The heroic masses of Egypt have risen up against the decades-old corrupt dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak. Taking inspiration from the intifada in Tunisia, for six days, Egyptian protesters have been demanding that Mubarak be ejected from the office he has held for 30 years, demanding affordable prices for basic foods, and demanding jobs. Close to 200 protestors have been murdered by the security forces as they attempt to exercise their democratic rights.

As South Africans watch the unfolding events in the north of our continent, it reminds us too of our own uprisings: Sharpeville, Soweto, Langa... and spurs us on to express our solidarity with the people of Egypt and Tunisia who remain steadfast in their determination to rid themselves of corrupt and oppressive dictators. read full story / add a comment

The declaration that came out of the Conference of the Democratic Left. It begins, but only begins to indicate the great sense of comradeship, solidarity and unity that the conference was able to develop amongst a very broad range of forces. We had unionists (from all federations,) social movement activists, youth and women, queers, Maoists, Trotskyists, independent Marxists, anarchists, pacifists and many others. We had tough debates, especially about the nature of the formation we were establishing, we had differences and disagreements - even about process, yet we rose to the occasion and have constructed a democratic framework and put in place organisational processes through which we can act together. As the declaration indicates our first task is to build solidarity amongst poor and working people in struggle. We have agreed to build campaigns against unemployment, support struggles for decent services especially housing, fight for land and agrarian reform, join with others in fighting to overcome the education crisis and will join the growing movements for environmental and climate justice: COP 17 is in our sights. read full story / add a comment

The August-September 2010 mass strike in the South African state sector demonstrated remarkable working class unity across racial and ideological lines, as 1.3 million workers of all colours stopped work for four weeks despite severe economic recession. The strikers' determination reflected growing frustration with low wages and at the glaring political corruption and enrichment of the elite, plus the drive - by African, coloured and Indian workers specifically - to attain living conditions breaking decisively with the oppression and immiseration of the apartheid past. Yet the strikers' partial victory was tarnished by tactics that divided strikers from the larger working class - notably, hospital disruptions - and a failure to raise demands that linked union and community struggles against both neo-liberalism and the apartheid legacy. The top-down manner whereby the strike was ended makes workers cynical about their own unions, demonstrating the alarming bureaucratisation and centralisation that has arisen, in large part, due to union leaders being enmeshed in the African National Congress (the neo-liberal governing party) and state industrial relations machinery. Unions should re-orientate towards other working class movements, outside and against the state, to fight for a libertarian and socialist transformation, from below. The ideas of anarcho-syndicalism - raised at the 2009 COSATU Congress - provide a useful starting point.
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In Robertson a conflict between dismissed workers and CSAAWU on one side and the Robertson Abattoir on the other evolves. The core of the conflict is the slave like conditions which the workers were forced to work under at the abattoir, before they were locked-out and eventually dismissed. The workers and their families now faces starvation. In order for the workers to be succesfull they need all the support they can get. read full story / add a comment

The Commercial Stevadoring Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU) is supporting 50 workers against an illegal lockout by Robertson Abbatoirs, that started on Tuesday 30th November 2010. CASAAWU and the workers need support from activists, social movements and progressive organisations. read full story / add a comment

The Abahlali baseMjondolo describe their politics as “a homemade politics that everyone can understand and find a home in”. They believe in politics that are shaped not by an outlined external ideology, but by the current and relevant experiences of its people. Politics derived from any singular prescribed theory, they argue, creates elitism and patronage. By building their political aims and beliefs directly and internally, they are more successful in addressing the realistic needs of its participants. It is very much a politics of the here and now. They have called for “a living communism” and are adamantly anti-capitalism, particularly in their beliefs that private land should be made public for housing. read full story / add a comment

Angola celebra este jueves, 11 de noviembre, el 35 aniversario de la independencia nacional, cuya proclamación marcó la entrada de Angola en el concierto de las naciones como un país independiente.

