Empowering Communities: Organizing Against Evictions in South Africa

The shack dwellers of South African cities have been abandoned by their government, left to try and make homes on land they don’t own, without sanitation or electricity, and vulnerable to adverse weather or corrupt and violent law enforcement. But being poor and marginalized doesn’t mean you are powerless. The social movement Abahlali baseMjondolo which organizes in the informal settlements has a membership of 120,000 and rising, and a remarkable record of defending its communities against eviction, despite a series of assassinations and deaths at the hands of the police during evictions that have taken 25 of its grassroots leaders. Abahlali’s General Secretary, Thapelo Mohapi, explains the movement’s organizing approach, strategies, and it's formal structures, and how it is responding to violent attacks and marginalization by the ruling ANC.

And in the coda… Audre Lorde shows a Sierra Leonean activist how her fear might be a guide to her purpose. 

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