Michael Schmidt
Michael Schmidt is an African human rights rapporteur, investigative journalist, historian and best-selling non-fiction author who has worked in 49 countries on six continents, but with a strong focus on Africa. He is a 2009 Fellow of the Academic Leaders Programme at Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), a 2011 Fellow of the International Institute for Journalism (Germany), a 2011 Clive Menell Media Fellow at the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy at Duke University (USA), and a 2017 Fellow of the Inaugural Arts Rights Justice Academy at Universität Hildesheim (Germany). For the past decade, he has been the admin secretary of the Professional Journalists' Association of South Africa (ProJourn), has served since 2016 as the official rapporteur of the annual Safe Havens & Freedom Talks global arts rights justice summit, and is the initiator of the continental network of arts rights justice organisations Amani: Africa Creative Defence Network founded in 2020. He researches and writes on African current affairs and continental/global human rights and is a research associate of Accountability International.
His research interests include: Global anarchist and syndicalist movement history, especially anarchism in understudied areas (the high seas, marginal countries, border regions); Vectors of ideologically internationalist and practically transnational anarchism and syndicalism from one region to another; Anarchist agency in altering the balance of power through the construction of interlinked specific, social, syndicalist, militia, and co-ordinating forces; The anarchist fighting tradition (Bakunin, Guerdzhikov, Kaneko, Makhno, Yu, Durruti, Guillén, Mechoso, Hansen) from resistance societies through guerrilla actions to conventional warfare; International maritime and port syndicalism, especially of the IWW; Anarchist adaptations and innovations that remain within the core canon ethics; and Intersectionality between race, gender, sexuality and other identities and the spinal articulation of class.
His published works and academic contributions include:
a) Die Klasse von 1976: Selby Semela und die Generation des Aufstands (The Class of 1976: Selby Semela and the Generation of the Uprising), section of the book Die groβen Streiks: Episoden aus dem Klassenkampf (The Big Strikes: Episodes from the Class Struggle), Holger Marcks & Matthias Sieffert, eds, Unrast, Münster, Germany, 2008.
b) Anarquismo Búlgaro em Armas: A Linha de Massas Anarco-Comunista (Bulgarian Anarchism Armed: The Anarcho-Communist Mass Line), with Jack Grancharoff, revised by Will Firth, Faísca Publicaçiões Libertarias, São Paulo, Brazil, 2009.
c) Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism, with lead author Lucien van der Walt, AK Press, Oakland, USA, 2009, nominated for the CLR James Prize for the Best Book in Working Class Studies, translated into German (Germany, 2013) with translations into Spanish and French under way.
d) Cartographie de l’anarchisme révolutionnaire (Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism), Lux Éditeur, Montreal, Canada, 2012, translated into English (USA, 2013), with translations into Spanish, Arabic, and Farsi imminent.
e) Drinking With Ghosts: The Aftermath of Apartheid’s Dirty War, BestRed, Cape Town, South Africa, 2014, long-listed for the 2015 Alan Paton Award and the Academy of Science of South Africa's 2016 Humanities Book Award, with translation into Afrikaans in planning.
f) Preface, with Lucien van der Walt, to Bandeira Negra: rediscutindo o anarquismo (Black Flag: Revisiting Anarchism), Felipe Corrêa, Editora Prismas, Curitiba, Brazil, 2015.
g) El Levantamiento del Dragón Negro: La Olvidada Revolución en Manchuria (Black Dragon Rising: The Forgotten Revolution in Manchuria), foreword to Revolución Anarquista en Manchuria (1929-1932), Emilio Crisi, Editorial Libros de Anarres, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2015.
h) A Taste of Bitter Almonds: Perdition and Promise in South Africa, BestRed, Cape Town, South Africa, 2015, long-listed for the Academy of Science of South Africa's 2016 Humanities Book Award.
i) African Anarchist Movements: Race, Class & Liberation, 2018.
j) The Rojava Revolution of 2012 - Today, 2019.
k) Southern Citadel: a Case Study of Mass-line Anarchism After the Spanish Revolution, 2020.
l) Death Flight: Apartheid's Secret Doctrine of Disappearance, Tafelberg, Cape Town, 2020, long-listed for the Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards 2021.
j) Anti-colonial struggles in Malaya and the East Indies: the Anarchist Party, the Society of Truth, and the Workers' Party in the South Seas, 2021.
k) Reorienting and Renovating Anarchist History, Academia Letters, 2021.
l) Locating Death Flights within Western Counter-insurgency Doctrine, 2022.
m) The Modernism of Makhnovism, 2022.
n) Bedeviled by Zionism: a History of Attempts at Palestinian Anarchism & Revolutionary Syndicalism, 2023.
