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Crisis in Mali: fundamentalism, women's rights and cultural resistance

Jessica Horn

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81472

cc A A RIn conversation with Jessica Horn, a leading Malian women’s rights activist (name supplied but withheld on request) identifies the roots of the crisis in Mali, and the opportunistic use of the crisis by Malian and international Islamic fundamentalists to gain a popular foothold in the north of the country.

JESSICA HORN: Were there any early warnings that this crisis would emerge?

INTERVIEWEE: This is one of the deepest crisis [10] that this country has faced since colonial times. We have been through the 1968 military coup against President Modibo Keïta, we went through the popular revolutions in the early 1990s, but it has never gotten to this level of instability. The military group that led the coup is from Kati, a military garrison town outside of the capital Bamako which had been used historically as a base for troops from all over West Africa.

At the end of January 2012, a group of women who were wives of soldiers from Kati had held a march and threatened to go to the Palais de Koulouba (presidential palace) in Bamako. These women felt that they needed more information about the government’s response to what had happened to their husbands who had been sent by the government to fight the Tuareg rebellion in the north of Mali. There had been a lot of rumour that the Malian military did not have enough arms to fight the Tuareg rebels. The women had also heard that there were many cases of torture and ill treatment of Malian soldiers by the Tuareg rebels, and had also heard rumours that the Malian government was engaged in heavy negotiation with the rebels and not, for example, ordering troops to shoot at the rebels. They felt that their husbands had been sent to the north of Mali to die.

We have to remember that the Tuareg rebels had been supported by Gaddafi in Libya, who had both integrated some of these rebels in his army and was also known to have been assisting with the rebellion in the north of Mali. After the fall of Gaddafi, these rebels returned to Mali heavily armed, and in fact some say better armed than the Malian army itself.

As part of rising anger against what was happening in the north, there had also been attacks on innocent people from northern Mali living in Bamako. The government stepped in to protect the northerners, which again made it appear to everyday people like the government was on the side of the northern rebels.

In terms of the humanitarian situation, the roots of a crisis are already there. People had started to flee the north from the start of the year, with people internally displaced as well as crossing borders in to countries such as Burkina Faso. At the start of the year we also had a drought and we could see that were going to face a food crisis. An early sign we saw was many parents in rural areas pulling their children out of school and sending them to the cities to try and earn money to buy food.

JESSICA HORN: Who is leading the current armed rebellion in the north?

INTERVIEWEE: in the north of Mali the complication is that there are now three armed movements. The first is a Tuareg nationalist movement, who are rooted in a pan-Tuareg identity and want to establish a Tuareg nation that transcends the current national borders in the Sahel region. The majority of Tuaregs are Muslims, however this is not a central aspect of their political identity, their vision is for a Tuareg nation and to defend Tuareg culture and independence.

The second is a newer movement of Tuaregs who have more extreme views regarding both nationalism and religion, and explicitly link being Islamists to their political identity. They are more extremist than the nationalist group and are less interested in dialogue or negotiation. The third are Islamic fundamentalists made up of people from countries such as Algeria and even as far as Afghanistan and Pakistan. They have been based in the desert in northern Mali, as a convenient location where they can both hide and plan. Remember that there is also a lot of organised crime in that area, including drug trafficking, and so it has worked as a safe space for them. Originally the Islamist groups appeared to be working to help the Tuaregs in the nationalist agenda, however now it seems that the religious fundamentalist view is taking over as their sole agenda.

JESSICA HORN: What indications do you see of rising fundamentalism in the north of Mali, and what strategies are the fundamentalists using?

INTERVIEWEE: We are hearing about how Islamic fundamentalists are gradually gaining power in the north. They have started to talk of imposing rules that women must wear hijabs, and putting other restrictions on the ways that women dress. In Gao, fundamentalists are handing out sweets to children on the streets as a way to gain community trust, while they are forcing bars and hotels to close. In Timbuktu, Gao, and other northern cities, we are also hearing that fundamentalists are visiting moderate marabouts (muslim leaders) and suggesting that they are there to “help people” in the name of Islam, attempting to win their favour and claiming that they have not come with the intention to cause violence. Yet while they say this, we have already heard of at least one case of these fundamentalists public lynching thieves. They say it is to show that they are there to protect the community from looting, however I believe that their agenda is far more insidious and dangerous.

We have not heard of any targeted physical attacks against women yet, but for me this is not the only thing to worry about. I am deeply concerned about the way that the fundamentalists have begun to limit women’s rights - starting with the way that women dress. It is a sign of what is going to happen next. Women in Mali have a long history as market traders, they move around and interact freely in public and wear the clothing that they want. These changes are going to have a major impact and cause a lot of stress for women.

JESSICA HORN: What is your view of the regional governmental response so far?

INTERVIEWEE: The response that is coming from the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, [11] is aimed at ending the coup, reaffirming the constitution and following due process regarding elections, now scheduled for May. This is understandable given that they want stability in the state. Growing military intervention, for example by troops from ECOWAS, would just make the situation more violent. Sanctions would also be problematic because Mali is a landlocked country and we are heavily dependant on goods that come from outside to earn our living and to survive. If sanctions are imposed it is not the people with money who suffer, it is poor people, and in particular women and their families who suffer most. It is the poor woman who needs to make that dollar, that day! When a war is fought and bullets fly, people count the dead. But in this case, we would not even know who has died or suffered severely as a result of not having access to basic things like food and fuel.

We have to pay attention now to the strengthening of fundamentalists in the north. If this results in a military response as part of the 'war on terror', the truth and reality is that the people who suffer the most are again, the everyday people of this region. They are unarmed, they chose not to take up arms, and find themselves with no protection from any side.

JESSICA HORN: What do you see as priorities for action?

INTERVIEWEE: First and foremost we have to pay as much attention to the concerns of ordinary people as we do to issues such as elections. Any decision that is taken by political leaders, ECOWAS, the African Union or the international community needs to be aware of who is paying what price for every intervention that they consider. There is urgent work to do in order to support women on the ground. We have to identify and respond to the everyday needs of women who have been displaced, to ensure they feel safe and supported, but also not belittled by humanitarian intervention.

As a Malian I can also say that there is serious and deep work that we must do as civil society to affirm people in their identity as Malian, which has always been a very vibrant and extremely tolerant culture. The Muslim fundamentalists are already trying to erode this. They work at the level of culture, and have started to try and change our culture as a way of gaining power. This is longer-term work for us as civil society and it has to start now. We have to make it clear that secularism is vital, and that as Malians living in peace with our neighbours regardless of their religion or ethnicity is our way of life. It includes not judging and forcing people to do or to be what we think is right. In Bamanan (Bambara) culture and language in Mali there is a strong embrace of the concept of ‘maya’- the fact that what makes us human is our relationship and responsibility to our fellow human beings. We take this for granted as Malians, and then the fundamentalists come and start to unravel those principles very quickly. We know that fundamentalists groups work through fear and guilt. As soon as they attack a women’s hairdresser for example, of course other hairdressers will be afraid to open their shops. We know from experience in other countries how Muslim fundamentalists take over. And we can and we have to make it more difficult for them to take over.

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* Jessica Horn is a writer and women’s rights consultant. She is a founding member of the African Feminist Forum and co-editor of 'Voice, Power and Soul: Portraits of African Feminists'. This interview was first published on openDemocracy.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Jihadism and Tuareg nationalism are not the same

Laurence Deschamps-Laporte

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81475

cc WikimediaThe MNLA is not Jihadist. It is the main group representing the Azawad independence movement and has aims similar to those of other ethnic nationalist groups.

On Friday April 6, the MNLA (National Tuareg Liberation Movement) unilaterally declared the independence of Northern Mali. The situation in Mali leading to this declaration has already been the subject of media coverage, which seems to have been drawing a connection between the Tuareg insurgency and jihadism. However, Tuareg secessionism must not be confounded with Islamism. Mistakenly labeling the MNLA as jihadist might alienate the group and reduce the chances of peaceful settlement or negotiations with the Tuareg rebels.

The political context of Mali, a sub-Saharan, land-locked African country, has changed rapidly over the past few months. The fall of Gaddafi has sent hundreds of armed nomadic Tuareg mercenaries back to their home base in Northern Mali. On returning to the Sahara, they rejoined the MNLA and began what they consider the fourth Tuareg rebellion, resuming their struggle of the past decades to establish the State of Azawad that would cover all of Northern Mali down to the Niger River. The MNLA is the main group representing the Azawad independence movement and it has aims similar to those of other ethnic nationalist groups such as the Kurds.

In parallel to the MNLA, one main Islamist group has also been trying to gain control of Northern Mali. The group initially emerged after the Algerian army refused to recognize the election of the FSI (Islamic Salvation Front) in 1991. This refusal fueled frustration amongst the FSI supporters, some of whom reorganized into the armed Islamic factions. These factions then moved south into Mali, recruiting young men from Algeria, Mali and other neighboring countries. In 2006, they officially became a part of Al-Qaeda under the name Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

It is only comparatively recently that Ansar Dine emerged as a new player in the Malian political landscape. Ansar Dine is a conservative Islamic group, seemingly independent from AQIM, and with yet unclear political aims. Its leader, Iyad Ag Ghaly, was also the instigator of the 1990 Tuareg rebellion. He has since moved away from the Tuareg secessionist struggle and joined conservative Islamic movements. He recently founded Ansar Dine, a group seeking to implement an orthodox interpretation of Islamic law in Mali. Although it is not known yet whether Ansar Dine shares some of AQIM’s aims, it is clear that Ansar Dine is not concerned with secession. It is probably the emergence of Ansar Dine with its former Tuareg rebel leader and its unclear links with AQIM that has caused the conflation of Islamism with Tuareg nationalism.

On March 22, with the turmoil in the North caused by AQIM, Ansar Dine and the MNLA as a backdrop, young officers of the Malian army declared a Coup d’État, removing President Amadou Toumani Touré from office. These three groups seized the opportunity to further their aims in the North of Mali. Before the coup, there had been some collaboration between the MNLA and AQIM. Both groups shared the same trade routes and subsisted through smuggling goods, people, drugs, cigarettes and weapons through the border between Algeria and Mali. Despite this collaboration, the MNLA, which is in effective control of Northern Mali, remains secular and has always rejected jihadism. The MNLA has a long history in Mali and has more supporters and fighters than Ansar Dine. There have been reports that with the recent coup and instability, Iyad Ag Ghaly and his men took this opportunity to steal some of the MNLA’s weapons in a warehouse in Kidal, thus reinforcing their divergence and competition. Since the beginning of the coup, however, AQIM has kept out of the spotlight whilst Ansar Dine benefits from disproportionate media coverage compared to the MNLA. This tends to misrepresent the current political situation in Northern Mali.

In order to address the conflict in Mali adequately, it is important not to confuse the MNLA, a secessionist-nationalist movement, with Ansar Dine, an Islamic pro-sharia group, or with Al Qaeda. In the midst of the American Global War on Terror, to label yet another group or state as terrorist could lead to misdirected interventions that would only exacerbate the unrest in Mali. Mali ranks 175 out of 187 according to the2011 Human Development Index Report, and this political crisis is aggravating the plague of famine and poverty for civilians. In order to support peace in Mali, incautious use of words such as terrorist or jihadist must be avoided, and each group must be understood through its aims and history.

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Africa and the BRICS formation

What kind of development?

Horace Campbell

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81471

cc Agencia BrasilThe BRICS leaders have seen concretely that there is no alternative to moving from a unipolar world to a multipolar world that is based on mutual respect and an end to hierarchies.

The fourth BRICS Summit met in New Delhi, India, on 29 March 2012 under the theme, ‘BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Security and Prosperity.’ From the press reports coming out India, we have learnt that the leaders of Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa signed two pacts to stimulate trade in their local currencies and agreed on a joint working group to set up a South-South Development Bank that will raise their economic weight globally.

The participating banks for this new international financial struggle include the Export Import Bank of India, Banco Nacional de Desenvolimento Economico e Social (BNDES) of Brazil, State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs of Russia, China Development Bank and Development Bank of South Africa. At the end of the meeting the five leaders issued the 50 point Delhi Declaration declaring their intention to further strengthen “our partnership for common development and take our cooperation forward on the basis of openness, solidarity, mutual understanding and trust.” [1]

In our commentary this week we reflect on the seismic changes in the global economy and the reality that Europe has suffered so much from the capitalist crisis that the major capitalist corporations are making preparations for the collapse of the Euro. [2] With each passing day there are reports in the financial press that ‘investors are taking huge sums out of eurozone bonds. [3] Where the BRIC leaders had started a formation to facilitate their expanded trading relationships, the collapse of the dollar zone and the Eurozone has accelerated so fast that the policy makers are now improvising without a clear road map as to a project of real international solidarity. To their credit, the BRICS leaders have seen concretely that there is no alternative to moving from a unipolar world to a multipolar world in the 21st Century that is based on mutual respect and an end to hierarchies. Yet, as we will argue in this extended commentary, the focus of the planning of the peoples of the South should no longer be on the basis of bargaining for better terms with western capitalist states. We will maintain that for genuine social and economic transformations to take place in these countries representing 45 per cent of the world’s population, it will be necessary to make a clean break with the ideas of ‘historic capitalism.’ [4] Whether the BRICS formation will be the embryo of a ‘new wave of independent initiatives from the South’ or based on regional hegemons will be dependent on the extent to which the forces of social justice and emancipation engage the political and ideological struggles around BRICS. A 17 point action plan focused on issues relating to finance, health, population, food security and multilateral energy cooperation within the BRIC’s framework provides spaces for a new research and policy agenda that could strengthen and consolidate the goals of a new framework for economic cooperation. In this way progressive scholars can give meaning to the call for the expansion of the channels of communication, exchanges and people-to-people contact amongst the BRICS, including in the areas of youth, education, culture, tourism and sports. [5]

The current leaders of India aspire for a BRICS and the ‘development bank’ to be an auxiliary institution of the World Bank. Inside South America, Brazil is the society that is represented as a rising major power but the African descendants and the indigenous peoples in that society are involved in a major struggle for reparative justice. Temporarily, South Africa carries the torch for Africa within BRICS but we will analyze the limitations of this present arrangement arguing that the strength of BRICS will be realized in a context when new international formations such as BRICS have the full weight of African representation from a united peoples of Africa and a Brazil that is democratized to reflect the political representation of the majority of the Brazilian population. Ultimately, for BRICS to be a real alternative it will have to have a clear strategy about expansion so that the goals of building another world based on peace and real international solidarity can be realized.

FROM REALISM TO BRICS AND UBUNTU

When the financial analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote their forecasts on the future of the BRIC economics in 2003, “Dreaming With BRICs: The Path to 2050,” [6] it was not in their calculation that in less than ten years the capitalist system would be in deep crisis and that the societies of the European Union would be on their knees with emissaries seeking bailout from China, Brazil and even African states. At the time of the 2012 Summit the New York Times grudgingly reported that, “Last November, Mr. O’Neill predicted that the group’s combined economies, now worth almost $13 trillion, would double in the coming decade, eventually surpassing the size of the economies of both the United States and the European Union.” [7] Opportunistically, the leaders of Britain are jockeying for London to be an offshore center for trade in the Chinese currency. With the news of the collapse of the Euro spooking the bond traders in Europe, a few days ago the bank HSBC announced that it was about to sell bonds denominated in the Chinese Currency (RMB or Yuan). European capitalists from the London capital markets are no longer waiting for a neat change in the property laws inside of China which would guarantee holding large amounts of Chinese currencies and assets.

Today, the reality of a changed international system is evident and policy makers in all parts of the world are seeking to adjust to this new reality. Out of a force of habit from the past hundred years European and US policy makers seek to shape perceptions of the ‘emerging countries’ [8] and it is from their schools where there are scholars who pontificate on which society will be the hegemons in the next fifty years.

Students who start from realist theories in international relations have studied ideas of strength and power for so long that in their analysis and calculation, there can be no other possibility than a world where there is one or two military ‘superpowers.’ Whether it is Henry Kissinger who in his book, ‘On China,’ envisages the dominance of China, (as long as it takes the capitalist path) or Zbigniew Brzezinski who envisage a new alliance between China and the United States in a Group of Two (so that the present Chinese political leadership can deepen their alliance with the plutocrats of Wall Street), realism and realist doctrines echo across the globe. From the United Kingdom, British scholars and journalists pontificate on the rise of China arguing that China’s economic and political clout will only be realized when China embrace western ‘democratic’ values. [9] Robert Kaplan completes this realist tapestry by writing on the rivalry between China and the United States in the Indian Ocean. [10] From inside Chinese Universities and think tanks leading realist scholars such as Professor Yan Xuetong of Tsinghua University and Wang Yizhou, Vice Dean School of International Studies at Peking University ponder on the need for the Rise of China in order to end the dominance of United States or the U.S.-led world order.” These Chinese institutions now produce books and monographs on the Rise of China and fete scholars who write books such as that of Martin Jacques, When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order. [11]

When I attended the 11th annual conference on Chinese diplomacy in Beijing last December, it was striking how much emphasis the realists were placing on the future relationship with the United States as if there were no other important regional formations. It was left to by Le Yucheng, Assistant Minister and Director Policy Planning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs to highlight the new importance of BRICS for Chinese foreign policy. In his keynote address “Current International Situation and China’s Foreign Affairs” le Yucheng grasped the importance of BRICS and communicated this, especially in the context of financial crisis in Europe, the revolutionary change in Egypt and the diminution of the dollar. Thus far, because of the intellectual and political retreat from Marxism and Maoism in China, the political leaders have been supporting the ideas of Confucius, “that everyone should know their place in social hierarchies.” Many of the top intellectuals within the political establishment of China who seek to trace their lineage to their proper place in the social hierarchy of China prior to 1949 do not factor in the international crisis of capitalism in their analysis of the new global order.

It is in India where the perverse idea of social hierarchy has been institutionalized in a caste system to the point where these ideas hold back the full potential of all of the peoples of India. Realist scholars in India respond to the end of the US dominance by holding on to a vision where the ideas and policies of the United States can form the basis for an alliance between the Indian ruling class and the United States to ‘balance’ the rise of China. Although touted as a ‘rising economy,’ India has been the largest recipient of World Bank loans. This alliance between the Indian governing class and the Bretton Woods Institutions ensured that in his address to the BRICS Summit, the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh said that, BRICS need to “expand the capital base of the World Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks to enable these institutions to perform their appropriate role in financing infrastructure development.” [12] There is a wider intellectual canvas in India with younger scholars recognizing the need to go beyond neo-realism in international affairs. There are major political and social struggles all over India with some of these struggles militarized. Scholars such as Sreeram Chaulia have written on need for the refinement of theories relating to South-South Cooperation. In the dominant centers of International Relations theories there is great fear of theoretical frameworks that start from a radical feminist perspective.

Russia has retreated from all ideas of building an egalitarian society and is now suspended between its socialist past and its oligarchic present. Russia is already in a formation with China called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and recently carried out joint military operations with China. Russia is one of the societies which is still reeling from destructive dismantling of the planned economy. [13] while in Brazil the intellectual struggles are as intense as the political struggles for democratization for that society to break out of racial hierarchies. Russian scholars have been very active in calling for a clear role for BRIC in articulating the construction of a new international order. [14] In the emerging global order, the majority of the peoples of the South are seeking new relations beyond the reproduction on new ‘superpowers.’ [15] Inside Brazil, the majority of the peoples are struggling for a form of democratization that repairs the centuries of destruction and genocidal economics. Foremost among these peoples are those of African descent at home and abroad who are seeking to move to a new philosophical basis for international politics, one that harnesses the resources of the planet to lay the foundations for peaceful relations. It is here where the philosophy of Ubuntu holds promise in proposing a different priority from the old ideas of strength, power, military might and the ‘development of the productive forces.’

In 2011 South Africa was invited by China to its summit on the Chinese island of Hainan and South Africa became the fifth member of BRIC. When South Africa became the full member there were a number of choices before the South Africans, either reproducing realist ideas that South Africa was the strongest economy in Africa, a regional hegemon and hence logically entered the club of the ‘emerging powers’ or pushing for BRICS to engage questions of peace, health and the environment to break the preoccupation with ‘trade and development’ It was the South African struggle that popularized the ideas of Ubuntu but since the coming to power of the African National Congress (ANC), the political leaders have embraced the ideas of capitalist development while posturing as defenders of African freedom. The memory of the self-organization of the popular classes in the anti-apartheid struggle is still fresh in the minds of the people so the political leadership cannot jettison the ideas of African liberation. More importantly, it was this anti-apartheid struggle that gave birth to new forms of internationalism.
Thus, while progressive Pan Africanists hail the emergence of BRICS as a possible alternative to neo-liberal hegemony, the planet will not have shaken the shackles of oppression by opposing US financial dominance and replacing it with multilateral neo-liberal cooperation between rising capitalist states in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The progressive African point of view on the emergence of BRICS is now being demanded as more and more there are initiatives coming from BRICS such as the formation of a development bank.

REVISITING THE EVOLUTION OF BRICS AND THE BUILDING OF A FAIRER WORLD

Vladimir Shubin, Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (one of the intellectual holdovers from the era of socialist solidarity) has been one of the more engaging scholars from the BRIC countries who has shed some light on the thinking behind the leaders of BRIC in their invitation to the South Africans to become a member of BRIC. In his paper “BRIC or BRICS,” Shubin, a leading authority on the relationship between Russia and the liberation movements in Africa, wrote of South Africa’s aspiration to be part of a ‘core of nonwestern powers.’ [16] Shubin’s writings are useful in so far as we are exposed to some of the thinking outside of western Europe on the evolution BRICS and the overlapping relations of the IBSA Dialogue Forum. During the height of the struggles over intellectual property rights in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the future of generic medicines, India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) had established the IBSA forum as a platform to engage in discussions for cooperation in the fields of agriculture, trade, culture, and defence among others. One of the top priorities of IBSA was for the democratization of the Security Council of the United Nations and for the end to the veto power of the five permanent members. These three states had an interest in becoming permanent members of the Security Council displacing France and Britain. Neither China nor Russia is enthusiastic about the democratization of the Security Council of the United Nations.

South Africa’s ability to exercise any real leadership within IBSA was circumscribed by the proclamation of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) strategy for Africa’s economic transformation. Numerous African scholars have written extensively on how World Bank ‘development’ ideas were at the foundation of this NEPAD. [17] These critiques of NEPAD and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are instructive in so far as the leaders of the BRICS formation continue to maintain that the outmoded MDG goals “remain a fundamental milestone in the development agenda.” For the past ten years NEPAD was another foreign policy instrument for South African capital. Throughout Africa imperial economists have been able to recruit African technocrats who have been as energetic as the Bretton Woods institutions in promoting ‘economic structural adjustment programmes.’ These liberalization projects have been labeled as ‘economic terrorism.’ This economic terror has taken the form of a sustained attack on the living standards of the African peoples and the clear deterioration of the quality of life that has brought into being a new political consciousness in Africa. In all parts of Africa citizens have to do with little or no access to the basic necessities of clean water, health care, decent education and housing. Neo-liberalism and structural adjustment strengthened the alliance between the African ruling classes and the imperial overlords so that IMF and World Bank fundamentalism ensured that the profitability of enterprises took pride of place before human lives.

African governments have embraced neo-liberal exploitation without the direct involvement of the international financial institutions’ such as the IMF and the World Bank. In this way, leaders in societies such as India and the majority of African states will continue to serve the interests of global capitalism. Globalization gave unprecedented mobility for the lords of finance so they were not worried about national boundaries. What was most important was that ‘development’ serves the interest of the one per cent. This would include reproducing one per centers in the BRICS societies. In the discourse of the financial barons, ‘development’ was supposed to be in the hands of experts and should exclude the skills, consciousness and capabilities of the producing classes. This kind of ‘development’ (according to the Walt Rostow model) was for the demobilization and depoliticization of the people who fought for independence.

Time was not standing still and by 2008 when the full blown capitalist crisis exploded, then there were new initiatives to create other international formations. It was just after the crash of Wall Street in 2008 when the first official multilateral conference of Brazil, Russia, India and China met in June 2009 in the Russian City of Yekaterinburg. Previously, in 2006 the foreign ministers of the four countries had met unofficially in the city of New York, followed by a meeting at diplomatic level in Yekaterinburg in May 2008. The declared objective of the first summit of BRIC was spelt out by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who said: “The BRIC summit aims to create the conditions for the building of a fairer world order and the creation of a favourable environment for resolution of global problems. At the same time, we must not overlook our national problems and objectives, which are priorities for all of us, of course, priorities for all the respective leaders and governments” [18] One could see from the declaration that there had not been much thought given to what would constitute a ‘fairer’ world order.

The second summit of BRIC was held in Brasilia, Brazil in 2010 where the same ‘reform’ agenda echoed as the final communique. The leaders called for reforming financial institutions. It was in the context of the flurry of meetings of the G20 meeting in 2010 in Seoul, South Korea when South Africa was formally invited by the Chinese to attend the third summit of BRIC which was to be held on the Chinese Island of Hainan in April 2011. This summit took place at the height of the NATO bombing of Libya but apart from the statements of condemnation in the communique there were no strong pressures to rally the international community against the manipulation of the Resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations on responsibility to protect. The Chinese and the Russians took cover from making any grand statement by arguing that South Africa had voted to support the UN resolution while the two permanent members had abstained.

The final communique from the SANYA, Hainan meeting declared,

“Leaders of the five fast-growing emerging economies vowed to support the reform and improvement in international monetary system for the establishment of a stable, reliable and broad-based international reserve currency system.

"The international financial crisis has exposed the inadequacies and deficiencies of the existing international monetary and financial system." [19]

This declaration was being overtaken by the collapse of the old financial architecture. Before the end of 2011, the importance of BRICS as an alternative international formation was manifest by legations from the European Union travelling to China and Brazil seeking bailout for the Euro. The collapse of the European alternative to the dollar narrowed the choices before the countries of BRICS and it is this reality that should shed light on the call for BRICS to establish a development Bank at the end of the fourth summit in New Delhi.

REJECTING WAR AGAINST IRAN

The focus on financial relations and on creating new basis for economic relations overshadowed the burning international questions of the drumbeats of war in the Persian Gulf and the continued build-up of US military presence in Asia-Pacific and in Africa. We do not know if the leaders of BRICS discussed the question of the aftermath of Libya because Libya was not mentioned in the press reports. It was from Cuba in the last year where in a conference with intellectuals Fidel Castro was in a discussion where it was said that in all parts of the world those who want peace must discuss Libya. In particular, it was discussed that there should be international opposition to the killing of Africans in their own country and calling them mercenaries as is the case for the township of Tawerga. [20]

We do know that during the last year Russia attempted to reconvene the UN Security Council to discuss the killing of innocent Africans who were deemed to be ‘African’ mercenaries in an African country. Collectively, the leaders of BRICS do not support the bellicose postures toward Iran and these leaders understand the long term goals of Israel and the militaristic wing of US capital. This was manifest in a strong and forthright statement that,

“The situation concerning Iran cannot be allowed to escalate into conflict, the disastrous consequences of which will be in no one’s interest. Iran has a crucial role to play for the peaceful development and prosperity of a region of high political and economic relevance, and we look to it to play its part as a responsible member of the global community. We are concerned about the situation that is emerging around Iran’s nuclear issue. We recognize Iran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy consistent with its international obligations, and support resolution of the issues involved through political and diplomatic means and dialogue between the parties concerned, including between the IAEA and Iran and in accordance with the provisions of the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.”

BRICS AND THE CALL FOR A NEW DEVELOPMENT BANK

Where the final communique of the fourth BRICS summit was short on recommendations for a clear statement on the ‘colossal failure of NATO in Libya, it was robust in the call for a new development bank. The objective of the BRICS bank will be to scale up intra-Brics trade which has been growing at the rate of 28 per cent over the last few years. We are informed in a missive from New Delhi that, “Brics sign 2 currency pacts.”

This article informed us that at US$230 billion, interBrics remains much below the potential of the five economic powerhouses. Brics has set a target of interBrics trade to be US$500 billion by 2015. For this purpose there was the directive for the setting up of a BRICS Development bank. The BRICS Delhi Declaration said that, “The bank is being envisaged to mobilise "resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in Brics and other emerging economies and developing countries, to supplement the existing efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and development." The leaders directed their finance ministers "to examine the feasibility and viability of such an initiative, set up a joint working group for further study, and report back to us by the next summit", said the declaration.

This move to develop a complimentary institution to supplement the existing efforts to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank contains all of the contradictions inherent in the ideation system of those who want to catch up and surpass the West. Progressive Pan Africanists yearn for the weakening of the financial hegemony of imperialist states of the Anglo-American world and are searching for levers to break the stranglehold of the Washington Consensus. In every part of Africa there is awareness that there is need for massive infrastructural investment (roads, rail, ports, Information and Telecommunications, air transport, energy and power generation, canals and water management) that will strengthen inter African trade and break the deformed patterns of extraction of resources. However, Africans will be vigilant to ensure that the ‘development’ plans of BRICS do not reproduce the five decades of ‘development’ that Africa has witnessed since independence.

The Indian Prime Minister was explicit about the kind of development that he had in mind when in his speech he argued that the BRICS development Bank will be a supplementary institution to the World Bank. Progressive grassroots movements and intellectuals in the global South have been explicit in calling for an alternative to the priorities of the World Bank. Already, the Export Import Bank of China and the China Development Bank spends more money in the developing world than the World Bank. The Financial Times reported that in 2009 China spent over US $108. Billion while the World Bank spent US $100.3 b. This shift in the source of development funds is most explicit in Africa where according to information from the Exim bank of China, in the last year China invested more than US $35b in Africa. What must change are the priorities of these investments.

Dr Sreeram Chaulia, a leading Indian scholar of International Relations gave some indication of the thinking in India that went into the proposal for a development bank. Chaulia in arguing that the World Bank and the IMF have outlived their usefulness suggested that the new Development Bank of BRICS should be patterned after the Bank of the South that has been explicit in its opposition to ‘development’ plans based on neo-liberal ideas. Chaulia argued that,

“The concept of an intergovernmental bank paralleling or opposing the World Bank and operating on different ideological and procedural bases is not novel, as there is already a 'Bank of the South' (Banco del Sur) in existence in Latin America. It is a monetary and lending organisation with seven member countries, including Brazil, and a modest seed capital of $20 billion. Its mere presence has carved an autonomous space. India's motive and selling point in advancing the proposal for a Brics bank is, likewise, that the Bretton Woods institutions have historically failed to meet the developmental requirements of the Global South and that alternatives can now be erected on the shoulders of rising powers within the South, which have accumulated vast capital reserves. It would be a financial revolution if the proposed Brics bank is integrated with the Bank of the South in Latin America through the common bridge of Brazil. Brics must avoid dangling the threat of launching a new bank only to win some more representation within the World Bank and the IMF. The Brics bank must not become a mere bargaining ploy which could be shelved if more voting rights were given to the five emerging economies in western-led international financial institutions. A bank for the entire Global South should be non-negotiable, so that Least Developed Countries (LDC) keep faith in emerging powers who are growing at a much faster rate.” [21]

THE AFRICAN UNION AND THE BRICS BANK

I have quoted Chaulia extensively because I agree that the formation of BRICS must not become a bargaining ploy for Chinese and Indian leaders to better their relationship with western financial capitalists. From the experiences of NEPAD and the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), African progressives can have no confidence in the present political leaders in South Africa to promote an agenda which is for the benefit of Africans in general and not South African capitalists. It is here where it is imperative that progressive and patriotic Africans work harder for the full harmonization of economic relations within the African Union so that the future of BRICS will be anchored in an international environment where the African representation in BRICS will be on behalf of Africa as a whole.

The struggles to make the ‘investments’ of BRICS more accountable must be engaged within South Africa so that the neo-liberal priorities of the present government must be reversed. Thus, in the short run, while South Africa carries the banner of Africa within BRICS, the political leadership in South Africa must be held accountable so that the investment strategies do not replicate the destructive investments that have been championed by the South Africans with the World Bank. The financing of the coal fired plant in South Africa is but one example of the need for a wider discussion on the investment strategies of the future BRICS bank. Africa should not be a dumping ground for old technologies that are destroying the environment. France is busy seeking to align with China to sell nuclear reactors to South Africa.

In a recent book, To Cook a Continent, African scholars have been warning about the dangers and consequences of the destructive forms of extraction of resources from Africa. The proposed BRICS bank will be put on notice that Africans will be vigilant to see that Chinese, Russia, Brazilian and Indian conglomerates operate in ways that respect Africans as humans. African workers are organizing against capitalists from BRICS that seek to reproduce low wage environments with the absence of the rights of workers. Africans will not replace plunder from western capitalists by new extractive capitalists from the East and from Brazil. Importantly, African progressives will not support another financial institution that facilitate capital flight from Africa. BRICS can move decisively to ensure that it is committed to the principle of the return of stolen assets and reparations.

UBUNTU IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - BEYOND CONFUCIAN HIERARCHIES

The African peoples have a clear sense of the need for a new Development Bank to supplant the IMF but this financial institution cannot be based on the ideas of Walt Rostow or Henry Kissinger. Samir Amin was very clear as to the new kind of social transformation that must be in tandem with this ’development.’
“Development cannot be reduced to its apparently major economic dimension- the growth of GNP and the expansion of markets(both exports and internal markets)- even when it takes into consideration the ‘social’ dimensions (degrees of inequality in the distribution of income, access to public services like education and health). ‘Development’ is an overall process that involves the definition of political objectives and how they are articulated: democratization of society and emancipation of individuals, affirmation of the power and autonomy of the nation in the world system.” [22]

This was the principle of development and social progress as it was articulated by the Bandung project. Imperialism fought to roll back this project of the autonomy of societies and nations in the world system. It was in Africa where this counter revolutionary energy was fed by white supremacy so Africans will strategize for the building of a new international system. This system cannot be based on a Confucian principle of hierarchies or an Indian caste system. In the medium term, if BRICS is to be the anchor of a new social order, it must have a strategy for a phased expansion.

Africans will support BRICS while they are fighting against oppression at home and abroad. Africans welcome the idea of linking up with the bank of the South in so far as it is in Latin America where the struggles against neo-liberalism and racism are most advanced. In Argentina the radical initiatives in relation to an assertive role of the Central bank and the nationalizing of foreign oil companies is now making headlines. The struggles of African descendants in Latin America have brought issues of racism and racial discrimination out in the open. It is in Brazil where the African descendants constitute the majority of the population where this struggle is most intense. The fight against racism in Brazil is going on at the same time when Africans are working hard to strengthen the African Union. It is the convergence of these two struggles which will influence the outcome of Dreaming with BRICS the path to 2050. In this way the future of BRICS will be linked to a multipolar world that is against all forms of oppression. This would expose the caste systems of Russia, China and India and be pushed by the same alliance that promoted Ubuntu in the African Liberation struggles.

Ubuntu emphasizes linked humanity and our intrinsic connection with a complex universe. The processes of ‘development that we have seen over the past thirty years have reinforced the forms of production and consumption that is speeding the destruction of the planet earth. Although in the communique the leaders of BRICS affirmed the concept of a ‘green economy,’ the language of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘economic growth’ point to the old forms of economic industrialization that has brought the world to a tipping point. The carrying capacity of the planet cannot sustain a mode of capitalist economic development that mimics the forms of human organization of Western Europe and North America. China and India argue that they are developing countries in fora that deals with climate change but want to continue the destructive forms of economic management. Ubuntu opens the space for us to understand how different parts of the universe fit together, with an understanding that “everything is connected to everything else.” As temporary inhabitants of the physical space on earth, we begin to appreciate the reality that the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the cooperating systems (atmosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere).

