Police have arrested, beaten and tortured over 220 protesters in Bulawayo, Harare and Mutare as they marched to demand a democratic constitution. 2 other marches took place successfully in Masvingo and Gweru.
Over 1,100 people took to the Harare demo before it was savaged by the ZRP. 125 of them were arrested.
After being arrested marchers, including 60 women and 16 babies, were attacked using dogs, teargas and batons. They are all still being held at police stations in appalling conditions.
Phone the following stations to demand the release of the protesters:
Bulawayo Central Police Station +263-9-72515, +263-9-60358, +263-9-61706
Harare Police Station +263-4-777777, +263-4-721212, +263-4-742668
Mutare Police Station +263+20-64281, +263-20-64289, +263-20-64212, +263-20-66881
Police Headquarters +263-4-700171
Send solidarity e-mails to isozim2004@yahoo.com
Friday, July 14, 2006
Setback for Imperialism in Somalia
For the first time for many years there is a sense of relief and hope among many people in Somalia.
The takeover of the capital, Mogadishu, on 4 June by the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) removed a political class of clan-based extortionists and dealers in everything from drugs to people, known as “warlords”.
They have divided and ruled the country since the collapse of the central state in 1991.
The UIC’s military victory, triggered by popular revolt against the warlords, achieved what international military intervention and peace talks have failed to accomplish since 1991.
Unable to neutralise or control the warlords, the Western powers ultimately resorted to working with them.
Fifteen rounds of internationally sponsored peace talks in 2004 resulted in the establishment of the present Transitional Federal Government.
But it has never had any control in Mogadishu and is recognised by only a minority of the country. The UIC’s success is a heavy setback for US policy in the region.
As analyst Larry Chin points out, “The Bush aadministration has secretly been supporting a group of Somali warlords, who were battling Islamic groups for control of Mogadishu.
“US leaders have long considered Somalia as a ‘terrorist haven’, as well as a potential ‘hotbed of Al Qaida activity’.
“Somalia is of strategic interest to the Bush administration, and its resources have been eyed by Western powers since the days of the British empire.
“US oil companies were positioned to exploit Somalia’s rich oil reserves during the reign of pro US president Mohammed Siad Barre (who ruled 1969 to 1991).
“The infamous and murderous Somalia military operation of 1993 was not a humanitarian mission, but an undeclared UN/US war launched by George Bush senior’s administration, and inherited by the Clinton presidency.”
After the defeat of the US in this war, it was forced to come to an accord with the very warlords it had been fighting against. But the alliance with the US further blackened the warlords’ names in the eyes of most people.
Key to the success of the UIC was the fact that it was already an established and accepted presence in local communities, with a demonstrated social welfare policy.
Apart from bringing security to areas under its control, through its own militia and justice system, it had also set up farms, schools, water points, health clinics and orphanages.
Although the UIC did not initially have strong popular support, there was a feeling that it upheld moral standards and discipline, and had a unifying and familiar ideology in Islam.
This ensured the UIC received popular backing during the battle for Mogadishu.
The main turning point was the announcement of the US-backed “counter-terrorist” alliance, which was seen as an alien construct and a common enemy - it threatened a new lease of life for the warlords.
It remains to be seen how far ordinary people can take charge of their own futures. The West may attempt to use the Ethiopian regime of Meles Zenawi to tame or attack the new forces.
But there is no doubt imperialism has suffered a blow.
The takeover of the capital, Mogadishu, on 4 June by the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) removed a political class of clan-based extortionists and dealers in everything from drugs to people, known as “warlords”.
They have divided and ruled the country since the collapse of the central state in 1991.
The UIC’s military victory, triggered by popular revolt against the warlords, achieved what international military intervention and peace talks have failed to accomplish since 1991.
Unable to neutralise or control the warlords, the Western powers ultimately resorted to working with them.
Fifteen rounds of internationally sponsored peace talks in 2004 resulted in the establishment of the present Transitional Federal Government.
But it has never had any control in Mogadishu and is recognised by only a minority of the country. The UIC’s success is a heavy setback for US policy in the region.
As analyst Larry Chin points out, “The Bush aadministration has secretly been supporting a group of Somali warlords, who were battling Islamic groups for control of Mogadishu.
“US leaders have long considered Somalia as a ‘terrorist haven’, as well as a potential ‘hotbed of Al Qaida activity’.
“Somalia is of strategic interest to the Bush administration, and its resources have been eyed by Western powers since the days of the British empire.
“US oil companies were positioned to exploit Somalia’s rich oil reserves during the reign of pro US president Mohammed Siad Barre (who ruled 1969 to 1991).
“The infamous and murderous Somalia military operation of 1993 was not a humanitarian mission, but an undeclared UN/US war launched by George Bush senior’s administration, and inherited by the Clinton presidency.”
After the defeat of the US in this war, it was forced to come to an accord with the very warlords it had been fighting against. But the alliance with the US further blackened the warlords’ names in the eyes of most people.
Key to the success of the UIC was the fact that it was already an established and accepted presence in local communities, with a demonstrated social welfare policy.
Apart from bringing security to areas under its control, through its own militia and justice system, it had also set up farms, schools, water points, health clinics and orphanages.
Although the UIC did not initially have strong popular support, there was a feeling that it upheld moral standards and discipline, and had a unifying and familiar ideology in Islam.
This ensured the UIC received popular backing during the battle for Mogadishu.
The main turning point was the announcement of the US-backed “counter-terrorist” alliance, which was seen as an alien construct and a common enemy - it threatened a new lease of life for the warlords.
It remains to be seen how far ordinary people can take charge of their own futures. The West may attempt to use the Ethiopian regime of Meles Zenawi to tame or attack the new forces.
But there is no doubt imperialism has suffered a blow.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Stop Water Charge Hiikes
Join the Combined Harare Ratepayers Association campaign to stop the Makwavarara led “commission” and Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) from imposing massive water charge hikes.
Copy and paste the letter below (the letter), print it out and fill it in. Make a copy.
Send one copy to: CHRA, Room 103, Daventry House, South Avenue corner Angwa Street.
Send the second copy to Town House.
ITS THAT SIMPLE
This is the letter:
****************************************
Your Address:
.......................
......................
HARARE
3rd July 2006
The Chairperson of the City of Harare Commission
Attn: Sekesai Makwavarara
Town House
Harare
Dear Madam,
Re: OBJECTION TO PAYMENT OF NEW WATER RATES
I am Mr/s…………………………………………… and I live at House. No. ……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………. Harare.
I am a resident and rate payer in the city of Harare and am aware that in terms of the law, and more specifically the Urban Councils Act, I am entitled to at least thirty (30) days’ written notice before any levies, rates and or tariffs payable by me to the City of Harare may be reviewed.
