MODULE 6: The state, social movements and resistance from below

READINGS:

  1. Social Movements Indaba (2002), ‘Historic United Social Movements Mass March to WSSD Sends Clear Message – The People Will Be heard’, Press Release (1 September)
  2. Salim Vally (2003), ‘The Political Economy of State Repression’, in Right to Dissent: Freedom of Expression, Assembly and Demonstration in South Africa (Johannesburg: Freedom of Expression Institute)
  3. Dale T. McKinley (2012), ‘A Brief History of the Anti-Privatisation Forum’ in op cit., Transition’s Child: The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) (Johannesburg: South African History Archives)
  4. Ahmed Veriava and Dale T. McKinley (2005), ‘Arresting Dissent’, in Arresting Dissent: State Repression and Post-Apartheid Social Movements (Johannesburg: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation)

KEY QUESTIONS:

  1. Why was there a rupture within progressive South African civil society in the early 2000s and what did this mean for the broader working class and poor?
  2. Do you think the political nature of the South Africa state change in any fundamental way after 1994? Explain your answer.
  3. What can present-day community organisations and social movements learn from the internal problems and challenges that led to the demise of the APF?
  4. In your opinion and from your own experience as an activist, why do you think the ANC-run state continues to engage in wide-scale repression and marginalisation of community organisations and their struggles?
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