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southern africa / miscellaneous Tuesday August 03, 2021 21:28 by Mandy Moussouris and Shawn Hattingh
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Everything we are now is built upon all that we were and where we came from. The same can be said for countries, any analysis has to look backwards before it can begin to understand the influences and causes of the present. This makes analysis intrinsically complex and often, almost impossible. At some point we are forced to simplify, look for patterns and analyse situations with a focus on where the key locus of power lies.

An analysis of the recent events taking place primarily in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng has to be done with this in mind. It is impossible to follow every strand of the complexity that is South Africa, but at the same time the link between the spate of large scale looting that took place and two very obvious conflicting ruling class power bases that currently exist in the country is undeniable. To claim that there was an exercising of working class power is to fundamentally misunderstand the powers at play and where the locus of power at this point in history actually lies.

southern africa / imperialism / war Friday December 01, 2017 18:39 by Shawn Hattingh
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This article looks at the recent events around the removal of Robert Mugabe from power in Zimbabwe. It argues that this will not bring liberation for the people of Zimbabwe, as it does not address the problems Zimbabwe faces – a ruthless ruling class, its state, capitalism and imperialism.

Robert Mugabe, the longstanding authoritarian ruler that has waged a war against Zimbabwe’s poor, is gone. He was forced to resign in the wake of a coup – although the main actors in the coup comically denied it was one.

When it was announced that Mugabe was exiting power, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Harare to celebrate. Many are hoping that his exit will bring change for the better for Zimbabwe. This hope, unfortunately, may be wishful thinking. The reason for this is that Mugabe was a symptom of far deeper problems, and without addressing those problems, Zimbabwe cannot be free; nor can there be genuine equality. Similarly, those that removed Mugabe are cut from the same cloth, and come from the same ruthless ruling class.

[Français]

southern africa / workplace struggles Tuesday June 27, 2017 23:19 by Mandy Moussouris
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Credit: eNCA / Xoli Mngambi

The labour movement has been unable to de-link itself from its archenemy: capital. As its structures bureaucratise, as its leaders become career unionists, as it opens investment companies and pays staff increasingly inequitable salaries, it increasingly mirrors the very thing it is fighting. If the South African Federation of Trade Unions is to meet its promise, it must be fundamentally different from the organisation it was born out of.

A federation will not liberate the class, nor will its affiliates; only the working class can liberate itself and it will never be able to do that as long as there is an implicit belief in a Great Leader/s; as long as the union is seen as a legal service and as long as power and money are centralised. A truly participatory, democratic trade union would be one where the locals/branches of each affiliate control the membership dues collected, where they would use their dues to do work on the ground and put some aside for provincial and national work; where the workers have direct ownership of the means of trade union production (negotiation, representation, mobilisation) and where the extremely loosely used term, democracy, translates into individual worker agency and empowerment to ensure that the base, the majority, the working class, is where true power lies, and that it uses its power to change the world for the benefit of the many.

southern africa / community struggles Thursday June 08, 2017 02:20 by Jonathan Payn
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Women erecting a makeshift shelter at Bush Koppies. Photo: Lekhetho Mtetwa (ZACF)

The struggle of the black working class majority of Freedom Park, South Africa, is not just for land on which to build housing – although that is obviously a central issue and key demand; nor is it just against the accompanying political and police violence and intimidation. It is a struggle against the injustice, violence and corruption of a system that puts the power, privileges and profits of a few before the lives and wellbeing of the majority.

southern africa / history of anarchism Monday October 03, 2016 19:07 by Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front
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C’de Bobo at the “Reclaim June 16” demonstration in Soweto, 2009

The ZACF is saddened to learn of the passing away of comrade Bobo Makhoba in Soweto this Thursday 29 September, at the age of 41, after a long illness. He is survived by his son, to whom we extend our deepest sympathies and condolences – as we do to the rest of his family, friends and comrades.

Bobo was a founding member of the ZACF as well as one of the original guerilla electricians for the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee’s Operation Khanyisa campaign, which illegally reconnected thousands of households’ electricity after it was cut off for non-payment – forcing Eskom, the state electricity utility, to scrap arrears for thousands of Sowetans.

