July 06 2015

Abahlali baseMjondolo Responses to the Fraudulent Article Published in Politikon

In 2006 Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign walked out of a NGO controlled meeting [The Social Movements Indaba – SMI] hosted by the Centre for Civil Society, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The two grassroots movements were excluded from planning and formulating the agenda of the meeting, something that had been very common among the NGOs for a long time. Instead we were just bussed in as nothing more than spectators to meetings organised in the name of our lives and struggles. We decided to walk out of the meeting because we wanted to be in control of our own struggles as autonomous movements. The response from the NGOs and academics linked to the SMI was very similar to how the state responds when poor people want to think and organize for ourselves. For instance Mondli Hlatshwayo, the boss of the SMI who was working at an NGO known as Khanya College at the time, publicly referred to us as criminals. In the nine years since our walk-out there has been ongoing defamation and slander against Abahlali baseMjondolo, and people who have supported our movement, from within and around the Centre for Civil Society. There have also been incidents of intimidation, harassment, and attempts at censorship. Continue reading →

Attachments

Politikon Draft 1
Politikon Draft 2
Politikon Draft 3