homelessness
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles among the unemployed, unpaid workers and house workers, pensioners and welfare claimants.
Reflections on work, legal aid and the welfare state
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A legal aid worker's analysis of legal aid, and its role in preserving social peace in capitalist society.
Introduction
The politics of protest - Red and Black Notes
Red and Black Notes analysis on OCAP and Canadian unions against the Tory government.
When Conservative Premier Mike Harris was elected in 1995, trade unions and their supporters chanted "Hey Mike, Hey Mike, What do you think of a General Strike?" Harris wryly commented that there was no need for a general strike. He knew what the unions could do, but more importantly he knew what they would do. Nothing.
Anti-poverty in Ontario - Red and Black Notes
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is one of the best known anti-poverty organizations in Ontario. It has acquired a reputation for militant direct action tactics on such issues as affordable housing, welfare, homelessness, and immigrant and refugee rights. In a political climate where powerful politicians and vested interests wish the poor would just quietly die, OCAP has proven to be a vocal critic.
In 1989 three Ontario cities, Windsor, Ottawa and Sudbury, held marches against poverty which converged in Toronto. After the marches it was decided to create a provincial body in order to try and raise the issue of poverty in the face of indifference from politicians. OCAP was the result. While OCAP does have organisational affiliates across the province, the group is based in Toronto.
California homeless hold demonstration to demand accomodations
On July 2, 2009, hundreds of homeless Californians marched on the Sacramento Town Hall to demand "safe ground".
It has been about three months since city officials shut down a large "tent city" occupied by Sacramento's homeless people.
Now, some of the tent city's residents say they feel like refugees, with no place to go. They staged a loud demonstration Wednesday, in hopes of pressuring Sacramento officials to find them a new place to camp.
'Where Am I Supposed To Live?'
Abahlali baseMjondolo: ‘a homemade politics’
Matt Birkinshaw, an anarchist from London, spent three months living in Abahlali baseMjondolo communities in Durban and Cape Town in 2008. This paper, prepared for a conference in Manchester, gives a brief but useful overview of the movement.
Abahlali baseMjondolo: ‘a homemade politics’
Rights, democracy and social movements in South Africa
Matt Birkinshaw – Alternative Futures and Popular Protest, Manchester Metropolitan University, 15-17 March 2009
Abstract
Zabalaza, Unfinished Struggles against Apartheid: The Shackdwellers’ Movement in Durban
This article by Nigel Gibson gives an overview of the emergence of Abahlali baseMjondolo in 2005. Much has changed since then - the movement has grown enormously and the early ambivalence about the ANC on the part of some militants was decisively broken in 2006 - but this is a classic account of the early days of the movement.
By Nigel C. Gibson in Socialism and Democracy
Talk to us … not about us.
-- Abahlali T Shirt
If as a theoretician, one’s ears are attuned to new impulses from the workers, new “categories” will be created, a new way of thinking, a step forward in philosophic cognition.
-- Raya Dunayevskaya, Marxism and Freedom
“We are on our own”: The Birth of a New Movement
Martin Legassick on the Macassar Village Land Occupation in Cape Town
The Macassar Village Land Occupation, organised by Abahlali baseMjondolo, has rocked Cape Town. In a context where all political parties support the criminalisation of land invasions and the violent 'eradication' of shacks Martin Legassick has publicly defended the invasion.
Macassar: if the state can't provide, people must be allowed to build themselves
Too few houses, too many people to house
May 26, 2009
Martin Legassick
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?
Open Letter to US Activists Battling Evictions from the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign in South Africa
The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, the oldest and perhaps the most militant of the radical movements that developed after apartheid, has written an open letter to communities battling evictions in the US in the wake of the financial crisis.
April 7, 2009
The Nation
An Open Letter from the Western Cape Anti-Eviction in South Africa to US Activists
To: All poor Americans and their communities in resistance
