Este artigo examina a história inicial do anarquismo e do sindicalismo revolucionário na África do Sul, uma sociedade colonial que se industrializou no final do século XIX, e nos arredores da região sul-africana. A África do Sul era caracterizada, nessa época, por um movimento sindical militante, mas que era dividido nacional e racialmente, e pela opressão nacional das pessoas de cor, que constituíam a maioria da população. Em oposição à opressão nacional e à segregação, mas também assumindo uma posição crítica ao nacionalismo africano e de cor, os anarquistas e os sindicalistas revolucionários desenvolveram uma análise da opressão nacional cada vez mais sofisticada, recrutaram e treinaram um quadro multirracial, formaram sindicatos gerais pioneiros e revolucionários contra as pessoas de cor e continuaram a influenciar o trabalho regional, branco e negro, e a esquerda, em geral, após a formação do Partido Comunista da África do Sul (South African Communist Party – CPSA) em 1921.
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This article outlines the core features of the anarchist/ syndicalist vision, strategy and relevance to contemporary struggles. While of general interest, it is also directed to South African militants on the left, as part of the larger debate on the future of the left project. read full story / add a comment

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, the Wobblies) was the main influence on the radical left in South Africa in the early twentieth century. But who were the South African Wobblies? This article looks at three key figures. From Industrial Worker, May 2011, no. 1735. read full story / add a comment

The biggest single strike since the 1994 parliamentary transition in South Africa showed the unions’ power. It won some wage gains, but it threw away some precious opportunities. We need to celebrate the strike, while learning some lessons: • the need for more union democracy
• the need to use strikes to link workers and communities
• the need for working class autonomy
• the need to act outside and against the state
• the need to review our positions: against the Tripartite Alliance, for anarcho-syndicalism read full story / add a comment

Όταν γιορτάζουμε την Πρωτομαγιά σπάνιες φορές γνωρίζουμε ή καταλαβαίνουμε γιατί η μέρα αυτή είναι αργία στη Νότια Αφρική και σε πολλά μέρη του κόσμου. Οι Sian Byrne, Warren McGregor και Lucien van der Walt διηγούνται την ιστορία των δυναμικών αγώνων που βρίσκονται πίσω από την Πρωτομαγιά και των οργανώσεων που δημιούργησαν αλλά διατήρησαν τη σημασία της ζωντανή. read full story / add a comment

When we celebrate May Day we seldom know or reflect on why it is a holiday in South Africa and in many parts of the world. Sian Byrne, Warren McGregor and Lucien van der Walt tell the story of powerful struggles that lie behind its existence and of the organisations that both created it and kept its meaning alive. First published in the South African Labour Bulletin (SALB) Vol 35 Number 1 Mar/Apr 2011 read full story / add a comment

Questo articolo risponde alle critiche rivolte alla grande tradizione anarchica contenute in "International Socialism", un giornale della International Socialist Tendency (IST). Mi soffermerò su temi quali l'uso delle fonti, la difesa della rivoluzione e della libertà, gli anarchici spagnoli, l'anarchismo e la democrazia, il ruolo storico del marxismo, la rivoluzione russa. [English] read full story / add a comment

This article responds to criticisms of the broad anarchist tradition in International Socialism, an International Socialist Tendency (IST) journal. I will discuss topics such as the use of sources, defending revolutions and freedom, the Spanish anarchists, anarchism and democracy, the historical role of Marxism, and the Russian Revolution. [Italiano] read full story / add a comment

I sindacati sud-africani, confederati nel COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions), forte di 2 milioni di iscritti, hanno messo a punto una visione politica coerente che rompe con il neoliberismo. Il fatto è notevole - ma è sufficiente? Quanto vitale e desiderabile è questa visione proprio mentre l'era neoliberista barcolla? E c'è un'alternativa? [English] read full story / add a comment

South African unions, centred on the 2 million-strong Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), have consistently articulated a policy vision that breaks with crude neo-liberalism. This is remarkable – but is it enough? Just how viable and desirable is this vision, particularly as the neo-liberal era lurches into a serious slump? And is there an alternative? [Italiano] read full story / add a comment

Narratives of anarchist and syndicalist history during the era of the first globalization and imperialism (1870-1930) have overwhelmingly been constructed around a Western European tradition centered on discrete national cases. This parochial perspective typically ignores transnational connections and the contemporaneous existence of large and influential libertarian movements in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Yet anarchism and syndicalism, from their very inception at the First International, were conceived and developed as international movements. By focusing on the neglected cases of the colonial and postcolonial world, this volume underscores the worldwide dimension of these movements and their centrality in anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles. Drawing on in-depth historical analyses of the ideology, structure, and praxis of anarchism/syndicalism, it also provides fresh perspectives and lessons for those interested in understanding their resurgence today. 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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Rio launch of "Black Flame: the revolutionary class politics of anarchism and syndicalism", by South African writers, Lucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt [Português] read full story / add a comment

Rediscutindo o anarquismo e o sindicalism, com palestra com Lucien van der Walt
Rio de Janiero - Sábado, dia 06/11 às 14h.
Onde: Centro de Cultura Social: Rua Torres Homem 790, Vila Isabel, Telefone: 2520-7101. [English] read full story / add a comment

Αναδημοσιεύεται από την αναρχική εφημερίδα "Νυκτεγερσία". Μετάφραση Δημήτρης Κωνσταντίνου. read full story / add a comment

Nel 2009 è uscito il primo dei due volumi del lavoro monumentale "Black Flame: the revolutionary class politics of anarchism and syndicalism" di Lucien van der Walt e Michael Schmidt (militanti comunisti anarchici sudafricani). Qui sotto una pedagogica polemica tra Lucien van del Walt e Spencer Sunshine, recensore del loro libro sulla rivista americana "Anarchist Studies". [English] read full story / add a comment

Η ισπανική επανάσταση ξεκίνησε ως επακόλουθο ενός αποτυχημένου ισπανικού πραξικοπήματος από τον Στρατηγό Φράνκο στις 18 Ιουλίου του 1936. Το πραξικόπημα υποστηρίχθηκε από συντηρητικές μερίδες του μεγάλου κεφαλαίου και της Εκκλησίας, και απέτυχε στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος της Ισπανίας καθώς αντιμετώπισε την ένοπλη αντίσταση των εργαζόμενων και των αγροτών, που οργανώθηκαν κύρια από το μεγάλο αναρχοσυνδικαλιστικό σωματείο, της Εθνικής Ομοσπονδίας Εργασίας (CNT), read full story / add a comment

Anarchist Studies , which describes itself as "an inter-disciplinary journal of scholarly research into the history, culture and theory of anarchism", recently carried a critical review of Lucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt's Black Flame: the revolutionary class politics of anarchism and syndicalism by Spencer Sunshine. The authors were permitted to write a reply, which addressed some of the issues raised by Sunshine. [Italiano] read full story / add a comment

July 19 marks the anniversary of the start of the Spanish Revolution (136-1939), one of the most profound popular struggles of the twentieth century - and arguably the greatest of the anarchist revolutions. read full story / add a comment

The Black Flame blog has just been updated. The blog collates news, views and reviews of Lucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt's book, Black Flame: the revolutionary class politics of anarchism and syndicalism' .

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