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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Regarded as one of the most important works in Western classical music, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth symphony, which includes lyrics from the poem “Ode to Joy”, has inspired resistance movements all over the world from Chile to China. Al Jazeera’s Witness has produced a fascinating documentary about the meaning that the symphony holds for activists from a diversity of backgrounds - all searching for freedom through fraternity.
According to Al Jazeera:
At...
Radical philosopher Slavoj Zizek talks to RT's Oksana Boyko about hatred, love, freedom, violence, Western values and geopolitical change. The political correctness of the Western world solidifies hatred towards others, contends Zizek. Westerners claim to have great permissiveness whilst looking down on other cultures as primitive. However, the logic of political correctness in Western societies is highly constraining, he argues. As the conversation shifts to the notion of “divine...
Talking about the implications of the Conservative Party victory in the UK’s 2015 general election, John Weeks, professor emeritus at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, argues amongst other things, that the Tory victory spells disaster for trade unions, as the Conservative Party will put more obstacles in the way of trade union organisation. "They’ll try to weaken the role of trade unions and continue to pursue an economic policy that favours...
Britons will go to the polls on Thursday, May 7, 2015, but membership of all political parties is at an all time low. There are more members of 38 Degrees, a campaigning website than there are of all the main political parties put together in Britain, argues political analyst, Zac Goldsmith.
Overall there has been a downward trend in voter turnout since 1997. Politicians blame the phenomenon on voter apathy, but Goldsmith contends that public disengagement with the political process in...
Some of the worst recent violence against migrants in South Africa - who many locals accuse of taking their jobs - happens in neighbourhoods of extreme poverty. A 2014 World Bank study found that about half of South Africa’s urban population lives in informal settlements or townships. The report argued that they are home to about 60 percent of the country's unemployed. While the South African government claims it will tackle what it describes as the root causes of the problem,...
VICE News traveled around the world speaking to people about democracy and differences in global attitudes towards popular rule. Covering many countries on almost all continents, VICE found young people disillusioned with the manner in which democracy is applied. People understand democracy to be a system of governance where elected politicians act out the wishes of the people who put them into power. It’s “peoples’ power”, but overall there’s a sense that...
