Woe to the downpressors
16 June, 2025, News from JAH 7
These are the big fish
Who always try to eat down the small fish,
just the small fish.
I tell you what: they would do anything
To materialize their every wish.
Say: Woe to the downpressors:
They'll eat the bread of sorrow!
Bob Marley, Guiltiness, Exodus, 1977
Soul Rebels,
We are in a new order.
We are in a new age.
Some leaders of the richest and most powerful countries in the world have flipped the script on AI by showing that human beings can evolve without conscience, ethics, morality, shame and the capacity for introspection. The struggle for justice is up against a new species of ‘leader’ entirely, one devoid of compassion, entirely self-interested.
It is a dangerous time.
Greta Thunberg – who is joining the dots between militarism, genocide and climate crisis – points out that ‘The Silence of the World’s Leaders Is Deadly’.
But dangerous times spawn brave people. All over the world there are acts of opposition, big and small, public and personal. In London demonstrations against the genocide have drawn half a million people. On June 14 ‘No Kings Day’ protests across the US, organised by Indivisible, drew millions of people.
The unlawful seizure of the Madleen by Israel is being followed by the Global March to Gaza.
Writer Abraham Verghese, once an immigrant from Ethiopia, gently mocked Trump in a powerful speech at the Harvard Commencement. Over 400 writers signed a joint letter condemning the genocide.
Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City FC, used the award of an honorary degree to speak out. So do Liverpool FC. Brilliant Irish rap group, Kneecap, have been unapologetic in their support for Palestinians, and drawn bigger audiences as a result. The exiled Russian punk band Pussy Riot mercilessly ridicule Vladimir Putin in Mama, Don’t Watch TV, a song denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The people are speaking louder and louder. As the Progressive International says in its latest Briefing “this grotesque violence … is generating unprecedented resistance from citizens worldwide who refuse to stand by.”
Check this out: Global Protest Tracker | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
But is protest enough?
News from JAH believes that protests against the new world (dis)order must be stepped up and sustained. But protests - however big - are rarely enough on their own. They have to turn into conversation, conversation into persuasion, persuasion into organization, and organisation into people’s power.
It’s June 16th again in South Africa – the 49th anniversary of the protests that became the Soweto Uprising. One lesson of June 16th is that what started as a school students’ protest inspired renewed organisation. It lit a fire that led to the forming of the UDF and COSATU, mass organisations whose sustained organization of popular anger throughout the 1980s eventually made apartheid unworkable.
As Ezra Levin, one of the founders of Indivisible puts it: “The way we think of [the No King’s Day protest] is, we’re building a muscle. We’re doing quite a big workout on Saturday. But it is a tactic in an extended strategy to safeguard American democracy.”
Rethinking activism: Now or never?
But “rethinking activism” also requires Rethinking Organization.
Organisation is the alchemy of change.
As I explained in an interview on Power FM the Justice and Activism Hub (JAH) aims to hurry along conversations and demonstrate new forms of practice.
My November 2024 essay Rethinking activism in a time of desperation and despair poses the questions. Rethink, Renew, Rebuild: Building People’s Power in an Era of Crisis published in Protest suggests some solutions.
Suddenly it would seem there is near universal recognition that people who believe in human rights and social justice (most of us) need to work more smartly. The question, however, is ‘is this turning into practice?’
I don’t see enough evidence. Yet. We also need to articulate a new vision.
… or we will lose again.
There’s a lot of work to be done!
Activists Bookshelf: The importance of being earnest
A book I dig into frequently for inspiration is Alicia Garza’s The Purpose of Power: How to Build Social Movements For the 21st century. In a telling biography of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which Garza co-founded, it’s a joyful celebration of building and exercising people’s power. But it also offers a critique of where we’ve gone wrong.
Garza’s arguments are reinforced in another book I would recommend, Anand Giridhardas’s The Persuaders: Winning Hearts and Minds in a Divided Age. Through embedded research amongst a group of “activists, organisers, politicians, educators … seeking to reinvigorate the idea of persuasion” (Alicia Garza being one of them. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez another) Giriharadas distills a set of issues about activist practice and tactics. One of my favourite quotes: “Voters aren’t stirred to reduce harm, …. They’re motivated to create good. “As many have remarked, Martin Luther King did not get famous for saying, ‘I have a complaint.’ He certainly did not get famous for saying ‘I have a multi-bulleted list of policy proposals.’ There has to be a dream.” Another mantra: “You’ve got to sell people the beautiful tomorrow.”
● Watch Alicia Garza: The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart
● Want to listen to a podcast that explores these ideas? I stumbled on an excellent seven-part series Practical Radicals, based on a book of the same name.
Both books I have referenced above are written by US activists. Their learnings are universal. But African activists have our own ideas and voice …. Read on!
Activists Unusual: “We mustn't fear our fire!”
Imagination!
According to the late Leon Trotsky (although God knows where and even whether he said this!) the capacity for imagination is what distinguishes humans from other animal species. It's great having an idea, seeing it emerge and become corporeal.
Rethinking Activism in Africa is a joint project of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town and the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) at London School of Economics.
We started imagining the project in September 2024. At that time we knew the world was in the throes of rapid change. But we did not know not how rapidly the polycrisis would accelerate after the coup by Donald Trump, the Heritage Foundation and the Tech Bros. We started by publishing a provocation essay, which I penned, and then through an open application process, 14 activists from all over Africa were selected to write essays that will become a book on Rethinking Activism in Africa. Our hope is that the essays will provide raw material and polished thought for a much wider discussion that is now taking place on how to rearm progressive activism globally.
In late May we held a writing retreat in the shadow of mountains outside Stellenbosch. The fabulous 14 came from all corners and regions of Africa, from authoritarian states, war zones and states where democracy still has a tenuous hold. They embodied a diversity of issues and experience from practice as dancers, lawyers, doctors, social media fundis, growers and people living with disabilities.
All brought an openness to rethinking about change. As one participant put it “An individual story is often a shared story.” Over the months ahead ideas will turn into essays, essays into a book, a book into debate, and debate into action.
Musician unusual: “We are all islands until the day we cross the burning water.”
Johnny Clegg and I share June 7th as our birthday. It would have been Johnny's 72nd. I was lucky. I got to know Johnny when he volunteered to help raise awareness of Tuberculosis and performed to raise money for the Treatment Action Campaign in 2016. This was even though he had just been diagnosed with cancer.
In Asimbonanga Johnny captures Africa’s eternal strivings for freedom. Watch the video of this performance and – spoiler alert - look out for Madiba’s surprise appearance telling the audience: ”It is music and dancing that makes me at peace with the world and at peace with myself.”
Recall too, how Bob Marley said, “We free the people with music.” See you on the streets. Stand up for love and peace. Our lives depend on it.
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.