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Trevor Ngwane seminar on 'The State of Soweto Social Mobilisations', 12 December 2007

Trevor Ngwane seminar on 'The State of Soweto Social Mobilisations', 12 December, 12:30-2pm

THE STRUGGLE AS SEEN FROM SOWETO
CCS Seminar 12-12-2007 Input by Trevor Ngwane

1.Introduction
Thank you for inviting me to speak in this seminer today. It is an
honour and I appreciate the opportunity very much. Thanks to all the CCS
staff and associates. Thanks to Comrade Patrick for his support and
encouragement and patience. It is an honour to give this presentation in
the presence of Comrade Dennis Brutus, unkonka wefusi, umakadebona
[salutations to an elder].

The topic today is about what is happening on the ground in Soweto,
therefore my talk will be more about sharing experiences rather than
giving my opinions. This seminar should be a conversation rather than a
lecture. Thank you for making time to attend and share ideas together.

2.It was a good year
As the year drew to a close I thought a bit about the struggle in 2007
and how I felt about it. The feeling I heard was that 2007 had been a
good year for the struggle in Soweto. This view is based on my personal
experience working as an organizer for the Soweto Electricity Crisis
Committee (SECC), an affiliate of the Anti-Privatisation Froum (APF). I
am also a member of a small collective of socialists called the
Socialist Group. I was also very involved in the affairs of the
Operation Khanyisa Movement (OKM), an electoral front consisting of some
APF affiliates that won one seat in the ANC-dominated Johannesburg City
Council. My personal experience is limited, particular and quite
localized. It is important to note that the SECC is a minority
organization in Soweto hence this assessment does not claim to be
representative nor valid beyond the SECC experience as interpreted by
myself.

3.What is happening in Soweto?

Water case in court
The SECC and APF closed the year on a high note with the water case
being argued in the Johannesburg High Court. This is an important
development and a modest victory for the SECC, the APF, the Coalition
Against Water Privatisation, the Social Movements Indaba, and other
organizations and people who have been part of the campaign to protect
everyone’s right to water. The court case is an important landmark in
the 3 year old battle against the installation of water pre-paid meters
in Soweto and elsewhere in the country. There is of course the very real
danger that we can lose the case, but if that happens the struggle will
continue despite that setback; our fate cannot be decided by a bourgeois
judge using bourgeois law. But it is good thing to raise the issues in
the public consciousness in the manner of the case especially if the
legal strategy is strongly complimented by mass methods of struggle.

Marx in Soweto
On December 1 the SECC, together with Socialist Group and Keep Left,
both left groups affiliated to the APF, organized a Marxism School in
Soweto. The theme was “From resistance to revolution” inspired by the
recent community uprisings and strikes, and by the 90th anniversary of
the Russian Revolution. The event was attended by SECC activists,
community members, employed workers and some left groups and political
parties. The final rally gave a platform to activists from Kliptown,
Thembelihle and Protea South, areas which rioted in support of their
demand for service delivery in 2007. The panelists were asked: what next
after the riots? This was a successful attempt at debating questions of
strategy and vision beyond our daily struggles for water, electicity and
houses. The emphasis was on the connection between the immediate and the long-term.

Remembering our fallen heroes
On November 18 the SECC decided to honour two comrades who passed away, namely, Comrades Bongani Lubisi and Sihle Mahlaba. The former was organizer of the SECC and the latter was a youth leader and also at the forefront of Rasa FM, the pirate youth radio station which broadcast for a few months in Soweto. The aim of the event was to remember and honour all those who have fallen in the course of the struggle and to inspire and build unity among the living. The event went very well and was attended by APF affiliates and fraternal organizations. Two tombstones
emblazoned with the SECC, APF and OKM logos were unveiled in a sad but
uplifting ceremony. The night vigil that preceded the day event
consisted of political discussion and educational audiovisuals including
videos depicting the late comrades. It was good that we remembered our
real heroes during the same week that Piet “Promises” Koornhof died and
was praised by some as some kind of hero. The smooth organization of
this big event (many people attended) also indicated a strength in the
SECC organization which has developed over many years of struggle.

The Soweto Strike Support Committee
During the course of 2007 the SECC, Keep Left and some trade unions
formed a strike support committee during the Checkers Shoprite and the
public sector strike. This work also covered the cleaners and security
strikes to a limited extent. It involved meeting with striking workers
and worker leaders and planning solidarity by the community for the
strikes. Pickets were organized in support of the strikers by unemployed
workers. Pamphlets and other media were produced in support of the
strike. During the public sector strike some important meetings were
held at the SECC hall. It must be mentioned that in both the Shoprite
and public sector strike rank and file workers instructed their leaders
to contact the SECC/APF for support. We are happy about this as we feel
strongly that labour and community struggles need to be united despite
the reluctance of the labour leaders to build real unity. The workers
movement consists of both employed and unemployed workers; the labour
leaders’ reluctance is an exercise in digging their own graves as will
soon be apparent once the Zuma tsunami in a teacup has passed.

The parliamentary/council road
The OKM experience in 2007 was amazing, dramatic and an eye opener. As
an electoral front of 7 Johannesburg affiliates of the APF, the OKM
formally dissolved itself after winning one seat during the 2006 local
government elections. The reason was that with the elections over there
was no need for an electoral front; also and more importantly, the APF
had refused to sanction the OKM strategy so it was felt to retreat in
order to allow time to persuade the APF on this point. This retreat paid
off as the APF is beginning to warm up to the OKM albeit no one wants to
admit the error of their earlier hostile political judgment. But the
drama and excitement happened during the first day of the September
floor crossing period when to our shock we heard on the radio the
Gauteng Democratic Alliance leader Jack Bloom announce that the OKM
councilor had crossed the floor and joined them. This desperate move by
the OKM incumbent councilor, Comrade Joyce Mkhonza, followed attempts by
the OKM to recall her from her position. A central plank in the OKM
platform is the right of recall. Comrade Joyce left the OKM but was
unable to steal our seat thanks to good advice (from Ecopeace leader
Comrade Alan Murphy and its lawyer Comrade John Govender) and timely
action. A lot was gained from this harrowing experience, namely, the
need to tightly control all public representatives, the fact that
despite Thabo Mbeki’s mantra that dissatisfied communities must recall
their councilors this is in fact not legally possible. We also got a
practical lesson in the treachery of bourgeois parties e.g. the sneaky
DA was acting as if it is our friend at one point defending Comrade
Joyce during the constant howling and insults of the ANC councilors
every time she stands up to speak. The OKM experience also helps us to
ground the debate about the parliamentary road to socialism, the role of
political parties, the centrality (or not) of the state in class
struggle, etc. Our new councilor, Comrade Zodwa Madiba, has been an
inspiration in terms of dedication to her work, her respect for ordinary
people, carrying out of mandates and her willingness to learn. But the
biggest lesson is that leaders need not to be trusted but to be controlled.

A comradely and mature politics
The SECC got a harsh lesson in new social movement politics when about 3
years ago a group from within it split the organization. A new
organization was formed, the Soweto Concerned Residents, and it was
allowed to affiliate to the APF. This was a painful experience for the
SECC but it taught us one thing: we should at all times strive to build
unity as this is our strongest weapon against the enemy. Some of the
reasons for the split although incidental to the main issues were also
because the SECC was not paying enough attention to political
management, conflict resolution and political maintenance of the
organization. Today the comrades are very quick to pick out a grievance,
a veiled threat, a muffled cry for help, lack of discipline, and so on.
Even more importantly the SECC organization has acquired the habit of
acting speedily in understanding and resolving actual or potential
organizational problems. This result is more accountability, more
commitment, more clarity and an increased success rate in our
organizational endeavours. Team work in the struggle, as anywhere,
requires trust but above all accountability systems. There are things or
attributes that are hard to define but which undoubtedly are
indispensable in building an organization of struggle such as the SECC
and the APF. I had a very strong sense that the SECC had developed some
of those attributes in 2007.

Research into the notion of class in Soweto
The SECC was involved in the University of Johannesburg’s research
project into class in Soweto. This project is headed by Professor Peter
Alexander, a comrade, and is sn intensive, empirical investigation of
class dynamics and factors in a large township. The project hired some
SECC comrades to do fieldwork and has involved the SECC in the
formulation, implementation and results-analysis phases of the project.
This has been a good thing for the SECC, comrades were encouraged to be
curious about how people live, eat, drink and think and not just
addressing them in a meeting or handing them a pamphlet. Without doubt
knowledge about the people we work with and are primarily concerned
about, that is, the working class, is invaluable if we are to succeed in
our mission. The research findings problematised the concept of working
class by showing that many people don’t see themselves as working class
for various reasons. This is an intellectual, ideological and
organizational challenge which from the discussions I have attended on
the research the SECC comrades are willing and able to face.

4.Some comments on the SMI paper

The Social Movements Indaba had its meeting recently attended by CSS
comrades Orlean Naidoo and Denis Brutus who are both present today.
Although I do not have a major problem with the paper being in agreement
with many parts of it, I was nevertheless struck by and moved to comment
on the first 2 paragraphs of the paper which in part read:

The movement that brought down apartheid has collapsed. Traditional
organizations such as trade unions and civics are no longer leading
struggles. This is a difficult period for our social movements. We have
no strategy for the building of our movement. (Report to SMI conference
by secretary Comrade Mondli Hlatshwayo)

This pessimism of the intellect seems out of sync with reality and thus
might hamper the development of an optimism of the heart. The workers’
movement in South Africa is in a bad state but has not collapsed; yes,
it is in crisis, it is a movement without its heart and soul
(solidarity), a movement without an enemy (the disease of class
collaboration), a movement going nowhere in particular (no vision).
Solidarity is the heart and soul of a workers’ movement but the
post-apartheid situation has emphasised and encouraged individualism
rather than collectivism. That is why you will find workers on strike at
Shoprite but unionised truck drivers delivering supplies at the same
shops as if it is business as usual. A community will fight against
another community over who gets the RDP houses rather than fight for
houses for all. Class collaboration is about a politics that tries to
find a middle ground between boss and worker, exploiter and exploited,
rider and horse. The idea promoted by the SACP during the negotiations
with apartheid that some bosses are good and can be called our social
partners served to rob the workers’ movement of an enemy leading to
demobilisation and demoralisation. The result today is the wasted
opportunities we saw with the failure by COSATU and SACP leaders to
extend and generalise the public sector strike, combine it with private
sector struggles in a mother of all strikes for a living wage in
post-apartheid South Africa. Without (a socialist) vision we end locked
in a daily and necessary struggle for survival but without ever turning
this battle into one for solutions. A movement without a vision is a
movement in a vacuum without any particular direction, a movement
without a real way forward, a movement without a centre of authority.

It is not true that trade unions and civics no longer lead struggle. The
public sector strike, the biggest in the history of South Africa, was
organised and led by trade unions, including “reactionary” ones. Civics,
including those controlled by SANCO, are sometimes involved in various
ways in the communities, including in communities that riot or have an
uprising. Sometimes such civics lead such uprisings, or are the
opposition, or are there to pick up the pieces and share the spoils once
the dust has settled.

The sentence “we have no strategy” is too categorical. Uniting social
movements in the SMI is part of our strategy. I would add that we need
to explore how our organisations can find a bridge between being
movements “of grievances” into movements “of solutions”, or “of power”.
We will find that any lasting solution to the quest to satisfy the needs
of ordinary people must of necessity deal with the question of power. We
need to have enough power to disrupt the plans of the ruling class in
reality and not just in rhetoric. As a minimum we need to find ways of
uniting all the present community and labour struggles on a common
platform, we need to increase the national co-ordination of struggles,
work to build a working class movement that unites young and old,
employed and unemployed, men and women, gay and straight. I would add
that, on the question of strategy, we need to prepare and build a
movement towards a mass left political alternative to the ANC, namely, a
mass workers party. Such a party would be based upon the existing
struggles and movements but would distinguish itself in that it would
also strive to link such struggles and movements to a struggle for
political power. Our aim is to smash the bosses’ state and replace it
with a popular state controlled and run by ordinary working class people
and their class allies.

5.Some clarifications on vision

Comrade Patrick Bond points out that: and it would be unreasonable to expect a “socialist” movement to develop from the national Social Movements Indaba (Focusing the struggle, FPIF
Commentary, May 9, 2007, www.fpif.org)

I think it is important to clarify that the APF and SECC, for example,
have adopted socialism as their “official” vision. This happened after
long debates and stiff opposition from a minority of comrades under the
influence of anarcho-autonomism or those with a gradualist formula for
building socialist consciousness among the masses. Having lost the
position some of these people are fond of denouncing the promotion of
the socialist vision as an “imposition” on the rank and file. We
disagree on the grounds of workers’ democracy and also because
capitalism imposes itself daily on the masses hence the need for the
socialist antidote.

The aim is not to turn the SMI into a socialist party but rather that it
should adopt a socialist vision. Without a vision we will be locked in a
perpetual struggle of survival and not of solutions. Without a vision we
are not going to have hope because we will get tired as we struggle for
bread on Tuesday, water on Wed, against eviction on Thursday, for ARVs
on Friday and all over again the following week. Without hope there can
be no confidence, without confidence the struggle will be weak. Without
a vision it is harder to know where one is taking the struggle because
reality is complex and there are many competing and legitimate interests
at play.

As socialists we are not allowed or willing to “hold back” with our
vision until “conditions are ripe” for socialism or for the masses to
listen to a socialist message. We have to be part of “readying the
conditions”, we cannot stand and wait, we must intervene and help the
process along. We are not spectators, but actors albeit who act within
given constraints. Certainly we must remove all the constraints that are
in our power to do so e.g. nothing stops us debating the kind of society
we want and the kind of organization or party that could help us reach
such a society. This is not an academic discussion, it is not one
reserved for struggle elites. There can be no socialism if the vast
majority of workers are not thinking and talking in this way. What do we
need to do to make this possible?

The challenge for the SMI is to show the connection between the
struggles in the here and now – the single, bread and butter issues –
and the equal, fair and just society we want to build in the future. It
is not either-or, it is the link between the two that we must focus upon
and develop.

6.Comradely difference and a common vision
How do we promote and nurture a socialist vision? It is important to
note that a vision can be neglected, trampled upon and be abandoned. Or
it can be protected, nurtured and shared. For this you need, besides
just talking about it, campaigns, struggles and solidarity action that
involve the masses. You need hope, you need anger, you need hatred. You
need to hate the capitalists because they are liars, thieves and
murderers. You need to hate their system and strive to destroy it as a
condition for the advancement of human kind as a whole. You need to hope
for a different system based on solidarity and the unity of the class
and the satisfaction of all its needs.

I think today more than at any other time we need a constructive method
of promoting discussion and dealing with internal political differences.
(What is happening to the ANC in Polokwane is terrible and can be
avoided). This requires patience and understanding and not labelling and
rejection. We must eschew the use of derogatory language against
comrades no matter how wrong they might be e.g. don’t call comrades
thugs, opportunists, counter-revolutionaries, etc. In order to persuade
fellow comrades and workers we need respect, patience and understanding.
We cannot persuade our class brothers and sisters by using
(bureaucratic) power, threats and violence.

Finally, I agree with Comrade Mondli’s sentiments that we need:the progress of the proletariat from being a class in itself (a
position in the social structure) to being one for itself (an active and conscious force that can change the world).

For me this process involves building both the working class movement of
today and the working class party of the future.

Thank you for affording me the opportunity to share some of my ideas
with you here at CCS. I am learning a lot.
Viva bahlali! Viva basebenzi!
Phambili nge-socialism!

Please note: I have put as appendices two articles by the Socalist Group which I think elaborate on some important themes touched in this short paper.
Enjoy!

Appendix 1: Unity of labour and community

STRIKES NEED THE SUPPPORT OF THE UNEMPLOYED

Where does this problem of suffering unemployment come from - even when there is money and work? Where does this problem of not having food to
eat come from - even when there is money and work? You will make a very
bad mistake if you think it comes from workers who are on strike. The
problems are there, every day - even when workers are not on strike. The
problem of unemployment does not start when they go on strike. The
problem of not having enough money for things that we need does not
start when they go on strike. These problems are there already every day
when workers are not on strike. They are parts of capitalism. They are
there because of the system of profits which is about bosses making
money, not the needs of the working class and poor people. Workers go on
strike because of these problems. They go on strike to fight against
these problems. The strike is part of the struggle to stop the problems
- it is not the cause of the problems. Of course the bosses want to hide
this truth. They want the unemployed to blame the employed and the
employed to blame the unemployed - we must blame each other and fight
each other. Then they are being protected while we are struggling
against each other, not them.

There is only one group of people who can truly say: “We will rather
suffer unemployment than take the job of a striker.” Who is that group?
It is workers who are suffering unemployment already everyday. But
instead of suffering so the bosses can make profits, in a strike it is
different. When they protect and support strikers, they are suffering so
that workers can be stronger against the bosses.

There is only one group of people who can truly say: “We will rather be
hungry than fill our stomachs because we have taken the job of a
striker.” That group is workers who are already hungry everyday because
the bosses have forced them into unemployment. But when they support a
strike it is different. Now they are not just hungry so that the bosses
can cut costs and make more profits. When they protect and support
strikers, they are suffering so that workers can be stronger against the
bosses.

You can think you are no-one because you have not got a job. You can
think that what the bosses say is true - it is your own fault. You are
just rubbish. But that is nonsense. It is their lies. You are a victim.
They make you the victim of their system. But when you support strikers
against them? What is happening? You are not a victim. You are not
letting them make you a victim. You are not letting them use you against
your brothers and sisters today, so that they can throw you out when
they do not need you. Then one day, when it is time for you to go on
strike they can use your own brothers and sisters against you. No. Even
with an empty stomach, you are saying no. Even with an empty stomach you
are deciding what is right and what is wrong. Even with an empty stomach
you are giving the strikers a support that no-one else can give them.
Protecting them in a way that no-one else can protect them.
Strengthening in a way that no-one else can strengthen them. That is the
story of a victim who will not accept that you must be a victim. That is
the story of people who are making history. It is the story of soldiers
in the class struggle.

Appendix 2: Approach to bourgeois elections

At the time of elections – the ordinary workers matter before the candidates

At the time of elections, they tell us that our eyes must be on the
candidates. Who are they? Do they care? What will they do? Will they
deliver? Of course these are important questions. Of course it is
important whether the candidates are honest, whether they care, what
politics they believe in, whether they commit themselves to workers
democracy and accountability with recall. But Marxists say something
else. At the time of the elections, our eyes must be on the masses. To
really take the struggle forward will depend on them, not the councilor
or whoever is elected. It will depend on the manifesto of demands and
action which the masses follow, not the manifesto of demands and
promises which the candidates offer.

The truth is that it is possible for an elected individual to make sure
that they are not accountable to the masses. The laws of bourgeois
democracy make that very easy. Once you are elected, you can not be
recalled. The only people who can get rid of you according to the law
are your bosses in the political party that you stand for. The law does
not say you are accountable even to those who voted for you. There are
examples all over the place of councilors and others who are elected who
will say straight out to the masses: “don’t tell me what to do. You are
not in charge of me. I am elected and that is the end of the story.”
That is very easy in the bosses democracy. But if you are elected and
you truly want to make yourself accountable? The truth is that you can
help in that process. You can try to build it – but only the masses
themselves can make sure that it happens.

It is exactly the same thing with using the position of councillor to
try to make sure that people get what they need. It is very easy to
trample on their needs. That is what almost every elected politician in
the country is doing. But to serve those needs? You can truly want to.
You can help in that process. But only the masses themselves can make
sure that it happens. Even when you are sitting inside the councils of
bourgeois democracy, the strength you have to make something happen is
not inside the council, It is not a strength in your hands. It is
outside the council, amongst the rank and file. It is the strength in
their hands. That is your strength when you sit inside the council.

From every side we are hearing that apart from the candidates, this
election is about delivery. A revolutionary councilor is not like a take
away service where you ring up and get what you want. If that was
possible, maybe some people would like that option. But it is not
possible. We can say that a revolutionary councilor will serve the
people. But again, it is not like a counter where you go and pay and get
a service. All of that is based on the capitalist vision – of buying
something and paying for it from someone else who has it. A
revolutionary councilor does not have what ordinary working class people
need. That councilor will be lying if he or she promises “delivery”. The
power to solve the problems facing the working class every day is not in
the hands of any one person or any few people. It is only in the hands
of the mass of the working class.

A left wing councilor will not be able to solve any of those problems
alone. It will never be enough if he or she focuses on delivery; or on
policies. It will only be enough if he or she promises the only thing
that is actually honest and possible: “I will be there in every struggle
that I can reach. If I can not be there, in my flesh, I will be there in
my spirit. I will support every single demand for the things that
ordinary working class people need. I will test these demands against
one law: the law of what people need to live decent human lives. I know
about the laws of profits. I know also that these laws stand in the way
of people taking and getting what they need. The policies I will devote
my life to are not about delivery. They are about organizing,
mobilizing, building and action. I will never be able to develop these
policies or give life to them alone. Alone, I can not make myself a
revolutionary councilor. I need you. Only you can make that happen.”

Behind the focus on service delivery, the bosses are relaxing. They are
protected, ignored and invisible. The eyes are on the council and the
candidates. The ordinary worker must direct all their anger at the
councilor and the council – and the bosses remain invisible and
protected. And when they like, they come from behind the protection to
make their demands – “cut taxes, cut rates, give us special concessions,
make it cheaper for us to do business.” The truth is that the ideas of
the ruling class – their bourgeois ideology – operate in many different
ways. The idea of service delivery is part of this bourgeois ideology.
We do something for you – vote for you – now you deliver. You govern
over us – in return, you must deliver to us. We pay, you deliver. The
most that ordinary working class people are allowed to do is to decide
who will govern over them. Someone else must do it – ordinary working
class people are not allowed to do it with and for each other. And the
most that can ever come from this someone else? To deliver whatever
services are possible as long as bosses can make profits out of the
process. To give what is left over after the bosses have taken the share
that will satisfy them and allow them to keep their power. This is the
ethic, the morality, of capitalism. Our ethic is different. The
socialist ethic of the working class is about caring and sharing. It is
about working together to help and look after each other. It is about
collective self-government – not giving the power to govern to a few
people who are on top of us.

The concentration on delivery started at the time of the RDP. At that
time, most people on the left argued that there is a crisis of delivery.
They are making the same argument today. That is a crisis about what the
government is doing or not doing. Yes. It is a crisis. Yes, we struggle
against the government because of what it is doing and not doing. But
that is exactly where the solution lies – not in the hands of this or
another government, but in the hands of the mass of ordinary working
class people. Amongst those people, where the solution lies, there is
another crisis. Like there was at the time of the RDP. It is a crisis of
hope, of politics, of the deep belief that ordinary working class people
can really succeed together to make a better and different world.

None of this means that we stand outside the struggle for the things
that people need. We are there, in that struggle. It can be called
delivery. It is about ordinary working class people mobilizing together
to demand and take what they need – to force even the bosses and the
bosses politicians to give something. We fight that struggle against a
bosses government and the capitalists and capitalist system that they
protect. But the struggle is not going to be won by having a councilor
or even a government that is serious about delivery. It is going to be
won when we take power from the capitalist class and use the wealth to
build a new socialist system of caring and sharing.

CCS cohosts Ben Cashdan's new documentary on the ANC succession race, 7 & 8 December 2007

CCS cosponsors the 'Through the Eye of a Needle' video on the ANC election

A FILM ABOUT OUR POLITICAL FUTURE AT A TIME COMMUNITIES NEED TO KNOW!
Broad Daylight Films, the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance and the UKZN Centre for Civil Society present a free screening with producer Ben Cashdan

7 December, 6:30-8pm at KwaSuka
Bookings 079 297 4212

8 December, 2-4pm at Nizam Road Primary School (Merebank)
For information call Des, 083 982 6939

Dennis Brutus Dennis Brutus says 'No thanks' to SA Sports Hall of Fame, 5 December

Dennis Brutus turned down his induction into the Sports Hall of Fame last night, at a Johannesburg ceremony with 1000 in attendance. He says
is convinced he does not belong in an institution alongside
players/administrators stained by apartheid, until they express regret
for supporting racism in sport and for the indignity and hurt caused to
fellow South African men and women. (Brutus says he was favourably
impressed by the support he received for his withdrawal at the ceremony.)

Here is Brutus' statement to the SA Sports Hall of Fame, in Emperor's
Palace, Johannesburg, 5 December 2007

Being inducted to a sports hall of fame is an honour under most
circumstances. In my case, the honour is for helping rid South African
sport of racism, making it open to all.

So I cannot be party to an event where unapologetic racists are also
honoured, or to join a Hall of Fame alongside those who flourished under
racist sport. There inclusion is a deception because of their unfair
advantage, as so many talented black athletes were excluded from sport
opportunities.

Moverover, this Hall ignores the fact that some sportspersons and
administrators defended, supported and legitimised apartheid. There are,
indeed, some famous South Africans who still belong in a Sports Hall of
Infamy.

They still think they are sports heroes, without understanding - and
making amends for - the context in which they became so heroic, namely a
crime against humanity.

One example is Ali Bacher, whose very claim to fame, according to the
Hall's own tribute in the book provided by Vodacom and the SA Sports
Confederation and Olympic Committee, is his violation of anti-apartheid
sports sanctions supported by the United Nations and the civilised
world. The unapologetic approach to apartheid can be seen in the Hall
tribute to Bacher, which dares paint him as a victim: 'Ironically, the
same government policy which kept Basil D'Olivieira out of the national
team and the country also kept Bacher and many of his contemporaries out
of international cricket. Bacher's greatest legacy is that of a cricket
administrator par excellence. It began when he organised international
rebel tours in the early 1980s.'

So, case closed. It is incompatible to have those who championed racist
sport alongside its genuine victims. It's time - indeed long past time -
for sports truth, apologies and reconciliation.

Dennis Brutus
President of the SA Non-Racial Olympic Committee
Honorary Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society
031 260 3577
079 122 0713

Racism in sports writing belongs in Hall of Shame
Sunday Independent January 13, 2008 Edition 1

Rodney Hartman wrote a prominent - and rather scathing - article last
week about my rejection of the recent Sports Hall of Fame induction.
Ten days earlier he filed an article claiming I was inducted (perhaps
having not attended the event he covered), and so I appreciate the
chance to set that straight.

But Hartman's article unwittingly strengthens my complaint that the
Old Boys who run key sports - like cricket - have not come to grips
with their legacy.

Also for the record, let me first correct two minor problems with his
article. The expulsion of apartheid South Africa from the
International Olympic Committee was in 1970, not 1964 as he claims
(that was just the suspension). And on another inaccuracy, he bluntly
labels me a Trotskyist, a term I reject as I follow ideas, not
individuals.

One of the main statements I made at Caesars Palace concerned the Hall
of Fame's shocking celebration of cricket's racist rebel tours, which
Ali Bacher was commended for in his induction statement. The precise
wording: Bacher's greatest legacy is that of a cricket administrator
par excellence. It began when he organised international rebel tours
in the early 1980s.

The flippant tone Hartman adopts in reporting this travesty is
reminiscent of the nervous laughter one hears when someone is being
called for racism. In his case, does this tone cover for the
embarrassment of having failed to take any prior stand against rebel
tours?

Judging by his Daily Dispatch reports back in 1982, Hartman was a tour
promoter. In an article entitled Cloak and dagger operation brings
first 'Rebel' tour to St George's Park - which, embodying pure white
arrogance, still graces that Port Elizabeth ground's website - Hartman
was thrilled by the violation of UN sports sanctions. A similar tone
characterises Hartman's hagiography of Bacher, which he neglected to
inform his readers about while favourably citing Bacher last week.

So here we have a case of a patronising reporter, who fails to cover
an event professionally, dismissing a strategic pillar in the
anti-apartheid struggle, telling readers that I caused rather less of
a commotion than hoped for because the whole thing was also poorly
reported in the rest of the media. This is breathtaking arrogance.

Hartman has no right to misrepresent me by suggesting my intention was
merely to cause a fuss. I used the opportunity of the Hall of Fame
ceremony to make a statement of principle in a public place on a
matter that is not merely historical, but as we witnessed in last
month's rugby debate, also entails an ongoing - often losing -
struggle for racial justice.

Opposition to racism is the kind of principle Hartman failed to
advance when it would have mattered most. Still, sadly, he retains
sufficient hubris to ridicule those of us who would remind that rebel
tours and other manifestations of racism then and now should not be
honoured, but instead delegated to a Hall of Shame. If such a place is
built for apartheid-era and certain post-apartheid journalism, cricket
writer Rodney Hartman has my vote.

Dennis Brutus

Honorary Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society

'Et tu, Bruté?' scene at the Palace has its history
Rodney Hartman 16 December 2007

When the spirited Dennis Brutus returned his Sports Hall of Fame award
on a point of principle, his gesture recalled old dissents, writes Rodney Hartman

Dennis Brutus caused rather less of a commotion than he had hoped for
when he publicly said no to a place in South Africa's Sports Hall of Fame.

In front of 1 000 guests at a televised dinner in Gauteng recently, he
announced he could not be party to such deception.

The SABC showed him receiving the award, but, unfortunately, not handing
it back, and the whole thing was also poorly reported in the rest of the
media.

It was not the first time Brutus had rejected an award on a point of
principle. He once did so for his poetry because Nigeria's Mbari Poetry
Prize was reserved for black poets and he didn't approve of racial
exclusivity.

So who exactly is Dr Dennis Brutus? There is no short answer but, in
this context, he was the key activist in establishing the South African
Non‑Racial Olympic Committee (Sanroc) that, among other things, brought
about white South Africa's expulsion from the Olympic movement in 1964.
He is also a poet, a professor and a Trotskyist.

BJ Vorster, then minister of justice, wrote him a letter banning him
under the Suppression of Communism Act.

When Brutus requested guidance on what he could or could not do under
his banning order, the secretary of justice returned one sentence: The
minister of justice does not dispense free legal advice, yours truly.

Brutus chortles when he recalls it. He is now 83 but still full of
spunk. At Emperors Palace, he was feted with 30‑odd others who were
about to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He then held up his award
and declared: I cannot be party to an event where unapologetic racists
are also honoured, or to join a Hall of Fame alongside those who
flourished under racist sport.

Their inclusion is a deception because of their unfair advantage, as so
many talented black athletes were excluded from sport opportunities.
This hall ignores the fact that some sportspersons and administrators
defended, supported and legitimised apartheid, he added.

He then singled out Ali Bacher, a fellow Hall of Fame inductee, who, he
said, had violated sports sanctions supported by the United Nations and
the civilised world in organising rebel cricket tours in the 1980s.

At the end of his unscheduled speech, he handed back his prize and
apologised to his table guests if he had caused them embarrassment. What
rather ruined his night, however, was being censored out of existence
by the SABC. He has lodged an official complaint for this
counter‑revolutionary snub.

What made his night, he says, was when the sons of two deceased comrades
‑ the tennis administrator MN Pather and the soccer official George
Singh ‑ accepted awards on their fathers' behalf and then came
pointedly over to me to shake my hand.

Bacher, meanwhile, was not totally surprised at Brutus's outburst.

He knew the history of differences within the liberation struggle that
had caused Brutus to be marginalised by the ANC leadership in the 1980s.

He knew the man's problems had begun when he embraced the South African
Council on Sport (Sacos) that was a radical offshoot of Sanroc, the
organisation he had launched in 1963 and steered very effectively during
his early exile after a spell on Robben Island.

Sacos was a group of hardliners whose rigid views clashed with the ANC's
policy of selective engagement of influential whites during the late 1980s.

The ANC leadership thus threw its weight behind Sanroc and later formed
the National Sports Congress (NSC) that became its united sports desk
sans Sacos.

Brutus had long since left London to take up a full‑time professorship
at an American university.

He had handed over the reins of Sanroc in 1976 to Sam Ramsamy, his
protégé, who would later become democratic South Africa's first Olympic
chief.

In his autobiography, published in 2004, Ramsamy credits Brutus for his
inspiration and guidance as a father figure in the fight against racist
sport. He writes that relations between them later became strained and
that Brutus effectively turned his back on him in line with the
Sanroc‑Sacos dichotomy.

Brutus, however, paints a picture that suggests he was Caesar to
Ramsamy's Brutus in a re‑enactment of that famous scene on the senate
steps on the Ides of March.

He tells how he, alone, had rallied a successful anti‑apartheid
demonstration in Los Angeles in 1984 when he was informed that the
International Olympic Committee's executive was about to smuggle South
Africa into the games through the back door. He forced the IOC to
declare on live television that this would not happen.

He says he later received a letter from Ramsamy notifying him that the
Sanroc executive had voted to expel him. I asked to see the minutes of
their meeting, and I'm still waiting, he says wistfully.

In any event, it probably did not improve Brutus's mood when, in time,
he saw Ramsamy embracing Bacher in the dawn of democracy.

Those in attendance at Emperors Palace say that Bacher's award got the
biggest ovation of the night from an audience that was predominantly
black. Brutus's dismissive response that most of this support came from
corporate types anyway was one that would have pleased Leon Trotsky
himself.

What might have puzzled Trotsky, however, is this perverse fact: when
Brutus was expelled from Sanroc, one of the reasons put forward was that
he had had been talking to Ali Bacher in the early 1980s ‑ before the
ANC deemed this appropriate.

Brutus laughs now at this bitter irony, without actually answering my
question, but he did, indeed, meet Bacher and Joe Pamensky, the then
South African Cricket Union president, in London, and that the two
cricket officials found him to be a most conciliatory man.

Still burning, he waited patiently for years to deliver his riposte. It
came the other night at Emperors Palace. If people think it was
dishonest of me to use that function [to make his point], I say it was
the perfect opportunity … because it gave me a public platform.

I asked him why, after all these years and the unification of South
African sport, he could not put the past behind him and perhaps forgive,
if not necessarily forget.

Bacher, himself, has been embraced by the ANC for his role in unifying
cricket and Ramsamy has been acclaimed as a key figure in the same fight
that Brutus fought, albeit a little differently.

How effective was the process of reconciliation? he replies
rhetorically, and how is it valid today? You can't establish a Hall of
Fame to sweep things under the carpet; that's just dishonest.

For example, Jake White concedes now that Cheeky Watson had the right
to reject all‑white rugby (in the 1980s) but White doesn't admit that
he, himself, was just fine with all‑white rugby. Reconciliation is one
thing, but it is the omissions that should concern us.

He talks of the pseudo transition in our society but insists ‑
probably to the relief of both of us ‑ that he doesn't wish to talk
about Polokwane.

Dennis Brutus is unquestionably a struggle hero who deserves
recognition, but, at the risk of being disrespectful, perhaps he should
know that not everyone can be a permanent revolutionary.

34 named for SA's Sports Hall of Fame

By Rodney Hartman 6 December 2007

The South African Sport Hall of Fame, under the directorship of former
Springbok star Naas Both and partnered by Vodacom, inducted 34 sport
personalities at a function in Johannesburg on Wednesday night.

They include sports stars, contributors and administrators - some of
whom are deceased - who have dedicated their lives to the improvement of
sport and its transformation.

The aim of the Sports Hall of Fame is to motivate and inspire young
South African sportsmen and sportswomen of all ages, races and cultures
to strive for excellence and build a sport legacy.

In 2006, the first 56 Sport Hall of Fame inductees were announced.

The 2007 SA Sport Hall of Fame inductees are: Steve Tshwete -
Administrator/Contributor,
Ali Bacher - Administrator/Contributor,
M N Pather - Administrator/Contributor,
George Singh - Administrator/Contributor,
Dennis Brutus - Administrator/Contributor,
Errol Vawda - Contributor,
Johan Rupert - Contributor,
Goolam Abed - Cricket,
Saait Magiet - Cricket,
Reggie Walker - Athletics,
Hestrie Cloete - Athletics,
Matthews Temane - Athletics,
Gert Potgieter - Athletics,
Thulani Sugarboy Malinga - Boxing,
Elijah Tap Tap Makhathini - Boxing,
Enoch Schoolboy Nhlapo - Boxing,
Willie Toweel - Boxing,
Stan Christodoulou - Boxing referee,
Theo Mthembu - Boxing trainer,
Loleta Krige - Disabled sports,
Leon Labuschagne - Disabled sports,
Kork Ballington - Motorsport,
Sarel van der Merwe - Motorsport,
Greg Albertyn - Motocross,
Peter Lindenberg - Powerboat racing,
Danie Gerber - Rugby,
Joost van der Westhuizen - Rugby,
Bennie Osler - Rugby,
Grant Khomo - Rugby,
Lucas Radebe - Soccer,
Iris Barry - Table Tennis,
Johan Kriek - Tennis,
Ron Eland - Weightlifting,
Dan Setshedi - Commentator

www.themercury.co.za

Unapologetic racists are honoured - Brutus
By Jeff Wicks 7 December 2007

Controversial human rights activist Dennis Brutus turned down his
induction into the South African Sports Hall of Fame on Wednesday night.

Brutus said he refused to belong to an institution alongside players and
administrators who had flourished under racist sport during apartheid,
until they expressed regret for supporting racism in sport and for the
indignity and hurt caused to fellow South African men and women.

I cannot be party to an event where unapologetic racists are honoured.
Their inclusion is a deception because of their unfair advantage, as so
many talented black athletes were excluded from sport opportunities.

Being inducted to a sports hall of fame is an honour under most
circumstances. In my case, the honour is for helping rid South African
sport of racism, making it open to all. Brutus said.

The President of the SA Non-Racial Olympic Committee and honorary
professor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society
slammed former South African cricket boss Ali Bacher.

This hall ignores the fact that some sports persons and administrators
defended, supported and legitimised apartheid. There are, indeed, some
famous South Africans who still belong in a sports hall of infamy, one
of which is Ali Bacher.

Bacher, whose very claim to fame is his violation of anti-apartheid
sports sanctions, supported by the United Nations and the civilised
world. The unapologetic approach to apartheid can be seen in the hall
tribute to Bacher, which dares paint him as a victim. Brutus insisted.

Bacher's greatest legacy is that of a cricket administrator par
excellence. It began when he organised international rebel tours in the
early 1980s.

So, case closed. It is incompatible to have those who championed racist
sport alongside its genuine victims. It's time - indeed, long past time
- for sports truth, apologies and reconciliation.

This article was originally published on page 21 of The Mercury on December 07, 2007

The Citizen

Brutus turns down his Sports Hall of Fame accolade

By Rod Knight (The The Citizen)

JOHANNESBURG – Veteran anti-apartheid activist Dennis Brutus refused to
accept a South African Sports Hall of Fame award at a gala dinner at
Emperors Palace on Wednesday night.

Brutus claimed that there was still racism in South African sport and
said he would not have anything to do with it.

“I fought against racism in sport during the apartheid years when Dr Ali
Bacher, also a inductee, set up rebel tours, and there is still racism
in sport now,” he said from the podium.

“I will not be part of this,” said Brutus as he handed back his award.

This was not the first time Brutus has refused an award.

When on Robben Island, he wrote Sirens, Knuckles and Boots, his first
collection of poetry which was published in Nigeria. It won the Mbari
award for black poets of distinction. Brutus refused the accolade as he
felt it was racial in its exclusivity.

The incident happened towards the end of the evening, and although it
caused a stir, did not dampen the proceedings.

The night began with recognition of the country’s most outstanding
sports men and women of the past. The list is a who’s who of South
African sport.

Naas Botha was acknowledged for his involvement, it was his idea which
he has seen through to this, the second year of the Hall of Fame.

Danie Gerber, Hestrie Cloete and her singing husband, Jurie Els, boxing
greats, such as Willie Toweel, Elijah “Tap Tap” Makhathini, Enoch
“Schoolboy” Nhlapo and renowned referee Stan Christodoulou were all
honoured at the exclusive awards ceremony.

Toweel fought a draw for the world title against Frenchman Robert Cohen
and also won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1952, the year
after his brother Vic won the world bantamweight championship, the first
South African to win a world title.

Matthews Temane, was also inducted into the Hall of Fame, but was not
present due to illness.

He is remembered for his classic dead heat race against Zuthlele Sinqe,
in 1987, where both were awarded the world record of 60:11 for the
half-marathon, a record that was only broken three years ago.

Motoring greats were also inducted. Sarel van der Merwe for various
motorsport codes, motorcycling’s Kork Ballington, Greg Albertyn for
motocross and Peter Lindenberg for powerboat racing.

Johann Krick (tennis) was there as was soccer giant, Lucas Radebe, Gert
Potgieter and disabled athlete Leon Labuschagne, who dominated shot-put
and discus for many years.
–rodk@citizen.co.za

Brutus refuses Sports Hall of Fame
The Sowetan 7 December 2007

Dennis Brutus turned down his induction into the Sports Hall of Fame
this week, the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KZN has
disclosed.

“I cannot be party to an event where unapologetic racists are also
honoured, or join a Hall of Fame alongside those who flourished under
racist sport,” Brutus said at the induction.

“Their inclusion is a deception because of their unfair advantage, as so
many talented black athletes were excluded from sports opportunities,”
he said.

Brutus said being inducted into a sports hall of fame was an honour but
the hall should not ignore the fact that some sports people defended,
supported and legitimised apartheid.

“There are, indeed, some famous South Africans who still belong in a
Sports Hall of Infamy,” he said.

“They think they are sports heroes, without understanding — and making
amends for — the context in which they became so heroic,” he said.

Brutus said it was incompatible to have those who championed racist
sport alongside its genuine victims.

The SA Sports Hall of Fame inducted 34 sports personalities at Emperor’s
Palace in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening.

Brutus was an activist against the apartheid government in the 1960s and
worked tirelessly to have SA suspended from the Olympics.
Sapa

Social Movements Indaba meeting with Dennis Brutus, Orlean Naidoo and Molefi Ndlovu, 2-5 December 2007

SMI National meeting Cape Town - 2nd, 3rd & 4th & 5th December 2007

Western Cape Social Movements Indaba
Western Cape 41 Community House
Salt River Road
SALT RIVER
7925

Final Program
Day 1 Activity Facilitator/ Presentor Chair

6:00am onwards Arrival of delegates

7:00am onwards Alocation of rooms

8:00am - 9:00am Breakfast

9:00am Onwards Arrival of delegates

13h00 - 14h00 Lunch

14h00 - 16h30 Outgoing Secretary Mondli Opening Address Makoma (Nat. Sec.)
SMI Background
Purpose of the meeting
State of Movements in SA & Response the State

16h30 - 19h30 Regional Reports: Mondli
Reports will be done as clusters by 3 areas
Cluster 1 W.Cape, East Cape
Cluster 2 KZN
Cluster 3 Gauteng
Limpopo
Mpumalanga
Free State

16h30 - 18h30 SMI-from 2002-2007: Achievements &
Failures & challenges Des/Roy

18h30 Supper

Social Justice Film CNF

Day 2 Activity Facilitator/Presenter Chair Commissions Marry Tal

1. Land, Housing, Invasions & Evictions
2. Water,Electricty Roy/Des /Eleanor
3. New Forms OF Organisations Nopasika/Orlean
4. Environment, Police Repression Buntu/ Virginia/Robert/
5. Xenophobia & Solidarity in 2008 Mhlobo/Braam/Tal/Mondli
6. Gender / & Sex Workers Struggles/HIV/AIDS Vivian/Tac:Fredeleen Booysen
7. Farm Worker, Media, Youth Wendy & Anele(CNF) & Fortune
8. World Social Forum, ASF, SASF Mondli
9. State Repression Virginia (FXI)

9:00am - 11:00am Commissions Report Backs Bramage

11:00am - 11:15 Tea Break

11:15am - 13h00 Commissions Reports Makoma

13h00 - 14h00 Lunch

14h00 - 15h30 Discussion on Reports Thelma

15h30 Tea Break

15h30-17h00 Plan of action, Resolutions and Way forward Silumko

17h00-18h00 2008 Week of action and 26 January 2008 Global Day action

18h00 Supper Social/Poetry & Drama

Day 3 Activity Facilitator/Presenter Chair

9:00am-10:30am SMI-Have we succeeded in our Mission?
What Mission? Roy/Mondli/Makoma Limpopo

10:30am Tea Break

10:15am - 11:30am Panel Discussion Free State
SA's Imperialist Role in Africa Lesufi & Dennis Brutus
Women's Role in the New Social Movements Tembeka
/Peal/Thelma

11:30 - 12h30 SMI National Secretary and the structure of the SMI Mondli Mpumalanga
Regional Clusters

12h30 -13h00 SMI Secretary and the structure Mondli
N.W. Regional Clusters (continue)

13h00 - 14h00 Lunch

14h00 - 15h00 SMI Structure (Continue)

15h00- 16h30 WSF/ASF/SASF/SMI & Solidarity struggles N.Cape

Day 4 Activity Facilitator/Presentor Chair

9:00am - 10:00 Pespectives SMI Bobby Wilcox KZN

10:00am Tea Break

10:10 - 11:30 Women's Sustainable Developments and Women's Rights Marry Tal/Nopasika Pearl Khanyile

11:30 - 13h00 Plan of Action & Way forward Makoma - Eastern Cape

13h00 -13h30 Plan of Action and Way forward (continue)

13h00 Closure

Dennis Brutus is Marx in Nairobi, 25 November 2007

Dennis Brutus at the Ken Saro-Wiwa celebration in CT, 22-23 November 2007

Programme of activities for Ken Saro Wiwa Seminar: Being a two-day political education meeting to mark the 12th anniversary of the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 Ogoni activists. Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd October 2007

Day 1

8:00am – 8:30am Registration

8:30 am - 9:30am Tea

9:30am – 9:45am Welcome and introduction of delegates

9:45am -10:45am The Niger Delta, Oil-politics and Minority Rights in Nigeria
By Dr. Austin Tam George, UCT,

10:15am – 11:15am Panel Presentation:

Nigeria and USA Imperialism
By Dennis Brutus, CCS, UKZN

Nigeria and neo-liberalism
By Dr. Kolade Arogundade

Shell in the Niger Delta
By Comrade Bobby Peek

11:15am – 11:35am Questions and comments

11:35am – 12:00pm Short Break

12:00pm – 12:45pm Panel Discussion:

Oil Exploration and the environment
By Eugene Caircross, CPUT and Kelvin Winter, UCT

The activities of Shell and the Niger Delta
By Neil Matthys

Ogoni struggle: A microcosm of African indigenous peoples’ struggles
By Barry Wugale

The impact of oil exploration on the rural Niger Delta women
By Dorathy Barry

12:45pm – 1:00pm Questions and comments

1:00pm – 2:00pm LUNCH

2:00pm – 2:30pm Video Clip

2:30pm to 3:30pm Presentation and review of book:
Ken Saro Wiwa’s Steps to the Gallows By Mike Louw

Close

Day 2

8:00am – 9:00am Tea

9:00am – 9:30am Welcome and recap of day 1

9:00am – 10:15am Panel Discussion:
The Niger Delta: why and how is it relevant to the South African struggle?

