Peter Alexander
South African Research Chair in Social Change, Director: Centre for Social Change, Professor of Sociology
Wikipedia
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/peter.alexander.98434/about?lst=597740138%3A5977401 38%3A1503923692§ion=year-overviews&pnref=about
Google Scholar https://scholar.google.co.za/citations?user=kFJkumgAAAAJ
ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Alexander9
Employment and education
From 2016: Director, Centre for Social Change, University of Johannesburg.
From 2010: South African Research Chair in Social Change (funded by the Department of Science and Technology and administered by the National Research Foundation). Contract until end of 2019.
2007-09: Seconded as Director, Centre for Sociological Research, University of Johannesburg.
From 2005: Professor of Sociology, University of Johannesburg.
2000-05: Associate Professor in Sociology, University of Johannesburg (Rand Afrikaans University until end of 2004).
1999-00: Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg.
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1998-99: Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Industrial Sociology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown.
1995-98: Research Fellow in Ethnic Relations, University of Oxford. Attached to St. Antony’s College and Queen Elizabeth House.
1995: Lecturer in the Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa, University of Oxford, Oxford. Attached to St. Peter’s College.
1994-95: Lecturer in Social and Policy Studies, University of Westminster, London. Also, Lecturer in Sociology, Middlesex University, London.
1993-94: Lecturer in History, Centre for Extra-Mural Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London, London.
1990-94: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. Ph.D. on ‘Industrial Conflict, Race and the South African State, 1939-1948.’ Supervised by Prof. Shula Marks. Degree awarded 1995.
1983-89: Full-time member, Central Committee, Socialist Workers’ Party. Included participation in 1984-85 miners’ strike, solidarity visit to South Africa in 1985, and organizing Marxism 86, 87, 88 and 89.
1981-83: Student Organiser and, later, Industrial Organiser, Socialist Workers’ Party.
1979-81: National Organiser, Anti Nazi League.
1979: Schoolteacher, Greenford High School.
1977-79: West London Organiser, Socialist Workers’ Party.
1975-76: President, School of Oriental and African Studies Students’ Union, University of London.
1973-77: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. B.A. (Honours) in African History and Social Anthropology. Degree awarded 1977.
1972-73: Schoolteacher (Voluntary Service Overseas), Ngwane Central School, Nhlangano, Swaziland.
Books
2013: with Claire Ceruti, Keke Motseke, Mosa Phadi and Kim Wale. Class in Soweto. Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press.
2012: with Thapelo Lekgowa, Botsang Mmope, Luke Sinwell and Bongani Xezwi, Marikana: A View from the Mountain and a Case to Answer. Johannesburg: Jacana Media. Revised edition published in 2013. Also published in 2013 by Bookmarks (London); by Ohio University Press (Athens) as Voices from South Africa’s Mining 2
Massacre; and by Mandelbaum - Kritik und Utopie (Vienna) as Das Massaker von Marikana (with two extra chapters and other additional material).
2006: with Marcelle C. Dawson and Meera Ichharam (eds), Globalisation and new Identities: a View From the Middle. Johannesburg: Jacana Media.
2000: Workers, War and the Origins of Apartheid: Labour and Politics in South Africa, 1939-48. Oxford: James Currey; Athens: Ohio University Press; Cape Town: David Philip.
2000: with Rick Halpern (eds), Racializing Class, Classifying Race: Labour and Difference in Britain, the USA and Africa. Basingstoke: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin’s Press.
1987: Racism, Resistance and Revolution. London, Chicago and Melbourne: Bookmarks Publishing Co-operative.
Journal Articles
2016: with Carin Runciman and Boitumelo Maruping, ‘The use and abuse of police data in protest analysis: South Africa’s Incident Registration Information System (IRIS), SA Crime Quarterly 58. http://journals.assaf.org.za/sacq/article/view/1513
2016: ‘Marikana Commission of Inquiry: from narratives towards history.’ Journal of Southern African Studies 42(5).
2016: Gavin Andersson and Peter Alexander, ‘The Community Work Programme: Potentials and Problems’. Transformation 91.
