Movement Communication Practices of Students and the Poor: The Political Economy of Communication in South Africa

Social movements are part and parcel of South Africa’s DNA. One cannot make sense of South Africa’s political history without looking into the role of social movements and, at the same time, you cannot make sense of the current social movements in South Africa without understanding the country’s history. Social movements are a communicative practice that the marginalised have used and still use to speak back to systems of oppression. They exist to challenge the status quo and bring social change. However, social movements would not exist without communication. Networks are built through communication, mobilisation can only take place through communication, the ideologies of a movement are transferred through communication and the movement itself would not be able to challenge the status quo without communicating. It is, therefore, important to investigate how social movements communicate and the role of their sustained interactions in bringing social change. This chapter looks at the communication practices of two social movements: Abahlali baseFreedom Park, which is a community movement of the poor, and the Wits Fees must fall movement which involved students in a previously white university. The chapter critically reflects on the social positioning of these two movements and how it affects the way in which the activists of these movements communicate(d). It further explores how this may have had an impact on their efforts or hopes to bring socio-economic and political transformation in South Africa. The country’s political history and current economic state is considered in the process of understanding the communication practices of the two movements.