April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal
April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal
DEMBA MOUSSA DEMBELE: Certainly! The problem of democracy will be one of the main focuses of activity – the relationship between the state and civil society, the choosing of African leaders. We have noticed that, with neocolonialism, the majority of African leaders tend to think that they are more answerable to the Western powers and international institutions than to the citizens who elected them. We want leaders who feel responsible for and answerable to our citizens, not to the West. To this end, they must be people close to the ideas for which the social movements stand. That is why we want this roundtable – to bring the political leaders and the leaders of African institutions together for discussion, to tell them: ‘Your loyalty must be to Africa, to those who elected you and who trust you and not to Sarkozy or Obama, to the World Bank or the IMF.’ Moreover, we want to stress the need to expand democracy, because in our country, as in others, there are monarchist trends. Abdoulaye Wade wants his son to succeed him – he denies it but his actions prove it. The Senegalese have said this will not happen here. He tested the waters with the 2009 municipal elections – he wanted his son to become mayor of Dakar. However, the polls massively rejected him – a real humiliation. We are, obviously, fighting for a rejection of the trend to monarchy, for a deepening of our democracy, for leaders answerable to the people – not to France or Brussels. ROSA MOUSSAUOI AND CHANTAL DELMAS: How do you envisage, globally, the importance of the World Social Forum in relation to the crisis? DEMBA MOUSSA DEMBELE: I think that the forum should enable the social movements taking part first of all to make an assessment of 10 years of struggle against the neoliberal system and be proud of the victories we have won on the ideological level. We said that all these policies of privatisation and liberalisation, the policies of the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO, were leading us to a dead-end, to the destruction of the economic and social fabric. Now the system is in a deep crisis, and most of the policies we attacked have been shown to be disastrous, just as we had foreseen. All in all, the international financial crisis has only demonstrated that the foundations were fundamentally bad. The forum should enable us to deepen our critique of the system. We must not rest on our laurels and say we are satisfied because we were right. We should say: ‘Let’s go deeper, because the system continues to live and intends to overcome its problems at the expense of the people.’ We must deepen our critique of the system, above all in connection with the problems arising from climate change. All those policies for coming out of the crisis, the co-opting of emerging countries to accede to the G8 to make a G20 … these are all issues that were to be re-examined during the Dakar forum. Capitalism is in a crisis – but it is still here. Second, in the course of the forum, we needed an emphasis on all the anti-systemic struggles, in the North as in the South – all the struggles against capitalism, but also against the imperialist system of all-out intervention and oppression of peoples. We must give voice to all the movements, all the organisations that are struggling, in their different ways in different parts of the world, to build resistance against the system and against imperialism. Third, we have said that another world is possible. However, for us this is an opportunity not only to demonstrate the bankruptcy of the neoliberal capitalist system but also to say: ‘This is what we have proposed for this sector’, ‘this is what we propose for overcoming the crisis’ and ‘this is what we are proposing at the national, European and African levels – and also at the world level.’ What new policy, what new institutions must be
created to really come out of the crisis – not to save capitalism but to secure advances in a period of post-capitalist transition? Indeed, I think that the Dakar forum was an opportunity to impart fresh momentum to the World Social Forum. www.pambazuka.org BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS Demba Moussa Dembele is the coordinator of the Forum for African Alternatives (Senegal). This interview was first published by the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation blog. Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News mubaraking’ Muammar, Maliki, Mugabe, Michael... Patrick Bond 28 February 2011 February 27, 2011 –Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- The late South African anti-apartheid poet-activist Dennis Brutus occasionally used “Seattle”, the name of a city in the northwestern United States, as a verb. We should “seattle Copenhagen”, he said in late 2009, to prevent the global North from doing a climate deal in their interests, against Africa’s. The point was to communicate his joy that in December 1999, the efforts of tens of thousands of civil society protesters outside the Seattle convention centre and a handful of patriotic African negotiators inside together scuppered the Millennium Round meeting of a stubborn ruling crew: the World Trade Organization. Their pro-corporate, free-trade agenda never recovered. Although a decade later Brutus died, his verb-play signalling a democratic society rising against tyranny lives on if we consider the shaken ruling gangs of Libya, Iraq, Zimbabwe and Durban in South Africa, each a product of scandal-ridden crony capitalism, and each impervious to popular demands that they quit. After Tunisia and Egypt, where Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak lost power in recent weeks, a growing cohort of now fragile dictatorships are experiencing a dose of “mubaraking” by hordes of nonviolent democrats. British support for Gaddafi Libya is the ripest regime to fall, but London’s generous military aid and support from politicians like former prime minister Tony Blair, oil company BP, arms-deal facilitator Prince Andrew and London School of Economics (LSE) intellectuals seem to have emboldened Muammar Gaddafi and his family, leaving open the question of how many more hundreds – or thousands – the lunatic will kill on his way down. Gaddafi may try to hang on, with his small band of loyalists, allegedly bolstered by sub-Saharan African mercenaries – potentially including Zimbabweans, according to the Harare media – helping Gaddafi for a
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created to really come out <strong>of</strong> the crisis – not to save capitalism but to<br />
secure advances in a period <strong>of</strong> post-capitalist transition? Indeed, I think<br />
that the Dakar <strong>for</strong>um was an opportunity to impart fresh momentum to the<br />
World Social Forum.<br />
www.pambazuka.org<br />
BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS<br />
Demba Moussa Dembele is the coordinator <strong>of</strong> the Forum <strong>for</strong> African<br />
Alternatives (Senegal).<br />
This interview was first published by the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation<br />
blog.<br />
Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at<br />
Pambazuka News<br />
mubaraking’ Muammar, Maliki, Mugabe, Michael...<br />
Patrick Bond 28 February <strong>2011</strong><br />
February 27, <strong>2011</strong> –Links International Journal <strong>of</strong> Socialist Renewal --<br />
The late South African anti-apartheid poet-activist Dennis Brutus<br />
occasionally used “Seattle”, the name <strong>of</strong> a city in the northwestern United<br />
States, as a verb. We should “seattle Copenhagen”, he said in late 2009, to<br />
prevent the global North from doing a climate deal in their interests,<br />
against Africa’s.<br />
The point was to communicate his joy that in December 1999, the ef<strong>for</strong>ts<br />
<strong>of</strong> tens <strong>of</strong> thousands <strong>of</strong> civil society protesters outside the Seattle<br />
convention centre and a handful <strong>of</strong> patriotic African negotiators inside<br />
together scuppered the Millennium Round meeting <strong>of</strong> a stubborn ruling<br />
crew: the World Trade Organization. Their pro-corporate, free-trade<br />
agenda never recovered.<br />
Although a decade later Brutus died, his verb-play signalling a democratic<br />
society rising against tyranny lives on if we consider the shaken ruling<br />
gangs <strong>of</strong> Libya, Iraq, Zimbabwe and Durban in South Africa, each a product<br />
<strong>of</strong> scandal-ridden crony capitalism, and each impervious to popular<br />
demands that they quit. After Tunisia and Egypt, where Ben Ali and Hosni<br />
Mubarak lost power in recent weeks, a growing cohort <strong>of</strong> now fragile<br />
dictatorships are experiencing a dose <strong>of</strong> “mubaraking” by hordes <strong>of</strong> nonviolent<br />
democrats.<br />
British support <strong>for</strong> Gaddafi<br />
Libya is the ripest regime to fall, but London’s generous military aid and<br />
support from politicians like <strong>for</strong>mer prime minister Tony Blair, oil company<br />
BP, arms-deal facilitator Prince Andrew and London School <strong>of</strong> Economics<br />
(LSE) intellectuals seem to have emboldened Muammar Gaddafi and his<br />
family, leaving open the question <strong>of</strong> how many more hundreds – or<br />
thousands – the lunatic will kill on his way down.<br />
Gaddafi may try to hang on, with his small band <strong>of</strong> loyalists, allegedly<br />
bolstered by sub-Saharan African mercenaries – potentially including<br />
Zimbabweans, according to the Harare media – helping Gaddafi <strong>for</strong> a
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