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The Institute for African Alternatives and Surplus Radical Books are pleased to invite you to a film screening of “Concerning Violence: Nine Scenes from Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defense” by Göran Hugo Olsson. This event forms part of our African Film Series in which we explore the life and times of important African…

The Institute for African Alternatives and Surplus Radical Bookshop are pleased to invite you to a film screening of “Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man” by Robin Shuffield. This event forms part of our African Film Series in which we explore the life and times of important African revolutionaries and events…

This Forum is hosted by IFAA and Surplus Radical Books and will be held at the Ashley Kriel Hall, Community House, Salt River Cape Town, on Tuesday 9th May 2023 at 6 pm. Launched at the Rocklands Community Hall, in Cape Town on 20th August 1983, the United Democratic Front (UDF)…

Please don’t forget to join IFAA and Surplus Radical Books for our Chris Hani commemorative event on Monday 17th April 2023, at 5.30 pm, at the Cinema, Bertha House, 67-69 Main Road, Mowbray. The program consists of the screening of the SABC-made documentary ‘The Life and Times of Chris Hani’, followed…

The Institute for African Alternatives and Surplus Radical Books invites you to our Chris Hani commemorative event, on the 30th anniversary of his assassination. The evening includes the screening of the rare SABC-made documentary, ‘The Life and Times of Chris Hani,’ followed by two reflections from former Minister of Arts…

The Institute for African Alternatives and Surplus Radical Books is pleased to invite you to a Public Lecture by Dr. Freedom Mazwi of the Department of African Studies and Linguistics at UCT, entitled “Zimbabwe at 43: Challenges and Contradictions of a Postcolonial State.” This is the fourth in a series…

The Institute for African Alternatives invites you to a seminar on Energy Options for South Africa to be presented by Mr Viv Crone on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, at 2:30 pm Zoom Registration: https://cutt.ly/K1PwZi3 Our Presenter: Viv Crone is an electrical engineer with 50 years of experience in high-technology product design…

Keynote speaker Yanis Varoufakis, renowned radical economist and former Greek Finance Minister, will speak on Africa in the Face of the new Cold War and the West’s new colonial escapades The annual Ben Turok Memorial Lecture marks the anniversary of the death of IFAA’s founder and former director, the struggle…

Surplus and the Institute for African Alternatives invite you to a discussion on ‘Washington Bullets’ with author Vijay Prashad. Vijay Prashad is an Internationally renowned Indian historian and journalist. He is an executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Chief Editor of Leftward Books, and advisor to The Progressive…

The Institute for African Alternatives and Surplus Books is pleased to host a critical forum featuring writer, columnist, and political economist Ismail Lagardien. He has recently published a book entitled “Too White to be Coloured. Too Coloured to be Black: On the search for home and meaning” which is garnering…

Surplus Books, InsideOut and the Institute for African Alternatives invite you to Surplus Radical Books Store’s third gathering in our series of Men’s cafes. We are pleased and excited at the interest and traction that this initiative has garnered so far! The Men’s Café is a monthly event that provides…

Surplus Books, InsideOut, and the Institute for African Alternatives invite you to the Surplus Radical Books Store for the second gathering in our series of Men’s cafes. Our theme for this discussion is the ’Hidden side or our HIS-story.’ We focus on the question of why and how men resist…

“…[W]e will miss your boundless energy, your strength, your wisdom, your uncompromising intellectual incisiveness in the interests of the fundamental social transformation of our country; in the interests of the masses and not an elite.” These are the words of world-renowned economist and  intellectual, Professor Vishnu Padayachee, who passed away…

By Moira Levy The Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA) joins many South Africans in mourning the passing of Cecyl Esau, who will be remembered for his work as an underground activist in Umkonto we Sizwe and a community organiser within the United Democratic Front (UDF). His interest in politics emerged…

Although it has widespread appeal, equality can be seen as a rather arbitrary ideal. From a humanitarian point of view, to relieve suffering or to uplift people living in absolute deprivation are immediately comprehensible goals. The same is not true of equality: why should an equal distribution of resources be considered…