A major source of South African fuel

What is the volume of trade and Investment between Nigeria and South Africa?

South African – Nigerian trade relations: What are the social-economic impacts for the citizens?
By Dennis Brutus, and Shawn Hattingh

10:15am – 11:00am African Solidarity by former anti-Apartheid activist by Mike Louw

11:00am – 11:20am Break

11:20am – 1:00pm Break into small groups: Solidarity for Ogoni struggle by South Africa civil society.

1:00pm – 2:00pm LUNCH

2:00pm – 2:45pm Report Back and Close

Rehana Dada and Patrick Bond address Climate Change Conference, Joburg, 21 November 2007

CURES: Citizens United for Renewable Energy and Sustainability

Programme for the Climate Change Conference
Parktonian Hotel, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
21st November 2007

Primary Facilitator: Udi Ya-Nakamhela (TV Presenter)

8:30 – 8:35 Welcome to the delegates on behalf of CURES/EcoCity – Annie
Sugrue

8:35 – 8:45 Introductions – Facilitator

8:45 – 9:00 Share the purpose and context of the roundtable – Wally Menne

9:00 – 10:30 Setting the Scene (Providing information about the current
state of climate change)

9:00 – 9:15 Academic Perspective – Bob Scholes (CSIR)

9:15 – 9:30 Government – Peter Lukey (DEAT)

9:30 – 09:45 Business Perspective – Mr. Norbert Behrens (SASOL)

09:45 – 10:00 CBO – Mr. Setjele Mofokeng (Sasolburg Community Member)

10:00 – 10:15 NGO – Siziwe Khanyile (Groundwork)

10:15 – 10:45 Keynote address – overview of climate change in South
Africa – Harald Winkler

10:45 – 11:00 TEA

11:00 – 11:15 Unequal Access to Energy – Tristen Taylor

11:15 – 13:00 Panel Discussion (various perspectives):
Government – Tshilidzi Dlamini (DEAT)
Business –
NGO – Richard Worthington
Academic – Patrick Bond

LUNCH

14:00 – 15:00 Filling-in the Gaps
Education & Awareness-raising – Rehana Dada (journalist and researcher)
Moving forward on the adaptation agenda
Communicating the message - Yolandi Groenewald (M&G journalist)

15:00 – 15:30 Plenary Discussion

15:30 – 16:00 TEA

16:00 - 16:30 Way forward – Facilitator

16:30 – 16:45 Closure & Vote of Thanks - Sibusiso Mimi

Contact

CURES: Southern African office
www.cures-network.org
Tel: +27 11 702 2273
Fax: +27 0880117022273
dorahl@ghouse.org.za
annie@ecocity.org.za

Molefi Ndlovu at 'Development Dilemmas' workshop, Durban, 16-18 November 2007

Development Dilemmas in post-apartheid South Africa
UKZN, Howard College Campus Venue: Principles Dining Hall
Rick Turner Students Union

Friday (16 November)

Intern section: 09:00 – 15:00 (Note: this is only for interns)
Danielle Floersch
Molefi Mafereka ka Ndlovu
Dumisani Nyathi – Makhathini Dryland Cotton Farmers: The state of cotton
cultivation and government subsidization
Brad Brockman – Contextualising the Emergence of the Bonteheuwel
Military Wing (BMW)
Co-ordinated by Harald Witt in conjunction with Bob Shenton & Henry
Bernstein

15:45 all participants present
1.Henry Bernstein
2.Bob Shenton
3.Bill Freund
4.Mary Galvin
5.Mark Hunter
6.Stefan Schirmer
7.Astrid Böhm
8.Harald Witt
9.Alison Todes
10.Amanda Williamson
11.Pearl Sithole
12.Buntu Siwisa
13.Mastoera Sadan
14.Shireen Hassim
15.David Hallowes
16.Cherryl Walker
17.Deidre Rankin
18.Molefi Mafereka ka Ndlovu
19.Brad Brockman
20.Danielle Floersch
21.Dumisani Nyathi

16:00 Dedication (Prof Jacobs)

16:15 Bob Shenton

17:00 Bill Freund

17:30 All participants return to accommodation

19:00 Transportation from Bali on The Ridge to dinner

19:15 Transportation from Chelsea Villa to dinner

19:30 Dinner (HEMINGWAYS)

Saturday (17 November)

08:30 – 09:00 Tea

09:00 – 10:30 Session 1: (CHAIR – Stefan Schirmer)
1.Mary Galvin
(Title: Unintended Consequences: Development Interventions and
Socio-Political Change in Rural South Africa)
2.Mark Hunter
(Title: Left behind in a KwaZulu-Natal township: Thinking about the
state, gender and class after the Zuma rape trial)

10:30 – 11:00 Tea

11:00 – 13:00 Session 2: (CHAIR – Cherryl Walker)
1.Stefan Schirmer/Astrid Böhm
(Title: Development by Decree: The Impact of Minimum Wage Legislation on a Farming Area in North West Province)
2.Harald Witt
(Title: Agribusiness, Cotton and Rural Development in Maputaland)
3.Lance van Sittert
(Title: The market is mightier than the Group: Comparing apartheid and
post-apartheid forced removals at Paternoster, Western Cape Province
South Africa)

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch:

14:30 – 16:00 Session 3: (CHAIR – Shireen Hassim)
1.Alison Todes/Amanda Williamson/Pearl Sithole
(Title: Decentralising gender rights and entitlements through integrated
development planning?)
2.Buntu Siwisa
(Title: ‘Water politics and the breakdown of social citizenship in
Mpumalanga, 1998 - 2005)

Evening free

Sunday (18 November)

08:30 – 09:00 Tea

09:00 – 10:30 Session 1: (CHAIR – Alison Todes)
1.Mastoera Sadan (for Sue Parnell)
(Title: Poverty Policy and Programmes in Post-Apartheid South Africa: A
Question of Two Paradigms)
2.Shireen Hassim
(Title: Social Justice, Gender and Developmental Social Welfare in South
Africa)

10:30 – 11:00 Tea:

11:00 – 13:00 Session 2: (CHAIR – Mark Hunter)
1.David Fig
(Title: South Africa’s nuclear plans) 2.Molefi Mafereka ka Ndlovu (and
2.Patrick Bond)
(Title: Development Dilemmas of Megaprojects’ Electricity and Water
Consumption: The Cases of Coega and Lesotho)
3.David Hallowes
(Title: Environmental injustice through the lens of the Vaal Triangle)

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 14:30 Final Wrap-Up:
1.Henry Bernstein

Dennis Brutus at the Ilrig conference on the G20, 15 November 2007

Patrick Bond in N.America to debate carbon trading, 13-19 November 2007

Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, 13 November
Venue:Environment & Development Faculty Workshop on Tuesday, November 13th, in the Class of 1930 Room, Rockefeller Center,
Time:12:00-1:30 pm, lunch provided.
Title: Privatisation of the Air Turns Lethal: 'Pay to Pollute' Principle Kills South African Activist Sajida Khan

New York City, Brecht Forum, 14 November (7:30pm)

City Univ of New York Anthropology, 15 November
Time: 3-4 pm
Venue: The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Title: “Privatisation of the water and air in South Africa: Micro-neoliberalism and resistance”

Edmonton, University of Alberta Parkland Institute, 16 November, (7:30pm)

Toronto, York University Faculty of Environmental Studies, 19 November, (12:30pm)

Privatisation of the Air turns Lethal: Carbon Trading as a Non-Solution to Climate Change
By Patrick Bond
For presentation in November 2007:
Dartmouth College (13-14 Nov)
The Brecht Forum, New York City (14 Nov, 7:30pm)
City University of New York Graduate Centre (15 Nov, 2pm)
University of Alberta Parkland Institute, Edmonton (16 Nov, 7:30pm)
York University Faculty of Environmental Studies (19 Nov, 12:30pm)

EARTHNOTES ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL, 10–16 November 2007

CCS hosts the Earthnotes film festival at KwaSuka Theatre (53 Stamford Hill Rd, Greyville) and in several eThekwini communities and schools
Contact Oliver Meth, on 031 260 1412/3577 or 076 473 6555

Programme (Subject to change)

Saturday, 10 – A World Without Water
Brian Woods 2006, UK/Bolivia/Tanzania/India/USA 75min

Monday, 12 – A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil
Giovanni Vaz Del Bello 2006 Brazil 52min

Tuesday, 13 – Crude impact
James Jandak Wood 2006 USA 98min

Wednesday, 14 – Farming the Seas
Steve Cowan and Barry Schienberg 2004 USA 55min

Thursday, 15 – Buried in Earthskin
Helena Kingwill 2004 South Africa 56min

Friday, 16 – The Land Belongs to Those Who Work It
The Chiapas Media Project/Promedios 2003 Mexico 15min
Water and Autonomy
The Chiapas Media Project/Promedios 2003 Mexico 14 min

Community Screenings

Sunday, 11 - @ Inanda Newtown – (12noon – 2pm)
The Land Belongs To Those Who Work it
Water and Autonomy

Wednesday, 14 - @ Merebank Community Library (12noon – 2pm)
Crude Impact

Friday, 16 - @ Welbedaucht Community (12noon – 2pm)
A World Without Water

Amid worldwide campaigns to highlight the threat to the global environment, comes Earthnotes, a film festival of environmental documentaries screened in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu Natal Centre for Civil Society (UKZN CCS), which opens on the 10th at 5.00pm in Durban at the KwaSuka Cinema Theatre which is set to be the central screening point followed by screenings in Wentworth, Inanda Kliptown, and Welbedaucht areas, on the 15 -16 November 2007.

The festival features award-winning documentaries from international and South African film producers – all carrying messages of caution about the state of the earth.

Earthnotes is organized by DLIST, an online information sharing community of individuals and organizations from coastal areas of South Africa, Namibia and Angola who are eager to discuss, educate and be part of solutions for common environmental problems.

Earthnotes pays special attention to oceans and water. Documentaries like A World Without Water shed light on the impending global scarcity of water, and Farming the Seas on over fishing of the world’s oceans. A Hell of Fishing is a trenchant documentary that shows the effects of over fishing in the African context.

The documentaries also cover controversial and timely global issues. Crude Impact and Source are two award-winning films that expose the collision of the insatiable appetite for oil with the rights of indigenous cultures and the environment. From Brazil comes an example of how cities can be planned in a more sustainable way in A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil.

Local productions range from images of the dry land and productive seas of the west coast featured in two episodes of A Last Glimpse series, to A Paradise under Pressure on the east coast, and the incredible interactions between species in the African savannah captured in Neil Curry’s award-winning film The Elephant, the Emperor and the Butterfly Tree.

“The common thread in all these films is a message of caution about the state of the earth, encouraging each of us to think and talk, but they also raise a note of hope for the earth, empowering us to act,” says organiser Oliver Meth.

For further details, contact Oliver Meth, University of KwaZulu Natal, Centre for Civil Society - on 031 260 1412/3577 or 076 473 6555

***Between one and two screenings are scheduled each day, commencing at 5.00pm. Mornings are available for school bookings.

Issued by: Oliver Meth, UKZN CCS

Environmental film festival to focus on oceans and water
Daily News Reporter 9 November 2007

In an effort to open people's eyes to the rapid changes the Earth is
experiencing, Earthnotes, an environmental documentary film festival,
has been launched this year.

Earthnotes kicked off in Cape Town, is coming to Durban tomorrow and
will run until November 14. The festival will also travel up the coast
of South Africa and Namibia.

The festival is organised by DLIST, an online information sharing
community of individuals and organisations from coastal areas of SA,
Namibia and Angola, which are eager to discuss, educate and be part of
solutions for common environmental problems.

The Earth is changing. Every day we are reminded of dwindling fish
stocks, polluted air, forests disappearing, rising temperatures,
contamin-ated rivers and mountains of waste generated every year … the
list is endless, said organiser Oliver Meth, at the Centre for Civil
Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

The festival aims to draw attention to the growing world population and
the lifestyles that are putting pressure on the Earth. Through a series
of striking environmental documentaries, Earthnotes suggests caution
about the state of the Earth, said Meth. The Earthnotes programme
includes both local and international documentaries, many award-winning.

Oceans and water are the focus of this year's festival. Documentaries
like A World Without Water shed light on the impending global scarcity
of water, and Farming the Seas on the overfishing of the world's oceans,
as does A Hell of Fishing in the African context.

Earthnotes opens on Saturday, Nov-ember 10 at KwaSuka cinema theatre,
followed by screenings in Wentworth, Inanda, Kliptown and Welbedacht
from November 15 to 16.

For more information contact Oliver Meth at 031 260 1412/3577 or 076 473 6555 or e-mail metho@ukzn.ac.za

Patrick Bond promotes reparations at Hist.Materialism conference in London, 10 November 2007

Fourth Historical Materialism Annual Conference
9–11 November 2007
At the School of Oriental and African Studies, London

Reparations for apartheid, Odious Debt and ecological debt
The apartheid regime left South Africa’s first democratic government more than $25 billion of foreign debts to pay in 1994. This was part of a corporate profits legacy which in October 2007 was deemed (by even Bush Administration judges) worthy of challenge as part of the Jubilee and Khulumani Victims Support Group reparations lawsuit under the US Alien Tort Claims Act. Such ‘Odious Debts’ litter the Third World, dating to the early 20th century when the first defaults on loans by prior dictators began (by Cubans against Spanish imperialism and Soviets against the Czar’s financiers). Norway last year cancelled dubious 1970s official shipping-related debts to several impoverished countries, and today even the World Bank is acknowledging that corrupt loans are a mutual creditor-debtor responsibility. Moreover, a movement is growing for the North’s repayment of a multi-trillion dollar ecological debt which the richest people owe the world’s poorest for their disproportionate use of the world’s environmental space; one example is the September 2007 decision by the Ecuadoran government to refrain from petroleum exploitation in a national park (‘keep the oil in the soil’), to be partially financed by Northern ecological debt repayment. These are interrelated struggles for historical social justice whose courtroom and economic aspects are important, but less so than the implications for a deeper, more durable politics of resistance to primitive accumulation. They deserve support and extension so as to establish not only legal precedent and monetary compensation, but also disincentivise capital from maintaining the current imperial power structure (e.g. the looting of Iraq), and, most importantly, link social movements in international campaigns for economic justice.
More

Patrick Bond
University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society
Durban
South Africa

Dennis Brutus Marx in Swaziland, 4 November 2007

Dennis Brutus & Patrick Bond at Friends of the Earth international conference in Swaziland, 4 November 2007

Democracy for Human Development, Social and Environmental Justice
Sunday 4th to Monday 5th November 2007

Introduction
Today environmental movements and organisations are challenging
environment not from a scientific and technical perspective only, but
more importantly from a movement building perspective, one that is
political in nature where it seeks to demand accountability from
political representatives and government. This is achieved through
building peoples’ movements to ensure that the resistance, mobilisation
and change is demanded and attained.

The gathering on ‘Democracy for Human Development, Social and
Environmental Justice’ seeks to understand the Democracy and Governance
in Swaziland, the Southern African Region, Africa and the world.

To secure human development, social and environmental justice there is a
desperate need to ensure good governance that is accountable to the
people of the country. Poor governance is a key concern of civil society
both in the global north and global south.

The experience of civil society and members of Friends of the Earth
International is that there is a nexus between corporate power and
undemocratic practices even in what is considered democratic countries.
This nexus results in the exploitation of peoples’ environmental space,
where the commons are enclosed, negative externalities are placed upon
poor people, and people are excluded from decision making that impacts
on their daily lives and livelihoods.

Experience from Europe and the US gives us evidence of the appalling
practice of Corporate Lobbyist at the European Union and in Washington.
These lobbyists actively weaken legislation that seeks to protect and
develop good governance. In Eastern Europe we have the proliferation of
companies pushing newly democratised states towards neo-liberal
processes excluding the voice of people. In Latin America people are
working in the tradition of movement building to resist privatisation of
the commons and a more just use of natural resources, and in Asia
growing economies servicing mainly Northern consumption patterns, such
as palm oil and timber are forcing undemocratic practices in many countries.

The conference will explore these instances of undemocratic practices
and explore how varied experiences on democracy can be used to empower
local communities to participate and take more control of their local
resources. Furthermore, how social justice and human development is
linked to broader governance.

DAY ONE

08.30 REGISTRATION

09:00 WELCOME AND OPENING

Facilitator Thuli Makama, Director, Yonge Nawe, Friends of the Earth (FoE) Swaziland

09.00 Lindiwe Khumalo-Matse, Chair, Yonge Nawe, FoE Swaziland

09.05 Meena Raman, Chair, Friends of the Earth International, Malaysia

09.10 Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Patron of Friends of the Earth International

09.20 His Excellency AT Dlamini, Prime Minister (To be confirmed)

09.30 Setting the context
‘Who Benefits From the Confusion – The Invisible Hand’ Patrick Bond, Director of the Centre for Civil Society at the University
of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa

10.15 TEA/COFFEE BREAK

10.30 WHERE WE ARE! GOVERNANCE & DEMOCRACY CHALLENGES IN SWAZILAND

This panel seeks to give delegates an introduction to the existing and
prevailing arrangements in Swaziland with regard to democratic
governance, human development and, social justice.

Facilitator Nomthetho Simelane, University of Swaziland

10.35 Democratic Spaces of Pre and Post Constitutional Swaziland Mandla Hlatshwayo, Chair, Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations

10.55 Swaziland Rule of Law and State of Social Justice Muzi Masuku, Swaziland Program Director Open Society Institute of
Southern Africa

11:15 Labour Issues in Swaziland and Spaces for Good Labour Organising
Jan Sithole, Secretary General, Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU)

11:35 Discussion

12.15 LUNCH

13.45 DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
This panel seeks to provide participants with an understanding of the challenges faced in Southern Africa and what are the implications of the failure to deliver corporate free democracies. The Zimbabwe situation
will also be presented to demonstrate the nexus between good governance
and human development.

Facilitator Musa Hlophe, Coordinator, Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations

13.50 Democracy in Southern Africa: Does it exist?
Dennis Brutus, poet and activist and Fellow at the Centre for Civil
Society, the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

14.10 Governance and Human Development: The Lesotho Experience
Moshe Tsehlo, Country Coordinator, PELUM, Lesotho

14.30 Zimbabwe: Collapse of Democracy – Environmental and Social Injustice Mutuso Dhliwayo, Executive Director, Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association (ZELA)

14:50 ‘Condusive Environment’ For Whose Development?: Globilization, National Economy and the Politics of Plunder in Tanzania’s Mining Industry. Tundu Lissu, Executive Director, Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team, (LEAT)

15:10 Discussions

16.15 TEA/COFFEE BREAK

16.45 AFRICA AND DEMOCRACY

This panel seeks to give a few African examples
of how democracy is
being abused by the state and the implications for development on the
ground.

Facilitator Theo Andersen, Executive Director Friends of the Earth, Ghana

16:50 African Challenges with Democracy and Governance – Case Study
Nigeria. Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action, FoE Nigeria.

17.10 Picking the Public Pocket: Uranium Mining in Malawi
Reinford Mwangonde, Executive Director, Citizens For Justice, Malawi.

17.10 Discussion

18.00 FINAL STATEMENTS AND WRAP UP FROM THE MODERATOR –
Sarah Jayne, Title, FoE England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Edith Abilogo, title, Centre for Environment and Development, FoE Cameron.

18.25 END

DAY TWO

08.30 CORPORATE INFLUENCE ON GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS
This panel seeks to draw the link between corporate influence and
undemocratic practices that result in environmental injustices and
policies that favour corporate greed rather than peoples’ needs.

Facilitator Bobby Peek, Director, groundWork, FoE, South Africa

08.35 EU: Catalyst for Democratic Development? Tony Juniper, Director, FoE Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland

08.55 Corporate States: People’s Exclusion Farah Sofa, Director, Wahli, FoE Indonesia

09.15 Corporate Influences on Development Options in Mozambique
Anabela Lemos, Founding member and volunteer, Justiça Ambiental, Mozambique

09.35 Discussions

10.30 TEA/COFFEE BREAK

11.00 NEW DEMOCRATIC SPACES: MORE LOSSES THAN GAINS?

Much is made about the coming of new democracies, from South Africa to
Bolivia to East Timor, but the question is do new democracies deliver or
is delivering democracy a goal that present the political dispensations
cannot deliver. This panel questions this and seeks to present the
challenges new democracies face and how society can ensure that they
deliver.

Facilitator Karin Nansen, Country Coordinator, Uruguay

11.05 Latin America: Left Government, Good Democracy?
Tatiana Roa Avendaño, Censat Agua Viva, FoE Columbia

11.25 Peoples Resistance and Mobilisation for Social Justice
Oscar Rivas, Sobrevivencia, FoE Paraguay

11.45 Struggles for Social Justice: East Timor
Demetrio Carvalho, Resistance Leader, HABURAS, East Timor

12.05 Palestinian Peoples Struggle for Common Goods Saleh Rabi, Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON), FoE Palestine.

12.25 Discussions

13.15 LUNCH

14.30 TOOLS FOR CHANGE
This panel focuses on a few examples of transformation to real
democratic practices.

Facilitator Jo Villaneuva, Director, Legal Resource Centre, FoE Philippines

14:35 Environmental Movements, a New Approach for Resisting and Mobilising for Social justice and Human Development Ricardo Navarro, Cesta, FoE El Salvador

14.55 Transforming Movements for Democratic Development: FOEI Vision
Meena Raman, Chair, Friends of the Earth International

16.00 FINAL DECLARATION - AGREEMENT
Thuli Makama, Director, Yonge Nawe, FoE Swaziland

17.00 FINAL STATEMENTS AND WRAP UP FROM THE CHAIR

19.00 Cultural Evening and Friends of the Earth International Award
Ceremony to be held at Mantenga Cultural Village

Ntokozo Mthembu coordinates CCS-community-SIT course on globalisation, 29 October - 2 November 2007

In this focus week, we explore development advocacy in a variety of forms, with specific attention to the concrete development problems faced by poor and working people in Durban and surrounding areas. We will be ‘co-taught’ by 10 members of community organisations who can link theory, policy and national/local issues to their own community/household struggles and power relations. The course will run each morning from 10am and break at 3:30pm. A variety of lecturers, researchers and leaders from CCS and community allies will be facilitating the discussions.

Participants will receive a reading package with core materials – one paper for each seminar session – on 29 October. The facilitators will assume that participants will have read each of the papers provided, and be prepared to discuss them.

In addition, all participants will have access to a DVD and CD that include both three dozen videos plus a vast library of seminal readings on development, some of which may be accessed during the week.

Two site visits will be arranged with objectives to give SIT students exposure to real development challenges in especially areas of housing, land, and basic services, along with consideration of development advocacy strategies, tactics and alliances by civil society organisations.

The agenda, with facilitators/issues, is Here

Coordinator:
Ntokozo Mthembu
mthembun@ukzn.ac.za
031-260 2116 or 076 1694 690

Marx @ KwaSuka - Dennis Brutus plays Karl Marx, 26 & 28 October 2007

The premise of this witty, insightful ‘play on history’ is that Karl
Marx has agitated with the authorities of the afterlife for a chance to
clear his name. But thanks to bureaucratic error, Marx is sent to a
Durban shack settlement, rather than his old Soho stomping ground in
London, to make his case.

Author Howard Zinn, best known for his book, A People’s History of the
United States, introduces us to Karl, his wife Jenny and the kids, the
anarchist Bakunin, and others.

Brutus, honorary professor at the UKZN Centre for Civil Society, plays
the lead. Local luminaries and the crowd react.

Marx in Soho is a brilliant introduction to Marx's life, his analysis of
society, and his passion for radical change. Zinn/Brutus also show how
relevant Marx's ideas are today.

UCAF’s cultural series also includes poems by Ari Sitas, Damien Garside
and UKZN students. And Faith ka Manzi and Dudu Khumalo provide some
Marx@UKZN ukuhleba.

Patrick Bond at Ceasefire's campaign strategy meeting, 26 October 2007

CEASEFIRE Campaign Strategy Meeting
Johannesburg, 26 October, 9-5am
Elijah Berayi Centre, Yeoville

Agenda

9h00 Registration & tea

9h30 An information sharing session
Rob Thomson: Overview of Denel
Kennedy Mabasa: Mechem
Guni Govindjee: Aerospace division
Rob Thomson: Land Systems division
Swartklips: Terry Crawford-Browne and Geoffrey Oliphant
Questions and additions

11h15 - 11h30 Tea

11h30 - 12h30 Panel discussion on strategy
Patrick Bond - South African Subimperialism
Mohau Pheko - The Political Framework
Steven Friedman - The Politics of Arms Control; Strategic Possibilities

12h30 - 13h00 Questions

13h00 - 13h45 Lunch

13h45 - 15h45 Paul Graham: Way forward

Dennis Brutus: 'Karl Marx @ UKZN', 25 October 2007

'Marx in Soho' = Marx @ UKZN
The premise of this witty, insightful ‘play on history’ is that Karl
Marx has agitated with the authorities of the afterlife for a chance to
clear his name. But thanks to bureaucratic error, Marx is sent to a
Durban shack settlement, rather than his old Soho stomping ground in
London, to make his case.

Author Howard Zinn, best known for his book, A People’s History of the
United States, introduces us to Karl, his wife Jenny and the kids, the
anarchist Bakunin, and others.

Brutus, honorary professor at the UKZN Centre for Civil Society, plays
the lead. Local luminaries and the crowd react.

Marx in Soho is a brilliant introduction to Marx's life, his analysis of
society, and his passion for radical change. Zinn/Brutus also show how
relevant Marx's ideas are today.

UCAF’s cultural series also includes poems by Ari Sitas, Damien Garside
and UKZN students. And Faith ka Manzi and Dudu Khumalo provide some
Marx@UKZN ukuhleba.

Patrick Bond Norwegian People’s Aid Seminar on Strengthening Civil Society Johannesburg, 22 and 23 October 2007

Seminar Objectives:

1. To reflect on the current situation at country and regional levels in relation to:

challenges to democracy

space for civil society participation

space for civil society engagement in policy making and lobbying

2. To present challenges to mobilizing and strengthening civil society from country and regional level perspectives

3. To share NPA Regional strategy

4. To reflect on how NPA can support key role players and organisations in strengthening civil society

Seminar Programme

22 October 2007

23 October 2007

Patrick Bond analyses US hegemony-in-decline for Focus on the Global South masters course in Bangkok, 17 October 2007

Patrick Bond to lecture via videotel to the Focus course on Globalisation and Social Transformation:

Focus on the Global South
and
Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute

International Course on Globalisation and Social Transformation

Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok, Thailand
October 15 – November 02, 2007

Empire, Hegemony and Crisis
Paper Presented by Patrick Bond 17 October

Course description
The course seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the theoretical approaches to, and the main empirical issues related to economic globalisation and social transformation. It will highlight the relationship between globalisation’s winners and losers, its enforcers and the many forms of resistances against its current form. It will explore the many forms of collective action that endeavour to create an alternative globalisation.

Course Objectives

1. Deepen understanding of the characteristics of economic globalisation, and its impacts to developing countries, the resulting macroeconomic and social policy options for governments and their implications to people’s lives and livelihood;

2. Deepen understanding of democracy and social transformation

3. Explore the spaces and opportunities for civil society advocacy for global or national economic justice in relation to issues concerning trade, finance, environment, gender equality and human security;

4. Explore and assess the actors, forces and processes that lead to political and social change;

5. Share and formulate strategies for collective action.

Requirements from participants:

1. Read course literatures and participate in the discussions;

2. Make a short presentation (10 minutes) about an economic or political policy problem that is connected to any of the topic/s covered in Part I of the course;

3. Write an essay (between 1,250 - 5000 words) that relates to the topics covered in the course to your own work using rigorous theory from the discussions, empirical evidence and concrete advocacy experiences to back up your arguments.

Course Coordinator: Dorothy Guerrero
Invited Lecturers/Facilitators:
Mr. Christophe Aguitton (ATTAC France)
Dr. Walden Bello (Focus on the Global South)
Dr. Patrick Bond (University of KwaZulu-Natal, SA)
Ms. Nicola Bullard (Focus on the Global South)
Dr. Cho Hee-yeon (Sungkonghoe University)
Mr. Jacques-chai Comthongdi (Focus on the Global South)
Prof. Jayati Gosh (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Ms. Dorothy Guerrero (Focus on the Global South)
Ms. Shalmali Guttal (Focus on the Global South)
Prof. Huang Ping (China Academy for Social Sciences)
Dr. Pitch Pongsawat, Chulalongkorn Univeristy
Dr. Surichai Wun’Gaeo, (Chulalongkorn University)
Dr. Pasuk Phongphaichit (Chulalongkorn University)(tbc)

More

Patrick Bond at Attac Norway Conference on Oil, Climate and Justice, 12-13 October 2007

Oil, climate and justice - with a critical view upon Norway’s roles in the world

Norwegian Petroleum Fund Investments: Social/environmental not narrow financial strategy
Paper Presented by Patrick Bond 12 October

Carbon Trading? Why privatisation of the air won’t cure climate change
Paper Presented by Patrick Bond 13 October

Friday, October 12th, 09:00-18:00.

09:00-09:30 Registration and coffee

09:30-09:45 Norwegian oil capital, the climate crisis and global distribution of wealth Introduction by Einar Braathen, Vice President of Attac Norway. Presentation of our approach to the theme, based on the declaration from the national meeting of Attac. Why is it necessary to look at climate, oil politics and development as a whole?

09:45-12:00 Norway as an oil and climate nation: talking with two tongues?

Speakers (20 min. each):

Cyril Obi, professor of politics with Nordiska Afrikainstituttet.

Berit Kristoffersen, human geographer

Gard Lindseth, Church of Norway Council on Ecumenical and International Relations

Anne Margareth Fagertun Stenhammer, State Secretary for International Development

Questions and debate (45 min.)

13:00-14:15 The Norwegian petroleum fund
A general debate on the future of the petroleum fund. The fund's goal is to «give a good return on investments in the long term, which requires a sustainable development both economically, ecologically and socially». Is it possible to satisfy alle these concerns at once, and if so, how? Can the petroleum fund be given a clear environmental and developmental profile?

Speaker:
Henrik Syse, Norwegian National Bank / the petroleum fund

Debate:

Helene Bank, board of directors, Attac Norway.

Joakim Hammerlin, philosopher of ethics, author of a report about the fund for the organizations Fremtiden i våre hender and Forum.

Ingrid Næss Holm, Changemaker (President)
Ylva Lindberg, supervisor SIGLA

Patrick Bond, professor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Director of Center for Civil Society.

What are the economical consequences of strengthening the ethical profile in order to include climate issues? Reactions to our demands for a stronger environmental and development profile for the fund's investment.

15:00-17:00 A perspective from the South on Norwegian petroleum politics

There are many similarities between the situation Norway found itself in when it discovered oil in the 60s and the situation of oil-rich countries today. What lessons can these countries learn from our experience? Can history repeat itself?

Debate:

Leif Sande, President of Industry and Energy: «What were the pillars of Norwegian petroleum policy up to 1981?

Petter Nore, leader of the programme 'Oil for Development', Norad. Can 'Oil for Development' contribute to sustainable development? (tbc)

Stella Amadi, Nigeria. Can Statoil contribute to development?

Carlos Larrea, professor, Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, Ecuador. Why Norway should help poor countries to keep the oil under the soil.

Martin Kohr, Malaysia, Third World Network (tbc)

The speakers will have 20 minutes each to speak and reply to each other, assisted by the chair.

Contributions and questions from the floor (30 min)

Saturday, October 13th 10:00-17:00

10:00-12:00 For the climate, against poverty – a contradiction?

The struggle against poverty requires industrialization and higher levels of energy use, some argues. The struggle against climate change is the mist important, and poor countries must therefore avoid industrialization, others think. Do we have to make a choice, or can the struggle against climate change and poverty walk hand in hand?

Speaker:
Martin Khor, Third World Network, Malaysia (tbc)

Commentators:

Nature and Youth

Norwegian Church Aid

13:00-15:00 Where to cut emissions?
Is cap and trade mechanisms and the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism the right approach?

Speaker: Patrick Bond, professor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Director of Center for Civil Society.

Debate:

Henriette Westhrin, Deputy Minister,

Ministry of Environment

Mekonnen Germiso, FIVH

Nina Dessau, Social Scientist and co-founder of Global Migrants for Climate Action

15:15-17:00 Petro-nationalism- a strategy for sustainable development?

With Venezuela's nationalization of their oil reserves, the national state has regained control of the petroleum resources. Bolivia has nationalized their natural gas. Angola is strengthening its demands. The oil multinationals lose. But will the poor benefit? Could lands without oil and gas reserves also benefit from petro-nationalism?

Speakers:

Helge Ryggvik, scientist of oil history, TIK, University of Oslo

Oscar Caravallo, the Venezuelan embassy in Geneve (tbc)

Commentators:

Carlos Larrea, professor, Universidad

Andina Simon Bolivar, Ecuador

Stella Amadi, Nigeria (tbc)

CCS/Sociology Film Screening: A Journey to Robben Island, 11 October 2007

Venue: CCS BOARDROOM Room f208
Date: 11 October 2007
Time: 13:30 – 14:30
Feature Film (Documentary): A Journey to Robben Island (2007)
South Africa, 2007. 20 mins.
Director: R. Sooryamoorthy

Robben Island in South Africa, since the 15th century, was used as a
place of banishment, exile and prison. Set against the backdrop of
apartheid and the struggle for democracy, the film is centred around the
prison life of Nelson Mandela who spent 17 years of his imprisonment on
this island.

ALL WELCOME – FREE ENTRY !!! (For more details contact N. Mthembu – 076 1694 690)
mthembun@ukzn.ac.za

CENTRE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY / SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT FILM SCREENING

11 October 2007 - CCS BOARDROOM Room- F208

Facilitated by: Ntokozo Mthembu
Data captured: by Oliver Meth and Ntokozo Mthembu

Film shown: A Journey to Robben Island (Sooryamoorthy, 2007)

Introduction
The Centre for Civil Society Outreach in conjunction with Sociology Department hosted the screening of this documentary that reveal some of the events that exposes the most ‘famous’ island. The film portrayed Robben Island, once used as a place of banishment, exile and reformatory during the 15th century – an era of apartheid and the struggle for change, the film focuses around the prison life of Nelson Mandela who served his 17 years of his imprisonment on this island.

Films proceedings in pictures......

Discussions
The film drew an estimate of 6-10 viewers during lunch peak hour. The visual footage stirred emotions for some viewers, such as Prof Denis Brutus, who relived the experience of been imprisoned on Robben Island with Mandela, Sobukhwe and other “political prisoners”. The film ‘forced’ Prof. Brutus to give a ‘lecture’ on how they survive in those quarries – “breaking stones – literary breaking big stones to small stones” he said. Other viewers noted the critical comments on different moral standings and highlighting ‘high hopes’ of people in general on freeing of Mandela and other prisoners. In addition, other participants were impressed and believe that the film could be used as a good teaching tool especially to our youth.

In conclusion
The participants were blessed with the attendance of the film Director, R. Sooryamoorthy, who told his ideas as to why he had produced the film “not for profit”. “I have showed it to people in India,” he said whilst eagerly awaiting viewers comment and suggestions.

Patrick Bond Inaugural Lecture: Gobal Civil Society Strategies for Social Justice, 10 October 2007

INAUGURAL LECTURE: GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

By PROFESSOR PATRICK BOND
BA (Economics), Swarthmore College,
PhD (Economic Geography), Johns Hopkins University

Professor and Director: Centre for Civil Society
School of Development Studies
Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences

GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Date: Wednesday, 10 October 2007
Time: 17h30
Venue: Howard College Theatre
University of KwaZulu-Natal Howard College Campus

ALL WELCOME

Refreshments will be served
RSVP (Acceptances only)
no later than 12h00 on Friday, 05 September 2007 to:
Ms Selvum Naicker: c/o Ceremonials Office
Tel: 031-260 7648 Fax: 031-260 8219
e-mail: naickerka@ukzn.ac.za

The global justice movements have explored various arguments about
national states, political parties and linkage of issues across borders.
These discussions have matured to the point where clearer distinctions
can be made between 'global governance' approaches that are based, on
the one hand, upon cosmopolitan democracy theory, and on the other,
analysis/strategy/tactics based on 'deglobalisation' (of capital) and
'decommodification'. Given sharp divergences (e.g. on 'fixing' versus
'nixing' multilateral agencies), the movements may not have the capacity
or will to establish mutually reinforcing projects between those
considered 'tree shakers' in the globalisation debates, with the
insider-oriented 'jam makers'. Nevertheless, some terrains and
issue-areas lend themselves to a much more coherent approach than we
have witnessed to date, since the 1980s IMF Riots gave way to more
systematic organising of global justice campaigns, from Chiapas in 1994
to the late 1990s Jubilee movement to largescale global events such as
Seattle in 1999. Fusing these movements with anti-war movements is also
a high priority. But doing so will require much more explicit attention
to distinctions between 'reformist' and 'non-reformist' reforms, in the
spirit of the late French social strategist Andre Gorz.

Patrick Bond in Sydney for the launch of the Centre for Cosmopolitan Civil Societies, 4-5 October 2007

Global Citizen Action Against Climate Change: Reformist or Non-Reformist Reforms? A Report from South Africa
By Patrick Bond

Paper abstracts

CCS Conference Timetable

Thursday 4 October

9.10 Welcome to country

9.20 Conference Opening: Professor Ross Milbourne, Vice Chancellor & President, UTS.

9.30-10:00 Opening Address: Professor Jock Collins, Conference Convenor, UTS.

10-10.20 Morning tea

10.20-12pm Plenary Session 1: Cosmopolitanism & transnational communities

Paul Spoonley (NZ): Cyber citizens: Creating new ethnic spaces or reinforcing old exclusions?

Dave McEvoy (UK) Age related ethnic residential segregation in the United
Kingdom

Val Colic-Peisker (Aust): Cosmopolitanism & transnational mobility: Tracing the link

Pieter Bevelander (Sweden): Minorities, social capital & voting

12:00-1:30pm Parallel sessions 1:
A. Civil society, social movements & climate change

Ian McGregor: Civil society, policy coalitions & the international politics of
climate change

Nina Hall: A Role for Civil Society on Action for Climate Change

Ariel Salleh: How global warming and solutions to it are gendered

Patrick Bond: Global Citizen Action Against Climate Change: Reformist or
Non-Reformist Reforms?

B. Cross-cultural dialogue

Penny OÆDonnell: Cross-cultural dialogues & multicultural media practices

Vera Jenkins: Humanity first culture second

Ana Dragojlovic: Cross-cultural encounters in the Netherlands urban centres

C. Language, literacy & schools in diverse communities

Liam Morgan & Andrew Chodkiewicz: Supporting home literacy practices

Rosemary King & Julie-Ann Arthur: Which language? When? Language
education in Indigenous Australia

Nina Burridge: Fair go mate: Building civil societies û schools as agents of
social change

D. Settling in a new land: Experiences of migration & mobility

Jacqui Campbell & Mingsheng Li: Accessing employment: challenges faced
by non-native English speaking professional immigrants in New Zealand

Walter Lalich: The reconfiguration of civil society through ethnic communal
development

Carmel Lee: The need for compassion in the search for a conviction. Australia visa response to victims of sex trafficking in comparison to America & Europe

1.30-2.30 pm Lunch

2.30-4pm Parallel sessions 2:

E. Activism & advocacy: Strategies & new directions

Rick Flowers: Critical consumption activism, popular education &
emancipatory civil society

Bronwen Dalton, Jenny Onyx, John Casey, Rose Melville & Jenny Green: The relationship between individual & systemic advocacy in Australian community service organisations. A source of legitimacy?

Mike Newman: Dancing to the protester's tune finding effective alternative forms of action

Andrew Vandenberg: Contentious unionism in Sweden & South Korea

F. Cosmopolitanism & national identity

Judy Lattas: Queer sovereignty: The gay & lesbian kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands

Reena Dobson: The thin cosmopolitan line: Negotiating identity in multi-ethnic Mauritius

Elena Maydell: Identity issues & challenges faced by Russian immigrants in
New Zealand

Diego Bonetto: Weed gathering: Ethnobotanical practices in a cosmopolitan society

G. Social movements & cosmopolitanism

Ilaria Vanni: Cultural citizenship, media & design in current Italian activist
practices

Hamed Hosseini: Interactive solidarities: Experiencing the open spaces of
convergence & controversy in cosmopolitan civil societies

Leo Podlashuc: Cosmopolitanism from below: the horizontal exchanges of
Shack/Slum Dwellers International

James Goodman: Contesting US empire and the global Empire without a centre: Global justice cosmopolitanism & militarist geopolitics

H. Cosmopolitan civil societies & conflict: International perspectives

Michelle Sanson: Protect civil societies: International assistance and intervention

Sam Blay: Refugees & re-establishing civil society in post-conflict situations

Stan Palassis: The International Criminal Court: the end of impunity for
international crimes or just wishful thinking?

4-4.30pm Afternoon tea

4.30-6pm Plenary Session 2: Government power and Indigenous autonomy

Olga Havnen

Heidi Norman

Others to be confirmed

Thursday evening: a public meeting will be held in Redfern on Indigenous
communities & militarisation in the NT. As further details are available they will be posted at http://www.shopfront.uts.edu.au/news/ccs_conference.html

Friday 5 October

9-10.40am Plenary Session 3: Multiculturalism & cosmopolitanism

David Ley (Canada): Is multiculturalism a cosmopolitan ideology? (20 mins)

Dan Hiebert (Canada): Challenging the ghettoisation stereotype in Canada: The multicultural neighbourhoods of Vancouver (20 mins)

Stephen Castles and Ellie Vasta (UK): The general crisis of immigrant
integration: Strategies in Europe (30 mins)

Jan Rath (Netherlands): The Transformation of Ethnic Neighbourhoods into Places of Leisure and Consumption (20 mins)

10.40-11am Morning tea

11-12.30pm Parallel sessions 3: I. Australian multiculturalism post-Cronulla

Barbara Bloch & Tanja Dreher: Respect, resentment & reluctance: Working with everyday diversity and everyday racism in Southern Sydney

Kevin Dunn, Jim Forrest, Rogelia Pe-Pua & Maria Hynes: Cities of antiracism? The spheres of racism & anti-racism in contemporary Australian cities

Kais Al-Momani: The far side of Sydney: Anti-cosmopolitanism and the
Cronulla riots

J. Community Capacity Building: The diversity & complexity of community convergence

Jenny Onyx & Rosemary Leonard: The conditions required for social capital to be converted into community development

Angeline Low: The social and community capital of Asian-born women entrepreneurs in Australia

Hilary Yerbury: Belonging to community: The thoughts and experiences of
young people online

K. Campus & community collaboration: Exploring community engaged research

Speakers to be confirmed

L. Third sector and civil society

Bronwen Dalton & Virginia Watson: Civil society, third sector: overlapping
frames

Mark Lyons: Measuring & comparing civil society cross-nationally

12.30-1.30 pm Lunch & Launch of Shopfront monograph

1.30-3pm Parallel sessions 4:
M. Cosmopolitanism, art & creative visions

Ruth Skilbeck: Tourism and/or cosmopolitanism: Art museums as contested sites of cross-cultural regeneration for civil societies

Nour Dados: Beirut cosmopolitan: Imaging the past in the shape of the future

N. Education & cosmopolitan consciousness

Kitty te Riele: Who gets to be cosmopolitan? Young people in peripheral
communities

Tony Brown: Internationalism, cosmopolitanism & the market: Using film in teaching & learning about changing societies

Jacquie Widin, Andrew Chodkiewicz & Keiko Yasukawa: Testing for a civil
society: What is being measured?

O. Cosmopolitan civil societies & the urban environment

Binh Thanh Nguyen: Social contestation to save Hanoi parks 2007 û the
building of collective attitudes

Heather Goodall, Denis Byrne, Allison Cadzow & Stephen Wearing: People,
politics & public nature on the Georges River

Kirrily Jordan: Contesting Chinatown: Ethnic precincts as racialised
spectacles or places of multicultural inhabitation

P. Having a voice: the potential of visual media in the representation of civil societies

Kay Donovan: Mediation or collaboration: a case study of engagement
between visual media and civil society

Verena Thomas: The role of the visual media in empowering civil societies: a case study in PNG

3-3.30pm Afternoon tea

3.30-5pm Plenary Session 4: Social action, globalisation & the global South

Chanida Chanyapate Bamford (Focus on the Global South, Thailand):
Alternative to poverty: Deglobalization at work at the micro level

Lee Jung Ok (ARENA, South Korea): The engendered review on global
governance in Asia

Patrick Bond (Centre for Civil Society, South Africa): 'Global Governance' or Global Justice: Analysis, Strategy, Tactics and Alliances

Patrick Bond on Local Racism, Global Apartheid in Barcelona, 27 September 2007

Johannesburg as emblem of Global Apartheid

By Patrick Bond (Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal)
Presented to the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona conference: Local Racism, Global Apartheid, Barcelona, 27 September 2007

Introduction
Johannesburg hosts one of the world’s most entrenched systems of urban inequality. For Human Development Index comparisons that combine income, education and mortality, Johannesburg’s white residents rate 44, just below the average of rich countries (45). The city’s black residents rate 32, just above South Africa as a whole, while in the world rankings, South Africa fell from 86th to 120th place out of 177 countries during the early 2000s. The recent renewal of socio-economic apartheid is a far cry from the promises of a liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), carried to national, provincial and municipal power in mid-1990s landslides. The ANC’s mandates included the far-reaching Freedom Charter (1955), whose proto-socialism was invoked at a large rally near Soweto: ‘The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole.’ More recently, the Reconstruction and Development Programme (1994) reflected the influence of trade union and left social movements, and which served as the ANC’s first electoral campaign platform. Those mandates could have justified, at the very minimum, transforming Johannesburg, instead of amplifying its spatial, racial, gendered, ecological and class contradictions.

