Another Africa is possible

More from the Africa Social Forum 
 
(The extraordinary poet/polemicist Vonani wa ka Bila from Limpopop Province
worked tirelessly with other comrades during Porto Alegre to put out a
newspaper, African Flame, with the following stories.)

***

EDITORIAL
Another Africa is possible

Another better Africa is possible! Another World is Possible! This was the
slogan uniting the participants at the Bamako and Addis Ababa Social Forums.

There was a small presence of Africans at the first World Social Forum in
2001. People agreed on the need to organise as an African Social Forum to
increase participation in subsequent World Social Forums and ensure that the
African presence was felt.

So to Bamako, Mali, where 200 people from over 40 Francophone, Anglophone
and Lusophone African countries met together in January 2002. The Forum
rejected the unjust neoliberal globalisation and the integration of Africa
into the system in a manner that increases the poverty of the African
majority. People agreed, "the values, practices, structures and institutions
of the current dominant neoliberal order are inimical to and incompatible
with the realisation of Africa's dignity, values and aspirations."

The Bamako Forum took place at a time when certain African presidents, led
by South Africa's Mbeki, were pushing for the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (Nepad) to become the economic policy for the continent. This
required and received a response. According to the Bamako declaration:
"initiatives such as Nepad are inspired by the IMF-World Bank strategies of
Structural Adjustment Programmes, trade liberalisation that continues to
subject Africa to an unequal exchange, and strictures on governance borrowed
from the practices of Western countries and not rooted in the culture and
history of the peoples of Africa."

The African Social Forum protested Nepad's adoption as the economic policy
of the African Union in Durban, South Africa, in June 2002, and its
inclusion in the agreements reached by the governments at the World Summit
on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September.

The Forum in Addis Ababa earlier this month included representation from
nearly 50 countries and debated our approach to the African Union. All the
participants agreed on the need for African unity. But people were concerned
with the way in which the African Union had come in to being, most notably
that it is a vehicle being used to promote neoliberalism in the form of
Nepad.

There was agreement to strengthen the African Social Forum, with particular
emphasis given to ensuring that it is built from the bottom up. The
challenge is there for all to develop social forums in our countries and
regions and to ensure that the character of the African Social Forum
reflects the growth of Africa's social movements at the grassroots.

The African Flame is an initial contribution to sharing information about
the African Social Forum and profiling the debates central to the growth of
the Forum. Read it, share it, debate the issues and help us to strengthen
the struggle against neoliberalism across the continent.

***

No to debt, no to domination!
By George Dor

The workshop on debt was one of the highlights of the African Social Forum
held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the beginning of this year. People
expressed a renewed commitment to fight against debt and for reparations and
stressed the need to build strong grassroots movements in each of our
countries to take forward this struggle.

The workshop endorsed the analysis of debt and reparations developed in
Bamako. There was agreement that the debt is odious, illegitimate and
immoral and that it is an instrument used by the World Bank, International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and G8 countries to control and dominate the economies
and countries of the South. The debt is a tool they are not prepared to
relinquish.

In addition, participants spoke to the racist dimension of debt. An
estimated 19 000 children die as a consequence of debt and structural
adjustment policies, something that would never be allowed to occur in
Europe or North America.

People stressed the particularly harsh consequences of debt for women. Debt
repayment and the implementation of conditionalities attached to loans have
a severe impact on the provision of government services so desperately
needed by women and their households.

Women suffer not only from national debt, but also from individual and
household debt. Microcredit models imposed by financial and other
institutions from the North have had significant impacts on women in the
South. They have contributed to the collapse of traditional forms of credit,
entailed the handing over of personal possessions as collateral for credit
and resulted in women and their households becoming increasingly trapped in
debt.

The workshop reiterated the decision taken in Bamako to reject the Highly
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (Hipc) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers (PRSPs) in that they represent a perpetuation of indebtedness and
structural adjustment.

There were two significant additions made with regard to PRSPs. First, the
promise of some debt relief on the completion of PRSPs is being used as a
further tool of control in that the debt relief is made contingent on
countries agreeing to additional conditions.

