The one thing that President Thabo Mbeki has to be given credit for is his consistency. Ever since he ascended to South Africa’s political throne, the would-be king has stuck doggedly to the fundamentals of a macro-neoliberalism that has underpinned this country’s developmental path for the last decade and more. It is a consistency that has, not surprisingly, greatly benefited the elite few and cost the majority dearly.
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European governments no longer have the right to legally enforce minimum wage standards in their contracts, according to a European Court of Justice ruling on April 3. The court was passing judgement on a case brought by a Polish construction company
On April 1, 50 Wollongong residents rallied outside the NSW parliament in Macquarie Street, Sydney, to demand an end to corruption in the Labor-dominated Wollongong City Council (WCC). The rally, organised by the resident action group Wollongong Against Corruption (WAC), was addressed by, among others, Greens MP Sylvia Hale and NSW Liberal Party leader Barry O’Farrell.
Even from my bed on the opposite side of the room it was possible to see the gruesome surgical-steel staples bisecting Miguel’s head.
On March 24, 20 members of the Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC) were arrested after having re-occupied houses in Alexandra extension seven since March 20. They were released on free bail the next day, but were rearrested on March 28 for contempt of court.
Venezuela’s foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro, has dismissed the authenticity of documents that the Colombian government claims were found in a computer that belonged to Raul Reyes, a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Ben Bernanke is the chairperson of the US Federal Reserve Bank. If he sneezes at the wrong time, the world’s sharemarkets take another dive and currency speculators rush for their global roulette table. So when he addressed the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on April 3 he was choosing his words very carefully. And there was one word he was wary about using: “recession”.
As the full severity of the mortgage crisis emerged over the past year, there were still defenders of the free-market system ready to counter every criticism of sub-prime mortgage peddlers and profit-hungry banks by pinning the blame on the real culprits.
On April 2, after much dialogue with the Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner government, agricultural producers suspended for 30 days a strike that began on March 11.
The Venezuelan national oil company PDVSA has closed deals with several European cities to deliver cheap fuel to socially deprived areas, Lenin Medina of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry told a European Left conference in Paris on March 29. The
On March 20, Victorian Supreme Court judge Bernard Bongiorno found that the conditions of incarceration and transportation of 12 Melbourne men charged with terrorism-related offences were so harsh that a fair trial could not be guaranteed.
Since Kosova declared independence on February 17, it has been recognised by only 33 countries, while most are “waiting and watching”.
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