Conference Programme

NGO leaders course at Univ. of Botswana with Patrick Bond, 26 September 2007

PARTICIPANTS FOR THE CESPAM/OSISA EXECUTIVE PROGRAMME FOR NGO LEADERS - 2007

Patrick Bond, Grace Kwinjeh, Ashwin Desai and Orlean Naidoo of CCS @ Ilrig's Globalisation School, 23-28 September 2007

Title: ILRIG Globalisation School 2007
Date: 23 September 2007
Venue: Spier
Duration: 1 week
Description:
ILRIG will be hosting it's 6th Annual Globalisation School at Spier Stellenbosch Cape Town from 23 - 28 September 2007
Theme - Developing Alternatives to Globalisation

ILRIG has been hosting its annual globalisation school since 2002. Activists from a wide range of organisations throughout Africa are invited to apply.

AIMS OF THE SCHOOL

• Activists from trade unions and social movements meet to share experiences of struggles against globalisation.

• To understand different interpretations of globalisation and to look at developing alternatives to globalisation.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE SCHOOL
The school consists of plenary sessions and 3-day classes. Come and debate inputs by various speakers and guests and select a course which is of most interest to your organisation. Classes will be held on the following topics:

• Introduction to Globalisation
• Feminism for activists
• Alternative Trade and Investment strategies
• New Forms of Organisation
• Democracy and Public Power
• Youth and Globalisation

In addition, ILRIG is exploring various other forms of education that will be offered at the school including theatre, music, poster making etc

WHO SHOULD ATTEND
The Globalisation School is open to all activists in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa that have an interest in developing alternatives to globalisation. ILRIG would especially encourage activists in trade unions, social movements and NGOs who can act as educators in their organisations to attend. ILRIG is committed to ensuring that there is a gender balance amongst the participants.

“Alternatives to Globalisation”

In the midst of fighting for the most basic rights many people all over
the world no longer believe their politicians and neo-liberal
propagandists that we must sacrifice human rights for the sake of
private profit. Thousands of activists are beginning to ask the question
- one which used to be regarded as heresy 10 years ago:

What is the alternative to globalisation?

Registration: 23 September, afternoon and evening

Evening: Supper

19.00 Orientation / Questions Ntswaki Mareane
Judy Kennedy, Aileen April

19.15 Presentation on postermaking Jon Berndt

19.30 Movies (courtesy: 3-Continents Film Festival)

ILRIG Co-ordination: Leonard Gentle
Registration/Logistics Ntswaki Mareane, Aileen April, Viwe
Daily News: Courtesy of Indymedia
Music Co-ordination: Colin Millar
Music: Conscious Marimba
Movie Co-ordination: 3 Continents Film Festival
Sound: Akbar Khan & Eastern Acoustics
Poster making John Berndt
Exhibitions Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
Poetry: Bernadette (withdrawn)
Theatre: Mike van Graan, Phillipa De Villiers, Quanita Adams
Translation: Spanish and Portuguese – Florencia Belvedere

Open Day: 24 September
Main Hall
Chair: Patricia Appolis (SACCAWU and ILRIG Board member)

09.00 Welcome Roger Ronnie
(SAMWU and ILRIG)

09.15 House rules / organisational Ntswaki Mareane (ILRIG)

09.30 An overview of the School Leonard Gentle
(ILRIG)

09.45 Globalisation Today Patrick Bond

10.30 TEA

11.00 Alternatives to Globalisation Panel Discussion (from)
Margaret Legum
CTA Speaker
USW Speaker
Ishmael Lesufi
Dinga Sikwebu
Saliem Fakier
Grace Kwinjeh
Nyasha Muchichwa
Femi Aborisade

13.00hrs LUNCH

14.00 My organisation All

15.00hrs TEA

15.00 Breakaway activities Displays, exhibitions
Earthlife Africa
Launch of ILRIG booklets and RLF
Workers’ World Media
Labour Research Services
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
People’s Health Campaign
Smaller Sessions
Zimbabwean activists
Argentine - CTA delegation
Ogoni People’s Solidarity
Palestinian Solidarity
Steelworkers Delegation

17.00hrs Meetings of activists To be negotiated

18.00hrs SUPPER

19.00hrs Mirror Mirror Mike van Graan
Poetry, Music, Film

Day 2 Tuesday 25 September
Chair: Judy Kennedy (ILRIG)

09.00hrs Globalisation Today Plenary Hall
Did globalisation work? Leonard Gentle

10.00 – 17.00hrs Breakaway classes Rooms 1 - 6

17.00hrs Meetings of Activists To be negotiated

18.00hrs SUPPER

19.00hrs Film Festival Movies: 3-Continents
Original Skin Phillipa de Villiers
Community Reflections in Drama Quanita Adams

Day 3 Wednesday 26 September
Chair: Koni Benson (ILRIG)

09.00hrs Globalisation Today Plenary Hall
New forms - women’s activism Anna Davies van Es
New forms - work organisations Mthetho Xali

10.00 – 17.00hrs Breakaway classes Rooms 1 - 6

19.00hrs Alternatives to neo-liberalism in SA: Panel Debate
How and from Where? Zico Tamela
Orlean Naidoo
Ashwin Desai
John Appolis
Chair: Ronald Wesso
Late Evening: Music

Day 4 Thursday 27 September
Chair: Suraya Jawoodien (ILRIG Board)

09.00hrs Globalisation Today Plenary Hall
ALBA and Bank of the South Shawn Hattingh

10.00 – 17.00hrs Breakaway classes Rooms 1 - 6

17.00hrs Excursion

19.00hrs Braai

20.00hrs Live music

Day 5: Friday 28 September
Main Hall: Plenary for themed sessions:
Chair: Mthetho Xali

09.00hrs Globalisation Today Plenary Hall
New forms of democracy Ronald Wesso

10.00hrs Report back from Themes Elected rapporteurs

11.00hrs TEA

11.30hrs Theatre group report back
Poster Display report back

12.30hrs Report back: evaluation team Linda Cooper (UCT and ILRIG)

13.30hrs Thanks and LUNCH

14.00 Departure

Closed Events

Daily Themed Sessions: 25 – 27 September
10.00hrs – 17.00hrs

Themed classes
1. Building women’s activism Anna Davies van Es and Koni Benson
2. New forms of organisation Mthetho Xali
3. Democracy and Public Power Ronald Wesso and Shereen Essof
4. Trade & Investment Shawn Hattingh
5. Poster making /visual Jon Berndt
6. Theatre of the oppressed Phillipa de Villiers and Charlton George
NB: Leonard Gentle, Judy Kennedy and Koni Benson in assistance

Dennis Brutus at Christopher Okigbo celebration in Boston, 20 September 2007

CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

An International Multidisciplinary Celebration of Okigbo’s Legacy

Theme: Postcolonial African Literature and the Ideals of the Open Society/Teaching and Learning from Christopher Okigbo’s Poetry

Thursday September 20 2007

“Hurrah for Thunder!”
A Program of Poetry Reading, Music and Songs in Honor of Okigbo

In 1978, Chinua Achebe and Dubem Okafor published a collection of
memorial poems for Christopher Okigbo entitled, Don’t Let Him Die. In
this volume, as characterized by keynote speaker, Ben Obumselu, “poets,
painters, soldiers, professors, and various contemporaries offer their
tributes of undying affection.” The celebration of Okigbo’s legacy at
the 2007 is planned to include a reenactment on a larger scale of a
similar poetic celebration in the evening of the first day of the
conference at the University of Massachusetts, Boston (Thursday evening,
September 20, 2007, from 8:00 pm).

Sponsored by the William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Its Social Consequnecs and facilitated by the Director, Kevin Bowen, the program will be staged under the theme, “Hurrah for Thunder” (as a re-enactment of a similar event held at the Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, on June 20, 2007, under the auspices of the Christopher Okigbo Foundation). Participants will be enabled to hear
leading African poets, representing the older and younger postcolonial generations,
with the audience.

Among those expected at the reading, coordinated by Esiaba Irobi, are Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Gabriel Okara, John Pepper Clark, Michael J. C. Echeruo, Niyi Osundare, Dennis Brutus, Tanure Ojaide, Esiaba Irobi, Ifeanyi Menkiti, Ihechukwym Madubuike, Obiora Udechukwu, Ifi Amadiume, Chukwuma Azuonye, Chimalum Nwankwo, Syl Cheney-Coker, Obiageli Okigbo, Chinyere Okafor, Obi Nwakamma, Dubem Okafor, Steven Vincent, Ije Okigbo, Ijeoma Azuonye, and Olu Oguibe, among other past winners of the Christopher Okigbo Poetry

Prize as well as selected members of the Christopher Okigbo Society from
Nigeria, and of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). The program
will also include readings from the new anthology of memorial poems for
Okigbo, Crossroads, edited by Patrick Tagbo Oguejiofor and Uduma Kalu.
Above all, it will include songs and music inspired by, or related Okigbo’s oeuvre, as described here

THE ROBBERS are back in black hidden steps of detonators—
FOR BEYOND the blaze of sirened afternoons, beyond
the motorcades;
Beyond the voices and days, the echoing highways; beyond
the latescence
Of our dissonant airs; through the curtained eyeballs,
Onto our forgotten selves, onto our broken images;
beyond the barricades
Commandments and edicts, beyond the iron tables,
beyond the elephant’s
Legendary patience, beyond the inviolable bronze
bust; beyond our crumbling towers —

BEYOND the iron path careering along the same beaten track —
THE GLIMPSE of a dream lies smoldering in a cave,
together with the mortally wounded birds.

Christopher Okigbo, “Elegy for Alto” (Path of Thunder)

University of Massachusetts Boston independent student weekly newspaper, MassMedia, Volume XLII, Number 5, October 1, 2007:

Left to Right: Jemadari Kamara (Chair, Africana Studies, U Mass Boston); Obiageli Okigbo (Okigbo's daughter; President, Christopher Okigbo Foundation); Ambassador Sefi Judith Attah (Okigbo's Wife, Member, United Nations Human Rights Commission)

Left to Right: Obiageli Okigbo (Okigbo's daughter; President, Christopher Okigbo Foundation); Ambassador Sefi Judith Attah (Okigbo's Wife, Member, United Nations Human Rights Commission)Obiageli Okigbo (Okigbo's daughter; President, Christopher Okigbo Foundation); Ambassador Sefi Judith Attah (Okigbo's Wife, Member, United Nations Human Rights Commission) -- Closeup of above photo

Left to Right: Nobel Laureate, Poet, Playwright and Essayist, Wole Soyinka; Marc Prou (Associate Professor, U Mass Boston and Member, 2007 Okigbo Conference Committee); and Chukwuma Azuonye (Professor of African Literature U Mass Boston; Fellow W E B Du Bois Institute, Harvard University, and Convener, 2007 Okigbo Conference).

Sr Carol Ijeoma Njoku delivers her paper at the Conference

Ifeanyi Menkiti (Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College and Member, 2007 Okigbo Conference Committee)

Dennis Brutus, South African Poet and Social Activist

Rehana Dada and Patrick Bond at Joburg Climate Change conference, 12-13 September 2007

Practical ways to Achieve and Transcend Kyoto Protocol Targets

12 & 13 September 2007
Indaba Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg

DAY 1: Wednesday 12 September
08:00 Registration and early morning refreshments
08:50 Opening address by Dr. Maggi Linington, Dean: College of
Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, UNISA
09:00 Reasoning behind curbing Greenhouse Gas emissions
Rudi Pretorious, Lecturer, Department of Geography, UNISA
09:45 South Africa as primary African GHG producer
Prof Patrick Bond, Political Economist, School of Development Studies,
University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and Director: Centre for Civil Society
10:30 Mechanics of carbon transactions
Johann Scholtz, Partner, Webber Wentzel Bowens
11:00 CASE STUDY: Carbon trading: methane from rubbish
Rehana Dada, Broadcast Journalist, Researcher, Centre for Civil Society
11:45 International carbon market: Origin and development
Andrew Gilder, Director, Imbewu Enviro-Legal Specialists
12:30 Lunch
14:15 Designated National Authority (DNA) and CDM approval and processes
Olga Chauke, Deputy Director: Designated National Authority (DNA),
Department of Minerals and Energy (DME)
15:00 Afternoon refreshments
15:15 Importance of public and private partnerships (PPPs)
Robert Heffernan, Subnational Finance, International Finance Corporation
(IFC)
16:00 Is carbon trading the cure?
Prof Patrick Bond, Political Economist, School of Development Studies,
University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and Director: Centre for Civil Society
16:45 Closing remarks by chairperson

DAY 2: Thursday 13 September
08:00 Early morning refreshments
08:50 Opening remarks by chairperson
09:00 Overcoming barriers to CDM projects
Ciska Terblanche, Developer of CDM, Anglo American Group
09:45 GHG emission inventory for South Africa
Rina Taviv, Senior Researcher, Air Quality & Climate
Change, Natural Resources and Environment, CSIR
11:00 The role of development finance institutions in supporting Kyoto
Kumesh Naidoo, Programme Manager, Agency Unit,
Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)
10:30 Mid-morning refreshments
11:45 Progress with renewable energy technologies in South Africa
Jason Schäffler, Managing Director, Nano Energy
12:30 Lunch
13:30 South Africa and the global 2007 Carbon Disclosure Project
Emily Tyler, Senior Associate, Genesis-Analytics’ Climate Change Practice
14:15 South Africa and the Kyoto Protocol
Tim Trollip, Partner, Webber Wentzel Bowens
15:00 South Africa and the transition to a sustainable energy future
Stef Raubenheimer, CEO, SouthSouthNorth
15:45 Closing remarks by chairperson

Aethiopian/ African Millennium: Join I ‘n I in i-lebration, 2000! 11-12 September 2007

WHEN: Meskerem 1-2 2000 (11– 12 SEPTEMBER 2007)
TIME: 10AM– 7AM
WHERE: Open Air Theatre Ethekwini campus (UKZN)
CONTAKT: organizing committee
Ras Ricko: 0762994929
Ras Motho: 0764546007
Ras Yada:0761694690

To Chart A Course
We seek, at this meeting, to determine whither we are going and to chart the course of our destiny. It is no less important that we know whence we came. An awareness of our past is essential to the establishment of our personality and our identity as Africans–
H.I.M. Jah Rastafari,King of kings, Lord of lords, conquering lion of the tribe of Judah, root and offspring of King David– Haile Sellasie the First

Organized by Rastafari Isalem School - Kwa-Mashu with kind support from the Center for Civil Society (UKZN)
View Poster

Event Programme

Other uselful documents

Stolen days return: a case of the Aethiopian1/
African Millennium 2000

Azania rising- some thoughts and ises for the dawn of a new epoch.

Aethiopian/African Millennium 2000 at University of KwaZulu-(Introduction)

“Mene, Mene, Tekel, Ubenai Al”: Theocracy Order/ Jah Order.

A reading in solidarity with Zimbabwe, 9 September 2007

Join the UKZN CENTRE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY and KWASUKA THEATRE
53 Stamford Hill Rd, Greyville, Durban
In cooperation with the Peter Weiss Foundation for Art and Politics, Berlin

A reading in solidarity with Zimbabwe

SEPTEMBER 9, 2-5pm at KwaSuka Theatre free admittance (food & cash bar available) for more information, contact CCS at 031 260 3195

GCINA MHLOPE GRACE KWINJEH, DENNIS BRUTUS, ASHWIN DESAI and many Durban friends of Zimbabwe will join hundreds of world-renowned authors, poets, artists and activists who are gathering the world over to express concern and generate political solidarity on September 9.

The event is a global one-day readathon to raise consciousness about the plight of Zimbabweans who are struggling for social justice, democracy, freedom of expression and economic survival.

Zimbabweans resident in Durban are not makwerekwere, they are our sisters and brothers, we owe them our solidarity, we accept their lessons of struggle, we give them hospitality as they gave to us for decades... and yes, we worry that 'Zimbabwe is the trailer, South Africa is the movie'! - and the South African government's nurturing of Zimbabwe's repression must be fought at home

In addition to crucial information and videos about political, civil and socio-economic rights violations in Zimbabwe, this event features poems by Dennis Brutus (born in Harare, 1924), Chenjerai Hove, Chirikuré Chirikuré and Dumbudzo Marechara, as well as Elinor Sisulu's foreword written for the book Gukurahundi in Zimbabwe: A Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands 1980-1988

Grace Kwinjeh

Dennis Brutus

Ashwin Desai

This appeal for solidarity with Zimbabwe has been signed by:
Hector Abad, Colombia; Ali Abdollahi, Iran; Meena Alexander, India/USA; Tariq Ali, Pakistan/U.K.; Eugenijus Alisanka, Lithuania; Maria Teresa Andruetto, Argentina; Yuri Andrukhovych, Ukraine; Hanan Al-Shaykh, Lebanon/U.K.; Homero Aridjis, Mexico; Jorge Luis Arzola, Cuba/Germany; John Ashbery, USA; Margaret Atwood, Canada; Hanan Awwad, Palestine; Ricardo Azevedo, Brazil; Alessandro Baricco, Italy; Jeanne Benameur, France; Zofia Beszczynska, Poland; Piedad Bonnett, Colombia; Breyten Breytenbach, South Africa/France/Senegal; André Brink, South Africa; Martha Brooks, Canada; Pam Brown, Australia; Melvin Burgess, U.K.; Ian Buruma, Netherlands/USA; José Anibal Campos, Cuba; Raúl Antonio Capote, Cuba; Patricia Cavalli, Italy; Gianni Celati, Italy; Dilip Chitre, India; J.M. Coetzee, South Africa/Australia; Bora Cosic, Germany/Croatia; Edgardo Cozarinsky, Argentina; Alonso Cueto, Peru; Bei Dao, USA/China; Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine; Siddhartha Deb, India; Don DeLillo, USA; Xabier P. DoCampo, Spain; Ariel Dorfman, Chile; Tishani Doshi, India; Finuala Dowling, South Africa; Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, Russia; Dave Eggers, USA; Asli Erdogan, Turkey; Jeffrey Eugenides, USA/Germany; J. Glenn Evans, USA; Nuruddin Farah, Somalia/South Africa; Raymond Federman, USA; Enrique Fierro, Uruguay/USA; Christoph Fleischer, Germany; Jonathan Safran Foer, USA; Jon Fosse, Norway; Carlos Franz, Chile/Spain; Greg Gatenby, Canada; Jochen Gerz, Germany/ France; Natasza Goerke, Poland/Germany; Nadine Gordimer, South Africa; Ronnie Govender, South Africa; Jorie Graham, USA; Günter Grass, Germany; Ha Jin, China; Ulla Hahn, Germany; Ulf Peter Hallberg, Sweden/Germany; Philip Hammial, Australia; Aziz Hassim, South Africa; Milton Hatoum, Brazil; Paal-Helge Haugen, Norway; Hannes Heer, Germany; Daniel Hevier, Slovakia; Nick Hornby, U.K.; Jaime Huenún, Chile; David Huerta, Mexico; Jabbar Yassin Hussein, Iraq/France; Nancy Huston, Canada; Eirik Ingebrigtsen, Norway; Drago Jancar, Germany; Louis Jensen, Denmark; Keorapetse Kgositsile, South Africa; Ulrike Kistner, Germany/South Africa; Ko Un, Korea; Ingrid de Kok, South Africa; Nicole Krauss, USA; Ekkehart Krippendorff, Germany; Antjie Krog, South Africa; Hari Kunzru, U.K.; Goretti Kyomuhendo, Uganda; Simon Levy, USA; Vyvyane Loh, Malaysia/USA; Prof. Arno Lustiger, Germany; Chiara Macconi, Italy; Claudio Magris, Italy; Jamal Mahjoub, U.K./Denmark; Norman Manea, Romania/USA; Angeles Mastretta, Mexico; Federica Matta, France; Zakes Mda, South Africa; Abdelwahab Meddeb, Tunisia/France; Pauline Melville, U.K.; Amanda Michalopoulou, Greece; Poni Micharvegas, Argentina; Pankaj Mishra, India/USA; Adrian Mitchell, U.K.; Paul Muldoon, USA; Verónica Murguia, Mexico; Alberto Mussa, Brazil; Azar Nafisi, Iran/USA; Nabil Naoum, Egypt; Marie N`Diaye, France; Per Nilsson, Sweden/Denmark; Cees Nooteboom, Netherlands; Wilfried N'Sondé, Congo/Germany; Elsa Osorio, Argentina/Spain; Amos Oz, Israel; Michael Palmer, USA; Thorsten Palzhoff, Germany; Hagar Peeters, Netherlands; Hans Pienaar, South Africa; Henning J. Pieterse, Netherlands; Antonio José Ponte, Cuba; José Prats, Mexico; José Manuel Prieto, Cuba; Francine Prose, USA; Tania Quintero, Cuba/Switzerland; Laura Restrepo, Colombia; Adrienne Rich, USA; Raúl Rivero, Cuba/Spain; Santiago Roncagliolo, Peru; Alberto Ruy Sanchez, Mexico; Rolando Sánchez Mejías, Cuba/Spain; Faraj Sarkohi, Iran/Germany; Joachim Sartorius, Germany; K.S. Satchidanandan, India; Peter Schneider, Germany; Eugene Schoulgin, Norway; Hermann Schulz, Germany; Thomas Schwarz, Germany; Eduardo Sguiglia, Argentina; Ishtiyaq Shukri, South Africa; Nicholas Shakespeare, U.K.; Nasrin Siege, Iran/Germany; Manuel Sosa, Cuba/USA; Peter Stamm, Switzerland; Manil Suri, USA/India; Matthew Sweeney, Ireland/U.K.; Tajima Shinji, Japan; Veronique Tadjo, France/U.K.; Nathaniel Tarn, U.K./USA; Paulo Teixeira, Portugal; Ivan Thays, Peru; Annika Thor, Sweden; Peter Torberg, Germany; Jutta Treiber, Austria; Tenzin Tsundue, Tibet/India; John Updike, USA; Jane Urquhart, Canada; Chiara Valerio, Italy; Carolyn van Langenberg, U.K./Australia; Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru; Haris Vlavianos, Greece; Ornela Vorpsi, Albania; Abdourahman Waberi, Djibouti/France; Cécile Wajsbrot, France/Germany; Eliot Weinberger, USA; Renate Welsh-Rabady, Austria; Cao Wenxuan, China; Herbert Wiesner, Germany; Gernot Wolfram, Germany; Yang Lian, China/U.K.; Péter Zilahy, Hungary.

CCS - TriContinental Films Festival Screening, 7-23 September 2007

The Centre for Civil Society is hosting a series of films screening in the various communities in the surroundings of eThekwini. Films are arranged to be screened in the following communities:

Place: Inanda Newtown A
Venue: Abasha Offices
Date: 07 September 2007
Time: 18:00 – 21:00
Film: HIP HOP REVOLUTION

Hip Hop Revolution - South Africa, 2006. 48 mins.
Director: Weeam Williams

This visually stimulating film, pumping with the sound of unreleased classics, explores the 25 year journey of hip hop in South Africa, right from its birth on the Cape Flats, through the insurgence of black consciousness and the political uprising in the ‘80s that disrupted the education of many youths. Interviews with Prophets of da City and Shamiel X, the first-generation pioneers of hip hop, explain how the African American art form mirrored their experiences and gave ‘80s youth a medium to express themselves, inciting a timely sense of black pride.

Place: Chatsworth
Venue: Chatsworth Hall
Date: 16 September 2007
Time: 11:00 – 13:00
Feature Film : Enemies of our Happiness
Denmark, 2006. 58 mins.
Director: Eva Mulvad

Enemies of Our Happiness follows Afghanistan’s 2005 democratic parliamentary election, the first in over 30 years. Female candidate, Malalai Joya, is a controversial voice in a nation ruined by war and where tradition rules. Having survived repeated assassination attempts, she spreads her message surrounded by guards and impending danger. Will the presence of western soldiers be enough to help women gain political voice in a country where votes are for sale and women cannot leave their children to vote?

AWARDS
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)- Silver Wolf Award.
One World Human Rights Film Festival, Prague - Special Mention.
Sundance Film Festival, USA - World Cinema Jury Prize.

NB. – FREE ENTRY !!! (For more details contact Orlean Naidoo – 072 6712901/N. Mthembu – 076 1694 690)

TRI CONTINENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 2007 at UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL - Howard College

Venue: School of Development Studies - Seminar Room
Date: Thursday 20 September 2007
Time: 12:00noon - 15:00p.m

FIRST Feature Film : Paulo Freire, A Revolutionary Thinker – African Premiere
Brazil, 2007. 53 mins.
Director: Toni Venturi

Paulo Freire

A touching documentary on the thoughts and anthropology of the founder
of liberatory pedagogy, Paulo Freire. The movie shows us his educational
experiences in distant regions of Brazil, and demonstrates how his
revolutionary method is helping those who are unable to write and read.

SECOND Feature Film : The City That Kills Somalians – World Premiere
South Africa, 2007. 48 mins.
Director: Riaan Hendricks

Set in Cape Town, a city where socio-economic division exists largely on
racial lines, The City That Kills Somalians documents the stressed lives
of the city’s impoverished people. What starts out as an observational
film, builds into a story that draws the viewer into the uncomfortable
racial tensions of the city. Through intimate footage, this hard hitting
film sensitively unpeels the tough layers of Cape Town, giving voice to
the unspoken silence of a people in need to talk to each other.

NB. - FREE ENTRY !!! (For more details contact Molefi Ndlovu - 031- 260 3577/Ntokozo Mthembu - 031-260 2116)

Some of the films that will be screened during this festival include -

ON A TIGHTROPE
CUBA: AN AFRICAN ODYSSEY (Parts 1 and 2)
REQUIEM TO A REVOLUTION
HIP HOP REVOLUTION
COUNTING HEADZ
PAULO FREIRE A REVOLUTIONARY THINKERS
ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS
THE CITY THAT KILLS SOMALIANS

If you need screening in your organisation or community, please do not hesitate to consult the CCS Outreach desk – Ntokozo Mthembu at this tel. 031- 260 2116 or email: mthembun@ukzn.ac.za.
More

MESSAGE FROM THE ORGANISERS

The programme for our fifth annual festival is undoubtedly our best ever. We’ve selected some of the finest films we could lay our hands on from the three continents and will be hosting Cinema Nouveau sponsored by Jameson screenings across four cities – Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria. It is also the 30th anniversary of Steve Biko’s death and the festival wishes to acknowledge his legacy of raising consciousness and fighting for justice as our inspiration.

We have record numbers of local films lined up for you and the festival is a partner of the People to People Documentary Film Conference, taking place in Johannesburg (13th – 15th September). This means more appearances at screenings by international filmmakers as well as contributions from our own home grown local talent.

With 2007 marking the 40th anniversary of the death of another great hero, Che Guevara, we pay tribute with a selection of films showing the historical relationship between Cuba and Africa(Focus on Cuba). Children, the worst victims of war and poverty, often provide us with the most poignant social messages (Children’s Voices). We include a stunning selection of hip hop cinema (Young Urban Poets) showing music as an enduring political force and not forgetting 2010, we have a selection of films that celebrate the unity forged by the game of football (One Nil to Human Rights). In 2003 when we came up with the concept of showcasing human rights, conscious cinema from the three continents, we never expected the festival to become the touchstone for something much bigger. In fact, our festival has spread to India, where our partners, Breakthrough, run an annual event that reaches tens of thousands of people.

This important showcasing of red hot films that matter would not be possible without the backing and energy of numerous filmmakers, activists and various organizations that have lined up behind this exciting initiative and in particular, the financial support we receive from our partners. To all those who make this event possible, we offer our deepest gratitude.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our cooperating partners, The Human Rights Media Trust, Uhuru Productions, Lawyers for Human Rights, SACOD, FRU, The Mail and Guardian, Cinema Nouveau Screened by Jameson, Breakthrough, INPUT and “While You Were Sleeping”.

Furthermore, the festival would not be possible without the financial support and partnership of the National Film and Video Foundation, EU Conference Workshop Cultural Initiative Fund, Gauteng Film Office, SABC, Hivos, The Ford Foundation, The French Embassy, Spectrum Visual Networks, Timberland and The British Council Finally, a special thanks to the countless many who support our outreach programme, and all our staff and volunteers who have contributed to the festival this year.

Enjoy the festival!
Rehad Desai, Zivia Desai Keiper, Karam Singh, Anita Khanna, Liezel Vernuelen, Mohau Memeza, olekela Mkgapele, Mxolisi Mgoboza, Mpumi Malenga, Pshasha Seakamela.

The TriContinental Festival at Inanda7 September 2007: With Inanda Newtown youth organisation- Abasha

Screened film: Hip Hop Revolution - South Africa, 2006. 48 mins.
Director: Weeam Williams

Facilitated by Ntokozo Mthembu
Data captured by Molefi Ndlovu and Ntokozo Mthembu

Introduction
The TriContinental Festival at Inanda kick started at the backyard of one the “ghettos” of the members of Abasha Youth Organisation, due to the fact that the venue that was set for this event was overtaken by other serious community business. That led the youth to decide whether to proceed or postpone and that resulted in the show going on, despite such challenges.

The show is about to begin....

The show goes on....

Discussions
The participants were encouraged by the film, as it exposed them to the reality of livelihood of the youth in other parts of South Africa. It helped them to realise that survival conditions of the youths especially the Black youth are the same and that they must stand up and unite to face their daily struggles together. The film encouraged the Abasha members to continue with their struggles to be exposed to various avenues of knowledge that will help them to face their future. Currently, they remain unemployed, no support from various structures of the society to help them to mould their future and only open drugs, crime and vulnerability that forces them to become jail birds.

Lastly, it help them to strengthen individuals interests in various activities that will each one to be able to survive what they call the “perilous days”. The discussion went on as the ‘hip-hop’ is the one of the favourites of the youth in this time....

Let’s talk about it...

The end was not cool but the time was against the show and it was agreed to re-organise another activity, as part of the activity to encourage youth not to be submissive to alcohol, drugs and future destructive activities.

The CCS/Tri- Continental Film Screening at Chatsworth – 16 September 2007 (Lotus Primary School)

Screened film: Enemies of our Happiness, Denmark, 2006. 58 mins.
Director: Eva Mulvad

Facilitated by Ntokozo Mthembu
Data captured by Molefi Ndlovu and Ntokozo Mthembu

Introduction
CCS outreach team joined Orlean Naidoo and the community of Chatsworth for the screening of the TRI Continental Film Festival. The audiences braved the windy September day at Lotus Primary school; where about fifty community members had gathered for the screening.

The film on feature is the acclaimed director: Eva Mulvad’s Enemies of Happiness. A tale that tells of Afghani forced transition to democratic order through the barrel of US bombardment of the country 2004-2005. The story is told through the un-veiled eyes of a young woman who aspires to be a parliamentarian.

Film proceedings in pictures:……

Discussions
The post screening analysis and discussion was lively and revealing. With participants sharing the anguish of the lead actress (Malalai Joya), noting that whist she has to contend with actual physical bombardment of her motherland, she also has to resist the bombardment of patriarchal attitudes of the society she is trying to build anew.

Some participants felt the film bordered too closely to a propaganda tool to give legitimacy to the Bush government’s claim that the war on Afghanistan was intended to liberate women- which as has been repeatedly observed: is not truth.

In closure…
The community expressed gratitude and requested for another day to view other films included in the TRI-Continental Film Festival line up.

TRI CONTINENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 2007 at UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL - Howard College
- Thursday 20 September 2007

Feature Film: Paulo Freire, A Revolutionary Thinker – African Premiere
Brazil, 2007. 53 mins.
Director: Toni Venturi
Facilitated by Ntokozo Mthembu
Data captured by Molefi Ndlovu and Ntokozo Mthembu

Introduction
The TriContinental Festival visits the UKZN after meeting various communities within the surroundings of eThekwini Municipality. The film was intended for academic and students activists in general, as part of sharing ‘pedagogies’ learning, sharing and creating information.

The film proceedings in pictures......

Discussions
Some of the participants highlighted that the film helped in providing more light on the Frere’s community activities, as most participants knew the latter as the writer only. Other view suggested that it would be wise if the film included the early life/ ideology that influence the rise of Frere. Other participants proposed to rearranging the screening in order assist students in their respective departments to gain more understanding about Paulo Frere philosophy of ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’ in almost in all spheres of life.

A fine closing event for the Tri-continental film festival
.
The Center for Civil Society Outreach program was invited to the ceremony of closure and thanks giving hosted by the Tri Continental Film Festival on the 26th of September 2007. As a regular intervention, the Outreach desk could not partake in ceremonies of this kind without the confidence of mass. The key strategists and community soldiers were present overseeing the sea food feasting. A vote of thanks was extended to the CCS for being the first organization to begin a long term outreach element of the Tri-continental film festival. The evening was relaxed and festivities continued till late.

Here is a glance in pictures:

Dennis Brutus at Fort Hare, 29 August 2007

Activists blast ANC leaders as ‘Bantustan puppets’

By Brett Horner

VETERAN architects of the country’s liberation struggle yesterday berated the ANC government for acting like “puppets” of the former Bantustan state.The political and literary icons speaking at a Fort Hare University seminar roundly condemned the state’s capitalist bent and its “puppet” status to Britain and the US.Guest speaker and novelist Livingstone Mqotsi criticised government leaders for fawning over Western powers and pandering to their whims.

“The government is being used in the same way that the puppets of Bantustan were being used yesterday,” said Mqotsi, author of House Of Bondage and former executive member of the Cape African Teachers’ Association.

The amazing show of dissent during the gathering occurred at the same institution which produced many of the country’s current leaders and anti-apartheid activists, none more famous than former president Nelson Mandela.

Poet and activist Professor Dennis Brutus fuelled the discontent when he labelled the country’s new elite “Bantustanis”.

Brutus, who worked in the same chain gang with Mandela on Robben Island, roused the students by referring to a recent article in which he described South Africa as a “typically Bantustan state”.

The country met three conditions to qualify as such an entity:

l “You set up a bunch of leaders who become your political stooges;

l You have large reserves of cheap labour; and

l You create your own elite who are beneficiaries of the system.”

After whoops of appreciation from the audience, Brutus continued by saying that the majority of South Africans were living under worse conditions than those experienced during apartheid.

“The whole process of transformation is meaningless,” he said.

Outspoken East London doctor Costa Gazi, sitting in the audience, said government leaders deserved to be removed.

“Our government is acting like a Bantustan government because they are protecting the rights of the privileged.”

High on the agenda was what the panelists claimed was a lack of action by the state in transferring land into the hands of ordinary South Africans.

This, coupled with claims of tardy transformation in the country’s education system, generated hearty applause.

Apart from Mqotsi, other guest panelists at the seminar, organised by the university’s National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre and dubbed “Conversations Across Generations”, included brothers Sastri and Mda Mda, Richard Canca and Pumi Giyose, liberation stalwarts who all hail from the Eastern Cape.

Mda Mda, speaking on the history of annexed land in South Africa, said “the question of land has not yet been solved”.

Giyose said only three percent of land had been bought by the government and transferred into black hands.

“That Parliament was made by us. It has failed. We must make another Parliament,” thundered Giyose.

Students took their lead from the panelists and waded in, raising concerns about education.

Student Representative Council president Nomsa Mazwai said real issues, like changing the content of the curriculum, were constantly overlooked by focus on perennial problems, such as student finance, that remain unresolved.

“So often we get tricked and fight a war we shouldn’t be fighting,” she said.

Another student lamented what she called a gap between the education white people are afforded and that given to blacks. “The system does not work for black people. I don’t think it ever will,” she said.

Mqotsi said there was “no desire to change the system in a fundamental way”. The type of system needed was “education for rebels” where pupils and students were encouraged to debate and think independently.
www.dispatch.co.za

CCS joins SDCEA for Women's Day in South Durban, 9 August 2007

South Durban activists and the Khan family of Clare Estate

A death in Durban: Capitalist patriarchy, global warming gimmickry and our responsibility for rubbish
By Patrick Bond and Rehana Dada

PROGRAM FOR WOMEN’S DAY - 9TH AUGUST 2007

Starting at 10.00 am
Venue – Austerville Civic Centre

1. MC SHIRLEY SCULLARD PETERSEN
2. OPEN PRAYER CATHERINE GOORDEEN
3. WELCOME CATHERINE GOORDEEN
4. A FILM ON SAJIDA KHAN - BY THE CCS - 30 MINUTES PATRICK BOND
5. TRIBUTE TO LATE SAJIDA KHAN ZAKIA KIKIA – KHAN
6. A FEW WORDS ON SAJIDA KHAN A MEMBER OF SAJIDA FAMILY
7. PRESENTATION OF A PLAQUE TO SAJIDA’S FAMILY TILLEY STUART
8. CULTURAL ITEM SONG
9. CULTURAL ITEM DANCE
10. CULTURAL ITEM POETRY
11. THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN LOCAL STRUGGLES MRS. PERUMAL
12. THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN LOCAL STRUGGLES SHIRLEY EBRAHIM
13. CULTURAL ITEM SONG
14. CULTURAL ITEM DANCE
15. CULTURAL ITEM POETRY
16. A FEW WORDS ON SAJIDA KHAN BOBBY PEEK - GROUNDWORK
17. THE STRUGGLE OF WOMEN ALL OVER THIS COUNTRY CARMEL CHETTY FROM THE SMI
18. CULTURAL ITEM SONG
19. CULTURAL ITEM DANCE
20. CULTURAL ITEM POETRY
21. VOTE OF THANKS TILLEY STUART
22. CLOSING PRAYER JOYCE BARTMAN
23. LUNCH

For and behalf of the organizing committee:
• Tilley Stuart – 031 461 2846
• Mrs. Perumal – 031 461 3549
• Catherine Goordeen – 031 468 9982
• Shirley Scullard Petersen – 031 461 4764

SOUTH DURBAN COMMUNITY ENVIROMENTAL ALLIENCE SDCEA
Tel: +27 31 461-1991 P O Box 211150
Fax: +27 31 468-1257 Bluff, 4036
E-mail: sdcea@mail.ngo.za Kwazulu-Natal Web
http://www.h-net.org/~esati/sdcea/images.html South Africa The Right to Know, the Duty to Inquire, the Obligation to Act
www.sdcea.org.za

SMI report on Women's Day
By Roy Chetty

Women’s Day 2007 was observed at the Austerville Community Hall,
Wentworth last Thursday. The programme was put together jointly by South
Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), groundWork, Centre for
Civil Society (UKZN) and Social Movements Indaba (KZN). Communities from
greater Durban including Wentworth, Merebank, Lamontville, Umlazi,
Chatsworth, Clairwood, Marianridge participated in the 4 hour programme.

Environmental activist, the late Sajidha Khan, (also referred to as a
‘Eco-Warrior’) was remembered for her courageous struggle for clean air
in the Clare Estate / Springfield / Durban area. Several speeches were
made in her honour by fellow environmental activists, who also showed a
film of her successful international campaign against the World Bank’s
polluting plans for the Bissasar Road dumpsite. The community and
environmental organizations jointly presented Sajida’s family with a
plaque of honour.

Beautiful dances, playlets and poetry in honour of women everywhere were
performed by community artistes from the surrounding communities.
Comrades from Wentworth, Merebank, and Bayview spoke of the struggles of
poor women in their communities, and the SMI speaker remembered the
women martyrs and struggle icons of the South African freedom struggle,
highlighting the lives of Valliamah Moodliar, Victoria Mxenge, Florence
Mkhize and Sartjie Baartman.

Valliamah Moonsamy Moodliar’s immortal words whilst lying on her death
bed were remembered. The 16 year old child martyr, of the 1913
Satyagraha defiance march from the Transvaal to Natal, when asked by
Mohandas Gandhi if she repented having been jailed with hard labour for
her participation in the march, answered ‘Who would not want to die for
their motherland?’ Whilst Valliamah has been and is honoured in India,
she has yet to be officially acknowledged in the ‘new’ South Africa.

Victoria Mxenge, revolutionary, and widow of brutally murdered Griffiths
Mxenge (by South African Defence Force Askaris / hit-squads) was herself
gunned down, in 1985, for continuing the struggle. Her assassin claimed
that he was paid R5000 for the deed.

Florence Mkhize, known to all as Mum Flo, was remembered for her
lifelong struggle for freedom. She endured numerous imprisonments and
bannings. Special mention was made of Mum Flo’s pivotal role in the
formation and administration of Phambili High School in Carlisle Street,
Durban (in the period 1987-1996).

Sartjie Baartman, the young Khoisan woman, who was shipped to Europe at
the age of 21 (in 1810) was tormented by her colonial slave masters and
scientists. Called the ‘Hottentot Venus, she was ‘subjected to
humiliating public inspection’, ‘stared at, stripped, pinched, painted,
worshipped and ridiculed.’ After her premature death, a body cast was
made of her, and her body was dissected with the part placed in glass
jars on display in the French museums (until 1974).

The SMI wishes to thank the wonderful women of SDCEA for the hard work
they put in organizing the event. Let us always remember the sacrifices
and struggles of the downtrodden women of the world. Freedom is
non-negotiable!

Patrick Bond on Zimbabwe's economic crisis (with Zimcodd in Harare) 1 August & New Zimbabwe lecture, 31 July 2007

What today’s looting of Africa
tells us about tomorrow’s
looting of Zimbabwe

A New Zimbabwe Lecture
for the Zimbabwe Research Foundation
31 July 2007, Harare

By Patrick Bond
Professor, School of Development Studies
University of KwaZulu-Natal

Pinpointing Zimbabwe’s economic crisis

When did Zimbabwe’s apparently endless economic downturn actually begin? Here are some answers:

February 2000 when Robert Mugabe began authorising land invasions;

November 1997 when ‘Black Friday’ decimated the currency’s value (by 74% in four hours);

the prior months when war vets were given pensions and Zimbabwe put troops into the Democratic Republic of the Congo to back the Kabila regime and secure investment sites;

September 1991 when the stock market crashed once interest rates were raised to high real levels at the outset of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap);

the early 1980s, not long after Mugabe took power; or

around 1974, when per capita Gross Domestic Product began a fall which has not yet reversed itself.

Programme for the ZIMCODD Civil Society Organisations National Conference on the Economic Crisis in Zimbabwe: TOWARDS A LASTING SOLUTION

Crowne Plaza Hotel, Harare
1-2 August 2007

Opening Session, Chairperson: Vitalis Meja, Afrodad Policy/Advocacy
Director
8:00 Registration and welcome Tea
8:30 Welcoming remarks and introductions: Jonah Gokovah ZIMCODD Board
Chairperson
8:50 Historic and global factors that contextualise the current
socio-economic crisis:
Patrick Bond, Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
9:20 Government of Zimbabwe policies: Charles Mujajati, Director for
Economic Affairs, Ministry of Economic Development
9:50 Plenary discussion
10:30 Tea / coffee Break

Second session, Chairperson – Rutendo Hadebe, Women in Politics Support Unit
11:00 Learning from past mistakes: A review of Zimbabwe’s economic policies, Lovemore Kadenge, President, Zimbabwe Economics Society
11:30 Macroeconomic management of hyperinflation: Latin American experiences
Martin Krause, Professor, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
12:00 Plenary discussion
12:45 LUNCH

Third session: Scenarios and group work
14:00 Four scenarios for August 1 2008: Joy Mabenge and Patrick Bond
14:40 Scenario planning: a) improved coping mechanisms and b)
transformation
Group discussion (including informal tea time)
Group 1: Women
Group 2: Human Resources and the plight of workers and youth
Group 3: Health sector including People living with HIV and Aids
16:30-17:00 Report-back and End of Day One

Day 2 Fourth Session In the Chair TBA
8:30 Recap of Day One
8:45 Getting the fundamentals right: Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, MP
for Glen Norah (and Public Accounts Committee chairperson)
9:15 Alternative Models for Pro-People Economic Development: Naome
Chakanya, Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe
9:45 A Lasting Solution to Zimbabwe’s Economic Crisis:
Deprose Muchena, Democracy and Governance Specialist
Plenary
10:45 Tea & Coffee Break

Fifth Session Chair TBA
11:15 Group discussions on plan of action
12:00 Group reportback
12:30 Resolutions and closure
13:00 Lunch

End of Conference

On August 1-2, ZIMCODD convened a landmark national consultative conference on Zimbabwe's economic crisis at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Harare. The conference titled, ZIMCODD CSO National Conference on the Economic Crisis in Zimbabwe: Towards a Lasting Solution attracted over 70 participants including renowned economists, academics, government representatives, the business society, members of the Civil Society, labour representatives, students, the media, among other stakeholders. Presenters were drawn from Argentina, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The conference culminated in an insightful and progressive debate whose outcomes will go a long way towards a lasting solution to Zimbabwe's economic crisis. We are pleased to share with you a comunique that came out of the conference for your information, further circuation and actioning. For a full report on the conference please contact ZIMCODD on the address given below:

The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt & Development-ZIMCODD-

Communiqué of the CSO conference on the Zimbabwe Economic Crisis: Towards a lasting Solution August 2-2 2007, Crowne Plaza, Harare

We,the participants of the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) CSO Conference on the Economic Crisis in Zimbabwe: Towards a lasting Solution held in Harare on 1-2 August 2007, representing various civil society groups, social movements, mass organizations, trade unions, business, academia, noting the following concerns:

The hyperinflationary environment prevailing in Zimbabwe with inflation reaching 7251% (June 2007) pushing the majority of Zimbabweans into abject poverty, hitting women, children and people living with HIV/AIDS the hardest.

the worsening poverty levels with more than 80% of Zimbabwe’s Population living below the Poverty Datum Line,

the continued crisis of poor export earnings and negative Balance of Payments,
The socio-economic policy inconsistencies on the part of government resulting in lack of long term policy framework for example, the Zimbabwe Programme for Economic and Social Transformation (ZIMPREST), National Economic Revival Program (NERP) and the National Economic Development Priority Program (NEDPP) only lasting for a few months and failing to achieve any meaningful development and,

Observing that:

The Zimbabwe economic crisis is complex and of a historical nature owing to years of colonialism and poor policies of the postcolonial state. The country inherited over USD 700 million^[1] external debts from the colonial regime and went through a highly consumptive period before adopting an equally destructive Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes (ESAP). As at December 2006, the Official External Debt figures stood at US$4, 2 billion and US$2, 2 billion in arrears. Recently, massive domestic borrowing has seen the domestic debt ballooning to 8 trillion as of July 6 (Zimbabwe Independent August 10-16)

The country also inherited a dual economy biased towards the formal sector at the expense of the informal sector resulting in unequal distribution of resources and the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.

