Showing papers in "Transformation in 1999"

Economic Adjustment, Political Institution- alisation and Social Marginalisation: COSATU and the First Democratic Government (1994-99)

Abstract: Introduction In the period between its first two democratic elections, the South African political transition has known important peculiarities which differentiate this case from an African scenario characterised, in the same time, by uncertain shifts to multi-party systems and by the consolidation of policies of economic structural adjustment. Three decisive aspects, in particular, apply to the role of labour in the South African transition. First, organised labour provided a decisive contribution, during phases of struggle as well as negotiation, in overcoming apartheid and setting the stage for the establishment of democratic political institutions. Second, labour's role in the transitional and post-transitional phase was rooted in a formal electoral and programmatic alliance between the biggest union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unio'ns (COSATU), the leading party in government, the African National Congress (ANC), and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Such an alliance immediately defined COSATU's role, beyond the mere representation of worker interests, as a factor of integration of such interests in a project of governance that includes different, and often contradictory, class forces, domestic imperatives and international pressures. Third, South Africa's political transition paralleled a transition towards market-based solutions to challenges of economic competitiveness and social integration. However, the shift to 'neo-liberalism' was in this case, compared to other African countries, less dependent on economic crisis and the constraints imposed by international

The New Testament teaching on the environment

Abstract: 1. The New Testament is not a work of systematic theology but a collection of what might be called ‘occasional’ writings, in the sense that each book was written for a particular audience and situation. The Gospels were written to evoke or confirm faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God and the source of salvation (while only John 20:31 states this explicitly, this seems to be true of the other Gospels too). Each gives a selective account of what Jesus said and did (cf. John 20:30), and has a particular audience in mind. Most of the Letters are written to specific church situations and deal with issues relevant to that situation. Environmental matters seem not to have been an issue on anyone’s mind in the eastern Mediterranean world at the time when the New Testament writings were being written, so they do not appear explicitly in them.