His research interests include: Global anarchist and syndicalist movement history, especially anarchism in understudied areas (the high seas, marginal countries, border regions); Vectors of ideologically internationalist and practically transnational anarchism and syndicalism from one region to another; Anarchist agency in altering the balance of power through the construction of interlinked specific, social, syndicalist, militia, and co-ordinating forces; The anarchist fighting tradition (Bakunin, Guerdzhikov, Kaneko, Makhno, Yu, Durruti, Guillén, Mechoso, Hansen) from resistance societies through guerrilla actions to conventional warfare; International maritime and port syndicalism, especially of the IWW; Anarchist adaptations and innovations that remain within the core canon ethics; and Intersectionality between race, gender, sexuality and other identities and the spinal articulation of class.
His published works and academic contributions include:
a) Die Klasse von 1976: Selby Semela und die Generation des Aufstands (The Class of 1976: Selby Semela and the Generation of the Uprising), section of the book Die groβen Streiks: Episoden aus dem Klassenkampf (The Big Strikes: Episodes from the Class Struggle), Holger Marcks & Matthias Sieffert, eds, Unrast, Münster, Germany, 2008.
b) Anarquismo Búlgaro em Armas: A Linha de Massas Anarco-Comunista (Bulgarian Anarchism Armed: The Anarcho-Communist Mass Line), with Jack Grancharoff, revised by Will Firth, Faísca Publicaçiões Libertarias, São Paulo, Brazil, 2009.
c) Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism, with lead author Lucien van der Walt, AK Press, Oakland, USA, 2009, nominated for the CLR James Prize for the Best Book in Working Class Studies, translated into German (Germany, 2013) with translations into Spanish and French under way.
d) Cartographie de l’anarchisme révolutionnaire (Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism), Lux Éditeur, Montreal, Canada, 2012, translated into English (USA, 2013), with translations into Spanish, Arabic, and Farsi imminent.
e) Drinking With Ghosts: The Aftermath of Apartheid’s Dirty War, BestRed, Cape Town, South Africa, 2014, long-listed for the 2015 Alan Paton Award and the Academy of Science of South Africa's 2016 Humanities Book Award, with translation into Afrikaans in planning.
f) Preface, with Lucien van der Walt, to Bandeira Negra: rediscutindo o anarquismo (Black Flag: Revisiting Anarchism), Felipe Corrêa, Editora Prismas, Curitiba, Brazil, 2015.
g) El Levantamiento del Dragón Negro: La Olvidada Revolución en Manchuria (Black Dragon Rising: The Forgotten Revolution in Manchuria), foreword to Revolución Anarquista en Manchuria (1929-1932), Emilio Crisi, Editorial Libros de Anarres, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2015.
h) A Taste of Bitter Almonds: Perdition and Promise in South Africa, BestRed, Cape Town, South Africa, 2015, long-listed for the Academy of Science of South Africa's 2016 Humanities Book Award.
i) African Anarchist Movements: Race, Class & Liberation, 2018.
j) The Rojava Revolution of 2012 - Today, 2019.
k) Southern Citadel: a Case Study of Mass-line Anarchism After the Spanish Revolution, 2020.
l) Death Flight: Apartheid's Secret Doctrine of Disappearance, Tafelberg, Cape Town, 2020, long-listed for the Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards 2021.
j) Anti-colonial struggles in Malaya and the East Indies: the Anarchist Party, the Society of Truth, and the Workers' Party in the South Seas, 2021.
k) Reorienting and Renovating Anarchist History, Academia Letters, 2021.
l) Locating Death Flights within Western Counter-insurgency Doctrine, 2022.
m) The Modernism of Makhnovism, 2022.
n) Bedeviled by Zionism: a History of Attempts at Palestinian Anarchism & Revolutionary Syndicalism, 2023.
