Indaba

The World Social Forum has taken place every year since 2001 – then in Porto Alegre in Brazil. The 2007 convergence in Nairobi called for the event in 2008 to be less a single carnival-event and rather a global day of action on 26th January that would ripple across the globe as a counter to the meeting of the global aristocracy convened in Davos at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. In Johannesburg, the Social Movements Indaba is calling an activists forum in Soweto for the day.

The global day of action is recognition of the crises that are endemic to world capitalism today. At burning ends of the system are military occupations of Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Western Sahara and Somalia where human life is incidental to imperial appetites for energy and power. In the spaces between war zones, the conflict smoulders in a similar illogic that reduces people to just another variable in an equation to maximize cost efficiencies and profit.

As people disposed of by the system in Johannesburg and in South Africa, we reject the pollution, poverty and disease it forces on our communities and the ethnic and racist divisions it spawns. Development, employment, millennium development goals and 2010 are towers of Babel for politicians and their corporate sponsors. On the ground these politicians are so fond of invoking, real world solutions to the crises begin where the capitalist system ends.

The activist forum takes place in Soweto this Sunday, 27 January, 10 am at the Career Centre, on the corner of Immink drive and Old Potch road (opposite the Lesedi clinic and adjacent to the BP garage). Activities include a film screening and a launch of a book on the World Social Forum, as well as discussions on xenophobia in South Africa, women's reproductive rights and sustainable solutions to the electricity outages. Join the activist forum to declare:
we are all Zimbabweans, Palestinians, refugees…
WE ARE THE POOR – ASINAMALI!

Contact the Social Movements Indaba secretary, Makoma Lekalakala, on 082 682-9177 or Silumko Radebe on 072 173 7268 for more information.

The Zuma coups: The need for political clarity is even greater

2008-01-21T07:41:00.000+02:00

Here's another left analysis of Zuma, this time from Lenny Gentle of Ilrig

Thanks to him for publishing under copyleft.

The Zuma coups: The need for political clarity is even greater
Leonard Gentle, January 2008

The Jacob Zuma take over at Pholokwane precipitated a range of comments and views from various sources. At one end we had the bourgeois media and the rag-tag of South African racists - for whom Jacob Zuma embodies their worst fears of an atavistic rabble placing a new Mugabe into the Presidency – predicted the worst. The recent history of the man – accused of corruption and of rape – his semi-peasant demeanour and poor formal education played into images of darkest Africa and the immanent collapse of white civilization in South Africa. And so after years of castigating Mbeki for his AIDS-denialism and his promotion of BEE this section of the media and the white middle classes suddenly saw that Mbeki spoke well (and good English at that) and that we’ve apparently had the longest period of economic growth ever and that despite the bleating about affirmative action and BEE, we’ve never had it so good. And so Mbeki (for them) became “our Man.”

In the run-in to Pholokwane in the meantime – given the high stakes involved for the filthy rich capitalists and all the beneficiaries of the new order in South Africa’s transition from apartheid to neo-apartheid (from latter day reformed apartheid to neo-liberalism) – many sections of the ruling class began hedging their bets (as did sections of the ANC leadership itself) – managing the possibility of a Zuma victory by cleaning up the man and sprinkling holy water on his past misdeeds (so we were told he is warm-hearted and a good family man and a good listener etc) and yet still having a bitter leadership contest. That is why the contest was conducted in such a bizarre, bitter, but constrained fashion. Mbeki hauled out the cabinet and old-NEC heavyweights to fight careerists and opportunists who had hijacked the ANC from its traditions of self-sacrifice and nobility (which was code for Zuma, except, nobody said so) while the Zuma camp came out with all guns blazing against ….”careerists and opportunists who had hijacked the ANC from its traditions of self-sacrifice and nobility” (which was code for Mbeki, except nobody said so!).

A range of left commentators and activists – Cronin (in 2006), Bond, Ashley, Giyose - have noted and been clear that Zuma does not represent any change at the level of state policies and that the neo-liberal project will continue and in that sense they can refer for confirmation to the ANC-spokespersons and the Zuma camp itself who have been at plans to assure the markets and the ruling class that, as far as economic policy goes, it will be “business as usual”.

This has not stopped Alliance insiders – such as Jeremy Cronin - from closing ranks around the ANC and somehow combining, in his usual way, an assurance to the markets that it will be business as usual with assuring the ANC rank-and-file that the ANC will now be more democratic and carry out Conference decisions in a more inclusive way.

But in all this the victory of the Zuma camp has now thrown up a new anomaly – almost in response to the past media vilification of Zuma and the fact that the white middle classes and their public opinion had so clearly feared a Zuma victory – some non-Stalinist left commentators have come out in celebration of the Zuma victory, as an opportunity for the left to “vuka” (Brian Ashley). Others have pointed to the possibilities opened by the “two centres of power” (Adam Habib) and that the ANC is likely to come under “left pressure” from COSATU and the SACP calling in the debts owed to them by Zuma (Ebrahim Harvey).

One of the more widely optimistic accounts is that of Munyaradzi Gwisai:

“Polokwane must not be seen in isolation but as part of the broader social polarization taking place in SA over the last three or so years and reflected in escalating fights between reformist left sections and neo-liberal sections in not only the ANC but also COSATU and SACP themselves as the Madisha example and the push for a stand-alone SACP show.

The Zuma camp victory is best understood in the context of a general resurgence in working classes struggles and of an artificial anti-poor economic recovery that Claire and Bond have detailed. Briggs is thus correct to argue that the working classes have spoken through the Zuma victory -- 'spoken' mind you and not won!”

Such misconceptions cannot go unchallenged.

The Mbeki-Zuma fight and its place in judging the present period

Brian Ashley, in his short article on the Zuma victory compares this to an electoral victory over a ruling party – except that the Zuma camp is a faction of the same party – and therefore argues that its impact is like:

“An earthquake has hit the ANC. A new leadership has wiped out the Mbeki regime in the ANC leadership race. This is comparable to a landslide victory for an opposition party in a general election. Except in this case the opposition party was a broad coalition of disgruntled elements within the ANC. A period of political instability awaits. The ‘dreaded’ two centres of power has materialised and gives rise to a lame duck President.”

Whatever one’s critiques of bourgeois general elections they do serve as a barometer of working class interest and activity and demand of any left forces that they take this interest and activity into their perspectives on the various candidates and parties and what they represent.

But Pholokwane was not a general election. Whilst the Mbeki-Zuma fight certainly captured the interest of the people … The people were not drawn into the daily electioneering and public political choices that general elections entail. Instead most of them watched it on TV or listened in the radio. They may have been intensely interested but Pholokwane was a symbol of their absence from political engagement rather than an expression of their active involvement. So the comparison with a general election is a loose analogy taken too far.

Of course splits within a ruling bourgeois party, including bruising leadership battles, can take on a much wider significance for the working class – if they are an outcome of heightened class struggles which place intolerable pressures on all parties, even the ruling bourgeois party. We witnessed, throughout the 1970s and 1980s in South Africa, how the ruling apartheid Nationalist Party split into various groupings (Vorster vs. the HNP, the verligtes and the verkramptes, Botha vs. Mulder, De Klerk vs. Botha etc) as its various factions were forced to respond to the increasingly insurrectionary mass movement.

Equally, we can identify instances of how mass struggles are heightened as long-simmering discontent suddenly spills over, precipitated by events within the ruling elite. The recent Kenyan events are an interesting example. The Raila Odinga campaign was one conducted by an ex-Minster of Kibaki’s government, with no programmatic differences between Odinga and Kibaki. In that sense, like Zuma-Mbeki it was an in-house dispute within the ruling elite, as has been the case for the last 20 years of neo-liberalism throughout many parts of the world where the people are asked to vote for candidates who are unified in their commitment to neo-liberal capitalism. But the people had clearly elected Odinga, and, seeing this choice stolen from them by electoral fraud, broke out into led mass action against all the perceived symbols of Kenya’s rotten elite.

In each of these instances the intra-ruling party splits/tensions are significant because they are barometers, indices of processes taking place somewhere else – amongst the broader working class masses.

The problem with the left-Zuma enthusiasts is that they take as their point of departure developments within the state and the ruling party and not the state of the working class movement – its ebbs and flows, its strengths and weaknesses - itself. They therefore want to derive radical campaign possibilities from this (Ashley) or define future options for the left about the political orientation from this (Gwisai).

Zuma’s quest for the Presidency has been obstructed now for some two years. Where were the mass protests before? When he was sacked as Deputy Minister? And, more recently, charged with corruption? Where the expressions of unbridled joy at his victory? To be sure there was joy amongst the shops stewards in COSATU, the ANC and SACP members, but in the last 5 years of self-activity amongst the working class how representative are these?

The Zuma camp and the state of the movements

Patrick Bond correctly speaks about the some 5000-odd incidents of struggles per year in SA – dubbed the service delivery revolts – which have been the key indicator and expression of the state of struggles in SA today. In these struggles a new movement and a new vanguard is being forged whose political identity and programme is still some way off. Layers of activists are learning who their friends are and who they are up against, what forms of organisation are appropriate and what tactics and strategic turns may benefit their struggles and take them forward. In this period casualties are high and episodic victories are combined with temporary setbacks and defeats. These experiences are daily being distilled, and as some comrades fall or suffer burn-out or death, new ones are emerging. The service delivery revolts are defensive and localised in nature and there is no a priori guarantee that they will coalesce and, if so, on the basis of what programme. But any possibility of a new mass movement can only emerge in the midst of such working class self-activity.

In this we can draw on our recent history of such preparatory periods – the early to late 1970s for one – of how such a tide of struggle grows and how the new vanguard absorbs lessons and pours its energy into new organisations – the SRCs of 1976 and 1980, the shop stewards locals of the East Rand, the early civics in the Eastern Cape etc.

The difference with that period is that the newly-honed activists found their home in the UDF and COSATU, and ultimately, the ANC, and in so doing not only found political expression for their struggles but also transformed the ANC – as they had done to the ANC in the 1950s – into a mass working class organisation, albeit with the baggage of a petit-bourgeois leadership in exile (while its SACP partner churned out the Brezhnev sophistries from Prague and Moscow).

A key feature of the current conjuncture however, as has been the case since the late 1990s, is the distance of all of the older movements – COSATU, SANCO and the ANC – from these struggles, and the shrinking of these movements into self-serving husks. Indeed the first response from the Alliance was to deny the existence and legitimacy of these struggles (from 2001- 2005) - and then, later, having found that they refused to lie down, to attempt to co-opt them (e.g. the SACP’s land campaigns and Red October campaigns, COSATU’s call to their affiliates to go and “give leadership” (??) to these struggles). So the struggles remain a work-in-progress in which all sections of the self-styled left have to themselves learn and relearn about mass struggles and how to have their perspectives tested in practice (and even, possibly, found wanting), about who the friends of the new activists are and what they may have to offer the new movements.

In this many sections of the non-Stalinist left have had to be self-critical about imposing their own identities on the struggles and declaring them, as if they already constitute the basis of a left alternative or a new party – evidence of such has already marked some of the interventions of sections of the left in these struggles, often leaving embittered activists with lessons of sectarian battles and over-optimistic calls for national organisation.

But a key and critical feature of the current conjuncture, in respect of the Zuma phenomenon, is the fact that the struggles of the last few years – the 5000 per year, the Khutsongs, the Kennedy Roads, the Harrismiths, the Sebokengs, the Joe Slovos etc have bypassed the Zuma process by completely, have not poured into ANC branches, into the SACP or revived COSATU locals or its affiliates (let alone the Gucci-suited ANCYL).

Not only has Zuma and his camp been entirely complicit in GEAR, AIDs-denialism and all the elements of the neo-liberal project and the fusing of the ANC with the machinery of the state, the Zuma camp have stood outside of and opposed to the waves of new struggles of the last 5 years. The Zuma camp is thus not only not a register of current struggles it is a distraction from these struggles.

In this regard the Zuma campaign is not the blunt instrument underpinned by popular mass working class action. Zuma is not the iconic face of a groundswell of militancy of thousands of activists who have channelled their daily protests into ANC branches. Instead it is an opportunist movement contesting the spoils of patronage made possible by their man holding state instruments in his hands. This can be seen by the new NEC and its most notable feature – in addition to Zuma’s own taint of corruption – is the election of the travelgate MPs, the forged licence scam MPs, the bugging and rogue emails bureaucrats and the beneficiaries of the arms deal. And this can be seen in the form of the standing of the sponsors of the Zuma campaign (in ascending order of importance) – the ANCYL, the SACP of Blade Nzimande, and the COSATU of Zwelenzima Vavi.

How have these forces related to the working class self-activity of recent years?

Each of the above triumvirate has stood opposed to current struggles.

In the case of the ANCYL we can examine its relations to the phenomenon of youth militancy over the last period, say 5 – 10 years. Over this period there have been dozens of student youth struggles – albeit not nearly on the scale as the mass people’s education struggles of the 70s and 80s – from the university students at both the old “bush colleges” and the previously white universities fighting exclusions and high fees to struggles against poor school resources. All of these struggles have passed the ANCYL completely by, as has been the case with the other older student youth organisations – COSAS, the university SRCs - and the newer post-Apartheid Youth commissions. The ANCYL has only been notable for its pronouncements on the Springbok team and for lining up to take Brett Kebble’s money.

In the case of the township youth every study of new social movements, of the waves of township activism and the service delivery revolts have emphasised the fact that they have been overwhelmingly female and that the key activists have been unemployed youth – ostensibly the ANCYL’s natural constituency. Yet in not a single case has the ANCYL been a rallying point or a register of these struggles and there is no evidence of the swelling of the ranks of the ANCYL from these activists.

In the case of the SACP there are clearly many instances of the SACP being a port of call for activists taking up struggles and, indeed the SACP branches and members have been active in heading up struggles in Khutsong and, to a much lesser extent, in Khayelitsha. These instances are however counter-hegemonic episodes in the SACP. While it is not excluded that such instances can exert a left pressure inside the SACP – and we have witnessed instances of campaigns for SACP independence from the ANC (e.g. running candidates in its own name in future elections) in the run-up to the Party’s Congress in August 2007, and the ditching of certain SACP stalwarts in government in the Party’s Central Committee elections – it is important to note that the Party leadership under Blade Nzimande was able to beat off these impulses. So one of the principal co-sponsors of the Zuma campaign – Nzimande - is not a bearer of the militancy on the ground but an opponent of that militancy – insofar as it manifested itself in his own organisation.

Probably the most effective of the Zuma campaigners was COSATU, who was able to rally its shop steward and organiser layer in a much more systematic way than Mbeki and his acolytes thought possible. They are the most likely source of the “renewed” ANC branch members who swept Zuma into power. But are they an index of worker militancy in this period? A source of renewal of a militant ANC?

Gwisai and others speak of a “strike wave” in South Africa in 2007, citing recent strike statistics. To be sure 2007 saw such important strikes such as the public sector strike and we have commented on some of the important features of the strike – its duration, its bringing together new layers of the employed into strike activity etc. But a strike wave? No, these were a series of wage strikes by workers in sectors – public sector, chemicals and engineering – where the unions had been railroaded into 3 year agreements before and, because those agreements had expired, wage negotiations were therefore routinely due in 2007. And of these only the public sector strike took on the semblance of a sustained nation-wide activity. And – most significantly for the arguments being posed here - where the COSATU leadership were notable for seeking to end the strike before the workers wanted to and where they even announced an agreement publicly before any mandates were received. This is the same leadership around Vavi who now present themselves as the champions of the Zuma project.

At a deeper level of the composition of COSATU and the structure of the trade unions, activists and commentators from Buhlungu to Lehulere have written on the increasingly skilled, white-collar nature of the workers at the heart of COSATU and the increasing distance between them and the blue-collar, casualised, feminised majority of workers. To this must be added the plethora of institutions and tripartite mechanisms which have begun to tie a whole layer of COSATU worker-leaders as semi-professional participants in institutions such as NEDLAC (and in some instances PEDLACs), bargaining councils, SETAS, IDP forums, proudly South Africa committees, workplace forums etc whilst conducting tortuous talks in the CCMMA etc. This layer is not a source of renewal for a militant labour movement. This layer is instead concerned with the protection of these blind alleys – inside which they live and breathe so much of their lives – and Zuma’s assurances of being “more consultative” clearly find resonance here. This is the kind of “labour patronage” equivalent of the Zuma patronage associated with the arms deal and BEE get-rich-quick schemes. This layer has been hostile to the new militants fighting struggles in the townships. This layer has also sought to use bargaining council thresholds and union majoritarianism to keep out smaller militant unions and to discipline workers from strikes. Zuma’s sponsorship by this COSATU is no conduit for left or popular pressure on an ANC government, now or in the future.

The hype about the ANC Policy Conference

An important source of the Zuma optimism amongst the SACP leadership is the renewal of the idea that the principal strategic task is the battle for the soul of the ANC. The Zuma victory therefore plays to this narrative and his victory against the cabinet and government of Mbeki is a celebration of the long-held conviction by Cronin and others that Mbeki had long flouted ANC positions, so that there was legitimacy in battling neo-liberalism by battling to wrest the ANC from the control of the Mbeki faction (of course there was no consistency here because a year ago Cronin was warning the left not to see Zuma as an alternative to Mbeki … but that is another story).

It is undoubtedly true that the saga of how the Mbeki faction within the ANC wrested control from the ANC of the UDF, COSATU, the street committees and after its unbanning – the ANC branches – is a decisive one in understanding how South Africa could shift from the popular insurrectionary period of the 1980s to the neo-liberalism of the late 1990s onwards. This is a story that has yet to be fully analysed, published and widely discussed amongst activists today as an abject lesson to be learnt. But by 1996 – the announcement of GEAR - and even before that with the acceptance by the ANC of the neo-liberal features within the Constitutional – the ANC had crossed the class lines, from a mass formation to a neo-liberal ruling class party. The Mbeki project of wresting control from the ANC branches and the Alliance was complete by 1996 and its new monopoly capitalist ruling class status has come complete with a perspective of pursuing imperialist ambitions on the world stage. In this the ANC has become the Southern (along with FRELIMO, MPLA and others) variant of other erstwhile mass formations – such as the British Labour Party and others – who have completely and irreversibly cut ties with their working class base (except for making electoral appeals to sections of the class in the usual way all bourgeois parties appeal to electorates to win elections).

Because the ANC has detached itself from its erstwhile working class Zuma could but only campaign on the basis that he is the more “authentic ANC”, that he will “listen” etc whilst sticking to the same policies. Apart from the man’s own inclinations to peddle the same neo-liberal policies of Mbeki (that he was so much part and parcel of driving through) – he had no alternative base within the ANC for such alternative policies.

Now Vavi and others would have it otherwise … and they claim an important victory in the form of, firstly, the July Policy Conference resolutions of the ANC – which they claim was a step to the left – and the commitment by Zuma that (apparently unlike Mbeki) he would respect ANC Policy Conference decisions. But were the July Policy Conference decisions by the ANC a shift to the left, a victory for COSATU?

Dinga Sikwebu has noted that the COSATU hype about the so-called “left” shift of the ANC conference is just that – hype:

“But another reading of the outcomes of the ANC policy conference can lead to a less-optimistic assessment. Firstly, nowhere in the resolutions is there enthusiasm from the ANC for reconfiguring the Tripartite Alliance. The resolution on organisational renewal notes the call from Cosatu for a pact and the debate within the SACP on electoral options for the party, but dismissively states that the “ANC respects the right of individual Alliance partners to discuss and arrive at their own decisions on how they seek to pursue their strategic objectives. Consistent with this principle, the ANC will continue to determine, in its own structures and processes, how best to advance its own strategic objectives”. Issues such as the establishment of a state-owned bank, mining, steel, energy and information & communication technology parastatals, which Cosatu lists as indicators of a shift, have been sent back to branches. So are issues such as rural development strategy, land reform and the debate on the appropriateness of running a surplus as an element of fiscal policy.”

The second notable thing about the ANC policy conference is how bland some of the resolutions are. What does a call on the state to “ensure proper management and exploitation of strategic mineral and energy resources” mean? Cosatu celebrates this as an “interventionist approach to use of mineral resources”. Does a reference to a “new and more equitable growth path” warrant a celebration when there are no details on what that path entails? What is clear is that Cosatu uses a different measuring stick to the one developed at its congress last year, in its evaluation of the ANC policy conference. The federation’s congress identified implementation of the Freedom Charter provisions, abolition of legislation that leads to casualisation and an end to privatisation and commodified service delivery, as the criteria to assess whether the ANC was moving leftwards or not. None of these can be found in the conference’s outcome.

Thirdly, a different reading of the resolutions will reveal that notions like the developmental state and industrial strategy are not new ANC and government policies. A survey of ANC documents from the 1990s will show how the two concepts have been part of the organisation’s policy arsenal. The resolution for a national health insurance also goes back to the 1997 ANC national conference in Mafikeng. The Stellenbosch ANC conference in 2002 called on the government “to continue with plans towards a comprehensive social security system”. So was its identification of the use of monetary policy “in a flexible manner, consistent with broad aims of the ANC economic policy, including job creation, investment and poverty eradication”.

Sikwebu goes on to say:

“It is obvious that the political strategy to contest the direction of the ANC predisposes Cosatu to seeing shifts where none exist or when their qualitative impact on the working class and the poor is uncertain.”

In this he finds affirmation in the words of the ANC’s economic transformation coordinator Michael Sacks:

“It is becoming predictable that whenever the ANC meets, Cosatu will declare a shift leftwards. This is what the federation said when the ANC had its national general council (NGC) in Port Elizabeth in 2000. Cosatu also referred to a shift after the Stellenbosch national conference in 2002. Similar pronouncements were made when we had another NGC in 2005”. [what has been happening within the ANC since 2000 is a] process of policy development in which as the ANC gains experience, it fine tunes and adapts its policies”.

So the promise of a Zuma presidency respecting ANC policy decisions as a counterweight to neo-liberalism, as a source of left pressure, has been shown to be misleading (this of course would have been very different if we had been talking about the pre-1996 ANC).

This, let us be kind, “misreading” of the ANC’s trajectory has been a feature of the pronouncements of the COSATU and SACP leadership since 1996 and can be put in the same dustbin with other such over-optimistic victory claims such as the celebration of the “developmental state”, the “post-GEAR consensus”, “restructuring of state assets” (who now still remembers how this was claimed in 1996 as a victory against privatisation?), ASGISA etc etc.

