Statement: Tokolos Stencils banned by Facebook
26 Aug 2015
A STATEMENT BY TOKOLOS STENCILS ON FACEBOOK BANNING
On Monday, exactly one week after our radical action on the campus of the University of Cape Town in which we made known UCT’s collusion with white monopoly capital, and in particular Lonmin (#LonminHasBloodOnItsHands), Tokolos Stencils’ Facebook account was taken down by Facebook authorities.
CENSORSHIP
The action which terrorised UCT management, Zionist supporting G4S Security, and many white lecturers at UCT, has clearly had enough of an impact that pressure has been put on Facebook to remove our account on the basis that we are not a real person. This is an act of censorship. Facebook has colluded with our haters to censor our work and our voice. We are not however surprised because it is about time we stop relying on massive corporations to ensure freedom of speech. Such freedoms can never exist when they are managed by a capitalist ruling class. Corporations will always do the bidding of those in power to maintain their profits and to undermine radical action for freedom and justice. Therefore, freedom of speech cannot exist under corporate capitalism.
THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES
We would like to let all our comrades, supporters, fans, onlookers, friendly media, unfriendly media and of course the corrupt, murderous, and parasitic ruling class, that aluta continua, our struggle will continue. Whether or not we are able to get back on Facebook is irrelevant. Our struggle exists in the real world and we will continue to take political action in real life, on buildings, walls, pillars and statues, to bring forward our struggle for a better world, where land is returned to its rightful owners, were the people rule and the government (if it exists at all) obeys, and where everyone has food on the table because their labour is no longer stolen by blood sucking capitalists and their government.
Being excluded on Facebook will merely force us to work harder to share our work (whether it is under the name Tokolos Stencils or not). But this censorship will not stop us.
We are still available on the following platforms:
- tokolos @ riseup . net (email)
- @tokolosstencils (twitter)
- tokolosstencils.tumblr.com (website)
YOUN SÈL NOU FÈB. ANSANM NOU SE LAVALAS!
ALUTA CONTINUA!
#RememberMarikana at UCT
MarikanaWeek stencils on UCT campus.
New stencil on UCT campus for MarikanaWeek
Tokolos: Spotted on a main road #NoOneIsIllegal
- Louis Botha Avenue in Johannesburg
Some more photos of our massive intervention at UCT.
We consciousness bombed about 30 locations on UCT campus the evening of the 16 August.
UCT must account for backing Killer Lonmin
Tokolos’ massive MarikanaDay action at UCT
Greetings from the Tokolos Stencil Collective
#RememberMarikana this 16th of August 2015
This weekend a tokolos went along the N2 Freeway to remind drivers of MarikanaDay, the 16th of August. Our work has been seen by thousands of people who use the N2 Freeway each day. We hope more people will get to see our work before it is inevitably taken down by the City of Cape Town’s anti-art unit.
Over the past few months, we have been inspired by the persistent struggle of the #RhodesMustFall movement at UCT. We did our research and found out a few little known facts about UCT’s link to the Marikana Massacre:
1. Judge Farlam is on the UCT Council.
2. UCT has been investing in Lonmin for several years since the massacre.
3. UCT therefore has blood on its hands.
4. Therefore Farlam has a conflict of interest.
The Tokolos collective would like to remind UCT , the ivory tower, that it has blood on its hands.
It has come to our attention through the public financial records of the University of Cape Town, that investments in the order of millions of Rands have been made to by Lonmin’s shares on the London Stock Exchange - adding to the long list of shareholders who have blood on their hands.
Why is UCT investing in a company that is complicit in the massacre of 34 poor black workers?
Why is UCT investing in a company that exploits its own workers?
For this we cannot let UCT go amiss.
Since Judge Ian Farlam himself sits on the university council and has supported UCT’s investments in Lonmin, does this not mean that there is a serious conflict of interest?
How can Farlam then head the Marikana Commission? The fact that UCT and Farlam are investing in Lonmin knowing full well the company’s complicity in the massacre means they both both have blood on their hands. This cannot be more clear.
UCT you are not an Island. Even though we have not been fortunate enough to attend your #1 ranked university, your actions still affect us and you cannot hide from us.
We trust that this time UCT will #RememberMarikana
And we ask: What is the Max Price for black lives?
Aluta Continua,
The Tokolos Stencil Collective
Straight Outta Marikana
In honour of the 3rd anniversary of the Marikana Massacre, Tokolos Stencils has created this meme in memory of those who have fallen because of the murderous police and white mining capital.
#Lonminmustfall
#fuckthapolice
The provision of visionary education, responsive health-care,
employment, proper housing, piped water, electricity, sanitation and
refuse removal to the majority of the country’s citizens living in
the shacklands and rural areas has eluded the ANC government 20 years
into its incumbency - and the DA in the Western Cape too. But they
have managed to deliver T-shirts at political rallies, sod-turnings,
government functions and imbizos – usually with a lunch that isn’t
free because one’s presence is co-opted for politically cynical
reasons.
While Marie Antoinette would have France’s poor eat cake,
South Africa’s political elite would have the country’s marginalised
starve materially and mentally in party-political or government
T-shirts.
President Zuma wanted good stories to tell at his State of
the Nation address? We laud government’s and mainstream political
parties’ ability to deliver Chinese-made T-shirts to the masses.
One of our favourites for a few reasons:
1. The mix of colours
2. It was challenging to curve the stencil around the pot
3. The location at Salt River Circle
Tokolos working Albert Rd in Woostock and Salt River
Aluta Continua…
The Struggle did not end in 1994
The fight against gentrification is but one aspect of the struggle for a different world
As Grace Opens….
Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
Part 2
Fat Cactus is a Gentrinaaier
Old Biscuit Mill is a Gentrinaaier
Woodstock Exchange is a Gentrinaaier
The Test Kitchen is a Gentrinaair
(Gentrinaaier stencils done by an anonymous collective, not Tokolos)
On Tuesday evening, some TOKOLOSNAAIERS took a trip around the
back-alleys of the Woostock Improvement District. They discovered a
community that was no longer a community as its residents of decades
have been displaced by the winds of change. In its place, are the
well-to-do who go to and from their work, spend money at overpriced
restaurants but do not know their neighbours as they, unlike their
predecessors, are too afraid to sit on the stoop. This landed gentry
have been aided and abetted by what can only be described as
gentrinaaiers - property developers, real estate agents, restaurant
entrepreneurs, hipster creatives, and of course, the Old Biscuit
Mill.The GENTRINAAIERS of Woodstock are an unstoppable tsunami of urban
renewal destroying any semblance of vibrancy and authenticity in its
path - unstoppable that is unless the community fights back.