Publications
Partners
After a visit of more than six weeks to the UK, Terry Bell maintains there are many similarities today between South Africa and its former colonial master.
Cape Town - Britain is still erroneously referred to as part of the industrialised world, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap. And after a visit of more than six weeks to that country, he maintains that there are many similarities today between South Africa and its former colonial master.
However, he still classifies Britain as part of the developed world, able to “wallow in the wealth generated by the empire” and because it has become a global financial centre. But he feels this is “tenuous” and that even apparently booming London might be “a bubble on the brink of serious deflation”.
Among the many similarities between the two countries, he says, is the gap between rich and poor, although he notes that poverty is relative. However, he maintains that the wide gap that opened up in Britain during the time of prime minister Margaret Thatcher remains and seems to be widening.
He also points out that, as in South Africa, cheap imports have all but annihilated local production in a country once labelled the workshop of the world.
Another example he feels should ring a bell locally is the fact that, during his stay, the two remaining steel mills in Britain - one Chinese and the other Indian-owned - shut down. The thousands of jobs losses devastated the communities that relied on the mills.
But of more immediate importance from his point of view are what he sees as the lessons to be learned from some recent happenings on the British political and labour scene, which have thrown into relief the question of democracy and the role and possible influence of the media.
It is these he intends to focus on in his Inside Labour column, pointing out that President Jacob Zuma recently made the statement that “the ANC came before democracy”. He also maintains that this week, the Cosatu congress “for all the behind-the-scenes machinations” is essentially grappling with the issue of inner union democracy.
* Add your voice to the big labour debate.
YOUR VOICE ON LABOUR:
Insight into why no cost spared on funerals
Is tech really behind SA's failing economy?
Govt needs to step up to jobs plate
... and more
* Terry Bell is a political, economic and labour analyst. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on twitter @telbelsa.
