Trying Times
March 11, 2025, News from JAH 2
Oh, just read the paper, turn on your TV
You see folks demonstrating about equality
But maybe folks wouldn't have to suffer
If there was more love for your brother
But these are tryin' times
Roberta Flack, Tryin' Times, 1969
Rest In Power
Soul Rebels,
Greetings. Welcome to JAH’s second newsletter.
Before I go any further let me briefly explain the purpose and structure of this newsletter. Scientific research shows the average attention span on screen has dropped to just seven seconds! Understanding this – but whilst recognising that JAH’s readership is not average – I am going to try to compose JAH News according to the principles of what Axios calls Smart Brevity. I will communicate information I think you need to know; join dots you may have missed; provide extensive use of links to valuable articles that should be read in your own time … and try to inspire and lift your spirits a bit!
Hold me to this standard and let me know when you think I’m failing.
Thumbs Up
The saga of South Africa’s 2025/26 budget will reach a denouement when budget 2.0 is presented to Parliament tomorrow.
Disastrous VAT increase aside, one of the big steps forward in the withdrawn budget was an unprecedented allocation of an additional R10 billion to the Early Childhood Development (ECD) subsidy.
This recognition of young children’s rights is the result of excellent campaigns by ECD activists, marshalling evidence and making the argument for ECD. Organisations like Real Reform for ECD, Ilifa Labantwana and the Centre for Early Childhood Development. The question now is whether ECD will survive in budget 2.0. The Finance Minister pretends the cupboard is bare without a VAT rise. Many well-informed activists disagree, pointing out how whilst protesting poverty the Treasury conveniently ignores the stocked cupboards of resources hidden outside the current macroeconomic framework straightjacket.
My recommendation: Watch economist Duma Gqubule discuss this with Sizwe Mpofu Walsh.
Thumbs down
Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Project 2025 are a clear and present danger to the world. But if you follow the mainstream media you might make two mistakes.
First mistake: thinking there is little resistance to Trumpism.
Second mistake: thinking that there’s not much else happening globally whilst Trump “floods the zone,” as Steve Bannon says.
First, there is a growing resistance.
It may not have a figurehead (yet), but whether it’s a torrent of legal action against the Executive Orders, daily street protests across the USA, resistance within US government departments, Bernie Sanders’ Tour to Fight Oligarchy and the big crowds he is drawing or economic boycotts and declining sales of Tesla Electric Vehicles (sales have declined by 76 percent in Germany); it’s growing by the day.
My recommendation: Public interest news station, Democracy Now, offers a good daily summary of people-centered news. Often uncomfortable to watch, but essential. Also check out MeidasTouch, Medhi Hassan’s Zeteo or read The Intercept, investigative journalists who are monitoring every step of the coup: We Found Elon Musk’s DOGE Email Address and We’re Fighting to Reveal His Messages
Secondly, don't be blinded by the madness of King Donald. “Flooding the zone” is intended to dizzy, distract and disorganise. Meanwhile, enormous challenges like the climate crisis aren’t on pause.
They are intensifying.
● Read this visual article in the Guardian: Two-thirds of the Earth’s surface experienced record heat in 2024. See where and by how much.
● Study this scary new report from the University of Essex: Current climate policies risk catastrophic societal and economic impacts
I’m still hoping for more global leadership from international trade unions and international civil society. Between them they have millions of supporters spread across tens of countries. In my view the climate crisis and peace/anti-war movements need to merge. Now is the time to resist and dream in step with each other.
It’s not the time for silos.
Activists bookshelf
“Today, we need a new generation of strategy hubs - formations that bring key movement leaders together to make sense of the conjuncture and develop a shared analysis and long-term plans. If we don’t devote resources to this work, the urgent and defensive action will always trump important and offensive ones.”
Solidarity: The Past, Present and Future of a World Changing Idea and Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World, are two books published in 2024 that dissect the challenge of Rethinking Activism.
Both are written by seasoned United States activists-cum-academics. Solidarity is a sweeping overview of the history, theory and practice of solidarity. It reminds us that dog-eat-dog and dog-eat-planet, is actually not the natural order of human society.
Practical Radicals - which also has a podcast - is much more action-oriented. Their message is the same: “today’s movements will have to change - a lot - to rise to this moment in history. Some of these changes will require making uncomfortable and unfamiliar shifts.”
Unfortunately, both books are expensive and not available in most book shops. Activists should think about how we can establish progressive lending libraries and book clubs.
Connection, Compassion and Culture
I started this newsletter writing about the downside of the United States, its oligarchs and elites, I should get to the end by saying something about its upside - its social movements.
At the beginning of 2025 I came across Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution on Netflix. Crip Camp is an inspiring documentary recording how people with physical and intellectual disabilities became activists and how, through protest and imaginative action, they forced the US government to introduce the most progressive laws in the world on disability. Watch it! It will revive your belief in people’s power and the beauty of rebellion.
Incidentally, no social movement is an island. The disability movement overlapped with and inspired the formation of ACT-UP in the USA, which in turn inspired the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, which inspired movements like Equal Education …. It’s why Donald Trump and the fascists behind him won’t succeed. Freedom is too deeply entrenched in the USA. That’s a big difference from Russia or China. It’s why activists should fight to protect the civic space offered by liberal human-rights based democracy.
ACTIVISM UNUSUAL: “Miracles Nestled in the Ordinary”: Beekeeping in Bosmont
Bosmont on the west of Jo’burg is not a place you associate with nature. Because of poverty it’s become a gangland, squashed between a highway and a pollution-spewing industrial area. Yet every community has its heroes.
Moegamat Jones is the founder of Jones Urban Farm and a lifelong resident of Bosmont. Since 2015 he has worked to turn a dumping ground into a local paradise.
“I started clearing the back of my house in the field in 2015. I did this because of crime and house breaking …. I moved into our property around Feb 2015 and started shortly after. My love for nature as a kid really played a big part in motivating me to start farming on the land.” Now the area has been cleared and rehabilitated through the efforts of local volunteers. Today it’s a farm that grows vegetables, herbs and fruits using sustainable practices such as composting, rainwater harvesting, and organic pest control.
On a Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago I attended a ‘Bees and Trees’ afternoon there. In the midst of urban decay there was something very special in watching young children being inducted into the wonders of bees and beekeeping.
Want to help or visit? Contact the Bosmont Green Community Project (GCP), which is a partner of Jones Urban Farm.
In my next JAH News I’ll update you on burgeoning support for the Union Against Hunger! Until then,
Mark Heywood
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The Justice and Activism Hub is a change tank for a time of change. We are committed to strengthening social justice struggles through connection, collaboration, coordination, convening and catalysing.