Secondly, despite the rejection of PRSPs by Jubilee, the African Social
Forum and other social formations in the South, many Northern donors have
continued to make funding available to organisations in the South on
condition that they use these funds to participate in PRSPs. The workshop
resolved to inform Northern donors of the decision to reject PRSPs and to
encourage donors to respect this decision. Moreover, it was stressed that
the solutions to the African debt crisis are to be developed in Africa and
that donors should support efforts in this regard.

People reiterated the demand that the G8 countries, the World Bank and IMF
cancel the debt, but, recognising that these governments and institutions
have no intention of relinquishing debt as an instrument of domination,
agreed on the need to increase our efforts to repudiate the debt, that is
stop payment of the debt.

We will have to mobilise towards repudiation. This entails taking the
necessary steps towards getting the governments of our countries to stop
payment. Repudiation will only be successful if it is done collectively. We
must therefore develop the momentum towards repudiation across the continent
and together with our partners in Latin America and the South more
generally.

The workshop reiterated the Bamako position that the debt represents a crime
against humanity and argued that the "creditors" be taken to task for their
crimes. We must step up our demand for reparations for damage caused by
debt. In addition, we must fight for reparations for damage caused by
structural adjustment policies and megaprojects such as large dams, mining
activity and oil extraction. We must also demand reparations for the
plundering of our natural resources.

We need to look at the option of sueing the "creditors" for this damage. In
this regard, it was agreed to support the court case in which Jubilee South
Africa and the Khulumani Support Group are demanding reparations from
Northern banks and corporations for their support for the Apartheid regime.
We also need to insist on the return of wealth stolen from our countries by
corrupt leaders and stashed in Northern banks.

The workshop stressed the importance of locating our approach to debt and
reparations within a broader challenge to neoliberalism. It was noted that
the World Bank, IMF and World Trade Organisation (WTO) have adopted a policy
of coherence between their activities. We should also develop increased
coordination in our struggles against these institutions. This entails
working more closely with organisations and networks focussing on trade.

There was agreement on the need to take forward the struggle around debt on
the basis of strong local and national organisation, with good regional,
continental and international networking and coordination.

There was extensive discussion on how we relate to the governments in our
countries. The workshop characterised the governments on the continent as
all too often being illiterate on debt and related issues and as being
"subcontractors" for the G8, World Bank and IMF.

Various approaches were identified, with the approach in different countries
being influenced by the nature of their governments. These include:

* Finding ways of working with the governments
* Educating them on issues of debt, reparataions and neoliberalism
* Demanding information from them on loans and debt
* Finding ways to challenge them, protest and take other appropriate forms
  of action
* Changing undemocratic and dictatorial leaders and governments

It was agreed that we should work towards common action on significant days,
perhaps on the 25th of May, African Liberation Day, or the 16th of June,
Youth Day. There is a strong need to strengthen our relationships with our
counterparts in Latin America, given the depth of the debt crisis in their
countries and the need to work together to implement our solutions. There
was also agreement to strengthen interaction with our counterparts in the
North.

***

Unite and fight US terror

By George Dor

The second African Social Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, took place at a
time when the United States government was dramatically intensifying its
aggressive posture. Bush announced his determination to declare war on Iraq,
irrespective of the findings of the United Nations investigators. The United
States was also due to meet African governments in Mauritius to intensify
its economic control over the African continent. The Mauritian government,
in close communication with the United States embassy, initially decided to
ban protest by the Platform Against Bush Politics established to oppose the
United States' visit.

There was widespread feeling amongst delegates that the African Social Forum
had to express its opposition to these developments and the aggressive and
militaristic approach the United States has developed to many other
countries and people across the world. This led to the development of the
resolution on United States aggression, which was positively acclaimed by
the final plenary of the forum.

