Editorial
"People's Struggles - people's alternatives" was the theme of ther 7th
World Social Forum which took place in Nairobi from 20-25 January 2007.
War Resisters' International took part in this World Social Forum with
a 10-persons strong delegation.
No doubt, this World Social Forum was different. Africa - Kenya - made
its presence felt. Kenyan and African culture and music were present
everywhere at the forum, to the extent that drums and music did not
always have a positive impact on discussions. But Africa also made its
presence felt in terms of participation and content: on one hand
negatively, as participation from European or Latin American social
movements was poor, compared to previous World Social Forums. Poorer
especially when it came to more grassroots based movements, which
simply often could not afford the expenses for travel to Africa - or
were less inspired by a WSF in Africa, as there are much fewer links
with African social movements. On the other hand positively, as
nonviolence and dealing with conflict were higher on the agenda in
Africa, as for example in Porto Allegre or Mumbai.
Very different were also the stalls of groups present at the WSF: many
African groups are church or religion based, and this was very visible
when wandering the stalls. And many are linked to Western
church-connected humanitarian and development NGOs such as Caritas or
Oxfam. A lot of the work of these groups is more focused on community
development, education, etc, and less on street protest or direct
action. But this is not to say that those groups do not have a
political perspective critical of economical globalisation,
privatisation of public services, militarisation, and other forms of
domination, and are not at times involved in protest activities.
While nonviolence and dealing with conflict were important issues at
this World Social Forum, this cannot be extended to antimilitarism. We
got our first schock when we arrived at the WSF venue, which was
guarded by Kenyan military and militarised private security. At best,
this can be attributed to a lack of awareness among the organisers,
combined with legal requirements. But also among the participants there
was little visible critique, not to mention protest about military
presence at the World Social Forum.
Another open question is how much this World Social Forum taking place
in Africa really helps to develop new links between European, US- or
Latin American and African groups, or how discussions happen in
parallel worlds. The different way to organise - the importance of
church and religion in African organising - often makes it difficult to
create these links, as there is little understanding for each others
approaches. The poor presence of non-African movements does not help to
overcome these problems either.
But clearly there are common issues and common perspectives. Economical
globalisations makes its presence felt in Africa too, and Africa's
resources are of high interest for globalised corporations, and fuel
many of the conflicts on the continent, from Congo to Angola, from
Sudan to Somalia.
In contrast to globalisation from above, globalisation from below
should value differences, and global cooperation should be rooted in
local and regional cultures and struggles. If the global social
movement - if there can be such a movement - does not just want to be a
mirror image of economical globalisation and cultural imperialism, then
we need to take this serious and make an effort to build on the many
contacts made at this forum, to build and strengthen links with African
movements built on mutual respect.
As War Resisters' International, we now need to build on the contacts
made at the WSF, and reach out to groups in Africa and elsewhere. But
we also need to evaluation what role we - as war resisters - want to
play at future WSFs, in spite of all our political criticism.
Andreas Speck
WRI Office
Upcoming Events
WRI Seminar and Council 2007 in Israel
The annual WRI seminar and Council meeting will take place in Israel
in 2007, probably in August. The theme of the seminar will be on
militarism and gender. Please contact the WRI Office if you are interested
in participating, and want to be kept informed.
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War Resisters' International in Nairobi
A report on War Resisters' International's activities at the World
Social
Forum in Kenya
War Resisters' International took part in the
Nairobi World Social Forum with an international delegation, consisting
of participants from 4 continents: Ela Gandhi (South Africa) and
Theodros Azbaha (Eritrea), Rafael Uzcategui (Venezuela), Michal Stoler
(Israel), Clare Bayard (USA), Subhadip Mukherjee (India), Tobias
Pflüger (Germany), Stellan Vinthagen (Sweden), and Andreas Speck,
Javier Garate and Yvonne Kassim from the WRI office in London.
This was the strongest presence War Resisters'
International ever had at a World or regional Social Forum. The aim of
WRI's presence was to promote nonviolence and antimilitarism at the
World Social Forum, and War Resisters' International had organised
a range of
activities to do so. A more detailed report on these activities can
be found below.
