South Africa stands at the precipice of a major economic crisis. In this increasingly dangerous situation, the near collapse of the state-owned electricity utility, Eskom, presents a set of serious challenges to the working class and society at large.  Amid rolling blackouts and rising domestic electricity tariffs, which cut into low and stagnating wages, retrenchments loom over Eskom workers, and workers across the country. These are fuelling protests across the country, igniting resistance which glows with the intensity of centuries of struggle.

Since 1996, activists in Xolobeni, a coastal region in South Africa, have been fighting a foreign mining conglomerate that learned that their ancestral lands happen to be rich in titanium. The anti-mining activists of Xolobeni, who have lost many comrades to hit squads, continue to struggle against this foreign company and its partners in the South African government. Given that their land is located in a global biodiversity hotspot, their struggle is the struggle of us all: it is the fight for water, soil, food, and air.