Popular protest is occurring on a remarkable scale in South Africa. Nonetheless, there is a significant degree to which it tends to be organized and articulated through the local. This contribution argues that while the political limitations of purely local modes of organization are clear, it should not be assumed that local struggles are some sort of misguided distraction from building a broader progressive movement. It is suggested that, on the contrary, the best prospects for the emergence of a broader (...) popular struggle lie in building, sustaining and linking local struggles. (shrink)

This contribution offers some observations with regard to political identities in a popular movement largely based in the shantytowns of Durban, South Africa. It seeks to examine, via more than a decade of immersion and research, one instance of how popular organisation and mobilisation have been mediated through shifting political identities. It argues that if discourse professionals on the left are to become effective actors it will be necessary to take popular political identities a lot more seriously, and to enable (...) mutually transformative engagement between theory and actually-existing forms of popular striving and struggle. (shrink)

The author argues that Fanon’s analysis of struggles after decolonization in The Wretched of the Earth is highly relevant to the contemporary South African situation.

The author argues that Fanon’s analysis of struggles after decolonization in The Wretched of the Earth is highly relevant to the contemporary South African situation.