The party-state in the land occupations of Zimbabwe: the case of Shamva district
- Bhatasara, Sandra, Helliker, Kirk D
- Authors: Bhatasara, Sandra , Helliker, Kirk D
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71353 , vital:29836 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909616658316
- Description: There has been significant debate about the land occupations which occurred from the year 2000 in Zimbabwe, with a key controversy concerning the role of the state and ruling party (or party-state) in the occupations. This controversy, deriving from two grand narratives about the occupations, remains unresolved. A burgeoning literature exists on the Zimbabwean state’s fast-track land reform programme, which arose in the context of the occupations, but this literature is concerned mainly with post-occupation developments on fast-track farms. This article seeks to contribute to resolving the controversy surrounding the party-state and the land occupations by examining the occupations in the Shamva District of Mashonaland Central Province. The fieldwork for our Shamva study focused exclusively on the land occupations (and not on the fast-track farms) and was undertaken in May 2015. We conclude from our Shamva study that involvement by the party-state did not take on an institutionalised form but was of a personalised character entailing interventions by specific party and state actors.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Bhatasara, Sandra , Helliker, Kirk D
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71353 , vital:29836 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909616658316
- Description: There has been significant debate about the land occupations which occurred from the year 2000 in Zimbabwe, with a key controversy concerning the role of the state and ruling party (or party-state) in the occupations. This controversy, deriving from two grand narratives about the occupations, remains unresolved. A burgeoning literature exists on the Zimbabwean state’s fast-track land reform programme, which arose in the context of the occupations, but this literature is concerned mainly with post-occupation developments on fast-track farms. This article seeks to contribute to resolving the controversy surrounding the party-state and the land occupations by examining the occupations in the Shamva District of Mashonaland Central Province. The fieldwork for our Shamva study focused exclusively on the land occupations (and not on the fast-track farms) and was undertaken in May 2015. We conclude from our Shamva study that involvement by the party-state did not take on an institutionalised form but was of a personalised character entailing interventions by specific party and state actors.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
A feminist perspective on autonomism and commoning, with reference to Zimbabwe
- Alexander, Tarryn, Helliker, Kirk D
- Authors: Alexander, Tarryn , Helliker, Kirk D
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71374 , vital:29838 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2016.1235353
- Description: This article engages with the autonomist Marxism of John Holloway from a feminist standpoint. The positions developed by this feminist critique are used to shed new light on the land occupations in contemporary Zimbabwe. Though sympathetic to his work, we argue that Holloway does not sufficiently address gender identity with specific reference to social reproduction and women. The notions of the commons and the process of commoning are consistent with Holloway’s autonomist framework and its complementarities to Silvia Federici’s Marxist feminist lens on the commons is highlighted. Against a tendency within autonomist and commoning theories, we argue for a pronounced identitarian politics as grounded in localised struggles undertaken by women as women. We privilege the significance of women asserting and revaluing their identities as part of a possible project of transformation. For us, struggling against and beyond what exists is invariably rooted in struggles within what exists (including identities).
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Alexander, Tarryn , Helliker, Kirk D
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71374 , vital:29838 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2016.1235353
- Description: This article engages with the autonomist Marxism of John Holloway from a feminist standpoint. The positions developed by this feminist critique are used to shed new light on the land occupations in contemporary Zimbabwe. Though sympathetic to his work, we argue that Holloway does not sufficiently address gender identity with specific reference to social reproduction and women. The notions of the commons and the process of commoning are consistent with Holloway’s autonomist framework and its complementarities to Silvia Federici’s Marxist feminist lens on the commons is highlighted. Against a tendency within autonomist and commoning theories, we argue for a pronounced identitarian politics as grounded in localised struggles undertaken by women as women. We privilege the significance of women asserting and revaluing their identities as part of a possible project of transformation. For us, struggling against and beyond what exists is invariably rooted in struggles within what exists (including identities).