The Left and the “two centres of power”

Fundamentally there aren’t two centres of power – in the Marxist sense, as two contending sets of class forces. However real and acrimonious the fights are, they are about wooing bourgeois power whilst seeking access to patronage. But this does not mean that the Zuma-Mbeki fight is irrelevant to the broader working class or that a future Zuma presidency (of the country) would not be different. We cannot know the details of the latter in advance and we cannot here project the exact balance of forces in two years’ time or how the ANC will attempt to manage its own internal organisational crisis.

We can however say something about the character of the Zuma camp now and we can say something about what impact its existence as a rival to the Mbeki camp will have on political debates amongst activists over the next two years.

First as regards the Zuma camp, its character as the camp of patronage presents a whole series of challenges for the people. Having won the ANC vote – and assuming he can survive the legal indictment (which is by no means certain, but more of that later) - Zuma will have to prove himself to big capital, to the “markets”. He has already begun this – placating investors, meeting CIA-funded business groups etc. But they will up their ante, demand more than just verbal assurances (it has always been noteworthy that while the media have speculated that Zuma owes his backers – COSATU etc - something, they fail to see how Zuma has to prove himself even more to his new backers – big capital). In this regard it is not unlikely that Zuma’s assurances that it’s “business as usual” in respect of Mbeki’ neo-liberal policies may require an additional sop to big business to make those assurances convincing.

Because the Zuma camp is a camp of patronage (which has accused Mbeki of using state machinery to fight political battles), we may see more instances of contested abuse of fiefdoms who control different components of the state bureaucracy. More Scorpions vs. Selebi, fights between the SAP and the Scorpions, within the Intelligence sector, scraps over state tenders and BEE deals, over the composition of the judiciary etc - a decline in the “rule of law”. Whilst the left have always seen through the nature of bourgeois laws and how they sanctify private property and exploitation, worker activists have never been indifferent to the issue of due process in law, of competent judges, of the civic freedoms that have been an important part of mass struggles for democratic rights conducted over most of the twentieth century. In that sense a faction based on patronage and having to deliver jobs for pals, having seen its rival’s use of state institutions; a faction loaded with arms dealers and other crooks, who will want their deals, their tenders etc is no friend of worker activists.

Zuma’s rape trial also revealed his sexism and unleashed a frenzy of misogynism amongst some of his supporters. He has compounded this with homophobic comments – all of which reveal a man suffused with sexism. Mbeki’s courting of a women candidate for President - the Zuma camp saw this as a ploy to stop “their man” – provided grist to the mill for their misogynistic impulses (we heard how Vavi attacked the Mbeki camp for this idea of having a woman president and accused it of “womanising”). The Zuma camp will be at best a deadweight on women’s struggles for liberation, and at worst, give vent to and strengthen male domination in South African politics. To be sure male domination is a lot wider than Zuma but the fact that his public face has been so explicitly tied to sexual power – from the rape accusation, to his many wives – all will make things more difficult for feminist activists to challenge male domination in our movements.

Moreover the Zuma camp also includes direct appeals to reactionary Zulu identity (100% Zulu boy) – playing into the hands of divisive politics which the ANC, the UDF and COSATU spent so much time, and lives, attempting to transcend, and which was so exploited by Inkatha and the Apartheid state in the 1970s and 80s. The struggle for a non-racial mass movement has become harder.

But, and in some ways even more challenging than these will be the fact that for the next two years the prism of the “Mbeki-ites versus the Zuma-ites”, of the “ANC versus the Government” is likely to be a prism that the COSATU and SACP leadership will use to view all struggles - an ideological template that activists will be exhorted to use to understand all struggles and to frame tactical and strategic choices facing movements. One saw this already in the 2007 NUMSA wage deadlocks in both engineering and the auto sectors, where leadership assessed the validity and duration of strike action, not from the readiness of the workers and the moral legitimacy of their cause, but from whether the strike strengthened the hands of Zuma or Mbeki. One saw this as well in the public sector strike where media pundits latched onto the strike as a Jacob Zuma-factional attempt to embarrass Mbeki. In this sense the struggle for political clarity and regeneration within the labour movement just got harder.

Whilst the township-based struggles of the social movements may have passed the Zuma-faction by and whilst the Zuma-ites may have been in opposition to the militancy of these struggles, this does not mean that the activists involved define themselves as in opposition to the ANC, or even to neo-liberalism. Elsewhere in this paper I have characterised the activists involved in these struggles as a new set of working class opinion makers, a new vanguard, but one still shaping their politics, their tactics, strategies and potential allies and organisational forms. One of the key tasks facing them is the issue of political clarity, of unmasking any illusions in bourgeois legitimacy and the racist, sexist, capitalist ideology which perpetuates this legitimacy. At the head of the project of legitimising these capitalist social relations is the ruling party – the ANC. That rule is mediated by a whole series of formations which entrench that rule but have roots in the working class – chiefly COSATU and the SACP. In the case of COSATU these roots also mean that the labour movement can be sources of revolutionary change together with the township based activists in the social movements. But to achieve greater unity between the labour movement and the new social movements demands a greater sense of political clarity amongst the militant activists conducting struggles, about who the enemy is – neoliberal capitalism and its ruling party, the ANC.

The struggle for that clarity is likely to be conducted under more difficult circumstances whilst the Zuma-Mbeki factional struggles and Zuma’s ambitions for the Presidency, including his forthcoming court case, are used by ANC/SACP leaders to attempt to intervene in the direction of struggles in the next period. Let those on the left, who claim revolutionary politics, not join them in this project.

Eskom may Delay Alcan Smelter until 2013

2008-01-18T14:59:00.000+02:00

Press Release: Eskom may Delay Alcan Smelter until 2013
Earthlife Africa Jhb
17th of January 2008

According to an article in today’s Business Report (“Shelve new projects, Eskom warns”), Eskom financial director is asking the Government to stop marketing South Africa as a low-cost electricity investment centre. This would include delaying, until 2013, the controversial and proposed Alcan aluminium smelter at Coega. The Alcan was the subject of intense civil society, local Port Elizabeth, and international opposition in 2007.

Eskom’s financial director, Mr. Bongani Nqwababa, is reported to have said, in regards to the Alcan smelter, that, "Eskom needs to review supply to Coega", and that paying penalties for the delaying the project would be cheaper than building a new power station, which is what the proposed smelter would require.

Earthlife Africa Jhb welcomes this reasoned and enlightened viewpoint and hopes that this is the beginning of responsible energy supply planning, especially in the current climate of load shedding. Responsible energy planning requires demand management and industrial energy efficiency.

Next Wednesday, Cabinet meets to discuss energy supply problems. Earthlife Africa Jhb urges Cabinet to reject the tariff policy (the Developmental Electricity Pricing Programme (DEPP)) under which the 25-year contract with Alcan was signed. Abandoning the DEPP would help to ensure security of electricity supply for South Africa’s ordinary citizens.

As explained below, the DEPP ensures that contracts between the State and foreign corporations remain secret and not for public review. This is extremely anti-democratic.

The Energy Policy Officer of Earthlife Africa Jhb, Tristen Taylor, states, “The big question that should be asked when Eskom turns off the lights is; why, if Eskom can't supply electricity to the citizens of this country, is it offering foreign companies large amounts of power at reduced tariffs? Must individuals and small businesses suffer so that large industries can be assured profit? It seems that Mr. Nqwababa understands these questions and has suggested it would be irresponsible to supply the Canadian multinational corporation Alcan before supplying electricity to the citizens and voters of this country.”

Alcan & Electricity Supply Background

Via the Developmental Electricity Pricing Programme, Eskom and the Government have committed themselves to large-scale supply of electricity to foreign companies at reduced tariffs; this at a time when Eskom struggles to supply citizens with electricity. Thirty percent of all South Africans are still not connected to the electricity grid.

The electricity supply deal to the Canadian aluminium-smelting firm Alcan was the first and to date the only deal to be signed under the DEPP.

For the past two years, Earthlife Africa Jhb has consistently called upon the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Public Enterprises, Eskom and Alcan to disclose the details of electricity sales to Alcan for its proposed smelter. Both the South African Government and Alcan have hidden behind a profoundly anti-democratic clause in the Developmental Electricity Pricing Programme (DEPP). Alcan is the first foreign company to benefit from the DEPP, and has signed a 25-year deal for 1350MW supply of electricity. This represents about 4% of the entire country's usage.

What is the DEPP? Essentially, the DEPP provides for uniquely discounted electricity tariffs for foreign industries that are heavy consumers of electricity (over 50MW) in South Africa. In return for investment in South Africa, the DEPP will ensure that electricity tariffs are internationally competitive (our nearest competitor is Australia, which sells electricity at US$0.053 per kWh and is 30% more expensive) and that the industry in question can achieve an profitable internal rate of return; i.e. if electricity is a major overhead (such as in aluminium smelting), it the tariff will be low enough to ensure profit.

This is a significant incentive for heavy industry to invest in South Africa and is supposed to provide significant jobs. However, what it really does is commit Eskom to tariffs for heavy industry at a rate lower (or, at most, on par with the next cheapest supplier of electricity) than anywhere else. It is, in effective, a subsidy for foreign industries, similar to a tax break or import duty waiver.

The most worrying factor about the DEPP is the "built-in" secrecy clause. Eskom is a public enterprise, ultimately owned by the citizenry at large. However, the DEPP guidelines ensure that any contracts signed under the DEPP are to remain secret. This is profoundly anti-democratic. The DEPP states (clause 12.1):

All officials, employees or members of the Department, the adjudication committee, NERSA, Eskom and non Eskom distributors shall regard as confidential all technical information, records, particularly any strategic commercial information and all knowledge that pertains to any project that applied for benefits in terms of DEPP, whether such information is recorded on paper or in an electronic manner.

The very next clause (12.2) in the guidelines bounds individuals with knowledge about the contracts to silence for the rest of their lives.

If the DEPP is a method for promoting growth and development in South Africa, why then the secrecy? Why shouldn't this be in the public domain? This clause gives foreign corporations like Alcan the right to build electricity-intensive industrial plant in South Africa, get electricity on favourable terms in relation to their expected rate of return, and not to have to tell the country at large what rate they purchased electricity from the South African state. Further, this clause seems at odds with the spirit of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, through a pre-emptive strike against the releasing of information.

The DEPP deal with Alcan means that the citizens of this country won't know the answers to the following questions:

* What is the price of electricity agreed upon by Alcan and Eskom?
* What are the conditions of supply of electricity?
* Will the price paid to Eskom cover the indirect costs of smelter? For example, the environmental group TWIG has calculated that the indirect costs of harm to the environment based on Eskom CO2 emissions to supply the smelter with electricity would be R6.4 billion.

Japan Takes Hostages

2008-01-16T07:43:00.000+02:00

The Japanese whaling fleet has taken hostages in its bid to continue the extermination of creatures that, as of yet, have not invaded the Japanese mainland. Obviously, the Japanese believe in the Bush doctrine of preemptive war. The Japanese whaling fleet took two activists from the anti-whaling ship, Steve Irwin, hostage and demanded that the Steve Irwin stay 10 nautical miles away from whaling fleet in order for the hostages to be returned:

"We are happy to hand the two men back in exchange for a couple of agreements -- that they remain 10 nautical miles away from the vessel," Glenn Inwood, spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, told Australian media.

Hideki Moronuki, of the Fisheries Agency of Japan, told Australian media that as soon as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society accepted the conditions regarding the safety of the Japanese vessel "they will release the two illegal intruders."

But Paul Watson, captain of the militant anti-whaling group's ship, rejected the condition. "When you are holding hostages and you make demands, that is the definition of terrorism," Watson said from his ship, the Steve Irwin.

The Institute of Cetacean Research has in turn called the anti-whaling activists "terrorist," for illegally boarding a ship on the high seas.

Australian Benjamin Potts and Briton Giles Lane boarded the Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru No. 2 late on Tuesday. Sea Shepherd said they were delivering a letter advising the crew they were "illegally killing whales."

Japanese fishing authorities said the pair boarded the whaler after making attempts to entangle the screw of the vessel using ropes and throwing bottles of acid onto the decks. Sea Shepherd said the pair only threw stink bombs of rancid butter.

Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australian diplomats in Tokyo received guarantees from Japan's government that the two men would be released immediately after accusations by Watson that they were "roughed up" by the Japanese crew.

Link

Kenya Events

2008-01-11T07:30:00.000+02:00

For information about continued violence and repression in Kenya, go to Action Alerts. Sokari, at Black Looks, is also posting about the situation. In a recent post, Sokari stated:

For those who have been closely monitoring the events in Kenya over the past two weeks, political activist and author of the Kenyan Democracy Project blog, Onyango Oloo has written an excellent analysis of the opposing political consensus in Kenya. From the progressive side is the view that a “civilian coup with increasingly fascist tendencies” has taken place and set in motion a rage from the poor masses who have turned their betrayal and anger against each other in a frenzy of ethnic based violence which if not stopped “threatens the very notion of Kenya.” The treat is not just to Kenya but also for the major capitalist players…..

Go check them out. They know far more than I will ever do about Kenya.

Say Goodbye to Leatherback Turtles

2008-01-10T07:51:00.000+02:00

The leatherback turtle is on the way; so, book a ticket, go to some exotic beach, find one (if you can), and take a picture hugging it. At least then, you'll have a tall tale to tell your great-grandchildren about the monsters of the deep that were wiped out in the 21st Century. I wonder, what will you say when they ask you why? Will you tell them that it was because of all those seafood meals you had? They may even get angry at you for leaving them a world of protein pills, concrete and the never-ending war on terror. History's condemnation of us will be harsh. Back to the the turtles:

The leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), the largest living species of sea turtle, is said to be in grave danger in Pacific waters. Turtles are among the world's creatures that survived the dinosaur age.

It could be the first of the turtle species to disappear from this part of the world unless remedial action is taken, says Penina Solomona, the Regional Marine Officer with the WWF South Pacific Programme...

...Asked if turtles were similarly threatened Morley said: "Absolutely. Once a species fall below a certain population size, they can fall into what we call an extinction vortex -- driven by things like loss of genetic diversity (which increases the likelihood for disease and genetic inbreeding), demographic imbalances (more of one sex than another), the allee affect (when they can't find reproductive partners), and they are more prone to environmental stochasticity (floods, droughts etc)...

...While several species of sea turtle are taken for food, the giant leatherback turtle is said to be the most threatened as they are accidentally caught and killed in long line fisheries. It is currently identified as 'critically endangered' and many scientists fear that unless threats to these animals are negated, they could suffer the same fate as the white dolphins.

"At the current rate of decline, there will definitely be a point in time when turtles will no longer exist," said Penina.

Link

Dumping in the Ocean

2008-01-09T07:11:00.000+02:00

As stated before, overfishing is wiping out our oceans. We're also doing particularly nasty things like dumping chemical weapons, mercury, and nuclear reactors into the ocean. Things are not good when pregnant women can't eat fish due to high levels of mercury:

While the hadal zone is almost entirely unexplored, it is not untouched, for humans have been bombarding it with an array of materials ranging from deadly toxins to entire ships. The number of vessels lost to the deep during wars is well known, but what is more surprising is the number lost in peacetime. According to Lloyd's register, an average of one ship was lost at sea every two days between 1971 and 1990, and a great many go down with their cargoes and polluting fuel oil aboard. Yet these are some of the mildest threats to the abyss. Until 1972 it was a common practice to dump unwanted munitions at sea, including chemical weapons. Britain alone has dumped 137,000 tons of unwanted chemical weapons at sea, and some of the chemicals still remain in solid form on the bottom.

Following 1946 a far more ominous kind of waste began to be dumped—radioactive material. Until the practice was banned in 1993, 142,000 tons of such waste had been dumped in the North Atlantic alone. Secrecy makes it difficult to know the full extent of the problem, but in 1993 it was revealed that the Russians had illicitly dumped seventeen entire nuclear reactors into the Arctic Sea. Some marine creatures concentrate radioactive elements in their bodies. The liver-like glands of one species of shrimp, for example, have levels of polonium-210 a million times that of seawater, which makes scientists worry about the consequences of this deadly dumping.

Other pollutants include industrial waste and sewage, compounds that, among other effects, cause sex changes in mollusks, as well as chlorinated hydrocarbons (the villains of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring), mercury (most of which comes from burning coal on land, and provides the reason why pregnant women should abstain from fish), and cadmium, which can destroy organs in humans. As Tony Koslow piquantly reminds us, "neither distance nor depth shields the deep sea from pollution." Rather, our pollutants rain down from the sky and sea surface in a relentless stream, and like the sump of an engine, the deep is where much of the muck accumulates. But unlike a sump, the pollutants of the deep don't stay there. Instead they find their way back to us in the fish we eat.

Link (via Bradford Plummer)

Goldman on Marriage and Capitalism

2008-01-08T05:11:00.000+02:00

I couldn't agree more than with Emma Goldman's position on marriage and capitalism:

It [marriage] is like that other paternal arrangement ---capitalism. It robs man of his birthright, stunts his growth, poisons his body, keeps him in ignorance, in poverty and dependence, and then institutes charities that thrive on the last vestige of man's self-respect.

For her take on love and its relationship with freedom:

Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful moulder of human destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that poor little State and Church-begotten weed, marriage?

Free love? As if love is anything but free! Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love. Man has subdued bodies, but all the power on earth has been unable to subdue love. Man has conquered whole nations, but all his armies could not conquer love. Man has chained and fettered the spirit, but he has been utterly helpless before love. High on a throne, with all the splendor and pomp his gold can command, man is yet poor and desolate, if love passes him by. And if it stays, the poorest hovel is radiant with warmth, with life and color. Thus love has the magic power to make of a beggar a king. Yes, love is free; it can dwell in no other atmosphere. In freedom it gives itself unreservedly, abundantly, completely. All the laws on the statutes, all the courts in the universe, cannot tear it from the soil, once love has taken root.

Link: "Marriage and Love", 1911

Revised Three Laws of Robotics

2008-01-07T07:56:00.000+02:00

Every so often, I come across something on the net that sends me howling into the night. Here's a taste of the revised Three Laws of Robotics from Warren Ellis:

1. Robots couldn’t really give a fuck if you live or die. Seriously. I mean, what are you thinking? “Ooh, I must protect the bag of meat at all costs because I couldn’t possibly plug in the charger all on my own.” Shut the fuck up.

Link

Church 'Was Complicit in Slave Trade, Racism, Colonialism'

2008-01-04T08:47:00.000+02:00

An article from Africa Files:

AFRICA: Church 'Was Complicit in Slave Trade, Racism, Colonialism'
RUNAWAY BAY, December 18, 2007 (CISA) -Protestant and evangelical theologians want world Christianity to own up to its role in the horrific trade in Africans by Europeans up to 200 years ago.

Between the 16th and 19th century, some 15 million enslaved Africans were forcibly taken away by European traders, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean and landed in the Caribbean and the Americas. Another 6 million slaves died in transit.

The evil trade particularly profited England, Portugal, France, Spain, and Holland, and is the basis for Euro-American wealth, the theologians said. All people of white European ancestry who had no direct involvement in the slavery or the Slave Trade nevertheless were beneficiaries of the enslavement system.

“Many churches were actively involved in the Transatlantic Trade in Africans and colonialism; hence, the church's mission has been seriously compromised and betrayed by its historic complicity with two of the most blatant forms of oppression that occurred within the 16th to 19th centuries,” the theologians said in Jamaica last week.

“Further, the church's pastoral and prophetic roles in the contemporary period are obstructed by its voluntary amnesia about its past corporate sin and silence regarding the past - as well as regarding the present - responsibility to bring justice to those still suffering from the legacy of the Transatlantic Trade in Africans and cultural imperialism.”

The church is also guilty of promoting racism and colonialism that destroyed African societies, said the theologians in a conference to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the formal end of the Slave Trade.

The theologians, from the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Church and the Council for World Mission, said Africans are owed reparations by the Europeans who enslaved their forefathers.

“We believe that reparations are essential for the healing of peoples who were once enslaved. Reparations go far beyond a financial figure; rather, reparations are about recognizing the wrong that has been done. It is a process that compels confession, contrition, restoration and reconciliation; it also involves a process or truth-telling that sets rights, makes amends and restores breached relationships.

“Reparations from both the church and society are needed, and these reparations are both praxis and prophetic - naming the wrongs that have been done is praxis or an action-reflection model; righting the wrongs, is a prophetic action.”

Pope John Paul II and the archbishop of Canterbury Rowan William expressed remorse for the church’s role in the Slave Trade.

But the theologians said the apologies have not been effective enough in eradicating white supremacy, systemic racism and the ongoing legacy of the Transatlantic Trade in Africans.

The scholars said descendants of the legacy of racism had the memory, voice, cultural resources, religious resources, and spiritual gifts, prerequisites for helping the church address its current predicament.

“If our voices are heard, then, the church might be better able to realize true community in identifying with the oppressed through the cross of Jesus Christ, and the church might be better able to live out an action-reflection model by verily assuming the form of the enslaved.”

See full text of the theologians’ statement at: www.oikoumene.org/?id=5388

Link: www.africafiles.org

Ozymandias

2008-01-03T09:28:00.000+02:00

Percy Shelley's poem (1818). A bit of hope for those who think that political change won't happen.

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Chomsky on Anarcho-capitalism

2007-12-30T07:34:00.000+02:00

Anarcho-capitalism, in my opinion, is a doctrinal system which, if ever implemented, would lead to forms of tyranny and oppression that have few counterparts in human history. There isn't the slightest possibility that its (in my view, horrendous) ideas would be implemented, because they would quickly destroy any society that made this colossal error. The idea of "free contract" between the potentate and his starving subject is a sick joke, perhaps worth some moments in an academic seminar exploring the consequences of (in my view, absurd) ideas, but nowhere else.

Link

Truth about the NGO sector

2007-12-28T08:02:00.000+02:00

Having spent my professional, working life in the non-profit sector, I really identified with this speech made by Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. A few key points from his speech:

There is something about the relationship between the not-for-profit sector, the government, the foundations, and the donors that creates a massive incentive to lie — flagrantly, and often....Program officers at foundations, donors, and philanthropists are just inundated with lying, false crap. And they know they're being lied to. If you took all your annual reports and just read them end to end, you'd have to conclude that we're now living in a socialist paradise. Everything's going well, people are being served, and all the children are happy. And then you look at any newspaper, and it's very clear that we might be fudging a bit.

So my experience has been that donors and program officers love to actually get the truth. They don't punish you for it if you learned something. I think if all of us started to confess a little bit more, we would learn a little bit faster.