The Platform Against Bush Politics subsequently staged successful protests
at the time of the government's meeting in mid-January. Developments at the
third World Social Forum served to highlight the resonance of the resolution
with world opinion. A major international study presented at the opening
session of the World Social Forum found that the political leaders of the
United States are the least trusted of all leaders covered in the study.
This was poignantly echoed in the impressive march through the streets of
Porto Alegre later that day, with some marchers carrying a banner calling
for a team to be sent to the United States to investigate its weapons of
mass destruction.

Resolution on United States aggression

The Africa Social Forum notes with grave concern the increasingly
domineering, aggressive and militaristic approach of the United States
towards the world at large.

It conducts this aggression in many ways:

* Naked military aggression, as is currently imminent against Iraq
* Support for oppressive and racist regimes, as in the case of Israeli
  oppression of the Palestinian people
* Destabilisation of countries which have governments prepared to pursue
  policies that run against its expansionary interests, such as is happening
  in Venezuela
* The imposition of neoliberal economic policies so as to plunder the
  economies of our countries, as reflected in the Africa Growth and
  Opportunity Act (AGOA)

We note that this aggressive approach has nothing whatsoever to do with its
stated goal of countering terror. On the contrary, it has everything to do
with imposing its political domination over the world and with plundering
the world's resources for its own interests. In particular, the bombing of
Afghanistan, the imminent war against Iraq, its approach to the Middle East
and its destabilisation of Venezuela are all motivated by its insistence on
gaining global control over oil.

The United States and Britain planned aggression against Iraq

We are appalled by the United States' insistence to declare war on Iraq,
despite the United Nations' investigating team coming up with no tangible
evidence to support United States' claims of the stockpiling of weapons of
mass destruction.

We declare our unqualified opposition to this act of aggression by the
United States government and the support given to the United States in this
regard by other governments, notably that of the Britain.

We, furthermore, totally reject the use of United States military bases in
Africa, such as those in Djibouti and Diego Garcia, to carry out this
military aggression.

We call on African governments to resist pressure from the United States,
Britain and other governments in this regard and condemn the use of "debt
relief" and other inducements towards obtaining African government support
for or acceptance of their bellicose and aggressive aims.

In this regard, we support the call of the Mauritius Platform Against Bush
Politics "for the immediate demilitarization of Diego Garcia, reparations
for the people of Chagos, and the closing of the base, and the
re-unification of Mauritius."

The United States and Israel against Palestine

We are totally opposed to the long term and recently intensified support
given by the United States government to the Israeli regime in its
oppression of the Palestinian people in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel
itself.

We support the bravery of the Palestinian people in their struggle against
the Israeli regime and their courage in forming a World Social Forum on
Palestine in Palestine.

We fully endorse the goal of the forum to promote "international solidarity
with the Palestinians. to establish an independent and viable Palestinian
state."

The United States against Venezuela

We object to the central role played by the United States in fostering
instability in Venezuela simply because the government elected by the people
of Venezuela does not serve the United States government's interests.

We support the efforts by the people of Venezuela in demanding their right
to forge their own way forward in the interests of the workers and poor of
the country without the interference of the United States.

The United States against Africa in Mauritius

We reject the unilateral imposition by the United States of the misnamed
Africa Growth and Opportunity Act on the continent of Africa.

We oppose the attempt by the United States in the meeting taking place in
Mauritius this month to extract agreement from African governments for the
implementation of the act.

In this regard, we give our full support to the efforts of our Mauritian
allies and participants in the Africa Social Forum to protest the United
States on the occasion of this meeting. We endorse the Platform Against Bush
Politics and the stand it takes against AGOA as well as United States
interference and military aggression.

Conclusion

We recognise that the aggression against Iraq, Palestine and Venezuela does
not simply represents acts against the people of these nations alone. They
represent a message to the rest of the peopleof the world that, if we do not
bow down to Untied States' interests, they will come after us as well.

In this regard, we note with concern the general lack of condemnation by the
governments of both the North and the South of the United States' actions
against Iraq, the Palestinian people, Venezuela and the African continent.