We are entering the era of the bio-economy and the idea of a BRICS development bank must have as its first priority the health and safety of the planet and the health and safety of humans everywhere.

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* Horace Campbell is Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University.
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END NOTES

[1] Fourth BRICS Summit - Delhi Declaration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, India, March 29, 2012
[2] Andrea Felsted, "Companies make plans in case the euro collapses", in Risk Management, Financial Times Special Report, April 16 2012, p.2.
[3] David Oakley, "Investors taking huge sums out of eurozone bonds", Financial Times, April 17 2012, p.21
[4] Samir Amin discusses the challenges of ending historic capitalism in the book, Ending the Crisis of Capitalism or Ending Capitalism? Pambazuka Books, Oxford, 2011
[5] Delhi Declaration, No.49
[6] Goldman Sachs, 2001. Dreaming With BRICs: The Path to 2050. London,
[7] Jim Yardley, “For Group of 5 Nations, Acronym Is Easy, but Common Ground Is Hard”
[8] Roberts, Cynthia. 2011. Building the New World Order BRIC by BRIC. The European Financial Review, Spring issue, pp.4-8.
[9] Jonathan Fenby, Tiger Head, Snake Tails: China today, how it got there and where it is heading, Simon & Schuster, New York 2012. This line of argument is reproduced by Will Hutton, The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century, Little, Brown & Company, New York 2007
[10] Robert Kaplan, “South Asia's Geography of Conflict, Council For Foreign Relations,” New York, September 2011
[11] Martin Jacques, When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order, Penguin Press, 2012
[12] http://pmindia.nic.in/content_print.php?nodeid=1156&nodetype=2
[13] Kotz, David M, “Russia's Financial Crisis: The Failure of Neoliberalism?” Z Magazine, January, 1999, 28-32., See also David Harvey, The New Imperialism, Clarendon Press Oxford, 2003
[14] Davydov, Vladimir. 2008. The Role of Brazil, Russia, India & China (BRIC) In the Construction Of the International Order. Megatrend Review, vol.5, (1), pp.85-97.
[15] Brazil As an Economic Superpower?: Understanding Brazil's Changing Role in the Global Economy, edited by Leonardo Martinez – Diaz and Lael Brainard, Brookings Institute, Washington 2009
[16] Vladimir Shubin, “BRIC or BRICS?” Paper presented at the Nordic Institute of African Studies, 2011
[17] There have been well developed critiques of NEPAD by scholars within Africa. See J.O. Adesina,” NEPAD and the Challenge of Africa’s Development: Towards the Political Economy of a Discourse,” African Journal of International Affairs, Volume 1 No.2, 2001. See also Samir Amin, “The Millennium Development Goals: A Critique from the South,” Monthly Review, Volume 57, Issue 10, 2006
[18] See Speech by the Russian President DMITRY MEDVEDEV at the BRIC summit, June 16, 2009
[19] China Daily, BRICS leaders issue Sanya Declaration, (Xinhua), April 14, 2011
[20] Fidel Castro Talk with Intellectuals: Our Duty is to struggle.
[21] Sreeram Chaulia, “Better coordination needed among Brics nations on international political issues,” Economic Times, March 21, 2012
[22] Samir Amin, Ending the Crisis of capitalism or Ending Capitalism? Pambazuka Press, 2011, Page 131

How African dictators corrupt European politics

Michael Schmidt

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81461

cc B NIt is not only African presidents who are corrupted by European aid-with-strings-attached. Evidence abounds showing a secret and extensive “suitcase” system in which millions of dollars are sent by African dictators to corrupt the European political process.

INTRODUCTION

We have seen several curious reversals of the usual pecking order in world affairs regarding Africa’ status of late, not least of which have been the spectacle of Portugal begging for aid from its former colony Angola, and of European citizens relocating back to their former colonies, fleeing economic crisis in Europe for poorly-paid jobs in the African hinterland. [1]

But there is a longer-lived and more secret relationship between Africa and Europe that overturns the conventional view of African presidents being corrupted by European aid-with-strings-attached; this is the phenomenon of la valise, “the suitcase” system of millions sent over decades by African dictators to corrupt the European political process. Seeing as how language differences divide common understanding between Francophone Africa and Anglophone Africa, the two largest colonial-language blocs, it is worth us here in the English-speaking part of the continent to examine this phenomenon so entrenched in Francophone African affairs – and now apparently spreading. The Center for French and Francophone Studies at Duke University in North Carolina hosted a debate on la valise on 5 October 2011 called “The Colonies Pay Back: Culture and Corruption in Franco-African Relations,” and this article comprises extracts from that debate.

POST-COLONIAL FRANCE, THE “SUITCASE REPUBLIC”

Philippe Bernard, the outgoing Le Monde correspondent for Africa, initiated the debate by noting that Robert Bourgi, [2] Gaullist French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s unofficial advisor, had in September 2011 accused former socialist President Jacques Chirac and his Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who were in power from 1995-2007, of having received enormous bribes in the form of suitcases stuffed with cash, from five West and Central African states – the Congo, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Gabon – to fund Chirac’s campaign. In a later interview with Canal+, Bourgi claimed that the 1988 campaign of far-right candidate Jean-Marie le Pen of the National Front, had also been partly funded by the valise. Chirac and de Villepin have denied Bourgi’s claims.

According to the Telegraph’s retelling of the tale, [3] Bourgi claimed in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche that he had personally “transported ‘tens of millions of francs’ each year, with the amounts going up in the run-up to French presidential elections – an intimation the cash was used to fund Mr Chirac's political campaigns. ‘I saw Chirac and Villepin count the money in front of me,’ he said. He alleged he regularly passed on bank notes from five African presidents: Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal [in power 2000-2012]; Blaise Campaoré of Burkina Faso [1987-today]; Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast [2000-2011]; Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Congo [1997-today] and Omar Bongo of Gabon [1967-2009], whom Mr Bourgi called ‘Papa’. Together, he alleged they contributed £6.2-million to Mr Chirac's successful 2002 presidential campaign. A sixth leader, President Obiang N’Guema of Equatorial Guinea [1979-today] allegedly was the last member to join the cash donor club,” until, Bourgi claimed, a nervous de Villepin brought the system to a halt in 2005. Bourgi claimed he had personally run the valise system for 25 years and in exchange, the African dictators were granted huge reductions in their debt to France once their sponsored candidate attained office in the Elysée.

Bernard said he believed the system had arisen out of the notion of “France-Afrique, the confusion of French and African interests. It has been a public secret since [African] liberation in the 1960s: in 1960/61, deals were signed that France will use its power to defend the [African] regimes and France will have exclusive access to African raw materials and the right of France to intervene militarily in case of threats to African national security. In the 1980s, the Gaullists [then in opposition against François Mitterand’s Socialist government] were similarly accused – that a percentage of Gabonese oil revenues were allegedly used to finance their campaigns – but proof and public testimony was lacking.”
Professor Stephen Smith, former Africa editor of Libération, and Bernard’s predecessor at Le Monde, recalled rumours that “money smuggled in by Africans to the French Prime Minister’s office in djembe drums. The office has no air-conditioning, so the thought of him standing there with his sleeves rolled up counting it all is amusing.” On a serious note, however, Smith recalled that in 1971, at the very start of a reign that only ended in 1993, it was said that the first President of Ivory Coast, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, had donated “bags of money” to the conservative Georges Pompidou government. There was, Smith said, “a long contuinuity of the practice from the Gaullists [Charles de Gaulle was in power 1959-1969] to [the rightist Republican Valéry] Giscard d’Estaing [1974-1981], a continuity of conservative governments,” who had been propped up by la valise: “This amounts to a post-colonial ‘informal state,’ not on paper, but in practice.”

Remember that this period – the Fifth French Republic – was brought into being in 1958 by the crisis in France precipitated by the Algerian Liberation War. So we have half a century of African dictators, installed and propped up by French military power, who in turn propped up with African oil and other revenue, a string of conservative sister regimes in France – although Smith said that the valise system in the six countries also worked via French companies working in parallel in the former colonies: one paid the French conservative Gaullists; the other paid the French socialists and communists. Given France’s strategic position within Europe, its influence only matched by Germany and Britain, anyone able to buy the French Presidency in effect purchases huge influence in Europe itself – so progressive politics on both continents appear to have been bedeviled by these secret transactions.

Smith said that his first newspaper scoop on the secret practice regarding the shadowy character of Bourgi, was in 1995 for Libération when he wrote about the unprocedural write-off of Zaïrean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko’s debts: Mobutu “raised his little staff and I was afraid he would hit me! Robert Bourgi earned €600,000 from Mobuto to put out the fire – and he earned €1-million to stop a book that I was writing.”

Bourgi’s “accounting is pristine; he deals only in cash, so there is little to prove.” The bribe money was later deposited in South African or Lebanese bank accounts, Smith claimed. The reach of Bourgi’s unofficial power was considerable: Smith claimed that when Sarkozy wanted a rare photo-opportunity with South Africa’s now-reclusive and elderly Nelson Mandela, Bourgi simply phoned up “Papa,” Gabonese President Omar Bongo, who persuaded the old man to agree to fly to Paris for the meeting in 2007.

THE SUITCASE SYSTEM EXPANDS

Prof Achille Membe, a specialist in post-colonial Africa, responded that the valise system was one of “mutual corruption” that has “shackled France and Africa for decades”: “The relationship is not only corrupt in terms of money… It’s a deeper form of cultural corruption that has emasculated somewhat African civil societies. In terms of the future, France still has military bases in Africa and can kick out a Gbagbo. But when France has to pay a heavy price [for intervention], it will think twice.”

Bernard said that as France’s grip on the African continent started to be eclipsed militarily (by the USA in particular [4]), in terms of the Francophone African CFA currency which is linked to the embattled Euro, in terms of French companies losing their exclusive relationships with African regimes as the International Monetary Fund took the reins in many countries and as Chinese, Brazilian and Indian investment poured into the continent, Sarkozy wanted the “network of go-betweens” such as Bourgi, who had “operated as a parallel diplomat,” to end.

Smith agreed that France now made more money from its relations with Anglophone Africa – South Africa and Kenya in particular – than it did from its former colonies, but warned that “now you’ve got a multiplication of the French exceptionalist models: China’s Africa relationship is as corrupt as the French; the French preserve and privilege has now become globalised.” Membe added that in his view, the waning of the French star in Africa – despite French remaining a dominant African language, and despite the existence of an African Diaspora literati in France – was that France itself “has entered a process of re-provincialising,” of monocultural conservatism and retreat from world affairs.

Membe said that “Robert Bourgi’s ‘revelations’ weren’t revelations in Africa. In Francophone Africa, this hasn’t been perceived as a scandal” because the prevailing cynicism about Franco-African relations was underscored by a long-term trend of the decline of the importance of France to its former colonies: “Geography is no longer centred on Paris… Robert Bourgi and others are the last spasms of a dead proposition, something that is on its knees, no longer historical but anecdotal… France will become a parenthesis.”
But it is very far from clear whether the valise system has indeed come to an end and lost its ability to shape African history. Smith said that Sarkozy’s own reputation was in doubt as he had written off 40% of the debts of Congo and of Gabon – whereas Chirac had capped the write-offs at only 8%, so suspected payments to Sarkozy would have been “a good investment by African leaders.” If Sarkozy is also involved, then Bourgi’s end-game in speaking out about the valise system after 25 years – and claiming it ended with Chirac – is clearly not aimed at tarnishing Chirac, who is a dying man and a spent political force, but rather to threaten Sarkozy while he is still President, forcing him to allow Bourgi to retire smoothly, without fear of prosecution, aged 67, to his newly-purchased mansion in Corsica.

Smith said the roots of the system lay in the fact that “when Europeans came to Africa, they ‘unbuttoned’ themselves,” initiating the corrupt relationship. But it takes two to tango, so what of the agency of African leaders themselves? “If I was an African leader today,” Smith admitted, “I’d still ‘invest’ in France because the United Nations, IMF etc will turn to France when they need assistance in Africa – despite it having lost leverage as a one-stop centre – so African leaders’ choices will still count.”

It is clear the suitcase system will continue, although likely spreading to include several newly invested powers – the USA, China, Brazil, India and South Africa – and ironically, with continental growth at 5.5%, peripheral Africa’s ability to influence and corrupt political affairs in the metropole may well even increase.


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END NOTES
[1] An example these tales of return is at www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/business/global/14angolabiz.html

[2] Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1945 to a French Lebanese family, Bourgi was admitted at the Paris Bar as a lawyer. A former adviser to Chirac and de Villepin, Sarkozy awarded him the Legion d’honneur in 2007.

[3] www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8756097

[4] In the 1960s, there were 20,000 French soldiers stationed in Africa, now there are less than 5,000 – although their technical capacity today is far greater. However, in Mali, which has just experienced a coup d’etat, there is a significant American military presence, whereas the French have indicated they will not intervene as was their practice in the past; Sarkozy had reopened the mothballed French military base in Ivory Coast, but France’s 2011 intervention in Ivory Coast only occurred under United Nations mandate.

A 70th Birthday tribute to Walter Rodney

Tendai Mwari

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81484

Pambazuka PressAs Pambazuka Press republishes 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa' we publish a tribute to the late Walter Rodney – who was assassinated by government agents in Guyana in 1980 – tracing his life, career and continuing legacy.

‘We must stand up for those who lay down their lives for us’, Walter Rodney, revolutionary and scholar, 1942-1980.

Friday 23 March 2012 marked the 70th birthday of one of the great sons of Afrika, the outstanding historian, political scientist and revolutionary Pan-Afrikanist, the late Dr Walter Anthony Rodney and the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement joins in solidarity with the entire Afrikan world community in chanting a huge Makorokoto. Congratulations in praise and thanks giving for his life and priceless contributions towards the total liberation of Afrika and all Afrikan people.


Pambazuka PressDr Walter Rodney was born on the 23 March 1942, in Colonial Guyana, then called British Guyana. Despite his very modest socio- economic background, Baba Rodney was recognised as a very gifted and talented pupil at a young age. He attended the Queens College in Guyana, where he excelled well academically as well as athletically and where he made a reputation as a formidable debater.

In 1960, he won a scholarship to the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Jamaica, where he graduated in 1963 with a first class honours degree in History. Thus, he earned an open scholarship at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, UK. In 1966, at the age of only 24, he was awarded a PhD with honours in African History. His PhD dissertation was focused on the so called Transatlantic 'slave trade' on the Upper Guinea Coast. It was published in 1970 by Oxford University, entitled 'A History of the Upper Guinea Coast,' 1545-1800. This was widely acclaimed for its hitherto unusual challenge to the conventional Eurocentric approach of the day: the patronising assumptions of European historians about African history. He therefore helped to set new standards of exploring the history of Afrikan people from an Afrikan-centred perspective.

As a student in Jamaica, Baba Walter Rodney maintained an active interest in the politics of the island and the region as a whole. He campaigned vigorously in the 1961 referendum for the accomplishment of a Federation of the Caribbean States. By the same token, whilst studying in London, he frequented Hyde Park Speaker Corner to hone his craft as an orator, par excellence. During this time he met and became an avid student of notable scholar and activist CLR James.

From the day of his childhood when his politically active parents would take him to the meetings of the then highly radical People's Progressive Party, the young Walter Rodney had never looked back.

An untamable political animal by the 1960s, Walter Rodney began travelling the world as a student of world affairs and an increasingly renowned scholar and activist. He learnt Spanish, Portuguese and French, which was necessary to facilitate his very vast research. Between 1967 and 1968 Baba Rodney lived and taught in Tanzania and Jamaica. This post-colonial period was a time of great political activity for him. He became captivated by the Black Power Movement which was feverishly sweeping the USA and the Caribbean and which eventually consumed him.

This young, exuberant and astute activist grew very critical of the neo-colonial systems which had replaced the old colonial system, but perpetuated the oppression of the majority via a privileged few, working in the interest of their former colonial masters. While in Jamaica, as a lecturer at his alma mater (UWI), in addition to being highly critical of the Jamaican government and 'middle classes', he advocated for the working people and agitated for Afrikan history and an Afrikan language to be taught in schools. But, he did not confine his activism to the academic realms. He took his message of Black Power, Black Liberation and African consciousness to the streets, the shanty towns and the gullies of Jamaica; grounding with the most downpressed, despised and rejected of the society, especially Rastafarians. In fact, he believed passionately, as he oft time said: ‘The intellectual should make his or her skills available for the struggles and emancipation of the people’. The utterance of a manifestly true WARRIOR-SCHOLAR.

Consequently, on 15 October 1968, the Jamaican government, led by Prime Minister Hugh Shearer, barred Rodney from re-entering the island, on his return from the Black Writers' Conference in Montreal, Canada. This sparked a massive revolt on 16 October 1968, known as 'the Rodney Riots,' which claimed the lives of several people and caused millions of dollars in damages. It also triggered an increase in political awareness and unrest across the Caribbean, especially among the Africentric Rastafarian sector of Jamaica, which is documented in his book The Groundings with my Brothers, deemed to be 'The Bible' of the Black Power Movement in the Caribbean. Among the campaigners for the return of Baba Rodney to Jamaica was Mama Amy Jaques Garvey, the widow of the Most Eminent Prophet and King, His Excellency Marcus Mosiah Garvey, who had fully endorsed the activism of Baba Rodney, likening him and his plight at the hands of the Jamaican government to that of her beloved husband.

Walter Rodney moved to Tanzania in 1969, where he and his family basked in the cultural life of this great Afrikan nation and from where he travelled to other parts of the Afrikan continent meeting leaders of nations and liberation movements. He lectured at the University of Dar es Salaam and was influential in developing a new centre of African learning and discussion. In 1972, pained by the devastatingly lasting legacy of slavery and colonialism he was witnessing on the Afrikan continent, he wrote his most highly universally acclaimed book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, published by Bogle-L'Ouverture in London, in conjunction with Tanzanian Publishing House. The book demonstrated the extent to which imperialist Europe (led by Britain and France) conspired to rape and ravage the Afrikan continent, and its ongoing destructive impact on the economies and societies of Afrika in the 20th century.

In 1974, Baba Rodney, his wife Dr Patricia Rodney and their three children - Shaka, Kanini and Asha - returned to Guyana from Tanzania. The now Swahili speaking proud son of Afrika threw himself into the politics of his country, inevitably, becoming sharply critical of the Forbes Burnham Government. He joined the Working People Alliance, as a challenge to the incumbent People's National Congress, for political power. And as he grew in popularity he became a rapidly increasing threat to the despotic Burnham and his brutal neo-colonial regime; and therefore a target for vicious propaganda, political assault and eventual murder. First he was blocked by the Burnham government from taking up an appointment at the University of Guyana; then he was falsely arrested for arson. Furthermore, he was banned from several other Islands in the Caribbean, including Antigua and pre- revolutionary Grenada.
Alas, on 13 June 1980, a remote control bomb, disguised in a walkie-talkie, handed to Walter Rodney by a senior military officer, Gregory Smith, was the weapon used to assassinate him. The bomb exploded in Baba Rodney's lap while he sat in a car with his brother, ending his life - only 38 years young.

But the power of the legacy of Walter Rodney lives on in the undying fight for the total liberation of Mama Afrika and all Afrikan People. Indeed, we will stand up for him because he laid down his life for us.

Long live the revolutionary spirit of Walter Rodney! Long live the spirit of the Afrikan world revolution! Unite organise now or perish! Rise you mighty people!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Pambazuka Press has just republished Walter Rodney’s classic book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.

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[url=http://www.pambazuka.org/en/friends.php] Friend of
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* Tendai Mwari is the Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement.

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The international crisis

Opportunities and a vision from the South

Yash Tandon

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81493

cc M BAn analysis of the relevance of concepts of ‘Common Goods’ and ‘Common Good for Humanity’ in the struggle for alternatives to neoliberal capitalism.

INTRODUCTION

There is widespread recognition that humanity faces multiple crises in our times. We have good analyses of these by François Houtart and Samir Amin in their various publications that form a useful starting point for a discussion among progressive circles on this important current subject. Three strategic questions form the core of these writings.

1. We live in a transition phase from Capitalism to Socialism: how do we define ‘Common Goods’ in this phase?
2. How to build new social actors that are ‘real agents of change’?
3. How to link struggle for change with other struggles in a holistic manner under the banner of “Common Good of Humanity”?

The meeting organised by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Quito, February-March 2012, offered an opportunity to reflect on alternative strategies to the prevailing neoliberal capitalist agenda on how we relate to each other as humans and how we as humans relate to nature. Houtart and Amin argue that capitalism has run its course. However, capitalism, they say, will not fall by itself. For this to happen, there needs to be a convergence of all social and political struggles that challenge the prevailing dominant system and offer alternatives to it. Among many suggestions there is also the idea of a ‘Universal Declaration on the Common Good of Humanity’ (UDCGH) that has been the key concept in the writings especially of Houtart.

What is important for now is to recognise that we (‘the left’) are still in the early stages of our deliberations. Although some of us have been thinking along these lines for quite some time, there are others who are still trying to catch up, and trying to understand what this is all about and what the strategic and tactical consequences are of our collective deliberations. It is in this spirit that the following thoughts are offered. But first it is necessary to define who the left is.

WHO OR WHAT IS ‘THE LEFT’?

This is not an easy question but it is an important one. If we are going to move together on a new trajectory of the ‘left’ strategy then it is fair to ask who constitutes the left; how is the left constituted; how is the left strategy going to be packaged and by whom? There may be no answers to these questions in the abstract, since the ‘identity’ of the left may be defined in the course of the struggle, or more appropriately in the course of several parallel struggles. But the questions are important and unavoidable.

There is sometimes an unstated assumption that ‘the left’ constitutes those who take their epistemological and pedagogical bearings from the various writings of Karl Marx (as, in terms of the general application of the method of dialectical materialism, I do), or more loosely those who subscribe to ‘socialism’ in our present epoch. In the same breath people also say that they are averse to any kind of ‘dogma’. This cautionary note is an important check on linear and abstract thinking - we must bear in mind that all struggles are dialectical and by the nature of things unpredictable. We must acknowledge that although the term ‘dogma’ is often associated with religion - especially with structured or institutionalised religions - there is no denying that ‘dogma’ has its secular side too.

To go back to history a bit, we know that the Crusades of the ‘middle ages’ (roughly end of the 11th to the end of 13th centuries) were garbed in the ideological clothes of religious dogma, and many atrocities were committed in the name of religion. But we also know from the experience of the Soviet Union in the 1930s and of China during the Cultural Revolution, that violations of human rights committed in the name of secular (even ‘revolutionary’) dogmas can be no less heinous. These are usually recognised – sadly - only after the fact, from a vantage posteriorai perspective.

Ironically, ‘secularism’ itself can become a dogma. In our own times, the ‘secular’ doctrine of the so-called ‘Washington Consensus’ (based on the economic ‘reason’ of ‘the market’) is as fundamentalist and genocidal as the crusades of yester centuries and yesteryears. I generally see myself as ‘secular; but I hold that the spiritual too has a place in human society. A wholly secular world, one that is ruled by ‘reason’ alone, could also be horrendous. These matters of ethics and epistemology raise complicated questions.

THE TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM

So a breadth of scepticism is a necessary antidote to dogma. It is in this spirit of scepticism that I pose the question about the much discussed subject among the left on ‘the transition to socialism’. This is not to doubt, for one bit, the enormous impact made by the Soviet and Chinese ‘transitions to socialism’ and their liberatory and emancipatory contribution to, for example, the African (and generally ‘the third world’) struggles against the ravages of colonialism, apartheid and racism. But a word of caution is nonetheless necessary in terms of what we understand by ‘the transition to socialism’.

In a paper I wrote for a symposium organised by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in October 2011, I wrote, the following:

To be more specific, for us in Africa it is not the struggle against capitalism in general; it is capitalism in its neo-colonial manifestation. Most of the European Left that come from Marxist leanings would consider the struggle between "capitalists" and "the proletariat" in general as the defining idiom of the "progressive" content of their political struggles - not only globally but also in the neo-colonies like South Africa, Zimbabwe and Libya. For those of us who come from Africa, including those who come from Marxist tradition (like the present author) the worker-capitalist contradiction defines the "epochal" struggle, yes, but it cannot overshadow the "here and now" struggle for national liberation. So long as our nations are under the control of imperialist nations, and so long as we have not consolidated our national independence, what defines the progressive content of our struggles in Africa is its anti-imperialist character.

So the question ‘who is the left’ still remains an open question. For the left in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Japan (the ‘developed’ countries of the West), they may well have reached a point in their historical moment to be in a ‘transition to socialism’. They are not ‘under occupation’ of outside forces. They are not fighting for ‘national liberation’. On the contrary, their countries ARE the ‘occupiers’ of the rest of the world. I might be persuaded that ‘socialism’ is the political agenda today if I were living in (unoccupied) US or Germany or Japan. But I am part of that larger humanity that is ‘occupied’ (directly or indirectly) by the military deux et machina of NATO and an Empire that is dying but not yet quite dead.

I am aware that the word ‘occupation’ can also be tricky, for it could be argued that the WHOLE world is ‘occupied’ by finance capital and so, globally, it is a struggle against capitalism and it follows that the whole world is in transition to socialism. I agree, up to a point. But such a conclusion is both economistic and undialectical. Occupation has both a political (and military) content as well as economic. Also, history is constantly on the move – nothing is static. Greece, for example, was an independent nation yesterday; but it is fast becoming an ‘occupied nation’. It is occupied by the dominant forces of capital (at the economic level) and of Europe (at the political level). Its present (2012) Prime Minister is an international technocrat who is accountable to the European Union and the IMF and not to the people of Greece. Such is the fate of ‘democracy’ in a country that is (or was) an iconic nation in the evolution of Western civilization. The people of Greece could well be a part of the joint struggle with the people of Africa, Asia and Latin America for democracy and national emancipation from the forces of ‘occupation’.

THE CHANGING DYNAMICS OF CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The above brief, very brief, exploration of a complex reality at least serves to underline that the three strategic issues raised in the introduction are very big questions. There are no simple answers. It is a matter of dealing with a changing geo-political reality that defies a linear understanding of history or a dogmatic reiteration of ‘solutions’ (including even ‘socialist’ solutions). The Soviet and Chinese revolutions were major moments of history that emancipated millions of people, but there have been serious reversals since then, and both Russia and China are now well on their road to new forms of state capitalism which, in essence, is just as exploitative of labour and of nature as the older capitalist countries.

This said, it would be wrong to place Russia and China in the same category as the US, the EU and Japan. Although they have problematic relations with some of their neighbouring regions such as Chechnya and Tibet, neither of them belongs to the category of the US-EU-Japan Empire. On the other hand, they are also not in the same category as Libya, Ecuador or the Philippines – they are not occupied by the US-EU-Japan Empire. It must be added, however, that it is impossible to predict the future. If current trends are indicative of anything, then it would appear that China especially (but possibly Russia too) are under a palpable threat of war (and possible occupation) from the NATO powers (see below). And that makes them potential allies for the ‘occupied’ countries in the South in their struggle against the Euro-American-Japanese Empire.

Given these uncertainties about the future, there are plenty of open possibilities for alliance and solidarity between forces of the ‘left’ that are fighting their own different battles in their different geo-political conditions - those struggling for socialism in the (unoccupied) developed countries of the West (such as the US, Germany and Japan); those in the less developed parts of the (occupied) world struggling for national liberation (such as India, Brazil and Korea); and Russia and China that are emerging as strong counters to the dying Empire, but are still not strong enough (militarily and economically) to challenge the Empire. To understand the dynamics of this changing reality of international relations constitutes one of the major challenges for the progressive (‘left’) forces in our times.2

With this brief background in mind, I now move on to the key concepts of Common Good of Humanity and Common Goods.

COMMON GOOD OF HUMANITY AND COMMON GOODS

The distinction between Common Good and Common Goods (one in the singular, the other in the plural), as François Houtart explained, is important. The Common Good of Humanity is an all-embracing, philosophical – even existential – matter. It raises deep and weighty epistemological and ethical issues. François did not say this, but let me add that these larger concerns about ‘humanity’ cannot be answered within one philosophical, religious or ethical tradition – be it Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, any other atavistic forms of religion, or within the tradition of Marxism. I shall take the courage to venture into this cross-cultural, cross-religious discourse on ‘Common humanity’ at some more appropriate occasion in the future when I am better prepared.

So I limit this essay to the more manageable concept of ‘Common Goods’. A useful distinction here is between ‘common’ goods that are tangible, and those that are intangible. There are as many tangible ‘common goods’ as there are stars in the sky – speaking figuratively of course. The list is endless from land, water, and such other ‘basic necessities’ of life to the global physical environment, and global resources such as oil, forests, seeds, medicinal herbs, elephants, whales, parakeets, invertebrates (many species of all of these are threatened with extinction), and...the North Pole (also threatened). There is a healthy debate among a variety of scholars, researchers, policy makers, and international institutions about the relative merits of all of these for the title of the ‘commons’. Many have identified water as the most significant ‘common’, and I agree with this.

THE TANGIBLE COMMONS

Although the word ‘commons’ goes back to antiquity (Western scholars take it back to the Greeks and inevitably to Aristotle, whereas non-Westerns to the more ancient Egyptian and Chinese civilizations, a.o.), its more recent historical use was during the eve of the industrial revolution in England when the ‘commons’ that belonged to the peasants were appropriated by an emerging agricultural and industrial bourgeoisie and ‘enclosed’ for their commercial exploitation. In more recent years the ‘commons’ has become a more generalised metaphor and an argument against the ‘over’-exploitation of finite resources for profit or commercial gain. It has also become a battle ground for the homeless and the landless poor for the loss of what they regard as part of their ‘common’ patrimony.

It is a long and arduous debate couched in philosophical, legal and ethical norms. It is also a seductive and emotional debate. The issues of water scarcity and of land grabs have elicited some of the most anguish and rage amongst social activists in recent years.

For what it is worth, I would argue, furthermore, that the word ‘commons’ when applied to depleting (or finite) resources, lends itself also to abuse. For example, in the ‘war for resources’ between competing industrializing countries, an argument is made that these resources belong to ‘common humanity’ and therefore countries have no right to limit their export just because they happen to lie within their territories. On this basis (as we are writing these words), the US, Europe and Japan have taken China to the court of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for putting restrictions on the export of 17 rare earth minerals needed for high-tech goods such as hybrid cars, flat-screen TVs, cell phones, mercury-vapor lights, camera lenses, etc. They say China is indulging in ‘unfair trade practices’ in limiting the export of these vital resources.

Notwithstanding this ‘hornet’s nest’ character of the ‘commons’ (because of its endless possibility), it does not excuse the wanton exploitation of finite resources for ‘unlimited growth’. And the important point is that this is inexcusable whether this exploitation is carried out by privately owned profit-motivated corporations, or by state-owned enterprises (the latter, fraudulently, in the name of ‘socialism’). The only permissible ‘human’ value that would legitimise their exploitation is if it effectively (as opposed to rhetorically) removes human misery and poverty. In other words, it is a class question. The present wanton destruction of limited resources of the world is for the rich, the consuming upper layers of society, at the cost of those at the bottom. A case in point is the water-guzzling golf courses all over the world (including drought prone Africa) when millions have no safe water to drink, let alone to bathe and wash.

THE INTANGIBLE COMMONS

So much for the tangible ‘commons’. Of course, there is (or could be) a similar debate about the intangible ‘commons’. If the tangible ‘commons’ open up a Pandora’s Box of endless ‘goods’, so do the intangibles. These could include such intangibles as ‘honour’ and ‘dignity of the human being’. This is not mere rhetoric. There are those who argue – and with good reason -- that honour and dignity of the poor, the marginalised, and prisoners of war (or ‘terrorists’) are trampled under the feet of a callous, all consuming, upper strata of society, and their agents of law enforcement. If the poor must be poor, then at least their dignity must not be trampled; they must be allowed to die in dignity; their humanity must be protected.3

At this point the debate on the intangible commons merges into the debate on the Common Good for Humanity. It would be useful, in the light of the above discussion, to make a distinction between those ‘Common goods for Humanity’ that belong to the individual, those that belong to the local community or society, and those that belong to the global society.

Broadly speaking, while most ‘Western’ civilizations of antiquity and of present times stress the worth of the individual, most ‘Eastern’ civilizations stress the worth of the collective in relation to the individual. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was largely a product of western – or more specifically Greco-Roman-Judaic-Christian - notions of ‘rights’, and had very little input from other cultures and civilizations.4 Whilst the UDHR has a global resonance in our own time, it is not without controversy. In the cold war period the Soviet Union had challenged its heavy emphasis on the political as opposed to the economic and social rights. That indeed was a fair critique, though the cold war shrillness of the critique has now mellowed down in our times.

Notwithstanding this, the ‘individualist’ bias of the UDHR is still a matter of controversy, especially for those who come from other cultures and climes that have a more ‘holistic’ perspective on human rights. The human rights debate has acquired a new layer of critique in our own times when the West (especially the NATO countries) flout human rights in a duplicitous manner, using it as a flag to intervene in the affairs of other nations when it suits their political and strategic (and military) interests (as in Libya and Syria) and keep benign silence when it does not (as in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain).

IS A GLOBAL WAR IMPENDING? PEACE AS A COMMON GOOD

The issue of intangible common goods is thus also complex and sensitive. One does not quite know where to begin in making a list of the intangible commons. So one has to make a choice, a selection. It is, admittedly, a selection grounded in one’s own personal background, identities, biases and circumstances. Here is my short list, limited only to the ‘intangible commons’:

1. At the individual level: human dignity
2. At the collective or national level: national self determination
3. At the global level: global peace and knowledge

Having said enough about the first two levels, it may be useful to conclude this section with a brief explanation about the third level – global peace and knowledge.
Peace is not simply absence of war. Nonetheless, war is a particular manifestation of the absence of peace that it has to be taken seriously at its own specific level(s). Here I focus not on civil wars or wars against terrorism, but to ‘world wars’ – wars that engage the whole world in direct military confrontations.

In our own times, there is ample evidence that the United States and the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are making preparations for possible war (or threat of war) against what they perceive as the looming danger of China emerging as a ‘global power’. Events in just the last five years – including those in the Mediterranean and Pacific regions – indicate an unmistakeable evidence of the direction in which the ‘Empire that is dying but is not dead’ is heading. There are sound bites coming from that part of the Empire indicating a dangerous build-up of pressure from the far right and the military strategists to take ‘pre-emptive’ action against China. Many of the foreign policy and strategic decisions that are being made by this desperate and dangerous Empire in relation, for example, to Libya, Syria and Iran, are calculated to create the necessary hardware and military bases in the Mediterranean and the Pacific as well as psychological preparedness that are aimed at China; and Russia too, if it does not play its cards to the West’s expectations.

This is the unfolding reality of our times, not conjectural but conjunctural. So peace, in my view – shared by an increasing number of people – is the prime ‘intangible common good’ of our times. Whatever needs to be done to ventilate peoples opposition to this war preparation by the ‘dying but not yet dead’ Empire must be done.

This, then, for me is of the highest priority. There are of course all kinds of wars in which peoples and nations are presently engaged (especially the mutually self-destructive ‘war against terror’), but these will appear mere pinpricks by comparison if the whole world is engulfed in another ‘world war’. In the context of this paper, all other ‘commons’ (tangible or intangible) will be put at risk as the warring nations drive towards a competition to mobilise all resources for the war.

