South African Anarchists Organise

In 1989 one of the first anarchist organisations in modern 
African history came into existence.  This was the 
Awareness League of Nigeria.  The AL had a membership 
of over 1000 people at the time of its formation and, 
despite the severe repression in that country, it has 
continued to function as one of the organisations fighting 
the military dictatorship there.
Now a further organisation has begun to work for the 
objective of anarchism in Africa - this is the Workers 
Solidarity Federation (WSF) of South Africa.  The WSF 
was formed in 1994 and it publishes a newspaper called 
Workers Solidarity.

APARTHEID 
The first issue of this paper contains major articles on 
Anarchism, the Student Struggles in South Africa, the 
current situation in Nigeria and the recent local elections 
in South Africa.  In a short article on the 1994 General 
Election the WSF note that the election - and the formal 
ending of apartheid - was a massive advance for the 
struggle in South Africa allowing for freedom of 
association and speech for the right to strike and protest.  
Further on, however, they warn that the legacy of 
apartheid is still with us.  2.3 million South Africans 
suffer from malnutrition.  Only 45% live in houses.  Only 
2 out of every 10 Africans finish school At the same time, 
5% of the population own 80% of the wealth.  The WSF 
notes that the ANC government has set itself very 
limited goals to redress this.
The WSF is, at this stage, a very young organisation.  Yet, 
its very existence at this time in South Africa is proof 
positive that anarchist ideas are growing again as an 
important force on the left.  Anarchists and socialists 
everywhere will wish them the very best.  The WSF can 
be contacted at PO Box 1717, Rosettenville, Joburg 2130, 
South Africa.  Please send a donation if you want a copy 
of their paper, Workers Solidarity.

Anarchist students win in Australian NUS election

Reports from Australia indicate that an anarchist influenced 
student initiative called the Non-Aligned-Left has been 
elected to almost all the regional National Union of 
Students officer ships and is the largest faction on the 
national officer ships.  The NUS represents some 450,000 
students.  It is the first time the Australian Labour Party has 
lost control of any state NUS branch and the first time non-
Labour factions have had a majority on the national 
executive.

According to NAL activist Marcus Westbury "The NAL has 
existed for only 2 years. They have grown from a handful of 
delegates to the second largest NUS faction primarily 
because of their commitment to participatory decision 
making, a non hierachial structure, and their non binding 
nature."

Czech anarchists mobilise against fascists

According to a local correspondent, there was a day of 
action against "racism, fascism and police terror" in 
Brno in the Czech Republic on December 9th 1995 
organised by the Czech Anarchist Federation and Czech 
Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP).  There 
has been a rise in both paramilitary fascist groups and 
'respectable' parliamentary ones in recent years 
growing out of both anti-Gypsy and anti-immigration 
racism.  Some 60% of Czechs, according to polls, are 
hostile to Gypsies.

A number of people have been killed in recent years by 
fascists but the police ignored the fact that these killings 
have been carried out by fascists.  A previous but 
smaller anti-fascist march in 1992 was attacked by a big 
group of fascists but this time the larger march spotted, 
attacked and drove off a gang of fascists despite the 
police attempting to protect the fascists.  Three people, 
all anti-fascists,  were arrested after this incident.

513 anarchists arrested in Greece

On November 18th this year after an overnight battle 
with police and fascist gangs on one side and Greek 
anarchists on the other riot police stormed Athens 
Polytechnic and arrested 513 of the 2000 mostly 
anarchist occupiers.

The occupation of the polytechnic is an annual 
demonstration to commemorate the massacre of 
students carried out there in 1973 by the brutal military 
junta which then ruled the country.  The media 
attempted to portray the occupation as the work of a 
handful of teenage hooligans and went as far as using 
'live' footage which was actually from riots last year.  In 
actual fact of those arrested only 40 were under 18.

One eyewitness reported how "one man was caught by 
the police in the evening. He was brutally beaten up by 
25 police officers. He was taken behind a police car and 
kicked on the  head by high-rank police officers, he was 
already unconscious. He was then delivered to the 
hospital. Reporters' videos' of that scene were taken 
away by the police. Other reporters helped wipe the 
blood of the street."

In the course of the attack and defence of the building 
some 2.5 million dollars of damage was done to the 
building.  Not surprisingly the anarchists were charged 
not only for this damage but also with 'invading the 
Polytechnic', and 'destroying a national symbol' by 
burning Greek flags.  Over 100 have now been 
sentenced to jail terms of between 4 and 40 months.  
This is the latest of an apparent wave of repression 
directed at Greek anarchists which has included bizarre 
accusations like blaming them for the forest fire that 
swept a suburb of Athens this year.
