Neue VeranstaltungshinweiseEs wurden keine neuen Veranstaltungshinweise in der letzten Woche veröffentlicht Kommende VeranstaltungenSouthern Africa | Miscellaneous Keine kommenden Veranstaltungen veröffentlicht Abbie, Billy και κατάλυση του ... 19:02 Mar 11 7 comments Vaccine nationalism and profiteering 18:18 Feb 17 7 comments Choosing between life and Capital in Latin America: Interview with Jeffery R. Webber 23:31 May 20 9 comments Global Health Crisis: They Are at War… Against Us! 01:50 Apr 02 8 comments This is a Global Pandemic – Let’s Treat it as Such 02:29 Apr 01 6 comments mehr >> |
Recent articles by Leroy Maisiri
A Case for Anarchist Class Analysis 0 comments Surviving Zimbabwe: An anarchist critique 0 comments Où en est-on désormais au Zimbabwe? Une perspective anarchiste et synd... 0 comments Recent Articles about Southern Africa MiscellaneousSouth Africa: Historic rupture or warring brothers again? Aug 03 21 Surviving Zimbabwe: An anarchist critique Mar 19 19 Où en est-on désormais au Zimbabwe? Une perspective anarchiste et synd... Apr 16 18 Worker-Student Alliances: Anarchist Approach Needed
southern africa |
miscellaneous |
opinion / analysis
Sunday October 30, 2016 02:39 by Leroy Maisiri - Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) zacf at riseup dot net
First published in “South African Labour Bulletin”, volume 40, number 4, pp. 39-40 Recent worker-student alliances and activities are lacking in an anarchist/syndicalist approach which focuses on ‘people’s power’ and ‘worker control’. Such an approach is important for radical transformation, writes Leroy Maisiri. Worker-Student Alliances: Anarchist Approach Neededby Leroy Maisiri, Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF)First published in “South African Labour Bulletin”, volume 40, number 4, pp. 39-40. After 20 years of neo-liberal democracy, South Africa has not truly begun the much-needed purge of race and class structural inequalities and constraints inherited from apartheid South Africa. Many university campuses across the country, since 2015, have been set alight by the actions of a non-compromising body of students. This political wildfire has moved from campus to campus, for a range of reasons: one thing remains central, that tomorrow’s future is shaped by today’s youth, restlessly tackling the structures and impediments that stand in their way. But what is missing however is a working-class focus and an anarchist/ syndicalist approach, a lesson well-taught by the “people’s power” and “workers’ control” initiatives in radical sector of the 1980s anti-apartheid movement. Bursaries and “decolonisation”Earlier in 2015, before and during academic registrations, the Tshwane University of Technology and Walter Sisulu University faced protests around student funding (Makoni, 2015), as did the University of the Witwatersrand, around problems in the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) (Bolowana & Pillay, 2015). At the University of Cape Town (UCT), by contrast, demands centred on racial justice, framed as “decolonisation,” with controversy around a Cecil John Rhodes statue tied to bigger transformation issues (News24, 2015). These struggles sparked protests and a weeks-long occupation of administration buildings at Rhodes University (Maisiri, 2015). Followed by the “open Stellenbosch” protests raised racism and language issues (Petersen, 2015). And most recently the rape protests.Learning from 1976, 1984But, as shown in the 1976 revolts, where black students led a fight against racism and exclusion, and the narrow opportunities to those from black working class homes (Maponyane, 2014), students have limited power. The 1976 revolt, and the big battles of the 1980s, showed the need to move from separate struggles, into involving the organised working class, to fight against all forms of oppression and a radical transformation of the whole society (The Worker-Tenant, 1984: 29). By “working class”, I mean the term as defined by anarchists: those who, not owning or controlling means of administration, coercion or production, work for those who control such means. This includes workers plus their families including the unemployed.Neo-liberalismIt also requires locating struggles against racial injustice in fights against neo-liberalism, Universities are increasingly turned into another arm of capitalistic accumulation, designed to exploit to take more than they give. Ever-rising fees make lecture theatres fortresses of privatised knowledge, entry being completely dependent on the class into which you are born, the education you can afford. Facilities are staffed by armies of precarious, contract and outsourced workers, struggling to survive and excluded from university education.The major victim of the neo-liberal restructuring of the university is the black working class, both working class students and campus workers. There is a direct capitalist