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
Politics at a distance from the state: radical, South African and Zimbabwean praxis today
- Helliker, Kirk D, van der Walt, Lucien
- Authors: Helliker, Kirk D , van der Walt, Lucien
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71364 , vital:29837 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2016.1240792
- Description: For decades, most anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements identified radical social transformation with the capture of state power. The collapse of supposedly enabling states led recently to a crisis of left and working class politics. But this has also opened space for the rediscovery of society-centred, anti-capitalist modes of bottom-up change, labelled as ‘at a distance’ politics. These modes have registered important successes in practice, such as the Zapatistas in Mexico, and have involved strands of anarchism and syndicalism, and autonomist Marxism. This article, an introduction to a collection of papers emerging from a 2012 conference of academics and activists in South Africa, aims to help articulate an understanding of social transformation from below that has been analytically and politically side-lined not only in South Africa (and Zimbabwe), but globally. In doing so, it provides a preliminary attempt to map and create a dialogue between three major positions within the broad category of ‘at a distance’ politics.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Helliker, Kirk D , van der Walt, Lucien
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71364 , vital:29837 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2016.1240792
- Description: For decades, most anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements identified radical social transformation with the capture of state power. The collapse of supposedly enabling states led recently to a crisis of left and working class politics. But this has also opened space for the rediscovery of society-centred, anti-capitalist modes of bottom-up change, labelled as ‘at a distance’ politics. These modes have registered important successes in practice, such as the Zapatistas in Mexico, and have involved strands of anarchism and syndicalism, and autonomist Marxism. This article, an introduction to a collection of papers emerging from a 2012 conference of academics and activists in South Africa, aims to help articulate an understanding of social transformation from below that has been analytically and politically side-lined not only in South Africa (and Zimbabwe), but globally. In doing so, it provides a preliminary attempt to map and create a dialogue between three major positions within the broad category of ‘at a distance’ politics.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
Patriarchy, women, land and livelihoods on A1 farms in Zimbabwe
- Chiweshe, Manase K, Chakona, Loveness, Helliker, Kirk D
- Authors: Chiweshe, Manase K , Chakona, Loveness , Helliker, Kirk D
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71204 , vital:29812 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909614541083
- Description: In this article, we focus on patriarchy, women, land and livelihoods on A1 farms in Zimbabwe which arose from the fast track land reform programme. There is now significant literature on A1 farms in Zimbabwe. These studies include a number of ethnographic and comparative studies but this literature does not give sustained attention to patriarchy and women. In addition, though, a small number of works have appeared based upon a more focused gender analysis. We draw upon this more focused literature and offer fresh fieldwork evidence based on recent studies undertaken by two of the authors, in Goromonzi and Mazowe districts. At times, radical socio-spatial reorganisation such as fast track may destabilise systems of patriarchy. In the case of fast track, there has been a reconfiguration of relations between men and women yet this is uneven and contradictory and remains within the confines of patriarchal structures, practices and discourses. At the same time, women have manoeuvred and negotiated at local levels to enhance their lives and livelihoods.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Chiweshe, Manase K , Chakona, Loveness , Helliker, Kirk D
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71204 , vital:29812 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909614541083
- Description: In this article, we focus on patriarchy, women, land and livelihoods on A1 farms in Zimbabwe which arose from the fast track land reform programme. There is now significant literature on A1 farms in Zimbabwe. These studies include a number of ethnographic and comparative studies but this literature does not give sustained attention to patriarchy and women. In addition, though, a small number of works have appeared based upon a more focused gender analysis. We draw upon this more focused literature and offer fresh fieldwork evidence based on recent studies undertaken by two of the authors, in Goromonzi and Mazowe districts. At times, radical socio-spatial reorganisation such as fast track may destabilise systems of patriarchy. In the case of fast track, there has been a reconfiguration of relations between men and women yet this is uneven and contradictory and remains within the confines of patriarchal structures, practices and discourses. At the same time, women have manoeuvred and negotiated at local levels to enhance their lives and livelihoods.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2015
Marxisms past and present
- Helliker, Kirk D, Vale, Peter C J
- Authors: Helliker, Kirk D , Vale, Peter C J
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71263 , vital:29825 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513612470532
