Abahlali week 2 (part 2)
On Sunday evening of last week, the members of Ablahlali met the delegates returning from Jo'burg, with a mini-feast of snacks and soda, and lots of singing. I have yet to hear what all went down at the conference over the weekend, but apparently there were some new bonds formed between Abahlali and the Anti-Eviction Campaign in Capetown, and many shouts of "Comrade, you are out of order!", perhaps from conference moderators not keen on being as democratic as people wanted. I'll write more when I know.
What I can write though, is that this evening has become another turning point in the movement. Abahlali was preparing for a meeting with the mayor the following day (Monday), but when the group called his scheduler to confirm, no meeting was on his agenda.
"You can bring a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink," a favorite phrase of S'bu's, as he spoke on speakerphone to the mayor's aide. Around the table, on people's faces, disappointment and anger.
One by one, people spoke of next steps, even though they had yet to rest and reflect and talk about the weekend. Many hadn't seen family for days.
Escalating the fight back to the streets. Sit ins at the mayor's office. Huge presents delivered to Mayor Mlaba's office--a nicely wrapped, fully used port-a-john with a big bow, with the familiar stench settlement residents have to deal with every day. A Press Conference at Kennedy Road.
With cell phones ringing, plans to get the press out to the settlement in the next days to announce a new campaign of nonviolent resistance were underway. The message: "No Land, No Housing, No Vote."
This no vote plan has been a key piece of the organizing since marches on Kennedy Road's councilor, Yacoob Baig, and the mayor began. Local elections are scheduled for March, and Abahlali is committed to a boycott. Why? They have been wholehearted supporters of the ANC since it's rise to power. 11 years since the fall of apartheid, and the poor still wait to be heard.
If politics, S'bu and many others say, is about lies and beating around the bush, then they won't be willing participants anymore. Their focus is building a new people's politics.
(photo from the November protest at Foreman Road, taken by David Christoffer Lier)
Article about the protest
What I can write though, is that this evening has become another turning point in the movement. Abahlali was preparing for a meeting with the mayor the following day (Monday), but when the group called his scheduler to confirm, no meeting was on his agenda.
"You can bring a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink," a favorite phrase of S'bu's, as he spoke on speakerphone to the mayor's aide. Around the table, on people's faces, disappointment and anger.
One by one, people spoke of next steps, even though they had yet to rest and reflect and talk about the weekend. Many hadn't seen family for days.
Escalating the fight back to the streets. Sit ins at the mayor's office. Huge presents delivered to Mayor Mlaba's office--a nicely wrapped, fully used port-a-john with a big bow, with the familiar stench settlement residents have to deal with every day. A Press Conference at Kennedy Road.
With cell phones ringing, plans to get the press out to the settlement in the next days to announce a new campaign of nonviolent resistance were underway. The message: "No Land, No Housing, No Vote."
This no vote plan has been a key piece of the organizing since marches on Kennedy Road's councilor, Yacoob Baig, and the mayor began. Local elections are scheduled for March, and Abahlali is committed to a boycott. Why? They have been wholehearted supporters of the ANC since it's rise to power. 11 years since the fall of apartheid, and the poor still wait to be heard.
If politics, S'bu and many others say, is about lies and beating around the bush, then they won't be willing participants anymore. Their focus is building a new people's politics.
(photo from the November protest at Foreman Road, taken by David Christoffer Lier)
Article about the protest
posted by stephatriseup at 5:36 AM
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