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Search author name words: Lucien

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international / miscellaneous / opinion / analysis Tuesday May 19, 2020 05:12 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
The crisis of the statist politics that dominated working-class politics -- social democracy, Marxism-Leninism, and anti-imperialist nationalism -- and the rise of neoliberalism, has aided the rediscovery of society-centred, anti-capitalist forms of bottom-up change “at a distance” from the state. This article critically assess the three main modes of “at a distance” politics: “outside-but-with” the state, which combines using the state with popular movements;  “outside-and-despite” the state, aiming at disintegrating the system by building alternatives in its cracks; and “outside-and-against” the state, associated with anarchism/ syndicalism, rejects the state for building autonomous working class counter-power that can resist, then defeat, state and capital. While each mode has limits, the anarchist/ syndicalist approach is arguably the most convincing, and its implications are serious. And it directs militants to work within the mass movements of the popular classes read full story / add a comment
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southern africa / the left / debate Sunday September 08, 2019 05:38 por Lucien van der Walt   text 2 comments (last - friday october 20, 2023 11:35)   image 1 image
This is a lightly edited transcription of a talk given by Prof. Lucien van der Walt on a panel on the eve of the 2019 national elections in South Africa: the International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG)/ Workers World Media Productions (WWMP) Public Forum, Isivivana Centre, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa 25 April. read full story / add a comment
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international / anarchist movement / opinion / analysis Tuesday June 11, 2019 05:47 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
To have a discussion about anarchism's relevance to (black) working class strategy in the face of ongoing capitalist restructuring, we need to dispel myths about anarchism and syndicalism, to reclaim the revolutionary core of the anarchist tradition.
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southern africa / workplace struggles / opinion / analysis Tuesday May 28, 2019 17:53 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
Don't abandon the unions, or take sides in inter-union rivalries. Build a serious, organised, non-sectarian project of democratic reform and political discussion that spans the unions, including a rank-and-file movement that fosters debate, and opens the treasure-chest of union and left history and theory. Recover the politics of disconnecting from the state as raised by, for example, Occupy and the Rojava Revolution. Replace reliance on the state and parties with struggle, and destructive inter-union rivalry with a serious project of working class counter-power.
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international / workplace struggles / opinion / analysis Thursday December 13, 2018 20:16 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
Trade union renewal is essential but should not be reduced to democratising structures or new recruitment methods. Renewal should centre on a bottom-up movement based on rank-and-file reform movements, and the direct action of workers as a precondition for radical redistribution of power and wealth to workers, community assemblies and councils in a self-managed, egalitarian order based on participatory planning and distribution by need. It must be rooted in an anarcho-syndicalist understanding that unions can profoundly change society. read full story / add a comment
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Ιβηρική / Αναρχική Ιστορία / Γνώμη / Ανάλυση Friday November 16, 2018 17:23 por Thabang Sefalala-Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
“Η μελλοντική κοινωνική οργάνωση πρέπει να γίνει μόνο από τα κάτω προς τα πάνω, από την ελεύθερη ένωση ή ομοσπονδία των εργαζομένων” αρχικά σε τοπικό επίπεδο και εν τέλει “σε μια μεγάλη ομοσπονδία, διεθνή και καθολική,” που θα αγκαλιάζει όλη την ανθρωπότητα που υποφέρει, και είναι ικανή να ξαναφτιάξει τον κόσμο πάνω στη βάση της κοινωνικής δικαιοσύνης, της ισότητας και της ελευθερίας. read full story / add a comment
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international / workplace struggles / opinion / analysis Thursday May 10, 2018 05:52 por Leroy Maisiri & Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
