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southern africa / the left / opinion / analysis Sunday September 08, 2019 06:04 by Jonathan Payn
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The first part of this series stated that, despite various well-intentioned efforts by forces on the extra-Alliance and independent left over recent years to unite working class struggles in South Africa, these largely have and will continue to fail to resonate with the working class, help build unity in struggle and form the basis of a new movement because of the theoretical understandings of class and power – and their strategic implications – on which they are founded and which are prevalent on much of the left.
This article will give a basic overview of these theoretical understandings of class and power and their strategic implications and limitations and why it is therefore necessary to refine and develop understandings of class and power more capable of responding to the context of the neoliberal restructuring of the working class in order to advance the class struggle in pursuit of socialism.
[Part 1] read full story / add a comment 
southern africa / the left / opinion / analysis Tuesday June 25, 2019 22:09 by Jonathan Payn
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Twenty-five years into democracy the black working class majority in South Africa has not experienced any meaningful improvements in its conditions. The apartheid legacy of unequal education, healthcare and housing and the super-exploitation of black workers continues under the ANC and is perpetuated by the neoliberal policies it has imposed.
The only force capable of changing this situation is the working class locally and internationally. Yet to do so, struggles need to come together, new forms of organisation appropriate to the context are needed; and they need both to be infused with a revolutionary progressive politics and to learn from the mistakes of the past.
Outside the ANC alliance, there have indeed been many efforts to unite struggles – but these have largely failed to resonate with the working class in struggle and form the basis of a new movement. Nowhere is this more evident than with the newly-formed Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP) – which got less than 25 000 votes in the national elections, despite the fact that the union that conceived it, Numsa, claims nearly 400 000 members.
[Part 2] read full story / add a comment 
southern africa / the left / opinion / analysis Wednesday December 13, 2017 18:12 by Jonathan Payn
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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 
greece / turkey / cyprus / the left / opinion / analysis Wednesday May 06, 2015 22:26 by Joost Jongerden
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In 2005, the Partiya Karkêren Kurdistani (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) (PKK) announced that it considered the nation-state a hindrance on the road to freedom, and that its strategic objective was not the establishment of a state but of an interlinked network of councils as the basis of self-determination and a new way of living together. The objective of this article is to discuss and explain the PKK’s understanding of politics as it evolved in the 2000s by looking at two concepts: ‘democratic autonomy’ and ‘democratic confederalism.’ This article will put these concepts in a historical and comparative perspective, and contextualise them in wider discussions in political and social sciences. The question central to this contribution is how these concepts make sense in the context of political theory, and how they have the potential to address fundamental shortcomings in modern democracy. Data has been collected by the study of primary sources and interviews. read full story / add a comment 
southern africa / the left / opinion / analysis Wednesday September 03, 2014 17:26 by Jonathan Payn
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The resolution adopted by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) to form a ‘United Front against neoliberalism’ – as well as its decision not to endorse the ANC in the elections – represents an interesting development in the political landscape, one which activists should look at carefully and engage. Due to the language used by the media, the Left, NUMSA’s critics and even NUMSA itself much confusion surrounds the debate – leaving many questions: Is the ‘United Front’ an organisation or attempt to build a new labour federation or political party? Is it an attempt to revive the 1980s United Democratic Front (UDF)? Why NUMSA’s sudden interest in community struggles? This series, of which this article is the first, aims to clarify these and other questions by looking at the proposal and history of united fronts locally and internationally to clarify key issues and draw lessons that activists can use when engaging the pros and cons of NUMSA’s United Front proposal and if and how they think it should be developed. First published in issue 86 of Workers World News • Part 2: Anti-militarist United Fronts and Italy’s “Red week”, 1914 • Part 3: The 1917 Russian Revolution and United Front • Part 4: United Working Class Action and the Workers’ Council Movement in Germany, 1920-1923 read full story / add a comment 
southern africa / the left / feature Wednesday May 07, 2014 21:28 by Shawn Hattingh & Jonathan Payn
 2 comments (last - tuesday may 13, 2014 21:37) 1 image
There has been much hype, amongst the media and sections of the public, in the run up to this year’s provincial and national elections in South Africa and, for some, the arrival of new parties to the electoral arena has renewed their faith in the possibility of an electoral solution to the myriad of problems facing South Africa. Politicians from across all parties have been using this hype and a seemingly renewed faith in the ballot box to their advantage.
