Black Study, Black Struggle

Robin D.G. Kelley, The Boston Review

In the fall of 2015, college campuses were engulfed by fires ignited in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. This is not to say that college students had until then been quiet in the face of police violence against black Americans. Throughout the previous year, it had often been college students who hit the streets, blocked traffic, occupied the halls of justice and malls of America, disrupted political campaign rallies, and risked arrest to protest the torture and suffocation of Eric Garner, the abuse and death of Sandra Bland, the executions of Tamir Rice, Ezell Ford, Tanisha Anderson, Walter Scott, Tony Robinson, Freddie Gray, ad infinitum.

That the fire this time spread from the town to the campus is consistent with historical patterns. The campus revolts of the 1960s, for example, followed the Harlem and Watts rebellions, the freedom movement in the South, and the rise of militant organizations in the cities. But the size, speed, intensity, and character of recent student uprisings caught much of the country off guard. Protests against campus racism and the ethics of universities’ financial entanglements erupted on nearly ninety campuses, including Brandeis, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Harvard, Claremont McKenna, Smith, Amherst, UCLA, Oberlin, Tufts, and the University of North Carolina, both Chapel Hill and Greensboro. These demonstrations were led largely by black students, as well as coalitions made up of students of color, queer folks, undocumented immigrants, and allied whites.

Is the idea of communism potentially emancipatory?

by Makasa Chinyata

1. Introduction

This essay will argue that the idea of communism is potentially emancipatory. It will therefore attempt to build on Alain Badiou’s claim that “the communist hypothesis is the hypothesis of emancipation” (Badiou as cited in Ranciere, 2010:167). Communism has quite generally been thought of as an oppressive mode of politics. This particular misconception is largely due to the fact that communism generally tends to be conflated with the Soviet Union. As a result of this, the failure of the Soviet Union (apparent long before its eventual ‘defeat’ in the Cold War) is generally thought to signify the failure of communism – hence its relegation as a form of politics that is largely spurious. This essay will therefore attempt to portray illegitimacy of claims that view the Soviet Union as representative of communism and argue that the Soviet Union was in fact contradictory to the idea of communism. Secondly this essay will argue that communism is potentially emancipatory. In order to argue the latter, this essay will be based on Sylvain Lazarus claim that “there is no politics in general, only specific political sequences [and that] politics is not a permanent instance of society” (Neocosmos, 2009:13). This claim renders possible the argument that communism as a political idea, can be traced in particular political sequences that have occurred over the course of history with varying success. Alain Badiou’s concept of communism being above all else the exemplification of an “egalitarian society which, acting under its own impetus, brings down walls and barriers” (Badiou, 2010:60) will therefore be applied to specific political sequences (or ‘events’ - in the philosophical sense of the word): the Haitian revolution and the Paris Commune. In doing so, this essay will attempt to postulate the validity of conceiving of the idea of communism as potentially emancipatory.

How should we at this moment in South Africa make use of contemporary theory?

by Mlamuli Hltatshwayo, 2012

The role of contemporary theory is significant in that it seeks to explain the present through various narratives and discourses. One can argue that the challenge for contemporary theory is to struggle with the current events in its attempt to make sense of them and also to provide a critically analysis of why the events are happening? How the events are happening? And why those particular events are happening at a specific time and space? Furthermore, one may also argue that it is also the role of contemporary theory to philosophically discuss, what Frantz Fanon referred to as the “new politics”, in not only critically analyzing current affairs and the status quo, but also attempting to provide alternative ideas and solutions concerning how to improve the current socio-economic status, at least philosophically (Fanon, 2001: 198). The role of contemporary theory with regard to South Africa is of paramount importance due to the colonial and apartheid history, whose repercussions are still largely being felt by the marginalized and disenfranchised. This means that South Africa as a state, which is rooted in the idea of reconciliation and “ubuntu” in 1994, could be said to have certain subalterns who are still trapped in economic apartheid in that they still don’t have basic service delivery, access to housing and cannot access government grants. Furthermore, one may argue that at this moment, contemporary theory is of significant relevance to South Africa due to the large number of political protests, gender based violence and the violent government reactions to organizations such as Abahlali baseMjondolo who choose to operate outside of the legitimate space of the state, and thus are perceived as a threat. Contemporary theory could be used as an instrument of discourse in not only analyzing current affairs and but also in providing possible solutions (albeit philosophical) to remedy the status quo.