Government acknowledges that the economy is in a crisis

Government is adopting policies and measures to deal with the hyperinflation that have failed dismally in other countries.

We believe that:

The complexity of the economic crisis, particularly the complexity of fiscal management under the current circumstances requires unorthodox solutions. The state is now a captive state, unproductive and paralyzed by polarized partisan politics.
The alarming rate of increase of domestic debt and the huge overhang of external debt is never accounted for

The general deterioration of moral value system leading to rampant corruption is disturbing.

There is a general absence of a common progressive ideology for the country with splinter ne-oliberal and anti-neoliberal policy projections confusing the economy.

We resolved that:

Prudent economic political and social governance is central to the solving the current crisis.

A national Debt audit is important to establish the legitimacy of debts owed by Zimbabwe

A review of public social and economic priorities and the alignment of national budgets to agreed social and economic policies

Government must stop implementing neo-liberal policies and a shift to people-driven policies

Government must effectively utilize its human material and natural resources for sustainable development.

a shock of confidence will be required for Zimbabwe to turn around its economy. That is there is need for a rebirth, a renewal in the country’s social, economic and political system to foster legitimacy and confidence in the generality of Zimbabweans.

Contact ZIMCODD
5 Orkney Road, Eastlea, Harare
P.O.Box 8840, Harare
Tel/Fax: +263 4 77683/1e-mail: zimcodd@zimcodd

[1] Bond, P. & Manyanya , M, (2002), Zimbabwe’s Plunge: Exhausted Nationalism, Neoliberalism and the Search for Social Justice, University of Natal Press, South Africa, p.17

Simbiso Marimbe Marasha
Information & Communications Officer
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD)
5 Orkney Road, Eastlea, Harare
P.O. Box 8840, Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel/Fax: +263 4 776830/1
Website: www.zimcodd.org.zw
INVESTING IN PEOPLE FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Background Documents

The Economic Crisis in Zimbabwe: Contextual Historical and Global Factors
By Patrick Bond Presented to the Zimcodd/AFSC conference Towards a Lasting Solution

Competing Explanations of Zimbabwe’s Long Economic Crisis
By Patrick Bond

Labor, the State, and the Struggle for a Democratic Zimbabwe
Patrick Bond & Richard Saunders

Zimbabwe’s Hide & Seek with the IMF: Imperialism, Nationalism & the South African Proxy
By Patrick Bond

Other Publications on Zimbabwe from the CCS Website

Alexander, Peter (2000) ‘If Things Don’t Work Out, We Try Other Means’: Zimbabwean Workers, the MDC and the 2000 Election.. Review of African Political Economy 85: -.
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All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region and Genocide Prevention (2002) Cursed by Riches:Who Benefits from Resource Exploitation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?. All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region and Genocide Prevention : 1-52.
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Bond Patrick (2007) Competing Explanations of Zimbabwe’s Long Economic Crisis. Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies : 1-24.
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Bond, Patrick (2002) Zimbabwe: On the Brink of Change, Or of a Coup?. Z-mag January 30: -.
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Bond, Patrick (2005) Anti- (sub) imperial Solidarity: The Case Of SA – Zimbabwe. CCS & Znet : -.
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Bond, Patrick (2007) The Economic Crisis in Zimbabwe: Contextual Historical and Global Factors . Presented to the Zimcodd/AFSC conference Towards a Lasting Solution : 1-33.
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Bond, Patrick (2007) The Struggle for Democracy in Zimbabwe: Confronting the Long Economic Crisis. University of California-Berkeley Center for African Studies : 1-15.
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Bond, Patrick & Moore, David (2005) Zimbabwe: Elections, despondency and civil society's responsibility . Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Bond, Patrick and Patel, Raj (2002) Zimbabwe's Rip-Off Poll. Z-mag March 15: -.
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Booysen, Susan (2003) The Dualities of Contemporary Zimbabwean Politics: Constitutionalism versus the Law of Power and the Land, 1999-2002. Centre for African Studies : 1-31.
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Cameron, Edwin (2002) Address as the Bar Conference Dinner. : 1-12.
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Carmody, Pádraig and Taylor, Scott (2002) Industry and the Urban Sector in Zimbabwe’s Political Economy. African Studies Quarterly : 1-29.
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Chikowore, Godfrey (2003) The African Union and the destiny of Africahood: addressing millennium challenges of neo-colonial tendencies in the struggle for consolidating the Pan-African foundations with specific reference to the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).. Codesria 30th anniversary conference : 1-21.
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Chikwanha, Annie & Sithole, Tulani & Bratton, Michael (2004) The power of propaganda: Public opinion in Zimbabwe, 2004. Afro-barometer 42: 1-39.
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Chimedza, Tinashe (2005) The social forum alternative in Zimbabwe, and Africa perhaps . Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Chimedza, Tinashe L (2004) Criminalisation of Poverty in Zimbabwe. Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Chiremba, Sophia and Masters, William (2003) The Experience of Resettled Farmers in Zimbabwe . African Studies Quarterly : 1-.
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Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa Newsletter, Editors (2002) An April of Death. We are everywere : 0-0.
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Dingani, Mavuso (2004) Wolpe Review: Building and Sustaining....a Women's Movement in the Zimbabwean Crisis . Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Dingani, Mavuso (2004) A Foreign Country . Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Essof, Shereen (2006) Zimbabwean Women in Movement . Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Gonda, Violet & others (2006) Zimbabwean Women Speak. SW Radio Africa's Hotseat Programme : -.
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Gumbo, Hopewell (2002) Zimbabwean Civil Society: a report from the front lines (July 2002). Special Report for the CCS Website : -.
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Gumbo, Hopewell (2004) Mobilizing in the Conjuncture: a report from Zimbabwe . Zvakwana, Sokwanele, : -.
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Hlela, Nontobeko (2002) What are the Challenges Facing the Newly Restructured SADC OPDS, Given That a Number of Member States in SADC Continue to Be at War or in Political Crisis?. : -.
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Hopewell Gumbo (2004) Mobilizing in the Conjuncture: a report from Zimbabwe. Zvakwana/Sokwanele : -.
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Hunter, G. F., L and Farren, A (2001) Voices of Zimbabwe; The Pain, The Courage, The Hope.. South Africa, Alfa (Pvt) Ltd : -.
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ICFTU (2005) INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS. ICFTU : -.
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Kagoro, Brian (2002) Can Apples be Reaped From A Thorn Tree?: A Case Analysis of the Zimbabwean Crisis and NEPAD’s Peer Review Mechanism?. Presented to the Southern Africa Research Poverty Network (SARPN) and Center For Civil Society Workshop on Engaging NEPAD: Government and Civil Society Speak to One Another: July 4th, University of Natal, Durban : 1-20.
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Kamete, Amin (2002) Governing the Poor in Harare, Zimbabwe: Shifting Perceptions and Changing Responses. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet Research Report: No. 122: 1-67.
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Kapuya, Tapera (2004) Conditions Necessary for a Free and Fair Election in Zimbabwe. Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Karumbidza, J. B. (2004) COSATU’s Harare Debacle and Alliance Headaches: Encounters with the Constitutional Underpinnings of the Zimbabwean Crisis . Economic History and Development Studies, UKZN : -.
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Karumbidza, John (Blessing) (2004) The Miracle that Never Was: Reconsidering Agrarian Reform in Zimbabwe, 1980 -2000 . Centre for Civil Society : 1-27.
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Karumbuza, John (2004) The miracle that never was: re-considering agrarian reform for African households in post-independence Zimbabwe

. UKZN History Department : -.
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Kriger, Norma (2003) War Veterans: Continuities Between the Past and the Present. African Studies Quarterly : 1-14.
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Laakso, Liisa (2003) Opposition Politics in Independent Zimbabwe. African Studies Quarterly : 1-19.
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Larmer, Miles (2005) Zimbabwe, 2005 - Social Movements Come of Age?. Indy Media South Africa : -.
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Larmer, Miles (2005) Zimbabwe, 2005 - Social Movements Come of Age?. Indymedia South Africa : -.
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Majavu, Mandisi (2005) Zimbabwe, Burundi, and The Media. Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Majavu, Mandisi & Weekes, Anna (2005) Zimbabwe Caterpillars . Zmag : -.
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McKinley, Dale T (2003) Commodifying Oppression: South African Foreign Policy towards Zimbabwe under Mbeki . Anti-Privatisation Forum : -.
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Melber, H (2002) Zimbabwean's Presidential Elections 2002; Evidence, Lesson and Implication. . Uppsala, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. : -.
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Moore, David (2003) Zimbabwe's Triple Crisis: Primitive Accumulation, Nation-State Formation and Democratisation in the Age of Neo-liberal Globalisation. African Studies Quarterly : 1-18.
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Moore, David (2004) Unmasking Zanu PF hypocrisy about NGOs. Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Moyo, E. Lovemore (2002) Zimbabwe's Elections Not Free Or Fair. Z-Mag March 20: -.
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Moyo, Sam (2003) The Land Question in Africa: Research Perspectives and Questions. Codesria 30th anniversary conference : 1-35.
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Musuka, Godfrey (2006) Preliminary exploration of views from health civil groups on current health legislation of Zimbabwe. CCS Grant Report : 1-16.
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Mwanzota, John (2003) Food Riots in Zimbabwe: Signs of things to come or media fantasy? . CCS Special Report : 1-5.
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Mwanzota, John (2004) Reporting on the alleged ‘Coup Plotters’ and ‘Mercenary Plane’ in Zimbabwe: Degrees in ‘Propagandeering’ and Political Opportunism. Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Mwanzota, John (2004) The Campaign Against Corruption and Militarisation of ZANU PF: Last Kicks of a Dying Horse or Striving for Another Lease of Life? . Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Ngugi, Mukoma (2005) Can Zimbabwe become Africa’s Cuba?. Zmag : -.
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Nyakudya, Morris (2003) Beyond the usual suspects: The role of civil society, farmers and donors in Zimbabwe political liberalisation. CCS Grant Report : 1-37.
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Raftopoulos, Brian (2004) Nation, race and history in Zimbabwean politics. Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Raftopoulos, Brian (2005) The Zimbabwean Crisis and the Challenges for the Left.. CCS Seminar Series : -.
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Ranger, Terence (2003) Historiography, Patriotic History and the History of the Nation: the struggle over the past in Zimbabwe
. Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Semwayo, Moses (2004) An investigation into the causes of political violence during the March 2002 Presidential election in Zimbabwe, with particular reference to Rusitu Valley, Chimanimani district.
. Africa University : 1-49.
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Sithole, Bevlyne & others (2002) Narratives on Land: State-Peasant Relations Over Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe. African Studies Quarterly : 1-17.
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Social Movement observer delegation to Zimbabwe (2004) Report by Social Movement observer delegation to Zimbabwe . Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Tafadzwa Muropa, Roberta (2006) Steve Biko’s legacy in the Zimbabwean crisis:. Centre for Civil Society : -.
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The International Crisis Group (2004) Blood and Soil: Land politics and conference prevention in South Africa. The International Crisis Group : 1-24.
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The Mass Public Opinion Institute (2003) Issues surrounding The Formation of a Transitional government in Zimbabwe. The Mass Public Opinion Institute : 1-27.
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Tshabangu, B (2003) Prison For Us Dogs Who Lack The Right Papers. IRINnews.org January 20: -.
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Tsvangirai, Morgan (2002) The Zimbabwe Crisis and the Way Forward: Remarks by Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai, President of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Mass Public Opinion Seminar September: -.
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various (2004) Zimbabwe Under Siege: A Canadian Civil Society Perspective. Centre for Civil Society : 1-31.
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Win, Everjoice J. (2004) Happy Birthday Bob and Me. Centre for Civil Society : 1-3.
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ZCTU (2005) DECLARATION FROM THE ZCTU ELECTED LEADERSHIP. ZCTU : -.
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Zeilig, Leo (2003) Zimbabwe: Mass Action by Remote Control. Indy Media : -.
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Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (2003) Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions: Position Papers.. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions : 0-0.
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Zimbabwean civil society organisations (2004) Liberalisation taking away people's rights. Centre for Civil Society : -.
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Social Policy masters course by Patrick Bond, 30 July-27 August 2007

The Political Economy of the Welfare State 2007

Course Presenter: Patrick Bond
Tel: 260 2454
Email: bondp@ukzn.ac.za

Introduction
The overall aim is to survey and engage with debates over the appropriate forms of state intervention in selected fields of social policy. ‘Political economy’ refers to the overall configuration of power relations in public policy formulation, which in turn is an outcome of institutional evolution, accumulation processes, social struggles and other factors both global and domestic. ‘The Welfare State’ is a phrase that emerged to describe northern societies during the Keynesian, social-democratic era, but analysis of welfare state functions can also be usefully translated to other settings.

South Africa is the primary case site, but other countries in the global North and South will be considered. The course provides an overview of key political economic developments in relation to development and state policies, with attention to global processes and African state/society/economic relations. In South Africa, we will consider how the most significant socio-economic development policies were adopted during the first 13 years of ANC rule (1994-2007), and their results, augmented by a general theoretical and comparative survey of how such policies are formulated and influenced in other states
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Patrick Bond in Caracas for Seminars on Capitalism, Climate Change and Africa, 26 and 27 July 2007

CONFERENCIA: “EL CAPITALISMO, CRISIS ECOLÓGICA Y EL SOCIALISMO”

El Centro Internacional Miranda Invita a la Conferencia: EL CAPITALISMO,
CRISIS ECOLOGICA T EL SOCIALISMO.

Ponentes:
David Barkin
Patrick Bond
Juan Luis Martin
Cooperantes Internacionales del CIM

Día: 27 de Junio de 2007
Lugar: Centro Internacional Miranda.
Residencias Anauco Suites, PH. Parque Central.

Lugar: CENTRO INTERNACIONAL MIRANDA
Fecha: 27-07-2007
Hora: 09:00
Contacto: CENTRO INTERNACIONAL MIRANDA

¿Qué entender por imperialismo hoy?
¿Cuál es el contexto dentro del cual Venezuela está intentando avanzar hacia el socialismo para el siglo XXI? ¿Qué está pasando con el capitalismo global en la actualidad?

¿Cuáles son las posibilidades de resistencia en el nivel internacional hoy?

Como parte de su programa de talleres sobre el socialismo y el desarrollo humano, el Centro Internacional Miranda está muy contento de poder presentarles a tres especialistas internacionales, expertos en China y Asia del este, África del sur y México en un panel que se titula, “Capitalismo global, neo-liberalismo y socialismo” y que tendrá lugar el día jueves 26 de julio.

Michael Lebowitz, el coordinador del programa del CIM sobre Práctica transformadora y desarrollo humano, ha dicho que “lo que está pasando en Venezuela no está ocurriendo en el vacío. Y por consiguiente, nos parece muy importante poder reunir a Patrick Bond, un geógrafo sudafricano y marxista que es un analista destacado del capitalismo global y el neo-liberalismo en África del sur; a David Barkin, un economista marxista mexicano que ha investigado los efectos del neo-liberalismo en México; y a Martin Hart-Landsberg, un economista marxista de los Estados Unidos, experto en el desarrollo actual del capitalismo en Corea del Sur y en China a conversar sobre estos temas”. Lebowitz argumentó que la lucha contra el capitalismo debe basarse en un conocimiento de sus puntos fuertes y débiles y considera, por lo tanto, que estos “tres intelectuales orgánicos de renombre internacional pueden ayudar al proceso revolucionario en Venezuela compartiendo sus conocimientos con nosotros.”

El panel tendrá lugar en las instalaciones del Centro Internacional Miranda en el Pent House del Anauco Residencias Suites, final Avenida Bolívar a las 9am el jueves 26 de julio de 2007 y será abierto al público interesado.

CCS 'Civil Society & Development' course, Richard Ballard, 9 July 2007

Seminar 3: Social movements in South Africa. Mon 9 Jul 14:00-16:30 by Richard Ballard

Although much of the oppositional force of civil society of the 1980s
was demobilised in the 1990s, there have been growing grassroots
expressions of frustration at continued levels of poverty, the slow
progress on land reform, lack of access to HIV/Aids treatment, poor
service and housing provision. These have been described by some as a
possible counterweight to ANC dominance, but is it right to say that
they form a kind of substitute opposition party? After all, many members
of social movements are ANC members. The purpose of this session is to
understand the politics of social movements in post apartheid South Africa.

Required reading:
Barchiesi, Franco (2004) Classes, Multitudes and the Politics of
Community Movements in Post-apartheid South Africa. CCS Research report
No. 20

Greenstein, Ran (2003) ‘Civil Society, Social Movements and Power in
South Africa’ unpublished RAU Sociology seminar paper

Friedman, Steven & Mottair, Shauna (2006) ‘Seeking the High Ground: The
Treatment Action Campaign and the Politics of Morality’ in Ballard,
Richard; Adam Habib & Imraan Valodia (eds) Voices of Protest: Social
Movements in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University
of KwaZulu-Natal Press. pp23-43

Additional reading:
Alexander, Peter (2003) ‘Anti-globalisation movements, identity and
leadership: Trevor Ngwane and the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee’
Paper for South African Sociological Association, Durban, 27 June to 1
July 2003

Everatt, D., (2003) The Politics of Poverty, in Everatt, D. & Maphai,
The [Real] State of the Nation – South Africa after 1990. INTERFUND,
Development Update, Special Edition. November 2003. pp.75 – 99.

Greenberg, S. (2004) The Landless People’s Movement and the Failure of
Post-Apartheid Land Reform. Forthcoming research report, Social
Movements Project, Centre for Civil Society and School of Development
Studies, University of KwaZulu- Natal.

Greenberg, Stephen and Ndlovu, Nhlanhla (2004) ‘Civil Society
Relationships’ Development Update Vol 5 no 2, pp. 23-28

MacDonald, D.A. & Pape, J., (2002) Cost Recovery and the Crisis of
Service Delivery in South Africa. HSRC/ Zed Books. Pp. 1-13

McKinley, Dale & Veriava, Ahmed Arresting Dissent Centre for the Study
of Violence and Reconciliation

Miraftab, Faranak (2004) ‘Invited and Invented Spaces of Participation:
Neoliberal Citizenship and Feminists’ Expanded Notion of Politics’
Wagadu Vol 1 (1), http://web.cortland.edu/wagadu/issue1/Miraftab.html

Pithouse, Richard (2004) Solidarity, Co-option and Assimilation: The
necessity, promises and pitfalls of global linkages for South African
movements Draft paper

Pithouse, Richard (2005) ‘The Left in the Slum: the rise of a shack
dwellers’ movement in Durban, South Africa’

Ruiters, Greg (2004) ‘Depoliticization and de-activation in the new
South Africa: local services and political identity’ Presented at Africa
- The Next Liberation Struggle: Socialism, Democracy, Activism.
Conference held at York - October 15 & 16 2004

Also go to ccs.ukzn.ac.za/default.asp?5,56 for social movements research reports

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Book Launch: Fit to Govern: The Native Intelligence of Thabo Mbeki Ronald Suresh Roberts, Patrick Bond & Percy Ngonyama 6 July 2007

Date: Friday, 06 July 2007
Time: 17:00
Venue: UKZN, Westville Campus Graduate School of Business (GSB)

The Graduate School of Business is next to the Temple , on the north end of the Campus , close to the Reservoir Hills entrance/exit . The event will probably start at 5.15 or shortly thereafter , to allow for those who might get stuck in traffic .

There is some parking outside the GSB , with a larger car park adjacent .

Entrance to this event is free . Hosted by The Centre for Civil Society

BOOK AUTHOR: RONALD SURESH ROBERTS IN COMPANY WITH BHEKI KHUMALO

REVIEWER: Prof. Patrick Bond

60 MIN. FOR AUDIENCE

Confirm attendance before 5 July 2007 seats limited
Xolani Dube - 0823524277
thepride@webmail.co.za
thecampuswitness@webmail.co.za

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Ronald Suresh Roberts

Patrick Bond reviews Ronald Suresh Roberts' Fit to Govern

Unending denialism was on display at the UKZN Westville campus at our booklaunch/debate. Mbeki is not an AIDS denialist – in spite of ‘I’ve never known anyone who died of AIDS’ – or, according to Bheki Khumalo, a Burma liberation denialist, or even a supporter of the Washington Consensus. Aside from wicked fibbing, Suresh and Bheki failed to rebut the vast majority of charges thrown at them and Mbeki, especially by a raucus audience who repeatedly reminded us of reasons for the M&G’s front-page headline yesterday: ‘SA’s TIME BOMB’. At the outset, host Xolani Dube shocked the crowd by revealing that the person who had initially agreed to chair the event had just pulled out, citing fear of being seen as on one side of the society’s huge pro/anti-Mbeki gulf. Suresh then opened on the attack by raising a minor controversy over my temporary refusal to meet AIDS dissident Janine Roberts – which she distorts on her website – and recounted that the last time we dueled, at the UCT Centre for Conflict Resolution last November, I had the advantage of popping up powerpoint slides on a big screen behind him that contradicted his riff, and he was happy there was no laptop around. Bheki Khumalo was predictable. Percy Ngonyama spoke eloquently about presidential and ruling party hypocrisy. Here’s what I read out:

Is Ronald Suresh Roberts’ Fit to Govern fit to defend Mbeki from (mainly) ‘illiberal’ critics of different hues?

We are here tonight to celebrate this work, one of just four book-length treatments of the regime not authored by Mbeki himself. These discussions are overdue so I will take advantage of the rare chance to confront a public defender of Mbekism.

Debate has been stifled, and not, Suresh, by the illiberals. Just last Thursday the Centre for Civil Society hosted the world premiere of the documentary film Mbeki Unauthorised, and nearly 800 people jammed a conference centre to learn why the SABC has prevented them from seeing this film and making up their own minds. It’s a balanced film, yet up to the last minute we were threatened by the SABC who incorrectly claimed ownership and the right to continue their absurd banning order.

Suresh and Bheki, won’t you please send an email to Dali Mpofu tomorrow and insist he join in the spirit of robust political dialogue we are striving for here in this room, and finally show the film to the public?

As for the book, Suresh has positioned himself as a radical intellectual, and unfortunately all the critiques of his book I’ve heard to date – until Percy Ngonyama a few minutes ago - presume he genuinely speaks from the left.

This position, he clarifies, is distinct from those he (and Mbeki) call the ‘ultraleft’: Naomi Klein, John Pilger, John Saul, Alex Callinicos and myself, though tellingly he neglects legions of homegrown, grassroots, shopfloor activists – like Percy - who have made SA the world’s most protest-intense society per capita (nearly 6000 measured by police in 2005, not to mention the record 11 million strike days lost this year).

Against activist concerns that Mbeki mainly uses the state against the ANC low-income base, Suresh’ spurious defense relies upon the ruling party’s ability to win (not earn) votes, which in turn follows the failure – so far - of trade unions to launch a workers’ party, which in turn is part of our ultraleft lament. Suresh’s critique is thus moot.

Here’s a trivial but interesting question from both ultraleftists and illiberals: is Suresh fit to receive R1.4 million for this job from a bank, ABSA, whose nose was browned deep within Pretoria’s National Party bum long before Chris Stals’ notorious Reserve Bank bailout in the early 1990s? (Suresh’s other crony capitalist sponsors are Vodacom, CNA, Siemens and Interactive Africa.)

Notwithstanding the lefty vocabulary, Fit to Govern was a relatively safe gamble for ABSA verligtes - far safer than their financing support for Robert Mugabe, a man whom Suresh would learn far more about from Moeletsi than Thabo Mbeki.

(Moeletsi has revealed his older brother’s fear that revulsion against Mugabe by urban poor/working people of Zimbabwe is comparable to the situation here, hence the need to signal SA trade unionists that it is futile to start an opposition party.)

Demonstrating his anti-worker credentials, Suresh’s last M&G outing, for example, excitedly compared the Congress of SA Trade Unions to a corrupt Venezuelan labour movement allied with US imperialism against Hugo Chavez.

That bit of trickery, denounced by Drew Forrest and others last year, is not made in this book, though Chavez and Cosatu are mischaracterised in other ways.

For example, a chart with SA, Brazil and Venezuela statistics shows only that Suresh tortures the data, until they confess.

Cosatu is criticised mainly because Tony Leon admits labour has been tougher on issues of mutual concern than the Democratic Alliance – but the ANC’s alliance with the DA against unveiling campaign funders is not mentioned.

Indeed if disguising real power relationships is what an Mbeki biography most needs, Suresh is eminently fit to spin.

Thus on the one hand it’s refreshing for Suresh to rubbish Jonathan Oppenheimer’s bold query, ‘What’s wrong with policy capture if it’s good policy?’

On the other, to answer properly would require confronting the cronyism so commonplace in the ANC that treasurer-general Mendi Msimang has just defended receipt of Brett Kebble’s stolen spoils: R3,5 million in bribes ‘were for value received’ in ‘indirect benefits’.

Speaking of reactionary alliances, characteristically, Suresh does not trouble to explain how, if Mbeki was opposed to the Iraq War, he stood by in early 2003 while Denel sold R1.4 billion worth of weaponry to the British army and US Marines.

At Mbeki’s explicit urging, Suresh regurgitates some excellent Frantz Fanon, but highlights the anti-colonial psychological project rather than dwelling upon Fanon’s materialist attack on the neocolonial collaborator (in The Wretched of the Earth chapter on Pitfalls of National Consciousness), a role Mbeki plays so well on the stage of reality.

Wasn’t it Mbeki who declared in 2002, after joining the G8 meeting in Canada, that his visit ‘signifies the end of the epoch of colonialism and neocolonialism’?

Suresh spins left instead. He opens a chapter on ‘Muscular Liberalism’, with smoke and mirrors: ‘Mbeki’s robust engagements with companies such as Anglo American reflect the ANC’s determination to protect democracy from a history of corporate oligarchy’.

Robust? Come off it Suresh, the decision eight years ago to let Anglo and DeBeers (and several other huge companies) flee the Johannesburg Stock Exchange with apartheid-era loot intact – no wealth tax or reparations demands (in spite of Jubilee campaigning) – reveals Mbeki’s flacid neoliberalism.

Suresh is also silent on pro-corporate white-elephant spending for Coega, Gautrain, 2010 stadia, Pebble Bed nukes, unneeded Lesotho dams, as well as on the municipal services-disconnection epidemic.

As for Mbeki’s latent anti-capitalist posturing, the best Roberts can do is report on minor jousting between Christine Qunta and John Myburgh within the commission studying the 2001 currency collapse. Roberts terms Mbeki’s do-nothing reaction ‘a brilliant deployment of “moral suasion”’ that ‘stabilised the rand in 2002’.

No, not true, it rose dramatically, as expected after falling to R13.8/US$. Another collapse last year left South Africa the world’s worst-performing major currency. Further financial deregulation, risk of capital flight and hence continuing currency volatility – mitigated only by still absurdly high interest rates (since exchange controls are too interventionist for this crew) - remain Mbeki’s policy, though you would not know it from Roberts’ ersatz account.

There are countless other examples of policy distortion. The 1998 National Water Act, which Roberts claims ‘rolled back private rights in water’ (and which he helped draft as an advisor to Kader Asmal), could have been a case in point.

Since then, in part because of interminably slow land reform, state power to move bulk water resources is mainly helping AngloPlats drain Limpopo, while elsewhere, water commercialisation caused a cholera epidemic and untold numbers of affordability-related disconnections – at last count, 275 000 households were victimised in 2003, government has conceded – at a time inadequate water access unnecessarily kills thousands of South Africans, especially children.

Emblematically, a vignette of the Constitutional Court’s opening on March 21, 2004 has Mbeki serving as Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson’s valet – the robing signified executive respect for the judiciary – but there’s no mention of another drama over apparel that played out a few meters away.

On the sidewalks outside the ConCourt building, police commemorated Human Rights Day by arresting more than fifty people wearing red (even bystanders), as the Anti-Privatisation Forum’s nonviolent march on the court demanding constitutional water rights – against Johannesburg Water practices designed by the Paris-based Suez company – was banned.

Not a word about this incident or other repressive tendencies Mbeki has unleashed, reflecting what insiders say is the ANC’s ‘Zanufication’ process.

Still, a book-length defense of Mbekism is long overdue, after false starts by Alan Hirsch on economics, Joel Netshitenzhe on social policy and Anthony Brink on AIDS denialism.

Perhaps because they’re not so compelling, Suresh barely cites work by the former two. And in offering a half-baked defense of Mbeki’s slow defeat by the Treatment Action Campaign, Suresh slams Brink as an unscrupulous self-promoter - although six months ago he raved about how ‘very important’ Brink’s work is, according to the website of South Africa’s leading denialist. (Shades of his Gordimer reversal. Thabo Mbeki, watch your back with this one.)

Just a word, quickly, on Suresh’s strange new argument that our left critique is ruthless against the ‘Washington Consensus’ of economics, but not against what you call the Washington Consensus of AIDS drugs. Suresh, this is a point you are profoundly wrong about, and that is terribly important given how many lives are at stake. The Washington Consensus ranges from US AID and Pepfar to the World Bank, where Paul Wolfowitz’s rightwing appointees were recently caught retracting funds for women’s reproductive education. That posture favours Northern-supplied AIDS drugs, patented and highly profitable, when an abstinence-based HIV prevention programme (invariably) fails.

In contrast, the progressive position is promotion of Southern-supplied medicines (from Brazil, India, Thailand and now finally South Africa), and on a generic basis, and supplied free as a human right, with HIV prevention much more broadly understood than abstinence. The contrast is huge and your mangling of this speaks volumes about your comprehension of very basic struggles underway in this society.

Suresh, your book is as unfit to read as Brink’s raves, as it mainly amounts to sophistry.

Mbeki deserves better, and indeed Suresh, you can do better.

But next time, not so close to the president’s rear end, not so blind to the realities of subimperialism, and not so well paid as to become complacent to the hard lives faced by the majority of South Africans thanks to Mbekism. Otherwise comrade Suresh, you risk being remembered, mainly, as South Africa’s answer to Jonathan Moyo.

Fit to Govern: the Native Intelligence of Thabo Mbeki
By Percy Ngonyama 10 July 2007

Percy Ngonyama

On the Broederbond-style decision of the bureaucrats at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) not to broadcast what has become popularly known as the film the SABC does not want you to see- Mbeki Unauthorised! , International Federation of Journalists General Secretary, Aidan White commented in May 2006, The public have been denied the opportunity to see an independent and professional portrait of their president and denied the opportunity to make up their own minds. A year later, the public broadcaster continues its 'hide and seek'; and is never short of excuses why the documentary cannot be aired.

In the backdrop of such methods of censorship, reminiscent of the apartheid-era; and well orchestrated manoeuvres to prevent; and limit
independent public discourse and analysis on the personality and policies of the country's Head of State, the debate that has been elicited by Ronald Suresh Roberts' much-talked about Fit to Govern: the Native Intelligence of Thabo Mbeki, which he describes as a Book about President Thabo Mbeki and his intellectual traditions, should be applauded. Much like William Mervin Gumede's 2005 Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC' , and Patrick Bond's Talk Left Walk Right: South Africa's Frustrated Global Reforms (2004), the book, in spite of the avowedly pro-government/Mbeki stance, has helped fuel the extremely essential public, media and scholarly discussion on 'South Africa's number one citizen', his government's policies and presidency in general.

However, there are some serious shortcomings with the book. While Roberts insists that his book is a genuine portrayal of the often 'misunderstood' Mbeki, in addition to the many deliberate omissions and silences, it is
largely premised on the widespread misperception that Mbeki is an
'anti-imperial' 'Africanist' victim of the white owned 'illiberal' press
and white supremacists that, annoyingly, continue in the age old racist
tradition to question the 'native's ability' to govern, and perform other
tasks of authority. This, and the shrewd, in the context of South Africa's
recent history of institutionalised racism, Mugabe-style tactic, very
adored by Mbeki and his many hangers on and sycophants in the government and at Luthuli House, of dismissing critics of the government and of Mbeki as 'racist', or as agents of imperialists/neo-colonialists, are the author's main points of departure.

Furthermore, the failure to fully comprehend the contradictory and
hypocritical nature of Mbeki has robbed the author of the opportunity to
understand some of the main reasons Mbeki appears to be 'enigmatic', a
charge Roberts vehemently refutes. Mbeki is no 'Enigma.' People who call
him that are using mysticism to evade important debates. Roberts tries
very hard to deny that Mbeki is an Aids denialist/dissident, and that
his 'silent diplomacy' on Zimbabwe has been ineffective. Thabo Mbeki,
he contests, is not now, nor has he ever been, an AIDS dissident. But
Mbeki has been quoted as saying Personally, I don't know anybody who has
died of Aids, consequently denying knowing Parks Mankahlana, and Nelson
Mandela and Mangosuthu Buthelezi, whose children died as a result of the
pandemic. He has also questioned if it makes sense to conclude that a
'virus can cause a syndrome.' It is such extraordinary statements that
have made him famous, the world-over, for all the wrong reasons.

Roberts protests that, amongst other things, Mbeki's 'anti racism'
messages are often misinterpreted as 'obsession with race.' However, the
evidence, provided in the form of speeches and writings to corroborate
this claim, proves the contrary: a president highly obsessed with race.
There are quite a few other similar instances in the book where Roberts,
unwittingly, provides one with the ammunition with which to kick his
Mbeki's ass licking ass. Mbeki's tactic of 'hiding behind the shield of
racism', through the shrewd use of sensitive terms, such as 'Nigger' and
'Kaffir' in his writings, a method Roberts also employs, to demonstrate
the extent of 'the scourge of racism within our society', is, as in the
case of psychopathic Mugabe, solely intended to divert people's attention
from the real issues affecting this country, and the sad reality that
Mbeki's African National Congress (ANC) has sold out by adopting
neo-liberalism, which, ironically has impacted negatively on the lives of
poor black people. It is mainly for such reasons that Roberts' latest
contribution towards 'pro-Mbeki' propaganda, characterised by his vast
ignorance of what James Petras calls the 'The Imperial System: Hierarchy,
Networks and Clients', and South Africa and Mbeki's collusion in this
system, to the detriment of the natives of the world, formulated with full
cooperation of the presidency, should be countered with the same amount of zeal and enthusiasm as that expressed by its proponents. Attempting to deny that South Africa is a neo-liberal state amounts to the worst kind of denialism. Rather let us debate some of the 'justifications' provided for the neo-liberal 'development' path the ANC has taken.

Methodologically, the book's credibility is put under serious doubt. In
the narrative, Roberts repeatedly quotes Mbeki to back up claims that are
made about the very Mbeki. To emphasise the presumed 'anti imperialist',
'pro poor', nature of Mbeki, mainly his 'words', in the form of speeches
and writings, including his weekly online letters, and not his 'actions',
are used as proof. Mainly because Mbeki's 'words' are continuously refuted
by his 'actions', as a result, the narrative is also as contradictory and
smacks of hypocrisy as its subject matter. The abundant corporate funding,
including a significant grant from ABSA Bank, does not only remain a huge
controversy, but also raises some serious questions. ABSA bank is now part
of Barclays Group. Barclays Bank's financial gains from injustices, widely
gone unpunished, that have befallen the natives of Africa, from slavery to
apartheid, are well documented. Together with other multinational
corporations, the bank is currently facing a law suite in the United
States Court of Appeal by the 'native' victims of apartheid. Not only does
the self styled 'native mouthpiece' see nothing wrong with this, but he
also omits from the narrative that the neo-liberal government of Thabo
Mbeki, the supposed 'Native' 'spokesperson', is thwarting these justified
attempts at long denied justice on grounds that they are detrimental to
foreign investment. This signals a U-turn from the ANC's statement made
in 1989 following foreign banks' rescue of the apartheid regime during the
'debt moratorium crisis' of the 1980s. When the time comes, said the ANC
in a statement in the Cape Times, the South African people will not be
unmindful of the role of banks in making profit out of the misery of our
people. It is due to such abrupt departures from statements made during
the struggle, that most progressive people now see the ANC as having 'sold
out.'

Yes, such clear collaboration with imperial forces does not only smack of
'compradorist' behaviour, much despised by critics of 'nationalist' petty
bourgeois politicians, including Frantz Fanon, but also acts to dispute
Roberts' claims that Mbeki is 'anti imperialist.' Strangely, Roberts,
whether ignorantly or intentionally with the aim to further confuse the
unsuspecting public, describes Mbeki as Fanonist in his orientation; and
selectively uses Fanon's 'anti colonial/anti imperialist' writings to
support his claims. However, the reality is that further reading of Fanon
vividly reveals his strong views and dislike of the bourgeoisie and the
comprador bourgeoisie whom he, correctly, identifies as the enemy of the
peasants and other marginalised groups.

In spite of his frequently honest conduct, says Fanon of the likes of
Mbeki in The Wretched of the Earth: The Pitfalls of National
Consciousness , the leader as seen objectively is the fierce defender of
these interests, today combined, of the national bourgeoisie and the
ex-colonial companies. During the struggle for liberation, Fanon
continues, the leader awakened the people and promised them a forward
march, heroic and unmitigated. Today, he uses every means to put them to
sleep, and three or four times a year asks them to remember the colonial
period and to look back on the long way they have come since then. This
is precisely what has characterised Mbeki's presidency. During 'national
events' the public is forever reminded of life during apartheid and
colonialism. Those who complain of the ongoing injustice in the 'new South
Africa' are quickly dismissed as apartheid sympathisers. To a very large
extent, Roberts book also seeks to perpetuate this new 'defence
mechanism.'

Making William Gumede's book, described by Roberts as an assault upon
Mbeki, more interesting was that, unlike Fit to Govern ; it dared expose
Mbeki's paranoia, manipulative attitude, and the embarrassing 'unknown'
side of South Africa's Commander-in-Chief, some of the things that the
bosses at the SABC, with the approval of the presidency, want to conceal
from the public, particularly, in the months leading up to the ANC's
national conference in Limpopo where Mbeki is expected to contest the
position of president. While labelling Gumede an 'unpatriotic' national
embarrassment, Roberts conveniently ignores to deal with the
'controversial' circumstances, beautifully analysed by Gumede, surrounding
Mbeki's Path to Power.

Throughout the book, the extremely racist Cecil John Rhodes, and his role in the British Empire 's 'bloody' colonial project in Southern Africa are mentioned. To demonstrate that white stereotypes about the 'Native's ability to govern' have a long history, Rhodes is quoted as saying There are those who wish to endow the native at once with the privileges it has taken the European eighteen hundred years to acquire [but] the natives is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. That the name of Rhodes is now used alongside that of Nelson Mandela in what is known as 'The Mandela Rhodes Foundation' has been omitted. How about the fact that, in what is a perfect example of nationalist rulers 'walking straight into the shoes of former colonisers/oppressors'; one of Mbeki's official residence, in Rodebosch, once belonged to Rhodes?

Moreover, determined to achieve the ambitious 6% annual growth rate between 2010 and 2014, as part of the Accelerated and Shared Growth IInitiative of South Africa (asgiSA), in what smacks of sub-imperialism, the Mbeki led government has paved the way for the likes of De Beers, now with a Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) element, a mining company founded by Rhodes on the back of the sweat and blood of native mineworkers, and other corporations, to export their exploitation of cheap 'native labour' to other parts of the continent. With Mbeki's own admission, it is the corporates, many of whom openly conducted business with the apartheid regime, to the detriment of the black majority, that have benefited handsomely from the past thirteen years of 'democracy.'

How is this possible under a government led by a supposedly
'anti-imperialist' intelligent native? Is it also naïve to ask if Mbeki
is such a 'champion' for native rights and well being, as Roberts wants us
to believe, why is it that he saw nothing wrong with recently being
awarded a knighthood by the British Monarchy, an institution whose crimes
against the natives of Africa is well documented? Is South Africa's
loyalty to neo-colonial institutions such as the British Commonwealth not
a sign of endorsement of the very 'Mother-child' relationship between
colonisers and the formerly colonised that Roberts speak so strongly about
in the chapter entitled 'Mother country'? This exposes the same kind of
double standards as those displayed by Robert Mugabe. To many black
people, he is this 'anti-imperial' 'Africanist' who has finally managed to
'teach the white man a lesson'. Strangely, however, in the midst of his
anti imperial/British rhetoric, he boasts a knighthood bestowed on him in
1994 during his 'happier times' with the British Crown.

So, when Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya who, together with others, is severely vilified in 'Massa day done': Mbeki's new black critics', is
labelled a colonial creature by Roberts, perhaps the question should be who is more deserving of this description? Whose actions between Mondli and Mbeki have done more to advance neo-colonialism and the interests of foreign capital? After all, as the old saying goes 'Actions speak louder than words. The persistent 'dissing' of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is strange, given Mbeki's not so easy to conceal staunch belief in Thatcherite economic policies, characterised by the commodification of every aspect of people's life accompanied by austerity measures. And since Roberts admits to have read John Pilger's 'Apartheid Did not Die' which appears in Freedom Next Time, he should be aware that at the unveiling of the 'non-negotiable' market friendly Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear) macro-economic programme, his 'hero'
defiantly declared to critics Just call me a Thatcherite.

While Roberts disputes valid claims that Mbeki and his government's
policies are 'pro-market', hence 'anti-poor', it is not so hard to see
that Mbeki, who, in accordance with his overall 'Talk left Walk Right'
attitude continues claiming his government's fictional commitment to the
Freedom Charter and the Reconstruction and Development Programme, has
become nothing but an 'errand boy' for those who own the means of
production. On behalf of the rich, ironically, mainly white, Mbeki travels
the world-over, at the expense of the taxpayer, looking for new markets to
sell the surplus produced at a huge expense to exploited, mainly 'native'
workers. By concurring with the ANC's National Executive Committee
Discussion document, addressed to the left within the Tripartite Alliance,
published in Umrabulo of May 2000 that The democratic state therefore
represents neither the dictatorship of the proletariat, nor the
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, Roberts, like the now bourgeoisified
leadership of the ANC, displays his equally serious misreading of the
current South African situation, and ignorance of Marxist interpretations,
which he purports to have a command of. According to Marx, a bourgeois
state, such as South Africa, being a system of class rule, amounts to a
[permanent] dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

Many of Mbeki's statements, from during the times of exile in the petty
bourgeois surroundings of London , to his weekly online letters, are
quoted to demonstrate his hatred of racism. Of particular interest is his
March 16-23, posted on the eve of Human Rights Day on the ANC website,
entitled 'Freedom from racism- a fundamental human rights' in which he
shrewdly uses the exceptionally sensitive 'K' word to make his claims
about racism being South Africa's 'number one enemy', and an obstacle to
people accessing their human rights. While most poor people might not be
aware, but the main reason they are denied their Constitutionally
guaranteed human rights is because of the hegemonic neo-liberal capitalist
system of Mbeki's government.

By crying racism, are Mbeki, and his praise singers, including Roberts,
suggesting that the hundreds of poor black students financially excluded
from tertiary institutions, year in and year out, suffer such fate because
of the colour of their skin? Are the many people who have had their water,
electrify and other services terminated because of non-affordability
victims of the scourge of the demon of racism that permeates so much of
the fabric of our society? Is it the evil spirit of racism which Mbeki
feels must be exorcised that has seen more than 40 percent- using the
broad definition of unemployment- very high compared to other medium
income economies- of the country's economically active go without jobs?

Since it is doubtful that Mbeki has, personally, suffered serious racism
in recent times, clearly, his statements on racism are intended to further
'divide and rule' the masses, and confuse them on their real enemy: the
ruling class, the real enemy of the people since the emergence of class
societies. South Africans, black and white, need to wake up to the new
kind of 'apartheid', perpetuated by Mbeki's conservative economic
policies, engulfing this country which, unlike in the past, is not based
on race, but class. Roberts' book may deny it, but Mbeki, by occupying a
prominent position in the ranks of the international ruling class,
responsible for all the suffering of the poor and wars, including, the
Iraqi war which Roberts widely makes reference to in, amongst other
things, arguing against alleged proponents of 'regime change' in Zimbabwe,
is just as culpable.

He makes very valid assertions, nonetheless, regarding the many
contradictions within the 'international community' on the Zimbabwe issue.
Very true, while not condoning Mugabe's 'crimes' against humanity, they
look like 'child's play' when compared to what Bush and Dick Cheney's oil
war is doing to innocent Iraqis. However, it is grossly misleading to
equate criticism of the government and Mbeki's so-called 'quite diplomacy'
policy on Zimbabwe to calls for 'regime change': George Bush/Tony Blair
style. A large majority of South Africans has been insulted by peculiar
statements, such as there are no human rights abuses in Zimbabwe
attributed to our politicians, and collusion, at the expense of the
taxpayer, in Mugabe's 'election thievery' by certifying ' as 'legitimate'
and 'free and fair' elections that certainly do not qualify as such. It is
'pure lies' to argue, as Mugabe himself continues to, that all those that
slam his government are either racist, imperialists, if white, or agents
of imperialists, if black, determined to undermine a 'native freedom
fighter', simply because, it is mainly black people that are facing
starvation and suffering in Zimbabwe. It is also very naïve not to realise
that Mugabe's 'land reform' programme, identified, wrongly so, by Roberts,
as what has triggered Zimbabwe's socio-economic woes, is an attempt to
obscure people's view away from the patronage, corruption, nepotism,
cronyism that have been the major characteristics of Zanu PF's rule for
the past twenty seven years, the root cause for most of the economic
problems currently affecting that country north of the Limpopo.