I am also aware that I am entitled at law and right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and fair. The Administrative Justice Act [Chapter 10:28] especially Section 3 thereof refers.
I am further aware that there is an implied contract between myself and the City of Harare whereby the Council provides me with appropriate water services and I pay for the same on appropriate invoice for the said service.
Having stated the above I wish to put on record, as I hereby do, my objection to my payment of the amounts due for the month of June 2006 as calculated using the new tariffs because:
1. The statutory Notice in terms of the Urban Councils Act has not been honoured and as such the rates review is tainted with irregularities insofar as lawful procedure is concerned. Because of that it is a legal nullity as are the new rates it purports to introduce.
2. The principles of natural justice which the Council is legally obliged to observe in terms of the law have been flagrantly disregarded and as such the decision to review the rates is unlawful, unreasonable, and as such a legal nullity which I feel I cannot consciously pay.
3. The rates review also amounts to a unilateral variation of the implied contract between me and council seeing as it was done without notice to me and or any representations from me. You will no doubt appreciate that that in itself is also unlawful and makes the rates review also a legal nullity and therefore of no force and effect.
Also note that I object to the revised water charges as top council officials are squandering rate-payers money on curtains, DSTV, double-cabs, cellphones and guest lodges. The same officials are also looting subsidised council houses through contracts of “sale”.
Be guided accordingly.
Yours etc,
Cc: The Minister – Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development - Ignatius Chombo
Cc: CHRA
Copy and paste the letter below (the letter), print it out and fill it in. Make a copy.
Send one copy to: CHRA, Room 103, Daventry House, South Avenue corner Angwa Street.
Send the second copy to Town House.
ITS THAT SIMPLE
This is the letter:
****************************************
Your Address:
.......................
......................
HARARE
3rd July 2006
The Chairperson of the City of Harare Commission
Attn: Sekesai Makwavarara
Town House
Harare
Dear Madam,
Re: OBJECTION TO PAYMENT OF NEW WATER RATES
I am Mr/s…………………………………………… and I live at House. No. ……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………. Harare.
I am a resident and rate payer in the city of Harare and am aware that in terms of the law, and more specifically the Urban Councils Act, I am entitled to at least thirty (30) days’ written notice before any levies, rates and or tariffs payable by me to the City of Harare may be reviewed.
I am also aware that I am entitled at law and right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and fair. The Administrative Justice Act [Chapter 10:28] especially Section 3 thereof refers.
I am further aware that there is an implied contract between myself and the City of Harare whereby the Council provides me with appropriate water services and I pay for the same on appropriate invoice for the said service.
Having stated the above I wish to put on record, as I hereby do, my objection to my payment of the amounts due for the month of June 2006 as calculated using the new tariffs because:
1. The statutory Notice in terms of the Urban Councils Act has not been honoured and as such the rates review is tainted with irregularities insofar as lawful procedure is concerned. Because of that it is a legal nullity as are the new rates it purports to introduce.
2. The principles of natural justice which the Council is legally obliged to observe in terms of the law have been flagrantly disregarded and as such the decision to review the rates is unlawful, unreasonable, and as such a legal nullity which I feel I cannot consciously pay.
3. The rates review also amounts to a unilateral variation of the implied contract between me and council seeing as it was done without notice to me and or any representations from me. You will no doubt appreciate that that in itself is also unlawful and makes the rates review also a legal nullity and therefore of no force and effect.
Also note that I object to the revised water charges as top council officials are squandering rate-payers money on curtains, DSTV, double-cabs, cellphones and guest lodges. The same officials are also looting subsidised council houses through contracts of “sale”.
Be guided accordingly.
Yours etc,
Cc: The Minister – Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development - Ignatius Chombo
Cc: CHRA
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Stop Water Charge Hikes!
Join the Combined Harare Ratepayers Association (CHRA) campaign to stop the Makwavarara led commission and Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) from imposing massive water charge hikes.
Copy and paste the letter below (the letter), print it out and fill it in. Make a copy.
Send one copy to: CHRA, Room 103, Daventry House, South Avenue corner Angwa Street.
Send the second copy to Town House.
ITS THAT SIMPLE!
This is the letter:
*******************************************************
Your Address:
HARARE
3rd July 2006
The Chairperson of the City of Harare Commission
Town House
Harare
Dear Madam,
Re: OBJECTION TO PAYMENT OF NEW WATER RATES
I am Mr/s…………………………………………… and I live at House. No. ……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………. Harare. I am a resident and rate payer in the city of Harare and am aware that in terms of the law, and more specifically the Urban Councils Act, I am entitled to at least thirty (30) days’ written notice before any levies, rates and or tariffs payable by me to the City of Harare may be reviewed.
I am entitled at law and right to action that is lawful, reasonable and fair. The Administrative Justice Act [Chapter 10:28] especially Section 3 thereof refers.
I am further aware that there is an implied contract between myself and the City of Harare whereby the Council provides me with appropriate water services and I pay for the same on appropriate invoice for the said service.
Having stated the above I wish to put on record, as I hereby do, my objection to my payment of the amounts due for the month of June 2006 as calculated using the new tariffs because:
1. The statutory Notice in terms of the Urban Councils Act has not been honoured and as such the rates review is tainted with irregularities insofar as lawful procedure is concerned. Because of that it is a legal nullity as are the new rates it purports to introduce.
2. The principles of natural justice which the Council is legally obliged to observe in terms of the law have been flagrantly disregarded and as such the decision to review the rates is unlawful, unreasonable, and as such a legal nullity which I feel I cannot consciously pay.
3. The rates review also amounts to a unilateral variation of the implied contract between me and council seeing as it was done without notice to me and or any representations from me. You will no doubt appreciate that that in itself is also unlawful and makes the rates review also a legal nullity and therefore of no force and effect.
Also note that I further object to the revised water charges as top council officials are squandering rate-payers money on curtains, DSTV, double-cabs, cellphones and guest lodges on weekends. The same officials are also looting subsidised council houses through contracts of “sale”.
Be guided accordingly.
Yours etc,
Cc: The Minister – Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development - Ignatius Chombo
Cc: CHRA
Copy and paste the letter below (the letter), print it out and fill it in. Make a copy.
Send one copy to: CHRA, Room 103, Daventry House, South Avenue corner Angwa Street.
Send the second copy to Town House.
ITS THAT SIMPLE!
This is the letter:
*******************************************************
Your Address:
HARARE
3rd July 2006
The Chairperson of the City of Harare Commission
Town House
Harare
Dear Madam,
Re: OBJECTION TO PAYMENT OF NEW WATER RATES
I am Mr/s…………………………………………… and I live at House. No. ……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………. Harare. I am a resident and rate payer in the city of Harare and am aware that in terms of the law, and more specifically the Urban Councils Act, I am entitled to at least thirty (30) days’ written notice before any levies, rates and or tariffs payable by me to the City of Harare may be reviewed.
