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Breaking News (Also see Indymedia South Africa) |
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SA SOCIAL PROTEST OBSERVATORY |
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SOUTH AFRICAN PROTEST NEWS 8 - 15 MARCH 2016
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Brazil’s Cowardly Olympic Opening Ceremony Whitewash |
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The Daily Beast 12 August 2016
Afraid of being booed in front of the world, Brazil’s interim president—who brought in a government of all white men—ducked out of the introductions.
RIO DE JANEIRO — At the last minute, Brazil’s controversial interim president got cold feet.
He couldn’t bear to open the show with 60,000 boos reverberating before a billion-strong global television audience. In a breach of Olympic protocol—and the running order in the program—there was no presentation of the president at the start of the Opening Ceremony.
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Unlicensed GIFs are ‘expressly prohibited’ during Rio Olympics |
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Russia Today 5 August 2016
IOC rules does not allow anyone but rights-holding broadcasters to share “sound or moving images” containing Rio Olympics content, the internet seems to have just found out. Shocked users have rushed to vent their outrage and suggest ways to dodge the ban.
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U.S. delegation report: Russia doesn’t look like a failing state |
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Sharon Tennison (Center for Citizen Initiatives) 3 July 2016
The author is a founder of the U.S.-based Center for Citizen Initiatives. The group organized a two-week investigative visit to Russia and Crimea which has just concluded.
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Walmart workers in China show how to fight back! |
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Wu Yandong (China Worker) 7 July 2016
Coordinated strikes break new ground for China’ s fledgling workers’ movement
China has been hit by wildcat strikes at Walmart stores in at least four cities. The strikes are unprecedented and historic because they are coordinated – using social media – in a police state where strikes are usually confined to one workplace or city.
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Trucks cause chaos in Durban |
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IOL News 30 April 2016
Durban - Durban residents are fighting back against trucks taking over their quiet suburban roads.
These “lost trucks” have become an issue that has pressed buttons in communities all the way from South Durban to Glenwood.
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SA's first workers summit set for the weekend |
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The summit is being spearheaded by apolitical unions, with Zwelinzima Vavi as interim chairperson.
Eye Witness News 28 April 2016
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's first ever workers summit is due to take place this weekend, with representatives of 50 unions gathering to discuss the establishment of a broad labour federation, which will represent the majority of the country’s working class.
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R80bn leaving SA in illicit outflows - Mahlobo |
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IOL News 26 April 2016
Cape Town - South Africa could be losing as much as R80 billion a year through illicit financial outflows, State Security Minister David Mahlobo said on Tuesday.
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SA’s government warns against profiteering as food prices jump |
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SABC News 22 April 2016
Consumer rights groups have written to the finance and trade ministries demanding action to curb bread price rises.(SABC)
South Africa's Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana on Friday warned businesses suspected of profiteering from a drought by raising the prices of staples such as bread would face the wrath of competition authorities.
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Far from taxing Shell, Britain actually paid the oil giant £85mn |
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Russia Today 21 April 2016
Britain was the only country in the world to give money to oil giant Shell last year, when UK taxpayers handed the firm an £85 million rebate.
The government handed over the cash because the company reclaimed the costs of decommissioning against the tax it had paid in previous years.
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Modi Proposals We Workers’ Oppose! |
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CWI-India 20 April 2016
The following is an eye witness account by a garment worker on the first massive strike by garment workers in Bangalore. Tens of thousands of workers (majority women) came out on the streets against the proposed restrictions on the withdrawal of amount in the provident fund (PF) scheme. Fearing a spread of working class protests across the country, the Union govt. has decided to roll back the PF restrictions for now.
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Panama Papers flag billion-dollar DRC mining rip-offs |
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Mail & Guardian 19 April 2016
The Panama Papers have thrown fresh light on the massive scam involving the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining concessions.
The Panama Papers – the leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca – have thrown invaluable new light on the externalisation of billions of dollars in value from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The practice took root in the giant country after relative peace descended on it in the years after Joseph Kabila was elected president in January 2001.
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Councillor murdered at Glebelands |
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Sphelele Ngubane (The Mercury) 18 April 2016
VULNERABLE residents of the violence-torn Glebelands Hostel in Umlazi are furious about how they have suffered at the hands of the government and are now begging international organisations to intervene.
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Brazil’s top court upholds impeachment vote |
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IOL News 15 April 2016
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the government to stop an impeachment vote set for Sunday in the lower house of parliament against President Dilma Rousseff.
