The ‘Rebellion of the Poor’, Social Movements and the Limits of Insurgent Citizenship

Abstract

In the 2000s, poor urban areas across South Africa were the sites of a wave of protests over service delivery, housing and political representation. This ‘rebellion of the poor’ (Alexander, 2010) reflected a ‘society’ that was ‘seething with fury’ (Bond, 2014: 1). Protests were almost always focused on immediate, local issues, although implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) they entailed a demand for a fuller social and political citizenship. At the same time, ‘new social movements’ (or, more precisely, social movement organizations) emerged to challenge ANC government policy on a national level. Taking advantage of the socioeconomic rights provided in the constitution, and showing great skill in media use and building coalitions with disparate organizations, these new movement organizations pushed the state towards more generous service provision and the ANC to pay more attention to the quality of its candidates for municipal office. Movement organizations drew on an anti-neoliberal ideology, but it is not clear that this ideology put down deep social roots. Whilst protests secured marginal gains, they tended to reinforce the broadly social democratic character of service delivery and representation. Crucially, protests focused on the extent of redistribution through the state, not on the economic growth path that reproduced massive unemployment and the ensuing (mal-)distribution of income. Calls were made for more populist pro-poor policies, a shift from a mixed economy to a more statist one and more participatory democracy, but none of these achieved significant momentum.