This is so true. I've seen deception on a massive scale within the NGO world and a hell of a lot of annual reports from NGOs sound like updates from an ongoing and successful revolution, usually followed with a request to the donor for more cash. Donors often have such obscure and pedantic regulations that NGO staff spend a lot of time figuring out how to circumscribe these rules to be able to do some work. The temptation to bend the rules (and the fear that honesty may mean that your budget gets slashed by the donor) is strong.

Full-time activists are often turned into clerks in the process of filling out reports, budgets, financial reports, fundraising, keeping track of media reports, and a variety of a hundred different other administrative and logistical tasks. Further, small, political NGOs (like the one I work for) are chronically underfunded and understaffed; if your PC breaks down, you have to fix it. None of these activities are why activists work in the sector, often at low-wages and long hours. For example, I'm really never off "the clock", as I'm one of the spokespersons and have to deal journalists at any time, which has included the middle of night, on holiday, etc.. I'm permanently wedded to my cellphone.

The next point:

But we turn those minor differences into adversarial wars. It's fine to hate your enemies if you must. Jesus, Gandhi, other people would argue with you, but if you insist, fine. Hate your enemies. But most of the people you see every day are not your enemy. I've got emotional scars and damage from being in this work, and I've never even met a Republican! Even with people who fundamentally agree with everything I think, we just fight and hurt each other and say mean things, and think mean thoughts. All the time! That's called the movement. That's called the progressive community, right?

Oh man, the left and in particular the South African left. I spend so much time making sure that my back is covered against they very same people who are supposed to be on my side. For some reason, the South African left is fractious beyond belief, with petty fights breaking out on an almost daily basis. Sometimes these disputes break out into major disagreements (usually within organisations) that are fought with the absolute ferocity of a Mongol horde. Anyone who's been engaged in political activism for any decent period of time has been through one of these stand up and bleed fights; quite a few people leave progressive society because of it. Imagine it, here you are, supposed to be fighting against global capitalism (which has you thrashed in terms of money, human resources, political connections, time (while they are figuring out how to deregulate a market, you're trying to fix your PC), logistics, etc.) and some fuckwit is trying to drag you down in a fight over a relatively minor point and you've now got to defend yourself. This means you've got get allies, especially if said fuckwit is from within your organisation, our else you'll get expelled. That means you've got to engage in internal politics, and that is a very, very time-consuming exercise. And, you have to do it. Don't and you'll be slashed to pieces.

Furthermore, the left is a pretty small world when you get down to it. Not only do you engage with other activists on a political basis, they are more often whom you drink with, socialise with, and fuck. So, when two activists have a personal problem, this often manifests itself in the political arena, sucking in friends, families, casual relations. This and burnout (see below) are why I've avoided any kind of romantic relationship with someone active within the left; it is just far, far too messy. Piece of advice; if you are an activist, date someone who isn't (but who is supportive).

Engage in left politics for long enough and you'll be as hard as steel. A process, I might add, that does wonders for one's psychology.

I'd been in all these coalition meetings, and it occurred to me that over the past couple years, in every meeting I'd been surrounded by idiots. I had to deal with them, and point out their flaws, and stop them from wreaking havoc, and... I was burning out, and I didn't know it. I had to take about two years of counseling, therapy, learning to go to the gym — things I'd just never done — just to be able to get back to doing this work.

My dad was an alcoholic, so I'd said, "Well I'm not going to do that," but then I was into this workaholism thing. I pulled out of it, and when I came back I saw that it was just everywhere. So what I want to say to you, very clearly, is that you have emotional needs. You have physical needs. You need to get them taken care of outside of this work.

You need to have something outside of this work where you go for re-charging, where you talk to people who don't do this kind of work, so you can keep it in perspective. So when you go into those board meetings and you go into those coalition things, you're coming with something. We who believe in freedom have to rest. We have to rest.

Burnout is a constant occupational hazard. There is always another demonstration to organise, another group of people to talk to, meeting to attend, paper to write, burning issue that has to be addressed, problem to be solved. It never ends. The scale of social injustice, environmental destruction and political repression is so vast that activists are never out of battles to fight. I'm permanently in a conflictual relationship with one or another corporation or government department.

Thinking about it, I'm probably burnt out at the moment.

I'd turn violent too...

2007-12-27T06:57:00.000+02:00

A Siberian tiger escaped from its enclosure on Christmas Day at the San Francisco Zoo. Once out, it mauled one man to death and seriously wounded two others. Police then shot the tiger as it charged them:

The dead animal was a Siberian tiger named Tatiana, weighing 300lbs or 21 stone, one of 600 of the endangered species that live in captivity worldwide. She had arrived at San Francisco from Denver zoo several years ago, in the hope that she would mate. Instead, Tatiana established a record of violence. A year ago, under the eyes of horrified visitors, the tiger mauled a zookeeper, seizing her by the hands and trying to drag her closer.

Link

Fuck, I'm with the tiger on this one. Lifetime imprisonment by the very same species that's wiping it out in the wild. If someone destroyed my home, slaughtered my relatives, put me in a cage for life so that fat children could taunt me, I'd turn violent and suicidal. Shooting me would be a mercy.

The ‘Zumafication’ of Left Politics in the Alliance

2007-12-19T09:47:00.000+02:00

This, in light of Zuma's victory, is worth a repost....

The ‘Zumafication’ of Left Politics in the Alliance: A Critical Review of the ANC Policy Conference & the SACP 12th Congress
By Dale T. McKinley*

The SACP and COSATU have been fiddling with the same strategic and political choice for over 15 years now. First choice: to be junior partners in an Alliance they will never run/control (but might have key positions in) and thus practice a politics of offering critiques of existing policy implementation and arguing for policies that have a more pro-poor character/more state involvement, engage in occasional campaigns and activities designed to ‘show’ that the working class is still a force to be reckoned with and simultaneously continuing to be part of an ANC electoral machine and to participate in an ANC-run state through its various institutional mechanisms. Second choice: to go back to the basics of organising and mobilising the poor and working class (which must include real, practical alliances with community organisations and social movements) based on a radical programme of demands for the redistribution of ownership and wealth that will act as an organisational and political base to both shift ANC/government policy - not through insider bargaining/politicking but through mass mobilisation and class struggle - and to re-build a genuine left political and organisational power-base to contest power relations within SA society (something which is not simply reducible to elections and running as an electoral force separate from the ANC).

The problem is however, that the fiddling has been just that – the second choice has never really been on the agenda. As a result, they have continued to play the Alliance political ‘game’. While this have contributed to minor policy shifts and occasional genuflections by the ANC/ government towards mitigation of rising inequalities and poverty, these have not happened in isolation from the myriad of protests and mobilisations that have taken place outside the SACP-COSATU nexus and which have arguably been just as responsible for various policy shifts and the more recent rise in political contestation within the Alliance. Indeed, the ANC is probably more wary of poor community uprisings and disillusionment with ANC delivery and socio-economic progress than they are with the regular sniping and critiques of the SACP/COSATU.

The unfortunate but predictable result has been that the politics and practical work of the SACP and COSATU have become, over the last few years, tied directly to what is going on inside the ANC-Alliance in direct proportionate relation to intensifying personal and positional power struggles. This is the logical outcome of such an approach/politics and it has effectively paralysed the SACP/COSATU’s ability to organise and mobilise on a genuinely practical, working class/poor – centred pole, where their programmes, struggles and critiques are actually put to the test in real struggles happening on the ground and in the arena of democratic contestation for societal power.

The recently held ANC Policy Conference and SACP 12th Congress reflect this state of affairs in the form of the dictates of the personal/political battle between the Mbeki and Zuma ‘camps’ – with preceding mobilisation campaigns and practical work tending to ape this contest (i.e., whether it will, or won’t, take forward the personal positions and accompanying politics of this or that ‘camp’). The fact that the SACP and COSATU have publicly stated that the outcomes of the ANC Policy Conference represent a victory for ‘left forces’ is clear indication of this - despite the fact that there was nothing in the outcome of the ANC Policy Conference that would indicate any kind of radical shift from what has previously been the case (i.e.. a stated commitment to a ‘developmental state’ and for better functioning of the Alliance etc.).

Similarly, the SACP 12th Congress was mostly dominated by the politics of personality and positionality - who would/would not be elected to leadership positions based on what ‘camp’ they belong to as well as the debate over electoral positioning depending on what happens at ANC Congress in December (read: wait and see if Jacob Zuma wins the leadership contest and if so, then this will determine the strategy and tactics of the SACP). It is a sad state of affairs – a situation in which the largest and most long-standing ‘left’ party in South Africa is effectively held hostage to the outcomes of personal/intra-organisational and patronage battles within another party and, in which it’s own programme and politics is also effectively moulded by the same battles. From the outcome of the leadership elections at the SACP Congress, it is clear that those who ‘won’ and those who ‘lost’ were largely defined by what ‘camp’ they supposedly inhabit (in this case, a clear ‘victory’ for those in the Zuma/Nzimande ‘camp’ and a clear ‘loss’ for those supposedly allied to the Mbeki/Nqakula ‘camp’). Sadly, there was very little evidence of any clear ideological and/or organisational criteria being upheld as the main arbiter of choice for leadership positions. As one Congress delegate succinctly put it, one of the main reasons why Mbeki did not show at the Congress, “could be that he would not want to walk into Zuma’s den”.

What makes things even worse is the fact that the person on whose shoulders so much of the fortunes, political energies and organisational decisions of the SACP are now being placed, is not even an active member of the party itself and has shown, time and again, that his own political and ideological inclinations are neither communist nor even socialist but are defined by what will take his own position and power forward. In other words, saying what is ‘popular’ despite there being no indication of any meaningful capacity nor commitment to see through the actual implementation of what is being said/preached. This is also consistent with what came before the Zumafication of SACP/COSATU politics – the Mbekification of the same.

Prior to the dominance of the now raging Zuma-Mbeki battle, the SACP’s (and to a lesser extent COSATU’s) politics and organisational direction was largely defined by what Mbeki represented/was doing in government. This meant fighting (or at least spoiling to fight) the pro-capitalist policies of his government and his political control of the ANC by positioning itself as a counter-Mbeki force within the Alliance and as the real inheritor and prosecutor of the ANC’s National Democratic Revolution (NDR) legacy. The alternative – acting as an independent force of the left with both a comprehensive critique of, and a programmatic path to overcome, capitalist relations of production and the inherent exploitation and oppression it demands, as an active mass force of the poor against the policies and politics of the ANC under Mbeki’s leadership and as a political party capable and willing to offer the poor/working class both a organisational home and a political identity defined by what it is and not simply what/who it is against – has never really seen the light of day.

All of this begs the question: Where is the concrete evidence to confirm that the ANC has “shifted to the left” as Nzimande claimed at the SACP Congress? Is it contained in ANC Policy Conference resolutions about a ‘developmental state’ or in references to expanding certain social services and promises of basic service infrastructural delivery? Is it to be found in the draft Strategy and Tactics document that, as ANC Secretary General, Kgalema Montlanthe, admits, “does not propose a substantial departure from the vision, character and tasks of the ANC … but does seek to articulate these in a more precise manner”. Methinks not. The real assessment/ judgement should be made in relation to what is actually happening where it most counts – on the ground, in the daily lives of the majority. Two further question then beckon: What was the practical, ‘left’ way forward provided at either the ANC Policy Conference or the SACP Congress on water cut-offs, pre-paid water meters/the provision of adequate water for the poor, the housing crisis and evictions, the decrepit state of the public health care system, the crisis of public education, the complete lack of any meaningful urban and rural public transport system and the systemic nature of the unemployment crisis? And: Who exactly were the respective delegates talking for and talking to?

Ironically, it is ex-DA politician and now public liberal intellectual Raenette Taljaard who has captured the essence of what emerged from the ANC Policy Conference, aptly calling it, “the shade of the variety of capitalism under a ‘developmental state’ banner …”. The reality is that all the ANC (and by default, the government it presides over) has done is to more fully recognise that the reality of increasing socio-economic inequality and political (read: electoral) dissatisfaction amongst the poor represents a real threat to both their longer-term hold on political/state power as well to the organisational continuance of the alliance (which the ANC still finds extremely useful as a foil against the actual possibility of an independent left/working class force outside of the alliance – and thus not organisationally controllable and politically manageable).

This recognition has led to genuflective nods in the direction of greater infrastructural spending (although most of this has nothing to do with poor/working class communities but much more to do with the interests and demands of corporate capital and the seemingly insatiable need of the political/economic elite for grandiose projects and affirmation from global elites that they are now real players on the global scene and can ‘deliver’ things such as the World Cup), slight increases in social grants, relatively small increment increases in public sector salaries and much more rhetoric about the need to control/discipline the ‘free market’ and listen more attentively to the voices/cries of the poor. This surely does not constitute a meaningful and serious ‘shift to the left’ but rather an astute politics on the part of the ANC – both in relation to the ANC’s own chosen ideological path (i.e., a deracialised capitalism dressed up in the language of the NDR) as well as in relation to the ongoing personal and patronage conflicts within the ANC itself.

Indeed, it would appear that the SACP (and COSATU) have been ensnared in the political game that the ANC has constructed and which has been playing itself out over these last few years (and more specifically, over the last year). Thus, can their respective leaderships make the incredibly dubious claim that the ANC Policy Conference was a ‘victory for the left’ and that the politics that they have pursued over the last while has actually been the defining factor in this ‘shift’, while simultaneously claiming, as Cronin does, that such a politics has been ‘sober and intelligent’. This is really just another way of saying that there was really no other option, that it is ludicrous to think about, or worse to actualise, either leaving the ANC/Alliance or forging a fighting programme of the working class/poor separate from the NDR-ANC-Alliance axis and testing its popular and democratic applicability with those they claim to represent. In the absence of another choice being contemplated, what we continue to witness (and have again witnessed at the recent ANC Policy Conference and SACP Congress) is the repetition of the same mantra – namely, that the left in the Alliance has to ‘manage’ the relationship with the ANC and now, given the evident shift to the left, even more closely ‘manage’ the implementation of the developmental ‘agenda’.

COSATU General Secretary, Zwlenzima Vavi, once again confirmed this with his comments at the SACP Congress, in which he complained (for the umpteenth time) that the real problem is that, “the alliance is not driving transformation together, which creates divided loyalties”. As a result Vavi said, COSATU “has called for the restructuring of the alliance so that no single component or individual in the alliance determines strategy and deployments”. It is as though if something is repeated often enough, people (in this case those attending the SACP Congress) will actually believe it. Does Vavi, Nzimande or any of the others in their ‘camp’ actually believe that a ‘restructuring’ of the alliance (how many times can this be done anyway?) is going to result in the SACP and COSATU becoming equal members/deciders with the ANC? Of course it is not, and it never will, precisely because it is the ANC which places itself in front of the South African people as a governing choice (and also as the historic and never-ending liberator of the people) and constitutes the leading political organisation of the so-called NDR (which is the incredibly weak theoretical and strategic glue that binds the three together anyway). The upshot of this is that the very constituency that the SACP/COSATU claim to represent – the poor/working class - do not have the choice/ option of holding the SACP/COSATU to direct democratic and organisational/ideological accountability – they only have the choice of doing so through the proxy of the ANC.

For all the recent talk of the ‘victory of the left’, one still needs to pose the question as to what indeed constitutes ‘left’? The SACP/COSATU cannot really define what this means because any slight change in ANC/government policy that has occurred/might occur – and which could provide some additional succour to the poor/working class – is interpreted as a ‘victory’ for the Alliance left, precisely because to interpret otherwise would be to undermine the larger claim and position that it is necessary and imperative for the SACP/COSATU to remain in alliance with the ANC. Also, because any deeper and more realistic interpretations would undermine the entire theoretical construct of the NDR upon which the alliance rests, as well as the present and ongoing organisational and ideological positioning of both the SACP and COSATU. Thus does the SACP resolve at its Congress, that the state should lead macro-economic growth instead of the market, without any meaningful discussion of what this concretely means in relation to the ANC’s ideological commitment (confirmed over and over again) to a capitalist macro-economy which the ANC-run state has practically lead/implemented. What did the SACP see at the ANC Policy Conference to suggest a deviation (i.e., of the state being used to drive the accepted macro-economic policy framework) from this practice?

Another salient issue to arise from these gatherings, is the degree to which the SACP and COSATU have made much of their opposition to the ‘path of accumulation’, presently ensconced in the macro-fundamentals of South Africa’s political economy. Any serious communist would, of necessity, have to identify this ‘path’ as one that is intrinsic to capitalist relations of production (with all the attendant exploitative generation of surplus value, expropriation of the social wage and the institutionalised marginalisation of those peripheral to the capitalist market – i.e., the unemployed/destitute etc.). However, what the SACP and COSATU leaders are really referring to is the particular character of this overall accumulation path (in their minds, BEE enrichment for the few, consolidation of the post-1996 ‘class project’ in the ANC through use of inherited state institutions and existing capitalist productive capacities, abandonment of promised redistribution of land and the provision of basic services for all etc.) in the context of post-apartheid South Africa – not the path itself. They thus have no other option but to propagate the idea that the side-lining of the individuals and class forces (within the ANC-Alliance) that are pursuing this ‘path’, will then evidently result in the possibilities of pursing a different ‘path’.

Vavi confirmed this at the SACP Congress when he boldly stated (and without any hint of irony or contradiction) that the task of the SACP and COSATU is to defeat the “agents of new capital”. In other words, the battle of the SACP and COSATU has become a battle to politically and organisationally ‘cleanse’ the ANC of its historic and more contemporary progeny. Put another way, the political and organisational defeat of those who want their ‘fair share’ of the capitalist system as was so clearly enunciated by ANC Secretary General, Dr. Xuma, all the way back in 1949. This would mean nothing less than a complete political and ideological revolution within, and through, the ANC – something that is clearly not going to happen simply because certain SACP and COSATU leaders want it to happen and proclaim its possibility as the fundamental basis for their own organisation’s strategy. If ever there was a classic case of embedded ‘entryism’ then this is it (apologies to those Trotskyists who might still claim this tactic as wholly their own).

At both the ANC Policy Conference and the SACP Congress there was also much talk about completing the ‘tasks of the NDR’. But what are we to understand by the NDR? For Nzimande, “the basic aim of the national democratic revolution is to address poverty, unemployment, disease, restore the dignity of the overwhelming majority of our people through creating a mass driven democratic dispensation, remove all forms of discrimination and build an egalitarian society”. Further, “this means provision of minimum basic necessities, services and human dignity to all South Africans”. This is such a general ‘definition’ that it can encompass (and celebrate) virtually any move to “address” the inherited inequalities of apartheid capitalism as well as any improvement (no matter how small or sustainable) in relation to basic services for the poor majority. It is because of this generality that Nzimande can then claim that, “a key challenge therefore is that we must build an ANC (and Alliance) that consciously seek to build and lead a mass movement that is daily engaged with issues and challenges facing the mass of our people … This should also be seen as part of the very important challenge of building the capacity of the ANC (and the Alliance) to exercise effective oversight on government and all our cadres so deployed (and to) defeat factionalism, patronage and corruption within our ranks.”

Not surprisingly, this was the main organisational and political ‘challenge’ identified (once again) at the SACP Congress, and it is this ‘challenge’ that fits comfortably with the accepted understanding of the NDR amongst the ‘left’. Viz, the NDR demands that those identifying themselves as socialists/communists etc. have no other option but to follow the strategic path set out by the SACP and COSATU (as the two main ‘left’ forces in the country) – any other strategic path/challenge is simply counter-productive, or at best, naïve. Again, this ‘approach’ was confirmed by Montlanthe in his address to the SACP Congress when he stated that, “the recommendations we made at the policy conference of the ANC last month confirm once again that there is no fundamental divergence between the Alliance partners on the nature of the National Democratic Revolution and the most immediate tasks we face.”

But, completing the aforementioned revolutionary transformation of the ANC (just like the same in relation to the NDR and broader societal forces) is a practical, not to mention a political, impossibility, as long as the SACP and COSATU tie their own programmatic and thus political/ideological ‘path’ with that of the ANC-Alliance. They have already admitted many times that the ANC is not a socialist organisation (only, somewhat laconically, that it is an organisation of the poor/of the left). And yet, the entire strategic thrust is to try and ‘transform’ the ANC (through persuasion, use of ‘working class power’ and position in the Alliance/ANC/ the state and through the occasional pursuit of class struggles on the ground) from within, so as to then embark on a different accumulation path, using the self-same organisation and historic politics whose entire raison d’etre is to deracialise the accumulation path, not fundamentally change/overthrow it.

Importantly for the whole South African left, the ongoing community protests and struggles around basic service delivery etc. was raised again at the SACP Congress, alongside its intention to mobilise and lead these struggles. This intent goes back sometime though. In 2004, the SACP launched the ‘Basic Services for All Campaign’ in which it was pledged that, “party branches, working together with our allies (and) community based organisations, will mobilise communities through local campaigns and struggles based on the information and problems received, building local organs of popular working class power, engage municipalities and government departments, and undertake many other local interventions … This campaign will include a focus on evictions, cut-offs and problems our people face in accessing services.” Since then, and other than Khutsong (where struggles have revolved predominately around issues of provincial demarcation and frustration over ANC arrogance), the campaign has never gotten off the ground.

The several hundred community protests (with accompanying state repression of social movement and community activists) has been largely met with a deafly silence from the SACP (and COSATU) leadership and structures on the ground. Instead, there have been endless statements and media interviews focused on the Mbeki-Zuma battles, attacks on individuals from other ‘camps’ and pronouncements on all sorts of other issues – including demands around the national sporting teams - coming out of the offices of the SACP and the YCL (and to a lesser extent COSATU). Even during the recent public sector workers’ strike there was little effort and/or practical work around linking worker struggles for better wages/working conditions and those of poor communities around basic services and freedom of expression. - as a means to create a united working class front against the capitalist-friendly policies and political power (read: use of the coercive and economic muscle of the state) arrogance of the ANC and the government it runs, and for the possibilities of creating a meaningful coalition of poor/working class forces.

