Abahlali Basemjondolo, Black Beyond Bolivaria Consciousness and More
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AUGUST 2013 • www.bolobolo.co.za/it • ISSUE #1 • PRICE: R10 - R20 according to means INCENDIARY TIMES THE PETIT-BOURGEOIS ANARCHIST COUNTER-REVOLUTION YOUR MOTHER WARNED YOU ABOUT in·cen·di·ar·y: (a device or attack) designed to cause fires, e.g., ‘incendiary grenades’ / tending to arouse strife, sedition, etc., e.g., ‘an incendiary speech’ / tending to inflame the senses, e.g., ‘an incendiary extravaganza of music and dance.’ In this issue Walking Featured interview: Reflections on the state of We talk to Biko Mutsaurwa, activism in Cape Town. an anarchist from Uhuru Network in Zimbabwe. We can’t educate our way out of inequality + Writing on: radical What would a truly radical environmentalism, education look like? capitalist realism, Abahlali baseMjondolo, black Beyond Bolivaria consciousness and more. A critical look at the fetishising of South + Creative writing | poetry | Art | Events | Book reviews American socialist leaders Radical/anarchist views by the South African left. from around the world Anarchists: basically just a bunch of wild-eyed, angsty teenagers... A love letter from Walking some anarchists. The bolo bolo collective contemplate the state of political activism in Cape Town in 2013, exploring the attendant class Welcome to the very first edition of Incendiary Times, a joyous labour of love undertaken by and race divisions and asking how best we can move forward. the bolo’bolo collective and collaborators. Before you read any further, it’s only fair to warn you of something: we’re anarchists! In boldly stating this we realise “Comrades!” and down along the sidelines of the away and, after a couple of final aluta that we’re jumping in the deep end; although anarchism march, tirelessly photographing the continua‘s, the buses begin their long has been around for over 160 years now (and much longer, proceedings and stopping now and drive down the highway while the if radical anthropologists are to be believed), it has received The cheap sound then to make important calls. sunburned Europeans and Ameri- far less attention than it ought to have and remains largely maligned and misunderstood by people all across the so-called system crackles When we arrive at parliament the cans dissipate into the city to seek out gates are closed, as they always are on open bars and restaurants. 'political spectrum’. In our own small way we hope to remedy to life, a shrill, this by exploring anarchist theories and practices and applying distorted voice a Saturday. Undeterred, one of the leaders reads aloud our memoran- • Interlude: a leisurely stroll them to our contemporary situation–to concrete, everyday life piercing the dum, with its modest demands and in no specific direction in South Africa and beyond–in as broad and non-sectarian Saturday morning rousing conclusion, and then passes a way as possible. In doing so we also hope that you will see air. it through the closed gates to a minor A few months later, a group of large- our latest project for what it is: not yet another collection of official who promises to leave it on ly white middle-class activists will marketing leaflets from a cultish organisation trying to recruit “Comrades, we must not the desk of the appropriate member march a similar route to protest you into their ranks but love letters, tied to bricks and hurled of staff for perusal on Monday morn- against Monsanto. Their banners and across the barricades towards the grey facade of spectacle and march yet. There are five corporate hegemony that one day, soon, we hope to smash. more buses coming.” ing. Most of us will never see the con- costumes will be more colourful and tents of the memorandum; fewer still the speeches will sound less like The For us, anarchism entails opposition to capitalism, the state, will have had a say in them. Communist Manifesto and more patriarchy, racism, ableism, speciesism, ecocide and all other • Long walk to nowhere The symbolic task now accom- like an Alex Jones radio show about relations of hierarchy and domination. In place of these shitty plished, we gather around the self-ap- secret cabals and Jacque Fresco and ways of relating to each other and the natural world, we work e wait, like untold thousands pointed vanguard of professional the Freeman Movement. Have you to create a world of ludic conviviality based upon the principle Whave waited before us at this socialists for more speeches. A man seen Zeitgeist? The gathering has the of equal-liberty and characterised by voluntary social relations square, for another hour, but the bus- dressed like Trotsky – with a beard atmosphere of a Waldorf School re- of mutual aid and solidarity. If this ethos resonates with you es do not arrive. They never