I am entitled at law and right to action that is lawful, reasonable and fair. The Administrative Justice Act [Chapter 10:28] especially Section 3 thereof refers.
I am further aware that there is an implied contract between myself and the City of Harare whereby the Council provides me with appropriate water services and I pay for the same on appropriate invoice for the said service.
Having stated the above I wish to put on record, as I hereby do, my objection to my payment of the amounts due for the month of June 2006 as calculated using the new tariffs because:
1. The statutory Notice in terms of the Urban Councils Act has not been honoured and as such the rates review is tainted with irregularities insofar as lawful procedure is concerned. Because of that it is a legal nullity as are the new rates it purports to introduce.
2. The principles of natural justice which the Council is legally obliged to observe in terms of the law have been flagrantly disregarded and as such the decision to review the rates is unlawful, unreasonable, and as such a legal nullity which I feel I cannot consciously pay.
3. The rates review also amounts to a unilateral variation of the implied contract between me and council seeing as it was done without notice to me and or any representations from me. You will no doubt appreciate that that in itself is also unlawful and makes the rates review also a legal nullity and therefore of no force and effect.
Also note that I further object to the revised water charges as top council officials are squandering rate-payers money on curtains, DSTV, double-cabs, cellphones and guest lodges on weekends. The same officials are also looting subsidised council houses through contracts of “sale”.
Be guided accordingly.
Yours etc,
Cc: The Minister – Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development - Ignatius Chombo
Cc: CHRA
Friday, July 07, 2006
Ruling Class Offensive Can Be Stopped
The last 7 weeks has seen the regime and its investor allies launching the most barbaric attacks on our living conditions.
Food prices, rents, water and electricity charges and school fees have all more than doubled while kombi fares are set to rise to 140,000. As Socialist Worker goes to press the parallel market rate for the US had crashed to anywhere up to 600,000 – the same for a litre of fuel.
At the same time the regime has stepped up the repression. Civic Society and opposition leaders have been arrested and held without charge. Countless roadblocks have been mounted.
The police broke up a public meeting in Highfield that began the commemoration of Murambatsvina. Further planned meetings and demonstrations were banned outright.
All this is in the name of the “Economic Turnaround” policy being implemented by the bosses and investors who run this country in the name of the IMF and World Bank – policies that the Mugabe ZANU-PF regime implemented.
Some civic society “leaders” have instead tragically chosen to put their tails between their lags in typical middle-class fashion and hide. The rest of the commemoration of Murambatsvina had been cancelled.
But as the actions by WOZA over the last 4 months have shown, this barbaric regime can be stopped. WOZA have staged several demonstrations at schools from Mutare to Insiza.
Several parents and school-going children have been arrested. WOZA leaders have been threatened with death. Parents and students who are WOZA members have been victimised by schools. The thug who is MP for Insiza, Andrew Langa, insulted WOZA women on their last demonstration in Insiza.
But despite all this the actions planned by WOZA continue unabated. In the week ending 07 July 2006, 500 women demonstrated at the Bulawayo City Council Mayors Office without permission and told a senior policeman to piss off.
This is the kind of leadership and action that is needed to confront this murderous regime and to begin fighting for and end to the poverty oppression that we face.
isozim2004@yahoo.com, +263-4-704209, Box 6758 Harare, Zimrights House 90 4th Street
Food prices, rents, water and electricity charges and school fees have all more than doubled while kombi fares are set to rise to 140,000. As Socialist Worker goes to press the parallel market rate for the US had crashed to anywhere up to 600,000 – the same for a litre of fuel.
At the same time the regime has stepped up the repression. Civic Society and opposition leaders have been arrested and held without charge. Countless roadblocks have been mounted.
The police broke up a public meeting in Highfield that began the commemoration of Murambatsvina. Further planned meetings and demonstrations were banned outright.
All this is in the name of the “Economic Turnaround” policy being implemented by the bosses and investors who run this country in the name of the IMF and World Bank – policies that the Mugabe ZANU-PF regime implemented.
Some civic society “leaders” have instead tragically chosen to put their tails between their lags in typical middle-class fashion and hide. The rest of the commemoration of Murambatsvina had been cancelled.
But as the actions by WOZA over the last 4 months have shown, this barbaric regime can be stopped. WOZA have staged several demonstrations at schools from Mutare to Insiza.
Several parents and school-going children have been arrested. WOZA leaders have been threatened with death. Parents and students who are WOZA members have been victimised by schools. The thug who is MP for Insiza, Andrew Langa, insulted WOZA women on their last demonstration in Insiza.
But despite all this the actions planned by WOZA continue unabated. In the week ending 07 July 2006, 500 women demonstrated at the Bulawayo City Council Mayors Office without permission and told a senior policeman to piss off.
This is the kind of leadership and action that is needed to confront this murderous regime and to begin fighting for and end to the poverty oppression that we face.
isozim2004@yahoo.com, +263-4-704209, Box 6758 Harare, Zimrights House 90 4th Street
Ruling Class On The Offensive
Under the guise of the unfolding economic crisis over the last 18 months, bosses have been making massive attacks on ordinary people. School Fees doubled overnight for the second term; bread prices rose 53%; milk prices rose; rice prises rose 50% - all this in the space of 4 weeks. Inflation is expected to reach 2,000% by year end. Bosses are now planning retrenchments.
Yet simultaneously these same bosses were continuing with their lavish lifestyles. Philip Chiyangwa acquired the latest Mercedes Benz with internet. Other bosses continue to enjoy house boating on Kariba.
The main reason that the bosses use for all this is the economic crisis. Yet there is no crisis for the bosses’ living standards. They still use company benefits to pay for their children’s school fees and their trips to Kariba.
The real reason for the attacks on ordinary people is the mess that the bosses themselves created in the first place. The ZANU-PF regime implemented the IMF/World Bank economic reforms. The reforms led to the price rises and planned job losses we see today.
To ensure that their programme succeeds the bosses and international ruling class have gone on an offensive. They want to ensure that the continued implementation of their neo-liberal programme succeeds. In order to do so they have to create the conditions for it.
One of the main ways is to attack the radical elements in the opposition. Currently their biggest target is the NCA’s Lovemore Madhuku. The NCA under Madhuku has led countless protests and is in the forefront of active opposition to the ZANU-PF regime.
Prior to this, the Themba-Nyathis, Ncubes, Stevensons, Mutambaras and Chihwayis attempted to destroy the MDC. But their own project is unravelling with defections and resignations.
As Socialist Worker goes to press a flurry of “diplomatic” activity is taking place. UN boss Koffi Annan is pressurising to “visit the country”. Former and Current Tanzanian bosses Benjamin Nkapa and Jakaya Kikwete are messengers between Mugabe and Britain’s Blair while the British ambassador to Zimbabwe is on a tour of the country talking to “citizens” (bosses) on the way forward. At the same time South Africa’s Mbeki has renewed his “quiet diplomacy” campaign because the economic crisis here is once affecting South African bosses and the Rand.