Logistical problems
The first World Social Forum in Africa suffered from quite some
logistical problems. While some problems can be expected for an event
of this size, and participants are generally tolerant of problems,
others clearly caused problems for the functioning of the forum. Even
until the very end of the World Social Forum, not every participant was
able to get a programme - which made it difficult to know what was
going on when and where. The WRI delegation in the beginning had just
one programme, and a printout of the version that had been posted on
the WSF website before. Others never managed to get hold of any
programme.
But on a positive note, registration worked
smoothly, at least for the
WRI delegation.
Political shortcomings
More problematic were some of the political shortcomings of the World
Social Forum organisers. The area of the World Social Forum was
"protected" by private security and military in uniform with automatic
guns - while this might be common in Kenya, it did not feel very
appropriate for a World Social Forum. Other problems related to
accommodation, exclusive contracts for selling food and drinks at the
World Social Forum - for a price higher than could be afforded by many
of the Kenyan participants. More information on some of the problems
and protests during the World Social Forum is available in the online
issues of
Terraviva,
an independent paper produced during the WSF.
War Resisters' International's own activities
As mentioned before, War Resisters' International had
organised and registered a range of activities. In addition, War
Resisters' International had a stall, which served as contact point and
meeting place for many people. Prior to the forum, War Resisters'
International produced a special issue of its newsletter
The Broken Rifle,
focussing on Africa and the World Social Forum. This issue was
available in
English,
Spanish,
French, and
German, and received a
lot of interest. WRI even needed to reprint copies of the English
version, and still could not satisfy demand.
All members of the WRI delegation contributed to the success of the
stall, and we - the WRI staff - want to thank everyone for the help.
WRI seminars
Three seminars took place during the World Social Forum, albeit not all
of them as planned.
African Perspectives on Nonviolence
This seminar was the first of WRI's seminars. Speakers were Dennis
Brutus, Ela Gandhi, Netsai Mushonga. Ela Gandhi talked about the role
of nonviolence in the struggle to overthrough the South African
apartheid regime. Netsai Mushonga, involved with
IFOR's Women Peacemaker Programme,
talked about the gender dimension of nonviolence, and pointed out that
any definition of peace needs to include gender justice. Dennis Brutus
shared his experience as prisoner in South Africa, and called for a day
of nonviolent action on the anniversary of the beginning of the war on
Iraq.
Against All Militarism
Speakers were
Clare Bayard from the
USA,
Michal Stoler from Israel,
Rafael Uzcategui from
Venezuela, and
Tobias Pflüger from Germany. Clare Bayard talked
about the efforts of the US antiwar movement to fight US militarism,
and especially highlighted the work done on counter-recruitment and by
veterans from the present and previous wars. Michal Stoler talked about
the militarisation of Israeli society, and resistance to it,
highlighting the patriarchal structure of Israeli military in spite of
conscription for women. Rafael Uzcategui drew a complex picture of
events in Venezuela, highlighting the problems of grassroots movements
and the attempts of the Chavez government to centralise and control
everything. Tobias Pflüger talked about the militarisation of European
foreign policy and the need to fight militarism wherever it occurs.
Eritrea: human rights and antimilitarism
That the World Social Forum is not able to provide a safe space, free
of governments' repression, became obvious with this seminar. In the
days before the seminar, several Eritrean government agents had been
spotted at the World Social Forum, and also at the hotel of one of our
speakers. At an emergency meeting the night before the seminar, we
therefore had to decide that the risk to the speakers and their
families was too high - given the specific family circumstances.
The "solution" we went for was to highlight
exactly this fear of repression which was present even at the WSF, and
prevented people from speaking out about the situation in their own
country. WRI staff Andreas Speck and WRI Council member Stellan
Vinthagen gave a brief presentation about the situation in Eritrea, and
explained why the expected speakers - symbolised by two empty chairs -
were unable to speak. Stellan Vinthagen gave the example of Dawit
Isaac, an Eritrean-Swedish journalist, imprisoned in Eritrea for more
than four years.