The remarkable “recovered factories” (fábricas recuperadas) movement saw hundreds of closed factories reopened by the workers, run democratically, creating jobs and helping working class and poor communities. It showed that there is only so much protesting can accomplish – at some point you have to create something new. But it also shows it is essential that such alternative sites of production form alliances with, and become embedded, in other movements of the working class, poor and peasantry, including unions and unemployed movements. This assists them in building larger struggles, and provides them with some protection from the capitalist market and the state. It is meanwhile important for unions and social movements to start to systematically develop alternatives to capitalist- and state- run social services and media. However, it is simply impossible to escape capitalism by creating cooperatives, social centres or alternative spaces –almost all means of production remain in ruling class hands, secured by force and backed by huge bureaucracies. It is essential to build a mass revolutionary front of unions and other movements, embracing popularly-run social services, media and production, and aiming at complete socialisation of the economy and of decision-making through a revolutionary rupture. read full story / add a comment
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southern africa / miscellaneous / opinion / analysis Saturday March 17, 2018 21:59 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
This commentary, an input at a Globalization School debate in Cape Town, engages current labor and Left debates on building alternatives, drawing on the experiences of the radical wing of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and on anarchism and syndicalism. It argues for a strategy of bottom-up mobilization based on debate and pluralism, and building structures of counter-power and a revolutionary counter-culture that can prefigure and create a new social order. The aim is to foster a class-based movement against exploitation, domination, and oppression, including national oppression, that can win reforms through self-activity, unite a range of struggles against oppression, and develop the capacity and unity needed for deep social change. This should be outside parliament, the political party system and the state. The outcome, ultimately, would be the replacement of capitalism, the state, and social and economic inequality, by a universal human community based on self-management, the democratization of daily life, participatory economic planning, and libertarian socialism. read full story / add a comment
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southern africa / the left / opinion / analysis Wednesday December 13, 2017 18:23 por Lucien van der Walt, with Sian Byrne and Nicole Ulrich*   image 1 image
A lightly edited transcript of a presentation at a workshop hosted by the International Labour Research & Information Group (ILRIG) and the Orange Farm Human Rights Advice Centre in Drieziek extension 1, Orange Farm township, south of Soweto, South Africa, on 24 June 2017. It was attended by a hall full of community and worker activists, including veterans of the big rebellions of the 1980s. read full story / add a comment
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Νότια Αφρική (Περιφέρεια) / Αναρχικό κίνημα / Γνώμη / Ανάλυση Sunday February 26, 2017 17:20 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
Μόνο μια ριζοσπαστική αλλαγή –μια νέα Αφρική βασισμένη στην ελευθεριακή και σοσιαλιστική ανάπτυξη– μπορεί να σπάσει αυτό τον φαύλο κύκλο. Αυτό περιλαμβάνει τόσο τον αγώνα ενάντια στις αφρικανικές ελίτ, όσο και ενάντια στον ιμπεριαλισμό. Και αυτό με τη σειρά του απαιτεί μια ρήξη με τις ιδέες του «τρίτου κόσμου», που αγνοούν τα ταξικά ζητήματα μέσα στην Αφρική και με τον εθνικισμό, που καλεί σε ενότητα όλους τους Αφρικανούς – μία άνευ ουσίας ενότητα μεταξύ των τοπικών καταπιεστών και των θυμάτων τους. Χωρίς ένα προοδευτικό αριστερό και αναρχικό σχέδιο, οι απογοητεύσεις και η δυστυχία των μαζών απλώς θα καλυφθεί από κενές ιδέες (η «δημοκρατία») ή αντιδραστικά κινήματα (όπως το Boko Haram) και συναισθήματα (ο ρατσισμός και το μίσος προς τους μετανάστες). read full story / add a comment
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southern africa / workplace struggles / opinion / analysis Sunday February 26, 2017 04:39 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
In these grim times, both globally and locally, it is important to reaffirm the centrality of workers’ education, and the need for a strong working-class movement. Ordinary people have immense potential to change the world, and steer it in a more progressive direction than that promised by capitalists, populists and the political establishment, writes Lucien van der Walt. read full story / add a comment
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southern africa / migration / racism / opinion / analysis Thursday December 15, 2016 06:59 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
A year ago, starting 20 October 2015, around 75 small shops were looted, some burned down, in the eastern townships and downtown area of the small Eastern Cape university town of Grahamstown/ iRhini, South Africa. The attacks targeted Asian and African immigrants, many of them Muslim, and displaced 500 people. These riots were largely ignored by the media.