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‘Monsanto shouldn’t be allowed to exploit farmers’ |
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India vows to break up GM-cotton monopoly
Russia Today 12 April 2016
India has vowed to protect farmers from exploitation and continue regulating the price of genetically modified cotton seeds in the country, looking to break down the monopoly of Monsanto – a US based agrochemical giant which controls 90 percent of the Indian market.
Monsanto is being pushed by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept the dictated government price, as India expects to develop its own genetically modified (GM) cotton varieties early next year.
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Controversial family linked to Zuma leaves South Africa |
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Al Jazeera And Agencies 11 April 2016
Reports suggest the family left South Africa on a private jet on Thursday [AP]Reports suggest the family left South Africa on a private jet on Thursday [AP]A South African opposition party has welcomed the reported departure of a wealthy business family, which is accused of having an undue influence over South African President Jacob Zuma.
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China: Panama Papers name eight Chinese leaders |
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Massive clampdown by state censors
Vincent Kolo (chinaworker.info) 7 April 2016
No government is doing more to hide the damaging revelations contained in the ‘Panama Papers’ than the Chinese dictatorship. The Panama Papers are having a potentially explosive effect around the world, revealing the massive use of tax havens and fake companies (around 200,000 according to the report) by the world’s super-rich to conceal their wealth.
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Zuma Dodges Impeachment Despite Court Ruling |
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The focus on the South African president's personal corruption is obscuring his embrace of austerity policies that are harming everyday people in South Africa, says Patrick Bond, Director of the Centre for Civil Society
Patrick Bond 6 April 2016
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The Man Who Wants to Impeach Rousseff Named in Panama Papers |
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Tele Sur 4 April 2016
Brazilian lawmaker Eduardo Cunha, who claims he wants to root out corruption, is again exposed as a criminal.Brazilian House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, who is leading a fierce attempt to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, has been implicated in the Panama Papers for receiving bribes linked to offshore companies involved in the country’s Petrobras state oil scandal, underlining the hypocrisy of the campaign against Rousseff in the noble name of rooting out corruption.
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Bazooka murder plot thickens |
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Dispatch Live1 April 2016
A new twist has emerged in the murder of Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Rhadebe, a fierce opponent of open-cast titanium mining in Xolobeni who was gunned down outside his home.
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China unleashes ‘white terror’ against protesting workers |
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Wave of repression – over 30 mineworkers arrested after Shuangyashan strike
China Worker 3 April 2016
The so-called ‘Shuangyashan incident’ – a six-day strike by around 10,000 coal miners in March – has shaken the dictatorship of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). It has also, predictably, brought forth a wave of repression.
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Serious concern voiced over US non-implementation of DSB rulings |
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TWN Info Service 31 March 2016
Several countries reminded the United States on Wednesday (23 March) at the World Trade Organization that Washington's continued failure to comply with and implement the Dispute Settlement Body recommendations in trade disputes remains a source of "serious" and "systemic" concern, trade diplomats told the SUNS.
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Alarm after student activist disappears |
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IOL News 30 March 2016
Johannesburg – Concerned friends have told police in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, that student activist Vusi Mahlangu “disappeared” while on his way to a meeting with outsourced workers at the Walter Sisulu University.
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Are Saudis buying Israeli drones through South Africa? |
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Russia Today 31 March 2016
Saudi Arabia announced that it is building a drone plant in cooperation with South Africa, but a well-known Saudi defense analyst claimed this is a guise to hide the clandestine purchases of aircraft from Israel.
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Sanral steps up chase for debtors |
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Linda Ensor (Business Day) 29 March 2016
THE South African National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) is making an all-out effort to collect as much outstanding e-toll debt as possible ahead of its meeting in May with Moody’s Investors Services.
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Angola: Solidarity with Nuno Dala hunger strike! |
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China Worker 27 March 2016
Angolan activist Nuno Dala has been on hunger strike since 10 March 2016
The black activist from Angola, Nuno Dala, started a hunger strike on 10 March 2016. He is one of 17 political prisoners of the president José Eduardo Santos dictatorship, a member of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). They were arrested and accused of “rebellion” against the president.
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COSATU calls for the arrest of the managers of companies implicated in electricity theft |
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Cosatu 24 March 2016
The Congress of South African Trade Unions calls for a thorough investigation and stern action against all those businesses, which are found to have tempered with their electricity connections to avoid paying large amounts on their electricity bills. This comes after Eskom revealed through its annual audits that over 52% of all electricity bridging is done by businesses including mining companies.
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Amadiba Crisis Committee chairman brutally murdered |
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Amadiba Crisis Committee 23 March 2016
We are shocked to tell the public that the chairman of Amadiba Crisis Committee, Sikhosiphi Bazooka Rhadebe from Mdatya village in Amadiba, was brutally assassinated tonight outside his house in Lurholweni township, Amadiba area, Mbizana.