What the SACP Congress unintentionally revealed on this front, is that little has been done to put efforts where mouths are. It is wholly legitimate to ask - Where have the SACP and COSATU ‘been’ as the hundreds of community protests around basic services, crackdowns by the state on these activists/communities and efforts to influence local government delivery mechanisms and politics to be more inclusive/participatory have taken place? The unfortunate answer is, virtually nowhere. The emphasis at the Congress on linking up with, mobilising and supporting these community/social movement struggles (with SACP National Organiser, Solly Maphaila, stating that the SACP will now “formalise relations with social movements …”) is nothing more than hot air given the perpetuation of the hostage politics of the Alliance left (for reasons advanced above). It is such a politics, now defined more than ever by the embrace of individuals and factions, that will always ensure that this does not happen precisely because the consequent positioning of the SACP and COSATU demands that they politically and organisationally control the social movements so that they are not “anti-ANC” and also so that these social forces do not pose any ongoing or future threat to the ‘left’ dominance of the SACP/COSATU and the self-anointed ‘left’ forces in the ANC/the state.

This is the main reason why the SACP/COSATU find the social movements to be ‘a problem’ (instead of seeing allies on the left to build a viable and grounded political movement in direct opposition to the shosholoza capitalism of the ANC/government). It is not a ‘problem’ for them to throw all sorts of nasty words at certain ANC leaders and ‘class forces’ (the shrillness and vitriol of which, the social movements have never approached) but it becomes a ‘problem’ when social movements go straight to the real political, ideological and organisational reasons behind the increasing anger with, and practical opposition to, the ANC and the policies it implements through the state. It is precisely because the SACP and COSATU refuse to cut the umbilical ties to the ANC that they must adopt this wholly contradictory position/politics, so much so that they are more apt to be accepting of closer relations with capitalists and liberals than with most poor communities and their struggles.

Ultimately, what has come out of both the ANC Policy Conference and the SACP Congress for the left, revolves around the SACP (and to a lesser extent COSATU – it being a trade union) defining who/what it is on its own terms and not those determined by the character and content of constructed conflicts between/ amongst individual leaders and ‘camps’ of the ANC (and by extension, the Alliance). For now, the Alliance left has allowed a ‘Zumafication’ of its politics to take hold. Rather than a ‘victory for the left’, the respective gatherings represent a crisis of confidence at its most acute: a crisis of confidence in the ‘left’s’ ability to forge a political and organisational opposition to what it stands for and what it stands against; a crisis of confidence in the ability/willingness of its constituency (i.e., the poor and working class) to embrace a political and organisational alternative to the ANC’s deracialised/elitist capitalism and to identify with the class line that now divides South African society so clearly.

*Dale T. McKinley is an independent writer/researcher, lecturer and activist in the Anti-Privatisation Forum/Social Movement Indaba. During the mid-late 1990s he was a full-time SACP cadre and elected leader at district/provincial level before being expelled by the Central Committee in 2000.

Press Release: SA Protest Against Whale Slaughter

2007-12-19T09:18:00.000+02:00

South Africans add their voices to the international outcry over the violation of the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary

There is no escape for the whales of the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. Flaunting the resolutions of the International Whaling Commission, the Japanese whaling boats set sail in the middle of last month for an orgy of killing. The Japanese, contemptuous of world condemnation, intend killing a thousand whales, including some endangered species – under cover of the lie that it is "scientific research".

The waters declared an international whale haven, which were almost free from blood-and-profit lusting humans, are being violated. The sea turns scarlet, as the giant mammals thrash in their death agonies. Explosive-tipped harpoons embedded in their flesh tear their bodies apart. Death comes slowly. The bloody horror recalls Ahab's final scream to Moby Dick: "From Hell's heart I stab at thee!"

Japan has invaded Australian Antarctic waters but the new Labour government in Canberra has reneged on its election promise that it would stop the whale killing by sending in the navy. It has maintained a stony silence in response to pleas for help.

Captain Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd, an organisation for the protection of marine animals, is risking his life, the life of his crew and the destruction of his boat, the Steve Irwin, in an attempt to save the whales and to record the killings. But he and his crew are alone out there in the vast Antarctic Ocean.

Greenpeace the international environmental organisation (of which Watson was a founder, in 1972) has not responded to his plea that it send a ship to join his in Antarctica.

Angry South Africans will add their voices to the international outcry over the killing of the whales at a protest on 20 December, outside the Japanese embassy, in Pretoria. They can complain to the prime minister of Japan at http://whales.netfirms.com/alert/japan/letter.html

For more details contact:
Beauty without Cruelty Anne van Vliet: 082 7750711 mwvliet@mweb.co.za
Earth 2 Anastasya Eliseeva: 072 638 0064 www.earth2.co.za
Animal Rights Africa Michele Pickover: 082 253 2124 www.animalrightsafrica.org
Earthlife Africa Warwick Humphris: 072 235 823 cwfh2007star@gmail.com
Friends of the Cat Joan Norman: 083 643 9720 friendsofthecat@wol.co.za

Issued by United for Animals

Say Goodbye to Penguins and Bigeye Tuna

2007-12-11T11:58:00.000+02:00

The Emperor, Gentoo, Chinstrap and Adelie penguins are on the way out. As we heat up the atmosphere, we melt the ice (taking away their homes, if you will). We're also catching all their food. Say goodbye:

The Emperor penguin, the largest in the world, has seen some of its colonies halved in the past century as warmer temperatures and stronger winds force them to rear their young on increasingly thin ice, the report published at the UN conference on climate change in Bali said. WWF said in recent years sea ice had broken off early and many eggs and chicks had been blown away when they were too young to survive on their own.

The melting sea ice - which covers 40% less area than it did 26 years ago off the West Antarctic Peninsula - has also led to reduced numbers of krill, the main source of food for chinstrap penguins. Some colonies of chinstraps have seen reductions in numbers of up to two thirds because reduced food has made it more difficult for youngsters to survive, the Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change report said.

The gentoo penguin has also seen numbers shrinking because they are increasingly dependent on the krill as their usual food sources have been depleted by overfishing, the report said. And on the northwestern coast of the Antarctic peninsula, populations of Adelie penguins have dropped by 65% in the past quarter of a century.

Link

The Bigeye tuna is also on the way out. They love Bigeye in Japan, makes for great sashimi. Interestingly enough, bigeye tuna are often bycatch (go here for some pictures of bycatch, do it, see what your fish fingers really cost) for fishing boats searching for Yellowfin and Skipjack tuna:

But bigeye tuna stocks in the Eastern Pacific, Indian, Atlantic and Western and Central Pacific Oceans are all suffering from excessive fishing and the Eastern Pacific stock is overfished. In the Eastern Pacific up to 60 per cent of the bigeye tuna catch are small, juvenile fish, meaning it has had insufficient time to breed and replenish stocks.

A new report from TRAFFIC, the wildlife monitoring network, and WWF warns that bodies set up to protect stocks are failing to meet legal obligations, are too slow to respond to scientific advice and have failed to halt overfishing.

Link

Global Warming and the Extinction Process

2007-12-11T11:45:00.000+02:00

Global warming is pushing us deeper and deeper into the next great extinction. We're going to be so busy running around and saying goodbye--shaking paws, flippers, fins, wings and legs--that you may want to keep that diary open and save up some leave time:

More than 3,000 flying foxes dropped dead, falling from trees in Australia. Giant squid migrated north to commercial fishing grounds off California, gobbling anchovy and hake. Butterflies have gone extinct in the Alps.

While humans debate at U.N. climate change talks in Bali, global warming is already wreaking havoc with nature. Most plants and animals are affected, and the change is occurring too quickly for them to evolve.

"A hell of a lot of species are in big trouble," said Stephen E. Williams, the director of the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity & Climate Change at James Cook University in Australia.

Link

2007-12-03T18:36:00.000+02:00

It is looking increasingly likely that I'll be doing my PhD in Philosophy next year at the University of Johannesburg. Just waiting on finalisation of application and awarding of a bursary, both of which seem probable. Going to be starting on the research proposal this month, below is a short, bastardised proposal. Wish me luck.

Draft Title: Towards a Neo-Aristotelian, Stateless Economy
Author: Tristen Taylor
Date: 11^th of November 2007

"For a long time it has been agreed that the present political system is decayed to its foundations, and that another system must be set up. Yet, in spite of the fact that this view is widespread, and that men’s minds, wearied by revolution and wars, are prepared to grasp at any means to recover order and repose, nobody has risen above the old routine. They have continued on old principles, as if it was impossible to have any better ones…."
--Henri de Saint-Simon, The Reorganization of the European Community

In my Masters thesis[ii], one of Henri de Saint-Simon’s old principles was considered in some depth; the State itself. The argument was made that the philosophical backing for and the subsequent implementation of the State began with Plato and his Republic. Two thousand and three hundred years ago humanity was faced with a choice between Plato's Republic and Aristotle's polis. We chose Plato, and we were wrong on perfectionist grounds. Should have gone for the polis.

The justification of the State as a form of social organisation that essentially has A) a defined territory, B) a population, C) a government that is engaged in the organised use of force, D) a hierarchical structure was analysed through the lens of consequentialist, Neo-Aristotelian ethics. In particular, through the following key aspects of Aristotle’s ethics:

1) Political life is part of the good life. Eudemonia is comprised, in part, of certain political activity.

2) Even the contemplative life requires a person who is engaged in it to play an active and meaningful role in the political activities of the polis.

3) Even if the contemplative life is to be preferred to the political life, this does not absolve a scholar from playing an active and meaningful role in the political sphere. It is that person's function as a citizen.

4) However, being involved in the political life is not enough for an individual; he must also act in a virtuous manner (which he gains through education and habituation) and his use of rational ability.

5) The citizen needs to live in accordance with a strong and deep sense of friendship, and have material goods such as health and leisure.

Not only was the State unjustified according to this reading of Aristotle’s ethics, my thesis also concluded that the polis was not a State and that the best society to live in a revised form of the polis. This revised form of the polis (the modern polis) has the following elements:

1) Citizens have sufficient time to engage in contemplative pursuits and meaningful political action.

2) That citizens and the modern polis have a fair degree of self-reliance and good health.

3) The modern polis is engaged in the education and habituation of moral virtue.

4) Citizens do not only have the opportunity and ability to play a part in the political life of the modern polis, but also can do so in a significant manner in line with a very strong kind of participatory democracy (similar to that of the Athenian democracy) and are expected to do so.

5) There is a spirit of community and philia within the modern polis.

However, a big question was left unanswered in my Masters thesis, namely what sort of economy would a modern polis have? Given the physical scale of a modern polis and requirements of obtaining eudemonia, what sort of economy is both possible and best suited? Would free market fundamentalism be the best system as Murray Rothbard has advocated for? On the other end of the scale, what about Michael Albert's participatory economics?

In addition, the economic philosophies of several key perfectionists also need to be examined. These include Karl Marx, L.T. Hobhouse, and R.H. Tawney. To the best of my knowledge, none of these have been seriously examined in light of the modern polis (especially viability and their ability to promote eudemonia).

If none of these ethical/economic theories work for the modern polis, a new type economy (perhaps incorporating elements of the above) will have to be found.

This is an important undertaking. Our current system is unsustainable. Modern capitalism is drawing close to ecological limits (climate change and resource scarcity) and will soon become untenable. We are at a vital juncture in human history and new style of social organization (which includes economics) has to be found. Philosophy has an obligation to seek this solution.

Some key readings:

Albert, Michael. Parecon: Life After Capitalism (London: Verso Books, 2003).

Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by W.D. Ross (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).

Aristotle. The Politics. Translated by A. Dreizehnter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

Hobhouse, L.T. Liberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1911).

Hobhouse, L.T. The Elements of Social Justice (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1922).

Marx, Karl. Capital. Translated by Eden Paul (London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1933)

Marx, Karl. Manifesto of the Communist Party. 1847.

Rothbard, Murray. Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles (von Mises, Ludwig Institute, 2000).

Tawney, R.H. Equality (London: Heinemann, 1964).

[i] Henri de Saint-Simon. 1814. The Reorganization of the European Community. In: Carl Cohen, Communism, Fascism & Democracy (New York: Random House, 1964), pg. 25

[ii] Tristen Taylor. Justification of the State and Anarchist Alternatives (University of the Witwatersrand, 2007)

Press Release: Stop Exploitation of Workers at Dursots Factory

2007-11-20T07:19:00.000+02:00

Press Release: Stop Exploitation of Workers at Dursots Factory
ANTI-PRIVATISATION FORUM
Tuesday 13th November 2007

The Dursots Exploited Workers – supported by the Anti Privatisation Forum - will be picketing against gross exploitation and poor working conditions at the Dursots Factory

Action to take place on Wednesday 14th November from 09h00 at the Dursots Factory (Eikenhof, Misgand Road – Plot 15)

Democracy in South Africa has long held out the promise of decent working conditions and a life of dignity for poor, working class people. However, for many of those working poor, such a promise has remained just that, as they continue to be exploited by the bosses and are offered little, or no, protection from the various labour laws of the country and those tasked with enforcing them.

Workers at Dursots Food Cooperation (based in Eikenhof in the Vaal Triangle) can bear witness to the gross human rights violations at the Dursots factory, where they continue to produce huge profits for the boss Ishmael Dursots but, in return, receive meagre wages and toil under terrible working conditions. The factory has employed workers who reside mostly in poor, informal settlement areas in and around townships like Orange Farm, Majasane, Grasmere, Finetown. There are also workers, from countries such as Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, who are forced to stay in what is no more than a Dursots concentration camp. These workers are brought into the country by truck drivers who deliver Dursots products across the Southern African region and since most of them do not have the necessary travel/work documentation, they are trapped at the factory because they fear being deported back to their countries of origin.

The Dursots workers are employed in the factory as machine operators, bean boilers, cooking oil & mineral water packers and polish makers. The resultant products are then sold to companies such as African Trading, Jumbo, Absara, Makro, Nisam and Spar, as well as internationally. Officially, the work shift begins at 07h30 and ends at 17h30. However, the reality is that workers are forced to work until they have finished their daily target, which often means that they only knock off at 23h00. Promised transport for the workers to their homes late at night, has not materialised, thus putting these workers safety and lives at risk – especially women workers – who have to walk home in areas that are dangerous. Indeed, there has been more than one case of women workers being raped at night.

Exploitation is rife at the factory. Workers continue to be denied the right to organise/join a union, women workers are being denied the right to maternity leave and sick workers are not paid even when they produce doctor’s certificates. Efforts to form a union and to enforce worker rights at the factory have met with little success, as the owner, Ishmael Dursots, appears to be supported/protected by both the SAPS and the Johannesburg Department of Labour, both of whom have consistently failed to act on worker grievances and complaints against management. Labour action undertaken by Dursots workers has resulted in more than 60 workers being suspended without pay. The promised re-instatement of these workers has not happened and instead, new workers have been employed.

The Dursots workers are demanding:

1) The immediate reinstatement of the suspended workers

2) Working conditions must be improved in the factory and the workers safety must be considered at all times

3) A living wage, not the present pittance being paid to workers of R250.00 a week.

4) An immediate halt to the suppression of freedom of association, so that workers can organise/join a union

5) The abuse of non-documented workers from other countries must stop immediately and proper documentation procured for these workers. The concentration camp where they live must be closed, proper housing provided and opportunities for education for the children of these workers.

6) Women workers must get maternity leave and all other worker benefits

7) The Department of Labour must close down the Dursots factory in Eikenhof (Misgand Road Plot 15) until such time as the above demands are met by Ishmael Dursots.

For further information please contact:

Gloria @ 073 665 0089 or Silumko @ 072 1737 268 or 011 333 8334

Press Release: Workers at Moses Mabhida World Cup Stadium to March to eThekweni (Durban) City Hall

2007-11-14T07:24:00.000+02:00

The Campaign for Decent Work Towards and Beyond 2010 is taking off around the country. The Strike at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban (eThekweni) is in its 5th working day having started their legal strike for decent work on 7 November 2007. Approximately 1200 workers are on strike and construction work is at complete standstill.

Workers will start their march from Aliwal street at 10am on 14 November and march to the eThekweni City Hall to hand over a memorandum to the municipality who is ultimately responsible for progress at the stadium. The National Union of Mineworkers have filed for a secondary strike which would see all the 2010 construction sites around the country come to complete standstill.

Workers Demands:

* R1500 per month, monthly project bonus. The companies - WBHO, Group 5 and Pan African Development have offered a one day bonus per month. For low paid workers who earn R11 per hour, this would mean a laughable R100 bonus per month or R1200 for the year. The main contractors, Group 5 and WBHO made 73% and 54% respectively in pre-tax profit for 2006.

* No Downward variation - it was discovered that some of the subcontractors were employing workers at a rate of R5, R6 and R7 per hour and this is lower than the wage rates civil engineering determination. Workers are being paid in cash and the National Union of Mine Workers (NUM) has seen that the wage rates and more alarming that there are no deductions for the Unemployment Insurance fund (UIF). Management has denied this allegation.

* Election of worker Health & Safety Representatives - During a spot check at the stadium by the Department of Labour a few months ago it had to shut down the construction site due to the fact that the scaffolding was not safe and that workers were not issued with gloves and boots. Workers are not happy with the current H&S reps as they are not sensitive to worker needs and cannot communicate in the dominant local language (Zulu) and can converse only in English. The workers are demanding that their elected reps be paid fulltime for the task as workers will work under pressure and there are therefore, higher risks. Management has refused to meet this demand.

For further information contact:

Bonginkosi Mncwabe – NUM Regional Coordinator KZN – 082-8089350
Enock Mthethwa - COSATU Provincial Chairperson - 0828837300

Issued by
Eddie Cottle
Coordinator
Campaign for Decent Work Towards 2010 & Beyond

UNEP: Information for the rich, poor too remain in the dark

2007-11-12T11:54:00.000+02:00

Sent this email today to UNEP.

Dear Ms. Kebede,

I noticed with great interest that Global Environment Outlook 4 has just been published. The latest research from UNEP on the global environmental situtation would be very helpful in our advocacy work to reduce CO2 emissions and preserve biodiversity. However, the UNEP website indicates that this report is not downloadable and can only be published for US$80, which is beyond our means and that of most of the global south. Surely, this information is too important to be restricted to only the rich?

All the best,

Tristen Taylor
Energy Policy Officer
Earthlife Africa-Johannesburg Branch

Editorial on Energy News

2007-11-12T10:22:00.000+02:00

Editorial: Peak Oil, Eskom Load Shedding, and Tariffs

Nearly a hundred dollars for a barrel of oil. So much for the age of cheap oil, and welcome to the peak in global oil production. If many leading geologists are correct, global rates of oil production are either in or about to begin terminal decline. Simply put, we are running out of oil on a global scale, and this is the underlying reason for the ever increasing price of oil; not market jitters over a possible Turkish invasion of Northern Iraq.

As any classical economist would tell you, when the supply of a good is less than the demand for that good, the price will rise. Under the standard view of resource scarcity, informed market consumers would then purchase an alternative resource or reduce their demand (i.e. consumption). Neither of these looks likely for oil. One, there is no alternative to petroleum as a major source of global energy at present. Two, demand will keep on increasing as the modern global economy is based upon using petroleum as an energy source (Will shipping, flying, agriculture, plastic manufacture stop? I think not.). Three, emerging economies such as China and India require additional petroleum to fuel economic growth. Therefore, the price will continue to rise.

Nor are biofuels and coal to liquid technology the solutions. In regards to biofuels, we simply do not have enough arable land available for biofuels production to replace petroleum to a significant degree. End of story. SASOL-like technology is incredibly inefficient, produces massive C02 emissions (trading oil supply woes for the greater headache of climate collapse), and will hasten the crisis of Peak Coal (another finite resource). The only worthwhile future is a transition away from a fossil fuel economy on a global scale, and no one is talking about that.

What does this mean for South Africa & Africa? In the SA Energy Policy & Analysis section of this edition, the Association for Peak Oil South Africa gives its predications, and the effects of peak oil on the militarisation of Africa are illuminated.

While SENSE does cover Eskom recent load-shedding (wet coal...sure) and points out the role of industrial users in supply problems, it also covers the sticky issue of tariffs. The SECCP has recently completed a study of Eskom's domestic tariffs, with the conclusion that poor suffer unjustly. SENSE also notes that the backdoor privitisation of Eskom has begun, with private industry to generate 30% of all power. Here's another prediction; this will mark the beginning of a long and dirty road to a deregulated energy industry with spot markets, greedy electricity traders, rising prices, and the end of the dream of free, basic electricity for all. SENSE will continue to cover further developments.

The good news is that robots in Cape Town get solar power. That should help prevent traffic congestion when Eskom next flips the switch on us and not (due to penalty clauses in supply contracts) to the big industrial users.

Finally, this edition of SENSE includes a recap of the Energy Summit. Rewriting the 1998 White Paper? We'll see.

Tristen Taylor
Energy Policy Officer
Earthlife Africa Jhb
7th of November 2007

SENSE (Sustainable Energy News by Email) can be found here.

Say Goodbye to a Whole Bunch of Fish

2007-11-07T08:32:00.000+02:00

Too many fish on the way out, too little time to shake some fins and say, "Sorry for wiping you out so we could have neat cocktail platters and super-duper soup."

In Europe, 200 freshwater species are about to go extinct:

Twelve of the 522 species are already extinct, mainly due to population growth and the accompanying use of water, pollution and overfishing over the past 100 years, the IUCN said in a statement.

"With 200 fish species in Europe facing a high risk of going extinct we must act now to avoid a tragedy," said IUCN programme officer William Darwall.

"Many of these species, not considered as 'charismatic' or with any apparent 'value' to people, rarely attract the funds needed for their conservation -- they risk disappearing with only a dedicated few noticing the loss," he added.

The IUCN said the biggest single threat comes from water shortages in Mediterranean areas, which are increasingly leading to dried rivers in summer months as climate change progresses.

Endangered species include the European freshwater eel due to overfishing, dams, new parasites and pollution, the IUCN said.

Link

Global speaking, only 10% of all large fish are left in the ocean according to a 2003 study. We ate the other 90% :

“From giant blue marlin to mighty bluefin tuna, and from tropical groupers to Antarctic cod, industrial fishing has scoured the global ocean. There is no blue frontier left,” says lead author Ransom Myers, a world-leading fisheries biologist based at Dalhousie University in Canada. “Since 1950, with the onset of industrialized fisheries, we have rapidly reduced the resource base to less than 10% – not just in some areas, not just for some stocks, but for entire communities of these large fish species from the tropics to the poles.” This study not only confirms the bad news emerging from individual fisheries showing that species like cod can be fished below recovery, but it also reveals a grim global mosaic that demands immediate action. “The impact we have had on ocean ecosystems has been vastly underestimated,” says co-author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University and the University of Kiel in Germany. “These are the megafauna, the big predators of the sea, and the species we most value. Their depletion not only threatens the future of these fish and the fishers that depend on them, it could also bring about a complete re-organization of ocean ecosystems, with unknown global consequences...

