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SEARCH THE CSS ONLINE LIBRARY |
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WHATS NEW AT THE CCS |
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FATIMA MEER ORBITUARY |
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The Centre for Civil Society was one of the most fortunate beneficiaires
of Fatima Meer's wisdom, energy and love. We were inspired again and
again, and Fatima's support for us in hard times will never be forogotten.
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DURBAN SINGS REMIXES AFRICAN ORAL HISTORY |
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ECONOMIC COURSE 2010 |
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Dennis Brutus memorial, 11 March 2010 |
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DENNIS BRUTUS TRIBUTES |
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CCS debates climate ‘solutions’, critiques carbon trade |
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Fahrenheit 2010: Documentary tackles SA's World Cup struggles |
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CCS colleagues - the late Dennis Brutus, our nominated honorary
researcher Ashwin Desai, and Patrick Bond - are critics of the way the
2010 World Cup was implemented in Durban and across South Africa. For
more, see the film Fahrenheit 2010.
Watch Fahrenheit 2010
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CCS statement on Adam Habib's unbanning from US travel |
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Exactly a year after Barack Obama became president, Centre for Civil
Society founder Adam Habib has been freed from a Bush Administration
State Department order dating to 21 October 2006, which banned Habib and
his entire family from entering the US. Ending this ban was one of CCS's
2007-09 campaigns, led by the late Dennis Brutus, himself a victor in a
1981-83 US State Department deportation dispute - a time when Brutus
would have been persecuted in South Africa as one of apartheid's twenty
leading enemies abroad, according to the Bureau of State Security. In
February 2008, Brutus led a protest at the US Consulate in Durban, prior
to a US court hearing on the case.
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Recent SA political-economic analysis |
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SA SOCIAL PROTEST OBSERVATORY |
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APARTHEID REPARATIONS BACK ON TRACK, SAYS BRUTUS |
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CCS Honorary Professor Dennis Brutus is still advocating reparations for corporate profits made during apartheid, and in early September the SA government finally agreed he's right to do so.
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Booklaunch: Climate Change, Carbon Trading & Civil Society |
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Centre for Civil Society 2008 activities |
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Introduction
As the world economic crisis broke, as once-abstract problems of energy,
water and climate became household concerns, as local political parties
and civil society suffered unprecedented fracturing, and as xenophobia
divided the region’s poor and working people, the year 2008 was also a
very tumultuous period for the Centre for Civil Society. In a maelstrom
of conflict, including thousands more ‘service delivery protests’
against national/municipal policies and practices, CCS staff found space
for productive phases.
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THE CCS ONLINE LIBRARY: AN EXCELLENT RESOURCE FOR YOUR RESEARCH |
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The Centre for Civil Society Online Library has now been upgraded with over 3000 publications including hundreds of photos & other graphics.
A search feature allows one to search by means of Author,Title or keywords or using short phrases such as water privatisation, or Post Apartheid South Africa
Use the keywords photos images, pictures & graphics to find publications with photos or other images
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Welcome to DurbanSings |
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A CCS project with Durban community groups"
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Two more honorary doctorates for Dennis Brutus |
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Activist and poet, Professor Dennis Vincent BRUTUS, in recognition of his contributions to South African letters and to human rights, democracy and justice, will receive a D Litt (Doctor of Literature) from both Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and Rhodes University on April 17th.
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New Funder for the CCS Website |
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CCS on the situation at Howard College Campus |
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(A staff meeting on 25 March issued this statement:)
Postponement of 26 March Wolpe Lecture by William Gumede, and also of the Environmental Politics Seminar
Due to the student protest at the UKZN Howard College Campus, tomorrow evening’s Harold Wolpe Lecture by William Gumede has been postponed until late 23 April. Tomorrow afternoon’s seminar on environmental politics - with leading representatives of political parties and civil society - will be rescheduled for a date roughly one week prior to the 22 April election.
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Should Israel's academic institutions be boycotted? |
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Join our discussion.