KNOWLEDGE AS A GLOBAL COMMON GOOD

The second ‘intangible global common good’ is knowledge. This, too, is a vast complex subject. I will make only a few remarks limited to the issues that are pertinent to the issue of the ‘commons’.

And I will start with an illustration and a personal experience. In the 1980s and 1990s I used to work with peasant communities in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa. Among their ‘natural assets’ – and these include their culture and community spirit – were agricultural seeds and medicinal herbs. Behind these were thousands of years of research and experiment; collection, preservation and reproduction; and above all, community ownership. What I witnessed over the 17 years that I worked in these rural communities was a systematic appropriation (expropriation) of these seeds and herbs (and knowledge about them) by the ‘scientific’ agents of multinational corporations and western research institutions. The research institutions expropriated the knowledge; and the corporations expropriated the seeds and the herbs. They brought lavish ‘grant aids’ to establish footholds in the universities of the region, and to set up a chain of seed companies and pharmaceutical outlets to market ‘their’ products. Once this infrastructure was set up, the ancient knowledge of the people and communities of the region became the private property of these corporations.5

No doubt this experience can be multiplied many times over from the rest of the world – from the forests and peasant communities of Borneo through Asia and Africa to those of the Amazon Basin in South America. The ancient knowledge of the peoples of these regions – the ‘common heritage of humanity’ – has been privatised by profit-seeking agricultural and pharmaceutical kleptocrats (for that is what they are – thieves). This historical truth cannot be denied by legalistic chicanery and linguistic subterfuge.
I come from Uganda – today a prized ‘model’ of ‘development’ along the lines set by the IMF, the World Bank and the so-called ‘donor community’. The reality on the ground is that the bulk of the people of Uganda has remained, and still remains, desperately poor. The workers and peasants of Uganda continue to be directly exploited by finance capital (FC) at the level of production itself. This FC takes the form of foreign direct investments (FDIs), machinery and technology, hybrid seeds and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), fertilizers, pesticides, and all similar production resources that are controlled by the transnational corporations and international banks, insurance companies, marketing companies, etc. However, the bulk of the added value in Uganda is externalised as profits; debt payments; graft to government officials that issue industrial and trading licences, control immigration and customs; and ‘commissions’ at higher level of state bureaucracy to those who make decisions on mining concessions to multinational companies. Since very little of the added value in production remains in Uganda, and that which remains is unequally shared, the vast majority of the people are trapped in poverty, whilst a tiny minority gets rich.

This is the ‘inner story’ of the poverty of Africa. The lack of democracy, corruption, etc. have all a part in this. But the big monster is control of knowledge – control of the knowledge of peoples’ ‘common goods’ by the corporations, and imposition of the ‘knowledge’ of the ‘strategy for development’ by the IMF, the World Bank and the ‘donors’. The first (the true knowledge of the people) must be reclaimed; the second (the pseudo-knowledge of the IMF, WB and the donors) must be rejected.

CONCLUSION

We have reached that point in the evolution of our ‘modernist’ (or ‘post-modernist’) civilization that we have put to risk our own humanity. We have also put to risk the only known planet in our galaxy that has life. Since it is a challenge that faces all humanity, it is necessary and important to be conscious of what divides us as human beings, and why. We are divided along the fissures of gender, race, class, tribe, nation, religion, culture, region, and so on. The divisions themselves are not a problem; on the contrary, our plurality is a reason for celebration. In our rich and colourful plurality lies our humanity. What can cause a human tragedy and an existential threat to our planet is the manner in which we resolve our differences and contradictions that are inevitable products of our divisions and history.

No one person or group of persons has all the answers. It is in the light of this that we need to be cautious using terms like ‘the left’ and ‘the right’ in political discourse. Of course, this division has some basis in theory and practice, and history. But they are not absolute categories, and certainly not universal. The context is important. Taking history and context in mind (and my personal experience over the last over 50 years), I have come to the conclusion -- as a ‘left’ thinker and activist - that whilst the worker-capitalist contradiction defines the ‘epochal’ struggle, it cannot overshadow the ‘here and now’ struggle for our national liberation from the occupation forces of the US-EU-Japan Empire.

I do understand why the word ‘national’ conjures up monsters in Europe (especially with the experience of fascism and of the two world wars), but for us in Africa it is a different experience. Our battles against colonial occupation were part of our struggle for national self-determination. That struggle is not over yet. We are still under the dictation (and in many cases direct military occupation) of the Empire, even if we have nominal independence. Today the people of Greece may well share our sentiment. It is a dynamic, ever-changing, world, full of surprises.

It is against the background of the existential threat that our planet and us as humans face today that the words ‘common goods’ (CGs) and ‘common good for humanity’ (CGH) have appeared. They are products of our extant material and spiritual realities. They are offered as conceptual pegs to help us conceive of a better world. But they raise a host of complex questions to which there are no easy answers. This paper offers some food for thoughts.

Of the two concepts, the CGH is a more challenging concept, and I explain why. The CGs is a more manageable concept, but that too is full of conceptual traps of which we need to be wary. I divide the CGs between the tangibles (like land, water, etc.) and the intangibles (such as peace and knowledge). However, the debate on the intangible commons merges into issue of the common good for humanity, and I gave examples of human rights and of honour and dignity as matters that lie on the borderline between CGs and CGH. These intangibles I divide into the individual (rights and obligations of the individual human being); the community (rights and obligations of local communities); and the global (such as rights to peace and free access to knowledge, and corresponding obligations of the global community).

The above textual presentation of these ideas might be baffling. The following schematic presentation might capture the essence of what is in fact a complex conceptual model with porous lines between the various categories.


Obviously, these are still abstract categories. These need to be concretised in the hard material and social realities of our various communities, regions and circumstances. There are forces of war and deprivation that are bent recklessly to endanger world peace and put to risk the sustenance of our planet, even as they proclaim ‘human rights’ as their motivation. These false gods must be exposed for what they are. And here the vast majority of the world’s population is on the side of peace and justice. How to harness this global goodwill to build a common front against the forces of war and deprivation is a challenge that ‘the left’ - however defined in their specific conditions - must face in the months and years to come.

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* Yash Tandon is a writer on development theory and practice, and senior adviser to the South Centre.

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ENDNOTES

1. This paper is an adapted and expanded version of ideas I presented at various meetings organised by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Brussels, October 2010; Quito, February-March 2012; and Rome in March 2012).

2. I will take up some of these issues in a book I hope to write in the coming months on ‘Identity and Solidarity’.

3. The self-immolation of 27 year old Mohamed Boauzizi in Tunisia in January 2011, and suicide of 77 year old Dimitris Christoulas in April 2012 in Athens were the tragic manifestations of those who preferred to die in dignity than become beggars in the street.

4. Even Charles Malik, who did most of the writing, was a fundamentalist Christian Arab from Lebanon.

5. Tandon, Y, ‘Village Contradictions in Africa’, published in Wolfgang Sachs (ed.), Global Ecology, London: Zed Books, 1993

I thus caught that colonial mindset at work

The misrepresentation of post-apartheid social movements

Mandisi Majavu

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81483

cc WikimediaA colonial mindset still pervades some intellectual critiques of social movements in post-apartheid South Africa.

Frances Piven and Richard Cloward (1977) once wrote that when poor people’s movements go against the doctrine of those who regard themselves as the intellectual revolutionary vanguard, the movements are often derided and dismissed. History is full of examples in which movements were dismissed for either being too ‘nationalistic’ or for ‘lacking class consciousness’. For instance, although the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) is now regarded as one of the political movements that played a significant role in the fight against the apartheid regime, it was once accused of being manipulated by the CIA. The Unity Movement, a defunct political organisation that also fought against the apartheid regime, characterised the BCM as an ‘American implantation, class-based and manipulated by the CIA’ (Chisholm 1991).

In differing degrees, post-apartheid social movements have learnt that disagreeing with those who see themselves as the intellectual revolutionary vanguard comes at a high cost. Owing to the legacy of the apartheid system, the intellectual revolutionary vanguard in South Africa tends to be educated middle class white activists who research and write about social movements for journals. In the academic/intellectual circles, it is this intellectual revolutionary vanguard that sets the tone and the perimeters of the debate regarding social movements in post-apartheid South Africa. Black intellectuals such as Buntu Siwisa (2008) refer to these middle class white activists as ‘city-based intellectual-cum-activists’. Siwisa further notes that these ‘city-based intellectual-cum-activists’ are characterised by the fact that they are university educated and have secure employment, while grassroots based black activists are uneducated and are often unemployed.

Recently, poor black activists in South Africa have found themselves the target of a nasty campaign that is led by Heinrich Bohmke, one of the ‘city-based intellectual-cum-activists’ that Siwisa wrote about in his article ‘Crowd Renting or Struggling from Below? The Concerned Citizens’ Forum in Mpumalanga Township, Durban, 1999–2005’. According to Siwisa (2008), Heinrich Bohmke was once the ‘legal adviser’ and one of the ‘prominent organisers’ of the now defunct Durban-based social movement, Concerned Citizens Forum (CCF).

These days Bohmke sings a different tune however. He is of the view that ‘social movements are dead’. Through his blog, Dispositions - http://dispositionsjournal.blogspot.co.nz/ - Bohmke has unleashed a series of hostile and destructive attacks on poor people’s movements. Bohmke’s contempt for black leadership is unmatched. For example, he argues that S’bu Zikode of Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) is intellectually incapable of discussing Frantz Fanon without the help of a white mentor. In his own words Bohmke writes that: ‘When we read Abahlali statements and speeches by Sbu Zikode it is Pithouse's [a white academic] take on Fanon not Zikode's that is found, word for word’.

Bohmke continues:

For a painful example of this, view Sbu Zikode's interview outside a Fanon lecture, hosted by the Church Land Programme, on “Why is Fanon Relevant Today”… Although he treads water fairly well, Zikode is plainly out of his depth and the platitudes about Fanon could apply to any human rights activist.

In the same article, which is entitled ‘Ventriloquism, Fanon and the Social Movement Hustle’, Bohmke attacks another poor people’s movement, the Unemployed People Movement (UPM). He mocks and ridicules the movement saying that:

UPM hands do not hold the pen. Kota [Ayanda Kota is the leader of the UPM] and Co. supply the raw data but the narrative into which 'the more important' parts are inserted is supplied by an outside mentor. It is both above and beneath individual UPM members to write what appears in Inboxes the world over.

Bohmke then zooms in on Ayanda Kota. Quoting an anonymous source, he writes that: ‘An academic who shared a platform with Kota remembers him struggling through a speech on Fanon. “It was painful”, he says, “you could see he did not write the speech”.’

One of the most enduring racist stereotypes is the belief that blacks are incapable of cerebral functioning (Wright 1997). Thus Bohmke finds it easy to portray black leaders of post-apartheid social movements as morons. As far as Bohmke is concerned, black leaders of social movements imitate whites when they engage in intellectual debates, and additionally, black leaders need white help to talk about Frantz Fanon.

Bohmke further accuses the black leadership of post-apartheid social movements of being dishonest, labelling them hustlers who enjoy the benefits that come with the status of being leaders of a social movement.

The black man, a bit of a hustler, who can blame him, an activist too, thinks that
he can pull the strings. There are the airfares, the money from the NGO's, the
sense of grandeur. But he is ensnared. The strings tighten, the dependence
increases, room for maneuver less so. He must perform. Give township tours to
researchers from overseas. Denounce the bad white rival of his mentor. Keep a
semblance of an organization going.

When the AbM refuses to work with the Centre for Civil Society in Durban, Bohmke writes that the poor people’s movement is used as a ‘stalking horse’ by a certain white academic to fight his own academic battles. I quote Bohmke: “And then being the stalking horse for a silly and unsustainable boycott of the Centre for Civil Society, where one of its mentors worked and had to leave under a cloud of allegation by women colleagues, not political persecution, at the exact time Abahlali's boycott began.”

The underlying message being that poor black people are simply incapable of reaching their own conclusions. Bohmke has an annoying tendency to portray poor black people as lacking initiative and without agency.

Writing disparagingly about poor people’s efforts to organise themselves, Bohmke accuses the AbM of being a brand and of being a ‘liberal NGO’:

The brand representation of Abahlali is of an organization with strong anarchist tendencies; it is resolutely democratic, militant, massive, vibrant and radically autonomous of the state. It is an organization with chic aesthetic affinities, theoretical inclinations towards Badiou, Fanon and Engels.

The AbM is a movement of the poor for the poor. Contrary to Bohmke’s claims, the AbM is neither a brand nor a liberal NGO. I quote the AbM:

We have thought for ourselves, discussed all the important issues for ourselves and taken decisions for ourselves on all the important issues that affect us. We have demanded that the state includes us in society and gives us what we need to have for a dignified and safe life. We have also done what we can to make our communities better places for human beings. We have run crèches, organised clean up campaigns, connected people to water and to electricity, tried to make our communities safe and worked very hard to unite people across all divisions. We have faced many challenges but we have always worked to ensure that in all of this work we treat one another with respect and dignity.

The AbM is made up of poor people; people who were impoverished by the apartheid regime. These are people who unlike Bohmke were deprived of life opportunities simply because they are black. These are people who have the humility to give speeches in their second or third language (i.e. English) in order to share their experiences with the outside world.

Blinded by his cultural chauvinism, Bohmke demeans the efforts of these poor people by portraying them as imbeciles who go around imitating their white mentors. I quote Bohmke: ‘When people interview the leader they appreciate his obvious qualities but also know full well that the speeches and articles are not his work’.

Bohmke has also accused the AbM of having ‘dubious allies’. According to Bohmke:

Abahlali is affiliated with the Informal Settlement Network launched in May 2009. The Informal Settlement Network (ISN) ‘is an alliance of settlement-level and national-level organizations of informal settlement dwellers in South Africa’... The ISN is supported by the Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) based in Cape Town and the transnational Shack / Slum Dwellers International (SDI) based in the United States.

The AbM has stated on record that as a matter of fact, ‘we have never joined the ISN and we are not even aware of their programmes and projects’. According to the AbM, Bohmke is a ‘liar’. The UPM calls Bohmke ‘the notorious slanderer’.

Among other things, white privilege protects Bohmke from being seriously questioned and exposed for what he is, a bigot on the loose. In a country like South Africa where the colonial legacy still affects every single aspect of people’s social life, a white person’s word carries a lot of weight. It is against this backdrop that even the most unreconstructed colonial creature and an out-and-out racist like R.W. Johnson can still be accorded intellectual respect and have their racist work circulated in civil society internet forums. In 2010, over 30 academics from around the world wrote to the London Review of Books (LRB) objecting to the continued publication of R.W. Johnson’s racist rants and ravings. In their letter, these academics noted that ‘we find it baffling therefore that you continue to publish work by R.W. Johnson that, in our opinion, is often stacked with the superficial and the racist’.

To understand how voices such as R.W. Johnson are continuously given space to air their white supremacist myths, one has to keep in mind that, among other things, the white supremacist system gives authority and legitimacy to white voices that would be regarded as unmitigated racist ravings in an egalitarian society. What the system aims to achieve is to prevent understanding, while, simultaneously, reinforcing white supremacist points of view.

That system makes it easy for poor blacks to be accused of being dishonest, corrupt and hustlers. In such a context, ‘all kinds of allegations can be levelled against you without any proof being offered to support them and many people will believe them. It can be said that you are undemocratic, that you are corrupt, that you cannot think and speak for yourself and worse’, according to the UPM.

The UPM also points out the dangers of simply ignoring the racist ravings of the Bohmkes of this world who rely on the white supremacist system to give their writing credibility and legitimacy.

We are aware that other movements and individuals think that Bohmke’s ravings are beneath contempt and should not be dignified with any response. It is true that his poisonous attacks on individuals and movements are always grossly dishonest from start to finish... But while we respect the views of those that have advised us to just ignore Bohmke’s slander and to rather focus on building our movement we feel strongly that the left must confront itself honestly and openly if we are to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. The reality is that some of those people in the left who think that they have a right to rule all popular struggles have used Bohmke’s slander to try and destroy movements that they can’t control. A lot of people are fighting ruthless turf wars in the left and some of them have been willing to use Bohmke’s attacks for their own interests.

Indeed, the left at large ought to come to terms with the fact that poor people’s movements do not proceed by someone else’s rules or dogmas. As Piven and Cloward (1977) once pointed out, poor people’s social struggles flow from historically specific circumstances, ‘it is a reaction against those circumstances, and it is also limited by those circumstances’. It is necessary to remember this insight when we discuss social movements.


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* Mandisi Majavu is the Book Reviews Editor of Interface: A Journal For and About Social Movements.

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From anti-war to anti-imperialism

A Black working class perspective on war and movement building

Ajamu Baraka

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81481

cc L LAn excerpt from a presentation at the United National Anti-War Coalition national conference, 24 March 2012.

There is moral currency in an anti-war position that rejects war as an instrument of human relations that degrades and demeans all those who participate in it. People of conscience and faith have called for the abolition of war for centuries. But humans have yet to find a way to avoid this primitive method for solving disputes, advancing claims on territory, avenging assaults on ‘honour or subjugating the ‘other’. War and its terrible realities is an ongoing testament to our darkest sentiments and irrationalities. The elimination of the scourge of war is a laudable goal that should remain a central priority for all of us who believe that human societies can transcend the organised barbarity that has characterised much of human history over the last millennium and especially the last 500 years. Its abolition, therefore, would be an accomplishment that would reflect a level of evolution for collective humanity that in and of itself would suggest that all of the other maladies that cause conflict between nations, states and peoples – economic exploitation, oppression and domination, capitalism, racism, national oppression, neo-colonialism, religious fundamentalism, patriarchy — would also have been effectively and permanently eliminated.

But, unfortunately, in the real world we have inherited, all of the maladies just listed still exist between peoples and states. And for those of us who come from oppressed peoples and nations, we are subjected to various forms of warfare on a continuous basis — from the militarisation of our communities and political repression to direct and open military assaults to contain and suppress our expression of self-determination and liberation. The killing of Trayvon Martin by a member of what is a growing phenomenon in the US – armed paramilitary racists – is just the latest reminder of the precarious situation that Black and oppressed nationalities face in the midst of an economic crisis that is feeding neo-fascist tendencies. Therefore, for oppressed people, a decontextualized, abstract and absolutist anti-war position is a luxury we cannot afford.

Situated within the context of globalised European capitalist/imperialist hegemony, real world balance-of-forces considerations must always influence, if not guide, our political and even moral assessments and practical responses to conflicts and questions of war and peace. From this perspective, which is clearly a political perspective, questions of solidarity and political support must be guided by an assessment of how support either strengthens or weakens the geo-political hegemony of Western imperialism.

For many this may appear to be a crude formulation that is morally suspect, especially in light of the liberal interventionist calls for humanitarian intervention, the ‘right to protect’, and even the activity of the International Criminal Court. But an explicit anti-imperialist position has value not only in relation to extra-territorial questions involving the US, but also for the progressive movement to develop political positions that can take advantage of the current crisis of governance that the white, minority, ruling class is experiencing.

The militarism of neo-liberalism has created irreconcilable ideological contradictions for the Western, white, male, capitalist, minority ruling class. In order to maintain the hegemony of the global 1%, new policies, alliances and transnational structures have been developed to advance and justify imperialism’s right to carry out acts of military aggression and full-blown wars against other countries, oppressed peoples and social movements, while at the same time pretending to support democracy and development in the global South and internally. One example is the US government’s professed concern for activists in Syria, while completely ignoring the plight of activists in Bahrain, and actually supporting the brutal repression by Saudi forces of peaceful protests there. While we are on the topic of Saudi Arabia, how does a government that partially justified the invasion of Afghanistan by saying they were going to liberate women from the burqa, justify having one of its biggest friends (and, coincidentally, biggest customers) be a government that denies women the right to vote or drive?

Capitalist globalisation has exposed the backward and vulgar nature of capitalism and engendered popular resistance world-wide, from the streets of Athens to New York. The so-called ‘Arab spring’ was a reaction not only to the rapacious, comprador ruling classes propped up and maintained by Western imperialism, but also a reaction to imposed neo-liberal economic policies that devastated national economies and pushed millions into poverty. In the US, reactions to economic and social contradictions have resulted in an expansion of the State’s repressive apparatus. Under the guise of the ‘war on drugs’ and then national security, local police forces have been militarised and unleashed on African-American, Latino, Arab and, even still today, indigenous people. Migrant workers are imprisoned in an ever-increasing system of privatised prisons and now over two million black and brown bodies are commodified as generators of profits and a source of jobs in a system of barbaric gulags where 25,000 of those prisoners are held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.

There are connections between the US state sanctioned violence in the forms of targeted imprisonment, military occupations of black and brown communities and imperialist wars fought primarily against non-white people of the global South. The anti-war and peace movement, along with the Occupy Wall Street Movement, must make those connections and make the ideological and structural expressions of white supremacy a fundamental target of their internal political education and public expressions. Those powerful forces must develop a lens that is able to see how white supremacist ideology is used to obscure the real interests behind wars, domestic policies and the alignment of power that conspires to maintain the colonial and imperialist dominance of people around the world. When those connections are made and internalised, all of us who struggle for human rights and a world without war, violence and oppression will know that we have a movement that can withstand the attempts to divide us internally, and that we can keep the focus where it needs to be – on transforming ourselves and the world.


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* Ajamu Baraka is the former director of the US Human Rights Network and longtime human rights and social justice advocate. He is currently a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Ahmed Ben Bella: 'I spent 24-and-half years in prison'

A candid interview with Silvia Cattori for Salem-News.com

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81476

cc WikimediaAhmed Ben Bella, the first elected president of Algeria and one of the greatest figures of Arab nationalism died on April 11. In this wide-ranging interview, reflects on his life and offers interesting perspectives on world affairs.

(ROME) - The first president of independent Algeria (1963-1965) Ahmed Ben Bella passed away on April 11th, 2012 at the age of 96 years. At the time of his death we are reprinting the interview he granted us in Geneva on April 16, 2006.

Ahmed Ben Bella is one of the great figures of Arab nationalism. He was one of the nine members of the Committee of Algerian Revolutionaries that gave birth to the National Liberation Front (NLF). Arrested by the French occupiers in 1952, he managed to escape. Once again arrested in 1956, along with seven colleagues, he was detained in the la Santé prison until 1962. After the signing of the Evian Accord, he became the first elected president of independent Algeria. On the domestic front, he initiated a Socialist policy characterised by a vast program of Agrarian reform.

On the international front, he brought his country into the UN and engaged in the movement of non-aligned countries. His influence grew in the struggle against imperialism, driven by the great powers that supported his military coup d’etat. From 1965 to 1980 he was placed under surveillance. Since then, he has held the position of his country’s interior affairs minister, yet he continues to play an international role, in particular as president of the International Campaign against the attack in Iraq.

While a debate is underway in France on the benefits of colonisation and responsibility of Arabs in the digression of their societies, the former Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella recalls several historical truths: the illegitimacy of one people dominating over another - that took place formerly in Algeria and today in Palestine; the global reality, and not an Arab one, of colonisation and the struggle for national liberty; Western interference by overthrowing nationalist governments and revolutionaries in countries in the south of the world; and maintaining the aftermath of colonisation. He emphasizes that today, it’s the Christian Evangelical fundamentalists who export violence. Central actor of historical dissidence, he responds to questions from Silvia Cattori.

SILVIA CATTORI: When you are not travelling, do you reside in Switzerland?

AHMED BEN BELLA: No, I live in Algeria, but I often come to Switzerland. I had lived here for ten years, after my quarrels with the Algerian military powers. In Algeria, I’m bombarded by journalists. So, when I need to take a little rest and step back from what happens there, I come here where I have a small apartment. You know, I’m ninety years old!

SILVIA CATTORI: You have the air of a young man! Do you know, Mr. Ben Bella, that you have imprinted a very positive image in the hearts of people throughout the world?

BEN BELLA: (Laughs) My life has been a bit special, this is true. I participated in the liberation of my country. I was one of the organisers of its struggle for liberation. I likewise actively participated in all the struggles for liberation.

SILVIA CATTORI: Your origin is Arab-Moroccan. What ties have you kept with your rural roots?

BEN BELLA: Yes, I am Algerian of Moroccan origin through my parents, but all my life is Algeria. I was born there. I am the son of poor peasants who came at a very young age to live in Algeria. I only recently saw the place where they were born, near the city of Marrakech.

SILVIA CATTORI: In coming to you, I have the impression of coming into contact with the people and causes for which you have fought all your life. It’s very moving to talk about your fight to create a more humane, more just world. Are you not the incarnation of all this?

BEN BELLA: Yes, my life is a life of combat; I can say that this has never stopped for a single instant. It is a combat that started for me at the age of 16. I’m 90 years old now, and my motivation hasn’t changed; it’s the same fervour that drives me.

SILVIA CATTORI: In 1962, you reached the highest goals of independent Algeria. All hopes were open. From colonised Algeria to its liberation, from the international political scene to the fight for alter-globalisation, you paid a high price for your dissidence.

BEN BELLA: Yes, I paid much in my fight for justice and liberty of people. But clearly, I did what I felt to be a duty, an obligation. So, for me the choice was not difficult. When I was engaged in the struggle for my country, I was very young. My horizons were open. I quickly realised that the problems go beyond Algeria, that colonisation affected many people, that three-quarters of the countries in the world have been colonised in one way or another. Algeria was thus, for the French, a department overseas; it was the France located on the other side of the Mediterranean. The French colonisation of Algeria lasted a long time: 132 years. I participated in that fight right in Algeria.

Immediately after independence, I was associated with all those who, in the world, themselves undertook the struggle to liberate their own country. It was thus this phase in the fight for national liberty that I participated completely. In Tunisia, in Morocco, in Vietnam, Algeria has become somewhat like the "mother of freedom struggles"; to support them was thus for us a sacred mark. When someone came to ask us for help, it was sacred. We did not even think twice. We helped them, even if we had only meagre means; we offered them arms, a little bit of money, and in occasion, men.

SILVIA CATTORI: In 1965, it was not the French who imprisoned you; it was your brothers in arms. Today, what do you feel towards those who had so brutally barred the road?

BEN BELLA: I don’t feel contempt, I don’t feel hate. I think that they participated in something that was not very proper and was very pitiful, not only for the Algerian people, but also for the other people who counted on our support. My fight to bring better conditions of life to Algerians thus plunged into great poverty, and my fight to help other still colonised people to recover their freedom bothered certain authorities. From their point of view, I had gone too far. I had to disappear. That is to say, if the Algerian army had not overthrown me, others would have done so. I had to disappear, because I had become too much of a nuisance. I accommodated practically all of the liberation movements, including those of Latin America.

SILVIA CATTORI: Were you already in contact with Fidel Castro?

BEN BELLA: Yes, Che [Guevara] had come to Algiers bringing me the message from Fidel Castro whom I had encountered two times. He asked us to support the struggles that were developing in South America, as Cuba couldn’t do anything; it had been under the control of the United States that occupied Guantánamo Bay. Therefore nothing could leave Cuba, not even a box of matches, without the United States knowing about it. I didn’t hesitate for a second. It’s from Algeria, and with the participation of Che, who stayed with us six months, that the state major of the liberation army of South America was created. I can say now: all the combatants who participated in the fight for freedom in South America came to Algeria; it’s from there that all those who fought left. We trained them, we arranged for the weapons to reach them, we created networks.

SILVIA CATTORI: In what year did Che Guevara come to Algeria?

BEN BELLA: Che came in 1963, shortly after I had come to power. With my government, we engaged in bringing our help to fights for national freedom. At that precise moment, several countries were still colonised or had barely overcome colonisation. This was the case in practically all of Africa. We supported them. Mr. Mandela and Mr. Amilcar Cabral themselves came to Algeria. It’s me who coached them; afterwards they returned to lead the fight for freedom in their countries. For other movements, which were not involved in a military fight and who needed only political support, such as Mali, we helped in other ways.

SILVIA CATTORI: Who precisely dismissed you in 1965? The Algerian army or the foreign forces?

BEN BELLA: I am certain that, indirectly, there was the intervention of foreign authorities. Elsewhere we have seen the same mechanisms working. Everywhere that the struggle for national freedom has triumphed, once the authorities agreed, there were military coups d’etat that overthrew their leaders. That is the result time and time again. In two years, there were 22 military coups d’etat, essentially in Africa and the third world. The coup d’etat of Algiers, in 1965, is what opened the path. Algeria was therefore only the beginning of something that was in development: this is why I say that it’s the global capitalist system that finally reacted against us.

SILVIA CATTORI: Are you a Marxist?

BEN BELLA: I am not a Marxist, but I place myself resolutely at the left. I am a Muslim Arab, in my actions oriented very to the left, in my convictions. That is why, even if I don’t share the Marxist doctrine, I always found myself on the side of all the leftist movements in the world and Socialist countries like Cuba, China, the USSR, that have led the anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist fights. It’s with them that we have constituted a liberation front and brought our logistic support to armies to help their countries come out of colonialism and establish a national internal regime. This was the phase of eliminating colonialism. Colonialism is an idea born in the West that drives Western countries - like France, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain - to occupy countries outside of Europe. Colonialism is known in its primitive form, that is to say, by the permanent settling of repressive foreign powers, with an army, services, policies. This phase has known cruel colonial occupations which have lasted 300 years in Indonesia.

SILVIA CATTORI: After this phase, were you not active in the movement of non-aligned countries?

BEN BELLA: There are no more non-aligned countries. This movement had been created by men of very high position such as Nehru, Mao Tse-tung, Nasser and other great names; in an era where above all there was the risk of an atomic war. It was the confrontation between the USSR and the United States. We were on the verge of a nuclear war. The non-aligned countries played an important role in preventing it. This movement lasted a certain number of years. But the system finished for the better.

SILVIA CATTORI: Afterwards, did you not play an important role in the development of the alter-globalisation movement?

SILVIA CATTORI: The global system presiding over everything, as we have said, invented another form of domination: « globalisation. » "Globalisation" is a very nice word in itself. A word which can unite, can bring brotherhood among people. But, the word "globalisation" such as it is conceived, is a word that brings just the worst. With this word there has been brought the globalisation of misery, death, hunger: 35 million people die of malnutrition every year. Yes, that would be a very nice word, if we had globalised for the better, brought well being for all. But, it’s the contrary. It’s a perverse globalisation; it globalises the bad, it globalises death, it globalises poverty.

SILVIA CATTORI: Does globalisation only have perverted effects?

BEN BELLA: The only advantage that we have taken from it is that we are nowadays better informed than before. Nobody can ignore the fact anymore that the system leads to an extension of dissatisfaction. Wealth has been created, but it is an artificial wealth. These are the multinationals, like General Motors and Nestlé; these are the big industrial groups that weigh, on the monetary scale, much more than big countries like Egypt. If we base it on their gains, General Motors, for example, is four times richer than Egypt, which is a country of 70 million inhabitants, the country of the Pharaohs, an extraordinary country, the most educated Arab country! That gives you an image of what « globalisation » means. In a nutshell, it is why I fought the system that favours groups that represent, on the monetary scale, much more than a large country and generates so much inequality. And this is the reason why we must, the rest of us, seek a better understanding of problems which have been wilfully complicated, but which are ultimately an expression of one single thing: the establishment of an inhumane system.

SILVIA CATTORI: Despite the clearly expressed will, in 2003, by three-quarters of the people on the planet, the progressive movements did not succeed in preventing war. Do you not sometimes have the feeling that those who are in the direction of movements lacked a course; or frankly followed a false path for through not having been able to identify the true motivations of the adversary?

BEN BELLA: I myself, speaking as a man of the south, note that something has changed in the north, which is a very important point to raise. What changed exactly in this so-called advanced region of the north: that we have made a war, we have colonised, that we have done terrible things, and that there is today an opinion that is expressed, that there are young people who say "enough." This indicates that this perverse global system does not strike only the south but also the north. In the past, we spoke of poverty, misery only in the south. Now there is a lot of misery, a lot of bad that creates victims in the north as well. This has become manifest: the global system was not made to serve the good of all, but to serve multinational companies.

Thus, deep from within this north, which we have so fought against, there is now a movement, there is an entire generation of youth who want to act, who go out onto the streets, who protest, even if the leftists did not know to give the key to the solution to these young people who want change. This has always occurred: all movements begin in this manner. The liberation movement which I led in Algeria, the organization that I created to fight the French army, was at first a small movement of nothing at all. We were but some tens of people throughout Algeria, a territory that is five times the size of France.

SILVIA CATTORI: What have they gained, these generations of young people who have put so much hope in Attac, for example, who proposed to "reform globalisation"? But must it have not been necessary to refuse this same principal and adopt more radical measures, faced with the radical nature of the system that calls itself liberal?

BEN BELLA: Those who are leftists, once in power, are not different from other parties. In that which concerns Algeria, we have tried to work with the French left. But we did not know about the worse power exerted by the French Socialist party. The worst of things that came to us was with the Socialists. No previous political power had fought us as hard as the Socialist Guy Mollet. I am telling you the precise facts. I am speaking of what I know. I was at the head of the FLN when the government of Guy Mollet - after having understood that France couldn’t maintain itself in Algeria - contacted Gamal Abdel Nasser so that he could ask us if we were ready to discuss with them. I always planned this; that one day he was going to have to sit together at a bargaining table with us and define the best way that Algeria could become completely independent. It was the goal that we sought: to again become free, to not live anymore under the stick of an oppressive system. I said yes, that I was ready to negotiate, on the condition that they, the French, would ask for it. It was important, as it’s always he who is the weakest that asks to negotiate. I required that the negotiations be held in Egypt. The negotiations lasted three months. We arrived at a solution. With my copy of the paper in my hands, in September of 1956, I went to inform Mohammed V, the king of Morocco. It had been implied in this struggle, he had helped us, including in a military way. Furthermore, we went to Tunisia because we also wanted to inform the authorities and our plane had been hunted by the French aviation. It was the first plane diversion in history. There were, in this plane, two-thirds of the leaders of the Algerian revolution. They wanted to immediately dispose of us. It was a miracle that we escaped death. All of this tells you what I think of Socialists: it was Guy Mollet who, barely had he signed an engagement, he betrayed it. I could say the same thing about Governor Lacoste, he was a Socialist also. No, the leftist parties didn’t support us, on the contrary. But despite all this, it’s the left that interested us and it’s with them that I continued to fight. I am a man of the left.

SILVIA CATTORI: So when you stand alongside representatives of international Socialists, on the podiums of social forums, you came to say to yourself that they are there for personal prestige above all?

BEN BELLA: Yes I came to think that they are not serious. I myself really want to change this world. I want this world to change. To change things, we need people who are sincere and selfless, above all.

SILVIA CATTORI: Do you believe in the necessity of change?

BEN BELLA: Yes, since my earliest youth I have believed in this necessity. I come back to what you said earlier; that which personally brought me to have a certain confidence in the future. I want to talk about what I observe here, in the West. I am convinced that the liberal system does not have a future. These young people, these high school students who I’ve seen go out onto the streets, who have nothing but their ideal of justice; these youths who demonstrate, who are on a quest for other values, I would love to say to them: "I began like that, when I was your age, by small steps. And little by little it was a mass of people who followed me." When I go to demonstrations, I observe them, I speak with them, and I see that it’s them who hold the cards in their hands.

SILVIA CATTORI: The question arises with insistence: have not the leaders of anti-imperialist movements supported Israel, a State that is ideologically and legislatively racist, who since its creation has engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing in Palestine? Consequently, they have badly guided generations of young people, falsified the debate, while Israel has been very active besides the United States to combat communism, to combat Nasser and Arab nationalism, in supporting horrible regimes?

