Opinion – Zabalaza for Socialism

Beyond the Script: Why the State of the Nation Needs a Rupture, Not Reform

Brian Ashley11 February 2026

As Cyril Ramaphosa prepares to deliver yet another State of the Nation Address, the ritual repeats itself. Big business demands “confidence.” Ratings agencies insist on “discipline.” Trade union federations and NGOs submit carefully worded proposals about what the President “should prioritise.” Once again, we will be told that progress is being made, that stability is […]

The death of politics in South Africa.

Zwelinzima Vavi11 February 2026

We are underestimating the devastating impact of the death of politics in South Africa. Not politics as elections, conferences or speeches, but politics as the conscious, organised participation of ordinary people in shaping their collective future. We have never honestly analysed how the “big man” phenomenon hollowed out our democratic culture. The towering moral authority […]

Mazibuko Jara | Why the SACP needs to focus beyond the Alliance

Mazibuko Jara3 February 2026

Dinga Sikwebu’s article in last week’s City Press (“SACP’s umms and ahhs: Holes in motivations to contest elections”, Sun 18 Jan 2026, https://www.news24.com/citypress/voices/dingwa-sikwebu-sacps-umms-and-ahhs-holes-in-motivations-to-contest-elections-20260117-1174) lands a necessary challenge: the SACP’s decision to contest the 2026 local government elections is politically significant, but it currently reads as a half-step — an “umming and ahhing” posture that may […]

Alex Callinicos: Is the United States turning to fascism? With aggression abroad and repression at home, Donald Trump’s drive to centralise power in his hands is undeniable

Alex Callinicos28 January 2026

It’s hardly surprising that social media is full of claims that fascism now reigns in the United States. Since 2026 began, two features of fascist regimes have been very visible. On one the hand, aggression abroad—the violent kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores in Venezuela, the threats of military action against Iran and Greenland. […]

Selective Bombs and Selective Grief: Empire, Muslim Suffering and the Imperial Logic of War in Nigeria

Lawan Musa Danlami (Baba Lawan)23 January 2026

If the United States were truly motivated by the protection of Nigerian Christians, its actions would follow the geography of human suffering. But they do not. Instead, what we see is a familiar imperial pattern: war waged selectively, morality applied unevenly, and suffering acknowledged only when it aligns with strategic interest. Numerically, most victims of […]

Iran, Imperialism and the Left: Why We Must Stand With Struggle From Below

Admin15 January 2026

Please note the following opinion piece has been written prior to the likely US military intervention in Iran. We must be absolutely clear that US military intervention has nothing to do with support for the oppressed masses in Iran. The US has been and is intent on making Iran a client state of US imperialism […]

Op-Ed: Kidnapping or Capture?

Ali Ridha Khan9 January 2026

Sovereignty in the Age of the Raid There is a reason the argument has stalled on a single word. Not missiles. Not explosions. Not the extraordinary claim that a sitting head of state has been seized and flown out of his country by a foreign power. The word is ‘capture’ – and its rival is […]

Conservatism and democracy – the gulf between leaders and the working class

Zwelinzima Vavi20 October 2025

We must sound the alarm. Conservatism, distorted transformation, spatial cleansing, the collapse of faith in democracy and dangerous nostalgia are the fertile soil in which fascism grows.

The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk

Chris Hedges12 September 2025

The assassination of Charlie Kirk presages a new, deadly stage in the disintegration of a fractious and highly polarized United States. While toxic rhetoric and threats are lobbed across cultural divides like hand grenades, sometimes spilling over into actual violence — including the murder of Minnesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband and the two assassination attempts against Donald Trump — Kirk’s killing is a harbinger of full-scale social disintegration.

The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism

Dale McKinley27 August 2025

All around us, whether in South Africa, our continent or our world, we can feel more than ever the crushing and oppressive weight of the multiple political, economic and social consequences wrought by decades of neoliberal capitalism.

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Category: Opinion