Some Are Soldiers, Others ‘Straatmeide”

Siphokazi Magadla, The Con

Reports that Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), called Minister of Small Business Development, Lindiwe Zulu, “a straatmeid” following a verbal exchange that came close to a physical altercation between Zulu and EFF Member of Parliament, Godrich Gardee, is a crude reminder of the sexist double-standards faced by female guerillas in the aftermath of war where they are expected to conform to dominant ideas of feminine respectability.

Malema's feminist mask slips over Zulu street meid comment

Verashni Pillay, Mail & Guardian

“Lindiwe Zulu is a street meid.”

The comment about the minister of small business development dropped like deadweight into a hot conference room at the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) headquarters in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

We saw it go down, watched the dust settle and looked away.

Will The Centre Hold: Julius Malema and the EFF Take A Sho’t Left

Kwanele Sosibo, The Con

In South Africa’s platinum belt, life and politics are as hard as the earth on which they are contested: natural resources and poverty are plentiful, and support for the ruling ANC is in short supply following the brutal events at Marikana. In this article, first published in the current issue of the Chimurenga Chronic, Kwanele Sosibo revisits the launch of the Economic Freedom Fighters and confronts the opportunistic benevolence, the rhetoric of revival and the promise of renewal in the land of ‘permanently incomplete’.

Julius Malema: It's Just a Jump to the Left, And Then a Step to the Right

Richard Pithouse, SACSIS

Being against [one form of] evil doesn't make you good.

- Ernest Hemingway, Islands in the Stream, 1952

Over the last ten years or so there has been an extraordinary degree of popular protest in South Africa. The seemingly incorrigible elitism of the higher reaches of our public sphere has meant that, particularly in the absence of sustained formal organisation, popular protest has seldom won the right to represent itself in this space. For years the media, NGOs, academy and political parties were able to substitute the presentation of their own assumptions, frequently inflected with crude stereotypes, for rational and democratic engagement. However now that the scale and tenacity of popular dissent is being more widely recognised there is an astonishing array of actors trying to capture it, or bits of it, including political parties, NGOs, activists of various sorts, minor political sects, entrepreneurs, tenderpreneurs and people with religious, ethnic and cultural projects.

EFF and the return of the warrior citizen

by Siphokazi Magadla, Thought Leader

The advent of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has gained much attention as the first clear reconfiguration of youth politics in post-apartheid South Africa. Much has been discussed about the policies proposed by “Commander-in-Chief” Julius Malema and his commissars, especially those regarding nationalisation and the appropriation of land. While there has been some discussion about the significance of the red beret, there has been little discussion about the significance of the military nature of the language used by the EFF. This language is important in the South African context because it demonstrates the extent to which “peace” in South Africa is evidently militarised peace.

To Grasp Things by the Root

Richard Pithouse, SACSIS

Julius Malema, unlovely as he is, is a symptom, a morbid symptom to be sure, of the crisis that we face. Any assumption that his effective expulsion from the ANC allows us to continue with business as usual will guarantee the emergence of more symptoms, different but equally morbid.

Opposing ‘tenderpreneurs’ in a democratic SA

By Imraan Buccus, October 2011 - The contradictions and levels of hypocrisy are in SA are stark. Nonetheless politics in SA is interesting and mind -boggling. But, then again, that old Chinese curse does make it clear enough that interesting times aren’t always good times. The Mercury

In the late nineties leading communists were driving the move towards privatization and the ‘restructuring of state assets’. In fact at one point in the nineties, it had become almost impossible to champion communism within the ranks of the SACP. Indeed a party member actually advocating communism was likely to be expelled from the party on the grounds of ill discipline. And in recent times, the communists are resisting the nationalizing of mines while some nationalist ‘tenderpreneurs’ demand nationalization with increasing hysteria. This must be more than a little confusing for many who would have thought that communists would naturally gravitate to, and align themselves with calls for nationalization while nationalists would oppose nationalization by all means necessary.

‘Black boers’ and other revolutionary songs

by Chris Rodrigues, LibCom

A hat tip to Mphutlane wa Bofelo for pointing out the subtext to the ANC’s claim to the “shoot the boer!” song: For is it not the case, as wa Bofelo points out, that the attempt to establish a heritage status for the song locates the struggle in the past? And what of the new songs that the poor sing today? Songs like, “amabhunu amnyama asenzela i -worry” — “black boers cause us worries”. Does this current storm in Julius Malema’s teacup not also divert attention from this reality?

Ayanda Kota on Julius Malema & the Pitfalls of National Consciousness in Contemporary South Africa

Julius Malema is a Demagogue and his Nationalization Would be Nothing but a Massive Public Subsidy for the Rich

The mass movements that have raised progressive governments to power in Latin America, the global financial crisis, the recent uprisings in the Arab world and the ongoing rebellion of the poor in our own country have all created more space for the left. The days when so many people believed that there was no alternative to capitalism and imperialism are passing. Socialism is back on the agenda. It is clear to many people that we cannot continue to organise our economy around the interests of big capital while leaving the people to suffer as they are.