Drawing on the experience of the author as an activist working within the Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign (MPAEC), this article considers the way that the representation of a ‘social movement’ serves as a contested space of power. Six aspects of the operation of the MPAEC - gender roles, structure, the question of insiders and outsiders, the question of spies within the movement, the use of money and ‘individual agendas’ - are examined to highlight how power operates through the representation of these terrains. Finally, some of the implications of the representation of ‘social movements’ for the struggle against domination are teased out.

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This article examines the relationship between subjectivity and resistance to neoliberalism in three townships where the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign is active in Cape Town, South Africa, namely Driftsands, Tafelsig and Vrygrond. It is based on participatory research conducted with members of this social movement resident in these townships through administration of a house-to-house questionnaire, in-depth interviews and workshops held with participants. Based on this research, it argues that social movement members' subjectivies are complex and shaped by the townships' different histories, the different interpretations of ‘community’ in each township and the affective relationships and exchanges between residents evident in all three townships. The authors contend that the subjectivites of the township residents interviewed in turn influence the politics of their resistance to evictions and service cut-offs for non-payment. It concludes by arguing that the subjectivites of members of the social movement in each community are complex, and that, therefore, these subjectivities have a complicated relationship with resistance to neoliberalism.