All in the Name of the Beautiful Gain
A ZACF statement on the 2010 Soccer World Cup
in South Africa
The 2010 Soccer World Cup must be exposed for the utter sham that it is. The ZACF strongly condemns the audacity and hypocrisy of the government in presenting the occasion as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity for the economic and social upliftment of those living in South Africa (and the rest of the continent). What is glaringly clear is that the “opportunity” has and continues to be that of a feeding-frenzy for global and domestic capital and the South African ruling elite. In fact, if anything, the event is more likely to have devastating consequences for South Africa’s poor and working class – a process that is already underway.
In preparing to host the world cup the government has spent close to R800 billion (R757 billion on infrastructure development and R30 billion on stadiums that will never be filled again), a massive slap in the face for those living in a country characterized by desperate poverty and close to 40% unemployment. Over the past five years the working poor have expressed their outrage and disappointment at the government’s failure to redress the massive social inequality in over 8000 service delivery protests for basic services and housing countrywide. This pattern of spending is further evidence of the maintenance of the failed neoliberal capitalist model and its “trickle down” economics, which have done nothing but deepen inequality and poverty globally. Despite previous claims to the contrary, the government has recently admitted this by doing an about turn, and now pretends that the project was “never intended” to be a profit making exercise [1].
Zabalaza #9 (September 2008)
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In this Issue…
Southern Africa
- Workers, Bosses and the 2008 Pogroms
- “Ba Sebetsi Ba Afrika”: Manifesto of the Industrial Workers of Africa, 1917
- Ninety Years of Working Class Internationalism in South Africa
- Unyawo Alunampumulo: Abahlali baseMjondolo
Statement on the Xenophobic Attacks in Johannesburg
- Xenophobia, Nationalism and Greedy Bosses: An Interview with Alan Lipman
- Interview with Two Libertarian Socialist Activists from Zimbabwe
Africa
- Kenya’s Troubles are Far from Over
- Will EU troops stop the Central African cycle of violence?
- Brutal Repression in Sidi Ifni (Morroco)
International
- Obama and Latin America: a Friendly Imperialism
Theory
- Anarchism & Immigration
- The Poison of Nationalism
- Nostalgic Tribalism or Revolutionary Transformation?: A Critique of Anarchism & Revolution in Black Africa
Zabalaza #8 (February 2008)
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Contents:
- Asgisa: A Working Class Critique
- Now is the Winter of Our Discontent: SA Public Sector Strike Stokes the Fire of Popular-Class Unity and Reveals “Communist” Weakness
- The 2010 World Cup, the Neo-liberal Agenda and the Class Struggle in South Africa
- Students and Staff Protest University Privatisation
- A Short History and Introduction to the Anarchist
Black Cross
- Vigilante Farmers Want Refugee Camps on the Borderland
- Swaziland: The Royal Assassination of Our Dear Comrade
- Europe, Africa and the Neo-Liberal Strategy of Co-Optation
- Blood, Water & Oil: Fallacies of the Darfur War
- The Congo’s Dilemma: Why the Congo is yet another example why we have to rethink our political system
- A New Guantanamo in Africa?
- Misrepresentation of Self-Management in the Caribbean
- Some Thoughts on Theoretical Unity & Collective Responsibility
- Clarity on What Anarcho-Syndicalism Is
- Towards an Anarcho-Syndicalist Strategy for Africa
Zabalaza #7 (December 2006)
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Contents:
- After 10 years of GEAR: COSATU, the Zuma Trial and the Dead End of Alliance politics
- Collective Bargaining by Riot: Election Day in South Africa
- The Anti-Liberation Movements
- Swaziland after the Bombings
- A Free Working Class Needs Free Minds:
May-BEE Another Day
- The New American Imperialism in Africa
- Is China Africa’s New Imperialist Power?
