Now is the time for better basic income grants
Some countries have pledged to give citizens money each month to help them through the Covid-19 crisis. For most South Africans, a basic income could keep bread on the table.
Analysis
India’s Covid-19 lockdown brutalises the impoverished
Prime Minister Narendra Modi stopped all but essential services with only a few hour’s notice, leaving the millions of informal workers who have no government protection stranded.
Economists cannot solve health crises
Classical economics helped kill millions in the British empire’s famines – following economic orthodoxy today could be just as deadly.
South Africa: The coming storm in health and state
Government response to past epidemics has been ambiguous and piecemeal changes have not substantially changed health system inequality. Covid-19 will put extreme pressure on this system.
State violence is an established reality in SA
Police and military abuses during the Covid-19 lockdown reflect a grim pattern of state violence. Beyond reform, the authoritarian and regressive ideology behind this needs to be challenged.
How labour movements foster change
Noam Chomsky speaks about the Bernie Sanders campaign, the obstacles standing in its way and why the US business class will bitterly resist any attempt at social democratic reform.
On movement, human rights and Covid-19
Meditating on human rights and the coronavirus in South Africa, Pumla Dineo Gqola posits that the landscape of freedom after apartheid has cemented an old regime of movement.
The corporate architecture of impunity
Transnational corporations, Lex Mercatoria, market authoritarianism and popular resistance.
Muslims fear the worst after Delhi violence
The Hindu-nationalist government seems to be fuelling the violence that erupted into anti-Muslim riots, which have been likened to the Jewish pogroms of the 1930s.
A pandemic of hate
As more countries fight to curb increasing numbers of Covid-19 infections, a virus of fear is sweeping the globe – and the most vulnerable in our communities are bearing the brunt of it.
Far right uses coronavirus to scapegoat refugees
Europe’s far-right nationalists are closing their borders and using Covid-19 as a guise to deport and deny entry to refugees and asylum seekers.
How coronavirus is infecting South Africa’s economy
Every number in the national budget is now not worth the paper it is written on. State and Eskom revenues will plunge. There could be a ratings downgrade. What is to be done?
Long Read | Avoiding another Auschwitz
The heightened cruelty of the Trump regime signals the emergence of 21st-century fascism. But Auschwitz survivors don’t want their past to be their grandchildren’s future.
Bolivia election: No evidence of irregularity or fraud
An independent analysis of Bolivia’s 2019 general election results indicates that the stopping of the preliminary vote count did not create a ‘change in the trend’ as claimed by AOS observers.
SA’s border bill another anti-migrant development
The National Assembly has passed the Border Management Authority Bill that seeks to militarise the borders and is at odds with South Africa’s commitment to free movement on the continent.
The real cost of Mboweni’s budget
The austerity measures in the 2020 budget will have implications down the line for provincial and social services, and will probably plunge South Africa into full-blown recession.
A battle for India’s soul
India’s student movement is one of the main forces challenging the government of Narendra Modi. But the crusade against Hindu nationalism needs to take root deeper in civil society.
Cosatu’s Eskom plan does not pass climate test
The union federation’s proposed plans for Eskom’s transformation are largely a step in the right direction, but they fail on the fossil fuel dependence and climate impact fronts.
Witnessing the hell that a migrant can face
More and more migrants from Africa are choosing the ‘Eastern Route’ over the Mediterranean Sea, risking the Saudi-UAE war on Yemen in search of work only to be periodically deported en masse.
A ‘profound’ election for Ireland
A surge of goodwill and support for Sinn Féin led to the party emerging from national elections with the biggest share of the vote. Chairperson Declan Kearney gave this speech after his party’s win.
Mourning sports icons like Kobe Bryant is complex
The death of the basketball icon led to an outpouring of love for a man who transcended the sport. But when we mourn him, we must mourn the complete Kobe Bryant, with all his triumphs and flaws.