GroundUp: SA shackdwellers protest against evictions in Austria

Daneel Knoetze, GroundUp

A delegation from Abahlali baseMjondolo picketed at the Austrian honourary consulate in Durban. They handed over a petition protesting against the violent evictions of a group of squatters, Pizzeria Anarchia, in Vienna.

On 6 August, shackdweller movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) marched on the the Austrian honourary consul in Durban to protest the eviction of squatting “comrades” under way in Vienna. This, in reciprocation of months of solidarity and support from people and organisations based in Europe and the United States for AbM.

Squatters under the banner of Pizzeria Anarchia have resisted attempts by the Vienna municipality to evict them from a building for two years. Last week, 1700 riot police, a water canon, a tank and a helicopter were deployed to the site of what is claimed to be Vienna's “last remaining squat”. The eviction cost the municipality €500 000 (R7.17million), reports revolution-news.com.

In a day of violent clashes with the squatters resisting eviction, police removed eleven people from an apartment building – arresting nine of them. Four people were apparently still occupying the building late last week, but a more recent update from Pizzeria Anarchia could not be sourced at the time of going to print.

Thirteen AbM members marched on the Austrian honourary consul in Durban. They handed over a petition with demands.

“It includes a call for an immediate moratorium on evictions by the Viennese municipality,” said Ndabo Mzimela, speaking to GroundUp from the site of the picket yesterday. “We also demand that charges against the nine arrested comrades be dropped and that the state recognise and respect the social value of the Pizzeria Anarchia community.”

For a membership based organisation, which usually has its hands full with campaigning against police brutality, evictions and for housing delivery in their own constituencies in South Africa, yesterday's protest was a rare deviation from AbM's regular protests and pickets.

Mzimela explains the rationale: “We are part of a global community. It is a world-wide struggle against states and police forces that are ignorant and abusive of our human rights. The comrades at Pizzeria Anarchia were some of the first to support us in a difficult time of struggle last year (when three people were killed by police during AbM protests over evictions in Cato Crescent, Durban). We want to stand with them now.”

Richard Pithouse, a political activist and commentator who has worked closely with AbM since the early 2000s, said that overseas protest and solidarity in response to state repression of the shackdweller movement has been effective in embarrassing and dissuading South African authorities.

“It is important to note that AbM has always asked for 'solidarity' as opposed to 'charity' from supporters in the United States and Europe,” Pithouse said.

“A relationship of solidarity is one that can and should be reciprocated. In so doing, the movement has subverted the traditional paternalistic relationship between supporters in developed countries and poor communities in Africa, and South Africa.”

The Austrian embassy in Pretoria confirmed receipt of the petition.

“(The petition) was transmitted via the Embassy in Pretoria to the Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs in Vienna,” said Klaus Reisner, the embassy's Head of Administration and Consular Affairs