On behalf of the National Union of the Homeless, we wish to congratulate our comrades in struggle on the 20th Anniversary of the founding of the Abahlali baseMjondolo.
On October 3, 2005, thirty-two representatives from 12 settlements met to form what is now, two decades later, a battle-tested, internationally influential, 180,000-member movement for housing justice in South Africa. Most recently, your courage and tenacity in the face of intensified official violence inspires and informs our efforts to organize the growing ranks of the unhoused of the United States.
We treasure the years’ long relationship between our organizations and all that Abahlali has taught us about building a movement to end the systemic, capitalist-rooted poverty of which homelessness is the most visible expression.
You have shown how to turn the sprawling shack communities into base areas for practical, political struggle. You have shown how to use revolutionary lawyering as an extension and reflection of the occupations and street mobilizations to wrest concessions and seize the narrative. You have developed a dynamic political education process that elevates the consciousness, fighting capacity, dignity and practical leadership of the most dispossessed.
As thousands gather tomorrow at historic Curries Fountain Stadium in Durham to celebrate 20 years of struggle and solidarity, know that the National Union of the Homeless will be with you there in spirit and that in the years to come we will continue to be with you in mind, body and commitment to our shared struggle.
Anthony Prince, Lead Organizer/General Counsel
Kristin Colangelo, Nat’l Membership Development Director
Willie Baptist and Rev. Savina Martin, Sr. Advisors