- Defend Libertarian Centre for Studies and Investigation in Morocco: Solidarity with the CLER of Boumaalne-Dades
- Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organisation in South America
- Remembering and Learning from the Past: The 1976 Uprising and the African Working Class
- A New World in our Hearts: Remembering the Spanish Revolution of 1936
- Remembering Our Fallen Comrades! Another Anarchist Dies in Prison: Abel Ramarope, Political Prisoner Turned Anarchist, died September 2005
Zabalaza #6 (April 2005)
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Contents:
- BEE-lionnaires In Mbeki-Stan: BEE Debate Shows Nature of
Post-Apartheid SA, and Limits Of “Left” Critique
- The President from the Skies vs. The Auntie Who Says “No!”
- New Social Movements in Post-Apartheid South Africa
- Doing the Liberation Lang-Arm: Africa and South Africa
after “African Socialism”
- Swaziland: a Bitter Taste to the Sugarcane
- ABC-SA Protests the Murder of CIPO-RFM Activists
- Zimbabwe: Time for an End to the Electoral Road
- Revolutionary Anarchism and Political Parties
- Anarchism, Alternative Unionism and Workers’ Struggles In Iraq
- Support Zandile Mbarane, Class-War Prisoner
Zabalaza #5 (May 2004)
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Contents:
- The Political Significance of NEPAD: a Homegrown Recipe for Neo-Liberalism: Think Africa-wide – but organise locally
- Phansi Nohulumeni, Phansi or Down with Government!
- A Makhnovist in Africa: Shalom Schwartzbard
- Making History or just Repeating it?
- Why Mayday?
- The First of May: Symbol of a New Era in theLife &
Struggle of the Toilers
- After the Elections… the Struggle Remains the Same
- African Anarchism: Prospects for the Future
- Fire-Ants & Flowers: Revolutionary Anarchism in Latin America
- Your Factory, Under Worker Control
- From Self-Managed Movements to the Self-Managed City
- Basic Principles of Anarchism
- Understanding “Direct Action”
- This and that
Zabalaza #4 (June 2003)
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Contents:
- Anarchist? Time to Organise!: Capitalism Won’t Abolish
Itself. It Needs Our Help. Join the Federation!
- Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation:
Interim Skeleton Constitution
- The Workers Struggle at Wits University
- Fat-Cat Nationalism vs. the Ultra-Hungry
- White Workers Feel Privatisation’s Pinch
- Kill the Bill! – the ANC’s Attack on the Workers and Poor
- Zimbabwe: Repression Against the Working Class Mounts
- “The Vision Thing: Were the DC and Seattle protests
unfocused, or are critics missing the point?”
- We Revolt Against the Tyrants! A Report from the Ivory Coast
- A Workers Party: What For?
- Latin American Voices: Leny Olivera
- Some Ideas for Community Action…
Zabalaza #3 (August 2002)
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Contents:
- Seeing red (and black) at the WSSD
- Keepers of the Flame
- The Global Economy: Whats it all about
- The Rio Farce (the WSSD -10)
- Poverty Leaps in South Africa
- From Protest Movement to Social Revolution
- Political party funding: Politicians for sale
- Unmask the W$$D in Johannesburg and around the World
- Revolutionary Joburg
- S.A. Anarchists go Global…
- A message from our Spanish comrades on the W$$D
Zabalaza #2 (March 2002)
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Contents:
- The Case of the Decorated Donkey
- They Murdered an Anarchist
- Against the WCAR
- The ANC-NNP Alliance: What Do Anarchists Say?
- “War Against Terrorism” or “Killing for Oil”?: The Real Reasons for the Invasion of Afghanistan
- Whose World? Whose Forum?:- The World Social Forum
and the Anti-Globalisation Movement
- The Black Bloc: A Disposable Tactic
- Religious Fundamentalist Regimes: A Lesson from the Iranian Revolution 1978-1979
- The Anarchist Economic Alternative to Globalisation
- Who needs the WSSD?
- Teachings of the State
- The WSSD
- Obituary: Hamba Kahle Wilstar Choongo!
Zabalaza #1 (April 2001)
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Contents:
- The Neo-Liberal Agenda: GEAR Versus the Working Class
- Phansi GEAR Phansi!
- The Need for a Revolutionary Anarchist Federation
- Your Money or Your Life: The World Bank, IMF and Neo-Imperialism
- An Anarchist Perspective on the South African AIDS Question
- Zimbabwe: Land Invasions and Lessons for the Working Class
