“Money, historic distrust, poor communication by and between different parties and the intervention of a small criminal element provided the volatile mix that exploded into violence....."
Terry Bell
Opinion | 27 August 2012
Given the amount of often dangerous nonsense being sprouted about "anarchists" and about Amcu allegedly being a newly formed union sponsored by everyone from the Chamber of Mines to BHP Billiton, I provide this historic record: an Inside Labour column published on February 19 this year with which nobody from the NUM or SACP disagreed.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 22 August 2012
The ongoing tension and violence at South Africa’s Lonmin platinum mine is a much more complex and messy business than a simple turf war between unions in the Rustenburg region of the country.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 17 August 2012
In this week of Women’s Day, the 30th summer Olympiad is coming to an end. Over the past week and more, women and men from all backgrounds have displayed their sporting abilities, watched on television by more than 1 billion people around the world.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 13 August 2012
That there is widespread and apparently growing cynicism within the labour movement about politics and politicians is perfectly understandable. Recent history provides many reasons, not least of them the corruption scandals, the circumstances surrounding the murder of Moss Phakoe and the ongoing school textbook crisis.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 8 August 2012
The controversial medical parole of former top cop, Jackie Selebi, has once again thrown into stark relief questions about kidney disease and treatment, questions that have long disturbed the labour movement.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 2 August 2012
Hope springs eternal in the human breast. So wrote the much-quoted 18th Century English poet, Alexander Pope. And, although this has all too often described the
futility of chasing after rainbows and never finding a promised pot of gold, hope continues to sustain millions of people in situations that, to the more fortunate, might seem hopeless.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 25 July 2012
First we had the Spear, a painting by Brett Murray. Now we have the Dick, a cartoon by Jonathan — Zapiro — Shapiro. And this satire of a genital nature has, in both cases, caused the same polarised reaction: support or amused indifference on one side; expressions of outrage on the other.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 18 July 2012
In an incredible irony, copies of Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country were among the thousands of books shredded and dumped in what can only be described as an
orgy of destruction in Limpopo.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 11 July 2012