The Israeli Centre for Third Sector Research has announced an international conference in March. Several senior CCS academics cannot
endorse this conference, because of its lack of Palestinian inputs.
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Obama, not yet Uhuru |
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Three articles by CCS director Patrick Bond warn of Obama mania.
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Face to face with ‘Terror’ in post-Apartheid South Africa |
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By Ashwin Desai
Harold Wolpe Lecture Debate with Mosiuoa Lekota, 18 December 2008
In 1955 a few thousand of our wisest and bravest ancestors gathered at a
place called Kliptown. It was a gathering of delegates from every racial
group in the country, comprised of women and men who believed in the
unprejudiced power of democracy and who sought equality and freedom for
all in the land. It was a gathering that took place during a time of
danger. The government of the day served only the few, a minority, and
it protected the interests of this minority viciously. Despite the
threat of arrest and beatings, the delegates at Kliptown spent days
fashioning the Freedom Charter, a remarkable document setting out ten
principles for a future citizenship that everyone there knew would
probably only come after much of their own blood and of their children
had been spilt. This document came to define for many millions of people
thereafter, the aspirations of the oppressed in South Africa. To signal
their unity in the goals and values they would strive for, the delegates
at Kliptown, coming from separate organizations, gave this singular
event a name of its own, the Congress of the People.
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Defend academic freedom at UKZN! |
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Refugee eviction attempt reflects Durban police brutality |
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Photo exhibit: on refugees & xenophobia, 4 - 28 November
Durban police constable Kwesi Matenjwa confesses - on the morning of Saturday, 1 November - how "the great white shark", City Manager Michael Sutcliffe, ordered his unit to evict (without alternative accommodation) 47 desperate people, mostly from the Eastern DRC. The area from which residents of Albert Park fled has witnessed four million casualties in a civil war over resources, as warlords - funded by corporations such as Anglo American (as Human Rights Watch discovered) - loot and pillage for coltan (used in our cellphones) and other minerals, making it unsafe for return. The refugees are also victims of the May 2008 Durban xenophobia and of a confrontation with Sutcliffe at City Hall in July. CCS has produced a photo exhibition by Oliver Meth and colleagues on their plight, displayed in the UKZN library. Sutcliffe accused the refugees - mainly women and children - of being involved in "crime", offering no evidence. But Matenjwa explained that a political rally on 4 November and the 2010 World Cup were the real reasons police tore down plastic shelters and confiscated refugee belongings - including vital immigration papers - without warning. In the process of their attempted eviction, the refugees' human rights were "drowned", Matenjwa admitted, a not uncommon occurrence for a Durban metro police force that regularly shoots to kill. The refugees vow to remain in Albert Park until they have a chance at dignity.
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Patrick Bond on the Global Economic Crisis |
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CCS Communiques |
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18 August - The Centre for Civil Society this week prepares for meetings about our future with a new Subcommittee of the Faculty. Last week's 33-1 vote by colleagues to keep the Centre at UKZN is a strong enough signal to reverse an earlier decision by authorities to shut CCS. But our future is to be negotiated in coming days, with a September 12 deadline. We are requesting further testimonials before 1 September, to pbond@mail.ngo.za .
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Media coverage, UKZN announcements |
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University to keep civil society centre
Faculty meeting gives overwhelming support
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Centre for Civil Society report on 2007 activities |
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In a context of dramatic increases in ‘Gatherings Act’ incidents reported by the SA police (10 000 per year in 2005-07, up from 5800 in 2004-05) and worsening inequality, our guiding CCS objective is of even more relevance: the advance of socio-economic and environmental justice through developing critical knowledge about, for and in dialogue with civil society.
Our research work benefits from praxis-based production of knowledge, in which we learn how power relations are challenged by civil society organisations – in the streets, the courts, the media, negotiating fora, theatres and cultural clubs, sportsfields and other sites - thus generating new information about systems and organisational strengths and weaknesses. We then feed back research into the society through both arms-length and participatory analysis, in the forms of books and articles, films and DVDs, tours and lectures.
