Be careful what you wish for…

Abstract

Closing address to DITSELA Labour Law Seminar, 25 February 2007

Some points to ponder
The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle.
– Marx and Engels Communist Manifesto (1848)
The Brazilian worker is a worker surrounded by laws on all sides but dead from hunger. So many laws! But we lack one to keep him from dying of hunger.
– Brazilian trade union leader in the 1950s One of the biggest problems for any person trying to understand the South African economy is the question: through whose eyes do we study it? We can look at the economy through the eyes of the capitalists or we can look at it through the eyes of workers. Depending on which set of eyes we use, we’ll see a very different picture.
– Political Economy: South Africa in Crisis COSATU Education Publication, 1987