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Karl Marx

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SACP  general secretary Solly Mapaila dismissed the notion of any alignment with MK. (Photo by Dirk Kotze/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Korner Talk | Solly Mapaila still riding his high horse

The South African Communist Party leader continues his tirade against alliance partner ANC for bringing the Democratic Alliance into the unity government

Reflecting on Karl Marx’s legacy in Africa on his 206th birthday

Western powers and multinational corporations continue to exploit Africa’s natural resources, exploit its labour, and perpetuate dependency through unequal trade relations and…

A vendor in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, China. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

OPINION| China is retooling the capitalist paradigm

The forms of capitalism adopted in the West and in economies such as China are influenced by how early or late those polities were in coming to the game

‘Squid Game’ is an explicit critique of the current mode of capitalism. (John McCann/M&G)

South Africans are trapped in a ‘Squid Game’

‘Squid Game’ is an explicit critique of the current mode of capitalism. But far too much popular discourse has overlooked or neglected its sociopolitical messages.

We cannot reform ourselves out of the times we are in

To end racism, we will have to change the structures from which it draws its mandate, and get rid of liberal and right-wing politicians who give it oxygen while we are being…

Stolen land: ‘Ranch or homestead?’ A farm house in Commondale. (Santu Mofokeng)

Taking the battle to the grave: South Africa’s contested sites

In his swansong, Santu Mofokeng ruminates on mortality, ancestry and dispossession

Rebel son: Ben Turok died aged 92. He lived a full life and steered a true path. He was of a generation of struggle veterans that adhered to notions of justice, truth, equality and democracy. Photo: David Harrison

What it takes to achieve a true revolution

This is an edited extract of the introduction to ‘Revolutionary Thought in the 20th Century’ (1980) edited by late anti-apartheid stalwart Ben Turok

#FeesMustFall charges were politically motivated and concocted

Some activists in the movement are rewarded for their role in the struggle for free, decolonised education; others are imprisoned.

Ben Turok. (Screen grab from Ian Landsberg YouTube)

Democracy and the left in post-apartheid South Africa — An interview with Ben Turok

A veteran ANC stalwart and member of parliament speaks about the party, Parliament and the dearth of left politics in South Africa

Ramaphosa himself is not unaware of the political impossibility of the fantasy of a return to the way things were before Zuma, but now with added austerity, writes the author. (David Harrison/M&G)

Failure to fix the economy will undo Cyril

The president can get rid of the loathsome political figures but he can’t control everything

(Graphic: Carlos Amato)

Let the small gods live on in    cowpats, Santa and song

In an era of crumbling secular belief systems, what can atheist parents give to their children in the place of religion?

The  ‘prosperity gospel’  means exploitation

By ignoring the causes of poverty and injustice, prosperity churches doom people to destitution

Divisive: Activists such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Rosa Luxemburg and Vladimir Lenin (above) recognised unity is the way to confront capitalism. (John Launois/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images, Painting by Isaak Brodsky [1929])

Halt the capitalist crisis gripping the world

Today’s capitalism is a slide into authoritarianism, using Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism to keep the state in power

Keep out: Migrants climb over a border wall into the United States from Mexico. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

Identity politics is about our quest for recognition

The rapid changes in the political and economic landscape have seen people around the world losing their sense of dignity and thus their identity

(John McCann/M&G)

Elitism remains the enemy of democracy

Ramaphosa’s inability to imagine an emancipatory path takes us back to an unsustainable elitism