It presents a profound paradox that the end of formal apartheid in South Africa and the political ascendancy of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress have also signalled the disintegration of people’s power and the marginalisation of a once formidable anti-capitalist Left. Those who refused to be defeated and insisted that a better world was still possible asked anew, What is to be done? Their answer was to build a new Independent Left, using the Non-Governmental Organisation as their primary tool.
This dissertation examines two leftist NGOs with distinct political approaches to organising, which have shaped formal anti-capitalist strategies in Cape Town over the past decade. The Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), an activist space, policy think-tank, and alternative media centre, has aimed to restore the politics of the united front by bringing together employed and unemployed workers to lead a new eco-socialist Left alternative. Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU), an activist research and legal centre focusing on housing in the inner city, has fostered an inspiring movement of building occupiers and aimed to deconstruct the legacy of the apartheid city. Through a militant commitment to this wider Independent Left community, I have accompanied these organisations in their efforts, seeking to understand the role they can play in improving society.
This dissertation investigates the central question of how to effectively utilize NGOs in the struggle for freedom and equality within the context of neoliberal capitalism. It has become clear that intellectual genealogies and ideological fortitude have laid the political foundation of these projects. Combined with the NGO’s formal and hierarchical structure, key themes that define the practices of these organisations have emerged. Matters of dependency and control, as well as organising and leadership, have been crucial features of these projects. This has engendered tensions within the organisations between technocratic and intellectual modes of rule, as well as resistance to these governing structures. Taken together, this analysis provides a window into the possibilities and limitations that these organisational tools offer for radically reimagining our world.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:columbia.edu/oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/ggcb-9g91 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Sacks, Jared |
| Source Sets | Columbia University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Theses |
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