How should we at this moment in South Africa make use of contemporary theory?

by Nthabiseng Modjadji, 2012

Contemporary theory can be used at this moment to properly explain how a country like South Africa which presents a picture of a rainbow nation, full of possibility, where democracy seems to be working is actually a xenophobic, corrupt, often violently authoritarian, poverty stricken society were majority of the people feel a sense of betrayal in terms of the dream that was sold to them as to the kind of society South Africa would become post-Apartheid. This essay will look at the firstly the issue of land in South Africa which has sparked a lot of unrest and has often been incorrectly labeled as being an issue of service delivery when it is actually a political problem. Also looking at the role of civil society in further marginalizing the masses and the manner in which people have been separated from politics though engaging with them as populations and not as citizens.  Politics in South Africa has become technocratic, everything is about how much the government can provide, not how much people can influence government and exercise real political power and lastly the essay will engage with Lewis Gordon’s argument about how people are turned into problems which he draws off Frantz Fanon’s idea of the lived experience of oppression.

What would be required of a theoretical practice for it to be premised on a genuine commitment to universal equality?

by Michelle Morgan, 2012

This essay serves to discuss what would be required of a theoretical practice for it to be premised on a genuine commitment to universal equality. I will argue, in line with Jacques Ranciere (2006), that for this to be achieved a theoretical practice has to start from the point of equality, a genuine equality in which each and every human being is respected in being able to think and act for themselves. The point of departure of this theoretical practice has to be equality of every human being, equality of intelligence and status. Therefore, such a principled theory would have to form part of an emancipatory political project, which arguably can only be realised though a genuine commitment to universal equality. Furthermore, for this equality to be truly universal it has to be part of a dialectical approach which is premised in theory that is specific as opposed to singular.

Representative Democracy as a Farce

by Antonio Folgore, 2012

1. Introduction

In the contemporary era, parliamentary democracy or representative democracy rules the political stage. After 1989 and the end of Cold War, the United States was able to implement its agenda uninterrupted. As a result, representative democracy began to spread globally, under the ever-watchful eye of the United States and its allies. The result is that democracy in today’s world is more oligarchy, and it will be argued that this form of rule removes the political out of the public realm and into the private. Using Jacques Ranciere as a foundation, it will be shown that contemporary parliamentary democracy is a farce in the context of ‘rule by the people’. This analysis will then be applied to both historic and contemporary examples, using Alain Badiou’s work on the Paris Commune as well as the recent mining massacre at the Lomnin Platinum mines at Marikana. The final conclusion will argue that parliamentary democracy does not automatically represent the will of the people, but rather it oppresses them, giving them a false sense of freedom under the mask of representation.

Does parliamentary democracy automatically represent the will of the people?

by Joshua Rorke, 2012

Parliamentary, or representative, democracy has long been held as the best way to represent the will of the people and conduct democracy. Citizens of a country vote in free and fair elections for the political party that they most agreed with or best represents their political beliefs. After the elections, the most popular party carries out the will of the majority of people. If the party fails in correctly carrying out the will of the people, the citizens vote them out of power in the next election cycle, and install a more suitable party. This essay, however, disagrees with this pluralistic view of electoral politics. This essay will argue that states no longer derive their legitimacy through representing the will of the people, but rather through delivering services to the people and so they are not concerned with carrying out the will of the people. This idea draws on Trouillot’s critique of ontological categorisation in which certain people, usually of the lower classes, are not seen to have the same capacity for rational thought and agency. Those who are seen to have the capacity, generally the political elites, then formulate policies to deliver services to the passive populations and the rise of technocratic rule takes place.