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China: Journalist Jia Jia arrested as media climate darkens |
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Repression increasing but splits also emerging within Chinese party-state
China Worker 21 March 2016
Yet another Chinese journalist has surfaced in police custody after mysteriously disappearing. 35-year-old freelance journalist Jia Jia was seized while trying to board a flight to Hong Kong from Beijing on 15 March.
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MPs question viability of Congo hydro project |
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Wyndham Hartley (Business Day) 16 March 2016
MPs on Tuesday questioned the country’s substantial investment in the Grand Inga hydroelectric scheme, citing political instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
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$5trn-a-day Forex rigging probe dropped despite evidence of criminality |
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Paul Hackett (Reuters) 16 March 2016
British prosecutors have dropped a criminal probe into the rigging of the $5trn-(£3.5trn)-a-day foreign exchange market despite having uncovered what it says are “reasonable grounds” to suspect offences involving serious or complex fraud.
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Private security to fight eThekwini land invasions |
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IOL News 15 March 2016
Durban – eThekwini wants to use private security to help its land invasion unit combat illegal occupations – and it is willing to bypass regular tender processes to obtain their services.
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Mineworkers’ protests shake Chinese leaders |
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Thousands march in Heilongjiang province Oppose job cuts, oppose repression – workers need their own democratic trade union!
China Worker 15 March 2016
Thousands of coal miners in the far northeast of China have been on strike for six days, demanding that China’s rulers – the so-called Communist Party dictatorship (CCP) – “give us back our money!”
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South Africa a dumping site for American poultry |
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Mamaponya Motsai (SABC News) 13 March 2016
About 16 million kilograms of American chicken arrived in South Africa last week as part of the Agoa deal
Under its preferential trade programme on agricultural goods under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), American poultry should be allowed into South Africa by 15 March 2016. Is the deal a good or bad for SA farmers?
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Record Brazil protests put Rousseff's future in doubt |
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SABC News 14 March 2016
Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians flooded the streets on Sunday in the biggest ever protests calling for President Dilma Rousseff's removal, reflecting rising popular anger that could encourage Congress to impeach the leftist leader.
The demonstrations were the latest in a wave of anti-government rallies that lost momentum late last year but have regained strength as a sweeping corruption investigation nears Rousseff's inner circle.
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Top ANC man guns for Zuma |
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IOL News 11 March 2016
Johannesburg - Enoch Godongwana has become the latest high-ranking ANC official to break ranks with the ruling party over President Jacob Zuma’s administration and his style of leadership.
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Uproar as Ramaphosa fails to answer Marikana questions |
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Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa referred any questions to ministers tasked with the matter.
Eye Witness News 10 March 2016
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa says because he has been summonsed in his personal capacity over the killing of striking mineworkers at Marikana in 2012, he has recused himself from any involvement in implementing the recommendations, of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the tragedy.
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Russian Truckers’ Strike Continues |
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The Russian Reader 7 March 2016
Since February 20, Russian truckers have been carrying out a nationwide strike against the newly introduced Plato mileage tolls system, a strike scheduled to end tomorrow, March 1.
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Brazil’s ex-president Lula detained over corruption scandal |
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Russia Today 4 March 2016
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was detained by police on Friday. Lula, who held the country's top office from 2003 to 2010, is accused of being involved in corruption schemes with state-owned oil major Petrobras.
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Guptas to pull out of SA? |
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IOL News 4 March 2016
Johannesburg - Just two weeks after their company got Competition Tribunal authority to buy a former Glencore coal mine, the Gupta brothers are reportedly leaving South Africa.
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Eskom hike could cost SA 40 000 jobs |
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IOL News 1 March 2016
Johannesburg - The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) will consider legal options following Eskom being granted a 9.4% tariff increase as it believes this may lead to job losses.
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World Trade Organisation smashes India's solar panels industry |
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Dipti Bhatnagar & Sam Cossar-Gilbert 28th February 2016
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has found India's huge solar initiative 'guilty' of breaking trade rules, write Dipti Bhatnagar & Sam Cossar-Gilbert, because it gives domestic manufacturers a small 10% quota for the supply of panels, leaving up to 90% for foreign competitors. It's a warning for perils of the entire WTO system, and of even harsher trade rules like those in TPP, TTIP and CETA.
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Most Russians prefer planned economy over ‘free market’ |
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The New Cold War 19 February 2016
Most Russians favor a return to a Soviet-style planned economy, according to a recent poll by the independent Russian pollster Levada Center, published on its website on 17 February (in Russian, here).
