Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

rdf:langString Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

rdf:langString The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign was a non-racial popular movement made up of poor and oppressed communities in Cape Town, South Africa. It was formed in November 2000 with the aim of fighting evictions, water cut-offs and poor health services, obtaining free electricity, securing decent housing, and opposing police brutality. The movement was the first of the first generation of so-called 'new social movements' to spring up after the end of apartheid and was known for its direct action style militancy, its refusal of all forms of vanguardism, including NGO (Non-Governmental Organisations) authoritarianism. The movement sought to retain its autonomy from NGOs and publicly refused to work with some local NGOs and insisted that the middle class left respect the autonomy of grassroots movements. The AEC was a founding member of the Poor People's Alliance and, along with the other members of the alliance, refused all electoral politics and encouraged the development of popular power rather than voting for political parties. The AEC mobilised against the 2008 xenophobic attacks in the areas where it was strong. The AEC opposed evictions related to the FIFA 2010 World Cup.