While all this has been going on, the state and much of the so-called independent media are vilifying Madhuku and the regime has also issued a threat to the leadership of ZCTU under the guise of its so-called forex abuse probe.
As we called for in the last issue of Socialist Worker, we must give unconditional support to the real (Tsvangirai) MDC and ZCTU. In the meantime WOZA has been staging big and successful protests across the country against school fee increases that has seen the arrest of 14 and 17 year-old school children.
Ordinary people will not benefit from any “intervention” or packages that lead to the retirement of Mugabe – whether before, in or after 2008. Neither will we benefit from Tripartite negotiations with the regime that implemented the economic policies that put us in poverty in the first place.
The only way forward is to organise action like WOZA is doing to ensure that whatever happens, we have access to decent and affordable education, health and ARVs and living wages linked to inflation – and an end to oppression.
Phantsi/Pasi/Down With Capitalism – Qina Msebenzi Qina – Shinga Mushandi Shinga
by Rosa Zulu
Yet simultaneously these same bosses were continuing with their lavish lifestyles. Philip Chiyangwa acquired the latest Mercedes Benz with internet. Other bosses continue to enjoy house boating on Kariba.
The main reason that the bosses use for all this is the economic crisis. Yet there is no crisis for the bosses’ living standards. They still use company benefits to pay for their children’s school fees and their trips to Kariba.
The real reason for the attacks on ordinary people is the mess that the bosses themselves created in the first place. The ZANU-PF regime implemented the IMF/World Bank economic reforms. The reforms led to the price rises and planned job losses we see today.
To ensure that their programme succeeds the bosses and international ruling class have gone on an offensive. They want to ensure that the continued implementation of their neo-liberal programme succeeds. In order to do so they have to create the conditions for it.
One of the main ways is to attack the radical elements in the opposition. Currently their biggest target is the NCA’s Lovemore Madhuku. The NCA under Madhuku has led countless protests and is in the forefront of active opposition to the ZANU-PF regime.
Prior to this, the Themba-Nyathis, Ncubes, Stevensons, Mutambaras and Chihwayis attempted to destroy the MDC. But their own project is unravelling with defections and resignations.
As Socialist Worker goes to press a flurry of “diplomatic” activity is taking place. UN boss Koffi Annan is pressurising to “visit the country”. Former and Current Tanzanian bosses Benjamin Nkapa and Jakaya Kikwete are messengers between Mugabe and Britain’s Blair while the British ambassador to Zimbabwe is on a tour of the country talking to “citizens” (bosses) on the way forward. At the same time South Africa’s Mbeki has renewed his “quiet diplomacy” campaign because the economic crisis here is once affecting South African bosses and the Rand.
While all this has been going on, the state and much of the so-called independent media are vilifying Madhuku and the regime has also issued a threat to the leadership of ZCTU under the guise of its so-called forex abuse probe.
As we called for in the last issue of Socialist Worker, we must give unconditional support to the real (Tsvangirai) MDC and ZCTU. In the meantime WOZA has been staging big and successful protests across the country against school fee increases that has seen the arrest of 14 and 17 year-old school children.
Ordinary people will not benefit from any “intervention” or packages that lead to the retirement of Mugabe – whether before, in or after 2008. Neither will we benefit from Tripartite negotiations with the regime that implemented the economic policies that put us in poverty in the first place.
The only way forward is to organise action like WOZA is doing to ensure that whatever happens, we have access to decent and affordable education, health and ARVs and living wages linked to inflation – and an end to oppression.
Phantsi/Pasi/Down With Capitalism – Qina Msebenzi Qina – Shinga Mushandi Shinga
by Rosa Zulu
The Social Forum Process
The world we live in is completely unjust. There is massive accumulation of wealth for a tiny rich elite – glass buildings, shopping complexes like Westgate and Sam Levy’s and 45 Billion dollar Mercedes and Cherokees – contrasting with an equally unimaginable impoverishment of the vast majority of the world’s population haunted by famine and utter destitution - donkey drawn scotch carts, pit latrines, slums, and utter poverty. The historic mission of capitalism has been development for the few and underdevelopment for the many.
This crisis has totally worsened under neo-liberalism. Under the IMF/World Bank’s disastrous economic policies millions of poor have been condemned to conditions of abject poverty, job loses and collapse of social service delivery systems such as health, education, housing and public transport. This reality and a hopeless future for millions has resulted in the total breakdown of the social fabric of poor communities shown in sharp increases in domestic violence, violent crime, prostitution, street kids, and homeless people. The worsening crisis of neo-liberalism has also led to state regimes responding to mass resistance through curtailing democratic space and repression.
The Rise of the Social forum Process
The rise of the social forum process expresses a rejection and challenge to policies that put profit before life. The rallying slogan of the social forum, Another World Is Possible expresses this. We must go beyond simply rejecting the current set-up to fighting for a better way of organizing society that puts needs before greed and profit.
The social forum has emerged with massive potential to advance the struggles for socio-economic rights. To this end the Social Forum process must play a very crucial role in organizing the regrouping anti-neoliberal forces. It has made tremendous achievements in creating solidarity networks for those committed to social justice. The process has also played a key role in sustaining hope and in fostering amongst activists a sense of belonging to a global progressive force committed to change the world for the better. The emergence of a bipolar world marked on one hand by a crisis ridden free market agenda and on the other hand the growing global anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist movement of which the social forum is one of its platforms.
The context within which the Social Forum emerges and takes root poses questions - whether the process will fulfill its historical mission and serve as a functional platform to advance and resolve the tasks of the social justice struggle. This becomes a decisive question in light of the ‘commodification of resistance’ syndrome. A concern has already emerged on whether this will not turn out to be more of serial meetings/talk shops and plane activism with no action at all and in that way actually become a platform to co-opt, divert and disarm the building resistance against capitalist globalization.
There are also questions on the structure of the social forum process. The ‘open’ non-voting and non-committal ‘space’ limits the capacity for decisive collective action that reduces it to a non-acting jamboree of NGOs. While some horizontality and consensus is necessary in a democratic relationship amongst diverse groups that are just beginning to learn to work together, this should not be taken to levels where it completely cripples the process. Many attempts for collective action have been scuttled on the grounds that “the forum is a space and not an organization”.
While the social forum process has built an excellent critique on neo-liberalism, it has not done so on the national democratic question. Social forum arguments tend to focus exclusively on neo-liberal policies, IMF, World Bank, WTO etc and in a way sideline national democratic questions. This is particularly problematic in the African context where the lack of democracy is worse and imperialist plunder assisted by the local state is unchecked. Raising the national democratic question carries more risks than chanting down the IMF and other international financial institutions since this brings movements and organizations into the direct firing line of undemocratic regimes, but nonetheless it is a struggle that must be waged. .
