## mail vom 12.12.04 weitergeleitet von LPA Berlin <mailto:lpa@free.de> ## source : moesioreboucas@yahoo.com.br [Brazil]

Interview: Jonathan Black - Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation

Agência de Notícias Anarquistas Is it that is the movement anarchist today in the Africa of the South?

Jonathan Black < There is a small anarchist movement in South Africa which has been experiencing a revival since about the early nineties, but is still in its infant stages, although libertarian ideas have become more popular particularly in the popular social movements during the last five or so years. There are also Marxist dominated youth organizations in Swaziland, members of which have begun to express an interest in anarchism.

ANA > Which is the activities of their group? Jonathan < The main body of organized anarchism in South Africa is the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation, which had its first official congress in Johannesburg this year. The activities of the ZACF - which is made up of the Black Action Group, Bikisha Media Collective, Zabalaza Books, Anarchist Black Cross and formerly the now defunct Zabalaza Action Group - include propaganda, education and outreach in the form of writing, publishing and distributing anarchist literature and holding political education forums as well as participation within the popular social movements and community and prison organizing.

ANA > Which to main fight of you? Jonathan < At the moment our main struggles include trying to organize demoralized and disillusioned outsourced workers at WITS University, participation in the popular social movements in the struggles against water and electricity privatization and evictions, and organizing prisoners.

ANA > Exists many publications and editions of books by there? Jonathan < The ZACF produces "Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism" as well, albeit sporadically, as "Black Alert: Paper of the Anarchist Black Cross - Anti-Repression Network". We also write and produce various anarchist pamphlets and critiques relevant to South African class struggle and history such as "Class Struggles in South Africa: From Apartheid to Neo-liberalism" as well as re-producing many contemporary and classic anarchist theoretical and practical texts. Zabalaza Books has also recently started publishing an edition of the book African Anarchism by Nigerian anarchists Sam Mbah and I.E. Igariwey of the Awareness League as well as "Hungary '56" by Andy Anderson.

ANA > Are there localities (culture center) anarchists? Jonathan < There is one very small anarchist run community center in the township of Motsoaledi in Soweto which has a small study room and library that stocks anarchist and educational literature, as well as showing political education and entertainment videos to community members. Activists there also cultivate a community vegetable garden and have started providing a day school for small children. There are also some other activist run community centers that are not specifically anarchist but do stock anarchist literature and are influenced by our ideas. One of the main priorities of the ZACf in the near future is to set up an anarchist run community center/ infoshop from which we can distribute our materials, hold workshops etc.

ANA > Are there tradition the anarchism in the Africa of the South. Jonathan < During the early 1900s there was a relatively large anarchist tradition in the form of the anti-parliamentary Communist Party of South Africa (not to be confused with the reformist Communist Party of South Africa - Communist International), the Socialist Club, the International Socialist League, the Industrial Workers of Africa, the Industrial Workers of the World South Africa section and the Industrial Socialist League; all founded in South Africa between 1900 and 1920. As well as the Revolutionary League in Mozambique and the anarcho-syndicalist unions allied to the General Confederation of Labour [CGT] in Portugal, which dominated the Mozambican labour scene in the 1920s. These traditions were sadly wiped out by two world wars and the nationalist regime, not to be revisited until the apartheid regime began to decline and with it the "Suppression of Communism Act".

ANA > Which was the "big" anarchist of his country? Jonathan < Notable anarchists of South Africa are those militants such as Thomas "TW" Thibedi, Bernard Sigamoney, Henry Kraai and Talbot Williams who founded the Industrial Workers of Africa and associated unions in South Africa between 1917 and 1919.

ANA > You would to emphasize some project anarchist in the Africa of the South? Jonathan < At the moment one project that I feel passionately about and would like to put more emphasis on is a support campaign for imprisoned anti-apartheid ex-combatants and political prisoners who are still languishing in state dungeons across South Africa. The campaign is to bring attention to the plight of these prisoners in the hope that, if we can generate enough public support, these people can be granted amnesty. Some of these prisoners are becoming very interested in anarchism and we hope that through them, in addition to the prison organising which they are now involved in, we can also reach their families, who have first hand experience of the repressive role of the state, and their communities.

ANA > The movement anarchist in his country basically is formed by black person? Jonathan < The majority of the proletariat in South Africa is black however, largely due to the race history of South Africa with the lack of access to information of most underprivileged classes and especially for "non-whites" during apartheid, until recently the majority of conscious anarchists was in fact white. And, with a few exceptions, it wasn t really until during the United Nations World $ummit on (un)$ustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 that we established contact with black township anarchists in South Africa, who had only just recently begun to be exposed to anarchist ideas largely as a result of our propaganda work carried out within the social movements. Also since recently some black political prisoners are now becoming increasingly interested in anarchism, or now identify themselves as anarchists.