Read Report
CCS UKZN Review 29 February 2008
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Hollow pledges in dealing with refugees |
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Durban has no permanent solution for displaced people
By Carlos Bruen, The Mercury (Eye on Civil Society) 23 July 2008
Human rights continue to take a beating in South Africa, nearly two
months after the wave of xenophobic violence killed dozens and displaced
more than 60 000 immigrants.
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'Photographs by Oliver Meth, from the exhibition 'Breathing Spaces |
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Breathing Spaces exhibition can be viewed at UKZN Centre for Civil Society from 1 August 3 September 2008.
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Banned: Why a South African is Going to Court in the U.S. |
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By Patrick Bond 29 July 2008
In 2006, the United States Department of State branded University of Johannesburg Professor Adam Habib a terrorist and revoked his visa. The article below, by Habib, details the circumstances of Professor Habib’s exclusion from the U.S. and his attempts to challenge it through the courts.
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Adam Habib |
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NEW CCS PUBLICATIONS |
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Click on Picture to View Publication
In the pages that follow, a group of South Africa’s leading political
economists tackle President Thabo Mbeki’s ‘two economies’ thesis, the
framework most popularly invoked for contemporary poverty policy in
South Africa. In short, poverty can be beat if sturdy (market-focused)
ladders are found between the second and first economy, which
unfortunately at present are ‘structurally disconnected’. On at least
two earlier occasions, a critical mass of university-based intellectuals
gathered in various publications to contest ideas of this sort: the
mid-1970s when radicals fought liberals over the relationship between
race and class; and the early 1990s when the South African version of
the Regulation School was established. Both contributions were flawed,
we will see. Since then, there has been a growing sense of the need to
revisit and reconstruct old frameworks, in part because of the
tremendous upsurge in popular social struggles associated with new types
of exploitation.
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Patrick Bond at SF protest against Danish repression of civil society and Copenhagen climate 'deal', and radio interview, 18 December 2009 |
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Events Index 2010 |
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Patrick Bond on carbon trading at Manchester conference on environment and finance, 15‑16 April |
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Trevor Ngwane at Marxism 2010 conference, Melbourne, 1-4 April |
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Patrick Bond seminar on climate politics, City Univ of NY, 6 April |
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Patrick Bond on water commons, Syracuse University, 29-30 March |
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CCS/VANSA KZN Panel discussion: 'What is Arts and what is not?', March 25 |
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Patrick Bond on 'Organising for Climate Justice', Left Forum, NYC, 21 March |
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Workers, Zama Hlatshwayo, Trevor Ngwane Seminar on UKZN labour outsourcing crisis 19 March |
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Carol Thompson seminar on resisting agro‑industry, 18 March |
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David Zirin Seminar on Fifa's Looting of SA, 13 March |
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Dennis Brutus memorial, 11 March |
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Trevor Ngwane CCS Seminar on SA's social protest wave, 9 March |
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Patrick Bond testifies to parliament on economic policy, 2 March |
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Molefi Ndlovu and Claudia Wegener seminar at the Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity, 2 March |
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CCS anti‑xenophobia research workshop, 27 February |
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Patrick Bond speaks on The ebb and flow of water rights, Univ of Cape Town Department of Public Law, 25 February |
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Press Conference: Keep our South African Coal in the Hole! 22 February 2010 |
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Patrick Bond at Power Indaba privatisation conference, 22 February |
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CCS Economic Justice course, with Trevor Ngwane, Samson Zondi and Patrick Bond, from 20 Feb‑29 May |
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Climate Justice Now! SA‑KZN chapter hosted at CCS, 13 February |
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Hallowes, D'Sa, Ngwane, Bond , Dada: Seminar on proposed World Bank coal loan to Eskom, Friday, 12 February* |
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Durban renewable energy site visits by Minnesh Bipath, SA National Energy Research Institute with Muna Lakhani and Patrick Bond 10 February 2010 |
