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Egypt: Free at last, the inside look

Hassan Elghayesh

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70963

cc I MMubarak resigns – can the feeling be described? I will try. It is as if for 10 seconds, you totally forget about who you are, what you do or where you are – it's just extreme happiness. Then it all comes back to you slowly. I am Hassan Elghayesh, an Egyptian who was part of a revolution that brought down a dictator.

It's Thursday 10 February, and we are waiting for what we think will be the last speech by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, his resignation. We become tenser, as his speech was scheduled for 18:00, but we have to wait for hours. By being late, Mubarak continues to show his disrespect for the Egyptian people. He is an expert at it and has been doing it for 30 years. At last he is on. The speech is delivered in a paternal tone, as would a father confronting his ungrateful children. I am not listening closely to what he has to say, I am just waiting for one statement: ‘I resign.’ He never says it, instead he passes his responsibilities to the newly appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman, but stays on.

This is by far Mubarak's weakest speech. You can tell that it has been poorly written; it was not filmed as one shot, but instead a series of shots that were edited together and it was just too late. I believe he broke down under stress and sadness during his speech and that they had to film it in many takes and then fix the whole thing together in a montage. This is also probably why the broadcasting of the speech was delayed a few hours.

If this speech had been 12 days earlier, on 28 January, the protesters might have settled down and accepted everything Mubarak said. But his stubbornness was met with even stronger determination by the protesters. I was furious at the speech. After 17 days of solidarity and the deaths of more than 300, we would accept nothing less than the resignation of Mubarak.

Thursday's speech was the last chance to deter people from joining the protests the next day. Over the last two weeks, Friday and Tuesday had witnessed huge protests, with numbers exceeding the 1 million mark. Mubarak's last chance to calm people down didn't have the desired effect.

I was in Hurghada, 450km south of Cairo. I went to the bus station, bought myself a ticket and was on the first bus to Cairo to join protesters in Tahrir Square, determined to stay there until he left. I was convinced that one more week of protests would be sufficient for him to step down. The unions were already in, institutions all over the nation were showing solidarity and employees in both the private and public sectors threatened to go on strike. The questions that were in my mind were: Will Mubarak step down before we slip into total chaos? Will the army take Mubarak's side and confront the protesters? I thought at the time that Mubarak's lust for power had no limits and I expected very pessimistic scenarios if he did not step down any time soon.

It's Friday 11 February, the Friday of the martyrs, and we are heading to downtown Cairo on the metro. It is filled with people heading to Tahrir, from the ages of 18 to 30. We arrive at Tahrir where we’re searched by three civil committees. Graffiti artists immortalise the revolution on the walls of 19th-century buildings in downtown Cairo; burnt police cars are changed to artefacts as people write their names and demands in colourful calligraphy on them.

At last we are at the square, and once you are there you can't really move. People move around the square in a manner reminiscent of Mecca – Tahrir Square is a mecca for those seeking freedom. Many stages fill the perimeter of the square. I can't really see or hear those on the stages; I can only hear cheers of approval to what they have to say. Huge posters of the martyrs dangle down from balconies of buildings around the square; every traffic light in the square has a poster attached to it. Tents are mainly in the middle of the square – every tent has a sign indicating where the occupants are from, and they are from all over Egypt.

Tahrir Square becomes a microcosm of Egypt with all its crowdedness, noise, overflowing human emotion and, most importantly, its hate for Mubarak. Protesters from Menoufeya, Mubarak's birthplace, hold signs that read ‘Menoufians apologise’. The army units are alert and are preventing the protesters from coming anywhere near their tanks. Still, I see no worries on the faces of protesters, who firmly believe the army is on their side.

In the meantime, another protest is taking place in front of the presidential palace – tens of thousands show up. It is the biggest in Cairo after the protests at Tahrir. Still, nobody is waiting for a statement by the president. He gave a statement the day before. I am back home at around 17:00. The communication blackout is still in force in Tahrir Square area and I am in dire need of making some phone calls.

I switch on the TV. Omar Suleiman is scheduled to make a statement. I say to myself ‘Oh man … not this guy again.’ I had watched his interview with ABC and it was absolutely horrific. He said things such as: ‘Those protesters are being pushed by the Islamic current’; ‘Egyptians don't have the culture of democracy’; and ‘I would advise those protesting to get back to their jobs if they want what's better for Egypt.’ He later said in Egyptian national newspapers that his statements had been misunderstood and taken out of context. We just laughed. We didn't expect much from Suleiman – it's Mubarak who chose him – but we expected some decency at least.

I decide to watch the statement by Suleiman at home and head to Tahrir afterwards. The family gathers around the TV in anticipation. Suleiman is on. ‘Mubarak resigns.’ Can the feeling be described?

For 10 seconds, you totally forget about who you are, what you do or where you are – it's pure euphoria. Then it all comes back to you slowly. I am Hassan, an Egyptian who was part of a revolution that brought down a dictator. We fought to get to Tahrir, as we saw Egyptians pay with their lives in tribute to freedom. We were peaceful and we stood for something we believe is right. We are the people and our will must prevail; how couldn’t we realise that from the beginning?

My phone doesn’t stop ringing for 30 minutes and I don’t stop calling all those who had been at Tahrir with me for another hour. We made it, congratulations, we made it. Most of Egypt is in the street celebrating. I can't remember the number of smiles and hugs exchanged. I do remember though how the older generation looked at us with absolute admiration and gratitude. We did something of which they never dreamed. The flame of youthful demonstrations hasn't been ignited in Egypt since the early 1970s. And then all of a sudden, we hit so strongly that we shake the foundation of this regime. I will forever remember the first day, the first morning I wake up to the smell of freshly baked freedom, the first shower that rinses away all the corruption and stench of the former regime.

Former ministers, former members of parliament and those close to the regime, start falling one by one. They are denied permission to travel abroad and their bank accounts are frozen.

The military council is now in control. People in Egypt generally trust the military. They like to say it’s the only institution in this country not being invaded by corruption. They have stated on many occasions they are in power to protect the revolution's requests and to make sure they are met. Everything they’ve done so far proves them true to their words. The parliament is dissolved; the constitution is in the process of being changed. They give exact dates for handing power to a civilian president. The government is the same one Mubarak brought to power in his last days, headed by Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.

We are not sure if they are going to form a new transitional government or not. In his last speech Shafiq stated that restoring order and security was his priority, which isn't promising at all. Shafiq, I don't want your security. I want my freedom.

Will things get better, or will they get worse? I am not sure. I sometimes even have my doubts about the revolution. What if things go wrong again? But I always remind myself: We stood against tyranny and corruption and that cannot be wrong. We shall rise again if we see the slightest tendency by those in power to kill our dream of change.

I have my doubts about the six months of military rule in Egypt. I have my doubts about conducting fair presidential elections in six months’ time. We shouldn’t think it is over yet. The fight for democracy is never-ending. We have all become keepers of democracy and freedom. I am honoured to be given such responsibilities and am willing to stay true to what we stood up for. There is no going back.

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* Hassan Elghayesh is a 24-year-old Egyptian. For a long time, he thought his only chance of a brighter future would not be in his own country, which he loves dearly. But now, the tables have turned: his faith in people's power has been restored and he feels empowered. For the first time, there is a chance of him contributing to a better Egypt.
* This article first appeared in The Daily Maverick.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Revolution in Egypt? What revolution?

Christopher Carrico

2011-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70907

cc H HWhether Egypt's association with US-backed capitalism has been disrupted is a question that factory workers might yet decide, writes Christopher Carrico.

‘Everyone should start forming unions & labor associations now. If we don’t build those now, we’ll be fucked by the regime soon.’ - Hossam el-Hamalawy on Twitter, Sunday, February 13, 2011.

Let us be clear from the outset. There has been no revolution in Egypt…yet.

Hosni Mubarak has been President of Egypt since 14 October 1981, and his government has consistently acted on behalf of the country’s economic, political, and military elite for the almost three decades since.

Mubarak resigned as head of state this week: on 11 February 2011. Vice President Omar Suleiman announced Mubarak’s resignation to the Egyptian public and to the world, and state power was handed over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, a body of the 18 highest-ranking officers who head the Egyptian military.

As of 13 February the Egyptian military has dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution, and imposed a military junta that has declared itself an interim government responsible for overseeing an ‘orderly’ transition to civilian rule in six months time.

What I have to say here is largely based on the reports of people like Hossam el-Hamalawy, Web 2.0 activist and member of the Egyptian Revolutionary Socialist party. In explaining the power that blogs, Facebook, and Twitter have had in the popular movements in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world, el-Hamalawy notes that:

‘Nearly 20 million out of 85 million Egyptians have access to the Internet, but its strength lies in the fact the traditional media have themselves begun to use it as a source of information. If the best known bloggers or online activists post something on their blogs, read by some thousands, it’s more or less guaranteed that BBC, Al Jazeera, or other traditional media will grab the info and it will be read by millions. Information is thus going to spread.’ (http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/hamalawy080211.html)

El-Hamalawy wrote on his blog 3arabawy that:

‘(Middle class) activists want us to trust Mubarak’s generals with the transition to democracy - the same junta that has provided the backbone of his dictatorship over the past 30 years. And while I believe the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who receive $1.3 billion (US Dollars) annually from the US, will eventually engineer the transition to a “civilian” government, I have no doubt it will be a government that will guarantee the continuation of a system that will never touch the army’s privileges, keep the armed forces as the institution that will have the final say in politics… (and) guarantee Egypt will continue to follow…US foreign policy…’

Reform-oriented opposition leaders have been ‘urging Egyptians to suspend the protests and return to work, in the name of patriotism,’ and in the name of rebuilding Egypt. Most of the crowd in Tahrir Square, which activists estimate was in the millions earlier this week, has finished with its celebrations, and left the square as it leaders urged. Thousands of hold-outs, however, insist that the setting up of military rule does not meet the main demands of their protest, and refused to leave the square. The military has indicated that it will use force if necessary to return Cairo to ‘normalcy’.

According to the Guardian, Reuters reports that:

‘Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers shoved pro-democracy protesters aside to force a path for traffic to start flowing through central Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Sunday for the first time in more than two weeks. Protesters chanted “Peacefully, peacefully” as the soldiers and military police in red berets moved in to disperse them. Scuffles broke out and some soldiers lashed out with sticks.
The military police chief told protesters to clear tents from the square and not to disrupt traffic.
“We do not want any protesters to sit in the square after today,” Mohamed Ibrahim Moustafa Ali, the head of military police, told protesters and reporters, as soldiers removed tents from the square.
…The early morning violence did not last long, but the army action, backed by dozens of military police, split demonstrators who had previously controlled the square into smaller groups. “In the square, in the square, we demand our rights in the square,” some chanted as soldiers corralled the crowd.
About 2,000 demonstrators remained in the square and some tents were still pitched in the grassy central area.’

But Hossam el-Hamalawy has made a more critical observation that has largely been ignored in the Western media, ‘whether Tahrir Square occupation continues or not, the real fight is now in the factories’.

As of 7 February, el-Hamalawy reported in an interview first published on the website of the French NPA (Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste), then reposted in MRZine, that:

‘There are four hotbeds of economic struggle: a [steel] mill in Suez, a fertilizer factory in Suez, a textile factory near Mansoura in Daqahlia (the Mansoura-España garment factory in the Nile Delta region) on strike - they have fired their CEO and are self-managing their enterprise. There is also a print shop in southern Cairo called Dar al-Matabi: there, too, they fired their CEO and are self-managing the enterprise. But, while workers are participating in the demonstrations, they are not developing their own independent action as workers. We still have not seen workers independently organize themselves en masse. If that comes, all the equation of the struggle will change.’

He went on to recount that when the workers in the factories are included with those in Tahrir Square and the streets of Cairo, the BBC estimates that the maximum number of protestors in Egypt leading up to Mubarak’s resignation was around eight million people nationwide, and the majority of these eight million were Egyptians who are poor and working class.

El-Hamalawy’s twitter feed, his blog, and like-minded others, such as the contributors to #egyworkers on Twitter have been providing us with encouraging news such as:

- The temporary workers in Helwan Steel Mills are now staging a sit in, south of Cairo.
- Thousands of public transport workers are now demonstrating in el-Gabal el-Ahmar in Nasr City.
- Railway technicians continue to bring trains to a halt.
- Around 5,000 workers in El-Hawamdiya Sugar Factory are now on strike.
- Oil workers started a strike over economic demands, to impeach the petroleum minister, and halt subsidised gas exports to Israel.

And the list goes on and on.

El-Hamalawy’s same blog post tells us the following encouraging news:

‘Some have been surprised that the workers started striking. I really don’t know what to say. This is completely idiotic. The workers have been staging the longest and most sustained strike wave in Egypt’s history since 1946, triggered by the Mahalla strike in December 2006. It’s not the workers’ fault that you were not paying attention to their news. Every single day over the past three years there was a strike in some factory whether it’s in Cairo or the provinces.’

As intoxicating and encouraging as all of this sounds, Reuters reported that:

‘Egypt’s new military rulers will issue a warning on Sunday (today) against anyone who creates “chaos and disorder”, an army source said.
The Higher Military Council will also ban meetings by labour unions or professional syndicates, effectively forbidding strikes, and tell all Egyptians to get back to work after the unrest that toppled Hosni Mubarak.’

And el-Hamalawy reminds us that, ‘when the army took over in 1952, (the) first thing they did was execut(e) two strike leaders at (the) Kafr el-Dawwar textile mill.’

It is exactly the emergence of even more repressive regimes, intent on a struggle to the death to put the breaks on a workers’ revolution in the Arab world, that Vijay Prashad warned of when he wrote that: ‘If power is not seized, counter-revolution will rise…Clara Zetkin warned that the emergence of fascism can be laid partly on the failure of the workers…to move toward revolution effectively enough. Part of that effectiveness is to challenge those…willing in certain circumstances to turn against the Left and become the foot soldiers of fascism.’ (http://radicalnotes.com/content/view/154/39/)

Prashad’s examples in this case included the Islamist parties, Hezbollah and Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood. But it seems fairly clear that in Egypt, as had always been the case in Pakistan, the real Fascist force to be reckoned with is the military, with the Muslim Brotherhood’s power mainly deriving from its mutually opportunistic relationship with the Egyptian Armed Forces.

One would expect, along with American reactionaries like Glen Beck, that the prospect of a military dictatorship with links to radical Islamists would be an extremely alarming prospect to established powers in the United States and Israel. In all actuality, this is as nearly opposite the case as can be possible. It is the United States and Israel that have mainly been responsible for the also mutually opportunistic relationship between the established powers in Cairo, and the established powers in Washington and Jerusalem. Samir Amin describes the ambitions of the military and the Muslim Brotherhood as follows:

‘The military and the Muslim Brotherhood accept the hegemony of the United States in the region and the existing terms of peace with Israel. And their complacency continues to help permit Israel’s continued colonization of what remains of Palestine.’

The reason for this is not some Zionist plot, or some secret conspiracy between Mubarak, Israel, and Washington. The reason for this is the open agreement between all parties on the existing parameters of the established order: the established order of capitalism under US hegemony. This includes the Muslim Brotherhood. Amin also writes that:

‘The key is that everyone accepts capitalism as it is. The Muslim Brotherhood has never considered changing things so seriously. Besides at major workers’ strikes of 2007-2008, their MPs voted with the government against the strikers. Faced with the struggles of peasants evicted from their land by large landowners, the Muslim Brotherhood took part against the peasant movement. For them the private property, free enterprise and profit are sacred.’

What would really be a threat to the Egyptian military, to United States foreign policy interests, to the Israeli state, and to established capitalist powers in the region, would not be the emergence of a new Islamic extremist party in alliance with the Egyptian military: after all that has simply been the status quo of the Mubarak years.

What would really be a threat to these established powers is if the idea of socialism caught on in the Arab world, in the Mediterranean world, in the Islamic world in general, in the European world, and beyond. This is why Obama, the US State Department, the liberal capitalist media, and the liberal capitalist states of the world, want to so enthusiastically announce that there has already been a revolution in Egypt. They want to announce that the revolution has already occurred, as a way of avoiding grappling with the meaning of the prospect of a real revolution: in Egypt, in Tunisia, in Algeria, in Yemen, in Morocco. If it does not stop there, who is to say it will not come to places like France, or even Germany or the UK. Who knows where it will end? We have been led to believe that we must do everything possible to keep it from coming to the United States.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Christopher Carrico is a lecturer in the Anthropology Programme, Department of Language and Cultural Studies, School of Education and Humanities, University of Guyana. This article was first published at As It Ought To Be.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Chronicles of an Egyptian revolution: A protester's first-hand account

Hassan Elghayesh

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70965

cc JusticentricRecounting his experience of involvement in protests, Hassan Elghayesh chronicles the Egyptian revolution from a first-hand perspective.

Imagine that for 24 years you don’t ever have hope of things getting better. Mubarak is ruling Egypt with an iron fist, while the people are captured in a cycle of paralysing fear and hopeless apathy. We are kept from even daring to imagine a different reality from the poverty, inequity, government corruption and indignity we know. The only hope for a fresh graduate like me will be to look for chances elsewhere. Through school and university, I have already met enough bureaucracy and corruption to make me realise there is probably no way a young professional would ever make it in such an atmosphere without becoming everything I’ve always despised.

So what led to the revolution in such an unpromising situation? The call for protests started on Facebook through the group ‘We are all Khaled Saeed’. Saeed was a 28-year-old Egyptian from Alexandria who was beaten to death on 6 June 2010 for refusing to show his ID to two policeman. He was abducted in a police vehicle, taken to a police station, tortured to death and his corpse was later dumped in the street.

But still, the call for protests through Facebook had been going on for three years and it never really worked out for Egyptian activists. So why did the Egyptians show up in the streets in such great numbers? The success of the Tunisian revolution was the key factor. Some other factors may include the illegitimate parliamentary elections in November 2010, the rampant unemployment and corruption and a strong sense of solidarity among the Egyptian population after the bombing of the Saints Church in Alexandria on New Year's Eve. The bombing also showed that, apart from terrorising and torturing innocents, the police force wasn’t doing much.

I am from the middle class, a class that will disappear in Egypt if things keep going the way they are. We are the educated few who get better chances and who get to spend a year or two abroad while studying. I got to see that things can operate on a different level, that we do not have to settle for what we have. I strongly believe that if the Egyptian people are given the chances of a better education, a better healthcare system and a better model to follow they will shine. I might not have suffered the most from Mubarak’s regime, but I will stand for those who suffer the most. The middle class has a responsibility towards the working class, no matter how the regime tried to widen the gap between us or how it frightened us from ever interacting on a meaningful level. I knew that one day we would stand up against the regime to represent a working class that had no voice.

I currently work and reside in Hurghada, a tourist town by the Red Sea, 450km south of Cairo. I took a vacation from work for nine days starting on Tuesday 25 January to travel to Cairo and join the protests. As I was preparing to catch the bus back to Cairo on the morning of the 25th I heard the news about how a few hundred thousand people had showed up at Tahrir (literally ‘liberation’) Square. I was more determined than ever to join the protests. Unfortunately, the first bus to Cairo arrived at midnight. I kept in contact with friends in the square, who told me they were able to get to Tahrir despite being attacked by the police, who were using sticks and tear gas to separate them.

Until, suddenly, phone calls to my friends at Tahrir Square were all met with the same message: ‘This phone cannot be reached at the moment.’ The government had managed to shut down all cell-phone communication in Tahrir Square.

As I arrived in Cairo I received a call from a friend who told me that at about 12:30 the anti-riot police, who had surrounded the protesters for a few hours, viciously attacked the square and evacuated all protesters. Egyptian TV showed nothing of the protests. National newspapers run by the government totally ignored the protests, as if they never happened.

I was eager to join the protests the next day. As we went to Tahrir we were met by thousands of anti-riot police stationed to secure the square. Anyone between the age of 18 and 45 was asked to show his ID. One policeman approached me and my friend and asked us why we were at Tahrir and if we were going to join any of the protests. He then went on about how much trouble we would get into and, in a threatening tone, added: ‘You seem like you come from good families. Your parents wouldn’t like it if you were arrested.’ I met his remarks with a few laughs and told him we were just hanging out in one of the cafés I knew nearby.

We walked around downtown Cairo and checked Facebook and other social websites trying to find out where the protests were. Along the way we met a few protests taking place. The biggest was in front of the lawyers' syndicate and had about 1,000 protesters. They were stopped at the gate of the syndicate by the anti-riot police and everything was kept under control. As the sun was setting, a few thousand protesters started to burn tires along the Corniche (the main road along the Nile). They were trying to make their way to the national TV building. Again the anti-riot police had complete control of the situation. Even though they had control, they had to use violence through police in civilian clothes, who suddenly held their sticks in the air and started chasing protesters.

I was about 100m away from the protest and was taking pictures when two policemen in civilian outfits attacked me and tried to take my camera. One kicked me while the other started to beat me with a wooden stick, breaking one of the camera lenses I had in my bag. Luckily I was not injured. Friends and I managed to make it out of Tahrir without being caught by the police and with our cameras intact.

Another call for protests was made on Facebook for what would be known as ‘The Friday of Rage’ on 28 January. Protests were supposed to start after the Friday prayer. The Friday prayer at noon is a weekly communal prayer and would be a perfect way to gather others who wanted to join the protests. I made plans with friends to meet at an assembly point in my neighbourhood, 15km south of downtown Cairo, and make our way to Tahrir Square, meeting other protestors on the way. To my disbelief I woke up to a communications blackout enforced by the government – no internet, no cell-phones and no SMS – only landlines were left for people to use.

We managed to regroup at the meeting point despite problems with communication. We started out as about 2,000 people and urged bystanders and even people standing in their balconies to join us. After an hour of marching our numbers have increased to more than I can guess or even see in the narrow streets of Cairo. I could see a police station in the distance – the regime’s thugs and police officers stood with weapons in hand – sticks, knives and chains. When they saw our numbers, the thugs ran and hid in the police station, while the police officers pretended they were okay with us passing through. We chanted ‘peaceful, peaceful’ and passed through; the same thing happened an hour later when we passed another police station. On my way back both these police stations had been burnt because they’d tried to stop other protesters from joining us.

Along the way we were met by cheers from people standing in their balconies. They showered us with flowers and candy, while some took the trouble to leave their homes to offer us water and food. We reached al Quasr Al-Aini Street, only 1 km from Tahrir Square – 1km and about 100 anti-riot police armed with teargas, sticks, shields and rubber bullets. We marched all the way to where they held their post and shouted: ‘The people don’t want the regime’ and ‘Tell the truth officer, are you an Egyptian or not?’ for about five minutes, and then they started firing at us. The teargas was the hardest to endure: it is like taking chilli pepper and rubbing it all over your face.

We tried to push them backwards as more and more of us fell and were replaced by protesters who had just joined us. For six hours, we fought our way to Tahrir. At about 21:00, the police were ordered to leave their posts and retreat. A speeding car with diplomatic plates ran over about 20 protesters; a few live rounds were fired and some people were injured. This made things even more uncontrollable as people reacted to seeing other protesters die in burning a National Democratic Party (NDP) building nearby, trashing a nearby gas station and chasing what was left of the police force on the streets. The protesters now had total control of Tahrir Square in the middle of downtown. Military units rolled into the streets to fill the void left by the police force. That night Mubarak talked for the first time after four days of protests. His declaration was very weak and barely met any of our requests. He dissolved the current government, appointed a vice-president for the first time, and dealt with the whole thing as if he had heard nothing that we had said. The speech went on for a few more minutes and sounded more like something he had said before on Labour Day.

Then there were two days with no police force. To understand why the police withdrew that way, one had to be aware that the people and the police in Egypt are not on good terms. You might say that the police withdrew as a vengeful act against the people of Egypt. We heard stories about policemen dressed as civilians terrorising neighbourhoods all over Cairo. We needed to be reminded why we needed them. We were shown horrible images on TV of the Egyptian museum being looted because the police had left their posts and there was a two-hour gap between them leaving and the army arriving in downtown Cairo. There were prison breaches all over Cairo for the same reason.

We spent one night in absolute terror. Everybody in the neighbourhood came down to the street with whatever weapon they could get. We stayed up all night protecting our homes. By the end of the night we were used to the gunshots and screams we could hear in the distance. As for the general atmosphere regarding the protests, some Egyptians who hadn't been to the protests wanted them to be over, as they blamed the protests for putting us in a situation where we had to protect ourselves. Most of the people who thought that way were either working for the government public sector or were serving in the police force or the military. The watch went peacefully, as we didn't talk much about politics – and the supply of freshly baked cakes and tea never stopped throughout the whole night.

It was now almost a week since the first day of the protests on the 25th. As day drew nearer, the streets became safer and better controlled by the army. A call for a more than a million Egyptians to protest was issued from Tahrir Square. Most of us had had to go back to protect our homes and the numbers in Tahrir were unsatisfactory, ranging between 20,000 and 50,000. The media and the regime were dealing with the protests as if those 50,000 people in Tahrir represented only themselves. We needed to send a stronger message to the regime: we were millions and did not want Mubarak as our president. By now, the protests, which had started spontaneously, had led to precise requests:

- Mubarak stepping down
- dissolving the illegitimate parliament
- taking those responsible for corruption to trial
- changing the constitution to limit the president to two terms and having the presidential and parliament elections monitored by the justice department.

This time when we went to Tahrir, the picture was totally different. There was no police presence at all, and the square was monitored by the civil committees who made sure nobody had any sort of weapon on him and no police in civilian clothes entered the square, as it was obvious now who was doing all the looting and damage to public facilities. We were met with colourful signs, some of which were very funny; huge speakers played old Egyptian national songs and people sang along. Everybody was singing and laughing, sharing food, taking pictures and enjoying the atmosphere. The main chants of the crowds were ‘leave, leave’, and ‘The people want the regime to step down.’

Compared to Friday this was more of a picnic. Two million people showed up at Tahrir that day. This number would have doubled had the government opened the highways for people from different parts of Egypt to join us in Cairo. Protests of the same nature took place in Alexandria and other cities – a total of 3 million were in the streets that day. It was clear that the protests were peaceful and that the civil committees did what the police failed to do in organising peaceful marches and protests.

Later that night, Mubarak gave another speech. This time he declared he wouldn’t stand in the next presidential elections in nine months, he would make the amendments to the constitution asked for by the people and the justice department would look into the last parliamentary elections. He also stated he was willing to negotiate with the opposition. This time he seemed more flexible. His emotional speech – in which he talked a lot about himself and his accomplishments in war and peace – really had the desired effect on many of the people who were sympathetic to the protesters. They shifted their stance to be pro-Mubarak, asking that he stay until the end of his term.

As for us, the speech offered nothing new. After 30 years we were accustomed to the fake promises. As we all suspected, the next day when the numbers in Tahrir were about 50,000 again, thugs attacked the protesters trying to evacuate the square. In a surreal scene, camels and horses entered the square as the protesters were showered with rocks and Molotov cocktails. The protesters held their ground and called for help. Those of us who were not in the square rushed to help with supplies, medicine and to help keep our footing in Tahrir. We were met by thugs who stopped us from entering the square. This went on for about 12 hours and the new prime minister, who promised when he took the post that none of the protesters would be harmed, did nothing to help. The army units that were supposed to be protecting protestors didn't do anything either. We were back to the vicious cycle of fake promises. Eleven people were killed that day and 800 were injured. After one week the death toll was 300 and more than 3,500 injured. The huge number of deaths and injuries took the situation to a whole new level, as we were more determined than ever: No more negotiations before Mubarak leaves and all our demands were met.

There was no official representation of the people in Tahrir. The opposition did not represent us. When the new Vice-President Omar Suleiman met with the leaders of the opposition, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Wafd Party and Al Tagamo' Party, we couldn't care less in Tahrir. For us there was really nothing to negotiate about: The demands were clear and any negotiations were in favour of the regime. When the people in Tahrir realised their revolution might be stolen by the opposition, who actually didn't participate much in Tahrir, they organised themselves and voted to elect a few of them to represent the movement in the media. Many other committees formed to talk as the voice of the people: most notably the Wisdom Circle, which included many respected Egyptian figures. Some movements were more flexible than others in their demands, but the protesters in Tahrir wanted all their demands met before any negotiations, with less emphasis on the constitutional correctness of the demands.

The Wisdom Circle was trying to reach a halfway resolution between the regime and the protesters. The opposition just ran to negotiate with the government, which made them lose credibility and any sort of support they might have had from the people. It was also important to know that before these negotiations, many key figures from the ruling National Democratic Party had resigned, including Gamal Mubarak, Hosni Mubarak's own son. Safwat Al Sharif, a politician known for his devious ways, and sometimes credited as the mastermind behind all the corruption and thuggery in the streets during elections, also resigned from the party, but he still kept his seat in parliament. Ahmed Ezza, a businessman-turned-politician, who controlled 67 per cent of steel industries in Egypt and made sure the National Democratic Party monopolised the parliament, had resigned and was called in for interrogation. Still, Mubarak was the president of the party. Protesters in Tahrir were glad but not satisfied. It was not about figures. It was about a system that gave birth to those figures.

The future is uncertain. It’s a psychological struggle at the moment between the regime and the people. Who has the stronger will? Mubarak is a military man who wouldn’t give up easily. Egypt is not Tunisia. The scenario of Mubarak stepping down and escaping the country felt unlikely. On the other hand, Mubarak could step down and give his responsibilities to the newly appointed vice-president. The problem with this scenario was that, according to the constitution, the vice-president cannot make amendments to the constitution or dissolve parliament, and so the people's demands wouldn’t be met. But in a revolution, who cares about a constitution that was written by the regime to protect the regime? All that I was certain of at that moment was that the protests would continue as long as Mubarak was still in power.

The revolution was driven by the fury and the rage of youth against an autocratic president who has done nothing to make this country better; a government run by corrupt businessmen who are more interested in increasing the NDP than in offering better jobs and facilities; a state police that is so violent that it would lead to the death of 300 protesters and the injury of more than 3,000. Hosni Mubarak managed to stay in power through an authoritarian regime, backed by Western countries who don’t mind all the corruption and anti-humanitarian practices as long as he kept their interests in the region safe. Now, he is trying to convince the world that the revolution is pushed by Islamic extremists and that he is the only line of defence between the Islamists and power.

If you knew him as well as we do, perhaps you would be able to see through his lies. Be aware of what is happening in Egypt because sooner or later it will affect you.

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* Hassan Elghayesh is a 24-year-old Egyptian. For a long time, he thought his only chance of a brighter future would not be in his own country, which he loves dearly. But now, the tables have turned: his faith in people's power has been restored and he feels empowered. For the first time, there is a chance of him contributing to a better Egypt.
* This article first appeared in Free African Media.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Development aid: Enemy of emancipation?

Firoze Manji

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70978

cc W FIn an interview with Basta! at the World Social Forum (WSF), Firoze Manji, editor-in-chief of Pambazuka News, discusses the problems of the ‘aid industry’, the resurgence of Africa’s popular movements and the need for a new people-centred ideology.

In attendance at Dakar’s World Social Forum (WSF), the Kenyan scholar Firoze Manji gives us his thoughts on the renaissance of popular movements in Africa. The editor of Pambazuka News, he is very critical of the ‘aid industry’, an industry which hampers Africans’ recovery of their continent, made rotten with corruption and the pillaging of natural resources.

BASTA!: What are the features of Africa’s civil society?

FIROZE MANJI: In Africa there have historically been two types of civil society, those that have collaborated with the colonial power and those which have opposed it. Today we face the same situation: there are those who associate with the aid industry – who draw benefits from it and who use the language of development – and there are those who talk about emancipation. There are, of course, many nuances between these two groups, between those who work with a charitable developmental vision and those who work towards the emancipation of Africans. In general, local organisations, trade unions and peasants’ movements – in light of their direct interest in their own freedom – have a very different dynamic to those who participate in the aid industry.

BASTA!: Are the big NGOs (non-governmental organisations) harmful towards Africa?

FIROZE MANJI: Let’s not talk about their motivations, which are often good. The question is not about evaluating their intentions, but rather the actual consequences of their actions. In a political context where people are oppressed, a humanitarian organisation does nothing but soften the situation, rather than addressing the problem. If you look at this from a historical perspective, a number of NGOs unconsciously participate in a situation involving oppression. Here you can see similarities with occupied France. Some people, albeit with good intentions, objectively participated in the Vichy regime. Between active collaboration and resistance, a large spectre of possibilities exists. We find the same situation in Africa today.

Who will change the world, African citizens or paternalist organisations? And according to whose interests? Let’s make a parallel with the feminist movement. It was born because women used their own tools of struggle. They didn’t call upon men to resolve the problem on their behalf. It’s similar for Africans. We can’t depend on others. Farmers and workers must be capable of organising themselves. When you look at the extraordinary range of natural resources in Africa, one of the richest continents in the world, why does it house the poorest population? Our role, as members of civil society who have had the benefit of an education, is to challenge this situation.

BASTA!: Will development aid be stopped?!

FIROZE MANJI: I have become anti-development. This wasn’t the case before. Let’s have an analogy: did those enslaved need to develop themselves, or to be free? I think that we need emancipation, not development. This concept was created at the beginning of the 1950s in a report by the US State Department. It was invented as a counterpoint to socialist influences and their popularity. This was done consciously. To speak of development is apolitical. We need to re-politicise the question of poverty.

BASTA!: If there are slaves, who are the masters?

FIROZE MANJI: We are dealing with an imperialist system, a new form of colonialism. These last 20 years we have faced a major change: the financialisation of capitalism. Now, nobody can do anything without capital. Finance controls each and every sector of society. It is time to ask who are these masters. To ask this question 10 years ago would mean you’d be treated as crazy. Today, it’s become a legitimate question. There are different interpretations, but nobody in Africa proclaims that we are independent anymore, not even the ruling class.

BASTA!: At the time of independence, all the sectors of African civil society were well-organised. Why have these organisations been swept aside?

FIROZE MANJI: At the heart of the newly independent states, the new ruling classes declared themselves solely in charge of development. In Kenya for example, peasants’ organisations were closed and integrated within the political parties, as happened with the women’s movements. Then the political parties themselves were closed in order to have nothing but the state party. Immediately after Kenya’s independence (1963), a great many important liberation figures were imprisoned, exiled or killed, such as Patrice Lumumba in Congo and Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso. Each time a leader had the courage to rebel, Europe and the United States forced them to back down. We then came to know an empty period until the mid-1990s, when people began to resist and organise themselves again. Today in Kenya, spaces for discussion and debate are not lacking. It’s vibrant, alive and a general trend, including in Europe.

BASTA!: Does this spell a renaissance in both political consciousness and mobilisations alike?

FIROZE MANJI: People are asking questions more and more, and protesting. In the United Kingdom, people are asking why more money is always given to the banks, while hospitals and schools close. The number of people engaged in analysis and critical perspectives is growing greatly. Something new has appeared, and you see a resurgence in action. Of course, activism is not enough. The problem we have in Kenya is that capitalism is perceived, despite everything, as the only alternative.

We’re trying, therefore, to improve things. Capitalism is terrifying in itself. The facts speak for themselves: enormous land-grabbing, unemployment, impoverishment, rising infant mortality, rising food prices… In less than 10 years, more than half of the population will live around cities, trying to survive. The current questions change nothing, but they’re a good start!

BASTA!: Do new technologies play a role in the emergence of new social movements?

FIROZE MANJI: Of course, new technologies allow us communication and organisation, but let’s not forget that it is people who do it. Look at Tunisia: you hear that the revolution was caused by Twitter – this can’t be serious! Pens were also used as a means of information and mobilisation. Does this mean that pens caused the revolution? This illustrates a tendency towards technological determinism, towards hi-tech fetishism. We imagine that mobile phones, SMS (short message service), Twitter and Facebook have a power. This type of discussion tends to underestimate the role of those who use them. In Tunisia, protesting in the road called for a lot of courage. A protestor who embraces a soldier, as is seen in a photo, is not produced by technology. It’s thought that this can resolve everything, but a third of Africans have one and there hasn’t been revolution everywhere.

BASTA!: To give power back to the citizen, you talk about democratisation rather than democracy. Which is to say…?

FIROZE MANJI: Take for example agriculture: the bulk of what’s produced in Africa goes to feed Europe, multinationals and supermarkets. In Kenya we produce millions of flowers. Every day, they leave for Amsterdam. The amount of water used and the chemical products involved destroy our environment. While this goes on, populations have difficulty gaining access to water and food. The countryside ought to be used to produce food!

The question is, who decides this? Could we democratise decisions around what is produced, how it is produced and for whom? There is no procedure, no decision-making structure; there’s not even a debate around this, but simply an elite who decides and decrees what to do. Who should decide about what to grow and how to grow it? Agricultural production needs to be democratised.

The same thing happens with industrial production. Look at the unbelievable African natural resources; why don’t African benefit from them? I talked about this with some Venezuelan people. They told us their power of negotiation lies in their production of oil. In Africa, we’ve got oil, so why don’t we have this power of negotiation? This is essentially a political question. I think that Latin America is a dozen years ahead of us. Structural adjustment policies began there two decades ago. I think that in Africa a popular movement will rise up from this from 2020. Chávez is not an exception; he is the product of his history, of a movement for emancipation, like Lula. The question is, how can we ourselves politicise this process? It’s not easy; there’s no technical solution. Workers and farmers need to become organised. This takes time. The positive thing is that this point is now discussed; this wasn’t the case 10 years ago.

BASTA!: The crisis of confidence towards the capitalist system is a starting point. But if the best is possible, so too is the worst, as we see in the xenophobic actions spreading in Europe…

FIROZE MANJI: This could go in any direction. Following the 1929 crisis, a crisis of confidence swept across Europe, and Germany was a part of this, in the bad sense. The crisis of confidence is a necessary part of the process, but it’s not enough. With the discrediting of Stalinism, the concept of socialism is not longer attractive, and we therefore have to create a new ideology, of new aspirations. If this isn’t produced, we’ll enter into a very dangerous phase. Without a viable alternative, anybody could take advantage. This is a situation which is both terrifying and full of hope at the same time.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Firoze Manji is editor-in-chief of Pambazuka News.
* This interview was originally published by Basta!
* Interview conducted by Ivan du Roy and Jennifer Austruy, in cooperation with Politis.
* Translated from the French by Alex Free.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Egypt is an African country

H. Nanjala Nyabola

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70962

cc CETLNReflecting on time spent in the country, H. Nanjala Nyabola stresses than rather than simply looking east for comparison, the Egyptian people’s recent experience gives ‘an opportunity for lessons to be learnt further south’ in other parts of Africa.

