Quote of the week
[T]he moral point of the matter is never reached by calling what happened by the name of ‘genocide’ or by counting the many millions of victims: extermination of whole peoples had happened before in antiquity, as well as in modern colonization. It is reached only when we realize this happened within the frame of a legal order and that the cornerstone of this ‘new law’ consisted of the command ‘Thou shall kill,’ not thy enemy but innocent people who were not even potentially dangerous, and not for any reason of necessity but, on the contrary, even against all military and other utilitarian calculations. … And these deeds were not committed by outlaws, monsters, or raving sadists, but by the most respected members of respectable society.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil
CSD SEMINAR – Democracy under Threat?: What attacks on grassroots activists mean for our politics
In light of the recent attacks on Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) in Kennedy Road, Durban, the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at University of Johannesburg/Rhodes University will hold a seminar entitled Democracy under Threat?: What Attacks on Grassroots Activists Mean for our Politics where grassroots activists, scholars and human rights campaigners will discuss threats to free political activity and their implications.
Venue: Training Centre, 6th Floor, South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) – map attached
Time: 9am to 3pm
Date: Wednesday, 4 November 2009
RSVP: Johnny Selemani – jaselemani@gmail.com / 073 553 0726
Kate Tissington – kate.tissington@wits.ac.za / 072 220 9125 (by Friday 30 October 2009)
Speakers:
Steven Friedman, Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD)
Pregs Govender, South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)
S’bu Zikode, President, Abahlali basMjondolo
Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Spokesperson, AbM
Zodwa Nsibande, General Secretary of the Youth League, AbM
Michael Neocosmos, Monash University
Richard Pithouse, Politics Department, Rhodes University
Andile Mngxitama, Foundation for Human Rights (FHR)
Marcelle Dawson, Centre for Sociological Research, University of Johannesburg (to be confirmed)
Noor Nieftagodien, History Department, University of the Witwatersrand
