This issue of Zabalaza (no. 12) comes out in a period characterised by significant political changes and transitions. On the international terrain, the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, which began in late 2010 but have continued into recent months, have been a key topic of discussion – in both the mainstream media and in activist circles. There has been a tendency for these to be portrayed in the media simply as “struggles for democracy”. Likewise, the media often reproduce an incomplete version of events – depicting the uprisings as “coming out of nowhere”. In fact, in many cases the demands of the masses have raised far more profound questions about the basic distribution of both wealth and power in society, and are the culmination of struggles that go back some ten years, by both the masses and organised labour, around high unemployment, rapidly rising food prices, poor living conditions, open corruption by the ruling elites, and a lack of basic political freedoms (produced in part by the introduction of neoliberal reforms). In this issue we focus attention on the Egyptian case, looking specifically at the possibilities the situation holds for the future.
Author: nestormachno
Zabalaza #12 (July 2011)
Contents:
- Editorial – Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front
Southern Africa
- Take Back What’s Yours: the Mine-Line Occupation –Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)
- Andries Tatane: Murdered by the Ruling Classes – Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)
- Build a Better Workers’ Movement: Learning from South Africa’s 2010 Mass Strike – Lucien van der Walt and Ian Bekker
Africa
- Egypt, “Transition in Order” and a Revolutionary Situation still open – José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
International
- Without Bosses: the Process of Recovering Companies by their Workers in Argentina, 2001-2009 – Red Libertaria de Buenos Aires
- Picking Up the Slack in Waste Collection and Ecological Protection: the Struggle of Recyclable Waste Pickers in Uruguay and Brazil – Jonathan Payn (ZACF)
History
- Anarchism in Tunisia: Nicolò (Nicolantonio) Converti, 1855-1939
- Why May Day Matters: History with Anarchist Roots – Sian Byrne (ZACF), Warren McGregor (ZACF) and Lucien van der Walt
- The Spanish Revolution: A New World in their Hearts – 19th of July: Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the start of the Spanish Revolution
Theory
- What Anarchism and Syndicalism offer the South African Left – Lucien van der Walt
- Organisational Dualism, Active Minority and the discussion between ‘Party’ and ‘Mass Movement’ – Anarchist Federation of Rio de Janeiro
- Worker Co-operatives, Markets and the South African State: an Analysis from an Anarchist Perspective – Oliver Nathan (ZACF)
Counter-Culture/Sport
- Kicker Conspiracy: How football fell foul of the State – Interview with Gabriel Kuhn
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.
- Download this text as a PDF leaflet here
May Day or international workers day started as a global general strike to commemorate five anarchist labour organisers executed in the United States in 1887. Mounting the scaffold, August Spies declared: ‘if you think that by hanging us, you can stamp out the labor movement – the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil and live in want and misery –the wage slaves – expect salvation – if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but there, and there, and behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.’
8th of March: Commemorating the International Day of Struggle for Womens Liberation
New pamphlet published with a collection of essays analysing feminism and sexism within the anarchist movement
This pamphlet is published on the 8th of March 2011 (International Women’s Day) to commemorate the struggles against oppression waged by women everywhere. It is published in the hope that these texts will spark much needed debate and sorely-needed change within us as individuals and within the anarchist movement.
- The PDF pamphlet can be downloaded here
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