One of my most enduring memories of Cairo is sitting in a taxi in the suffocating summer heat of 2008, getting ready to return to the hotel after an afternoon sightseeing in Old Cairo. The particular taxi that we were in was extremely old, and probably not roadworthy even in the most liberal sense, but after over a week of careening down the madness of Cairene highways, my standards had dipped enough that I decided to sit in the front where at least I could make use of the safety belt. As I started to fidget with the dust-covered strap, it was apparent that the safety belt had not been used in years, and so I reacted with mild amusement rather than anger when the driver of the taxi began to laugh at me like I was the funniest thing he had seen in years. I mean, the man nearly had tears in his eyes. Eventually, he recovered enough to help me strap in, praising me and insisting in broken English that he would wear his own. He did, and even though he drove at breakneck speeds, turning left instead of going around the roundabouts, blasting into oncoming traffic rather than waiting for the lights to change, he did so with great humour and I with some pride at the tiny effect I’d had on his day.

I bring this up because like anyone else who has spent time in Egypt – the real Egypt and not the resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh – the dominant memory is of a country that should work brilliantly in the right conditions but has seen any such dreams buried under corruption, nepotism and one of the most extensive state security mechanisms in the world. Although there was always a policeman at every roundabout, driver after driver flouted every single driving convention in the book, and after nearly two weeks in the country I’m still not sure whether Egyptians drive on the left or on the right. The drivers drove as they did because they knew that policemen could be bribed, and if one was stopped it was more likely to be to demand such bribes rather than to punish law breakers. Yet the same police instilled great fear in the hearts of members of the growing Protestant community in Cairo, with universities repeatedly losing convert students to disappearances either through state operatives in the classrooms or their being handed over by disgruntled family members. Egypt always seemed to me to be a magnificent nation trapped underneath an extensive but crippled bureaucracy and an omnipresent fear of the state as enveloping as the scorching heat.

Still, I can’t help but look back on my time with fondness, and look upon the current events in the country with a mix of pride and deep concern. An imperfect and complex nation with one of the most generous and welcoming populations certainly I’ve ever experienced now lies on the brink of the most significant development in its modern history. Whichever way you look at it, Hosni Mubarak is a trapped man. Trapped between leaving Egypt safely but with his reputation as ‘father of the nation’ in tatters like Idi Amin or Ben Ali, or ignoring the protests of the Egyptians in Tahrir and digging in for a fight like Mugabe and Bouteflika. Unlike most analysts who are looking east for comparison, seeing parallels in Saudi Arabia or Jordan, in Egypt I see a recurrence of the dissatisfaction and political awakening of young people that has taken root in other parts of Africa, and I see an opportunity for lessons to be learnt further south.

Like Colonel Gaddafi and Museveni before him, Mubarak came to power in a time of political flux, leaving the military in order to ostensibly lead the country through the time of change and leave once the nation was stabilised. It may well be that the experience of the presidency revealed a facet of political relations that is hidden from political scientists around the world but is revealed especially to dictators, that nations never become stable, especially where the geostrategic interests of the outside ‘outweigh’ the interests of the people, and continue to need the guiding hand of a father-like figure. Either way, like Museveni or Jammeh, it seems that the envisioned period of stability never materialised, even as the Egyptian economy grew to stratospheric heights. Tired of waiting, the people of Egypt have opted to take the fight to Mubarak, reminiscent of the general strikes that shook, but did not topple, Eyadema in Togo. Indeed, like Mugabe, Mubarak has opted to dig in for a fight, resorting to a draconian show of force in order to try and disperse the throngs assembled at Tahrir Square.

Only time will tell whether the stand-off in Egypt will lead to a perplexing stalemate as in Zimbabwe, or feed into the birth of a new and more democratic nation, as appears imminent in Guinea. The determining factors will be in the ability of the people to continue to articulate the urgency of their demands without resorting to widespread violence, as well as the continued support of people within and outside Egypt. Significantly, Egypt – a founding member of the AU (African Union) – is an African country as much as it is an Arab one, and this means that African countries have a responsibility to speak up and speak out on behalf of the Egyptian people. It is of great concern that the African Union found time during its recent summit to discuss the possibility of helping Kenya wiggle out of its commitments to the ICC (International Criminal Court), possibly contributing to the culture of impunity that pervades the country’s political life, but left it until 11 days later to issue a statement on the crisis in Egypt.

Regardless, as the crisis in Egypt has the makings of earlier crises in other parts of Africa, so too does it hold opportunities to learn. Significantly for this analyst, one would hope that the patience and passion of the Egyptian people in the face of increasing brutality from their leader would be a lesson for young Africans everywhere, inspiring them to stand up against the excesses of their leaders without turning against each other.

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* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Revolution and reconstruction in Egypt

Horace Campbell

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70964

cc Abusalah‘The task ahead for the Egyptian people may be enormous. But the same will, determination and sense of collectivism and focus with which they triumphed over Mubarak should be drawn upon for the reconstruction phase of the revolution,’ writes Horace Campbell.

Today the victory of the peoples of North Africa over one of the most repressive police states in the world is shifting the balance of power in international politics; it is also strengthening people’s power against exploitation, sexism, domination, police repression and those forms of rule that have been associated with neo-liberal capitalism. After resisting 18 days of protest from millions of Egyptians who want the birth of a new Egypt, Hosni Mubarak stepped down from his 30-year presidency on Friday 11 February. From Djibouti, Libya and Yemen, to Bahrain, Iran and Algeria, youths are standing up for freedom as the ripple effects of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions act as a school for new revolutionary processes.

As the people of Egypt move to consolidate their victory there is a sense of dual power – that of the people organised in the streets, and the power of the military that took the reins of the state in the aftermath of Mubarak’s exit. Though they have dissolved the Mubarak puppet parliament and suspended the Mubarak-serving constitution, these military officers continue to dither on crucial issues, such as the lifting of emergency powers and the release of political prisoners.

In order to exercise their newly gained freedom and express their lack of confidence in military government, workers extended their industrial actions after strikes broke out in all sections of the economy. Even the police who were the frontline repressors came out on strike, seeking support from a public that they had oppressed a few weeks before. There are reports that in some enterprises bosses are running away and workers have to begin to manage the institutions because the bosses have been implicated by their collusion with the police state. These actions by workers, along with actions by the rural farmers, signalled to the military that the exit of Mubarak was only a minor step and that the tasks of the revolution were not yet accomplished. The ultimate task is to end oppression and give dignity to the people.

In my previous articles, I drew attention to the issues of self-organisation and self-emancipation in this context of the uprising to remove Hosni Mubarak from power, and I outlined four significant stages that make up the first phase of the revolution. The stepping down of Mubarak has now paved the way for the second phase of the revolution, which is that of reconstruction. In the second phase, the challenge is how to deepen the victory of the people so that what was won politically is not taken away by a transition that is built on the ideals of ‘liberal democracy,’ where there are no fundamental changes in the economic edifice that was built by Sadat and consolidated by the clique around Mubarak. This is the stage where questions of reconstructions are linked to the structural transformation of revolutionary societies.

RECONSTRUCTING A DEFORMED SYSTEM

Mubarak could never have accumulated a fortune of US$40-70 billion through control over the state alone. Such an accumulation is a reflection of how the neoliberal-driven global capital (financialisation of capitalism) is being played out; it reveals that global capital’s junior partners in developing societies are not in politics or the military alone. They are economic agents with links to the military or political power. In a sense, the location of where the primary accumulation of wealth occurs is shifting away from control over the state, to links with global capital and access to the state. Thus, access to and consolidation of political power becomes a way of securing and legitimising global capitalist partnerships to cover up looting, corruption, greed, and obscene accumulation, especially in developing countries.

The above framework is helpful in understanding where the focus of the next phase of the struggle must be placed, but it is also critical for successfully countering what is soon to come from the West, as it seeks to engage Egypt in the name of democracy in order to shape or prevent any emergence of alternative modes of economic organisation. It could be recalled that some media reported that the people rose up against the dictatorship’s refusal to allow more economic freedom. We must interrogate the notion of economic freedom that these media were referring to. There was economic freedom in Egypt in the so-called ‘free market’ sense of the word. But this freedom defied the deformed ‘trickle-down’ economic logic. While the state did use some tools to maintain itself as a source of accumulation (in a sense competing with global capital), we must clearly understand that Egypt’s most powerful economic elites had been ‘freeing’ up the economy from the state for decades, but replaced by the control of the alliance between them and global capital.

It is important to restate the paradox that Mubarak’s billions are not just the work of his personal corruption. They are a logical outcome of the economic structure that has been built for Egypt’s economic elite class and financed through links with foreign capital. Thus, the more challenging task of the reconstruction phase of the revolution is how to achieve a structural transformation from the neoliberal economic framework that strengthened the nexus between money, power, and politics. This conceptual clarification is necessary so that in the phase of reconstruction, Egyptians could move away from the kind of economic freedom that enabled local and global capitalists to prey on their economy.

RECONSTRUCTION AND CAPITAL CONTROLS VS DEREGULATION

The deregulation and privatisation of Egypt’s economy under Mubarak, as it was in many other societies, meant that government corporations were sold to private capitalists, and that the government drastically cut back its regulation of capitalist activities to accumulate wealth on the back of the working class and at the expense of the environment. In Egypt, this privatisation ensured that Egyptians owned up to 51 per cent of stakes in private corporations. But ‘Egyptians’ in this case became Mubarak, his family and their elite cronies, who control bank accounts and assets worth billions of dollars of Egyptian people’s money in various countries, including Switzerland.

However, these local elements did not act alone in their corruption and accumulation by dispossession. They were backed up by a global ‘free market’ system of capital flow, championed by the global financial institutions like the IMF and enabled by the global banking and financial sectors. As one commentator opined, ‘[t]here is no democracy for its economy. The tyrant here is not only Mubarak, but the IMF, the World Bank, the Banks, the Bond Markets, the Multi-National Corporations.’

In my view, the Egyptian revolution challenged this model, so there should not be a reconstitution of this structure or model after Mubarak’s exit.

The outflow of the money meant for education, health care, housing, sanitation, and living wages is now bringing the question of capital control to the fore in the international financial system. Egyptian youths have to follow this debate in their bid to forge a new course for societal reconstruction. This question of capital control is one of the realities that make structural transformation imperative.

Capital control is one of the policy tools that has emerged to strengthen the health of the real economy in a society against the stranglehold of the global financial sector. The corruption and dangers of the neoliberal global finance were exposed by the recent financial crisis that started in the USA. This structural corruption is what we mean when we assert that Mubarak and his own corruption cabal are not the only problem – an entire global architecture facilitated the Mubarak regime’s illicit accumulation and financial outflow. This outflow took various forms, including bribery, theft, kickbacks, tax evasion and other forms of illicit financial transactions from the major exporters of oil in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Egypt was a regional hub for international capital.

Elsewhere, the debate that there has to be some measure of popular and domestic control over financial mobility or outflow has arisen out of awareness that the global financial oligarchs, their proxies and partners-in-corruption thrive on a ‘free market’ ideology based on the economic disenfranchisement and dehumanisation of the mass of the population.

We know that in today's capitalist crisis, many emerging markets and developing nations are using capital controls to counter the quantitative easing policies of the USA, in order to protect the domestic sources of growth of their real economies against the financial speculation-driven asset bubbles and upward pressures on their exchange rates. Of course, we can be confident that the West will offer ‘aid and support’ for Egypt's next government and expect in return that it does not consider such alternative policies as capital controls. But for the revolution to go beyond removing Mubarak and seeking the return of the wealth he accumulated, to exploring how to initiate processes of structural transformation, one policy litmus test for a future government would be whether or not it considers the use of capital controls as a tool to support the growth and development of Egypt's ‘real economy’ for the creation of jobs and small business development beyond tourism.

Evidence of the success of countries using the capital control policy tools dates back to the post 1997 economic reconstruction, when Malaysia (unlike Thailand and South Korea) went against the IMF, US Treasury, and World Bank policy dictates on how to respond to the Asian financial crisis. Malaysia was strongly criticised and told that foreign investment would never come back to its territory. The threats turned out to be wrong, as 10 years later the IMF admitted that Malaysia’s was a legitimate policy response. In recent years, other countries that have adopted a variety of capital control measures include Thailand, South Korea, and Brazil.

That said, capital control measure is one thing, and releasing the capital for the benefit of the mass of the people is another. The constant mobilisation and vigilance of the people will be required to ensure that the country’s resources are used to improve their standards of living.

The Egyptian people must learn from the neoliberal capitalist crisis in the West, where there continue to be cuts in the provision of social services, tight state budgets, and all forms of austerity measures, while the corrupt financial sector is being propped up in the face of the failure of trickle-down economics and the free market ideology of deregulation. The Egyptian reconstruction process is thus faced with the choice of an alternative path that prioritises the interests and well-being of the people over that of corrupt local, regional and global financial oligarchs.

The dominant one per cent of the Egyptian ruling class will manoeuvre to hijack the reconstruction process in order to maintain their economic stranglehold. They would want to deploy their ill-gotten wealth to dominate the discourse on elections and the new politics, as well as buy access to power or prop up a section of the military that could help them maintain their privilege. To sustain capitalism in Egypt, military forces backed up by Israel and the USA will be needed to crush the fledgling revolutionary process.
The challenge of the second phase of the revolution is therefore poised between the reconstruction of the society for the betterment of the quality of lives of the people and the reconstruction of capital for a new dominant class of elites along with the external forces who have supported the dominant one per cent elites of the population.

INFORMATION AND THE OPENING OF THE FILES OF MUBARAK

‘Now we open all the files,’ said George Ishak, head of the National Association for Change (one of the networks of networks organizing in differing spheres of this unfolding revolution). ‘We will research everything, all of them: the families of the ministers, the family of the president, everyone.’

There are now calls for the repatriation of the wealth stolen by the ruling clique as the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions call on progressives everywhere to pressure the UN to give meaning to the question of asset recovery. For the past decade, the international capitalist forces have paid lip service to the question of asset recovery. But as the stories of the wealth of the Mubarak clique is compared to the debt of Egypt, there is no question whether Egypt can use US$70 billion for reconstruction projects that will serve the needs of all Egyptians. This is a major issue that some international capitalists may want to avoid as they focus solely on constitution and elections. The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) was supposed to be the most comprehensive global legal framework for combating corruption, but Western banking and media circles ensure that this UN convention is not in the popular consciousness.

The top echelons of the Egyptian military, who were ensnared in the top tiers of the Mubarak police state, will work hard for a situation where the rich will prevail. As Robert Fisk pointed out, the generals are concerned about ‘the size of the archives left behind by the regime and the degree to which the authorities, especially the lawyers and ‘the reformed judiciary’ will be drawn into the information freedom so that the full corruption will be exposed.’ Information freedom must be an integral part of Egypt’s reconstruction.

The archives of information on the theft challenge the young revolutionaries to build on the power of the control over news and information to prolong the exposure of local and international forces that looted Egypt.

Mohammed Bamyeh captured the essence of the political earthquake that shook the foundations of corruption, greed, exploitation with links between money, power, and politics. According to him:

‘Like in the Tunisian Revolution, in Egypt the rebellion erupted as a sort of a collective moral earthquake—where the central demands were very basic, and clustered around the respect for the citizen, dignity, and the natural right to participate in the making of the system that ruled over the person. If those same principles had been expressed in religious language before, now they were expressed as is and without any mystification or need for divine authority to justify them. I saw the significance of this transformation when even Muslim Brotherhood participants chanted at some point with everyone else for a ‘civic’ (madaniyya) state—explicitly distinguished from two other possible alternatives: religious (diniyya) or military (askariyya) state.’

The call for a civic state was also a call to bring back democracy at the economic level, in order to end the figment of a democratic society where state property could become private property protected by a police state, with a media designated to pacify and dumb down the population. Foreign correspondents of all the major international networks descended onto Cairo, Alexandria and other cities. When the brutality that had been reserved for the poor rained down on these international journalists, even the conservative columnists and newscasters from the West had to expose the brutality of neoliberalism.

Spin and infotainment as diversions for the youth failed. This was most graphically exposed as citizens all around the world were tuned into the popular revolution in Egypt, and Egyptian state television brought out a sport programme on Thursday night after Mubarak had given his speech of defiance. Youths should now put into proper context the reasons why English Premier League football is the principal form of entertainment on television in Africa and the Middle East.

Two days after Thursday 10 February, media employees began to say that they themselves were stifled and that they wanted to report on the democratic struggles in the streets. These personnel in the state media will be called on to prove their commitment to democracy as the revolutionary moment called for the expansion of information on the theft of wealth from the society. This democratisation of information could reveal whether Egypt was one of the principal money laundering centres for North Africa and the Middle East.

DESTABILISING THE SPIN DOCTORS OF THE TERRORISM INDUSTRY

Egypt was one of the centres of psychological warfare and disinformation by the US military along with their allies in the Israeli military. Private military contractors had been deployed to drive home the divisions on religious grounds and to spread confusion among the ranks of the poor. But the speed of the unfolding revolution ensured that the public information business cannot keep up.

From the news reports, the victory of the people is being called a military victory or, in some quarters, a military coup. In the most conservative sections of Western Europe there is an effort to mobilise Islamophobia, with a focus on the Muslim Brotherhood. Even this is failing as the revolutionary fervour spreads to all societies, with the popular rebellion in Bahrain destabilising the US military command so that the chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had to be deployed to the region. As the people of Bahrain rise up more and more, one reporter writes:

‘The tiny oil-producing state just off the east coast of Saudi Arabia is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, headquarters for a U.S. Marine Corps amphibious unit and a crucial base for U.S. Air Force jet fighter interceptors and spy planes. Bahrain gives Washington a base in the very heart of the Gulf from which it can protect and monitor the movement of 40% of the world’s oil through the Strait of Hormuz, spy on Iran and support pro-Western Gulf States from potential threats.’

The spread of the revolution to the oil producing societies of the Middle East and North Africa brings back the centrality of Egypt in the regional strategy of empire. All of the ruling classes of the oil rich states were integrated into the torture practices and police state structure of Egypt, and their financial transactions internationally were interconnected to the private equity firms of the Mubarak one per cent dictatorship. If and when Bahrain implodes to the point where the Fifth Fleet can no longer prop up the dictators and sheikhs, would there be outright war from the US military against the revolutionary forces?

It is the history of wars to crush revolutions that must be part of the focus of peace and social justice networks all around the world, so that the phase of reconstruction is not hijacked by counter-revolutionary violence. Mohammed Bamyeh observed correctly that ‘the transition to a new order would be engineered by existing forces within the regime and organized opposition, since the millions in the streets had no single force that could represent them.’

Our concern is how to strengthen the popular power in the streets in order to dismantle the structures of repression and exploitation of the police state, so that the strengths of the networks of networks inside Egypt are reinforced by networks of peace and justice internationally.

KEEPING OPEN THE ROAD TO TAHRIR SQUARE

From the dawn of history, the persistent struggles of a oppressed but resilient people or nation have always had tremendous impact on humanity, sometimes speeding up the process of social change. In the last three centuries there have been major historical changes in certain parts of the world that have created this impact. The most significant of these historical changes include the Haitian and French Revolutions of 1789/1791; the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Chinese Revolution of 1949; the victory of Vietnamese over the technologically superior American occupation forces in 1975; and the victory of the peoples of Africa over the forces of colonialism and apartheid.

The Egyptian revolution is equally an event of historical proportion. We hope the people can learn from the positive and negative lessons of the previous revolutionary openings. It is the same information revolution that has schooled the youths to understand that after the massive sacrifices of the anti-apartheid struggles in South Africa, international capitalism worked very hard to build a new class of capitalists to maintain the social structures of apartheid without its racial manifestations.

The optimism and inspiration generated by the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions have been given concrete meaning by the information revolution that placed the initiative in the hands of the revolutionary forces. The confidence of the revolutionary forces remains high as they point to the fact that they brought down Mubarak. In the words of Abdel Rahman Yousef, a prominent figure in the National Association for Change, ‘I am optimistic [because] the people know the road to Tahrir Square now and they can go back if they do not get what they are asking for.’

The awareness of the people of the road to rebellion must be buttressed by the popular education on the logic of global capital that supported and maintained the ruling clique for the past 40 years. They must transform this system which extracts wealth out of Egypt, leaving the elites to capture the largest percentages kept in the country, while the rest of society battle for the crumbs whether as a state employee linked to tourism or part of the informal economy.

The Egyptian people must strengthen the committees that they built to defeat Mubarak, and use these committees as a template for people’s power behind reconstruction. They must seriously engage the military so that there is an exposure of the top one per cent of the top military officers who are themselves complicit in the drain of resources from the society. The resulting split in the army will have to be managed by the sophistication of the revolutionary forces that managed the campaign to remove Mubarak.

They must reconstitute democratic participation. This democracy would include political and economic democracy; cultural/religious democracy, and information democracy. They must always remember that their revolution serves as an inspiration to other revolutions. Whatever measure they take for reconstruction would go a long way to not only influencing other revolutions but impacting reconstruction in the process. So far, the popular democratic explosion has shaken not only Egypt but all of the Middle East and Africa and the destabilisation of the one per cent in Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Nigeria along with their external handlers will rapidly accelerate the global anti-capitalist struggles. The task ahead for the Egyptian people may be enormous. But the same will, determination, and sense of collectivism and focus with which they triumphed over Mubarak should be drawn upon for the reconstruction phase of the revolution.

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* Horace Campbell is a teacher and writer. Professor Campbell's website is www.horacecampbell.net. His latest book is 'Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA', published by Pluto Press.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Egypt and the revolution in our minds

‘What makes the lid blow off?’

Nigel C. Gibson

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70972

cc W ZMubarak has stepped down but that is just the end of the first phase of Egypt’s revolution. What is also at stake is ‘whether the self-organisation learnt from Tahrir Square will take on a class character and whether the public political space, the democratic space opened up by the revolution, will remain open,' writes Nigel C. Gibson.

‘What makes the lid blow off?’ Fanon asks in ‘The Wretched of the Earth’, reflecting on the revolution against French colonialism in Algeria 50 years ago and thinking about the future ‘African revolution.’ In Egypt, a country where 50 per cent of the population is under 30 years old and which has known no other regime than Mubarak’s state of emergency, with its torture and surveillance, it was the reaction to the murder of Khaled Said, a young blogger beaten to death by the police, that was a turning point. It began with a protest of 1,000 people in Alexandria during Said’s funeral and then went ‘underground’ onto the internet. Pictures of his crushed face are still on his facebook page. The next spark in the North African revolution was in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, ignited by the self immolation of Mohamed Bouazazi, a vegetable peddler whose cart and produce were confiscated by the police. Over the next month, despite increased repression, protests grew across Tunisia and on 14 January President Ben Ali was pushed out of the country. The date of the Egyptian revolution is 25 January but its prehistory includes years of labour struggle: The sit-ins, strikes, and demonstrations of 2006, the almost daily workers’ actions of early 2007, and the massive strike of textile workers in Muhalla al-Kubra in 2008 initiated by working women. These struggles led to beatings and imprisonments as well as some wage increases and bread subsidies as the regime tried to cheaply buy its way out of crisis. The mixture of economic hardship, political repression and social control indicate how deep the uprooting of the old regime had to be.

REVOLUTION 2.0

The 25 January revolution began as a movement against the odds, despite repression and torture and violence; despite the closing down of the internet which seemed so important to its birth; despite the conservativism of the world powers – Obama especially – and at times corporate media’s conformism. Despite all, the movement grew in size and grabbed the world’s attention as it developed in sophistication and in articulation – expressed so brilliantly in the endless debates, platforms and self-organisation (the organisation of the provision of security, food, blankets, stones, and medicine is a story to be told) around and in Tahrir Square, where the once cowed and silenced people of one of the world’s great cities could begin to speak and engage in seemingly endless debates, and decision-making, in open sessions. This had all the makings of a people’s revolution. There have been discussions of the revolution’s similarity with the velvet revolutions of 1989, Tiananmen Square in 1989, people power against Marcos in the Philippines and Duvalier in Haiti in 1986. It is akin to Paris 1968 and its decentralised working and bottom up democracy reflects the new beginning which began with the Hungarian revolution of 1956. Indeed, aided by social media the revolution has been dubbed Revolution 2.0, a revolution without leaders, a ‘Wikipedia revolution’ as Wael Ghonim (the young Google executive behind the ‘We are all Khaled Said’ facebook page) put it. With everyone contributing to its content, the revolution was never simply a revolt of the middle class and as it grew it increasingly came to reflect the socio-economic composition of Africa’s largest city.

THE RETAKING OF PUBLIC SPACE

The Egyptian revolution is like a Rorschach test: Everyone can see something in it. And while these insights are all true, it is also a revolution of the 21st century, not simply because of the social media technology (plus WikiLeaks and Al Jazeera). In this age of gated cities, of citadels, under surveillance and policed – what have been called ‘global cities’ – the Egyptian people opened up political space, as an ongoing public debate in the squares, outside the parliament, in the streets. Cairo, a city of 18 million – abundant in its history and riches and also in the lived realities of the majority of its citizens who are poor – became associated throughout the world, and especially the Arab world, with liberation. The Caireans have shown the world how social media relates to social transformation and the retaking of public space. They have implicitly brought into focus the idea of the ‘right to the city’ as a collective project of social transformation. They were not stopped by fears about maintaining order, nor by the police and the state’s paid murderers, nor by threats of a coup. Instead they organised a continuous occupation of a city’s central square by tens, then hundreds of thousands, then millions of people, defending it, feeding it, nurturing it, articulating it, developing it as their daily work. Cairo was the centre, but in other towns, like Alexandria, smaller groups – perhaps initially under the threat and reality of even more violence – continually gathered. The regime cracked. To remain hegemonic, Mubarak had to be sacrificed.

TOWARD A NATIONAL REVOLUTION

For Fanon, the timing of the revolution is a moment when the militants make contact with the poor from the outskirts of towns and rural areas and realise that they have always thought in terms of a revolutionary transformation. In Egypt this is only beginning to happen. What began to amaze organisers during the last days of Mubarak’s rule was the militancy of the youth from poor neighborhoods. Before the 28 January demonstration, for example,, a group of organisers ‘conducted … a field test’ walking along the narrow alleys of a working class neighborhood to measure the level of participation: ‘when we finished up the people refused to leave. They were 7000 and they burned two police cars.’[1]

The turning point in the struggle – the point when the ruling elites decided to dump Mubarak – came not after it defeated the police and paid goons, but as workers in the port towns and across the industrial and service sectors began strikes supporting the movement and raising their own demands. With revolts also in rural areas and in smaller towns, it was the beginning of a national revolution whose first phase ended with the departure of Mubarak. Strikes have continued, indeed expanded, but what is also at stake is whether the self-organisation learnt from Tahrir Square will take on a class character and whether the public political space, the democratic space opened up by the revolution, will remain open.

BREAKING THE MIND-FORGED MANACLES OF UNFREEDOM

Clearly things were changing during those eighteen days after 25 January and the speed of change, of development, of solidarity and fearless – of a new humanity experiencing freedom – took on a momentum of its own. Steve Biko, the South African Black Consciousness leader, argued that the most potent weapon in the oppressor’s arsenal was the internalisation of fear in the consciousness of the oppressed. But once that mind experiences freedom – not as an abstraction but in and through collective actions – it becomes a force of revolution. ‘People have changed. They were scared. They are no longer scared,’ argued Ahmad Mahmoud. ‘When we stopped being afraid we knew we would win. We will not again allow ourselves to be scared of a government. This is the revolution in our country, the revolution in our minds.’[2]

Once the lid is taken off a police state, it is very difficult to put back on. Mental liberation, Fanon argues, and the radical change in consciousness that accompanies revolution, entails a rethinking of everything, a questioning of everything that has been taken for granted. What had been normal for so long has been fundamentally shaken. After 30 years of life under the dictatorship, the Egyptian people had become historical protagonists. Tahrir Square, the revolution’s focal point, became territorialised by those who had not counted. It became the space of a new kind of work in Fanon’s sense, namely the hard but collectively joyous work of human liberation.

Mubarak’s departure represents a victory for the movement but it is not the goal of liberation. Egypt remains at a crossroads with the military as the only possible institution to renormalise it. Yet under the guise of the national interest any return to the old normal must include suppressing freedom, strikes, demonstrations, and any other manifestation of the economic and social revolt against injustice and exploitation that has been brewing for the past decade.

THE MILITARY INTERREGNUM

In 1956, four years after the 1952 Egyptian revolution and one year into the Algerian revolution, Algeria’s liberation movement met in the Soummam Valley to discuss the organisation and programme of its revolution. An important principle adopted there was that rather than militarising politics, the military and any military decision had to be subservient to, and under the control of, the political struggle. It is a principle that continues to haunt Algeria and Egypt where militarised states of emergency have been in place for decades, abrogating political rights and suppressing spaces for public discourse.

In 1959 Fanon presented his ‘Pitfalls of National Consciousness’ (which would become a central chapter of The Wretched of the Earth) as lectures to the Algerian liberation army camped on the Tunisian border. Looking forward to decolonisation, he goes further than the Soummam platform, arguing that the army too often becomes the pillar of a nation, which despite independence, does not undergo any fundamental reorganisation. The military enforces systematic pauperisation and ‘the strength of the police force and the power of the army are [simply] proportionate to the stagnation in which the rest of the nation is sunk.’[3] Where there is no parliament, he continues, the army takes over – as it has done in Egypt. But this changes nothing unless the army is truly nationalised and the development of the officer class is curtailed as it becomes a school of ‘civic and political education.’ Rather than a professional army, he adds, the military should become a political organisation which, as a servant of the people, needs to take the step from ‘national consciousness to political and social consciousness’ and become part of a genuine humanist and social national programme.[4] Too often, however, as we have seen in the fifty years since Fanon’s death, the army, as he feared, takes the place of a corrupt political party, and becomes the organizer of the profiteers.[5] This certainly was the situation under Mubarak.

In Egypt the army – intimately connected to the economy and self-interested in the maintenance of the status quo – is repeating the same calls it made during the last days of Mubarak under the slogans to ‘return to order’ and ‘return to normalcy.’ Yet the people are not naïve. During the commune days of Tahrir Square they understood that the tanks not only protected them but threatened them. People slept in the tank’s tracks not only to stop the tanks from moving but let everyone know that they were ready if the tanks did move; they marched around the tanks by candlelight at night to keep them in their place; and they continued to embrace the soldiers as their ‘brothers,’ but announced further demonstrations and encouraged the soldiers to join them. Thus after Mubarak’s departure and despite the army’s clearing of Tahrir Square and its threat to ban strikes and end street demonstrations, the question is can the military put the lid back on the multidimensional revolt? How reliable are the army’s young and badly paid conscripts?

SOCIAL IMAGINATION

It is the revolution happening in the minds of the people – including perhaps those among the army’s rank and file – that is really significant. Nasser understood its importance, calling his book on the liberation of Egypt a ‘philosophy of revolution’. A different philosophy of revolution came alive in the movement at Tahrir Square. As Sinan Antoon, the Iraqi born poet, novelist and film maker put it, ‘What distinguishes this revolution is the wonderful and sublime example it sets in terms of solidarity among protesters and citizens at large. The spontaneity and cooperation in managing their daily affairs without a hierarchy is what the state didn’t expect as it deprived the people of basic services and tried to spread fear and chaos to terrorize the citizenry.’ The ‘commune’ at Tahrir Square produced a new political form.[6] And in an attempt to de-communalise that form, it has now been deterritorialised. As youths moved to literally and symbolically clean the square, the military destroyed the shelters, banners, and artworks and removed the people. Traffic now moves across the square – but traffic can also be stopped.

WHITHER EGYPT?

There are at least two potential scenarios which Fanon also considered to be the problematic of decolonisation and the African revolution: On one hand, the horizontal movement based on the inclusivity of people’s power – on its ongoing support and democratic organisation – that overthrew Mubarak is understood not simply a fragment or a moment but something that becomes the basis for daily life. On the other hand, a vertical movement based on the exclusivity of an ‘elite transition,’ controlled by professional politicians, generals and planners with their own vested interest in the status quo, which suffocates the air of freedom and the ‘revolution in our minds.’

As strikes roll across the country, from industrial to service sectors, the idea of reconstituting ‘Tahrir’ in the factories remains a radical possibility.[7]

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* Nigel C. Gibson is an activist and scholar.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] David Kirkpatrick, ‘Wired and Shrewd: Young Egyptians Guide Revolt,’ New York Times February 9, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/world/middleeast/10youth.html
[2] See http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/09/egypt-north-africa-revolution
[3] Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove: New York, 1968) p. 172.
[4] See Ibid. pp 201-3
[5] Ibid p.174
[6] See http://libcom.org/news/cairo-commune-07022011
[7] See Charles Levinson, Margaret Coker and Tamer El-Ghobashy ‘Strikes Worry Egypt’s Military, youth’ Wall Street Journal February 15, 2010

Revolutionary tides: What will come next?

Sokari Ekine

2011-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70933

cc L AReactions to events in Egypt, the experiences of women protestors and the limitations of Nigeria’s ‘democracy’ feature in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere by Sokari Ekine.

It’s just six days since the Egyptian revolutionaries successfully removed Hosni Mubarak. The 11th of February was an historic day not just for Egypt but across the world. People have been inspired by the discipline and determination of the Egyptian people, even when they were attacked by Mubarak’s thugs, and most of all the disappointment of Thursday night’s last stand speech by the now ex-dictator. Contrary to Gil Scot Heron’s prediction, the revolution was indeed televised, with 24/7 coverage on Al Jazeera which itself became a part of the story, interviewing pro-democracy activists as well as academics and political pundits from far and wide.

Those of us with internet access were also able to follow minute-by-minute updates on Twitter which, by the time of Friday’s announcement that Mubarak had fled, was overloaded and moving so fast it was no longer possible to read. First Tunisia, then Egypt and now the people of Yemen, Sudan, Jordan and most recently Algeria have taken to the streets in the hope of bringing down more dictators. The big question is now what happens next.

MONTAGES

Montages points out what he believes to be the ‘most striking feature’ of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, which is the lack of ideology – religious or secular:

‘Some have named this absence “post-ideological,” but that does not quite capture the fluidity of the moment. Ideologies are at work in the intifadas in the region today – what is clear is that none is in hegemony. No single ideology is in the vanguard, nor is any political party seeking to be the vanguard party of the kind that led 20th-century revolutions. Competing political currents all appear to sense that people are not looking for a charismatic leader, a new Lenin or a new Khomeini. There is a refreshing absence of the quintessential iconography of past revolutions: larger-than-life images of the leader of the revolution.’

ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

Electronic Intifada posts an interview with pro-democracy activist Mona Seif, who explains the genesis of the revolution:

‘Personally, I don't think this revolution has any leaders. And I think this is one of its big strengths. It started on Facebook and Twitter, but really after January 25th it was a street revolution. They [the government] could've shut down any communication, which they did, and it would've still continued. At one point when the regime was struggling to stop [the uprising] and they went down and cracked down on all of the people who usually help mobilize such movements. They cracked down on journalists and bloggers and human rights defenders, and still the movement went on. There was no leader, you could shut us all down and it would still go on. This is one of its strong points.’

She also reminds us that overthrowing Mubarak’s regime is just the beginning and maybe in retrospect will come to be seen as the easiest part of a long road to freedom:

‘It's absolutely the Egyptian revolution. And it's not over. There is still a long way to go to actually work on the ground and for different political parties to start working and having candidates and for proper elections. The [demands] that people died for and the thing that people stayed out in the street for 18 days have been met. So it is a revolution and we won … now is the time for political parties and the opposition to really work and do their job during this transition period.’

MAHA AL ASWAD

Maha Al Aswad reminds us that some things don’t change so easily. Discussing the participation of women, she writes ‘After the revolution, we are back again to the old feminist debates’, referring to a discussion she had with another female blogger, who writes:

‘In my last post women in the revolution I classified the women in the Jan 25 revolution according to how covered they are, but I thought that the non veiled and the causal veiled and the ultra religious veiled constitute different categories . However when a fellow young feminist expressed her astonishment about the role of the veiled women in the revolution and that there broke many taboos socially and religiously , I was offended because she had a very orientalist view of feminism, that veil is a constraint on the agency not only the sensuality and sexuality . I was also offended when I was doing an interview with international journalist and she asked me if I was veiled or not because I am an Islamic feminist. As I felt offended I felt is about time to talk about veil, although it is a very old topic, we can debate whether it is religious obligation or socially and culturally obligated custom.’

Maha’s response:

‘Personally, and no offense intended, I am totally anti-Hijab, but I respect women who CHOOSE to wear it. My argument wasn’t about the legitimacy of Hijab, and I am not being stereotypical about those who are wearing it or having an “orientalist” view of feminism. But I have been involved in social work in Egypt for a long time and it happens that youth and young people were the focus of my work. Hijab comes with certain ideas and constraints formulated mainly by interpretations of Islam and supported by social constraints. In many cases covering your hair means also covering your mind and believing you have limitations to what you are capable of doing as a human being. It has something to do with reinforcing gender roles, not eliminating them. I wish all those who wear Hijab are Islamic feminists who can see Hijab as a separate category, irrelevant to shaping their own personality- and here I mean the social constraints that come with it.’

IN ‘THE LONG SHADOW OF THE 1952 REVOLUTION’ JADALIYYA

Jadaliyyatakes the discussion on the 2011 revolution back to 1952. At that time protestors were described as rioters who set downtown Cairo up in flames. Were they revolutionaries wanting to expel the British or counter-revolutionaries who wanted the Egyptian army to intervene? Either way it paved the way for Gamal Abdel Nasser and everything which has followed since up to 11 February 2011.