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screen_shot_20210802_at_13.08.png imageSouth Africa: Historic rupture or warring brothers again? Aug 03 21:28 by Mandy Moussouris and Shawn Hattingh 20 comments

20210713saviolence.jpeg imageKwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng are burning Jul 14 20:56 by Abahlali baseMjondolo 0 comments

united_kingdom.jpg imageMovie Review: ‘A United Kingdom’ (2016) Jan 14 18:27 by LAMA 0 comments

croppedabm.jpg imageSerious Concern at Escalating State Xenophobia in South Africa May 18 02:32 by Mqapheli Bonono 0 comments

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power2.jpeg imageClass struggle, the Left and power – Part 2 Sep 08 06:04 by Jonathan Payn 0 comments

lucien.jpg imageShould the Anti-Capitalists Contest Elections? Sep 08 05:38 by Lucien van der Walt 2 comments

Mandla Khoza (“MK”), 1974-2019: ZACF anarchist-communist, militant in South Africa and Swaziland (Eswatini) image“The soldier has fallen”: Mandla Khoza, ZACF anarchist-communist and Swaziland activist, 2... Aug 22 07:30 by ZACF 1 comments

a.jpg imageMoving from Crisis in South Africa's Municipalities to Building Counter-Power Jul 19 22:09 by Bongani Maponyane 3 comments

power2.jpeg imageAfter the election dust settles: Class struggle, the Left and power Jun 25 22:09 by Jonathan Payn 0 comments

saftu1024x768.jpg imageRebuilding the workers’ movement for counter-power, justice and self-management May 28 17:53 by Lucien van der Walt 0 comments

Lekhetho Mtetwa imageA ZACF Anarchist in the Landless People’s Movement, South Africa Apr 06 00:57 by Lekhetho Mtetwa 0 comments

zimfreeatlast.jpg imageSurviving Zimbabwe: An anarchist critique Mar 19 06:33 by Leroy Maisiri 0 comments

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warren.jpg imageBuilding black working class counter-power against state, capital and national oppression Nov 13 19:11 by Warren McGregor 0 comments

Selby Semela, 1958-2018 imageA South African Revolutionary Passes: Jabisile Selby Semela, 1958-2018 Aug 30 08:14 by ZACF 0 comments

boiketlong4.jpg image[South Africa] Renewed appeal for Solidarity with the Boiketlong 4 Aug 15 07:09 by Solidarity with the Boiketlong 4 0 comments

correll_voa_21535371w.jpg imageTearing racism up from its capitalist roots: An African anarchist-communist approach Aug 10 22:21 by Bongani Maponyane 0 comments

uf.jpg imageLeft unity, left cooperation or a working class front? Jul 21 05:45 by Warren McGregor 2 comments

again1.jpg imageSouth Africa: Minimum wages can’t end suffering when the rich abuse the poor May 12 19:31 by Bongani Maponyane 0 comments

textAbahlali baseMjondolo to hold their annual UnFreedom Day rally tomorrow Apr 22 02:43 by Abahlali baseMjondolo 0 comments

'Workers' rights are human rights' demonstration against new Labour Bills, 21 March 2018, Johannesburg. Photo: Nimet Arikan imageNew Labour Bills attack workers' rights and democracy Mar 28 01:14 by Jonathan Payn 0 comments

cosatu__educate_consolidate_advance_colour.jpg imageAlternatives from the Ground Up Mar 17 21:59 by Lucien van der Walt 0 comments

zimbabwepolitics.jpg imageWhere to now Zimbabwe? An anarchist / syndicalist perspective after the dust has settled Mar 08 05:57 by Leroy Maisiri 0 comments

ramaphosa.jpg imageOut with the old, in with the not so new Feb 19 14:58 by Shawn Hattingh 0 comments

fosatu_logo.png imageSouth African ‘Workerism’ in the 1980s: Learning from FOSATU’s Radical Unionism Dec 13 18:23 by Lucien van der Walt, with Sian Byrne and Nicole Ulrich* 0 comments

uf.jpg imageLessons from the 1984-85 Vaal Uprising for Rebuilding a 'United Front' of Communities and ... Dec 13 18:12 by Jonathan Payn 0 comments

udf.jpg imagePractices of Self-Organisation in South Africa: The Experience of the 1980s and its Implic... Dec 05 23:37 by Daria Zelenova 0 comments

zimbabwe1758992_960_720.png imageThe Old Man and the Coup Dec 01 18:39 by Shawn Hattingh 0 comments

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