months. He felt he was unable to make any
improvement.
Worst of all, he alleges that Twitter
knowingly employed agents of various
governments. Given that a major Twitter
shareholder is the Saudi royal family,
which jails people for their tweets,
perhaps progressive people worldwide
should seriously consider migrating to the
fediverse!
Current suffering from
climate crisis
WE OFTEN REFER TO FLOODS, HEAT WAVES,
drought and forest fires when we think of
how the world is currently suffering from
the climate crisis. We don’t often reference
hunger and starvation.
Oxfam has just come out with a
report to correct the balance. It names 10
countries as the worst climate hotspots:
Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Djibouti,
Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar,
Niger, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Seven of
them are in Africa. These are the countries
that have been most battered by extreme
weather events. In 2016, 21 million people
in those countries suffered from acute
hunger. That number has now more than
doubled to 48 million. 18 million of those
are on the brink of starvation.
As Oxfam points out: “the oil and gas
industry has amassed $2.8 billion per day
in profits for each of the last 50 years. Less
than 18 days of those profits would cover
the entire $48.82 billion UN humanitarian
appeal for 2022.” Yet another instance of
the harm caused by capitalism.
The Amazon building
WE REPORTED IN AMANDLA! 82 ON WHAT IS
happening with Amazon’s building in Cape
Town. It has been vigorously opposed by
community groups for its cultural and
ecological vandalism. Then a court order
was issued interdicting continued work on
the site.
The ordinary South African might
be forgiven for thinking that this meant
that work must actually stop, and that if
it didn’t Amazon would be in contempt
of court. Not so, ruled the Western Cape
High Court. It refused to issue an order
that Amazon was in contempt because it
was “not urgent”. So Amazon, through its
developers, Liesbeek Leisure Properties,
is free to carry on building. Then later it
will claim that, now that the building is
finished, it would be unthinkable to take it
down.What could be more urgent? When a
court refuses to enforce its own orders on
grounds of urgency, it becomes difficult to
understand what “urgent” means.Wake up and smell
the coffee
BEFORE YOU POP INTO STARBUCKS FOR A
coffee, bear in mind that the company,
in its US homeland, is fighting tooth
and nail against unionisation. They’re
losing, slowly, store by store. But not
without casualties. So far about 220 stores
in the US have unionised. Sounds quite
impressive until you realise there are over
15,000 stores.
And the company is resorting to the
full array of management tactics that we
know so well. Closing stores which are
unionising, for spurious public health
reasons. Firing union militants for being
three minutes late to work. Howard
Schultz says “We don’t believe a third
party should lead our people and so we
are in a battle for the hearts and minds
of our people. And we are going to besuccessful.” That bland statement of
determination masks a typical anti-union
toolbox of dirty tricks.
Maybe get your caffeine fix
somewhere else?More smoke and mirrors
WE WERE RECENTLY TREATED TO A WAVE OF
arrests in a belated response to the
upheavals in Durban in July last year. Were
we finally to get to the root of the problem?
Remember, we were told of masterminds
who would be revealed to us.
Unfortunately, instead of
masterminds we were treated to a
collection of people who can only be
regarded as another lot of minor players,assembled from social media postings –
supporters, no doubt. Instigators, maybe.
But masterminds, hardly. More smoke
so that we think we see something of
significance. But look again and the puff
of smoke has gone. And we are no closer
to the “masterminds” than we have ever
been.US dictates on climate
change fund
SO NOW IT SEEMS THAT THERE’S A
restriction on $1 billion of the $8.5 billion
climate change fund for South Africa,
negotiated at COP26. That $1 billion comes
from the US. And they are quite clear – it
must support their neoliberal strategy.
It has to be spent on private, capitalist
companies. Not a cent can be spent in the
public sector. No support for government
programmes.
Just shows how no aid ever comes free
of baggage. The baggage may be material;
it may be ideological. But it’s always there.Before you pop into Starbucks for a coffee, bear
in mind that the company, in its US homeland, is
fighting tooth and nail against unionisation.