and state attack on the working class, not clearly captured by “decolonisation” discourse. In “Class Rule Must Fall! More Statues, More Working Class” (Maisiri, 2015), I point out that universities play a leading role in the continued existence of class system, producing and reproducing privileged classes. Class struggle and classroomsTherefore, the campus space is an arena where the class system and class question must be confronted. The question then becomes: how?First, student protests must develop a strategy linked to the working class. But this, as in 1976 and 1983, must involve a much more accurate critique of the enemy. In the 1980s, this meant locating the fight against racist education in a fight against the apartheid state and racial-capitalism, including the peripheral Fordist system. This also means understanding the problems cannot be solved by symbolic changes, or changing the composition of elite classes – it requires removing the class system, and a new, libertarian, self-managed socialist order. This analysis must be carried over to the black-led state of the African National Congress (ANC), whose neo-liberal policies, capitalism and elite enrichment. In “Who Rules South Africa” (2013:4), [Lucien] van der Walt argues that the current state is in fact “an obstacle to the full [national and class] emancipation of the working class.” This state is protected by nationalist ideology, which denies the class question and which cannot – as clearly shown in twenty years – solve the social problems. This is quite evident in the way the ruling party pushed back the responsibility of free education back to the universities washing its hands clean of a problem, a problem that is structurally rooted in Neo Liberal policies. Working class names, symbolsRenaming universities after nationalists is problematic, as nationalism has helped take us into the current crisis, and as nationalists have a “pro-capitalist, pro-statist political agenda”, (Maisiri, 2015). Rather this paper argues for a left/working class iconography: in placing the working class at the forefront to forge a new path, and moving off the nationalist dead-end, let us make working class symbols and ideas and struggles central to transformation.ConclusionAgitate for a “workers’ and peoples’ scientific university,” not a capitalist or nationalist one. It is not enough to protest about fees and statues and curricula unless we fight the framework defended by a state that sends black working class police men to kill black miners. We must take from the play book of the 1980’s and organise for a worker student alliance. The universities seem to be taking their ques from old regimes relying on police and interdicts. We must then push back against all forms of oppression, a worker student alliance against outsourcing, privatisation of education and against the bureaucratic hand that stretches all the way back to the shoulders of the state.BIBLIOGRAPHY Bolowana, A & Pillay, G. (21 Jan, 2015). “Wits Students Threaten Protest Action over NFSAS Funds”. SABC News. Maisiri, L. (2015). “Class Rule Must Fall! More Statues, More Working Class”. Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism, number 14. Makoni, M. (12 February 2015). “Students Run Riot at Campuses over Funding”. University World News. Maponyane, B. (2014). “The 1976 Struggle and the Emancipation of the Future”. Tokologo: Newsletter of the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective”, number 4. News24. (19 March 2015). “UCT Students to Protest Over Racial Transformation”. Petersen, T. (27 July 2015). “Students Protest in Stellenbosch over Language”. News24. Worker-Tenant, The. (1984). “Student Struggle in Perspective”. Number 3. Van der Walt, L. (2013). “Who Rules South Africa? An Anarchist/Syndicalist Analysis of the ANC, the Post-Apartheid Elite Pact and the Political Implications”. Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism, number 13. |
HauptseiteSupport Sudanese anarchists in exile Joint Statement of European Anarchist Organizations International anarchist call for solidarity: Earthquake in Turkey, Syria and Kurdistan Elements of Anarchist Theory and Strategy 19 de Julio: Cuando el pueblo se levanta, escribe la historia International anarchist solidarity against Turkish state repression Declaración Anarquista Internacional por el Primero de Mayo, 2022 Le vieux monde opprime les femmes et les minorités de genre. Leur force le détruira ! Against Militarism and War: For self-organised struggle and social revolution Declaração anarquista internacional sobre a pandemia da Covid-19 Anarchist Theory and History in Global Perspective Capitalism, Anti-Capitalism and Popular Organisation [Booklet] Reflexiones sobre la situación de Afganistán South Africa: Historic rupture or warring brothers again? Death or Renewal: Is the Climate Crisis the Final Crisis? Gleichheit und Freiheit stehen nicht zur Debatte! Contre