...“This is because we have forgotten what we used to have,” says Jeremy Jackson of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “We had oceans full of heroic fish - literally sea monsters. People used to harpoon three-meter long swordfish in rowboats. Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea was for real.”

Myers and Worm observe that the tendency in fisheries biology to use only the most recent data increases the problem of shifting baselines. These great fish are not only declining in numbers, but with intense fishing pressure they can never attain the sizes they once did. “Where detailed data are available we see that the average size of these top predators is only one fifth to one half of what is used to be. The few blue marlin today reach one fifth of the weight they once had. In many cases, the fish caught today are under such intense fishing pressure, they never even have the chance to reproduce,” says Myers.

Link

Shark fin soup is a pretty expensive dish. The real cost? A world without sharks. The solution? Pretty simple actually...

The bright side to this very dark problem is the simplicity of one solution. Don't eat shark fin soup. Don't consume any shark products at this point. Refuse to patronize restaurants that serve shark fin soup until they remove it from their menu and encourage others to do the same. It's the easiest action we can all take that will have enormous impact. In this instance we are not being asked to make any large sacrifices, compromise comfort or even donate any money. We are just being asked to avoid one kind of soup!

Link

Press Release: Independent Newspapers and Outsourcing

2007-11-07T08:18:00.000+02:00

PUBLIC CALL FOR SOLIDARITY/SUPPORT FOR WORKERS BEING EXPLOITED BY INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS/ CAPACITY OUTSOURCING

The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) and its affiliates, together with the workers of Capacity Outsourcing, have formed a Capacity Workers Support Committee to galvanise solidarity for the workers’ struggle against the vicious exploitation and oppression of Capacity Outsourcing, a labour brokering company used by Independent Newspapers Holding Limited, situated at 47 Sauer Street, Johannesburg. (**Please see extensive history and demands below**)

We are calling on all progressive organisations/movements, individuals and journalists to rally behind the Capacity Outsourcing Workers to assist us in exposing what is happening at Independent Newspapers. The Capacity Workers Support Committee is continuing with its mass action against Capacity Outsourcing.

· On 9th November, pickets are going to be held at the offices of Independent Newspapers (47 Sauer Street – Johannesburg) and the offices of Johnnic Communications (4 Biermann Avenue, Rosebank)
· On 16th November, there will be a mass march to the offices of Independent Newspapers, demanding that the managing director of ‘The National Printing Company’, as well as ADCORP Holdings (the owners of Capacity Outsourcing) Executive Chairperson - Dr Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert - receive the memorandum

We are calling on organisations and individuals to support this mass action and to do the following:

· Stop buying newspapers in the Independent stable - The Star, Cape Argus, Pretoria News, Daily News, The Mercury, Post, Saturday Star, Sunday Tribune, The Sunday Independent, Cape Times, Saturday Argus, Sunday Argus, Business Report, Personal Finance and Sunday Life
· Write articles to these newspapers expressing outrage and demanding a stop to the violation of workers rights
· Write e-mails, fax or telephone Dr Van Zyl Slabbert expressing outrage and demanding that he stops the violation of workers rights : e-mail: julie.naran@caxton.co.za, Fax : 011 889-0638, Tel : 011 889-0633
· Target any public appearance of Dr Van Zyl Slabbert, exposing his company
· Write e-mails to the Managing Director of ‘The National Printing Company’, Bernard Briggs, expressing outrage : e-mail – bernard.briggs@inl.co.za
· Write e-mails to the Directors of Johnnic: e- mail matisonnj@johncom.co.za
· Engage in any other public support.

THE EXPLOITATION AND OPPRESSION OF CAPACITY OUTSOURCING

Since the introduction of Capacity Outsourcing in 2004 by ‘The National Printing Company’ (TNPC), a company owned by Independent Newspapers, workers have been subjected to extreme forms of exploitation and violation of their rights.

In 2004, Independent Newspapers, through TNPC, retrenched more than 250 permanent workers, who were then only to be re-employed by labour brokers. The first labour broker was Capital Outsourcing. This labour broker was kicked out and later replaced by another, called Capacity Outsourcing. The only reason why TNPC first retrenched workers and then re-employed them under the labour broker was to cheapen the labour of workers and thereby drive down the wages and other benefits of the workers. This is precisely what happened.

Under Independent Newspapers, workers used to earn R1500-00 per week and had a medical aid and a retirement fund. Now under the labour broker, Capacity Outsourcing, workers earn between R750-R800 per week and have neither medical aid nor a retirement fund. Workers wages were thus reduced by almost 100% and in fact they are earning, in 2007, the wages that they received in 1982. Besides these exploitative conditions, workers are also subjected to constant ill-treatment at the hands of supervisors of both Independent Newspapers and Capacity Outsourcing

WORKERS FORCED TO RESIGN FROM GIWUSA

Recently, Capacity Outsourcing has embarked upon a campaign of intimidation, harassment and victimisation of members of the General Industries Workers Union of SA (GIWUSA). The company is attempting to get rid of the union because it has consistently, over the years, been fighting against the exploitation of workers.

Capacity Outsourcing is a company that violates agreements and workers' rights. On the 5th September 2007, GIWUSA signed an agreement with Capacity Outsourcing which states that non-core workers must be employed on the basis of date of service. The management basically ignored this agreement, called workers individually to sign a performance based, market street roster and told them that if they wanted to be selected they must resign from GIWUSA. Workers are being told that they need to resign from GIWUSA otherwise there is no place for them at Independent Newspapers. The management has done this behind the back of GIWUSA and implemented a performance based selection criteria that is premised on the subjective opinions of the supervisors. The agreement also states that four female comrades must be made part of the core staff on day-shift. Again the management ignored this agreement and sent these comrades home regularly.

THIRD SUSPENSION OF SHOPSTEWARD – SUPPRESSION OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Capacity Outsourcing has, for the third time, suspended the shop steward, Bongani Ntuli. His alleged crime is allowing the unauthorised entry of a GIWUSA official. The fact of the matter is that the GIWUSA official attended a meeting with union members - notices for the meeting were posted on the notice boards, a letter was written to the management about the meeting and the security guard granted access to the premises. This has been the normal procedure followed for all previous union meetings at Independent Newspapers.

Additionally, Capacity Outsourcing has added a fourth charge against Comrade Ntuli. The charge reads as follows: "You are accused of deliberately distributing derogatory information about the company in that: During your demonstrations and/or picketing at Johnnic Communications on 11 October 2007, you were seen handing out pamphlets containing

information that is derogatory and offensive to the good name of the company. Your conduct is unacceptable as it constitutes breach of good faith upon which your employment at Capacity is based."

First, Capacity Outsourcing undermines workers' rights to belong to a trade union of their choice by forcing them to resign from GIWUSA. Now, it has gone a step further to suppress the freedom of expression of its employees. This fourth charge is nothing but an attempt to silence workers. Capacity Outsourcing wants to stop workers from speaking the truth. Also, it seems that the company is of the view that if they remove the shop steward from the shop-floor then the problems of workers will somehow evaporate. The thinking of management appears to be one of removing the "agitators" and then the rest will be intimidated and problems solved.

DR FREDERICK VAN ZYL SLABBERT HEADS CAPACITY OUTSOURCING

At the head of Capacity Outsourcing stands Dr Frederick van Zyl Slabbert, an erstwhile democrat and liberal. Capacity Outsourcing is wholly owned by ADCORP Holdings Group and the executive chairperson of ADCOPR Holdings is Dr Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert, the former leader of the forerunner of the DA, the Progressive Federal Party (PFP). ADCORP Holdings specialises in labour broking.

The other day, Van Zyl Slabbert formed part of an independent panel assessing whether parliament and its parliamentary portfolio committees are carrying out their democratic mandate. What right and credentials does Van Zyl Slabbert have to ensure that the Constitution is observed in relation to parliament but the company which he is heading is violating basic Constitutional rights?

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS BENEFITS FROM THE LABOUR BROKER

It is evident that Independent Newspapers has employed the labour broker, Capacity Outsourcing, to undercut the wages and benefits of workers and thereby obtain cheap labour. Independent Newspapers is also using the labour broker to control workers through a workplace regime of ill-treatment and job insecurity so that maximum production can be extracted from workers. GIWUSA has found that the labour broker is impotent to address workers issues because they are under the control and direction of Independent Newspapers. No issue or problem can be addressed by the labour broker without the consent of Independent Newspapers.

In reality, though workers are legally contracted to Capacity Outsurcing, they are very much still under the control, supervision and direction of Independent Newspapers. The latter is hiding behind the labour broker. These practices are similar to many other companies where labour brokers are used by employers. In fact, in South Africa, employers are using labour brokers to create a workplace environment where job insecurity is rife and wages are reminiscent of that under apartheid.

In 2005, a year or two after TNPC retrenched its permanent staff and used the services of labour brokers like Capacity Outsourcing, Independent Newspapers (SA) became 'the star performer of the INM Group ( Independent News and Media Plc)'. It delivered a staggering "34,8 % increase in operating profit to Euro 41.8 million". It also boasted that operating margins at Independent News and Media (SA) increased to 18,8%. This substantial increase is attributed to "a combination of a strong double digit improvement in total revenues and the benefits of strong cost containment initiatives”. These cost containment involved the massive retrenchment of permanent staff and the use of an exploitative labour broker, Capacity Outsourcing.

JOHNNIC ALSO BENEFITS

TNPC is a partnership jointly owned by Johnnic and Independent Newspapers. This makes Johnnic an accomplice in the violation of workers' basic rights. Every day, workers print, pack and wrap the various newspapers, but their basic rights of freedom to join a trade union of their choice, freedom of expression and right to decent work are being violated.

Expose the hypocrisy!! We are outraged that Independent Newspapers and Johnnic are continuing to tolerate and encourage the violation of the basic constitutional rights of workers by its labour broker. TNPC through its various newspapers, cries foul whenever restrictions are placed on journalists' right to publish critical articles. But in its own back-yard it tolerates these unconstitutional acts. This duplicity and hypocrisy must be exposed.

OUR DEMANDS ARE:

*That Independent Newspapers gets rid of Capacity Outsourcing and makes the employment of its workers permanent.
*That all the grievances raised by workers be addressed speedily.
*That the victimisation, harassment and ill-treatment of workers be stopped immediately.
*That TNPC gives workers a direct response to these demands.
*That TNPC meet with workers and their representatives to discuss these demands.

We will appreciate a copy of any solidarity e-mail or article.

For further comment/information contact:

John Appolis –john.appolis@gmail.com

Issued by the Capacity Workers Support Committee

Press Release: Coalition Against Water Privitisation

2007-11-06T09:26:00.000+02:00

COALITION AGAINST WATER PRIVATISATION
PRESS STATEMENT

Tuesday 6th November 2007

INNER CITY JOHANNESBURG RESIDENTS TO MARCH ON JOHANNESBURG WATER THIS THURSDAY, 8TH NOVEMBER FROM 09H00 (MARCH BEGINS AT LIBRARY GARDENS)

THE COALITION AGAINST WATER PRIVATISATION (CAWP) SUPPORTS THE STRUGGLE OF INNER-CITY RESIDENTS AGAINST WATER CUT-OFFS AND FOR QUALITY AND AFFORDABLE ACCESS TO WATER

The Inner City Resource Centre (a community organisation of inner-city residents in Johannesburg) will be marching to the Johannesburg Water (JW) offices in central Johannesburg on Thursday 8th November 2007 from 09h00 (starting point at Library Gardens). This march is a follow-up to a memorandum submitted to JW in August this year, in which inner-city residents demanded an immediate end to all water cut-offs, the provision of the free ‘lifeline’ amount of 6kl of water per month, per household and the lowering of unaffordable water tariffs.

Since the submission of that memorandum, there has been no official response from JW. Instead, JW has continued to illegally cut-off the water supply of many inner-city residents, forcing them to live in physically intolerable and extremely unhealthy conditions. In direct violation of the constitutional and human right to water, JW has left many inner-city residents in Johannesburg without access to water for long periods of time.

JW has rationalised this barbaric and illegal practice on the basis that residents have defaulted on payments, ignoring the fact that the vast majority of inner-city residents are poor and can therefore simply not afford to pay the ridiculously high water tariffs. Additionally, JW refuses to acknowledge the fact that most of these residents are not receiving their free ‘lifeline’ amount of 6kl per month, per household. Once again, the poor are being punished simply because they are poor, while rich suburbanites in Johannesburg not only receive the free ‘lifeline’ amount but are able to use as much water as they please because they can afford to do so. To make matters even worse, inner-city residents are living under the constant threat of forced removal, as the City Of Johannesburg (COJ) moves arrogantly ahead with its grandiose plans to make Johannesburg a “ World Class City” by excluding the poor.

The Coalition Against Water Privatisation (CAWP) has been playing a major role in the struggle for affordable and equitable access to water in many poor communities in Gauteng Province and elsewhere. The struggle of inner-city residents is now part of that struggle. The march on Thursday is but one of many community actions that will be supported by CAWP as it moves towards the launch of the water rights case (with JW, COJ and the Department of Water Affairs & Forestry as the respondents) in the Johannesburg High Court from 3-5 December.

WATER IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE!!!

Press Release: CADTM on Strauss-Kahn

2007-11-02T08:20:00.000+02:00

Press release – 31 October 2007:
As Dominique Strauss-Kahn takes up his post in Washington, CADTM demands full acknowledgement of the consequences of IMF operations since its creation

Today, November 1 2007, Dominique Strauss-Kahn takes up his post as managing director of the the IMF after a long, skilfully orchestrated process: nomination by Nicolas Sarkozy in order to further weaken political opposition in France; swift approval of his nomination by the 27 countries of the EU so as to silence criticism of the tacit rule that systematically awards the directorship of the IMF to a European (in exchange for directorship of the World Bank by an American); a campaign through dozens of countries driven by a costly communications agency on the theme of the “reform” of the IMF and its support of poor countries; the surprise appearance of another candidate (the Czech Josef Tosovsky) who had not the slightest chance of being selected but who helped create the semblance of a democratic process; and finally, the selection by unanimous agreement of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

CADTM denounces this much-publicized hat trick aimed at concealing the IMF’s very real legitimacy crisis. The countries of the South no longer want to call on the IMF because of the inevitable and brutal after-effects they will have to suffer. Many of these countries (including Brazil, Argentina and Indonesia) have even paid off their debt to the IMF in advance to rid themselves of its burdensome protection – to such an extent that the IMF can no longer cover its operating expenses and sees its very future at risk. This explains the necessary “reform” which, rather than bring democratic change that would benefit the poorest, is designed to ensure the IMF’s survival and counter the strong opposition now being voiced all over the globe.

For CADTM, there is no doubt than an exhaustive audit of the IMF is long due. As an institution, the IMF has, for over 60 years, been co-ercing the heads of so-called “developing” countries to implement economic measures that serve the interests of rich creditors and major corporations. For several decades, the IMF has given vital support to many despotic and corrupt regimes, from Pinochet in Chile to Suharto in Indonesia, from Mobutu in Zaire to Videla in Argentina, and still today from Sassou Nguesso in Congo-Brazzaville to Idris Deby in Chad, to mention only some. Since the debt crisis of the early 1980s, the IMF has ruthlessly imposed structural adjustment programmes with dramatic consequences for the people of the South: drastic cuts in social spending and subsidies for products of basic necessity, the opening up of markets and the introduction of unfair competition between small producers and multinationals, export-oriented production, forfeiture of the principle of food sovereignty, massive privatization, taxation that widens the gap between rich and poor, etc.

The time has come for the IMF to be called to account.

No institution can place itself above the authority of international documents and treaties, and yet the IMF, through its Articles of Agreement, grants itself total legal immunity. No reform of the IMF can be undertaken without the approval of the United States, which possesses an absolutely unacceptable power of veto.

Therefore any proposed reform that would modify the international balance of power will be blocked by those who represent the financial heavyweights. In the view of CADTM, these factors preclude any possibility of acceptable change within the IMF.

In this context, there can be only one solution: since the IMF has clearly demonstrated its failure to deliver in terms of human development, but cannot be made to account for its actions over the last 60 years, CADTM demands its abolition and its replacement by a transparent and democratic institution whose mission will center on the guaranteed respect of fundamental rights.

Contacts:
Damien Millet, president of CADTM France, france@cadtm.org

Eric Toussaint, president of CADTM Belgium, international@cadtm.org

Say Goodbye to Bluefin Tuna

2007-11-01T08:34:00.000+02:00

Yet another international meeting goes by on the fate of marine life and nothing is done, except some finger pointing. It looks like Japan has been under-reporting its bluefin tuna catch. In other words, it has been catching more than it should be:

Conservation groups say an international commission's failure to prevent overfishing of the southern bluefin tuna is driving the species closer to extinction.

Wildlife trade-monitoring network Traffic and conservation body WWF said today the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna's (CCSBT) annual meeting in Canberra at the weekend made no significant progress in preventing the overharvesting of the internationally popular table fish.

"The meeting became embroiled in discussions that went round and round in circles getting nowhere, Traffic spokesman Glenn Sant said in a statement.

"The southern bluefin tuna stock is at historically-low levels with less than 10 per cent of the virgin stock left.

"Reviews conducted by the commission have shown massive over-catch by a member, yet Japan has continued to ensure that any finger pointing to those responsible is locked up in confidentiality."

Traffic said overfishing was driving the species further towards extinction.

Link

Say Goodbye to Abalone

2007-11-01T08:07:00.000+02:00

South Africa's abalone is about to go extinct. Why? Ecological changes and overfishing. The overfishing being mostly illegal as the catch enters the black market in exchange for drugs; the abalone being, eventually, sent to the Far East:

SA's abalone stocks are almost depleted and the species will most likely be extinct soon. For this reason one can understand Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk's intentions in imposing the ban.

But the government has already banned abalone fishing and it hasn't worked. Artisanal fishing -- the only legal abalone fishing until Van Schalkwyk's ban -- is practised by a handful of coastal people who take less than 10% of the catch. The rest is illegal plunder.

The immediate effect of the previous ban on commercial abalone fishing was a drastic rise in the price. The abalone trade is run by large, well-organised crime syndicates, for whom the ban is a boon and the minister their best friend.

The previous ban also accelerated the depletion of the stocks as dishonest people found that policing the catch was woefully inadequate. That much is not about to change, which means that even more people will successfully exploit the government-created price bonanza.

Link

Press Release: Phiri Water Challenge

2007-10-31T19:47:00.000+02:00

COALITION AGAINST WATER PRIVATISATION
PRESS STATEMENT
Wednesday 31st October 2007

LEGAL CHALLENGE OVER WATER POLICY IN PHIRI (SOWETO) TO FINALLY BE HEARD IN JOHANNESBURG HIGH COURT FROM 3RD – 5TH DECEMBER 2007.

After three years of constant community struggle, a year after a legal application was launched at the Johannesburg High Court and after the filing of thousands of pages of legal documents, the battle of Phiri (Soweto) residents against Johannesburg Water's limitation of free basic water supply to 6 kilolitres per household, and unilateral installation of pre-paid water meters will finally be heard from 3 rd – 5th December 2007.

The Court will be asked to declare these measures unconstitutional and unlawful and to further order Johannesburg Water (Pty) Ltd. to provide a free basic water supply of 50 litres per person per day, and the option of a credit-metered supply installed at the cost of the City of Johannesburg, to the residents of Phiri, Soweto. Besides Johannesburg Water (JW), the other respondents in the case are the City of Johannesburg (COJ) and the Department of Water Affairs & Forestry (DWAF)

The applicants in this case are five residents of Phiri who are all unemployed and living in conditions of poverty, on behalf of themselves, their households and all residents of Phiri who are in a similar position to the applicants, as well as everyone in the public interest. The case has, from the beginning, been undertaken through the auspices of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation (a collection of community organis ations and progressive NGOs struggling against the negative effects of current water policies on the poor) . The attorney of record is the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at the University of the Witwat ersrand.

This case is of enormous significance for all of South Africa (and will be of great interest internationally) in that it has crucial constitutional implications about the right of access to sufficient water (section 27(b) of the Constitution) as well as the right to administrative justice (section 33 of the Constitution).

Back in 2004, COJ, through JW, began rolling out the first phase of Operation Gcin'amanzi ('Conserve Water') in Phiri (Soweto). Residents were told that Operation Gcin'amanzi was being implemented in order to repair old piping infrastructure and would improve their water supply and it was on this understanding and promise that most subsequently signed a consent form allowing JW to enter their properties. Instead, JW began forcibly installing pre-paid water meters (which automatically disconnect water supply after the provision of the free amount of 6 kilolitres), illegally disconnecting the water supply of those residents who refused and/or unilaterally installing water stand pipes, thus robbing residents of access to proper sanitation.

Despite numerous attempts to engage in serious dialogue, COJ and JW chose to ignore legitimate community concerns and embarked on a path of confrontation. When residents, under the banner of the Phiri Concerned Residents, the Anti-Privatisation Forum and the Coalition Against Water Privatisation, openly resisted, COJ and JW turned to law enforcement agencies and the courts to punish resistance and enforce their undemocratic and anti-poor water policies. JW succeeded in obtaining a High Court interdict against resisters, hired a private security firm to guard their equipment/ machines and even brought in the South African Police Service and the South African National Defense Force to intimidate, beat ,shoot and arrest resisters.

Many residents of Phiri have, over the last three years, paid a high price as a result of standing up for their rights and now, they will finally have their day in court. Leading up to the court hearing, the Coalition Against Water Privatisation will embark on a sustained series of activities to highlight the importance of the case for all those, across South Africa, who desire equitable and just provision of water and to mobilise various poor communities to show their support for the applicants, the Phiri community and all others suffering under the continued implementation of Operation Gcin'amanzi.

During the three days set aside for the hearing, residents of Phiri and other communities in Gauteng, under the banner of the Coalition, will be at the Johannesburg High Court in their numbers. The Coalition calls on all community organisations, progressive NGOs & individuals and trade unions to show their support for this ongoing struggle for water rights.

**All legal documents filed in this case are available on the CALS website –
http://www.law.wits.ac.za/cals/ **

WATER IS LIFE!

China Mieville on Libertarianism

2007-10-29T15:13:00.002+02:00

China Mieville has written a very good piece ("Floating Utopias") on the libertarian fantasy of floating cities beyond national boards (sounds like a good idea actually, put all those whack jobs in the middle of the Atlantic and hope for a big storm). This is his definition of libertarianism, from the before-mentioned article:

Freedom Ship’s board of directors are canny enough to recognize tax hatred as a defining characteristic of the tradition of fantasies in which it sits. It is one of countless recent dreams of a tax-free life on the ocean wave: advocates of “seasteading” are disproportionately adherents of “libertarianism,” that peculiarly American philosophy of venal petty-bourgeois dissidence.