do. Then to match – talks about material con- union or an Afrika Burn fundraiser; then read on – you might be an anarchist too! we march, a thin, mostly red-shirted ditions and the means of production. some reminisce fondly about Occupy trail of 500-odd people (although the Whenever the audience grows restless Chapman’s Peak. Words like ‘peace’, Participate! media will later report us as 2 000 or an awkward silence descends, a cry ‘pacifism’ and ‘we are all one’ are liber- As an independent, non-commercial project, Incendiary Times strong), through the streets of Cape and response of “Amandla! Awethu!” ally employed. Here there are no aca- comes out as frequently as we can manage or whenever we feel Town and towards parliament. The is delivered to lift our flagging spir- demics along the sidelines, although we have something worth saying. If you’d like to contribute path is lined with riot police whose its. More speeches follow, including there are a lot more photographers. content of any kind to future editions–articles, reviews, poetry, listlessness matches that of more an angry screed (mostly inaudible art, letters, pressing questions or recipes for revolution–then than a few of the protestors. There’s through the megaphone) and a mes- • Pacing in circles get in touch with us at: [email protected] a sense of dull resignation to the pro- sage of solidarity from a union leader ceedings. A troubling tokenism. The who drives a BMW. With a few exceptions (most notably most enthusiastic participants are By mid-afternoon, it’s time to head the recent Marikana settlement), this the white academics – mostly Euro- back home. The weather-worn ban- pean and American – who run up ners and cardboard signs are packed / continued on page 2 Printed by the bolo’bolo anarchist collective • we fight and play for a world beyond measure Page 1 “Our masters have not heard the people’s voice for generations and it is much, much louder than they care to remember.” - Alan Moore Words in revolt. This issue’s definition from the CrimethInc Contradictionary*. pre·fig·u·ra·tion (n) e must be the trouble we wish to see in the world. Anarchists have long sought to demonstrate the virtues Wof their vision through prefigurative projects: free food distribution, do-it-yourself health care, collective living arrange- ments. If only a working model of a better world could be creat- ed in microcosm, the thinking goes, everyone who experienced it would become partisans in a revolutionary struggle. Yet in a capitalist society, these experiments can only be carried out at the margins: the dregs making the best of debris. Walking Meanwhile, at the Googleplex, cafés staffed by world-famous / continued from page 1 chefs offer healthy organic food in all-you-can-eat buffets. Goo- gle employees drop their children off at free day-care, avail is the tone of activism and ‘radical’ with each other or liking Facebook we don’t want to be beaten with the themselves of free hairstylists and laundromats, take their pets politics in Cape Town in 2013. pages. They are seldom aware of the people’s stick then, we shouldn’t beat to work, and play Ping-Pong or volleyball on pristine facilities. On the one hand, there are the un- struggles of the poor, beyond de- each other with it now. After they ride in on the free shuttle or park their electrical cars imaginative protests led by the usu- riding their protests as violent and Perhaps most encouragingly, there’s at the charging station, free scooters wait to convey them from al Leftist suspects: a small gaggle of counter-productive. also a growing engagement from one shining example of sustainable architecture to another; aging Trotskyist, Marxist-Leninist younger people, along with a re- they are encouraged to decorate their workspaces however they or, more often, vaguely socially dem- …and never the two do meet. newed enthusiasm for fresh ideas. wish, and whimsical features ornament the campus, including ocratic organizations. A generation after The Struggle, a tyrannosaur skeleton and a rocket ship. Massage therapists Donor money is used to bus in • A dérive perhaps we’re finally ready to begin remedy their every complaint; a personal lifeguard watches a the poors and to pay for t-shirts and looking at more sophisticated forms single swimmer exercising in a swim-in-place pool the size of a sound system rental. A tedious, obe- If there are grounds for deep cyn- of radical praxis that aim beyond the bathtub, with different speed settings for water flow. The bright- dient march towards closed gates, icism in this admittedly contrived old Leftist tropes. est luminaries in every field are brought in on a daily basis to peppered with rhetorical and of- dichotomy, then there is also at least present free seminars to which everyone is invited—everyone, tentimes grandiose speeches.