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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.