No Land! No House! No Vote! is a campaign by a number of poor people's movements in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

that calls for the boycotting of the

vote Voting is the process of choosing officials or policies by casting a ballot, a document used by people to formally express their preferences. Republics and representative democracies are governments where the population chooses representative ...

and a general rejection of

party politics ''Party Politics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of political science. The journal's editor is Paul Webb of the University of Sussex, UK. It has been in publication since 1995 and is currently published b ...

and vote banking. The name is meant to imply that if government does not deliver on issues important to affected communities (such as land and housing) these movements will not vote.

History

The ''No Land! No House! No Vote!'' campaign began as a national campaign by the South African Landless Peoples Movement (LPM) in 2004. Originally called the ''No Land! No Vote!'' campaign, the Landless People's Movement and the National Land Committee argued that voters have to be registered in their home ward to vote and that it would be impossible to vote if families were under threat of eviction or had no secure tenure.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

has reported that LPM activists were tortured during the 2004 national government elections after taking on a 'No Land! No Vote' position. In 2006, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign and

Abahlali baseMjondolo Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM, , in English: "the residents of the shacks") is a socialist shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which primarily campaigns for land, housing and dignity, to democratise society from below and against xenophobia. ...

movements boycotted the municipal elections under the banner of this campaign. The AEC held an election day march in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

saying they would abstain from voting. A march by Abahlali baseMjondolo under the banner of the ''No Land! No House! No Vote!'' campaign was illegally banned by the

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

Municipality and was met with police repression. In 2008, the Landless Peoples Movement, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign and Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Rural Network joined to form the Poor People's Alliance. In 2009, the Alliance voted to boycott the national elections under the ''No Land! No House! No Vote!'' banner. During the 2009 national election campaign, the ''No Vote!'' campaign suffered severe repression by political parties and police. On 8 February 2009, the

South African Police The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...

allegedly beat and tear-gassed

Gugulethu Gugulethu is a township in Western Cape, South Africa and is around 20km from Cape Town. Its name is a contraction of ''igugu lethu'', which is Xhosa for ''our pride / our hope.'' The area was the third township to be established in Cape Town, a ...

residents who were holding a meeting about housing because the ANC provincial chairperson Mcebisi Skwatsha claimed they were disrupting voters registration. Eight members of the Landless Peoples Movement were also arrested in March 2009 and some claim that this is related to the ''No Vote!'' campaign by the Poor Peoples Alliance. In the 2009 elections 39% of potential voters supported the ANC. Abahlali baseMjondolo called for a boycott of the 2011 local government elections. They were joined by a range of other social movements including the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Mandela Park Backyarders, Sikhula Sonke, the

South African Unemployed Peoples' Movement The South African Unemployed Peoples' Movement is a social movement with branches in Durban, Grahamstown and Limpopo Province in South Africa. It is often referred to as the Unemployed People's Movement or UPM. The organisation is strongly critica ...

and the

Landless People's Movement The Landless People's Movement is an independent social movement in South Africa. It consisted of rural people and people living in shack settlements in cities. The Landless People's Movement boycotted parliamentary elections and had a history ...

. Local community organisations also organised vote strikes in a number of towns around the country including, for instance,

King William's Town Qonce, formerly King William's Town, is a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River (Eastern Cape), Buffalo River. The town is about northwest of the Indian Ocean port of East London, South Africa, ...

, Ficksburg,

Grahamstown Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...

and Cato Ridge. A total of 42% of registered voters did not vote in the elections. It has been reported that "Nearly 75% of South Africans aged 20–29 did not vote in the 2011 ocal governmentelections" and that "South Africans in that age group were more likely to have taken part in violent (sic) street protests against the local ANC than to have voted for the ruling party".

Reasoning behind the campaign

Proponents of the ''No Land! No House! No Vote!'' campaign have explained the reasons behind their campaign. There are a variety of reasons for boycotting elections but most people who take this position say that they have been voting since 1994 but have seen no positive result from voting. They also often claim that politicians are all corrupt and that there are no political parties that represent the poor. Proponents also make the structural argument that the electoral process itself is undemocratic, that poor people must speak for themselves, and that the movements should be unaligned and pressure whichever political party comes into power.

Variations on the campaign

Proponents of the ''No Land! No House! No Vote!'' Campaign have come up with similar slogans which have included the statements 'No Jobs!', 'No Electricity!', 'No Water!', 'No Respect!', 'No Freedom!' as part of the 'No Vote!' boycott campaign.

International connections

The Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign has used the slogan 'No House No Vote'.

Criticisms of the campaign

According to South African President

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan names Nxamalala and Msholozi. Zuma was a for ...

"If you do not vote, you are depriving yourself of a freedom we have fought for and given you. You are deciding to oppress yourself...you are failing yourself and the nation.Zuma, Malema gun for votes
, Paddy Harper, ''City Press'', 8 May 2011

References

External links

No Land! No House! No Vote! VideoNo Land! No House! No Vote! Archive
{{Abahlali baseMjondolo Society of South Africa Political campaigns South African political slogans Housing in South Africa Housing protests Squatters' movements Protests in South Africa Abahlali baseMjondolo