‘While the situation Egypt faces today is starkly different from that which the country faced in 1952, I cannot escape eerie reminders of the “day Cairo burned” and its aftermath in the scenes I have witnessed on Cairo’s streets in the past several weeks. On February 2, when the Mubarak regime sent thugs into the streets to break the bones and the spirit of the pro-democracy protesters in Tahrir Square, I could not but recall how the British and their Egyptian collaborators used the threat of chaos and disorder as a rallying cry for the forces of counterrevolution in 1952. Perhaps more importantly, I could not but recall how the “Free Officers” would ultimately position themselves, in the July 1952 Revolution that would return “Egypt to the Egyptians,” as Egypt’s “saviors” from this chaos and disorder.

‘Nasser’s appeal to Egyptians at the time was an eminently sensible one – that after so many years of suffering under the colonial yoke, during which the British and their Egyptian collaborators had systematically plundered the country of its enormous wealth, Egypt could not afford the instability a democratic system of government would spawn. Egypt’s experiment with democracy between the world wars had proved not only a failure in serving the vast majority of Egyptians and their economic and social needs, but an utter sham at the political level as well. What Egypt needed in 1952, according to Nasser, was not democracy but development, a scientific effort to carry Egypt into the modern world, with all the accoutrements of education and industrialization that this entailed.’

Africans further south have been wondering if the revolutionary spirit will reach their respective countries – Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Senegal, Gambia, Uganda and even those countries which have spurious democracies such as Nigeria. Nigerian blogger Chxta asks what would the Nigerian army do in a similar situation, given their reputation for brutality against their fellow citizens. He believes it boils down to a ‘critical mass’, i.e., the more people on the streets the less likely the army is to shoot people. I am not so sure.

‘There are many people who swear that the Nigerian Army would have no problems in shooting the protesters. I beg to differ, and my confidence is borne out of what I saw in the eyes of the armed men who stood in the way of the Enough is Enough protest of March 16, 2010. These people hesitated…

‘The difference is timing, and eventually, critical mass. It took the government of Ben Ali seven days, from December 17 when Mohammed Bouazizi immolated himself to begin a crackdown. By that time, the protests had attained critical mass. In Egypt, it took Mubarak's government six days from January 25 before the military was mobilized. Again, as in Tunisia, the protests had attained critical mass.

‘By critical mass, we are talking of the number of people who had gotten involved so as to make military intervention meaningless. You see, what we have to realise is that the soldiers come from amongst us. When there are a few protesters, the possibility that the soldiers would hurt their own people is limited. When the number of protesters has reached a certain mass (half a million and above), the possibility goes up exponentially that if soldiers are deployed to quell such a protest, they will end up hurting their mothers, their fathers, their sisters or their brothers. Faced with such a scenario, the average soldier will not shoot.’

CHIDI OPARA REPORTS

Chidi Opara Reports has a statement made by presidential hopeful, ex-general and former military dictator Mohammed Buhari in which he praised the Egyptians and took to warning the Nigerian political elite and their security forces to take note of the revolution:

‘The Egyptian pro-democracy campaigners defied all odds to achieve their set goal of terminating the 30-year old grip on power by Mubarak. Their tenacity has again confirmed the truism that no force on earth can stop a people determined.

‘The military in Egypt showed exemplary conduct with the way they refused to be used to attack the forces of change. They showed the whole world that there is a clear difference between the state and those who temporarily occupy political offices for a fixed tenure… This is a lesson for our security agents who have been used to subvert the will of the people at elections in recent past. The time has come for our own security forces to demonstrate similar valour by putting national interest above that of individuals when there is a clash between the two.’

THE GLORY O’ NIGERIA

The Glory O’ Nigeria is clearly in rage as he reminds us of the ‘jagajaga’ nature of Nigerian politics and the fraud which routinely accompanies elections (already begun during the voter-registration debacle). I am tempted to publish the whole post, which in my opinion captures the corrupt ugliness of Nigerian politics:

‘Nigeria’s politics is total rubbish. There is nothing in Nigeria’s politics to support the true meaning of democracy … Just the other day the rascal man [he is referring to Goodluck Jonathan] from the delta who belongs to a rascal party was calling the other people rascals. When confronted, his yeye pressman said the name was not ascribed to anyone. I hope I have not ascribed rascal to that man whose wife thought she is a dame … The shapes of things to come in the April polls have started emerging.

‘INEC [Independent National Electoral Commission] has started publishing names of candidates. In several cases the names do not tally with the candidates that were selected in the various states. I won’t subscribe to that nonsense that anyone was elected. I have not seen elections in Nigeria. Nigeria and Nigerians need to define their politics. To say that it is democracy is pure madness. Nigeria is not a democratic nation.’

The politicians, it seems, have become obsessed with LISTS: former president Obasanjo has a list; Ogun state PDP (People’s Democratic Party) has a list; the INEC has a list; and even ex dead dictator Sani Abacha’s son is on a list!

‘The new battle for the soul of Nigeria has begun. The rascals across Nigeria are now into the usual roforofo fights. Lists of names and counter lists have been sent to INEC.
It therefore becomes imperative that some serious negotiations must take place among all the various nationalities within Nigerian to define the purpose for the nation (or nations within Nigeria). Actually there is no one way forward and there are no simple solutions since the country has been plundered for over 50 years by thieves, sycophants, looters and tropical gangsters. Even foreigners have looted our treasures. We cracked big time! Nevertheless to emerge from the present useless order of things, something very radical and probably unconventional must be done. Something must happen to eradicate all these bad people who continue to represent Nigeria. Change and accountability must come one way or the other.’

Sounds as if he is calling for a revolution!

Meanwhile, last weekend in Nigeria there was a stampede, killing at least 10 people, at a rally for Goodluck Jonathan when security agents first tried to stop people from leaving the venue then took to firing live bullets into the air, whilst in Kaduna crowds walked out of the rally leaving the president speech[less]. In Benue State there was yet another massacre; since becoming a ‘Dame’, Madam Goodluck is overflowing with ‘airs and graces’ as she recently became a chief and is clearly expecting to be around for a while to come; and in Katsina State, an INEC machine was found in the home of a local government official.

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* Sokari Ekine blogs at Black Looks.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Egyptian revolution thrills civil society

But there's danger of getting drunk on our own rhetoric

Patrick Bond

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70958

cc PZ NewsLast week’s World Social Forum (WSF) in Dakar ended up riotously happy thanks to the eviction of a universally hated Egyptian pharaoh, after near-debilitating logistical disasters at the event’s outset, writes Patrick Bond.

Each year, in order to oppose the corporate agenda of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos, tens of thousands of social activists gather to define why “Another World is Possible!” But it’s impossibly good luck to combine this plea with an actual case of democratic revolution.

This year our hosts were Senegalese NGOs, though the WSF is usually held at the university complex and dockyards of Porto Alegre in southern Brazil. At some point within the next decade, Durbanites should get up the nerve and offer to host it, but probably not until a certain ruling party ends its hegemonising ways, a test of which will come during state-society conflicts at November’s global climate summit.

To be sure, tough times lie ahead in that other portentous world constructed by civil society (not political parties or religious institutions) in Cairo’s Tahrir Square over the past few weeks, in the wake of the Tunisian citizenry’s red card against Ben Ali. Algeria, Yemen and Palestine are also rumbling with hopeful bottom-up democratic instincts, as their pro-Western tyrannies shiver in fear.

But the revolutions are not yet consolidated, and on Sunday, ominous reports from Cairo’s Higher Military Council – the new rulers – suggest a ban on worker meetings and prohibition of strikes is imminent. More of the protesting we saw 11 days ago by local trade unionists and Middle East solidarity activists at the Egyptian embassy in Pretoria will likely be needed.

And reversing disastrous macroeconomic policies made in Washington is another looming challenge which cannot be shirked. Though he could also have meant Egypt (or for that matter South Africa), Cairo-born, Dakar-based political economist Samir Amin remarked of Tunisia, “Economic and social factors were also influential in the uprising of the people. The country experiences rapidly escalating unemployment, particularly of youth, including educated young people. The standard of living of the majority of the population is decreasing.”

Still, with the booting of the Ali and Mubarak dictatorships, it does seem that the hardest part is over for millions who demonstrated so courageously, at the cost of hundreds of lives and thousands of injuries, especially when paramilitaries failed to evict Tahrir Square occupiers, confounding the regime’s dogmatic supporters in Tel Aviv and Washington.

How foolish poor Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton must feel now, that their respective 2009 speeches about democracy (in Cairo!) and the need for internet freedoms are being taken so seriously by the masses. The backtracking by both – Obama vainly hoping Mubarak would stay until September to assure a pro-Israeli transition, and Clinton fruitlessly trying to clamp down on WikiLeaks (which assisted both uprisings) – offer another useful pedagogical example of the USA’s talk-left (democracy), walk-right (imperialism).

Our colleagues at the Arab-African Research Centre have been watching dissent brew for years, studying 1200 distinct Egyptian protest actions since 2009 alone. The centre’s vice president Helmi Sharawy calls it a “popular youth revolution” whose legacy traces back three decades. What’s new, he reported from Tahrir Square last week, are Facebook, Twitter and the internet as the “youth’s last machinery of contact, as we are all suffering under Emergency Law since 1981.” Even though Mubarak pulled the internet plug, the social-networking ties were tight enough.

And not just in Cairo, says Sharawy: “Millions came out in Alexandria, Suez, Mansoura, Fayoum, Damietta. A big percentage of women and children among demonstrators, poor women are more than others. Middle-class youth were in the majority at the beginning but the poor came to it for protest, and then as revolution. The traditional political parties are in a critical position because they were conservative in the beginning.”

Back in Dakar, though, the WSF suffered debilitating logistical messes, which must be recognized so they don’t re-emerge in other such summits. Those who came long distances to hold specific panel discussions and learn from allies, present information, debate and take work forward in a formal setting were furious on the first two days at Diop University, the region’s largest. The well-networked middle-class NGO professionals regrouped quickly but lowest-income African women didn’t have cellphones and were most victimized.

The problem was that WSF organisers simply had not achieved political power sufficient to hold university officials accountable to earlier oral promises of adequate space. An invitation for participation by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade – another pro-Western free-marketeer – was a non-sequitur given his hostility to WSF constituencies, especially thousands of angry local human rights and democracy activists.

Not having the leading institutions’ political support meant the mass cancellation of the first round of panels and the time-consuming construction of alternative tent venues, as students descended into the scheduled classrooms during what should have been a holiday week in the university calendar. But a student strike against Wade’s new cost-recovery policy pushed classes forward, into last week.

As an activist rightly demanded to WSF delegates just before the main environmental plenary on Thursday, “We are the youth of the country, we do not have the resources to enter. This is a public university. You are the international community. You have means to pressure. Until there is a solution we will continue to strike.”

The WSF’s leading star this year was, ironically, a political head of state, Bolivian President Evo Morales. In addition to very powerful language about halting climate change, he raised an issue many South Africans appreciated: “We are going to go the UN to declare that water is a basic public need that must not be managed by private interests, but should be for all people, including people of rural areas.”

The next question is how to add and link up all the other struggles to have needs met, including jobs, the environment and liberation from patriarchy, homophobia, racism and so many other backward systems. If any gathering can attempt a broad-based ideological revival that takes democracy as a foundation and adds socio-economic justice, it is the WSF. But reticence to tackle this ambitious challenge remains.

A slightly smaller version of this agenda will appear here in November, as an alternative summit to the UN Conference of Polluters (COP17) hosts visiting climate justice activists. City Hall’s reported widespread corruption and financial mismanagement, controversies over UKZN’s hush-hush university review, and student protest against inadequate financial aid at the Durban University of Technology will have ebbed. But memories of masses of people arising under conditions previously considered highly unlikely, as in North Africa, will remain.

From the North African revolutions to the West African WSF, other region’s civil societies might learn not only the pleasurable, drunken rhetoric of emancipation, but the patience not to get drunk on that rhetoric too fast, at least not before certain preconditions are achieved: democracy and the logistics that democracy demands.

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* Patrick Bond is based at UKZN’s Centre for Civil Society.
* This article first appeared in The Mercury, 15 February 2011 (Eye on Civil Society column).
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Ethiopia: Any lesson from Tahrir Square?

Meraf Nebiyu

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70966

cc W E CWill the spirit of the Egyptian revolution travel along the Nile to Ethiopia, asks Meraf Nebiyu. Perhaps not immediately, but the conditions for a popular uprising exist.

In the past few weeks we have witnessed a tremendous outburst of bottled up frustrations on the streets of Egypt’s cities. This spontaneous regeneration of Egyptian society is truly remarkable, and will undoubtedly leave a lasting residue on Egyptian society and the Arab world. It is also the first of its kind, in that, it was born out of the internet and continues to be sustained by it.

As I watched the events unfold, it became impossible not to think about the similarities with my own country of birth, Ethiopia. As many of us would agree, the circumstances faced by people in Ethiopia are not that much removed from the plight of those in the streets of Cairo. They revolve around the same issues. Without going into too much detail, the aspirations of the people orbit around basic necessities for a decent living. Unemployment, poverty, and rapid inflation are all too common in Ethiopia, just as they are in Egypt and around the region.

Underpinning these commonalities is bad governance and lack of democracy. As protesters in Egypt put it so diligently, it is the ‘deficiency in dignity’ which perpetuates their struggle. Though economic insecurity is the primary cause of revolt, what underscores and sustains it is the fight for dignity and common decency. In other words protesters are not just seeking bread, but also their dignity. It is what Thomas Jefferson so brilliantly coined as the pursuit of happiness.

For the past 30 years under the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, a vast majority of Egyptians were restricted from their pursuit or happiness. Similarly Ethiopians have lived under the iron fist for far too long. As in Egypt, Ethiopians suffer from rigid elections, human rights violations, nepotism, and corruption. Poverty is rampant, perhaps more so than in Egypt. Though the economic outlook is projecting significant growth year after year, people are increasingly finding it harder to climb the economic ladder. In fact they are falling backward, thanks to inflation. What explains this is the increasing concentration of wealth at the top while very little trickles down. How else would you explain increased economic growth with increased poverty?

During Mubarak’s time in power, Egypt has seen significant economic growth projections from the World Bank. Yet people were finding themselves poorer and poorer. To add to the indignant feelings already existent in Egyptian society, Mubarak and his associates were enriching themselves beyond the wildest dreams of ordinary Egyptians, all thanks to the rampant cronyism present among officials in power. Given this, it’s not hard to guess where that five per cent growth was heading. So who is to say Ethiopia doesn’t suffer from the same ailment? And could all of this lead to a spontaneous outburst like in Egypt? This might not happen today, but if the status quo doesn’t change, then revolt will be inevitable. The question is: how prepared are the people of Ethiopia to stage a peaceful revolution? Will we succeed or could the country be thrown into chaos?

Ethiopia is similar to Egypt in many ways, but the two countries are not entirely the same. Egyptians have better access to the internet and Arabic satellite television networks provide greater access to information. As a result, Egyptians are a lot more informed and connected. On the other hand, access to the internet in Ethiopia happens to be one of the lowest in the world. Cell phone distribution, according to a United Nations report, is also one of the lowest. For similar sentiments as those we are seeing in Egypt to reach critical mass and finally surface, a medium of communication is the key and Ethiopia currently lacks this, for reasons that have to do with government ownership of these industries. It is therefore reasonable to suggest revolt in Ethiopia is not an immediate worry for the regime. However, if living standards continue to plummet, Ethiopia will eventually find herself immersed in revolution.

It is anyone’s guess as to the direction of these uprisings. One would hope we would have learned a thing or two from our Egyptian counterparts and choose the peaceful route. One would also hope the Ethiopian armed forces would be magnanimous enough not to use lethal force on their compatriots. This is something the Egyptian army has, thus far, not done in Egypt. Judging by events that transpired in the aftermath of elections in 2005, whereby close to 200 people were shot dead, counting on the Ethiopian armed forces not to use lethal force could be wishful thinking.

Like Egypt, Ethiopia has a track record of using plainclothes security personnel, who will stop at nothing to crush dissent. This regime is even willing to foment ethnic and religious strife in order to preempt possible opposition. Given these circumstances, it is absolutely pertinent for activists to take notice of recent events in Egypt, as there is a lot to be learned there.

Certainly past experiences of popular expression in Ethiopia are encouraging. In particular, the peaceful gathering of over a million opposition supporters in the run up to the 2005 election was a great sign of civility. What people were unprepared for was the overwhelming use of violence and coercion perpetrated by the regime in the aftermath of the rigged election. Perhaps the biggest culprit is the lack of a free communication medium. This is where Egypt differs from Ethiopia. Pro-democracy protesters in Egypt had information through the internet and satellite television stations. This helped them not only to discern the tactics of the regime, but more importantly it gave them a voice. As a result they were better able to cope with the destructive strategy of the regime. In essence, pro-democracy forces in Ethiopia should be willing to utilise successful methods of activism that are peaceful. Egypt is a glimpse of what that would mean.

One of the promising signs of the demonstrations in Egypt has been the people’s ability to remain peaceful while disobedient. For decades, peaceful disobedience has been a proven tactic in bringing some semblance of decency to societies. Interestingly, authoritarian regimes prefer violent dissent, which they are confident of disrupting, as they hold the monopoly in violence.

Imagine the impression it leaves on the Arab world when Muslim and Christian Egyptians march shoulder to shoulder to demand their rights. It is a remarkable achievement when you consider, just a few months ago, these two communities were openly feuding. Recall the church burning that took place in Alexandria on New Year’s Day of 2011, and the aftershock it carried. Given these factors, it is an extraordinary turn around to see how this push for democracy has united large sectors of Egyptian society. With Egyptian society uniting around a common struggle, the regime found itself isolated. One can easily sense the significance of this for Ethiopian activists, also faced with a fractured society, seemingly insurmountable on the surface.

As Egyptians have shown in recent weeks, digging deeper reveals how that surface is truly paper-thin. Whatever happens in Egypt from this point on, one thing has been made certain. There is no way of putting this genie back in the bottle. Let us hope the fight for common decency extends throughout the Nile and into Ethiopia.

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* This article first appeared in Abugida information center The writer can be reached at nebeyassu@msn.com
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Africa's youths united can never be defeated

Alemayehu G. Mariam

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70960

cc A HFed up with dictatorships, self-serving elites and totalitarianism, Africa’s youths are on the march, says Alemayehu G. Mariam, inspired by events in Egypt.

MUBARAK, IRHAL!

A spectre is haunting Africa and the Middle East - the spectre of an awesome army of youths on the move, in revolt, marching for freedom, chanting for democracy and dying for human rights and human dignity. Millions of youths are standing up and demanding dictators to stand down and leave town. They are fed up with despotism, totalitarianism, absolutism, authoritarianism, monarchism, fascism and terrorism. They are sick and tired of being told to wait and wait and wait as their future fades into nothingness. They are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Youths rose up like the morning sun to brighten the long dark night of dictatorship in Tunisia and Egypt. They dictated to the great dictators: "Mubarak, irhal (go away)." "Degage, Ben Ali!" (Get out, Ben Ali!). When Mubarak refused to budge like a bloodsucking tick on a milk cow, they brandished their shoes and cried out, "Mubarak, you are a shoe!" (a stinging insult in Arab culture). Mubarak finally got the point. He saw 85 million pairs of shoes pointed at his rear end. In a 30-second announcement, the House of Mubarak dissolved into the dust bin of history.

THE BEAUTIFUL EGYPTIAN YOUTH REVOLUTION

What makes the Egyptian youth revolution so beautiful, wonderful, absorbing, hypnotizing and inspiring is that they did it with moral courage, steadfast determination and without resorting to violence even when violence was visited upon them by Mubarak's thugs. They did not fire a single shot, as Mubarak's thugs massacred 300 of their own and jailed several thousands more. Egypt's youths fought their battles in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere, but they won their war against dictatorship and for freedom, democracy and human rights in the hearts and minds of their people. How they went about winning their revolution is a testament to a people whose civilization is the cradle of human civilization. They transformed their oppression-seared nation into a molten steel of freedom-loving humanity: Muslims and Christians prayed together in Tahrir Square for the end of the dark days of dictatorship and the beginning of a new dawn of freedom. Civilians held hands with soldiers who were sent out to shoot them. Religious revivalists locked arms with secularists, socialists and others to demand change. Rich and poor embraced each other in common cause. Young and old marched together day and night; and men and women of all ages raised their arms in defiance chanting, "Mubarak, irhal."

VICTORY OF COURAGE OVER FEAR

For 30 years, Mubarak ruled with fear and an iron fist under a State of Emergency. He established a vast network of secret police, spies, informants and honor guards to make sure he stayed in power and his opposition decimated. Under an emergency law (Law No. 162 of 1958), Mubarak exercised unlimited powers. He banned any real opposition political activity and unapproved political organizations, prohibited street demonstrations, arrested critics and dissidents and clamped down on all he thought posed a threat to his rule. Mubarak had the power to imprison anyone for any reason, at any time and for any period of time without trial. Some he tried in kangaroo military courts and sentenced them to long prison terms. Mubarak held an estimated 20,000 persons under the emergency law and the number of political prisoners in Egypt is estimated at 30,000. Mubarak's brutal (secret) police are responsible for the disappearance, torture, rape and killing of thousands of pro-democracy campaigners and innocent people. A cable sent to Washington by the US ambassador to Cairo in 2009 revealed: "Torture and police brutality in Egypt are endemic and widespread. The police use brutal methods mostly against common criminals to extract confessions, but also against demonstrators, certain political prisoners and unfortunate bystanders." When Egyptian youth overcame their fears and stood up to the notorious secret police, spies, informants and bloodthirsty thugs, it was all over for Mubarak and his kleptocratic regime. In less than three weeks, Mubarak's empire of fear, terror and torture crumbled like an Egyptian ghorayebah cookie left out in the Sahara sun.

ALL DICTATORS END UP IN THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY

These must be days of worry and panic for African and Middle Eastern dictators. No doubt, some are in a state of total depression having sleepless nights and nightmares when they catch a wink. They brood over the questions: "What if IT (the "unspeakable") happens to me? What am I going to do? How many can I kill to suppress an uprising and get away with it? A thousand, ten thousand?"

African and Middle Eastern dictators who have abused their power must know that sooner or later their turn will come. When it does, they will have only three choices: justice before their national or international tribunals, the dustbin of history, or if they can make it to the airport fast enough to Dictators' "home away from home", Saudi Arabia (at least until their turn comes). There will be no place for them to run and hide. Let them learn from the fates of their brothers: Al Bashir of Sudan has an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court hanging over his head. Old Charley Taylor of Liberia is awaiting his verdict at the ICC. Hissien Habre of Chad will soon be moving into Taylor's cell at the ICC. A gang of Kenyan state ministers which instigated the violence following the 2007 presidential elections should be trading their designer suits for prison jumpsuits at the ICC in the not too distant future. Mengistu, Ben Ali, Mubarak, Al Bashir and others will be on the lam for a while and evade the long arm of justice. Justice may be delayed but it will always arrive as it did a couple of days for Pervez Musharraf who has warrant out for his arrest in connection with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

All dictators are doomed to an ignominious downfall. No African dictator has ever left office with dignity, honor, respect and the adulation of his people. They have all left office in shame, disgrace and infamy. History shows that dictators live out their last days like abandoned vicious dogs-- lonely, godforsaken and tormented. Such has been the destiny of Mobutu of Zaire, Bokassa of the Central African Republic, Idi Amin of Uganda, Barre of Somalia, El-Nimery of the Sudan, Saddam of Iraq, Pol Pot of Cambodia, Marcos of the Philippines, the Shah of Iran, Ceausescu of Romania, Pincohet of Chile, Somoza of Nicaragua, Hoxha of Albania, Suharto of Indonesia, Stroessner of Paraguay, Ne Win of Mynamar, Hitler, Stalin, Mussollini and all the rest. History testifies that these names will forever be synonymous with evil, cruelty, atrocity, depravity and inhumanity. It is ironic that Mubarak (which in Arabic means "blessed one") was born to live as the blessed one; but he will forever be remembered in Egyptian history as the "cursed one".

THE POWER OF NONVIOLENCE RESISTANCE

As Gandhi said, "Strength does not come from physical capacity", nor does it come from guns, tanks and planes. "It comes from an indomitable will." Winston Churchill must have learned something from Gandhi when he said, "Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

As odd as it seems, violence is the weapon of the weak. To shoot and kill and maim unarmed protesters in the streets is not a sign of strength, it is a sign of fear and cowardice. To jail wholesale opposition leaders, journalists, critics and dissidents is not a demonstration of control but the ultimate manifestation of lack of control. One speaks the language of violence because one cannot speak the language of reason. Violence is the language of the angry, the hateful, the vengeful, the ignorant and the fearful. Dictators speak to their victims in the language of violence because their raison d'etre (reason for existing) is to hate and spread hate. Their very soul stirs with hatred often damaged by childhood experiences and feelings of inferiority. Hitler and Stalin exhibited strong hatred towards Jews from childhood, and because they felt woefully inadequate, they did things to try and show everybody that they have power. Violence never resolves the issues that triggered the violence; and as Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Dr. Martn Luther King explained it further: "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate..." To reciprocate in violence is to become one with the perpetrators of violence. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

But the nonviolent resistor is strong, very strong. S/he is willing to sit down and reason with the one brutalizing her/him. Gandhi, Martin King, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, Rosa Parks and many others have proven to be stronger than those whose heartbeats stroked to the metronome of hate. Gandhi drove the British colonialists out of India without firing a single shot. They mocked him as the "little lawyer in a diaper." In the end, the British saluted the Indian flag and left. More recently, Eastern Europe shed its totalitarian burden through nonviolent resistance. Now we have seen it happen in Tunisia and Egypt.

But there are some who believe that nonviolent resistance will not work in the face of a morally depraved, conscienceless and barbaric adversary who will mow down in cold blood children, men and women. Others say nonviolence resistance takes too long to produce results. Such views have been articulated since the time of Gandhi, but the historical evidence refutes them. As we have recently seen in Tunisia and Egypt, two of the most brutal and entrenched dictatorships in the world unraveled in less than a month through nonviolent resistance.

As to a long-term nonviolent struggle, there are many instructive experiences. Let's take Poland as an example. In 1981, the Soviets put General Wojciech Jaruzelski in charge to crackdown on Solidarity, a non-communist controlled trade union established a year earlier. Jaruzelski immediately declared martial law and arrested thousands of Solidarity members, often in in the middle of the night, including union leader Lech Walesa. Jaruzelski flooded the streets of Warsaw, Gdansk and elsewhere in Poland with police who shot, beat and jailed strikers and protesters by the tens of thousands. By the beginning of 1982, the crackdown seemed successful and most of Solidarity top leaders were behind bars. But Jaruzelski's campaign of violence and repression did not end the nonviolent resistance in Poland. It only drove it underground. Where the jailed union leaders left off, others took over including priests, students, dissidents and journalists. Unable to meet in the streets, the people gathered in their churches, in the restaurants and bars, offices, schools and associations. A proliferation of underground institutions emerged including Solidarity Radio; hundreds of underground publications served as the medium of communication for the people. Solidarity leaders who had evaded arrest managed to generate huge international support. The U.S. and other countries imposed sanctions on Poland, which inflicted significant hardship on Jaruzelski's government. By 1988, Poland's economy was in shambles as prices for basic staples rose sharply and inflation soared. In August of that year, Jaruzelski was ready to negotiate with Solidarity and met Walesa. Following the "Polish Roundtable Talks", communism was doomed in Poland. In December 1990, Lech Walesa became the first popularly elected president of Poland. It took nearly a decade to complete the Polish nonviolent revolution. History shows that nonviolent change seems impossible to many until people act to bring it about. Who would have thought two months ago that two of the world's worst dictators would be toppled and consigned to the dust bin of history in a nonviolent struggle by youths?

THE WRATH OF ETHIOPIAN YOUTH

In June 2010, I wrote:
The wretched conditions of Ethiopia's youth point to the fact that they are a ticking demographic time bomb. The evidence of youth frustration, discontent, disillusionment and discouragement by the protracted economic crisis, lack of economic opportunities and political repression is manifest, overwhelming and irrefutable. The yearning of youth for freedom and change is self-evident. The only question is whether the country's youth will seek change through increased militancy or by other peaceful means.

Youths always inspire each other. Ethiopia's youths seek the same things as their Tunisian and Egyptian counterparts: a livelihood, adequate food, decent housing and education and basic health care. They want free access to information - radio, newspaper, magazines, satellite and internet - as they are absolutely and unconditionally guaranteed in their constitution. Above all, they want to live in a society that upholds the rule of law, protects human rights and respects the votes of the people. They do not want corruption, nepotism, cronyism, criminality and inhumanity. That is not too much to ask.

When the uprising took place in Tunisia and Egypt, it was not the "leaders" that led it. Youth power became the catalyzing force for a democratic revolution in both countries. Africa's dictators should understand that people do not rise up because it is in style or fashionable, but because their conditions of existence are subhuman, inhuman and intolerable. It is possible to stop the satellite transmissions, jam the radio broadcasts, shutter the newspapers, close the internet cafes, grab a young journalist and human rights advocate as he walks out of an internet café and interrogate, threaten, intimidate and terrorize him, but it is far more difficult to quiet the hungry stomachs, mend the broken hearts, heal the wounded spirits and calm the angry minds of the young people. Youths united in Ethiopia and elsewhere on the African continent can never be defeated.

Power to Africa's youths! Zenawi, irhal! Bashir, dégage! Mugabe, irhal! Gbagbo, dégage! Ghaddafi, irhal! African dictators, irhal!.... dégage!

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* Alemayehu G. Mariam is professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino. Follow him on twitter @pal4thedefense.
* This article was first published by The Huffington Post.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Gabon: The forgotten protests, the blinkered media

Ethan Zuckerman

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70961

cc B B MThe global media's attention is focused on the revolutions sweeping through North Africa and the Middle East, with Egypt – and to a lesser extent Tunisia – being most prominent. But not all revolutions are blessed with this level of attention. The West African nation of Gabon is currently also in popular revolt. What, you haven't heard about it yet?

So far 2011 has been a remarkable year for rapid political change. Spurred on by Mohamed Bouazizi's, protests in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid spread throughout the nation and ultimately accomplished the unthinkable: Forced the end of a 23-year dictatorship. Inspired by the actions of the Tunisian people, protesters took to the streets in Jordan, Yemen, Algeria and Egypt. Despite his defiance on Thursday night and the looming face-off on Friday, Mubarak has already offered several concessions, and it seems clear that Egyptian politics will shift sharply in the coming months. Seeking to address protester’s concerns, Jordan’s King Abdullah II has sacked his cabinet and ordered the formation of a new government, while Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh has agreed to step down in 2013.

English-language media was, for the most part, slow to cover the Tunisian protest story. As it became clear protesters were actually forcing Ben Ali from power, networks caught up rapidly and offered live video of the remarkable events in Tunis, as the army intervened to protect protesters from security forces, urging Ben Ali towards the exits. The protests in Egypt developed much more rapidly than those in Tunisia, with massive demonstrations erupting across the country on January 25 – global media covering the story intensively by January 28, when it became clear that demonstrators wouldn’t honour the government curfew and would continue to occupy central Cairo.

Al Jazeera, banned from reporting in Egypt, was able to offer 24/7 coverage from locations throughout the country, and many American viewers found themselves absorbed by Al Jazeera English’s coverage of Tahrir Square, streamed over the internet to record audiences. Other news channels turned their focus to the story, sometimes focusing less on events on the ground than on issues of regional stability or implications for the US-Israel relationship. In total, however, coverage in US media was massive for an international news story. Project for Excellence in Journalism's News Coverage Index saw the story occupying 76% of the cable TV newshole in the first week of February – it’s the biggest international news story they’ve tracked in their four-year project, and the fourth-largest story of any kind they’ve seen during that period.

It’s easy to understand why revolutions make for good television – they’re the most visible form of political change, and when they reshape governments previously considered unassailable, they’re a profoundly engaging and hopeful narrative. A revolution in Egypt is particularly compelling, as the nation is the most populous in the Arab world, and the cultural heart of the region.

But not all revolutions are blessed with this level of attention. The West African nation of Gabon is experiencing a popular revolt against the rule of Ali Bongo Ondimba, son of long-time strongman Omar Bongo, president since October 2009. Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of the nation's capital Libreville, on 29 January, and faced violent suppression from Ali Bongo’s troops. Protests have spread to other cities, and the crackdown against them has become increasingly fierce. Protests planned for 5 and 8 February were both suppressed with tear gas. At this point, it’s unclear whether protesters will be able to continue pressuring the government, or whether the crackdown has driven dissent underground.

The protests in Egypt and Tunisia have focused attention on autocratic governments with a history of corruption. In Egypt, the possibility of a Mubarak dynasty moving from Hosni to Gamal Mubarak helped stoke dissent. Gabonese are familiar with these types of problems. Omar Bongo is widely believed to have systematically looted the Gabonese treasury for his personal benefit. A suit brought in France by Transparency International against the governments of Gabon, Congo and Equatorial Guinea, accuses Bongo of depositing 8.5% of the national budget into a personal account at Citibank, siphoning more than $100 million from the country between 1985 and 1997. When Bongo finally died in a Barcelona hospital in 2009, a controversial election ended up selecting Bongo’s son as a new leader amid widespread accusations of voter fraud. And while Gabon, blessed with oil wealth, has a very high gross domestic product per capita by sub-Saharan African standards, little of that wealth reaches the Gabonese people, one third of which live in poverty.

Little surprise, then, that Gabonese opposition supporters watched the events in Tunisia with a sense of hope and possibility.

It’s understandable that protests in Gabon haven’t captured the world’s attention. Gabon is a small nation, with a population of 1.5 million, and very few casual newspaper readers could place it accurately on a map. (test your skill at African geography on the CS Monitor's quiz). But this lack of attention has consequences. As protests unfolded in Libreville, opposition leader André Mba Obame – who likely won the 2009 election – and his leading advisors took sanctuary in the UNDP's compound in the city, fearing arrest by Ali Bongo’s forces. According to recent Facebook posts, Obame and his advisors are facing steady pressure from UNDP to vacate the premises, and have already been ordered to surrender their cellphones.

It’s unlikely the UNDP would risk expelling opposition leaders – who would likely be immediately arrested – if the world was watching. The world, however, is emphatically not watching. Search for “Gabon” on Google News, and the only recent coverage of protests you’ll find is from Global Voices, where Cameroonian author Julie Owono is following the story closely. (Google News’s French edition is marginally better, though there coverage is dominated by Gabon-focused sites like InfosGabon, not mainstream French papers or TV channels.)

While we’re always happy to be ahead of the pack on a story like this, I’m starting to see an uncomfortable pattern in the coverage of people’s protests around the world. Some revolutions are easily understood and reported on – it was easy to predict that the Green Movement’s actions against the Ahmedinejad government in Iran would be enthusiastically received by American and European audiences. A struggle like that of the yellow shirts and red shirts in Thailand is much harder for global audiences to understand, and it’s less obvious which side will experience solidarity from interested audiences in the US and Europe. And revolutions in far-off and little-known nationals like Madagascar often fail to register at all, even when profound political changes are afoot.

When Rebecca MacKinnon and I started Global Voices in 2004, we explicitly sought to broaden coverage of stories like the protests in Gabon. We believed that the rise of citizen media meant many more voices could become part of the media dialogue, and that international news outlets would look to the people directly affected by events for their accounts and perspectives. That’s proven true – for the past month, our newsroom has been flooded with requests from media outlets around the world to unpack and comment on the events in Tunisia, and especially those in Egypt.

Where Global Voices has been vastly less successful is in achieving another of our goals: shifting the global media agenda to be more globally inclusive. In other words, we’re very good at getting attention to different commentators and observers of events to which major media outlets have decided to pay attention. But we’ve had little to no luck shifting attention to stories that fail to register on the media’s radar screen, even when we’re able to provide on-the-ground commentary and eyewitness accounts.

New media technologies – not just online media, but satellite television, which has been critically important in covering (and perhaps inspiring) protests in Egypt and Tunisia – offer the promise of covering breaking events in much greater depth than in a broadcast world. I’m very grateful for Al Jazeera English’s thorough, ongoing coverage of events in Egypt, and for my friend Andy Carvin's relentless curation of Twitter, following protests in Tunisia and Egypt. But I worry that these technologies aren’t broadening the set of stories covered internationally – in many cases, we seem to be covering a narrower range of stories than in years past, though in far greater depth.

The danger of ignoring Gabon’s revolution isn’t just that opposition forces will be arrested or worse. It’s that we fail to understand the profound shifts underway across the world that change the nature of popular revolution. The wave of protests that swelled in Tunisia may not break just in the Arab world, but across a much larger swath of the planet. The brave actions of ordinary Tunisians didn’t just capture the imagination of subjugated people in the Arab world – they were an inspiration to disempowered people everywhere. Social media gives a voice not just to protesters in Sidi Bouzid and Alexandria, but in Libreville and Port-Gentil. And as audiences around the world watch in wonder as Christian and Muslim protesters pray together in Tahrir Square, they wonder why struggles in Gabon can’t command at least a fraction of this attention.

If the inspiration for popular protest can come from anywhere in the world, and the tools to report the struggle are distributed to everyone with a cellphone, those of us far from these upheavals face a powerful responsibility. We are challenged to witness people’s struggles, whether or not they take place in countries we already know and fear. We are challenged to ensure that authoritarian regimes don’t crush dissent because they know no one is watching. Increasingly, we have the tools to pay attention to revolutionary change anywhere in the world – now we just have to live up to our responsibilities. FAM

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* This story was orginally published on Ethan Zuckerman's blog.
* Ethan Zuckerman is a senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and a fellow at MIT's Center for Future Civic Media. His research focuses on the distribution of attention in mainstream and new media, the use of technology for international development, and the use of new media technologies by activists. With Rebecca MacKinnon, Ethan co-founded international blogging community Global Voices. Global Voices showcases news and opinions from citizen media in more than 150 nations and thirty languages, publishing editions in 20 languages. Through Global Voices, Ethan is active in efforts to promote freedom of expression and fight censorship in online spaces.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

My life as a gay Ugandan


Kasha Jacqueline

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70967

cc WikimediaIn January, a judge ruled in favour of a group of gay individuals stating that all Ugandans, regardless of their sexual orientation, have a right to privacy and dignity. One of the plaintiffs recounted her story to the Kampala Dispatch.



