Lucien van der Walt

Last updated

Lucien van der Walt
Born (1972-09-08) 8 September 1972 (age 51)
Krugersdorp, South Africa
NationalitySouth African
Occupation(s)Professor and labour educator
Website lucienvanderwalt.wordpress.com

Lucien van der Walt (born 8 September 1972) is a South African writer, professor of Sociology and labour educator. His research engages the anarchist/syndicalist tradition of Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin; trade unionism and working class history, particularly in southern Africa; and neoliberal state restructuring. He currently teaches and researches at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, and previously worked at the University of the Witwatersrand. His 2007 PhD on anarchism and syndicalism in South Africa in the early 1900s won both the international prize for the best PhD dissertation from the Labor History journal, and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa prize for best African PhD thesis. [1]

Contents

Van der Walt is also involved in union and workers' education, including for the DITSELA workers education institute, and a coordinating and teaching role in the Global Labour University, [2] the former National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa Social Theory course at the University of the Witwatersrand, the former Workers Library and Museum, the political schools of the South African Unemployed Peoples' Movement and the current Eastern Cape short course program for metal workers' unions at Rhodes University. [3] He is the 'former head' of media for the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), a coalition of social movements, [4] which was established in Johannesburg in July 2000 by activists and organisations involved in two key anti-privatisation struggles: the struggle against iGoli 2002, and the struggle against Wits 2001 at Wits University.

Books

Related Research Articles

Libertarian socialism is an anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist political current that emphasises self-governance and workers' self-management. It is contrasted from other forms of socialism by its rejection of state ownership and from other forms of libertarianism by its rejection of private property. Broadly defined, it includes schools of both anarchism and Marxism, as well as other tendencies that oppose the state and capitalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syndicalism</span> Form of revolutionary organisation

Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the labour movement that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes, with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of production and the economy at large through social ownership. Developed in French labor unions during the late 19th century, syndicalist movements were most predominant amongst the socialist movement during the interwar period that preceded the outbreak of World War II.

Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade unions as both a means to achieve immediate improvements to working conditions and to build towards a social revolution in the form of a general strike, with the ultimate aim of abolishing the state and capitalism. Anarcho-syndicalists consider trade unions to be the prefiguration of a post-capitalist society and seek to use them in order to establish workers' control of production and distribution. An anti-political ideology, anarcho-syndicalism rejects political parties and participation in parliamentary politics, considering them to be a corrupting influence on the labour movement. In order to achieve their material and economic goals, anarcho-syndicalists instead practice direct action in the form of strike actions, boycotts and sabotage. Anarcho-syndicalists also attempt to build solidarity among the working class, in order to unite workers against the exploitation of labour and build workers' self-management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">General Confederation of Labour (Spain)</span> Spanish trade union

The General Confederation of Labour is a Spanish trade union federation. Formed as a faction of the National Confederation of Labour (CNT) during the Spanish transition to democracy, its support for participation in union elections led it to split from the organisation, which prohibited participation. After losing a lengthy legal battle for the name, the pro-electoral faction renamed itself to the CGT and reorganised itself as an independent trade union center.

Ha Ki-Rak was a professor and major figure in Korean anarchism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchism in Africa</span>

Anarchism in Africa refers both to purported anarchic political organisation of some traditional African societies and to modern anarchist movements in Africa.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unione Sindacale Italiana</span> Italian trade union

The Italian Syndicalist Union is an Italian anarcho-syndicalist trade union. Established in 1912 by a confederation of "houses of labour", the USI led a series of general strikes throughout its early years, culminating with the Red Week insurrection against the Italian entry into World War I. During the Biennio Rosso, the USI was at the forefront of the occupation of factories, which saw hundreds of workplaces throughout the country brought under the control of workers' councils. The USI also led the establishment of the International Workers' Association (IWA), which became the main international organisation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchism in Ireland</span> Political movement in the Republic of Ireland

Anarchism in Ireland has its roots in the stateless organisation of the tuatha in Gaelic Ireland. It first began to emerge from the libertarian socialist tendencies within the Irish republican movement, with anarchist individuals and organisations sprouting out of the resurgent socialist movement during the 1880s, particularly gaining prominence during the time of the Dublin Socialist League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argentine Regional Workers' Federation</span>

The Argentine Regional Workers' Federation, founded in 1901, was Argentina's first national labor confederation. It split into two wings in 1915, the larger of which merged into the Argentine Syndicates' Union (USA) in 1922, while the smaller slowly disappeared in the 1930s.

The Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) was a trade union and mass-based popular political movement in southern Africa. It was influenced by the syndicalist politics of the Industrial Workers of the World, as well as by Garveyism, Christianity, communism, and liberalism.

The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) was established in Johannesburg in July 2000 by activists and organisations involved in two key anti-privatisation struggles: the struggle against iGoli 2002, and the struggle against Wits 2001 at Wits University. The APF had affiliates from the unions, communities, students and the left: while most affiliates were township-based community movements, it also included small leftwing political groups, like Keep Left and the anarchist Bikisha Media Collective.

<i>Black Flame</i> (book) 2009 book written by Lucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt

Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism is a book written by Lucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt that deals with "the ideas, history and relevance of the broad anarchist tradition through a survey of 150 years of global history." The book includes a preface by Scottish anarchist and former political prisoner Stuart Christie.

Anarchism in Egypt refers both to the historical Egyptian anarchist movement which emerged in the 1860s and lasted until the 1940s, and to the anarchist movement as it has re-emerged in the early 2000s. Anarchism was first introduced to Egypt by Italian immigrant workers and political exiles in the 1860s. The Italian community in Egypt was one of numerous such communities of expatriate workers whose presence in Egypt dated to the modernisation programme of Muhammad Ali, Wāli of Egypt from 1805 to 1849, as part of which the immigration of foreigners with useful skills was encouraged. This process was accelerated under Ali's successors, in particular with the construction of the Suez Canal in the 1850s.

The International Socialist League of South Africa was the earliest major Marxist party in South Africa, and a predecessor of the South African Communist Party. The ISL was founded around the syndicalist politics of the Industrial Workers of the World and Daniel De Leon.

Taiji Yamaga (1892-1970) was a Japanese anarchist and Esperantist. Taiji Yamaga was born in 1892 to a printing family in Kyoto. Yamaga moved to Tokyo, where he studied Esperanto with historian and Esperantist Katsumu Kuroita. At age sixteen, Yamaga served as the secretary of Kuroita's Japan Esperanto Society. In 1911, Yamaga was introduced to anarchist Sakae Osugi. Yamaga became an assistant to anarchist Osugi. At Osugi's request, Yamaga visited Chinese anarchist Liu Shifu and his comrades in Shanghai. He stayed at Shifu's headquarter for several weeks. Shifu invited Yamaga to help him publish the journal Minsheng.

The Workers' Library and Museum was a non-profit labour service organisation (LSO) active in Johannesburg, South Africa between 1987 and the early 2000s. The organisation provided a meeting and learning centre for labour activists as well as students from the nearby Alexandra and Soweto areas. In 1994, it was expanded into the Workers and Museum in Newtown, Johannesburg, with the only museum in South Africa focussed on working people other than the Slave Lodge, Cape Town.

The Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers of South Africa (AUBTWSA) is a trade union representing workers in the construction industry in South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mário Castelhano</span> Portuguese trade unionist (1896–1940)

Mário Castelhano (1896–1940) was a Portuguese anarcho-syndicalist, railway worker and journalist. During the time of the First Portuguese Republic, he began organising strike actions within the General Confederation of Labour (CGT). He edited the organisation's various newspapers, including that of the railway workers' union, during the early 1920s. He was elected general secretary of the CGT after the establishment of the National Dictatorship and was arrested for his part in the February 1927 Revolt, following which the CGT was banned. Exiled, he went on to participate in the Madeira uprising and later clandestinely returned to Portugal, where he organised the Portuguese general strike of 1934. He was again arrested and deported, later dying in Tarrafal concentration camp in Cape Verde. His memoirs about his exile in Angola, in which he clearly expressed his views on anti-colonialism and anti-racism, were published posthumously in 1975.

The history of anarcho-syndicalism dates back to the anti-authoritarian faction of the International Workingmen's Association. Revolutionary syndicalism as a tendency was constituted in the 1890s by the French General Confederation of Labour (CGT), which became a model union for other syndicalist organisations to base themselves on. Anarchists were involved in the syndicalist movement from the outset and a specific anarchist tendency developed within the movement over the subsequent decades.

References

  1. Wits News, 6 May 2010, 'Wits Scholar Lucien van der Walt Wins CODESRIA Award', https://lucienvanderwalt.wordpress.com/2017/05/27/press-wits-scholar-lucien-van-eer-walt-wins-codesria-award/
  2. "The Global Labour University: The GLU Partner Network". Archived from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  3. "Professor Lucien van der Walt". 16 July 2012.
  4. Dale McKinley, 2010, Transition's Child: The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), Johannesburg: South African History Archive, p. 111, available at http://www.saha.org.za/publications/anti_privatisation_forum.htm