The other key question is the marginal role of organized labour in the whole Social Forum process on a global level. This makes the Social Forum process a challenge to capitalism through numbers but lacking structural impact. Mobilization of organized labour remains one of the key outstanding tasks of the social forum process. The social forum process will be infinitely powerful if, as a platform, it can unite working class struggles and the vast mass of resistance to neo-liberalism represented by community based organizations, Social movements, and progressive NGOs.
The Next WSF: NAIROBI 2007
WSF comes to Africa when the social forum is faced with consolidating the achievements made so far and crucially taking the next step. Fatigue has already crept into the routine cycle of annual world social forum meetings in ‘far away’ places that only those with enormous resources can attend. To consolidate the process it is important to decentralize it to national and regional social forums. It is at this more local level that actions can best be coordinated and executed. This has already happened in some places with vibrant national forums such as the Zimbabwe Social Forum. Within national frameworks it is important to further decentralize to the most local level through community/township based social forums and thematic social forums.
In taking the next step, action is of vital importance. ‘A Time to Act’ must become part of the social forum slogans. The social forum can now utilize the networks that have been formed in the past four years to launch campaigns on specific social justice issues as determined by the most burning questions of the day. Anti-eviction campaigns, campaigns against water and electricity cut offs, anti-privatization campaigns, right to education campaigns, access to land campaigns and living wage campaigns etcetera. These are the kind of collective actions that will bring relevance to the social forum process and take it into the next chapter. Acting together on a particular issue coordinated through the social forum networks will be infinitely more powerful than a thousand isolated actions.
The next WSF will have achieved much if activists, movements and organizations gathered there go beyond the talk shop and adopt one or two social justice campaigns for collective action. This could even be a boycott of a particular corporate brand such as Coca –Cola for example or an anti-apartheid style collective campaign to bring down a specific dictatorship. With Africa as the setting, it is vitally important that activist, movements and organizations revisit the question of continued imperialist plunder on the continent and the unfinished business of national democratic struggles.
Taking the next step must also include going beyond agreeing to say ‘No to Capitalism’, to a united voices on an alternative to the capitalist system. In this era of the resurgence of the radical democratic agenda and the cracking of capitalism under its own contradictions activists must seize the opportunity to argue now for international socialism as the ultimate alternative to the failed capitalist system.
Another Africa is Possible! Another World is Possible! – In Our Lifetime!
By Briggs Bomba
isozim2004@yahoo.com
+263-4-704209, +263-11-403930, +263-11-637484, +263-91-908847
P.O. Box 6758, Harare – Zimrights House, 90 4th Street
This crisis has totally worsened under neo-liberalism. Under the IMF/World Bank’s disastrous economic policies millions of poor have been condemned to conditions of abject poverty, job loses and collapse of social service delivery systems such as health, education, housing and public transport. This reality and a hopeless future for millions has resulted in the total breakdown of the social fabric of poor communities shown in sharp increases in domestic violence, violent crime, prostitution, street kids, and homeless people. The worsening crisis of neo-liberalism has also led to state regimes responding to mass resistance through curtailing democratic space and repression.
The Rise of the Social forum Process
The rise of the social forum process expresses a rejection and challenge to policies that put profit before life. The rallying slogan of the social forum, Another World Is Possible expresses this. We must go beyond simply rejecting the current set-up to fighting for a better way of organizing society that puts needs before greed and profit.
The social forum has emerged with massive potential to advance the struggles for socio-economic rights. To this end the Social Forum process must play a very crucial role in organizing the regrouping anti-neoliberal forces. It has made tremendous achievements in creating solidarity networks for those committed to social justice. The process has also played a key role in sustaining hope and in fostering amongst activists a sense of belonging to a global progressive force committed to change the world for the better. The emergence of a bipolar world marked on one hand by a crisis ridden free market agenda and on the other hand the growing global anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist movement of which the social forum is one of its platforms.
The context within which the Social Forum emerges and takes root poses questions - whether the process will fulfill its historical mission and serve as a functional platform to advance and resolve the tasks of the social justice struggle. This becomes a decisive question in light of the ‘commodification of resistance’ syndrome. A concern has already emerged on whether this will not turn out to be more of serial meetings/talk shops and plane activism with no action at all and in that way actually become a platform to co-opt, divert and disarm the building resistance against capitalist globalization.
There are also questions on the structure of the social forum process. The ‘open’ non-voting and non-committal ‘space’ limits the capacity for decisive collective action that reduces it to a non-acting jamboree of NGOs. While some horizontality and consensus is necessary in a democratic relationship amongst diverse groups that are just beginning to learn to work together, this should not be taken to levels where it completely cripples the process. Many attempts for collective action have been scuttled on the grounds that “the forum is a space and not an organization”.
While the social forum process has built an excellent critique on neo-liberalism, it has not done so on the national democratic question. Social forum arguments tend to focus exclusively on neo-liberal policies, IMF, World Bank, WTO etc and in a way sideline national democratic questions. This is particularly problematic in the African context where the lack of democracy is worse and imperialist plunder assisted by the local state is unchecked. Raising the national democratic question carries more risks than chanting down the IMF and other international financial institutions since this brings movements and organizations into the direct firing line of undemocratic regimes, but nonetheless it is a struggle that must be waged. .
The other key question is the marginal role of organized labour in the whole Social Forum process on a global level. This makes the Social Forum process a challenge to capitalism through numbers but lacking structural impact. Mobilization of organized labour remains one of the key outstanding tasks of the social forum process. The social forum process will be infinitely powerful if, as a platform, it can unite working class struggles and the vast mass of resistance to neo-liberalism represented by community based organizations, Social movements, and progressive NGOs.
The Next WSF: NAIROBI 2007
WSF comes to Africa when the social forum is faced with consolidating the achievements made so far and crucially taking the next step. Fatigue has already crept into the routine cycle of annual world social forum meetings in ‘far away’ places that only those with enormous resources can attend. To consolidate the process it is important to decentralize it to national and regional social forums. It is at this more local level that actions can best be coordinated and executed. This has already happened in some places with vibrant national forums such as the Zimbabwe Social Forum. Within national frameworks it is important to further decentralize to the most local level through community/township based social forums and thematic social forums.
In taking the next step, action is of vital importance. ‘A Time to Act’ must become part of the social forum slogans. The social forum can now utilize the networks that have been formed in the past four years to launch campaigns on specific social justice issues as determined by the most burning questions of the day. Anti-eviction campaigns, campaigns against water and electricity cut offs, anti-privatization campaigns, right to education campaigns, access to land campaigns and living wage campaigns etcetera. These are the kind of collective actions that will bring relevance to the social forum process and take it into the next chapter. Acting together on a particular issue coordinated through the social forum networks will be infinitely more powerful than a thousand isolated actions.
