Housing resistance and transformation: From direct action to direct democracy
Submitted by Eviction Free Zone on Dec 18 2012 06:03
A look at why direct action can be the foundation of transforming housing in eviction defense, foreclosure resistance, and housing liberation.
If there is one thing that has marked the libertarian tradition, at least in the classical sense, it has been the focus on transformative organizing. This may simply appear as rhetoric to some people, and in many cases it is.
There is no housing shortage
Submitted by Joseph Kay on Dec 5 2012 09:51
The Guardian today reports a rise in homelessness. This is a predictable (and predicted) consequence of benefits cuts, but it has nothing to do with a shortage of homes.
The 'housing shortage' has become something of a received wisdom amongst the political mainstream. From the right, we get the endless moans from property developers about 'bureaucratic planning red tape'. From the left, the nostalgic call for a new wave of council housing.
Homelessness in an age of austerity
An edition of the Novara radio show in discussion with Kit Withnail who is Irish, a Catholic, a Marxist, and an antihumanist.
Novara - a weekly show on Resonance FM discussing political theory, practice and aesthetics. Discussions and interventions will be with workers, theorists, students and activists. Hosted by Aaron Peters.
Repression of day-laborer organizing in Tokyo
Submitted by mdb on May 31 2012 06:45
A day-laborer organizer in Tokyo has been held in solitary confinement, for almost four months, by police for a broken window.
(this article is an updated and expanded version of a communique from NoVox released in late April, which can be seen at http://www.no-vox.org/spip.php?article286&lang=fr.)
Hidden victims of austerity
Submitted by working class s... on Dec 31 2011 01:59
2011 has seen a massive increase in people registered as homeless and people sleeping rough. However, the governments housing minister Grant Schapps claims that 'homelessness' is at a historic low.
The last year has seen workers taking pay cuts, pay freezes, and redundancies. To make matters worse, they are paying more for their food, petrol, utility bills, and for public transport. Many workers have seen a ‘real terms’ pay cut.
A World of Possibilities at 45 Westpoint
Homeless Families and their friends provide a glimpse of what a really good Left could look like, argues James Tracy.
Symbol of Hope Silenced
Submitted by red jack on Dec 23 2009 16:43
English student Sarah Cooper-Knock responds to the attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo by a state backed ethnic militia.
by Sarah Cooper-Knock
In the wake of the violent attacks on Kennedy Road in September, Abahlali baseMjondolo has once more been carried into the media spotlight by a whirlwind of vitriolic criticism and impassioned defence.
A Short History of Shacks & Shack Dweller's Struggles in Durban
Submitted by red jack on Dec 18 2009 16:13
A short overview of the history of shacks and shack dwellers struggles in Durban with a focus on enclosure, insurgent commoning, and the politics of space.
Commons, Enclosure and Popular Insurgency in Durban, South Africa
by Richard Pithouse
[I]f their cause be so good, why will they not suffer us to speak and let reason and equity, the foundation of righteous laws, judge them and us?
- Gerrard Winstanley
The Founding of Durban
Crisis in California - everything touched by capital turns toxic
California dreaming turns to California nightmare as decades of agribusiness, real estate development and exploitation of migrant workers take their toxic toll. Gifford Hartman takes us on a guided tour of the Golden State's darkside.
I should be very much pleased if you could find me something good (meaty) on economic conditions in California [...]. California is very important for me because nowhere else has the upheaval most shamelessly caused by capitalist centralization taken place with such speed.
- Letter from Karl Marx to Friedrich Sorge, 1880
AbM: Pemary Ridge Thirteen Released, Kennedy Thirteen Still in Detention
As the new wave of state repression against Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) continues the Pemary Ridge Thirteen have been released but the Kennedy Road Thirteen remain in the notorious Westville prison. Bishop Rubin Phillip, who was Steve Biko's Deputy in the South African Student's Organisation in 1969, has called for their immediate release.
Grave Concerns about the Detention without Trial of the Kennedy Thirteen:
This Travesty Must End
18 November 2009
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