Bikisha Media Collective (BMC)

How did the Bikisha Media Collective first form?

BMC: The ex-WSF militants chose to focus on building anarchists rather than building an organization. In other words, the strategic focus shifted from trying to win people to an organization, and instead to the broadest possible diffusion of relevant anarchist materials and literature to the widest layer of workers, with an emphasis on the black unemployed youth. The groundwork for future anarchist action could be laid in this way. In 1999, two projects (not organizations) were prioritized: Bikisha Media Collective, founded in 1999, and Zabalaza Books, which was already established in Durban - which worked closely together to produce and distribute a wide range of pamphlets and materials, and, more recently, a journal called 'Zabalaza' (issue #4 of which is currently in production).

Militants were expected to be involved in the class struggle: for instance, Bikisha affiliated to the Anti-Privatization Forum (APF) in Johannesburg, and the Zabalaza Action Group to the Concerned Citizens' Forum (CCF) in Durban. The main objective of the projects is to provide theoretical and practical support for the emergent social movements.