Libertarianism is by no means a unified movement. As many of its advocates proudly stress, it comprises a taxonomy of bickering branches—minarchists, objectivists, paleo- and neolibertarians, agorists, et various al.—just like a real social theory. Claiming a lineage with post-Enlightenment classical liberalism, as well as in some cases with the resoundingly portentous blatherings of Ayn Rand, all of its variants are characterized, to differing degrees, by fervent, even cultish, faith in what is quaintly termed the “free” market, and extreme antipathy to that vaguely conceived bogeyman, “the state,” with its regulatory and fiscal powers.

Link

Eskom and Load Shedding

2007-10-17T11:35:00.000+02:00

There's been a couple of articles in the South African press lately that point the finger at industry in regards to the current load shedding. I particularly enjoyed this one from The Mercury:

Our electricity is among the cheapest in the world. The nation produces 1.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet makes up less than 0.8% of the world population. But it is very misleading to talk collectively about "us" or "we", because some South Africans use vastly more electricity than others. In fact, much of our power is not used by South Africans at all - but by multinational industries, which remit profits to shareholders overseas.

This is not a unique situation. Most countries fall over themselves to woo foreign investors. The point, however, is that when a country faces a major electricity crisis one would expect the government to discourage more energy-intensive foreign investment until the crisis is resolved. Yet it's still business as usual here.

Which is why Eskom's selective load-shedding and energy-saving campaign smacks of hitting soft targets rather than profligate users.

Link

Press Release: Apartheid Profiteers Defeated in Court

2007-10-13T12:50:00.000+02:00

Press Release: Apartheid Profiteers Defeated in Court
Umzabalazo we Jubilee
13th of October 2007

On the 12th of October, the long awaited verdict of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on the Khulumani v. Barclays et. al. court case was handed down. The U.S. Court ruled that the case against the corporations could go ahead despite strong opposition from both the South African and the American Governments.

The Khulumani v. Barclays lawsuit charges 23 multinational corporations with aiding and abetting Apartheid, and was initiated by 87 individual South Africans, all of whom were victims of gross human rights abuses during Apartheid. The lawsuit is based on common law principles of liability and on the Alien Claims Tort Act, which grants U.S. courts jurisdiction over certain violations of international law regardless of where they occur.

The decision of the US Court of Appeals marks a watershed moment in legal history. By allowing the lawsuit to go to trial, the Court is allowing the possibility of corporations to be held account for human rights abuses outside of their home countries. If legal precedent can be made in this case, the days of large companies actively supporting illegitimate regimes will be over.

Umzabalazo we Jubilee fully supports the Court’s decision, and looks forward to the victims of Apartheid having the chance to obtain reparations from the companies that provided the weapons, finances, and oil that the Apartheid government required for its very existence. None of these companies appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, despite being requested to do so.

Since 2005, activists from Umzabalazo we Jubilee have been engaged in a bitter struggle with Barclays Bank (owner of ABSA bank). Barclays has refused to come clean on its Apartheid activities, and has consistently rejected appeals for it to apologise and make reparations to the South African public.

The charges against Barclays Bank are indicative of the charges laid against the other 22 corporations in the lawsuit:

*In 1976, Barclays bought R10 million in Defence Force Bonds and called it an act of “corporate and social responsibility”.
*Between 1972 and 1978, Barclays helped the Apartheid Government to obtain nearly US$500 million in loans
*In 1974, Barclays participated in a US$15 million Eskom Eurobond issue.
*In 1979, Barclays purchased R20 million in SASOL shares.
*Between 1982 and 1984, Barclays’ loans to South Africa totaled US$725.4 million.

Tutu's invitation to speak a victory for free speech - just

2007-10-12T08:14:00.000+02:00

"Tutu's invitation to speak a victory for free speech - just"
By Tristen Taylor
Umzabalazo we Jubilee
Published in the Cape Times, 12th of October 2007

On the 3rd of October 2007, the administration of St. Thomas University in Minnesota, USA refused to allow Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak to students at a Peace Jam International conference. It took an entire week for St. Thomas University to reserve this decision and graciously allow Tutu to speak.

The President of St. Thomas University, Father Dease, originally indicated that it was because of the Arch's allegedly anti-Semitic remarks on Israel. Allowing the Arch to speak would have caused harm, according to Father Dease, to the Jewish Community.

St. Thomas University's decision to ban Tutu was not only hurtful, it was baseless and an act of repression against all Africans. For decades and despite serious illness, the Arch has been a tireless campaigner for Africa's poor and dispossessed and has consistently stood up for moral truths. His efforts to eradicate the scourge of Southern Debt have been an inspiration for Africans across the continent. He is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and a patron of a Holocaust centre in South Africa.

Given the Arch's non-violent commitment to human rights, peace and economic justice, why on earth did St. Thomas declare him persona non grata? On the basis, apparently, of a speech given by the Arch in Boston, USA in 2002. The Arch rightly pointed out that the occupation of Palestine was brutal, against God's teachings, and reminded him of life under Apartheid. He said, "People are scared in this country [the US], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness sake, this is God's world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust."

From this quote, the ultra-right Zionist Organisation of America (ZOA) deducted that the Arch was anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic, and considered Israel to be the same as Nazi Germany. The ZOA, in 2002, then called for all academic institutions in America to boycott the Arch. It seems that the private and Catholic St. Thomas University was listening.

Declaring Archbishop Tutu to be anti-Semitic is like stating the world is flat. Steve Miller, the chair of the UK Jewish Social Justice Coalition, said in a recent letter to Father Dease of St. Thomas that, "So, while I appreciate your sensitivity to the Jewish community, I fear that your conclusion on this occasion is misguided. Archbishop Tutu is a fearless campaigner on behalf of the poor and oppressed and we should all be willing to hear his views and to facilitate opportunities for students – tomorrow's leaders - also to hear his views and be inspired by his work."

For a week, Father Dease and St. Thomas University stuck with their position despite screams of protest from across the globe; speakers at St. Thomas are not allowed to cause potential harm to religious communities. Unless, of course, the speaker happens to be a blonde American of a particularly right-wing persuasion.

Ann Coutler was welcomed to St. Thomas two years ago to speak to students. Ms. Coulter, for those who don't know, is the poster girl for conservative America. Two days after the 11th of September 2001, Ms. Coulter wrote a column for the National Review Online. Her subject? How Christian America should relate to Islamic countries. She said, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war."

In the same article, Ms. Coulter compares Muslims living in the USA to Nazi storm troopers; "People who want our country destroyed live here, work for our airlines, and are submitted to the exact same airport shakedown as a lumberman from Idaho. This would be like having the Wehrmacht immigrate to America and work for our airlines during World War II. Except the Wehrmacht was not so bloodthirsty."

So here was the moral compass of Father Dease and the rest of the administrators at St. Thomas: It is NOT okay for an African Nobel Peace Prize laureate and man of the cloth to speak about the plight of the poor, dispossessed and victims of wars. It IS okay to have an anti-Muslim, white American preach death and hatred.

By this rationale, Nelson Mandela would have also not been allowed to speak at St. Thomas. President Mandela, in his 1998 address to the Non-Aligned Movement, said, "We remain gravely concerned about the situation in the Middle East, especially the positions taken by the Netenyahu administration in Israel, which has blocked progress towards a just and peaceful solution, including the formation of a sovereign state of Palestine. The international community, and the United States in particular, has a responsibility to ensure that this matter is addressed expeditiously."

Eugene Terreblanche would have been welcome.

This banning of Archbishop Tutu is an example of the war against progressive voices within the North. This is contrary to the South's interests. While the global South has paid in current dollars a cumulative total of $7.673 trillion in external debt service since 1979, its debt has increased from $618 billion in 1980 to $3.150 trillion in 2006. Africa's repayments to the North during this time were $675 billion. Half of this amount would have eradicated hunger on the continent.

Desmond Tutu has been an outspoken advocate for debt cancellation and the redirection of debt repayments to social services. When universities like St. Thomas reject individuals like the Arch, they close down debate on issues like debt and the economic subjugation of our continent. They are not silencing Desmond Tutu, they are silencing the collective howl of all Africans.

On Wednesday, the administration of St. Thomas finally received the notice that Inquisition ended in 1834 and declared that Archbishop Desmond Tutu would be invited to join in a dialogue at the University. This represents a victory for freedom of speech. However, the really terrible part of the whole sordid affair was that such an insulting, irrational and anti-democratic decision to ban could have been made in the first place.

*Umzabalazo we Jubilee is an activist, grassroots based, not for profit organization struggling for the total cancellation of Third World Debt, the payment of reparations, the abolishment of neoliberal economic systems, and the social transformation of South African society.

Press Release: Eskom’s Load Shedding and Industrial Power Usage

2007-10-11T14:46:00.000+02:00

Press Release: Eskom’s Load Shedding and Industrial Power Usage
Earthlife Africa Jhb
11th of October 2007

Over the past few days, Eskom has been engaged in load shedding and encouraging domestic users to conserve electricity. In the process, a few key facts have been conveniently omitted.

The greatest users of electricity are not domestic users, who account for only 17% of electricity users. The greatest users of electricity are industrial factories; 29 companies consume 40% of all electricity. Furthermore, the demands on electricity supply up to 2050, according to the Department of Minerals and Energy figure, are primarily due to industrial demand.

Despite being the most-intensive users of electricity, industry pays half the tariff that domestic users do (an average of 29c per kwh compared to an average of 17c per kwh). This has an obvious effect on Eskom’s ability to generate, transmit and distribute electricity.

Furthermore, Eskom and the Government have committed themselves to large-scale supply of electricity to individual and foreign companies at reduced tariffs; this at a time when Eskom struggles to supply citizens with electricity. Thirty percent of all South Africans are still not connected to the electricity grid.

An example of how Eskom and the Government are favouring foreign companies over the interests of South African households is the electricity supply deal to the Canadian aluminium-smelting firm Alcan.

For the past two years, Earthlife Africa Jhb has consistently called upon the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Public Enterprises, Eskom and Alcan to disclose the details of electricity sales to Alcan for its proposed smelter. Both the South African Government and Alcan have hidden behind a profoundly anti-democratic clause in the Developmental Electricity Pricing Programme (DEPP). Alcan is the first foreign company to benefit from the DEPP, and has signed a 25-year deal for 1350MW supply of electricity. This represents about 4% of the entire country’s usage.

What is the DEPP? Essentially, the DEPP provides for uniquely discounted electricity tariffs for foreign industries that are heavy consumers of electricity (over 50MW) in South Africa. In return for investment in South Africa, the DEPP will ensure that electricity tariffs are internationally competitive (our nearest competitor is Australia, which sells electricity at US$0.053 per kwh and is 30% more expensive) and that the industry in question can achieve an profitable internal rate of return; i.e. if electricity is a major overhead (such as in aluminum smelting), it the tariff will be low enough to ensure profit.

This is a significant incentive for heavy industry to invest in South Africa and is supposed to provide significant jobs. However, what it really does is commit Eskom to tariffs for heavy industry at a rate lower (or, at most, on par with the next cheapest supplier of electricity) than anywhere else. It is, in effective, a subsidy for foreign industries, similar to a tax break or import duty waiver.

The most worrying factor about the DEPP is the “built-in” secrecy clause. Eskom is a public enterprise, ultimately owned by the citizenry at large. However, the DEPP guidelines ensure that any contracts signed under the DEPP are to remain secret. This is profoundly anti-democratic. The DEPP states (clause 12.1):

All officials, employees or members of the Department, the adjudication committee, NERSA, Eskom and non Eskom distributors shall regard as confidential all technical information, records, particularly any strategic commercial information and all knowledge that pertains to any project that applied for benefits in terms of DEPP, whether such information is recorded on paper or in an electronic manner.

The very next clause (12.2) in the guidelines bounds individuals with knowledge about the contracts to silence for the rest of their lives.

If the DEPP is a method for promoting growth and development in South Africa, why then the secrecy? Why shouldn’t this be in the public domain? This clause gives foreign corporations like Alcan the right to build electricity-intensive industrial plant in South Africa, get electricity on favourable terms in relation to their expected rate of return, and not to have to tell the country at large what rate they purchased electricity from the South African state. Further, this clause seems at odds with the spirit of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, through a pre-emptive strike against the releasing of information.

The DEPP deal with Alcan means that the citizens of this country won’t know the answers to the following questions:

* What is the price of electricity agreed upon by Alcan and Eskom?
* What are the conditions of supply of electricity?
* Will the price paid to Eskom cover the indirect costs of smelter? For example, the environmental group TWIG has calculated that the indirect costs of harm to the environment based on Eskom CO2 emissions to supply the smelter with electricity would be R6.4 billion.

The question that should be asked when Eskom turns off the lights is; why, if Eskom can’t supply electricity to the citizens of this country, is it offering foreign companies large amounts of power at reduced tariffs? Must individuals and small businesses suffer so that large industries can be assured profit?

Victory on Tutu

2007-10-11T13:30:00.000+02:00

St. Thomas University has relented on the banning of Tutu. Below is a statement from Father Dease, pity he didn't actually apologise or reinstate an academic at the University who was demoted for originally inviting Tutu to the University.

UST president says he made wrong decision, invites Tutu to campus

Father Dennis Dease, president of the University of St. Thomas, has asked that the letter below be sent to St. Thomas students, faculty and staff:

Dear members of the St. Thomas community,

One of the strengths of a university is the opportunity that it provides to speak freely and to be open to other points of view on a wide variety of issues. And, I might add, to change our minds.

Therefore, I feel both humbled and proud to extend an invitation to Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak at the University of St. Thomas.

I have wrestled with what is the right thing to do in this situation, and I have concluded that I made the wrong decision earlier this year not to invite the archbishop. Although well-intentioned, I did not have all of the facts and points of view, but now I do.

PeaceJam International may well choose to keep the alternative arrangements that it has made for its April 2008 conference, but I want the organization and Archbishop Tutu to know that we would be honored to hold the conference at St. Thomas.

In any event, St. Thomas will extend an invitation to Archbishop Tutu to participate in a forum to foster constructive dialogue on the issues that have been raised. I hope he accepts my invitation. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas has agreed to serve as a co-sponsor of the forum, and I expect other organizations also to join as co-sponsors.

Details about issues to be addressed will be determined later, but I would look forward to a candid discussion about how a civil and democratic society can pursue reasoned debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other emotionally charged issues.

I also want to encourage a thoughtful examination of St. Thomas’ policies regarding controversial speech and controversial speakers. In the past, we have been criticized externally and internally when we have invited controversial speakers to campus – as well as when we have not. Rather than just move from controversy to controversy, might there be a positive role that this university could play in fostering thoughtful conversation around difficult and highly charged issues? We also might explore how to more clearly express in our policies and practices our commitment to civility when discussing such issues.

I have asked Dr. Nancy Zingale, professor of political science and my former executive adviser, to oversee the planning for the forum. If you have suggestions regarding either the topic or other participants, please contact her at nhzingale@stthomas.edu.

I sincerely hope Archbishop Tutu will accept our invitation. I continue to have nothing but the utmost respect for his witness of faith, for his humanitarian accomplishments and especially for his leadership in helping to end apartheid in South Africa.

Sincerely,

Father Dennis Dease
President

Link

South African NGO Coalition on Tutu

2007-10-11T09:28:00.000+02:00

Hassen Lorgat of the South African NGO Coalition has this to say on Tutu:

I want express my shame that a university can stoop to such low levels of integrity and academic non freedom that they refuse to hear views from an eminent global citizen. Long live Bishop Tutu and the struggle for global justice. Palestine must never be silenced.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

2007-10-10T11:49:00.000+02:00

Out of Sight, Out of Mind
By Dale T. McKinley & Ahmed Veriava*
(Published in Business Day on 1st October 2007)

In August 2004, as if moved by the force of a repressed trauma returning to settle its claim on the present, something shifted on the arterial line that connects the metropolitan centres of Johannesburg and Durban. From one of the far flung places forgotten by the transition, places most of us only ever pass through on our way to ‘somewhere else’, thousands of protestors descended on the N3 highway to unsettle the fragile mythologies of the ‘miracle nation’. Armed with placards and song, the protesters charged that after ten years of democracy not much had changed for the country’s poor. The “better life for all” that had been promised in 1994, and repeated with each successive election, had not arrived. The state’s response was unequivocal, and in violent scenes reminiscent of our not so distant past, shotgun-wielding policemen fired live ammunition at fleeing protesters. When the enforced calm finally returned to the ‘sleepy’ Free State town of Harrismith/Intabazwe, sixteen year old Tebogo Mkhonza was dead, with many others nursing their wounds. Those identified as the leaders of the protest were rounded up and charged with public violence and, for the first time in post-1994 South Africa, sedition.

It is in these, the forgotten places of the transition, that the trauma at the heart of a new South Africa is forcefully highlighted in the challenges of everyday life. The small Northern Free State community of Rammolutsi, where we recently spent time collecting stories about people’s lives since 1994, is such a place. It is in places like Rammolutsi where people are constantly told to be ‘patient’ while the elusive dream of ‘a better life’ is deferred to the rhythms of local level finances and institutional delivery and investment mechanisms; the kind of place that is necessarily repressed in nationalism’s priestly caste narratives of the nation, it’s people, and ‘the long way we have come’. As long as people play to this script there is nothing to report or comment on, nothing to see, precisely because there is no societal-institutional recognition of anything that is ‘out of the ordinary’.

What has been naturalised, however, is the generalised acceptance of a state strategy that is based upon an abdication of its social responsibility vis-à-vis a macro-economic programme in which social inclusion is increasingly made contingent upon local capital investment. The dark core of this strategy becomes all too apparent in a community like Rammolutsi, where the only existing form of meaningful capital investment, has either left in search of more profitable locations, or, as is the case with commercial farming, is increasingly shedding jobs as it speeds-up mechanisation in order to enhance its global competitiveness. In the context of a policy perspective that increasingly sees integration into wage labour as the conduit for social citizenship, the reality of its 80%+ unemployment rate is that most adult residents of Rammolutsi are unlikely to see their shacks transformed into formal housing or their children escape the unyielding grip of a life of poverty.

The ironic outcome of this strategy is a community which fits neatly into Mbeki’s proverbial ‘second economy’, where unemployment and poverty become structural and, in the President’s own words, “act as a fetter on the further development of the first economy”. The ‘developmental’ logic flowing from this is the reduction of entire populations to bare life, made to subsist within the meagre network of grants with minimal access to basic services governed by a rigid system of ‘lifeline’ allocations. Where meaningful community development is deferred to the flow of market forces, state development initiatives become increasingly cosmetic in character, the classic examples being the shiny new municipal buildings that are erected, or the few main roads that are newly paved.

People in Rammolutsi told us that the only official - post-1994 - visit to their community by a senior government politician (former Vice-President, Jacob Zuma) was limited to the one main (paved) road running through Rammolutsi where most all the formal housing is located. The thousands of makukus (shacks) that dominate the majority of Rammolutsi, and which represent the most direct manifestation of poverty and lack of development were conveniently bypassed as the official motorcade steered clear of the maze of gravel roads that lead into the heart of the township. If something is not seen then, for all intents and purposes, it becomes ‘invisible’, and that includes people themselves.

In circumstances where the continued and often deepening immiseration of people, whether in Rammolutsi, Intabazwe or hundreds of others places like them across South Africa, becomes an ‘ordinary’ and acceptable feature of a society, politics can gravitate towards a mode of entrepreneurial engagement. Being effectively cut-off from the politico-institutional and socio-economic mainstream of society, the vast majority of those who inhabit makukus in poor communities such as Rammolutsi have, for example, adopted an understandable (but ultimately disempowering) position that links the possibilities of getting an RDP house to their own political connectedness. It is such a connectedness that would allow access to the networks of patronage and corruption that so clearly characterise much of the local levels of the state and party. Several of our interviewees went so far as to say that having an ANC membership card is the necessary first step to accessing these networks.

Outside of such engagements however, and because the political rationality underpinning the South African state’s macro-developmental approach is fundamentally one of non-negotiability, the contestation of the conditions of life confront the disciplinary and juridical power of the state directly; the naked figure of sovereign power. Witness the character of the Intabazwe confrontation alongside the thousands of other service delivery protests that have taken place over recent years. Depending on the ‘outcome’ of such attempts, which have so regularly resulted in increasing frustration and anger, this trajectory can lead to a longer-term disinvestment in the ideal of an active, democratic citizenry.

People, and no more so than the poor, have to be seen - whether by government, the media, civil society organisations, political parties etc. – in order to get political recognition. Thirteen years on in South Africa’s transition, it seems that the only way in which the poor can be seen is by creating an out-of-the-ordinary localised ‘crisis’ that has the potential to draw the gaze of the national state – and other players within the system - onto the developmental failures of the local state and its individual actors. But is anyone paying attention?

* The authors are presently conducting research entitled – ‘Forgotten Voices in the Present: Post-1994 Oral Histories from Three Poor Communities in South Africa’ – through the South African History Archive. This is the second of three articles emanating from the first phase of this research project.

Anti-Defamation League on Tutu

2007-10-10T11:43:00.000+02:00

The Anti-Defamation League, which exists to fight anti-Semitic remarks, is urging St. Thomas to reconsider its decision to ban Tutu. From the JTA website:

"The Anti-Defamation League is urging the president of a Minnesota university to invite Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak. Tutu had been disinvited because of fears he might offend Jews.

"He had been slated to visit the University of St. Thomas next spring as part of a program that brings Nobel laureates to teach youth about peace and justice. But university administrators, after consulting with Minnesota Jewish leaders, concluded that Tutu had made hurtful comments about Israel and the Jewish people and would be an inappropriate speaker.

""Tutu has certainly been an outspoken, sometimes very harsh critic of Israel and Israeli policies, and has sometimes also used examples which may cross the line," said Abraham Foxman, the ADL's national director. "He certainly is not an anti-Semite and should not be so characterized and therefore refused a platform."

"The ADL is preparing a letter to the university's president, Father Dennis Dease, urging him to reconsider the decision."

Link: http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/104559.html

Jewish Social Justice Coalition on Tutu

2007-10-09T15:17:00.000+02:00

From: Steve Miller
To: DJDEASE@stthomas.edu
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 11:56 AM
Subject: Archbishop Tutu's visit

Dear Father Dease,

I have had my attention drawn to the unpleasant situation regarding Archbishop Tutu's proposed visit to your university.