BEN BELLA: These days such questions are on the table, they generate debate. We did not want a biased solidarity. We did not want a State that, like Israel, would be a favourite tool of this cruel global system driven by the United States, which practices a policy that has already caused so much harm. For us, it’s a double betrayal. First of all, the betrayal of those who, on the side of the left, should have been on our side, loyal to the Palestinian and Arab causes, and were not. Secondly, the betrayal of all the Jews with whom we felt close, with whom we had similarities, and with whom we lived in perfect harmony. The Arabs and the Jews are cousins. We speak the same language. They are Semites like us. They themselves speak Aramaic, we speak Aramaic. Aramaic includes several branches: Ethiopians speak Aramaic, Erytrians speak Aramaic, people of Jewish confession speak Aramaic, and Arabs speak Aramaic. It’s this that harms us: it’s that we know we have been betrayed by those who are close to us, by the people who are our cousins, who are similar to us and speak Aramaic like us. We are familiar with anti-Semitism; we are Semites. I add that even their prophet is our prophet. Moses and Jesus Christ are prophets with us.

SILVIA CATTORI: Since the end of multilateralism, the UN was put under the control of Washington and neo-conservatives. All Arab countries that did not submit to their diktats were dismissed by the community of nations. How do you judge this situation? How to get out of it? Also, confronted by the Israeli unilateralism, was Hamas not condemned to failure, and to give up the reason their people had struggled for 60 years?

BEN BELLA: I think that Hamas is characteristic of what happens with us, of this dimension that now takes a strong religious bent, one that endorses Islam. I am an Arab Muslim, I do not want to live in a country run by Islamic fundamentalism. But I want to speak very frankly: I don’t blame them. Because this need for religion was created by the distortions of the capitalistic system. It’s a force to harm us that finally, in place of facing them in movement — yes, which endorses Arabness, which endorses the culture and remains open — the extremists, Israel and the United States, find themselves face-to-face in this dimension. It is they who have created this situation.

SILVIA CATTORI: You don’t want a religious response?

BEN BELLA: I am a Muslim, but I do not wish that the response be religious. It’s not the religious act in itself that I reject, no, but the fact that we can make a reading of it that does not follow the sense of renovating Islam, that we can make a retrograde reading of Islam; even though in Islam we have the advantage of believing in two religions: the Jewish religion and the Christian religion. For us, Mohammed is only a continuum of Jesus Christ and Moses.

SILVIA CATTORI: Were the Muslims not upset about the current anti-colonial resistance? Was it not recognised that it is not the values of the West that Arab-Muslims fight, but their violent politics? Hezbollah, for example, which has such bad press in our countries — did they not reverse the American and Israeli imperialism in Lebanon? Did the progressives not overcome their prejudice towards Muslims, considering them as a dynamic element in the struggle against oppression, and support them?

BEN BEALLA: Yes, yes. There is a problem of education. It belongs to those who are in the direction of progressive parties to respond in the correct manner to any given situation. But this is not the case. We have a flag, we have a national anthem, the rest of what we have is the West, with its varied tendencies, that decides our place. All of this is clothed with pretty words, covered up with the help of organisations like the World Bank and the IMF, who are none other than the instruments of torture created by the West to continue their domination. This means that we have gotten out of a system of direct colonialism in exchange for something that seems better, but is not. However, I repeat to you, I have this hope that in the north that has already done us so much harm, it’s youth is in the process of taking measures against this logic of domination that creates more and more poverty as well in the north as the south. Even if it’s not the same domination as that which is applied in the south, it’s a situation of poverty that nobody who is free can accept. How many people are left unemployed, in poverty, on the street? It’s this, perhaps, that will end up provoking people of the north to change their viewpoints and participate in a definite way with us.

SILVIA CATTORI: But these days we do not see many people in the West protesting against the atrocities committed in Iraq, in Palestine, in Afghanistan. Do you not have the impression that there are so many cleverly maintained prejudices against Arabs and Muslims — including anti-war organizations — that to support their resistance is a very farfetched idea?

BEN BELLA: It’s true, the leftist parties for which one awaited are not at a meeting place; they have taken a stand there on top. As soon as the one speaks of Islam, they oppose Bin Laden. I wouldn’t want to live in his republic, but I don’t criticise him. When I see what Bush does, I don’t allow myself to criticise Bin Laden. I say it to you frankly: the attack against the towers in New York, I don’t condemn them. I condemn Bush, I condemn the American government, because I consider Bin Laden a product of their policies. They have closed all the doors of dialogue with Arab Muslims. They have made them believe throughout the decades that if they do this or that, the West would bring justice in Palestine. But, Israel and its allies never wanted peace with us. Israel has not stopped making war and terrorising our people. Bin Laden is indirectly the creation of Bush and Israel. These two States spread death and hate in the Middle East and the world: they have left us with no other alternative than that of a violent confrontation. All of the radical movements, categorised as « terrorists » or « fundamentalists » are born in response to terrorists in Tel Aviv and Washington who bring wars of destruction to Arab people. What choice do they have, these people that have been bombarded with such savageness? Faced by modern armies, they have no other arms than sacrificing their lives in creating an explosion, voila. In the Quran we call this "shahadah." It’s an extraordinary idea that is expressed in this word. It’s a state of despair, where someone who is distressed can no longer bear living. He sacrifices himself, not to obtain a better life for himself, but so that at least his people can live better. It’s the greatest of sacrifices. We call them in the West "terrorists." But, I say it in all sincerity, I myself bow down before someone who can make a similar sacrifice, I assure you.

SILVIA CATTORI: If I understand well, you say that everything that puts the people of the Middle East in revolt has been generated by the West. That all those who fight must sacrifice themselves, suffer for others? That in the past the Arabs have demonstrated tolerance?

BEN BELLA: Completely so. The violence expressed in the Arab Muslim world is a result of the culture of hate and violence that Israel has caused in imposing itself by force on the land of Arabs. These are the atrocities of this illegal State that compels the most valorous to react. I don’t think there will be a fight more noble than that of the Palestinians who resist against their occupier. When I see what these people have endured for more than a century, and who continue to find the force to fight, I am in admiration. Today, the same ones who massacre these people pass off those of Hamas as fascists, terrorists. They are not fascists, they are not terrorists, they are resistants!

SILVIA CATTORI: Palestine is an imprisoned nation. How does one, even a leftist, come to speak of « terrorism ", instead of speaking of the right to resist by arms? Do you see major parallels or differences between the colonialisation of Algeria by France and the colonialisation of Palestine by Israel?

BEN BELLA: It’s worse in Palestine. Moreover because there is apartheid. The French cannot chase us out of a country that is five times the size of France. They tried to create a buffer zone in the north, with the least amount of Algerians possible, but they didn’t succeed. They didn’t establish a true apartheid like the Israelis and Palestinians. The State of Israel has created the most terrible of dominations.

SILVIA CATTORI: In your opinion, will the Palestinians live under occupation less time than the Algerians did?

BEN BELLA: I believe so. First of all, colonialism is a phenomenon that is clearly established and sanctioned by international law. Furthermore, if there is an issue that creates unanimity in the Arab world, it’s Palestine. As long as the Palestinians do not obtain justice, the Arab Muslim world will not be able to feel free either. It’s like a part of their flesh that remains captive.

SILVIA CATTORI: In the past, the policy was not more noble, but there was still a balance. Since the end of global bipolarism, the most basic moral principles have been swept aside. Everywhere we speak of fighting « terrorism », but we hardly speak of the 800 children killed in Palestine by Israeli soldiers since 2000; the millions of Iraqi children killed or who are sick, who don’t have the right to a normal development. Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, would they have been possible if the international community had had the decency to say no to the violence of Washington? Which responsible State still has clean hands in this so-called war against « terrorism »?

BEN BELLA: It’s unbelievable what has happened in Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. And all this horror continues to increase and generate great suffering. We learn that the United States has built prisons in Eastern Europe to escape jurisdictions of their countries and that Europe participated in all of this. Switzerland is even blamed for having authorized the passing of planes over their territory, transporting phantom prisoners, kidnapped, subjected to torture.

SILVIA CATTORI: In your opinion, what are the means to oppose the strategy put in place by Bush and the neo-conservatives?

BEN BELLA: It’s a fundamentalist movement, but Christian, that is! The problem we face today is this: the ideology of Bush is the worst fundamentalism that one can imagine. These are the famous Evangelist Protestants who inspire Bush. It’s a terrible fundamentalism. What are the means that we ultimately have to fight with? I spoke to you about the hopes that I’ve put in young people, all in knowing that there are no real means to fight this awful system. I know, it is not enough to go on the street. Something else needs to happen, to invent other methods of action, but it is necessary to act and not give in. And when we have the feeling of not advancing, it is necessary to say to ourselves that one passes through these phases, a certain amount of time is needed before a great number of people reaches understanding. We start to act with those who understand clearly, even if this does not cover all the problems. But afterwards, we need to overcome the obstacles, and say to ourselves that it’s neither the Socialist party, all Socialists who are in favour, nor such and such association that is going to change the world.

SILVIA CATTORI: In order to again reach balance, could the solution come from China and Russia?

BEN BELLA: I think that hope could come from China. In the past, Russia helped us in an extraordinary way. But for now, unfortunately, Russia is not in an easy situation. I would not put hope in it. I would count very much on China. First of all, it has selling points that Russia doesn’t have. It’s a country ahead of others in expansion. Even the West is going to invest in China to enrich its economy. Twenty years from now we will see the new political map.

SILVIA CATTORI: While we are waiting, what should be said to people who have been left neglected, in Palestine, in Iraq?

BEN BELLA: We never act with the thought that it’s us who are going to be the beneficiaries. We act because it’s necessary to act. The great conquests have never been the product of a single generation. We say in my country that he who eats is not he who serves the meal. It’s necessary to create a network of solidarity that unconditionally supports the struggle of its people.

SILVIA CATTORI: What to say to these young people who you mentioned, witnesses of so much abuse?

BEN BELLA: It’s necessary that they overcome, that they take initiatives. It does not suffice to get together periodically in a big gathering, if nothing changes, it’s necessary to move on to something else: to invent new forms of fighting instead of waiting.

SILVIA CATTORI: But has the time not come that Arabs take the direction of an anti-war movement up to this point between the hands of the West?

BEN BELLA: Yes, yes. Given the gravity of the situation in the Middle East, it is the Palestinians or the representatives of movements in the Arab world who have to make a move. I think that the Arab movement, the Palestinian movement, all of these forces, if they combine and go beyond their differences of opinion, are a hope not only for the Arabs. They can equally contribute to changing the world, a world system that functions.

SILVIA CATTORI: You seem to be optimistic!

BEN BELLA: Oh you know, I’m nothing but optimistic: I’ve spent my life in acting. I am not satisfied making speeches, I devote all of my time in acting by means of the organisation North-South. Also I believe that, sometimes, the forces of hope come from where we least expect them.

SILVIA CATTORI: The first constitutive congress of the Peoples’ Arab Alliance of Resistance was held the end of March 2006 in Cairo. The participants called the people to put themselves "under the banner of internationalism to support the Arab people in their fight against imperialistic violence." Is it not the starting point of a campaign that, if the progressive parties of the West rally together, could boost the anti-war movement and go in the direction of your hopes?

BEN BELLA: Yes, I am personally in favour of this initiative. What is important is to advance. One does not advance if one doubts, if one thinks it’s finished, if one remains only in a state of dissension. We advance and we correct our errors. Life is like that. There are also, in the Arab camp, many obstacles to overcome. We have to make an effort to go beyond these disagreements. In effect, we have in the Arab movement, the same weaknesses which are present in the anti-imperialist movement in the West.

SILVIA CATTORI: There are almost ten thousand Palestinians arbitrarily imprisoned in Israeli jails. They are not recognised as political prisoners. Ahmed Sa’adat - kidnapped by Israel in March of 2006 in Jericho, with six colleagues - whereas he was under American and British guard - has since been subjected to continuous torture. He has reaffirmed his will to not give up, in saying: "No matter the place where I will be, I continue to fight." You must recognise yourself in this affirmation, you who know what it means to be imprisoned?

BEN BELLA: Yes, I spent 24 and a half years in prison. When the French locked me up in la Santé, they put me with prisoners who would be guillotined. I saw the guillotine from my cell. It’s terrible what Israel forces the Palestinians to undergo as ill treatment. Currently I have only one project: it’s Palestine. I will do anything possible to help them. To reach peace, in Palestine and the world, the system of the marketplace needs to be rid of. Because the problems are immense, the damage is immense. Leaving the world in the hands of finance and murderers is a crime. It’s that which is terrorism. It’s not Bin Laden.

SILVIA CATTORI: When you hear the heads of State say that they’ve made a war in Iraq in the name of liberty and democracy, what do you want to say to them?

BEN BELLA: I tell them that the right to live is the first of human rights. The right of mankind is the right to live. All the philosophies where I’m from speak of the right to life. Safeguarding life, to live, is the first of things for which one aspires. But the global system is not humble enough to guarantee this right. It exploits, it kills. And when it can’t kill, it builds savage prisons, abuse which pretends to bring about democracy. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States started to do what Israel always had done against the Palestinians. One speaks of Israeli and American democracy. But what democracy have they brought while destroying any chance to live?

SILVIA CATTORI: Are you suffering for Iraq?

BEN BELLA: Ah yes, Iraq for me. I’ve gone to Iraq five times, you know. (Silence). I failed to be killed in Iraq. It’s intolerable to see what one has done in Iraq! In this country which is the cradle of civilisation! Iraq, it’s there where we started to cultivate the land, it’s there where humanity was born, it’s there where the first principles were based, it’s there where the alphabet was created, the first code is that of Hammurabi. All of this was destroyed by ignorant leaders, by a nation that has no more than 250 years of history, which was itself a colony of Great Britain. They ridded themselves of British colonialism and established a worldwide colonialism. What became of the 80 million American Indians? I will never return to America, it’s a country of crooks.

SILVIA CATTORI: Do you feel that the wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East are racist?

BEN BELLA: Completely so. These are wars brought against Islam, against the Arab civilisation. This is clearly evident. Of the countries who are outside of the law, according to Bush, only one is not Arab Muslim, North Korea. The others, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Iran, are all Muslim. The Crusades aimed supposedly at restoring the tomb of Jesus Christ. Sometimes, to tease the West, I tell them: Jesus Christ, what language did he speak? He spoke my language, not yours, he spoke Aramaic like me! When you read the Bible, Jesus Christ says: "Eli; Eli, Lama sabakta-ni." And we say in Algeria: "Ilahi limada sabakta-ni." These are exactly the same words that Jesus pronounced. Jesus spoke like me. Islam takes many things from the Evangelists as well as the Bible, which it came to supplement.
Forced with seeing these abuses, I explode. One has done to us so much wrong. One has hit us in our dignity. Without speaking of the dear people of Palestine. How many Palestinians are obliged to live under the most contemptible iron rule? Our reaction is not racist, I assure you. We have had more than enough of that. The West has done a lot of harm. Is it not the West that has committed the worst crimes against humanity? Fascism, where does it come from? Nazism, where does it come from? Stalinism, where does it come from? The famous Inquisition, which lasted 400 years, where did it take place? Frankly, it is necessary to have a lot, a lot of selflessness to say to oneself every day that passes, I don’t want to hate the West.

SILVIA CATTORI: Is it not necessary to condemn the supporters of "the clash of civilisations," the pro-Israelis, as the principle instigators of anti-Arab hate, anti-Islam, which is spreading in a disturbing way against your people?

BEN BELLA: Completely. The Israeli lobby in the United States is something terrible. Until now it was forbidden to speak of them without being marked as anti-Semitic. Recently, several studies have come to attest by undisputable examples the weight of the Israeli lobby in the political and military options taken against us. Nobody today can deny the importance, even the danger, of this lobby, which penetrates all the strategic spheres. I am thus very concerned by this aspect of things that makes the settling of the Palestinian question more difficult.

I am going to tell you, although Islam has encountered so many woes, Islam has never done wrong to other counties. In history, Islam showed a tolerance that does not exist at all elsewhere, whereas Israel has succeeded in establishing itself by force in a space and in a place which was inhabited by Palestinians - one of the most developed Arab people - and created there, in the dispossession of their land, a racist state. As long as Israel will refuse to recognize the rights of Palestinians to exist and come back to their land, there will not be peace in the world.

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* This interview was first published on silviacattori.net.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The missing ingredient in Sweden’s racist-misogynist cake

Shailja Patel

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81491

cc R AWhat makes the cake episode so deeply offensive is the appropriation, by both artist and his audience, of African women’s bodies and experiences, while completely excluding real African women from the discourse. It is a pornography of violence.

TOP LAYER

The scene is Stockholm’s Museum of Modern Art, on Sunday, April 15th. The event is the celebration of World Art Day, and the 75th birthday of the Swedish Artists Organisation. Five artists have been asked to create birthday cakes for the occasion.

This is what the world will see, in photos and on video, the next morning.

On the table, a huge cake, with a smooth shiny black surface, in the form of a caricatured African female body, sans legs. Naked, splayed on its back, it is composed of crotch, belly mound, large pendulous breasts held by truncated stick arms, a row of neck rings. Where the neck rings end, a living human head rears up through a hole in the table. The head belongs to the kneeling body of a man. It is tricked out in exaggerated blackface –large white circles around the eyes, drawn-on cartoon red mouth and pointed teeth.

Sweden's female Minister of Culture, Lena Adelsohn-Liljeroth, approaches the cake with a knife in her hand. She performs a simulated clitoridectomy, cutting the first slice from the crotch, to reveal a moist spongy red interior. The head of the body moans and shrieks with pain. A roomful of white Swedes, men and women, laugh and applaud. Cameras flash. In the photographs, faces appear alive, avidly entertained, as the minister feeds the slice she has cut to the grinning head. More people cut and eat slices of the cake body, dismembering it. The head moans, yells, screams with each knife-stroke.

There are no people of colour in the room. There are no black women in the room.

The images go viral. The African Swedish National Association demands the Minister’s resignation, as do hundreds of viewers across the world. Hundreds more register outrage and disgust on social media. It is unacceptable that the body of an African woman can be represented this way, as an object for violation and consumption. It is unacceptable that a government minister of Sweden can publicly enact the violation and consumption of that body, and laugh as she does it.

SECOND LAYER

The artist who created this cake-installation, Makode Linde, is a biracial Swedish man, of mixed black and white heritage. He refers to himself as an Afro-Swede. It was he who knelt under the table, playing the head of the cake-woman.

“Within my art I try to raise a discussion and awareness about black identity and the diversity of it,” Linde says on Al-Jazeera. “The [recent] discussions [about my cake piece] have been mostly if I or the culture minister are racist or not. I think it is a shallow analysis of the work. It’s easy to take any image and put it in the wrong context.”

His intention, he says, was to prompt action against the female genital mutilation (FGM) practiced by certain African communities. The performance “went off the exact way I wanted it.”

“It’s sad if people feel offended, but considering the low number of artists in Sweden who identify as Afro-Swedish I find it sad that the Afro-Swedish Association haven’t followed my artistry and do not understand what my work is about.”

And he continues:

“If people can get this upset from a woman cutting a cake, can’t they use that energy towards the real battle against female genital mutilation?”

He displays no ambivalence about his appropriation of the body and experience of an African woman. There is no suggestion that he has ever spoken to women from communities which practice FGM, the ones his installation is supposedly intended to benefit, or that he has invited their feedback on this piece.

THIRD LAYER

The plot thickens.

Swedish arts blogger Johan Palme frames the incident as a ‘very efficient mousetrap’ for the Minister of Culture.

Apparently, Lena Adelsohn-Liljeroth, the culture minister, “is reviled by large parts of the art world for her culture-sceptic stance and for previously condemning provocative art in what many see as a kind of censorship.”

Therefore, she arrived at the event acutely conscious of the need to repair her tattered image and dissolve the perception that she is a threat to freedom of expression in Sweden. Handed a knife, and asked to cut into the crotch of the cake-woman, she knew that if she balked or questioned, she risked being pilloried as an enemy of provocative art.

“ Lena Adelsohn-Liljeroth tries to play along as best she can in what she sees as a “bizarre” situation, reciprocating the laughter.” writes Palme. “And on the other side of the cake, placed in the narrow space in front of a glass wall, stands one of the minister’s fiercest critics, visual artist and provocateur Marianne Lindberg De Geer, camera at the ready. And she snaps pictures of the whole series of events, as the minister is egged into doing more outrageous things, performing for the crowd.”

Palme also reveals that artist Makode Linde’s has another life: “he’s a club promoter and DJ, one of Sweden’s most successful, who knows exactly how to manipulate crowds and their emotions.”

Following the global outcry the Minister releases a statement:

Our national cultural policy assumes that culture shall be an independent force based on the freedom of expression. Art must therefore be allowed room to provoke and pose uncomfortable questions. As I emphasised in my speech on Sunday, it is therefore imperative that we defend freedom of expression and freedom of art —even when it causes offence.

I am the first to agree that Makode Linde’s piece is highly provocative since it deliberately reflects a racist stereotype. But the actual intent of the piece — and Makode Linde’s artistry — is to challenge the traditional image of racism, abuse and oppression through provocation. While the symbolism in the piece is despicable, it is unfortunate and highly regrettable that the presentation has been interpreted as an expression of racism by some. The artistic intent was the exact opposite.

It is perfectly obvious that my role as minister differs from that of the artist. Provocation can not and should not be an expression for those who have the trust and responsibility of Government representative. I therefore feel it is my responsibility to clarify that I am sincerely sorry if anyone has misinterpreted my participation and I welcome talks with the African Swedish National Association on how we can counter intolerance, racism and discrimination.

Still missing: the voice of any black woman. I wonder why Nyamko Sabuni, Sweden’s dynamic Minister for Integration and Gender Equality, and the only black woman in Sweden’s cabinet, has not been asked to comment. In 2006, Sabuni created a storm of controversy when she called for mandatory gynecological examinations of all schoolgirls in Sweden in order to prevent genital mutilation. If she had been the speaker at this event, would she have been asked to cut the cake? Could her absence from the debate be because the inconvenient fact of a live articulate powerful black Swedish woman, who actually makes policy on FGM, shows up Linde’s shock art for the puerile nonsense it is?

THE BASE LAYER

Nothing about me, without me has been the rallying cry of numerous movements for justice and representation at the tables of power.

It’s tragic that in 2012, this basic tenet of any political art or advocacy is continually ignored by the entitled. And never more so than when it comes to African women and girls, the world’s favourite target for rescue, the population everyone loves to speak for and speak about, but rarely cares to listen to. What makes this cake episode so deeply offensive is the appropriation, by both Linde and his audience, of African women’s bodies and experiences, while completely excluding real African women from the discourse. It is a pornography of violence.

Jiwon Chung, leading theorist of Boal’s Theater Of The Oppressed, offers a useful set of questions to apply to any art that claims to address the suffering of a particular group or class of human beings. Let’s apply them to Linde’s cake installation, and the argument of his supporters that it somehow serves women and girls from communities that practice FGM.

1) Cui bono? Who benefits?

Linde has achieved overnight global fame from this exercise – the kind of exposure and media spotlight artists dream of. Sweden’s Culture Minister, Lena Adelsohn-Liljeroth has established herself as a champion of provocative art. It’s not clear how any woman who has had FGM, or any girl at risk of FGM, is materially better off.

2) How do those whose suffering / body / experience is depicted feel? Do they feel they've been done justice?

A brief survey of comments on media sites and facebook postings about this event suggest that the overwhelming majority of African women feel ‘outraged’, ‘violated’, ‘furious’, ‘sick’.

3) Are you speaking for them (because you have a voice, and they don't), or are they speaking for you, because what they have to say is so much more compelling than you?

The only one vocalizing anything in Linde’s art is – Makonde Linde. His caricature of an African woman doesn’t even vocalize words, just sounds of pain.

The next five questions, only Linde can answer.

4) Are you attributing clearly (giving clear credit?)

5) Are you dialectical?

6) Is your I a we? Is your we an I?

7) If their suffering were to disappear, would you be truly happy? Or would you have to look for something else onto which to glom your dissatisfaction?

8) Do you belong, do you truly claim solidarity with the suffering -- or do you do it only when it fits in with your concerns and schedule? How do you support them outside your art?

Here’s an idea for truly provocative art. No more male artists, black or white, speaking for African women. No more ever-more-graphic ever-more-voyeuristic art on the suffering of African women. Stop using the female African body as raw material to be worked – unless you happen to live in one. Then, notice that African women are making their own work about their lives and struggles. Look. Listen. Learn.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

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* Kenyan artist and activist Shailja Patel is the author of Migritude (Kaya Press, 2010), and a founding member of Kenyans for Peace, Truth and Justice. She has just been selected to represent Kenya at the 2012 Cultural Olympiad in London.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Rio+20: Technocrats, meta-industrials and real green jobs

Ariel Salleh

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81459

cc W SA discourse of international governance is in the making. Yet market logic like ‘carbon trading’, ‘geo-engineering’, or ‘climate smart agriculture’ cannot restore broken life-support-systems in nature.

As capitalism exhausts the planet's capacity to provide material throughout for industrial ‘value-adding’, it's not just high tech ‘renewables’ but ‘global institutional architectures’ that the private sector is devising to push against the limits of living nature. Typically, the new ‘environmentalism’ is rationalised as an economic necessity. Thus, Business Action for Sustainable Development writes of its role at the June 2012 Rio+20 summit: ‘The private sector generates most of the goods and services that are utilised every day and therefore must be actively engaged to address ... sustainable development goals.’

CLASS INTERESTS

Now, it is not true that business delivers most people's needs. For one thing, the majority of world food growers are women in the global South. In fact, the BASD statement invisibilises several ‘othered’ economic groupings. It is peasants, mothers, fishers and gatherers outside of capital and labouring directly with natural cycles, who meet everyday needs for the majority of people on earth. Moreover, this ‘meta-industrial’ class uses modes of provisioning and ‘indigenous technologies’ that already integrate precaution and sustainability.

Meta-industrial workers constitute the very broadest base of the international 99% - and their jobs are actually real ‘green jobs’. While the Left has not fully come to terms with this heterogeneous class, the World Social Forum has attempted to combine workers’, women's, indigenous and ecological voices. People with meta-industrial skills and values are active in WSF as peasant food sovereignty and indigenous environment networks, as women anti-toxics campaigners and peace activists. And a meta-industrial consciousness is implicit in the critique of bio-colonialism developed by the ETC group. As the WSF looks to Rio+20, its Thematic Social Forum is circulating a strong synthesis of shared concerns in ‘Another Future is Possible: Come to Re-invent the World at Rio+20’.

Meanwhile, the corporate message of BASD and others is a bid to promote the private sector as key sponsor and ideas man for reframing global governance institutions. This technique was pioneered by the Business Council for Sustainable Development in 1992 as it steered UNCED, the first Rio. Today, Elliott Harris from IMF announces a Green Economy Initiative building on ‘the strengths of the market-based economy’ supported by a more ‘coherent institutional framework’. No surprise that the peasant organisation Via Campesina, a leading strand of WSF and of the worldwide class of meta-industrial producers, reads the Rio+20 Green Economy as a yet another ‘structural adjustment program’.

Biotechnology will be central to capital accumulation through this Green Economy. But ramping that up means ever more resource extraction, biodiversity loss and energy pollution. In the words of ETC, advocates for people's science,

‘The big idea is to replace the extraction of petroleum with the exploitation of biomass (food and fibre crops, grasses, forest residues, plant oils, algae, etc.). Proponents envision a post-petroleum future where industrial production (of plastics, chemicals, fuels, drugs, energy, etc.) depends – not on fossil fuels – but on biological feedstocks transformed through high technology bioengineering platforms. Many of the world’s largest corporations and most powerful governments are touting the use of new [but untested] technologies including genomics, nanotechnology and synthetic biology to transform biomass into high-value products.’

MANUFACTURING GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

World Watch Institute calculates that 60% of "ecosystem services" have been destroyed by industrialisation since World War II. So, the key substantive issues for Rio+20 are energy access and efficiency; food security and sustainable agriculture; green jobs and social inclusion; urbanisation; water management; chemical wastes; oceans; risk and disaster amelioration. Greening the global capitalist system is deemed to be an ‘integration’ of economics and ecology. At the same time, business interests and the UN argue that ‘innovative instruments’ for financing this new direction must be consistent with ‘the Doha Development Round of multilateral trade negotiations’.

The big-picture initiatives towards this emerging hegemony are:

• Moves to transform UNEP into a World Environment Organization;
• Moves to assess the feasibility of Earth System Governance;
• Moves to explore a new Global Financial Architecture.

The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the regional development banks, UNCTAD and the World Trade Organization will be asked to consider the ecosystemic implications of their decisions. But in so doing, these neoliberal agents of social dislocation and hardship will gain fresh political legitimation.

With guidance from UNEP, the Rio+20 agenda entitled The Future We Want (also known as the Zero Draft) spells out terms of reference and potential outcomes. It rests on earlier agreements such as Agenda 21, the Johannesburg Declaration, the Monterrey Consensus, Doha Round, Istanbul Programme for Least Developed Countries, and the Bali Strategic Plan for Technology Support and Capacity Building. The Zero Draft also endorses the 1992 Rio principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ in redefining relations between the affluent global North and so called ‘developing’ South. But if ‘poverty alleviation’ is prioritised, power relations are unspoken.

Rio+20 spins into view with networks, promo agencies, think tanks, websites, and conferences, paralysing public understanding in a maze of acronyms. A discourse of international governance is in the making; a shared set of social and material expectations across nations, classes, bodies. Yet market logic like ‘carbon trading’, ‘geo-engineering’, or ‘climate smart agriculture’ cannot restore broken life-support-systems in nature. Nor will the Green Economy do much to promote democracy. Rather, green jobs designed by free traders will deepen the unequal exchange between global North and South.

SOCIAL, EMBODIED, AND ECOLOGICAL DEBT

The Green Economy is the next stage in a history of eurocentric colonisation - a system of accumulation that can only function on a surplus provided by others. Thus, capitalism is built on a social debt to exploited workers; an embodied debt to unpaid women for their reproductive labours; and an ecological debt to peasants and indigenes for appropriating their land and livelihood.

So too, history has shown that this extraction from the living peripheries of capital relies on a cooperative colonial comprador class, groomed with incentives by the coloniser. This is the real meaning of ‘development’ and such power relations are enacted today through the UN machine, through the business world, and through universities. High-level consultations for Rio+20 are currently taming a technocratic management class from among scientists, academics and bureaucrats.

Usually, colonial intermediaries come from marginal populations or poorer regions, but not always. For example, women internationally are especially vulnerable to the privileges of comprador status as they strive to climb out of oppressive patriarchalisms, and to obtain better conditions for their communities. For this reason, feminist groups like the World March of Women can face a political double-bind in responding to a Zero Draft that announces:

‘We call for removing barriers that have prevented women from being full participants in the economy and unlocking their potential as drivers of sustainable development, and agree to prioritize measures to promote gender equality in all spheres of our societies, including education, employment, ownership of resources, access to justice, political representation, institutional decision-making, care giving and household and community management.’

This gender mainstreaming seems benign enough, yet the neoliberal criterion for equality is ‘the masculine universal’ - an idealised image of the emancipated woman as one who lives like a white, middle class, man. Women's material embodiment is neutralised - often with technological help. In this way, the unique meta-industrial skills and integrative insights that women learn from undertaking reproductive labours are diminished and ‘contained’ as a valid source of alternative life-affirming values.

At the 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, UN Deputy-Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro endorsed the fact that rural women constitute one quarter of the global population; grow the majority of the world's food; and perform most unpaid care work. Without doubt their situation merits attention. But financing for water infrastructure, renewable energy, biodiversity protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation, may well benefit donors more than recipients. UN-Women's Executive Director Michelle Bachelet calls for gender sensitivity in national budgets and in business. However, like micro-credit, such measures quietly recruit women to the capitalist system.

AN ARISTOTELIAN HIERARCHY

At the pinnacle of Rio+20 stands conference Secretary General Sha Zukang, a Chinese career diplomat. He may be less hands-on than Maurice Strong, the Canadian businessman who brokered UNCED in 1992, but he is pushing a Sustainable Energy for All Initiative, as well as women's and indigenous' rights. It is envisaged that after Rio+20, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development should be upgraded to Council status - CSD becoming SDC - and ECOSOC will have a stronger coordination and outreach role.

As UNEP under Executive Director Achim Steiner explains, getting the Rio event up means orchestrating three kinds of humans - intergovernmental, governmental, and nongovernmental. In the governmental sector, state ministers or their stand-ins meet under the rubric of GCSS-12/GMEF - that is to say, the UNEP Governing Council / Global Ministerial Environment Forum. These national representatives are deployed to spell out a mix of new Green Economy models ‘tailored to different local and national conditions’; at once ‘pro-growth’ but based on a measurement of well-being that goes beyond GDP.

The corporate sector is being urged by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to sign on to a Global Compact, circulating as a kind of individualistic rights based credo of 10 principles. The International Trade Union Confederation agrees with the Green Economy approach and the idea of a new architecture of global governance. In addition, ITUC prioritises procedure - access, right principles, concrete targets and accountability. But it needs to be emphasised that if the concerns of Major Groups get tied up in operational matters at Rio+20, then capitulation to the status quo will happen by default.

Most nongovernmentals are marshalled under the UN acronym GMGSF, which stands for Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum. Here a designated space is made for Women's groups, Children and Youth, Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, Labour and Unions, Business and Industry, the Science and Technology community, and Local Authorities. There is also scope, possibly ad hoc, for regional opinion makers. But with no acknowledgement of ‘power’ and ‘profit’ as economic levers of capitalism, there is likely to be a good deal of sociological fudging in Rio+20 consultations - at this, and every other level.

The only Major Groups consistently expressing material alternatives are people whose labour involves the hands-on reproduction of natural processes.

• Women want their unpaid domestic contributions valued;
• Indigenous peoples want secure land rights;
• Peasant farmers want attention to food sovereignty.
•
To reiterate: it is these meta-industrial workers - inhabiting the domestic and geographic peripheries of capital - whose local economic provisioning and care giving already exemplifies the goals of commoning and sustainability.

META-INDUSTRIALS V TECHNOCRATS

In a time of environmental crisis, the notion of a meta-industrial class is powerfully integrative. It broadens the socialist preoccupation with productivist industrial workers, and it transcends the divisive idealism of approaches to ‘identity politics’ like feminism or indigeneity. Meta-industrial labour is materially grounded in the reproduction of embodied and ecological processes. Maintaining the humanity-nature metabolism is a ‘transcultural’ activity, and in principle, an un-gendered one. That said, for historical reasons, women around the world still undertake far more unvalued reproductive-metabolic-ecological labour than men do.

As regenerative, meta-industrial labour already models the ‘green jobs’ that the UN, private sector, and unions hope to operationalise out of thin air. Meta-industrial workers already meet human needs without destroying ecological cycles. But where are these meta-industrials in the Green Economy Coalition? GEC is a very eurocentric masculinist developmentalist program. It is all about research and product design, ‘partnerships for local entrepreneurship’, grant giving, educational forums, and reporting. GEC entertains a mixed bag of themes - Millennium Development Goals - equity yet inclusive governance - competitiveness yet market reform - green jobs yet finance for technology - workplace standards yet best practice - and transitioning. There is some interest in an international environment court, although again, the question of global power relations under neoliberalism is not interrogated.

