Lucien van der Walt

Lucien van der Walt

Grahamstown, South Africa

South African writer and professor of Sociology, long involved in the working class movement. His research engages the anarchist/syndicalist tradition of Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin; the relationship between race and class, and between anarchism/ syndicalism and the national question and imperialism; trade unionism, history and policy, particularly in southern Africa; and neo-liberal state restructuring.  He is the author of Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism (2009), the editor (with Steve Hirsch) of Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1880-1940 (2010/2014), and southern Africa editor for the “The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest” (2009). He has published widely on labour and left history and theory, and political economy, and on anarchism and syndicalism. He is actively involved in union and working class education and movements.  Born in the mining town of Krugersdorp, he has a working-class family background. He currently teaches and researches at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, and previously worked at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Areas of interest: Research engages the anarchist/syndicalist tradition of Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin; The relationship between race and class, and, specifically, between anarchism/ syndicalism and the national question and imperialism; Trade unionism, history and policy, particularly in southern Africa; Neo-liberal state restructuring.

Research in progress: Currently working on new edited volume on alliances, overlaps and conflicts between anarchists, Marxists, and nationalists in the colonial and postcolonial world, 1870s-1940s; several papers on anarchism/ syndicalism, Marxism and imperialism; and the history of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa.

Blog collecting writings
http://www.lucienvanderwalt.wordpress.com/

Other:
http://www.ru.ac.za/sociology/staff/academicstaff/professorlucienvanderwalt/
http://rhodes-za.academia.edu/LucienvanderWalt
http://za.linkedin.com/pub/lucien-van-der-walt/38/507/685