.png)
NALSU NEWS: Labour Studies podcast/video: Lucien van der Walt: "The History of Anarchism and Revolutionary Syndicalism in Africa,” Kantine Festival 2023.
NALSU's director, Prof Lucien van der Walt, recently presented an overview of the history of anarchism and revolutionary syndicalism in Africa, focusing on two main phases: the 1860s-1930s, and the 1980s to the present. The talk was part of the "Kantine" theory festival in Germany, running 31 July-6 August 2023 on the theme "History and Theory of Anarchism." Previous Katine themes have been Marx, Luxemburg, Benjamin, de Pizan and Gramsci. Click HERE for the video of Lucien's talk at Kantine's site, click HERE for a mirror by NALSU, and click HERE for podcast version by NALSU. The slides are HERE. For more on the "Kantine" festivals see HERE.
Lucien noted that "anarchism" -- a left current advocating a self-managed, egalitarian, stateless socialist society -- dates to the First International, and the sections around Mikhail Bakunin, Marx's rival. Anarchism appeared in North Africa from the 1870s, and in southern Africa from the 1880s. An early milestone was the publication of the newspaper, "Il Lavoratore," in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1877. The rising anarchist current was active in popular movements, with a strong emphasis on unions from the 1890s -- anarchists advocating "revolutionary syndicalism," a bottom-up, independent, non-racial, transformative trade unionism aiming at direct workers' control of production, and social revolution.
By 1920, anarchists and syndicalists were an important presence in workers' movements, strikes, anti-imperialist struggles and the radical press in Algeria, Egypt, Mozambique, Tunisia, and South Africa; they had some presence in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Morocco; and they also influenced the Ghadar Party, active in East Africa, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), a mass movement with a presence in Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and a range of other radicals, artists, and intellectuals. Labour migration, international networks, the radical press, exile, and agitational tours helped connect the movement across countries, and continents too: for example, Arab and Berber anarchists joined the anarchist militias in the 1936-1939 Spanish Revolution, and black and mestiço anarchists from Africa were active in Portugal and France.
The movement declined from the 1930s, although it emerged in Nigeria around 1938, and remained active in north Africa, including in the Algerian war of independence in the 1950s. A number of one-time anarchists and syndicalists shifted to supporting nationalist and Marxist-Leninist movements, notably the communist parties in Egypt and South Africa, and later the MPLA in Angola and FRELIMO in Mozambique. A revival of anarchism and syndicalism began in 1980s, starting in Senegal, and later in Egypt, Eswatini, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
In each case, Lucien argued, the development of movements was profoundly shaped by the contexts within which they emerged and operated, and by the ways in which militants responded. The first phase of anarchism and syndicalism in Africa, from the 1860s-1930s, developed against the larger backdrop of Western colonial expansion and an early wave of globalisation. The second, from the 1980s onwards, was part of a wave of struggles against authoritarian African regimes, and the onset of neo-liberal globalisation. But movements, in each country, were also always deeply shaped by local and national conditions, and by how they grappled with challenges like colonialism, race, nation, the urban/ rural divide, and with organising more generally. In closing, Lucien also addressed the debate over whether earlier African cultures had libertarian or anarchistic elements.
DETAILS: This is a recording of a blended event at the 2023 "Kantine" festival, held on Thursday, 3 August 2023, at Subbotnik eV, Vettersstraße 34a, Chemnitz, Germany.
SPEAKER: Lucien van der Walt is professor of Industrial and Economic Sociology at Rhodes University, South Africa, and director of NALSU. Long active in worker and union education, his books include "Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Post-colonial World, 1870-1940" (2010/2014, with Steve Hirsch), "Negro e Vermelho: Anarquismo, Sindicalismo Revolucionário e Pessoas de Cor na África Meridional nas Décadas de 1880 a 1920" (2014), "Politics at a Distance from the State: Radical and African Perspectives" (2018/2022, with Kirk Helliker) and "Labour Struggles in Southern Africa, 1919-1939: New Perspectives on the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU)" (2023, ed. with David Johnson & Noor Nieftagodien). His work has been widely translated. Also see https://lucienvanderwalt.com
ABOUT NALSU: Based in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, NALSU is engaged in policy, research and workers' education. Built around a vibrant team, including from the disciplines of Sociology and Economics, NALSU has a democratic, non-sectarian, non-aligned and pluralist practice, and active relations with a range of advocacy, labour and research organisations. We draw strength from our location in a province where the legacy of apartheid and the cheap labour system, and post-apartheid contradictions, are keenly felt. NALSU is named in honour of Neil Hudson Aggett, union organiser and medical doctor who died in an apartheid jail in 1982 following brutality and torture.