Participants in the seminar were very interested in receiving more
information on campaigns in support of Eritrean human rights activists
and war resisters, and follow-up ideas are presently being discussed.
If you too want to be involved in supporting Eritrean activists, then
please contact the WRI office at
info@wri-irg.org.
Nonviolence Training
Despite the difficulties for finding the room assigned for the
nonviolence training, this workshop was a big success. In three hours
we did practical exercises around the concept of nonviolence, practical
exercises on decision making and street action techniques.With a lot of
sharing from their own participants experiences. The main comment from
the participants of this workshop was the importance of doing this
practical and participatory activity at the WSF, were most of the
events are with speakers and listeners, but no real interaction.
Networking Against War Profiteers
The workshop started with a go-around from participant about their
knowledge on the war profiteers in their region and their involvement
in the issue. Were we learned of what is happening in different regions
of the planet and how the corporations are profiteering in all these
regions with some commonalities and difference in the way the profit
from war. Followed by a presentation of WRI's Global Initiative Against
War Profiteers and some concrete proposal for networking against these
profiteers.
Globalising Nonviolence
This workshop suffered from the worst of all slots at the WSF, as it
was the first thing in the morning of the first day of the WSF, when
almost no one had a WSF programme, and even rooms were not properly
allocated. We still managed do the workshop. It started with a
presentation from Ela Gandhi on how nonviolence resistance worked in
the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa, followed by a brief
presentation from Javier Garate on the bartering experience in
Argentina during the economical crisis. We ended the workshop with a
group discussion on what we can do to promote nonviolence for social
change.
Venezuela: From a Human Rights Perspective
Rafael Uzcategui representing the Venezuelan Human Rights
organisation
Provea,
presented a report done by this organisation on the current situation
regarding human rights in Venezuela. While the report mentioned
progress by the government of Hugo Chavez in many areas, especially in
relation to education, health and housing, the report was very critical
on civil liberties, such as the right to protest. This workshop was a
good opportunity for people to know more about was is happening in
Venezuela in relation to human rights and what human rights
organisations are doing in Venezuela, as we also had a Venezuelan
member from Amnesty International Venezuela.
Media reports
Independent media played an important role during the World Social
Forum in Nairobi. The Inter Press Service produced a daily paper -
TerraViva - with reports on activities during the Forum. The daily
paper can be downloaded in PDF format at
http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/Nairobi/EN/default.asp.
But also the Kenyan mainstream media reported almost daily about the
World Social Forum. A list of some of the reports - some of them quite
shocking - is given below:
- Kenya: Thousands Gather in Nairobi, 19 January 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701190948.html
- Kenya: A Cultural Mix As WSF Kicks Off, 20 January 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701220009.html
- Slum dwellers making World Social Forum ideals a reality, 21 January
2007
http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/mags/society/articles.php?articleid=1143963905&date=21/01/2007
- Kenya: Global Ecumenical Coalition At World Social Forum, 22 January
2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701220561.html
- Kenya: Social Forum Best Placed to Question World Order, 22 January
2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701221639.html
- Kenya: Maathai - Our Debt Too Heavy, 22 January 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701221624.html
- Kenya: Nobel Peace Laureates Vow to Fight for World Peace, 23 January
2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701240548.html
- Kenya: Government Asked to Punish Homosexuals, 23 January 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701240446.html
- Kenya: Environment Concerns Dominate Conference, 24 January 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701250372.html
- Kenya: Forum Ends With Calls for Social Equity, 25 January 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701250517.html
- Kenya: It's Song And Dance As 7th World Forum Ends, 25 January 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701251001.html
- Kenya: Gays And Lesbians Step Out to Demand Rights, 26 January 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701251091.html
- Kenya: Country Should Learn Lessons From WSF Talks, 27 January 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701290805.html
- Kenya: Investor Lost Sh2m At 'People for Justice' Forum, 27 January
2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701290806.html
- Kenya: Prostitutes Cash in On World Social Forum, 27 January 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701290801.html
- Africa: WSF - It Was a Meeting of NGOs, Not the Masses, 28 January
2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701291108.html
