Red and black greetings, comrades!

It’s been well over a year since the last issue of Zabalaza and much international attention has focused on the socio-economic problems facing the European Union. Despite the ravages of capitalism, and its neo-liberal form, the European ruling classes have responded, generally, with more of the same: increased attacks on the working class through propagating greater austerity measures, and less money spent on social welfare on the one hand, and bail-outs and more tax breaks for the rich on the other. As is to be expected, however, the European working class has not taken this lying down; resistance to austerity imposed from above has been widespread. In recent months we have witnessed, in Greece, a one-day general strike on October 18 and a 48-hour general strike on November 6 and 7.  Promisingly, and for the first time in the wake of the global economic crisis of 2008 – we have also witnessed a common European response in the form of a general strike on November 14 that affected Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, with solidarity actions occurring across much of the continent.

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Contents:

• Zabalaza #13 Editorial
  

Southern Africa:

• Whose State is it; and What is its Role? by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)

• Who Rules South Africa?: An Anarchist/Syndicalist Analysis of the ANC, the Post-Apartheid Elite Pact and the Political Implications by Lucien van der Walt

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

• Alternative Needed to Nationalisation and Privatisation: State Industries like South Africa’s ESKOM show Working Class deserves better by Tina Sizovuka  and Lucien van der Walt

• Get Rich or Lie Trying: Why ANC Millionaire Julius Malema posed as a Radical, why he lost, and what this tells us about the Post-Apartheid ANC by Tina Sizovuka and Lucien van der Walt

• Municipalities, Service Delivery and Protest by Oliver Nathan

Africa:

• Egypt: the Lost Transition and the Libertarian Alternatives by Yasser Abdullah

International:

• A Close Look at the Syrian Revolution: An Anarchist among Jihadists by a Syrian comrade

Black Stars of Anarchism:

• T.W. Thibedi (1888-1960): The Life of a South African Revolutionary Syndicalist by Lucien van der Walt

Book Review:

• My Dream is to be Bold: Our Work to End Patriarchy reviewed by Jonathan Payn (ZACF)

Theory:

• Linking Environment Activism and Other Struggles: An Anarchist Analysis by Warren McGregor (ZACF)