Abahlali baseMjondolo
Articles by Abahlali baseMjondolo, a South African shack dwellers' movement in Durban with staunch belief in anti-electoral, grassroots confrontational politics.
We are the Third Force - S'bu Zikode
S'bu Zikode's article in response to the attempts of the South African government to attack the shack dwellers' movement.
[b]This article was written by S'bu Zikode in 2005 at a time when the political elite was responding to the emergence of a militant shack dwellers' movement with paranoia and conspiracy theory. The main allegations was that a 'Third Force' (i.e. renegade apartheid security personnel) was 'behind' the movement.
Resisting degradations and divisions: an interview with S'bu Zikode
S’bu Zikode is the elected president of Abahlali baseMjondolo, a radical and radically democratic shackdwellers’ movement in South Africa that has committed itself to waging its struggles independently from party-political and NGO control.[1] This is an excerpt from a longer interview.
Richard Pithouse: What is your understanding of a living politics?
'Be a visitor, not a spy' - QQ Section, Site B, Khayelitsha
.jpg "Khayelitsha Township - Cape Town, SA")
Matt Birkinshaw, a London anarchist, gives an account of his visit to the QQ shack settlement in Cape Town in diary form. QQ has recently joined the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement that began in Durban but now has a national presence.
'Be a visitor, not a spy' - QQ Section, Site B, Khayelitsha
Matt Birkinshaw, October 2008
Introduction
Shack Fire Summit, Kennedy Road settlement, 22 September 2008
A statement by the Poor People's Alliance following the shack fire summit called by Abahlali baseMjondolo
Wednesday, 08 October 2008
Abahlali baseMjondolo (KwaZulu-Natal & Western Cape)
Landless Peoples' Movement (KwaZulu-Natal & Gauteng)
Rural Network (KwaZulu-Natal)
Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign (Western Cape)
South African National Civics Organisations (eThekwini region)
Land and housing - S'bu Zikode
Text of a speech by S'bu Zikode at the Diakonia Council of Churches Economic Justice Forum in Durban on 28 August 2008 addressing the housing situation in Durban, calling for a new kind of grassroots and radically democratic communist project, and ends with a proposal for ten demands around which a united front for a democratic and just city can be built.
Land and Housing
Thursday 28 August, 2008
I have been asked to speak on the burning issues of land and housing. I only get these invitations because of the strength of the movement of which I am part and so, on behalf of Abahlali baseMjondolo, I thank Diakonia for this platform.
Haitian inspiration: On the bicentenary of Haiti’s independence
First published in Radical Philosophy, and hacked by Abahlali baseMjondolo, this short essay explores the power and meaning of the Haitian Revolution for us now.
Two hundred years ago this month (January 2004), the French colony of Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola became the independent nation of Haiti. Few transformations in world history have been more momentous, few required more sacrifice or promised more hope.
Abahlali baseMjondolo statement on the xenophobic attacks in Johannesburg, 2008
In recent days the shack settlements around Johannesburg have been torn apart by appalling violence against foreign born squatters. More than 20 people have been killed and many more raped, wounded and left homeless. This press statement from Abahlali baseMjondolo, the militant shack dwellers movement with more 30 affiliated settlements in the cities of Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Pinetown, responds to the horrific outbreak of anti-foreigner violence and notes the culpability of the state.
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Unyawo Alunampumulo
Abahlali baseMjondolo Statement on the Xenophobic Attacks in Johannesburg
There is only one human race.
Our struggle and every real struggle is to put the human being at the centre of society, starting with the worst off.
South Africa: Gangster landlord continues campaign of intimidation with police support
The poor of Motala Heights, affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo since 2006, are fighting a bitter battle against eviction against a local gangster business man and the local state. There have recently been death threats and threats of arson and the local cops are acting as the gangsters' enforcers.
[i]London anarchist, Antonios Vradis lived in the community for a while in late 2006 from and it was here that the anarchist magazine Voices of Resistance from Occupied London was conceived.
Abahlali baseMjondolo to host National UnFreedom Day
Freedom Day, 27 April, is the major national holiday in the civic religion of post-apartheid South Africa. The poor are usually herded into stadiums to be lectured on their good fortune by their leaders while the rich head for the malls. This year, for the 3rd time, Abahlali baseMjondolo will be hosting an UnFreedom Day. Heresy is alive & well....
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release
Monday 21 April 2008
Abahlali baseMjondolo to Mourn UnFreedom Day Once Again
Time: 9:00 a.m., Sunday 27 April 2008
Venue: Community Hall, Kennedy Road Shack Settlement, Clare Estate, Durban
The Politics of Fire
Abahlali baseMjondolo has long sought to politicise fire & shit: to show that people suffer fires because electricity is refused, to show that people suffer diarrhoea because clean water is refused. This press release responds to the active and of course armed withdrawal of electricity from the Kennedy Road settlement in February 2008.
Friday, 15 February 2008
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release
City Escalates Its War on the Poor
Mass Disconnections from Electricity at Gun Point in the Kennedy Road Settlement