The text below is a slightly revised revision of a briefing I was asked to write at the time for the local Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM). The UPM played a heroic role in opposing the attacks and assisting the displaced. The text’s general points remain relevant to the working class’s fight against prejudice and racism. And the riots of 2015 should not be forgotten.grahamstown-riots read full story / add a comment
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Ιβηρική / Αναρχική Ιστορία / Γνώμη / Ανάλυση Sunday July 24, 2016 21:07 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
Το κράτος δεν παρέχει μία εναλλακτική οδό στον καπιταλισμό ούτε ο καπιταλισμός στο κράτος. Και οι δύο αυτές δομές κοινωνικής οργάνωσης συνδέονται εσωτερικά και αλληλοσυμπληρώνονται. Δεδομένου του γεγονότος ότι καμία από τις δύο δομές δεν είναι επιθυμητή αναδύεται η ερώτηση: υπάρχει ένας τρίτος δρόμος; Η συζήτηση που προηγήθηκε για τον αναρχο-συνδικαλιστικό-ακρατικό σοσιαλισμό – προσπάθησε να δείξει τη διανοητική συνοχή, την πιθανότητα, και την επιθυμία του ως εναλλακτικής διεξόδου. Το θέμα επομένως που αντιμετωπίζουν οι σοσιαλιστές δεν είναι: “εάν ήρθε το τέλος της ιστορίας” Η πρόκληση μάλλον είναι να ανακαλύψουμε ξανά και να μάθουμε από ένα σημαντικό κομμάτι της ιστορίας, την πλούσια και ιστορικά καταξιωμένη παράδοση του αναρχοσυνδικαλισμού. read full story / add a comment
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southern africa / history / opinion / analysis Tuesday April 05, 2016 18:44 por Lucien van der Walt   text 1 comment (last - wednesday april 06, 2016 23:27)   image 1 image
If W. H. "Bill" Andrews (1870- 1950) is remembered today, it is usually as a founder and leader of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA, today the SACP). In that role, he served as party chair, member of the executive of the Communist International, leading South African trade unionist, visitor to the Soviet Union, and defendant in the trial of communists that followed 1946 black miners' strike.
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international / imperialism / war / opinion / analysis Thursday March 31, 2016 07:34 por Lucien van der Walt   text 1 comment (last - friday april 01, 2016 06:07)   image 1 image
Roughly 50 years ago we saw the dismantling of most of the European colonial empires in Africa. High hopes greeted the "new nations" that merged - and certainly, a move from colonial rule, with its racism and external control and extractive economies, was progressive.

However, many of the hopes were soon dashed. Politically, most independent African states moved in the direction of dictatorships and one-party systems, normally headed by the nationalist party that took office at independence - and, over time, the military became a major player too. Many of these states were highly corrupt, even predatory, and the gap between the rising local (indigenous) ruling class, and the masses, grew ever vaster.

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Διεθνή / Ιμπεριαλισμός / Πόλεμος / Γνώμη / Ανάλυση Friday November 20, 2015 20:00 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
Ο ιμπεριαλισμός, όπως εκφράζεται είτε από τις μεγάλες Δυτικές δυνάμεις είτε από ανερχόμενες δυνάμεις όπως η Κίνα ή η Ρωσία, είτε, ακόμα και από μικρές περιφερειακές δυνάμεις, όπως η Νότια Αφρική, δεν ωφελεί την πλειοψηφία των λαών τους. Επίσης, προφανώς, δεν είναι προς όφελος των συμφερόντων των απλών ανθρώπων που υπόκεινται στον ιμπεριαλισμό - αν και οι τοπικές άρχουσες τάξεις βρίσκουν συχνά τρόπους για να φιλοξενήσουν το σύστημα.
