Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers in Grahamstown to speak about their new anthology

Press Release – 9 August 2011
Students for Social Justice
Unemployed People’s Movement
Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign

Event 1: Pavement Dwellers to speak at Rhodes University
Venue: Sociology 1, Rhodes University
Date/Time: Thursday 11 August @ 19h00 – 21h00

Event 2: Symphony Way authors meet the Unemployed People’s Movement
Venue: Duna Library in Joza Township
Date/Time: Friday 12 August @ 3pm

‘A beauty, extraordinary in every way.’
Naomi Klein, author of ‘The Shock Doctrine’ and ‘No Logo’

Students for Social Justice, the Sociology Department, and the Unemployed Peoples Movement in Grahamstown have organized two unique talks by four of the Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers, authors of No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way. This extraordinary anthology of struggle it testimony and poetry written on the pavement of one of the longest running civil disobedience protests in South Africa’s history.

Op-ed: Freedom of speech is upside-down

Note: Versions of this article have appeared in the Catalogue of the 2011 Jozi Book Fair and 5 August 2011 edition of The New Age.

We live in a world turned on its head, a desolate, de-souled world that practices the superstitious worship of machines and the idolatry of arms, an upside-down world with its left on its right, its belly button on its backside, and its head where its feet should be… It’s a world where children work and don’t play, where ‘development’ makes people poorer, where cars are in streets where people should be, where a tiny minority of the world consumes a majority of its resources…If the world is upside-down the way it is now, wouldn’t we have to turn it over to get it to stand up straight?

-Eduardo Galeano

Celebrated Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano would surely also agree that there is something upside-down about the way freedom of speech is meted out in our society.

Pavement Dwellers in Joburg to promote their new book

Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign
3 August 2011

‘A beauty, extraordinary in every way.’
Naomi Klein, author of ‘The Shock Doctrine’ and ‘No Logo’

The Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers who now stay in Blikkiesdorp have just arrived in Johannesburg to promote our new unique anthology, No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way.

We invite all our supporters, detractors and anyone interested in learning more about our struggle to hear Sarita, Lilly, Jane, Tilla and Mina speak about their daily struggles dignity in the new South Africa.

They will be featured in a panel discussion today at the NGO/Social Movement Fair and will be hosting a book launch tonight at Love and Revolution in Mellville. On Thursday evening, five of the authors will be speaking about their critique of urban planning at Wits university. On Saturday, Finally, the authors will be hosting a stall at the Jozi Book Fair for the entire event, from the 6^th until the 8^th of August. On the 6^th of August, they will be hosting another panel discussion at the Fair.

These events will be an important opportunity for our communities to speak about their struggles for land, housing and dignity.

If you are not able to attend, please consider buying our book available at most South African bookstores or online at Kalahari.

Here are the details of the events in the next few days:

Help bring Symphony Way for a book tour to the US/UK

A beauty, extraordinary in every way.’
Naomi Klein, author of ‘The Shock Doctrine’ and ‘No Logo’.

* Contribute to the project by clicking here *

* Promote the project on Facebook, Twitter, and on your blog *

About This project:

The aim of this project is to bring three authors of the acclaimed book No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way on a tour of the USA and the UK.

A group of families who have called themselves the Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers are demanding that their voices are heard and they need your help to bring them to your city:

London

New York

Boston

Philadelphia

Washington DC

Chicago

San Francisco

Ottawa

Los Angeles

Argus Review: Street people book their place on library shelf

Review: Street people book their place on library shelf.pdf

by Jeanne Hromnik – Cape Argus Op-ed for 25 May 2011

Reminder: No Vote! events on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday

YOU CAN FOLLOW THE SATURDAY EVENT HERE:
http://riereta.net/gisschannel/itheora/index-mini.php?v=http://stream.giss.tv:8000/molotv.ogg&w=340&h=280

IF YOU CAN NOT SEE IT OPEN DIRECTLY THIS IN YOUR BROWSER:
http://giss.tv:8000/molotv.ogg

WE ARE RUNNING A BIT LATE, CHECK IT !

Friday 13 May 2011

Our communities are very busy organising our No Vote! events just in time for this year’s elections. We refuse to vote, not because we are lazy or apathetic as the media tends to claim.  Instead, we refuse to vote because our vote is to precious to give to corrupt politicians and political parties. Here are a list of the events with links and contacts:

1) 14th May >> Anti-Vote Election Summit held by the Mandela Park Backyarders at Andile Nhose >> Contact Loyiso @ 0737662078

2) 14th May >> No Dignity! No Vote! Why we won’t vote on the 18th of May held at KwaMlamli’s in Gugulethu >> Contact Mncedisi @ 0785808646

3) 16th May >> Launch at Book Lounge of “No Land! No House! No Vote!” and picket by Blikkiesdorp residents in front of Parliament >> Contact Sarita @ 0764699843

4) 17th May >> Protest by Gugulethu, KTC, Nyanga and Crossroads residents outside Fezeka Municipal Offices in Gugulethu >> Contct Zoliswa @ 0731496065 or Mncedisi @ 0785808646
For more on the No Land! No House! No Vote! Campaign, check out the wikipedia entry on the topic.

Power to the Poor People!

‘Tin Town’ residents now threaten to boycott elections

18 April 2011 – Sowetan

RESIDENTS of Cape Town’s ‘Tin Town’ transit camp say they will not vote in the May 18 local government elections unless they get houses first.

More than 5000 people live in one-room tin shacks in a part of Delft, better known by its nickname of Blikkiesdorp, about 20km from the city centre.

At least 3000 are estimated to be of voting age and their votes will be pivotal in deciding who wins the Delft ward currently held by the DA’s Cynthia Claasen.

Tin Town: A short documentary on the Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign

Promised housing by the South African government, more than a hundred Cape Town families found community through their struggle as squatters on a sandy road known as Symphony Way. Recently moved by court order to an indefinitely temporary relocation area dubbed ‘Tin Town’ or ‘Blikkiesdorp’ in Afrikaans, community members reflect on that road in their past and on the road ahead.
————————————————

Title: Tin Town

A Film By: Nora Connor, Clementine Wallace & Colton Margus

Produced By: Barefoot Workshops, Inc

Instructors: Alison Fast, Teddy Symes & Chandler Griffin

Sponsors by: Canon USA, Sennheiser, Bogen Imaging, Lowel, Litepanels

Created: December 2009, Cape Town, South Africa

A video by American students of the Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers

a 6 minute short film, made to raise awareness of the eviction situation in Cape Town, South Africa.

 

Media: Symphony Way families move to Blikkiesdorp

November 03, 2009 Edition 2
Aziz Hartley – Cape Times

THE 136 families living on the pavement of Symphony Way in Delft for almost two years have been moved, most to the nearby Blikkiesdorp temporary relocation area.