Abahlali baseMjondolo
Articles by Abahlali baseMjondolo, a South African shack dwellers' movement in Durban with staunch belief in anti-electoral, grassroots confrontational politics.
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release for the March on Mlaba, 28 September 2007
Press release of Abahlali baseMjondolo in the run up to a march on the mayor of Durban to protest his refusal to supply electricity to the shack dwellers' settlements.
[b]On 28 September 2007 around 3 000 Abahlali baseMjondolo members marched on the mayor of Durban, Obed Mlaba. In previous Abahlali baseMjondolo marches mock coffins were carried and local councillors symbolically buried as a rejection of their top down party authority over bottom up people's power.
Civil society, citizenship and the politics of the (im)possible: rethinking militancy in Africa today
A major and widely influential new theoretical statement on the rising tide of anti-state politics by a major radical African intellectual.
by Michael Neocosmos
Abstract
Taking Poverty Seriously: What the poor are saying and why it matters
Article based on interviews with South African shack dwellers about their views of what constitutes 'democracy', stressing the need for those in struggle to set their own agenda rather than have it set by professional activists.
A commitment to justice and democratic governance requires that we listen carefully as much as we speak loudly and act decisively.
The University of Abahlali baseMjondolo
This is a longer version of an article by Richard Pithouse first published in Voices of Resistance from Occupied London in October 2007. It gives a useful basic overview of Abahlali baseMjondolo from its founding in early 2005 to late 2007.
Since 2004 South African cities have been convulsed by a series of municipal revolts organised from shack settlements. They have most often taken the form of blockading roads with burning barricades and have generally targeted municipal party councillors. Across the country many of the more militant settlements have refused electoral politics and declared 'No Land, No House, No Vote'.
Neither the march nor the money are ours
Abahlali baseMjondolo press release in response to media confusion between Abahlali and the World Bank sponsored NGO Slum Dwellers International (SDI), critiquing mainstream development discourse. A press release from SDI is also provided.
[b]Slum Dwellers International (SDI) is a global NGO strongly supported by the World Bank, USAid and the Gates Foundation. In South Africa the state, which is highly repressive to shack dwellers and their organisations, has a formal partnership with SDI.
All charges dropped against Kennedy 6
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Six activists from the Abahlali baseMjondolo in court on murder charges have been released with all charges dropped.
Abahlali baseMjondolo began in the 7000 strong Kennedy Road shack settlement and it is here were the state has concentrated repression. One year and one week ago six key activists in the settlement were arrested on a trumped up murder charge (the same tactic was used against the Landless People's Movement in Johannesburg the year before).
When choices can no longer be choices - S'bu Zikode
S'bu Zikode wrote this article in early 2007 when he was finally forced out of his job at a petrol station as punishment for his political activities with Abahlali baseMjondolo. As of March 2008 he remains unemployed.
When Choices Can No Longer Be Choices
by S'bu Zikode
The 'No Land, No House, No Vote' campaign still on for 2009
Article restating Abahlali baseMjondolo's anti-statist, anti-electoral politics seen as more or less treasonable by the state and 'ignorant' by the NGO left, some of whom suggested that Abahlali militants should be given 'voter education' so that they could be taught to 'understand democracy'.
The No Land, No House, No Vote Campaign Still on for 2009
by M'du Hlongwa
From party politics to service delivery to the politics of the poor
Philani Zungu's article arguing against the lip-service of politicians of 'service delivery' to South Africa's poor.
I hope that one day it will be realised by our government officials how much betrayal they have served to the floors on which they stand and where they belong. It is very sad that our politicians forget that their power started with people like us, people like the red shirts.
We are the restless majority - S'bu Zikode
S'bu Zikode's article after Abahlali baseMjondolo's successful anti-electoral campaign in 2006.
[i]This article by S'bu Zikode appeared in Durban's elite bourgeois newspaper, the Mercury, in July 2006. After Abahlali baseMjondolo put twenty thousand people on the streets in support of a boycott of the February 2006 local government elections in the face of major militarised state intimidation the middle classes began to concede some space to the voices of the militant poor.