- Description: Marxism was central to the understanding of South Africa’s struggle for freedom. This article provides a critical analysis of Marxist literature on South Africa since the 1970s, drawing out its relevance for contemporary analyses of the post-apartheid state and for radical politics today. It suggests that while the literature offered important insights into the character of the apartheid state, it failed to provide a critical appraisal of the state per se. Moreover, the capturing of state power by the liberation movement was not grounded in an understanding of the oppressive character of the state-form. The undermining of mainstream Marxism under neo-liberalizing conditions in post-apartheid South Africa has opened up the prospects for anti-statist radical libertarian thinking (including autonomist Marxism), and this thinking is consistent with the practices of certain autonomist popular politics currently emerging. Social theorizing on South Africa has had a complex relationship with Marxism. This article is interested in drawing on this experience in an effort to understand its implications for the ‘new’ South Africa where, 20 years after apartheid’s formal ending, social transformation remains caught in the logic not of Marxism but neo-liberalizing capitalism.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Helliker, Kirk D , Vale, Peter C J
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71263 , vital:29825 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513612470532
- Description: Marxism was central to the understanding of South Africa’s struggle for freedom. This article provides a critical analysis of Marxist literature on South Africa since the 1970s, drawing out its relevance for contemporary analyses of the post-apartheid state and for radical politics today. It suggests that while the literature offered important insights into the character of the apartheid state, it failed to provide a critical appraisal of the state per se. Moreover, the capturing of state power by the liberation movement was not grounded in an understanding of the oppressive character of the state-form. The undermining of mainstream Marxism under neo-liberalizing conditions in post-apartheid South Africa has opened up the prospects for anti-statist radical libertarian thinking (including autonomist Marxism), and this thinking is consistent with the practices of certain autonomist popular politics currently emerging. Social theorizing on South Africa has had a complex relationship with Marxism. This article is interested in drawing on this experience in an effort to understand its implications for the ‘new’ South Africa where, 20 years after apartheid’s formal ending, social transformation remains caught in the logic not of Marxism but neo-liberalizing capitalism.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2013
Radical thinking in South Africa’s age of retreat
- Helliker, Kirk D, Vale, Peter C J
- Authors: Helliker, Kirk D , Vale, Peter C J
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71214 , vital:29818 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909612442654
- Description: This article traces the rise and fall of radical praxis in South Africa and offers a critique of the prevailing practices of former Marxists under post-apartheid conditions. Western Marxism emerged in the 1970s in South Africa and Marxist activists became deeply involved in the liberation movements. With the unravelling of apartheid, the main liberation forces made a social pact with capitalist forces and former Marxists embraced a statist project. In the context of the rise of ‘new’ social movements, radical thinking of a more Libertarian kind is emerging in contemporary South Africa.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Helliker, Kirk D , Vale, Peter C J
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71214 , vital:29818 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909612442654
- Description: This article traces the rise and fall of radical praxis in South Africa and offers a critique of the prevailing practices of former Marxists under post-apartheid conditions. Western Marxism emerged in the 1970s in South Africa and Marxist activists became deeply involved in the liberation movements. With the unravelling of apartheid, the main liberation forces made a social pact with capitalist forces and former Marxists embraced a statist project. In the context of the rise of ‘new’ social movements, radical thinking of a more Libertarian kind is emerging in contemporary South Africa.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2012
Transcending objectifications and dualisms: farm workers and civil society in contemporary Zimbabwe
- Sadomba, Zvakanyorwa W, Helliker, Kirk D
- Authors: Sadomba, Zvakanyorwa W , Helliker, Kirk D
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71242 , vital:29822 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909609357417
- Description: In the academic literature, civil society is often conceptualized in terms of objectifications and subject—object dichotomies. This is the case with regard to both social movements and non-governmental organizations. This article seeks to transcend such argumentation by providing ‘thick descriptions’ of the agency of farm workers and civil society in the context of land reform in contemporary Zimbabwe. We examine a land-based social movement (and the role of farm workers within it) and the involvement of a particular non-governmental organization in farm worker livelihoods. On this basis, we offer a re-formulation of civil society as a social field marked by ambivalences and tensions.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Sadomba, Zvakanyorwa W , Helliker, Kirk D
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71242 , vital:29822 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909609357417
- Description: In the academic literature, civil society is often conceptualized in terms of objectifications and subject—object dichotomies. This is the case with regard to both social movements and non-governmental organizations. This article seeks to transcend such argumentation by providing ‘thick descriptions’ of the agency of farm workers and civil society in the context of land reform in contemporary Zimbabwe. We examine a land-based social movement (and the role of farm workers within it) and the involvement of a particular non-governmental organization in farm worker livelihoods. On this basis, we offer a re-formulation of civil society as a social field marked by ambivalences and tensions.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2010
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