Endless references to the ANC's parliamentary majority, also beloved by
the many arrogant ANC officials, are intended to highlight that the
masses, regardless of the many 'detractor

CCS at the Toward an Africa Without Borders conference: Kiama Kaara, Grace Kwinjeh, Hopewell Gumbo, Femi Aborisade 'Activism Across Borders', Durban University of Technology, 6 July 2007

Toward an Africa Without Borders: From Theory to Practice
3rd International Conference
Durban University of Technology
Durban, South Africa
5-8 July 2007

Friday, 6 July 2007
10:30-11:45 SESSION IV: Concurrent Panels
PANEL 4A Activism Across Borders
(Office of Management & Auditing Building, Ritson Road, R401)
Chair: John Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

FOUR CCS ASSOCIATES JOIN THE PANEL:
Kiama Kaara: Kenyan Debt Relief Network
Grace Kwinjeh: Save Zimbabwe Coalition
Hopewell Gumbo: Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development
Femi Aborisade: Ibadan Polytechnic Centre for Labour Studies

http://www.towardanafricawithoutborders.org/

Papers

Grace Kwinjeh- Solidarity with Zimbabwe July 7, 2007
http://www.mediafire.com/?auyznrvzit1

Grace Kwinjeh on Panafricanism- Activism Across Borders Panel July 6, 2007
http://www.mediafire.com/?bbogy1mz1ml

Hopewell Gumbo on Panafricanism- Activism Across Borders Panel July 6, 2007
http://www.mediafire.com/?1mwwtfxez9e

Femi Aborisade on Strikes in Nigeria, Activism Across Borders Panel , July 6, 2007
http://www.mediafire.com/?4dtwjjxxlu3

Grace Kwinjeh on the difference between TWAB and the AU Summit on in Accra
http://www.mediafire.com/?4bdxzmcvj4o

NATIONWIDE STRIKES IN NIGERIA

A critical analysis by Femi Aborisade

The recent national strike in Nigeria ended after only four days. Femi
Aborisade argues that despite the sudden surrender of the unions,
working class people have shown that they are a force to reckon in the
process of policy formulation and implementation.

The four-day general strike in Nigeria has once again demonstrated the
potentials of the working class to influence the course of history.
President Umaru Yar’Adua admitted this much when he said the strike
‘wreaked havoc on economy and our people’ (24 June 2007). Government
offices, private companies, petrol stations, ports, airports, schools
and hospitals closed down. Commercial vehicles were off the road and
major highways became football pitches for youths. Oil exports in all
terminals except one were prevented. In short, the strike ‘paralysed’
Nigeria.

While President Umaru mourned the paralysing effects of the strike on
crude oil exports, ordinary people saw in the strike an opportunity to
express a striving to free themselves from the shackles of poverty. Over
70 per cent of Nigerians, about 98,000,000 people of a population of
140,000,000, live in extreme poverty, with less than a dollar a day. In
the midst of pervasive poverty, former President Obasanjo, in the
twilight of his tenure, took the following actions: The prices of
petrol, kerosene and diesel per litre were increased by ten Naira
(^10.00); petrol (PMS) was raised from ^65 to ^75, kerosene (DPK) from
^54 to ^64 and diesel (AGO) from ^54 to ^64. This amounted to an
increase of over 15 per cent in the price of petrol/litre, and about 19
per cent increase in the prices of diesel and kerosene. VAT rate was
raised by 100 per cent, from 5-10 per cent. In addition, six companies,
including the Port Harcourt Refining Company Ltd (PHRC) and Kaduna
Refining and Petrolchemical Company Limited were sold to foreign and
local private companies without resolving labour concerns. Public sector
employees were also agitating for payment of 15 per cent increase in
basic pay, which the former President had granted but never implemented.

The poor perceived government actions as punitive measures to compound
their agony. The payroll tax, called PAYE (Pay-As-You-Earn) has recently
been changed to 10 per cent of gross pay instead of the previous policy
of taxing only basic pay, after making allowances for dependants,
children and the aged, etc. There are also the following taxes: National
Housing Fund (NHF), 2.5 per cent of salary; Pension deductions, 7.5 per
cent; National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), 5 per cent. These add up
to 25 per cent of the employee’s pay. Workers earning poverty pay would
be hard hit by the increase in VAT because they spend the bulk of their
earnings on consumption items. Increases in the prices of petroleum
products automatically cause increases in the prices of all other goods
and services.

The process of increasing the prices of petroleum products was illegal.
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPRA) was established
by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPRA) Act No. 8 of
2003. Section 2 of the Act provides for the membership of the PPRA
Governing Board, which includes representatives of organized labour.
Section 7 empowers the Board to determine the pricing policy of
petroleum products. Paragraph 1 of the 1st Schedule to the Act
prescribes that the Board shall take decisions by majority support. The
Board never met. It was the Secretariat of the PPRA that unilaterally
increased the prices of petroleum products. The increases were therefore
illegal.

Besides, there was no economic rationale for the price increases.
Nigeria currently produces an average of about 2.6 mbd (of crude oil)
and exports about 2.3mbd. (Udo, 2007: C7). The 2007 budget was prepared
on the basis of a benchmark value price of US$30 per barrel. With the
price in the international market hovering between US$65 and US$70 per
barrel, this translates to between US$35 and US$40 per barrel going into
the excess crude oil account.

The privatisation of public enterprises, including the sale of
refineries, violates the current Constitution of Nigeria, which provides
that wealth shall not be concentrated in a few hands and that the State,
not the private sector, shall manage the major sectors of the economy.
[Section 16 (4)].

The strike was therefore declared to achieve the following: reversal of
the N10 increases in the prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene; removal
of 100 per cent increase in VAT, from 5-10 per cent; payment of 15 per
cent increase in basic pay for public sector workers, and review of the
sale of refineries and power generating plants.

The labour movement gave a 14-day ultimatum, which government treated
with levity. In fact, spokespersons of the regime threatened that even
if labour embarked on strikes and mass protests for ten years nothing
would change (The Guardian, 19 June 2007: 2). The Government declared
the strike illegal following the judgment of the Court of Appeal in an
earlier case where the court held that the Nigeria Labour Congress had
no right to call out workers on strike against general economic and
political decisions of the Federal Government because such have nothing
to do with breach of individual contracts of employment with various
employers as envisaged in the Trade Disputes Act.

While the Nigerian labour law restricts the right to strike and the
judiciary goes ahead to declare strike action against general economic
and political policies illegal, Nigeria is a member of the International
Labour Organization, which recognises the right to strike as a
fundamental right. The Abolition of Forced Labour Convention No. 105 of
1957 prohibits the use of forced or compulsory labour ‘as a punishment
for having participated in strikes’ (Article 1 sub-paragraph [d]). Also,
the Voluntary Conciliation and Arbitration Recommendation No. 92 of 1951
states in paragraph 7 that no provision of the Recommendation ‘may be
interpreted as limiting, in any way whatsoever, the right to strike’. As
a member of the international community, it is incumbent on any country
that seeks to acquire the status of a civilised state to give effect to
resolutions emanating from an organisation to which it belongs.

In spite of all the pre-strike arrogance of government officials and
spokespersons, less than 24 hours to the strike, in a desperate effort
to avert the strike, government offered the following concessions:
increase in VAT rate from 5-10 per cent was revoked; 15 per cent salary
increase to be effected for federal employees with effect from 1 January
2007; the N10 per litre increase on the prices of kerosene and diesel
was reversed and reduction of the N10 per litre increase in the pump
head price of petrol to N5 per litre.

Labour accepted all the concessions but one, insisting on reversal of
the price of petrol/litre to the old rate of N65. The strike then
continued until it was called off suddenly with effect from the midnight
of 23 June 2007, without winning the demand. Labour capitulated on the
basis of a letter by President Umaru Yar’Adua promising not to increase
the price of petrol for the next one year. In effect, petrol will
continue to sell at N70 per litre. The other concessions contained in
President Yar’Adua’s letter included an undertaking to set up expert
committees, which would include representatives of labour to examine the
issues of petroleum pricing mechanism as well as sale of refineries and
power generating plants. Government also undertook not to take any
disciplinary action against any worker participating in the strike.

Daily Sun (25 June 2007: 6) explains that the role of traditional
rulers, particularly the Sultan of Sokoto, was decisive in the sudden
capitulation by the top labour leadership. However, there was a division
even within the top leadership. As Sunday Punch (24 June 2007:13)
reported, a section of the TUC leadership had threatened to call a Press
Conference ‘to express a few reservations on the agreement labour
reached with government’. Working class youths were angry about the
sudden back down by labour leadership: ‘why embark on strike by
rejecting the N70/litre price of petrol which government had offered in
the bid to prevent the strike taking off, only to turn round to accept
what had been rejected?, they questioned.

Dress Rehearsal Strikes
The anger of working class youths against the sudden surrender by
national labour leadership is understandable. Weeks and months preceding
the strike, there had been series of threats of strike and actual
strikes, as dress rehearsals, preparatory to the nationwide strike.
These included strikes by Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC)
workers, Electricity workers, Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASSU), and protests against the controversial 2007 general elections
organized by the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO). There were
also sabotage activities, bombings and kidnappings by militant groups
and mass protests in the Niger Delta against exploitative oil companies
as well as threats by self determination groups in the South Eastern
part of Nigeria to disrupt the hand over program to a new President if
key self determination leaders were not released from detention.

What the foregoing shows is that the working class, in several sectors,
had been infuriated and imbued with a fighting spirit to protect jobs
and improve their overall living standards. That opportunity to express
their anger and reverse the privatization process has temporarily been
botched by the shocking compromise and sudden strike call off. But it
would be a temporary set back. On the basis of a system of exporting
crude oil and importing refined products, we do not need a soothsayer to
predict that crises lie ahead.

Gains
Regardless of the weaknesses of the strike, the working class has shown
that based on a united force of organisations of the poor, it is a force
to reckon with in the process of policy formulation and implementation.
The strike represents a message to the ruling class that labour will not
just slavishly accept attacks on its rights without a fight. No matter
how marginal, the reductions in VAT and prices of petroleum products are
gains that could not have been won without a fight. Also, contrary to
the threat of applying the ‘no work no pay’ rule, one of the agreements
in ending the strike was that no worker would be penalized for having
participated in the strike.

Weaknesses
However, the basis of the united platform upon which the strike was
called was not brought to bear on the strike sufficiently. Whereas the
Federal Government made a concession to implement the 15 per cent
increase in basic pay, similar commitment was not extracted from the
state Governments. This resulted in the continuation of the strike by
State organs of the unions in states like Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, etc - after
the nationwide action had been called off (See for example Nigerian
Tribune, 26 June 2007: 5). Similarly, ASUU, which had started its strike
three months before the nationwide strike, had to continue its strike
until 1 July because the agreements reached did not touch on their
concerns. In the same vein, though workers in the Niger Delta
participated in the strike, some militant groups in the sub region
openly dissociated themselves from the nationwide strike on the ground
that the plight of the Niger Delta people had never been the concern of
organized labour.

Reactive or Proactive Struggles?
The 20 -23 June general strike was a defensive strike. Rather than being
proactive, the leadership of the strike was reactive and predominantly
economistic. The strike was not aimed at bringing about fundamental
changes to the root cause of the problems. Instead of addressing the
root cause, the strike was essentially about the effects of government
policies.

The behaviour of the leadership of the strike fits into Marx description
of non-forward looking trade union leadership:

Trade Unions work well as centres of resistance against the
encroachments of capital. They fail partially from an injudicious use of
their power. They fail generally from limiting themselves to a guerilla
war against the effects of the existing system, instead of
simultaneously trying to change it, instead of using their organised
forces as a lever for the final emancipation of the working class.
(Marx, 1958: 447, cited in Hyman, 1975: 98)

A more pro-active approach would require challenging the policy of
reliance on private importation of petroleum products, insistence on
investigation of corruption in the management of existing refineries,
and advocating local refining through existing and new state-owned
refineries.

Central to the fuel crisis in Nigeria is the government commitment to
the neoliberal principle of disengaging from economic activity and
promoting the private sector in the supply of critical goods. The idea
of promoting the private sector, combined with stupendous financial
corruption involving about US$550 million in the Turn Around Maintenance
(TAMs) of the refineries, results in crippling the state owned
refineries, in order to justify reliance on the private sector for
importation of petroleum products and sale of the refineries under the
guise of inefficiency of state enterprises.

Who Should Control Industries?
As the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, 2001: 7-9) has pointedly
posited, the big question for today is: how is industry to be
controlled? Given the subsisting capitalist economic structure, the
challenge is to interrogate managerial control with a view to
accommodating a role for workers who work in each industry, and in the
cases of mineral producing areas, the communities, in managing the
enterprises. This suggests that working class organizations must reflect
and advocate comprehensive solutions to issues regarding production,
pricing and distribution of goods in an equitable and ecologically
sustainable manner through advocacy of involvement of the trade unions
and communities in the running of industries.

Mode of Strike Action and Process of Strike Call Off
That the strike was called off without resorting to the members, organs,
and groups that sustained the strike for the period it lasted raises the
issue of industrial/trade union democracy. Working class organizations
must provide efficient democratic structure and process for carrying on
daily struggles for better conditions and pay. The organs that take the
decision to embark on strike must also be the ones to decide to call it
off. With that kind of perspective, the need for mass protests and
rallies rather than a-stay-at-home strike action will be seen.

The stay-at-home strike action renders the rank and file passive
participants in the strike process and deprives the strike of the inputs
and influence of the members from below in determining the direction of
the strike, leaving the decision to call off or continue strike actions
to the whims and caprices of the few leaders. In this regard, the
Nigerian labour movement has a lot to learn from its South African
counterparts that subjected government offers of wage increases to
discussions at mass meetings of individual affiliate unions, during a
strike that was taking place simultaneously in the two countries.

Indefinite or Limited Strike Action?
The strike also revealed the weakness of ‘indefinite’ strike action.
Indefinite strike action is applicable in a situation in which the
objective and subjective conditions point to the possibility of the
working class taking over political power. Without such a revolutionary
situation in existence, the state cannot tolerate ‘indefinite’ action.
The situation will have to be resolved one way or the other, in
revolutionary change or restoration of political control by the
capitalist ruling class. For a working class leadership that completely
lacks the perspective of the working class taking power, ‘indefinite’
form of action is a recipe for sudden back down. Therefore, it would be
better to base actions on defined, limited number of days or weeks,
continuation or discontinuation of action being determined by the mood
and preparedness of the working class and the other poor strata,
expressed at mass meetings. In other words, an attempt should be made to
distinguish the Gramscian moments of ‘war of movement’ (when the actual
revolution is ongoing) from moments of ‘war of position’ (when slow but
steady preparatory revolutionary work is taking place).

Conclusion
The importance of drawing out lessons of struggles is implicit in a
statement by Marx: ‘Men make their own history, but they do not make it
just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by
themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and
transmitted by the past’ (Marx, 1958: 247). It is hoped the lessons
discussed in this paper will benefit future struggles.

* Femi Aborisade is a lecturer at The Polytechnic, Ibadan. He is the
coordinator of the Centre for Labour Studies (CLS) & an Associate of the
Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at
http://www.pambazuka.org

For references, see link below.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/42507

CCS 'Civil Society & Development' course Sufian Bukurura & Dennis Brutus, 4-18 July 2007

Civil Society & Development Module, UKZN School of Development Studies, 4-18 July

Seminars will take place in the Large Seminar Room, School of
Development Studies

Arrangements can be made for a few visitors to join selected sessions:
contact bukururas@ukzn.ac.za

Seminar Date Time Facilitator

1.Theories & Interpretations of Contemporary Struggles
04 July 10-12:30 Patrick Bond & Sufian Bukurura

2. The Recent Evolution of Civil Society (SA & the World)
04 July 14-16:30 Patrick Bond

3. Social Movements in SA
09July 14-16:30 Richard Ballard

4. Nonviolent Social Change (Thoreau, Gandhi, King & Nyerere)
11July 10-12:30 Dennis Brutus & Sufian Bukurura

5. NGOs - Great Expectations & Philanthropy
11 July 14-16:30 Sufian Bukurura & Annsilla Nyar

6. The Rise of New Social Movements: A Counterbalancing Force
16 July 10-12:30 Richard Ballard

7. New Understandings of the Site & Politics of Struggle Worldwide
16 July 14-16:30 Rob Compton

8. Globalisation & Global Civil Society - WSF
18 July 10-12:30 Horman Chitonge & Dennis Brutus

9. State-Civil Society Relations in Postcolonial Africa (DR Congo,
Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zimbabwe et al)
18 July 14-16:30 Dennis Brutus; Sufian Bukurura; Ntokozo Mthembu & Baruti
Amisi

SCHOOL OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
MASTERS PROGRAMME IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Civil Society & Development 2007

Course Coordinator: Sufian H Bukurura
Centre for Civil Society
Room F197, MTB
Tel: 260 2248
Email: bukururas@ukzn.ac.za

Background
For the last decade and a half, the notion of civil society has been
holding central sway in official, academic and popular discourses about
development, democracy and governance in the world. Although this
notion, in various guises and interpretations, has been part of Western
political and philosophical thought almost since antiquity, it has seen
a spectacular revival since the end of the Cold War and the various
transitions to democracy in countries in Latin-America and Eastern and
Central Europe [and South Africa in the early nineties] that accompanied
that event. In most instances, it was widely recognised that a broad
body of non-state actors/ agencies, subsequently lumped under the term
civil society, played a key role in these transitions to democracy.

Hence, in a world newly shorn of its old theoretical and ideological
certainties, the old theoretical notion of civil society was revived and
imbued with a range of new meanings, interpretations and expectations.
It moved rapidly from academic discourse to widespread popular use,
across a wide ideological spectrum, becoming, for some time, the new
panacea for promoting democracy, ‘good governance’ and development in
the world. In retrospect, there were clearly deeper/ underlying
ideological, political and economic causes that lead to the widespread
promotion of this notion – most of them tied up with a new emerging
world order, based on the notion of liberal democracy and the supremacy
of the market. The course will explore these and other new developments,
both in international and country contexts, and look at the challenges
and the increasingly stark choices facing civil society organisations
(CSOs) worldwide. It will also look the newer/ emerging phenomenon of
global civil society, which is increasingly challenging the underlying
assumptions and practices of the ‘new world order’.

Seminars
The course starts on the 4th July and ends on 18th July 2007. It
consists of nine seminars of up to 2.5 hours each. It is expected that
all students will read all the prescribed readings for each seminar, so
as to maximize individual and mutual learning, have meaningful
discussions in class and deepen debate. Please note that you will also
be assessed on the basis of your seminar presentation and participation
in class.

Assessment
You will be assessed on the basis of the following: (a) think pieces for
each seminar and general participation in class (10%), (b) a book
assignment (30%) and (c) a long essay (60%)

a. Think pieces: For each seminar you are required to prepare a 1-2 page
‘think piece’ based on the readings. This has to be submitted to the
seminar organiser via email by 16:00 pm the day before the seminar. This
should be a summary of the main themes emerging from the readings, along
with any questions you have for discussion. Use the introductory
paragraph on the seminar to guide your reading and the focus of your
think piece. Identify the major points of difference and major lines of
debate in relation to the seminar topic. These should not simply be
summaries of the readings but some kind of overview where you reorganize
the information from the readings into a new structure that helps you
understand the topic. Your think pieces should be fully referenced and
written like a mini-essay (rather than just notes). Assessment of these
will focus on your ability to synthesise key themes from across the
readings. Credit will be given for use of reading from the ‘additional
reading’ list. At each of the seminars 2 names will be drawn randomly to
speak to their think pieces out. This, along with other aspects of your
general participation in class, will be assessed out of 10.

b. Book review: The deadline for this is 13 July 2007. A number of the
pieces you have been prescribed come from classic books (e.g. Ferguson,
Mamdani, Fanon, Gramsci, Gill Hart, Hart & Negri, Harvey, etc). Choose
one of these books and run your choice past me before you start (please
don’t choose an edited collection). Then read the book cover to cover.
Write a 2000 word review in which you identify the thesis (argument) of
the book, summarise the supporting claims the author uses to make the
thesis and engage critically with this argument citing other authors if
necessary. If possible engage with the way in which this book has
impacted on intellectual thought. For examples of book reviews have a
look at the back portion of any journal in the SDS library. Try to
follow this standard approach.

c. Long essay: This is the major assignment of the module. The deadline
is 23 July 2007 and marks will be returned by 3 August 2007. Although
this can be as long as 7000 words you probably do best to aim for a more
focused 5000 words. You will develop the topic in consultation with me
in relation to any of the seminar topics that you feel you would like to
develop your knowledge on. Note that unless I have agreed to a topic you
cannot presume that it is OK to go ahead. The deadline for finalising
the topic is 13 July 2007. Please note that the main component of the
assessment (the long essay) must be passed in order to pass the module.
Also, that the School of Development Studies has a policy for late
submissions of assignments: a 5% deduction for the first day after the
due date and 3% deduction for each day thereafter.

Possible essay topics

1. Critically assess the legacy of Gramsci’s writings on the field of
civil society research.

2. Although civil society is a much celebrated idea, there is little
consensus over what it is and why it is a good thing. Compare and
contrast the major ideological positions on civil society.

3. Civil Society has been is seen as ‘a Eurocentric concept, … not
easily transposable to other contexts’ (Kaldor 38). Discuss.

4. Critically discuss the following: ‘There is no ‘correct’ view of
civil society, but there is an essential point to make about the way the
concept is used. The use of the term as a normative concept (i.e. what
we would like civil society to be, or what we think it ought to be) is
often confused with an empirical description (i.e. what it is).’ (Pearce
34).

5. ‘In reality NGOs are not “non-governmental” organizations’ (Petras &
Veltmeyer 2001: 132). What do the authors mean by this and what are the
implications?

6. Discuss the following in relation to changing civil society in SA:
‘NGOs' recent relations with government call work to strain their
commitment and lines of accountability to the poor. NGOs' dependence on
state funding and their newly formed 'client' relationships with
government must lead one to question their autonomy and whether they can
avoid being mere appendages of state institutions.’ (Habib & Taylor 2001)

7. Critically discuss the following: ‘Whereas alienated and degraded
labour may excite a limited alternative, it does not have the
universalism of the market that touches everyone in multiple ways. It is
the market, therefore, that offers possible grounds for counterhegemony.
We see this everywhere but especially in the amalgam of movements
against the many guises of globalization.’ (Buroway 2003: 231)

8. Discuss whether Harvey is right to be skeptical of a general
celebration of social movements in the following: “The danger … is of
seeing all such struggles against dispossession as by definition
‘progressive’ or, even worse, of placing them under some homogenizing
banner like that of Hardt and Negri’s ‘multitude’ that will magically
rise up to inherit the earth. This, I think, is where the real political
difficulty lies.’” (Harvey 2003a: 168-9)

Seminar 1: Introducing Contemporary Struggles in South Africa (Lecture
2). Wednesday 4 July 10:00-12:30

Required reading:
Desai, A., (2002) We are the Poors – Community Struggles in
Post-Apartheid South Africa. Monthly Review Press pp7-14; pp116-139

Additional reading:
Glasius, Marlies (2001) “Civil Society: A very brief history”, Briefing
1, Centre for Civil Society LSE,www.lse.ac.uk/collections/CCS/pdf/Glasius_briefing1.pdf

Kaldor, M, (2003) Global Civil Society – An Answer to War. Polity Press,
Cambridge. Chapter 1: Five Meanings of Global Civil Society, pp.1-14.

Seminar 2: The recent Evolution of Civil Society in South Africa. Wednesday
4 July 14:00-16:30

The political transition in South Africa fundamentally changed the
relationship between civil society and the state. Until the transition
there was a well developed oppositional civil society which opposed the
apartheid government. From 1994, most of these organisations
restructured themselves to have a collaborative relationship with the
new legitimate government. The purpose of this session is to evaluate
this shift and to consider the role of civil society in post-apartheid
South Africa.

Required reading:
Habib, A. & Taylor, R., (2001) South Africa: Anti-Apartheid NGOs in
Transition, in Anheier, H.K. & Kendall, J., Third Sector Policy at the
Crossroads – An International Non-Profit Analysis. Routledge, London &
New York. Pp 218-227

Heller, Patrick (2001) ‘Moving the State: The Politics of Democratic
Decentralization in Kerala, South Africa, and Porto Alegre’ Politics and
Society. 29(1) 131-163

Zuern, Elke (2006) ‘Elusive Boundaries: SANCO, the ANC and the
Post-Apartheid South African State’ in Ballard, Richard; Adam Habib &
Imraan Valodia (eds) Voices of Protest: Social Movements in
Post-Apartheid South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University of
KwaZulu-Natal Press. pp179-201

Additional reading
Kotze, H., (2003) Responding to the Growing Socio-Economic Crisis? A
Review of Civil Society in South Africa during 2001 and 2002, in
Development Update, Annual Review, Vol. 4, no. 4. Also published in the
CCS Research Report Series, Report No. 19, 2004.

Habib, A. & Kotze, H., (2003) Civil Society, Governance and Development
in an Era of Globalisation: the South African Case, in Mhone, G. &
Edigheji, O., Governance in the New South Africa. University of Cape
Town Press. Pp.246 – 270.

Friedman, S., & Reitzes, M. (1996) Democratisation or
Bureaucratisation?: Civil Society, The Public Sphere and the State in
Post-Apartheid South Africa, Transformation, Vol. 29.
Habib, A., (2003) State-Civil Society Relations in Post-Apartheid South
Africa, in Daniels, J., Habib, A., & Southall, R. (eds.), State of the
Nation, 2002-2003. HSRC Press.

Habib, Adam (2005). “State-Civil Society Relations in Post-Apartheid
South Africa”, in Social Research, 2005, vol. 72, no. 3.
Saul, John (2001) ‘“For Fear of Being Condemned as Old Fashioned”:
Liberal Democracy vs Popular Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Ch 3 in
Saul’s Millennial Africa: Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy Trenton:
Africa World Press

Smith, Brian (1996) ‘The Idea of a “Third World”’, in his Understanding
Third World Politics: Theories of Political Change. Indiana University Press
Swilling, M. & Russell, B., (2002) The Size and Scope of the Non-Profit
Sector in South Africa, pp. 15 – 40, Principle Findings. Co-published by
the Graduate School of Public & Development Management (P&DM), Wits, &
the Centre for Civil Society, UKZN.

Seminar 3: Social movements in South Africa. Monday 9 July 14:00-16:30

Although much of the oppositional force of civil society of the 1980s
was demobilised in the 1990s, there have been growing grassroots
expressions of frustration at continued levels of poverty, the slow
progress on land reform, lack of access to HIV/Aids treatment, poor
service and housing provision. These have been described by some as a
possible counterweight to ANC dominance, but is it right to say that
they form a kind of substitute opposition party? After all, many members
of social movements are ANC members. The purpose of this session is to
understand the politics of social movements in post apartheid South Africa.

Required reading:
Barchiesi, Franco (2004) Classes, Multitudes and the Politics of
Community Movements in Post-apartheid South Africa. CCS Research report
No. 20 Greenstein, Ran (2003) ‘Civil Society, Social Movements and Power in
South Africa’ unpublished RAU Sociology seminar paper
Friedman, Steven & Mottair, Shauna (2006) ‘Seeking the High Ground: The
Treatment Action Campaign and the Politics of Morality’ in Ballard,
Richard; Adam Habib & Imraan Valodia (eds) Voices of Protest: Social
Movements in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University
of KwaZulu-Natal Press. pp23-43

Additional reading:
Alexander, Peter (2003) ‘Anti-globalisation movements, identity and
leadership: Trevor Ngwane and the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee’
Paper for South African Sociological Association, Durban, 27 June to 1
July 2003

Everatt, D., (2003) The Politics of Poverty, in Everatt, D. & Maphai,
The [Real] State of the Nation – South Africa after 1990. INTERFUND,
Development Update, Special Edition. November 2003. pp.75 – 99.

Greenberg, S. (2004) The Landless People’s Movement and the Failure of
Post-Apartheid Land Reform. Forthcoming research report, Social
Movements Project, Centre for Civil Society and School of Development
Studies, University of KwaZulu- Natal.

Greenberg, Stephen and Ndlovu, Nhlanhla (2004) ‘Civil Society
Relationships’ Development Update Vol 5 no 2, pp. 23-28

MacDonald, D.A. & Pape, J., (2002) Cost Recovery and the Crisis of
Service Delivery in South Africa. HSRC/ Zed Books. Pp. 1-13

McKinley, Dale & Veriava, Ahmed Arresting Dissent Centre for the Study
of Violence and Reconciliation

Miraftab, Faranak (2004) ‘Invited and Invented Spaces of Participation:
Neoliberal Citizenship and Feminists’ Expanded Notion of Politics’
Wagadu Vol 1 (1), web.cortland.edu/wagadu/issue1/Miraftab.html

Pithouse, Richard (2004) Solidarity, Co-option and Assimilation: The
necessity, promises and pitfalls of global linkages for South African
movements Draft paper

Pithouse, Richard (2005) ‘The Left in the Slum: the rise of a shack
dwellers’ movement in Durban, South Africa’

Ruiters, Greg (2004) ‘Depoliticization and de-activation in the new
South Africa: local services and political identity’ Presented at Africa
- The Next Liberation Struggle: Socialism, Democracy, Activism.
Conference held at York - October 15 & 16 2004

Also go to http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/default.asp?5,56 for social
movements research reports

Seminar 4: Theories and Interpretations: from societas civilis to global
civil society. Wednesday 11 July 10:00-12:30

The first purpose of session two is to map out the evolution of the idea
of civil society. When you are reading, note the different positions of
key thinkers in different periods. In the Classical period look out for
the ideas of Aristotle and Plato. In the early modern period note the
works of Hobbes, Locke, Ferguson, Kant, Hegel, De Tocqueville. Then make
note of Marxist responses to the idea such as Marx himself and Gramsci.
Finally, look at some of the key recent thinkers such as Habermas and
Putnam. If you can write a sentence or two on each of their core ideas
you will be going some way to orientating yourself in this field. The
second purpose of this session is to work out why different groups have
become excited about civil society. Conservative neo-liberal groups,
welfarists, post-marxists, and Marxists all like civil society but they
do so for different reasons. As you read, try separate out why different
political positions like civil society and try to identify what kinds of
civil society they like (and conversely what kinds they don’t like).

Required reading:
Cohen, J.L., & Arato, A., (2003) ‘Civil Society and Political Theory’,
in Foley, M. W., & Hodgkinson, V.A, (eds.), The Civil Society Reader.
University Press of New England. Tufts/UPNE. pp. 270-291. (chapter
originally published 1992)

Kaldor, M, (2003) Global Civil Society – An Answer to War. Polity Press,
Cambridge. Chapter 1: Five Meanings of Global Civil Society, pp.1-14.
Chapter 3, The Ideas of 1989: The Origins of the Concept of Global Civil
Society, pp. 50-77

Meiksins Wood, E., (1990) The Uses and Abuses of ‘Civil Society’, in
Socialist Register 1990. Merlin Press, London.

Additional reading:
Allen, Chris (1997) ‘Who Needs Civil Society?’ Review of African
Political Economy No 73, pp 329-37

Beckman, Bjorn (1993) ‘The Liberation of Civil Society: Neo-Liberal
Ideology and Political Theory’, Review of African Political Economy 58.
Foley, M. W., & Hodgkinson, V.A, (eds.), (2003) The Civil Society
Reader. University Press of New England. Tufts/UPNE. Introduction,
pp.vii – xxiv

Glasius, Marlies (2001) “Civil Society: A very brief history”, Briefing
1, Centre for Civil Society LSE,www.lse.ac.uk/collections/CCS/pdf/Glasius_briefing1.pdf

Gramsci, Antonio (1971) Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Edited and
translated by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. London: Lawrence
and Wishart. (Part 3)

Howell, Jude & Jenny Pearce (2001) Civil Society and Development: A
Critical Exploration. Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers (Ch 1&2)
Keane, John (1998) Civil Society: Old Images, New Visions Stanford:
Stanford U Press esp. Ch 3 and 4 (pp12-64)

Friedman, S., (2003) The State, Civil Society and Social Policy: Setting
a Research Agenda. Politikon, Vol.30, No.1, pp. 3-25

Lewis, David ‘Civil Society in Non-western contexts: Reflections on the
Usefulness of a Concept’, Civil Society Working Paper 13. LSE
www.lse.ac.uk/collections/CCS/publications/cswp/cswp13_abstract.htm

Seckinelgin, Hakan (2002) ‘Civil society as a metaphor for western
liberalism’ Civil Society Working Paper 21. LSE
www.lse.ac.uk/collections/CCS/publications/cswp/cswp21_abstract.htm

Seminar 5: NGOs – great expectations? Wednesday11 July 14:00-16:30

Part of the reason that idea of civil society was so enthusiastically
embraced recently was a hope that civil society could rescue the
development project which promised so much as countries decolonized but
has singularly failed to live up to that promise. Financial aid from the
first world would no longer have to be transferred to what they saw as
corrupt and incompetent governments but could now go to development
professionals in NGO who would get the job done. NGO optimisits have,
however, been widely criticized for various reasons. NGOs are said to
depoliticize development, to allow foreign control/represent foreign
interests, and for being essentially unable to do the development job
that states should be doing. The primary purpose of this session is to
look at the key reasons why some people support NGOs and others
criticize them. The secondary purpose is to look at how actors in NGOs
understand their role in development and how they operate on a day to
day basis.

Required reading:
Commins, Stephen (2000) NGOs: Ladles in the Global Soup Kitchen?, in
Eade, D. (Series Editor), Development, NGOs, and Civil Society. Oxfam
GM. pp. 70 – 74.

Hilhorst, Dorothea (2003) The Real World of NGOs – Discourses, Diversity
and Development. Zed Books, London, New York. Chapter 10, Conclusion:
NGO Everyday Politics. pp 213 – 226.

Pearce, J., (2000) Development, NGOs, and Civil Society: The Debate and
its Future, in Eade, D. (Series Editor), Development, NGOs, and Civil
Society. Oxfam GM. Pp. 15 – 43.

Petras, J. & Veltmeyer, H., 2001, Globalisation Unmasked – Imperialism
in the 21st Century. Fernwood Publishing/ Zed Books. Chapter 8, NGOs in
the Service of Imperialism. pp. 128 – 138.

Additional readings
Howell, Jude and Jenny Pearce (2001) ‘Manufacturing Civil Society from
the Outside: Donor Interventions’, Ch 5 in Civil Society and Development
Boulder Colorado: Rienner

Ferguson, James (1994) The anti-politics machine: development,
depoliticization and bureaucratic power in Lesotho.

Tvedt, Terje (1998) Angels of Mercy or Development Diplomats – NGOs and
Foreign Aid. James Curry/ Africa World Press. Chapter 1, In Search of
the Development NGOs, pp. 11 – 40

Seminar 6: The Rise of New Social Movements – A Counterbalancing Force?
Monday 16 Jul 10:00-12:30

Whereas more mainstream civil society enthusiasts pinned their hopes for
development on NGOs, left leaning supporters of civil society valorise
social movements. Yet it is not clear that blind romanticism of social
movements takes us much further. Social movements are an extremely
heterogeneous set of political expressions which are often quite
immediate in terms of their focus. There is a mismatch between the grand
plans of leftist ideologues and the modest demands of grassroots
uprisings or issue based campaigns. The purpose of this session is to
map out some of the political projects of social movements, their role
in social change, their methods and tactics, and the responses of
authorities to social movements.

Required reading:
Cohen, R., & Rai, S.M, (2002) Global Social Movements – Towards a
Cosmopolitan Politics, in Cohen, R., & Rai, S.M, (eds) Global Social
Movements. Transaction Publishers, New Jersey. Pp 1-17

Della Porta, D. & Diani, M., (1999) Social Movements: An Introduction.
Blackwell Publishing Ltd. pp 1-57

Kaldor, M, (2003) Global Civil Society – An Answer to War. Polity Press,
Cambridge. (CH4 pp 78-108)

Additional/ Extra Reading:
Cheru, Fantu (2000) ‘The Local Dimensions of Global Reform’, in
Pieterse, Jan N (ed.) Global Futures: Shaping Globalization. London: Zed
(Ch 8) Desai, M. & Said, Y., The New Anti-Capitalist Movement: Money and Global Civil Society, in Anheier, H., Glasius, M., & Kaldor, M. (eds), 2001, ibid, pp.51 –78.

Escobar, Arturo and Sonia Alvarez (1992) (eds) The Making of Social
Movements in Latin America Boulder: Westview

Goodwin, Jeff & Jasper, James (eds) (2003) The Social Movements Reader:
Cases and Concepts. Blackwell

Halcli, Abigail (2000) ‘Social Movements’ in Browning, Gary; Halcli,
Abigail & Webster, Frank (eds) Understanding Contemporary Society:
Theories of the Present. London: Sage, pp 463-475

McMichael, P (2000) ‘The Globalization Project and its
Counter-movements’, in Development and Social Change: A Global
Perspective Pine Forge Press Ch 7

Saul, John (2003) ‘Identifying Class, Classifying Difference’, Socialist
Register

Said, Y. & Desai, M., Trade and Global Civil Society: The
Anti-Capitalist Movement Revisited, in Kaldor, M., Anheier, H. &
Glasius, M. (eds), Global Civil Society 2003. Oxford University Press.
Pp.59 – 85

Wignaraja, Ponna (ed.) (1993) New Social Movements in the South:
Empowering the People. London: Zed

Smith, J., (2002) Globalizing Resistance: The Battle of Seatle and the
Future of Social Movements, in Smith, J. & Johnston, H. (eds.),

Globalization and Resistance – Transnational Dimensions of Social
Movements. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Seminar 7: New Understandings of the Site and Politics of Struggle. Monday
16 Jul 14:00-16:30

There are some important interesting conceptual debates on social
movements at the moment and the purpose of this session is to understand
two of these debates. One key debate is about the site of struggle and
we should be positive about the new forms of struggle. Classical
understandings were that capitalism would be challenged from the
workplace. However, Buroway draws on Polanyi to suggest that we have
moved away from a time where struggles at the workplace would be the
vanguard of social progress and that now struggles in the community
related to the market are the key to progress. Harvey is less optimistic
about this but also offers an analysis about why union struggles have
become less significant, explaining this as an increasing tendency in
capitalism to accumulate through dispossession.

Required reading:
Burawoy, Michael (2003) ‘For a Sociological Marxism: The Complementary
Convergence of Antonio Gransci and Karl Polanyi’ in Politics and
Society. Vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 193-261

Harvey, David (2003) The New Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University
Press pp 137-212

Additional reading:
Bauman, Zygmunt (2004) Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World.
Cambridge: Polity Press. Ch 6 ‘Right to Recognition, Right to
Redistribution. pp. 74-88

Ernesto Laclau & Chantal Mouffe (1985) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy:
towards a radical democratic politics Verso, London and New York

Fraser, Nancy (1997) Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the
“postsocialist” Condition. New York & London: Routledge ch 1 & ch 8

Hardt, Michael & Antonio Negri (2000) Empire. Harvard University Press
Smith, Sharon (1994) ‘Mistaken Identity – or can identity politics

liberate the oppressed’ International Socialism Journal. Issue 62

Young, Iris (2000) Inclusion and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. Introduction and chapter 3 & chapter 5

Seminar 8: The World Social Forum and Global Civil Society. Wednesday 18
Jul 10:00-12:30

Required reading:
Allahwala, Ahmed and Roger Keil (2005) ‘Introduction to a Debate on the
World Social Forum’ International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research. Volume 29.2 pp 409–16

Marcuse, Peter (2005) ‘Are Social Forums the Future of Social
Movements?’ International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Volume
29.2 pp. 417–24

Conway, Janet (2005) ‘Social Forums, Social Movements and Social Change:
A Response to Peter Marcuse on the Subject of the World Social Forum’

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Volume 29.2 pp. 425–8
Köhler, Bettina (2005) ‘Social Forums as Space: A Response to Peter
Marcuse’ International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Volume
29.2 429–32

Bond, Patrick (2005) ‘Gramsci, Polanyi and Impressions from Africa on
the Social Forum Phenomenon’ International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research. Volume 29.2 pp. 433–40

Ponniah, Thomas (2005) ‘Autonomy and Political Strategy: Building the
Other Superpower’ International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
Volume 29.2 pp 441–3

Marcuse, Peter (2005) ‘Rejoinder’ International Journal of Urban and
Regional Research. Volume 29.2 pp. 444–6

Additional Reading
Anheier, H., Glasius, M., & Kaldor, M. (2001) Introducing Global Civil
Society, in Anheier, H., Glasius, M., & Kaldor, M. (eds), Global Civil
Society 2001. Oxford University Press. pp. 3-22

Edwards, M. & Gaventa, J. (eds), (2001) Global Citizen Action. Earthscan
Publications Ltd., London

Glasius, M. & Kaldor, M., The State of Global Civil Society: Before and
After September 11, in Glasius, M., Kaldor, M. & Anheier, H. (eds),
Global Civil Society 2002. Oxford University Press

Keane, J. (2001) Global Civil Society, in Anheier, H., Glasius, M., &
Kaldor, M. (eds), Global Civil Society 2001. Oxford University Press.
Pp.23 - 47

Hart, Gillian (2002) Disabling Globalization: Places of Power in
Post-Apartheid South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press

Kaldor, M., (2003) Global Civil Society – An Answer to War. Polity
Press. Chapter 6: September 11: The Return of the ‘Outside’? pp.142 – 160

Stiglitz, J. (2002) Globalization and Its Discontents. Allen Lane,
Penguin Press. Chapter 1, The Promise of Global Institutions, pp.3 – 22

Taylor, Rupert (2004) ‘Interpreting Global Civil Society’ in Taylor,
Rupert (ed) Creating A Better World: Interpreting Global Civil Society.
Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press

Seminar 9: State-Civil Society Relations in Postcolonial Africa. Wednesday
18 July 14:00-16:30

Under colonialism, colonial subjects were not granted full citizenship
and were not seen to be legitimate participants of ‘civil society’ in
the western sense. Nevertheless, in the decades following WW2, powerful
liberation movements eventually forced colonial powers to grant
independence. Many of these liberation movements took power of newly
independent states and struggled to transcend a history where
citizenship had been denied. A common pattern was for these new states
to demobilise the grassroots and to discourage an independent civil
society. The purpose of this seminar is to examine the dynamics around
the establishment of a civil society through and after independence.

Required reading:
Gibson, Nigel (2003) Fanon: the Postcolonial Imagination. Cambridge, UK:
Polity 126-175

Fanon, Frantz (1967) The Wretched of the Earth. Harmondsworth, UK:
Penguin Books 119-164

Neocosmos, Michael (no date) ‘The Contradictory Position of ‘Tradition’
In African Nationalist Discourse: Some analytical and political
reflections’ Draft paper.

Additional reading:
Abdul-Raheem, Tajudeen (1996) Pan Africanism: Politics, Economy and
Social Change in the Twenty-First Century. Pluto Press Bayart,

Jean-François (1993) The State in Africa: the Politics of the Belly/
Translated by Mary Harper, Christopher Harrison and Elizabeth Harrison.
London: Longman.

Comaroff, John L and Comaroff, Jean (1999) Civil Society and the
Political Imagination in Africa: Critical Perspectives. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press

Chabal, Patrick (1994) Power in Africa. London: Macmillan

Chabal, Patrick (1996) ‘The African crisis: context and interpretation’
in Werbner, Richard & Ranger, Terence (eds) Postcolonial Identities in
Africa. London & New Jersey: Zed Books

Mamdani, Mahmood (1996) Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press

Mbembe, Achille (2001) On the Postcolony. Berkeley and LA: University of
California Press

Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges (2002) The Congo From Leopold to Kabila: A
People’s History. London: Zed

Werbner, Richard (1996) ‘Introduction: Multiple identities, plural
arenas’ in Werbner, Richard & Ranger, Terence (eds) Postcolonial
I

Patrick Bond Reconcilation and Economic Reaction in South Africa, 3 July 2007

Patrick Bond's paper > Reconcilation and Economic Reaction in SA for the 1st International Colloquium on Rhetoric, Protests and the Economy, UKZN, 3 July

Reconcilation and Economic Reaction in South Africa

By Patrick Bond Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Development Studies

Paper presented to the 1st International Colloquium on Rhetoric, Protests and the Economy

Organised by The African Association for Rhetoric (AAR), UKZN Faculty of Humanities, Development, and Social Sciences 3 July, 2007

Introduction
Was South Africa’s post-apartheid transition compromised by an intra-elite economic reconciliation that generally worsened poverty, unemployment and ecological degradation, while exacerbating racial, gender and geographical differences? Did the governments of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki fail to redistribute the country’s wealth? Did the transition extend South Africa’s reach into the region at the expense of the interests of other African nations and peoples?

If the answers are broadly affirmative, we may as a result now be witnessing a double-movement reaction to the truncated character of liberation. With intensified commoditization has come a vast upsurge of social unrest, in the manner Karl Polanyi might have predicted. A new popular opposition to the excesses of elite reconciliation began to emerge around 2000. By late 2005, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula recorded 5,085 legal protests over the prior year, as well as 881 that he called “illegal.”