The next WSF will have achieved much if activists, movements and organizations gathered there go beyond the talk shop and adopt one or two social justice campaigns for collective action. This could even be a boycott of a particular corporate brand such as Coca –Cola for example or an anti-apartheid style collective campaign to bring down a specific dictatorship. With Africa as the setting, it is vitally important that activist, movements and organizations revisit the question of continued imperialist plunder on the continent and the unfinished business of national democratic struggles.
Taking the next step must also include going beyond agreeing to say ‘No to Capitalism’, to a united voices on an alternative to the capitalist system. In this era of the resurgence of the radical democratic agenda and the cracking of capitalism under its own contradictions activists must seize the opportunity to argue now for international socialism as the ultimate alternative to the failed capitalist system.
Another Africa is Possible! Another World is Possible! – In Our Lifetime!
By Briggs Bomba
isozim2004@yahoo.com
+263-4-704209, +263-11-403930, +263-11-637484, +263-91-908847
P.O. Box 6758, Harare – Zimrights House, 90 4th Street
The Social Forum Process
The world we live in is completely unjust. There is massive accumulation of wealth for a tiny rich elite – glass buildings, shopping complexes like Westgate and Sam Levy’s and 45 Billion dollar Mercedes and Cherokees – contrasting with an equally unimaginable impoverishment of the vast majority of the world’s population haunted by famine and utter destitution - donkey drawn scotch carts, pit latrines, slums, and utter poverty. The historic mission of capitalism has been development for the few and underdevelopment for the many.
This crisis has totally worsened under neo-liberalism. Under the IMF/World Bank’s disastrous economic policies millions of poor have been condemned to conditions of abject poverty, job loses and collapse of social service delivery systems such as health, education, housing and public transport. This reality and a hopeless future for millions has resulted in the total breakdown of the social fabric of poor communities shown in sharp increases in domestic violence, violent crime, prostitution, street kids, and homeless people. The worsening crisis of neo-liberalism has also led to state regimes responding to mass resistance through curtailing democratic space and repression.
The Rise of the Social forum Process
The rise of the social forum process expresses a rejection and challenge to policies that put profit before life. The rallying slogan of the social forum, Another World Is Possible expresses this. We must go beyond simply rejecting the current set-up to fighting for a better way of organizing society that puts needs before greed and profit.
The social forum has emerged with massive potential to advance the struggles for socio-economic rights. To this end the Social Forum process must play a very crucial role in organizing the regrouping anti-neoliberal forces. It has made tremendous achievements in creating solidarity networks for those committed to social justice. The process has also played a key role in sustaining hope and in fostering amongst activists a sense of belonging to a global progressive force committed to change the world for the better. The emergence of a bipolar world marked on one hand by a crisis ridden free market agenda and on the other hand the growing global anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist movement of which the social forum is one of its platforms.
The context within which the Social Forum emerges and takes root poses questions - whether the process will fulfill its historical mission and serve as a functional platform to advance and resolve the tasks of the social justice struggle. This becomes a decisive question in light of the ‘commodification of resistance’ syndrome. A concern has already emerged on whether this will not turn out to be more of serial meetings/talk shops and plane activism with no action at all and in that way actually become a platform to co-opt, divert and disarm the building resistance against capitalist globalization.
There are also questions on the structure of the social forum process. The ‘open’ non-voting and non-committal ‘space’ limits the capacity for decisive collective action that reduces it to a non-acting jamboree of NGOs. While some horizontality and consensus is necessary in a democratic relationship amongst diverse groups that are just beginning to learn to work together, this should not be taken to levels where it completely cripples the process. Many attempts for collective action have been scuttled on the grounds that “the forum is a space and not an organization”.
While the social forum process has built an excellent critique on neo-liberalism, it has not done so on the national democratic question. Social forum arguments tend to focus exclusively on neo-liberal policies, IMF, World Bank, WTO etc and in a way sideline national democratic questions. This is particularly problematic in the African context where the lack of democracy is worse and imperialist plunder assisted by the local state is unchecked. Raising the national democratic question carries more risks than chanting down the IMF and other international financial institutions since this brings movements and organizations into the direct firing line of undemocratic regimes, but nonetheless it is a struggle that must be waged. .
The other key question is the marginal role of organized labour in the whole Social Forum process on a global level. This makes the Social Forum process a challenge to capitalism through numbers but lacking structural impact. Mobilization of organized labour remains one of the key outstanding tasks of the social forum process. The social forum process will be infinitely powerful if, as a platform, it can unite working class struggles and the vast mass of resistance to neo-liberalism represented by community based organizations, Social movements, and progressive NGOs.
The Next WSF: NAIROBI 2007
WSF comes to Africa when the social forum is faced with consolidating the achievements made so far and crucially taking the next step. Fatigue has already crept into the routine cycle of annual world social forum meetings in ‘far away’ places that only those with enormous resources can attend. To consolidate the process it is important to decentralize it to national and regional social forums. It is at this more local level that actions can best be coordinated and executed. This has already happened in some places with vibrant national forums such as the Zimbabwe Social Forum. Within national frameworks it is important to further decentralize to the most local level through community/township based social forums and thematic social forums.
In taking the next step, action is of vital importance. ‘A Time to Act’ must become part of the social forum slogans. The social forum can now utilize the networks that have been formed in the past four years to launch campaigns on specific social justice issues as determined by the most burning questions of the day. Anti-eviction campaigns, campaigns against water and electricity cut offs, anti-privatization campaigns, right to education campaigns, access to land campaigns and living wage campaigns etcetera. These are the kind of collective actions that will bring relevance to the social forum process and take it into the next chapter. Acting together on a particular issue coordinated through the social forum networks will be infinitely more powerful than a thousand isolated actions.
The next WSF will have achieved much if activists, movements and organizations gathered there go beyond the talk shop and adopt one or two social justice campaigns for collective action. This could even be a boycott of a particular corporate brand such as Coca –Cola for example or an anti-apartheid style collective campaign to bring down a specific dictatorship. With Africa as the setting, it is vitally important that activist, movements and organizations revisit the question of continued imperialist plunder on the continent and the unfinished business of national democratic struggles.
Taking the next step must also include going beyond agreeing to say ‘No to Capitalism’, to a united voices on an alternative to the capitalist system. In this era of the resurgence of the radical democratic agenda and the cracking of capitalism under its own contradictions activists must seize the opportunity to argue now for international socialism as the ultimate alternative to the failed capitalist system.
Another Africa is Possible! Another World is Possible! – In Our Lifetime!