At the G20 meeting in Mexico late February 2012, President Felipe Calderon, intimated that funding technology transfer is a way for the global North to compensate climate change and the ecological debt of colonisation. But again, the environmental imposts of industrial technology were passed over in favour of ‘opportunities for growth’. The G20 rallied by asking the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank, and UN, to prepare a report ‘inserting green growth and sustainable development policies into structural reform agendas, tailored to specific country conditions and level of development.’

A Green Economy embedded in industrialisation is an oxymoron. Notwithstanding the rhetoric of ‘dematerialisation’, ecologically modernising digital production cannot avoid energy and resource draw-downs. Each further advance in technology depends on a further cradle-to-grave cycle of extraction - transport - manufacture - transport - market - transport - consumption - transport - waste pit. In the human metabolism with nature, industrial technology never solves a problem, the best it can do is displace a problem. The displacement may be spatial - shifted on to the backs of less powerful sectors of society, or the displacement may be temporal - shifted on to the backs of future generations.

In June 2012, young people, small farmers, workers, squatters, grandmothers, and indigenous gatherers - among others, are planning to converge on Rio+20 to oppose the deadly commodification of life. But environmentalists like the Global Footprint Network give up the game when they say that ‘billions of dollars of investment’ will be necessary to make sustainability real. Again, Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for Environment, invites funds from ‘non-traditional sources’ to help ‘green’ the global South. Edna Molewa, South Africa's Minister for Water and Environmental Affairs, is hoping for ‘public-private partnerships’ to multiply.

REAL GREEN JOBS

In the 1970s, activists in the global North talked about ‘living simply so others may simply live’. But this commitment was overtaken in the 1980s and 1990s by the rise of ‘professional environmentalism’ championed by business through the UN sustainable development agenda. Now, with the new millennium, Latin American peoples are revitalising Left politics with earth centered Constitutions in Ecuador and Bolivia recognising Rights of Mother Nature. And a history-making 2010 Cochabamba Climate Summit, hosted by women and indigenes, advanced the principle of sumak kawsay or buen vivir. The precise meaning of such words is unique to their Andean cultures of origin, but local versions of ‘living well’ have been adopted by commoning activists across the world.

The technocratic agenda is incoherent and can only exacerbate social and environmental crises. Rio+20 is a chance for meta-industrial labour to show what a green job really involves. Broadly speaking, wherever resources remain free of capitalist appropriation, people can enjoy autonomous ecologically sensitive provisioning. The classical hierarchy of Man over Nature, and the metabolic breakdown that results from it is unknown. At the margins of the capitalist patriarchal economy, the earth is valued for itself, not simply as a resource for human profiteering. And where economics is a materially embodied practice, people find identity and belonging in working together with nature.

NOTE: For a detailed annotated argument see here.

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* Ariel Salleh is an activist and Honorary Associate Professor in Political Economy at the University of Sydney. The term ‘meta-industrial labour’ is a sociological abstraction originating in Ariel Salleh, Ecofeminism as Politics: nature, Marx and the postmodern (London and New York: Zed Books, 1997) and further articulated in ecosocialist articles at Ariel Salleh.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

UN must include human rights component to MINURSO

Malainin Lakhal

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81473

© ASVDHTorture and other inhuman and degrading treatments, arbitrary arrest and detention, forced disappearance, the use of rape as a mean of intimidation, are current practices committed by the Moroccan authorities against Saharawi adults and children.

For over 37 years Western Sahara has been militarily occupied by Morocco. The occupation generated and still generates gross human rights violations committed by the Moroccan State against the Saharawi people in the occupied territories, while it forced more than 160.000 Saharawi to live since 1975 in refugee camps South-East Algeria in very dire conditions because of the harshness of the climate and the scares humanitarian aid.

The UN mission for the organization of a referendum in Western Sahara, MINURSO, was constituted and deployed in 1991 following the adoption by the UN Security Council of the UN-OAU Settlement Plan to end the last case of decolonization in Africa. Unfortunately, MINURSO was never mandated to monitor and protect human rights in the territory, and is thus the only UN peace-keeping mission without a human rights component.

All international human rights organisations, without exception, denounced gross human rights violations committed by the Moroccan State against the Saharawis. The Moroccan Consultative Human Rights Council itself recognized in a report in 2010 the accountability of the Moroccan army and different security corpses in flagrant crimes against humanity and war crimes, including the death of 115 Saharawi civilians in military bases under torture or because of barbarous conditions of imprisonment in secret detention camps.

The practice of torture and other inhuman and degrading treatments, arbitrary arrest and detention, forced disappearance, the use of rape as a mean of intimidation, are current practices committed by the Moroccan authorities against Saharawis adults and children. Moreover, the Saharawis are also denied their civil, political, economic and social rights. One major proof on these was the organization by more than 20.000 Saharawis of the tent-protest camp of Gdeim Izik, in October 2010 and its brutal dismantling by the Moroccan army in November 2010, arresting, injuring and detaining hundreds of citizens who were only demanding the respect of their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

In its last report on Morocco, the UN Committee against Torture published a report (CAT/C/MAR/CO/4) expressing clear concerns as follows:

“Events involving Western Sahara

12. The Committee is concerned by the reports it has received regarding the alleged use by Moroccan law enforcement officers and security personnel of practices in Western Sahara such as arbitrary arrest and detention, incommunicado detention, detention in secret places, torture, ill-treatment, the extraction of confessions under torture and the excessive use of force.

The Committee recalls once more that, under the Convention, no exceptional circumstance whatsoever may be invoked as a justification of torture in territory that falls under the State party’s jurisdiction and that law enforcement measures and investigative procedures should be in full accord with international human rights law, as well as the legal procedures and basic safeguards in effect in the State party. The State party should, as a matter of urgency, take substantive steps to prevent the aforementioned acts of torture and ill-treatment. It should also announce the introduction of a policy that will produce measurable progress towards the eradication of all torture and ill-treatment by State officials. The State party should put in place stronger measures for ensuring prompt, thorough, impartial and effective investigations into all allegations of torture or ill-treatment of prisoners and persons taken into custody or in any other situation.

The Gdeim Izik camp

13. The Committee is particularly concerned by the events surrounding the closure of the Gdeim Izik camp in November 2010, during which several persons were killed, including law enforcement officials, and hundreds of others were arrested. The Committee takes note that the vast majority of the persons who were arrested were later released while awaiting trial, but is gravely concerned by the fact that those trials are to be held in military courts even though the persons concerned are civilians. The Committee is also concerned by the fact that there has not been an impartial, effective investigation to ascertain exactly what occurred and to determine what responsibility may be borne by members of the police or security forces (arts. 2, 11, 12, 15 and 16).

The State party should put in place stronger measures for ensuring prompt, thorough, impartial and effective investigations into the violence and deaths that occurred during the dismantlement of the Gdeim Izik camp and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. The State party should amend its laws to guarantee that all civilians will be tried only in civilian courts.”

In 2006, and after more than 30 years silence, the UN finally dispatched a mission of the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to Western Sahara to investigate on the human rights situation. The mission was unable to work freely in the occupied zones, because Morocco tried to intimidate many human rights defenders and activists stopping them from meeting the mission. But in the end, the report issued was clear in concluding that all human rights violations committed by Morocco in Western Sahara are the result of the non-implementation of the right to self-determination by the Saharawi people. The report is still put under Embargo, because it was clearly denouncing Moroccan responsibilities in gross human rights violations.

For this reason, and because Western Sahara is still a Non-Self-Governing territory in the UN Decolonisation list, the UN must assume its legal responsibility in protecting all the rights of the Saharawi people against the violations committed by the illegal military occupier, Morocco. One of the possibilities to do this is to mandate the MINURSO to monitor and protect human rights in the territory while waiting for the implementation of the UN resolution that recommend the implementation of the UN Charter and UN principle of self-determination in the last colony in Africa.

France, “the land of human rights and democracy”, must stop supporting blatantly the Moroccan colonialist annexation of Western Sahara. It must instead support the Saharawi people’s rights to self-determination and independence and put an end to one of the main violations of international law in our age: The illegal military occupation of Western Sahara.
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* Malainin Lakhal is secretary general of the Saharawi Journalists and Writers Union.
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This phase of Igbo genocide

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81480

cc T CThe continuing failure of the Nigerian state to protect the Igbo people from genocide demands new solutions to realise security and self-determination.

The concept ‘failed-state’ carries an understandable melodramatic import! It refers to the inability or failure of a state to fulfil some of its key roles and responsibilities to its people(s) and others domiciled within its territory and consequently to its neighbours and the wider global community of states. State failure materialises at three broad spheres of the lives of the people(s): social, political and economic. The following would feature among the key empirical determinants of this failure:

1. The state’s inability to provide security to its population – crucially, a catastrophic failure as the state’s primary existence is predicated on this provision of security to its citizens. This failure may have arisen because the state no longer exercises control across part/parts or all of its territory. Several factors could account for this including, for instance, calamitous breakdowns in vital internal socio-political and economic relations, intra-regime fractionalism and rivalries and the unmanageability of natural disasters. As we shall note shortly, it could also be due to the state’s actively pursued violation of the human rights of the people(s) including, most gravely, a deliberate state policy to embark on the destruction of one or more of its constituent nations/peoples/religious groups, etc., etc.

2. The state’s inability to provide essential social services (communication infrastructure, health care, education, housing and recreation, development of culture) to its people(s) or the state’s deliberate policy to deny or partially offer such services to some of its constituent nations/peoples/religious groups.

There remains a lack of consensus among scholars studying the failed states of contemporary Africa on the terms of the evaluative parameters of this enterprise including the critical constitutive timeframes of assessing and therefore concluding when this or that African state ‘began to fail’ or/and when indeed it ‘failed’. There is a tendency by many to arbitrarily circumscribe the limit of the focus of interrogation to the so-called African post-conquest epoch (i.e., post-1 January 1956, following the presumed restoration of independence date in the Sudan) with the underlying presumption that the state, as formulated and constituted on the eve of the ‘restoration of independence’, has a definitive and enduring internal logic to its being. Of course what such a staggeringly ahistorical arbitrariness does to this scholarship is that it attempts to freeze layers and layers of vital record and practice of sustained scrutiny as it wishes to project this era of all-Africa external conquest and occupation as ‘largely unproblematic’. Undoubtedly, as has been demonstrated all too clearly since January 1956, a post-(European)conquest African Studies corpus built on such a blatantly contrived edifice is hopelessly trapped in a debilitating and eventual terminal crisis.

1945 & 1953

For Nigeria, the country at the focus of this roundtable, it is at once a failed and genocide state. It is to Jos, a city in its north central region, that we locate the start of the trajectory to its ‘failed state’ status. The year is not 2000 or 2001 or any other year in this last decade nor indeed in any of the three years of the current decade but 1945, 11 years before 1956 and 15 years before 1960 – the year of the ‘termination’ of the British occupation of the country. In October 1945, in the wake of a very successful anti-occupation countrywide strike, Hausa-Fulani Muslim north regional leaders, those much endeared clients of the occupation-regime who were not only opposed to this strike but also the ultimate goal of Nigeria’s liberation from the British conquest in which Igbo people played a vanguard role, organised and launched a pogrom against Igbo immigrants in Jos and the surrounding tin mining towns and villages on the plateau. Hundreds of Igbo were murdered during the massacre and tens of thousands of pounds sterling worth of their property looted or destroyed. No perpetrators of these murders were ever apprehended or punished by the occupation-regime. As a result, emboldened Hausa-Fulani leaders organised yet another pogrom of Igbo immigrants in the north, this time in Kano, 180 miles further north, in May 1953, which coincided with the heightened debates among Nigerian politicians on the possible date for the formal termination of the occupation and the restoration of independence. Hundreds of Igbo were murdered during this massacre and tens of thousands of pounds sterling worth of their property looted or destroyed. Once again, no perpetrators of these murders were apprehended or punished by the occupation-regime.

1966-2012

On the contrary, as the world would witness 13 years later, these dual pogroms became dreadful dress rehearsals for the most gruesome, most devastating, and most expansive stretch of state-organised mass murders of a people not seen in Africa since the German-organised genocide of the Herero, Nama and Berg Damara peoples of contemporary Namibia in the early 1900s. Between 29 May 1966 and 12 January 1970, the composite aggregation of the Nigeria state – military officers, the police, Hausa-Fulani emirs, Muslim clerics and intellectuals, students, civil servants, journalists, politicians and other public figures – planned and executed the Igbo genocide, the foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa. This is also Africa’s most destructive genocide of the 20th century. A total of 3.1 million Igbo people, a quarter of this nation’s population at the time, were murdered during those harrowing 44 months. Most Igbo were slaughtered in their homes, offices, businesses, schools, colleges, hospitals, markets, churches, shrines, farmlands, factories/industrial enterprises, childrens’ playgrounds, town halls, refugee centres, cars, lorries, and at bus stations, railway stations, airports and on buses, trains and planes and on foot, or starved to death – the openly propagated regime-‘weapon’ to achieve its heinous goal more speedily. In the end, the Igbo genocide was enforced, devastatingly, by Nigeria’s simultaneously pursued land, aerial and naval blockade and bombardment of Igboland, Africa’s highest population density region outside the Nile Delta. The genocidists also sequestrated and pillaged the multibillion-dollar Biafra economy, one of the most advanced and enterprising hubs in Africa of the era.

Most of Africa and the world stood by and watched, hardly critical or condemnatory of this wanton destruction of human lives, raping, sacking and plundering of towns, villages, community after community in Biafra and elsewhere. The consequences for Africa have been catastrophic. In this genocide of the Igbo, Nigeria inaugurated the ‘age of pestilence’ that defines contemporary Africa. Several regimes elsewhere in Africa are ‘convinced’ of the conclusions that they have drawn from this crime by their Nigerian counterpart: ‘We can murder targeted constituent people(s) at will within the state we control…Haul off their prized property and livelihood…Comprehensively destroy their cities, towns, villages, communities – precisely their agelong, priceless, inheritance...There will be no sanctions from Africa – and the world’. As a result, the Igbo genocide becomes the clearing site for the haunting killing fields that would crisscross the African geographical landscape in the subsequent 40 years with the murders of additional 12 million Africans, since January 1970, by regimes in further genocide in Rwanda, Darfur and Zaïre/Democratic Republic of Congo and other killings in Liberia, Ethiopia, Congo Republic, Somalia, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, south Sudan, Burundi.

One would perhaps be forgiven if they thought that, after such a frenzied indulgence in indescribable depravity in mass slaughtering and a trail of destruction, capped by its occupation of Biafra, Nigeria would tire out of its appetite to continue the murder of Igbo people. No, not really. This obligatory haematophagous creature continues its murder of the Igbo unabated – almost routinely and ritualistically during the course of subsequent years, signposted here by the eerie columns that chart the contours of fresh pogrom outrages: 1980...1982...1985...1991...1993...1994...1999...2000...2001 ...2002...2004...2005...2006...2007...2008...2009...2010...2011...2012. According to the December 2011 research by the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law, a human rights organisation based in Onicha, 90 per cent of the 54,000 people murdered in Nigeria by the state/quasi-state operatives and agents since 1999 are Igbo people. Since last Christmas Day, the Boko Haram Islamist insurgent group spearheads these murders. At least 80 per cent of people murdered by the Boko Haram across swathes of lands in north/north central Nigeria since then are Igbo. Hundreds of thousands of Igbo families have abandoned homes and businesses in the affected region and have returned to Igboland. Arguably, the Igbo are the world’s most brutally targeted and most viciously murdered of peoples presently. Not since 29 May 1966-12 January 1970 has Igbo life in Nigeria acquired such a gripping existential emergency.

The Boko Haram now issues its threats to murder quite habitually, at times on a daily basis, and, true to its words, executes its mission most ruthlessly, most remorselessly. After each of its outrages, Boko Haram acknowledges responsibility and does this most dispassionately. The regime in Abuja appears cruelly powerless to protect Igbo people (and others) emplaced within the jurisdiction of the supposedly sovereign state it controls with the well-known consequences in international law that this shocking relegation of responsibility entails. Regime-head Goodluck Jonathan says as much in a recent astonishing radio and television broadcast to his country and the world: ‘Boko Haram is everywhere in the executive arm of [my] government, in the legislative arm of [my] government and even in the judiciary. Some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security [services]…Some continue to dip their hands and eat with you and you won’t even know the person who will point a gun at you or plant a bomb behind your house’. Following on from Jonathan’s proclamation, it is conceivable that right there closeted in his regime, there are operatives deeply complicit in these ongoing murders. And it doesn’t appear that the regime can halt the
murdering nor the insurgency. On the contrary, Jonathan is essentially saying in his broadcast: ‘I don’t know how to solve this problem; I can’t solve this problem’. The seriousness of this situation cannot be exaggerated. Presently, Nigeria is a grave danger to itself. Nigeria is a grave danger to its constituent peoples and nations, to its neighbours, to the West Africa region, to Africa and the wider world. Nigeria has indeed now run the course of its bloody trail in history. The ongoing murders have exposed, particularly, the lethal fissures in a hitherto seemingly compact genocidist monolith. This fractionalisation cannot be contained.

REFERENDUM AND SUCCESSOR STATES

Whilst Jonathan’s broadcast is undoubtedly a desperate acknowledgement of helplessness if not hopelessness, it however opens up an historic opportunity to overcome this tragedy. There is undoubtedly a silver lining over this cloud. What is critically at stake here is the right of the peoples domiciled in Nigeria, each and every constituent people, to democratically decide their future. This right to self-determination for every people is inalienable and is guaranteed by the United Nations. No people is exempt from exercising this right. To proceed to the realisation of this goal, two key features are called for forthwith:

1. The requisite institutions of the world must now embark on initiating the process for an internationally organised, supervised and binding referendum across Nigeria for the peoples, themselves, to decide whether they wish to remain in Nigeria or form new state(s) of their choice.

2. To support Igbo people’s participation in this referendum, Igbo intellectuals should double up their efforts to work for the restoration of Igbo sovereignty, Biafra. The Igbo genocide is one of the most comprehensively documented crimes against humanity. Nonetheless, Igbo intellectuals must contribute, robustly, to continue to inform the entire world of the nature and extent of the genocide, examining, particularly, the variegated contours of the expansive trail of this crime, the parameters and strictures of the monstrosity of denialism of the crime (especially by some clusters of the core perpetrators of the crime in Nigeria and their collaborators abroad including some in academia and media) and the debilitating and oppressive burden of 40 years of occupation.

Let it never be forgotten that, four decades ago, Igbo intellectuals, many very talented and widely accomplished men and women in their varying fields of expertise (writers, academics, artists, scientists, physicians, lawyers, engineers), contributed most profoundly to the eventual survival of the Igbo during phases I and II of the genocide, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, when only few in the world thought that they would accomplish such an improbable feat. We surely have an historic legacy to contend with.


ENDNOTES

1. Paper presented at ‘Roundtable on Nigeria’s future: The challenges to security and economic development caused by Boko Haram and the way forward’, held at E. Franklin Frazier Center for Social Work Research, Howard University Law School, Washington, DC, United States, 12 April 2012.


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* Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of ‘Readings from Reading: Essays on African Politics, Genocide, Literature’ (Dakar and Reading: African Renaissance, 2011).

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Kenya: Brutal demolitions leave the poor destitute

Grand Masese

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81456

cc M IResidents of Nairobi’s numerous slums live in constant fear of demolition of their homes. Yet there is no government plan to solve the problem of housing. The residents need to organise and demand their rights.

There have been numerous demolitions in Embakasi constituency in the east of Nairobi. The most recent one was a week ago before Easter and it happened in Umoja 3 estate.

It is alleged that the owner of the land who is a private developer acquired a quick court order and began demolishing houses as early as 5am under the guard of the police. The police were there to ensure that residents don’t oppose the demolitions.

Most of these demolitions have been brutal, leading to loss of lives and property. Since the year 2005 up to April this year, there have demolitions happening at least once every month. Now there is a huge area of land without inhabitants.
The demolitions are carried out at night sometimes, like was the case of Maasai
Village near Mombasa Road where the police beat up residents while breaking into their houses to chase them away.

The areas most affected by the demolitions are Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Mukuru Kwa Ruben, Mukuru Kayaba,Mukuru Sinai, Kyang’ombe, Kware ,Pipeline and Umoja residential areas.

Most of these demolitions have been carried out without prior notice to residents. There are many families who have been displaced severally from many of these areas and are now traumatized.

The government has been reluctant to give explanations about the demolitions and it does seem that it is never aware. The City Council of Nairobi has never been heard on this. But I would like to think that they are aware and choose to keep off the issue so that they are not held accountable by the people.
Otherwise, how do you explain the presence of armed police in anti-riot gear?

People always put their energies in salvaging their belongings quickly, obviously too occupied to think of any immediate action. But some of the youth have been responding spontaneously in armed response almost like the police only that they use stones and other crude weapons and hurling unexploded teargas canisters to the police. The police have always responded by firing live bullets, arresting and detaining protesters.

Issuance of advance notices to residents to vacate areas targeted for demolition is unheard of. When a demolition is done, you hear of rumours that there had been a notice but the landlords did not disclose it to tenants. There is a lot of information hidden between authorities residents/tenants and landlords. There have never been adequate notices and, in fact, none has been seen so far.

There have been demolitions carried out by anonymous developers. But sometimes some names have been thrown around. Like the Embakasi Developers, Steel Works Limited among other powerful private company owners.

Close to 100,000 families have been displaced and forced to live in places with high standards of living; many homes have been lost, schools destroyed and children left unable to access education leading to street families and high levels of crime and insecurity. There has been loss of property, injuries and deaths. People have lost jobs and some have been exposed to imposed hard labour and unfair working conditions throughout industrial area where they try to earn a living.

Local organisations and CBOs like the Muungano Wa Wanavijiji Trust have been at the forefront documenting these demolitions and giving demographics of all the slums in Nairobi as well as advising residents on actions to be taken.

Recently there have also been court orders issued to stop more evictions after residents protested and went to court. The Prime Minister Raila Odinga was also forced to issue a statement that demanded an end to demolitions. But some of these statements have not ended the problem and people still live in fear.

I think almost all slums to the east of Nairobi are targeted for demolition, as developers are making new satellite cities like Ta and Konza. The most recent attack was before Easter where the local Member of Parliament Ferdinand Waititu was arrested and charged in court for inciting residents to fight the
police. There is a big threat.

There must be clear guidelines on land and demolitions, I think the constitution is clear and has to be followed as well. Notices should be given in advance.

Tenants must be vigilant and form movements that can research and guard their residential areas. They should be ready to speak out in one voice should there
be a demolition. We need public information about the land issue in Nairobi once so that the people may have informed decisions.

The authorities must also check how land is acquired here as there is corruption and illegal deals involved without the knowledge of the people. Politicians are known to gather votes and incite people and some of them have their powerful people there who are involved in the
shady deals.

The affected people can form an alliance. There are few alliances and most with different agendas geared towards gaining from relocations and such. This is divisive. There is lack of shared information between them so organisation is never really realised and is not strong. There is a need for civic education on housing and on the law of land and housing to guide the organization towards unity.

This is the time that we need to really address the issue of the people living in the slums and their constant fear. There need be a focus here especially on what can be done for advocacy. There has to be a campaign dubbed: NO HOUSE ,NO LAND ,NO VOTE. Our time is now!

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* Grand Masese (Dennis Dancan Mosiere) is a poet, musician, actor and a Fahamu Pan-African Fellow for Social Justice (2011).
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Swazis vow to continue pro-democracy protests after police crackdown

Peter Kenworthy

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81482

cc J GSwaziland’s democratic movement remains defiant and resolute in the face of police intimidation and brutality.

“As we wind down the day, it would be folly for the government to think we’ve retreated. We’re going to reenergize ourselves, to regroup and to mobilise more so that we come back stronger,” Mary Pais Da Silva of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign said in a press statement about today’s protests and strikes for democratic reform in Swaziland. “These waves that are coming at them shall gather into the tsunami that shall push us into the democratic Swaziland that we fight for. We have been arrested, detained, assaulted, but we are not beaten.”

April 12 is an important day in the history of Swaziland. On that day in 1973, the king banned all political parties and declared a state of emergency. Since then, the monarchy has ruled by decree with increasing brutality and financial mismanagement, leaving two thirds of the population to survive on less than a dollar a day while the monarch splashes out money on prestige projects, palaces for his thirteen wives, and luxury items.

Swaziland’s democratic movement therefore uses the symbolic value of April 12 to protest against Swaziland’s absolute monarchy and demand democratic reforms and socio-economic justice. Which is why the Swazi regime tries to stop any such protests by way of court bans on legal demonstrations and innumerable roadblocks every year, and failing this turn Swaziland’s larger towns into a virtual battle zone of police brutality and detentions.

This year is no exception. The police and army have broken up any groups however small, detained people right, left and centre and manhandled several protesters, thereby making any organised protest very difficult indeed.

Among those who were detained was Muzi Mhlanga, Secretary General of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers and one of the main organisers of the strikes and protest actions. For no apparent reason, it would seem. “As is the norm, the activists were not charged nor were they given valid reasons for their detainment,” said Mary Pais Da Silva of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign.

Others, including Mdudu Gina, First Deputy Secretary General of Swazi trade federation TUCOSWA, were banned from entering the industrial centre Manzini, which together with the capital Mbabane is where the largest protests are held. “The government has declared an open war on trade unionists in all cities and towns as armed forces are holding roadblocks and harassing anyone wearing a union T-shirt in all roads leading to Mbabane and Manzini,” TUCOSWA told the Times of Swaziland.

And others still have been brutalised by the police. “Swaziland United Democratic Front Project Organiser, Gugu Malindzisa, has been manhandled and ruthlessly snatched out of a public transport bus on her way to the protest action by police at a roadblock,” Wandile Dludlu from the Swaziland United Democratic Front told Africa Contact.

“The events of April 12 again hit a snag this year,” student leader Sibusiso Nhlabatsi tells Africa Contact. “There was a heavy presence of police and the army. It was difficult to organize anything. No one was allowed near where the march was supposed to commence. People walking in pairs were confronted by police as they wanted to know the nature of their conversations.”

But as they try and regroup after today’s onslaught, the democratic movement can take heart from the many expressions of support for their cause from around the world.

In neighbouring South Africa, the trade federation COSATU and several other organisations have sent messages of solidarity. “The struggle continues. Despite the roadblocks, and fishing raids to arrest and detain known democracy activists, there is a palpable change taking place in Swaziland. The people are no longer intimidated. Nothing will ever be the same again,” wrote Stephen Faulkner from the South African Municipal Workers Union.

And in Europe, Danish solidarity movement Africa Contact urged Swazis to “keep fighting the good fight” in a similarly worded message. “As the struggles against the apartheid regime and the North African regimes show, when a determined population stand up in unison to demand democracy and socio-economic justice no regime, police force or manner of indoctrination can stop them.”


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* Peter Kenworthy writes for Africa Contact

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Greece's flourishing social economy

Papanikolopoulos Dimitris

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81470

cc C OIt appears to be one of the means Greeks use to resist poverty and unemployment imposed by the successive austerity packages. But the consequences of this social economy might be the foundation of a different society.

Every time the mass media launch something as a means to overcome the economic crisis and at the same time the Communist Party of Greece considers it as a means to disorient people from the real problem, we suppose something bad happens. However, in the case of the “potato movement” the bad thing is that the mass media try to depoliticize all initiatives of civil society and the Communist Party of Greece turns away from such initiatives it doesn’t control.

Recently, in Greece, consumers can buy potatoes straight from producers 60-70% cheaper than before. What does this really indicate about the formation of producer-consumer networks backed by municipal councils? If someone observes Greek government’s rhetoric of the last years, they will realise that they had transformed wholesalers and shopkeepers into holy cows of Greek economy.

During the “potato movement” the formers found themselves removed from the foreground. The Greek merchant occupied the centre of economic life thanks to his unique “achievements”: He managed to transform every ground floor in all Greek city centers into a shop and make Greek cities the most expensive in Europe. Prices don’t decrease even during the crisis. Middlemen are typical Greek merchants who make money on the cost of producers and consumers. Consumers are paying sometimes 100, 200 or 300% much more than the producer had sold.

Consequently the “potato movement” illuminated some malfunctions of the economic life in Greece. On the one hand producers realised that they cannot depend on merchants’ good intentions and that they must mobilise if they were to gain their life; and on the other hand consumers realised that prices remained so high because of merchants’ speculation. Now they can bypass middlemen and earn both of them.

Even if the farmer movement was not strong during the last decades and the consumer movement practically didn’t exist, fortunately for Greek society the era when self-consumption and solidarity among households was widespread is closer than thought.

Producer-consumer networks, growth of cooperatives, formation of social health centers that provide free health care, teachers associations offer free lessons, initiatives for distribution of bread to poor and homeless, and the commercial exchanges in local currencies constitute some of the means the affected social strata invented in order to survive.

These means even if they are products of crisis, bring out more structural problems of Greek society as well as new perspectives. Revitalization of solidarity against social Darwinism, projection of social needs instead of profit, bypassing of middlemen on behalf of producers and consumers, and the regeneration of the vital forces of a robust civil society against a bankrupted political system and a failed neoliberal policy are necessary conditions for a different society. Is this just a discussion on how to deal with a so difficult economic situation or an opportunity for the affected social strata to change their social and political orientations? If I remember well, democracy in ancient Greece and socialism of our era constituted in the very first moment only the former.

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Promise-breaking at the World Bank

Patrick Bond

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81455

cc W E C
cc WikimediaAfter the tragedy of Obama, the new World Bank president could well be a farce. It’s simply a matter of considering the underlying power relations.

PART 1: BEFORE

That 66th birthday month of his, March 2012, was auspicious for adding a little spice to his dreary life, but no, it just can’t last. Born in March 1946 alongside his evil twin, IMF, in Savannah Georgia, after conception in what must have been a rather sleazy New Hampshire hotel (the ‘Bretton Woods’) in mid-1944, the old geezer known as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or much better by his nickname World Bank (but let me just use WB), really ought to be considering retirement.

Not to be ageist (ok just this once), but still, it’s patently obvious that WB’s relentless WashCon ideology is so last-century, so discredited by recent world financial melting, and so durably dangerous in today’s world. His presidents have reflected the worst of the old yankee imperialist mindset. And let’s not even start on IMF’s extremist lads and lass, who in recent years have migrated their austerity dogma from North Africa to Southern Europe and to my native Ireland, meeting growing resistance along the way.

Even that one moment in 1997-98 when, obviously in mid-life crisis and slightly destabilised by his East Asian buddies’ spills, WB developed a little moral spine and sensibility – witnessed by his chief economist Joseph Stiglitz’s loose talk of a new Post-Washington Consensus – the devil on WB’s right-hand shoulder (named Larry Summers) told his then president James Wolfensohn to boot Stiglitz out, in September 1999, if Wolfensohn wanted to hang around WB for another five years. Order given, and immediately executed.

So the fresh, slightly punky Post-WashCon chatter was never heard again in the 21st century Bank. Although each December since 2009, current president Robert Zoellick has tried to masquerade WB during UN climate summits as a Green Bank (hah) (http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/03/19/what-will-robert-zoellick-break-next/), the institution has degenerated into a bumbling, often senile, and permanently demented entity.

Alzheimers kicks in when a Third World minister in the pocket of a US or European energy company comes knocking to beg for a coal-fired power plant, as WB immediately forgets the greenwash: “but of course, we know of no climate constraints!” (translation: I’ll soon be dead). Or when WB’s staffers venture with the IMF’s into North African finance ministries, wanting to wrench their dirty money back – yet pretending never to have heard of their now missing or sick or dead hunting pals Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gadaffi. (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73932) (The IMF’s Washington and Cairo leadership – specifically, John Lipsky and Ratna Sahay – have even been babbling incomprehensibly about ‘social justice,’ so desperate are they to sell new loans so Egypt’s tyrant generals can pay off the old.) (http://links.org.au/node/2546)

However, instead of suggesting a graceful exit from a world economy still crippled by recent financial-liberalisation thuggery egged on by WB, his minder two blocks east in the White House Oval Office has given the old man a taste of Viagra, by nominating for WB president a virile 52-year old (the youngest ever), a man who is doubtless best known across the globe for stylish rapping and dancing with talented Dartmouth College kids. (http://www.businessinsider.com/video-obamas-nominee-for-the-world-bank-is-a-rapping-space-man-2012-3)

WB’s most likely new leader (because really, only yankees need apply), Dartmouth president Jim Yong Kim, will be a heartbreaker, it’s easy to predict – and the kids already teach us that if we just bother to hear them.

One senior student, Dennis Zeveloff, wrote in The Dartmouth newspaper that Kim’s management refused to “communicate with students, improve advising or create a more academic atmosphere.” (http://thedartmouth.com/2012/03/29/opinion/voces) Those hoping for a different WB and more progressive civil society access with Kim as president, listen up.

Max Yoeli, the 2012 student body president, wrote in the same pages that Kim suffers “a remarkable devotion to image over impact, a disregard for student input and selfishness in his fulfillment of a tremendous responsibility.” There was “a stunning lack of transparency”; he “consistently abdicated leadership”; and Kim’s “fractured and disappointing legacy” will be remembered for “his utter lack of ties to the community and the shortest presidential tenure at the College since the early 19th century.” (http://thedartmouth.com/2012/03/29/opinion/yoeli)

As whistle-blowing student Andrew Lohse complained in an article in The Dartmouth that Obama should have read, two months prior to Kim’s Bank nomination, “a systemic culture of abuse exists under a college president who has the power and experience to change what can only be described as a public health crisis of the utmost importance: the endemic culture of physical and psychological abuse that occupies the heart of Dartmouth’s Greek [fraternity] community.” (http://thedartmouth.com/2012/01/25/opinion/lohse)

Lohse’s main allegation, confirmed in a Rolling Stone magazine investigation (http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/confessions-of-an-ivy-league-frat-boy-inside-dartmouths-hazing-abuses-20120328#ixzz1rERvlM7L) last month (following which Lohse was rewarded with a stunningly misguided College prosecution, subsequently withdrawn), is that Dartmouth Man gets taught ruling-class behavior during student fraternities’ hazing experiences.

Michael Bronski, a professor of women’s and gender studies, confirmed to Rolling Stone that Dartmouth’s Animal House frat “members are secure that they have bright futures, and they just don’t care. I actually see the culture as being predicated on hazing. There’s a level of violence at the heart of it that would be completely unacceptable anywhere else, but here, it’s just the way things are.”

In Lohse’s own frat, first-year recruits were, as he witnessed, compelled to “swim in a kiddie pool full of vomit, urine, fecal matter, semen and rotten food products; eat omeletts made of vomit [‘vomelettes’]; chug cups of vinegar, which in one case caused a pledge to vomit blood; drink beers poured down fellow pledges’ ass cracks; and vomit on other pledges, among other abuses.”

Kim was Dartmouth’s president when Lohse began complaining. The Dartmouth president was fully aware of the vomelette-makers’ ethos, including denialism, but did nothing, says Lohse, leaving “an intoxicating nihilism at the center of our culture that fraternities perpetuate through pathological lies while continuing the abuses.”

As One Percenters in training, Dartmouth Men are the sixth-highest paid university graduates in the US, in spite of what Lohse calls the “pervasive hazing, substance abuse and sexual assault.” Yes, according to the student paper, “Dartmouth reportedly has the highest number of reported sexual assaults in the Ivy League.”

Observed Yoeli, “Kim could not find time to attend a single event of V-Week — 11 days devoted to combating violence against women — despite its clear relevance to campus life.” And as for the College’s hottest issue since in 1986 likeminded frat boys bashed an anti-apartheid, pro-divestment shantytown on the campus quad, “Kim will likely escape Dartmouth without making any meaningful progress on hazing,” laments Yoeli.

