Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign: Discussion & Screening with Ashraf Cassiem | Mar 3, 2016
Mar 3, 2016
6:30PM - 8:30PM
CSRPC, 5733 S University Ave
For more than a decade the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign has been one of the most prominent organizations of South Africa's militant poor, fighting against evictions and police brutality, as well as for free basic services and quality health care inthe country's working class townships and informal settlements. As a grassroots coordinating body for over 15 community organizations in the Western Cape Province, the WCAEC has been at the forefront of challenging the neoliberal economic policies that have been imposed since the fall of apartheid.
In addition to a discussion with Ashraf Cassiem, the Chairperson of the WCAEC, this event will also feature a showing of selections from Where the Mountain meets its Shadow, a 2010 documentary that sets the activism of the WCAEC against the backdrop of Cape Town's stark wealth inequality. View trailer here.
In 2009, the WCAEC's activism inspired the founding of Anti-Eviction Campaign affiliates in Chicago and in Los Angeles following Ashraf's speaking tour of the U.S. These local organizations have gained national attention for defending families facing eviction and taking over vacant, bank-owned homes as housing for homeless families.
This event is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, and the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights and funded by the Student Government Finance Committee.