Official logo of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign is a popular movement made up of poor and oppressed communities in Cape Town, South Africa. It was formed on November 2000 with the aim of fighting evictions, water cut-offs and poor health services, obtaining free electricity, securing decent housing, and opposing police brutality. It has been able to successfully mobilise against the recent xenophobic attacks in the areas where it is strong^{[citation needed]}.

The movement is the oldest of the first generation of so-called 'new social movements' to spring up after the end of apartheid and is known for its direct action style militancy, its refusal of all forms of vanguardism, including NGO (Non-Governmental Organisations) authoritarianism.^{[citation needed]} The movement has publicly refused to work with some local NGOs^[1] and insist that the middle class left respect the autonomy and internal democracy of grassroots movements.

The AEC is a founding member of The Poor People's Alliance and, along with the other members of the alliance, refuses all electoral politics and encourages the development of popular power rather than voting for political parties.^[2][3]

The AEC opposed evictions related to the FIFA 2010 World Cup.^[4]

[edit] Communities

The AEC is currently an umbrella body for over 15 community organisations^[5], crisis committees, and concerned residents movements who have come together to organise and demand their rights to basic services. The organisations that make up the AEC include but are not limited to:

• Concerned QQ Section Residents (Khayelitsha)
• Talefsig Anti-Eviction Campaign (Mitchell's Plain)
• Athlone Anti-Eviction Campaign (Athlone)
• Gugulethu Backyard Dwellers (Gugulethu)
• Newfields Village Anti-Eviction Campaign (Hanover Park)
• Gympie Street Residents Committee (Woodstock)
• Leiden Anti-Eviction Campaign (Delft)
• Delft Symphony Anti-Eviction Campaign (Delft)
• Eastridge Anti Eviction Campaign (Mitchell's Plain)
• Wesbank Anti-Eviction Campaign (Blue Downs)
• Old Crossroads Anti-Eviction Campaign (Nyanga)

Affiliated movements and committees in the Western Cape:

• Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape
• Sikhula Sonke Women Farmworkers Union
• Joe Slovo Liberative Residents (Langa)
• KTC Concerned Residents Movement (Nyanga)
• Hangberg Solution Seekers Association (Hout Bay)
• Tafelsig People–s Forum (Mitchell's Plain)
• Mandela Park Backyarders (Khayelitsha)
• Mitchell–s Plain Concerned Hawkers and Traders Association (Mitchell's Plain)
• Gugulethu Informal Traders (Gugulethu)
• Gatesville Informal Traders Association^{[citation needed]}

There is also a branch in Blikkiesdorp^[6]

[edit] Coordinators

The AEC has a federated structure and its leaders are called coordinators.

[edit] Activities

The AEC opposes evictions and water and electricity cut-offs on many different levels. Activities range from legal actions that challenge the constitutionality of evictions, to mass mobilisation and popular education initiatives, to organisation and capacity building programs.

[edit] Campaigns

Since its inception, the Anti-Eviction Campaign (AEC) has called for an end to all evictions and cut-offs of basic services in the Western Cape.^[7] In 2001, the AEC achieved a 6-month moratorium on all evictions in the Cape Town Unicity.^[8][9] Even though the DA had declared the moratorium, illegal evictions continued.^[10]

In recent months the movement has strongly supported the struggle for the Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers to resist forced removal to a transit camp and to demand access to decent housing.

No Land! No House! No Vote! is the name of a civil society campaign boycotting the vote and against party politics and vote banking in South Africa. In 2009, the Poor People's Alliance voted to boycott the national elections under the No Land! No House! No Vote! Banner.^[11][12]

The 2010 FIFA World Cup has been connected to a large number of evictions in South Africa which many claim are meant to 'beautify the city'.^[6][13][14] The WC-AEC has begun a campaign against all evictions caused by the event. The campaign's hotspots include the anti-gentrification issues in Gympie Street and other parts of Woodstock^{[citation needed]}, the national N2 Gateway housing project and its evictions in Joe Slovo and Delft^[15], Sea Point evictions, the upgrades and pending evictions in Q-Town next to Athlone Stadium^{[citation needed]}.

The movement is committed to opposing xenophobia and has been particularly active in this regard in Gugulethu^[16] where it has set up a forum^[17] for these issues to be discussed. According to both the media^[18] and the local police^[19] the forum has had considerable success in reducing xenophobic hostility.

[edit] Poor People's Alliance

In September 2008 the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, together with Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Landless People's Movement and the Rural Network (Abahlali baseplasini) formed the Poor People's Alliance.^[20][21] The poor people's alliance refuses electoral politics under the banner 'No Land! No House! No Vote!'.^[22]

[edit] Influence

Take Back the Land^[23] in Miami and the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign^[24] have both stated that their work is inspired by that of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.

[edit] See also

• Abahlali baseMjondolo
• The Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee in India
• The EZLN in Mexico
• Fanmi Lavalas in Haiti
• The Homeless Workers' Movement in Brazil
• The Landless Peoples Movement in South Africa
• The Landless Workers' Movement in Brazil
• The Mandela Park Backyarders
• Movement for Justice en el Barrio in the United States of America
• Narmada Bachao Andolan in India
• Take Back the Land in Miami
• War on Want in London
• The Poor People's World Cup

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Rowley, Rick (Director). (2003). Fourth World War [Documentary]. United States: Big Noise Films
• Pointer, Rebecca. Questioning the Representation of South Africa–s –New Social Movements–: A Case Study of the Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign. In Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol. 39, No. 4, 271-294 (2004). DOI: 10.1177/0021909604051183
• Desai, Ashwin and Pithouse, Richard. A Reply to Rebecca Pointer: In Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol. 39, No. 4, 295-324 (2004). DOI: 10.1177/0021909604051183
• Oldfields, Sophie and Stokke Christian. Building unity in diversity: Social movement activism in the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign. Research report prepared for Centre for Civil Society, –, 2004
• Desai, Ashwin and Pithouse, Richard. "What stank in the past is the present's perfume": Dispossession, Resistance, and Repression in Mandela Park. In South Atlantic Quarterly 2004 103(4):841-875; DOI:10.1215/00382876-103-4-841
• Miraftab, Faranak. "Insurgent Citizenship and Informal Politics: the Case of South African Anti-eviction Movement" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Hilton San Francisco & Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco, CA,, Aug 14, 2004 <Not Available>. 2009-03-04 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p109771_index.html>
• Ballard, Richard, et al. Voices of Protest: Social Movements in Post-apartheid South Africa. UKZN Press (2006).
• Lier, David Maximum and Stokke, Kristian. Working Class Unity? Challenges to Local Social Movement Unionism in Cape Town. In Antipode, Volume 38 Issue 4, Pages 802 - 824. Published Online: 4 Aug 2006
• Pieterse, Edgar. Building with Ruins and Dreams: Some Thoughts on Realising Integrated Urban Development in South Africa through Crisis. In Urban Studies, Vol. 43, No. 2, 285-304 (2006) DOI: 10.1080/00420980500404020
• Kleider, Alexander (Director) and Michel, Daniela (Director). (2009). When the Mountain Meets its Shadow [Documentary]. Germany: DOK-WERK film cooperative.

[edit] External links

• Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign
• Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign Twitter page
• Khayelitsha Struggles