No peace without justice, no reconciliation without redistribution. These themes reflect the problem of the early 21st century world order that David Harvey calls “accumulation by dispossession,” i.e., a new stage of voracious penetration of market forces into areas of society and nature that were not previously commodified. The phenomenon represents an Achilles’ heel for writers such as Guillermo Schmitter, Phillippe O’Donnell and their brethren in South African think tanks, universities and centrist non-governmental organizations (NGOs such as the Centre for Development and Enterprise, the South African Institute for International Affairs and the Centre for Policy Studies). Indeed, many crucial middle-income sites of elite-pacted compromise in so-called democratic transitions now appear locked in perpetual conflict: Brazil, Argentina and other Latin American countries; South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia in Asia; much of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East; and Africa, most notably in Nigeria and South Africa. All witnessed the passage from the dictatorships of the 1960s and 1970s to the democracies of the 1990s. Yet, these are unstable because neo-liberalism was applied and often imposed upon new governments under conditions of what Barry Gills, Joel Rocamora and Richard Wilson term “low-intensity democracy” or Thandeka Mkandawire calls “choiceless democracy,” namely the inability to change socio-economic parameters because the basic substance of economic and even social policy is considered off-limits by international agencies and capital.

As a result, in South Africa, ongoing economic inequality is the cause of durable conflicts between the state and capital on the one hand and the lower-income and oppressed sectors of society on the other. It is hard to conceive of inequality actually worsening in the wake of apartheid, but a major study published in October 2002 by Statistics South Africa, a state agency, showed that in real terms, average black African household income declined 19 percent from 1995 to 2000, while white household income increased by 15 percent. Households with less than $100 per month income—mainly those of black African, colored (mixed-race) or Asian descent—increased from 20 percent to 28 percent of the population from 1995 to 2000. The poorest half of all South Africans claimed a mere 9.7 percent of national income in 2000, down from 11.4 percent in 1995, while the richest fifth grabbed 65 percent.

Meanwhile, the official measure of unemployment rose from 16 percent in 1995 to 31.5 percent in 2002. Add to that figure frustrated job-seekers and the percentage of unemployed people rises to 43 percent. Post-apartheid social policy has failed low-income people in many areas, including healthcare, water access and land tenure. Anti-retroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS was denied to millions who needed it, as a result of the ruling party’s denialist stance (not conceding the link between HIV and AIDS) and the pressure from pharmaceutical corporations to refrain from licensing generic replacements for high-profit branded drugs. As discussed below, water and electricity disconnections affected millions and price increases forced dramatic declines in low-income people’s consumption.

Rural land tenure in the ten years after liberation was so insecure that one-third more people were displaced than during the decade prior to apartheid’s fall. The Landless People’s Movement observed that from 1994 to 2004, the African National Congress (ANC) failed to deliver on its promise to redistribute 30 percent of the country’s agricultural land from 60,000 white farmers to more than 19 million poor and landless rural and 7 million poor and landless urban black people within five years. Indeed just over 2.3 percent of the country’s land changed hands through land
reform in that period. Still, there are some commentators who would argue that social democracy is gradually being constructed in South Africa, thanks to the ruling party’s so-called national democratic revolution, and the leading politicians’ purported commitment to a developmental state.
More

DURBAN REALITY TOUR, 26 & 30 June 2007

DURBAN REALITY TOUR Saturday June 30

Photo by Ntokozo Mthembu

The University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society will be offering delegates of the SANPAD Poverty Challenge conference an opportunity to see another side of Durban. The Durban Reality Tour will take you to some of the urban communities which have become sites of intense resistance against water and electricity disconnections, environmental degradation and housing struggles. Cost: R50 cash on the bus (sorry).

9:00 pick-up at Blue Waters Hotel, 9:05 at Elangeni Hotel

9:10 - 9:30am in central Durban through the eyes of Southern African refugees with Baruti Amisi (CCS)

9:30 - 9:50am in central Durban (Warwick Triangle) through the eyes of oppressed street traders with Pat Horn and Gaby Bikombo (StreetNet and Siyagunda)

10:00 - 11:30 in South Durban with the Community-Environmental Alliance considering pollution and urban health crises with Llewellyn Leonard (CCS) and Des D'Sa (SDCEA)

11:40 - 12:40 in Umlazi looking at the scourge of post-apartheid housing with Ntokozo Mthembu (CCS)

1:15 - 15:30 in Chatsworth considering water/electricity and in Crossmoor on the evictions issue, including breyani lunch, with Orlean Naidoo (CCS)

16:00 - 17:30 at Yellowwood Park Coedmore Mansion for tea

17:30 return to Elangeni and Blue Waters

To book for the reality tour please contact the Centre for Civil Society: Helen Poonen, poonenh@ukzn.ac.za or 031 260 3195, or Patrick Bond at 083 425 1401

Patrick Bond Lecture at SungKongHoe University in Seoul, 28 May 2007

Linking below, across and against: World Social Forum weaknesses, global governance gaps, and civil society’s political, ideological and strategic dilemmas

By Patrick Bond

Paper to be presented at the Democracy and Social Movements Institute SungKongHoe University, Seoul, South Korea, 28 May 2007

Intoduction
The last few years have not been ripe for global reforms, as witnessed by some telling intra-elite battles decided mainly by the arrogance of the United States government: the inability to expand the UN Security Council in September 2005; the potentially-permanent breakdown of the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations in July 2006; the minor shift of voting power within the IMF board of governors in September 2006 (which strengthened several countries at the expense of Africa); the failure to expand the Kyoto Protocol at a November 2006 conference in Nairobi; and the lack of Middle East, Gulf, central Asian and Horn of Africa peace settlements or indeed prospects.

Likewise, this appears a ‘down time’ for global-scale social change work in the radical tradition, if by that one considers full-fledged attacks on institutions like the World Trade Organization in Seattle (1999) or the G8 in Genoa (2001), or the more surgical activities (including solidarity) that characterized defense of Zapatismo in Mexico after 1994, or of Cochabamba water warriors after they kicked out Bechtel in 2000, or of factory occupations in Buenos Aires after 2002, or of the right to water and electricity in Soweto, or a myriad of struggles for human rights and democracy in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Burma, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Colombia, etc. To be sure, in June 2007, we can expect formidable protest against the G8 by mainly European activists in Rostock, and the World Bank annual meeting in September plus the G20 session near Cape Town in November may be important markers of ongoing militancy. The anti-war movement also provides occasional shows of strength, especially in sites like Italy where US bases are at stake.

Still, it is sometimes argued that since September 2001, alliance-growing internationalism in the North (especially long-sought unity between social movements, environmentalists and labor) and the space or impulse to conduct protest against corporate globalization in the South have both withered a bit, or at minimum failed to maintain the momentum required given ongoing global-scale threats. If Joe Stiglitz is correct, in Globalization and its Discontents, that fair trade activists and the Jubilee movement were crucial to getting his reformist critique onto the agenda, then it is not surprising that Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs, George Soros and other high-profile global Keynesians have themselves made no progress.

Without a doubt, there continues to be hectic advocacy work across borders carried out by NGOs, international labor federations and environmentalists. But the waning visibility of militant community-based tree-shakers probably prevents the petit-bourgeois NGO jam-makers from finding any fruits for – or of - their labors. Setting aside the remarkable rise of left-leaning Latin American governments and their puncturing of the International Monetary Fund’s self-financing model, next to nothing has been accomplished to reform the world over this time, aside from dubious debt deals, permission to produce generic AIDS medicines, and a slight increase in North-South aid. The move by some globally-conscious activists to anti-poverty campaigning is one reflection of how weak the genuine anti-poverty campaigners are, in articulating a coherent global-scale political project.

But this is not meant to sound so pessimistic. Instead, for advocates of global justice, the period since 2001 also witnessed two kinds of constructive activities, one in building the World Social Forum and its constituent movements, and the other linking social movements across borders usually sector-by-sector – albeit with insufficient linkages between the sectors. In his important politico-anthropological book on Africa, Global Shadows, James Ferguson offers this confession:

Traditional leftist conceptions of progressive politics in the third world (to which many anthropologists, including myself, have long subscribed) have almost always rested on one or another version of the vertical topography of power that I have described. ‘Local’ people in ‘communities’ and their ‘authentic’ leaders and representatives who organize ‘at the grassroots’, in this view, are locked in struggle with a repressive state representing (in some complex combination) both imperial capitalism and the local dominant classes. The familiar themes here are those of resistance from below, and repression from above, always accompanied by the danger of cooptation, as the leaders of today’s struggle become the elites against whom one must struggle tomorrow.

I do not mean to imply that this conception of the world is entirely wrong, or entirely irrelevant. But if, as I have suggested, transnational relations of power are no longer routed so centrally through the state, and if forms of governmentality increasingly exist that bypass states altogether, then political resistance needs to be reconceptualized in a parallel fashion.

Hence we begin such a reconceptualization – a vast task which can only be done through myriad debates and struggles, and with activists from the ‘grassroots’ as our most serious guides – by checking the progress of the World Social Forum. From disputes between the various camps within the WSF we might reconstruct a map of ideological currents that span Third World Nationalism, the Post-Washington Consensus reformers and the disturbing fusion of neoliberalism and neoconservatives to be found in most multilateral agencies. Those with any lingering hope for global governance as a route to global eco-social justice under prevailing power relations should, after this reality check, perhaps instead refocus on those cross-border, cross-sectoral and cross-cutting alliances that can rearticulate how to best fight global-scale repression in all its manifestations.
Read Publication

Patrick Bond Lecture at Gyeongsang University in Jinju, S.Korea, 25 May 2007

Linking below, across and against: World Social Forum weaknesses, global governance gaps, and civil society’s political, ideological and strategic dilemmas

By Patrick Bond

Paper to be presented at the Gyeongsang University Institute of Social Studies Conference on ‘Alternative Economic Strategies for Socialism in the 21st Century’ Jinju, South Korea, 25 May 2007

Introduction
The last few years have not been ripe for global reforms, as witnessed by some telling intra-elite battles decided mainly by the arrogance of the United States government: the inability to expand the UN Security Council in September 2005; the potentially-permanent breakdown of the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations in July 2006; the minor shift of voting power within the IMF board of governors in September 2006 (which strengthened several countries at the expense of Africa); the failure to expand the Kyoto Protocol at a November 2006 conference in Nairobi; and the lack of Middle East, Gulf, central Asian and Horn of Africa peace settlements or indeed prospects.

Likewise, this appears a ‘down time’ for global-scale social change work in the radical tradition, if by that one considers full-fledged attacks on institutions like the World Trade Organization in Seattle (1999) or the G8 in Genoa (2001), or the more surgical activities (including solidarity) that characterized defense of Zapatismo in Mexico after 1994, or of Cochabamba water warriors after they kicked out Bechtel in 2000, or of factory occupations in Buenos Aires after 2002, or of the right to water and electricity in Soweto, or a myriad of struggles for human rights and democracy in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Burma, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Colombia, etc. To be sure, in June 2007, we can expect formidable protest against the G8 by mainly European activists in Rostock, and the World Bank annual meeting in September plus the G20 session near Cape Town in November may be important markers of ongoing militancy. The anti-war movement also provides occasional shows of strength, especially in sites like Italy where US bases are at stake.

Still, it is sometimes argued that since September 2001, alliance-growing internationalism in the North (especially long-sought unity between social movements, environmentalists and labor) and the space or impulse to conduct protest against corporate globalization in the South have both withered a bit, or at minimum failed to maintain the momentum required given ongoing global-scale threats. If Joe Stiglitz is correct, in Globalization and its Discontents, that fair trade activists and the Jubilee movement were crucial to getting his reformist critique onto the agenda, then it is not surprising that Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs, George Soros and other high-profile global Keynesians have themselves made no progress.

Without a doubt, there continues to be hectic advocacy work across borders carried out by NGOs, international labor federations and environmentalists. But the waning visibility of militant community-based tree-shakers probably prevents the petit-bourgeois NGO jam-makers from finding any fruits for – or of - their labors. Setting aside the remarkable rise of left-leaning Latin American governments and their puncturing of the International Monetary Fund’s self-financing model, next to nothing has been accomplished to reform the world over this time, aside from dubious debt deals, permission to produce generic AIDS medicines, and a slight increase in North-South aid. The move by some globally-conscious activists to anti-poverty campaigning is one reflection of how weak the genuine anti-poverty campaigners are, in articulating a coherent global-scale political project.

But this is not meant to sound so pessimistic. Instead, for advocates of global justice, the period since 2001 also witnessed two kinds of constructive activities, one in building the World Social Forum and its constituent movements, and the other linking social movements across borders usually sector-by-sector – albeit with insufficient linkages between the sectors. In his important politico-anthropological book on Africa, Global Shadows, James Ferguson offers this confession:

Traditional leftist conceptions of progressive politics in the third world (to which many anthropologists, including myself, have long subscribed) have almost always rested on one or another version of the vertical topography of power that I have described. ‘Local’ people in ‘communities’ and their ‘authentic’ leaders and representatives who organize ‘at the grassroots’, in this view, are locked in struggle with a repressive state representing (in some complex combination) both imperial capitalism and the local dominant classes. The familiar themes here are those of resistance from below, and repression from above, always accompanied by the danger of cooptation, as the leaders of today’s struggle become the elites against whom one must struggle tomorrow.

I do not mean to imply that this conception of the world is entirely wrong, or entirely irrelevant. But if, as I have suggested, transnational relations of power are no longer routed so centrally through the state, and if forms of governmentality increasingly exist that bypass states altogether, then political resistance needs to be reconceptualized in a parallel fashion.

Hence we begin such a reconceptualization – a vast task which can only be done through myriad debates and struggles, and with activists from the ‘grassroots’ as our most serious guides – by checking the progress of the World Social Forum. From disputes between the various camps within the WSF we might reconstruct a map of ideological currents that span Third World Nationalism, the Post-Washington Consensus reformers and the disturbing fusion of neoliberalism and neoconservatives to be found in most multilateral agencies. Those with any lingering hope for global governance as a route to global eco-social justice under prevailing power relations should, after this reality check, perhaps instead refocus on those cross-border, cross-sectoral and cross-cutting alliances that can rearticulate how to best fight global-scale repression in all its manifestations.
Read Publication

UKZN Community Activist Forum Seminar: University struggles and challenges – then and now, 16 May 2007

A SEMINAR BY THE UKZN COMMUNITY ACTIVIST FORUM

SPEAKERS:

DENNIS BRUTUS
Emeritus professor, University of Pittsburgh, poet and anti-apartheid activist. Former political Robben Island prisoner. Champion of human rights struggle.

ASHWIN DESAI
Academic, community activist, radical intellectual and journalist. Author of ‘We are the poors’.

THABO MAILE
Socialist Student Movement activist fighting against financial exclusions.

DATE: WEDNESDAY 16 MAY 2007
TIME: 12H30 TO 14H00
VENUE: SHEPSTONE 2

ALL WELCOME

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Claudia Martinez-Mullen: martinezmullen@ukzn.ac.za 084-2614983
Liv Shange: 204510445@ukzn.ac.za 082-4074959

Patrick Bond to speak at Cornell Univ and Monthly Review, NYC 7 May 2007

Building A Global Movement for Clean Energy
May 7, 2007 - 9:00AM to 5:00PM
Global Warming is real. Climate change is here. We must take action now.
Unions around the world are building a powerful movement for carbon
control, green jobs, and environmental sustainability.

Cornell's Global Labor Institute presents: A North American Labor
Assembly on Climate Crisis, Building a Global Movement for Clean Energy.
Location: United Federation of Teachers 52 Broadway, NYC
Location United Federation of Teachers
52 Broadway, New York City
Monday, May 7th
11am-12:30pm

Roundtable #3 Beyond Kyoto: How Can Labor Unions Get Involved? (with
Patrick Bond)
Programme: www.ilr.cornell.edu

BROWNBAG LUNCH DISCUSSION: Patrick Bond on Southern African Political
Economy: new theories, analyses, strategies

DATE: Monday, May 7
TIME: 1-2:30pm
VENUE: Monthly Review, 146 W. 29th Street, #6W, New York

Patrick Bond - who directs the Centre for Civil Society in Durban, South
Africa - will be in New York on Monday. At Monthly Review, 146W.29th,
1-2:30pm, he will discuss new ideas in political economy drawing upon
two books copublished by CCS this year:

The Accumulation of Capital in Southern Africa

Beyond Enclavity in African Economies

These books (free for download, click on the titles), as well as the March 2007 special issue of the Review of African Political Economy
(on 'primitive accumulation'), include papers from a 2006 Colloquium on Economy, Society and Nature. They capture the new ways that
'superexploitation' - profits drawn from beyond the sphere of market transactions, by use of theft and piracy, coercion and violence, and
extreme commodification - is being understood. The idea applies to old challenges like the race/class debate in a context of systemic migrancy (and rural women's role in the reproduction of cheap labor), as well as
recent problems as diverse as new-generation corporate welfarism in economic development, microfinance evangelism, health system
degradation, water commercialization and carbon trading ('the privatization of the air').

CCS is part of an informal network in Southern Africa and around the
world - which MR also contributes actively to - searching out
insights of analysis, measurement, and resistance strategy/tactics under
conditions of globalization, persistent economic volatility, excess
corporate power and the fusion of popular resistances. The two recent
books and the Roape special issue draw upon the work of the late
Southern African economists Guy Mhone and Jose Negrao, as well as German
revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. A further volume on superexploitation in
South Africa devoted to the legacy of the late Harold Wolpe -
*Transcending Two Economies: From Wolpe to Mbeki and Back* - is also due
out shortly.

THE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

NEW BOOK, FREE TO DOWNLOAD:
http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/RL%20Capital-africa.pdf

HARD COPIES AVAILABLE:

Berlin: at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung head office, after 19 February

Durban: at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society,
after 22 February

Joburg: at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung office, after 22 February

Cape Town: at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Seminar with AIDC, ILRIG and
LRS, 28 February
(Launch details to follow)

The Accumulation of Capital in Southern Africa: Rosa Luxemburg’s contemporary relevance

Edited by Patrick Bond, Horman Chitonge and Arndt Hopfmann

The revived interest in Luxemburg’s ideas about imperialism is
not surprising. More than her contemporaries (Lenin, Bukharin,
Hilferding), she pointed out the dialectical relations between
markets and the ‘non-market’ spheres of life, to which we should
add the environment. These relations are central to a new period
of ‘primitive accumulation’ that has generated powerful resistance
in many corners of the earth. Southern Africa is an especially
important site to reconsider the dynamics of capital accumulation,
given the reliance of regional businesses upon superexploitative
systems such as colonialism, apartheid and neoliberalism.

This collection is drawn from a collaboration between the Rosa
Luxemburg Foundation and University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre
for Civil Society, in which the Rosa Luxemburg Political Education
Seminar 2006 overlapped with the Centre’s Colloquium on
Economy, Society and Nature. The event attracted some of the
world’s leading political economists alongside regional analysts.
This volume features work by Luxemburg, Arndt Hopfmann, Jeff
Guy, Ahmed Veriava, Massimo De Angelis, Elmar Altvater, Patrick
Bond, Isobel Frye, Caroline Skinner, Imraan Valodia, Greg Ruiters,
Leonard Gentle, Ulrich Duchrow, Ntwala Mwilima, S’bu Zikode,
Salim Vally and Trevor Ngwane.

Capitalists have come to understand that to destroy the subsistence
economy altogether would not be in their best interests for two reasons:
fi rst, and most obviously, the employers are not prepared to absorb
the entire subsistence sector; second, and more subtly, self-provisioning
has provided subsidised wage labour. Luxemburg knew this as well as
anyone, and Southern Africa is an exemplary case. For me, the Durban
conference was an eye-opener. You had poor young people, who live in
shacks constructed of the sort of materials that you could scrounge up in
the nearby dump, going toe to toe with some of the smartest and most
articulate academics you can imagine. There was mutual respect on all
sides, as is evident in this excellent collection.
– Michael Perelman, California State University and author of
The Invention of Capitalism: The Secret History of Primitive
Accumulation

About Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg, born in Poland on March 5 1871, was an eminent
representative of European democratic socialist thinking and action.
Along with Karl Liebknecht, she was the most important representative of
internationalist and anti-militaristic positions in the German Social
Democratic Party. She was a passionate and convinced critic of
capitalism, as witnessed by her book The Accumulation of Capital, and
from this criticism she drew the strength for revolutionary politics.
After leaving the Social Democratic Party, Luxemburg co-founded the
German Communist Party. She was assassinated on January 15 1919 by
military men who later openly supported German Fascism.

Contents
Contributors
Preface – Arndt Hopfmann
Introduction – Patrick Bond and Horman Chitonge

PART ONE: THE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL IN THEORY AND HISTORY

Excerpts from The Accumulation of Capital - Rosa Luxemburg

The Accumulation of Capital in historical perspective - Arndt Hopfmann

‘No eyes, no interest, no frame of reference’: Rosa Luxemburg, Southern
African historiography, and pre-capitalist of modes of production – Jeff Guy

Unlocking the present? Two theories of primitive accumulation - Ahmed Veriava

Enclosures, commons and the ‘outside’ – Massimo De Angelis

PART TWO: CONTEMPORARY ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL

Imperialism and new commodity forms – Elmar Altvater

Luxemburg and South African subimperial accumulation - Patrick Bond

Two economies? A critique of recent South African policy debates –
Caroline Skinner and Imraan Valodia

New faces of privatisation: From comrades to customers – Greg Ruiters

Black Economic Empowerment and the South African social formation –
Leonard Gentle

PART THREE: SOCIAL STRUGGLES AGAINST ACCUMULATION

Property for people, not for profit - Ulrich Duchrow

The regional labour movement - Ntwala Mwilima

The shackdwellers movement of Durban – S’Bu Zikode

Against the commodification of education – Salim Vally

Challenging municipal policies and global capital – Trevor Ngwane

Contributors
Elmar Altvater taught at the Free University in Berlin for many years,
and is a leading authority on political economy and environment.

Patrick Bond, a political economist, is research professor at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal where he directs the Centre for Civil Society.

Horman Chitonge is a doctoral candidate at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society. A Zambian, he holds degrees from
the University of Zimbabwe and UKZN School of Development Studies.

Massimo De Angelis is a Reader in economics at the University of East
London. He edits The Commoner website and blog: www.thecommoner.org.

Ulrich Duchrow is associated with the German prophetic faith
organisation Kairos, and is based at the University of Heidelberg.

Leonard Gentle directs the International Labour Research and Information
Group in Cape Town.

Jeff Guy is research fellow at the Campbell Collection in Durban, and
has taught at universities in Southern Africa and Norway. He has
published several books on the destruction of the Zulu kingdom, and Zulu
resistance.

Arndt Hopfmann holds a PhD in Development Economics, and was formerly
senior lecturer at the University of Leipzig and the Free University in
Berlin. He directs the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s Regional Office in
Johannesburg.

Ntwala Mwilima is a researcher based at the Labour Resource and Research
Institute in Windhoek, Namibia.

Trevor Ngwane is a student at the UKZN Centre for Civil Society and
general secretary of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee.

Greg Ruiters holds the Matthew Goniwe professorship at the Rhodes
University Institute for Social and Economic Research.

Caroline Skinner is a research fellow at the UKZN School of Development
Studies.

Imraan Valodia is a senior research fellow at the UKZN School of
Development Studies.

Salim Vally is a senior researcher at the University of the
Witwatersrand Education Policy Unit.

Ahmed Veriava is conducting masters degree research at the UKZN Centre
for Civil Society and works with the Anti-Privatisation Forum in Gauteng.

S’Bu Zikode is a leader of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Durban movement of
shackdwellers.

BEYOND ENCLAVITY IN AFRICAN ECONOMIES:
THE ENDURING WORK OF GUY MHONE

Edited by Patrick Bond for the IDEAs Conference in memory of Guy Mhone:
Sustainable Employment Generation in Developing Countries
25-27 January, Nairobi

GUY MHONE (1943-2005) was the leading economist to have worked across
post-colonial Southern Africa. His employers included the International
Labour Organisation in Lusaka, Harare and Maseru, the Southern African
Political Economic Series Trust, the South African Department of Labour,
and the University of the Witwatersrand; his heart and labours were
largely for the benefit of progressive civil society organisations,
especially organised labour. Mhone’s books included The Political
Economy of a Dual Labour Market in Africa (1982); Malawi at the
Crossroads (edited, 1992); The Case for Sustainable Development in
Zimbabwe (coauthored, 1992); and The Informal Sector in Southern Africa
(1997).

Sponsors: The University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society,
International Development Economics Associates, the Wits University
Graduate School of Public and Development Management and the University
of Nairobi Institute for Development Studies and Department of Economics

Financial support: Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa and
ActionAid Malawi

CONTENTS
1) Guy Mhone’s Life - Patrick Bond
2) Labour Market Discrimination and its Aftermath - Guy Mhone
3) Enclavity - Adebayo Olukoshi
4) Guy Mhone at Work - Judica Amri-Makhetha
5) Guy Mhone as Mentor – Omano Edigheji
6) Guy Mhone as Teacher – Tawanda Mutasah
7) Personal Reflections on Guy Mhone - Thandika Mkandawire
8) Honouring the Memory of Guy Mhone - Codesria

CONTRIBUTORS
Judica Amri-Makhetha is Director of the International Labour Office for
Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, based in Pretoria.

Patrick Bond is Director of the Centre for Civil Society at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.

Omano Edigheji is Research Director at the Centre for Policy Studies in
Johannesburg.

Thandika Mkandawire is Director of the United Nations Research Institute
for Social Development in Geneva.

Tawanda Mutasah is Director of the Open Society Initiative of Southern
Africa in Johannesburg.

Adebayo Olukoshi is Director of the Council for the Development of
Social Science Research in Africa, Dakar.

Patrick Bond at U.Cal Berkeley African Studies on Zimbabwe 1 May 2007

The Struggle for a Democratic Zimbabwe By Patrick Bond

Tuesday, May 1, Noon, 575 McCone Hall
Brown Bag Lecture

Patrick Bond is a political economist based at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal School of Development Studies in Durban, where he directs
the Centre for Civil Society (http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs). He was born in
Belfast, Northern Ireland, raised in Alabama, and educated in economics
at Swarthmore College, finance at the University of Pennsylvania, and
geography at Johns Hopkins University. He is active with social
movements in South Africa, Zimbabwe and internationally. Recent books
are Fanon's Warning (edited, Africa World Press, 2005); Elite Transition
(Pluto Press, 2005); Talk Left, Walk Right (University of KwaZulu-Natal
Press, 2004); Against Global Apartheid (Zed Books, 2003); Zimbabwe's
Plunge (co-authored with Simba Manyanya, Merlin Press, 2003); and
Unsustainable South Africa (Merlin Press, 2002).

The Struggle for Democracy in Zimbabwe: Confronting the Long Economic Crisis

Paper Presented to the University of California-Berkeley Center for African Studies 1 May 2007

When did Zimbabwe’s apparently endless economic downturn actually begin?

• February 2000 when Robert Mugabe began authorising land invasions?
• November 1997 when ‘Black Friday’ decimated the currency’s value (by 74% in four hours)?
• The prior months when war vets were given pensions and Zimbabwe put troops into the Democratic Republic of the Congo to back the Kabila regime and secure investment sites?
• September 1991 when the stock market crashed once interest rates were raised to high real levels at the outset of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap)?
• The early 1980s, not long after Mugabe took power?
• Or around 1974, when per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) began a fall which has not yet reversed itself?

Read Paper

Patrick Bond on SA economy at Stanford Univ colloquium 30 April 2007

April 30, 2007 Building 460, Margaret Jacks Hall
Terrace Room, 4th floor

9:45 am-10:00 am
Welcoming Remarks: Elizabeth Thornberry, Stanford

10:00 am-12:00 pm
Chair: David Palumbo-Liu, Stanford
Monica Popescu, McGill
Mark Sanders, NYU
Vilashini Cooppan, UCSC

1:00 pm-3:00 pm
Chair: Jim Ferguson, Stanford
Patrick Bond, KwaZulu-Natal: Reconciliation and Economic Reaction: Flaws in South Africa’s Elite Transition
Clifton Crais, Emory
Don Donham, UC-Davis

This conference is funded by the Division of Languages Cultures and Literatures, the Program in Modern Thought and Literature,
the Law and History Workshop, the English Department, the History Department, and the Center for African Studies.
For questions, email thornb@stanford.edu

Paper Abstracts of the South Africa Colloquium at Stanford

Reconciliation and Economic Reaction: Flaws in South Africa’s Elite Transition
Patrick Bond

Over the past 13 years, the democratic South African government has conclusively failed to achieve a meaningful redistribution and reconstruction of apartheid's enormous social surpluses and reconciliation of the society’s gaping race, class and gender contradictions. This is true in macro-political as well as micro-developmental terms. To be sure, political reconciliation and economic fusion between white and black elites has been successful (and thanks to consumer credit has drawn a larger group of black professionals into middle-class consumption norms). Indeed, a celebratory account of the transition has emerged from eloquent bureaucrats and consultants which highlights the expanded social welfare state, in contrast to a substantial new generation of independent-left scholarly and activist critics of post-apartheid social relations. The latter posit a Polanyi-style ‘double-movement’ reaction to the truncated character of liberation: i.e., intensified commodification combined with capital investment strike on the one hand, social unrest on the other. Intensified inequality, unemployment and a mass upsurge of social unrest, reflected in more than 5000 separate protests recorded by police over a recent 12-month period (probably the highest per capita rate in the world), and a more organised form of popular opposition to the excesses of elite reconciliation surfaced around 2000. Meanwhile, the lack of opportunities for accumulation at home, especially in manufacturing, has driven white-owned capital abroad. This is facilitated on the continent by the Pretoria government both through its New Partnership for Economic Development and influence within the African Union, and more broadly through a cozy relationship with world political and economic managers. However, in combating ‘global apartheid’ (Mbeki’s phrase), the SA government’s ostensible socio-economic and environmental reform agenda has been as unsuccessful globally as it is at home.

Creating a New Nation
Don Donham

On the first celebration of Soweto Day (later to be called Youth Day), a little over a month after the famous elections of 1994, other black workers at a East Rand gold mine ganged up on the Zulus amongst them, killed two, and seriously injured many more. Eventually, all of the 350 Zulus (out of approximately 5,000 black workers) would be retrenched, after management claimed that it could find no way of solving the ethnic tensions involved. Everyone, black and white, narrated the violence in ethnic terms: The Xhosas had attacked the Zulus. As such, this conflict joins many others that occurred on the East Rand between 1990 and 1994 in which thousands upon thousands died, as a new nation was being born.

This paper, like other recent work, attempts to provide a deeper explanation of the violence, in this case, the incident at the mine I am calling Cinderella. Among the factors involved are, surprisingly, management’s last-minute support of unionization of its black workforce, and the National Union of Mineworkers’ strategy of using ethnic structures in order to organize the workforce. At the time, a new vernacular notion of the nation was being created among black workers--one in which South African ethnic groups, defined in apartheid history, could now be potentially hierarchized. In this local discourse (that neither the higher levels of management nor of the union subscribed to) the Xhosas had led the struggle to create a new nation. The Zulus were potential traitors within. And Mozambicans were newly defined “foreigners.” This case provides materials for considering the paradoxical connections between nonracialism and ethnic identity, between liberal notions of the New South Africa and black nationalism.

Aporias of Debt and Reparation: The Truth Commission and a Poem by Antjie Krog
Mark Sanders

In the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the issue of reparations to be paid to victims is an unresolved one, suspended between law and literature. The Commission made recommendations, the government proposed a sum of money for each victim, but victims have protested the relatively small amount granted. Despite their differences, all of the parties appear to have identified an aporia: reparation must be made, no adequate reparation could be made. The Commission suggests a way through this aporia of reparation by means of its concept of “symbolic reparations”--monuments, tombstones, days of remembrance, and so forth. Not fully analyzed by the Commission itself, this concept may be read as implying a Kleinian thematics of reparation. Exploring reparation in Melanie Klein’s texts of the 1930s, and the placing by the Commission of a poem by Antjie Krog as the epigraph to the final volume of its report, I argue that this literary work, along with Krog’s Country of My Skull--a profound commentary on poetry and testimony as well as testimony in its own right--, reveals how the Commission attempted ambitiously to actualize dynamics of reparation in the measures it took to hear the testimony of victims. At the same time, I suggest how Krog’s poem, deeply responsive to the testimony of victims, though supplementing the operations of law, cautions against any facile crossing through of the aporia of reparation.

The Non-Economic Foundations of Economy Poverty: Sketch for a Theory of Violence
Clifton Crais

A remarkable feature of post-apartheid historical scholarship has been its irrelevance. Certainly there are exceptions to this bald statement. By and large, however, historians have produced a deafening silence on issues of obvious historical and contemporary import: poverty and inequality; violence, especially towards women; state formation; and the effective retribalization of the former “homelands” under legislation such as the Communal Land Tenure Bill and the Traditional Leadership and Governance Act. Instead we have a proliferation of work on public history, on post-apartheid nation-building and its critics, much of which is fascinating, fashionable and, frankly, easy.

We could spend a very long time discussing the making of the current historiographical predicament, ranging from the decline of neo-Marxist epistemologies to higher education funding to the cultural turn within the interpretive social sciences. Criticism is fun, particularly when directed towards someone else. A more fruitful if less titillating tact would be to begin imagining what a new or revitalized historical political economy might look like by returning to the classic question of the nineteenth history of rural poverty. My paper argues that much of what we think we know about this period is, well, substantially wrong, and that a revitialized historiography of South Africa will have to engage with a history of violence. Benjamin wrote somewhere that the state of emergency within which billions of people live their daily lives is not the exception but the rule. How, then, do we begin writing its history?

The Chess-player in the Machine: Representations of History in Zoe Wicomb’s David Story
Monica Popescu

At the end of the Cold War the dilemmas that had been facing Marxist historiography in the West for several decades hit home in South Africa. Zoe Wicomb’s novel David’s Story reflects the dispute between the academic influence of Western post-structuralism and the Marxist outlook on history of many of those involved in the struggle. In the novel this heated discussion is transliterated in the relationship between David Dirkse, a military cadre of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) who supports a teleological view of history, and his amanuensis, an intellectually sophisticated woman versed in the lingo of post-structuralism, who acts as the narrator. Side by side with snippets about David’s participation in the struggle, the novel stages a confrontation between older systems of historiographic recording and the fragmented state in which memories reach us, between David’s belief in a material history and the narrator’s perpetual subversion of hard facts.

The novel’s intradiegetic negotiations between the two positions reflect real life debates on ANC and SACP historiography and the two parties’ gradual adjustment of their Marxist perspective on the advancement of history to the ambiguities of the post-Cold War global situation. The ideological and tactical training received by MK members in Eastern European countries contributed to a staunch Marxist outlook on historical development. The Movement was slow to take stock of events in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, as the same transformations also triggered the loss of support of these formerly socialist allies. I will argue that both for the ANC/SACP team and for the main character in Wicomb’s novel the past and the future lose their legibility and new avenues and branching future developments are being offered by the transition timeframe.

Traumatic Memory and Sovereignty’s Exception: National Narrative in the New South Africa
Vilashini Cooppan: Literature, UC Santa Cruz

What is the shape of law in a state of exception, that state in which the state accords itself the power to suspend the right of law? And how might the peculiarly conflicted shape of the law under exception, that law which exists both outside and inside itself, both before and after its own instance, provide us with a model for the reading of literary narratives, in particular, the literary narratives of the post-apartheid era? If looming European fascism was the event that spurred Walter Benjamin to coin the image of a state of emergency and exception, then South Africa’s apartheid regime was surely another such instance of the boundaries of sovereign law’s power to exert right-to-life and right-to-death over its subjects. In the wake of apartheid’s legal demise and its cultural renarrativization in the form of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, memory has emerged as a critical discourse of the state as it seeks to consolidate a non-exceptional, or democratic, style of power. What styles of telling does the practice of state memory entail? And how does the encounter of that practice with literary representation help to rearticulate the past for the future? In other words, how do the experiments with memory and truth that are so prevalent in the last decade of South African fiction allow us to see a changing discourse about the nature of sovereignty in the new South Africa?

Building on Benjamin, as well as Jacques Derrida’s Rogues and Giorgio Agamben’s State of Exception, this paper will seek to locate the contradictory structure of the law, the contested narrative of the truth, and the unfinished claims of justice in relation to the place of memory in recent South African literature, with particular focus on J.M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello and Gillian Slovo’s Red Dust. Rather than arguing for the translatability of states of exception Benjamin’s fascism, Derrida’s and Agamben’s post 9/11 U.S., South Africa’s apartheid regime), or the transhistorical possibilities of trauma to provide a sole template of the nature of memory, recollection, and working-through, this paper argues instead for the deep locality of styles of sovereign power and practices of state memory. It is in the nature of literature, with its many ways of telling the past, this paper suggests, to attune us to that very locality.

Patrick Bond to speak on Southern African political economy at ActionAid in Washington, 27 April 2007

BROWNBAG LUNCH DISCUSSION:
Patrick Bond on Southern African Political Economy: New theories, analyses, strategies
DATE: Friday, April 27
TIME: 12:30-2pm
VENUE: ActionAid's new office: 1420 K Street, NW Suite 900

Patrick Bond - who directs the Centre for Civil Society in Durban, South
Africa - will be in Washington, DC on Friday. At ActionAid at 1420 K,
12:30-2pm, he will discuss new ideas in political economy drawing upon
two books copublished by CCS this year:

The Accumulation of Capital in Southern Africa

Beyond Enclavity in African Economies

These books (free for download, click on the titles), as well as the March 2007 special issue of the Review of African Political Economy
(on 'primitive accumulation'), include papers from a 2006 Colloquium on Economy, Society and Nature. They capture the new ways that
'superexploitation' - profits drawn from beyond the sphere of market transactions, by use of theft and piracy, coercion and violence, and
extreme commodification - is being understood. The idea applies to old challenges like the race/class debate in a context of systemic migrancy (and rural women's role in the reproduction of cheap labor), as well as
recent problems as diverse as new-generation corporate welfarism in economic development, microfinance evangelism, health system
degradation, water commercialization and carbon trading ('the privatization of the air').

CCS is part of an informal network in Southern Africa and around the
world - which ActionAid also contributes actively to - searching out
insights of analysis, measurement, and resistance strategy/tactics under
conditions of globalization, persistent economic volatility, excess
corporate power and the fusion of popular resistances. The two recent
books and the Roape special issue draw upon the work of the late
Southern African economists Guy Mhone and Jose Negrao, as well as German
revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. A further volume on superexploitation in
South Africa devoted to the legacy of the late Harold Wolpe -
*Transcending Two Economies: From Wolpe to Mbeki and Back* - is also due
out shortly.

Excerpts from The Accumulation of Capital - Rosa Luxemburg

The Accumulation of Capital in historical perspective - Arndt Hopfmann

‘No eyes, no interest, no frame of reference’: Rosa Luxemburg, Southern
African historiography, and pre-capitalist of modes of production – Jeff Guy

Unlocking the present? Two theories of primitive accumulation - Ahmed Veriava

Enclosures, commons and the ‘outside’ – Massimo De Angelis

PART TWO: CONTEMPORARY ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL

Imperialism and new commodity forms – Elmar Altvater

Luxemburg and South African subimperial accumulation - Patrick Bond

Two economies? A critique of recent South African policy debates –
Caroline Skinner and Imraan Valodia

New faces of privatisation: From comrades to customers – Greg Ruiters

Black Economic Empowerment and the South African social formation –
Leonard Gentle

PART THREE: SOCIAL STRUGGLES AGAINST ACCUMULATION

Property for people, not for profit - Ulrich Duchrow

The regional labour movement - Ntwala Mwilima

The shackdwellers movement of Durban – S’Bu Zikode

Against the commodification of education – Salim Vally

Challenging municipal policies and global capital – Trevor Ngwane

Patrick Bond E.Cape Wolpe lecture on Coega in Port Elizabeth 25 April 2007

Crony Capitalism, Climate Crisis and Coega: The Minerals-Energy Complex Queues for Corporate Welfare

PATRICK BOND Wolpe Lecture on Coega, 25 April 2007, City Hall Port Elizabeth

ECSECC, University of Fort Hare and Rhodes University invite you to a public
lecture in the Harold Wolpe lecture series 'Citizenship, Society and
Development in the Eastern Cape'

Prof. Patrick Bond, Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZuluNatal:

Local development planning and possibilities for popular democracy in post 1994 South Africa: The case of Coega

For more information: Siv Helen Hesjedal, ECSECC (Eastern Cape
Socio-Economic Consultative Council), Phone: 040 6351590 / 082 4967033
siv@ecsecc.org,
www.ecsecc.org

PAMBAZUKA NEWS 284: SPECIAL ISSUE ON TRADE AND JUSTICE
January 4 2007

THE COEGA INDUSTRIAL ZONE COMPLEX
By Patrick Bond

The South African government is channeling Africa’s largest-ever
industrial subsidies into the Coega industrial zone complex and port,
located in the country’s fourth largest city, the Nelson Mandela
Metropole (better known by its apartheid-era name, Port Elizabeth).
Government proponents say Coega represents sound industrial and
development policy, but a growing legion of critics are labeling it a
corporate welfare boondoggle in a country that does not have resources
to spare.

Aside from tailor-made infrastructure, including a 20 meter deep port,
the key attraction of Coega for foreign investors is super-cheap energy.
Following a year of frequent brownouts in the two largest metropolitan
areas, Johannesburg and Cape Town, a fierce debate has erupted over the
idea of providing discounted electricity to industrial users when
citizens cannot get a dependable supply at any price. Mismanagement of
the state electricity company, Eskom, in the course of its
corporatization has interfered with a steady supply.

The main beneficiary of Coega's cheap energy, the Canadian firm Alcan,
agreed in early December to a quarter-century power supply agreement
from Eskom -- the world’s fourth-largest power company -- at an
extremely generous price, less than the $0.02 cents per hour that bulk
industrial consumers pay. This is already the world’s cheapest
electricity, but Alcan insisted on the subsidy due to volatile commodity
prices, a factor that has caused consternation in prior deals the South
African government made with large mining houses and metals smelters
such as BHP Billiton, the Anglo American group and Mittal Steel.

Alcan and Eskom claim that the deal will bring job creation and foreign
exchange earnings, and pay off for the country. Using imported bauxite,
Coega’s $3 billion aluminum smelter could by 2014 produce 720,000 tons
of the metal annually in one of the world’s biggest smelters. Fewer than
1,000 permanent jobs will be created in the process, however

Coega is one in a long list of post-apartheid megaprojects undertaken by
the South African government. These include the Pebble Bed Nuclear
Reactors (one of the first global deployments of a new nuclear energy
technology that purports to offer new safety guarantees), the Lesotho
Highlands Water Project (six vast dams under construction) which
supplies Johannesburg its water [see Making the Earth Rumble,
Multinational Monitor, May 1996], and the Gautrain elite fast rail
network that will link Johannesburg, Pretoria and the country’s largest
airport. An impoverished South African majority, increasingly well
organized and mobilized, is challenging these megaprojects and demanding
instead that state resources be deployed to deliver basic services to
the majority, on a more ecologically sustainable basis.

The costs of corporate welfare
Coega’s site will include a new port, container terminal and Industrial
Development Zone (IDZ), utilizing vast public investments -- at least
$1.5 billion, including a $300 million tax break for Alcan -- and
enormous quantities of land, water and electricity. The new employment
anticipated at the port/IDZ would be the most expensive, in terms of
capital per job, of any major facility in Africa. Environmentally, the
costs of the Coega projects in water consumption, air pollution,
electricity usage and marine impacts are potentially immense.

The infrastructure under construction is unprecedented in Africa, and
dwarfs the basic-needs development infrastructure required by deprived
citizens of Mandela Metropole and across the Eastern Cape. Hence
controversy has surrounded the decision-making process to construct the
port and IDZ. Reports of conflicts of interest for key decision-makers
cloud the project’s governance. Coega was also initially meant to
represent a key site at which European industrial firms involved in arms
sales to South Africa could make “offset” investments that would create
jobs, so government could justify to the public its corruption-ridden $6
billion weapons purchase. These so far haven’t been forthcoming.

Socially, there are significant costs as well. Several hundred families
were already displaced to build Coega’s infrastructure, and those in the
area will bear the brunt of the environmental toll exacted by the
project. The opportunity costs of Coega include as many as 10,000 jobs
lost in economic sectors which either must close or cannot expand,
including the existing salt works, mariculture, fisheries, agriculture
and eco-tourism. Most importantly, community and environmental activists
point to far better prospects for employment creation and socio-economic
progress if resources were used elsewhere. Six years ago, the Mandela
Metropole Sustainability Coalition proposed an alternative economic
development scenario. The alternative strategy prioritizes basic-needs
infrastructure investment throughout the Eastern Cape and, at Coega, the
development of state-supported eco-tourism and black-owned small-scale
agriculture and mariculture.

Of the many subsidy components of Coega, civic groups find Eskom’s new
deal most worrying, given the persistent electricity shortage across
South Africa and the problem of mass disconnections of poor people for
whom electricity remains too expensive. Using roughly 1,300 MegaWatts,
about 3 percent of the country’s total, Coega will constitute an
enormous new drain, requiring expensive new transmission lines from
Eskom’s coal-fired generators 1,000 kilometers away.

Moreover, South Africa’s carbon dioxide emissions are already running
approximately 20 times higher than even the United States on a per
capita income basis. Ironically, Environment Minister Martinus van
Schalkwyk returned triumphant from the November climate change treaty
renegotiations in Nairobi, claiming that South Africa achieved most of
its key objectives. Those included promoting Clean Development
Mechanisms.

By bringing the vast ghost on the Coast (the long-empty Coega’s
nickname) to life through the new subsidies, the national government
will substantially increase carbon emissions. Yet because Alcan promises
to use relatively energy efficient technologies, the market-oriented New
York-based group Environmental Defense has suggested that Coega be
considered worthy of Clean Development Mechanism investments by large
international polluters, which would permit them to continue present
rates of emissions. In promoting these kinds of investments, Van
Schalkvyk says that his government is sending a clear signal to carbon
markets of our common resolve to secure the future of the Kyoto regime.
But there are vast problems with the new emissions trading system, and
projects such as Coega show why this market should not be expanded in
ways that generate new ecological problems without making a dent in
overall emissions.