‘On 4 October, I woke up as usual, with my niece sleeping near me. She was put in my bed every morning so that when I awoke, the first thing I see is her smiling face. I was flying to Geneva that evening for a human rights conference where one of the topics of discussion would be Uganda’s proposed anti-homosexuality bill. Everything seemed normal about that morning, until I checked my e-mail.

In addition to the normal e-mails, I found one from a man named Josh Kron, a reporter from the New York Times, in New York. The subject was: “Is it true?”
The body of the e-mail consisted of a few simple questions asking whether or not a Ugandan tabloid called The Rolling Stone had written about me, naming me as a lesbian. I had never even heard of The Rolling Stone and wrote him back to tell him I wasn’t aware of ever having spoken with such a publication.

Shortly afterwards, Frank Mugisha, a friend of mine, who had also been listed by the tabloid as a gay Ugandan, sent me an e-mail with a scanned copy of the tabloid newspaper. There it was: my picture, my name, and the headline: “100 PICTURES OF UGANDA’S TOP HOMOS.” Beneath the headline were the words, “Hang Them!”



I panicked. But the full article was worse. When I read it, my heart almost stopped. The article claimed that I threw parties and orgies for homosexuals at my house and that I wanted to brainwash children into being homosexual. They even quoted me as saying, “We are targeting those as young as 12 years old, as they are easy to persuade to join gay groups.” I have never said such a thing, I have never even thought such a thing - and if someone was throwing homosexual orgies at my house, they never invited me. But I couldn’t do anything right then, I had to fly to Geneva, where as a leading voice of the human rights movement for sexual minorities in Uganda, I was presenting a report on Uganda to a UN committee.

But every time I checked my e-mail, I found more and more requests for a comment from reporters about my supposed quote. I didn’t know how to respond. I had never faced a lie so ugly and so huge. I had never imagined a call for me to be hanged. And I had reason to fear, because in addition to their lies, Rolling Stone had published my home address and workplace. Anyone who decided that he should take Rolling Stone’s advice to hang me knew exactly where I could be found. When I got a full copy of the paper that night, I passed it around, and began to shout, “Enough is enough! These guys can’t get away with this!” But for the next two weeks, I felt too scared to do anything. I was afraid that if I spoke up, someone would hurt me.

The following week, Rolling Stone printed more photos, and I knew that if I didn’t do something to stop them, eventually, someone would get hurt. All the news I got from home was terrible. People who had their photo published had been attacked, had rocks thrown at them, and some had to leave their homes. They were too afraid to even file police reports.

I decided I had to stand up for them. I was a known human rights defender, I could risk my name. I contacted many people around the world who supported me and pledged to help me throughout the whole process of suing The Rolling Stone.



Coming back in November, I talked to my colleagues David Kato and Pepe Onziema, and learned that they were also planning to sue, so we teamed up to lodge a case against The Rolling Stone. We sued them on grounds that should be important to all Ugandans, whether gay or straight: Our right to privacy and the safety we all have against incitements to violence.

Let me be clear: I have never at any one time in my affidavit denied my sexual orientation. Our issue concerned the rights that Ugandans should have to be protected from the incitement of violence and violation of our privacy. No one should ever wake up and see a call for violence and his home address published in a newspaper.



During the case, I spent all the little money I had to have safe transport, and stopped moving to my local open places because of fear of what could happen to me in case someone identified me. Because of my human rights work defending sexual minorities, it’s always my face that is flashed on TV every time someone talks about homosexuality.

In November, the judge placed an injunction against The Rolling Stone that prohibited them from publishing any more photos of people. But, in December, the court case grew very ugly. The court proceedings were postponed five times, and each time incurred expenses and allowed for many ugly acts of harassment outside the court.

Once, the anti-gay pastor Solomon Male ambushed me outside the court to engage in a very ugly public argument with me about Pastor Kayanja and how we (homosexuals) had taken over all government posts and cannot be touched - which is ridiculous, as I had just been pushed around by court security not five minutes before.
Finally, on 3 January 2011 the judge offered his ruling in our favour. The ruling was virtually ignored by the local press, but the international media covered it extensively because of its far reaching implications for Ugandans.

The ruling clarified an important nuance of the law: while certain homosexual acts may still be illegal (a penal code act which we are currently fighting), maintaining a homosexual identity is not. In Uganda, a person is free to identify themselves however they please, and cannot be persecuted for it. Therefore, a newspaper like The Rolling Stone cannot incite violence against innocent citizens, and cannot invade their privacy.



On my own behalf, and on behalf of my two fellow plaintiffs - David Kato and Pepe Onziema - as well as the entire LGBT community of Uganda, we would like to welcome the verdict of this case. It has taken courage and bravery to stand up for justice. The support from the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, from our families, and from allies near and far cannot go unnoticed. This verdict has shown that indeed, justice is possible in this world and more so in this country. Coming from a marginalised community, many people have taken advantage of our oppression to satisfy their political, economic, and social greed and bigotry. We are victims of oppression in so many ways. And for being just who we are, many have turned us into targets of oppression. But we refuse to be silent. The stories of people fighting against injustice have always been about a minority, because social justice struggles are fought by a minority for a majority.



The court verdict reminded us all that Uganda is no place for hatred and impunity. Irresponsible journalism has no place in this country. The Rolling Stone tabloid and its editors may not have anticipated that they would be victims of their own actions, but we would never wish for or call for them to be “hanged.” A media that is based on untruthfulness is an enemy of the nation. Let this be the beginning of responsible journalism for justice and equality.



On 10 December 2010, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon called on all countries to decriminalise homosexuality during his key Human Rights Day address. Mr. Ban Ki Moon said the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948, “is not called the partial declaration of human rights. It is not the sometimes declaration of human rights. It is the universal declaration, guaranteeing all human beings their basic human rights - without exception.”



But one verdict does not mean that we have won the struggle. We still have a lot of sensitising to do, especially to the people in rural areas, before people fully understand just how big a lie The Rolling Stone published. We have to know that we are all different in many ways and that we cannot all be the same. My hope is that we can learn to live together in this beautiful country of ours without stigma and discrimination but with respect and tolerance.



Again, I would like to thank all those who continue to walk the journey to freedom with us. You are the true heroes and sheroes. Let justice reign.
'

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* Kasha Jacqueline is the founder and Executive Director of Freedom and Roam Uganda, the country’s only exclusively Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender women’s rights organization, founded in 2003. This article was first published in the Kampala Dispatch
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Is there a solution to the problems of Somalia?

Samir Amin

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70973

cc GuledThe reconstruction of a viable Somali state depends largely on the rebirth of a united Ethiopia, writes Samir Amin.

The book by Afyare Abdi Elmi, (‘Somalia: Understanding the Conflagration’, Pambazuka Press, Pluto, 2010) to the best of my knowledge provides unequalled documentation on the actors in the drama of Somalia.

The explanation of this drama, the decomposition of the state which has unfolded since 1992 (the fall of Syad Barre), demands a return to the country's history from independence in 1960 until the fall of Barre in 1992. And on this Afyare is terse (see page 17), to say the least.

I. THE TWO PERIODS OF THE SYAD BARRE REGIME (1960-1992)

Was the ‘first republic’ from 1960 to 1969 a ‘democracy’? Yes, if one views its practice of multi-party electoral politics and relative freedom of organisation and expression. But it was a ‘neocolonial democracy’, as were many African countries at the time. Its open economy, dominated by the traditional colonial interests of Europe (especially Italy and Great Britain), depended to an extreme on ‘aid’ (European and international). The First Republic disappointed all those who expected better and more independence and unity (of the former Italian and British Somalilands), i.e. virtually all of the ‘people’, including the middle classes – embryonic as they were.

The coup of Syad Barre (1969) was thus well received by the country as a whole. Because he promised to do what the neocolonial formula did not allow: ‘Development’ for the benefit of the country and its people. His characterisation as ‘socialist’, which Afyare adopts, is a bit too succinct and quick. Yes, the regime proclaimed itself as such, like many others in Africa at the time – those of the era of Bandung and Non-Alignment. Yes, it was more or less ‘recognised’ as such by the Soviet Union, which supported Non Alignment, which the Western powers by contrast saw as a ‘dangerous enemy’.

The regime was actually what I would call ‘popular nationalist’ and its achievements – during its first phase from 1969 to 1982 – were real and largely established its credibility and legitimacy.

The regime didn't just develop a ‘nationalist discourse’ on the unity of the Somali people, leaving open the issue of ‘recuperation’ of Djibouti, the Ethiopian Ogaden, and Kenyan Somaliland. It laid the foundations for a renewal of the Somali nation by the formal adoption of its language and by a marked development of education in Somali. It thus recognised the fundamental reality of this dimension of national identity: Somali's are not ‘Arabs’, they are an African nation with their own language and culture, and also Muslim. Economic development – however modest – of administrative and social services (education, health, infrastructure) provided a basis – albeit fragile – toward growing urbanisation and especially toward the formation of a middle class, gave the regime a degree of legitimacy.

This regime certainly was not ‘democratic.’ Not based on ‘Western’ criteria, since it was based on a single party, but especially because it was not completely ‘open’ to capitalism, as were other single-party African regimes (Côte d'Ivoire, Malawi) which weren't qualified as ‘undemocratic’! In today's language, democratic and market-based are recognised as the two breasts of ‘good governance’, and today, just as yesterday, Western powers are satisfied as long as an openness to markets is guaranteed (to the extreme), with or without democracy!

But the regime was also not ‘democratic’ in another, higher sense. It was facing a historic reality: The importance of clans in the definition of the multiple identities of the Somali nation. Like many other African regimes faced with multiple ‘ethnicity’, the regime was content to deny the fact and, from there, to treat ‘clan resistance’ with contempt and repression. It was the same with Islam, which the regime, without being ‘secular’ in the true sense of the term (despite advances in this direction on matters of family law, less biased against women), denied the right to be political.

I have described this model of behaviour as ‘enlightened despotism’! I even think that under the conditions of the country at the time, one could hardly aspire to much better. This ‘enlightened despotism’, had it been supported from outside – instead of being opposed – would have undoubtedly created somewhat more favourable conditions for a possible evolution towards democratisation of society and politics.

In the era of the Ethiopia of Mengistu, South Yemen, the Eritrean resistances, all proclaimed themselves ‘socialists’ and they were, with more or less the same limits. This common denominator – anti-imperialist and popular – could have been an asset to bring them together. Which is what Fidel Castro proposed: To build a large ‘confederation’ (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Yemen) balanced in national and religious terms. Progress in this direction, which was not ‘impossible’, would have both strengthened the position of this region (the gates of Suez) in its confrontation with the ambitions of the imperialist powers, and further expanded its base for development.

This was not the path chosen by the partners in the region. In response to the rapid exhaustion of possibilities for their development, in the fragile context of Somalia on one hand and the weakening inflicted on Ethiopia by the war in Eritrea on the other hand, the regimes preferred to choose the card of narrow ‘nationalism’ to restore their image, engaging in the Ogaden War of 1981.

That's when Syad Barre brutally became a ‘turncoat’, abandoning ‘socialism’ and Soviet support, which he bartered against the backing of Saudi Arabia and the United States. This reversal certainly says something about the fragility of the previous convictions of an individual! It's true that in this Ogaden war the Soviet Union sided with Ethiopia and made Somalia responsible, because of its armed support for the Somali Ogaden liberation movement. The USSR certainly saw, not without good reason, that Ethiopia was, through its demographic weight and its historical and firm commitment to independence, a far superior asset compared to other countries in the region. For their part, the US thought for that same reason that Ethiopia was the real enemy to be beaten in the region.

The second period of the Barre regime (1982-1992) cannot be confused with his first, as unfortunately Afyare does (an ‘undemocratic’ regime with no further clarification). The regime slipped toward the ‘openness’ (including to Saudi capital) so appreciated by the imperialist powers. At the same time these powers ceased to reproach him for his violent methods of repression, which however worsened, inciting clans excluded from power to rebellion. The penetration of political Islam supported by the new Saudi ally would then be able to thrive, with, again, the blessing of Washington.

II. THE DECOMPOSITION OF THE STATE

What followed was inevitable: The collapse of the state, clan wars and warlords, the arrival of movements proclaiming political Islam, the deterioration of basic living conditions, the destruction of the middle classes and ultimately piracy.

Must we then resign ourselves and think that a ‘compromise’ including clans and Islamic movements is the only possible response to the challenge? That would require forgetting that the clans do not want a state and the warlords are thus the real power that knows how to manipulate them. It would require forgetting that political Islam is not capable on its own of governing any country. Despite appearances, this Islam is always at the service of those social interests for which it serves to mask reality: In the Gulf countries, the real power is that of archaic clan aristocrats who control oil incomes, and not the scholars which are little more than their ideological facades. In a poor country like Somalia, Islamic Courts may well give the appearance of government and are content to cut off the hands of petty criminals and subject women to male oppression, the ‘small market’ makes up the rest. This formula cannot rebuild the state.

This persistent chaos, is it ‘acceptable’ to the ‘powers’ and to neighbours?

Western powers claim in their speeches to want to help develop regimes associated with multi-party democracy, elections and open markets; and even claim that these two goals are complementary to one another.

This complementarity is not at all obvious, neither in theory nor in practice. In fact the only real objective being pursued is market opening, with or without ‘democracy’, which is sacrificed in the name of ‘stability’. This requires a ‘state’, at least in those countries of interest for important investments (mining for example) or for their market potential. In certain cases, as seen in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it's enough to secure control of the mining areas of interest through associated Warlords or through foreign military intervention (as occurred in Rwanda). But for others, like Somalia?

The United States is still intervening in Somalia, but why and how? And what have been the results?

Washington claims that chaos is no longer acceptable, although undoubtedly it is in other circumstances, since it opens up opportunities for ‘terrorists’ (al-Qaeda in this case) with which the United States is at war. But can we lend credibility to that argument? ‘Terrorism’ has come up precisely to give the appearance of legitimacy to a project of a very different nature: The military control of the planet and thereby exclusive access to its resources. That is why the US does not insist on much in the case of Somalia, and leaves the warlords, clans and Islamists alone.

The US tried a first direct intervention. But it only showed their military and political incapacity to successfully carry out this ‘police operation’. Twelve GIs killed and it was a stampede to leave! Washington then turned to Ethiopia, passing through that camp after the fall of Mengistu. But although the entry of Ethiopian forces into Somalia faced no serious obstacles, the new occupants once again proved unable to respond effectively to the resistance (who we called ‘terrorists’ or otherwise), let alone establish a stable government, and were forced to retreat as well.

The results of all these attempts to ‘stabilise’ Somalia thus came to nothing. But the persistence of chaos scarcely bothers the United States. Perhaps to the contrary, it is very useful; because it allows Washington to justify its pursuit of its ‘war against terrorism’ elsewhere, and for other purposes!

Somali chaos does not bother other countries of the region. Perhaps instead it helps create acceptance of the authority of Addis Ababa and Nairobi in the Somali Ogaden and on the Kenyan border. They may prefer this power to the chaos that accompanies warlords, clans and Islamic movements.

Without doubt piracy in the Indian Ocean causes problems. Yet we must remember here – something never mentioned in the mainstream media – that this piracy is a response to another piracy that preceded it: The plundering of marine resources and their destruction by pollution of the ocean, unrestricted by a Somali state unable to enforce international laws. Somali populations of fishermen, who are the victims, had little alternative but to turn to piracy. Then, with chaos in the country, new Warlords found themselves able to become racketeers through this piracy. But this argument is corollary, and we would like to see not only the ‘immediate actors’ (the ‘pirates’) and the racketeer warlords in the dock, but also the foreign pirates who pillaged and ransacked the living resources of Somali fishermen.

III. IS THERE A POSSIBLE SOLUTION?

Unresolved chaos looms on the prolonged visible horizon in Somalia. This does not bother the Western powers, nor the neighbours.

But will the ‘Somali people’ be able, by themselves, to ‘get out’? One isn't forbidden to doubt this. Examples of people engaged in fatal destruction do exist in history. Even imagining that the same powers and neighbours let things evolve by themselves in Somalia – which is by no means guaranteed – the forces in place in the country are all unable to rebuild the state and nation. Islamic movements are not better placed in this light that the clan directors and warlords. This particular Islam which proposes political Islam in all its diverse organisations (‘extremist’ or even ‘terrorists’ and ‘moderate’, so called) is definitely an obscurantist Islam, unable to help understand the nature of contemporary world challenges. It is a version of Islam at the service of primitive and brutal forms of exploitation of the weak (‘the people’) by the ‘strong’ (the ruling cliques who exploit the use of religion). And these ‘strong’ are nothing but transmission belts for the country's integration into the global system dominated by the monopolies of the Triad (USA, Europe, Japan). The Somalian ‘small market’ provides no means of resistance to this domination, and the leaders of Islamic movements may not even be aware of this.

But the possibilities of crystallisation of a new ‘progressive’ force which could understand it are weak, since the chances of developing a model of ‘enlightened despotism’ of the first Syad Barre have been ruined.

That's why I expressed the view that, even if an ‘agreement’ was able to be achieved by the forces acting on the ground (clans, warlords, Islamist movements), or even if one of them was able to prevail militarily (and both assumptions are unrealistic), no viable solution would emerge. The specific developments presented by Afyare in his book, including his detailed history of conflicts, in themselves demonstrate that there is nothing to expect from the mix of forces who occupy the Somali scene.

So? Could the ‘international community’ impose another solution? I seriously doubt it. First, because this self-proclaimed ‘international community’ is nothing but Washington, supported by its subordinate allies in Europe and Japan. And Washington is not bothered by the chaos in Somalia – it is even useful for the reasons I have given.

In addition, even in the event of some odd reason which would call for intervention (unlikely in my opinion), and even if Washington decided, the US is effectively unable to manage this challenge successfully. The Washington establishment is, on this level, close to the void – composed of ‘elites’ unable to understand societies of the Planet other than their own. The difference that separates them on this plan from the ruling classes of colonial empires is huge. The ability of the UN to intervene, the only legitimate institution to speak for the ‘international community’, is nullified by its submission to the wishes of the G7 (led by the United States).

The only possible solution to the chaos in Somalia would come from the African community, especially a community that could be formed by the countries of the region. The proposals made some time ago by Fidel Castro thus appear a clear possibility.

But here again, conditions are not what they were at the time these proposals were made. In the present state of things, Addis Ababa is not interested in rebuilding a viable Somali state. Ethiopia is, and will remain, the centre of gravity of the region. It is the only state worthy of the name by its size and by the tradition of its political culture. This was proven by the failure to split the country on 'ethnic' grounds as envisioned by Washington. This project has not been defeated by the current alliance between the rebels of Tigray and Eritrea (and again in conflict with Asmara!), an alliance rallied for a moment by the projected dismemberment of Ethiopia. It was defeated by the ‘people’ of Ethiopia, however vague that term. An Ethiopian renaissance remains, therefore, possible. I would say even probable, if not certain. Although the formulation may seem a paradox, the reconstruction of a viable Somali state depends largely on the rebirth of a united Ethiopia, strong, independent, able to move forward in a line of popular development, an Ethiopia able therefore to take initiatives and lead the other countries of the region in this line.

NOTE:

This article should be read along with chapters VI and VII (the latter written by Joseph Vansy) of my old book, ‘Ethnicity in the assault of Nations’ (L'Harmattan, 1994), which deals with Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Iqbal D. Jhazbhay's book, ‘Somaliland: an African Struggle for Nationhood and International Recognition’ (South African Institute of International Affairs, Pretoria 2009) confirms my analysis: to escape the chaos that political Islam has created in the territory of the former Italian Somalia, the citizens of former British Somaliland seceded and were thus preserved in their peace; proof that political Islam is at the source of disaster for the Somali nation.

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* Samir Amin is the director of the Third World Forum.
* Translated from the French by Bob Thomson
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Talk left, walk right: South Africa's climate policy

Patrick Bond

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70968

cc T PPainting the country as both a contributor to and potential victim of global climate change, South Africa’s green paper ‘seems to fit within an all too predictable Pretoria formula’, writes Patrick Bond. It's up to civil society to demand genuine solutions.

It’s worth downloading a copy of South Africa’s new National Climate Change Response Green Paper to prepare for the local deluge of technical and political debate that Durban will host in exactly eight months’ time.

As the Kyoto Protocol’s Conference of the Parties (also known as the Durban ‘COP 17’) draws closer, we will encounter even more frequent public relations blasts than witnessed in the same International Convention Centre district a decade ago, before the World Conference Against Racism in 2001, and again last year during the soccer World Cup.

The Pretoria government’s greenwashing challenges this year include distracting its citizens from concern about:

- More imminent multi-billion dollar financing decisions on Eskom coal-fired mega power plants (with more price increases for the masses);
- The conclusion of the energy ministry’s multi-decade resource planning exercise, which is run by a committee dominated by electricity-guzzling corporations; and
- Pretoria’s contributions to four global climate debates: President Jacob Zuma’s co-chairing of a UN sustainable development commission, planning minister Trevor Manuel’s role within the UN Advisory Group on Climate Finance seeking US$100 billion/year in North-South flows, the G8-G20 meetings in France, and the COP 17 preparatory committee meetings.

Many recall from World Summit on Sustainable Development preparatory committees how pressure rose on negotiators to be as unambitious and nonbinding as possible. At that 2002 Johannesburg summit, climate change was completely ignored and the main host politicians – President Thabo Mbeki, Foreign Minister Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma and Environment Minister Valli Moosa – were criticised for, as Martin Khor (now head of the South Centre) put it, ‘the utter lack of transparency and procedure of the political declaration process. Some delegates, familiar with the World Trade Organization (WTO), remarked in frustration that the infamous WTO Green Room process had now crossed over to the usually open and participatory UN system.’

Later this year, their successors Zuma, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Edna Molewa will also surrender democratic principles and let secretive Green Room deal-making sites proliferate.

Two authors of the Green Paper are environment officials Joanne Yawitch and Peter Lukey, both from struggle-era backgrounds in land and environmental NGOs, and once dedicated to far-reaching social change. But people like this (yes, me too) are notoriously unreliable, and I was not at all surprised to hear last week that Yawitch is moving to the National Business Initiative, following the path through the state-capital revolving door so many before her also trod.

At the Copenhagen COP in December 2009, lead G77 negotiator Lumumba Di-Aping accused Yawitch of having ‘actively sought to disrupt the unity of the Africa bloc,’ a charge she forced him to publicly apologise for, even though within days Zuma proved it true by signing the Africa-frying Copenhagen Accord.

Right from the initial premise of the Green Paper – ‘South Africa is both a contributor to, and potential victim of, global climate change given that it has an energy-intensive, fossil-fuel powered economy and is also highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability and change’ – this document seems to fit within an all too predictable Pretoria formula: Talking left, so as to more rapidly walk right. (And having drafted more than a dozen such policy papers from 1994-2002, I should know.)

This formula means the Green Paper can claim, with a straight face: ‘South Africa, as a responsible global citizen, is committed to reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions in order to successfully facilitate the agreement and implementation of an effective and binding global agreement.’

My suggestion for a reality-based rephrasing: ‘South Africa, as an irresponsible global citizen, is committed to rapidly increasing its own greenhouse gas emissions by building the third and fourth-largest coal-fired power plants in the world (Kusile and Medupi) mainly for the benefit of BHP Billiton and Anglo American which get the world’s cheapest electricity thanks to apartheid-era, forty-year discount deals, and to successfully facilitate the agreement and implementation of an ineffective and non-binding global agreement – the Copenhagen Accord – which is receiving support from other countries only because of coercion, bullying and bribery by the US State Department, as WikiLeaks has revealed.’

Consistent with Washington’s irresponsible climate agenda, Pretoria’s Green Paper suggests we ‘limit the average global temperature increase to at least below 2°C above pre-industrial levels’ – yet this target is so weak that scientists predict nine out of ten African farmers will lose their ability to grow crops by the end of the century.

In contrast, the 2010 Cochabamba People’s Agreement hosted by Bolivian president Evo Morales last April demanded no more than a 1-1.5°C rise, a vast difference when it comes to emissions cuts needed to reach back to 350 parts per million of CO2 equivalents in our atmosphere, as ’science requires.’

Failing that, the Green Paper acknowledges (using even conservative assumptions), ‘After 2050, warming is projected to reach around 3-4°C along the coast, and 6-7°C in the interior. With these kinds of temperature increases, life as we know it will change completely.’ As one example, ‘the frequency of storm-flow events and dry spells is projected to increase over much of the country, especially in the east, over much of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, including some of the most crucial source regions of stream-flows in southern Africa such as the Lesotho highlands.’

In the COP17 host city itself, Durban’s sea-level rise is anticipated to be nearly double as fast – close to 3 mm/year – as the SA south coast’s in the immediate future, but new research models suggest several more meters of seawater height are possible by the end of the century, swamping central Durban.

Another sure hit to Durban is via our port, Africa’s biggest, because of a growing ‘reluctance to trade in goods with a high carbon footprint,’ the Green Paper admits. ‘The term “food miles” is used to refer to the distance food is transported from the point of production to the point of consumption, and is increasingly being used as a carbon emission label for food products.’

Further ‘economic risks’ include ‘the impacts of climate change regulation, the application of trade barriers, a shift in consumer preferences, and a shift in investor priorities.’ Already, Europe’s ‘directive on aviation and moves to bring maritime emissions into an international emissions reduction regime could significantly impact’ South African air freight and shipping.

‘Tourism is not just a potential victim of climate change, it also contributes to the causes of climate change,’ the Green Paper observes ominously. ‘South Africa is a carbon intensive destination, and relies extensively on long haul flights from key international tourism markets.’

New air taxes to slow climate change thus create ‘significant risk’ to SA tourism. Yet even though they were warned of this a decade ago, Transport Ministers Jeff Radebe and Sbu Ndebele pushed through an unnecessary new US$1 billion airport 40km north of Durban, entirely lacking public transport access, even while all relevant authorities confirmed that South Durban’s airport could easily have managed the incremental expansion.

Durban’s maniacal pro-growth planners still exuberantly promote massively-subsidised ‘economic development’ strategies based on revived beach tourism (notwithstanding loss of coveted ‘Blue Flag’ status); mega-sports events to fill the 2010 Moses Mabhida White Elephant stadium; a dramatic port widening/deepening and a potential new dug-out harbour at the old airport site (or maybe instead more auto manufacturing); a competing new Dube trade port next to the King Shaka Airport; new long-distance air routes; expansion of South Durban’s hated petrochemical complex; and a massive new Durban-Joburg oil pipeline and hence doubled refinery capacity. The shortsighted climate denialism of Durban City Manager Mike Sutcliffe is breathtaking.

This is yet more serious because the Green Paper passes the buck: ‘Most of our climate adaptation and much of the mitigation efforts will take place at provincial and municipal levels.’ Yet even Durban’s oft-admired climate specialist Debra Roberts cannot prevent dubious carbon market deals – such as at the controversial Bisasar Road landfill in Clare Estate – from dominating municipal policy.

The Green Paper repeatedly endorses ‘market-based policy measures’ including carbon trading and offsets, at a time that Europe’s Emissions Trading has completely collapsed due to internal fraud, external hacking and an extremely volatile carbon price, and the main US carbon market in Chicago has all but died. At the Cancun summit, indigenous people and environmentalists protested at the idea of including forests and timber in carbon markets. Only the state of California is moving the carbon trade forward at present, and the new governor Jerry Brown will run into sharp opposition if tries following through his predecessor’s forest-privatisation offset deals in Chiapas, Mexico.

South Africa’s Green Paper authors obviously weren’t paying attention to the markets, in arguing, ‘Limited availability of international finance for large scale fossil fuel infrastructure in developing countries is emerging as a potential risk for South Africa’s future plans for development of new coal fired power stations.’ If so then why did Pretoria just borrow US$3.75 billion from the World Bank, with around US$1 billion more expected from the US Ex-Im Bank and $1.75 billion just raised from the international bond markets? The North’s financiers are as short-sighted about coal investments as they were about credit derivatives, real estate, dot.coms, emerging markets and the carbon markets.

The Green Paper is also laced with false solutions. For example, attempting to ‘kick start and stimulate the renewable energy industry’ requires ‘Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects.’ Yet the miniscule €14/tonne currently being paid to the Durban methane-electricity conversion at three local landfills shows the futility of the CDM, not to mention the historic injustice of keeping Bisasar Road’s dump (Africa’s largest) open in spite of resident objections to environmental racism.

Similarly dubious policy ideas include ‘a nuclear power station fleet with a potential of up to 10 GWh by 2035 with the first reactors being commissioned from 2022’ and, just as dangerously, a convoluted waste incineration strategy that aims to ‘facilitate energy recovery’ through ‘negotiation of appropriate carbon-offset funding.’

Talking left (with high-minded intent) to walk right (for the sake of unsustainable crony-capitalist profiteering) is a long-standing characteristic of African nationalism, as Frantz Fanon first warned of in The Wretched of the Earth in 1961. But the Green Paper fibs way too far, claiming that SA will achieve an ‘emissions peak in 2020 to 2025 at 34% and 42% respectively below a business as usual baseline.’

Earthlife Africa’s Tristen Taylor already reminded Yawitch in 2009 that the ‘baseline’ was actually called ‘Growth Without Constraints’ (GWC) in an earlier climate policy paper: ‘GWC is fantasy, essentially an academic exercise to see how much carbon South Africa would produce given unlimited resources and cheap energy prices.’ Officials had already conceded GWC was ‘neither robust nor plausible’ in 2007, leading Taylor to conclude, ‘The SA government has pulled a public relations stunt.’

And if, realistically, we consider South Africa’s entire climate policy as a stunt, required so as to not lose face at the Conference of Polluters’ global meeting, then the antidote (short of Tunisia/Egypt-style bottom-up democracy) is louder civil society demands for genuine solutions not found in the Green Paper:

- Turning off the aluminium smelters so as to forego more coal-fired plants, while ensuring Green Jobs for all affected workers (such as solar hot-water heater manufacture);
- Direct regulation of the biggest point emitters starting with Sasol and Eskom, compelling annual declines until we cut 50 percent by 2020;
- Strengthening the Air Quality Act to name greenhouse gases as dangerous pollutants (as does even the US Environmental Protection Agency now); and
- Dramatic, urgent increases in investments for public transport, renewable energy technology and retrofitting of buildings to lower emissions.

Those are the genuine solutions whose name cannot be spoken in South Africa’s climate policy, given the adverse balance of forces here, and everywhere. Changing that power balance is the task ahead for climate justice activism.

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* Based at the Centre for Civil Society in Durban, Patrick Bond is completing a book, 'Politics of Climate Justice'.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Global fund, global corruption

Rasna Warah

2011-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70908

cc W FThe global face of corruption is now coming under increasing scrutiny, writes Rasna Warah.

Last month the Associated Press (AP) reported that four African countries - Djibouti, Mali, Mauritania, and Zambia - had misused grants from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a revelation that was first made public by none other than the Global Fund itself. The Fund’s inspector-general conducted audits and investigations in 33 of the 145 countries that receive grants from this financing facility.

The investigations concluded that millions of dollars worth of drugs for malaria sent to Africa have been stolen and resold on commercial markets and that recipient organisations in some countries routinely forge documents to siphon money off the Fund.

These revelations of fraud and corruption are having an unintended effect: several governments and watchdog organisations are now urging for more rigorous investigations on corruption within the United Nations, which is apparently not as transparent as the Global Fund in making its findings on corruption public.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is responsible for managing more than half of the Fund’s grants, but access to internal UNDP audit reports on how the money is spent is virtually impossible. UNDP says that the organisation’s policy bars it from sharing internal audit reports with the Global Fund - a bizarre type of reasoning, considering that the latter provides the funds to UNDP and has a vested interest in knowing how they are used.
(Interestingly, the Global Fund was created in response to cumbersome UN bureaucracy and opaqueness, so its use of UNDP to manage the grants was probably not a good idea. However, people who understand how the Global Fund operates say that while the Fund is more transparent than the UN, the grant application and implementation processes are extremely complicated and impact countries’ ability to secure funds and use them effectively.)

Nonetheless, results of Global Fund investigations are publicly available on the organisation’s website and the Fund is obliged to take disciplinary action against countries implicated, unlike the UN, which tends to engage in cover-ups and face-saving propaganda for fear of losing donor funding.

Robert Appleton, the Global Fund’s investigations director, understands this very well. In 2009, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon disbanded the UN’s highly efficient investigative unit, the Procurement Task Force, then headed by Appleton. Since then, the number of fraud and corruption cases investigated by the UN have dropped dramatically.

The problem is made worse by lack of enforcement of whistleblower protection. A recent AP report reveals that the acting chief of the division that investigates wrongdoing at the UN is currently under investigation himself for allegedly retaliating against two whistleblowers.

In the recently-published anthology ‘Missionaries, Mercenaries and Misfits’, Isisaeli Kazado notes that fear of retaliation discourages many potential UN whistleblowers from speaking up, even though a whistleblower protection policy has been in place since 2005. She claims that ‘whistleblowing…is neither encouraged nor tolerated’ and that ‘the culture of conformity, silence and fear’ is so pervasive that ‘as soon as you are seen blowing the whistle, your own colleagues won’t even sit next to you in the cafeteria’.

Questions are also being raised about whether the UN is really the best organisation to tackle health issues in the world’s poorest countries.

Research funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation shows that some UN health programmes are ineffective, and quite often harmful, to the health of beneficiaries.

A study found that a $27 million Unicef programme to save children in West Africa failed, as the children who were not included in the programme actually had a better chance of survival than those who were.

All these revelations have made at least one group happy: Republicans in the US Congress, who have always viewed the UN with suspicion and hate the fact that a quarter of its operational budget comes from the United States.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee has introduced a Bill to slash US funding to the UN and to get the body to institute a rapid schedule of reforms.

Unfortunately, this knee-jerk reaction may lead to even more, not less, secrecy and opaqueness within the UN’s various programmes and agencies.

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* This article was first published in the Daily Nation. Rasna Warah's 'Missionaries, Mercenaries and Misfits: An Anthology' (ISBN: 9781434386038) is published by AuthorHouse. Rasna Warah can be contacted at rasna.warah@gmail.com.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Bolivia and the fight against climate change

Pablo Solon

2011-02-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Dakar2011/70901

cc F CZahra Moloo interviews Pablo Solon [mp3], Bolivia’s ambassador to the UN in New York. Solon talks about Bolivia’s stance on climate change before and during the Cancun climate negotiations in December 2010. Bolivia is calling for all countries that signed the Kyoto protocol and other climate engagements to comply with their commitments. He discusses the meaning of sustainable development and suggests a framework of development that is based on humans and nature, rather than humans alone. Solon also mentions the upcoming Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012 and the development of ‘green capitalism’. Before the summit, Bolivia is to hold a gathering on climate change and mother earth’s rights, to mobilise progressive forces in the fight against climate change and green capitalism.

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* Interview conducted by Zahra Moloo, an independent journalist from Kenya, currently based in London, UK.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Defending Nature’s rights at Rio+20

Pablo Solon

2011-02-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Dakar2011/70902

cc G SIn the following audio piece [mp3], Pablo Solon, Bolivia’s ambassador to the UN in New York, explains the interest of corporations and governments in applying capitalist frameworks to nature, including environmental services, biodiversity and water. The battles for the upcoming Durban climate conference this year and Rio+20 next year are part of the same track, says Solon, and its essential for progressive forces to mobilise in preparation for the Durban conference in partnership with strong social movements like Via Campesina and the trades unions.

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* Apologies for inconsistency in sound in this recording.
* Recorded and edited by Zahra Moloo.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

15 months to rescue the planet

‘Copenhagen was a tragedy, Cancun was treason’

Pat Mooney

2011-02-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Dakar2011/70904

cc I A PIn the following audio clip [mp3], Pat Mooney, executive director of civil society organisation ETC Group, says that 15 months remain for humans to get ourselves through one of the most dangerous times in history. ‘Copenhagen was a tragedy, Cancun was treason,’ says Mooney, referring to the last international climate negotiations and their effects globally. From the upcoming Durban climate conference to the Rio+20 Earth Summit, there is only a small window of time for people to take to the streets and to the negotiating rooms to set the agenda of the coming years and the fate of the planet. Rio+20, he says, will be an ‘earth grab’ rather than an ‘earth summit’, adding that it is important for activists and social movements to have a clear agenda on how to organise against the ongoing expropriation of resources and the grabbing of biomass and the stratosphere.

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* Recorded and edited by Zahra Moloo.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Western Sahara: The last colony in Africa

Radhi S. Bachir

Human Rights Commission on Western Sahara

2011-02-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Dakar2011/70906

cc R AIn the following interview, Radhi S. Bachir talks about Western Sahara [mp3], which the delegation of Saharawis to the World Social Forum calls ‘the last colony of Africa.’ He says Western Sahara is the only territory on the continent that had not been truly decolonised and where people have not been able to exercise their right to self-determination. He talks about efforts on the part of the Moroccan delegation to prevent the Saharawis from speaking out at the Forum and about the Polisario liberation movement.

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* Interviews conducted by Zahra Moloo, an independent journalist from Kenya, currently based in London, UK.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

United and divided: Western Sahara at WSF

Cheikh Lehbib Mohamed, Mohammed Cherif

2011-02-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Dakar2011/70903

cc L ATwo marches were held (17 February) by different delegations to the World Social Forum, with opposing views on Western Sahara. Zahra Moloo speaks to representatives from both sides - Cheikh Lehbib Mohamed [mp3], general secretary of UGT SARIO, the trade union of Saharawi people, and an interview with Mohammed Cherif [mp3], president of the Association Sahraouie de solidarité pour le projet d’autonomie et de développement durable (French/français).

