Affordable Housing Advocacy Organizations - Abahlali Basemjondolo, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Common Ground (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 31. Chapters: Abahlali baseMjondolo, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Common Ground, Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs, Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, Action for Boston Community Development, Homes Not Jails, Gray Panthers, Take Back the Land, Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, The City is For All, Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations, Project No One Leaves, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, Movement for Justice in el Barrio, Mandela Park Backyarders, Homeless Workers' Movement, Poor People's Alliance, Picture the Homeless, Anti-Poverty Committee, Paul Roldan, Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco, Kensington Welfare Rights Union, Western Regional Advocacy Project. Excerpt: Abahlali baseMjondolo (Zulu: , Shack Dwellers), also known as AbM or the red shirts is a shack-dwellers' movement in South Africa which is well known for its campaigning for public housing. The movement grew out of a road blockade organized from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in the city of Durban in early 2005 and now also operates in the cities of Pietermaritzburg and in Cape Town. It is the largest shack dweller's organization in South Africa and campaigns to improve the living conditions of poor people and to democratize society from below. The movement refuses party politics, boycotts elections and has a history of conflict with both the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance. Its key demand is that the social value of urban land should take priority over its commercial value and it campaigns for the public expropriation of large privately owned landholdings. The key organising strategy is to try "to recreate Commons" from below by trying to create a series of linked communes. According to The Times, the movement "has shaken the political landscape of South Africa...".