I am writing in my capacity as chair of the Jewish Social Justice Coalition in the UK (a broad coalition of national synagogue organisations, youth and student movements and specialist social justice agencies) and also as co-Chair of the Jubilee Debt Campaign in the UK, one of the original campaigning organisations focusing on global debt issues.

It is not clear whether you have actually rescinded Archbishop Tutu's invitation or simply expressed a personal opinion opposing the visit.

Either way it seems that your motivation is guided by sensitivity to Jewish perspectives.

I should make it very clear that, although Archbishop Tutu may be a trenchant critic of Israel, that is not enough, in my view, to obscure all of the other important and valuable work he has undertaken over several decades.

Of course those of us in the Jewish community are sensitive to criticism of Israel. But that did not stop us becoming active partners in the Ant-Apartheid Movement in the 1980s even when we knew that the African National Congress and the Palestine Liberation Organisation were such close allies. Our differences of opinion regarding the Middle East never stopped us affirming our strong support for South African progressive organisations, many of whom shared a critical perspective on Israel. This included inviting Archbishop Tutu to London in 1986 to speak at one of the main Orthodox Jewish educational insitutions.

So, while I appreciate your sensitivity to the Jewish community, I fear that your conclusion on this occasion is misguided. Archbishop Tutu is a fearless campaigner on behalf of the poor and oppressed and we should all be willing to hear his views and to facilitate opportunities for students - tomorrows leaders - also to hear his views and be insipred by his work.

I do hope you will re-consider your opinion on this matter.

Yours sincerely

Steve Miller
Chair, Jewish Social Justice Coalition (formerly Make Poverty History Jewish Coalition)
Co-chair, Jubilee Debt Campaign
Trustee, Tzedek-Jewish Action for a Just World
Advisory Board, ResponsAbility
Joint Founder, Faith-based Regeneration Network
Fellow, Faiths & Civil Society Unit, Anglia Ruskin University

Juan Cole on Tutu

2007-10-09T09:58:00.001+02:00

Juan Cole of Informed Comment has a couple of good posts on Tutu, go here and here. A taste:

The Israel lobby strikes again, limiting what can be heard in public in the United States about those policies of Israel that are contrary to basic human rights norms.

And here is the kicker. UST [University of St. Thomas] is guilty of a whopper of a double standard. Two years ago, the university allowed Ann Coulter to speak on its campus.

Ann Coulter once said of Muslims, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

Tutu's censors respond

2007-10-09T09:46:00.000+02:00

Hennes, Douglas E. Mon, Oct 8, 2007 at 11:08 PM
To: Tristen Taylor

Dear Mr. Taylor,

I want to thank you for sharing your concerns about the University of St. Thomas' decision not to invite Archbishop Desmond Tutu to campus to speak.

As Father Dennis Dease, president of St. Thomas, has said in a statement, this has been a difficult issue and we know that many people do not agree with the decision. I will make sure that Father Dease gets a copy of your correspondence.

I don't know if you have seen Father Dease's statement, but I am pasting it in below for your reference.

Sincerely,

Doug Hennes
Vice President for University and Government Relations
University of St. Thomas
2115 Summit Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55105
(651) 962-6402 (work)
(612) 327-0368 (cell)
dehennes@stthomas.edu

------------------------

Bulletin update: Friday, Oct. 5, 2007
For students, faculty and staff

Father Dease writes letter on Tutu controversy

Father Dennis Dease, president of the University of St. Thomas, has asked that the letter below be sent to St. Thomas students, faculty and staff:

Dear members of the St. Thomas community,

I am writing to you today to explain the University of St. Thomas' decision not to co-sponsor an April 2008 PeaceJam conference for high school students.

Last spring, a representative of our Justice and Peace Studies program advised my office of an opportunity to invite Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak at St. Thomas during the PeaceJam conference. I discussed the matter with my staff and decided not to take advantage of this opportunity.

Later, I learned that Youthrive, an Upper Midwest affiliate of Denver-based PeaceJam International, had invited Tutu to speak at St. Thomas without my knowledge or that of other senior administrators.

(Metropolitan State University has agreed to host the conference, which will be held April 11-13, with Archbishop Tutu as the featured speaker.)

St. Thomas receives hundreds of proposals to sponsor speakers and events, and we often decline for a variety of reasons. Why was this the case for the Archbishop Tutu opportunity?

We became aware of concerns about some of Archbishop Tutu's widely publicized statements that have been hurtful to members of the Jewish community. I spoke with Jews for whom I have great respect. What stung these individuals was not that Archbishop Tutu criticized Israel but how he did so, and the moral equivalencies that they felt he drew between Israel's policies and those of Nazi Germany, and between Zionism and racism.

I was under no pressure from any pro-Israeli groups or individuals, nor did I receive any requests from them, to refrain from inviting Archbishop Tutu to speak.

I am not in a position to evaluate what to a Jew feels anti-Semitic and what does not. I can, however, take seriously the judgments of those whom I trust by not putting St. Thomas in a position that would add to that hurt.

Questions also have been raised about why Dr. Thomas Rochon, executive vice president and chief academic officer, removed Dr. Cris Toffolo as director of our interdisciplinary Justice and Peace Studies program. This is a personnel matter. I will say only that she was not removed because of any private or public disagreement with my decision not to invite Archbishop
Tutu to St. Thomas. She continues to teach in the program and remains a tenured associate professor of political science.

I also wish to address concerns about threats to academic freedom at St. Thomas. I strongly defend the principle and practice of academic freedom at the university. This incident did not involve our curriculum or St. Thomas classroom activities. Instead, it involved the use of our facilities and name in connection with an external group.

I want to thank members of the St. Thomas community for sharing their concerns with me. This has been a difficult issue, and I know many people do not agree with the decision. As always, I welcome your comments.

Sincerely,

Father Dennis Dease
President

Sokari on Tutu

2007-10-08T13:07:00.000+02:00

Sokari from Black Looks has a post on Tutu, worth checking out for background info on the matter. Go here.

Tutu's Inquisition

2007-10-08T11:37:00.000+02:00

To: DEHENNES@stthomas.edu, DJDEASE@stthomas.edu, MCDIENHART@stthomas.edu, SLALEXANDER@stthomas.edu, LCHALVERSON@stthomas.edu, ARCALLAGHAN@stthomas.edu, webmaster@stthomas.edu, gradcath@stthomas.edu, mgmt_center@stthomas.edu, CCIGIELSKI@stthomas.edu, RMHALL@stthomas.edu, VCTHOUIN@stthomas.edu, NHZINGALE@stthomas.edu

Date: 8th Oct. 2007

Dear Sirs,

I have to object in the strongest terms possible to Archbishop Tutu being refused permission to speak at your institution. Having, as a South African activist, worked with the Archbishop's office for many years I can only hold the highest regard for his work both in South Africa and outside.

In particular, his efforts to eradicate the scourge of Southern Debt have been an inspiration for Africans across the continent. Despite serious illness, he has consistently stood up for moral truths and against exploitation.

In denying him access to speak, you are denying all Africans a voice. Perhaps the voice of the poor and dispossessed, made so by your country's policies, is too uncomfortable for you to hear. It is your actions, on a daily basis through your government and your methods of consumption, that repress us. By not allowing Tutu to speak, you are hiding from the uncomfortable truth that the collective North is actively engaged in economic warfare against the South. You should be ashamed.

Or is it, perhaps, that you didn't receive the notice that the Inquisition ended in 1834?

All the best,

Tristen Taylor
Former Jubilee South Africa Apartheid Debt Campaign Coordinator
Johannesburg, South Africa

Greenwash

2007-10-07T11:50:00.000+02:00

Andreas at The Antidote has put out a great article on greenwash (published in the Big Issue). Here's a taste, go read the rest:

After all, how green is a company like Toyota, which, yes, may be the market leader in fuel-efficient hybrid-electric cars, but makes most of its profits from gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks? And how green, really, is a giant oil corporation like BP, which invests millions in renewable energy sources and rebranding itself as “Beyond Petroleum”, while making billions in profits from atmosphere-polluting oil and gas?

Link

Press Release: APF and Death of Comrade Mhlope

2007-10-03T07:40:00.000+02:00

ANTI-PRIVATISATION FORUM
ALEXANDRA VUKUZENZELE CRISIS COMMITTEE
Press Statement
Tuesday 4th September 2007: 23h30

COMRADE NKOSINGIPHILE MVALO MHLOPE - COMMUNITY ACTIVIST IN ALEXANDER ASSASINATED ON SATURDAY NIGHT BY UNIDENTIFIED ASSAILANTS

Memorial service to be held on Thursday 4th October at 13th Avenue Ganda Center, Alexandra (17h00 to 20h00)

Our comrade - Nkosingiphile Mvalo Mhlope - was assassinated on Saturday night. Comrade Nkosingiphile and three other friends were leaving comrade Mhlope’s house in 1st Avenue, Alexandra after having just finished watching a game of soccer. An unidentified car pulled into Comrade Mhlope’s yard and the occupants immediately opened fire on the four men. Comrade Mhlope was fatally wounded and he died the following day at Johannesburg Hospital. One of the other men was seriously injured and remains in critical condition in Johannesburg Hospital. Comrade Nkosingiphile was a well-known activist of the Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee and was recently arrested for his involvement in the AVCC’s occupations of vacant RDP houses in Extension 7. Both the AVCC and the wider Alexandra community view Comrade Nkosingiphile’s cold blooded murder as a politically-motivated assassination. The AVCC and the APF demand that the police give their full and urgent attention and energy to the ongoing investigation into those responsible for this heinous crime.

The APF has, on numerous occasions, warned about the increasingly dangerous and threatening environment that has been created for community activists struggling for basic services and human dignity as a result of violent actions by police and verbal attacks and threats made by local, provincial and national ANC politicians and members. The levels of intolerance against those who engage in legitimate protest and dissent are reaching crisis proportions.

Say Goodbye to Mangroves

2007-10-03T07:18:00.000+02:00

According to FAO, mangroves are declining:

The results of the trend analyses indicate that the current mangrove area worldwide has now fallen below 15 million hectares, down from 19.8 million ha in 1980. The world has thus lost 5 million ha of mangroves over the last twenty years, or 25 percent of the extent found in 1980.

If the mangroves go, then so do the breeding grounds for many fish species, setting off a 'domino effect' of ecosystem collapse. Fun, fun, fun.

Say Goodbye to Herring

2007-10-03T05:46:00.000+02:00

Looks like herring in Alaska are on that all too familiar road:

Today the herring have become smaller and smaller. According to marine biologists, Pacific herring up to 18 inches have been recorded. But the Alaska herring have become smaller and smaller and now an eight-inch fish is considered "good sized." No one - biologist, politician or fisherman is venturing a guess as to the reason for today's smaller fish. In some ways it seems obvious. Perhaps not.

And today the wisdom and safety of the sac roe fishery is repeatedly questioned. There has been the argument that "A dead herring is a dead herring" regardless of the method of its harvest, bait or sac roe. At present, there is also a newer development: Perhaps the sac roe fishery will in time become a thing of the past on its own. Japan long ago fished its own herring populations to extinction.

Link

Yamaha Triples

2007-10-01T08:08:00.000+02:00

The Yamaha Triples website has to be the best site on the net in terms of quantity and quality of information. This website is pretty much responsible for me being able to take a 27 year-old XS850G motorcycle from barely working to a relatively reliable bike with decent looks and lots of torque. Every time I had a problem (which was often), I could find a solution, often in step-by-step detail from a real friendly online community. What else can one want from a website?

Global Warming Article

2007-10-01T07:46:00.000+02:00

Check out this article for a decent overview of global warming and economics (also have a look at some of the links in that article). Here's a taste:

Common sense would presume that the resulting questions for policymakers, long since removed from a debate on mans culpability, must inevitably focus on how to achieve a wholesale reorganisation of society to drastically decrease fossil fuel use, curb excessive consumption, and reform the global economic framework to ensure that all countries can live sustainably within ecological limits. The collective government response to date, however, makes it seem like the countless thousands of lives being destroyed by flash floods, famines and desertification are living in a parallel world to the business-as-usual dealings of multinational corporations.

From the handmaidens to Alcan, this is a bit rich...

2007-09-26T13:43:00.000+02:00

Dear Tristan

Andrea von Holdt is an environmental project manager at the CDC and responsible for ensuring at all developments within the Coega IDZ; i.e. CDC and tenant-related, are compliant with the South African environmental legislation and have the necessary permits and/or licenses from the relevant Govt. departments. As part of her tasks, she is required to liaise with various key stakeholders (one of which is Earthlife Africa) to ensure that communication channels remain open and that key stakeholders are kept informed and updated as to the CDC’s commitment to sustainable development.

In an effort to improve our service to Earthlife Africa, we kindly request that you take 1 minute to complete this short evaluation form and return it within 3 days.

In order to complete the form, simple press ‘reply’, highlight the appropriate response boxes & click ‘send’.

Regards

CDC
Operations Business Unit
Camilla.Masoor@coega.co.za

Say Goodbye to Grey Whales

2007-09-26T08:10:00.000+02:00

The irresponsible and pointless hunting of whales isn't the only threat to their survival. Grey whales populations are dwindling and individuals appear highly stressed due to a lack of food. That's right, we are eating their food, starving the poor bastards out.

There is new evidence that gray whales are now thin and starving, possibly a result of changes in the oceans resulting from global warming and overfishing. This is ominous news for the health of the whales, and our oceans as well.

It has been 25 years since the international community agreed to a moratorium on commercial whaling. There is no question that this major conservation achievement saved many whale species, including gray whales, from the brink of extinction. However, in the past decade, there has been steady erosion in the protection of the world's great whales. This is of concern not only because whales are special creatures that generate awe and wonder but also due to the many roles they play in the ocean ecosystem as predators and prey.

Link

The situation in Lake Victoria (Uganda) is as equally depressing, as commercial, export orientated companies are hoovering the lake of all its fish. Once again, the problem is not local fishermen catching fish to eat or to sell at a local market, it is the organised and industrialised fishing techniques of capital. Simply put, the rich are screwing us and the generations to come.

Lake Victoria is the world's largest tropical lake and the second largest fresh water lake and most of it is found in Uganda. The ecological health of the lake is deteriorating because of a rapidly growing human population, clearance of natural vegetation along its shores and most of all a booming fish export industry, which has caused the disappearance of several fish species.

Although nearly all fishermen are guilty of using unrecommended fishing gear, the international commercial businessmen are the main culprits. The Nile Perch, for example, lives too far out in the open water for the little fishing boats and too big to be caught in the unsophisticated nets. In response to the increased demand for the Nile Perch, commercial fishing has increasingly displaced local fishermen.

Link

Press Release: Management of Green Point 2010 Stadium's Intransigence Threatens Negotiations

2007-09-25T05:44:00.000+02:00

Press Release: Management of Green Point 2010 Stadium's Intransigence Threatens Negotiations
24th of Sept. 2007

The National Union Mineworkers (NUM) and the Building, Construction and Allied Workers Union (BCWU) have been in depth negotiations for the past seven hours with the management of the joint venture between WHBO and Murray & Roberts. Today's difficult negotiations resulted in an agreement on transport for construction workers at the Green Point 2010 Stadium.

However, this is agreement is under threat from management's desire to seek retribution on striking workers. Management is demanding that all hourly workers sign a form that would effectively prevent workers from improving their working condition through collective action. Further, management reserves the right to implement disciplinary actions against workers who have spoken out and embarked on industrial action.

This desire for retribution is standing in the way of peaceful conclusion to the labour dispute, and is in extreme bad faith. This attitude towards workers who are contributing to South Africa's successful hosting of the 2010 World Cup is blinded by narrow profit and is at the expense of public interest. Decent labour conditions and pay is a method of ensuring that the wealth generated by the 2010 World Cup reaches all levels of society, not just that of rich construction bosses.

This dispute is made all the more strange by intense profitability of both WHBO and Murray & Roberts. In the last financial year (2006), Murray & Roberts made over R730 million in before tax profit while WHBO made over R300 million in pre-tax profits. This is 20% and 54% rise respectively in profits from 2006.

Providing basic and adequate transport for lowly-paid employees, often working in physically-demanding and hazardous conditions, would hardly affect the profit levels of these corporations. The dispute has been protracted and contested because of managements desire to squeeze as much profit out of the workers as possible. This is unacceptable and contrary to the spirit and intentions of 2010 development objectives.

Their insistence on disciplining desperate workers who stood up for their rights smacks entirely of revenge and not of public interest. This is why the dispute is not yet completely resolved. One can only wonder if this is part of campaign to destroy unionized labour in 2010 construction projects, and thereby ensuring higher levels of profit from public funds.
Management of the 2010 Green Point Stadium must cease this hostile behaviour and abide by pre-existing agreements.

While the location of a transport venue has been agreed (Cnr. Marine and Civic), management is delaying agreement on a timeline for implementation, yet again. Management must come to agreement on a timeline without delay and drop its preposterous and irresponsible demands to prosecute workers for legitimate industrial action. Building at the Stadium can commence if management is willing to be reasonable and not vindictive.

In summation, it is the management who are jeopardizing South Africa's 2010 future in the name of a couple of extra rand. The workers demands are reasonable, fair and in line with the reasons behind 2010 itself.

For more information, please contact:

Eddie Cottle
Coordinator
Campaign for Decent Work Towards 2010 & Beyond

Some More Tolstoy Quotes

2007-09-20T07:04:00.000+02:00

I had to check something up in Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You the other day. As usual, I was amazed at such a rational, structural analysis of the duties of a Christian and the essence of Christianity. Below are some quotes from the last chapter. Enjoy.

#1:

But putting aside the sin of deluding men into regarding the most awful crime as a duty, putting aside the revolting sin of using the name and authority of Christ to sanction what he most condemned, not to speak of the curse on those who cause these "little ones" to offend--how can people who cherish their own way of life, their progress, even from the point of view of their personal security, allow the formation in their midst of an overwhelming force as senseless, cruel, and destructive as every government is organized on the basis of an army? Even the most cruel band of brigands is not so much to be dreaded as such a government.

#2:

All these men and those who depend on them, their wives, tutors, children, cooks, actors, jockeys, and so on, are living on the blood which by one means or another, through one set of blood-suckers or another, is drawn out of the working class, and every day their pleasures cost hundreds or thousands of days of labor. They see the sufferings and privations of these laborers and their children, their aged, their wives, and their sick, they know the punishments inflicted on those who resist this organized plunder, and far from decreasing, far from concealing their luxury, they insolently display it before these oppressed laborers who hate them, as though intentionally provoking them with the pomp of their parks and palaces, their theaters, hunts, and races. At the same time they continue to persuade themselves and others that they are all much concerned about the welfare of these working classes, whom they have always trampled under their feet, and on Sundays, richly dressed, they drive in sumptuous carriages to the houses of God built in very mockery of Christianity, and there listen to men, trained to this work of deception, who in white neckties or in brocaded vestments, according to their denomination, preach the love for their neighbor which they all gainsay in their lives. And these people have so entered into their part that they seriously believe that they really are what they pretend to be.

The universal hypocrisy has so entered into the flesh and blood of all classes of our modern society, it has reached such a pitch that nothing in that way can rouse indignation. Hypocrisy in the Greek means "acting," and acting--playing a part--is always possible. The representatives of Christ give their blessing to the ranks of murderers holding their guns loaded against their brothers; "for prayer" priests, ministers of various Christian sects are always present, as indispensably as the hangman, at executions, and sanction by their presence the compatibility of murder with Christianity (a clergyman assisted at the attempt at murder by electricity in America)--but such facts cause no one any surprise.

#3:

A man of the modern world who profits by the order of things based on violence, and at the same time protests that he loves his neighbor and does not observe what he is doing in his daily life to his neighbor, is like a brigand who has spent his life in robbing men, and who, caught at last, knife in hand, in the very act of striking his shrieking victim, should declare that he had no idea that what he was doing was disagreeable to the man he had robbed and was prepared to murder. Just as this robber and murderer could not deny what was evident to everyone, so it would seem that a man living upon the privations of the oppressed classes cannot persuade himself and others that he desires the welfare of those he plunders, and that he does not know how the advantages he enjoys are obtained.

#4:

Even if you are told that all this is necessary for the maintenance of the existing order of things, and that this social order with its pauperism, famines, prisons, gallows, armies, and wars is necessary to society; that still greater disasters would ensue if this organization were destroyed; all that is said only by those who profit by this organization, while those who suffer from it--and they are ten times as numerous--think and say quite the contrary. And at the bottom of your heart you know yourself that it is not true, that the existing organization has outlived its time, and must inevitably be reconstructed on new principles, and that consequently there is no obligation upon you to sacrifice your sentiments of humanity to support it.

Above all, even if you allow that this organization is necessary, why do you believe it to be your duty to maintain it at the cost of your best feelings? Who has made you the nurse in charge of this sick and moribund organization? Not society nor the state nor anyone; no one has asked you to undertake this; you who fill your position of landowner, merchant, tzar, priest, or soldier know very well that you occupy that position by no means with the unselfish aim of maintaining the organization of life necessary to men's happiness, but simply in your own interests, to satisfy your own covetousness or vanity or ambition or indolence or cowardice. If you did not desire that position, you would not be doing your utmost to retain it. Try the experiment of ceasing to commit the cruel, treacherous, and base actions that you are constantly committing in order to retain your position, and you will lose it at once. Try the simple experiment, as a government official, of giving up lying, and refusing to take a part in executions and acts of violence; as a priest, of giving up deception; as a soldier, of giving up murder; as landowner or manufacturer, of giving up defending your property by fraud and force; and you will at once lose the position which you pretend is forced upon you, and which seems burdensome to you.

A man cannot be placed against his will in a situation opposed to his conscience.

If you find yourself in such a position it is not because it is necessary to anyone whatever, but simply because you wish it. And therefore knowing that your position is repugnant to your heart and your head, and to your faith, and even to the science in which you believe, you cannot help reflecting upon the question whether in retaining it, and above all trying to justify it, you are doing what you ought to do.

