In the rubble of US imperialism
This article highlights how the US state created the conditions in the Middle East in which a right-wing reactionary force like the Islamic State (formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham) could emerge. Along with this – and central to the article – it discusses how the US state is refusing to back the only two effective forces that are fighting the Islamic State: the Kurdish Workers’ Party and the People’s Protection Units. Indeed, this article is also written to express solidarity with the People’s Protection Units that are currently fighting a key battle against the Islamic State to hold onto the city of Kobani in Syria.
TAAC Statement of Intent (English)
Adopted at TAAC general meeting,
16 March 2013
A. What is the TAAC?
The Tokologo African Anarchist Collective is a loose collective of anarchists and anarchist-sympathisers who are community and worker activists. Its members function primarily as educators.
Tokologo #3 posters
TAAC Statement of Intent (isiZulu)
A. TAAC ke eng?
Tokologo African Anarchist Collective ke mokgatlo o o ekemetseng wa di anarchist (go ipusa ga batho) le ba ema nokeng ba go ipusa ga batho ba e reng ba batla phetogo setjhabeng le ditirong. Ba tsa karolo ba dira jaaka barutisi TAAC e kopana gangwe le gape go ithuta le go atisa megopolo ya go ipusa ga batho mo bathong ba ba di kobo khutswane mo Afrika borwa.
TAAC Statement of Intent (isiXhosa)
A. Yintoni iTAAC?
iTokologo African Anarchist Collective yindibaniso ye zimvo ezidityaniswe phantsi kwe anarchist kunye nabantu abavumelana, abaxhasa umhlanhlandlela nezimvo ze anarchism. Abanje nga abahlali kunye nabasebenzi. Ifuna ukukdibanisa rhoqo ukufundisa kunye nokusebenzela ukusaphaza imfundiso phakathi kwabasebenzi abahlala eMzansi Afrika.
The International Socialist League: laying the foundations
Compiled by Warren McGregor (TAAC, ZACF)
What was the ISL and what were its aims?
The International Socialist League (ISL) was a revolutionary syndicalist political organisation founded in Johannesburg in 1915. Many founders were militants who had broken from the South African Labour Party (SALP) over its support for the British Imperial war effort in World War I. They were opposed to capitalist war and imperialism.
The ISL aimed to organise “One Big Union” of the entire South African working class to fight for the overthrow of capitalism and the taking over of society by the working class, for the working class.
What did the ISL say about race?
Key to this project in the South African context was the breaking of the racial divisions within the working class. This required raising the specific demands of black workers for equality with white workers, in order to practically unite all workers and to enable them to work together toward “their common emancipation from wage slavery.”
T.W. Thibedi and the Industrial Workers of Africa, April-July 1919
by Lucien van der Walt
T.W. Thibedi, radical school-teacher, was a leading figure in the anarchist / syndicalist International Socialist League (ISL) and the revolutionary syndicalist Industrial Workers of Africa (IWA) union. He was involved in late 1910s struggles, like the March-April 1919 anti-pass law campaign on the Witwatersrand. The campaign had been driven by more radical members of the Transvaal ANC — including members of the revolutionary ISL and IWA, like Fred Cetiwe and Hamilton Kraai. But the campaign was called off by conservative leaders of the South African Native National Congress (now the African National Congress, ANC).
