Voices of protest : social movements in post-apartheid South Africa /

In South Africa's postapartheid euphoria, groups seeking a number of new rights burst on the scene. Some demanded affordable medicine or free electricity. Others were anti-privatization, anti-globalization, anti-eviction, and anti-pollution. Groups formed over land for the landless, unionization of the self-employed, debt-forgiveness, citizenship for immigrants, lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-intersex rights, women's rights, and even the elimination of drug gangs through direct action (killing). The lessons of Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe (whose policies are recommended by one contributor), and the widespread failures of socialism and Marxism, have been ignored by the contributors to this volume. The poor majority may momentarily rejoice at expropriation of the rich, but expropriation will not eliminate poverty as it only eliminates wealth, innovation, and productivity. Perhaps the solution is not to eliminate the rich or punish them by overtaxation, but rather to eliminate poverty by giving the poor the liberty to become rich themselves. Summing Up: Optional. Researchers and faculty. F. L. Mokhtari National Defense University