la guerre au Kurdistan irakien, contre la traîtrise du PDK Meurtre de Clément Méric : l’enjeu politique du procès en appel Southern Africa | Miscellaneous | en Wed 04 Dec, 17:57 Anarchism, Ethnicity and the Battle of the ANC Clones 16:18 Tue 28 Oct 0 comments Once again we, the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF), have to defend our political tradition from bourgeois politicians, this time on both sides of the ANC split, and explain to them what exactly is meant by a term that they throw about without actually knowing its meaning. Real Human Freedom Not Fake Human Rights 03:46 Fri 21 Mar 0 comments South Africa is said to have one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. It enshrines the rights of every person, of every background, from workers and immigrants to women and homosexuals. As such you would think that, especially for people from oppressed groups, South Africa would be a safe haven. Surviving Zimbabwe: An anarchist critique Mar 19 0 comments This article, with the guidance of anarchism as a theory, provides a critical analysis of Zimbabwe and its current state, arguing against simple analysis and going beyond individual politics. The real, underlying problem is a society governed by a class system under the control of a predatory state that cannot survive a day without the exploitation of its people. It is essential to organize and educate the masses for a revolution they can claim as their own, against all forms of oppression and that builds on everyday struggles to improve the deplorable conditions of Zimbabwe. Alternatives from the Ground Up Mar 17 0 comments 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. Where to now Zimbabwe? An anarchist / syndicalist perspective after the dust has settled Mar 08 0 comments It’s been around 100 days since the birth of a “new” Zimbabwe: 37 years of authoritarian rule by Robert Mugabe ended when Emmerson Mnangagwa took power through a soft military coup . But what has changed, what we can we expect now? This paper argues that no deep changes are taking place. The slight liberalizing of political life and some promises of economic reform (good and bad) do matter. But the changes in the White House of Zimbabwe centre on removing one vicious state capitalist manager to make way for another, and will not bring liberation for the masses. This replacement does not address the problems Zimbabwe faces: a ruthless ruling class, a predatory state, crisis-ridden capitalism and imperialism. The problem is not individuals: the system is the problem. This paper argues against Mugabe and Mnangagwa, but also against the state as a form of social organization and against the idea that states can be used for liberating the people. All states oppress the working class, peasantry and poor, and the state in Zimbabwe is just an extreme example of how states are based on repression, corruption and promoting the interests of economic and political elites (the ruling class). It rejects the notion that Mugabe was a champion of the poor and landless, and the claim that his ousting was a defeat for progressive forces. But it has no illusions in Mnangagwa. True, real freedom will never come through parliament, or military take- overs, or old men who take turns to spout out neo-liberal or ultra-nationalist rhetoric, while their hands are covered in blood. It can only come from mass action and organising, the transformative engine to build real democratic, stateless socialism based on self-management, freedom political tolerance and common property (anarchism). Out with the old, in with the not so new Feb 19 0 comments The article looks at the structural reasons why Ramaphosa replacing Zuma as the head of state in South Africa won't end corruption. The Way Forward for South Africa Nov 07 0 comments South Africa is in a mess. That is clear, more than 20 years since the end of apartheid. We have won many things. It was our struggle that beat apartheid laws and the old government. But we are not free yet. Corruption, poverty, job losses, hatred, violence, the apartheid legacy are all part of the mess. Anarchism, Ethnicity and the Battle of the ANC Clones Oct 28 Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front 0 comments Once again we, the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF), have to defend our political tradition from bourgeois politicians, this time on both sides of the ANC split, and explain to them what exactly is meant by a term that they throw about without actually knowing its meaning. Real Human Freedom Not Fake Human Rights Mar 21 0 comments South Africa is said to have one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. It enshrines the rights of every person, of every background, from workers and immigrants to women and homosexuals. As such you would think that, especially for people from oppressed groups, South Africa would be a safe haven. |