2014: ‘Marikana, autopsie d’un massacre de sang-froid’. Journal des Anthropologues 136/137.
2014: ‘Recreación y resistencia: La cultura de los trabajadores negros las minas de carbón de Witbank, 1900-1950’, ISTOR: Revista de Historia Internacional 14(56). English version available from author. The title is ‘Recreation and Resistance: Black Worker Culture, Witbank Collieries, 1900-1950.’
2014: with Peter Pfaffe, ‘Social Relationships to the Means and Ends of Protest in South Africa’s Ongoing Rebellion of the Poor: the Balfour Insurrections.’ Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest.
2013: ‘Marikana, turning point in South African history’, Review of African Political Economy 40(138).
2013: ‘Le context historique de Marikana – un bref aperçu’, Contretemps, 6 December 2013. http://www.contretemps.eu/interventions/contexte-historique- marikana-–-bref-aperçu-0.
2010: ‘Class, Subjectivity and Parochialism: A Reflection and an Introduction.’ South 3
African Review of Sociology 41(3).
2010: ‘Rebellion of the poor: South Africa’s service delivery protests – a preliminary analysis.’ Review of African Political Economy 37(123). Also available at http://www.amandlapublishers.co.za and http://www.abahlali.org.
2009: ‘Location and Orientation: Introducing Indian Sociology,’ South African Review of Sociology 40(1).
2009: with Phil Bonner, Jon Hyslop and Lucien van der Walt, ‘Labour Crossings in Eastern and Southern Africa,’ African Studies 68(1).
2008: ‘Challenging Cheap-Labour Theory: Natal and Transvaal Coal Miners, c1890- 1950,’ Labor History 49(2).
2007: ‘Women and Coal Mining in India and South Africa, c1900-1940,’ African Studies 66(2&3).
2007: ‘History, Internationalism and Intellectuals: the Case of Harold Wolpe,’ Transformation 63.
2006: with Lauren Basson and Prudence Makhura, ‘Sociology Research in Contemporary South Africa,’ South African Review of Sociology 37(2).
2004: with Anita Chan, ‘Does China Have an Apartheid Pass System?’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30(4).
2004: ‘The National Research Foundation and Priorities for Critical Research.’ Society in Transition 35(2).
2004: with Rick Halpern, ‘Introduction: Comparing Race and Labour in South Africa and the United States,’ Journal of Southern African Studies 30(1).
2004: ‘Race, Class Loyalty and the Structure of Capitalism: Coal Miners in Alabama and the Transvaal 1918-22,’ Journal of Southern African Studies 30(1).
2003: ‘Paternalised Migrants, Policing and Political Economy: Highveld Colliery Strikes, 1925-49,’ Social Dynamics 29(1).
2002: with Tina Uys, ‘AIDS and Sociology: Current South African Research,’ Society in Transition 33(3).
2002: with Meera Ichharam, ‘Spitting for Science at RAU: Quality in Quantitative Research on HIV/AIDS,’ Society in Transition 33(3).
2002: with Lindsey Martin, ‘Getting up to Speed: South Africa’s Tertiary Institutions and HIV/AIDS,’ Society in Transition 33(3).
2001: ‘Globalisation and Discontent: Project and Discourse,’ African Sociological Review 5(1). 4
2001: ‘Oscillating Migrants, “Detribalised Families” and Militancy: Mozambicans on Witbank Collieries, 1918-1927,’ Journal of Southern African Studies 27(3).
2000: ‘Zimbabwean Workers, the MDC and the 2000 Election,’ Review of African Political Economy 85.
1999: ‘Coal, Control and Class Experience in South Africa’s Rand Revolt of 1922,’ Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle-East 19(1).
1996: ‘Collaboration and Control: Engineering Unions and the South African State, 1939-45,’ South African Journal of Sociology 27(2).
1990: ‘The South African Communist Party and the South African Working Class,’ International Socialism 51.
