Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) is the remarkable story of the South African shack dwellers movement, covering twenty years of courageous struggle. It is the largest movement to have emerged in South Africa after apartheid and one of the largest movements of the urban poor globally, boasting over 180,000 members across four provinces.

AbM emerged from the margins of South Africa’s cities, where residents faced life-threatening conditions, including shack fires, poverty, and systemic betrayal by the democratic state regarding land and housing. The movement is firmly committed to ethical principles, fighting not only for the right to the city but for the right to collectively occupy land and build occupations collectively. Abahlali insists on a humanist philosophy—”no one is illegal, everyone thinks and everyone must be counted and heard”—and works to build democracy and socialism from below.

Abahlali is abolition in action, seeking to interrupt capitalist logic by advocating for the total decommodification of land, recognizing it as a public good allocated based on human need. This commitment has led to significant victories, including securing land, providing services (like water and electricity), and winning a landmark Constitutional Court case against the unlawful Slums Act.

However, this quest for dignity has come at a tremendous cost, marked by severe repression, police violence, and the assassination of many activists by state forces and party thugs. Despite these challenges, AbM has persisted, developing occupations into working communes (such as eKhenana) that feature collective production, community halls, and political schools. Their story is a map for movements fighting inequality and authoritarianism globally. The movement continues to build collective power and struggle for a world where land, wealth, and power are shared on an equal basis.

“Your movement has shown the world that democracy extends beyond elections to a way of living together—through open assemblies and collective decision making. In doing so, you have advanced a vision grounded in humanity, solidarity, and courage. Your struggle has always been internationalist, and your solidarity with the people of Palestine, Swaziland, and the Congo, and the warm relations you have built with movements around the world, are exemplary.” Jeremy Corbyn in https://rajpatel.org/2025/10/13/4764/

The movement continues to grow, discovering that more and more settlements function better not when they function as an association of residents but as a commune. Agroecology is cropping up in more and more settlements thanks to exchanges with the MST. It’s a demonstration that when the wretched of the earth organize themselves without mediation, without NGO managers or academic gatekeepers, they can survive what would destroy any formation dependent on elite patronage. … This is the lesson Abahlali offers the world: genuine democracy is possible, but only when everyone thinks, everyone counts, everyone cares, and everyone acts. Raj Patel Everybody Thinks, Everybody Counts, Everybody Cares, Everybody Acts: Twenty Years of Abahlalism