Events And Issues
New Delhi, 19 February 2007
World Social Forum
GLOBAL
SPIRIT OF CHALLENGE MANIFEST IN NAIROBI
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
Though a ritual now, this year’s seventh World
Social Forum, which was held from January 20 to 25 last at Nairobi evoked immense interest and
enthusiasm, especially among the African nations. Social movements in all 53
countries of Africa jointly organized this
year’s conference. Around 46,000 participants registered and there were others
who participated in the numerous workshops. Significantly the African countries
did not participate in the numbers in Porto Alegre
or Mumbai, they did in Nairobi
obviously because
of financial constraints which was also the same reason for the rather reduced
presence from Latin American and Asian countries.
There were hundreds of workshops and seminars on various issues affecting the Third World
countries. At one such meeting about threats from a proposed green revolution
--- a technology-led attempt to increase agricultural output – Indian activist,
Dr. Vandana Shiva described how chemical-dependent and costly monocultures of
so-called improved varieties of crops had left farmers in India dispossessed
and in debt, causing frequent suicides.
The Rockefeller Foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation recently announced a $ 150 million joint project for a green
revolution in Africa. But Shiva pointed out Africa’s risks repeating the Indian scenario and
promoting genetically modified organisms or GMO seeds. She described the
project as “strategies of dispossessing Africa of
food sovereignty and biodiversity”.
The campaigners from the Global Campaign Against Poverty
(GCAP) told the WSF that civil society pressure
would have to increase if the millennium development goals (MDGs) had any chance
of being met. They accused the Western governments of being short on substance
and announced a series of action, culminating on the UN Day for the Eradication
of Poverty on October 17 this year. Hellen Tombo, a Kenyan youth movement
leader and the African representative on GCAP, said promises have been broken.
“Our leaders have not been accountable, our leaders have not been transparent”.
However, Sunil Shetty, Director of the UN’s Millennium Campaign said that the
MDGs were still achievable if activists could persuade governments to stand up
to their responsibilities.
The presence of a large number of trade unions at Nairobi pointed to a possible warming of relations between the unions and
NGOs. According to Claire Courteille, a senior policy advisor of the world’s
most powerful organization, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
“workers’ rights are a global problem but it manifests itself in different
ways. In Africa, the lack of formal work is the real problem while in Asia it is more about what kind of conditions you are
working in. In Europe, workers’ rights need to
be protected as companies seek to find the cheapest sources of labour”.
Among the other issues
that were debated were housing rights, international apartheid, debt-free
world, labour, women, just trade etc. Eminent people not just from Africa but
also from other countries of the Third World
participated in the deliberations.
The Tax Justice Network, an international NGO, is voicing
the loot of Africa’s resources as part of its
development campaign. Speaking at the WSF, Kenyan coordinator, Alvin Mosioma,
pointed out Africa resources were currently
being siphoned off into tax havens and wealthy northern jurisdictions with the
collusion of some of the world’s most powerful corporations and wealthy banks.
He said research has shown that the continent was a net creditor to the rest of
the world with about 30 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africa being moved
offshore.
According to Tax Justice Network, about 25 billion pounds
flowed into Africa in aid and loans in the
last decade while an estimated 200 billion pounds flowed in the opposite
direction – to British and Northern banks through corruption, money laundering
and other criminal means. London banks were said
to hold $ 6 billion from Kenya
and Nigeria
alone.
Vitus Azeem from the Network in Ghana
observed that the Third World governments were
often pressured by the international
financial institutions to cut corporate tax for multinationals. He cited the
case of Zambia,
which had signed away mining rights for a paltry 0.06 per cent in royalties
(the world average is 3 per cent), no social obligations and tax-free concessions.
It is significant to mention here that there were sessions that called for fundamental reform of
international institutions in favour of “democratic governance of
globalization” and “the promotion of more equitable development and respect for
cultural, natural and gender diversity”. The call was made in the Manifesto of
the World Campaign for in-depth Reform of the System of International
Institutions. This has been supported by a group that included Danielle
Mitterrand, a social activist and wife of the late French President, Federico
Mayor, former UNESCO head, Samir Amin of the Forum du Tiers Monde, Kumi Naidoo,
Secretary General of Civicus, Sara Longwe of the African Women’s Development
and Communication Network and Hassen
Lorgat of a South African NGO coalition. The campaign to reform international
institutions, which began in 2006 and is to run till 2009 has the support of
eminent intellectuals and academicians the world over, including Noam Chomsky
and Boutros Boutros Ghali.
The Nairobi WSF has projected the severe inequality existing
in the world today, specially in Africa, in
the process of globalization and the
logic of terror and war that feeds it. Given that Africa has been neglected by
the world economic system and the reigning powers, the Nairobi meet brought together social
activists from all over the continent. The voices of activists venting
grievances against the imperialist West gave one the feeling that an
alternative strategy for development can definitely be formulated.
How soon the WSF would emerge as a strong instrument to
formulate proposals for effective action, foreseen in the Porto Alegre Charter
of 2000, remains to be seen. But the fact remains that the WSF was no doubt
successful in renewing the dialogue
among progressive social movements
and intellectuals, formulating proposals for new strategies for revolutionary
engagement with neo-liberal globalization, sharing experiences and evolving
action plans aimed at crafting alternatives for social transformation. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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