One march was organised by the Association Sahraouie de Solidarite pour le Projet d’Autonomie et de Developpement Durable based in the Netherlands. The demonstrators taped black scotch tape over their mouths and marched to the media centre of the World Social Forum. Mohammed Cherif, president of the organisation, says that the march was organised against what he calls the ‘Polisario’ delegation to the World Social Forum. Cherif claims that a participant in the forum from the Polisario, Bachir Sghir, tortured a number of people and says that his presence in the forum constitutes a ‘moral offence.’ In the organisation’s tent set up close to the media centre, a number of people spoke about what they believe is the oppression of the Saharawi people by the Polisario. (Note: The Polisario is a liberation movement and has been officially recognised by the UN as representative of the people of Western Sahara).

At the same time, a second demonstration took place outside the media centre, organised by the Saharawi delegation to the World Social Forum. The demonstrators taped red crosses over their mouths to symbolise their experience of being silenced during the World Social Forum. Earlier in the week, the delegation was harassed and intimidated by a group of Moroccans allegedly working for the Moroccan state. The Moroccan group prevented the Saharawis from holding a workshop titled ‘Western Sahara, the last African colony.’ On Saturday, during the march held to open the World Social Forum, reports allege that the same group of Moroccans asked facilitators not to chant slogans in support of the decolonisation of Western Sahara. The delegation has since had to deploy the help of Senegalese security to ensure that no further acts of aggression take place.

Cheikh Lehbib Mohamed, General Secretary of UGT SARIO, the trade union of Saharawi people said in an interview that the Saharawi delegation simply wants to speak at the World Social Forum and to voice its demands for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

Listen to an interview with Cheikh Lehbib Mohamed [mp3], general secretary of UGT SARIO, the trade union of Saharawi people (English).

Listen to an interview with Mohammed Cherif [mp3], president of the Association Sahraouie de solidarite pour le projet d’autonomie et de developpement durable (French/Francais).

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* Interviews conducted by Zahra Moloo, an independent journalist from Kenya, currently based in London, UK.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Apartheid has ended but we’re still landless

Africa Mthombeni

Landless People's Movement (South Africa)

2011-02-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Dakar2011/70905

© Abahlali.orgThe following audio piece [mp3] is an interview with Africa Mthombeni from South Africa's Landless People's Movement which is a member of la Via Campesina, an international movement that brings together millions of peasants, indigenous people, women farmers, migrants and agricultural workers. The group was formed in 1999 by landless people in South Africa frustrated by the slow pace of land reform. Mthombeni highlights South Africa's specific land situation starting with the land act of 1913, which enclosed the majority of black people on 13 per cent of the land within Bantu reserves. 87 per cent was left to mostly white commercial farmers. Despite the end of apartheid over 20 years ago, the pace of land reform has remained very slow.

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* Interviews conducted by Zahra Moloo, an independent journalist from Kenya, currently based in London, UK.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The World Social Forum and the battle for COP17

Vishwas Satgar

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/70971

cc PZ NewsIn a world plunged ever deeper into an uncivilised global capitalist condition, the World Social Forum is a crucial beacon of hope. But while news of Egypt and Tunisia’s revolutions electrified activists at this year’s gathering in Dakar, Vishwas Satgar asks whether progressive civil society is powerful enough to organise for a genuine climate change solution at COP17.

In a world plunged ever deeper into an uncivilised global capitalist condition, the World Social Forum (WSF) is a crucial beacon of hope. At its recent gathering in Senegal, the news of the unfolding democratic revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt electrified the spirit of optimism pervading the multiple axes of deliberation. The geometry of left politics was redrawn from Latin America to North Africa and the Arab world. The expressions of people’s power in these revolutions defied inherited formulaic understandings of 20th century revolutions. Instead of vanguards and armed uprisings, these revolutions organised without organisation through social media and the unstoppable mass surge of discontent. Egypt and Tunisia also fired an imagination for more: Could people’s power be harnessed to end the tenuous grip of neoliberal ideology on a world scale? Could the struggles in Latin America, the Maghreb, the Arab world, global climate change negotiations and beyond be connected to frame a new horizon for global transformation?

However while this renewed confidence in popular resistance struck a militant chord, the sharp edge of debates on climate change revealed serious limits to World Social Forum politics and the difficulties ahead for a genuine climate change solution at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP17) in Durban. This came through as hard lessons were drawn from the recent Copenhagen and Cancun climate negotiations. Progressive civil society was divided at Cancun. NGO technocrats, donor-driven agendas, big egos, celebrity intellectuals and hard-lined social movement agendas prevented a common voice and united agenda to prevail outside the negotiations in the streets.

Such a ‘rainbow like plurality’ prevailed in the deliberations at the WSF and was consistent with its long established ethos. However, as the week unfolded, it was the Climate Justice current that took the initiative to be self-critical and address the weaknesses of progressive civil society. This was laudable and the ‘Basis of Unity’ document it tried to shape in the closing hours of the WSF is a step in the right direction, but is extremely constrained by crucial weakness of the WSF.

First, the national and regional forums of the WSF are uneven but generally weak or nonexistent. The follow through required to keep focus and momentum on the ‘Basis of Unity’ document is going to be difficult to sustain. Second, the WSF has not evolved to a point where it can coordinate in a democratic manner a platform of actions at transnational and national levels. It is a great space to philosophise about actions to change the world, globalise critique, share experiences and form links but it lacks a strategic edge.

This does not mean the WSF has to become a new ‘program centred 5th international’. But given the systemic and conjunctural crisis of capitalism, it needs to find its place also at key battlefronts so that progressive humanity speaks with one voice about alternatives. The climate change negotiations are one such front where hope is taking a battering. Pluralism as strength can only be meaningful if the World Social Forum confronts this weakness and evolves in a direction that gives it a new strategic edge.

Moreover, for some activists operating at a transnational level, the defeat at Cancun meant intensifying further transnational engagements. Strategy was suddenly reduced to a straight line: Copenhagen, Cancun, Durban (COP17), Rio+20 and beyond. Given the institutional weaknesses of the WSF it easily lends itself to being reduced to a moment in an ongoing transnational circuit. However, this approach did not provide pause for serious reflection on the state of climate change negotiations and more importantly why Bolivia was alone in the world in its opposition to the Cancun summit outcomes. A serious and ethical conversation of honest assessment, above petty nationalisms and narrow agendas, reveals a climate change process that is increasingly being led by an agenda that favours utilising the ecological crisis as a new outlet and fix for capitalist accumulation. Within the Cancun framework carbon trading, geo-engineering and adaptation are just some of the elements of a new green neoliberalism. The future of the delicate ecological web will be determined by financial returns, speculation and risky technologies. For the World Bank, finance and investment in climate change are the new horizon for green capitalism, a dangerous and false solution.

In this context, Bolivia’s argument around climate debt, rights of nature and opposition to grand market and techno fixes is on a terrain, inside the negotiations, in which governments – including South Africa – have surrendered to the climate agenda of transnational capital. Moreover, transnational capital has brought the ‘inside out’. In other words, it has been able to contest and exacerbate splits amongst civil society on the streets by supporting some in civil society that are propagating the green capitalist myth and who are lining up outside the negotiations to show active support. This further illustrates the inability of anti-capitalist civil society to advance an effective counter-hegemonic politics in support of Bolivia on the streets.

Finally, Bolivia is alone because anti-capitalist civil society has not been able to link the transnational in a manner that strengths a national bloc of anti-capitalist forces. The national terrain has been surrendered for the glitz and jet set lifestyle of the transnational climate change negotiating treadmill, including the occasional meeting points of the WSF. The painstaking task of local grassroots movement and anti-capitalist bloc building is not happening in most places around the world. Without this national power to hold governments to account and to contest state power, the climate negotiations at all levels of the world will be stacked in favour of capital. Thus demonstrations outside the COP17 negotiations are not going to be sufficient in themselves to open the space for alternatives, inside the negotiations.

These are strategic weaknesses that global anti-capitalist civil society has to confront as part of the build up to COP17 in South Africa. More importantly, as articulated in the main organising assembly for COP17 at the WSF, the build up to COP17 has to harness global public opinion around the alternatives represented by Bolivia and anti-capitalist civil society. The role of global pubic opinion, of over 6 billion humans on the planet, is crucial to democratise the climate change negotiations.

Currently, the United Nations has a democracy deficit. It is actually not the embodiment of global democracy and the liberal internationalism through which it claims its legitimacy is in crisis due to the weakening of national liberal democracies in the context of global capitalist restructuring. Most states sitting at the climate change negotiations table are there due to weaknesses in national democracies. In most instances, representative democracy has been hollowed out as states have been transnationalised as part of reproducing the rule of transnational capital.

What’s more, anti-capitalist civil society does not represent global public opinion on the streets. It needs to harness through a global internet referendum, involving national movements and activist networks, support for the Bolivian alternative to the Cancun green neoliberal consensus. The build up to COP17 and beyond has to pave the way for global public opinion to march alongside the progressive sections of humanity on the streets at the negotiations.

Moreover, for the South African anti-capitalist left, COP17 represents a focal point to expose the alignments of the South African government to green neoliberal capitalism in the climate change negotiations and in its approach to national development. Its increasing spend and commitment to coal-fired power stations, nuclear energy, fossil fuel based agriculture, mining, industrial and urban development have to be critiqued as part of the build up to COP17. Such a critique has to also be globalised through street politics at COP17.

More importantly, the build up to COP17 provides an opportunity to present the Bolivian alternative and more specifically democratic eco-socialist alternatives to the South African public. The critical question in this regard relates to the role of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Will it be part of the inside-out strategy of the Zuma government to divide anti-capitalist civil society converging on Durban or will it align genuinely with anti-capitalist civil society?

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* Vishwas Satgar is a member of the national convening committee and process of the Democratic Left Front in South Africa. He attended the recent World Social Forum in Senegal.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

David Kato is not dead

Nick Mwaluko

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/70969

cc InformatiqueDavid Kato, a prominent Ugandan gay rights activist, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in broad daylight at his home in Uganda, dying on his way to hospital. News of Kato’s death reverberated throughout the world as friends, leaders, activists and human rights organisations paid tribute to a man whose lifelong legacy championed human dignity in the face of man’s inhumanity to man.

Kato was a teacher who eventually quit his job to focus all his attention on Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a non-governmental organisation based in Uganda’s capital Kampala that advocates for the protection of Uganda’s gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people. Kato was SMUG’s advocacy officer and, some would argue, the founding father of gay activism in Uganda.

He came out to family members before leaving for South Africa. In transitional South Africa, where vestiges of apartheid and anti-sodomy laws were still in place, Kato saw these dismantled through activism. He witnessed firsthand the power of individual conviction grouped by a common cause for the creation of a greater good. Struggle against apartheid gave birth to a multiracial democracy; social justice based on activism lead to the growth of South Africa’s LGBTQA movement.

By the time Kato returned to his native Uganda in 1998, he was equipped with a cause, schooled in commitment, armoured with an agenda, focused on its execution. He spent a week in police custody for activism the very year he returned. Once released, he plunged head and heart into Uganda’s underground LGBTQA movement.

In 2009, American evangelical Dr. Scott Lively led an anti-gay conference in Kampala, Uganda. Days after the conference, an Anti-Homosexuality Bill was introduced to Uganda’s parliament. The Bill proposed the death penalty for some homosexuals. The Bill came under intense pressure from human rights activists and governments around the world; its ratification is pending, shelved. But homophobic sentiment, national bigotry and hatred was fueled and justified along religious grounds from then on.

Case in point: a short while after the 2009 anti-gay conference, Kato’s picture was placed on the front page of Uganda’s tabloid magazine The Rolling Stone, where the headline written in bold capital letters read as follows: ‘100 PICTURES OF UGANDA’S TOP HOMOS LEAKED’. Above the front page photo of Kato was a banner: ‘Hang them’. Death by execution, the paper suggested, would rid Uganda of gays like Kato. His photo was plastered on the front page for the country and world to see; his name listed among one hundred others to be targeted.

Kato sued the paper on the grounds of violation of privacy and won, but often spoke of violence and death threats, making police allegations that his murder was actually a robbery gone awry, not a hate crime spurred by fearless advocacy for freedom of sexual expression and orientation, somewhat suspect.

There are many who argue the recent influence by white American evangelicals in Uganda is what led to Kato’s death. Their terror tactics awakened something in Ugandans that was never there to begin with. After all, gays have been in Uganda since the beginning of time. What American evangelicals did was manipulate Ugandans because of their devotion to the Christian faith, manipulated the Bible, adopted terror tactics through religious-speak where hatred targeted an easy scapegoat - homosexuals. Kato’s colleagues say to rid Uganda of foreign intervention is to free their country for the better.

There are others who argue Africans tolerate homosexuality in much the same way they tolerate extramarital affairs or polygamy. Desire is tolerated, understood, even accepted; but a homosexual lifestyle, abandoning the duty of marrying someone of the opposite sex for a lifelong commitment to someone of the same sex, is what African social norms find morally reprehensible. Why? Because the desire is human but the lifestyle is foreign. Why? Because infant mortality is so high in Africa so children need to be born and, traditional African families do not adopt outside the family structure. So, an African family may raise children from a deceased cousin or sister, but they won’t take a child off the street into their home and adopt: this is very rare, and even forbidden in the Koran. A homosexual lifestyle without adoption threatens the family structure; homosexual desire, if married with children, does not.

The conflict between homosexual desire as acceptable, but a homosexual lifestyle as intolerable is at the heart of the African debate. In other words, the lifestyle makes someone gay, not the desire, some Africans argue, so tolerate same-sex desire so long as it does not lead to same-sex partnership, commitment, a lifestyle like David Kato’s.

At age 46, Kato left a powerful legacy that speaks to all, but perhaps most loudly to queer Africans of non-conforming genders on the continent and in the Diaspora. It accents our fundamental mission here on earth: which is what? To learn about each other and, in so doing, learn more about ourselves. We are not all the same, though the professional adult world asks us to be. But we are different, all of us, and different people relate differently to this world, which is what makes the world better and life richer. No one person, no one sexuality, no gender expression, no one gender, no one creative form of being is more important than another. And killing does not rid the world of difference. One less Kato in Uganda does not make Uganda any less gay, believe me. One living Kato alive and breathing in Uganda does not make Uganda any more gay. Just as one more woman does not add to sexism or one more person of colour adds to racism. We only assume it does or would because our investment in making the world as we want it, denies the world from being what it truly is: diverse, complex, unscripted, multifaceted, nontraditional, untamed, unrehearsed, unpackaged because it is human.

David Kato is not dead. He soars to our maker, the one who birthed him gay, radiant, warrior, lover, eternal. And his sword remains in the arena, sharpened for struggle, alive among the smouldering ash heaps that make up its ruins. And so he survives: spirit warrior eternal. David Kato is not dead.

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* Nick Mwaluko was born in Tanzania, raised mostly in Kenya and other east African countries. Nick came to New York, transitioned from anatomically female to male, and writes plays. S/He, the story of a man in a woman’s body, has its second run in southern Florida on 27 February 2011. Waafrika, a lesbian love affair set in a rural Kenyan village in 1992 immediately following Kenya’s first multi-party elections, will have a showcase run in October 2011 following a reading on 30 March 2011. Other plays include Blueprint for a Lesbian Universe, Asymmetrical We, Brotherly Love, Trailer Park Tundra, Are Women Human?
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Forward to land and housing for the poor

Kwanele! Enough Is Genoeg!

Mandela Park Backyarders Movement

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/70970

© Abahlali.orgAt the forefront of most people’s dreams when South Africa’s new ANC government came into power was the famous quote: ‘There shall be houses, security and comfort’. But it is now ‘years since we first voted and there is little change to show for that’, writes the Mandela Park Backyarders Movement.

The following is a self-written history by our movement. After a lot of deliberation with out members, we came up with this document as a way of explaining how we have come to say Kwanele! Please use this document in order to better understand our struggle...

SOME HISTORY

It is now 17 years since the first democratic government came into power, with a constitution that promises many freedoms in its declarations: What have been at the forefront of most people dreams when the new ANC government came into power was the famous quote “There shall be houses, security & comfort”. It is now years since we first voted and there is little change to show for that, besides five year voting ritual.

The story in Mandela Park (Makhaya) started in the late 1990’s, when the government’s new neo-liberal policies enabled companies to retrench workers in the name of rightsizing and many government departments out-sourced their responsibilities to private companies. They literally handed over the future of millions of workers to the hands of greedy employers and labour brokers. They also built up a strong layer of a Black capitalist class through Black Economic Empowerment.

When many workers lost their jobs in factories, councils, hospitals and in universities, life became even harder for many families in Makhaya. Banks came in threatening to repossess the bond houses. Soon afterwards, community members saw the Sheriff of the Court accompanied by a strong force of heavily armed police men with vicious looking dogs, guns and vehicles. People were evicted from their houses that they have called home for almost ten years. Sometimes the Sheriff of the Court would arrive at a house when the people are either at school or go out to look for jobs; that would not discourage the Sheriff to break the door and remove the house-hold goods. If it was raining, people's belonging would be runined. These evictions affected the mental health of school going children. Parents' self esteem would also be greatly affected and this oppression often resulted in the rise in alcoholism, gender violence and other social problems.

By the early 2000s, the evictions were now taking place almost every day and the community got tired of this attack on their livelihoods, while they saw the police protecting people whom the community saw as “bad elements” (Sheriff of the Court, the banks, local politicians).

The community decided to assist evicted families and take their goods back inside the houses. This was the beginning of the community organising to claim their rights and this activism later developed into an organised group called the Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign (AEC). The group was really helpful in fighting what it saw as an attack on poor unemployed community members. The believed that the government and banks were attempting to criminalise being poor.

For abut five years,the AEC was a powerful group in Mandela and they have many successes. Community members were empowered and they were not afraid to go prison for what they believed in because they knew that they also commanded a lot of community support. But like any independent democratic group, government saw this movement as a serious threat. The community set up a free high school in Andile Nhose for youth who could not afford or were kicked out of local schools. The police eventually came in and arrested people and declared the school closed. Soon after, many AEC leaders were placed under investigation by the National Intelligence Agency and often threatened with assassination by various political groups. After a lot of harassment, two main unemployed leaders of the group gave in to government pressure and took jobs working for the government’s housing department. This was a turning point in the struggle for housing in Mandela Park. With the loss of these leaders, many community members gave up hope.

However, toward the end of 2007, a new group from within Mandela Park emerged and they called themselves the Mandela Park Backyarders. This movement was led by a new crop of leaders who were dynamic, youthful and fearless. Learning from past experiences, the community did not rely on only a few charismatic individuals but instead built a strong leadership cadre numbering more than two dozen.

The movement demanded that the housing minister should consider them, the residents of Mandela Park, when housing is allocated in their area. The Backyarders felt that the open-space in their community is being used to resolve government’s housing crises in other areas without addressing the own burning housing needs. As with previous agreements with provincial housing ministers, the group met with MEC for Housing Bonginkosi Madikizela demanding that the housing list should consider themelves as well. Like Whitey Jacobs before him, the MEC agreed to allocate 30% of the new housing development in Mandela Park to local backyarders – an promised heard by hundreds of community members and media. Only a few months later, the minister reneged on this promise and the community became very angry.

Backyarders tried all available alternatives: asking for meetings with the MEC, writing letters to the national government, writing press statements, protesting, etc. Instead of dialogue, we've been met with violence and repression at the hands of our MEC.

KWANELE! ENOUGH!

So, in 2011 the Backyarders decided to take their own initiative: families started to build their own houses on their own – without government help. We began our Siyawuthatha Ngenkani Campaign (We Are Taking It By Force Campaign).

Through our campaign, hundreds of houses have already been built by backyarders on unused land in Mandela Park.

While the Housing Department has come in and destroyed our self-built houses, and while we suffer repression and false arrest from DA leaders, they have not destroyed our resolve.

We are planning on building more homes until we no longer suffer the indignity of living in shacks in other people's backyards.

Forward to Land and Housing for the poor!

Aluta Continua! The Struggle Continues!

Our Website: http://mpbackyarders.org.za/
Email us: admin@mpbackyarders.org.za
Call us: http://mpbackyarders.org.za/contact-us
Follow us: http://twitter.com/backyarders

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* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Black History Month: History as a weapon of struggle

Ajamu Nangwaya

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/70957

cc J AWith Black History Month underway in North America this month, Ajamu Nangwaya laments the move away from political engagement and militancy to mere celebration.

We are now in February and for Africans in North America it is a significant month. It is usually observed as Black History Month.

It is taken as an opportunity to acknowledge African people’s struggles, achievements and commemorate significant moments in the fight against white supremacy, capitalism, sexism and other forms of oppression.

Some of us use this month to reflect and rededicate ourselves to the revolutionary or radical African political tradition.

In the spirit of collective self-criticism, are we at the point where Black History Month is due for a name change and focus?

Names are quite important to resistance. It was no accident that the enslaved Africans who were taken across the Sahara Desert ended up with Arab names and those who went by way of the Atlantic Ocean had European names imposed on them.

Denying a people their name is a classic method of colonization and cultural imperialism. It is used to weaken collective consciousness, which is critical to building a resistance culture.

Black History Month started out as Negro History and Literature Week in 1920 by the fraternity Omega Psi Phi. Carter G. Woodson was the guiding influence behind this development and he changed the name to Negro History Week in 1926. That year is generally acknowledged as the official start of this political observance.

In 1976, Negro History Week was transformed into a month-long celebration and reborn as Black History Month.

Black History Month has since become more about cultural puffery than the politics of emancipation.

Trade unions, school boards, corporations and even government agencies are, for the most part, comfortable with the current toothless, non-challenging thrust of this month.

Essentially, they have been allowed to co-opt it and channel its potential for radical consciousness-raising and political involvement into celebrating “Black firsts” and “Black notables.”

Further, it serves as a platform to sell the virtues of integrating Africans into this racist, sexist and capitalist optical illusion that is the Canadian Dream.

One of the things that we have observed about the forces of exploitation is their wily manipulation and transformation of acts of resistance into harmless and empty symbols. That state of affairs is not possible without the participation of the oppressed.

Norman Otis Richmond, a Toronto-based journalist, is one of the main advocates in Canada for renaming of “Black History Month” as “African Liberation Month.”

I couldn’t agree more with this suggestion.

African Liberation Month would assert the name of the people whose struggle is being affirmed, while clearly communicating to the people that the mission of this celebration is the cultivation of a culture of resistance and liberation.

Let’s make the commitment to consistently use African Liberation Month and not the other outdated name. It has exceeded it’s “best before” date so we ought to send it to the “Museum of Outdated Social Contraptions.”

Of equal importance is doing the work to make African liberation and social transformation central issues on our activism agenda in Canada and beyond.

I am proposing the following endeavours which ought to be among the priorities of political militants and the socially engaged during this African Liberation Month and beyond. In essence, we would be signaling our commitment to the liberation ethic within the radical African political tradition.

Firstly, the community needs to devote the necessary resources to the reassertion of its radical, organized political voice. Since, the 1990s’ police repression, criminalization and surveillance of the Black Action Defense Committee (BADC) and the political and economic retaliation against Arnold Minors for speaking frankly about police containment of Africans, the community has gone into a sort of political dormancy.

We are at our political best when the politically advanced sectors in the community educate, organize and mobilize for justice. It should be noted that it was the combativeness of the largely African youth participants in the Yonge Street Uprising of May 1992 that forced the government of the Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP) to enact a slew of anti-racist initiatives.

Secondly, it is absolutely necessary to engage in a structured and systematic political education and skills-building programme for existing activists and prospective ones. It is necessary to draw lessons from our past on the effectiveness of the process used to prepare and develop our activist base.

Based on my experience, observation and reflection on community activism, we have to take a path that consciously and methodically equip our activists with the knowledge, skills and attitude to wage a consistent and principled struggle against sexism, racism, capitalism, homophobia and other forms of oppression. We cannot leave to chance the proper development of ideologically prepared and skilled activists.

Thirdly, we need to seriously operationalize the message within Kwame Ture’s (formerly Stokely Carmichael) dictum, “Organization is the weapon of the oppressed.” The radical and progressive forces in the community need to consolidate their ideas, efforts and resources in organizations, coalitions and/or alliances. We cannot continue to get by with fleeting committee-like entities that respond to an issue or organize a project and then wither away.

It is through durable organizations that we will be able to educate, organize and mobilize Africans in working-class communities and students in high schools, colleges and universities, work in coalitions and alliances with allies and address the issues prioritized by the oppressed and progressive sectors within the community.

Fourthly, we must educate and organize Africans to self-fund the resistance or liberation work so as to counter the corrosive impact of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. The Non-Profit Industrial Complex is a kind of counterinsurgency-like pacification programme that has co-opted the community’s sense of agency; it’s can-do spirit. Community workers are not likely to risk their jobs by facilitating the radicalizing of consciousness and action of the people.

It is not political activism that is being used to challenge economic, social and educational exploitation. Instead, we see the tranquilizer of foundation and government funding patching up the wounds of social oppression and putting the people to sleep, politically. Social workers and social service workers have replaced political activists as the “organizers” within the community. It is not an encouraging development.

We do not need to remind you that the person who pays the piper is the one who calls the tune. Many of us do not think twice about giving money to our religious organizations. It is high time that you pony-up a portion of your income and put it into the coffers of progressive African human rights and activist organizations. They are the ones fighting for your material interests and not organizations that are focused on spiritual, otherworldly matters.

Fifthly, we need to explore the development of a labour self-management strategy to provide employment and promote economic democracy. It is critical for the left within the African community to counter the right-wing forces that see our liberation being adorned in the clothing of Black capitalism or mimicking the ethnic capitalist enclaves that are spread across Toronto.

We must stand opposed to white or African capital exploiting the labour of the working-class. Therefore, the anti-capitalist left ought to explore the development of a programme of labour controlled workplaces and enabling organizations.

Sixthly, priority must be given to creating independent labour organizations to organize and agitate around the workplaces issues that affect the unionized and non-unionized members of the African working-class. The racialized constituency groups or affirmative action elected positions that are officially part of the Canadian labour movement are too compromised and powerless to be of relevance to the racialized working-class, at this moment.

They can only become useful when we start to carry out critical educational and organizing work among unionized rank-and-file union members. The pressure and initiative must come from the base. The purpose of this work among racialized workers would be to radicalize consciousness and develop or expand the skills needed to advance their needs in union structures as well as in unionized and non-unionized workplaces. The Ontario Coalition of Black Trade Unionists of the 1980s and early 1990s could provide instructive lessons for us.

Lastly, the African community must develop the organizational structures to advance international solidarity work with sisters and brothers in other parts of the world. Imperialism, the patriarchy and racism are international in their respective characters. We need to provide moral and material support to the struggle of Africans and other exploited peoples across the globe.

Too often international solidarity activists and organizations do not give sufficient attention and resources to campaigns dealing with the suffering of African peoples. If we look at the massive rape of women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an estimated 250,000 women raped, and the relative indifference of international solidarity forces, it should be clear that Africans must step up and take the lead on this matter.

We do not need to mention the Darfur conflict in Sudan where reactionary forces in North America and elsewhere are exploiting this matter to score geo-political points in the Middle East. As anti-imperialists, we must support the struggle of Africans in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in a spirit of Pan-African international solidarity. Martin Luther King’s declaration, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” should guide our solidarity work with all of oppressed humanity.

The radical political tradition of the Angela Davis, Walter Rodneys, Dionne Brands, George Jacksons, Assata Shakurs, C.L.R. James, Claudia Jones, Amilcar Cabrals, Paul Bogles, Ella Bakers, Mumia Abu Jamals, Malcolm Xs, Sherona Halls, Hubert Harrisons, Audre Lordes, among many others, may serve as a guide in our fight for the just, good and free society. We have no option but to use history and culture as weapons of struggle.

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* Ajamu Nangwaya is a trade union and community activist and a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto.
* This article was first published by Dissident Voice.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

BP support for Mubarak dictatorship revealed

Mika Minio-Paluello

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/70976

The millions on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez were furious at Mubarak for upholding his own interests and those of Western powers and foreign companies at the expense of the Egyptian people. For decades, British and American oil companies worked hand in glove with the Egyptian dictatorship, enjoying its ‘stability’ (lack of democratic change), ‘security’ (repression of dissent) and ‘favourable business environment’ (neoliberal policies and restrictions on trade unions).

Since Egypt’s first oil field at Gemsa came into production in 1910, the country’s resources have been dominated by London-based corporations. Back in the early 20th century, Anglo-Egyptian Oilfields – a joint venture of present-day BP and Shell – was the major operator in the country. A century later, vast chunks of the Gulf of Suez, Western Desert and Nile Delta remain long-term concessions granted to the same two companies, plus Reading-based BG.

BP is particularly proud of its ‘strong relationships with the Egyptian government’, boasting that it is the single largest foreign investor in the country and responsible for almost half of Egypt's entire oil production, easily overshadowing all competitors. Describing itself as a significant part of the Egyptian oil industry for more than 45 years, the company witnessed Hosni Mubarak’s rise to power as Head of the Air Force and then Vice-President under Anwar Sadat, before he gained complete control in 1982. BP continued to extract crude oil and underwrite repression throughout more than four decades of Emergency Law, investing over $17 billion in oil rigs and pipelines. Billions of dollars in revenue payments enabled Mubarak to build up and arm both his civil and paramilitary police forces and the army.

In exchange, the regime ensured that its Western corporate allies profited handsomely over the years. Privatisation and reduced state involvement in the economy during the 1990s pleased the IMF, made billions for Mubarak’s associates and increased incentives to Western oil companies. Exploration and production concessions were made yet more profitable, with increased cost recovery allowances, larger blocks and longer license periods.

In parallel, harsh restrictions on freedom of expression, social movements and civil society reduced space for Egyptians to raise environmental concerns. In this context, BP has continued to drill new wells in the coral-rich but threatened Red Sea, including in its North Shadwan concession near the SS Thistlegorm, a British armed Merchant Navy ship sunk in 1940. Expanded oil extraction in these waters threatens the Egyptian tourist industry in Hurghada and the Sinai, especially after a major oil spill in June 2010. The Ministry of Petroleum, praised by BP, attempted to cover up the leak by claiming it was caused by a passing tanker discharging ballast.

With such limited environmental oversight, BP has been eager to drive ahead with new prospects, ‘drilling to reach reservoir technical limits’. The company aims to create ‘a new profit centre’ in the Nile Delta offshore region by introducing its deepwater ‘expertise’ from the Gulf of Mexico.

By investing $1 billion a year into the country and making Egypt one of its 14 global Strategic Performance Units, BP emphasized the faith it places in its relationship with Mubarak’s government. Hesham Mekawi, Chairman of BP Egypt, has lauded ‘the stability of the country’, insisting that British oil investors will have a sustainable business in Egypt for years to come. When the regime felt threatened only months ago by a potential US Congress resolution demanding that Mubarak ‘hold fair elections, allow international monitoring of elections, and respect democracy and human rights’, BP allowed the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, in which it is one of the primary players, to lobby hard and successfully to scupper the debate in Congress.

The company that brands itself with green images of sustainability and responsibility has taken a simple approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Egypt: Providing a handful of scholarships to Cambridge each year alongside continued support for the dictatorship.

So now that we’re witnessing a vast popular uprising across Egypt, has BP ended its allegiance to and support for the dictatorship? The company’s website carries no comment on the democratic protests or the regime’s attempts at repression, referring only to ‘the ongoing unrest in Egypt’ and evacuation plans. Meanwhile, drilling and extraction operations continue unabated, with most oil facilities located out of reach of normal street protests. BP is assuming that Egypt’s strong army will guarantee the security integrity of its assets, and it continues to pay revenues to and underwrite a regime now widely accepted as illegitimate.

Demands from the democracy activists sweeping Egypt include ‘Putting on trial all those responsible for the policies of impoverishment and torture’. Will BP Egypt Chairman Hesham Mekawi and BP ex-CEO Tony Hayward answer for their part in enabling and supporting Mubarak’s repression? Or will the company’s faith in strongman politics be rewarded by relative continuity through a revitalised military regime?

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* Mika Minio-Paluello is a community support campaigner at PLATFORM.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Final Declaration of the Social Movements Assembly

WSF 2011, February 10, Dakar (Senegal)

World Assembly of Social Movements

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/70974

As the Social Movements Assembly of the World Social Forum of Dakar, 2011, we are gathered here to affirm the fundamental contribution of Africa and its peoples in the construction of human civilisation. Together, the peoples of all the continents are struggling mightily to oppose the domination of capital, hidden behind illusory promises of economic progress and political stability. Complete decolonization for oppressed peoples remains for us, the social movements of the world, a challenge of the greatest importance.

We affirm our support for and our active solidarity with the people of Tunisia, Egypt and the Arab world who have risen up to demand a true democracy and build the people´s power. Their struggles are lighting the path to another world, free from oppression and exploitation.

We strongly affirm our support for the Ivory Coast, African and world peoples in their struggles for sovereign and participatory democracy. We defend the right to self-determination for all peoples.

Through the WSF process, the Social Movements Assembly is the place where we come together through our diversity, in order to forge common struggles and a collective agenda to fight against capitalism, patriarchy, racism and all forms of discrimination.

We are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Social Forum, which was first held in Porto Alegre in 2001. Since that time, we have built a common history of work which led to some progress, particularly in Latin America, where we have been able to intervene in neoliberal alliances and to create several alternatives for just development that truly honor nature.

In these ten years, we have also witnessed the eruption of a systemic crisis that has expanded into a food crisis, an environmental crisis, and financial and economic crises, and has led to an increase in migrations and forced displacement, exploitation, debt levels and social inequities.

We denounce the part played by the main actors in the system (banks, transnational companies, the mass media, international institutions) who, in their constant quest for maximum profits, continue with their interventionist politics of war, military occupation, so-called humanitarian missions, new military bases, plundering natural resources, exploitation of entire peoples, and ideological manipulation. We also denounce their attempts to co-opt our movements through their funding of social sectors that serve their interests, and we reject their methods of assistance which generate dependence.

Capitalism´s destructive force impacts every aspect of life itself, for all the peoples of the world. Yet each day we see new movements rise, struggling to reverse the ravages of colonialism and to achieve well-being and dignity for all. We declare that we, the people, will no longer bear the costs of their crisis and that, within capitalism, there is no escape from this crisis. This only reaffirms the need for us, as social movements, to come together to forge a common strategy to guide our struggles against capitalism.

We fight against transnational corporations because they support the capitalist system, privatize life, public services and common goods such as water, air, land, seeds and mineral resources. Transnational corporations promote wars through their contracts with private corporations and mercenaries; their extractionist practices endanger life and nature, expropriating our land and developing genetically modified seeds and food, taking away the peoples’ right to food and destroying biodiversity.

We demand that all people should enjoy full soverignty in choosing their way of life. We demand the implementation of policies to protect local production, to give dignity to agricultural work and to protect the ancestral values of life. We denounce neoliberal free-trade treaties and demand freedom of movement for all the human beings.

We will continue to mobilize to ask for the unconditional abolition of public debt in all the countries in the South. We also denounce, in the countries of the North, the use of public debt to impose to unfair policies that degrade the social welfare state.

When the G8 and G20 hold their meetings, let us mobilize across the world to tell them, No! We are not commodities! We will not be traded!

We fight for climate justice and food sovereignty. Global climate change is a product of the capitalist system of production, distribution and consumption. Transnational corporations, international financial institutions and governments serving them do not want to reduce greenhouse gases. We denounce ¨green capitalism ¨ and refuse false solutions to the climate crisis such as biofuels, genetically modified organisms and mechanisms of the carbon market like REDD, which ensnare impoverished peoples with false promises of progress while privatizing and commodifying the forests and territories where these peoples have been living for thousands of years.

We defend the food sovereignty and the agreement reached during the Peoples’ Summit against Climate Change, held in Cochabamba, where true alternatives to face the climate crisis were built with the social movements and organisations from worldwide.

Let’s mobilize, all of us, especially on the African continent, during the COP 17 in Durban in South Africa and in «Rio +20» in 2012, to reassert the peoples’ and nature’s rights and block the illegitimate Cancun Agreement.

We support sustainable peasant agriculture; it is the true solution to the food and climate crises and includes access to land for all who work on it. Because of this, we call for a mass mobilisation to stop the landgrab and support local peasants struggles.
´
We fight against violence against women, often conducted in militarily occupied territories, but also violence affecting women who are criminalized for taking part in social struggles.

We fight against domestic and sexual violence perpetrated on women because they are considered objects or goods, because the sovereignty of their bodies and minds is not acknowledged. We fight against the trade in women, girls and boys. We call on everyone to mobilize together, everywhere in the world, against violence against women. We defend sexual diversity, the right to gender self-determination and we oppose all homophobia and sexist violence.

We fight for peace and against war, colonialism, occupations and the militarization of our lands.

The imperialist powers use military bases to trigger conflicts, control and plunder natural resources, and support anti-democratic initiatives, as they did with the coup in Honduras and the military occupation of Haiti. They promote wars and conflicts as in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and many others.

We must intensify the fight against repression and the criminalisation of the people’s struggles and strengthen the solidarity and initiatives between peoples, such as the Global Boycott Disinvestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel. Our struggle also aims at NATO and to ban all nuclear weapons.

Each of these struggles implies a battle of ideas in which we cannot progress without democraticizing communication. We affirm that it is possible to build another kind of globalization, made from and by the people, and with the essential participation of the youth, the women, the peasants and indigenous peoples.

The Assembly of the Social Movements calls the forces and popular actors from all countries to develop two major mobilisations, coordinated on the international level, to participate in the emancipation and selfdetermination of the people and strengthen the struggle against capitalism.

Inspired by the struggles of the peoples of Tunisia and Egypt, we call for March 20th to be made a day of international solidarity with the uprisings of the Arab and African people, whose every advance supports the struggles of all peoples: the resistance of the Palestinian and Saharian peoples; European, Asian and African mobilisations against debt and structural adjusment plans ; and all the processes of change underway in Latin America.

We also call for a Global Day of Action Against Capitalism on October 12th, when we express in myriad ways our rejection of a system that is destroying everything in its path.

Social movements of the world, let us advance towards a global unity to shatter the capitalist system!

