Democracy From Below in South Africa:

A Conversation with S’bu Zikode of Abahlali baseMjondolo

Sunday, November 21, 2010, 5-7pm

Niebyl-Proctor Library, (Upstairs)
6501 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA

S'bu Zikode, founding member and community intellectual from the Durban, South
Africa organization Abahlali baseMjondolo (shack dwellers movement):
http://www.abahlali.org/ will discuss the struggles of poor working people in South
Africa. Begun in 2005, Abahlali challenges the ruling African National Congress (ANC)
to provide housing and basic public services for all poor people throughout South Africa.
This struggle has demonstrated the political and ideological contradictions of ANC
officials; from national liberation heroes to ruling party embracing the ideology of
neoliberal economic austerity to brutal effect for mostly poor black South Africans.

Abahlali baseMjondolo, like many other movements of poor people worldwide, brings a
challenge from below to all ruling powers denying poor people basic humanity. Abahlali
has crafted a democratic and anti-racist community struggle to all apparatuses of the
racialized, capitalist post-Apartheid South African state; from the police, politicians and
business elite, to supposed progressive academics and NGOs that try to “lead” this
struggle. Fighting for a “right to the city” and public services, only to be met with police
violence and active state neglect, the struggle of the shack dwellers in South Africa
greatly mirrors that of working people and people of color in the Bay Area today.

Sponsored by the Onyx Foundation

More information contact: info@onyxfoundation.org