Captive regulation and revolving doors
From the standpoint of meeting basic needs for electricity, South
Africa's regulation of Eskom and municipal distributors has not been
successful. This is not only because of an extremely weak performance by
the initial National Electricity Regulator -- Xolani Mkhwanazi, who
subsequently became, tellingly, chief operating officer for BHP Billiton
Aluminum Southern Africa -- but also because government policy has
increasingly imposed cost-reflective tariffs, as a 1995 document
insisted. The key issue is whether all consumers must cover the costs of
the electricity they use, or whether richer and industrial consumers pay
higher rates to subsidize the poor.

The 1998 White Paper allowed for moderately subsidised tariffs for
poor domestic consumers. (White Papers are formal governmental policy
statements.) But it also stated, cross-subsidies should have minimal
impact on the price of electricity to consumers in the productive
sectors of the economy, meaning industrial users should not subsidize
costs for poor residential consumers.

In addition to Mkhwanazi, the man responsible for Eskom’s late-apartheid
pricing -- Mick Davis -- left the parastatal’s treasury to become the
London-based operating head of Billiton. Davis took the post after
former Finance Minister Derek Keys gave permission for an
Afrikaner-controlled industrial company (Gencor) to expatriate vast
assets in order to buy Billiton from Shell. After apartheid ended, Keys
became chief executive of Billiton.

Ironically, the deals that gave Billiton, Anglo American and other huge
corporations the world’s lowest electricity prices came under attack in
2005 by Alec Erwin, the minister of public enterprises. The package
Davis had given Billiton for smelters north of Durban and in Maputo,
Mozambique, during the period when Eskom had extreme overcapacity,
resulted in prices that often dropped below $0.01 per kiloWatt hour,
when world aluminum prices fell. (Most households pay five times that
amount.)

Erwin reportedly insisted on lower financial-reporting volatility.
Because the amount the foreign companies pay for energy changes with the
value of the rand, every time the rand changes value by 10 percent,
Eskom’s wins or loses $300 million. Erwin said the utility should work
to escape from existing contracts. From Billiton’s side, Mkhwanazi
replied that any change to the current contracts could be a bit tricky
for us. … We would adopt a pragmatic approach and, who knows, perhaps
there will even be some sweeteners in it for us.

But the allegedly new approach was not applied at Coega, where Erwin as
trade and industry minister from 1996 to 2004 had led negotiations for a
new smelter. According to the chief executive of the parastatal
Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Geoffrey Qhena, The main
issue was the electricity price and that has been resolved. Alcan has
put a lot of resources into this, which is why we are confident it will
go ahead.

Meanwhile, however, to operate a new smelter at Coega, lubricated by at
least 15 percent financing from the IDC, Alcan and other large aluminum
firms were in the process of shutting European plants that produce
600,000 metric tonnes between 2006-09, simply in search of cheaper
power, according to industry analysts.

The main Alcan negotiator, 49-year-old Cynthia Carroll of the United
States, was recognized for her skill in browbeating South African
officials when in late 2006 she was named CEO-designate at Anglo
American Corporation. Breaking the longstanding tradition, dating to the
era of founder Ernest Oppenheimer, of giving the top job to insider
elderly male candidates, Anglo’s offer was seen as a way to better
position the firm -- South Africa’s largest even though its financial
headquarters since 1999 is in London -- for further international metals
deals.

Coal-fired power, climate change and carbon trading
The state’s decision to provide Alcan such vast subsidies at Coega comes
amidst rising elite and popular consciousness about climate change
problems. For years, global rulers have avoided action on CO2 emissions,
as reflected in October in Monterrey, in the wake of the July
St.Petersburg summit of the G8 group of rich countries, which ignored
climate change. In Monterrey, the G8’s energy ministers were joined by
12 other major polluters, including South Africa, but again, no
commitments were made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Three weeks later, however, the British government released The Stern
Review: The Economics of Climate Change, which estimates climate change
costs of 5-20 percent of global GDP at current warming rates. Former
World Bank chief economist Nick Stern calls for demand-reduction of
emissions-intensive products (the opposite of Coega), energy efficiency,
avoiding deforestation and new low-carbon technology.

The key problem is that Stern and the establishment want many of these
improvements to be financed via carbon trading. Likewise, in 2002,
Princeton University researcher Nipun Vats and Environmental Defense –
through its “Partnership for Climate Action” relationship with French
aluminum firm Pechiney (subsequently purchased by Alcan) – promoted
Coega as eligible for subsidies under the Clean Development Mechanism.
Coega could receive such subsidies if it can show its technology is
cleaner than existing aluminum suppliers, and in turn that the
energy-savings smelter technology can only be profitably financed
through additional investment resources using carbon trading
mechanisms like the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund.

In November, Alcan said it would proceed with the $2.7 billion aluminum
Coega smelter thanks to vast electricity subsidies from Eskom. Within
days, University of Cape Town Environmental Studies Professor Richard
Fuggle -- the country’s most respected environmentalist -- attacked the
increase in CO2 emissions due to Coega in his retirement speech. He
described Van Schalkwyk as a political lightweight who is unable to
press for environmental considerations to take precedence of “development.

According to Fuggle, It is rather pathetic that van Schalkwyk has
expounded the virtues of South Africa’s 13 small projects to garner
carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol’s CDM, but has not expressed
dismay at Eskom selling 1360 megawatts a year of coal-derived
electricity to a foreign aluminum company. We already have one of the
world’s highest rates of carbon emissions per dollar of GDP. Adding the
carbon that will be emitted to supply power to this single factory will
make us number one on this dubious league table.

Civil society begins to react
In Mandela Metropole, emerging resistance to Coega’s guzzling of water
and power will add to existing popular unrest. In South Africa during
2004-05, the police counted more than 5,800 protests against government,
possibly the highest per-person rate in the world. In China, with 1.3
billion people, there were 87,000 mainly rural protests, while South
Africa’s population is 45 million.

Thirty years ago, in the wake of the Soweto uprising near Johannesburg,
the revitalized anti-apartheid social movements known as civic
associations were founded in Port Elizabeth’s impoverished townships,
thanks in part to the legacy of black consciousness and community
empowerment activist Steve Biko, killed by the city’s police in 1979.

Twenty years later, the assistant city engineer for hydraulics wrote a
blunt memo about the prospects for imposing a redistributive tariff to
help poor consumers through cross-subsidization, funded by higher prices
paid by large industrial users: If such a plan were to be implemented
for industry, Coega would not go ahead.

The redistributive scheme subsequently adopted by the city does not
assure low-income citizens basic electricity and water access. In other
words, the perceived need to pump cheap water and electricity into Coega
industries will likely sabotage government’s objectives of social
justice, public health, and economic growth via municipal services.

In all these respects, say critics, the Coega port and IDZ exacerbate
the apartheid economic legacy of division, marginalization and
grandiose, unworkable public-investment schemes. Such ventures were
traditionally grounded not in a logic of development, but instead
reflected the power of special interest groups.

Civil society resistance to this sort of maldistribution is already
quite advanced, but often takes the form of illegal reconnections after
prolific disconnections by municipalities and Eskom. To alter policy
decisions, what is needed is a more sustained campaign for radically new
industrial policies as well as tough state regulation of emissions. It
may be inspired by the case of Coega, which stands out as a beacon of
irresponsibility and corporate welfare.

see also www.multinationalmonitor.org

• This article was originally commissioned by
http://www.multinationalmonitor.org and is reproduced here with kind
permission of the author. Patrick Bond is director of the Centre for
Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban:

Patrick Bond at Joburg climate change conference, 23-24 April 2007
Papers

Can Climate Change be Cured by Carbon Trading?.

Fossil Fuel Energy, Electricity Access and Climate Change.

SIT Study Abroad South Africa: Globalisation and Development: 2-5 April 2007

SOUTH AFRICA:

GLOBALISATION & DEVELOPMENT

Focused Study: Development Advocacy

April 2- 5, 2007

RDS Module V Syllabus, Schedule and Reader

SIT Study Abroad
South Africa: Globalisation and Development

RDS Module V Syllabus
April 2- 5 2007

Focused Study: Development in South Africa

Coordinator:
Ntokozo Mthembu
E-mail: mthembun@ukzn.ac.za
031-260 2116 or 076 1694 690

Overview:
In this focus week, we explore development advocacy in a variety of forms, with specific attention to the concrete development problems faced by poor and working people in Durban and surrounding areas. We will be ‘cotaught’ by 10 members of community organisations who can link theory, policy and national/local issues to their own community/household struggles and power relations. The course will run each morning from 10am and break at 4pm. A variety of lecturers, researchers and leaders from CCS and community allies will be facilitating the discussions. If possible we will arrange at least one site visit.

Participants will receive a reading package with core materials – one paper for each seminar session – on 30 April. The facilitators will assume that participants will have read each of the papers provided, and be prepared to discuss them.

In addition, all participants will have access to a DVD and CD that include both three dozen videos plus a vast library of seminal readings on development, some of which may be accessed during the week.

The objectives are to give SIT students exposure to real development challenges in especially areas of housing, land, and basic services, along with consideration of development advocacy strategies, tactics and alliances by civil society organisations.

The agenda, with facilitators/issues, is below:

AGENDA

2 APRIL
VENUE: CCS BOARDROOM
Monday, 10am-11am: Annsilla Nyar - Writing Socio-Political Commentary: a Civil
Society Imperative

Monday, 11:30am: John Devenish - Desktop data collection dynamics Patrick

Monday, 2pm-4pm: Shannon Walsh - Fighting through Film: Video and activism in Durban communities

Monday evening optional event: 6-8pm, join us at Ike’s Books (47a Florida Road near Argyle in Morningside) for a book launch of John Saul’s latest political economy titles from University of KwaZulu-Natal Press

3 APRIL
VENUE: CCS BOARDROOM
Tuesday, 10-11am: Patrick Bond - SA housing and urban development policies
Tuesday, 11-12: Film.........
Tuesday, 12:30-2pm: John Saul (York University) -- Southern African
liberation (seminar cosponsored by CCS and the Department of Politics)
Tuesday, 2:00-3pm: Sufian Bukurura - Human rights and development and
Tuesday, 3:00-4pm: Patrick Bond - Introduction to political economy and development debates

4 APRIL
VENUE: CCS BOARDROOM

Wednesday, 10am-11am: Ntokozo Mthembu – Globalisation and the community experience, including the film Abasebenzi eWyatt Rd
Wednesday, 11am-12noon: Baruti Amisi - In the Absence of Citizenship: Congolese Refugee Struggle and Organisation in South Africa
Break: Break: Break: Break:
Wednesday, 1pm-2pm: Baruti Amisi – Dams: from Lesotho to DRC
Wednesday, 2pm-3pm: Annsilla Nyar - Review on Writing

5 APRIL
VENUE: CCS BOARDROOM

Thursday, 10am-11am: Dudu Khumalo - Basic service delivery and community participation in post apartheid South Africa

Thursday, 11:12noon: Orlean Naidoo – Contemporary community struggles: the case of Crossmor

Break: Break: Break: Break:

Thursday, 2:00pm-3:00pm: Dennis Brutus - International Outreach Activism (Suggested reading material – Dennis Brutus Poetry and Protest book - the Artist as Activist section; World Social Forum Reader by Sen - pp22 -27- and Patrick Bond -pp28-32)

Thursday, 3:00pm-4pm: Course summary

We will begin at 10am sharp each morning. Each of the above presentations will include a preliminary reading, a presentation, class discussion and a five minute break at the end. The one-hour lunch break will be strictly adhered to, as we will recommence at 2pm each day sharp.

Community participants will be required to contribute in some way (to be determined) to a concrete analysis of Durban eco-socio-economic development challenges.

SIT participants will be required to provide an 'op-ed' article of *no more than 800* words, as the basis for assessment. The article will be marked as if by a professional newspaper editor, for style and substance, and participants encouraged to submit to a periodical for publication. ‘Tips’ on writing an op-ed article are below, and Annsilla Nyar and Patrick Bond will offer advice.

Logistics
The SIT Shuttles will run between your homestays and the UKZN Centre for Civil Society, to arrive by 9:45am. (Please note that if you miss the shuttle you will need to make your own way to the Programme Centre in time for your lecture or other scheduled activity). Shuttles will pick up outside CCS at 4pm each day.

Writing Socio-Political Commentary: a Civil Society Imperative

By Annsilla Nyar
Developing and enhancing a culture of serious political debate in South Africa is an ongoing challenge for civil society. With the current challenges posed to media freedom by market forces and endemic politicking (considering the fact that the media is controlled by a small handful of media conglomerates, often blocking or obstructing substantive independent political opinion or thought,) it is more important than ever to retain a critical node in society which develops and influences the intellectual climate as well as advances people's capacities to reach informed understandings about critical socio-political issues. Opinion editorials or political commentary are an excellent way to present ideas, opinions or arguments in a persuasive and influential way.It is a great way to gain expression for one's writing and to produce concise, effective and persuasive arguments. It helps enhance students ability to debate responsibly and constructively. By choosing a subject based on public interest and current relevancy, by learning what issues are most important to the community or society, that opinion piece become part of the public discourse when that opinion
is published and subsequently debated.

This session is useful to those students who are interested in print journalism, editorial processes and public policy discourse. It will teach the essentials of creating a carefully crafted argument that is logically structured, clearly expressed and convincing to the readers. It will teach effective techniques for writing so as to develop and hone argumentative and persuasive writing skills.

This session will revolve around several key points:

How to choose your theme

How to do construct an argument (how to choose headlines, bylines, lead
paragraphs etc)

How to do effective and rigorous research

How to present opinion pieces in the public domain

A writing assignment will be set which will be evaluated at the end of
the course.

Workshop on SA Biofuels Strategy: 5 March 2007

Biofuels strategy and the politics of the belly – poverty by Ntokozo Mthembu

Introduction
Biofuels has become one of the issues that are highly debated today, as various regimes that tend to opt for it as the option from the highly exhausted fossils fuel raw products. Biofuels adoption raises a lot of concern especially the vulnerable people that consists of landless, unemployed and powerless. Their concerns arise out of their experiences that are nurtured through the challenging years, as the powerful, masters of capital dictates their best terms they could secure in market for the accumulation of their profit.

The implementation of such terms manifest in different ways through Bretton-wood organisation, their super multinational corporations and their military might. The interests of the vulnerable remain shattered and the continuous adoption of the Biofuels will mean-

Consolidation of removal of indigenous populace from their land

Increase of power to multi-national companies

Increase of vulnerability of lack of food in the rural communities; and

Decrease of power over the indigenous seed from local communities.

Therefore, these concerns from the vulnerable communities has raised the need to involve communities, community developers, researchers, academics and government official in workshop, research, discussions and debates on these issues. These interventions are geared to formulate the best solution that best suit the interests of the vulnerable, as the history of fossils fuel proves a negative impact towards proper development. Such negative effects are measured by the number of wars that are sweeping the face of the Earth today and yester years, statistics of poverty in Africa and the number of deaths of children and women due to poverty.

Ntokozo Mthembu is the Co ordinator of CCS Research on Biofuels & its impact on Society & the Enviroment

African Centre for Biosafety in collaboration with the Centre for Civil Society and Timberwatch and with the support of GRAIN and the Third World Network

Please join us to debate the issues relating to biofuels, and to critically assess and respond to the South African Biofuels Industrial Strategy published by the DME at :

Venue: Diakonia Centre, 20 Diakonia Avenue, Durban
Date: Monday 5th March 2007
Time: 9 am – 5 pm

Draft Programme

9h00 Introduction to biofuels – how are these made, different approaches to
production with an emphasis on integrated rural development approaches

9h40 Making biofuels - demonstration or visual presentation

10h00 The Asian experience – the pitfalls of large scale commercial production

10h40 Tea

11h00 The national biofuels industrial strategy –summary & key issues, the process,
certification, where do biofuels fit in the SA energy picture

11h40 Questions & Discussion

12h30 Lunch

13h30 Panel presentations & discussion on the global context influencing the biofuels
agenda:
- Industrial monoculture
- Climate change & carbon credits
- Multinational biotechnology & chemical agendas

14h30 – 16h30 Workshop

16h30 Wrap up & way forward

Background
Given the increasing cost of oil and concern over climate change, there has been a growing global interest in biofuels, which have far less pollutants than fossil fuels when burnt. Oil hungry economies in the north are increasingly seeking land and crops for producing biofuels to both maintain their energy intensity and reduce their carbon emissions.

In 2005 the South African cabinet appointed a Biofuels Task Team (comprising national departments and state entities) to develop an industrial strategy for biofuels targeted at creating jobs in the energy crops and
biofuels value chain. A draft strategy was released for public comment in November 2006.

The Draft Strategy proposes a 4,5% biofuels industry development in South Africa. The strategy identifies maize and sugar (Ethanol), as well as Soya bean and sunflower (Biodiesel) as the key crops to deliver biofuels, as well as suggesting research to develop other crop varieties which will further increase the country's production levels. Comments on the biofuel strategy are currently due on the 10th March 2007.

Although touted as a ‘green’ fuel there are a number of issues relating to biofuels that should be debated bySouth Africans. These include:

the impact on the price of staple foods as wealthy nations compete with the poor for grain supplies

although the strategy emphasises job creation, mass biofuel production is likely to increase the acreage of crops grown with industrial agricultural methods, seriously impacting on both natural and sustainably cultivated environments.

further multinational control over local land & agriculture

introduction of genetically modified & other invasive species into the environment

the role biofuels could play in poverty alleviation & the reduction of energy poverty

There is insufficient information and public debate concerning the possible positive and negative consequences of engaging in biofuel production. The DME is currently holding stakeholder consultation processes, however, there has been little notice of this process or any attempt to build capacity on this
issue in potentially impacted communities. Vulnerable communities and small and medium scale farmers have had little opportunity to discuss and formulate viewpoints on the biofuel agenda with regards to land rights, industrial agriculture, implications for food security and access, and environmental degradation.

More

Purpose of this workshop
The African Centre for Biosafety, together with the Centre for Civil Society and Timberwatch invite civil society, academic, rural community and government representatives working in areas potentially affected by biofuel production for the purpose of:

1. sharing information on what biofuels are, how they are made and appropriate and
inappropriate source materials

2. identifying and exposing important biofuels issues and players

3. providing a space within which we can discuss and formulate strategies to protect farmers, consumers and the environment from unsustainable biofuel production.

Please confirm your attendance & requirements by contacting Jenny Duvenage on email: timberwatch@iafrica.com and tel: 031 207 1356
Support for travel & accommodation for rural participants is available on request where necessary.

For more information please contact Vanessa Black on 082 472 8844 or black@ispace.co.za or Mariam Mayet at mariammayet@mweb.co.za

Useful Documents

Making Biofuels Without Wasting Food in Cuba and in Venezuela

Opening pandora’s box: Gmos, fuelish paradigms and South Africa’s biofuels strategy

Full Tanks at the Cost of Empty Stomachs :The Expansion of the Sugarcane Industry in Latin America

We, representatives of organizations and social movements of Brasil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic, gathered at a forum on the expansion of the sugarcane industry in Latin America, declare that:

The current model of production of bioenergy is sustained by the same elements that have always caused the oppression of our peoples: appropriation of territory, of natural resources, and the labor force.

Historically the sugar industry served as an instrument to maintain colonialism in our countries and the creation of dominant classes that have controlled, through today, large extensions of land, the industrial process, and commercialization. This sector is based on latifundio ownership, on the overexploitation of labor (including slave labor) and the appropriation of public resources. This sector was created upon intensive and extensive monocropping, provoking concentration of land, profit, and wealth.

The sugarcane industry was one of the main agricultural activities developed in the colonies. It allowed sectors that controlled production and commercializaction to continue accumulating capital and with this contribute to the development of capitalism in Europe. In Latin America, the creation and control of the State, beginning in the 19th century, continued to service the colonial interests. Currently, control of the State by this sector is characterized by so-called bureaucratic capitalism. The sugar industry defined the political structures of national States and of Latin American economies.

In Brasil, beginning in the 1970s, during the so-called world oil crisis, the sugarcane industry began to produce fuel, which justified its maintenance and expansion. The same was repeated in 2004, with the new Pro-Alcohol program, which principally serves to benefit agribusiness. The Brasilian government began to stimulate the production of biodiesel as well, principally to guarantee the survival and expansion of large extensions of soy monoculture. To legitimate this policy and camouflage its destructive effects, the government stimulated the diversified production of biodiesel by small producers, with the objective of creating a social certificate. The monocultures have expanded into indigenous areas and other territories of native peoples.

In February of 2007, the United States government announced its interest in establishing a partnership with Brasil in the production of biofuels, characterized as the principal symbolic axis in the relation between the two countries. This is clearly a phase of a geopolitical strategy of the United States to weaken the influence of countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia in the region. It also justifies the expansion of monocultures of sugarcane, soy, and african palm in all Latin American territories.

Taking advantage of the legitimate concern of international public opinion on global warming, large agricultural companies, biotechnology companies, oil companies, and auto companies now perceive that biofuels represent an important source for the accumulation of capital.

Biomass is falsely presented as the new energy matrix, the ideal of which is renewable energy. We know that biomass will not actually be able to substitute fossil fuels, nor is it renewable.

Some characteristics inherent to the sugar industry are the destruction of the environment and the overexploitation of labor. The principal workforce is migrant labor. As a result, processes of migration are stimulated, making workers more vulnerable and attempts at organization more difficult. The rigorous work of cutting sugarcane has caused the death of hundreds of workers.

Female workers who cut sugarcane are exploited even more, as they receive lower salaries or, in some countries such as Costa Rica, do not directly receive salaries. Payment is made to the husband or partner. Child labor is commonly practiced in the industry throughout Latin America, as well as the exploitation of youth as the main labor force in the suffocating process of cutting sugarcane.

Workers do not have any control over the total amount of their production and as a consequence over their salary, as they are paid according to the quantity cut and not for hours worked. This situation has serious implications for the health of workers and has caused the death of workers through fatigue and the excessive labor that requires cutting up to 20 tons per day. The majority of contracts are through third party intermediaries or gatos. This complicates the possibility of achieving workers' rights, as formal work contracts do not exist. The figure of the employer is hidden in this process, which negates the very existence of labor relations.

The Brasilian State stimulates the use of resettled lands under agrarian reform and lands of small producers, currently responsible for 70% of the production of food, for biofuel crops, compromising food sovereignty.

As a result, we assume the commitment of:

Expanding and strengthening the struggles of social movements in Latin America and the Caribbean, through a network among existing workers' organizations and support groups.

Denouncing and combating any agrarian model based on monocultures and concentration of land and profit, destructive of the environment, responsible for slave labor and the overexploitation of the working force. Changing the current agrarian model implies a full realization of a profound Agrarian Reform that eliminates latinfundios.

Strengthening rural workers' organizations, salaried workers, and farmworkers to construct a new model that is closely cemented to farmworker agriculture and agroecology, with diversified production, prioritizing internal consumption. It is important to fight for a policy of subsidies for the production of food. Our principal objective is to guarantee food sovereignty, as the expansion of the production of biofuels aggravates hunger in the world. We cannot maintain our tanks full while stomachs go empty.

São Paulo, February 28, 2007

Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT)
Grito dos Excluídos
Movimento Sem Terra (MST)
Serviço Pastoral dos Migrantes (SPM)
Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos
Via Campesina

Biofuels:A Disaster in the Making

The undersigned NGOs, Indigenous Peoples Organizations, farmer's
movements and individuals call upon the Parties to the Framework
Convention on Climate Change to immediately suspend all subsidies and
other forms of inequitable support for the import and export of biofuels.

We recognize that the local production and consumption of biomass plays
an important role in sustainable livelihood strategies of, in
particular, rural women in developing countries. Certain small-scale and
strictly regulated sustainable forms of biofuel production can be
beneficial at the national level. However, the modalities of biomass
consumption and production must be carefully analyzed in conjunction
with communities, to introduce adaptive measures that will maintain and
enhance the patterns of sustainability, while avoiding negative impacts
on health and the adverse effects inherent to increases in demand or
changes in socioeconomic settings. Solar energy often offers a
sustainable alternative to traditional biomass.

Meanwhile, international trade in biofuels is already causing a negative
impact on food sovereignty, rural livelihoods, forests and other
ecosystems, and these negative impacts are expected to accumulate
rapidly. Large-scale, export-oriented production of biofuel requires
large-scale monocultures of trees, sugarcane, corn, oilpalm, soy and
other crops. These monocultures already form the number one cause of
rural depopulation and deforestation worldwide. The rapidly increasing
demand for these crops as a source of biofuel will lead to:

increased land competition leading to further land concentration, the
marginalization of small-scale agriculture and the widespread conversion
of forests and other ecosystems;

arable land that is currently used to grow food being used to grow
fuel, leading to staggering food prices and causing hunger, malnutrition
and impoverishment amongst the poorest sectors of society;

rural unemployment and depopulation;

the destruction of the traditions, cultures, languages and spiritual
values of Indigenous Peoples and rural communities;

the extensive use of agro-chemicals, which deteriorate human health
and ecosystems

the destruction of watersheds and the pollution of rivers, lakes and
streams;

droughts and other local and regional climatic extremes; and

the extensive use of genetically modified organisms leading to
unprecedented risks.

These effects will have particularly a negative impact on women and
Indigenous Peoples, who are economically marginalized and more dependent
on natural resources like water and forests.

Biofuels are a disaster in the making. Existing legally binding
standards, regulations and enforcement mechanisms in the (potential)
production countries are absolutely insufficient to prevent the
above-mentioned impacts. International demand for biofuels is already
surpassing supply in key countries like Malaysia and Brazil, giving an
important push to the expansion of destructive crops like oil palm and
sugar cane. Initiatives to produce these monocultures responsibly are
rejected by many NGOs and social movements in the production countries
themselves, who have emphasized that the above-mentioned negative social
and environmental impacts are inherent to the large-scale production of
monocultures.

There is nothing green or sustainable to imported or exported biofuel.
Instead of destroying the lands and livelihoods of local communities and
Indigenous Peoples in the South through yet another form of colonialism,
we call upon Northern countries to recognize their responsibility for
destroying the planet's climate system, to reduce their energy
consumption to sustainable levels, to pay the climate debt they have
created by failing to do so until now and to dramatically increase
investment in solar energy and sustainable wind energy.

We also call upon all governments to develop and effectively enforce
environmental and social standards and regulations that ensure that
national biofuel production industries do not destroy the livelihoods
and ecosystems of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Corporations
should be held strictly liable for any social and environmental damage
that has occurred and they should be effectively prosecuted if they do
not uphold environmental and labor laws.

Signed: (for additional signatures contact Global Forest Coalition,
simonelovera@yahoo.com)

Global Forest Coalition
Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition
Institute of Cultural Affairs, Ghana
Oilwatch
International alliance of Indigenous and Tribal People of the Tropical
Forest
World Rainforest Movement
Global Justice Ecology Project
Friends of the Earth-Latin America and the Caribbean
Indigenous Nationalities International centre for development, Nepal
ICTI, Indonesia
Inter-Mountain Peoples'Education and Culture in Thaliand Association,
Thailand
Namanga Urban Community Environmental Group, Kenya
Ethnic Minority and Indigenous Rights Organisation of Africa
Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee - East Africa
Prakuyo Community, Tanzania
Consejo Indigena Mesoamericano - CIMA
FOAG/COICA-France
Simba Maasai Outreach Organisation, Kenya
Galesa Environment Conservation Organisation, Kenya
CORE, India
Red America Latina Libre de Transgenicos
Sobrevivencia/Friends of the Earth-Paraguay
CENSAT Agua Viva/Friends of the Earth-Colombia
Friends of the Earth-Western Australia
Groundwork/ Friends of the Earth-South Africa
RAPALMIRA
RAP-AL Colombia
Acción Ecológica, Ecuador
Instituto de Estudios Ecologistas del Tercer Mundo, Ecuador
Fundacion para la Promocion del Conocimiento Indigena, Panama
FASE-ES, Brazil
Ecological Society of the Philippines
Forest Peoples Programme, UK
Asociación Indígena Ambiental, Panama
Worldforests, Scotland
Bhartiya Kissan Union
Robin Wood, Germany
Sarhad Conservation Network, Pakistan
Centre Internationnal d'Etudes Forestières et Environnementales, Cameroon
GM Watch
REDES/ Friends of the Earth-Uruguay
SAM/Friends of the Earth Malaysia.
Onehemisphere, Sweden
WALHI/Friends of the Earth-Indonesia
KEPS/HKCA, Pakistan
Lismore Climate Action Group, Australia
Rainforest Information Centre, Australia
Biowatch, South Africa
Munlochy Vigil, Scotland
Grupo de Reflexion Rural, Argentina
Timberwatch, South Africa
Fundacion Ambiente Total del Chaco, Argentina
Corporate Europe Observatory
Costa Carrera, Chile
Agrarian group of ATTAC in Wuppertal, Germany
Bezirksverband der Grünen Jugend Unterfranken, Germany
AG-Genfrei der Grünen Jugend Bayern, Germany
Climate Change Action Network, Australia
Big Scrub Environment Centre, Australia
Genethics Foundation
XminY Solidarityfund, Netherlands
Amigu di Tera / FoE Curaçao
PENGON/ Friends of the Earth-Palestine
Anthra, India
Yakshi , India
Andhra Pradesh Adivasi Aikya Vedika, India
Friends of the Earth- Ghana
LIFE e.V., Germany
Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Nigeria
Veterinarios sin Fronteras, España
IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy
Maudesco/Friends of the Earth-Mauritius
CESTA/Friends of the Earth-El Salvador
Friends of the Earth-Nepal
CELCOR-Friends of the Earth Papua New Guinea
Friends of the Earth-Finland
Pembina Institute
Blue Planet Project
Lewis District Green Party
National Society for Conservationists/Friends of the Earth-Hungary
South African Climate Action Network
Safe Food Coalition, South Africa
Progressio, UK
Friends of the Oldman River, Canada
Pacific Institute of Resource Management, New Zealand
Edmonton Friends of the North Environmental Society
ASEED Europe
ATPNE/Friends of the Earth-Tunesia
Greenpeace Juegend-Munchen
First Nations Environmental Network, Canada
The Sierra Clun, Prairie Chapter, USA
Friends of the Earth-Slovakia
Friends of the Earth-Australia
Centinela, Venezuela
NOAH/Friends of the Earth-Denmark
Movimiento Madre Tierra/Amigos de la Tierra-Honduras
Federación Amigos de la Tierra-Argentina
Rainforest Action Network
Individuals:
Rob Law,
Tom Lines,
James Porteous,
Anurag Modi /Shamim ,
Mangal Singh ,
Shramik Adivasi Sanghathana,
Gurudev Parisar,
Harda ,
Toyoyuki Kawakami,
Hidetoshi Imaizumi, Japan,
Paul Harris, Australia,
Stephan Groetschel, Germany,
Iris Altmann, Germany,
Rick Tanaka, Katoomba, Australia,
Danny Harvey

As biofuels boom, will more go hungry?

By Ruth Gidley Wed Mar 7, 10:11 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Using plants to feed our fuel needs may be a great idea, and the biofuel goldrush could be a moneyspinner for several poor countries, but some experts warn people may go hungry as food prices rise.

Fans of biofuels give the impression we could soon be running cars on maize, producing electricity with sugar, and getting power from palm oil.

Even though the biofuel boom is only just beginning, it has already pushed up the cost of staples in places like Mexico where rocketing tortilla prices have sparked angry protests.

Some experts foresee a permanent change in food economics if farmers scent higher profit in fuel crops than in growing plants to feed people.

We're into a new structure of markets, said British food aid expert Edward Clay. It could have profound implications on poor people.

World leaders promised in 2000 to halve by 2015 the proportion of people, estimated at 1.2 billion or a fifth of humanity in 1990, who live on less than a dollar a day and who suffer from hunger.

According to the 2006 review of progress toward the goal, an estimated 824 million people in the developing world were affected by chronic hunger in 2003, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia.

Oil prices have roughly tripled since the start of 2002 to above $60 a barrel and as oil resources held by Western firms dwindle, biofuels have seemed viable and the message about climate change has gone mainstream.

Governments and oil companies are seeking alternative fuel sources and
President Bush has made it clear he supports a major shift toward biofuels.

Farmers in the United States are raising production of maize, now a lucrative material for biofuel production. Soaring U.S. demand for ethanol -- produced from crops like maize and sugar cane -- has sent maize prices to their highest level in a decade.

Mexicans are feeling the impact. Tens of thousands took to the streets in January when the price of tortillas tripled to 15 pesos ($1.36) a kg. There are about 35 of the flat maize patties that are Mexico's staple food in a kg.

Since half of Mexico lives on $5 a day or less, that's no small jump, and President Felipe Calderon -- a conservative who is a firm believer in free markets -- intervened to cap prices.

NEW ECONOMIC ERA?
Food costs as a proportion of incomes have been on a downward slide since World War Two, at least in the West. Clay says one of the big questions now is whether biofuels could reverse that process and take us into a new economic era which might be yet harder on the poor.

Although he says the current spike in prices will be temporary, he is not convinced food prices will fall back to pre-biofuel boom levels.

By next year, (food) prices will begin to fall away, he predicts. But that doesn't mean they'll ever fall to what they were before.

The United States and Brazil, the world's top biofuels producers, are not the only countries jumping on the biofuels bandwagon. China has joined them and now ranks in the global top four for biofuels output.

The incentive to switch land use from food crops to fuel crops mounts with rising biofuel demand, potentially underpinning prices.

Also maintaining upward pressure on food prices are the twin needs of economic boomers China and India to be self-sufficient in fuel, but also in food. China's expanding middle classes want to eat more meat, which requires grain production for feed, in turn keeping food prices high.

While food prices are likely to be dampened by farmers increasing food crop production in the short term, the scope for switching is limited.

Numerous scientists and economists say China and India do not have enough water to increase grain production, whether for animals or fuel.

LESS FOOD AID?
The biofuel boom may also change policies on food aid.

Now U.S. farmers can make good money selling grain to make ethanol, there could be a shift in its policy of giving 99 percent of food aid contributions in goods, rather than cash.

It might now actually be more convenient for the United States to buy its food aid allotment elsewhere, food aid expert Clay says.

The United States is the world's largest food aid donor but has come under heavy criticism, especially from Europeans, who say aid in kind distorts local markets, often takes a long time to arrive and is more expensive to ship than buy locally.

Bush has been trying to persuade Congress to change the law to allow up to 25 percent of the country's food aid in cash, but the bill has been rejected under pressure from farmers who did not want to lose what was more or less a subsidy for their grains.

Bush's bill is up before Congress again this year. For the last few years, the world's annual food aid donations have been around 10 million tons, in line with an international agreement in place since the 1960s for wealthy countries to give at least 5 million tons of food annually.

Donations fluctuate depending on prices, and relief organizations are already bracing themselves for a likely cut in volumes donated.

Clay says when food prices last rose in 1995, parts of the world where food aid was used in development projects -- like school feeding programs -- were the most vulnerable to cutbacks in the following year.

The same places -- Bangladesh, Central America, Eritrea, Ethiopia and North Korea, for example -- will probably be first to feel the pinch now.

(Additional reporting by Nigel Hunt in London and Alister Doyle in Oslo)

For Inmediate Release

A clear message from the South: WE WANT FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, NOT BIOFUELS
By Almuth Ernsting

(January 7, 2007) An open letter (please see attachment) was sent
yesterday to the European Parliament, The European Commission, The
Governments and Citizens of The European Union, in which several
networks from Latin American countries expressed their deep concern
over the policies that are probably to be adopted to favour the use
and import of biofuel as an alternative to fossil fuels, whose
disproportionate use is one of the main causes of global warming.

They point out:

Increasing use of individual automobiles and their
associated oil consumption as one of the main causes of global
warming, and biofuels might appear to be a positive alternative.
However, serious negative impacts are being experienced by the people
and natural resources of the South.

Europe will never achieve self-sufficiency in the production
of biofuel from national production of energy crops. The EU Biofuels
directive being announced by the EU Commissioners next week, will
drive a massive market expansion in biofuels in Europe that will come
at the expense of lands on which the food sovereignty of Southern
countries depend.

While Europeans maintain their lifestyle based on automobile
culture, the population of Southern countries will have less and less
land for food crops and will loose its food sovereignty. We will have
to base our diet on imported food, possibly from Europe.

Energy crops grown in Latin America for the European market :

will increase the level of destruction of the rainforest in
Argentina, of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and Bolivia and of the
Mata Atlântica in Brazil and Paraguay, and

genetically modified soybean crops, that are already being
planted, affect the health of surrounding populations, where the
levels of cancer and other diseases associated with agro toxic
chemicals used on these monoculture plantations are increasing day by
day.

sugar cane plantations and the production of ethanol in
Brazil are the business of an agricultural monopoly using slave
labour, and oil palm plantations are expanding at the expense of
forests and the territories of the indigenous and other traditional
communities of Colombia, Ecuador and other countries, increasingly
geared to biodiesel production.

The decisions on the EU Biofuels directive being made by the EU
commissioners on January 10th are critical to the future of many in
the Southern nations. The Latin American networks appealed to the
governments and people of the European Union countries to seek
solutions that do not worsen the already dramatic social and
environmental situation of the peoples of Latin America, Asia and
Africa.

Some European organizations, organized a campaign to support the
Latin American Network position and also sent their own message to
the Commission. The commission are urged to act to prevent further
deforestation, biodiversity losses, and evictions and impoverishment
of local communities by placing a moratorium on the EU biofuel
targets and obligations until the sustainable sourcing of biofuels
can be guaranteed; and taking all possible measures to stop imports
of biofuel feedstocks for bioenergy where crop production is linked
to deforestation, peat drainage, biodiversity loss, pollution or
human rights abuses.

Note:

Additional information about this issues can be found in the
signatories' web pages:

Alert Against the Green Desert Network,
http://www.desertoverde.org/

Latin American Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations,
http://www.wrm.org.uy/plantations/RECOMA.html;

Network for a GM free Latin America,http://www.rallt.org/;

Oilwatch South America,http://www.oilwatch.org/

World Rainforest Movementhttp://www.wrm.org.uy/;
http://www.wrm.org.uy/;

Some good in-depth articles on the impact of biofuels to communities
people, biodiversity and resources in Latin America can be found at:
http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/112/viewpoint.html on the World
Rainforest Movement website.

Contact details:

In Latin America:
Ana Filippini, World Rainforest Movement. Email: anafili@wrm.org.uy,
Telephone: 598 2 4132989 Cell phone: 598 99367966
Elizabeth Bravo, Email: ebravo@rallt.org Telephone: 593 22 547516

In Europe:
Jutta Kill, Email: jutta@fern.org, Telephone: +44 1608 652 895
Andrew Boswell, Large Scale Biofuel Action Group. Email:
andrew.boswell@yahoo.co.uk, Telephone: +44-1603-613798, Mobile: +44- 7787-127881;

Breeding Rural Poverty and Environmental Degradation: Brazil's Ethanol Plan
By Isabella Kenfield

On Jan. 22 the Lula administration announced it will increase federal funding for Brazil's sugar-based ethanol industry by almost US$6 billion over the next four years. One day later, U.S. President George W. Bush declared in the State of the Union address his goal to reduce U.S. use of gasoline 20% by the year 2017.

The general response in Brazil to Bush's announcement was overwhelmingly positive. Luis Fernando Furlan, Minister of Industry, Development, and Commerce, was quoted in the Gazeta Mercantil as saying he received Bush's announcement with applause.

It is a fantastic business opportunity, Luis Carlos Correa Carvalho, an industry consultant, told Reuters. We have never had such a great opportunity for the substitution of petroleum.

The United States is currently the largest importer of Brazilian ethanol. Last year it imported 1.74 billion liters, or 58% of the total three billion liters that Brazil exported. For the United States to reach Bush's target reduction of gasoline use, the country will need an additional 135 billion liters of ethanol annually. Because it will not be able to produce the entire amount, no doubt a large portion will come from Brazil.

Brazil is the global leader in ethanol exports. In 2006, the country exported about 19% of the total 16 billion liters it produced, providing 70% of the world's supply.

This amount will soon increase. A partnership between the Ministry of Science and Technology and the University of Campinas in São Paulo is currently conducting a study to plan Brazil's ethanol exports as a substitute for 10% of the global use of gasoline in 20 years.

If this plan is successful, the country's ethanol exports will total 200 billion liters by 2025-an increase of almost 67%. The geographic area planted with sugarcane will increase from 6 million to 30 million hectares.

Is Ethanol the Solution or the Problem?
Many citizen organizations in Brazil are concerned that what appears to be an economic panacea may be a social and ecological disaster. They claim that as the industry expands and more hectares are planted mono-cropping sugarcane, existing problems in rural areas of landlessness, hunger, unemployment, environmental degradation, and agrarian conflicts will be exacerbated.

A recent declaration from the Forum of Resistance to Agribusinesses, a consortium of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) throughout South America states, The implementation of the model of production and export of biofuels represents a grave threat to our region, our natural resources, and the sovereignty of our people.

There is concern that while expansion of the ethanol industry may boost Brazil's GDP and some Brazilians will become very wealthy in the process, the majority of the population will not benefit from the ethanol export boom. Given U.S. plans to increase imports of Brazilian ethanol and the alliance slated to be forged during Bush's South America visit in March, it is likely the livelihoods of many Brazilians, especially the rural poor, will be subordinated to maintain U.S. consumption.

The era of biofuels will reproduce and legitimize the logic of the occupation of rural areas by multinational agribusiness, and perpetuate the colonial project to subvert ecosystems and people to the service of the production and maintenance of a lifestyle in other societies, states the Forum. The group alleges that Brazil's effort to supply the Global North with ethanol is simply a repeat of the same model of economic growth via agro-export that has been practiced since Portuguese colonization.

Agricultural production for export in Brazil has traditionally been a model imposed on the country by more powerful nations in the North, alongside a small group of Brazilian landowners. Agro-export generates vast amounts of wealth for a few Brazilians, and exploitation and poverty for many others. Brazil's high rate of income inequality is inseparable from the fact that it also has one of the most unequal rates of land distribution. The sugar industry is a classic example of Brazil's land and income inequality.

A Bittersweet Future
Brazilian ethanol is produced from sugarcane, which has always been a primary agricultural commodity for the country. Because ethanol relies on sugarcane as its primary material, the industry is linked to the social and economic dynamics in rural areas that have developed from sugarcane production since the colonial era, most importantly labor exploitation and land concentration.

According to Marluce Melo of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) in the northern Brazilian city of Recife, Pernambuco, Rural poverty has always been intrinsically related to the economy of sugarcane. Even in the 1970s, when Pernambuco was the largest national producer of sugarcane, the levels of poverty were amongst the highest in the world.

In many ways, things have changed little on the sugarcane plantations since colonial times.

The problems with [sugarcane's] production today are very similar to the problems it generated hundreds of years ago, says Maisa Mendonça, Director of the São Paulo-based NGO Rede Social. Sugarcane fieldworkers endure some of the hardest labor in the world. According to Mendonça, Brazil has the lowest cost of production in the world because of the industry's dependence on labor exploitation, including massive slave labor, and its refusal to implement environmental regulations. In São Paulo the cost of production is US$165 per ton; in Europe it is US$700 per ton. I n São Paulo the median monthly salary for a field laborer on a sugar cane plantation is US$195; in Pernambuco it is US$167.

It is estimated that 40,000 seasonal migrant laborers from the Northeast and Minas Gerais state work in the annual harvest in São Paulo. They work long hours in extremely hot temperatures, cutting as fast as they can because their pay is based on the weight of their cuttings.

Maria Aparecida de Morães Silva, at the State University of São Paulo, reports that the required rate of productivity for cane cutters is increasing. In the 1980s, the average rate of productivity demanded of an individual cutter was between five and eight tons of sugarcane cut per day; today it is between 12 and 15 tons. From 2004 to 2006, the Pastoral of Migrants registered 17 deaths from excessive labor in São Paulo, and in 2005 the state's Regional Delegation of Labor registered 416 deaths of workers in sugar-based ethanol production.

Concentration in the Industry
As it grows, the sugar-ethanol industry has undergone a process of increasing concentration and vertical integration, as large corporations invest in land and production. According to a banker who finances loans to the ethanol industry in São Paulo and asked to remain anonymous, in the past control of the industry was dispersed among smaller businesses. Sugar mills were owned by individual owners who controlled both cultivation and milling.

Today Brazil has 72,000 sugar producers, and the ten largest producers still control less than 30% of production. However, the banker says, The current trend is toward concentration, with a large number of mergers and acquisitions.

Many of the larger companies that are buying out the smaller companies are multinational agribusiness corporations. The participation by foreign capital in the production of sugar and ethanol is currently 4.5%, and this number is going to grow. Recently many foreign groups are looking to invest in this industry in Brazil, due to one of the lowest costs of production in the world, says the banker.

Sugarcane seems to be following the same pattern of foreign investment and concentration as that of soybeans. Today almost all soybean production in Brazil is controlled by a handful of multinational agribusinesses.

Many of the corporations that control soybeans are now investing in the ethanol industry. Among the multinational agribusinesses investing in the industry are, according to the banker, Louis Dreyfus Commodities and Tereos, both based in France, as well as U.S.-based Cargill. The Louis Dreyfus site states the company is one of the three largest sugar traders in the world, and owns three Brazilian sugar mills with a fourth mill currently under construction in Mato Grosso do Sul . The company produces 450,000 tons of sugar and 150,000 cubic meters of ethanol annually.

According to the Cargill website, in addition to being Brazil's largest soybean exporter and second-largest processor, Cargill is the largest operator of sugar, both in terms of Brazilian sugar production and export sales, as well as global sugar trading.

As more land is planted as a monoculture of sugarcane, and control of the industry becomes more concentrated, rural poverty increases. According to Melo of the CPT, Monoculture has created a huge dependency on the sugarcane economy in the [Pernambuco] region, and impedes the creation of other forms of work and income. The monoculture of sugarcane also leads to an increasing concentration of lands in the hands of the sugar mills.