Αυτό σημαίνει ότι ο αγώνας ενάντια στον ιμπεριαλισμό δεν είναι μια μάχη μεταξύ ενωμένων εθνών ή περιφερειών, όπως ο «Βορράς» ή ο «Νότος», αλλά ένας αγώνας που πρέπει να καθοδηγείται από τις λαϊκές τάξεις, σε όλο τον κόσμο, κατά των αρχουσών ελίτ, σε όλο τον κόσμο. read full story / add a comment
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Διεθνή / Ιμπεριαλισμός / Πόλεμος / Γνώμη / Ανάλυση Thursday November 19, 2015 16:59 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
... ας προσεγγίσουμε το όλο ζήτημα από την πλευρά της εργατικής τάξης και των φτωχών, και αυτό σημαίνει ότι τασσόμαστε ενάντια σε κάθε καταπίεση και εκμετάλλευση. Από αυτήν την πλευρά, τασσόμενοι ενάντια στον ιμπεριαλισμό άνευ όρων, συμπεριλαμβανομένου οτιδήποτε εξοργίζει το γαλλικό Κράτος, είναι τώρα κάτι το δικαιολογημένο. Αλλά επίσης, τασσόμενοι ενάντια στους αντιδραστικούς αντι-ιμπεριαλιστές με τα αντιδραστικά προγράμματα, και για έναν προοδευτικό αντι-ιμπεριαλισμό, όπως αυτόν του ΡΚΚ στο Rojava. Το ίδιο το ΡΚΚ που έχει επίσης υποστεί επιθέσεις από ISIS. read full story / add a comment
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international / imperialism / war / opinion / analysis Monday November 16, 2015 18:21 por Lucien van der Walt   text 1 comment (last - saturday november 21, 2015 19:53)   image 1 image
As the 100th anniversary of the outbreak in August 1914 of World War One fades, let us remember that imperialism harms all working class people – including those in imperialist and Western countries, and the white working class.

It is often said that Western workers benefit from imperialism, or imperialist profits, or that welfare in the West is funded by imperialism – but all of these claims fall in the face of realities like World War One (1914-1918). This war – between Germany and Britain and their respective allies – was, at least in part, fought for a re-division of the European-ruled colonies. read full story / add a comment
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international / miscellaneous / opinion / analysis Sunday November 15, 2015 06:46 por Lucien van der Walt   image 1 image
Let us approach from the side of the struggle of working class and poor for freedom, and that means the struggle against all oppression and exploitation. From that side, be against imperialism, unconditionally, including whatever outrages the French state will now justify. But also be against reactionary anti-imperialists with reactionary programmes, and for a progressive anti-imperialism, like that of PKK in Rojava. The working class and left must lead anti-imperialist struggles, and work with progressive movements, including progressive anti-imperialists, to make a better world, pushing those struggles towards anarchist-communism. read full story / add a comment
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iberia / history of anarchism / opinion / analysis Friday October 02, 2015 17:28 por Thabang Sefalala* and Lucien van der Walt   image 2 images
The ideas of anarchism have often been misunderstood, or sidelined. A proliferation of studies, such as Knowles’ Political Economy from Below, Peirats’ Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution, and others, have aimed to address this problem – and also to show that anarchism can never be limited to an ideology merely to keep professors and students busy in debating societies. Anarchists have been labeled “utopians” or regarded as catalysts of chaos and violence, as at the protests in Seattle, 1999, against the World Trade Organization. However, anarchism has a constructive core and an important history as a mass movement – including in its syndicalist (trade union) form. It rejects the authoritarianism and totalitarianism often associated with Marxist regimes, and seeks to present a living alternative to classical Marxism, social democracy and the current neo-liberal hegemonic order. It rejects both the versions of Marxism that have justified massive repression, and the more cautious versions, like that of Desai in his book Marx’s Revenge, which claim that a prolonged capitalist stage – with all its horrors – remains essential before socialism can be attempted. It rejects the ideas that exploitation and oppression are “historical necessities” for historical progress. read full story / add a comment

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