By Briggs Bomba
isozim2004@yahoo.com
+263-4-704209, +263-11-403930, +263-11-637484, +263-91-908847
P.O. Box 6758, Harare – Zimrights House, 90 4th Street
This crisis has totally worsened under neo-liberalism. Under the IMF/World Bank’s disastrous economic policies millions of poor have been condemned to conditions of abject poverty, job loses and collapse of social service delivery systems such as health, education, housing and public transport. This reality and a hopeless future for millions has resulted in the total breakdown of the social fabric of poor communities shown in sharp increases in domestic violence, violent crime, prostitution, street kids, and homeless people. The worsening crisis of neo-liberalism has also led to state regimes responding to mass resistance through curtailing democratic space and repression.
The Rise of the Social forum Process
The rise of the social forum process expresses a rejection and challenge to policies that put profit before life. The rallying slogan of the social forum, Another World Is Possible expresses this. We must go beyond simply rejecting the current set-up to fighting for a better way of organizing society that puts needs before greed and profit.
The social forum has emerged with massive potential to advance the struggles for socio-economic rights. To this end the Social Forum process must play a very crucial role in organizing the regrouping anti-neoliberal forces. It has made tremendous achievements in creating solidarity networks for those committed to social justice. The process has also played a key role in sustaining hope and in fostering amongst activists a sense of belonging to a global progressive force committed to change the world for the better. The emergence of a bipolar world marked on one hand by a crisis ridden free market agenda and on the other hand the growing global anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist movement of which the social forum is one of its platforms.
The context within which the Social Forum emerges and takes root poses questions - whether the process will fulfill its historical mission and serve as a functional platform to advance and resolve the tasks of the social justice struggle. This becomes a decisive question in light of the ‘commodification of resistance’ syndrome. A concern has already emerged on whether this will not turn out to be more of serial meetings/talk shops and plane activism with no action at all and in that way actually become a platform to co-opt, divert and disarm the building resistance against capitalist globalization.
There are also questions on the structure of the social forum process. The ‘open’ non-voting and non-committal ‘space’ limits the capacity for decisive collective action that reduces it to a non-acting jamboree of NGOs. While some horizontality and consensus is necessary in a democratic relationship amongst diverse groups that are just beginning to learn to work together, this should not be taken to levels where it completely cripples the process. Many attempts for collective action have been scuttled on the grounds that “the forum is a space and not an organization”.
While the social forum process has built an excellent critique on neo-liberalism, it has not done so on the national democratic question. Social forum arguments tend to focus exclusively on neo-liberal policies, IMF, World Bank, WTO etc and in a way sideline national democratic questions. This is particularly problematic in the African context where the lack of democracy is worse and imperialist plunder assisted by the local state is unchecked. Raising the national democratic question carries more risks than chanting down the IMF and other international financial institutions since this brings movements and organizations into the direct firing line of undemocratic regimes, but nonetheless it is a struggle that must be waged. .
The other key question is the marginal role of organized labour in the whole Social Forum process on a global level. This makes the Social Forum process a challenge to capitalism through numbers but lacking structural impact. Mobilization of organized labour remains one of the key outstanding tasks of the social forum process. The social forum process will be infinitely powerful if, as a platform, it can unite working class struggles and the vast mass of resistance to neo-liberalism represented by community based organizations, Social movements, and progressive NGOs.
The Next WSF: NAIROBI 2007
WSF comes to Africa when the social forum is faced with consolidating the achievements made so far and crucially taking the next step. Fatigue has already crept into the routine cycle of annual world social forum meetings in ‘far away’ places that only those with enormous resources can attend. To consolidate the process it is important to decentralize it to national and regional social forums. It is at this more local level that actions can best be coordinated and executed. This has already happened in some places with vibrant national forums such as the Zimbabwe Social Forum. Within national frameworks it is important to further decentralize to the most local level through community/township based social forums and thematic social forums.
In taking the next step, action is of vital importance. ‘A Time to Act’ must become part of the social forum slogans. The social forum can now utilize the networks that have been formed in the past four years to launch campaigns on specific social justice issues as determined by the most burning questions of the day. Anti-eviction campaigns, campaigns against water and electricity cut offs, anti-privatization campaigns, right to education campaigns, access to land campaigns and living wage campaigns etcetera. These are the kind of collective actions that will bring relevance to the social forum process and take it into the next chapter. Acting together on a particular issue coordinated through the social forum networks will be infinitely more powerful than a thousand isolated actions.
The next WSF will have achieved much if activists, movements and organizations gathered there go beyond the talk shop and adopt one or two social justice campaigns for collective action. This could even be a boycott of a particular corporate brand such as Coca –Cola for example or an anti-apartheid style collective campaign to bring down a specific dictatorship. With Africa as the setting, it is vitally important that activist, movements and organizations revisit the question of continued imperialist plunder on the continent and the unfinished business of national democratic struggles.
Taking the next step must also include going beyond agreeing to say ‘No to Capitalism’, to a united voices on an alternative to the capitalist system. In this era of the resurgence of the radical democratic agenda and the cracking of capitalism under its own contradictions activists must seize the opportunity to argue now for international socialism as the ultimate alternative to the failed capitalist system.
Another Africa is Possible! Another World is Possible! – In Our Lifetime!
By Briggs Bomba
isozim2004@yahoo.com
+263-4-704209, +263-11-403930, +263-11-637484, +263-91-908847
P.O. Box 6758, Harare – Zimrights House, 90 4th Street
NGO's or WGO's
The Karachi Social Forum
By TARIQ ALI in Karachi, Pakistan. 28/03/2006
While we were opening the World Social Forum in Karachi last weekend with virtuoso performances of sufi music and speeches, the country's rulers were marking the centenary of the Muslim League [the party that created Pakistan and has ever since been passed on from one bunch of rogues to another till now it is in the hands of political pimps who treat it like a bordello] by gifting the organisation to General Pervaiz Musharaf, the country's uniformed ruler.
The secular opposition leaders, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, who used to compete with each other to see who could amass more funds while in power, are both in exile. To return home would mean to face arrest for corruption. Neither is in the mood for martyrdom or relinquishing control of their organizations. Meanwhile, the religious parties are happily implementing neo-liberal policies in the North-West Frontier province that is under their control. Incapable of catering to the real needs of the poor they concentrate their fire on women and the godless liberals who defend them.
The military is so secure in its rule and the official politicians so useless that 'civil society' is booming. Private TV channels, like NGOs, have mushroomed and most views are permissible (I was interviewed for an hour by one of these on the "fate of the world communist movement") except a frontal assault on religion or the military and its networks that govern the country. If civil society posed any real threat to the elite, the plaudits it receives would rapidly turn to menace.
It was, thus, no surprise that the WSF, too, had been permitted and facilitated by the local administration in Karachi. It is now part of the globalized landscape and helps backward rulers feel modern. The event itself was no different from the others. Present are several thousand people, mainly from Pakistan, but with a sprinkling of delegates from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Korea and a few other countries.
