Articles by SA Anarchists

Bourgeois Nationalists are Destabilising the Working Class in South Africa by Jonathan Payn (ZACF)

Anarchism is an idea that stands for the reorganisation of society and the economy in order to meet peoples’ needs and not for profit, according to the principle, ‘from each according to ability to each according to need’. It stands for a world in which there are no longer bosses and workers, masters and slaves; a world in which everyone is a free worker, and exploitation and oppression have been abolished…

Article first published in Zabalaza News, issue 4. Dated October 2011. Download the PDF of that issue here

Zabalaza: A Voice for Organised Anarchism in South Africa by Jonathan Payn (ZACF)

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front, or ZACF – Zabalaza meaning ‘struggle’ in isiZulu and isiXhosa – is a specific anarchist political organisation based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is a unitary organisation – or federation of individuals, as opposed to a federation of collectives – whereby membership is on an individual basis, by invitation only. This is because we have seen – through our own experience, as well as that of global anarchism historically – that we can accomplish more as an organisation, and be more effective, when our members share a certain level of theoretical and strategic unity, and collective responsibility.

Article published in the CNT periodical. Dated 6 November, 2011. Download the PDF of that issue here

Cleaning out super-exploitation by James Pendlebury (ZACF)

How can the most harshly exploited workers fight back against the bosses?

Cleaning workers throughout South Africa have been on strike since Monday 8 August. They are demanding a living wage of R4 200 per month, as well as a 13^th cheque and shorter hours.

Many of these workers are now paid R2 000 per month or even less, and work under the harshest conditions. The vast majority are black, and a great many are women; their supervisors are often racist and sexist bullies of the worst kind. They are frequently compelled to use dangerous chemicals, without even the protection of gloves; these chemicals can make them sick, and some have died as a result.

Dated 14 September, 2011

Anarchist Economics (a Brief Introduction) by Warren McGregor (ZACF)

Comrades, this presentation covers the themes of global redistribution, economic growth of a new type, and renumeration and what these may mean in an economy based on anarchist principles. I was mandated to examine how these themes related to the two required readings for this week:

(i) Read’s Kropotkin: Selections from his Works, and
(ii) Albert’s Parecon

First published on Anarkismo.net. Dated 05 September, 2011

All GEARed Up for a New Growth Path – On the Road to Nowhere by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)

It has become common knowledge that South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. Only 41% of people of working age are employed, while half of the people employed earn less than R 2 500 a month. Worse still, inequality is growing with wages as a share of the national income dropping from 50% in 1994 to 45% in 2009; while profit as a share of national income has soared from 40% to 45%. In real terms this means that while a minority live well – and have luxurious houses, swimming pools, businesses, investments, and cushy positions in the state – the majority of people live in shacks or tiny breezeblock dwellings, are surrounded by squalor, and struggle on a daily basis to acquire the basics of life like food and water. Likewise, while bosses, state managers, and politicians – both black and white – get to strut around in fancy suits barking orders; the majority of people are expected to bow down, do as told, and swallow their pride…

First published online on this site. Dated 13 July, 2011

Why May Day Matters: History with Anarchist Roots

When we celebrate May Day we seldom know or reflect on why it is a holiday in South Africa and in many parts of the world. Sian Byrne, Warren McGregor and Lucien van der Walt tell the story of powerful struggles that lie behind its existence and of the organisations that both created it and kept its meaning alive.

Faced with neo-liberal globalisation, the broad working class movement is being forced to globalise-from-below. Working class internationalism is nothing new; we need to learn from the past.

First published in the South African Labour Bulletin (SALB) Vol 35 Number 1 Mar/Apr 2011. Dated 25 April, 2011. Download PDF leaflet here

Counterpower, Participatory Democracy, Revolutionary Defence: Debating Black Flame, Revolutionary Anarchism and Historical Marxism by Lucien van der Walt

This article responds to criticisms of the broad anarchist tradition in International Socialism, an International Socialist Tendency (IST) journal. It discusses topics such as the use of sources, defending revolutions and freedom, the Spanish anarchists, anarchism and democracy, the historical role of Marxism, and the Russian Revolution.

Published on Anarkismo.net. Dated 9 April, 2011

Take Back What’s Yours: the Mine-Line Occupation by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)

The economic crisis in South Africa has seen inequalities, and the forced misery of the working class, grow. The workers at Mine-Line show the way forward.

Published on Anarkismo.net. Dated 7 April, 2011

The Kronstadt Rebellion: Still Significant 90 Years On by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)

Article written to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the end of the brutal suppression of the Kronstadt uprising, 18th March 1921 – 18th March 2011

Published on Anarkismo.net. Download PDF pamphlet here

Phansi Nohulumeni, Phansi or Down with Government!

For any person who has hung around anarchists long enough, you must of heard us ranting on about how “parliament is not a means of stuggle” because “people who get their asses into parliament and all the money and power start to only worry about getting more money and power” or “society is run from the board rooms of the giant companies who control the economy and NOT by a bunch of liars sitting comfortably in Parliament” etc. etc. These people feed us a whole bunch of lies to get themselves elected and then for the next couple of years sit comfortably and do nothing about anything of relevance to us (except maybe how to get more money or labour out of us). Emma Goldman speaking about her time in Russia during the revolution had this to say about the “revolutionary government” of the Bolsheviks: “Government, whatever its form or pretences, is a dead weight that paralyses the free spirit and activities of the masses.”

Published on Anarkismo.net. Dated 19 August, 2005

South Africa: COSATU and Social Movements

Recently, much debate has been generated in South Africa by the announcement by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) that it was launching a campaign against joblessness and poverty with a “united front” similar to the united democratic front that fought apartheid in the 1980s – and which was unilaterally disbanded by the now-ruling African National Congress (ANC) in 1990 because of its potential to pit the grassroots against the emerging ANC elite.

Published on Anarkismo.net. Dated 12 August, 2005

Towards a History of Anarchist Anti-Imperialism

Published in the first issue of Against War and Terrorism in October 2001, which was compiled by an international group of anarchists just after the September 11th 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre

Read the full pamphlet here and the second edition here