Chapters in books
2017: ‘On the road to global labour history - via comparison’. In Karl Heinz Roth, On the Road to Global Labour History: Festschrift for Marcel van der Linden. Leiden: Historical Materialism/Brill.
2017: ‘La doble rebelión de Sudáfrica: Una protesta bifurcada.’ In Breno Bringel y Geoffrey Pleyers (eds) Movimientos Sociales En Los Años 2010: Crisis, Indignación y Polarización. Buenos Aires: Classico and Rio de Janeiro: Faperj.
2012: ‘Barricades, Ballots and Experimentation: Making Sense of the 2011 Local Government Election with a Social Movement Lens,’ in Marcelle C. Dawson and Luke Sinwell (eds), Contesting Transformation: Popular Resistance in Twenty- First Century South Africa. London: Pluto Press.
2006: ‘Globalisation and new Social Identities: a Jig-saw Puzzle from Johannesburg,’ in Peter Alexander, Marcelle C. Dawson and Meera Ichharam (eds), Globalisation and new Identities: a View From the Middle. Johannesburg: Jacana Press.
2005: ‘A Moral Economy, an Isolated Mass and Paternalized Migrants: Transvaal Colliery Strikes, 1925-49,’ in Stefan Berger, Andy Croll and Norry LaPorte (eds), Towards a Comparative History of Coalfield Societies. Aldershot: Ashgate.
2000: with Rick Halpern, ‘Introduction,’ in Peter Alexander and Rick Halpern (eds), Racializing Class, Classifying Race: Labour and Difference in Britain, the USA and Africa. Basingstoke: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin’s Press.
1999: ‘Rising From the Ashes: Alabama Coal Miners 1921-1941,’ in Edwin L. Brown and Colin J. Davis (eds), It Is Union and Liberty: Alabama Coal Miners and the UMW. Tuscaloosa and London: University of Alabama Press.
1997: ‘South African and US Labour in the era of the Second World War: Similar Trends and Underlying Differences,’ in Rick Halpern and Jon Morris (eds), American 5
Exceptionalism: US Working-class Formation in an International Context. Basingstoke: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Reports (selection)
2016: Carin Runciman, Peter Alexander, et al, Counting Police-recorded Protests: Based on South African Police Service Data. Johannesburg: Social Change Research Unit, University of Johannesburg.
2015: with Carin Runciman and Boitumelo Maruping, South African Police Service (SAPS) Data on Crowd Incidents: A Preliminary Analysis. Johannesburg: Social Change Research Unit, University of Johannesburg.
2009: Luke Sinwell et al, Service Delivery Protests. Johannesburg: Centre for Sociological Research, University of Johannesburg.
2007: (ed.) et al., ‘Stimulating Sociology: Report of the task team appointed by a national workshop of sociologists, held in October 2006, and sponsored by the South African Sociological Association and the National Research Foundation’. N.p.: South African Sociological Association.
2002: with Hilma Shindondola, ‘Social Security for Non-Citizens in South Africa: A Draft Report on Sociological Research.’ Johannesburg: Centre for Sociological Research, RAU.
2002: Tina Uys, et al ‘HIV/AIDS and Students at RAU: Final Report.’ Johannesburg: Centre for Sociological Research, RAU.
2001: Tina Uys, et al. ‘HIV/AIDS and Students at RAU: Interim Report.’ Johannesburg: Centre for Sociological Research, RAU.
