Steven Friedman
About Me...
Steven Friedman is a public commentator and an academic, currently employed as a Research Professor at the University of Johannesburg. He has been writing on South African politics for the entire democratic period both as a scholar and public commentator. He has published books on South Africa’s transition to democracy, the role of the trade union movement, and current South African politics. He has also written columns and articles for several South African newspapers. His writing seeks to use academic research to shed light on current politics but to ensure that this is conveyed in a way easily understood by people who have no academic training.
Welcome To Against The Tide
Against the Tide is an emailed column commenting on current South African politics and, occasionally, on events elsewhere in the world. It aims to offer a different perspective from mainstream news and commentary by looking beneath the surface and, where necessary, challenging much of the thinking in South Africa’s public debate.
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Latest Articles
Denying The Past
BECAUSE the past lives on in the present, we cannot fix the present if we ignore the past.
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Game Of Chance
FOR many voters, next week’s local polls could turn out to be the ‘lucky dip’ election.
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No Delivery From Delivery
HOWEVER the local elections turn out, they will not deliver us from ‘delivery’.
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Boosting The Bigots
NOW we know that something we are often told by public figures is a fiction. We need to worry that another may be too.
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A Power Failure
DEMOCRACY cannot improve people’s lives here as long as those who want things to stay the same or get worse are loud and those who want them to get better stay silent.
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