The Democratic Alliance is a South African political party and the official opposition to the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The party is broadly centrist, and has been attributed both centre-left and centre-right policies. It is a member of Liberal International and the Africa Liberal Network. The DA traces its roots to the founding of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party in 1959, with many mergers and name changes between that time and the present. The DA ideologically shows a variety of liberal tendencies, including social liberalism, classical liberalism, and conservative liberalism.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is a trade union federation in South Africa. It was founded in 1985 and is the largest of the country's three main trade union federations, with 21 affiliated trade unions.
Anarchism in South Africa dates to the 1880s, and played a major role in the labour and socialist movements from the turn of the twentieth century through to the 1920s. The early South African anarchist movement was strongly syndicalist. The ascendance of Marxism–Leninism following the Russian Revolution, along with state repression, resulted in most of the movement going over to the Comintern line, with the remainder consigned to irrelevance. There were slight traces of anarchist or revolutionary syndicalist influence in some of the independent left-wing groups which resisted the apartheid government from the 1970s onward, but anarchism and revolutionary syndicalism as a distinct movement only began re-emerging in South Africa in the early 1990s. It remains a minority current in South African politics.
The Africa Liberal Network is an organization composed of 47 political parties from 29 countries in Africa. It is an associated organisation of Liberal International, the political family to which liberal democratic parties belong. The ALN serves to promote liberal objectives and principles throughout the continent.
Social movement unionism (SMU) is a trend of theory and practice in contemporary trade unionism. Strongly associated with the labour movements of developing countries, social movement unionism is distinct from many other models of trade unionism because it concerns itself with more than organizing workers around workplace issues, pay and terms and conditions. It engages in wider political struggles for human rights, social justice and democracy. Social movement unionism grew out of political struggles in developing countries and was theorized as a distinct industrial relations model in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Municipal elections were held in South Africa on 1 March 2006, to elect members to the local governing councils in the municipalities of South Africa. The municipalities form the local government of South Africa and are subdivisions of the provinces, thus making them responsible for local service delivery, such as electricity, water and fire services.
Abahlali baseMjondolo is a shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which organises land occupations, builds collectives, and campaigns against evictions and xenophobia and for public housing. The movement grew out of a road blockade organised from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in the city of Durban. As of June 2021 it claims to have "more than 100 000 members in 86 branches across five provinces". It has been described as "certainly the largest, most independent, militant and progressive social movement in post-apartheid South Africa".
General elections were held in South Africa on 22 April 2009 to elect members of the National Assembly and provincial legislatures. These were the fourth general elections held since the end of the apartheid era.
The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign was a non-racial popular movement made up of poor and oppressed communities in Cape Town, South Africa. It was formed in 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.
The Homeless Workers Movement is a social movement in Brazil. It originated from the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra. Although the MTST can trace its first urban activism efforts to the occupation of Campinas in São Paulo during the 1997 National People’s March, this intervention was organized within the Landless Rural Worker’s Rural Movement (MST) structure. The first proper occupation as a new sociopolitical actor, distinct from the MST, took place in Guarulhos in 2002. It was named after Anita Garibaldi, considered to be a radical social reformer during her lifetime.
The Landless People's Movement was an independent social movement in South Africa. It consisted of rural people and people living in shack settlements in cities. The Landless People's Movement boycotted parliamentary elections and had a history of conflict with the African National Congress. The Landless People's Movement was affiliated to Via Campesina internationally and its Johannesburg branches to the Poor People's Alliance in South Africa.
The Poor People's Alliance is a network of radical grassroots movements in South Africa. It was formed in 2008 after the Action Alliance, formed in December 2006, was expanded to include two more organisations.
No Land! No House! No Vote! is the name of a campaign by a number of poor people's movements in South Africa that calls for the boycotting of the vote and a general rejection of party politics and vote banking. The name is meant to imply that if government does not deliver on issues important to affected communities these movements will not vote.
South Africa has been dubbed "the protest capital of the world", with one of the highest rates of public protests in the world.
Since its formation in 2008, the Social Justice Coalition has worked to advance the constitutional rights to life, dignity, equality, freedom and safety for all people, but especially those living in informal settlements across South Africa. While these rights are protected and promoted by our constitution, people do not feel them in their every day lives. Founded in 2008, the SJC is a membership-based social movement made up of 12 branches, located mainly in informal settlements across Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Our campaigns are based on ongoing research, education, and advocacy and divided across two programmes. The Local Government Programme leads the work on sanitation, budgets, and urban land. The Safety and Justice Programme is focused on policing and the criminal justice system.
The Constitution of South Africa protects all basic political freedoms. However, there have been many incidents of political repression, dating back to at least 2002, as well as threats of future repression in violation of this constitution leading some analysts, civil society organisations and popular movements to conclude that there is a new climate of political repression or a decline in political tolerance.
Occupy South Africa was a South African initiative primarily aimed at protesting and inciting mass action against the racial, economic and social inequality in South Africa. It is part of the globally Occupy Wall Street movement. It consists of a loose informal affiliation of on the ground groups and individuals across South Africa as well as internet based groups. Groups such as Taking Back South Africa!, Occupy South Africa are involved in South Africa and online. The movement is also involved with the Marikana miners' strike.
The Patriotic Alliance (PA) is a South African political party, formed in November 2013 by, among others, businessman Gayton McKenzie and former English Teacher turned businessman and socialite Kenny Kunene;
There is a growing List of social movements in South Africa, amongst these is the youth-led non-partisan InkuluFreeHeid Organisation. The majority of social movements have a particular focus on the housing crisis in urban area while others range from focusing on HIV/AIDS, working conditions, unemployment, access to service delivery and issues of democracy, transparency and accountability.
The May 2008 South African riots was a wave of xenophobic of riots starting in Alexandra, Gauteng on 12 May 2008 and then spreading to other locations across South Africa. The violence started when South African residents of Alexandra attacked migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, killing two people and injuring 40 others. Some attackers were reported to have been singing Jacob Zuma's campaign song Umshini Wami.