But we will not be cowed into submission by United States aggression. We
will raise our voice against United States aggression wherever it takes
place. We will express our support for all people struggling against this
aggression.

The United States represents by far the most dangerous threat to world peace
and its actions amount to the daily violation of peace. We are committed to
intensifying our challenge to the United States in the pursuit of world
peace, democracy and well-being.

***

African Social Forum position on debt

Over the last few decades, countries of the South have made payments of
thousands of billions of US$ as debt service but they continue to accumulate
more debt. The African continent has paid the total debt of the continent
many times over, yet, despite these payments, the debt has grown to many
times its original size.

The African debt is a tiny amount relative to the extreme wealth of the rich
nations. Canceling it would not undermine the international financial
system. On the contrary, it would provide a breathing space for African
countries to develop and would make a significant contribution to poverty
eradication. But creditors refuse such cancellation because they use debt as
a tool for domination and exploitation and cancellation would remove this
weapon.

Debt is a vector or carrier for another process. It is a vehicle for the
imposition of conditionalities. It is used to impose neoliberalism on our
countries in the form of structural adjustment programmes. It is the central
means by which the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) come to
dominate our economies. It is a critical element through which the
Washington Consensus - reflecting the interest of the governments of the
United States and other rich countries of the world and the transnational
corporations and finance capital in whose interests they act - imprints
itself on our continent. In the process of using debt as a vehicle to run
our economies, the forces constituting the Washington Consensus strip our
countries of our sovereignty and make a mockery of democracy. It is in all
these dimensions that we understand debt as an instrument of domination.

Civil society in Africa and throughout the world has become increasingly
organised to challenge the debt and has called on the creditors to cancel
the debt. This has compelled the World Bank and IMF, on behalf of the
Washington Consensus, to introduce initiatives such as the Highly Indebted
Poor Countries initiative (HIPC) and its more recent version, the Poverty
Strategy Reduction Papers process (PRSP). But these initiatives are not
about debt cancellation. They are rather the result of pressure that has
compelled these institutions to reinvent ways of keeping the debt in place
and continuing that domination.

These initiatives are thinly veiled guises for more of the same. PRSPs are
but the most recent name for structural adjustment. PRSPs are about the
acceleration of the neoliberal policies of privatisation and liberalisation
and are a perpetuation of the process by which our countries are robbed of
their autonomy in formulating and implementing economic and social policies
and, in the process, of their sovereignty. The PRSP language of
participation and debt relief is nothing other than a trap for civil society
to divert its energies from the task of releasing our countries from debt
bondage.

It is for all these reasons that we view the debt as illegitimate. Odious
debts such as apartheid-caused debts, debts related to stolen wealth,
bilateral debts and debts to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund
are all illegitimate and need to be challenged as such. Included in these
debts are the colonial debts transferred to the newly independent countries.
These debts were incurred to implement colonial rule against the people of
the colonised countries and placed an immediate constraint on the newly
independent countries in meeting the challenges of development.

The debts are illegitimate for another important reason. Repayment of these
debts takes place at the expense of meeting the needs of the people of our
countries.  Workers, the unemployed, women and youth, indeed all people
living in poverty, are denied even the most basic level health care,
education and other services. Throughout the continent, the debt burden has
destroyed schools, hospitals and universities and increased poverty.
Children are paying the debt of a previous generation, and generations
unborn will start life under the burden of debt.

It is in these ways that we understand debt as organised robbery of the
wealth and resources of our continent. It is a mechanism for looting or
plundering that feeds the rich in the North and kills the people of the
South. For these reasons, it qualifies as a crime against humanity. It
represents a new form of slavery imposed by Northern countries and
multilateral institutions on the countries of our continent and the South.

There is an additional dimension that must be addressed. In too many
instances, the leaders of our governments are willing accomplices in
agreeing to conditional loans and in servicing the debt. In addition, much
of the money lent to our countries is embezzled and placed in the commercial
banks of the North. These stolen monies thus benefit the corrupt elites of
our countries and their partners in crime, the commercial banks, at the
expense of the people of our countries.

