The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
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On the 2nd & 3rd of September 2009, the Constitutional Court of South Africa heard the final appeal in a case brought by five Soweto residents challenging prepaid water meters and insufficient free basic water. The Bill of Rights of the South African Constitution guarantees the right of access to sufficient water. However, poor communities in Johannesburg's townships do not have sufficient water and do not receive the same water service as the richer suburbs. This six year legal...
Meizhu Lui talks at a seminar (in 2006, but still extremely relevant today) about issues covered in a book she co-authored with four others, The Colour of Wealth, which examines the racial wealth divide in contemporary America. Lui is currently director of the "Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative" at the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. In the presentation featured in this post, Lui traces the historical antecedents of the racial...
26 August 2009, marked 60 days of the Honduran resistance to the military coup, reports The Real News Network (TRNN). The date marked 60 days since the cancellation of the non-binding national survey on rewriting the constitution and the removal of President Manuel Zelaya. While the coup government continues to receive military and economic support from the government in the US and Canada, not a single international government has officially recognized the coup regime. Nevertheless, in the...
WIDE ANGLE is a television programme of America's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) that provides in-depth news coverage of international issues. This week it aired a programme about the foiled coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea, which included the involvement of South African mercenaries. The clip above, which makes for intriguing viewing on the scramble for oil in Africa, is an excerpt of the programme aired by the public broadcaster. PBS billed the programme as follows: "A...
Capitalism: A Love Story is critically acclaimed and award winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore's upcoming film about the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, the transition from the Bush to the Obama administration as well as the obscene Wall Street bailout package. Moore takes on the entire free-market system in his exquisitely titled movie, as he returns to the issue that began his career: the disastrous impact that corporate dominance and out-of-control profit motives have...
Leading public figures and personalities from all around the world respond to the question of democracy and the ability of its elected representatives to respond to the global crisis of climate change. Some of their responses are captured below. Vivienne Westwood (fashion designer, United Kingdom): "It's very, very difficult to convince people to think in the long term when they've got all these short term problems, you know. 'What am I going to feed my baby?' -- if you live...