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Susan Galleymore Seminar: A Dearth of Imagination Leads to Wasting Perfectly Good Waste, 5 February |
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Patrick Bond paper for Socialist Register workshop, 6 February |
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Durban Sings Follow-up and planning session with 8 Editorial Collectives, 4 February |
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Patrick Bond on climate change & Dennis Brutus Memorial at World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, 28 January |
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Rehana Dada & Patrick Bond Seminar: Copenhagen Climate and Eskom Energy Conflicts, 26 January |
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Dennis Brutus tribute, with Social Movements Indaba and Durban community groups, 23 January |
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Peter McKenzie & Doung Jahangeer Seminar: The Saharawi,Warwick Junction and Footsak Politics, 20 January |
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Patrick Bond debates NHI at Idasa, CT, 19 January |
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CCS cohosts Climate Justice Now! on electricity hearings strategy, 15 January |
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Events Index 2009 |
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Patrick Bond at SF protest against Danish repression of civil society and Copenhagen climate 'deal', and radio interview, 18 December |
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Patrick Bond addresses climate seminar at Univ of Lund Business School, 15 December |
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Kristine Wasrud Participation and Influence in Water Policy in Durban, South Africa, 11 December |
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Climate Justice Film Festival, 10 December |
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Umesh de Silva Seminar: Traditional farming in Umzinyathi, 9 December |
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Oliver Meth at the CCS Workshop on women & child abuse Cato Crest Library, 8 December |
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Patrick Bond at Roskilde Univ Civil Society Centre, 7 December |
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Patrick Bond keynotes Leeds 'Democratisation in Africa' conference, 4 December |
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Sinegugu Zukulu & John Clarke Seminar: Resilience, Resolarisation and Relocalisation, 30 November |
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Nick Smith Seminar Politics of protection/crime/policing, 26 November |
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Patrick Bond speaks at Mandela Foundation about SA economic disasters, 26 November |
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Seminar on outsourced and contract workers at UKZN, 24 November |
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3rd Climate Justice Now! KZN meeting, 20 November |
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CCS and Durban Sings! at the Global Crisis and Africa: Struggles for Alternatives hosted by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation; Randburg, Johannesburg 19-21 November |
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MAKE SOME NOISE! Concert 6 November |
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Immanuel Wallerstein Wolpe Lecture: Crisis of the Capitalist System Where to from Here?, 5 November |
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Solidarity with Durban's oppressed: Bottom-up resistance strategies of shackdwellers, pollution victims and labour-brokered workers, 4 November |
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The Crises and the Commons: Durban debates on politics, economics and environment 4-7 November |
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Faith Manzi & Oliver Meth at the Gender Based Violence Workshop, Durban 27 & 28 October |
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Seminar on Problems faced by UKZN workers, Westville campus, 28 October |
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Bengt Brülde & Stellan Vinthagenand Seminar: Ethics, Resistance and Global Justice, 26 October |
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Baruti Amisi, Trevor Ngwane & Patrick Bond Anti-Xenophobia research project with Strategy&Tactics 19- 20 October |
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Durban Sings (Molefi Ndlovu & Claudia Wegener) at National Oral History Conference, 13-16 October |
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Tri-Continental Film Festival Durban community screenings – (hosted by Oliver Meth) at Inanda, Chatsworth, Wentworth, CBD, & Folweni, 1-12 October |
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Patrick Bond lectures at Suffolk Univ, Boston, 29 Sept-2 Oct |
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Patrick Bond Booklaunch: Climate Change, Carbon Trading & Civil Society, 18 September |
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Dennis Brutus honored by War Resisters League, 18 September |
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Helen McCue Seminar: Grassroots Mobilising within Refugee Communities: Perspectives on Palestine and Australia, 18 September |
