part of no part

According to South African History Online , Ruth First was a “Marxist with a wide internationalist perspective…She was central to debates within the Johannesburg Discussion Club, which led to the formation of the underground South African Communist Party (SACP) (of which First was a member). She had a brilliant intellect and did not suffer fools gladly. Her sharp criticism and her impatience with bluster earned her enemies, and she was often feared in political debate. However, she was not dogmatic. First’s willingness to take up a position which she considered to be just, was not always welcomed within the ANC or SACP.” The Ruth First Memorial Lecture held last Monday at the University of Witwatersrand, aimed to “commemorate her contribution to critical, socially-engaged writing and research.” However, it was disturbing to see how this critical Marxist voice, who spoke out against the systemic inequalities that underpins the global system of capitalism, was turned into a self-...

“Now what state do (we) live in? - 'Denial”. Bill Watterson, the creator of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, could very well have been referring to South Africa and our approach to the structural Titanic we like to call the mining sector. As zama-zama miners engage in running gun battles near the township of Daveyton, the Portfolio Committee on Mining, together with all the major stakeholders call for more policing to resolve the problem. This perennial state of denial is what led to the deaths of 44 miners in Marikana three years ago, and before that the deaths of 86 informal miners at the Harmony Gold mine. It allows what should rightly signal the need for urgent change, to be swept under the carpet until the next tragedy or massacre.  Instead of seeing these events as watersheds that should spur us on to greater equality and justice, we instead reinforce the status quo in which the structural deficiencies of the mining sector are overlooked as the source of the ...