Oceans in Peril

2007-09-19T12:28:00.000+02:00

The Worldwatch Institute has released a new report on the state of the oceans. Basically, they're fucked. From the report summary:

Presently, 76 percent of the world’s fish stocks are fully exploited or overexploited, and many species have been severely depleted, largely due to our growing appetite for seafood. Current fisheries management regimes contribute to the widespread market-driven degradation of the oceans by failing to implement and enforce adequate protective measures. Many policymakers and scientists now agree that we must adopt a radical new approach to managing the seas—one that is precautionary in nature and has the protection of the whole marine ecosystem as its primary objective. This “ecosystem approach” is vital if we are to ensure the health of our oceans for future generations.

Link

Greenpeace has this to say on the report:

"Recent studies such as the one which shows how 90 percent of the world's large predatory fish, which include the sharks, swordfish and tuna, have disappeared due to overfishing since the 1950s have helped expose what has been happening under the waves and have therefore been out of sight and out of mind to most people", says Paul Johnston, Greenpeace's chief scientist.

Link

This report seems to confirm what I have been posting about for the last couple of years; we are vacuuming the oceans clean. The really bad news about the report is that the Worldwatch Institute isn't offering a free download. Shame on them for reproducing the same kind of commodity trading that got us into the very situation which the report laments. And, isn't this topic too important for cost recovery?

The Road to Serfdom

2007-09-19T08:33:00.000+02:00

Not often do I descend into the murky depths of libertarianism--it makes me feel dirty--but when I stumbled across a cartoon version of Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" I just had to read it. Given the average intelligence of a libertarian, a cartoon seems the perfect medium.

The best summation of libertarianism I've ever run across is:

Government is the Great Satan. All Evil comes from Government, and all Good from the Market, according to the Ayatollah Rand.

Press Release: Global Day of Action Against Alcan

2007-09-11T13:46:00.000+02:00

Press Release: Global Day of Action Against Alcan
Earthlife Africa Jhb
10th of September 2007

On the 12th of September 2007, Earthlife Africa Jhb and various community orgainsations will be marching on Alcan headquarters to protest Alcan’s preferential tariff rates and to demand increased basic access to electricity. This action is in conjunction with actions against Alcan, Rio Tinto, and Alcoa across the globe.

The march will begin at 10:30am at the corner of West & Rivonia in Sandton, Johannesburg. The march will end at Alcan’s office (Fredman Towers, corner Fredman and Bute, Sandton).

For the past two years, Earthlife Africa Jhb has consistently called upon the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Public Enterprises, Eskom and Alcan to disclose the details of electricity sales to Alcan for its proposed smelter. Both the South African Government and Alcan have hidden behind a profoundly anti-democratic clause in the Developmental Electricity Pricing Programme (DEPP). Alcan is the first foreign company to benefit from the DEPP, and has signed a 25 year deal for 1350MW supply of electricity.

What is the DEPP? Essentially, the DEPP provides for uniquely discounted electricity tariffs for foreign industries that are heavy consumers of electricity (over 50MW) in South Africa. In return for investment in South Africa, the DEPP will ensure that electricity tariffs are internationally competitive (our nearest competitor is Australia, which sells electricity at US$0.053 per kwh and is 30% more expensive) and that the industry in question can achieve an profitable internal rate of return; i.e. if electricity is a major overhead (such as in aluminum smelting), it the tariff will be low enough to ensure profit.

This is a significant incentive for heavy industry to invest in South Africa and is supposed to provide significant jobs. However, what it really does is commit Eskom to tariffs for heavy industry at a rate lower (or, at most, on par with the next cheapest supplier of electricity) than anywhere else. It is, in effective, a subsidy for foreign industries, similar to a tax break or import duty waiver.

The most worrying factor about the DEPP is the “built-in” secrecy clause. Eskom is a public enterprise, ultimately owned by the citizenry at large. However, the DEPP guidelines ensure that any contracts signed under the DEPP are to remain secret. This is profoundly anti-democratic. The DEPP states (clause 12.1):

All officials, employees or members of the Department, the adjudication committee, NERSA, Eskom and non Eskom distributors shall regard as confidential all technical information, records, particularly any strategic commercial information and all knowledge that pertains to any project that applied for benefits in terms of DEPP, whether such information is recorded on paper or in an electronic manner.

The very next clause (12.2) in the guidelines bounds individuals with knowledge about the contracts to silence for the rest of their lives.

If the DEPP is a method for promoting growth and development in South Africa, why then the secrecy? Why shouldn’t this be in the public domain? This clause gives foreign corporations like Alcan the right to build electricity-intensive industrial plant in South Africa, get electricity on favourable terms in relation to their expected rate of return, and not to have to tell the country at large what rate they purchased electricity from the South African state. Further, this clause seems at odds with the spirit of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, through a pre-emptive strike against the releasing of information.

The DEPP deal with Alcan means that the citizens of this country won’t know the answers to the following questions:

* What is the price of electricity agreed upon by Alcan and Eskom?
* What are the conditions of supply of electricity?
* Will the price paid to Eskom cover the indirect costs of smelter? For example, the environmental group TWIG has calculated that the indirect costs of harm to the environment based on Eskom CO2 emissions to supply the smelter with electricity would be R6.4 billion.
* Why doesn’t Eskom release its forward cost pricing curve, on a regular basis, as the anticipated costs of new plant escalate?
* Are promised future measures to account for externalised costs of electricity generation compromised by the deal or the DEPP?

Earthlife Africa Jhb calls upon Eskom and Alcan to fully disclose all the details of their deal, including the actual price of electricity.

The fact that Alcan and the Government refuse to disclose these details is especially arrogant in light of the fact that 30% of South Africans are without electricity. Furthermore, the basic lifeline of 50kwh per month per household is entirely inadequate and downright miserly. If the South African Government can offer foreign corporations like Alcan electricity tariffs low enough to ensure profit, then surely it can provide the poorest of its citizens a meaningful allocation of electricity?

Therefore, Earthlife Africa Jhb calls upon Eskom and the Government to increase the basic allocation of electricity to 100kWh per person per month with a step-block tariff.

Alcan Interview

2007-08-30T15:52:00.000+02:00

I was on Canadian Radio yesterday talking about Alcan in South Africa. (I know, shameless self-promotion).

Go here for the interview.

Direct download (mp3, 15mb) here.

This interview is copyleft so feel free to repost, link, whatever. Spread the message about corporate thuggery.

Editorial on SA Energy News

2007-08-29T16:02:00.000+02:00

Ouch! We've just been mugged. Trevor Manuel and SASOL have got us...again. In the 2006 Budget Speech, Minister Manuel stated that he was considering a windfall tax on SASOL, which was making record profits. Essentially, the windfall tax was a method that would recover the state's historic investment in and subsidy of SASOL. The Minister duly formed a task team to look into the matter, which it duly did and came back with the conclusion that SASOL should pay its dues.

Then, in this month, something dramatic happened. The Minister did a startling u-turn (proving that government ministers can change their minds and adopt new policy) and dropped the bombshell that there would be no windfall tax. The guys and galls at SASOL and PetroSA must have reached for the Dom Pérignon and started singing, "We are the champions - my friends And we'll keep on fighting - till the end." [1]

Predictably enough, the business press have been cheering on Minster Manuel and just generally getting down with the current corporate love affair. The rest of us have been scratching our heads and wondering why Treasury is passing up a fat check. Given the socio-economic needs of the majority and Apartheid's legacy of underdevelopment, some money from SASOL would have been useful. Maybe some of the 30% of us who don't have electricity--literally living in the Dark Age--could have been allowed to see the light.

Why the u-turn? The team at SENSE has figured it out. For the past several issues, we've been noting SASOL's plans for global domination. Hardly a month could go by without SASOL making another announcement of plans to open plant in America, China, Brazil, in fact everywhere but South Africa. We noticed, but didn't make the connection. Treasury also noticed and made the connection (Did someone from the private sector help Treasury make that connection? Any guesses who?). If the windfall tax went ahead, then SASOL would take its cash and technology, both of them born from strong state subsidy, and invest outside of South Africa, thus leaving the country with the prospect of continuing to import oil without increased domestic supply. Can anyone say "balance of payments problem"?

On the same day Treasury did its u-turn on the windfall tax, SASOL announced plans to construct a 80,000 barrels a day plant in the Waterberg, soon to be formally known as a beautiful environmental resource and magnet for eco-tourism.

Hurray. We don't get the money back from SASOL, we damage one of our few remaining eco-hotspots, and get to bear the externalised costs of SASOL's CO2 emissions; SASOL's Secunda plant is the world's top CO2 producer. We are not sure which one is a worse deal; the electricity firesale to Alcan, the SASOL Christmas present, or the R400 billion nuclear programme.

Speaking of Alcan, Rio Tinto mining has bought it for US$38 billion, in cash. Will Rio Tinto respond favourably to Earthlife's PAIA request for the price to be paid for electricity by Alcan? Will NERSA? Don't hold your breath, but watch as the SECCP continues to poke, prod, and march against this secret deal.

Another thing not to hope for is anything visionary out of DME's Energy Security Master Plan for Liquid Fuels, as Richard Worthington notes in this edition. Speaking of visions, Lerato Maregele points out in a biofuels update that Tito has foreseen that maize as a crop for biofuels may push up food prices. Nice to know that they still have the crystal ball at the Reserve Bank. In related news, Science and Technology Minister Mangena has a sweet tooth and is punting sugar cane as the preferred crop for biofuel production.

In the SA Energy Policy & Analysis section, a strong case has been made for the installation of solar water heaters instead of construction of new generating plant. The SECCP is embarking on a project to investigate viable financing of large-scale solar water heating in urban centres.

The good news is that Algeria is going for solar electricity generation in a big way, and that another wind farm is being planned for South Africa.

The really bad news is that the lack of electricity across the continent is hampering African development, as noted by that bastion of progressive, left wing journalism, The Economist.

The next issue of SENSE will come to grips with Peak Oil and Militarisation in Africa. And that's a mugging of note....

Tristen Taylor
Energy Policy Officer
Earthlife Africa Jhb
25th of August 2007

[1] Lyrics from Queen, “We Are The Champions”

Read the entire round-up here.

Say Goodbye to Sharks

2007-08-23T07:44:00.000+02:00

In what has to be one of the more wasteful uses of a marine organism, sharks are being driven to extinction for their fins, which are used in soup:

Long-line fishing methods used by shark fishermen are believed to be responsible for indiscriminate shark catches environment groups say are endangering populations of grey nurse sharks, classified as critically endangered, and the vulnerable great white shark.

This has been compounded by the growing number of fishermen along the east coast who are turning to shark fishing, seen as a more lucrative area of the often difficult fishing industry.

Shark fishers can earn as much as $100 a kilogram for the fins which are in demand on the Asian market where they become shark-fin soup, a prized delicacy.

Link

In related news, there seems to be a last-ditch effort to save the Hawaiian Monk Seal. Bound to fail, one fears. The only way to save our oceans is to catch a lot less fish, drastically reduce by-catch, allow developing countries to close down fishing grounds to foreign trawlers, and stop subsidies to fishing fleets. And, to do all of that, you'll have to struggle against capitalism.

Petroleum Murder

2007-08-17T13:58:00.000+02:00

Petroleum Murder: Peak Oil, Militarisation, and America’s Proxy War in Somalia

By Tristen Taylor
August 2007

“We’ve embarked on the last days of the age of oil.”
-- Mike Bowlin, CEO of the US oil company ARCO (1999)

Something unheard of in human history is occurring – the global scarcity of a number of key material resources. The word in financial quarters is that it is impossible to buy zinc futures as the price is escalating too fast for the market to keep up. Essentially, the global demand for resources is beginning to outstrip production abilities, and financial markets have entered a long and very profitable commodity boom. Mining, oil, drilling and associated retail companies are making money as fast as stockbrokers can cash in.

In this general climate of increasing resource scarcity, one resource towers above all others - petroleum. Oil, fondly referred to as black gold, is the basis of the global economy. Everything around us owes its production and distribution to oil. Food is grown using machines burning diesel, transported in trucks and packaged in plastics that use petroleum as a feedstock. Our current method of civilisation is utterly dependent on oil and if the oil supply were to dry up tomorrow, the vast majority of us would starve to death in a matter of weeks. At best, survivors would be scratching out a Dark Age existence amidst the ruins of rusting BMWs and everlasting plastic Coca-Cola bottles, making snares for rats out of computer mouse cords.

The petroleum industry is vital to the life of every human being in the modern economy, yet it is a tightly controlled industry with only a handful of key players (see table next page), divided amongst state and private control. Of the ten biggest corporations in the world (as ranked by Fortune 500), five are oil and gas companies with a combined annual revenue of US$1,271,058,300,000.00, or 1.271 trillion dollars. By way of comparison, South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product is US$215,511,134,393.14, or 215.5 billion dollars.

Not a great deal has changed in the petroleum market since 1900 when Standard Oil controlled 50% of global sales.

Read the rest here.

Whales take Revenge...Again

2007-08-13T06:54:00.000+02:00

High levels of mercury in whalemeat are poisoning Japanese schoolchildren. Whalemeat is part of Japanese school lunches; the children of Japan wolf down toxic food so that the old men can hang onto their sacred tradition of killing whales, the continuation of which is derived from illogical nationalism and cultural superiority. This would be ironic if it wasn't so sad and pointless:

Whalemeat served in school lunches in an area of rural Japan are contaminated with alarming levels of mercury, a local assemblyman said on Wednesday, calling for a halt in plans for the meat to be shipped to schools nationwide.

Link

Time to say Goodbye after 400 million years

2007-08-12T22:27:00.000+02:00

It never stops, this relentless destruction of oceanic life. After having outlived the dinosaurs, the coelacanth looks like it on the way out. The reason? Us and our wasteful overfishing:

Now it seems that man may have discovered the fish just to eradicate it, as ever deeper trawling throws up serious fears for the already dwindling populations of the fish, which lives at depths of between 100 and 300 metres (328ft to 984ft).

It never stops, this charting of death and xenocide. An unrelenting parade of dead fish, born of shortsighted greed and stoked with the hellfire of capitalism.

Link

Propaganda Posters and Other Cool Stuff

2007-08-08T08:02:00.000+02:00

Stumbled across The Animation Archive via Boing Boing. There are some really cool WWII propaganda posters, check this out.

Go here, here, here, here and here.

Guest Post: ALL ROADS LEAD TO MODIKWA

2007-08-05T10:32:00.000+02:00

ALL ROADS LEAD TO MODIKWA … THE DEVELOPMENT JUMP OF CAPITAL
By Dale T. McKinley & Ahmed Veriava*
(Published as – “Singing the Maandagshoek blues” – Business Day 2nd August 2007)

The Maandagshoek community, nestled in a valley just outside Burgersfort (a booming mine town that straddles the Mpumalanga-Limpopo border), is theoretically one of the richest places on the planet. But here, where platinum rises up from the bowels of the earth to empower a new breed of capitalist, the people of this valley still wait for the illusive dream of a ‘better life’ for all’.

In the heart of Maandagshoek, lies one of South Africa’s most profitable mines - Modikwa Platinum Mine - established in 1999 as a joint venture between Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Minerals and Anglo Platinum. While publicly presented as the poster child of a Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) that supposedly marries capital investment with the meaningful development and empowerment of the surrounding community, the reality is that Modikwa is a classic case of a different kind of BBBEE – Broad Based Black Economic Exploitation.

In theory, Modikwa is supposed to represent the kind of capital investment – in this case, in a ‘historically disadvantaged’ rural community – that brings with it the full spectrum of associated developmental benefits (i.e., social, economic, cultural etc.). However, the key assumption underlying this theory – that invested capital will flow down into, and through, the community – is a chimera. As well-known political economist James Ferguson points out in his recent work on globalised capital, “the movements of capital cross national borders, but they jump from point to point … (they) do not cover the globe, but connect discrete points on it. Capital is globe-hopping, not globe-covering.” When placed within the context of the core rationale for the South African state’s overall approach to socio-economic development – i.e. that the state should not deliver directly but rather pursue development through the facilitation of private capital investment – the results of the kangaroo character of larger-scale capital investment becomes all too apparent.

In rural areas of South Africa, like Maandagshoek, the nature of the capital investment is most always a mining operation, so it is the mine that effectively takes the place of the state. Such developmental substitutionism is further enhanced when the mining operation comes with its initial BEE credentials, and with the promise of further BBBEE initiatives to benefit the surrounding community, as is the case with Modikwa. Residents logically orient towards the mine and it is the mine which then becomes the central focus of the community’s and, by proxy, the state’s developmental expectations.

In order to ‘meet’ such expectations, Modikwa quickly rolled out its BBBEE programme in the form of two Section 21 companies and a host of so-called ‘developmental’ companies. Ostensibly designed to establish ‘joint-ownership’ of the mine with the neighbouring community and to provide job-creation through the mine’s subsidiary activities, these BBBEE efforts just as quickly ‘disappeared’ down the proverbial mine-shaft. As the Maandagshoek Development Committee, the only body that can legitimately claim to represent the collective interests of the Maandagshoek community, recently stated in a letter to ARM’s CEO, K.S. Mashalane: “The section 21 companies are toothless powerless and unaccountable, they are controlled by the mine which has a complete monopoly over knowledge and skills. The companies are not at all independent and they only function through ARM’s management and control.”

These are not idle allegations by a minority group of trouble-makers, as ARM management has, with such self-assured dismisiveness, repeatedly claimed. After spending nearly two weeks in Maandagshoek interviewing a cross-section of community residents, it became clear that the overwhelming experience/feeling is one of complete anger and disillusionment with Modikwa and its BBBEE initiatives. The recent wave of vigorous and hostile community opposition to the way in which they have been treated by Modikwa, as well as to other exploratory mining operations in the area – opposition which has included the burning of mine equipment and active mobilisation around Modikwa’s conscious efforts to divide and confuse the community through its patronage of some local chiefs and politicians – provides ample evidence.

The practical, developmental inheritance of Modikwa’s seven year-old investment residence can be ‘seen’ everywhere. Where there are decent roads, all lead to the mine – the rest are little better than widened cow tracks. Many of the piped water points installed by the mine, accompanied by Modikwa-built water towers emblazoned with the ironic moniker ‘Modikwa Cares’ – and which are supposed to be within a 200m reach of all residents – no longer work and large numbers of people still access their water from polluted streams, which they share with their animals. Many houses are straining from cracks caused by explosions from mine operations. Previously plentiful grazing lands have either been taken over by the mine or are slowly dying from incessant environmental degradation. Community residents working for the Section 21 companies are paid a casualised pittance. One such resident we interviewed, who works as a full time, qualified winch operator at the mine, takes home R1200 a month.

The reality is that the local community, for Modikwa’s capitalists, is completely peripheral to the logic of their investment schema – i.e. making as much money as possible and spiriting it away as fast as possible. The elusive promise of co-ownership, meaningful job creation and trickle-down development for the community, held out by Modikwa’s BBBEE initiatives, is all the more illusory precisely because the community has no real status in the investment cycle, other than as a politically convenient bit-part actor. It is a role that neatly fits with the state’s developmental discourse – where private capital investment becomes the conduit for the realisation of social citizenship – and in which the state progressively abdicates from its responsibility to provide a minimum level of social security to the population.

Remember the name Maandagshoek. There can be few places in our country in which the ‘development jump’ of capital represents the degree to which what is left of the social, economic and cultural well-being of poor, rural communities is being systematically destroyed. And remember the name Modikwa – it could soon come to represent the ‘world class’ symbol of South Africa’s developmental path.

* The authors are presently conducting research entitled – ‘Forgotten Voices in the Present: Post-1994 Oral Histories from Three Poor Communities in South Africa’ – through the South African History Archive. The article is a product of the first phase of this research project.

Letter to Rio Tinto

2007-08-02T12:26:00.000+02:00

To: Tom Albanese, Chief Executive, Rio Tinto plc
Date: 2nd of August 2007
RE: Rio Tinto’s Obligations regarding Alcan’s Coega Smelter

Dear Mr. Albanese,

Congratulations on your offer for Alcan. South African civil society has noted that Rio Tinto is committed to the Alcan smelter at Coega (Business Day, 13 July 2007). As I’m sure you are aware, there has been significant opposition to this smelter on a local and national scale. A great many problems have been caused by Alcan’s complete refusal to disclose the details of its energy deal with Eskom.

Given change of ownership, there is a narrow window of opportunity for clarity and informed public debate regarding this smelter and supply of electricity to. We do hope that Rio Tinto will fully disclose the details of agreements signed between Eskom and Alcan in the interests of working within an open, democratic society.

Please do see attached application for information, including questions and details required.

One last point, will Rio Tinto, in order to address the concerns of citizens living in Port Elizabeth, commence a new Environmental Impact Assessment for the proposed smelter at Coega?

Yours truly,

Tristen Taylor
Energy Policy Officer
Earthlife Africa-Johannesburg Branch

Go Update

2007-08-01T22:09:00.000+02:00

I haven't posted about go in a while, and for good reason; I haven't been playing. I've had the odd pickup game here and there, but that is all. All my books are gathering dust, my set remains firmly on the top of the bookshelf, and I haven't been around to the club in a while. Oddly enough, given the amount of go I have played over the years, I'm okay with that.

Why? Well, changing life circumstances have meant that I often can't make tournaments and Tuesday night go anymore. While that is certainly true, I also don't have the same drive I used to. I've gotten tired and sick to my bones of playing this game competitively, searching for wins and points to get a promotion or go to the WAGC. I just couldn't care anymore. As for studying, I'd rather curl up with something peaceful like a Jim Thompson novel or Herodotus. The decline of the Johannesburg Go Club may also have something to do with it.

Maybe I'll get back into go in a more active way in a couple of months, maybe I won't. We'll see.

What happens to Horses after the Tuna is Gone

2007-08-01T07:16:00.000+02:00

It looks like Japanese sushi chiefs are turning to horse meat to replace bluefin tuna. Why? They're consuming tuna at a rate faster than nature can replenish. One imagines that the same will be said for horses. You see? That shifting predator thing again. Anyway, from the Telegraph:

Sushi chefs are considering using raw deer and even horse meat because of an international shortage of tuna.

Spiralling demand for the fish coupled with shrinking supplies have prompted a culinary crisis in Japan, where tuna is regarded as the height of seafood perfection. Sushi restaurateurs in Tokyo are scouring restaurants in the US for alternatives in case the tuna runs out.

The shortage is the result of the growing international popularity of sushi, particularly in new markets such as Russia and China, as well as a squeeze on fishing quotas. The most popular sushi tuna, bluefin, is also one of the slowest to mature and so particularly at risk from over-fishing. Japan consumes about three quarters of the world's annual bluefin catch.

Link

Photoblog Amusement

2007-08-01T06:37:00.000+02:00

Scribbles in Space. Amusing.