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Patrick Bond skypecast on climate and ecological debt to Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, Copenhagen, 16 September |
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Oliver Meth People to People International Documentary Conference, 10-12 September |
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Dick Forslund & Patrick Bond Seminar: South Africa's capitalist crisis and civil society, 7 September |
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Dudu Khumalo on the Durban public transport crisis, 1 September |
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John Berg Seminar: Barack Obama's presidency and civil society reactions, 24 August |
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Patrick Bond National Health Insurance: Can SA afford it?, 24 August |
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Norman Finkelstein Wolpe Lecture: Resolving the Israel-Palestine Conflict: What we can learn from Gandhi, 20 August |
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Seminar with outsourced workers at UKZN, 12 August |
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Patrick Bond debates Sampie Terreblanche (Stellenbosch), 6 August, UCT |
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Dr Essop Pahad Thinking about the Legacy of Mbeki's Politics, 4 August |
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Patrick Bond addresses Ecuador eco-finance conference (videolink), 4 August |
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Patrick Bond at the South African Civil Society Energy Caucus Meeting, 29-30 July |
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Barak Hoffman Seminar: Democracy and Civil Society Research in Ghana and SA, 27 July |
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CCS hosts free screenings of Durban International Film Festival, 25 July - 1 August |
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Sean Flynn & Maj Fiil Seminar on water rights, ( SKYPECAST ) 24 July |
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Patrick Bond lecture at carbon trading conference, Johannesburg, 22 July |
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Sein Win Seminar by Burmese prime minister (exiled) on solidarity (SKYPECAST), 21 July |
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Tunde Adegbola A Pan-African Harold Wolpe Lecture & cultural events, 16 July |
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Patrick Bond lecture on SA Political Economy, San Francisco socialist conference, 4 July |
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Orlean Naidoo on participation at DDP seminar, 30 June |
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Patrick Bond speaks on 'World Slump: Financial Crisis and Emerging Class Struggles in the Global South', 28 June, Toronto |
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Patrick Bond on African social resistance to economic crisis, 26 June, Moscow |
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Oliver Meth and Orlean Naidoo facilitate Diakonia Council of Churches Democracy Course, 24 -26 June |
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Alex Callinicos Wolpe Lecture: Economic crisis and prospects for social revolution, 18 June |
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Blair Rutherford Seminar: Zimbabwe farm labour, social justice and citizenship, 17 June |
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Trevor Ngwane Seminar: Community resistance to energy privatisation and ecological degradation, 11 June |
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DURBAN SINGS central editorial workshops, 8 & 22 June |
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Gaby Bikombo, Judy Mulqueeny, Harry Ramlal, Caroline Skinner Seminar: War of Warwick Junction, 9 June |
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Patrick Bond, Abedian, Dumisa, Maharaj et al on 'Zumanomics', UKZN Biz School, 3 June |
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Rehana Dada keynote address to Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute AGM, 2 June |
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Patrick Bond on African underdevelopment at Sussex IDS conference (via skypecast), 1 June |
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Trevor Ngwane presents at the International Conference on Ideas and Strategies in the Alterglobalisation Movement, Seoul, 29 May |
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Peter McKenzie cultural seminar on 'Footsak: On the Ball for 2010', 28 May |
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Björn Surborg Seminar: Contesting Johannesburg's extractive industries, 25 May |
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Paul Verryn, Methodist Bishop of Johannesburg: Wolpe Lecture: Poverty and xenophobia, 21 May |
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Robert Jensen, Univ of Texas: Seminar: Whiteness and social change in the US, 21 May |
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Tony Clarke, Polaris Institute: Seminar: The state of the world water wars, 15 May |
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Patrick Bond debates 'The G20 Global Deal' at Wits/Osisa, Johannesburg, 12 May |
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Molefi Ndlovu, Seminar: Azania Rising: The demise of the 1652 class project, 13 May |
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Rehana Dada, Seminar: Climate mitigation case studies, 11 May |