We shall prevail!

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* Adopted by the World Assembly of Social Movements with 2000 participants the 10th February in Dakar during the World Social Forum.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Gay rights in Africa

Letter condemning the murder of David Kato

Wale Adebanwi

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/70975

We the undersigned condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of Mr David Kato, the Ugandan gay rights campaigner (Report, 4 February). We wish to state emphatically that homosexuality is neither a sin nor a social or cultural construct. It is a biological given. Homosexuals are human beings like everybody else. Scientific research has been helpful in clearing the fog of ignorance entrenched by some religious texts in regards to homosexuality. Our opinions of homosexuality must change for the better, just as our opinion of slavery has changed, even though it was endorsed by those same religious texts. All violence against gays and people deemed to be gay in Africa must cease forthwith.

We call on the government of Uganda to find and prosecute all those involved in the murder of Mr Kato, including the newspaper that called for the hanging of gays. We also call on African governments to learn from the South African example by expunging from their laws all provisions that criminalise homosexuality or treat homosexuals as unworthy of the same rights and entitlements as other citizens. African states must protect the rights of their citizens to freedom and dignity. Homosexuals must not be denied these rights.

Wale Adebanwi: University of California, US
Diran Adebayo: Writer, UK
Jide Adebayo-Begun: Writer, Nigeria
Kayode Adeduntan: University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Biola Adegboyega: University of Calgary, Canada
Shola Adenekan: Editor, The New Black Magazine, UK
Pius Adesanmi: Carleton University, Canada
Akin Adesokan: Indiana University, US
Chimamanda Adichie: Writer, Nigeria
Faith Adiele: Writer, US
Joe Agbro: Journalist, Nigeria
Anthony Akinola: Oxford, UK
Anengiyefa Alagoa: Writer, UK
Ellah Allfrey: Deputy editor, Granta Magazine, UK
Alnoor Amlani: Writer, Kenya
Ike Anya: Public health doctor and writer, UK
Bode Asiyanbi: Writer, Lancaster University, UK
Sefi Atta: Writer, US
Lizzy Attree: University of East London, UK
Damola Awoyokun: Writer, UK
Doreen Baingana: Writer, Uganda
Igoni Barrett: Writer, Nigeria
Tom Burke: Bard College, US
Brian Chikwava: Writer, UK
Jude Dibia: Writer, Nigeria
Chris Dunton: National University of Lesotho, Lesotho
Ropo Ewenla: Artist, Nigeria
Chielozona Eze: Northeastern Illinois University, US
Aminatta Forna: Writer, UK
Ivor Hartmann: Writer, South Africa
Chris Ihidero: Writer, Lagos State University, Nigeria
Ikhide R Ikheloa: Writer, US
Sean Jacobs: New School, US
Biodun Jeyifo: Harvard University, US
Brian Jones: Professor emeritus, Zimbabwe
Bassam Kassab: Writer and movie producer, US
Martin Kiman: Writer, US
Lauri Kubuitsile: Writer, Botswana
Zakes Mda: Ohio University, US
Colin Meier: Writer, South Africa
Gayatri Menon: Franklin and Marshall College, US
Valentina A Mmaka: Writer, Italy/South Africa
Jane Morris: Publisher, Zimbabwe
Joseph Sndanni Mwella: Advocate of high court, Kenya
Mbonisi P Ncube: Writer, South Africa
Iheoma Nwachukwu: Writer, Nigeria
Onyeka Nwelue: Writer and filmmaker, India/Nigeria
Fred Nwonwu: Writer and Journalist, Nigeria
Nnedi Okorafor: Writer, Chicago State University, US
Ebenezer Obadare: University of Kansas, US
Juliane Okot Bitek: Writer, Canada
Tejumola Olaniyan: University of Wisconsin, US
Ngozichi Omekara: Trinidad and Tobago
Akin Omotosho: Actor and filmmaker, South Africa
Kole Omotosho: Africa Diaspora Research Group, South Africa
Samuel Sabo: Writer, UK
Ramzi Salti: Stanford University, US
Namwali Serpell: Writer, Harvard University, US
Brett L Shadle: Virginia Tech, US
Drew Shaw: Midlands State University, Zimbabwe
Lola Shoneyin: Writer, Nigeria
Wole Soyinka: Nobel laureate for literature
Olufemi Taiwo: Seattle University, US
Ngugi wa Thiong'o: University of California, US
Kola Tubosun: Writer, Fulbright Scholar, US
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu: Writer, Nigeria
Abdourahman A Waberi: Writer, US /Djibouti
Binyavanga Wainaina: Writer, Kenya
Ronald Elly Wanda: Writer& lecturer, Marcus Garvey Pan-Afrikan Institute, Uganda
Kristy Warren: University of Warwick, UK
Cornel West; Princeton University, US

Swahili version
Mauaji ya David Kato - Mwanaharakati wa haki za wapenzi wa Jinsia moja nchini Uganda. Sisi tuliosaini hapo chini, tunashutumu vikali mauaji ya David Kato, Mwanaharakati wa haki za wapenzi wa Jinsia moja nchini Uganda. Tunasisitiza kuwa mapenzi ya jinsia moja sio uovu wa aina yoyote, katika tamaduni zetu.
Hili ni jambo linalotokea kimaumbile na wapenzi wa jinsia moja ni binadamu tu sawa na wengine. Utafiti wa sayansi umesaidia kuondoa kasumba hii mbovu iliyowekwa na baadhi ya vitabu vya dini juu ya wapenzi wa jinsia moja.Lazima tubadilishe maono yetu na mawazo tuliyonayo juu yao ili tuboreshe uhusiano uliopo.

Lazima uhasama na chuki iliyopo dhidi ya wapenzi wa jinsia moja iangamizwe kabisa.

Tunatoa wito kwa serikali ya Uganda kuwafungulia mashtaka wote waliohusika katika mauaji ya David Kato pamoja na gazeti hilo lililotoa wito wa chuki na mauaji ya wapenzi wa jinsia moja.

Pia tunatoa wito kwa mataifa mengine ya Afrika yajifunze kutoka kwa serikali ya Afrika Kusini na kuondoa tamaduni zinazoakandamiza wapenzi wa jinsia moja na kuwanyima haki zao za kibinadamu sawa na wananchi wengine. Mataifa ya Afrika yanawajibu wa kulinda haki na uhuru wa raia wao. Na wapenzi wa jinsia moja pia lazima wapewe haki hizi.

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* This letter first appeared in The Guardian.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The rebellion of the poor comes to Grahamstown

Unemployed People's Movement

2011-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/70930

The rebellion of the poor has been spreading from town to town, from squatter camp to squatter camp, since 2004. Last week it arrived in Grahamstown.

There is no third force, political party or communist academic behind our struggle. It is oppression at the hands of the African National Congress that has driven us into the rebellion of the poor. We are in rebellion because we are being forced to live without dignity, safety or hope.

For more than ten months we had to live without water all over the township. When we do get water it is unfit for human consumption. Temporary teacher's contracts are not renewed and so there are 11 vacant teacher's posts at the Mary Waters School. How does SADTU allow this? The unions are leading the working class and poor people into defeat. In Thembeni, Phaphamani, Extension 6 and 7, Zolani, Tantyi, and eLuxolweni people are still using the bucket system. Half of Grahamstown does not have toilets 17 years into democracy. Unemployment is at around 70%. The jobs that do exist are allocated on the basis of party political loyalty. There are no lights on our streets. There is an attack on women and girls in Grahamstown. There were around 40 cases of rape in December alone and a number of killings. One of the people that was raped and killed was Zingiswa Centwa a standard ten learner from Nombulelo High School. She was the only hope for her family as she was the only one at school. She was raped and killed in December. In January her results came. She got aggregate B.

We cannot be expected to live like this. Under these conditions it is right to rebel. It is moral to rebel. It is necessary, as a matter of survival, to rebel.

The Unemployed People's Movement and the Women's Social Forum called a march in protest at the rapes and attacks on women for Wednesday last week. We applied for permission to protest and complied with all our obligations in law to stage a legal march. But the Makana Municipality said that our march was prohibited. They never consulted with us and this unilateral decision of the Makana Municipality was an illegal banning. This is not the first time that our basic democratic rights to organise and to express ourselves have been denied. Of course we could not accept a unilateral and unlawful ban on our right to protest and so we went ahead with the march in defiance of the ban.

We went to the Magistrate's Court to demand justice for ourselves, for our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, our neighbours, our comrades. It is obvious that the violence against women is linked to the hopelessness and desperation that we are experiencing as well as the lack of street lights, safe places to go to the toilet and so on. So after marching on the court we marched on the Municipality. This was a peaceful march of around 300 people.

This was not our first march on the Municipality. We have marched many times and we have never received answers to our questions from the Municipality. All we are told is that the issues that we have raised are being addressed but they are never addressed. It has been too much for too long.

So we decided to stage a sit in at the Municipal offices. We organised our own little Tahrir Square here in Grahamstown. We occupied the Municipal offices for the whole day. They closed the offices and sent the workers home. We demanded to speak to the mayor. We were eventually promised a meeting with the mayor within 48 hours but it hasn't happened.

The municipal manager, Ms. Ntombi Bart, said that she would come back to the people with answers but instead of coming back she sent the police to move the people out of the municipal offices by force. They forced people out by threatening to shoot and saying that they are entitled to use force.

This is when the anger started. People felt that they were being treated like criminals when they were having genuine demands and questions. The anger and frustration that has been building for the last 17 years came to a head at this moment.

The protest was dispersed and people then spontaneously organised road blockades in Phaphamani, Joza and Phumlani. In Phaphamani people burnt tyres and dug up the new tar road. People never wanted the tar roads. They wanted houses, electricity, toilets, water and jobs. The tar road is for the officials to be able to drive in comfort. This is an indication that when services are delivered they are not delivered in the interests of the people.

The police responded with violence – with rubber bullets, dogs and pepper spray. A number of people were beaten, bitten by the dogs, pepper sprayed and shot with rubber bullets at close range.

On Thursday morning the people woke up and started where they left off. The UPM received a call from people on the road blockades and we ran there to see what was happening. When we arrived we went to ask the police why they were resorting to violence. They refused to talk to us but just put us in handcuffs and in the van They could not even say what was the charge.

The people who were arrested were Ayanda Kota (UPM Chairperson), Xola Mali (UPM Spokesperson), Nombulelo Yame (UPM Deputy Chairperson) and Ntombentsha Budaza, an ordinary citizen. Ntombentsha was beaten by the police.

The comrades were detained for five hours without being charged and the police tried to compel them to sign statements saying that they were the leaders of the road blockades which was not the case.

We are not the leaders of the people. People lead themselves. People continued to meet and to discuss their issues and to take action even though we were locked and not part of them. Therefore it is clear that people can lead themselves.

The four comrades were detained overnight and released on Friday morning at 11:30 on R500 bail each. Their bail conditions are that:

• they can't participate in any march or demonstration and they can't address any crowd
• they must stay at least 100m from the Makana Municipality and the Magistrates Court.
• They must never been seen inciting people to protest

The Municipality has now hired private security guards to protest the councillors, the mayor and various officials. It is amazing to us that the politicians and officials feel the need to use public money to protect themselves from the same public that they are supposed to be serving. It is amazing how quickly they can do this when they can't build a toilet in 17 years. It is amazing to us that, as S'bu Zikode has said, any challenge to oppression is taken as an offence. A demand for dignity is taken as criminal. It is incredible that our demand for justice is taken as violence while the way that we are supposed to live without jobs, houses or toilets or basic safety is taken as normal. Where are the private security guards for the women facing rape and even murder?

We are not struggling for service delivery. We are struggling for justice and dignity. We are struggling for land, jobs, decent schools and homes, safe streets, equality between men and women and a democracy that includes the poor and allows poor people to plan their own communities and their own future.


When the arrested comrades were in the police station they saw that someone who was on the march and encouraging people on one of the road blockades was there working in the police station. She was part of us in the whole process and then we saw her working at the police station. We are well aware of the role of the National Intelligence Agency and the Crime Intelligence unit in trying to destabilize popular movements elsewhere in the country. We know that, for instance, an officer in Crime Intelligence was present throughout the attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Kennedy Road squatter camp in September 2009. The Anti-Privatisation Forum, the Landless People's Movement and the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign have all had their own experiences with the intelligence services. Now they are doing their work here in Grahamstown too.
We know the price of struggle. We know the stories of Mandela Park, of eTwatwa, of Harrismith, of Protea South, of Pemary Ridge, of Kennedy Road. But the price of obedience is joblessness, hunger, rape, disease, depression and an epidemic of hopelessness. The price of obedience is a generation that has no way forward – no jobs, no opportunity to study, nothing. Therefore we are willing to pay the price that will have to be paid in the the struggle against oppression.

Around the world the road blockade is recognised as the weapon of the unemployed, of those who have no jobs at which they can strike. Those who condemn the road blockade as a tactic do not understand that our everyday lives are lived in crisis – in serious crisis. They want to deny the oppressed the right to disrupt the system that oppresses us. They want to deny us the right to demonstrate our anger. They want us to accept the paternalism of civil society. We are not blind to the fact that there is always a class element and often a racial element to the paternalism of most of civil society. We will, in solidarity with our comrades around the country, insist on our right to take our struggles forward as we think best. We have always seen people's power and not civil society as the way forward. After Tahrir Square the whole world can see the logic of this position.

We continue to take inspiration and courage from our political ancestors, from Leon Trotsky to Steven Bantu Biko. We continue to learn from our intellectual ancestors. Some of us are reading and discussing Frantz Fanon in the squatter camps and broken RDP houses. But it is clear that a new politics is required. We are inspired by movements and communities in struggle around the country and around the world. We need what has been called a living politics, a politics that is rooted in the everyday lives of the people, a democratic politics, a politics of the people, for the people and by the people.

The African National Congress and their goons in the ANC Youth League are the party of the national bourgeoisie They are not the party of the people. We cannot accept a society of sushi parties, ever bigger BEE deals for the rich and broken RDP houses, transit camps, hopelessness, joblessness, rape, prison and murder for the poor. The debates within the ANC are debates between those who think that they can get away with naked oppression – rubber bullets for some and sushi parties for others – and those who think that oppression needs to be dressed up with a little bit of misdirected top down service delivery and calls for patriotic patience. We will not be intimidated or bought off. We insist that everyone has the right to dignity and justice.

We continue to reject the sectarianism, gutter politics and cults of personality that have done so much damage to the left in post-apartheid South Africa. We continue to support all attempts to build what Abahlali baseMjondolo have called a living solidarity between all the struggles across the country. We believe that the formation of the Democratic Left Front is an historic opportunity to build such a unity.

Like popular movements across South Africa and across the world we are deeply inspired by the commune in Tahrir Square. We salute the heroes of Tunis, Cairo and Algiers, We would like to see a Tahrir Square in every town in every country. Tahrir Square has reminded us that the will of the people will be realised when the people are sufficiently united and determined.

We thank everyone who stood with our movements outside the police station and the court while the four comrades were locked.

Kwanele! Kwanele!
Genoeg is genoeg!
Enough!

Contact people:

Xola Mali – 072 299 5253 – xola.mali@yahoo.com
Ayanda Kota – 078 625 6462 – ayandakota@webmail.co.za
Nombulelo Yame – 078 328 9740

Migritude

Sokari Ekine

2011-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/70927

We have traveled half the world
with hearts open,
we’ve seen everything.
Always remember who we are,
where we came from,
and you’ll never do evil

(From ‘What we keep’ ©)

‘Migritude’ is a gift of which Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak writes:

‘A vibrant, gendered, wordsmith’s voice, speaking Africa, Asia, the metropole, history, the present – the world.’

In the introduction to ‘Migritude’, Vijay Prashad writes:

‘I came to Shailja Patel’s Migritude joyously, embraced by the first few lines about the teardrop in Babylon. The embrace didn’t falter. The words held me. They are a song.’

I, too, did not deviate from that first embrace.

One has great expectations from a text which begins with such poetic imagination as ‘It began as a teardrop in Babylon.’ My mind flew to all the teardrops shed from the dignities stolen by imperialism, injustice and hate, the indignities endured in exile, the collusion of global capital and imperialism in the political and socio-economic tyrannies which force us to flee our homelands.

We see this as I write, with the murder of Ugandan LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) activist David Kato and South African lesbians and transgendered women and men who are being raped and murdered because of their sexuality and gender identity; with the women of Congo, many of whom face rape and other terrible acts of violence every day; with the people of Egypt who are demanding freedom from the tyranny of Mubarak and his US/Israeli allies; with the millions of people of colour, who dare to cross borders and face constant hostility in the US, Germany and the UK; with the surviving indigenous peoples of America whose lives are impoverished and history erased with whiteness.

Through her own life journey and mixing prose and poetry, Shailja’s ‘Migritude’ exposes and shares the tears of history, merging personal stories with reflections on violence, colonisation and migrant journeys which flow horizontally and vertically, through the lives of women.

It is best I start at the beginning and go with my feelings, which are not linear but bounce around, moving between sadness, joy, anger, hope, irony, knowing and not knowing.

‘Migritude’ is a gift, but not a gift on a plate. Rather, it is poetry woven with performance which requires imagination. And this is one of the many gifts of ‘Migritude’ – we get to expand and explore our imaginations. And we learn. It’s about how we imagine ourselves, our histories, our political journeys. It is also about facts, facts of our histories which we are never told and facts of the politics of empires and post/neo-empires which are full of deception and exploitation.

‘Migritude’ has many beginnings. The first is in the sixth century BCE and the first depiction of the motif Ambi in Central Asia which, on the arrival of barbarian imperialism, is later stolen by Scottish weavers of the small village of Paisley. Ambi becomes Paisley, Mosuleen becomes Muslin, Kashmiri becomes Cashmere and Chai becomes ‘a beverage invented in California’.

Later, in 800 AD, there is the beginning of the relationship between Africa, Arabia and Asia, brought about by ‘flourishing’ trade and travel between the peoples of these regions.

Another beginning is the gift of her wedding trousseau. Shailja’s mother had been collecting saris and jewellery for the day Shailja would get married. It wasn’t happening so she gave up, broke tradition and offered her daughter the gift of a red suitcase full of exquisitely beautiful saris, an act which Shailja interprets as recognition of her chosen path as equally worthy of that of her sisters’ marriage, an act of feminism and the knowledge that one has the power to change the way things are, an act which would lead to the performance of ‘Migritude’.

So I imagine I am lying down, half-struggling to extricate myself from the red, gold, green and turquoise blue saris with which Shailja performs to break the silence of violence, violation, rape, war, indignity, empire. The other half of me struggles to cocoon and protect myself in their softness.

The book is roughly divided into three parts. The first is ‘Migritude’, which was ‘created dangerously’[1] to ‘reclaim and celebrate outsider status’ and to ‘tell the invisible stories of empire war colonialism, the impact on those that are on the receiving end of these global forces’.[2] It tells of Shailja’s parents and their personal uncompromising struggle to ensure their three daughters have the gift of education; the Maasai and Samburu women in Kenya who were raped systematically for 35 years by British soldiers stationed on their land; the women of Iraq and Afghanistan – abducted, vanished, killed; the indignities unleashed by border patrols on people of colour.

The second part, ‘The Shadow’, is the story of Shailja’s ‘creative journey’ and the making of ‘Migritude’ a ‘behind the scenes and after the fact, vinaigrette of memories and associations’. Here she tells of her discovery of the origins of Paisley in ancient Babylon, which forged her to engage with complex and multiple migrations.

Similarly, history as told by the empire is full of half-truths and erasure, such as Idi Amin being a guard in the Kings African Rifles which were used to quell the Kenyan Mau Mau uprisings and from which he learned to torture from Britain’s finest; that Britain, Israel and the US sponsored the coup which brought him to power and unleashed terror on millions; and love, which in the Western context is often reduced to the banal by repetitious words and expressions. Following a performance in Genoa, Italy, Shailja learns from a member of the audience that during his childhood in rural Italy, life was so harsh that parents dared only kiss their children when the were sleeping, because any affection when they were awake might weaken their ability to survive.

The third and final section is devoted to poetry, Shailja’s journey from poet to performer and, most importantly, for her work as an activist, her personal shift from ‘self-protected silence to political expression’. As Shailja learns, yes, you can run in a sari!

I end with another quote from the cover of ‘Migritude’ which captures both the beauty of this poetic masterpiece and its explicit call to action.

‘Migritude is poetry as documentary. It is non-fiction as testimony. It is authorship as survival. Of course Migritude defies categorization – the best art always does.’ Raj Patel

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Shailja Patel is a Kenyan playwright, poet, performer and activist. 'Migritude' is published by Kaya Press.
* Sokari Ekine blogs at Black Looks.
* This review was first published by New Internationalist.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] Taken from ‘Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work’ by Edwidge Danticat.
[2] An interview with Shailja Patel by Preeti Mangala Shekar of the Women’s Magazine.

Philo Ikonya: Inkhorn of a Kenyan poet in prison

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/70979

There are women who have walked alongside men, sometimes, ahead, to claim a hallowed place for present and future – female – pilgrims. The grave of the legendary Somali Queen Arraweelo on the shows of the Red Sea is a pilgrimage shrine:

‘This world we shall bestride
Is full of masculine type
Thou art scribe, ala feminine,
I urge your recollections to engrave’

This trope lifted from my poem, ‘A World so Formulated’, celebrates the achievement of the femina voice, in defying sectarian and gender prejudices, usually associated with male social construct, which rose to the pinnacle of journalistic appraise and creativity.

Muthoni Likimani at 83 years is among the first female Kenyans to work at the BBC. Zerina Patel, Rasna Warah, Maximillia Muninzwa, Lucy Oriang, Betty Caplan, Sarah Elderkin, etc, for many years lit Kenyan newspaper pages with beautiful articles and regular and serious columns at a time when the latter was dominated by males!

Philo Ikonya has straddled more than those two spaces: Teacher, journalist, poet, activist, all at once with the exception maybe, of her days with girls in a class. Philo is the author of three recently published books – ‘Leading the Night’ (novel), ‘This Bread of Peace’ (poetry), and ‘Out of Prison – Love Songs’ (poetry), the latter being the inkwell for which our pen is trailed.

I am presently more disposed to critique Philo’s poetry anthology ‘Out of Prison – Love Songs’ than do a wonderful review. For even Professor Chris Wanjala, Kenya’s foremost literary critic and Philo’s teacher at the University of Nairobi, has said that when one reads a poem and exclaims, ‘I felt sorry for that village,’ that in itself is an appreciation, for the poet has succeeded in appealing to the reader’s emotions.

In an introduction to an anthology of the poetry of Rudyard Kipling, T.S. Eliot wrote that to understand the poetry of Kipling one needed to immerse oneself in his prose. And to understand his prose, a deep knowledge of his poetry was necessary. Therein laid the dilemma of appreciating the poetry of Kipling! He was after all a master of poetry and prose.

How then should we approach the poetry of Philo Ikonya? Does it serve any purpose to read Philo’s poetry as a journalist or a teacher?

This essay seeks to inspire a further study into ‘Out of Prison – Love Songs’. That indeed is a function of any good literary criticism. The other role of the critic is to provide the context within which a text should be deemed. The critic should then offer insights into the relatedness of the text with others. We shall attempt to serve the first two purposes.

Poetry is an art form that thrives in the figure of speech, more so the creator uses a coded language to circumvent censorship, to avoid outright persecution, but also to put poetry on a pedestal. The journalist on the other hand, makes direct statements, to demand an immediacy of response, to constantly prod the reader to act. Philo excels in the latter.

But that does not mean that the poet is indisposed to metaphor. Philo uses nouns like Kalahari and Sahara, both deserts in Africa, as imageries of hardship.

‘Out of Prison – Love Songs’, is Philo’s first complete poetry anthology. The first part of the title, ‘out of prison’ is a proclamation of freedom. Yet writing in exile, in a European city ‘out of Africa,’ the poet must suffer the Negritudist’s admonishment – refrain from calling Africa a prison! But the tone is celebratory, a far cry for the impoverished African populace to revolt, to rise to the occasion and bring down prison edifices propagated by a cabal of non-interesting politicians lacking in character leadership who perpetuate themselves in public offices at all costs with the attendant social malaise:

‘Prison is sometimes distance
Without a word
Pain without a smile
Pain curled in death
A failed state’

Philo writes from the position of a human rights activist. She stands in direct opposition to bad governance and police brutality. Slightly over five months after the promulgation of the post-independence constitution, ordinary Kenyans are not free to hold public rallies and peaceful demonstrations without the interference of the police:

‘They hunt you for
Singing justice on the street’

As a fearless human rights campaigner, Philo was a regular guest in Kenyan prisons:

‘But when you go in
The prison cells are singing’

The poet of ‘Out of Prison – Love Songs’, grapples with the subject of disillusionment, and like many of her Kenyan readers seems to have lost trust with the present political class which continues to disappoint by shamelessly pandering to tribal bigotry – the president and the prime minister meet to negotiate holders of judicial offices and each insists on a member of his tribe. But Kenya has forty-two tribes and 40 million people!

Once speaking on a radio station, the poet had lamented ‘our prison cells do not provide sanitary towels to women inmates.’ Philo had just come out of a police cell and she was speaking on CROSS FIRE a very popular programme on KISS FM radio then hosted by a Ghanaian media supremo Patrick Quaqoo. Whether or not that is the time she encountered the mysterious ‘Akinyi’ shall remain unknown to the reader of this essay but not in her prison chronicles:

‘Baby Akinyi is crying all the time
Her little scalp is scaled with peeling’

The poet also uses words from other languages e.g. ‘ahora,’ Spanish for ‘now’ perhaps to inspire a sense of urgency, but to indict the present, ‘we shall make torture a hideous sin.’

And she relies heavily on the Swahili language ‘pamoja’ ‘together,’ ‘mpenzi’ ‘lover’ and names of African heroes such as Nelson Mandela, the post-Apartheid hero, and sheroes (to echo Maya Angelou) such as the legendary Kenyan freedom fighter Me Katilili wa Menza who was exiled from a coastal village by the British colonialists and defiantly broke out of prison. The non-English words are explained at the end of the book. The evocations of these names, though verily sentimental, seem to be a wakeup call – courageous men and women have struggled and triumphed against iniquitous overlords since time immemorial, even our recent past is replete with examples!

The second part of the title, ‘Love Song’ exonerates the poet from the earlier Afro-pessimism accusation, for ‘song’ is an important exposition of and dalliance with orature. Orature (oral literature), as a coinage or the injection of a new vocabulary into English owes its origin to two Ugandan scholars; Pio Zerimo and Austine Bukenya who first made it public in 1977 at a writers conference in Nigeria, is an important site of knowledge in traditional Africa. Songs and riddles or proverbs, delivered in oral form, were the mediums through which the African was educated.

Philo’s poetry is created to music, and the poet is a master performer:

‘I will walk on the moon
My first own footsteps
The poet’s inspiration
To sight the dimming stars closely’

The melody in the poem, the movement of the poem, and the vision of the poet, makes this trope a most admirable and memorable piece. Yet ‘sighting the dimming stars’ is a pointed finger on young Kenyan professionals whose involvement in politics once inspired hope before they began to copy those they sought to replace. And so the poet returns us to the theme of disillusionment and stagnation for even ‘dimming’ could as well be ‘diminishing’ hope in the future. In her time and space Philo delivers a valedictory, ‘I search for freedom in fair geometry.’

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Philo Ikonya’s ‘This Bread of Peace’ is available from Lapwing Poetry.
* ‘Leading the Night’ (ISBN 9789966151001), published by Twaweza Communications, is available from African Books Collective.
* Khainga O’Okwemba is Kenyan poet, writer and treasurer of International PEN Kenya Chapter.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Representing the will of the people?

Zimbabwe's 2008 election

Nilani Ljunggren de Silva

2011-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/70928

The book focuses mainly on Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections. It gives a broad dimension of Zimbabwe’s elections by facilitating the reader with a better understanding of the context within which the election was conducted. Each chapter covers a different aspect of the election process, and each adopts a descriptive, analytical approach rather than a theoretical one. This disposition itself benefits a wider audience.

CONTENTS

The book consists of nine chapters. The first chapter describes the social, political and economic contexts, which define the electoral playing field. The declining economy, a collapse of the democratic process, the failure of the rule of law, land seizures, inflation, the state of the economy and the social context are areas that the author brings into focus.

Chapter two focuses on the shift in political support and public mood during the pre-election. The author also brings into the discussion the irregularities in the March 2008 election. In the third chapter the author examines the media environment in which the election took place. The fourth chapter looks at the political party and presidential contestants and the pre-poll arena. Chapter five describes and analyses the military character and security conditions in which the president election took place. The sixth chapter exposes the wide divergence between what the law says and what happened in practice in respect of the conduct of the elections. In chapter seven, the author looks at one of the key electoral institutions, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the Electoral Court. The author reviews the complex legal issues surrounding the run-off. The role of civil society in the election is covered in chapter eight. In the final chapter the author discusses the evolution of worsening relations with the international community.

ASSESSMENT

The book starts out by describing the highly questionable nature of the last election, which was held in March 2008, and the subsequent presidential election that was held in the same year in June. The book’s rich material covers the pre-electoral period up to the re-election of Robert Mugabe. The Zimbabwean election architecture was scrutinised by a wide panel of authors from different professional backgrounds, from journalists and researchers to lawyers.

There is no doubt that this is a detailed and interesting book, reflecting on many vital issues related to the election process in Zimbabwe in 2008. The book consists of rich empirical data on the attitudes of Zimbabweans on a wide range of aspects. The persuasion to establish the truth of assertions giving empirical data, both qualitative and quantitative, and evidence-based research has strengthened the book’s contents. The analysis is measured and balanced well, and is revealing. There are critical thoughts. In the introduction, the editor E.V. Masunungure writes:

‘The fallacy is committed when one assumes that elections are sufficient measure of democracy and ignores other essential attributes. The bottom line though is that elections are a required condition for democracy.’ (p. 2)

This book is an instance of where authors highlight critical gaps, and question whether the elections did represent the will of the people of Zimbabwe. The authors look at how some major issues undermined the democratic process of the entire election architecture from the pre-electoral period to the presidential election.

The book describes the ad hoc and restrictive media climate in the country as a whole and during the pre-election time in particular. The author writes:

‘The conditions in Zimbabwe’s media landscape made a mockery of the country’s own regulations and of the regional and international covenants Zimbabwe has signed … There could not have been free and fair national elections of any sort in March 2008, whatever the verdict of the few “friendly” observer missions who were allowed to attend and who judged it a generally free and fair exercise.’ (p. 60)

Each chapter illuminates perspectives about the election’s undemocratic nature and lack of reliability, especially in the presidential election, and produce answers through evidence-based research around what really had taken place on the ground. The author writes:

‘The April to June 2008 election interregnum was a militarized moment … In this political–military alliance, the military was the dominant player and this robbed the electoral process of its political character.’

The book is not lacking the holistic past of the previous election and it breezily tracks the political and socio-economic decays of Zimbabwe. The contents are described in such a way it helps the reader realise this, through many sensuous details.

Finally, I would like to recommend this book to anyone wanting to study the election process in any country, and in African countries in particular. In addition, it is a useful book for anyone who is interested in reading about the Zimbabwean election process and about the political environment in depth.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Edited by E.V. Masunungure, ‘Defying the Winds of Change: Zimbabwe’s 2008 Election’ is published by Weaver Press (2009, ISBN: 978-1-77922-086-8).
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Does post-apartheid UCT need a Centre for African Studies?

Concerned CAS Students

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/70977

As students and indeed clients of the University of Cape Town (UCT), we have chosen UCT for its reputation as a world-class African university. Prior to and during our time at this world-class institution of higher learning, we invest our time, energy, financial resources and intellect, not only to our own work and careers, but to enriching the faculties, departments, clubs and organisations to which we belong. Of course, this is how educational institutions function, which is why were are baffled, appalled, angered, enraged and deeply disappointed by the university’s administrative decision to disestablish the Centre for African Studies without our input or consultation. We include our response and position here, hoping that our voices will be heard and taken seriously.

Our question is simple: Does post-apartheid UCT need a Centre for African Studies? As students in support of the Centre, our resounding “YES!” is obvious. We affirm our support of a uniquely multi-disciplinary department that cultivates critical intellectual work, which interrogates the study of Africa, the African Diaspora and the global South; a department that centralises Africa and its varied, nuanced and many times disparate intellectual histories and ways of knowing in order to challenge disciplinary paradigms and the relations between power and knowledge production.

With this in mind, we are struggling to comprehend the proposed disestablishment of the Centre for African Studies. The Centre has produced groundbreaking work, dynamic partnerships with other universities and is regarded very highly around the globe. It plays a pivotal role in questions that continue to haunt postcolonial, post-apartheid South Africa, and is placed uniquely to examine just what it means to be a South African tertiary institution committed to the ideals outlined in the South African Constitution.

Among the many questions asked at the Centre are those that encourage us to reflect on and question ourselves and our relationships with others. These are not merely academic questions. Rather, they inspire us to examine critically our own identities and how and why we are represented in particular ways. Through this lens, we are given the space to discuss openly what knowledges are accepted as equal, and how power, institutional and otherwise, operates.

Whilst we understand and respect the autonomy of the university as set out by statute, we believe that as students of a South African university, we will suffer losses (material, intellectual and otherwise) if this closure goes ahead. It will damage the reputation of South African universities abroad, as we will be seen as an African university that does not believe that the scholarship of Africa is important.

Crucially, the question is one that centers on issues of transformation at UCT. As we see it, UCT does need the Centre for African Studies, but can the Centre for African Studies exist in post-apartheid University of Cape Town? This is a space of hope that asks us to imagine different ways of being. It is a challenge that is urgent and one that UCT, in its apparent quest for transformation and Afropolitism must accept and support.

Concerned CAS Students

Guidance in the throes of change

Response to 'Egypt: Liberal democracy or an African democracy?'

Professor Abdoulaye Saine

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/70982

Pambazuka News 177: FSM 2011 : Repères d'un autre monde à construire

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summaryfr/70955

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

African leaders react to events in Egypt

Gado

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/70981

Advice from Kibaki

Gado

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/70980

Zimbabwe: AU demands free, fair Zimbabwe polls

2011-02-16

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/local/29737--au-demands-free-fair-zimbabwe-polls-.html

The African Union Commission is opposed to elections in Zimbabwe this year and is now trying to persuade President Robert Mugabe to postpone them to 2013 to allow for necessary reforms that can ensure violence-free, credible, free and fair polls, top officials in the commission revealed this week. In separate interviews with the Zimbabwe Independent, senior officials in the Political Affairs’ Department of Human Rights, Elections and Peace and Security of the AU Commission, who preferred anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media, said the commission was planning to send an AU assessment team to Zimbabwe to find out if conditions were right for elections.

Zimbabwe: March for love in Bulawayo

2011-02-17

http://wozazimbabwe.org/?p=840

One thousand eight hundred women and men, members of Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) turned out for the ninth edition of the Valentines Day protests, the biggest protest since WOZA began these protests in 2003. The huge mass of singing protestors completely closed off 9th avenue for over 30 minutes.

Zimbabwe: ZANU PF force villagers to sign anti-sanctions petition

2011-02-16

http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/hr/110127zpp.asp?sector=HR

ZANU PF Member of Parliament for Gokwe Central Dorothy Mhangami with the help of war veterans and party youths on Tuesday 26 January 2011 force marched villagers to attend a rally at Gokwe Centre where she told scores of people in attendance to come in their numbers and sign a petition calling for the removal of sanctions. This is part of a ZANU PF campaign to have more than a million signatures throughout the country against the targeted sanctions imposed by the West on President Robert Mugabe and his allies endorsed on a petition.

Zimbabwe: Zuma due in Zimbabwe

2011-02-21

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news180211/zuma180211.htm

South African President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team is due to travel to Harare, to meet with representatives from Zimbabwe’s three main political parties. Zuma’s international advisor, Lindiwe Zulu confirmed the trip, saying the parties had given her 'people to work with'. She explained that her team would meet with the parties separately, and collectively, to draw up a framework and discuss what is to be included in the roadmap for elections.

Africa: Machel talks up African businesswomen

2011-02-21

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=133855

Graca Machel, president of the Foundation for Community Development of South Africa has said the most important revolution that African women have to get involved in is the economic one. Machel also said women have to be agents and builders of peace in their respective countries.

Africa: Women's writing power coming into own

2011-02-21

http://bit.ly/dJQSuU

Women writers are coming into their own in African contemporary literature, dominating the shortlist - with nine out of 12 - for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2011 for best book and best first book from Africa. According to South Africa-based editor and writer Helen Moffet, a new generation of African women writers is dabbling in a gamut of subjects like chick lit for the educated working women, thrillers, crime, humour, women's issues and social realities.

Egypt: Suzanne Mubarak held women back, say activists

2011-02-17

http://bit.ly/fl9iG6

On Sunday, 13 February - just 48 hours after the resignation of Hosni Mubarak as president of Egypt in response to 18 days of street demonstrations - physician, novelist and former political prisoner Nawal El Saadawi welcomed 12 other women's rights activists into her Cairo apartment. They joined to celebrate and look forward and backward. 'We need to guarantee that there is no abortion of the revolution,' she told Women's eNews, adding that she had already been in touch with women and men as to how to proceed in this new Egypt. 'I have confidence in the revolution. I am optimistic by nature. I believe in the collective power of women and men.'

Egypt: Women excluded from constitutional committee

2011-02-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/71060

'The institutions and organisations below have signed this statement in disapproval of the criteria and formation of the Constitutional Committee, whereby the committee does not include a single female expert. Advancing with a committee like this, triggers fears and suspicions with regards to the future of Egypt and the transitional phase.'
The Egyptian Center For Women's Rights
Statement
ecwr@ecwronline.org
17 Feb 2011

Egypt Constitutional Committee Starts Working While Neglecting and Excluding Female Legal Experts

The Constitutional committee starts working while neglecting and excluding female legal experts

The institutions and organizations below have signed this statement in disapproval of the criteria and formation of the Constitutional Committee, whereby the committee does not include a single female expert. Advancing with a committee like this, triggers fears and suspicions with regards to the future of Egypt and the transitional phase which Egypt is currently witnessing after the 25th of January Revolution. This issue poses a critical question with regards to democracy and the main aims of the revolution which were initially spelled out as equality, freedom, democracy and participation of all citizens.

