Politics at a distance from the state: radical, South African and Zimbabwean praxis today

Helliker, Kirk D; van der Walt, Lucien

Title: Politics at a distance from the state: radical, South African and Zimbabwean praxis today
Creator: Helliker, Kirk D
Creator: van der Walt, Lucien
Date Issued: 2016
Date: 2016
Type: text
Type: article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71364
Identifier: vital:29837
Identifier: 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.
Format: 19 pages
Format: pdf
Language: English
Relation: Journal of Contemporary African Studies
Relation: Helliker, K. and van der Walt, L., 2016. Politics at a distance from the state: radical, South African and Zimbabwean praxis today. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 34(3), pp.312-331.
Relation: Journal of Contemporary African Studies volume 34 number 3 331 312 October 2016 0258-9001
Rights: Taylor and Francis
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Taylor and Francis Online Open Journals statement (https://www.tandfonline.com/openaccess/openjournals)

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Helliker, Kirk (Prof)

RU Department of Sociology

RU Department of Political and International Studies

Van der Walt, Lucien (Prof)

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