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Videos by Michael Schmidt
Book Reviews by Michael Schmidt
1. An Introduction to Safe Havens (Michael Schmidt, rapporteur)
2. Official welcomes (Swedish Ambassador to South Africa Cecilia Julin, Mayor of Malmö Frida Trollmyr, and Deputy Mayor of Cape Town Ian Nielson)
3. To Make this Freedom Shining for Everyone: Meriam Bousselmi (thespian and lawyer, Tunisia)
4. Safe Havens in the Global South: Michael Schmidt (Hammerl Arts Rights Transfer, South Africa), Olivier Muhizi (Africa Human Rights Network, Rwanda/The Netherlands), & Charles Clint Chimedza (Southern African Human Rights Defenders' Network/Ubuntu Hub Cities, South Africa)
5. Map of Advocacy Strategies: Mary Ann DeVlieg (International Arts Rights Advisors, Italy), Danson Kahyana (PEN Uganda), Khainga O’Okwemba (PEN Kenya), Elisha July (PEN Zimbabwe), Daniel Gad (Arts Rights Justice Academy, Germany), & Catrina Wessels (PEN Afrikaans, South Africa).
6. Creative Women at Risk: Parvin Ardalan (Journalist and activist, Iran/Sweden). Panel: Gloria Mutyaba (Activist, Freedom And Roam Uganda), & Nomathamsanqa “Thami” Mhlakaza (Interdisciplinary artist, South Africa).
7. Journalism Safety in Africa: Ancillar Nombewu (Rallinca Media, Zimbabwe), Sikonathi Mantshantsha (Daily Maverick, South Africa), Ayesha Ismail (Daily Maverick, South Africa), & Janet Heard (Daily Maverick, South Africa).
8. Safe Havens in Africa, Uganda Case Study: Michael Schmidt (Hammerl Arts Rights Transfer, South Africa), Kara Blackmore (The Politics of Return, Uganda), Charles Clint Chimedza (Southern African Human Rights Defenders Network’s’ Ubuntu Hub City Initiative), Danson
Kahyana (Make Space for Displaced Writers, Uganda
PEN), Gloria Mutyaba (Freedom And Roam Uganda).
9. Outcomes of Safe Havens 2019 Cape Town
1. those which are difficult to reach because of their remoteness or arid/rugged terrain;
2. poor rural areas which under-resourced governments battle to serve, even under normal conditions; and
3. those from which state services including healthcare are deliberately withheld or restricted because their populations are viewed as hostile to the central state.
Remarkably, taken together, these regions account for an astounding third of the African continent - larger than either China, Canada, or the USA. This poses a unique challenge for activists promoting healthcare access in Africa.
1. Article 27 Manifesto: Karima Bennoune, UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
2. The Fire Next Time: Keynote by Hassan Mahamdallie
3. The Lonely Contemplative Life of the Writer: Kagiso Lesego Molope
4. Building an Alternative to the Death of the Social Requires Time, Distance, and Disengagement: Meriam Bousselmi
5. Women's Cultural Rights are a Prime Site of Attack: Karima Bennoune
6. Professionalised, Individualised Art Speaks Only to the Dead: Clear Visions will Only Come From the Periphery: Hassan Mahamdallie
7. Communal Intellectual Property and Fair Working Conditions are at the Heart of Democracy and Human Rights: Aruna Chawla
8. Fear of Your Friends and Peers: The Puritan Policing of Liberal Academia and the Arts: Svetlana Mintcheva
7. We Are Not Women - We are Human Beings Making Music: Emilia Amper, Nadin Al Khalidi and Liliana Zavala, members of the Forbidden Orchestra, with Farzane Zamen
1. The Long Reach of Censorship
2. Post-Revolutionary Blues (on the aftermath of the "Arab Spring")
3. Freedom of Expression in a Digital Age
4. Combating Online Hate Speech and Abuse
5. Alternatives to Artists’ & Activists’ Relocation
1. The artists at the Heart of Safe Havens
2. A Conversation on Self-censorship and Writing from Outside
3. Two case studies: Turkey & Lebanon
4. New Initiatives
5. Finding the Funding
6. Vignette Interviews
Anne van Mourik and Thijs Bouwknegt interview historian Kylie Thomas and journalist Michael Schmidt, discussing forced disappearances under Apartheid in South Africa.
https://soundcloud.com/niod_rewind_podcast/niod-rewind-episode-15-forced-disappearances-under-apartheid