The debt issue has been presented by the forces within the Washington
Consensus as one in which the South owes the North. Yet in reality it is the
other way around, it is the North that owes the South. The transfer of
resources from the South to the North by means of debt and neoliberalism is
the latest form of many centuries of plunder. The damage done by means of
slavery and colonialism amounts to an enormous and incalculable historical
debt. It is high time that the countries of the South call in this debt.

It is for these reasons that over the last several years, indeed decades, a
strong movement has been set in motion demanding unconditional debt
cancellation. The refusal to cancel the debt has led to the realisation that
we need to organise to repudiate the debt, that is to refuse to pay the
World Bank, IMF, other institutions and Northern governments irrespective of
whether they cancel the debt. In addition, the inversion of the equation to
one of clarifying that it is in fact the North that owes the South has led
to the growing demand of the North to make reparations for the centuries of
damage done.

The demand to repudiate debt, as well as that for reparations, are
important, but the realisation of these demands in and of themselves is not
sufficient to ensure fundamental change. These demands need to be located
within a framework of dismantling neoliberalism and the institutions that
promote this approach and working towards another world of socio-economic
justice.

The process of building the African People's Consensus, started in Lusaka in
May 1999 and developed in the subsequent period, notably in Dakar in
December 2000, incorporates an approach to debt within this broader context.
It includes the building of organisation and mobilistion of people in our
countries, consolidation at the regional level - in West, East, North,
Central and Southern Africa - and developing appropriate African
alternatives to the neoliberal policies currently beseiging our continent.

We as civil society organisations will continue to fight for an end to debt
within the framework of a new socio-economic paradigm. The future is in our
hands, but we will have to increase our levels of organisation and
mobilisation in our countries, our regions, our continent and beyond in
order to realise our goals.

***

Reparations Now!

By George Dor

The demand for reparations is growing rapidly across the African continent.
Today, South African victims of Apartheid violence are marching to demand
reparations from the government. People in Nigeria and other countries that
suffered under dictatorial rule are calling for the return of wealth stolen
by dictators and placed in Swiss and other foreign banks. Communities that
have been forcibly removed and are suffering damage as a consequence of
mega-projects, such as large dams and mining activities, are organising to
claim reparations. Victims are taking companies that produce asbestos and
mercury and banks and companies that supported the Apartheid regime to
court.

The World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), held in Durban in 2001, was an
important moment in the development of the call for reparations. During this
conference, Jubilee South Africa, together with its international
counterparts, developed an approach to reparations that was inclusive of the
damage caused by slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism. Jubilee stressed
that current neo-liberal policies are causing ongoing damage and that those
guilty of imposing these policies should also be subject to the demand for
reparations.

The African Social Forum in both 2002 and 2003 took on the call for a
targeted and all-inclusive socio-economic and historical reparations in
relation to the debt crisis faced by the continent. Despite intensifying
calls for the cancellation of this debt, the G8 governments and the World
Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have remained steadfast in their
intention of keeping the countries of Africa and the South in debt bondage.
They deliberately use debt as a means of maintaining control over these
countries and insist that they implement neoliberal structural adjustment
policies. In a word, debt is used as an instrument of domination.

Participants at the Africa Social Forum this year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
spoke to the racist dimension of debt. Every day, an estimated 19 000
children die as a consequence of debt and structural adjustment policies in
the South whilst the North is trapped in over-consumption. A catastrophe of
such proportions would never be tolerated in Europe or North America, but
the lives of people in Africa and the South are clearly considered to be
less important than those in the North. The insistence in maintaining
countries in debt in the face of such devastating consequences constitutes
nothing less than a gross crime against humanity.

It is on this basis that the African Social Forum, in keeping with the
Jubilee movement internationally, went beyond the call to the G8, World Bank
and IMF to cancel the debt. It identified the need to organise to repudiate,
or stop paying, the debt and, furthermore, to demand reparations for the
damage caused by the debt and structural adjustment policies.