Some television and other media interviews
2017: Debate with Thandeke Ncube (Lonmin) and Jeff Mphahlele (AMCU) on SABC News’s Rights and Recourse, 20 August. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSJhv- 9KyBc
2017: Interview about Marikana on SABC News, 16 August. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI5ZX_syfrA
2017: Interview with Tariq Ali on ‘Farewell to the ANC?’ for TeleSur’s The World Today. 27 July. https://videosenglish.telesurtv.net/video/670036/the-world-today- 670036/
2015: Discussant for launch of Steven Friedman’s Race, Class and Power – Harold Wolpe and the radical critique of apartheid. 22 April. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu0E_zyAlXA
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2015: Discussant for launch of Jane Duncan’s The Rise of the Securocrats. 26 February. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLBRqi_3r4U
2014: Interview on ‘The reasons behind protests,’ SABC Digital News, 13 June. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5_gbDUGl_A
2014: Chair, second public seminar for Phase 2, Marikana Commission of Inquiry. 9 April. Transcript at http://www.marikanacomm.org.za/docs/20140409- SeminarPhase02-transcript.pdf
2014: with Carin Runciman and Trevor Ngwane, ‘Community Protests 2004-2013: Some Research Findings’. Media briefing that led to coverage in all South Africa’s daily newspapers, many weekly papers, and at least 14 interviews on TV and radio. 12 February. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqwBSNBMPCU
2014: Panelist for SABC election broadcast on ‘Creating a climate for free and fair elections’. This was broadcast on various platforms and is one of SABC’s most popular programmes.
Selection of shorter articles, lectures and papers
2017: ‘Op-Ed: Marikana – Five Years of Injustice’, Daily Meverick, 15 August. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-08-15-op-ed-marikana-five-years-of- injustice/#.WaPwzK2B0_U
2017: ‘Cyril Ramaphosa’s Marikana massacre “apology” is disingenuous and dishonest,’ The Conversation, 11 May. https://theconversation.com/cyril-ramaphosas- marikana-massacre-apology-is-disingenuous-and-dishonest-77485. Reprinted in City Press, 12 May and elsewhere.
2017: ‘Liberate Palestine, bring down the walls of Israel,’ Mail & Guardian 10 May. https://mg.co.za/article/2017-05-09-liberate-palestine-bring-down-the-walls-of-israel.
2017: ‘Zuma’s failure to fire Phiyega for role in Marikana beggars belief’, Op ed in Business Day, 22 February 2017, p. 12. Also https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2017-02-22-zumas-failure-to-fire-phiyega- for-role-in-marikana-beggars-belief/
2016: ‘Obituary: Martin Legassick,’ The Socialist.
2016: ‘Op-Ed: Twenty questions for Adam Habib’, Daily Maverick, 20 January. http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-01-19-op-ed-twenty-questions-for- adam- habib/?utm_source=Daily+Maverick+Mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign= FT+20012016&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymaverick.co.za%2Farticle%2 F2016-01-19-op-ed-twenty-questions-for-adam-habib%2F#.VqDWDxGfR0s
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2015: ‘Op-Ed: Piketty misses the mark on Marikana’, Daily Maverick, 7 October. http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-10-06-op-ed-piketty-misses-the-mark- on-marikana/#.VhWIG-vleFL
2015: ‘South Africa’s twin rebellions: bifurcated protest’, Open Movements section of Open Debate,6 October. https://www.opendemocracy.net/peter-alexander/south- africa’s-twin-rebellions-bifurcated-protest..
2015: ‘John Alexander obituary’, The Guardian, 7 September. http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/sep/07/john-alexander- obituary?CMP=share_btn_fb
2015: ‘John Arthur Alexander: an Obituary’, Swyre, Dorset: self-published.
2015: with Carin Runciman, ‘Social Conflict in South Africa: Protests and Police Statistics’, 3rd International Conference on Strikes and Social Conflicts, Barcelona, 16-19 June. http://www.iassc-mshdijon.fr/spip.php?article348&lang=en
2014: ‘Marikana shows gaps in Piketty’s thesis’, Op ed in Mail and Guardian, 25 July.
2014: ‘The facts about scene two’, letter in Sunday Times, 17 August.
2014: ‘Lonmin’s own fault’, letter in Business Day, 6 August.
2014: ‘Op-ed: AMCU victory is more than just about figures’, Daily Maverick, 29 June.
2014: with Carin Runciman and Trevor Ngwane, ‘Growing civil unrest shows yearning for accountability’, Business Day, 7 March.