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India's biggest student protests in 25 years |
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Sankalp Phartiyal and Rupam Jain, (Reuters)15 February 2016
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's biggest nationwide student protests in a quarter of a century spread across campuses on Monday after the arrest of a student accused of sedition, in the latest battle with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government over freedom of expression.Outrage over the arrest of the left-wing student leader, who had organized a rally to mark the anniversary of the execution of a Kashmiri separatist, has led to demonstrations in at least 18 universities.
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China: Strikes surge as jobs disappear |
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There was a dramatic escalation in the number of workers’ struggles in China last year, especially in the final months
China Worker 5 February 2016
There were 2,774 strikes and worker protests for the year as a whole, which is double the 1,379 total for 2014. These figures were compiled by the Hong Kong-based NGO China Labour Bulletin based on reports on social media.
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India: Justice for Rohit Vemula |
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Solidarity message from the Committee for a Workers’ International
CWI India 1 February 2015
It has been twenty six days since the students of University of Hyderabad in India, have been fighting against the practice of Caste discrimination and Untouchability in the campus including the eleven days of total shut-down and strike at the University following the death of the Dalit student scholar, activist Rohit Vemula. This institutional murder has led to a wave of solidarity actions all across the country of India in an unprecedented manner.
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Numsa to strike over pension reforms |
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Theto Mahlakoana 19 January 2016
Johannesburg - The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) says it will embark on a two day socio-economic strike over the new controversial pension reforms.
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OTT regulation will protect profits, not customers |
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Jose Dos Santos 19 January 2016
Johannesburg - MTN and Vodacom have declared war on consumer interests. The duopoly wants to limit how we use Internet services like WhatsApp - and it has nothing to do with fairness, competition or the future of South Africa. To the contrary, it is all about maintaining their stranglehold on a vital artery feeding our country’s economic and social future.
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Renewed protest against fare hikes kick off in Brazil |
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Joris Leverink 15 January 2016
After millions of angry Brazilians took to the streets in an unprecedented outburst of popular indignation in 2013, the situation never really quieted down again in the Latin American giant.
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Campus workers strike against outsourcing |
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For the mobilisation and support of all students, permanent workers and communities across Tshwane
Workers & Socialist Party (WASP), Reporters 15 January 2016
Thousands of workers at more than twenty campuses of the University of South Africa (Unisa), the University of Pretoria, Tshwane University of Technology, Tshwane North College, Tshwane South College and the Medical University of South Africa (Medunsa) engaged in a third day of strike action yesterday. Marches have taken place across the city. Workers marched from campus to campus, calling out other workers to join them. Students are mobilising in support of the workers.
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Cosatu to act on pension reforms |
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Theto Mahlakoana 13 January 2016
Johannesburg - Labour federation Cosatu will launch a “massive campaign” against the newly passed Tax Laws Amendment Act, which forces workers to preserve their retirement benefits.
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China fears spread across global markets |
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Could the financial turmoil of the opening week set the tone for 2016?
Per-Åke Westerlund, with additional reporting by Vincent Kolo 12 January 2016
Global financial markets started 2016 with a bang! A reprise of last summer’s chaotic falls on China’s stock markets triggered panic selling of shares, commodities and currencies around the world. The first six trading days for China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen markets saw the total value of the market shrink by 15 percent, a loss of US$1 trillion. Worldwide, US$4 trillion was wiped from stock markets as China fears spread. The world’s biggest stock market, New York, fell 6.2 percent in the first week of the year, its worst start ever.
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Brazilian Judge Shuts Down WhatsApp |
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Brazil’s Congress Wants To Shut Down The Social Web Next
Julie Ruvolo 17 December 2015
A judge in Sao Paulo has ordered WhatsApp to shut down for 48 hours, starting at 9pm Eastern tonight.
WhatsApp is the single most used app in Brazil, with about 93 million users, or 93% of the country’s internet population. It’s a particularly useful service for Brazil’s youth and poor, many who cannot afford to pay the most expensive plans on the planet.
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Chinese regime cracks down on labour activists |
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China Worker 17 December 2015
Coordinated arrests of labour activists in Guangdong province as workers’ struggles multiply
The recent arrests of labour and NGO activists in Guangdong province – “the world’s factory” – is an ominous sign. It is the Chinese regime’s answer to a significant rise in workers’ strikes and factory closures, in an attempt to frighten workers into submission. This should bring forth loud protests, petitions and pickets at Chinese government offices overseas, to show the solidarity of the international workers’ movement.
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