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CCS/DYFS - Anti-xenophobia film screening facilitators workshop, 9 May |
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Orlean Naidoo, Seminar: Chatsworth upgrading struggles and victories, 8 May |
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Patrick Bond, Joburg Wolpe Lecture at Wits Univ, 7 May |
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Patrick Bond at Cosatu electricity workshop, Joburg, 6 May |
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Joan Canela and Helena Olcina Seminar: Social movements in Bolivia and Catalan, 5 May |
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William Gumede Wolpe Lecture: SA’s “Democracy Gap”, 30 April |
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Three representatives of the Tamil liberation movement youth Seminar: The Tamil people under seige, 21 April |
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Leading eco-social spokespersons from political parties and civil society Seminar: Environmental confrontations - Political parties meet civil society, POSTPONED |
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Rehana Dada at York Univ climate ecojustice conference, Toronto, 16-17 April |
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Dennis Brutus celebrations, honorary doctorates conferred at both Rhodes Univ and Mandela Univ, 16-17 April |
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John Minto Seminar: The Legacy of Anti-apartheid Sports Boycotts, 16 April |
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Nelson Muhirwa & Jean Chrisostome Kanamugire Seminar: The Rwandan Genocide 15 Years On, 8 April |
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Oliver Meth Seminar: Wentworth Crime, Gangs and Civil Society, 7 April |
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Dennis Brutus on Reconciliation and Memory in Post-Apartheid SA, Nelson Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg, 2-3 April |
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Ida Susser booklaunch, 'AIDS, Sex and Culture', with Quarraisha Abdool Karim, at Ike's Books, 2 April |
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Sofie Hellberg Seminar: Governing lives through hydropolitics in eThekwini , 1 April 2009 |
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Claudia Wegener & Molefi Mafereka Ndlovu Digital Soiree Durban Sings Internet Radio project, 24 March |
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Simone Claar Seminar: Post-Apartheid Political Economy and State Policy, 19 March |
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Oliver Meth presents at the HSRC Violent Crime and Democratization in the Global South Conference, 18-20 March |
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Simphiwe Nojiyeza Seminar: African Development Bank water projects, 12 March |
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Deniz Kellecioglu Seminar: Zimbabwe Civil Society confronts Mugabe's Economy, 11 March |
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Patrick Bond debates ANC economic policy, 9 March, Durban |
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Kalinca Copello Seminar: ICTs and social movements: From Chiapas to Brazil to South Africa, 6 March |
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Lisa Ramsay & Schwarzanne Leafe Seminar & Film: Climate Change and Eco-Social Resistance in South Durban, 27 February |
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Patrick Bond presents to ActionAid/Nepad conference on global financial crisis, 24 February, Midrand |
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Molefi Ndlovu Johannesburg: Market Photo Workshop, 22-28 February |
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Orlean Naidoo & Patrick Bond seminar on Free Basic Water, and screening of Flow, 18 February |
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Ida Susser Seminar: AIDS, Sex, Culture and Civil Society, 11 February |
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Dennis Brutus and Moya Atkinson film/seminar on US anti-war movement, 9 February |
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Patrick Bond seminar on the ongoing global financial crisis, University of Johannesburg, 6 February |
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Durban Sings internet audio and community radio with Molefi Ndlovu and Claudia Wegener, 2-6 February |
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Patrick Bond in dialogue with Jeremy Cronin on financial crisis, Johannesburg, 28 January |
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Dennis Brutus, Lubna Nadvi, Monica Rorvik and Salim Vally Seminar: Should Israel be boycotted? If so, how?, 27 January |
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Giyani Dube, Lubna Nadvi, Kate Griffiths and Timothy Rukombo Wolpe Lecture: Civil Society Internationalism - from Lindela to Gaza to Washington, 22 January |
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Pamela Ngwenya, Molefi Ndlovu, Claudia Wegener Seminar: Participatory community audio/video as a tool for social research, 21 January |
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Dale McKinley, Orlean Naidoo, Dudu Khumalo, Bryan Ashe Seminar on the World Water Forum, 19 January |
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Mavuso Dingani film/seminar on the Zimbabwean exile in Durban, 6 January |
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