ANA > Which is the main problem of the anarquism in the Africa of the South today? Jonathan < The main problem of the anarchist movement of South Africa, which may be evident from above, is that - although we do have contact with the popular social movements and with grassroots community activists - there is not any mass based anarchist or libertarian movement or tradition in South Africa. The mass based movements being dominated by reformists and authoritarian socialists, our biggest obstacle is to demonstrate a practical alternative to authoritarian socialism and parliamentary politics, but this is made very difficult by our small numbers and the limited scope of our influence, which is largely due to lack of funding.

ANA > And which are the perspectives of future? Jonathan < The ruling ANC government is doing a very good job of disillusioning people in the role of politics in advancing peoples social conditions and with the Trotskyite dominated leadership of the Anti- Privatisation Forum - which formed out of the working class as a popular social movement - wanting to register the APF as a "Mass Workers Party" and run in elections (the idea of which has been hotly debated from what appear to be two opposing camps forming within the social movements i.e. one libertarian and autonomous the other authoritarian and hierarchical), a good opportunity could present itself for anarchists to try and rally all those activists who are opposed to participation in parliamentary politics together as a popular front of oppressed classes, along the principles of direct action, equality etc. I also feel that one of the most important prospects for the future is to set up an anarchist social/ cultural center in a location easily accessible by the working class as I feel this is one of the only ways for us to get our materials to reach more people.

ANA > It speak a little of the anarquism in the remainder of the African continent. Which are countries there is present anarchism? Jonathan < In Nigeria there has existed for quite a few years now (about a decade?) the anarcho-syndicalist Awareness League, which I believe at one stage had about 1000 members, although I think this may now have declined. In about the year 2000 or 2002 they set up their own radio station, but I am not sure if this is still operational. The Awareness League joined the anarchist international, the IWA-AIT at the Madrid congress in December of 1996.

In Kenya there is the Anti-Capitalist Convergence of Kenya, which as far as I know is modeled on the Washington DC Anti-Capitalist Convergence and was started by anarchist/ libertarian communists, Marxists and other socialists with the intention of trying "to reach the general public with revolutionary ideas, propaganda and actions".

I believe also that the French section of the IWA, the CNT AIT, have some contact with anarcho-syndicalists in Algeria, there is also apparently an anarchist group active in the trade unions in Morocco and the Australian anarcho-syndicalist magazine Organise reported that the XXI IWA congress in December 2000 was told that an organisation was emerging in Zaire/ Democratic Republic of Congo. There are reportedly also some, possibly very few, anarchists active in Uganda, Sierra Leone and Egypt.

In addition to this we have had contact with Marxist influenced revolutionaries and others from the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) and the Students Union of Swaziland who have expressed great interest in anarchism as a means of struggle against the monarchist Tinkundla regime, and with whom we hope to develop further relations.

ANA > You feel isolated regarding the anarquism of the remainder of the world? Jonathan < In general the international anarchist community has been very supportive and we maintain regular contact with numerous anarchists and organisations around the world, as well as having had the opportunity to meet with a number of anarchists from different countries like Sweden, America, Iraq, UK, Switzerland etc. who have visited South Africa. The ZACF is also a member of the International Libertarian Solidarity (ILS) anarchist network so our International Secretary maintains regular contact with other ILS groups as well as the fact that international anarchists often contact Zabalaza Books about republishing our materials. I personally feel more isolated with regards to the anarchist movement on the rest of the African continent as well as in the global South in general, where I think communication is harder than in the North.

ANA > Which its expectation of visit Brazil? Knows something of the anarquism by this side? Jonathan < One of my expectations is to try and begin to bridge the communications gap that exists between the anarchist movements of the South, by establishing networks of anarchists between the various places I visit in Brazil and South African and hopefully other African anarchists. I believe also that the social conditions of Brazil are very similar to those in South Africa and I would like to see how the Brazilian anarchists involve themselves in the popular social movements, and how they organise around things like housing rights and education and then apply what I have learnt to the struggles in South Africa. I would also like to spread awareness about the conditions of South Africa after 10 years of "freedom" and "democracy" (increasing inequality, neo-liberalism etc.) and try and generate solidarity for our campaign for anti-apartheid political prisoners.

ANA > Thanks for interview, let s the message. Jonathan < Thanks for giving me a chance to speak a bit about the small but growing anarchist movement in South Africa, I look forward to meeting and making many friends with our Brazilian anarchist comrades. Let s increase the pressure.

Website: www.zabalaza.net

Post: Agência de Notícias Anarquistas-ANA - CP 78 - Cubatao-SP-BRAZIL E-mail: a_n_a@riseup.net

14.12.2004

LPA-EN