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Launch at Book Lounge of “No Land! No House! No Vote!” and picket by Blikkiesdorp in front of Parliament

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Launch at Book Lounge of “No Land! No House! No Vote!” and picket by Blikkiesdorp in front of Parliament

Picket by Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers and Blikkiesdorp Residents

* Where? at Parliament (Cnr Roeland St & Plein St)
* When? 12noon–1pm on the 16th of May
* Why? To promote their new book and to protest against the horrible conditions in Tin Town and the government’s failure to honor their agreement to engage with us on our struggle for housing. No Dignity! No Vote!
* For more information on our struggle, please contact Aunty Tilla @ 0764772508 and Sarita @ 0764772508

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From there, the authors will walk over to:

* The Book Lounge at 71 Roeland St
* at 5:30 for 6 – entrance is free
* RSVP to booklounge@gmail.com or 021 462 2425 or RSVP on Facebook

The Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers will be holding a book launch to present to the public our new acclaimed anthology: No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way

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Acclaim/:

“A compelling testimony to the ingenuity of people to organise themselves and invent newer forms of struggle.”
– Issa Shivji, University of Dar es Salaam

“An extraordinary collection of writings from the spirit of resilience and strength of the collective which lay bare the betrayal of the people in post-­??apartheid South Africa.”
– Sokari Ekine, author and award-winning blogger

“This anthology is both testimony and poetry … The stories blew me away.”
– Raj Patel, bestselling writer and activist

No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way

http://fahamubooks.org/book/?GCOI=90638100888310&fa=description

No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way

Many outside South Africa imagine that after Mandela was freed and the ANC won free elections all was well. But the last two decades have led to increased poverty and inequality. Although a few black South Africans have become wealthy, for many the struggle against apartheid never ended because the ethos of apartheid continues to live.

Early in 2007 hundreds of families living in shacks in Cape Town were moved into houses they had been waiting for since the end of apartheid. But soon they were told that the move had been illegal and they were kicked out of their new homes. They built shacks next to the road opposite the housing project and hundreds organised themselves into the Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign, vowing to stay on the road until the government gave them permanent housing.

This anthology is both testimony and poetry. There are stories of justice miscarried, of violence domestic and public, of bigotry and xenophobia. But amid the horror there is beauty: relationships between aunties, husbands, wives and children; daughters named Hope and Symphony. This book is a means to dignity, a way for the poor to reflect and be reflected. It is testimony that there’s thinking in the shacks, that there are humans who dialogue, theorise and fight to bring about change.

Two Symphony Way evictees were recently featured in a Guardian article of 1 April 2010:

Badronessa Morris: ‘The police treat us like animals. They swear at us, pepper spray us, search us in public, even children. At 10 o’clock you must be inside: the police come and tell you to go into your place and turn down the music. In my old home we used to sit outside all night with the fire.’

Jane Roberts: ‘It’s a dumping place. They took people from the streets because they don’t want them in the city for the World Cup. Now we are living in a concentration camp.’

ISBN-10 1906387842
ISBN-13 9781906387846
Publication Date October 2010
List Price £14.95