The debate around the nature of reparations has already developed well
beyond an initial focus on monetary payment. The financial aspect remains
important. Victims of repressive brutality, people who have lost their land
and those that have become ill as a result of hazardous materials exposed by
mining activity are entitled to individual reparations. The communities in
which they live must be able to care for the needs of these victims. This
requires the necessary finances to ensure, for example, that there are
clinics with appropriate staff and medicines and transport facilities that
enable access to these clinics. Countries that have been devastated by
structural adjustment must receive the resources to rebuild the capacity to
meet the essential social needs of their citizens.

But reparations entails far more than this. People across the continent have
been so ravaged by generations of oppression to the point where millions are
without land, food, water, shelter and jobs. They are increasingly suffering
the consequences of ill health, including not only HIV/Aids but also many
other diseases of poverty. In this context, all too many have lost a sense
of confidence around their human rights. The demand for reparations provides
the opportunity for people to regain that confidence and feel inspired to
fight for the rights that have been denied them for so long.

Reparations is also about uncovering the truth as regards the perpetrators
of violence and exposing the root causes of people's suffering. It includes
a call for those responsible for damage to acknowledge and apologise for
their role and take the necessary steps to address the damage done. It
entails taking action against those who refuse to acknowledge their
culpability.

There is a preventive dimension to reparations. Perpetrators of violence
that get away with their actions and companies that profit from supporting
dictatorial regimes will not hesitate at committing similar transgressions
again. The surest way to prevent repetition is to send out the message that
such action does not pay.

The call for reparations is also part of a broader process of fundamental
change. Pressure needs to be ratcheted up to the point where a halt is put
to the ongoing damage caused by the G8 governments, the World Bank, IMF and
World Trade Organisation.  In order for reparations to result in lasting
change, it must be part of a process towards dismantling the neoliberal
system and replacing it with one in which the lives of the poor take
prioirity over the whims and excesses of the rich.

The rapid development of the debate around reparations is a healthy sign
that reflects a growing confidence on the continent in tackling the unjust
neoliberal paradigm that has been thrust upon us.  The task now is to ensure
the development of strong organisations amongst people who are victims of
violence, communities that have been forcibly removed from sites earmarked
for dams and mining, those whose health has been put at risk due to mining
and oil extraction and all the people of the continent that suffer the
consequences of structural adjustment and neoliberalism. There needs to be
interaction across these organisations towards a strong and united call for
reparations and this must include linking with victims and allies in both
the South and the North. The Jubilee campaign and, indeed, the African
Social Forum, will be measured by the degree to which they are successful in
deepening the call for reparations into a strong grassroots movement.

***

Reparations by any means necessary

By George Dor

We can't talk about reparations outside of the context of globalisation and
neoliberalism. But the reverse is also true, we can't talk about
globalisation and neoliberalism without addressing the issue of exclusion
and race. The very system of neoliberalism results in exclusion of large
majorities across the world and any attempt to fight neoliberalism must
include reparations for this injustice.

This was the strong message emerging from the vibrant and passionate meeting
on reparations held at the third World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. It was
attended by close to a thousand people and included presentations from
Brazil, the United States and Africa.

Danny Thompson argued that reparations is a black revolutionary movement
fighting white supremacy, but insisted that this doesn't necessarily mean
that you have to be black to be part of the movement. It is open to anyone
who recognises injustice and has the desire to fight injustice.

Jahahara Alkebulan-Ma'at talked of those in the United Capitalist Prison
States, also known as the USA, who have been jailed for demanding
reparations. No reparations movement can ignore the need to fight for the
release of poliltical prisoners like Abu Jamal.

All the panelists agreed that reparations is about far more than monetary
compensation. It is about freeing the mind and asserting the right to
respect and dignity. It entails the return of stolen land and the meeting of
people's rights to water, food security, housing, education and health care.
It requires radical change towards a society based on equality. It involves
changes in government towards addressing the needs of the majority.