We are hereby questioning the criteria according to which the members of the constitutional committee are chosen; are they based on political criteria or on values of equality and justice as spelled out by the revolution? If the criteria are based on efficiency and integrity, then why are female legal experts excluded despite the fact that Egypt is rich with lots of female experts in constitutions whether in the Supreme Constitutional Court or the Faculties of Law.

We believe that as Egyptian women largely and equally participated in the revolution with Egyptian men and some of them have been jailed and still lost while others have even martyred, they have the right to participate in building the New Egyptian State on the simple basis of citizenship.

Nevertheless, we strongly have confidence in the discretion of the Military Council in guiding Egypt towards democracy. Hence, we are making the statement today to stress on the values of citizenship and participation of women, specifically in the Constitutional Committee at the moment.

1- The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights- Helwan
2- Andalus institute for tolerance and anti-violence studies- Cairo
3- The Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers (CIJL) – Cairo
4- Association of Human Communication- Cairo
5- The United Group- Cairo
6- Association of Arab Women- Cairo
7- Health and Environmental Culture Society- Cairo
8- Egyptian Medical Women's Association- Helwan
9- Citizen's Society for Development and Human Rights- Giza
10- Maat Foundation for Peace and Development and Human Rights- Cairo
11- Vision Society for Enlightenment and Community Development- El Menia
12- Association of population development and the preservation of the environment- Cairo
13- Our Society Association for Development and Human Rights- Cairo
14- The Egyptian Society for Marketing and Development
15- The Egyptian Foundation for Family Development- Giza
16- Association of Middle East for Peace and Human Rights- Cairo
17- With You Society for Social Assistance- Helwan
18- Gozour Society for the comprehensive Development- Helwan
19- The Egyptian Society for Family Empowerment- Giza
20- The Legislative Association in Bakri Mastour- Qalioubia
21- Pioneers Society for Development- Giza
22- Al Zohor Association for Development - 6th of October
23- Society Development Association in Sakil – 6th of October
24- The Egyptian Association for Environmental and Humanitarian Development - Al Qualiubia
25- Our Society Association for Development and Human Rights - Giza
26- The Egyptian Association for the spread of environmental awareness - Al Qualiubia
27- Association of Women and Child Development - Al Qualiubia
28- The legislative Association in Saa'd Zaghlol – Al Qualiubia
29- Legal Association for the support of Family and Human rights - Cairo
30- Mary Girgis Youth Association - Cairo
31- Hope Association in Al Aslougy - Sharkia
32- Women for Development Association – 6th of October
33- The Egyptian Association for Defend and support - Helwan
34- Ayatollah Association - Giza
35- Economic Liberalization Association - Cairo.
36- Al Sharkia Youth Association – Al Sharkia
37- Al Mashrek Association for Population Development - Sharkia
38- Cairo Center for Development - Giza
39- Kelmetna Association for Dialogue and Development - Cairo
40- El Nadim Center for the Management and Rehabilitation of victims of violence - Cairo
41- Friends of Youth and Environment Association - October
42- Future Girls Association for Development - Cairo.
43- Frasis Charitable Association for Society's Development - Gharbia
44- Al Hayat Association in Zifta- Gharbia
45- The Forum of Dialogue and Partnership for Development - Giza
46- Future Association for Development - Aswan
47- The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement - Fayuom
48- Al Fayoum Renaissance Association - Fayuom
49- The Association of the interested people in education and development – Fayuom
50- Al Tanweer Centre for Development and Human Rights - Giza
51- The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights – Cairo
52- Al Mahrousa Center – Cairo
53- Nama'a Association for Development and Human Rights – Al Gharbia
54- The Arab Program for Human Rights Activists – Cairo
55- Association For the Development and Enhancement of Women – Cairo
56- Hawaa Future Association – Giza
57- Ismailia Generations for Development Association – Ismailia
58- Haq Center for Democracy and Human Rights – Cairo
59- Association for the Support and Development of Education – Giza
60- World Without Borders Association for Human Rights - Cairo
61- New Fustat Association- Cairo
62- Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights- Cairo
63- Egyptian Association for Disseminating & Developing Legal Awareness- Giza

http://ecwronline.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1&lang=english

Kenya: Education boost for girls in Muhuru Bay

2011-02-21

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91959

Carol Gor, 36, thought her chances of obtaining a secondary education ended 11 years ago when her parents, who rely on fishing along Lake Victoria, failed to raise the fees. She stayed at home for a few years, got pregnant and was soon married. But in 2009, Gor sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) alongside her second-eldest son. Her oldest son was completing secondary school then. She has since joined an NGO-sponsored, girls-only secondary school in Muhuru Bay, where students are on full scholarship.

Mauritania: Beauty's big problem

2011-02-21

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91956

While aesthetic standards are slowly shifting and some women refuse the destructive practice of forcing weight gain, traditionally in Mauritania a plump figure on a woman signifies wealth and well-being. For generations families force-fed their daughters litres of cow’s or camel’s milk daily in part to improve their marriage prospects. But in recent years, despite health warnings, some girls and women are voluntarily turning to other methods, like taking cortisone products - including one designed to make cattle gain weight; appetite-inducing syrups; and psychotropic medicines.

Southern Africa: Making women’s voices count in disaster risk reduction

2011-02-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/71057

When disaster strikes as it has recently in Southern Africa, everyone is affected. Last week the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned that during the next two or three months parts of Southern Africa will likely experience some of the worst flooding seen in more than 20 years. But for women, the impact can be far greater, and have longer-lasting consequences. Natural disasters are often considered a ‘gender neutral’ topic – that is, something which affects everyone equally. However, according to Indian author and activist Ammu Joseph, ‘every issue has a different impact on different sections of the population, this includes women.’
Southern Africa: Making women’s voices count in disaster risk reduction

Tonya Muchano

Ndambuenda, Mozambique. ‘I thought it would be a normal flood like the ones that happen often here; but this time was different,’ recalled Vittoria Amosse, who until 2008 lived in a small village on the Zambezi floodplain in Mozambique.

Major flooding that year forced Amosse and her family to flee, taking only what few goods they could carry. She lost everything, including her home and livestock. Now she lives with her husband and five children in the Ndambuenda resettlement neighbourhood set up by the Mozambican government to accommodate the many communities displaced by natural disasters in the region.

When disaster strikes as it has recently in Southern Africa, everyone is affected. Last week the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned that during the next two or three months parts of Southern Africa will likely experience some of the worst flooding seen in more than 20 years.

But for women, the impact can be far greater, and have longer-lasting consequences. Natural disasters are often considered a ‘gender neutral’ topic – that is, something which affects everyone equally. However, according to Indian author and activist Ammu Joseph, ‘every issue has a different impact on different sections of the population, this includes women.’

Gender issues are not just ‘women’s issues’. They impact on the ability of entire communities to plan for and recover from disasters. This in turn impacts economic and social development. Women’s vulnerabilities during and after disasters is linked to their role and status in society. A study conducted by the London School of Economics has shown that gender inequality does put women at risk. The study states that ‘gender differences in deaths from natural disasters can be directly linked to women’s economic and social rights. So when women lack basic rights, more women than men will die in disasters.’ These vulnerabilities are often heightened in rural areas, where traditional roles and values are more strictly maintained.

Women may lack the authority to make crucial decisions, such as what personal goods to take during evacuation, or even when to evacuate. Aster Sande also lost her home during the 2008 floods in Mozambique. She and her family waited days before finally evacuating, because ‘my husband said that no one could leave the house to go somewhere else because the situation was difficult.’ He was worried that if the floodwaters receded and the house was left empty, they would lose their goods to thieves. Cases like this are reflected in other countries as well. In Bangladesh, for example, women and children have been swept away by floodwaters while waiting for the man of the house to come home and order an evacuation.

Disasters also create additional challenges related to the daily work women perform – taking care of the home, gathering firewood and water and childcare. When their lives and routines are disrupted by disasters, these tasks become much more difficult, and can take a long time to re-establish, especially if the family has been displaced, or if disaster recurs. Disrupted routines mean less time spent on productive, income-generating activities, which can lead to increased poverty.

This, in turn, can deepen existing gender inequalities. In Kenya, IPSNews reports that poverty associated with drought is linked to girls being withdrawn from school. In Uganda, food crises associated with climate change have been linked to early marriage for girls, as struggling families exchange their daughters for bride price. Research on gender violence during disasters has also shown that after natural disasters, reports of both domestic and sexual violence increase.

The media has an important role to play in confronting the inequalities and vulnerabilities that women face during and after disasters. Community radio in particular is extremely important in rural areas as it is often the primary – or sole – source of information. Women make up a large proportion of radio listeners in Africa.

How community radio incorporates gender into their disaster programming can have a big impact on women’s ability to respond and recover when natural disasters strike. One problem is that families do not have emergency plans, making evacuation confusing and stressful. Amosse emphasises that ‘it was difficult to say exactly what each person did because we were very anxious from the floods.’ If women’s needs before and during disasters are better communicated, women will know how to respond when the need arises.

Community Media for Development (CMFD) Productions produces entertainment-education programmes mainly for community radio stations. The Johannesburg-based organisation recently produced a 26-episode serial radio drama on natural disasters for the International Organisation for Migration in Mozambique, as part of the UN Delivering as One Joint Programme on Disaster Risk Reduction.

The drama, entitled Bravos do Zambeze (Zambezi Braves), aims to encourage disaster preparedness, quick response and adaptation. Within this aim, the programme also looks at issues related to gender, including gender-based violence, women as strong decision-makers, and the challenges women face in re-establishing their routines. The drama aired during the 2009-2010 flood season in the Zambezi river region and made up a significant part of local radio stations’ disaster programming.

Although the main focus was disaster risk reduction, it was clear that the gender dynamics in the drama were also having an impact. For example, one focus group participant remarked that the central female character, Susana, could be relied on for advice because ‘she did a lot of good things that people who hear the story can learn from, and will know how to help those who are in danger.’

But including gender angles in disaster programming can also simply mean interviewing women in the community, encouraging women to call in to talk shows, or inviting a guest speaker from a local NGO. Finding out what women’s needs are, and ensuring that those needs are addressed, can help communities better prepare for, and respond to, disasters.

* Tonya Muchano is the Projects Coordinator at CMFD Productions. This article is part of the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service which brings fresh views on everyday news.

Djibouti: Call for release of human rights activist

International Federation for Human Rights

2011-02-17

http://www.fidh.org/Call-for-the-immediate-and-unconditional-release

Jean Paul Noel Abdi, President of the Ligue Djiboutienne des Droits Humains, has been arrested on 9 February 2011 and is detained at the prison of Gabode. Jean Paul Noel Abdi is unfairly accused of 'participation in an insurrectionary movement' on the basis of Articles 145 and 146.4 of the Djiboutian Penal Code for having carried out his activities as human rights defender by denouncing the repression, on 8 February 2011, of a student demonstration by the security forces.

Equatorial Guinea: Writer starts hunger strike

2011-02-21

http://www.egjustice.org/?q=equatoguinean-writer-juan-tomás-ávila-laurel-initiates-hunger-strike

Equatoguinean writer Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel began a hunger strike on Friday, 11 February and issued an open letter to protest the regime of Equatoguinean president Teodoro Obiang - who has ruled Equatorial Guinea for more than 30 years - and to push for political and social reforms inside the country. On Monday, 14 February, Mr. Ávila left Equatorial Guinea due to concerns for his safety and traveled to Barcelona, Spain, where he is currently residing.

Ghana: Railway dwellers near the end of the line in Accra

2011-02-17

http://www.jhr.ca/blog/2011/02/railway-dwellers-near-the-end-of-the-line-in-accra/

In Ghana’s capital city, Accra, a commotion stirs along the train tracks near the central railway station. Dozens gather to hear the news - that soon, their homes and workplaces will be razed for a new rail system. 'Last year we came to warn you to leave the railway lands. Last week we came again. And today, too, we have come,' Accra’s mayor, Alfred Vanderpuije, tells the crowd in Twi, a local language as he tours the site. 'I can’t tell you if I will come tomorrow or tomorrow next. But we will come and we will demolish all of the structures.'

Global: Restorative justice and children

2011-02-21

http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/iwp_2010_15.pdf

There is growing interest in the role that restorative justice can play in addressing mass atrocities. This UNICEF paper describes the associated principles and practices within juvenile justice systems and in societies emerging from mass violence. It also examines the meaning, opportunities and limitations of restorative justice in transitional societies, particularly in relation to the needs of young victims and offenders.

Global: Vote against death penalty praised

2011-02-17

http://www.penalreform.org/news/majority-countries-world-wide-unite-universal-moratorium-death-penalty

On 21 December 2010, a third landmark resolution calling for a universal moratorium on the use of the death penalty received unprecedented votes at the United Nations General Assembly (UN GA), reports Penal Reform International. 109 countries voted in favour of the resolution, 41 voted against, 35 abstained, and 7 were absent. This is a significant vote in that it reaffirms the continuing trend towards international abolition, PRI says.

Kenya: Many still displaced three years after poll violence

2011-02-21

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91967

Orchestrated violence following hotly contested presidential election results in December 2007 led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Many are still struggling to rebuild their lives in their new homes, despite a government compensation scheme.

South Africa: Refugees sue police over 2008 attacks

2011-02-21

http://westcapenews.com/?p=2720

Closing arguments in a civil case initiated by foreign nationals seeking compensation from the state for damages suffered during the May 2008 xenophobic attacks were heard in the Western Cape High Court last Thursday. A group of 11 Somali, Ethiopian and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) nationals are suing the Safety and Security Ministry, claiming police did not protect them during the 2008 attacks.

Southern Sudan: Returnees attacked on their way south

2011-02-21

http://www.wunrn.com/news/2011/02_11/02_14/021411_sudan.htm

IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) travelling to Southern Sudan before and after the recent referendum on independence have faced difficulties during and after their journey. Between November 2010 and January 2011, around 200,000 Southern Sudanese IDPs living in the north returned to the south. There have been various reports of convoys of returning southerners being attacked in the disputed region of Abyei during and in the weeks following the January referendum, according to some reports by Misseriya tribal militias loyal to the government in Khartoum.

Tunisia: Deal reached over Tunisia exodus

2011-02-16

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/02/201121513182181420.html

Tunisia and Italy have agreed to work together to counter illegal immigration after thousands of people arrived on the tiny island of Lampedusa. According to Tap, Tunisia's official news agency, an agreement between Italy's foreign minister and Tunisia's interim prime minister was made late on Monday night. Under the deal, Italy will give Tunisia practical aid including a 'network of radars and fast boats that will be operated by Tunisians', the agency quoted Franco Frattini, the Italian minister, as saying.

Morocco: Labour relations reviewed

2011-02-21

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/02/14/feature-03

Morocco will address labour concerns and unemployment by providing 'solutions as quickly as possible', according to Communications Minister Khalid Naciri. 'The labour situation is worrying. Wages are still frozen at a time when prices are skyrocketing. Unemployment is rising. We must enter into serious discussions. As unions, our role is to prevent the country from getting into difficult situations,' said Abdelhak Azzouzi, General Secretary of the Democratic Labour Federation.

South Africa: Union to decide on trucking pay deal

2011-02-16

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article926072.ece/Satawu-to-decide-on-pay-deal

The SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Satawu) would be meeting with members to decide whether to accept an industry wage deal. The union had agreed to the revised offer in principle for its freight worker members on Sunday. The offer included a nine percent increase across the board for 2011 and 8.5 per cent for the second year.

Latest Edition: Emerging Powers News Roundup

2011-02-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/71056

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...
1. General

Government defends £1bn of aid to India
The government has defended its decision to give £1bn in aid to India, despite the rapidly increasing wealth of the emerging economic giant. A review of UK aid will maintain aid donations to India of £280m a year until 2015, while withdrawing assistance from countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Serbia and Moldova, the international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, revealed. The decision is likely to infuriate some Conservative MPs, who believe it is time to halt aid to India, which has economic growth of 8.5% a year, gives aid to Africa, spends £20bn a year on defence and has a £1.25bn space programme.
Read More

2. China in Africa

China urges West to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Friday called on the West to lift sanctions they imposed on Zimbabwe while Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe applauded the Asian giant for its continued political and economic support. Addressing journalists soon after meeting Zimbabwe President Mugabe, Yang, who is on a two-day visit, said Zimbabweans and other African people have a right to choose their own development path.
Read More

Zimbabwean President and Prime Minister Meet Respectively with Chinese Foreign Minister
On February 11, 2011, Zimbabwean President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai met respectively with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Harare. Mugabe said China’s relations with Africa are based on sincere friendship and equal treatment and China is more and more welcome in the continent. All African countries are ready to deepen traditional friendship, develop cooperation in all areas and strengthen coordination in international affairs with China. Mugabe appreciates China’s disinterested assistance to Zimbabwe’s economic and social development over the years, emphasizing Zimbabwe will remain committed to enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation with China.
Read More

China calls on UN to pay more attention to Africa
China Friday urged the United Nations and Security Council to give more attention to Africa and called on the international community to provide greater support to the region in order to maintain peace and security. Addressing an open debate of the UN Security Council on the interdependence between security and development, Li Baodong, China's permanent representative to the UN said the inter-linkages between peace and development are most pronounced in Africa.
Read More

China, SA collaborate on agriculture scholarship
Batches of agricultural sciences students are to be flown to Beijing each year for the next few years for further education under an agreement between the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the China Agricultural University. Fifteen post-graduate students are to leave for China at the end of March following the signing yesterday of an implementation protocol by Langa Zita, the department’s director-general, and Qu Zhenyuan, chairman of the University Council of China Agricultural University.
Read More

Guinea, China eye strengthened bilateral cooperation
Guinean President Alpha Conde said Monday while meeting with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi that Guinea hopes to expand cooperation with China in a wide range of fields. Conde said Guinea values the traditional friendship with China, is grateful to China's assistance to Guinea under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and appreciates the contribution China has made to the peace and common development of the world as well as the recovery of world economy from the global financial crisis.
Read More

Guinean president hails China's presence in Africa
In an interview accorded to Xinhua on Monday in the Guinean capital Conakry, President Alpha Conde affirmed that Africa's cooperation with China presents "a lot of benefits" to the continent. "For us, cooperation with China presents a lot of advantages because China not only gives Africa grants, but also invests in crucial sectors and the cost for African countries is low," Conde told Xinhua. "The arrival of China is a very good thing for us because she has liberated us from all external pressure," he noted. By terming himself as a "panafricanist," Conde insisted that African countries must reinforce the South-South cooperation, especially with China, India and Brazil.
[url=http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7290007.html] Read More [url]

Gabon, China eye closer cooperation in trade, infrastructure
Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba met here Saturday with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, and they pledged closer cooperation in trade, economy and infrastructure. Gabon highly values its traditional friendship with China which has long offered firm support to Africa, the Gabonese president said. Gabon believes China's development will bring major opportunities to Gabon and there are great potential for trade and economic cooperation between the two sides, he said.
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Chinese FM arrives in Togo on mission to further ties with Africa
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi arrived on Tuesday morning in Togo's northern city Kara, the second largest in the West African country, on a mission to further friendly and cooperative ties with Africa. Upon his arrival at Niamoutougou airport, Yang was welcomed by several ministers led by his Togolese counterpart Elliot Ohin and China's new ambassador to Togo, Wang Zuofeng. In the airport's VIP lounge, Yang held cordial and friendly talks with Ohin. In a written speech delivered at the airport, the Chinese top diplomat hailed the long history of Sino-Togolese friendship and cooperation. Thanks to efforts by leaders of generations between the two countries, "The Sino-Togolese relations have always developed in a healthy and regular way," he said.
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Chadian president says to expand cooperation with China in various fields
Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno said Wednesday while meeting visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi that his country is willing to expand cooperation with China in infrastructure building, agriculture, health care and other fields. During the meeting with Yang, who arrived here Tuesday for an official visit, the president said the Chadian-Chinese relations are based on equality, mutual respect and noninterference in each other's interior affairs. He said China has successfully completed a number of aid projects in Chad, which greatly facilitated the social and economic development of the African country.
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SA must gain from a China relationship
The relationship between China and SA should benefit both parties equally, according to Sisa Ngombane, the deputy director-general for Asia at the International Relations and Diplomacy Department. Ngombane was one of the speakers at the SA Inc meets China Inc Business Forum. He said on Wednesday that a minerals agreement between SA and China had been delayed amid continued consultations. "We need to move from exporting raw minerals to beneficiating those minerals at home," he said.
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SA opens door for Chinatowns
Massive Chinese shopping centres are mushrooming around the country, thanks to South African consumers’ predilection for cheap Chinese goods. The Chinese retailers have been so successful that owners of struggling shopping centres are queuing to to fill their vacant space with so-called "Chinatowns". As a result there is concern that the market for such centres is in danger of oversupply.
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3. India in Africa

African farmland to Indian firms no cause for worry: UN official
A top official at UN agencies has sought to allay apprehensions among people of some African countries that propose to lease farmland to investors from countries like India to mutually secure food supplies under South-South cooperation. UN officials also say the rich countries must play a more meaningful role in addressing concerns over climate change in the African continent, assessed to need $25 billion in funding, with support also coming in from emerging economies like India and China. 'Concerns over land are just an apprehension. Land is allocated to serious investors and they are helping in the development of the respective regions. There is no free lunch,' said Youba Sokona, coordinator at the United Nations Economic Commission.
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Ahead of May summit, India steps up Africa diplomacy
Ahead of the second India-Africa Forum Summit, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Thursday met his counterparts from over half a dozen African countries and underlined New Delhi's commitment to the development of the continent. Krishna met his counterparts from Eritrea, Lesotho, Burundi, Ethiopia, Niger, Central African Republic, Togo and Angola and discussed a range of bilateral issues, including intensification of trade, counter-terror cooperation and the UN reforms.
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Indian varsities fuel Mauritius' 'knowledge hub' dream
Private Indian universities setting up campuses in Mauritius are helping the island nation off the African coast realise its vision of transforming into a knowledge hub. Two of the largest private universities in India, the DY Patil Medical College and Amity University, are in the process of setting up their campuses in Mauritius. The JSS Mahavidyapeetha (JSSMVP), a Karnataka-based educational foundation, established the JSS Academy of Technical Education in Mauritius in 2006. As private universities in India seek to expand to foreign shores, Mauritius is an obvious choice for its proactive plans for expanding higher education in the country.
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Indian Overseas Bank plans African expansion
Public sector lender, Indian Overseas Bank is eyeing entry into African mainland now. Further, the lender aims to convert its representative offices in Dubai and China into proper bank branches. "We are looking for some openings in Africa ... we have just initiated the process," Indian Overseas Bank Chairman and Managing Director M Narendra said.
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4. In Other Emerging Powers News

Eye on UNSC seat, India for more aid to LDC members
The grouping of 48 Least Developed Countries (LDC) constitutes 25% of the total United Nations membership, and India is set to announce further concessions for the block when it hosts the two day ministerial meeting of the LDC countries from February 18. While the meet aims at furthering the south to south cooperation, it also helps India get its goodwill dividend in its efforts to get a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, as the grouping has 33 countries from Africa, 14 in the Asia Pacific region and one in Latin America and Caribbean, Haiti.
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SA business in Russia for trade, investment drive
A delegation of business leaders and government officials from South Africa arrived in Moscow on Monday for a three-day visit to boost trade and investment between Russia and South Africa. This comes ahead of South Africa's participation in the BRICS summit in China, scheduled for April. The three-day Trade and Investment Initiative in Moscow will include an exhibition and sector-specific investment seminars. The visit aims to strengthen partnerships between Russia and South Africa through joint ventures, technology transfer and skills sharing. It will also showcase products and services in Russia and South African markets.
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Brazil Launches New Bioenergy Initiative For Africa
Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota and Development Bank President Luciano Coutinh agreed Thursday to join the efforts of their agencies in a fresh bid to promote bioenergy in Africa, China's Xinhua news agency reported. First programme under the new initiative will be focused on the eight members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, according to the agreement.
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5. Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

China and U.S. Have Huge Room for Cooperation in Africa
At the turn of the year, two pieces of news about Africa in the Western media reports aroused wide attention. First, China has formally invited South Africa to join the cooperation mechanism of BRIC countries. And secondly, as the Associated Press reported it, the United States government is preparing to approach Africa in a quiet but strategic manner. South Africa has long been regarded as part of the traditional sphere of influence for Europe and the U.S., and so its accession to BRIC is soon interpreted by some Western media as its adopting the “Go East” strategy, as African countries, represented by South Africa, have realized that the world economic gravity is shifting toward the East with China as the leader. China is construed as the main “pusher” behind this shift and is allegedly intending to curry favor from and expanding its influence in Africa. The United States’ spreading the message of its intention to enhance engagement with Africa at this very moment is then seen by the media as Africa will be the new play ground for China and the U.S. in the next phase. This writer, however, does not agree with such a view.
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SA's Bric strategy is politically strategic
Mills Soko and Mzukisi Qobo’s article: “Creating more walls than Brics” (January 7) argues that South Africa’s invitation to join what they regard as an “amorphous entity” is “an affront to the country’s foreign policy”. This is not helpful. The invitation to join the group of Brazil, Russia, India and China (or Bric) and its acceptance is, primarily, a political issue and offers South Africa a fresh opportunity to engage with new global realities. The political potential is based on strategic considerations, given the clear indication that the Brics will become a political force. Brazil and Russia welcomed China’s decision to invite South Africa into the group, because of the country’s political significance. Brazil is of the view that South Africa, as a Bric member, will make an important contribution to the group on the basis of its “economic relevance” and its “constructive political action” globally.
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'China ready to go to war to safeguard national interests'
Terming US attempts to woo India and other neighbours of China as "unbearable," an article in a Communist party magazine has said that Beijing must send a "clear signal" to these countries that it is ready to go to war to safeguard its national interests. The article published in the Qiushi Journal, the official publication of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) said China must adhere to a basic strategic principle of not initiating war but being ready to counterattack.
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Algerian: Leadership promises lifting of emergency laws

2011-02-17

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/20112148175219570.html

The Algerian government has said it will end its 19-year-old state of emergency 'within days'. Mourad Medelci, the foreign minister, made the announcement on Monday, echoing a similar promise made by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the president, earlier this month. A state of emergency has been in place in Algeria since 1992 and the government has come under pressure to remove the laws following popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

Côte d'Ivoire: Ivorian forces kill three, AU meets

2011-02-21

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE71K01H20110221

Ivorian security forces killed at least three civilians when they opened fire to disperse gatherings in an Abidjan district on Sunday, and African leaders ended meetings to resolve a three-month post-election stand-off. There were no organised protests, but security forces fired bursts of live rounds to prevent groups from forming.

Djibouti: Opposition protests against president

2011-02-17

http://bloom.bg/g7xMpm

Bloomberg reports that Djiboutian authorities released three opposition leaders as opponents of President Ismail Guelleh clashed with police in the second day of protests against his rule, a party head said. Mohamed Daoud Chehem, head of the Djibouti Party for Development; Ismael Guedi Hared, president of the Union for a Democratic Alternative; and Aden Robleh Awaleh, leader of the National Democratic Party, were detained yesterday morning (18 February), Awaleh said in a telephone interview from the capital, Djibouti.

Djibouti: Protests met with repression

2011-02-16

http://www.afrol.com/articles/37330

As further protests in Djibouti are announced, government is cracking down on civil society and the opposition. There are fears foreign police forces may be used against protesters. Since 29 January, Egypt and Yemen-inspired protests have been noted in Djibouti, calling for Djiboutian President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh to respect the country's constitution and not seek a third term in office in the upcoming April elections.

Malawi: Government pressured by protests, donors

2011-02-16

http://www.afrol.com/articles/37321

As a wave of social protests started on 14 February in Malawi, the impoverished country's main donors are withholding aid over repressive media and anti-gay laws. The long announced anti-government protests kicked off in Malawi's capital Lilongwe and in the northern town of Mzuzu. The main demand was for government to address high fuel prices and shortages, causing a large black fuel market in Malawi.

Morocco: Protests emerge

2011-02-21

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/02/20/morocco-in-marrakech-destruction-amidst-peaceful-protest/

Across Morocco, peaceful protests have emerged, with thousands taking to the streets from Tangier to Fes. In the southern city of Marrakech, however, reports that the protests turned into chaos emerged, with claims of vandalism and attempts by protesters to storm police headquarters.

South Africa: Left front calls for jobs, end to poor service delivery

2011-02-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/71065

'On 18 and 19 February 2011, the National Steering Committee of the Democratic Left Front (DLF) held its first meeting after the historic DLF’s founding conference held last month at Wits University. This committee meeting was held in eThekwini as part of initiating the launch and growth of the DLF process, campaigns and structures in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The meeting was held in the immediate aftermath of the people’s revolutions for democracy and wealth redistribution in the countries of the Maghreb and the Arab world, President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address, the forthcoming municipal elections and the current wave of worker and community protests as we have seen with the recently-ended truck driver’s strike, the Equal Education Campaign’s protest outside parliament concerning the crisis in the Eastern Cape education system, and the community protests in Grahamstown, Ermelo and others bubbling elsewhere.'
20 February 2011
Press Statement
Democratic Left Front

PRESS STATEMENT

DLF CALLS FOR SUSTAINED MOBILISATION FOR 1 MILLION CLIMATE JOBS AND AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT, STARVATION WAGES, POOR SERVICE DELIVERY AND PRO-CAPITALIST POLICIES OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT

On 18 and 19 February 2011, the National Steering Committee of the Democratic Left Front (DLF) held its first meeting after the historic DLF’s founding conference held last month at Wits University. This committee meeting was held in eThekwini as part of initiating the launch and growth of the DLF process, campaigns and structures in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

The meeting was held in the immediate aftermath of the people’s revolutions for democracy and wealth redistribution in the countries of the Maghreb and the Arab world, President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address, the forthcoming municipal elections and the current wave of worker and community protests as we have seen with the recently-ended truck driver’s strike, the Equal Education Campaign’s protest outside parliament concerning the crisis in the Eastern Cape education system, and the community protests in Grahamstown, Ermelo and others bubbling elsewhere.

The meeting decided to utilise the municipal elections as an important political moment to galvanise popular voices for change. This is in the light of growing community voices and approaches to the DLF for considering support for community-supported independent candidates to stand in the elections. The DLF will work with other popular, progressive and democratic forces to use the municipal elections period in order to consolidate worker and community action into sustained social mobilisation that can win the demands, needs and interests of poor and working people. In the view of the DLF, such mobilisation must also be directed at challenging and overcoming neo-liberal and capitalist policies of the South African government.

The meeting also discussed the growing lawlessness of the South African state, the inadequacy of the announcements by President Zuma to address the unemployment crisis, and the forthcoming COP17 conference (the 17th Conference of the Parties for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) to be held in eThekwini from 28 November to 9 December 2011.

Revolutions in the Maghreb

The meeting saluted the martyred Mohamed Bouazizi whose self-immolation sparked the historic Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions for people’s power and against the combined failure of dictatorship and neo-liberal economic and social policies. The DLF expresses its full solidarity with the people’s movements and struggles of Tunisia, Egypt, the entire Maghreb region and the Arab world. Their struggles are not just for a representative democracy but represent a global wave of popular struggle against oppression, repression and anti-poor policies promoted by global capitalism over the last several decades. Their struggle is part of the common struggle of humanity for social justice, equality, genuine people’s democracies and freedom of expression. The DLF will now work with other organisations to consider hosting a solidarity visit to South Africa by activists from these countries, which would include a speaking tour, activist forums and a possible solidarity conference.

The growing lawlessness of the South African state

The irony in Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation lies in the fact that his humiliation, pain and suffering are visited daily upon thousands of poor and working people in South Africa.

On 12 February 2011, the Western Cape provincial government unlawfully destroyed 26 houses and shacks in Mandela Park, Khayelitsha. When the people in Mandela Park protested at the criminal actions, the leaders of the Democratic Alliance (DA) had them arrested. This is yet another example of how successive governments in the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape province (both ANC and DA governments) have systematically committed crimes against, and failed to meet the interests of the poor in Cape Town.

Our comrades in the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) in Grahamstown were victims of severe repression at the hands of the Makana Municipality and the local South African Police Services (SAPS) following the obstinate and completely unreasonable denial of the right of the UPM to protest against police inaction in cases of rape and violence against women, unemployment, lack of housing, poor service delivery, mismanagement and corruption. As recently as September last year, the DA-led municipal and provincial governments sent in the City Police and the SAPS to attack and demolish the Hangberg shack settlement in Hout Bay. This was done without a court order. Instead of listening to the cries and demands of the protestors from the Wesselton settlement in Ermelo, the ANC municipality relied on the massive deployment of the SAPS who proceeded to display wanton repression and violence. This same lawlessness saw the September 2009 attack by the ANC and the SAPS on the Kennedy Road structures of Abahlali baseMijondolo.

Unemployment and other socio-economic crises in South Africa

In our collective analysis, the ongoing worker struggles and community protests represent an ongoing crisis and failure of the social and economic policies of the ANC government. For policies that create decent jobs for large numbers of people, there must be a fundamental change to the structure and direction of the economy away from domination by the financial sector and away from energy- and capital- intensive sectors. As a case in point, the committee noted that the Richard’s Bay aluminium smelter consumes around 10% of our country’s energy resources and yet provides only 1,800 jobs. As the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has convincingly demonstrated and argued before, the immediate closure of the smelter and the reorientation of the skills-set held by the 1,800 workers to renewable and other ecologically sustainable industries would create thousands many more jobs whilst also releasing a significant amount of electricity to the country. The lopsided structure of the South African economy continues at the behest and profit interests of large conglomerates: there is little consideration for sustainably meeting the social, economic and ecological needs of society as a whole. This path will not produce jobs. Instead, it will produce and reproduce job losses, wider systemic unemployment, inequality, poverty, ecological destruction and massive profits for a few.

The State of the Nation announcements by President Jacob Zuma of tax incentives and state subsidies to private sector companies for job-creating investment reinforces the above logic: by setting the minimum amount of investment at R200 million to qualify for tax incentives, the schemes announced can only be accessed by large companies and fail to oblige investment. In addition, Zuma’s incentives and subsidies still assume the availability and endless flows of cheap water, oil, land, energy, food supplies, and wastes for the still dominant energy- and capital- intensive sectors. Zuma did not announce a multi-billion rand scheme for workers, unemployed people and communities to take over companies as collectively owned and democratically controlled enterprises that create decent work and also fundamentally change the nature and process of production and the distribution of surplus.

Support for Robertson Abattoir workers and other community struggles

The DLF calls on all working class communities and organisations to use Saturday, 12 March as a day of solidarity with the 48 workers of Robertson Abattoir who were first subjected to an illegal lockout on the 30th November 2010, and then dismissed on the 3rd of December. These workers and their unions (the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers’ Union - CSAAWU) critically need support from individuals, activists, trade unions, community organisations, lawyers, professionals and other progressive organisations. The employer (who is also a commercial farmer) treated black workers not as human beings but as an extension of machinery. Workers at the abattoir were forced to work excessive hours under conditions that bear resemblance to slavery. Often they had to work as many as 39 hours overtime in a week being paid a basic wage of only R315 (without benefits). This is illegal and in contravention of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act of 1995 (BCEA). The workers resisted these conditions and joined CSAAWU to organise for decent working conditions and a living wage. The lockout and the dismissals are the employer’s response to penalise the workers for their exercise of their right to freedom of association. The excessive exploitation of the workers was made possible because of the failure of the Department of Labour in Worcester to enforce compliance with the law. In due course, CSAAWU will release details of the solidarity actions for the 12 March 2010 day of action.

All the above actions demonstrate the yearning need for sustained social mobilisation of the overwhelming majority of workers, unemployed people and communities behind a programme and set of demands for universal employment, decent work, universal free basic services and an adequate social wage. In the comings months, the DLF will undertake consultations and briefings with trade union federations, community organisations and social movements single-issue campaigns, religious formations and other key progressive organisations behind the goal of building such mobilisation and solidarity. Amongst others, this will include COSATU, NACTU, the UPM, Abahlali baseMijondolo, the Treatment Action Campaign, the Anti-Privatisation Forum and the South African Council of Churches.

Climate justice: 1 million climate jobs

In discussing COP17, the DLF committee resolved to work closely with the Climate Justice Now! network and other organisations towards making COP17 a focal point to expose the alignments of the South African government to green neo-liberal capitalism as can be seen in the global climate change negotiations and in its approach to national development. Its increasing expenditure and commitment to coal fired power stations, nuclear energy, fossil fuel based agriculture, mining, industrial and urban development have to be critiqued as part of the build up to COP17.

Despite its apparent distance in time and space from the day-to-day reality of ordinary people, the issue of climate change is not remote. The DLF calls for efforts to use the COP17 conference as a moment to bring the interests, needs, concerns and aspirations of ordinary people to the streets of eThekwini. As the DLF we will also mobilise for a build-up to, and a follow up to COP17 to present, debate, build mass consciousness around, and mobilise for immediate and long-term democratic eco-socialist alternatives to the South African ecological crisis. For the majority, the issue of climate change must be about jobs and food, especially the demand for creating 1 million climate jobs through immediate and coordinated steps to shift to a low carbon economy away from the capital- and energy-intensive production. The demand for 1 million climate jobs can galvanise the masses of the people, South African civil society and most importantly reorient government policy in relation not just to climate change but also in relation to the economy.

As part of this, the DLF will promote the vision of ecological justice that was adopted at the People’s Climate conference that was hosted by the government of Bolivia in Cochabamba in April 2010. The COP17 is an important opportunity to mobilise mass struggles aimed at putting pressure on the South African government to accept and promote the Cochabamba resolutions for ecological justice and for the replacement of COP17 with a more accountable, people-driven, and democratic global climate justice structure.