Rolling Stone explained this by quoting Kim’s 2009 promise to rich alumni worried that Dartmouth’s quaint primitiveness might not earn his respect. He “reassured them he had no intention of overhauling the fraternities,” because, Kim confided, “One of the things you learn as an anthropologist, you don’t come in and change the culture.” (He learned that lesson as a doctoral student at Harvard, not far from Dartmouth in distance or philosophy, though hazing is reportedly not quite as rigorous.) That’s one promise Kim did keep.

Why focus so much on this pathetic institution? Concludes Lohse, “One of the things I’ve learned at Dartmouth – one thing that sets a psychological precedent for many Dartmouth men – is that good people can do awful things to one another for absolutely no reason.”

Dartmouth’s man-grooming sounds like excellent preparation for climbing the career ladder: straight up from cooking vomelettes for your peers, into WB’s arms where as I argue below, in relation to fossil fuels, lending that causes victims to vomit blood seems to be structured into the job.

But what Kim’s crack about anthropology means is that he promises, in effect, to break any promise you think his nomination portends for changing – even slightly adjusting – WB’s exceptional track record of poverty-creation.

So if you thought the excellent book he co-edited a dozen years ago – appropriately entitled Dying for Growth (http://www.zcommunications.org/contents/185491) – means that Professor Kim will teach our old WB dog a new trick, then, if you can hold back the tears, read his banal Financial Times op-ed a week after the nomination (shortly after that dangerous Noam Chomsky endorsement of the book circulated amongst chin-wagging elites). Writing about his native Korea, an exception that in many respects proves the rule (of uneven and combined capitalist development), Kim soothed the FT’s corporate readership: “I have seen how integration with the global economy can transform a poor country into one of the most dynamic and prosperous economies in the world.” (http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1510.aspx)

It’s no doubt hard to hear, but Kim’s critique of the neoliberal, corporate-driven, debt-encumbered, health-destroying, environment-raping, patriarchy-promoting, racist power regime called globalization – so convincingly argued in Dying for Growth – is already being dashed against the reality of Washington financial power. It’s just like Obama’s intoxicating ability to say things in 2008 that you thought he meant, which ever since gave him space to legitimise imperialism, re-empower the corporate oligarchy, erode the Constitution and destroy the environment.

“Kim promised Dartmouth an approximately 10-year engagement,” griped alumnus Charlie Hoffmann: “Partners in Health colleagues must have missed the irony in their statement on Kim’s nomination: ‘Jim is all about delivery and about delivering on promises often made but too seldom kept.’” (http://thedartmouth.com/2012/03/29/opinion/voces)

Partners in Health is possibly the most progressive, dynamic major NGO in the health field, and after co-founding this non-profit agency with Paul Farmer in 1987, Kim could easily have retired with laurels, basking in the light shining from Farmer’s halo. But though the Partners in Health workers I know are of exceptional integrity, that’s because they’ve mostly shied away from administering neoliberalism.

In short, if you want a world without poverty and you think scraggly old WB can be botoxed into a beautiful ally, then you are certain to soon feel just as jilted as you did three years ago, the last time a pretty politician made out with you and, if you were an ordinary US citizen, stole your vote with zero payback, and if you were not, blew away any illusions that a US president could do the world any good.

PART 2: AFTER

If you want a world without poverty or species-threatening climate change, then let’s fast-forward a bit, to the point World Bank President Jim Yong Kim breaks your heart by endorsing what remains the world’s worst financial coal-addiction (http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art.shtml?x=569967), which in turn is required to power the world’s most active financing of Resource-Curse economics in some of the world’s most despotic regimes (http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-569560).

Looking back, you could say that the relationship went sour with Kim’s approval, in mid-2012, of WB credits for a Kosovo coal-fired power plant everyone admits isn’t even economically efficient (http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-568872) yet will poison the air near the capital city. (http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-569226)

Then Kim quickly approved more tranches of WB’s biggest-ever loan, to the corrupted South African government for its fraud-filled Medupi power plant, along with more financing for the hotly contested Indian coal-fired power plants that his sponsor Tim Geithner (Dartmouth class of ‘83) at Treasury has also been supporting through the US Ex-Im Bank. And before long he was down the slippery slope into funding one killer coal-fired power plant after the next.

How can that be, you’re asking, because not only is Kim a medical doctor. Less than two weeks after receiving the WB presidential nomination, in early April he renamed the medical school at Dartmouth after Dr Seuss (the “Geisel School of Medicine”) – to be sure, merely because before his death, Geisel (class of ‘25) and his wife gave more money to Dartmouth than anyone else ever did. Fibbed Kim at that event, “Ted Geisel lived out the Dartmouth ethos (sic) of thinking differently and creatively to illuminate the world’s challenges and the opportunities for understanding and surmounting them.”

In contrast to Dartmouth Man, cartoonist/author Geisel was a genius of allegory, especially in relation to environmental conservation. (Thanks to my three year old daughter, I know this very well.) The best-loved work by Dr Seuss these days is The Lorax, a major motion picture in which the self-destructive Once-ler character cuts down all the Truffula trees for his obscure and useless Thneeds factory, notwithstanding prescient pleadings from the near-extinct Lorax. Filmmakers updated Geisel’s tale insofar as Once-ler (standing in for capitalism) promotes a silver-bullet solution (seeds) to the exhausted-resource crisis. It’s the same fantasy that motivates a great deal of WB agro-corporate and climate techie-fix research and investment.

(For the sake of full disclosure, not long before Kim arrived, I was flown in to Hanover to address Dartmouth environmentalists on the perils of carbon trading – http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/Bond%20climate%20change%20paper.pdf – and had a marvellous time, especially with several staff and students with whom today I still work. Like Geisel, there are always exceptions at sites like Dartmouth.)

Which quickly brings us to the link between ecological catastrophe and human health, one that WB has in theory recognised and in practice mainly ignored.

Kim is by all accounts an eminent medical doctor with a terrific track record of public health management and advocacy, especially against AIDS. I write from the city with the world’s largest HIV+ population so we will always be grateful for Kim’s role in cheapening AIDS medicines against the interests of Big Pharma, the World Trade Organisation, intellectual property rights, and the US and Mbeki-era South African governments.

So how will he react, when just weeks from now he is faced with the greatest problem WB ever created – greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel energy – by being the world’s largest single climate-change financier? Kim’s new WB underlings are, after all, incessant creditors of new coal-fired powerplants, including their largest project loan ever, for $3.5 billion, which was made to South Africa to build Eskom’s Medupi plant exactly two years ago. (http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/WB%20Eskom%20powerpoint%20slides.pdf)

After the tragedy of Obama, Kim could well be a farce: someone who co-edited the great book Dying for Growth yet who must actively ignore data (from Christian Aid in London) projecting 185 million African deaths in the 21st century due to ‘growth’ that in turn creates runaway climate change, not to mention the vast number of coal-related diseases he will now be blamed for. Yet this is precisely what multinational capital requires of Kim: a revitalised image to help raise $85 billion for WB’s recapitalisation, which will in turn keep financing, amongst other eco-social-economic catastrophies, coal-fired powerplants and their carbon market fake-fix at a time both are in extreme disrepute.

But why be so cynical before Kim has a chance? It’s simply a matter of considering the underlying power relations. Recall in December 2008, Obama chose for his economic team maniacs like Paul Volcker (http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/11/12/against-volcker/) and Larry Summers (http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2009/04/why-we-should-banish-larry-summers-public-life). Because US civil society let the pressure completely off Obama, so early, it took another thirty months before finally Occupy Wall Street and similar uprisings across the US began, but after the fiscal horse had bolted from democratic influence into the endless stables of financial tyrant Goldman Sachs.

Kim will be firmly instructed to respect the prevailing culture, for it’s in corporate capital’s short-term interest to both extract and burn the maximum amount of fossil fuels, especially in the death-grip competitive era in which Western transnational corporates are being challenged by Chinese and Indian corporates in a race to most rapidly destroy the planet. The Westerners are pulling out all the stops, and it is only possible to understand the appointment of Kim in the context of petro-military-financial complex influence over capital accumulation.

Flash back to those dozen years after the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, when financial penalties for emissions appeared to become more likely, albeit channelled by WB, UN and Goldman Sachs cronies into what we can term without exaggeration The Lorax-style ‘privatisation of the air’ (carbon trading). Towards the end of that period, we witnessed a big climate-denialist push from leading oil firms – BP, Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil – through think tanks and astroturf advocacy such as the Global Climate Coalition.

The disinfo marketing worked from 2009-11, for it switched typically vacuous US public opinion away from a desire to solve the climate crisis – ideally through a solution like the Montreal Protocol which in 1987 phased in a CFC ban to stop the ozone hole from growing – into a different headspace: either questioning the science, or preferring to simply ignore the signs of climate change, and the implications for rising global environmental injustice.

Instead of addressing the crisis, corporate capital decided to promote – with world taxpayers covering the bill – a variety of ‘false solutions.’ If these happen in Third World sites like South Africa, they are termed Clean Development Mechanisms (CDMs). The WB is still the leading force in financing these innovations, even as the European carbon markets in which CDMs are sold are now crashing to all-time lows, from highs of over 30 euros/tonne in 2006 down to just over 6 euros/tonne in early April, thus threatening the entire carbon casino with a fatal crash.

How brutal a contradiction is this for Kim? If activists can keep the pressure on, he will be increasingly embarrassed at maintaining WB’s fossil fuel portfolio, for scientists have been establishing explicit links between climate change and what former Bolivian ambassador to the UN Pablo Solon termed ‘genocide and ecocide’ at the Durban COP17 climate summit here last December.

Even using a word like genocide, Solon was not being in the least hyperbolic. The main scientific board – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – considers a variety of adverse healthcare effects of climate change, including higher levels of malnutrition, malaria, respiratory disease, diarrhoea, and deaths due to extreme weather conditions. And the World Health Organisation admits the burdens of climate-related disease are already unfairly distributed, with Southern and Eastern Africa, small islands and areas reliant upon snow-packed water supplies (from the Andes and Himalayas) most susceptible. Like so many sites in which Kim and Partners in Health have worked, environmental health and economic racism overlap closely.

In coming weeks, Kim should be acutely ashamed of presiding over WB’s extreme coal-heavy portfolio, given that three Environmental Defense Fund scientists – Sarah Penney, Jacob Bell and John Balbus – recently found that “between roughly 6000 and 10,700 annual deaths from heart ailments, respiratory disease and lung cancer can be attributed to the 88 coal-fired power plants and companies receiving public international financing.” (http://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/9553_coal-plants-health-impacts.pdf)

And writing in Geotimes on “Health Impacts of Coal,” three other scientists – Robert B. Finkelman, Harvey E. Belkin, and Jose A. Centeno – observe the rise in cancers, bone deformation, black lung and other respiratory diseases, sterilization, and kidney disease associated with coal. (http://www.geotimes.org/sept06/feature_HealthImpacts.html) They illustrate their argument with a photograph describing a place that, ultimately, supplies me my electricity: “Uncontrolled coal fires in Witbank, South Africa, rage along a coal mining road. Such fires can contain toxic compounds that endanger the health of mine workers and nearby residents.”

Much of Witbank’s output is used in Eskom’s power plants, but four corporations (AngloCoal, BHP Billiton, Eyesizwe and the world’s largest mining house, Xstrata/Glencore) also export via the world’s largest coal port, Richards Bay. Yet more output from the vast field is shipped a few dozen kilometres south to Secunda, where it feeds the world’s single largest CO2 emissions site, Sasol’s coal-to-liquid plant.

Forty major new coal mines are being dug in this area to supply growing world demand. Along with higher corporate profits and faster climate change, we can expect more of Witbank’s notorious health problems, including stunted growth of children, silicosis, other lung and respiratory diseases and mining fatalities, according to shocking research by Victor Munnik, Geraldine Hochmann and Mathews Hlabane (http://www.bothends.org/uploaded_files/2case_study_South_Africa.pdf).

These are the same coalfields that will supply Medupi, in spite of fierce opposition and evident corruption by the borrower. The immediate debtor is the much-hated SA parastatal company Eskom, whose chairperson Valli Moosa engaged in what is scathingly called ‘tenderpreneurship’ to direct (through tenders) WB resources into boilers made by Hitachi, in whose local subsidiary South Africa’s ruling party – the African National Congress (ANC) – has a 25 percent ownership. Because Moosa was on the ANC’s finance committee at the time, even the state’s public protector ruled his role to be ‘improper.’

In spite of that, a CDM team from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) voted in February 2012 to make Moosa head of a panel looking into future CDM policy. Under Moosa’s reign, Eskom threatened it would apply for CDM monies to augment WB financing for Medupi, but that conflict of interest hasn’t worried the UNFCCC neoliberals, since the body is presided over by a notorious carbon trader, Christiana Figueres, and since the team Moosa is chairing does not have a single member on record questioning the failed carbon trading strategy.

(By the way, the Medupi boilers are not being produced on time because Hitachi screwed up, so there are now renewed threats of electricity blackouts in South Africa, where Eskom still gives BHP Billiton the world’s cheapest electricity – $0.02 per kWh compared to $0.15 for most domestic households – with the firm chewing up more than 10 percent of the national supply, so as to export aluminium whose main ingredient, bauxite, is imported to Richards Bay from Australia. If you buy many of our base metals within South Africa, you pay a higher price than do customers abroad, given the big companies’ oligopolistic pricing power, a debilitating fact that the SA Competition Tribunal finally recognised last week when penalising Arcelor Mittal for domestic price-fixing.)

WB appears to revel in this sort of economically-irrational, crony-capitalist, back-scratching, health-defying, climate-amplifying, mega-corporate complex of bad states and big business. Were there justice and a modicum of countervailing power or morality within crusty old WB’s hardened soul, this travesty would be reversed. The (ir)responsible WB bankers, economists and environmental consultants would be fired and banned from ever lending again, and reparations would be paid. (I debated one of these charlatans, Bill Moomaw from Tufts University, the day after the Medupi loan was made – http://openmediaboston.org/node/1250 – and as a result, can only recommend the application of an academic malpractice standard.)

Instead, last month, the WB’s Inspection Panel whitewash team issued a milquetoast report on Medupi, ignoring or downplaying all the major problems.

So it is safe to predict that without a change in the power balance, Kim will nudge-nudge, wink-wink these kinds of WB projects, precisely the way he did the Dartmouth hazing, and the haze in the Witbank air will get thicker, as the size of children’s heads shrinks and the diseases in their lungs grow. Through Dr Kim, a health-caring WB image will be created while substantive support to progressive health initiatives will be stymied. And it is controversial yet safe to predict that Kim will soon be hated by a public health community that currently adores him for his excellent career to date.

As Finkelman, Belkin, and Centeno point out, “In the 13th century, the dense, sulfurous air in London attracted the attention of the British royalty who issued proclamations banning the use of coal in London.” But to get Kim to catch up to eight-century old preventative healthcare will be impossible given the balance of forces amongst Third World elites in sites like South Africa, within the fossil-addicted WB itself, and a few blocks away at the White House and Treasury where mega-energy interests hold enormous sway.

The point here is not that the WB should become more involved in healthcare, for after all, it’s a bank, full of bankers and dogmatic neoliberal economists who continue to practice their craft unshaken by the events of 2008-09. To lend hard currency to poor countries – money often hijacked by venal elite rulers – so as to support public health, is financially ridiculous. The successful demand by African health advocates to halt WB lending to poor countries to buy overpriced AIDS medicines a decade ago reflects this common sense.

As Jois Mukherjee of Kim’s group Partners in Health put it in the journal HIV+ in mid-2001, “More World Bank loans are definitely not going to help. We’re firmly against – and I think most of the activist community is against – loans as a major funding source for the HIV epidemic. It can’t be the major source of funding because these are countries that can’t afford the debt payments they already have. These areas are in need of debt relief, not more loans.” (http://books.google.co.za/books?id=ZmUEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false )

Instead, what are required from world elites are fewer Intellectual Property Rights restrictions on Third World countries producing vitally-needed medicines that are now threatened by Washington-Brussels-Geneva free-trade pressure and by multinational corporate takeovers of Indian firms; more R&D on Third World diseases instead of the best medical brains being used for so much wasteful cosmetic healthcare; and more grants from Northerners who are the people most responsible for the climate-related fatalities that in Africa will probably exceed 200 million range within the next century. (http://www.southcentre.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1695%3Asb60&catid=144%3Asouth-bulletin-individual-articles&Itemid=287&lang=en)

That ‘climate debt’ must be paid, and although Hilary Clinton offered $100 billion/year from the North during the Copenhagen COP17 in December 2009, this was a promise she apparently meant to break, as it was offered only to ease pressure on Obama who arrived there the following day. The recipient of the grants, the Green Climate Fund, is being designed (partly by South African Trevor Manuel) as a ‘Greedy Corporate Fund,’ as NGO critics call it. It is currently under the WB trusteeship of Zoellick, who after taking over from his nepotistic predecessor, the war criminal Paul Wolfowitz, in 2007, rapidly tripled WB lending for coal projects. Clinton hasn’t paid a cent, as her team repeatedly goes to the UN climate summits with one aim in mind, sabotage. (http://www.ukznpress.co.za/?class=bb_ukzn_books&method=view_books&global[fields][_id]=395)

The single best example of such a grant mechanism, according to the trusted advocacy group Health GAP, is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. After intense struggles to launch the fund a decade ago, it has subsequently channelled nearly $23 billion into 150 countries, saving millions of lives.

However by now it was meant to have raised its capacity up to $10 billion in annual grants. But in continuing the isolationist policy of predecessor George W. Bush, Obama maintains funding at only half what is needed, failing to locate the $1 billion per year that the Global Fund requires to even maintain existing levels. So huge cuts – 25 percent or more – in vital projects are already underway, leaving South Africa’s AIDS treatment and funding-dependent Treatment Action Campaign movement in tatters. Recent estimates of the cost of the Bush-Obama banking sector bailout now approach $30 trillion.

PART 3: CONTENDERS

It is onto the terrain of unprecedented global financial malgovernance that Kim now strides. To be sure, on the way, he’s being tripped up a little by disgruntled neoliberals like Reuters columnist Felix Salmon, who concludes, correctly, “the US government in general, and the Geithner-Clinton axis in particular, doesn’t actually want any real change at the World Bank. Change can only come from a strong president who is strongly supported by the US, which has veto power over any real changes. Kim will be a weak president.”
(http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/04/05/jim-yong-kims-depressing-tactical-silence/)

Salmon and far-sighted ‘establishment’ allies – The Economist, New York Times, Financial Times and dozens of ghastly Old-Guard WB executives (http://www.worldbankpresident.org/a-bank-insider/useful-documents/former-world-bank-senior-managers-send-an-open-letter-to-the-board) – support Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was nominated by the governments of Nigeria, South Africa and Angola. A few years ago, Okonjo-Iweala served as Zoellick’s understudy, without visible discomfort, aside from “causing great turmoil” by abolishing new WB staffers’ open-ended contracts against the advice of her human resources department. (http://www.worldbankpresident.org/voice-of-reason/candidates/what-fuel-subsidies-in-nigeria-say-about-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-and-the-enthusiasm-were-seeing)

Most importantly, she gave the West enormous assistance seven years ago in maintaining neo-colonialism in Abuja at a difficult time. As a result, writes a Foreign Policy blogger, backing Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy is “an easy ‘reformist’ stance for economic conservatives to take. As these sources all note in their endorsements, Okonjo-Iweala is a fairly orthodox, free market, growth-oriented economist.” (http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/04/02/is_okonjo_iweala_the_establishment_choice_for_the_world_bank)

Free markets and growth are rarely so ‘easy’ to fuse, of course, and Okonjo-Iweala was not particularly successful in Abuja. According to the Nigerian Guardian columnist Sonala Olumhense, “She was one of those who put together the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), which, we were assured, would cure employment in Nigeria before our very eyes. NEEDS, when the scheme was launched early in 2004, would create seven million jobs within three years, they told us, one million of them before the end of the year alone.” (http://www.osundefender.org/?p=28671)

For Olumhense, “It was the original 419 [Nigerian financial scam]. Let me date-stamp all of this: Okonjo-Iweala was a key member of the powerful ‘economic reform team’ of that hour. In just months, NEEDS slipped into folklore; nobody from that team has acknowledged its existence since then, let alone taken responsibility for its deception.”

Last August, continued Olumhense, “at a media briefing to showcase the government’s economic priorities, she said that the major thrust of the administration’s economic agenda was ‘jobs and pro-jobs growth.’ Okonjo-Iweala did something else on that day. She spoke of the much-awaited ‘Transforming Nigeria Document,’ a mysterious guide that has remained unpublished until this day.”

Then there was the “Vision 20:2020 blueprint” which for Okonjo-Iweala was “the bedrock of the economic agenda. But Vision 20:2020 is a myth, like transformation, or NEEDS, or reform, or the war against corruption,” concludes Olumhense.

This was confirmed by former Central Bank Governor Charles Soludo, quoted by Olumhense as ridiculing “the whimsical origins of Vision 20:2020.” Confessed Soludo, “The impetus was the Goldman Sachs report on the BRIC countries and the Next 11 countries, which included Nigeria… We all know it is not achievable… it remains a wish list. The numbers simply do not add up. At best, it is a good slogan and an interesting joke.’”

The same dynamics worked in relation to debt relief. Back in 2005, Nigeria’s rowdy parliament was regularly rejecting foreign loan repayments as undemocratic and corrupt, given the country’s desperate poverty and the debts’ origins in the country’s military dictatorships. So Okonjo-Iweala first came to the world elite’s attention by working on behalf of the debt-collection mafia known as the Paris Club, with its representatives from the US, Europe, Brazil, Japan and the Russian Federation. To their applause, by October 2005 she quickly emptied Abuja’s treasury under the rubric of ‘debt relief’.

IMF rip-off artists explained the scam: “The agreement envisages a phased approach, in which Nigeria would clear its arrears in full, receive a debt write-off up to Naples terms, and buy back the remainder of its debt. The agreement is conditional on a favorable review of its macroeconomic and structural policies supported by the Fund under a nonfinancial arrangement.” (this and the next four citations are from https://www.civicus.org/new/media/PatrickBond-LootingAfrica.doc)

What that meant was that Nigeria, $6.3 billion in arrears, would first pay $12.4 billion in up-front payments. As Rob Weissman of Multinational Monitor reported, “You can celebrate this deal, as the Paris Club does, if you ignore the fact that creditors generally write down bad debts as a matter of course (not charity), the billions over principle that Nigeria has already sent out of the country, the fact that the deal imposes IMF conditionality on Nigeria (even though the IMF isn’t providing credit to the country), and the reality of the severe poverty in Nigeria.”

Complained the Global AIDS Alliance, “The creditors should be ashamed of themselves if they simply take this money. These creditors often knew that the money would be siphoned off by dictators and deposited in western banks, and the resulting debt is morally illegitimate. They bear a moral obligation to think more creatively about how to use this money. Nigeria has already paid these creditors $11.6 billion in debt service since 1985.”

According to Soren Ambrose, then based at Jubilee Africa, “The Paris Club requires that countries applying for relief be under an IMF program, but the prospect of agreeing to one is political dynamite in Nigeria. The Paris Club was however under great pressure to complete a landmark deal with Nigeria, where the legislature had threatened to simply repudiate the debts, so the PSI was deemed an acceptable alternative. Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters on May 18 that ‘the IMF makes sure it is as stringent as an upper credit tranche programme and then monitors it like a regular program, but the difference is that you develop it and you own it.’”

But actually, you don’t own it, they own you. What the Nigerian case illustrates is that the IMF pulls strings on behalf of the G8 ‘donor’ countries, and the G8 will continue to support the IMF if such functions benefit northern countries.

According to the leader of Nigeria’s Jubilee network, Rev David Ugolor, “The Paris Club cannot expect Nigeria, freed from over 30 years of military rule, to muster $12.4 billion to pay off interest and penalties incurred by the military. Since the debt, by President Obasanjo’s own admission, is of dubious origin, the issues of the responsibilities of the creditors must be put on the table at the Paris Club. As desirable as an exit from debt peonage is, it is scandalous for a poor debt distressed country, which cannot afford to pay $2 billion in annual debt service payments, to part with $6 billion up front or $12 billion in three months or even one year.”

So as a result of this deal and others like it, what Okonjo-Iweala accomplished can be summarized in a graph from an IMF report on the financial meltdown, which shows quite clearly that if you sell your family silver – all your reserves – in exchange for the write-off of vast ‘total public debt’ that could never have been repaid in any case, your Paris Club reward is to actually increase your rate of debt repayments to overall revenues. If you are a low-income African country, Okonjo-Iweala’s gambit means that although technically you owe half what you used to, in relation to GDP, you are now are milked even harder (50 percent more from 2008 to 2009, during the worst economic crisis in memory).


If we take this logic to its extreme, then from the standpoint of promoting social justice, Okonjo-Iweala would be a better choice for WB president than Kim, because having repeatedly done deals of this sort against her constituents’ interests, it is fair to say that no one in Nigerian history united the country’s poor and working-class majority so effectively.

To illustrate, a few weeks ago Okonjo-Iweala doubled the fuel price overnight, on the instruction of IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, and thereby introduced an ‘Occupy Nigeria’ spirit that helped connect the dots between Wall Street and African austerity. Usually without such dot-connecting the result is an ‘IMF Riot’ by furious citizenries, but the protest normally pops up briefly and dies down, leads to intense violence and achieves very little.

However, thanks to Okonjo-Iweala’s arrogant subsidy-cut advocacy, that social fury was transformed into mass non-violent strikes (although her police killed several unarmed demonstrators) and after a week, prior to desperate state concessions and trade union capitulation, it very nearly toppled the Goodluck Jonathan regime.

Such unique experience surely qualifies Okonjo-Iweala to play a role in humanity’s greatest task in coming months and years: uniting a coherent global people’s movement against the One Percent that would make the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organisation protest look like kindergarten training for Occupiers. What more could the 99 Percent ask of old WB in his fading days?

A similar case for Okonjo-Iweala is made by her compatriot, Ikhide Ikheloa, who first confirms the credentials required for a promotion: “There is no one else better primed to execute the obnoxious policies of the World Bank against African and brown nations than Okonjo-Iweala. Her current tour of duty, although disastrous to Nigeria and her poor, has given her an impeccable resume to spread the World Bank’s gospel of uncritical capitalism and indifference to the world’s poor and dispossessed.” (http://saharareporters.com/article/occupynigeria-why-dr-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-should-be-next-president-world-bank-ikhide-r-ikhelo)

After all, says Ikheala, WB “is an ancient bureaucratic relic whose time has come and gone” and, suffering within their own apparent stage of economic dementia, “The fawning over Okonjo-Iweala by Westerners has been comic… Under normal circumstances, were Okonjo-Iweala a Westerner or white, she and her bumbling team would have been fired for gross incompetence. The show of double standards is galling and maddening.”

Still, Ikheala pleads, the ordinary Nigerian would love to see her backside, even if it means being kicked upstairs: “When Okonjo-Iweala departs for the World Bank, she will be leaving Nigeria much worse than she found it. That is the most compelling reason why she deserves the World Bank presidency. Nigerians need a break.

Such passion and impeccable logic is quite hard to argue against, if we want to express solidarity with Okonjo-Iweala’s 150 million+ victims.

Still, the case of the other contender, Jose Antonio Ocampo, needs more investigation before we might conclude which candidate deserves WB leadership – or preferably, who can best manage WB decommissioning. An important qualification so far unmentioned: who can throw the best retirement party?

As Colombia’s Central Bank chairperson and Minister of Finance and Public Credit, of National Planning, and of Agriculture and Rural Development during the years 1989-97, serving one of the world’s most brutal governments, Ocampo surely participated in Cabinet meetings in which not retirement, but instead the murder of ten thousand trade unionists, human rights advocates and ordinary citizens by mushrooming paramilitaries was discussed, condoned, advocated or even celebrated?

I don’t know whether or not this is the case, but the best Latin American student I ever had, Jasmin Hristov, wrote the book Blood and capital: The paramilitarization of Colombia about this period: “It is not a mere coincidence that during the era of accelerated neoliberal restructuring, the deterioration in the living conditions of the working majority has been accompanied by an increase in the capabilities and activities of military, police, and paramilitary groups, as well as the portrayal of social movements as forces that must be monitored, silenced, and eventually dismantled.” (http://www.ohioswallow.com/book/blood+and+capital)

Given how many illustrious economists endorsed Ocampo, one would hope he has clean hands – but then again one would hope that before signing, those economists might have explored the embarrassing possibility of Ocampo’s fingerprints on our comrades’ corpses. Then again, they are economists, so probably it didn’t cross their minds. And at least Ocampo is now a committed Keynesian. In his recent advocacy for exchange controls and in a wide-ranging Challenge magazine interview, he comes down clearly on the left side of the discipline, aside from one faux pas: advocating another ‘Green Revolution’ for Africa. (http://www.challengemagazine.com/Challenge%20interview%20pdfs/027_039.pdf)

Regardless of the two contenders’ foibles, it still makes sense to assume that Kim will be elected with a slight majority of votes – don’t forget, WB’s Board enjoys vote-per-dollar ownership ‘democracy’ – held by the US, Canada, Japan, Korea and most probably Europe. Brussels owes Washington for helping hammer up that late-1940s ‘Europeans-Only’ sign (ubiquitous here in South Africa before 1994) on the IMF Managing Director’s door last year, permitting Lagarde – while facing investigation for massive fraud on behalf of a Conservative Party donor – to be selected over the other candidate, Mexico’s neoliberal central banker.

(Her predecessor as both IMF boss and French Finance Minister, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, had apparently overdosed on Viagra in a Times Square hotel – or was it a Lille brothel? – a few weeks earlier. They do scrape the bottom of the barrel for globo-gov management these days, don’t they.)

It is also safe to assume that when it comes to serving power, Kim will be more reliable and effective, simply because he’s imperialism’s choice, as against Brazilian and South African subimperialisms’ vain hopes. The oft-recited yet so far mythical potential of BRICS countries to challenge the system, in search of a few more crumbs from the table (for never would BRICS’ economically-obsequious leaders question what’s served for dinner or how it’s made), was dashed by Brasilia’s and Pretoria’s disunity: they couldn’t even decide to promote a single candidate, nor, in early April, has Brazil’s finance minister even decided to vote for the man, Ocampo, he nominated in late March.

So even if he avoids the April 9 Washington Post debate between WB presidential candidates, as is anticipated since Kim’s high-minded talk of openness and transparency in the FT will be his next broken promise, the winner in the WB Board selection in mid-April will be Kim. Recall that a factor working firmly in his favour, amongst the decidedly undemocratic electorate favouring the status quo, is Kim’s failure to initiate cultural change where it was so desperately needed, in the little One Percenter community of Dartmouth.

This, in turn, will make it easier to understand the same behaviour in Washington in relation to the 99 Percent’s needs, after a banal honeymoon that, like Obama’s first 30 months, may briefly deflect the cause of justice. After all, others have tried the WB insider-reform route – Stiglitz on economic philosophy, Caroline Moser in gender policy, Herman Daly on environment, John Clarke on NGO relations – and failed miserably. One day in 2012 or 2013, it is safe to predict, Occupy World Bank will need to move in and move Kim out, for his own good.

Before then, he will no doubt recall for WB minions the sickening strategy that served him so well in the noxious Ivy League, and that in coming months will work fine for a few thousand neoliberal economists – though not so well for species survival: “One of the things you learn as an anthropologist, you don’t come in and change the culture.”

The most appropriate attire for the slick status quo moves required – that outfit in which Kim was introduced to so many of us – is a studded leather jacket with spaceman sunglasses. Tempting as it is to admire his talk-left walk-right robot-dance (I certainly do), Kim’s razzle-dazzle really shouldn’t distract the rest of us from persuasively insisting that WB do what should have seriously been considered years ago: gracefully retire and stop causing so much trouble out here.

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* Patrick Bond directs the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society (http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za)
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Trayvon Martin is All of US!

Kali Akuno

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81495

cc D SDemand Obama institute a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice to end the epidemic of Black murders.

The murder of Trayvon Martin is no isolated tragedy. The murder of Black men and women by police and other state officials and by self-appointed “keepers of the peace” is standard practice in the United States, and essential to the very fabric of the society. Since the European colonization of North America, Black life has been disposable. Despite the many proclamations that the society is color blind and moving into a post-racial phase, the summary execution of Trayvon Martin and the more than 20[1] other Black women and men murdered by the Police, Security Guards or vigilantes in 2012 alone demonstrates that Black life continues to be regarded with short worth.

State sanctioned or justified murder of Black people in the United States is systemic, and more than just a set of random and isolated incidents. The solution to this pervasive crime against humanity cannot rely on local district attorneys for justice. We have to demand more than just investigations and individual prosecutions. We have to demand that the federal government take action and uphold its obligations under International Human Rights Law to protect historically discriminated groups such as Blacks.

SUMMARY

- 28 cases of state sanctioned or justified murder of Black people in the first 3 months of 2012 alone have been found (due to under reporting and discriminatory methods of documentation, it is likely that there are more that our research has yet to uncover)

- Of the 28 killed people, 18 were definitely unarmed. 2 probably had firearms, 8 were alleged to have non-lethal weapons.

- Of the 28 killed people,

. 11 were innocent of any illegal behavior or behavior that involved a threat to anyone (although the shooters claimed they looked “suspicious”);

. 7 were emotionally disturbed and/or displaying strange behavior.

. The remaining 10 were either engaged in illegal or potentially illegal activity, or there was too little info to determine circumstances of their killing. It appears that in all but two of these cases, illegal and/or harmful behavior could have been stopped without the use of lethal force.

- In most cases, where planned, investigations of the deaths have not been completed.

- Note: only six of the 28 killed people were over 30 years old and two of the six were 31 years old.

IMPLICATIONS FOR ACTION NEEDED

Almost every news story that reported these killings says something like, “another Black man dead.” Yet, perhaps to fight off despair, many people treat each case like Trayvon Martin as if it were the first, an exception, and hopefully the last, if only the perpetrator is arrested.

This gruesome list demonstrates that the US legacy of lynching and enforcement of Jim Crow apartheid persists. But today’s epidemic of murders of Black people thrives in a new deadly context. The myths of democracy and the election of a Black president hide the epidemic—make it harder to diagnose the pattern. And the hysteria of the War on Terror, building on the War on Drugs, has fueled the militarization of 17,000 local police departments. Nearly a trillion dollars in grants by Homeland Security and the promotion of a militarized culture has escalated the wars of racial domination and containment at home. In New Orleans, Chicago, New York, Little Rock and hundreds of other towns and cities, police departments and white citizens are armed and ready to maintain “security”. The so-called drug and terror wars have become a war on Black people—even if some combatants on the aggressor side of the line in Homeland Security and Police departments are Black.

In many ways, today’s war on Black people resembles the hounding of escaped slaves or the persecution of Black people who dared appear in segregated “sundown towns” after dark. The record of lynching shows that demonization of Black people did not begin with hoodies. Black people have survived this war by resisting Klan terror in all its forms, by affirming their culture and building solidarity and community. Depending solely on a local district attorney for survival, let alone justice, has never worked and will not work today.

Within this context—and given the data—we suggest the campaign to end the war on Black people take the following steps:

Currently, there is no national database that documents the killings of Black people by police, security guards and self-appointed peacekeepers. To understand the magnitude of the epidemic, we demand it be documented. To ensure that we hold the government accountable to this mandate, we call on all the organizations defending the human dignity and rights of Black people to collaborate on producing an independent database of these summary executions.