Amauri Quieroz stressed that reparations must include fundamental change in
the field of education. People must be afforded the opportunity to learn
about the injustices of the past and present. We have to create a new
generation with an understanding of these injustices and the confidence to
insist on their removal.

All agreed that the elimination of debt is a non-negotiable element of
reparations. The panelists from Brazil and Africa stressed that the struggle
for reparations is an important part of the struggle against neoliberalism
and that the struggle against neoliberalism is incomplete without
reparations.

There were strong inputs from the floor calling for a refusal to pay debt to
the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. This needs to be extended to
demand that these institutions make payment for the damage that their
policies have caused in Africa, Latin America and other parts of the South.
People said that the reparations movement must be built on the basis of
strong organisation on the ground. It includes the development of unity
between people of the African continent, the Afro-Brazilian community, the
African Diaspora elsewhere in the world and indigenous and all other
excluded and oppressed people of the world.

***

Africans march against global greed

By Vonani wa ka Bila

Over 70 000 anti-corporate globalisation activists ranging from socialists,
women's groups, First people, punks, greens, radicals, trade unionists, NGO
types and peasants marched peacefully through the streets of Porto Alegre,
Brazil, marking the grand opening of the third World Social Forum this year.

The visible red coloured flags, banners and t-shirts; and the beating of the
drums and cymbals, the chanting, dancing and shouting resembled the vision
of another better world which is articulated by the World Social Forum. It
is evident that the World Social Forum can't share the same bed with the
World Economic Forum that meets anually in Davos and elsewhere to intensify
the plundering of resources of countries of the South.

The diabolic deeds of the forces of elite globalisation chiefly led by the
multilateral financial institutions and the G-8 and trans-national companies
were exposed and condemned throughout the march. People carried placards
with bold statements like 'Reparatins now', 'Bush = Hitler',  'Free
Palestine' and 'No to elite globalisation'.

Africans largely under the banner of the African Social Forum (ASF) and
their revolutionary Afro-Brazillian comrades participated in this historic
event, highlighting the urgency of African unity, solidarity, resistance
against exclusion and racism. The march signified the necessary solidarity
of the Africans at home and those abroad in calling for appropriate
development policies to rid the African continent of man-made poverty. They
marched towards another possible and better Africa free of social, political
and economic ills.

Although the vision of another Africa still requires chiselling by the
African social movements and other progressive organs of people's power;
popular documents of the ASF like the Bamako Declaration and the draft Addis
Consensus which denounce neo-liberalism and its manifestations begin to shed
light into an Africa that recognises full participation of its populace in
the tailoring of its destiny.

The African Social Forum which surfaced in January 2002 is made up of
progressive social movements, trade unions, peasants` organisations, NGOs
and intellectuals. The African Social Forum has, during its meetings in
Bamako and Addis Ababa, examined matters such as international trade,
African Union, Nepad, food security, conflict and peace in Africa, culture,
health, poverty and development. Alternatives that are rooted in the
languages, traditions and cultures of the African people are discussed
openly during the meetings of the ASF. The various thematic components of
the African Social Forum are unequivocally calling for African unity, peace,
debt cancellation, reparations, formulation of appropriate African
development and economic strategy and full participation of  Africans
including youth and women in shaping a better Africa.

Now the ASF is consolidating its structure, consolidating and setting up
national forums and ensuring that in the fourth World Social Forum which
will take place in India, Africans, young and old, men and women,
participate meaningfully.

***

Negro Movement Vindicates Use of Brazilian Constitution

By Brenda Nglazi Zulu

The Negro Movement in Brazil has vindicated the use of the Brazilian
constitution, article 69 of acts and transitories disposals, incision 23 of
article 5 of articles 551 that foresees the land ownership to those that
historically live in those areas remaining from quilombos.

National Coordinator of International relations, Adeildo Araujo Leite of the
Negro Movement Unified said that January 25 was extremly important to reveal
the pressure of immovable speculation about communities of African
ascendancy that live in lands historically built as a way to resist racism..