2013: ‘From the poverty of class analysis to the class analysis of poverty’. Lecture given at Kiev National University, 19 July. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxSn7AKQcZA
2013: ‘Denial and division’, Global Labour Institute. Available at: http://www.globallabour.info/en/2013/08/denial_and_division.html
2013: ‘Marikana: A View from the Mountain and a Case to Answer’, interview for Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Southern Africa) Online. Go to: rosalux.co.za
2013: ‘Interview: South Africa after Marikana,’ International Socialism 137.
2012: ‘Voices from Marikana’. Amandla 26/27, September.
2012: Thapelo Lekgowa, Botsang Mmope and Peter Alexander, ‘Geography of a massacre’. Socialist Worker, 21 August.
2012: Karl von Holdt and Peter Alexander, ‘Collective Violence, Community Protest and Xenophobia’. South African Review of Sociology 43(1). 8
2012: ‘A massive rebellion of the poor’. Op ed in Mail and Guardian, 13 April, page 34. Also appeared as ‘Protests and Police Statistics: Some Commentary. Available from: www.amandlapublishers.co.za/. Published 28 March.
2012: ‘Unworkable theory’. Letter in Business Day, 22 March.
2011: ‘UJ’s decision was to show solidarity with the oppressed.’ Op ed in Mail & Guardian, 6 May.
2010: Executive Producer, ‘Phakhati – Soweto’s Middling Class’. Film made by Mosa Phadi with Eyelight Productions. In partnership with Centre for Sociological Research, University of Johannesburg. Available on YoutTube. .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1H32wAcYWY.
2009: ‘It’s not Xenophobia.’ Feature article in Sowetan, 29 July.
2003: ‘Anti-globalisation Movements, Identity and Leadership Trevor Ngwane and the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee’ (South African Sociological Society, University of Natal, Durban). Available at http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs/files/SECC%20-%20paper_SASA%20vesrion_.pdf.
2002: ‘Labour, Globalization and a Region in Crisis: The Case of Southern Africa.’ In Colin Barker and Mike Tyldesley (eds), Eighth International Conference on Alternative Futures and Popular Protest Volume 1. Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University Faculty of Humanities and Social Science.
2002: ‘Obituary: Lungelu Sikakane,’ Society in Transition 33 (3).
2001: ‘Gwisai – the MDC’s Socialist MP.’ Debate 6/7.
2000: ‘Zimbabwe – A Different Point of View.’ South African Labour Bulletin 24(4).
1991: ‘Where the Party’s Still in Full Swing,’ New Statesman Society 120: 1504 (13 December).
1991: ‘The 1941-1947 Strike Wave, its Causes and Consequence, Some Preliminary Consideration’ (Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, Societies of Southern Africa: Postgraduate Seminar Papers SSA/90/19).
1987: ‘Black Power 20 Years On’, lecture given at the Socialist Workers’ Party’s Skegness Easter Conference. https://www.google.co.za/search?client=safari&channel=iphone_bm&q=Youtube+Pe ter+Alexander%2C+%E2%80%98Black+Power+20+Years+On%E2%80%99&oq=Y outube+Peter+Alexander%2C+%E2%80%98Black+Power+20+Years+On%E2%80% 99&gs_l=psy-ab.3...6967.6967.0.8179.1.1.0.0.0.0.240.240.2-1.1.0....0...1.1.64.psy- ab..0.0.0.IWQkmrwnUdU
1985: Nigel Lambert (pseud), ‘Towards a Workers’ Party: Interview With Moses Mayekiso,’ and commentary on this. Socialist Worker Review 80 (October). 9
1984: ‘Crisis and Coup in Nigeria,’ Socialist Review 62 (February).
1983: ‘Racism – a Parliamentary Pawn,’ Socialist Review 52 (March).
1981: ‘A new Kind of Nazi,’ Socialist Review 6 (June/July).
1981: ‘Organising Asian Workers: Interview with Avtar Jouhl,’ Socialist Review 4 (April/May).
1979: Southall: The Fight for our Future. London: Socialist Worker Party.
1978: ‘Nigeria: A Chance for the “new Left”,’ Socialist Worker Review 7 (November).
1976: with Alex Callinicos, The Struggle for Angola. London: National Organisation of International Socialist Societies.
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