ENDS

FOR COMMENTS, CONTACT:

Name 1: Mazibuko K. Jara, cell – 083 651 0271

Name 2: Martin Legassick, cell – 083 417 6837



Members of the National Steering Committee of the DLF:

Brian Ashley: email - brian@aidc.org.za, cell - 082 085 7088

Jane Duncan: email - jane.duncan3@gmailcom, cell - 082 786 3600

Mazibuko K. Jara: email - mazibuko@amandla.org.za, cell - 083 651 0271

Ayanda Kota: email – ayandakota@webmail.co.za, cell – 078 625 6462

Martin Legassick: email – mlegassi@iafrica.com, cell – 083 417 6837

Alan Murphy: email – alan@ecopeace.co.za, cell – 084 203 7721

Phumzile Mtetwa: email - phumi@equality.org.za, cell - 072 795 9194

Noor Nieftagodien: email - noor.nieftagodien@wits.ac.za, cell - 082 457 4103

Trevor Ngwane: email - trevorngwane@gmail.com, cell - 079 030 7657

Vishwas Satgar: email - copac@icon.co.za, cell - 082 775 3420

Uganda: Museveni wins disputed presidential election

2011-02-21

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE71J0CD20110220

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, one of Africa's longest serving leaders, won election to a fourth term in office by a huge margin on Sunday but the opposition rejected the outcome. Electoral commission results handed Museveni 68 per cent of the vote against challenger Kizza Besigye's 26 per cent.

Egypt: Call for action on wealth illicitly transferred from Egypt

United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) Coalition statement

2011-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/corruption/70924

The UNCAC Coalition, a group of over 240 civil society organisations in more than 100 countries, including the Afro-Egyptian Human Rights Organisation (AEHRO) and NADAFA-Egyptians against corruption, is deeply concerned about public wealth illicitly transferred out of Egypt. A report by Global Financial Integrity released in January 2011 finds that Egypt is losing more than US$6 billion per year - US$57.2 billion in total from 2000 to 2008 - to illicit financial activities and official government corruption. Earlier this week, allegations were published about the wealth of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his family. This wealth should be thoroughly investigated, and if illicitly transferred should be immediately frozen and then repatriated.

Africa: Billions lost to state coffers due to tax leniency

2011-02-21

http://www.ips.org/africa/2011/02/africa-billions-lost-to-state-coffers-due-to-tax-leniency/

Bad governance and the persistence of the tax avoidance industry allow billions of dollars of profit to be siphoned out of Africa, untaxed, every year. For the past 25 years, tax revenues in most African countries have missed even the low target of 15 per cent of gross domestic product, far less than rich countries’ average of 35 per cent, according to a recent report of the Tax Justice Network’s Africa section.

Africa: Civil society ensuring development stays on EPA agenda

2011-02-17

http://www.ips.org/africa/2011/02/trade-civil-society-ensuring-development-stays-on-epa-agenda/

In an unusual move, West and Central African civil society organisations have participated in the negotiations between their countries and the European Union on the economic partnership agreements (EPAs). The organisations stress developmental concerns while assisting under-resourced African governments with trade expertise. Civil society organisations (CSOs) have also taken to the streets to persuade governments not to sign interim EPAs, for example in Mali.

Africa: South-South trade booming despite high trade barriers

2011-02-17

http://www.tralac.org/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&news_id=99102&cause_id=1694

South-South trade is growing fast, but barriers among developing countries are still up to seven times higher than those imposed by the developed world, a representative from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said. Speaking at a Frontier Advisory seminar at the JSE, OECD Development Centre director Mario Pezzini said that South-South trade had experienced tremendous growth in recent years, with exports from developing countries now constituting 37 per cent of global trade, of which about 50 per cent related to South-South trade.

Egypt: IMF ways could be shown the door

2011-02-21

http://www.ips.org/africa/2011/02/egypt-takes-a-step-back-from-imf-ways/

Egypt could soon be looking for a new economic model – one that will be different from the traditional system that has been promoted for years by international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), under the reign of ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Since the mid 1980’s, the World Bank, the IMF, and USAID have sought to encourage policies that limit the role of government in the economy, cut budget deficits, and give more influence to the private sector and corporations.

Global: 'Groupthink' IMF slammed for mistakes before crisis

2011-02-21

http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-567577

The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) has found major IMF lapses in judgement before the financial crisis, including the promotion of 'light-touch regulation', casting doubt on the Fund's ability to contribute to taming global finance. As the banking crisis has been transformed into crises of public finance, and while the financial sector returns to business as usual, the IMF has grown increasingly vocal about the insufficient attention being paid to regulation and reform.

Global: Axe descends on US overseas aid

2011-02-17

http://www.ips.org/africa/2011/02/axe-descends-on-us-overseas-aid/

With US President Barack Obama’s release of his Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 foreign affairs budget and a proposal currently in the US House of Representatives for massive cuts in 2011 international spending, the fight to sustain US aid abroad is intensifying. Development and foreign policy analysts largely praised the administration’s funding appeal for reflecting conscientious adjustments in this constrained economic environment and for maximising returns by focusing spending on strategic areas such as global health, food security and climate change.

Libya: Leaked document shows Gaddafi's loans to Africa

2011-02-17

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE7180G420110209

Libya has handed out more than $2 billion in loans to dozens of governments across the globe, according to an internal document that shows the oil exporter's diplomatic ambitions and its struggles to recover its debts. The biggest debtor mentioned in the document is Libya's neighbour Sudan with an outstanding balance of $1.287 billion, part of Sudan's debilitating external debt of almost $40 billion.

Tanzania: Bulk of mining taxes comes from workers

2011-02-16

http://bit.ly/hfhi8d

Despite claims of a boom in Tanzania’s mining industry, the bulk of taxes paid to the government comprises deductions from the workers’ wages and not levies on extracted minerals, it has been revealed. At least 54.5 per cent of the taxes collected from mining, gas and oil companies in the country is being paid by ordinary workers in form of various taxes, according to a new report released here yesterday by the Tanzania Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (TEITI).

East Africa: Obama’s budget seeks aid increases

2011-02-21

http://bit.ly/hlm2Hg

President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal 2012 includes sizable increases in funding for development, health, military and anti-narcotics initiatives in East Africa, reports The East African. The contrast between overall austerity and proposed funding increases for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda highlights the priority the White House assigns to a sub-region deemed of strategic importance to the United States. All the East African countries are in line for significant increases in health programmes that include anti-Aids efforts.

Global: Many HIV/Aids patients suffer pain needlessly, says Human Rights Watch

2011-02-21

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/02/15/many-hivaids-patients-suffer-pain-needlessly

Recently released global data by UNAids points to enormous progress in preventing and treating HIV. More people than ever before now live with HIV as a chronic disease, rather than dying from it, because they are getting antiretroviral treatment. Kenya is a good example. Over the past year, the number of people taking the drugs has risen by 25 per cent. But a central issue has been absent from the debate. The optimistic figures gloss over the enormous pain suffered by millions of HIV patients - needless suffering that can be prevented.

Kenya: HIV-positive forest evictees struggle to access ARVs

2011-02-21

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=91955

Wesley Kipkoech*, 21, may be illiterate and speak only his native Ndorobo tongue, but he understands all too well that if he does not have regular access to his HIV medication, he is likely to die. Kipkoech is one of hundreds of internally displaced people living on the edges of the Mau Forest Complex in Kenya's Rift Valley Province after the government began evicting them in 2009, in a bid to rehabilitate the forest after decades of farming, charcoal burning and other harmful activities.

South Africa: HIV patients go missing before treatment

2011-02-21

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=91965

A study has found that about 55 per cent of HIV patients in South Africa who are not eligible for treatment at the time of diagnosis will disappear from clinics within a year of initial monitoring, leaving a serious gap in HIV care and prevention, say researchers. Most patients in South Africa must have a CD4 count - a measure of the immune system’s strength - of 200 or less to be eligible for antiretrovirals (ARVs), but previous research has shown that about two-thirds of people will not meet ARV treatment criteria at diagnosis.

Algeria: University system causes controversy

2011-02-21

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/02/20/feature-01

Algerian students staged a two-day sit-in last week outside the higher education ministry in Algiers in order to demand that authorities not lessen the value of their degrees under a new system. The sit-in, which ended on Thursday (17 February), sought greater prestige for engineering degrees by granting them the same status as a Level 2 masters degree, enabling students who hold them to progress to PhD studies.

Africa: Letter on gay rights in Africa

2011-02-21

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/11/gay-rights-in-africa

'We the undersigned condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of Mr David Kato, the Ugandan gay rights campaigner. We wish to state emphatically that homosexuality is neither a sin nor a social or cultural construct. It is a biological given. Homosexuals are human beings like everybody else. Scientific research has been helpful in clearing the fog of ignorance entrenched by some religious texts in regards to homosexuality. Our opinions of homosexuality must change for the better, just as our opinion of slavery has changed, even though it was endorsed by those same religious texts. All violence against gays and people deemed to be gay in Africa must cease forthwith.'

Botswana: National assembly speaker blasted for homophobic comments

2011-02-17

http://www.mask.org.za/botswana-gays-lambast-national-assembly-speaker-for-homophobic-comments/

Infuriated gays and lesbians of Botswana have fired back at Deputy Speaker of Botswana’s National Assembly Pono Moathlodi, who recently told a delegation on HIV prevention that he would 'never tolerate' gays and lesbians, stating that he (Moatlhodi) must think thoroughly before speaking and evaluate the potential impact his utterances might have in the lives of other people.

Malawi: Human rights defenders slam new bill

2011-02-17

http://www.mask.org.za/malawi’s-anti-lesbianism-bill-threatens-rights-to-privacy/

Human Rights defenders are outraged after Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika passed a Bill outlawing lesbianism. The new Section 137A, titled 'Indecent practices between females', states that any female person who, whether in public or private, commits 'any act of gross indecency with another female', shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a prison term of five years.

Namibia: Gay rights organisation established

2011-02-17

http://www.mask.org.za/outright-namibia-to-amplify-voices-of-namibian-lgbti-people/

A gay rights organisation has been established in Namibia aiming to amplify voices of the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people who often face human rights violations such as social homophobia, lack of access to public health and loss of employment due to their sexual orientation. OutRight Namibia (ORN) was formed in March 2010 by Namibian LGBTI, MSM and WSW activists. It prioritizes leadership development, human rights, emancipation of movement building as well as health and legal reform as its main strategic areas of focus.

South Africa: Online ‘Corrective Rape’ Campaigns and Petitions

Triangle Project statement

2011-02-21

http://www.triangle.org.za/news/2011/02/online-corrective-rape-campaigns-and-petitions

'Since the beginning of this year, we have been aware of several online ‘corrective rape’ petitions and campaigns. We have made a deliberate decision not to sign or endorse these petitions. Our position and core concerns regarding these campaigns are as follows. The public exposure of bruised and battered faces and bodies of survivors is unethical and sensationalist. Many seem to assume that these petitions have been driven at least in part by survivors themselves. If you read carefully through the online petitions and the articles associated with these campaigns, you will find that the voices of survivors are largely absent. Once again black women in Africa are being cast as voiceless victims, as voiceless faces. No consideration seems to be given to the wide-ranging emotional and social impact that this kind of global and local exposure might have on survivors. The harm that this kind of sensationalist exposure is likely to have on survivors, their families and extended networks seems to have been overlooked.'

Africa: Environment lobbyists hopeful of WTO fish deal

2011-02-21

http://www.tralac.org/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&news_id=99151&cause_id=1694

Environmental activists are hopeful that negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to curb fisheries subsidies, especially those on fuel, can produce a deal that will help end overfishing. Agreement would not only help reverse the alarming depletion of global fish stocks and contribute to a broader trade deal in the WTO’s long-running Doha round, but would provide a template for tackling global problems such as climate change that have a trade dimension.

Africa: The World Social Forum and the battle for COP17

2011-02-16

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/the-world-social-forum-and-the-battle-for-cop17/

These are strategic weaknesses that global anti-capitalist civil society has to confront as part of the build up to COP17 in South Africa, says this Red Pepper article. '...the build up to COP17 has to harness global public opinion around the alternatives represented by Bolivia and anti-capitalist civil society. The role of global pubic opinion, of over 6 billion humans on the planet, is crucial to democratise the climate change negotiations.'

Ethiopia: 'Sacred forests' sold to Indian tea producer

2011-02-21

http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/18190

Despite opposition from Ethiopia's president and environmental authorities, a rainforest area providing livelihood to an indigenous people has been leased out to make tea plantations. In a rare move, the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE) has been able to acquire government documents describing the struggle of the Mazenger and other indigenous people to protect their ancient forest-covered lands along tributaries to the White Nile.

Africa: G20 finance ministers urged to tackle financial speculation on food

2011-02-21

http://www.wdm.org.uk/news/g20-finance-ministers-urged-tackle-financial-speculation-food

Over 100 European and international organisations are calling on the G20 Finance Ministers to rein in speculation on food prices by banks, hedge funds and pension funds. The finance ministers will be discussing responses to the record food prices which are at ‘dangerous’ levels according to the World Bank with 44 million more people pushed into poverty since last June.

Global: Bt cotton yields come at hidden cost to farmers

2011-02-16

http://www.scidev.net/en/news/bt-cotton-yields-come-at-hidden-cost-to-farmers-study-1.html

Bt cotton has increased crop yields for small farmers in southern India, a study has confirmed. But the increase is less than claimed by some studies, is unlikely to be sustainable and has come at a substantial cost to the farmers.

Madagascar: Rice is 'becoming a luxury'

2011-02-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91934

The price of rice, the staple food in Madagascar, has doubled in the past two years, forcing residents in the capital, Antananarivo, to halve their consumption. 'At almost 2,000 ariary (US$1) a kilogramme, rice has become a luxury item,' Tiana Randrianirina, a rice seller at the main market in the capital, told IRIN.

Gambia: Radio station resumes broadcasts

2011-02-21

http://www.mediafound.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=623&Itemid=1

Taranga FM, a privately-owned local language radio station which was shut down on 13 January 2011, has reopened after the Gambian authorities issued a warning to the station’s management to stop reviewing what they described as 'opposition' newspapers. Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s sources reported that the station is now back on air without its popular 'Xibari besbi', news and current affairs programme that reviewed newspapers in the Wolof language for most uneducated Gambians.

Rwanda: Call for media law reform

2011-02-21

http://bit.ly/g6Z7Mr

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has backed calls for reform of the media law in Rwanda following the ruling of the High Court in Kigali which sentenced the editor and a journalist of the private newspaper, Umurabyo, to lengthy jail terms for 'ethnic discrimination, genocide ideology, defamation and inciting civil disobedience'. 'The need for reforming the Rwandan media law to decriminalize press offences is urgent in the light of this harsh ruling against the two journalists,' said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa Office.

South Africa: Editors slam DA journalist blacklisting

2011-02-17

http://www.timeslive.co.za/Politics/article906792.ece/Sanef-slams-DA-blacklisting

The South African National Editors' Forum and the Press Gallery Association have condemned the DA's decision to take Sowetan reporter Anna Majavu off their mailing list in protest against her reporting. 'The move by the DA against reporter Anna Majavu flies in the face of the DA’s founding liberal values, including commitment to press freedom,' Sanef chairman Mondli Makhanya, who is also editor in chief of Avusa, said in a statement.

South Africa: Parliament should be investigating the anti-democratic provisions of the Secrecy Bill

2011-02-17

http://bit.ly/grldwk

The Parliamentary Communication Services has issued a statement condemning the Right2Know’s behaviour as 'particularly unseemly' and threatening to apply the 'full might of the law' against our supporters. This is in response to an incident on Tuesday, when five Right2Know supporters silently donned masks depicting Minister of State Security Siyabonga Cwele during a sitting of the parliamentary committee dealing with the Protection of Information Bill (the Secrecy Bill).

Sudan: Three employees of opposition weekly freed, three others still held

2011-02-16

http://www.ifex.org/sudan/2011/02/15/three_journalists_released/

Reporters Without Borders says it is relieved that three employees of the opposition weekly 'Al-Midan', who had been arrested on 2 February 2011, were released on 12 February. But it is very concerned about the three who are still being held. The detainees have been beaten and subjected to torture, including electric shocks and sleep deprivation. They were arrested because of the coverage that 'Al-Midan', the Sudanese Communist Party's mouthpiece, gave to street protests on 30 January.

Tunisia: Treaty ratification must be accompanied by freedom of expression reforms

Press statement

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/70935

ARTICLE 19 has welcomed the announcement by the new Tunisian government of the endorsement of major international commitments relating to human rights and calls on the government to swiftly proceed with these plans. 'We urge the Tunisian government to change their domestic legislation to create an enabling environment for media and civil society, in compliance with international legal standards on freedom of expression,' says Dr Agnes Callamard, ARTICLE 19 Executive Director. 'ARTICLE 19 stands ready to provide support in making such reforms a reality.'
PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release – 10 February 2011

Tunisia: Treaty Ratification Must Be Accompanied By Freedom Of Expression Reforms

London 10.02.11: ARTICLE 19 welcomes the announcement by the new Tunisian government of the endorsement of major international commitments relating to human rights and calls on the government to swiftly proceed with these plans.

“We urge the Tunisian government to change their domestic legislation to create an enabling environment for media and civil society, in compliance with international legal standards on freedom of expression,” says Dr Agnes Callamard, ARTICLE 19 Executive Director. “ARTICLE 19 stands ready to provide support in making such reforms a reality.”

The announcement of the country's forthcoming accession to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to the International Convention on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court, and the Optional Protocol to the International Convention against Torture, as well as other international treaties, represents a major milestone for Tunisia and serves as a model for the region.

Tunisia will be the first country in the region to abolish the death penalty, which is the subject of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

By announcing its forthcoming accession to these human right instruments, Tunisia affirms its determination to combat serious human rights violations, to put an end to impunity, to cooperate fully with the United Nations organs that monitor the implementation of the treaties, and to authorise them to examine people’s complaints.

ARTICLE 19 welcomes civil society’s major role in calling for these changes and urges the government to continue working with civil society organisations in drafting and implementing necessary reforms.


NOTES TO EDITORS:

- For more information please contact: please contact Barbora Bukovska, Senior Director for Law and Programmes, at Barbora@article19.org or +44 20 7324 2500.

Zambia: Government refuses to allow community radio station to go back on air

2011-02-16

http://www.misa.org/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?category=2&id=1297340030

On 3 February 2011, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services (MIBS) Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha said government would not re-open Radio Lymabai in Mongu until investigations into its alleged involvement in the broadcast of seditious materials regarding the Barotseland controversy were completed. On 14 January 2011, Radio Lyambai was forced off air when police confiscated equipment that enables the station to be on air.

Namibia: Pilot project sets out to prove the value of a Basic Income Grant

2011-02-17

http://www.ips.org/africa/2011/02/namibia-basic-income-grant-let-others-taste-what-we-have-tasted/

Bertha Hamases is a tall, lanky woman with a weathered face and a friendly sparkle in her eyes. A few years ago she was one of the many people circling the drain in Otjivero, a dead end settlement one hundred kilometres from the capital. Here evicted farm workers gathered in misery. For Hamases, a single mom with four kids aged between 9 and 16, life looked hopeless. Until a coalition of civil society organisations picked Otjivero for a privately-funded pilot project to show that a universal basic income grant can make all the difference.

Haiti: Supporters in Haiti make ready for Aristide

2011-02-16

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-02-16-supporters-in-haiti-make-ready-for-aristide/

Supporters beat drums in the slums while workers spruced up his private villa as Haitians prepared on Tuesday for the possible return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide with feverish anticipation. 'Some people are cleaning the streets, others are getting the residence ready, and we are making preparations for a beautiful party,' Rene Civil, a die-hard follower of Haiti's first democratically elected leader, told Agence France-Presse.

Côte d’Ivoire: From bad to worse

2011-02-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91924

With the world’s attention focusing on mass mobilization and historic shifts of power in Tunis and Cairo, the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire has faded into the background but remains completely unresolved. There has been no face-to-face meeting between Laurent Gbagbo and his long-time political rival Alassane Ouattara, while both men, backed by their respective camps, continue to lay claim to the presidency.

Libya: Revolt deepens

2011-02-21

http://ind.pn/greGJ0

In a a sign that the first cracks are starting to show in the Libyan regime, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's son warned in a lengthy and rambling address broadcast live last night that the overthrow of the regime would lead to civil war and the break-up of the country, reports the UK's Independent. The address by Saif Gaddafi, who is viewed as reform-minded in the West, came as the first major anti-government protests spread to the capital, Tripoli, striking at the heart of the regime and making Colonel Gaddafi's 42-year hold on power appear increasingly precarious.

Libya: Unrest spreads despite dire Qaddafi warning

2011-02-21

http://www.rferl.org/content/africa/2315460.html

Unconfirmed reports from sources in Libya - where reliable information is notoriously difficult to come by - suggested more than 60 people died in violence in the capital on 21 February. Network Al-Jazeera also claimed at least one government building had been torched in Tripoli, a report that also could not be independently verified. Unconfirmed reports from sources in Libya suggested more than 60 people died in violence in the capital on 21 February. Network Al-Jazeera also claimed at least one government building had been torched in Tripoli, a report that also could not be independently verified.

Libya: Violent protests break out in Libya

2011-02-16

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/20112167051422444.html#

Protesters have clashed with police and government supporters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, reports say. Demonstrators gathered in the early hours of Wednesday morning (16 February) in front of police headquarters and chanted slogans against the 'corrupt rulers of the country', Al Jazeera's sources said. Police fired tear gas and violently dispersed protesters, the sources said without providing further details.

Somalia: Deadly suicide car bomb rocks Mogadishu police camp

2011-02-21

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12521423

A suicide car bomber has attacked a police training camp in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, killing at least six people, officials say. The blast is reported to have happened near the Darwish Camp, which is next to a police academy. There are fears the death toll will rise.

South Africa: ANC rejects Mbeki’s ‘Tunisia Day’ claim

2011-02-16

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=134436

The African National Congress (ANC) has disputed predictions by political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki that the South African government would face a Tunisia-style revolt, on the same day police fired live ammunition to disperse residents who took to the streets over poor service delivery in Mpumalanga. Mbeki predicted in an opinion piece published in Business Day that SA would face a civil revolt around 2020, when the government would no longer be in a position to sustain the welfare programmes 'it uses to placate the black poor and to get their votes'.

Sudan: Militia blamed for Sudan 'massacre'

2011-02-16

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/2011215142515982217.html

A cabinet minister has accused a renegade militia in Southern Sudan's Jonglei oil state of killing at least 211 people, doubling earlier estimates of the death count. James Kok Ruea, the humanitarian affairs and disaster management minister, called the killings a 'massacre'. Renewed violence has sparked concerns for the security of the underdeveloped south where voters last month overwhelmingly voted to declare independence from the north in a referendum.

Blogging on development policy contest

2011-02-17

http://www.comminit.com/en/node/328581/bbc

The Communication Initiative (The CI) and the BBC World Service Trust (WST) invite entries for their first contest on the role of media in democratic development. This contest solicits persuasive critiques and encouraging discussion on the relationship between media, communications, and international development policy. CI Network members from around the world (as well as those who wish to become CI Network members) are requested to submit their opinion pieces to the collaborative blog at Communication, Media, and Development Policy.

Global: Technology and violence against women

2011-02-17

http://bit.ly/g0XCwa

This briefing relies on new research into how new technologies are being used by abusers and by women fighting back. The cases were uncovered in research commissioned by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) in 12 developing countries in 2009, unless an additional website reference is included.

Global: Why should we care about internet rights?

Because internet rights are human rights, says APC

2011-02-16

http://www.apc.org/en/pubs/briefs/why-should-we-care-about-internet-rights-because-i

Fifty years ago the international community agreed upon a set of rights to which everyone is entitled. As the internet has become more important in our everyday lives and as we’ve seen in Egypt and Tunisia in the last few days, a critical means for people to defend their rights and to fight for them, the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should apply everywhere and at all times – including when people are communicating online, says the Association for Progressive Communications.

Zimbabwe: Survey reveals increase in internet

2011-02-21

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news180211/survey180211.htm

Twenty four per cent of adults living in urban centres are now using the internet, according to the latest Zimbabwe All Media Products and Services Survey (ZAMPS). The figure represents a two per cent increase in the last three months alone.

Rosa Luxemburg Foundation e-newsletter available

2011-02-21

http://www.rosalux.co.za/?page_id=5938

Issue one of the 2011 Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Southern Africa newsletter is now available. Visit their page to read the newsletter and to sign up for forthcoming editions.

African Biodiversity Network launches new website to raise voices from the ground

Press statement

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/70937

A coalition of over 35 African grassroots organisations, known as the African Biodiversity Network (ABN), has launched a new website to raise the voices of those working across the continent in the development sector. The website shares the work of partners across Africa who are working together to find local, African-led solutions to the challenges they face.
African Biodiversity Network launches new website to raise voices from the ground

A coalition of over 35 African grassroots organisations, known as the African Biodiversity Network (ABN), has launched a new website to raise the voices of those working across the continent in the development sector. The website shares the work of partners across Africa who are working together to find local, African-led solutions to the challenges they face.

www.africanbiodiversity.org

The NGO’s who form the African Biodiversity Network are all working with local indigenous and rural communities to revive and protect cultural and biological diversity. They do this via a number of long-term processes including working with community Elders, reviving ecological (chemical free) farming practices and supporting dialogues with communities who have been fragmented by colonization and the pressures of globalization – which is oft-reinforced by the western development model. Together the ABN is working to ensure that Africa’s voice is heard amidst the increasing trend for landgrabbing, mechanised agriculture, and development models imposed upon the continent.

Anne Maina, Advocacy Officer for the network commented 'This website is a critical step towards African solutions being listened to, heeded and recognised internationally. We do not need or want false solutions to climate change and development - like GMOs, Biochar and Agrofuels - being pushed by industry and so-called philanthropy in Africa. The African Biodiversity Network brings together partners and allies from across the continent united by a common cause – to protect our biodiversity, preserve African culture and values, to secure African’s rights to their own land and seeds, and to listen to voices from the ground. We believe that the promotion of Agro-ecological alternatives can feed Africa and that we can carve our own path through "development", based on our own local needs and not those of the west.'

The website will be updated regularly with stories featuring ABN partners’ work on the ground, news of events and negotiations which ABN has organised or attended, publications and reports co-authored by the ABN and new multimedia featuring stories of change.

As part of the launch of the site the ABN have also released a new film – The Story of Sheka Forest: Wisdom from the Past, Resilience for the Future, made with partner Melca Ethiopia. The film highlights the complexities of forest governance, sharing an inspiring story of how indigenous clan leaders, local communities and the local government have all worked together, with the support of Melca Ethiopia, to protect and preserve the beautiful tropical Sheka Forest. View the film directly here: http://vimeo.com/19386136

- ENDS -

If you would like to find out more about any of the partner organisations or areas of work detailed on the website please contact Anne Maina in Kenya on +254 722 386 263/ anne@africanbiodiversity.org or Rowan Phillimore at UK partner organisation The Gaia Foundation on +44 207 428 0054/ rowan@gaianet.org
Interviews can be arranged with ABN partner members on any of the issues referred to on the website. If you would like to interview Million Belay, Director of Melca Ethiopia who produced the new film 'The Sheka Forest Story' please contact Rowan to arrange.
Reports and Publications by the African Biodiversity Network can be accessed and viewed on the Resources page http://www.africanbiodiversity.org/content/abn_resources_archive
These include the latest report 'Biofuels: a Failure for Africa' released in December 2010.

(IJR) 2010 Transformation Audit media briefing

IJR Statment

2011-02-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/71064

The Transformation Audit, which annually tracks matters of social justice in the South African economy, will be launched in Cape Town later that evening, with Auditor-General, Terence Nombembe, as keynote speaker. Titled 'Vision or Vacuum?', this edited volume focuses on the quality of economic and political governance in South Africa and how they impact on the achievement of shared prosperity for all South Africans.
You are invited to attend the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation's
(IJR) 2010 Transformation Audit media briefing at the Townhouse Hotel
and Conference Centre in Cape Town at 10am on Thursday, 24th February
2011.

The Transformation Audit, which annually tracks matters of social
justice in the South African economy, will be launched in Cape Town
later that evening, with Auditor-General, Terence Nombembe, as keynote
speaker.

Titled 'Vision or Vacuum?', this edited volume focuses on the quality of
economic and political governance in South Africa and how they impact on
the achievement of shared prosperity for all South Africans.

While presenting diverse views from some of the country's leading
researchers and economic analysts, the publication highlights the need
for coherent, and competent governance In the process of recovering from
the impact of the recent global recession, and in the light of continued
global volatility, it is important for government to be pragmatic and to
provide stability by doing the basic things right.

In this vein, well-known analyst, Eusebius McKaiser, argues in one of
the contributions that even though major developmental gains over the
past 17 years may make Cosatu's depiction of a 'predatory state'
premature, practices, such as tenderpreneurship, do allude to a moral
crisis at the heart of the state. If not countered, he argues, it will
in the longer term impact on the state's ability to execute its mandate.

In line with the recommendations of this article, other contributions to
the Audit, such as Thomas Koelble en Edward LiPuma's analysis of local
government delivery bottlenecks, and Graeme Bloch's views on the crisis
in education, also concur on the need for improved oversight systems and
a more vigilant implementation of existing accountability measures.

For more information and media enquiries, please contact Oliver Meth on
021 763 7128 or 073 950 6598 or email to ometh@ijr.org.za

Oliver Meth

Communications & Public Relations Officer

Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR)

PO Box 18094

Wynberg

Cape Town

7824

South Africa

T: +27 (0) 21 763 7128

F: +27 (0) 21 763 7138

M: +27 (0) 73 950 6598

E: ometh@ijr.org.za

Applications Now Being Accepted for APSA's Fourth Africa Workshop

Kenya 2011

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/70936

The American Political Science Association (APSA) is accepting participant applications for its fourth Africa Workshop, entitled 'Representation Reconsidered: Ethnic Politics and Africa's Governance Institutions in Comparative Perspective.' It will take place 23 July to 6 August, 2011 at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Nairobi. The organisers, with a grant secured from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will cover all the costs of participation (travel, lodging, meals, daily stipend, and materials) for up to 23 qualified applicants (20 African, plus 3 based in the US). Professional fluency in English is absolutely required. Because the workshop will have a strong cross-regional component, US-based PhD students with expertise in either Africa or Latin America are encouraged to apply. African scholars of all social science fields with a graduate degree and limited professional experience are welcome to submit applications.

Application forms and additional information is available at:

http://www.apsanet.org/~africaworkshops/

Nigeria: Bayelsa State Earth Rights Conference 2011

3 March 2011

2011-02-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/70934

The conference will highlight what happens to a people and its environment when land access falls into the hands of speculators. What landlords and land speculators do is to hoard land by holding onto them for many years without developing them, hoping that someday they can be sold at a very good profit.
Bayelsa State Earth Rights Conference 2011 - Land Ownership, Housing Costs and
the Prosperity Paradox

(Challenges and Opportunities Project for Land Value Taxation (LVT) Implementation)
Date: Thursday 3rd March 2011

Time: 9.00 AM - 3.00 PM

Venue: Auditorium - Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Amasoma, Bayelsa State
The purpose of this Conference is to:
- Introduce this project and its aims in relations to current proposed mainstream land reforms agenda on Nigeria’s land use laws.
- Encourage participation in the study and gathering of information on land as a distinct factor of production.
- To make the public understand the dangers inherent in the commodification of land that has led to land speculation.
- Launch a Challenges and Opportunities Project for Land Value Taxation Implementation
Chair: Hon. ThankGod Apere - Bayelsa State Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development.

Special Guest: Mr. Ebiowei Doukpola -Executive Secretary, Capital City Development Authority, Bayelsa State

Guest of Honour: HRM, King Joshua Igbagara, Chairman, Bayelsa State Council of Traditional Rulers (The Ibenanaowei of Tarakiri Kingdom)

Workshop facilitator/Speaker: Gordon Abiama/Earth Rights Institute, USA

Guest Speaker: Prof Reuben Udo, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, Niger Delta University.

Discussion session follows each speaker’s presentation

TIME DESCRIPTION PRESENTER

9.00 AM Protocol, Introduction, project overview and aims of this conference Georgist Prince John N. O. Ebulu – Georgist Educator and Director, Aba Business School, Aba, Abia State

9.30 AM – 9.45AM Welcome address Hon. ThankGod Apere. Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Bayelsa State

9.45 AM - 10.00 AM Keynote Speech Mr. Ebiowei Doukpola, Executive Secretary, Yenagoa Capital City Development Authority (CCDA)

10.00AM – 10.15 AM Goodwill Message Hon. Solomon Apreala – Chairman, Bayelsa State Internal Revenue Board, former Bayelsa State Commissioner for Finance

10.15 AM - 11.00 AM Paper 1– Understanding Nigeria’s Land Use Law.

In the light of current proposed land reforms agenda being advocated in public discourse, Prof. Udo, who is deeply versed to land use matters will bring his wealth of knowledge to give participants clearer understanding of key issues involved. Prof. Reuben Udo - Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island

11.00 AM - 11.15 AM Snacks Break

TIME DESCRIPTION PRESENTER

11.15 AM-12.10 PM Paper 2 – ‘Land Ownership, Housing Costs and the Prosperity Paradox’. The dominant economic paradigm today is called “free-market” system. This system has produced some of the most horrific outcomes which include chronic poverty, unemployment and widened the gap between the rich and the poor. The paper examines the underlying courses and proffers a solution – THE Third Way Economics

Gordon Abiama – Director, Africa Centre for Geoclassical Economics /Nigeria Programmes Coordinator, Earth Rights Institute, USA

12.10 PM – 1.00 PM Land Values, the Bayelsa State experience

Chairman of the Bayelsa State Chapter of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Mr. Moses Teibowei

1.00 PM – 1.15 PM Power point presentation – Great Thinkers on the Land question Henry George, Karl Max, Adam Smith, Sir Winston Churchill, John Stuart Mill, John Locke, Abraham Lincoln, Tom Paine, Mikhail Gorbachev and other economists

1.00PM - 2.00PM Discussions - Questions and Answers on papers 1 and !! Moderated by Dr. Etekpe

2.00 PM-2.30PM Announcement of proposed LVT research project and introduction of Earth Rights Institute Land Rights Online course.

Gordon Abiama

2.30PM Vote of Thanks and Closing Prayer

Outputs

1. Indicators of information in hand and gaps in knowledge (to guide proposed research on land value taxation project)
2. Geoclassical Economics Desk mandate
3. Priority areas for action and/or focus identified

Participants’ explanatory* note

Wealth distribution modalities adopted by mainstream neoliberal economists all over the world has produced a most unjust society where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Several factors have been adduced for this social anomaly chief of which is the lack of equal access to land and its resources by all. Former British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill described the monopoly of land as the mother of all monopolies.

Nigeria’s land use law has come under severe knocks especially from the business community as well as some leaders of natural resource rich communities who have called for drastic reforms. Another school of thought however sees these agitations as laden with selfish motives that will benefit not the generality of people but the land lords. One of our erudite speakers think there is a gross misunderstanding of our land use laws.

As a fast growing city, prices of land in Yenagoa are bound to rise progressively with landlords and speculators cashing in on the situation. The evils of land speculation on the economic and social development of a city are manifold. The conference will highlight what happens to a people and its environment when land access falls into the hands of speculators.
What landlords and land speculators do is to hoard land by holding onto them for many years without developing them, hoping that someday they can be sold at a very good profit.

However, studies in different cities have shown that by drastically increasing tax on land values of these unused lands, the owners are encouraged to either put them to use or sell them, Land becomes cheaper when speculation is no longer profitable.

Furthermore, land value taxation recovers the value that government spending on services and infrastructure gives to land, distributing it to all citizens equitably. When robustly implemented on all land sites based on fair and current evaluations, land value taxation eliminates incentives for speculation, reduces land prices, keeping land accessible and affordable for those who need it. By replacing harmful, unfair taxes on production, exchange and labor, land value taxation increases wealth production while ensuring a fairer distribution of wealth – both essential in order to dramatically reduce poverty; prevent urban sprawl and destructive conflicts over land.

We believe that the land value taxation approach in public finance holds considerable potential for addressing the varied distortions in land management and use. An analysis of its impact on Yenagoa would be an excellent beginning after this conference.

Gabon: Dictator funded French political parties, says Wikileaks

2011-02-16

http://bit.ly/fcBS8w

Gabon's late president Omar Bongo allegedly lined his pockets with money from a 37-million-dollar (28-million-euro) bank embezzlement scheme and funneled some of it to French political parties and President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to a classified US embassy cable published in Spanish daily El Pais.

Liberia: Charles Taylor may have $400 million out of reach - WikiLeaks

2011-02-16

http://bit.ly/fEp5q1

Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, could have as much as $400 million hidden away out of reach of prosecutors, according to leaked US diplomatic cables. A leaked cable sent from US officials in the United Nations in October 2007 reported the concerns of Stephen Rapp, who was the Special Court for Sierra Leone prosecutor at time, about Mr Taylor's alleged missing millions.

South Africa: ANC a 'complete mess' - WikiLeaks

2011-02-21

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/ANC-a-complete-mess-WikiLeaks-20110220

The ANC is a 'complete mess' and its young cadres have no interest in history, but simply want access to jobs and personal enrichment, according to a United States embassy cable obtained by City Press through the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. According to the cable, the ANC's Gauteng spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli told a US diplomat that crippling divisions were plaguing the ruling party.

Uganda: Gay rights activist 'mocked' at rights seminar, says WikiLeaks

2011-02-21

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/17/wikileaks-cables-gay-rights-uganda

Murdered gay rights activist David Kato was mocked at a UN-backed debate on Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill, according to a US diplomat in Kampala in a leaked American embassy cable. The diplomat said Kato, who was bludgeoned to death near his home in the capital, Kampala, last month, delivered a well-written speech against the bill, but his words were almost inaudible due to 'his evident nervousness'. Throughout his talk a member of the Ugandan Human Rights Commission 'openly joked and snickered' with supporters of the bill, the diplomat claimed in the cable.

Fahamu