Absent was any representation from China's burgeoning peasant and workers movements or its critical intelligentsia. Iran, too, was unrepresented as was Malaysia. The Israeli enforcers who run the Jordanian administration harassed a Palestinian delegation. Only a handful of delegates managed to get through the checkpoints and reach Karachi. The huge earthquake in Pakistan last year had disrupted many plans and the organizers were not able to travel and persuade people elsewhere in the continent to come. Otherwise, insisted the organisers, the voices of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and Fallujah would have been heard.
The fact that it happened at all in Pakistan was positive. People here are not used to hearing different voices and views. The Forum enabled many from repressed social layers and minority religions to assemble make their voices heard: persecuted Christians from the Punjab, Hindus from Sind, women from everywhere told heart-rending stories of discrimination and oppression.
Present too was a sizeable class-struggle element: peasants fighting against the privatization of military farms in Okara, the fisher-folk from Sind whose livelihoods are under threat and who complained about the great Indus river being diverted to deprive the common people of water they had enjoyed since the beginning of human civilization thousands of years ago, workers from Baluchistan complaining about military brutalities in the region.
Teachers who explained how the educational system in the country had virtually ceased to exist. The common people who spoke were articulate, analytical and angry, in polar contrast to the stale rhetoric of Pakistan's political class. Much of what was said was broadcast on radio and television with the main private networks---Geo, Hum and Indus--- vying with each other to ensure blanket coverage.
And so the WSF like a big feel-good travelling road show came to Pakistan and went. What will it leave behind? Very little, apart from goodwill and the feeling that it has happened here. For the fact remains the elite dominates that politics in the country. Little else matters. Small radical groups are doing their best, but there is no state-wide organisation or movement that speaks for the dispossessed. The social situation is grim, despite the massaged statistics circulated by the World Bank's Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
The NGOs are no substitute for genuine social and political movements.
They may be NGOs in Pakistan but in the global scale they are WGOs (Western Governmental Organizations), their cash-flow conditioned by restricted agendas. It is not that some of them are not doing good work, but the overall effect of this has been to atomize the tiny layer of left and liberal intellectuals. Most of these men and women (those who are not in NGOs are embedded in the private media networks) struggle for their individual NGOs to keep the money coming; petty rivalries assumed exaggerated proportions; politics in the sense of grass-roots organisation is virtually non-existent. The Latin American model as emerging in the victories of Chavez and Morales is a far cry from Mumbai or Karachi.
Tariq Ali is author of the recently released Street Fighting Years (new edition) and, with David Barsamian, Speaking of Empires & Resistance. He can be reached at: tariq.ali3@btinternet.com
By TARIQ ALI in Karachi, Pakistan. 28/03/2006
While we were opening the World Social Forum in Karachi last weekend with virtuoso performances of sufi music and speeches, the country's rulers were marking the centenary of the Muslim League [the party that created Pakistan and has ever since been passed on from one bunch of rogues to another till now it is in the hands of political pimps who treat it like a bordello] by gifting the organisation to General Pervaiz Musharaf, the country's uniformed ruler.
The secular opposition leaders, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, who used to compete with each other to see who could amass more funds while in power, are both in exile. To return home would mean to face arrest for corruption. Neither is in the mood for martyrdom or relinquishing control of their organizations. Meanwhile, the religious parties are happily implementing neo-liberal policies in the North-West Frontier province that is under their control. Incapable of catering to the real needs of the poor they concentrate their fire on women and the godless liberals who defend them.
The military is so secure in its rule and the official politicians so useless that 'civil society' is booming. Private TV channels, like NGOs, have mushroomed and most views are permissible (I was interviewed for an hour by one of these on the "fate of the world communist movement") except a frontal assault on religion or the military and its networks that govern the country. If civil society posed any real threat to the elite, the plaudits it receives would rapidly turn to menace.
It was, thus, no surprise that the WSF, too, had been permitted and facilitated by the local administration in Karachi. It is now part of the globalized landscape and helps backward rulers feel modern. The event itself was no different from the others. Present are several thousand people, mainly from Pakistan, but with a sprinkling of delegates from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Korea and a few other countries.
Absent was any representation from China's burgeoning peasant and workers movements or its critical intelligentsia. Iran, too, was unrepresented as was Malaysia. The Israeli enforcers who run the Jordanian administration harassed a Palestinian delegation. Only a handful of delegates managed to get through the checkpoints and reach Karachi. The huge earthquake in Pakistan last year had disrupted many plans and the organizers were not able to travel and persuade people elsewhere in the continent to come. Otherwise, insisted the organisers, the voices of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and Fallujah would have been heard.
The fact that it happened at all in Pakistan was positive. People here are not used to hearing different voices and views. The Forum enabled many from repressed social layers and minority religions to assemble make their voices heard: persecuted Christians from the Punjab, Hindus from Sind, women from everywhere told heart-rending stories of discrimination and oppression.
Present too was a sizeable class-struggle element: peasants fighting against the privatization of military farms in Okara, the fisher-folk from Sind whose livelihoods are under threat and who complained about the great Indus river being diverted to deprive the common people of water they had enjoyed since the beginning of human civilization thousands of years ago, workers from Baluchistan complaining about military brutalities in the region.
Teachers who explained how the educational system in the country had virtually ceased to exist. The common people who spoke were articulate, analytical and angry, in polar contrast to the stale rhetoric of Pakistan's political class. Much of what was said was broadcast on radio and television with the main private networks---Geo, Hum and Indus--- vying with each other to ensure blanket coverage.
And so the WSF like a big feel-good travelling road show came to Pakistan and went. What will it leave behind? Very little, apart from goodwill and the feeling that it has happened here. For the fact remains the elite dominates that politics in the country. Little else matters. Small radical groups are doing their best, but there is no state-wide organisation or movement that speaks for the dispossessed. The social situation is grim, despite the massaged statistics circulated by the World Bank's Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
The NGOs are no substitute for genuine social and political movements.
They may be NGOs in Pakistan but in the global scale they are WGOs (Western Governmental Organizations), their cash-flow conditioned by restricted agendas. It is not that some of them are not doing good work, but the overall effect of this has been to atomize the tiny layer of left and liberal intellectuals. Most of these men and women (those who are not in NGOs are embedded in the private media networks) struggle for their individual NGOs to keep the money coming; petty rivalries assumed exaggerated proportions; politics in the sense of grass-roots organisation is virtually non-existent. The Latin American model as emerging in the victories of Chavez and Morales is a far cry from Mumbai or Karachi.
Tariq Ali is author of the recently released Street Fighting Years (new edition) and, with David Barsamian, Speaking of Empires & Resistance. He can be reached at: tariq.ali3@btinternet.com
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