NALSU Labour Studies Podcast | Lucien van der Walt, Rhodes University: The History of Anarchism and Revolutionary Syndicalism in Africa

SPEAKER AND TOPIC: Lucien van der Walt, Rhodes University: Kantine Festival 2023 "The History of Anarchism and Revolutionary Syndicalism in Africa" PAPER: NALSU's director, Prof Lucien van der Walt, speaking at the 2023 "Kantine" theory festival in Germany, focused on two main phases: the 1860s-1930s, and the 1980s-present. Anarchism appeared in North Africa from the 1870s, and in southern Africa a decade later. 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; they also influenced the Ghadar Party, in East Africa, and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), in southern Africa. The movement emerged in Nigeria in the 1930s, and was active in the Algerian war of independence. Some figures moved to the communist parties, or to FRELIMO and MPLA. 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. For links to the video, slides, and Kantine: http://www.ru.ac.za/nalsu DETAILS: Recording of blended event, 2023 "Kantine" festival, Thursday,3 August 2023, Subbotnik eV, Vettersstraße 34a, Chemnitz, Germany. ABOUT NALSU: Based in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, is engaged in policy, research and workers' education. Built around a vibrant team from disciplines including Sociology and Economics & Economic History, it has active partnerships and relations with a range of advocacy, labour and research organisations. It draws strength from its location in a province where the legacy of apartheid and the cheap labour system, and the contradictions of the post-apartheid state, are keenly felt. We are named in honour of Dr Neil Hudson Aggett, a union organiser and medical doctor who died in 1982 in an apartheid jail after enduring brutality and torture. MORE: https://www.ru.ac.za/nalsu