ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book outlines a conceptual framework for understanding the nature of violence and struggle in South Africa. Using this framework it discusses the history of oppression, squatter resistance and popular struggle. It tells the story of the Crossroads squatter movement and demonstrates the way in which it dovetailed with the popular resistance of black South Africans that spread across South Africa in the 1980s. It discusses the national memory discourses of reconciliation and the national liberation struggle. The book argues that the dependent nature of the relationship between the African National Congress (ANC), and 'the people' contained within these narratives was set up through the politics of transition. However, a subversive counter-identity of 'the people' is also found in the participants lived memories of squatter resistance. This memory identity challenges the assumptions of their own narratives of veteran betrayal and victim neglect.