Poverty Criminalized in “Shackland” South Africa

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford 21 Jan 2019 Twenty-five years after the end of apartheid, 5.2 million South Africans live in urban shack settlements that are unfit for human habitation, said anthropologist Kerry Chance, author of the new book “Living Politics in South Africa’s Shacklands.” The South African government, under “the…

The Homemade Politics of Abahlali baseMjondolo, South Africa’s Shack Dweller Movement.

Tricontinental An isolated individual may obstinately refuse to understand a problem, but the group or the village understands with disconcerting rapidity. It is true that if care is taken to use only a language that is understood by graduates in law and economics, you can easily prove that the masses have to be managed from…

Abahlali baseMjondolo March Against State Repression, Threats and Assassinations

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement Today, Abahlali baseMjondolo march against repression in Durban. Solidarity protests are also taking place in Cape Town, Johannesburg and New York. Since our movement was founded in 2005 we have faced waves of repression including assault, arrest, torture in police custody, organised campaigns of slander, the destruction of our homes, death…

Abahlali baseMjondolo: Fanonian Practices and the Politics of Space in Postapartheid South Africa

The Challenge of the Shack Dwellers Movement (Abahlali baseMjondolo) “It is one thing if we are beneficiaries who need delivery. It is another thing if we are citizens who want to shape the future of our cities, even our country. It is another thing if we are human beings who have decided that it is…

Decolonizing the Commune

Abahlali baseMjondolo: Fanonian Practices and the Politics of Space in Postapartheid South Africa Abahlali baseMjondolo in South Africa has sought to structure itself as a confederation of self-managed and democratically organized communities in struggle. By Richard Pithouse Abahlali baseMjondolo is a movement largely based in shantytowns built on land occupations in and around the South…