We must demand that the priorities of Homeland Security be shifted. As a recent Salon.com article noted, “So much money has gone into armoring and arming local law-enforcement since 9/11 that the federal government could have rebuilt post-Katrina New Orleans five times over and had enough money left in the kitty to provide job training and housing for every one of the record 41,000-plus homeless people in New York City. It could have added in the growing population of 15,000 homeless in Philadelphia, my hometown, and still have had money to spare. Add disintegrating Detroit, Newark, and Camden to the list. Throw in some crumbling bridges and roads, too.”(March 5, 2012) The military industrial complex is no longer a sector of the state—it has become the state—a police state. We must use whatever political rights we have left to demand that the tremendous resources used to fortify this militarized stated be used for human development, such as education, health care, and the development of sustainable energy and technology, not hunt and kill people.

At the same time, Homeland Security grants to police departments should be conditional on institutional overhaul that deprograms racist policies, rules of engagement, training and rewards.

a. Recruitment, training of new recruits and on-going retraining must identify racist assumptions and uproot them. The concept of “suspicious behavior” must be deconstructed under the leadership of community representatives.

b. When a cop has killed or wounded an unarmed “suspect” or used excessive force to subdue a “suspect”, that cops should be suspended without pay until the investigation is complete. If the cop is not cleared, he should be fired. (A number of killer cops are repeat offenders)

c. Cultural and institutional support that allows police departments to lie, cover-up, spin, justify and remain unaccountable for killing Black people must be identified. All actions must be video recorded and made public.

d. Community representatives responsible to community forum should be consulted on all these changes and approve them before implementation. Representatives of families whose loved ones have been killed should participate in these community bodies.

e. Money from one homeland security tank could more than fund high quality training for the entire police force for decades.

Redirect Homeland Security Funds to establish and institutionalize local community mental health programs. Jails and prisons are flooded with people who need support for emotional problems. Treatment, not punishment is needed. And there also should be community support for families—especially those with children who have emotional problems. A tragic number of children get killed by police when desperate parents call for help. This must end. Also, police must be trained, retrained and retrained on how to deal with people exhibiting erratic behavior. The policy of tasing for compliance must be ended.

Overhaul policies that encourage and justify harassment, assault and murder by non-trained, non-accountable citizens, such as “stand your ground”. Eg. Security guards, self-appointed neighborhood watch coordinator and a man defending his “castle” were responsible for at least four murders in the last three months.
Eliminate all the policies and procedures on all levels of government and in all state agencies that sanction the racial profiling of Black and other discriminated and targeted groups.

Stop the War on Drugs and end the mass incarceration of Black people. Reform all of the drug enforcement, quality of life, and mandatory minimum sentencing laws that have resulted in the gross over incarceration of Black people and the largest penal system in the world.

Challenge the cultural and legal climate that demonizes Black people and encourages racist attacks by security guards and vigilantes by instituting a massive public education campaign that addresses the historic legacy of white supremacy and institutional racism and educates the public about their fundamental human rights.
Finally, the Obama administration must create and institute a “National Plan of Action for Racial Justice”[2] to fulfill the governments obligations under the Convention to Eliminate all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)[3] by creating a permanent Inter-Agency Working Group to implement all of the aforementioned demands to protect Black and other historically oppressed groups from racial discrimination, targeted violence, and summary executions. For more information on CERD visit http://www.ushrnetwork.org/content/campaignproject/elimination-all-forms-racial-discrimination-icerd

Please join us is pressing these demands to hold the United States government accountable for its failure to fully address the systemic problem of institutionalized racism. You can help by endorsing these demands and raising them to the Obama administration and state and local governments in every venue possible. You can start by signing and distributing the following petition.

If you and your organization would like to officially endorse this initiative and work with the USHRN’s National CERD Implementation Task Force to directly engage the Obama administration regarding the implementation of a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice please email Kali Akuno at kakuno@ushrnetwork.org
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* This document was researched, written and produced by Kali Akuno and Arlene Eisen working on behalf of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Black Left Unity Network, and US Human Rights Network.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

END NOTES

[1] See the full list of victims in the diagram below. As of research completed on Friday, March 30, 2012 28 victims have been identified.

[2] National Plans of Action to eliminate racism and racial discrimination originated within the World Conference Against Racism process from 2001 in Durban, South Africa. To date several close allies of the United States have created National Plans of Action to combat racial discrimination, including Canada, Brazil, Ireland, and Norway to name a few. The National Plan of Action for Racial Justice proposed would address the systemic issues confronting all racialized and historically oppressed peoples in the United States including Indigenous peoples, Chicano/Mexicanos, Puerto Ricans, Indigenous Hawaiians, and others.

[3] The United States government formerly ratified the ICERD treaty in 19944 making it officially the law of the land.

[4]This list of 28 names was collected between 3/28/2012 and 3/30/2012 by reviewing google search results to the question, “who have police killed in 2012”. Only the first 65 pages out of 712,000,000 were reviewed.

[5] News One.com reported Rodriguez was African America however other reports and family photos indicate he was Latino.

[6] Many written reports do not explicitly identify the race of the victim. Most, however, do show photographs. In the case of Warren, no photo was displayed.

April 2012 issue of the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter available

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/81402

Fahamu seeks director of advocacy - Utetezi

Fahamu

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/81464

New Executive Secretary, UN Economic Commission for Africa

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/81457

Carlos Lopes, has been appointed by the UN secretary General Ban Ki-Moon as the new Executive Secretary of ECA, the largest UN entity devoted to Africa with around 300 economists and 800 staff, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Lopes will have the rank of UN Under Secretary General and will be the senior African in the UN leadership when he takes up his duties. His main objective is to enhance African strategic capacity by making ECA the largest think tank in the continent. Lopes has 24 years of UN experience, is fluent in English, French and Portuguese and has vast knowledge of the continent.

Lopes established several institutions, including the main research institute on his home country, and has been associated to major reforms of the United Nations System. At present, Lopes serves on high-level committees of the UN Secretary-General, including the one related to change and reform. Lopes is considered an institutional development and reform specialist.

Lopes worked in the Nordic Africa Institute, served as UN Resident Coordinator in Zimbabwe and Brazil, led UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy, and served as Political Director for Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Currently he is in charge of two UN institutions for training and research: UNITAR in Geneva and the UN Staff College in Turin. Lopes was the architect of UNDP’s sophisticated global Knowledge Systems. He also led the reflection on capacity building, including co-editing the reference book “Capacity for Development”, with the contribution of Economics Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz. For over 4 years he has managed a UNDP project portfolio of about USD 1 billion. Since 2006 Lopes had the rank of UN Assistant Secretary General.

Lopes’ masters on development studies was obtained in the well known Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies in Geneva. He also has a PhD in African History from the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Lopes has published more than 20 books, as an author or organizer, and about 180 academic articles. He has created and is a member of editorial committees of several academic journals. He was the driver of the first Human Development Report of Southern Africa, with a foreword by Nelson Mandela. He has received several awards and recognitions, including two Brazilian orders (Southern Cross and Cultural Merit), an Honorary Doctorate from University Cândido Mendes in Rio de Janeiro and the lifetime membership of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences. He is a member of various African institutions and networks, such as CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Sciences in Africa) who gave him special public recognition in 2008 and made him a member of its Scientific Committee. He also integrates the direction of Géopolitiques Africaines, African Sociological Review and African Identities journals.

Lopes is a sought after advisor, currently integrating twelve boards, including the Chair of the General Council of ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute. He organizes several high-level fora, including the Geneva Lecture Series, which counted with the presence of several Nobel Prize winners, including Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka. He is frequently invited to be the keynote speaker on such occasions as the Aula Magna of the Polytechnic of Maputo, Luso-Afro-Brazilian Social Sciences Congress, Nordic DevelopmentStudies Congress or the German Association of African Studies Congress, to name the most recent. Lopes taught in important Universities in more than twenty countries, from France to Japan, from Mexico to China, apart from a multitude of African countries.

Programme for African Leadership

London School of Economics

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/81579

Mandela: reading The Courier on Robben Island

Annar Cassam

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/81448

‘Newspapers are more valuable to political prisoners than gold or diamonds, more hungered for than food or tobacco.’ - Nelson Mandela

Mandela and his fellow political prisoners were condemned to life imprisonment in 1964 and their first years in jail were as intellectually and spiritually barren as the terrain on Robben Island itself, the prison authorities made sure of that. Newspapers, even local ones were not allowed. ‘The authorities attempted to impose a complete blackout, they did not want us to learn anything that might raise our morale or reassure us that people on the outside were still thinking about us,’ Nelson Mandela says in his autobiography ‘Long Walk to Freedom’.

But prisoners could apply to study for high school and university courses and thus order publications necessary for their studies. And so, together with publications on subjects such as accounting and economics, the prison administration also allowed in The UNESCO Courier magazine which arrived regularly from Paris for some time.

The prison authorities, mostly, if not exclusively Afrikaans-speaking, clearly considered the magazine to be harmless reading materiel for this class of prisoners who, after spending the day smashing stones in the limestone quarry, could retire to their cells in the evening and read its ‘insignificant’ contents.

It was President Mandela himself who recounted this in September 1996 to the then Director-General Federico Mayor, in the President’s Office, Union Buildings, Pretoria, during the latter’s official visit to the new democratic South Africa.

The President explained how pleased he and his companions had been to read The Courier through which they had learnt about so many subjects never before encountered, such as cultural diversity and mankind’s common heritage, African history, education for development and so on. All these subjects did not exist in the apartheid lexicon, let alone in the solitary confines of Robben Island.

Reading The Courier was a way of learning about what was happening in the real world outside. Nelson Mandela wanted the UNESCO Director-General to know this.

I had the privilege of accompanying the Director-General on this visit and as I listened to the President’s words, my mind tried to take in their meaning and significance. The Courier, so aptly named, was the carrier-pigeon that flew regularly from Paris to a remote spot in the middle of nowhere in the southern Atlantic Ocean to bring news and ideas from the five continents to Mandela and his colleagues under the very noses of the watchful agents of the police state that was apartheid South Africa. Knowledge and ideas grow wings when necessary.

A ‘CIVILIZING MISSION’

Robben Island was the South African Alcatraz, an island penitentiary from which there was no escape for the black common law convicts who were sent there for life. In the 1960s and 70s, as the struggle against apartheid strengthened and spread, the Island became the place where the racist government sent its most serious political opponents, also for life. In reality, the Island was a prison within-a-prison, for the principle lock-up, the main jail, was mainland South Africa itself where the white minority settler community was locked inside its paranoia about its own racial superiority over the indigenous population. Every aspect of existence, both private and public, was governed by racist laws designed to oppress and denigrate the black majority for the benefit of the white minority population, privileged in every way.

In so doing, the ruling class claimed to be preserving and promoting ‘European values’ in keeping with their self-styled ‘civilizing mission’ in Africa. Ironically, they themselves were complete strangers to those values, for they had no understanding of concepts such as liberty, equality, democracy, fraternity and values for which the Europeans themselves had fought across the centuries.

Indeed, UNESCO and the entire UN system were born out of just such a struggle, a devastating war against Nazi racism which had brought the world to the edge of the abyss in the second world war. In 1945, the lesson was learnt that ‘never again’ would the nations of the world allow such horrors to happen. At UNESCO, these countries decided deliberately ‘to build the ramparts of peace in the minds of men’ by sharing and expanding human knowledge in all its aspects, especially through the areas of education, science and culture.

The apartheid regime, however, learnt a different lesson and chose to go the opposite way, to promote separation, exclusion, deprivation, humiliation and violence. For those citizens who dared to question and challenge this backward ideology, the punishment was banishment for life.

I like to think of Mandela and his colleagues leafing through the pages of The Courier, reading about the temples of Abou Simbel in Egypt, standing for thousands of years at the other end of Africa and now about to be saved from oblivion through the combined efforts of the world’s experts. At the height of the Cold War in 1960, UNESCO managed to bring together resources and expertise from East and West to make sure these timeless, ageless monuments would endure for they formed the ‘common heritage of mankind’. How strange it must have been to read this in a place where the wardens made Mandela and his co-prisoners wear shorts, sleep on the cement floor and answer to the call of ‘Boy!’

ARTICLES ON RACISM ON ROBBEN ISLAND

I see Mandela and his fellow freedom fighters smiling with satisfaction when reading the article on racism written by John Rex, British sociologist and educationist in 1968: ‘The most striking instance of racism today is that of the system of apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid is not, as some imagine, designed to provide equal but separate facilities for all races. It is segregation carried through by men with white skins to their own advantage and to the disadvantage of the black and coloured people of South Africa.’ (The Ubiquitous shadow of racism).

Some years later, Mandela would read of the report made to the General Conference of UNESCO by its then Deputy Director-General, Mokhtar M’Bow of Senegal, on his tour of ANC exile institutions and refugee camps in Tanzania and Zambia in 1971. In this report he recommended two important initiatives: one, to provide educational assistance to all exiles being sheltered in these countries and two, to accord observer status to all African liberation movements recognised by the OAU (Organisation for African Unity). The General Conference accepted these recommendations and thus it was that UNESCO became the first UN agency to give such recognition, a step followed by the rest of the UN system soon after.

The Soweto massacre of school-goers in 1976 was a watershed in the history of the struggle for it brought to the streets an angry younger generation of fighters against apartheid revolted by the hideous Bantu Education Act which made it illegal to teach English, science and mathematics in black schools. It also made it obvious to the world outside that the racist government had no strategy except the use of brute force, even against unarmed school children. By this time South Africa had become an international pariah state, shunned by almost all people of the world if not by all governments.

In the following year, The Courier published its own special edition on racism in South Africa: Southern Africa at grips with racism. It was unlikely to have been allowed on Robben Island but by then the struggle had reached the world stage and it was beginning to dawn on some of the leaders in Pretoria that they would be needing Mandela…sooner or later. As the years went by, Mandela and his cause grew in strength and stature while the apartheid regime continued on its path of destruction and violence against its own black population and against neighbouring African states.

Mandela’s long period on the Island came to an end in 1982 when he was brought back to the mainland to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town and then finally to house arrest and to relative ‘comfort’ in a cottage in Victor Verster prison outside Cape Town. During this phase in captivity, which lasted until 1990, Mandela spent hours ‘talking to the enemy’, as he puts it, by initiating dialogue and discussion with the more intelligent, less bigoted members of the regime in order to make them understand that state violence and military action would not resolve the growing unrest in the country, that the pressure for change, coming from all sides, including the international community, would have to be dealt with politically.

Finally, the day came which had to come and on 11 February 1990, Mandela, accompanied by his wife, Winnie, walked out of the prison gates and within days established himself as the moral leader of the country. A remarkable achievement for a man who was not only banished for nearly three decades but whose name, photograph and words it was a crime to publish. In May 1994, after four years of gruelling negotiations with the De Klerk government, Mandela was elected the political leader of the new South Africa, the first President of a democratic, non-racist society where the ex-oppressors live in peace with the majority whom they humiliated for centuries.

MANDELA’S ‘TEN THOUSAND DAYS’

Mandela’s 27 years can been seen in two ways; as a terrible sacrifice of the best years of a man’s life and a cruel price in absence and loss exacted from his family. This punishment is undeniable and immeasurable. But Mandela’s ‘ten thousand days’ behind bars, to use his own expression, can also be seen on another timescale; this is how long it took for him to convince the racists to free themselves of their own ideological and cultural chains, to accept that freedom and dignity for all South Africans, whatever their colour or creed, were the ultimate qualifications of a civilised state.

The ‘white tribesmen’ of Africa are lucky Mandela waited those long years, that he was there to the bitter end in order to lead them, peacefully and patiently, out of the prison gates of their own minds, out of the delusion of separateness and superiority to a land to which they can all belong and from which none can be expelled because of the colour of his skin.

Robben Island became the first South African national site to join the World Heritage List in 1999. If ever there comes into existence a world heritage list to name those who have expanded and uplifted the collective conscience of mankind, Nelson Mandela will have pride of place on it.

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* Annar Cassam (Tanzania), was Director, UNESCO Special Program for South Africa between 1993-1996.
* This article was first published by The Unesco Courier.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Malawi: Banda starts tough amidst crucial challenges

Naisola Likimani

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/81474

Malawi's new President Ms Joyce Banda, has taken some bold steps in her first week as President. She started by firing Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhito, who was appointed by the late President Bingu wa Mutharika two years ago.

Inspector General Mukhito was accused of instilling a climate of fear in Malawians including arbitrary arrests and the shooting of 19 people during anti-government protests last year.

President Banda has reportedly also fired the Information Minister Patricia Kaliati who peddled falsehood that former President Mutharika was still alive days after his actual death, and Perks Ligoya, the reserve bank governor who pursued the rigid exchange rate policy that has been cited as a cause of Malawi's current economic crisis.

She has filled the critical posts with Moses Kunkuyu, a progressive parliamentarian who broke from the DDP to press for reforms, and Mary Nkosi, who becomes the first woman to hold the post of reserve bank governor.

The newly inaugurated President faces two major internal challenges in her efforts to address the country's political and economic calamity.

The first hurdle is winning over enough members of parliament (MPs) so that parliament will not block her efforts to govern, especially after she was removed from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for refusing to support the late President Mutharika's move to groom his younger brother, Professor Peter Mutharika, as the successor to the presidency.

President Banda has swiftly demonstrated her resolve to tackle the second major challenge, which is to win back donor confidence and support for Malawi's suffocating economy. The country's relations with foreign donors have been strained by accusations of the late President Mutharika being authoritarian and responsible for human rights abuses.

President Banda, who has vowed to reconcile with Lilongwe's external donors, yesterday asked Britain and the United States (US) to resume funding as part of her moves to heal breaches created by the late president Mutharika. She subsequently said London will send a new high commissioner to restore relations after a tit-for-tat expulsion of top diplomats last year.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said discussions on the suspended $350 million Millennium Challenge Corporation funding would resume soon. President Banda will also engage the IMF to ensure resumption of the Bretton Woods Institution programme for Malawi. It remains to be seen whether President Banda will be careful in her efforts to mend bridges with the West in order not to be seen as an unconditional supporter of the West. Such a perception risk isolating her government in a region where liberation movements turned ruling political party camaraderie and anti-imperialist solidarity still holds sway in some countries.

Another challenge that President Banda will soon face will revolve around Malawi's position to allow Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to enter the country in July to attend the African Union summit in Lilongwe after the International Criminal Court (ICC) referred the Southern African country to the United Nations Security Council for refusing to arrest the indicted Sudanese leader during his visit to the country in October of last year.

As it stands, President Banda's tenure is going to be very interesting as she tries to implement democratic reforms and some austerity measures to restore the country's economy while at the same time hoping to ensure parliament's vote of confidence and positioning herself for a win in the event she stands in the next presidential elections.

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* Naisola Likimani is Head of Advocacy, African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET).
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

France: Move quickly on Equatorial Guinea warrant

Son of president facing money laundering charges

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/81451

As a next step, the French Justice Ministry is expected to circulate the warrant through European and international law enforcement databases known as the Schengen Information System (SIS) and Interpol to seek his arrest.

Teodorín serves as Equatorial Guinea’s minister of agriculture and forestry and vice president of the ruling party. He is widely expected to succeed his father under constitutional changes pushed through in November. Equatorial Guinea is an oil-rich West African country with rampant high-level corruption and disproportionately high rates of poverty given the nation’s per capita wealth. Teodorín is under investigation in the United States and France, where investigating magistrates suspect that the president’s son’s purchases were made possible by the misuse of the country’s natural resource wealth.

“High-level corruption in Equatorial Guinea would entail a huge cost for the people of the country,” said Tutu Alicante, director of EG Justice, a US-based group that advocates for human rights and the rule of law in Equatorial Guinea. “France should do its part to combat corruption and impunity by fighting money laundering vigorously.”

In February, French police raided a mansion used by Teodorín in Paris and seized at least two truckloads of valuables worth an estimated total of at least 40 million Euros – reportedly including a 1.5 million Euro desk that belonged to King Louis XIV. In September 2011, police raided the same mansion and seized at least 11 high-end sports cars belonging to Teodorín.

France opened its official investigation following a legal complaint filed by SHERPA, a human rights group, and Transparency International France against several African leaders for allegedly using public funds to buy luxury properties and goods in France. Just two weeks after the September raid and seizure, President Obiang appointed Teodorín as the country’s permanent assistant delegate to UNESCO. A coalition of groups, including EG Justice, Human Rights Watch, and SHERPA, condemned the move as an effort to provide him diplomatic immunity from prosecution in France as the investigation against him gains momentum.

“It is unacceptable for political leaders to use an international organization such as UNESCO as a shield against justice,”said William Bourdon, president of SHERPA. “The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the only institution with the power to halt this nomination, and it should take action to block it.”

SHERPA has initiated an online petition calling on the Foreign Ministry to deny Teodorín the visa required to assume the post at UNESCO.

In a separate action, the United States government has moved to seize more than $70 million in US assets belonging to Teodorín, alleging that they were purchased with money obtained from “extortion and/or the misappropriation, theft, or embezzlement of public funds.”

Teodorín’s lavish global spending habits contrast sharply with the harsh daily realities endured by the majority of people in Equatorial Guinea. Most lack reliable access to even basic services like safe drinking water, electricity, and affordable healthcare. Recently, residents of the capital, Malabo, suffered through a water shortage caused by the city’s dilapidated water system.

President Obiang, in power since 1979 and the world’s longest-ruling leader, leads a government with vast revenues from oil that make the country the richest in Africa on a GDP per-capita basis. Yet it has prioritized spending on luxury resorts, presidential palaces, and other big-ticket projects over social spending to address the needs of ordinary citizens.

According to the United Nations’ 2011 Human Development Report, Equatorial Guinea ranks 136 out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index, despite a very high per-capita GDP of $31,779. As a result, Equatorial Guinea has by far the largest gap of all countries between its wealth ranking and its human development score. The country’s poor social indicators include high child mortality rates. Nearly one in eight children dies before reaching age 5.

Government critics face severe repression. One of the country’s most skilled physicians, Dr. Wenceslao Mansogo Alo, has been unjustly imprisoned since February 9. A verdict in the politically motivated trial against him is pending. In addition to operating his own health clinic, Mansogo has been a prominent human rights activist and leading opposition party member.

President Obiang defended his son in a France 24 television interview aired on April 10, saying his wealth had come from business ventures and not state funds. Teodorín’s lawyer in France has objected to the pursuit of a warrant against his client as “totally incomprehensible.”

The Equatoguinean government has threatened the French government with retaliatory measures over what it alleges to be an attempt “to provoke an internal destabilization” of Equatorial Guinea. On April 9, it confirmed that it had deported a French businessman the week before, alleging in an official statement that he caused “public alarm” by distributing a leaflet bearing the letterhead of the French embassy that provided information for French citizens in Equatorial Guinea about telephone contacts and places of refuge in case of danger.

On March 30 approximately 2,000 Equatoguineans gathered in front of the French embassy in Malabo to protest the actions against Teodorín in France. The government of Equatorial Guinea later reported that “hundreds of thousands” participated in “peaceful mass demonstrations” in Malabo. The country’s total population is estimated at 700,000.

In contrast, in March 2011 the government refused to allow an opposition party to hold a demonstration, and in November 2011 government security forces arrested and held for three days an opposition member who was working to organize rallies against the government’s proposed constitutional changes.

“Repression and corruption often go hand-in-hand,” said Arvind Ganesan, business and human rights director at Human Rights Watch. “This is the sort of case that should be pursued to send a message that the international community will not let officials travel the globe to launder natural resource wealth for personal gain.”

* This is a news release issued by Human Rights Watch.

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Human rights monitoring in Western Sahara and in camps in Tindouf, Algeria

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/81452

April 13, 2012

H.E. Mr. Mohammed Loulichki

Permanent Representative

Permanent Mission of the Kingdom

of Morocco to the United Nations

866 Second Avenue, 6th and 7th Floors

New York, N.Y. 10017

Re: Human Rights Monitoring in Western Sahara and in Camps in Tindouf, Algeria

Dear Ambassador:

Human Rights Watch urges the Security Council, when it reviews the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) this month, to extend it to incorporate human rights monitoring in Western Sahara and in the Polisario Front-run refugee camps near Tindouf.

MINURSO is one of the rare UN peacekeeping operations that does not include a human rights monitoring component. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, in his report on the situation in Western Sahara released this week, regrets obstacles to the fulfillment of MINURSO’s mission, including in its reporting functions.

Security Council Resolution 1979 of April 27, 2011 welcomed two Moroccan initiatives on human rights: its establishment of the National Council on Human Rights (NCHR) with a component proposed for Western Sahara, and its commitment to ensure access to all Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

These Moroccan initiatives, however welcome, fall far short of ensuring regular and impartial monitoring of the current human rights situation in Western Sahara and the refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria.

The NCHR has opened two offices in Western Sahara, has undertaken a number of human rights activities there, and can receive complaints from individual citizens. However, putting aside the fact that the NCHR is a national institution of Morocco, whose sovereignty over Western Sahara the UN does not recognize, this institution does not monitor human rights conditions in Western Sahara regularly and broadly; nor does it issue public reports on them.

As for cooperating with UN human rights mechanisms, Morocco hosted a visit in September 2011 by the UN Independent Expert on Cultural Rights, who spent one day in Western Sahara. The Special Rapporteur on Torture has announced his plan to visit Morocco and Western Sahara this September.

While these visits to Western Sahara by the UN’s thematic mechanisms are positive developments that should continue, they are by their natures brief and infrequent, and will never add up to monitoring that is broad and regular. That objective would be best achieved by enlarging the mandate of MINURSO to include human rights monitoring, or by creating a Special Rapporteur for Western Sahara.

The Secretary-General, in his new report on Western Sahara, states in paragraph 112 that “MINURSO is unable to exercise fully its peacekeeping, monitoring, observation and reporting functions,” and seeks the Security Council’s support “to sustain the peacekeeping instrument as it was intended to operate,” for purposes that include “provid[ing] independent information on conditions on the ground to the Secretariat, the Security Council, and the international community.”

That independent information should include monitoring of the evolution of human rights conditions. As the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Western Sahara Ambassador Christopher Ross told the Security Council on October 26, 2011, “Six months [after the Security Council adopted resolution 1979], a variety of human rights problems have been reported in both Western Sahara and the refugee camps, but the only independent look to date at one specific aspect of human rights took place in September when [the UN Independent Expert on Cultural Rights] visited.”

Morocco’s initiatives do not change the underlying situation: the Sahrawi people continue to suffer from violations of their rights (see “Recent Developments of Concern to Human Rights Watch,” annexed to this letter). Authorities continue to subject Sahrawis who advocate self-determination or denounce Moroccan human rights violations to various forms of repression, including imprisonment after unfair trials, beatings, and denial of the right to peaceful assembly, association, and expression. Ambassador Ross told the Security Council: “The international community [during the Arab Spring] has validated the right of peoples throughout the region to assemble and express their views, yet both in Western Sahara and in the refugee camps, restrictions exist on freedom of assembly and expression, particularly with regard to the future status of that territory.”

Human Rights Watch has always advocated that the enlarged mandate for MINURSO should include human rights monitoring not only in Western Sahara but also in the Sahrawi refugee camps across the border in Algeria, whose residents live in a state of relative isolation.

The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) identifies respect for human rights as a critical component for achieving sustainable peace integral to its operations. It is time for the UN to bring MINURSO into line with its other peacekeeping missions worldwide by ensuring that it includes regular monitoring and reporting of human rights violations.

We thank you for your consideration of our request.

Sincerely,

Sarah Leah Whitson

Executive Director

Middle East and North Africa Division

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International Day of Peasant's Struggle sees mass mobilisation

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/81453

(Jakarta, 16 April 2012) Small scale farmers and their allies are celebrating the International Day of Peasant's Struggle tomorrow, 17th of April 2012, organising more than 250 actions and manifestations allover the globe.

This event commemorates the massacre of 19 landless farmers demanding access to land and justice in 1996 in Brazil (1). A full list of actions, ranging from university lectures to land occupations is available on the website www.viacampesina.org

The international farmers movement La Via Campesina is mobilising this year to oppose the current offensive by some states and large corporations at international level to grab land from the farmers, women and men, who have been cultivating it for centuries. Small farmers' demand is simple: they need access to land to grow food for their communities. When land is grabbed by transnational companies, huge monoculture plantations for export are developed. This only leads to increased hunger, social unrest and environmental devastation, including the current climate chaos.

Tomorrow, farmers organisations and their allies will reclaim land all over Brazil and organise mass mobilisations against land grabbing in Tete, Mozambique and in front of the Constitutional Court in Jakarta, Indonesia. In Brussels, they will launch a parody of the EU Commission's website marking the 50th anniversary of the Common Agriculture Policy.

This action day will take place a few days before the World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty in Washington DC, April 23-26, 2012. The Via Campesina mobilisations will voice small farmers' strong opposition to the World Bank initiative of Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI) that is supposed to prevent land grab abuses but in fact legitimizes farmland grabbing by corporate and state investors.

“In the run up to the Rio+20 Earth Summit, farmers and supporters of the food sovereignty and agroecology movement are now actively opposing the “greening of capitalism” that is now promoted at international level. We believe that land, water, seeds and all natural resources should be used by small farmers to protect them and feed the world, and not by transnational corporations to make profit,” said Henry Saragih, general coordinator of La Via Campesina.

For interviews and more information:

Henry Saragih (in English): +62 811655668 (Indonesia)
Itelvina Masioli (in Spanish): + 55 11 63 59 00 44. (Brazil)
Josie Riffaud (in French) + 33(0) 6 13 10 52 91 (France)
Ibrahim Coulibaly (in French) + +22366761126 (Mali)

More information on www.viacampesina.org
e-mail: viacampesin@viacampesina.org

(1) On April 17 1996, in the Amazonian state of Pará, at Eldorado dos Carajás, the state military police massacred peasants organized in the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST), killing 19 individuals.That day, 1500 women and men organized in the MST occupied and blocked the BR-150 highway in Eldo-ado dos Carajás, with the intention to pressure the state and federal governments for agrarian reform. At about 4pm, 155 state military police from two brigades surrounded the MST on the highway, firing tear-gas,live ammunition and machine guns. In addition to the 19 MST killed during the massacre, three more died later from injuries, and 69 people were wounded. State authorities, the police, the army and powerful local landowners were involved in planning and executing of the massacre. Fifteen years later, none of those responsible for the massacre at Eldorado dos Carajás has been imprisoned or punished.


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President Obama’s green light to FTA is a red flag for Afro-Colombians

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/81449

Just this year, from January to April, PCN registered ten violent events that have caused the internal displacement of 35 families in Buenaventura and three families on the coast of Cauca Department (Guapi and Timbiqui) in order to escape the forced recruitment of their children by paramilitaries. Two leaders disappeared and were later found murdered by paramilitaries in Curvarado, Choco; five Afro-Colombians were killed and more than 20 wounded by bombs in Tumaco and Guapi, and the Community Council leaders and internal displaced and women organizations in Cauca continued to receive death threats (16 in total since 2009).

These are just a handful of horrible examples of the egregious human rights violations against Afro-descendant communities and their leaders. Yet we understand that this administration is prepared to proclaim to the world that the human rights situation in Colombia is not an issue anymore. For Afro-Colombians, we are still disproportionably affected by the internal armed conflict in all its manifestations, we are still the most impoverished in the country, we are still targeted by all armed forces in urban and rural areas, our lands are still being taken away, we still don’t have basic needs and we still don’t have any reliable representation at any level of government because of structural discrimination.

While President Obama is in Cartagena - the place where our African ancestors first landed after being kidnapped as part of the first trans-Atlantic ‘free trade system’ in the Americas - to talk about the hopes and future for the continent, we as: do people of African descent count?

If in Colombia there are men, women and children dying every day of hunger, sexual violence, targeted killing, lack of health services and who are victims of the deteriorating economic conditions in urban and rural settlements, why is that the Obama administration discounts these realities as serious human rights violations?

Afro-descendants have the same rights as the rest of humanity. And as this administration and others concerned with human rights in Colombia focus on the important issues of labour conditions and union organizers’ rights, we ask: what about Afro-Colombians?

President Obama, the Black Communities’ Process exhorts you to abstain from giving a green light to the FTA in Colombia and to acknowledge the red flag that all of those who are committed to protecting human rights have been raising for a long time now, particularly in regard to Afro-Colombians.

With our traditional affirmation of life, joy, hope and freedom,

Black Communities Process in Colombia (PCN)
International Working Group in the United States

Contact information: Charo Mina-Rojas at charominarojas@gmail.com or (1+34) 760-0663.
April 12, 2012

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Response to forcible seizure of freedom

Swaziland Economic Justice Network

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/81462

Following the recent display of force by the Swazi government when it cracked down on protestors on April 12, 2012 – the commemoration of the ban on political activity by the monarchy in 1973 – the Swaziland Economic Justice Network (SEJUN) would like to express its disappointment at the blatant abuse of power and taxpayers’ resources by the country’s leadership.

We are concerned that, at a time when government should be listening to the people who foot the bill on matters relating to the revival of the country’s economy, the leadership is however content with its perpetual forcible seizure of freedom from an otherwise helpless citizenry.

In Swaziland intimidation and coercion by the state are a frightening reality. On the eve of the planned protest against authoritarian rule, government put the frighteners on with its unabashed public display of armoury. This was hot on the heels of the ludicrous clamp down on organised labour, the previous week.

In a fiery of petulance and imperiousness, the country’s leadership further outlawed any organised activity, and in the process replicating the political catastrophe of 39 years ago.

Insecurity and fear pervade the country, a reality that has further exacerbated the state of poverty in the kingdom. When workers are barred from organising, their well-being and that of their dependents become subject to the vicissitudes of government and greedy employers. When people’s voices are excluded from decision-making, corruption filters through with dire consequences for the economy and with the poor masses always on the receiving end. This is a massive problem, and one that marginalised Swazis can’t overcome in isolation. The world has got to take a position in order to extricate the suffering masses from the everyday hardships they are confronted with. If anyone cares enough about eradicating hunger and poverty in Swaziland, we urge them to support the current calls for democratisation.

A new Swaziland is possible!

Bong’nkhosi Ntshangase
SEJUN Convener
Contact: s.sejun@yahoo.com

Sundiata Acoli wins appeal and is up for parole again

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/81450

The Appellate Court must still rule on Sundiata's 2010 denial of parole but meanwhile he's preparing to go before the parole board again for his newly won 2012 parole hearing. In that regards he would greatly appreciate any and all letters sent to the parole board urging that he be released.

Sundiata is 75 years of age and has been in prison 39 years resulting from a stop of his car by state troopers on the NJ Turnpike, in 1973, which erupted in gunfire that resulted in the death of his passenger, Zayd Shakur, and a state trooper, Werner Foerster. The other passenger, Assata Shakur, was critically wounded and captured on the scene where another trooper, James Harper, was also wounded.

Sundiata was wounded at the scene, captured in the woods 40 hours later and subsequently sentenced to life in NJ State prison.

Sundiata is now the longest held prisoner in New Jersey's history of similar convictions. He has maintained an outstanding record in prison and has had only a few minor disciplinary reports over the past 30 years and none during the last 16 years. He's also maintained an
excellent work and scholastic record and has always been a positive influence in prison, particularly in mentoring prisoners toward becoming crime-free benefactors to the community upon return to society and thereby break their cycle of recidivism.