The question, therefore, is: can equality, socialism, national liberation or ‘economic freedom’ – or even a respite from state violence – for a majority be brought about through parties and activists entering into the state or through voting for parties that promise not to use the state for violent or oppressive means; or will this only lead to a dead-end for the working class yet again?
read full story / add a comment 
international / the left / opinion / analysis Tuesday February 12, 2013 04:07 by Jonathan Payn
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From 25th to 27th January 2013, ELAOPA returned to the city of its birth to commemorate ten years of the difficult but necessary journey to building people’s power in Latin America. It seeks to “maintain its independence in the face of political parties, the state and its governments, NGOs, companies and all those that, with authoritarian structures distant from our realities, come to tell us what we have to do.” read full story / add a comment 
asia del sur / la izquierda / non-anarchist press Monday July 09, 2012 08:49 by Jon E. Illescas Martínez
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“La política es una guerra sin efusión de sangre, y la guerra, una política con efusión de sangre”. Mao Zedong Si ya es difícil que los medios de (des)información masivos nos hablen de revoluciones cuando no son del color de las naranjas, más complicado es que lo hagan de una que desprende un rojo tan intenso como la nepalí. Situada entre dos de las principales potencias mundiales, India y China, la revolución de este país de 30 millones de habitantes continúa dieciséis años después de que la insurgencia maoísta declarara la guerra a la monarquía en 1996. La revolución prosigue su camino, pero cada vez más como un rompecabezas que no cesa de fragmentarse. Hagamos un poco de memoria... read full story / add a comment
central asia / the left / non-anarchist press Tuesday June 19, 2012 23:35 by Alex de Jong
After ten years of Maoist insurgency and a coup d'état by the king in 2005, the Nepali people took to the streets in April 2006, forcing the king to hand power back to the parliament. It was the end of the only Hindu kingdom in the world but only a new step in the country's continuing political crisis. The Maoist party, the UCPN(M) has entered into a crisis itself and a split has become inevitable. read full story / add a comment 
southern africa / the left / opinion / analysis Tuesday December 27, 2011 14:32 by Jonathan Payn
1 comment (last - monday january 02, 2012 18:03) 1 image
Failures of democracy have been a big part of the history of the DLF. We in the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) have had to raise such challenges several times (see “DLF structure: concerns and proposals” by ZACF). We have long been troubled by the lack of proper democratic structures, by a leadership that consists far more of middle-class intellectuals than of grassroots militants, and by a programme that seems to be determined in advance by the academic and NGO interests of these intellectuals instead of by the immediate needs of the workers and the poor. read full story / add a comment 
southern africa / the left / anarchist communist event Monday August 03, 2009 20:24 by Jon
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The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front will have a stand at the Jozi Book Fair, to take place this Saturday and Sunday at Museum Africa, Newtown, Johannesburg.
The Book Fair is part of the Khanya College Annual Winter School.
Note this is not a specific anarchist event. read full story / add a comment
southern africa / the left / opinion / analysis Monday December 01, 2008 15:52 by Jonathan P & James Pendlebury
This article argues that active abstention is the only strategic and tactical approach to the 2009 South African elections which is consistent with revolutionary anti-capitalist politics. It was written for a forthcoming issue of Khanya: A Journal for Activists, which will present a range of different approaches that social movements may take in response to the 2009 elections. read full story / add a comment
southern africa / the left / anarchist communist event Friday February 01, 2008 16:46 by Jonathan
3 comments (last - saturday february 09, 2008 00:00)
On Saturday, 16th February 2008 members of the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) will be hosting a workshop on anarchist communism, and its relevance today as a way forward for working class struggles in South Africa and beyond. read full story / add a comment
southern africa / the left / press release Wednesday June 27, 2007 18:10 by Jonathan Payn
3 comments (last - tuesday february 19, 2008 11:15)
Right-wingers in the South African town of Potchefstroom removed street-signs with the names of liberation figures and replaced them with those of Boer leaders. But the Potch City Council attributed the actions to "racist anarchists". read full story / add a comment |
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