With Zimbabwe’s diamond industry still shrouded in secrecy, the Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW) and three Zimbabweans have petitioned South Africa’s New Reclamation Group for access to information that will shed some much-needed light on its controversial mining operations - and prove whether any of its promises to local communities have been fulfilled. In particular, the petitioners are asking for information relating to whether communities that were forced to relocate were consulted and have been given compensation, whether the requisite schools and hospitals have been provided and whether environmental and safety standards are being complied with.

Members of the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) will march in Klerksdorp on Friday against corruption, Cosatu said. 'On October 22 the streets of Klerksdorp will be brought to a halt as Cosatu and Samwu members in the North West Province and other trade union activists from all over the country sing and toyi-toyi to expose rampant corruption,' said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven in a statement on Tuesday.

Twenty Nigerian citizens and a non-governmental organisation are challenging the indigene/settler dichotomy legally before the Federal High Court in Nigeria. The Federal High Court, Kaduna, presided over by Hon. Justice Mohammed Lawal Shuaibu, adjourned the case to 24 November 2010. The applicants contend that the indigene/settle dichotomy impacts negatively on the enjoyment of fundamental human rights enshrined in Nigeria’s constitution and African and international human rights law.

The Right2Know (R2K) Campaign, an umbrella campaign representing a broad front of civil society groups, is campaigning against the Protection of Information Bill - also known as the Secrecy Bill - currently before South Africa's Parliament, which they believe will fundamentally undermine hard-won constitutional rights including access to information and freedom of expression. R2K is currently running a countrywide week of action between 19 – 27 October 2010. Visit their website to find out about events in your area, to sign up against the proposed bill or to join their Facebook or twitter accounts.

Hundreds of people from different walks of life - from young schoolchildren to army officials - are planting trees across East Africa in the latest activities to be registered under Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign (BTC) run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

On 14 October 2009 the draft Anti Homosexuality Bill was introduced to the Parliament of Uganda by Ndoorwa West MP David Bahati. Bahati’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill stipulates the death penalty for repeated same-sex relations and life imprisonment for all other homosexual acts. A person in authority who fails to report an offender to the police within 24 hours will face three years in jail. Likewise, the promotion of homosexuality carries a sentence of five to seven years in jail.

Four NGOs have criticised a social movement for disrupting ordinary life in Cape Town with a protest campaign aimed at highlighting a lack of service delivery in informal settlements. But Abahlali baseMjondolo, which has launched the strike in informal settlements, have responded, saying they have never called for violence and accusing one of the NGOs, the Treatment Action Campaign, of double standards. This post contains the original statement issued by COSATU Khayelitsha, the Treatment Action Campaign the Social Justice Coalition and Equal Education, calling for a rejection of Abahlali baseMjondolo's tactics and a responding statement from Abahlali baseMjondolo.

Residents of Mandela Park near Cape Town, South Africa, are still waiting for decent housing. In this letter to the minister of human settlements, they explain how housing development in the area is corrupt and that the situation will only get worse.

The chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Dr Lovemore Madhuku, has said that from next week they will begin mobilising people to reject the constitutional draft that will be produced by the parliamentary committee. ‘The constitution that we will be campaigning against will not be different from Lancaster House. So it’s not accurate or not correct to say if you reject the constitution you are going back to Lancaster House. It won’t make a difference.’ He said it was not the NCA’s fault that government kept coming up with defective constitutions and putting them before the people to vote on.

Pluto Press has issued an alert about police brutality towards one of their authors and other activists during the 'No Border Camp' in Brussels.

The Unemployed People's Movement will March on Jacob Zuma in Durban on 14 October 2010 in support of an earlier letter of demand issued to South Africa's president.

Nigeria's Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) calls for the immediate arrest of those behind attacks on students over 12–14 July.

This volume explores some of the key features of popular politics and resistance before and after 1994. It looks at continuities and changes in the forms of struggle and ideologies involved, as well as the significance of post-apartheid grassroots politics. Is this a new form of politics or does it stand as a direct descendent of the insurrectionary impulses of the late apartheid era?

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) has launched a new advocacy campaign to combat sectarianism in Egypt under the slogan, 'Reject Sectarianism'. The organisation said that the campaign is a joint movement and an appeal for collective action to eliminate sectarianism and strengthen the values of equal citizenship and shared existence.

The international campaign 'fair flowers - for human rights' has demanded living wages and sufficient protection against highly toxic pesticides for flower workers. Salaries which do not reach a living wage and lack of protection against highly toxic pesticides are still a daily reality for many flower workers in the global flower business, says the campaign. 'While consumers in Europe enjoy flowers as a symbol of love and friendship, the flower workers' human rights to adequate food and health are constantly being violated.'

Support the international movement opposed to geoengineering. The Hands Off Mother Earth campaign is a part of the climate justice movement, fighting quick techno-fixes that put more money and power in the hands of the business interests and the politicians who caused the climate crisis in the first place. If you oppose using the seas, skies and soils of our home planet as a laboratory for unjust and risky technology, add your picture to our photo petition. Take a photo of your hand and help us say 'Stop geoengineering! Hands off Mother Earth!'

The UN children's agency UNICEF is taking the lead in an intense global campaign to provide schooling to some 69 million children who are unable to go to school - or don't have any schools to go to. A new report, titled 'Back to School?' by the Global Campaign for Education, says that two of the worst places to be a school child in 2010 are Somalia, long described as a failed state, and earthquake-devastated Haiti.

On the 8th of September 2010 the UPM in Durban sent a letter of demands to Jacob Zuma. His office acknowledge reciept of that letter (which is pasted in below this email) but he has never given us the courtesy of a response to our demands. Therefore we have no choice but to take our desperation and anger to the streets. We will be marching in Durban on 14 October 2010 in support of the demands in this letter. In addition to these demands we also demanding an end to the attacks on democracy from the ANC.

When children work in order to ensure the livelihoods of themselves and their families, should this be defined as child labour, asks Salma Maoulidi.

On 7 - 17 October 2010, ZIMCODD will join social movements across the globe in commemorating the Global week of Action against Debt and International Financial Institutions, commonly known as the Debt Week. ZIMCODD is calling on individuals, groupings and organisations to support the commemoration of the Global Week on Debt and IFIs in Zimbabwe by signing your organisation on to our petition to Parliament, the Ministry of Finance and Zimbabwe’s creditors. ZIMCODD will be commemorating the inaugural Debt Week in Zimbabwe through activities lined up in Harare, Mutare and Bulawayo with the theme, 'Responsible Lending and Borrowing to Guarantee Social and Economic Rights.' You may visit to sign on or send an email with the subject ‘support for ZIMCODD Debt week Petition’ to [email][email protected], We hope to conclude the process of collecting signatures by 4 October 2010. Your solidarity on this matter is vital.