Sundiata is a 75 year old grandfather who has long been rehabilitated, has long satisfied all requirements for parole and has no or "little likelihood of committing another crime:" which is the main criterion for parole in New Jersey. Sundiata is an old man, in declining health, who wishes to live out the rest of his days in peace tending his grandchildren.

Send letters urging the board that "39 years is enough! Release Sundiata Acoli! NJ #54859/Fed #39794-066" Address the INSIDE LETTER to: The New Jersey State Parole Board, P.O. Box 862, Trenton NJ 08625, BUT ADDRESS/MAIL THE ENVELOPE TO:

Florence Morgan,Esq.
120-46 Queens Blvd.
Queens NY 11415

and the letter will be forwarded to the parole board after a copy is made for SAFC files.

Thank you for your support. Please keep in touch with SundiataAcoli.org at The Sundiata Acoli Freedom Page to stay abreast of Sundiata's parole situation and additional ways you can express support/solidarity with his parole effort. Sundiata and his Freedom Campaign, SAFC, send their sincerest condolences to the family and comrades of Christian Gomez, the prisoner who died in the California Prisoner's Hunger Strike - and we send our warmest shout out of solidarity and strength to all those participating in or supporting the California Prisoner's Hunger Strike.

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German/French/Greece trivia

GaveKal

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/81463

World Bank needs to be better managed

Mo Ibrahim

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/81458

This week sees the lobbying and deal-making ahead of the election of the President of the World Bank reach its peak.

But for all the rhetoric and campaigning, the outcome remains sadly predetermined.

It is high time the US foregoes its sense of entitlement at the World Bank and allows a merit-based and transparent contest for the presidency to allow non-American candidates a genuine chance of winning. But what we are drifting towards is a continuation of the status quo.

The world is changing. For more than a decade now, since the Asian financial crisis, developing nations and emerging powers have sought to reflect the evolution of the global economy and geo-strategic concerns in the structure and leadership of international institutions. It is an anachronism for the leadership of the World Bank, and its sister institution the International Monetary Fund, to remain the sole preserve of established powers. However, established powers seem determined to cling on desperately to these last bastions of twentieth century geopolitics.

The aftershocks of a global financial crisis brought about by the failure of governments and corporate boards to execute their governance responsibilities still reverberate. Yet so soon afterwards, it is becoming clear that the appropriate lessons have not been learnt.

The World Bank is an institution of critical importance for the global economy. It is vital that the President of the World Bank be the most competent and experienced candidate for the task. For the first time, this year, there are two credible candidates from the developing world.

Many of my US and European friends, people who are outspoken on issues of development, governance and democracy, are conspicuously silent now. Some of my American friends cite the US election as a reason not to rock the boat. Others feel embarrassed about appearing disloyal. But these are not credible justifications.

No candidate for the Presidency of the United States will win or lose the forthcoming US election on the basis of how strongly Washington maintains its grip on the World Bank.

Moreover, while France's quid pro quo support for the US can be taken for granted in the light of Christine Lagarde's unchallenged ascendancy to IMF Director-General, the rest of Europe has little to gain from preserving the existing arrangement. Nations such as the UK and Germany have a chance to show the kind of leadership on this issue that they displayed during the last round of climate negotiations in Durban.

This is an issue of livelihoods for hundreds of millions of the world’s citizens. On this issue, the interests of US citizens are aligned with those of the citizens of all other nations – a properly-managed, efficient World Bank that promotes sustainable and equitable growth is to the benefit of everyone in our interdependent world.

While citizens across the world fight against cronyism, electoral malpractice and bad governance, we must ensure that our global public institutions set the right example. No-one can lecture developing countries on how to manage their processes, public and private sector, if they so brazenly do not conform to the same standards. Moreover, if this election process is not an open contest, it undermines the principle of fair competition that the US and the World Bank have traditionally exported to the rest of the world.

Having a transparent, open and merit-based process is of course the morally right thing to do. What is more important is that it is the smart thing to do. As the Bank engages in the delicate act of advising governments on best practice, its own leadership must have legitimacy. The Bank’s at times heavy handed approach in the developing world has created a well of bad feeling which already undermines its relevance. This election is a chance to restore the confidence of the Bank’s partners, and even its staff, in the institution.

When the Bank was created in 1944, the world looked very different. Today China is the second largest economy in the world, Brazil the sixth. European economies are struggling with austerity measures while African economies are growing faster than ever.

At this time of global political and economic upheaval, as developed countries watch new powers emerge, the Bank must move away from its post-Second World War origins and reposition itself for the new century. While 20th Century powers drag their feet over UN Security Council reform, here is a comparatively easy step along the path of reframing our global governance architecture.

There would be no better way to begin this process than by a merit-based election for World Bank President. This is a wonderful opportunity. The world is watching to see if it will be taken.

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Ancestral Song

A Poem For Voices

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/81454

My job as a poet is to tell the truth

Poetry Parnassus interview, with Steven J Fowler

Shailja Patel

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/81469

INTRODUCTION

I am thrilled to be named Kenya's poet for Poetry Parnassus. This festival at London's Southbank Centre will bring one poet from each Olympic nation to London in June this year, "to recreate the poetic spirit of the ancient Olympic Games." It is believed that this will be the largest ever international gathering of poets.

It is particularly meaningful for me to be Kenya's poet because the selection was based on nominations from the public. A call went out in the global media in 2011, for people all over the world to nominate their favourite poets from each country. So I won this honour through the votes of people who love poetry, and love my poetry. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who nominated me.

Below is an interview I did on Poetry Parnassus with Steven Fowler of the UK's Maintenant Poetry Series.

THE INTERVIEW

STEVEN FOWLER: In its sheer scope the Poetry Parnassus offers a unique opportunity for you to interact with fellow poets from every corner of the globe. How do you think this collective experience will benefit those who attend, to be exposed to so many different traditions of poetry, to hear poetry in so many languages?

SHAILJA PATEL: I hope it will change the discourse from Poetry to Poetries. Plural. Multiple. Widely divergent. Constantly evolving. I hope it will delight and challenge audiences into engaging with poetries outside their comfort zone.

STEVEN FOWLER: You clearly conceive of poetry as a medium of change, one in which your activism can find voice and reach people who perhaps otherwise would not be reached. Is this true do you think?

SHAILJA PATEL: George Orwell said: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." We can't have enough revolutionary truth-telling in this time of global crisis, and poetry is the natural vehicle - a distillation of language and perception to their purest, most intelligent and powerful essence.

My job as a poet is to tell the truth. To tell it, as Audre Lorde wrote, with as much beauty and clarity as possible. I want my work to enter listeners through the heart and gut.

My job as a poet is to wake myself up and take responsibility for learning the truth. That means doing hard work, looking beyond headlines, being willing to interrogate data, structures, systems. Then, it's my job to create the conditions, in my poems, where others can wake up to those truths.

It may not feel good. I'm not here to make people feel good. When we open ourselves up to really feeling, both deep happiness and deep pain, genuine unmanipulated awe at the beauty and violence of life, we emerge larger. More human. More porous, more connected to everything. That makes us braver, gives us hope, no matter how dire things are.

STEVEN FOWLER: Could you discuss the collection Migritude, which seems to be a fusion of memoirs, poetry and political polemic?

SHAILJA PATEL: Migritude is a word I created, to capture the unique political and cultural world of migrants who refuse to choose between identities of origin and identities of assimilation. Who channel difference as a source of power, rather than conceal or erase it. It grafts the in-your-face energy of "migrants with attitude" onto the legacy of liberation and resistance defined by Négritude, the movement led by Leopold Senghor and Aimé Césaire in the 1930s.

Migritude is political history unpacked in poetry. It is an accounting of Empire enacted on the bodies of women, from India to East Africa to Afghanistan to the US, unfurled through a collection of saris given to me by my mother.

"Because I was born to a law / that states / before you claim a word you steep it / in terror and shit / in hope and joy and grief / in labour endurance vision costed out / in decades of your life / you have to sweat and curse it / pray and keen it / crawl and bleed it / with the very marrow / of your bones / you have to earn / its / meaning"

- - - from Shilling Love, Migritude

STEVEN FOWLER: The Parnassus is one of the largest poetry events to ever take place, over one whole week with over two hundred poets in attendance. The nature of its design, to bring one poet from every country participating in the Olympics, means, to a certain extent, you are a representative of your nation and its poetic culture. How do you feel about that idea?

SHAILJA PATEL: There are 40 million Kenyans, and therefore, 40 million Kenyas, and 40 million Kenyan poetries. To imagine that I, a single poet, could represent that spectrum, would be absurdly reductive, ignorant, and arrogant.

The idea of 'representing my nation' also reinforces a dangerous and obsolete nationalism at a time when Kenyan nationalism is being invoked to justify Kenya's military invasion of Somalia. The South African poet Sandile Dikeni says, aptly: "The nation-state is an 18th-century European construct". I am a radical internationalist. I work for the dissolution of borders.

What I can represent with integrity is a Kenyan dream. A dream that 99.9% of Kenyans share with 99.9% of the world's population – a dream of truth, justice, equality. A dream of a world free of class apartheid, a world where all forms of life are cherished, and every human being is of equal value. A world where history is re-written from the bottom up.

The Kenyan poetries I align myself with rarely, if ever, make it onto the page. These poems are the testimonies of Kenyans made refugees, in their own country, by corporate multinational landgrabs and ruling class rapacity. Women who sleep in cardboard shacks, wake in flooded tents, and do whatever they have to do to feed the children. These poems are the recountings of torture by survivors of Britain's gulag in Kenya. They are the chants in the blood of hundreds of Kenyan women demanding justice after being raped by British soldiers. These poems are the dirges of Somalis fleeing from famine, bombed by Kenyan warplanes. These poetries of witness, of embodied resistance, are the heartstopping, world-changing Kenyan poetries I am proud to make visible and to amplify.

STEVEN FOWLER: Performance seems central to your poetics, is it a vital part of your writing methodology, the thought of the work being performed?

SHAILJA PATEL: For most of human history, poetry has been oral. The sound of a word creates a world. I write by hearing the spoken music of words, by feeling them in my body. When I read a poem-in-progress out loud, it shows me where and how it wants to be edited.

STEVEN FOWLER: The parnassian ideal that really centres the Poetry Parnassus project reaches back to the Poetry International festival held in London in 1967 which sought to address notions of free speech, community and peace through the artform of poetry. Do you believe this tradition needs to be maintained in 2012?

SHAILJA PATEL: There could not be more potent moment to revive the Parnassian ideal. The global Occupy movement is a collective act of poetry on a planetary scale. Poetry Parnassus could speak from the heart of Occupy, be the platform for a poetic re-visioning of our global societies, a poetic dismantling of the militarism and capitalism that are destroying all life on the planet. Poetry Parnassus could be the birthplace of a poetics of transformation.

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DRC: Congolese Genocide Awareness

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81576

Egypt: The movement has neither won nor lost in Egypt

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81580

http://bit.ly/I52IhZ

Global: Full Circle

2012-04-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81547

http://bit.ly/JppTmq

Global: How companies shape US immigration law

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81409

http://bit.ly/HZcP1e

Global: Interview with Kwame Ture

2012-04-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81552

http://bit.ly/I2lH9e

Global: Occupation and Latin America

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81487

http://bit.ly/I6Z4xJ

Malawi: Voices of disquiet on the Malawian airwaves

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81568

In Malawi, an audience-driven radio programme - Nkhani Zam’maboma or 'News from Districts' - has captivated the nation by exposing everyday injustices experienced by Malawians. Grievances are articulated through local idioms and proverbs that have little in common with the individual freedoms espoused by human rights activists. Never before has it been possible for Malawians to share experiences of injustice so publically.
http://africaresearchinstitute.org/podcasts-article.php?i=FALQHJSWQP&p=1

South Africa: 'The Rise of the Worker’s Movement and the ANC from 1973 to 1994'

2012-04-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81548

http://bit.ly/Im700h

South Africa: Life's journey immortalised in doccie

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81404

http://bit.ly/HH3Hik

Zimbabwe: ZANU PF elections widens split in the party

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/zimbabwe/81557

http://bit.ly/JnSVDT

Guinea Bissau: AU suspends Guinea Bissau

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/81492

http://bit.ly/JNAEd1

Malawi: Malawi will host the AU Summit, govt confirms

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/81439

http://bit.ly/IxcxRf

South Africa: Traditional Courts Bill causes concern

2012-04-23

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/581/TCB statement-2012.doc

Egypt: 65 Egypt prisoners go on hunger strike in Israel

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81443

http://bit.ly/IXUpo4

Ghana: Kwame Nkrumah’s 40-year-old stolen diary returning to Ghana

2012-04-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81545

http://bit.ly/Jlytn5

Global: Protest groups target Olympics sponsors with new campaign

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81417

http://bit.ly/IQ8l1k

Libya: NTC must investigate torture death, says Amnesty

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81553

http://bit.ly/JiYXmX

Morocco: Drop charges against detained rapper

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81447

http://bit.ly/IPGXl0

Swaziland: Activists detained

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81427

http://bit.ly/HNp5Tv

Burundi: Dutch asylum policy blamed for suicide

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/81434

http://bit.ly/IVpkzc

Egypt: Stealth environmental influences on economic migration

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/81561

http://bit.ly/Iys18q

Global: A community guide to rebuilding the lives of LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/81555

http://bit.ly/JnR3uM

Libya: Inquiry launched into 'betrayal' of Libyan asylum-seekers by MI5

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/81558

http://ind.pn/HV4mOK

Mozambique: Mozambique aims to lure back exiles

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/81426

http://bit.ly/I1zXMD

South Africa: Refugees - Welcome to Hell

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/81432

http://n24.cm/HYOSLO

Ivory Coast: Free jailed Ivory Coast union leader Basile Mahan Gahé

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/labour/81415

http://bit.ly/HKBXyh

Latest edition: emerging powers news roundup

2012-04-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/81551

1. General

World Bank vote shows lack of mortar to hold BRICs together
Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the Nigerian finance minister who this week missed out on becoming the president of the World Bank, said she drew one significant lesson from the contest. “We have shown we can contest this thing and Africa can produce people capable of running this entire architecture,” she told reporters in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Monday, as her American rival, Dr Jim Yong Kim, was crowned the bank’s 12th president in Washington.
Read More

2. China in Africa

Ghana seeks $6 bln China loan
Ghana said on Thursday that the $6 billion it is seeking from the Export-Import Bank of China through an existing $13 billion Chinese credit facility would fund new transport, education and health projects in the West African state. Ghana, which is heading toward presidential elections in December, had said in August last year that it was seeking to land the $6 billion loan from the ExIm Bank, but had not said how it planned to use the funds.
Read More

Ghana Signs $1 Billion Loan With China for Natural Gas Project
Ghana signed a $1 billion lending agreement with China Development Bank Corp. as part of the biggest loan in the country’s history that Vice President John Dramani Mahama said would provide hundreds of thousands of jobs and develop natural gas. Ghana signed an $850 million agreement for a gas project between the Ghana National Gas Co. and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (600028) in Beijing and the rest for information technology projects, Mahama said. The total amount of the loan will eventually be $3 billion and Ghana will send China 13,000 barrels of oil a day that will be sold at market price on the day, he said.
Read More

Tanzania sources Chinese loan for wind farm
Tanzania has secured a US$123 million loan to construct a wind energy plant in its central region. The wind turbine project expects to extend power generation by up to 300 MW. The planned wind farm in Singida will mean that power-dependent industries in the region will soon be provided with locally generated electricity. The managing director of the state-run National Development Corporation (NDC), Gideon Nasari, confirmed the parastatal has secured the non-concessional loan from Exim Bank of Beijing, China.
Read More

China sets fund for new aims in Africa
The China-Africa Development Fund is shifting its investment strategy with the focus now on infrastructure, manufacturing and agriculture, after a capital injection of $2 billion, Hu Zhirong, vice-president of the fund, said. Besides energy and resources, the fund is looking at projects in "infrastructure, manufacturing, new energy and agriculture", to boost Africa's standard of living, he said in an interview.
Read More

Sudan, China in Joint Work to Increase Oil Production
Sudan and China are concerting bilateral efforts to increase oil production in Sudan with six squares open proposed for investment to be offered to investing companies mid this month, the Minister of Finance and National Economy Ali Mahmoud has announced. The Ministry is embarking on setting up new measures for attracting financial resources from outside to bridge the gap left by South Sudan secession and cessation of oil revenues, the minister affirmed.
Read More

3. India in Africa

India proposes norms for Indian Ocean anti-piracy patrols
With the Indian Ocean region infested by Somali pirates, India is spearheading an effort to create a naval standard operating procedure (SOP) for the 32 littoral nations of the region to jointly fight the menace. The effort at preparing the SOP is currently in progress at the India-initiated Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) that is in progress in South Africa since Wednesday, according to the Indian Navy here.
Read More

4. In Other Emerging Powers News

Understanding Russia-African Economic Cooperation
Low enthusiasm and inadequate knowledge of current market changes are key factors affecting economic cooperation between Russia and African countries, but experts have repeatedly suggested that this trend can be reversed if both African governments and Russian authorities get down to serious dialogue with concrete business agenda.
Read More

LUKOIL to spend $100 million on Sierra Leone block
Russia's second largest oil producer, LUKOIL will invest $100 million to launch exploration activities on its offshore block in Sierra Leone, a company official said. LUKOIL, which has struggled to replace production with new reserves, is pinning its hopes on new overseas ventures and bought a 49 percent stake in the offshore block last year as part of efforts to build its portfolio of African oil assets.
Read More

Mozambique: Country-Brazil - Example of South-South Cooperation
The Vice-President of Brazil, Michel Temer, said on Tuesday that the partnership between Brazil and Mozambique has shown the benefits of south-south cooperation in promoting social development that is also committed to democracy and social justice. Speaking shortly after a meeting with Mozambican Prime Minister Aires Ali, who is on an official visit to Brazil, Temer said the work done in partnership with Mozambique reflects Brazilian interest and confidence in strengthening still further the existing ties.
Read More

SA to work with Brazil against hunger
Brazil has agreed to assist South Africa on social development issues, particularly in fighting against poverty and hunger. “It is important that we strengthen relations by sharing experiences with the view to find solutions to the similar challenges we face,” said Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini on Tuesday. She was speaking at a discussion in Pretoria, where Brazil's Deputy Social Development Minister Romulo Paes de Sousa shared policies on fighting hunger and poverty.
Read More

5. Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

Zhong Jianhua: Chinese Enterprises in Africa
At the end of 2011, Mr Zhong Jianhua, Chinese ambassador to South Africa, received a special interview by a reporter of China Reform of Caixin Media. Mr Zhong emphasized as China's investment endeavor in Africa is still in the primary stage, we need to understand different cultures from different perspectives.
Read More

Angola: Military mission in Guinea Bissau ends

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/81424

http://bit.ly/J39ZOq

Guinea Bissau: Junta backtracks on two-year transition

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/81564

http://bit.ly/IKL3rh

Mauritania: Thousands in anti-regime protest

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/81563

http://bit.ly/I4IMM8

South Africa: Malema to continue as ANCYL president

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/81421

http://bit.ly/HQa6Oa

Swaziland: Got to work, boycott king's party

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/81430

http://bit.ly/I2pap9

Uganda: Police arrest half naked women activists

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/81582

http://bit.ly/I3BTXN

Angola: Cobalt tumbles after Angola revelations

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/corruption/81423

http://on.ft.com/HJo2DT

Global: IMF's approach to financial regulation 'behind the curve'

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/corruption/81494

http://bit.ly/I4YqoA

Nigeria: Nigerians up in arms over planned return of $250m Ibori loot

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/corruption/81465

http://bit.ly/I0KQ3G

Uganda: Activists vow to continue battle for disclosure of oil agreements

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/corruption/81436

http://bit.ly/GZNp8K

Zambia: Prosecutors 'biased' against ex-president's son

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/corruption/81425

http://bit.ly/J5SgBn

Africa: Gold prices soar but Africa loses out, says AfDB paper

2012-04-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/81546

http://bit.ly/JjhME0

Africa: Sub-Saharan Africa to grow 5.4 per cent on oil output, IMF says

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/81467

http://bit.ly/HSjnQq

Ghana: Mining activist fights the gold goliaths

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/81440

http://bit.ly/I5kyON

Global: 'G20 must retain relevance for developing countries'

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/81466

http://bit.ly/JelmDe

Global: Canada to slash foreign aid to 12 poor countries

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/81418

http://bit.ly/HMcw08

Global: Global outward FDI rose in 2011 despite economic uncertainties

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/81408

http://bit.ly/IxmsUy

Global: Rewriting the rules of the global economy

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/81431

http://bit.ly/HYKRa6

Global: World Bank supports harmful water corporations, report finds

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/81429

http://bit.ly/IWvwod

Tanzania: Mkapa defends privatisation, blames bad management

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/81403

http://bit.ly/IFKvpT

Cameroon: Rise in male midwives divides clientele along religious lines

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/81442

http://bit.ly/I3Q8Ju

Global: An HIV/AIDS rogues' gallery

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/81567

http://bit.ly/HVfx9W

Global: TB, AIDS, and malaria are finding new ways to resist treatment

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/81560

http://bit.ly/JqD3zt

Mozambique: Music and comics for HIV/AIDS Prevention

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/81405

http://bit.ly/INvQKE

South Africa: Activists call for new TB machine costs to be dropped

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/81559

http://bit.ly/I8vQiZ

Africa: Online learning inspires refugees

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/education/81569

http://bit.ly/I4iUzd

Nigeria: School attendance down after Boko Haram attacks

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/education/81565

http://bit.ly/I8BmlI

South Africa: School-based violence victim gets protection under Domestic Violence Act

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/education/81477

http://bit.ly/J8N4O4

Swaziland: Teachers call strike

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/education/81438

http://bit.ly/I3Oo30

Uganda: Education Staff shortage crippling universities

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/education/81485

http://bit.ly/JNhIv7

Trayvon Martin is all of us

Demand Obama institute a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice to end the epidemic of Black murders

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/racism/81411

http://bit.ly/HRh15j

Africa: The CDM in Africa cannot deliver the money

18 April 2012, Press Release: For immediate release

2012-04-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/81549

The 105 pp report is available at http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za or www.cdm-africa.org/download or http://climateandcapitalism.com/2012/04/18/cdmfails-in-africa/ for download. It was launched today in Durban at the Bisasar Road landfill (Africa’s largest, and a major CDM pilot); in Addis Ababa at the African Carbon Forum of carbon traders which begins this morning; in Hanover, USA, at Dartmouth College (whose president, Jim Yong Kim, was this week chosen as World Bank president); and in Brussels at the Northern Alliance for Sustainability, in advance of the European Union Environment Ministers meeting which will deliberate on a bail-out for the crashing EU carbon market.

Across Africa, the CDM subsidizes dangerous for-profit activities, making them yet more advantageous to multinational corporations which are mostly based in Europe and the US. In turn, these same corporations can continue to pollute beyond the bounds set by politicians especially in Europe, because the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) forgives increasing pollution in the North if it is offset by dubious projects in the South, especially in China, India, Brazil and Mexico (the main sites of CDMs). But because communities, workers and local environments have been harmed in the process, various kinds of social resistances have emerged, and in some cases met with repression or ‘divide-and-rule’ strategies.

After explaining in detail the problems with the CDM in Africa through several cases, the authors come to a firm conclusion: 'All these cases suggest the need for an urgent policy review of the entire CDM mechanism’s operation (a point we made to the United Nations CDM Executive Board in a January 2012 submission), with the logical conclusion that the system should be decommissioned and at minimum, a moratorium be placed on further crediting until the profound structural and implementation flaws are confronted. The damage done by CDMs to date should be included in calculations of the "climate debt" that the North owes the South, with the aim of having victims of CDMs compensated appropriately.'

EJOLT is a large collaborative project bringing science and society together to catalogue ecological distribution conflicts and work towards confronting environmental injustice. More info on EJOLT. We would be grateful if you could spread news about this report.

Contact details: Patrick Bond, Lead Author: pbond@mail.ngo.za +2783 425 1401;
Leah Temper, EJOLT editor: leah.temper@gmail.com

Global: Opposition to biotech giant Monsanto growing worldwide, new report shows

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/81413

http://bit.ly/HM15pe

Global: Declaration of the participants at the alternative world water forum

Marseille, 14-17 March 2012

2012-04-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/81543

http://bit.ly/JkVkhj

Goldman Prize for Kenyan River Activist Ikal Angelei

Peter Bosshard

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/81396

Ikal Angelei grew up on the shores of Lake Turkana, the world’s biggest desert lake. This lifeline of Northwestern Kenya is under threat from the giant Gibe III Dam, currently under construction on the lake’s main water source, the Omo River in Ethiopia. When she learned about this threat, Ikal founded Friends of Lake Turkana with a few friends in 2007. Working together with partners around the world, she started an international campaign to stop the mega-dam which threatens her people’s livelihoods.

Ikal and her friends carried out research on the $1.7 billion project, educated the local communities and mobilized them for creative protests. They informed international civil society groups, journalists and scientists about their struggle. They issued a complaint with the African Development Bank, which considered funding the Gibe III Dam, and the World Heritage Center, which is charged with safeguarding Lake Turkana’s universal ecological value. They mobilized national parliamentarians, and took the Kenyan government to court for failing to defend local people’s interests. (The case is still pending.)

During the past five years, no obstacle was too big and no place too far for Ikal Angelei’s determined campaign. The young activist, who had never left Kenya before launching her campaign, traveled to Dakar, Prague and Washington to crash the meetings of international financiers. She knocked at the doors of government agencies and banks from Rome to Beijing. She drummed up support for her cause at international civil society meetings from Istanbul to the small Mexican town of Temacapulin.

Ikal and her friends did not lose the ground under their feet during their high-profile campaign. In between meetings and travels, they frequently visit local communities, where they support basic needs with a school and a small maternity clinic. They educate villagers about the threat they face and the campaign they have waged. And they try to mediate the bitter conflicts between different indigenous groups over dwindling resources. These conflicts have already claimed hundreds of lives, and will escalate if the Omo River’s flow is dammed for power generation and diverted for sugar plantations.

I have had the privilege of working with Ikal Angelei throughout her campaign. Ikal has the authority of an activist who speaks from her heart, is rooted in her local community, and has put her own life on the line. Her opponents had to learn that she cannot be silenced by threats and bribe offers. So far, Ikal’s determination has only been matched by the ruthlessness of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, for whom the livelihoods of 500,000 poor people are small change. I am convinced that if she had the chance to meet him personally, Ikal would also stare down the Ethiopian strongman.

Thanks to Friends of Lake Turkana’s campaign, the African Development Bank did not fund the Gibe III Dam in spite of strong Ethiopian pressure. The World Bank and the European Investment Bank had to recognize that the scheme would violate their social and environmental safeguard policies. An Italian government financier and a big Wall Street bank also stayed out of the project. Construction of the Gibe III Project has been delayed by several years, and the dam is currently about half-completed.

So far only ICBC, a large commercial bank from China, has approved a $500 million loan for the dam’s equipment in July 2010. Ikal has held the bank to account for its destructive project in the international media, and will continue to do so. Even in China, ICBC’s decision is now being considered a case of lacking corporate social responsibility. A few weeks ago, the Chinese government directed its banks to align overseas projects with “international best practices” on social and environmental risks.

In May the World Bank, which stayed out of the Gibe III Dam the first time around, will decide whether to fund a transmission line that would export the project’s electricity with a credit of $676 million. If a project is too destructive for direct support, the Bank should not fund it through the backdoor of a transmission line either. The Goldman Prize, which is awarded today, will give Ikal Angelei another platform from which she can defend her people’s livelihoods against such destructive practices. Please join me in congratulating Ikal, and in telling funders to stay out of the Gibe III Project.

* Peter Bosshard is the policy director of International Rivers. He blogs at www.internationalrivers.org/en/blog/peter-bosshard and tweets at www.twitter.com/PeterBosshard

Kenya: African business leader appointed new president of AGRA

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/81397

http://bit.ly/J3TgZr

Kenya: Kenya edges closer to GM foods

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/81479

http://bit.ly/JN6aba

South Africa: Billions needed for water infrastructure

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/81420

http://bit.ly/HPdho7

South Africa: Ecological mine disaster expected due to acid mine drainage

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/81437

http://bit.ly/HT5ZB1

Africa: Land grabs put farmers at risk across Africa

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81468

http://bit.ly/Jh0WVC

Mozambique: World Bank to discuss land policy in the country

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81488

http://bit.ly/HKdFkn

Sierra Leone: Action for Large scale Land Acquisition Transparency (ALLAT) launched

2012-04-23

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/581/ALLAT EN.pdf

Sierra Leone: SOCFIN land investment brief by the Oakland Institute

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81581

http://bit.ly/I8zHAX

Uganda: A study on land grabbing cases in Uganda

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81562

http://bit.ly/JqEEp5

Uganda: Anxious communities at refinery site not yet consulted

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81435

http://bit.ly/I3NJP3

South Africa: Tolls a risk for food security, says union

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/food/81422

http://bit.ly/HNnjSo

Ethiopia: Jailed Ethiopian journalist and blogger honoured

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81400

http://bit.ly/HKpI4S

Uganda: Communications Regulatory Authority Bill

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81554

http://bit.ly/IfFP51

Africa: Poor sanitation costs Africa

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/welfare/81446

http://bit.ly/HSLCmk

South Africa is about to get talking

Why Are We So Angry?

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/welfare/81401

ON: SABC 1
STARTING: 3 APRIL – 8 MAY (On Tuesdays)
AT: 9PM

'I feel a great sense of sadness when I read most of the comments on any of the [ ] online articles. There is palpable anger coming from people of all races. It's clear that we as South Africans have a long way to go in terms of social cohesion.' Writes a [ ] reader, Kerry Power on 11 May 2010.

How did we get here?

Our post-1994 government has done a lot for South Africans, yet our psyche remains damaged. Our minds have not caught up as quickly and thinking patterns of the past remain.

As such, the economy still ends up in certain hands, race is packaged in a certain way and the poor are spiralling in number. The documentary aims to unpack mindsets, which still make South Africans Angry.

The six episodes are: Race, Social Unrest, Gender Violence, Youth Violence, Xenophobia and Anti-Social behaviours.

A vast array of archive materials have been used including TV footage from the different era’s, radio broadcasts and some never-seen before pictures by renowned photographer Dr.Peter Magubane. The six part series features the powerful, brave and thought filled voices of ordinary South Africans alongside the thought leaders.

Some of the wide range of contributors to this conversation throughout the six episodes include; psychologists Mzikazi Nduna, Prof. Gertie Pretorious, Mthetho Tshemese, Political and Social commentators Liepollo Lebohang Pheko, Nkosinathi Biko, Prof Jonathan Jensen, Eusebius McKaiser, Bishop Paul Verryn, Dr Peter Magubane, Lesley Masibi (Winner of One Day Leader), trade federation COSATU and Taxi Union SANTACO.

Produced by a new voice in South African filmmaking - radio journalist, freelance writer and poet Khanyi Magubane, the series is bound to get South Africans talking to each other about 'our issues..'

Tell a friend, to tell a friend!

Uganda: Scarce employment opportunities in Uganda dissuade dissatisfied workers from quitting

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/welfare/81441

http://bit.ly/J1GPeK

Uganda: Three million Ugandans lack latrines

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/welfare/81486

http://bit.ly/Jmu68u

Africa: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, mapping Africa one country at a time

2012-04-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81550

http://bit.ly/I2ApQk

Africa: Peacebuilding network launched

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81416

http://bit.ly/HWvDm0

CAR: The hopes and hurdles of DDR in CAR

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81566

http://bit.ly/JofYhS

Global: The Global Day of Action on Military Spending

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81490

http://bit.ly/HVWQqa

Madagascar: Institute for Security Studies Peace and Security Council Report No 33

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81410

http://bit.ly/HZdHmA

Mali: Armed men round up top officials in Mali

2012-04-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81478

http://bit.ly/HRWEZe

Mali: Timbuktu librarians protect manuscripts

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81577

http://reut.rs/JJj0Ys

South Sudan: Pull out from seized oil field completed

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81583

http://bit.ly/I3VNpw

Sudan: Border fighting with South dampens deal hopes

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81556

http://bit.ly/JqvZmF

Africa: The role of mainstream and social media in the Arab spring

2012-04-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/81444

http://bit.ly/IJmkBB

Africa: Kakuma News Reflector available

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/enewsl/81428

Mozambique Political Process Bulletin

2012-04-17

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/enewsl/81433

Global: Marable's Malcolm X biography wins Pulitzer Prize

2012-04-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/81544

http://bit.ly/JkXhdF

Land Grabs in Africa: Economic Growth or Re-Colonization?

3 May, East Bay Community Foundation, 200 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, US

2012-04-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/81542

http://bit.ly/Jy2Ggb

Liberation movement and governing party. An analysis of the ANC 100 years on

25 April 2012, 6pm, University of Cape Town

2012-04-23

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/581/Advert 25 April 2012 ANC Analysis.jpg

Sexual Health and Rights in Africa - Where Are We?

19-22 September, Windhoek, Namibia

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/81412

http://bit.ly/rih6Yf

African and Black Diaspora: an international journal

Call for Papers

2012-04-23

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/581/Call for paper Argentina.pdf

Beyond the BRICs: alternative strategies of influence in the global politics of development

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/publications/81574

http://bit.ly/I4mz03

Green China: Chinese insights on environment and development

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/publications/81419

http://bit.ly/HMYjOq

Shifting the geography of reason IX: racial capitalism and the creole discourses of native Indo, Afro, and Euro-Caribbeans

Call for Papers

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/publications/81573

http://bit.ly/HZPIUZ

The African Anthropologist: special issue on sexuality

Call for Articles

2012-04-23

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/publications/81575

CODESRIA

The African Anthropologist
SPECIAL ISSUE ON “SEXUALITY”

Call for Articles

The African Anthropologist is the official journal of the Pan-African Anthropological Association. It is published biannually by CODESRIA on behalf of the Association. The journal is planning to produce a special issue focusing on ‘sexuality’.

We hereby invite contributions on various aspects of sexuality. The editors would especially like to encourage submission of articles on sexual health, sex and pleasure, sex and procreation, sexual symbolism and sexual diversity, among others. For this special issue, the journal welcomes contributions from social scientists generally, including anthropologists, sociologists, sexologists, social epidemiologists and demographers.

Submissions should be:
- Original articles based on research on a specific aspect of sexuality;
- Critical reviews of sexuality;
- Commentaries on an aspect of sexuality; and
- Methods of sexuality research

Articles may be submitted in English or French.

Guidelines: Original research articles should not exceed 7,000 words, with an abstract of about 200 words. Shorter contributions, such as reviews, commentaries and methods should not exceed 3,500 words.

Personal Information: Contributors should include their institutional affiliation as well as email and postal addresses when sending their articles.

Submission Deadline: The deadline for submission of articles is 30 April 2012.

All articles should be sent to The Editors, The African Anthropologist: nkwi70@yahoo.com;inyamongo@yahoo.com; publications@codesria.sn

CODESRIA
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop X Canal IV
B.P.: 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, Senegal
Tel.: (221) 33 825 98 21/22/23 - Fax: (221) 33 824 12 89
Website: http://www.codesria.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/codesria
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CODESRIA/181817969495

Call for application for Consultancy on Evaluation

Fahamu

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/81398

http://bit.ly/IFEidy

Director of Advocacy - Utetezi

Fahamu

2012-04-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/81399

http://bit.ly/HWcT63

Fahamu