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We, at the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) are pleased to announce that issue number 11 of our organ Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism is now available online. read full story / add a comment

Twelve people were arrested at a private gathering in Extension 14 Vosloorus at about 03h30 on the 3rd of October 2010 by the Vosloorus Police Services. Most of the twelve arrested had just returned from the annual Johannesburg Lesbian & Gay Pride Parade to join birthday celebrations of a friend's mother. The twelve have been charged with obstruction of justice and attack on the police, a charge that they have denied to both the SAPS and their legal representative from Section 27, Advocate A. Hassim. read full story / add a comment

Grahamstown seminar on 'Black Flame: the revolutionary class politics of anarchism and syndicalism', @ Rhodes Sociology, Eastern Cape, South Africa
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The promise of safe, reliable and affordable public transport comes as welcome news for the majority of working class and poor South Africans and immigrants to the country. The segregated town planning left behind by the system of racialised capitalism known as apartheid has meant that the majority of the population – also those who can least afford it – are often the ones who have the furthest to travel to work, schools, hospitals and so on.

This article looks at the Bus Rapid Transit system, what BRT really is, how our so-called leaders plan to implement it – since, as usual, there has been very little popular involvement – and whether our leaders, or BRT, can serve the needs of the poor and working class read full story / add a comment

Johannesburg - Pro-democracy demonstrators marched on Tuesday in Swaziland against Africa's last absolute monarchy, despite the arrests of nearly 50 people on the eve of the protests. read full story / add a comment

The Swazi state is so worried about how the international community will view the Global Day of Action for democracy in Swaziland tomorrow (7 September 2010), it has barred foreign journalists from the kingdom. read full story / add a comment

JOHANNESBURG – On the eve of the Global Day of Action for Swaziland, police in Swaziland this afternoon broke up a peaceful meeting of pro-democracy activists at the Tum’s George Hotel in Manzini before loading scores of them into police vans and taking them away to the Manzini Regional Police headquarters. read full story / add a comment

Mike Marqusee has just returned from a visit with trade unionists and democracy activists in Swaziland. This article will appear in The Hindu Sunday Magazine on 29 August. Swaziland is a small country with a big problem. The 1.3 million inhabitants of the land-locked southern African kingdom live under the thumb of one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, a venal and repressive regime whose plunder of the country is systematic and comprehensive. read full story / add a comment

At least six people have been shot dead in Mozambique's capital during clashes between police and demonstrators protesting against rising food and fuel prices. Police opened fire on protesters throwing stones and setting fire to tyres and barriers, but it was not immediately clear whether their bullets were responsible for the deaths. According to the AFP news agency, one boy was shot in the head and left dead in the street, while a police spokesman told Reuters two children were killed in the violence. Red Cross rescue teams in the impoverished southern African country said demonstrators were killed during separate protests in Maputo on Wednesday. "We have had 42 cases at the hospital. Twenty-three were wounded by gunshots. Two are being operated on at the moment. Nineteen have wounds from physical attacks. One died," Antonio Assis da Costa, director of emergency services at the Red Cross, told AFP. read full story / add a comment

This report gives a detailed timeline of the events on the day and night of the attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo. read full story / add a comment

S'bu Zikode, chairperson of Abahlali baseMjondolo, and Zodwa Nsibande, secretary of the organisation's Youth League, on the authoritarian left, the world cup, delivery and more. read full story / add a comment

BLACK FLAME: The revolutionary class politics of anarchism and syndicalism by Lucien van der Walt & Michael Schmidt, examines the anti-authoritarian class politics of the anarchist/syndicalist movement, and its 150 years of revolutionary popular struggle on five continents.

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The political interference around this case continued in the lead up to the start of the trial today. The prisoners were not brought to court and the state witnesses were not summoned to appear in court making it impossible for the trial to begin.

Neither the Investigating Officer nor the prosecutor could explain why the prisoners were not brought to the court or why the state witnesses had not been summoned to appear in court. read full story / add a comment