Red & Black Forum: Does the Vote Bring Democracy?

southern africa | education | anarchist communist event Wednesday February 04, 2009 19:08 by Jon - ZACF zacf at zabalaza dot net

The ZACF will be facilitating a Red & Black Forum (anarchist communist educational workshop) with the theme "Does the Vote Bring Democracy?" this Saturday in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg. The RBF will be hosted by the Anti-Privatisation Forum affiliated Orange Farm Electricity and Water Crisis Committee.

The RBF is intended to be an outcomes-based interactive workshop whereby we will facilitate the interrogation of ideas by posing questions such as:

* What are people's understandings of democracy, both pre- and post-1994?
* What do people understand by political parties and their role?
* What is the structure of political parties, and why do they resemble the class pyramidal structure?
* Where do people locate themselves and various political leaders on the class pyramid?
* What are the functions of the different classes?
* If voting replicates the top-down organisational models of political parties and capital, what alternative models of organising can be used to bring about real democracy and equality?