He gave an example of Silva's family as remaining from an urban quilombo
whose origin was in the old African colony that should not be moved from the
land where it is. Leite observed that placed on the Bairro Tres Figueras,
this Quilombo is an activity of spilling and reintergration of property to
the "owners."

He said the Quilombos represent a major movement of Black Brazillians
fighting slavery in their country.

"In the Quilombos not only the runaway slaves used to live there but also
some Indians and poor white poor of which all of them had a right to work
and enjoy a decent life," said Leite.

He explained that the movement called Quilombo took place all over Brazil.
The biggest one was called Palmares and it resisted against slavery from
1595 through 1695. Palmares was located in a piece of land of Alagoas state.
Zumbi was their last leader and died in November the 20 of 1695.

***

outside the un towers

outside the un towers
addis ababa
murky faces & bruised hearts greet derisively
i smell no sweet new flower

the brown hot air stinks
fouled water kills my taste buds
a man washes in the sewerage rubble-river
dawdles through the decaying park
like a snorting animal -
he roams around
pisses, shits & sleeps
birds fly away
can't stand the stench of a fouled ground

outside the un towers
addis ababa
murky faces & bruised hearts greet derisively
i smell no sweet new flower

across the revolutionary square
there is the St. Stefanous church
fundamentalists in white scarves & garbs wail
sprawled heap of squalid worshippers
face-veiled homeless on stairs
the birr is pounded in the stock-market
wasteland on the market
begging bowls & tins are empty
prayers out loud reverberate day & night
the poor bow to the invisible saviour
up in the skies
again & again
they stagger & fall
again & again
they stagger & fall
a beggar with falling limbs follows me
carrying the plague of leprosy
angry & hungry

outside the un towers
addis ababa
murky faces & bruised hearts greet derisively
i smell no sweet new flower

ethiopians at home
ethiopians abroadi
wealthy & able
please come back home
africans at home
africans abroad
wealthy & able
please come back home
to rekindle this castrated hope

By Vonani wa ka Bila

***

WSF Commit to Principals of Gender

By Brenda Nglazi Zulu

The Africa Social Forum (ASF) has called on the World Social Forum (WSF) to
unequivocally commit itself to the principals of gender equality in all its
policies, structures and activities. The call was made in Addis Ababa ,
Ethiopia during the ASF which took place on the 5 to 9 Th January 2003 in
the Draft resolutions on gender.

The ASF resolved that it should provide in its charter a clear vision and
principle for promoting gender equity and equality on the African continent.
The ASF adopted a 50:50 ratio representation of women and men as a mechanism
for mainstreaming gender in all its processes and activities.

The ASF therefore promotes and support strategies on elimination of gender
discrimination against women as stipulated in regional and international
declarations and and conventions. It has also committed its structures to
urge the constituent movements and organisations at national level to ensure
implementation of gender principals.

The ASF intends to popularise the Draft Protocol on Women to the African
Charter and advocate for its adoption by the African Union and its
implementation by the member states. The ASF made the call because it is
concerned that pervasive gender discrimination against women in Africa
continues to place African women in a disadvantaged position.

The ASF was futher concerned of the continued marginalisation of the
principles of gender equity and equality in the process of social
transformation. ASF observed that gender issues continue to be treated as
an"add on" or "an annex" and also only as a conditionality for legitimising
receipt of financial aid and neo-liberal partnerships.

ASF recalled that women's rights have been recognised and guranteed in all
international human rights instruments. As ASF aim to build space for
convengence between various components of the African Civil Society, which
rejects the neo-liberal model in its national, continental and international
events.

ASF futher considered that the absence of women in the sharping and
monitoring of the macro-economic policies influence their livelihood. ASF
therefore committed itself to the full participation of teh Afgrican woman
as equal partners iand beneficiaries in development.

An African women who was not at the ASF observed that there was fair
participation of African women at the WSF.

"Another Africa is possible because I have seen fair participation by
women but could have included more qualitative in making presentations,"
said Jenniffer Chiwela a participant at the WSF from Zambia.