Three articles in this isse focus on climate change and were written as preparations were underway for the COP17 (Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in Durban. Jacklyn Cock writes about a 'just transition' to a carbon-free economy and how this thinking is part of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) policy on climate change.
The Cosatu policy has 15 principles that are linked to other international campaigns on the issue and are explained in an article by Jane Barrett. Of the Cosatu affiliates to have taken on board the issue of climate change well ahead of the pack is teh National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) whose activities are outlined in an article by Kally Forrest. Besides taking the lead in organising local workshops, Numsa has also engaged the International Metalworkers Federation on climate change.
The petroleum-form-coal company, Sasol, continues to make profits while polluting the environment. Being charged with climate crime in other countries has not deterred Sasol, writes Ferrial Adam. Sasol's involvement in climate malpractices can be traced back to the apartheid period when it showed little regard for health and safety when workers died in its mines.
Walmart, whose case is with the Competition Tribunal, has such a bad international record of undercutting competition fromt other retailers to an extent that the competitors end up trying to copy th eway it does business. In most countries this has let to job losses and this is why its merger with Massmart should be opposed by trade unions. Etienne Vlok and Simon Eppel from the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Unions (Sactwu) explain why Walmart is bad news for the retail industry and South Africa's economy.
Women home-based care workers, working as long as seven years for less than R800 (US$100) per month say it's time to get organised as they join the National Education and Health Allied Workers Union and the Health adn Other service Personnel Trade Union of South Africa. Janet Munakamwe, talks to the women and explains why they are seeking recognition for their underpaid work. Like care workers, co-operators are also expected to work for little or no pay. This belief is based on a skewed understanding of how co-operatives work and must be rejected if one is to understand why they fail to become sustainable. Oliver Nathan's studies in Ekurhuleni bring out some of the reasons why co-operatives are dependent on municipalities and why this will remain the case in the future.
Ntsoaki 'Shoeshoe" Qhu makes a case on why community radio stations should continue to get financial support from the government: otherwise the community stations will be forced to close down. However, this doew not give the government a licence to turn them into state mouthpieces.
One of the reasons why corruption is threatening to tear apart the soul of the African National Congress (ANC) is that the party appears to have abondoned its values as found in its documents such as the Freedom Charter Instead, these values have been replaced by a system of consumption and accumulation known as bling culture, writes William Gumede. Corruption in the ANC has also led to practices such as 'member-of-members' where an aspiring candidate buys membership are a threat to internal democracy in the ANC as they are told what to do by their sponsors, writes Musawenkosi Malabela.
There is nothing new about the new growth path, writes Sam Ashman. The economic policy document borrows from the old growth path and other documents and is not clear on how jobs can be created.
Unrest in Malawi in July left more than 50 people dead after police opened fire on protesters. Diana Commack traces the reasons for the unreast and why governemt respnded in such a heavy-handed manner.
In Zimbabwe infighting has led to Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) threatens to break the federation into smaller units. Crispen Chinguno and Taurai Mereki write that the faction fighting has led the unions to lose focus of the bigger issues such as neo-liberal economic policies being adopted in the country.
In the October/November 2011 issue we published and article by Thabang Sefalafala (Why mineworkers opt for private legal scheme) in which he used the concept of 'internal crisis of representation'. The last line in the article should have read: "This is a type of workers response to lack of support from unions that Sakehla Buhlungu and Eddie Webster have called an 'internal crisis of representation'. We regret the error.
Elijah Chiwota
Editor