For about 15 years, there were 43 sugar mills and alcohol distilleries in Pernambuco. Currently only 25 of these companies control practically all of the land in the 43 municipalities of the sugarcane growing region of the state ... In the last two decades, practically all of the small properties in the region have disappeared, with the forced destruction of the sites, and the expulsion of the workers to the periphery of the 43 municipalities of the sugarcane region and to the larger cities of the neighboring metropolitan region. In this same period, about 150,000 jobs were lost when 18 companies closed and the lands and sugarcane processing was concentrated in the 25 sugar mills and distilleries that remain ... This has provoked a generalized 'slumming' of the workers, which has aggravated hunger.

Economic Boom or Environmental Bust?
Industry, government, and mainstream media in Brazil generally argue that increasing ethanol exports will boost economic growth and sustainable rural development, while simultaneously helping to curb global warming by helping the world reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.

But contrary to the green image evoked by industry advocates, the monoculture of sugarcane leads to massive environmental destruction. According to Melo, in Pernambuco only 2.5% of the original forest of the sugarcane region remains. In order to satisfy future global demand, Brazil will need to clear an additional 148 million acres of forest, says Eric Holt-Gimenez of the NGO FoodFirst, based in Oakland, CA.

The damaging environmental effects of monocropping sugarcane are, in the São Paulo banker's mind, the most troubling aspect of the sugar-ethanol industry. He claims that the sugar takeover is pushing other crops to the agricultural frontier.

He explains that, because sugarcane generates a high price per hectare, the regions with better climactic conditions are dominated by this crop, which results in sugarcane occupying lands that before were planted to grains and used for grazing livestock. Grain producers move to more remote regions, such as the center-west, which before were used for cattle. The result of this flux is that cattle ranchers seek new areas such as the Amazon region.

Resisting Changes in Land Use
As the expanding ethanol industry spreads rural poverty and loss of rural livelihoods due to increased land concentration and environmental destruction, the number and intensity of agrarian conflicts has risen. Brazil has one of the highest rates of income and land inequality in the world, and a well-articulated and organized agrarian reform movement of the rural poor. This has created a smoldering socio-economic fire that could very well be ignited with ethanol.

On Feb. 19 the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) and the Central Union of Workers (CUT) organized about 2,000 MST members and rural workers to non-violently occupy 12 plantations totaling 15,600 hectares in nine municipalities of São Paulo state. According to the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, MST leader José Rainha Júnior said the objectives of the occupations are to force the government to acknowledge the emergency need for agrarian reform, and to call attention to the social problems resulting from the expansion of sugarcane in the state.

Melo reports that in 2005, Pernambuco registered 194 conflicts over land-a rate higher than the previous five years. She also reports that in the same year a general strike by sugarcane workers was violently repressed.

The employed and unemployed workers who struggle for agrarian reform are constantly threatened and coerced by the landowning companies and by the police at their service, she says. CPT data shows 60 labor conflicts for 2005 alone, while between 2000 and 2004 the highest number of labor conflicts was nine.

As the Lula administration proceeds full-speed ahead with ethanol export as a model for economic development, it is turning its back on the millions of Brazilians who voted for the Workers' Party based on its promises to implement real social and economic changes, especially agrarian reform. According to Melo, The Lula government has strengthened the historical cane-production model imposed on the country based on monoculture, and concentrated landholdings and large companies. He has not shown any interest in creating alternatives to this perverse model.

Can there be viable economic alternatives to sugarcane monocropping? Our evaluation is that the government needs to combat hunger, says Mendonça. The government wants to become a factory to supply rich countries with cheap energy. This is compromising agrarian reform and food production.

What the social movements, many NGOs, and other organizations agree on is that Brazil needs to incorporate the concepts of food sovereignty into its development policy, prioritizing the land to produce food for Brazilians. Food sovereignty includes both the obligation of governments to ensure that their populations have access to nutritious foods in adequate quantities, and the right of people and countries to define their own agrarian policies, and produce foods destined to feed their populations before producing for export.

But food sovereignty will be unattainable without a comprehensive agrarian reform to keep family farmers on the land, producing and distributing healthy food to local populations. As it is currently developing, the Brazilian ethanol industry represents a direct challenge to food sovereignty and agrarian reform. Ethanol production to sustain the enormous consumption levels of the Global North will not lead the Brazilian countryside out of poverty or help attain food sovereignty for its citizens.
www.counterpunch.com

Isabella Kenfield is a freelance journalist based in Brazil and a contributor to the IRC Americas Program www.americaspolicy.org.

Militant Brazilian Opposition to Bush-Lula Ethanol Accords

By Isabella Kenfield and Roger Burbach

São Paulo During Bush's visit to Brazil thousands of poor, rural members
of the international Via Campesina social movement and the Brazilian
Movement of the Landless Rural Workers (MST) orchestrated massive,
non-violent occupations of multinational agribusiness corporations
throughout the country. Nine hundred women occupied the Cevasa ethanol
distillery in São Paulo. According to the press statement released by Via
Campesina, the protest was against “the proposal by the United States
government to benefit large ethanol companies in Brazil, which is not in the
interest of the majority of the Brazilian population.” Cevasa is the largest
producer of sugarcane in Brazil, and last year 63% of its shares were bought
by the US-based Cargill corporation.

Other occupations included paper mills in Rio Grande do Sul owned by Stora
Enso Oyj of Finland, and Votarantin and Aracruz of Brazil. All of these
actions were to protest the model of economic growth via industrialized
agriculture for export. The social movements and their supporters in civil
society assert that while Brazil’s agroexport boom may boost Brazil’s GDP,
it is increasing poverty and marginalization for the rural poor due to land
concentration, environmental destruction, unemployment and labor
exploitation. According to the Via Campesina press statement, for every 100
hectares planted to sugarcane (from which Brazilian ethanol is produced)
only one job is generated, while on a family farm 35 jobs are generated. In
Brazil, agribusiness is controlled by a handful of multinational
corporations that are usurping more and more Brazilian territory, and
expelling more rural poor to the already-swollen urban centers.

The occupations’ organizers were careful to highlight that their critique is
not of ethanol itself, but with the paradigm being imposed on the industry –
large scale, industrialized production for export to the Global North
(especially the US), entirely controlled by multinational agribusiness
corporations. At a press conference held by the Via Campesina, the MST, the
Central Union of Workers (CUT), and the Catholic Church’s Pastoral Land
Commission (CPT), Bishop Tomás Balduino said, The pact between Brazil and the United States for the promotion of ethanol is sinister. It's just going to promote death, marginalization, poverty and the destruction of the environment because it defends the interests of large multinationals.

Ethanol is emerging as a way for powerful international capital interests to ally, merge and strengthen. João Pedro Stedile, of the national coordination of the MST and Via Campesina, declared, “Bush came to Brazil as a messenger boy for the multinational companies, the agribusiness companies, the oil companies and the automobile companies that want to control the biofuels.” George W.’s brother, Florida state Governor Jeb Bush, was recently appointed to co-chair the Interamerican Ethanol Commission (IEC), which has as its mission to “promote the usage of ethanol in the gasoline pools of the Western Hemisphere.” The other co-chairs are Roberto Rodrigues, President of the Superior Council of Agribusiness of Brazil and Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter American Development Bank. Formation of the IEC highlights the alliance being built between US and Brazilian petro and agro capital, and reveals why the current discourse of ethanol as a renewable and sustainable form of energy is cast in neoliberal language that ignores the disastrous impact this corporate model has on society and the environment.

The social movements and their supporters propose that Brazilian ethanol
production should be in the hands of small farmers, as part of a diversified
agricultural system in which local food production for Brazilians is
prioritized, thereby assuring land, livelihoods and jobs for the rural poor.
Brazil should focus on producing ethanol for its large internal market –
not to sustain US consumption.

Yet despite the widespread protests and opposition by the very segments of civil society that helped bring Lula to power in 2002, and re-elected him for a second term last October, an accord between Brazil and the US has been signed for joint research and cooperation to increase ethanol production, export, and trade as a global commodity. The accord indicates that Lula is cooperating with Bush and agribusiness in order to ensure the industry remains controlled by large capital interests while the Brazilian rural poor sink deeper into poverty. “Today there is no more agrarian reform, there is agribusiness,” said Bishop Balduino. “Make no mistake, this accord will only benefit the multinationals and the elite.”

Regardless, the voice of dissent articulated through the occupations by the
Via Campesina and MST during Bush’s visit garnered national and
international attention and strengthened the resolve of the social
movements. The MST is determined to challenge the Lula government and is
stepping up its land occupations, including the seizure of lands that could
be used for ethanol production. According to João Pedro Stedile of the MST,
“the Lula government is supporting the mode of agricultural production known as agribusiness that allies the landowners with the transnational corporations. This is going to provoke a popular reaction sooner rather than later.

Isabella Kenfield is an Associate of the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) based in Berkeley, California. Currently she is a journalist living in Curitiba, Brazil and has written on social movements, multinational corporations and biofuels.

Roger Burbach is the director of the CENSA. He has written extensively on Latin America, including, The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice. He is also the co-author with Jim Tarbell of: Imperial Overstretch: George W. Bush and the Hubris of Empire.

The World Social Forum - CCS engagements: January 2007

CACIM

India Institute for Critical Action: Centre In Movement

CACIM, which has grown out of Critical Action (CA), an experiment since about 2001 to critically support emerging movements, is an experimental initiative towards an informal association between individuals and organisations located in different parts of India and the world. Its goals are to encourage a culture of critical reflexivity in public work, through fundamental research and critical reflection, exploration, and action in the field of motion and movement. We hope to encourage learning across disciplines and across culture, and to support and encourage all those involved in different ways with 'movement' - activists, researchers, professionals, artistes, and thinkers, both the more mature and young, and both from 'civil' and 'incivil' worlds - in our respective work as individuals and organisations and also in networks. Our present focus is on cultures of politics in movement, the exploration of open space as a political-cultural concept, and by exploring this through actions, the exploration of cyberspace as open space. CACIM sees itself not as an independent organisation but interlinked and interdependent, plugged into and learning from the world around us. With this vision, we presently conceive CACIM as evolving into a hub within networks among individuals and organisations located in different parts of India and the world.

CACIM (India Institute for Critical Action : Centre In Movement)
A-3, Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, Ph : +91 11 4155 1521, 2433 2451
E-mail : cacim@cacim.net
www.cacim.net

A Political Programme for the World Social Forum ? Democracy, Substance and Debate in the Bamako Appeal and the Global Justice Movements

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'Global Governance' or the World Social Forum: Divergent analysis,
strategy and tactics by Patrick Bond

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM DEBATE & BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

Savio, Roberto (2006) World Social Forum: The cradle of global Civil Society. Weekend workshop on the World Social Forum :1-8.
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Ahmed Allahwala & Keil Roger (2006) Introduction to a Debate on the World Social Forum. Weekend Workshop on the World Social Forum : 1-8.
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Macuse, Peter (2006) Are Social Forums the Future of Social Movements?. Weekend Workshop on the World Social Forum : 1-8.
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Conway, Jane (2006) Social Forums, Social Movements and Social Change: A Response to Peter Marcuse on the Subject of the World Social Forum. Weekend Workshop on the World Social Forum : 1-4.
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Kohler, Bettina (2006) Social Forums as Space: A Response to Peter Marcuse. Weekend Workshop on the World Social Forum: 1-4.
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Bond Patrick (2006) Gramsci, Polanyi and Impressions from Africa on the Social Forum Phenomenon. Weekend Workshop on the World Social Forum : 1-8.
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Ponniah, Thomas (2006) Autonomy and Political Strategy: Building the Other Superpower. Weekend Workshop on the World Social Forum : 1-3.
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Marcuse, Peter (2006) Rejoinder. Weekend Workshop on the World Social Forum : 1-3.
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Alvarez, Sonia E & Faria, Nalu & Nobre, Miriam 2006) Another (also feminist) world is possible Constructing transnational spaces and global alternatives from the movements Weekend workshop on the World Social Forum
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Teivainen, Teivo (2006) The World Social Forum: Arena or actor ?. Weekend workshop on the World Social : 1-8.
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de Sousa Santos, Boaventura (2006) The world social forum: Toward a counter-hegemonic globalisation (part i). Weekend workshop on the World Social Forum : -.
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Whitaker, Chico (2006) The WSF as open space. Weekend workshop on the World Social : -.
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Escobar, Arturo (2006) Other worlds are (already) possible Self-Organisation, complexity, and Post-Capitalist cultures
. Weekend workshop on the World Social Forum : 1-10.
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Ngwane, Trevor (2006) Why the WSF 2007 should not come to South Africa. Weekend workshop on the World Social Forum : -.
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Waterman, Peter (2006) A Global Labour Charter Movement? South African Labour Bulletin : 1-4.
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Back Ground Documents

The Social Movements Assembly (2006) Call from the Social Movements Assembly. Weekend Workshop on the World Social Forum : 1-4.
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World Social Forum organising committee (2006) World Social Forum charter of principles. Weekend workshop on the World Social Forum : -.
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Sen, Jai &Waterman, Peter & Madhuresh Kumar (2006) The World Social Bibliography A Bibliography on the World Social Forum and the Global Solidarity and Justice Movement. Weekend workshop on the World Social Forum : 1-75.
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Amin, Samir & others (2006) The Bamako Appeal. Open Space Forum : 1-17
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Sen, Jai & Anand, Anita & Escobar, Arturo & Waterman, Peter. (2006) The World Social Forum: challenging empires. Weekend workshop on the World Social Forum :
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WORKSHOP ON THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM, 22-23 JULY

PICTURES FROM SATURDAY

8:30am – Introductions, Agenda and Welcome from Dennis Brutus

9-10:30am – PANEL 1: The WSF’s History and Trajectories
Chair: Njoki Njehu
Inputs: Nicola Bullard, Immanuel Wallerstein, Trevor Ngwane, Mnikelo
Ndabankulu

10:30-11am – TEA BREAK

11am-noon - CONTINUATION OF PANEL ONE

Noon-1pm - PANEL 2: African Case studies - Continental, Southern Africa,Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho, Angola, Nigeria, Egypt, SA
Chair: Thomas Debe
Areas represented, respectively, by Hassan Sunmonu, John Stewart,
Barbara Kalimi-Phiri, Tafadzwa Muropa, Rose Wanjiru, Paul Msoma, Sofonea Shale, JoaoBaptiste Lukombo, Femi Aborisade, Helmy Shawary, Mondli Hlatshwayo, Orlean Naidoo, Virginia Setshedi

1-2pm – LUNCH

2-3:30pm – CONTINUATION OF PANEL TWO

3:30-4:30pm - TEA AND SMALL GROUP DISCUSSIONS:
What do WE want from the WSF?

4:30-6pm – PANEL 3: Local Politics and the WSF: Lessons from Durban
Chair: Molefi Ndlovu
Inputs: Des D’Sa, Ntokozo Mthembu, Zandile Ntsibande, Ashwin Desai

6pm-midnight – Evening social event

Celebration of CODESRIA African Sociological Review 10th anniversary With Ari Sitas, Ashwin Desai, Samir Amin, Jimi Adesina,
Ebrima Sall, Fred Hendricks and Raquel Sosa

Centre for Civil Society’s fifth birthday and cultural presentations(Sounds of Edutainment from Joburg, and Durban cultural workers)

SUNDAY 23 JULY – UKZN University Club
PICTURES FROM SUNDAY

9-9:30am – Background on WSF Charter
Inputs by Virginia Setshedi, Nicola Bullard

9:30-11am - Report back from Nairobi WSF organisers
Inputs by Njoki Njehu, Joyce Umbima, Hassan Sumono, John Stewart, Thomas Deve

11am-12:30 - Lebanon and Zimbabwe discussions
Inputs by Salim Vally, Briggs Bomba

12:30-1:30pm - Lunch and breakout groups for strategising
1:30-2:30pm - Report-backs and discussions

2:30-4:30pm – The Politics of the WSF
Inputs by Samir Amin, Franco Barchiesi, Prishani Naidoo, Geoffrey Pleyers

4:30-6pm – Ways forward and Workshop assessment

Social Movements Indaba, 3-7 December 2006

To be held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal University Club, Howard College Campus, Durban
2-6 December 2006
Namukelekile e-Kwazulu-Natal. Amandla!

Emerging social movements in South Africa and the broader activist
community come together to reflect on the various battles fought against
neo-liberalism and on its crippling effects on the lives of the poor and
the marginalized

In December 2006 the SMI annual national meeting will be held in
KwaZulu-Natal hosted by KZN social movements. The national meeting is an
effort in strengthening grassroots solidarity and common campaigns on
the ground.

The aims of the Social Movements Indaba 2006 are:
1. To provide a space for movements to exchange and make critical
assessments of what advances were made on commonly agreed programs in
previous Indabas.
2. To gather regional reports from different organisations across the
country on current struggles and emerging struggles.
3. To assess and build responses to the following areas: water, gender,
land, housing, youth, electricity, environment, media censorship/state
repression, African solidarity, international solidarity in the context
of war, alternative media and other forms of organising.
4. To further discuss the World Social Forum space, both in the context
of global political economy as well as issues such as what is the status
of the discussions on the WSF do all comrades have a clear understanding
of how the Global Justice Movement relate to local struggles? How do we
ensure it remains movement driven as opposed to funder/NGO initiative?
5. This sitting of the Indaba we will soberly assess the state of
HIV/Aids mobilising in the context of the many losses our communities
and movements have endured in the recent past.
6. To build a plan of action for January 2007. Working toward developing
a shared and inclusive platform that movements can carry to Nairobi and
apply in their everyday struggles.
7. To keep the flame of resistance burning through a Day of Action;
where forces will be mobilised against a target to be named in one of
the commission sessions.

Throughout the sessions we hope to facilitate a relaxed and creative
environment sensitive to the desire to explore other forms of
engagement, thus counter-cultural aspects will feature prominently in
many sessions.

SMI 2006 - PROGRAMME
2 – 6 DECEMBER 2006
UKZN – HOWARD COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY CLUB
DURBAN

DAY 1: 2 /12/06 (SATURDAY)
9:00 –18:00 - ARRIVALS OF DELEGATES AND RECEPTION BY HOST COMMITTEE
- EARLY REGISTRATION
- CAUCUS MEETINGS
18:00 –20:00 SUPPER, WELCOME ADDRESS AND BRIEFING SESSION
20:00 –22:00 - KULTURE JAM SESSION

DAY 2: 3/12/06 (SUNDAY)
7:30 – 8:30 BREAKFAST
8:30 – 9:00 REGISTRATION, MEAL COUPONS & QUERIES
9:00 – 11:00 PLENARY SESSION
- OPENING ADDRESS
- DELIBERATION ON PURPOSE OF SMI MEETING
11:00 –11:30 TEA
11:30 – 13:30 PANEL SESSIONS
- PANEL 1 : YOUTH, EDUCATION AND ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
- PANEL 2 : LAND, HOUSING, FORCED REMOVALS
- PANEL 3 : GENDER
13:30 –14:30 LUNCH AND GROUP MEETINGS
14:30 – 16:30 PLENARY REPORTBACKS ON PARALLEL SESSIONS AND DISCUSSION
16:30 – 17:00 TEA
17:00 – 19:00 FOCUS DISCUSSION ON HIV/AIDS: ACTIVIST RESPONSES AND COMMON CAMPAIGNS?
19:00 – 20:00 SUPPER
20:00 - ONWARDS - KULTURE JAM SESSION

DAY 3 – 4/12/06 (MONDAY)
8:30 – 9:10 PLENARY: REPORT ON DISCUSSIONS OF PREVIOUS DAY AND POINTS
FOR FURTHER REFLECTION
9:10 – 11:30 PARALLEL SESSIONS
- PANEL 4 : GLOBALISATION, ROLE OF MNCs, IMF/WORLD BANK/WTO
- PANEL 5 : ENVIRONMENT
- PANEL 6 : WATER
11:30 - 12:00 TEA
12:00 - 13:30 – PARALLEL SESSIONS
- PANEL 7 : LABOUR, WORKERS, UNEMPLOYMENT
- PANEL 8 : POVERTY AND FOOD SECURITY
- PANEL 9 : POLICE REPRESSION AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM
13:30 – 14:30 LUNCH AND GROUP MEETINGS
14:30 – 16:30 PLENARY: REPORTBACKS ON PARALLEL SESSIONS AND DISCUSSION
16:30 – 17:00 TEA
17:00 – 18:30 FOCUSED DISCUSSION: THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM
19:00 – 20:00 SUPPER
20:00 - ONWARDS - THREE CONTINENTS FILM FESTIVAL

DAY 4 – 5/12/06 (TUESDAY)
8:30 – 11:00 PARALLEL SESSIONS
PANEL 10 : BASIC SERVICES, ELECTRICITY, PRIVATISATION
PANEL 11 : THEORIES OF SOCIO-POLITICAL CHANGE
9:00 – 11:00 PANEL 12 : ROLE OF NGOS
11:00 - 11:30 TEA
11:30 – 12:30 PLENARY REPORTBACKS ON PARALLEL SESSIONS AND DISCUSSION
12:30 – 13:30 CONSOLIDATING COMMON THEMES & BUILDING A PLATFORM FOR
NAIROBI AND BEYOND
13.30 – 14:30 LUNCH BREAK AND PARALLEL MEETINGS.
14:30 – 17:00 FOCUSED DISCUSSION : SMI
- Report from national secretariat
- Report from KZN-SMI coordinating committee
- Reports from regional/provincial coordinators
17:00-19:00 COMMUNITY REALITY: THE 'TOXIC TOUR' OF SOUTH DURBAN
19:00 - ONWARDS - BEACH SUPPER/PARTY AT AINSTEY'S BEACH, THE BLUFF

DAY 5 – 6/12/06 (WEDNESDAY)
8:30 – 11:30 PLENARY SESSION: DISCUSSION ON SMI STRUCTURES, FUNCTIONING,
ELECTING NEW SECRETARIAT?
11:30 -12:00 TEA
12:00 – 13:30 PLENARY SESSION: FORWARD TO THE WSF
13:30 – 14:30 LUNCH AND GROUP MEETINGS
15:00 DEPARTURE

Please note: Programme is subject to change

SMI MEETING CO-ORDINATORS:NAME FUNCTION CONTACT NO
Molefi Ndlovu / CCS LOGISTICS 031 2603577
Orlean Naidoo / PROGRAMME 0848385628
Roy Chetty / Des D Sa FINANCES 0823348461 / 0839826939
Ntokozo Mthembu / CCS GENERAL 031 260 2116
Mondli Hlatshwayo / SMI SECRETARIAT 0843773003

The Fourth Annual National Meeting of the Social Movements Indaba: The Secretary’s Report

The Fourth Annual National Meeting of the Social Movements Indaba: Compressed Proceedings Report

The 2006 Corpse Awards for corporate misdeeds, cohosted with groundWork: 10 November 2006

Southern Africa’s premier corporations will be considered for the 2006
Corpse Awards, after nine firms made off with prestigious prizes in the
2005 event. The Corpse Awards recognise worst corporate practice in
producing environmental injustice. Nominations for the awards come from
workers, people living next door to the corporate plants, and civil
society organisations concerned about the trashing of people and
environments.

Leading contenders for the 2006 awards are drawn from the oil giants,
the cement industry, mining houses, genetic modification operators and
Big Pharma. Multinational corporates in fierce competition to win a
Corpse this year include BHP Billiton, Lafarge Cement, Sasol, Sapref and
Engen, Caltex, Samancor, X-Trata, Paladin, Bayer, AngloGold Ashanti and
Anglo Platinum. All boast a stellar commitment to Corporate Social
Responsibility and the environment. Their advertisements and
publications claim best practice and continuous improvement, their
commitment to health and safety and to corporate social responsibility.
Some have even won awards for environmental and social reporting.

None of them have convinced their workers and neighbours who live with
the burden of ill-health – cancers, asthma and other breathing
difficulties, eczemas and allergies, and a variety of conditions
affecting the blood, nerve and immune systems.

Moreover, government departments which facilitate environmental
injustices will be considered for recognition as supporting actors,
without whom corporate greenwashing would be less ubiquitous.

You are hereby invited to join community people, labour, environmental
activists and civil society organisations campaigning against corporate
abuse at the Corpse Awards for companies operating in Southern Africa –
with some guest appearances from outside the region.

The “Master Undertaker” for the evening is Durban’s own social media
commentator Lev David [3].

Please join us. We suggest you arrive early for we are bound to have a
packed house. If you are lucky we may even be graced with the presence
of daring CEO’s who will travel to central Durban to accept their
Corpses in person!

[1] groundWork is an environmental justice organisation working with
community people from around South and Southern Africa on environmental
justice and human rights issues focusing on Air Pollution, Waste and
Corporate Abuse. groundWork is the South African chapter of Friends of
the Earth International (FoEI), the world environmental justice
federation campaigning to protect the environment and to create
sustainable societies and is a member of Oilwatch Africa.
www.groundwork.org.za
[2] The Centre for Civil Society is based at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal School of Development Studies: www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs . Our
objective is to advance socio-economic and environmental justice by
developing critical knowledge about, for and in dialogue with civil
society, through teaching, research and publishing.
[3] We take no responsibility for the utterances of the Master
Undertaker and various CEO’s on the evening!

CORPSE AWARDS 2005 PRESS COVERAGE,

SUNDAY TIMES:
The Grim Reaper, the Master of Ceremonies - or Master Undertaker – handed out mini-coffins to some of South Africa’s most powerful companies such as Mittal Steel, Sasol and AngloGold Ashanti… Nine so-called “Corpse”
awards were given for “worst corporate practice in producing
environmental injustice”. Nominations for the awards came from community
activist groups representing residents living near industrial plants,
and organisations such as Earthlife Africa… Celebrity anti-corporate
activist Naomi Klein, who is in South Africa for a series of workshops,
said at the awards: “We know corporates are not just satisfied with
leeching your communities and poisoning your bodies. They want to be
loved, which is why government invented corporate social responsibility.
For them there is no problem that is so big that it can’t be solved with
fantastic public relations.” There was a mixed response from the winning
companies about the awards when Business Times contacted them for
comment… Risk management consultant Andrew Pike said: “Reputation is
everything for companies and something like this can really knock your
reputation – and there’s no reason not to run these awards, provided
it’s done objectively.”

THE 2006 AWARDS:

Grim Reaper Floating Trophy Award!
AngloPlatinum Ltd is one of London-based Anglo American Plc’s most
profitable subsidiaries. For decades Anglo American helped to define the
character of the apartheid state through its economic dominance of the
mining and industrial sectors and its voracious hunger for cheap migrant
labour on the mines. Grand apartheid with its Bantu labour reserves was
mainly structured to serve the interests of Anglo and other mining
corporations. The ideology of white racial superiority was functional to
this industrial giant whose mines and mills killed and maimed black
workers on an industrial scale. Anglo American continues to exercise a
powerful – often decisive - influence over government policymaking.

AngloPlatinum is nominated this year by the Mapela community near
Mokopane which includes the villages of Ga Pila, Ga Puka, Ga Sekhaolelo,
Ga Molekana and Sterkwater and the Maandagshoek Community near
Burgersfort as well as the residents of the five small villages who were
relocated to Magobading. Their nominations are for several AngloPlats
achievements: removing communities from their ancestral land, stealing
peoples’ resources and gagging voices of resistance.

AngloPlatinum has imposed several ‘SLAPP’ orders - Strategic Litigation
Against Public Participation - against the mining communities’ legal
representative, Richard Spoor. An application by AngloPlatinum for an
urgent interim interdict to prevent the attorney from ‘defaming’ it as a
‘racist, thug and bully’ was dismissed in mid-2006. However, AngloPlats
is proceeding against Spoor with a R3,5 million civil claim for alleged
damages caused to the corporation’s trading reputation.

Baying For Your Rice Award!
Bayer Cropscience is nominated by the African Centre for Biosafety. At
present, Bayer Cropscience is bankrolling the South African Sugarcane
Research Institution, to test genetically modified (GM) sugar cane
varieties using Monsanto’s gene, eventually to get ahead in the
lucrative biofuels trade. Bayer has applied to the South African
government for approval to import genetically modified rice into SA.
Because of rejection of GMOs by consumers around the world, Bayer
Cropscience was forced out of the UK, withdrew its plans to
commercialise GM canola in Australia, and abandoned its research in India.

Now, the company is busy illegally contaminating the world’s rice
supply. Currently, only one variety of Bayer’s GM rice (LL62) has been
granted approval for cultivation in only one country – the United States
– yet due to global consumer rejection, US rice growers refuse to plant
the variety. But that move couldn’t protect growers from the insidious
nature of GM contamination. In late July of this year, Bayer sent
shockwaves through the rice industry when its experimental variety
LL601, not approved in any country, was found to have massively
contaminated US rice stocks. Global sales of US rice have plummeted and
US rice farmers are suffering huge economic losses. More than
twenty-five lawsuits have since been filed against Bayer by groups of US
rice farmers. More recently, a further case of illegal contamination has
been discovered in US rice found in France, involving Bayer’s GM rice
variety LL62. This same variety is pending approval in South Africa,

The African Centre for Biosafety is testing South African rice
considering the fact that South Africa imports rice. This is the second
time that Bayer has been nominated for a Corpse. Last year, Bayer
received the ‘Accountability and Liability Sucks Award’ for its chrome
pollution in south Durban.

Do You Think We’re Stupid Award!
South Africa’s Cement Industry is part of the ‘Cement Sustainability
Initiative’, promoted by the infamous greenwashers at the World Business
Council for Sustainable Development. The Council annually awards their
members for ‘best practice’ in climate protection, employee health and
safety and emissions reduction. Deploying a similar abuse of the English
language, our own cement firms have launched a grand frontal attack on
the brains of politicians, claiming that it is good for the environment
to incinerate hazardous waste from energy-intensive industries. They
call hazardous waste an ‘alternative fuel’ and aim to upgrade and expand
their activities for the huge stadiums required for the 2010 World Cup.
If we can afford the tickets, we will watch the games high up in
stadiums constructed by cement made from hazardous waste.

The cement industry is responsible for 17% of all dioxin emissions in
the USA. In a 1998 report on US dioxins, scientists found that kilns
burning hazardous waste have 80 times higher toxic emissions in their
stacks than kilns burning conventional fuels. Further investigations in
the US indicated that clinker from kilns burning hazardous waste contain
high levels of toxins, so high that the clinker is unsuitable for land
disposal. Yet it is still incorporated into building materials.

Finally, these cement behemoths must be commended for their slyness and
ingenuity. For if government continues to allow this practice, the
import of hazardous waste – as in the case of Abijan, Ivory Coast – will
become a common practice in South Africa, because after all it is
‘merely a fuel’.

It Wasn’t Me Award!
FFS Refiners, an oil refinery based in Pietermaritzburg, claims that
they their ‘world class facilities’ operate ‘under stringent
environmental management systems and are ISO 14001 accredited’ – but its
neighbours claim otherwise, and have decided to nominate FFS Refiners
for a Corpse Award. Air samples were taken outside the facility which
indicated the presence of Benzene, p-Xylene, Hydrogen Sulfide, Toluene,
Ethyl Benzene, Xylene, Methyl Ethyl Ketone, Tetrachloroethane, and
Styrene. These chemicals are associated with the oil refinery industry.

The Msunduzi Municipality has received ongoing complaints for more than
a decade from residents of Pietermaritzburg about the ‘dirty oily petrol
chemical smell’ linked to these chemicals. But FFS Refiners look in the
other direction after stink emissions, claiming that the pollution and
smell are not theirs! In raising these issues publicly, groundWork has
been threatened with legal action by FFS Refineries, when we termed them
‘one of the bad boys of pollution’. The company’s environmental policy
claims they will ‘maintain open relations on environmental matters with
employees, relevant authorities, neighbouring organisations and other
interested parties’.

The national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) gets
a supporting actor award, for refusing to meet with residents in
Pietermaritzburg to hear their concerns and for ignoring demands that
the FFS Refineries operation permit be made available for scrutiny by
the Msunduzi Municipality. The provincial KZN Department of Agriculture
and Environmental Affairs also gets a supporting actor award, for
granting FFS Refineries a positive Record of Decision on their
development despite the concerns raised by civil society.

Smoked Out at Last Award!
Chevron Oil Refinery (formally known as Caltex) has finally won a
coveted Corpse Award. The refinery was nominated for the second time by
the Table View Residents' Association, who represent communities
adjacent to the refinery. Air samples there have picked up high levels
of benzene and other chemicals. Association members report that refinery
management has been arrogant and in the past indicated that ‘they will
continue to pollute because their permit allows them’.

For years, residents of Table View have had to endure incidents ranging
from gas clouds overwhelming them to crude oil raining down on them. No
one in authority adequately responded to these incidents until finally
and belatedly, this year, the Department of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism ‘smoked out’ Chevron. Further investigations are underway into
incidents since June 2004, including emissions releases and fires.

But the Residents Association has indicated that aside from a bit more
state monitoring of air pollution over the last decade, nothing has
changed. There has been ‘too much talk and reporting’, and this
impressive record of negligence allows us to award a supporting actress
prize to Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who explicitly
supported the refinery at the recent anniversary celebration despite
knowing the concerns of the community.

Privatising Public Participation Award!
Engen finally wins a Corpse on their third nomination. Engen oil
refinery in south Durban was built in 1954 and is the oldest refinery in
South Africa. Engen has been nominated this year by the South Durban
Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), thanks to its notorious record
in the communities. Municipal air pollution monitoring instigated by
SDCEA has verified the problem. Over the last two years, Engen’s
pollution has exceeded the health guidelines values on more than 400
occasions. In spite of the recent eThekwini Health study, Engen has
asked permission from government to relax the rules to allow them to
pollute with legal authority, something they had permission to do during
the apartheid era.

But how might Engen avoid the obvious contradiction and smelly
publicity? In its boldest move to date, Engen and the provincial KZN
Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs have ‘privatised’
public participation by claiming that ‘public meetings are not a
constructive method of public participation’ in the Environmental Impact
Assessment process, in which complaints arose about Engen’s increasing
use of the dangerous catalyst hydrofluoric acid. This was after the
SDCEA and the south Durban community used the EIA process to demand
Engen consider alternatives. Engen and the DAEA agreed that the firm’s
community liaison forum will be the forum for participation, which has
the effect of isolating organisations such as SDCEA as well as the
broader public.

Mangling the Workers Award!
Samancor Manganese PTY Limited, is nominated for poisoning workers with
manganese. The company is based in the infamous Vaal Triangle and has
been nominated by the Samancor Retrenched Workers Crisis Committee. Two supporting actors who deserve mention in this case are last year’s winner for the Sustainable Catastrophe Award, Mittal Steel, which buys manganese from Samancor, and the National Centre for Occupational
Health, which is aware of the illnesses caused by Samancor but fails to
fully acknowledge the problem.

Manganese is inhaled through the air and poisoning leads to a range of
ailments including lethargy, sleepiness, weakness, problems with
balance, shaky hands, inability to perform fast hand movements,
emotional disturbance (mood swings), difficulty walking, recurring leg
cramps, paralysis, hallucinations, forgetfulness, insomnia, breathing
difficulties, pneumonia, impotence and children born with defects. The
company is accused of retrenching workers who were ill. In 2001, 509
workers were retrenched, and since then approximately 100 workers have
died. Workers have mobilised and organised and formed the Samancor
Retrenched Workers Crisis Committee which is pressuring the company for
compensation. But after the first few meetings, Samancor severed ties
with the Committee. The company is jointly owned by mining giants Anglo
American and BHP Billiton.

Picking the Public Pocket Award!
Paladin Resources, an Australian uranium mining company based in Perth,
is proposing to mine uranium in Malawi against the wishes of Citizens
for Justice, the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, the
Foundation for Community Support Services, Karonga Development Trust,
and the Uraha Foundation Malawi, who have collectively nominated Paladin.

In an extreme case of naked greed, Paladin is lobbying the Malawi
government for a 16-year tax holiday. Paladin shares jumped an amazing
300% over the 12 month period to March 2006. Paladin has been
speculating on the open market and in Namibia two uranium sales
contracts were announced by Paladin’s Langer Heinrich uranium project,
well before the mine was commissioned.

In Malawi, Paladin’s proposed operations have divided the community into
camps for and against the development, given that jobs are desperately
needed in Malawi. Proponents claim Paladin can boost Gross Domestic
Product by 5% with this one development. With the state’s political
support, Paladin has no hesitation in destroyed shrines of the local
people. They have already started construction of the mine even without
being granted a mining licence.

Loot the Minerals and Bloodstain the Soil Award!
AngloGold Ashanti, which is 42% owned by Anglo American Corporation,
produces corpses at a prolific rate across the Third World, not only at
Carletonville’s Tautona mine near Johannesburg, which, according to the
National Union of Mineworkers, suffered an ‘unrelenting scenario of
fatalities’ – 16 in 2006.

In the DRC, according to the United Nations last year, AngloGold Ashanti
‘could arguably be in violation of the arms embargo’ applied to the
eastern part of the country, where at least three million people have
been killed in violence related to turf battles in the mineral-rich
region. According to Human Rights Watch researchers in 2005, fighting
between armed groups for the control of the gold mining town of
Mongbwalu alone cost the lives of at least two thousand civilians
between June 2002 and September 2004. When accused of working hand-in-hand with Mongbwalu warlords, AngloGold Ashanti CEO Bobby Godsell reacted in mid-2005: ‘Mistakes will be made.’

In Ghana such mistakes are killing artisanal workers. Civil society’s
National Coalition on Mining has assisted informal sector mineworkers
who are periodically tortured, shot and killed by Anglogold Ashanti
security forces. Moreover ActionAid’s recent report Gold Rush shows that
AngloGold Ashanti has other ecological corpses to its credit: toxic
pollution of local rivers and streams in Obuasi with pollution levels up
to 38 times the maximum legal limits, with high levels of arsenic, iron,
manganese and other heavy metals; dozens of rivers now unusable for
drinking, bathing and irrigation purposes; contaminated land affecting
the livelihoods of local farmers; and no compensation for locals
affected by AngloGold toxic spillages.

In Colombia, the AngloGold Ashanti subsidiary Kedahda was nominated for
a Corpse Award by the Colombia Support Network six weeks ago. On
September 19, the notorious Colombian Army murdered Alejandro Uribe, a
well-respected leader of the Mina Gallo Community Action Board.
According to the Support Network, ‘the Colombian Army is engaged in
uprooting peasants and small-scale miners by attacking their leaders
such as Alejandro Uribe, so that the multinational mining corporation
Kedahda can enter the region and undertake mining operations on
peasants’ and miners’ lands.’ The Network accuses the terrorist state of
having ‘improperly licensed or conveyed’ land to Kedahda.

Witness: Corpse awards for dirtiest
By Craig Bishop Sat, 11 Nov 2006

Polluting industries singled out at green group’s ceremony The Grim Reaper has spoken. Civil society will not tolerate dirty industry. That was the gist of the 2006 Corpse Awards on Friday night, with the master of ceremonies dressed up as the Reaper, which recognised corporate bad practice, corporate greenwash and compliant government departments.

Organised by environmental watchdog organisation groundWork and the
Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Corpse
Awards received nominations from workers, people living next door to
corporate plants, and civil society organisations concerned about the
“trashing” of people and environments, explained groundWork director
Bobby Peek.

“All the nominated businesses boasted a stellar commitment to corporate
social responsibility and the environment. Some have even won awards for
environmental and social reporting,” Peek said.

But none of them have actually convinced their workers and neighbours
who live with the burden of ill-health that their intentions or their
actions that their efforts amount to much, Peek said.

Taking home the It Wasn’t Me award was Pietermaritzburg oil refinery FFS
Refiners following a decade of complaints from residents about “dirty
oily petrol chemical smells”. Air samples taken outside the facility
indicated the presence of benzene, p-xylene, hydrogen sulphide, toluene,
ethyl benzene, xylene, methyl ethyl ketone, tetrachloroethane, and
styrene, all chemicals associated with the oil refinery industry,
despite the company’s insistence that their “world-class facilities”
operate “under stringent environmental management systems and are ISO
14001 accredited”.

The national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) gets
a supporting actor award for refusing to meet with residents in
Pietermaritzburg to hear their concerns and for ignoring demands that
the FFS Refineries operation permit be made available for scrutiny by
the Msunduzi Municipality. The KZN Department of Agriculture and
Environmental Affairs also gets a supporting actor award, for granting
FFS Refineries a positive record of decision on their development
despite concerns raised by civil society.

Winning the Privatising Public Participation Award was the south Durban
Engen oil refinery, thanks to its notorious record in local communities.
Municipal air pollution monitoring has verified the problem. Over the
last two years, Engen’s pollution has exceeded the health guidelines
values on more than 400 occasions.

Peek said Engen and the provincial KZN DAEA have “privatised” public
participation by claiming that “public meetings are not a constructive
method of public participation” in the Environmental Impact Assessment
process, in which complaints arose about Engen’s increasing use of the
dangerous catalyst hydrofluoric acid.

The uncoveted Do you Think We’re Stupid Award went to South Africa’s
cement industry. “Deploying a similar abuse of the English language, our
own cement firms have launched a grand frontal attack on the brains of
politicians, claiming that it is good for the environment to incinerate
hazardous waste from energy-intensive industries. They call hazardous
waste an “alternative fuel” and aim to upgrade and expand their
activities for the huge stadiums required for the 2010 World Cup. If we
can afford the tickets, we will watch the games high up in stadiums
constructed by cement made from hazardous waste,” Peek said.

The Smoked Out at Last Award went to Chevron Oil Refinery, formerly
known as Caltex, which was nominated by the Table View Residents’
Association. Air samples there have picked up high levels of benzene and
other chemicals. Members of the association reported that refinery
management has been arrogant and in the past indicated that “they will
continue to pollute because their permit allows them”.

The Mangling the Workers award went to Samancor Manganese Pty Limited,
for poisoning workers with manganese. The company is based in the
infamous Vaal Triangle and has been nominated by the Samancor Retrenched Workers Crisis Committee.

The Loot the Minerals and Bloodstain the Soil award went to AngloGold
Ashanti, after nominations came in from mining communities, not only
Carletonville’s Tautona mine, which, according to trade unions, “had an
‘unrelenting scenario of fatalities’ — 11 in 2006”, but from Colombia as
well.

The Baying For Your Rice award went to Bayer Cropscience, which Peek
said is bankrolling the South African Sugarcane Research Institution, to
test GM sugar varieties. “Because of rejection of GMOs by consumers
around the world, Bayer Cropscience has been forced out of the UK,
withdrew its plans to commercialise GM canola in Australia, and has
abandoned its research in India. Now, the company is busy illegally
contaminating the world’s rice supply,” he said.

Picking the Public Pocket Award went to Paladin Resources, an Australian
uranium mining company, which is proposing to mine uranium in Malawi
against the wishes of a range of civil organisations.

Sundaytribune: Awards honour the bad and ugly

It's time for the annual Corpse Awards, handed out by environmentalists to industries which, they say, have done more than their fair share to make the world a worse place to live in.

On Friday night AngloPlatinum was nominated for the non-coveted Grim Reaper Floating Trophy Award by the Mapela community near Mokopane, the Maandagshoek community near Brugersfort, and residents of five small villages who were relocated to Magobading.

AngloPlats received the nomination for removing communities from their
ancestral land, stealing people's resources and gagging resistance.

The mining company brought an urgent interim interdict against the
communities' legal representative, Richard Spoor, to prevent him from
defaming it as a racist, thug and bully. This was dismissed earlier
this year, but AngloPlats is proceeding against Spoor with a R3.5
million civil claim.

To FFS Refiners, a Pietermaritzburg-based oil refinery, went the It
Wasn't Me Award - courtesy of its neighbours, who often complain about
a dirty, oily, petrol chemical smell. Air samples taken outside the
facility indicated the presence of, among other gasses, benzene,
p-Xylene and hydrogen sulfide. The refinery threatened environmental
body groundWork with legal action for calling it one of the bad boys of
pollution.

The national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism received a
supporting actor award, for refusing to meet residents to hear their
concerns. The provincial KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and
Environmental Affairs also got a supporting actor award, for granting
the refinery a positive Record of Decision on its development.
.

Engen refinery on Durban's Bluff picked up the Privatising Public
Participation Award, nominated by the South Durban Community
Environmental Alliance for its record. Engen's pollution has exceeded
the health guideline values on more than 400 occasions over the past two
years.

The citation reads, In their boldest move to date, Engen and the
provincial KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental
Affairs have 'privatised' public participation by claiming that 'public
meetings are not a constructive method of public participation' in the
Environmental Impact Assessment process, when there were complaints
about Engen's increasing use of the dangerous catalyst hydrofluoric acid.

Chevron Oil Refinery (Caltex) was nominated for the Smoked Out at Last
Award by the Table View Residents' Association. Deputy President
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka received a supporting actress award for
explicitly supporting the refinery at a recent anniversary celebration.

Up for the Do You Think We're Stupid Award, was South Africa's cement
industry - for claiming it's good for the environment to incinerate
hazardous waste from energy-intensive industries, calling it an
'alternative fuel'.

Tons of cement will be used to construct huge stadiums around the
country for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Business Day: Angloplat walks off with a Corpse
By Rob Rose 13 November 2006

IF ANGLO Platinum (Angloplat) was hoping its messy spat with the
communities that live on the land it mines wouldn’t have attracted
attention from investors or the public, it ought to think again.

On Friday, Angloplat walked away with the grand prize at the annual
Corpse awards, the Grim Reaper Floating Trophy, at the ceremony hosted
by environmental activist group Groundwork and the University of
KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Civil Society.

The awards are an annual event, designed to honour “corporate bad
practice and abuse” by companies, which are typically nominated by their
own stakeholders, including workers and civil society.

Last year, Mittal Steel SA won the grand prize for polluting the
groundwater at its steel-making plant in Vanderbijlpark, where its
2km-wide evaporation dams are not separated by any form of lining from
the groundwater.

This year, it was the turn of Angloplat, which was nominated by the Mapela community near Mokopane, which comprises a number of communities, including Ga Pila, Ga Puka, the Maandagshoek community near Burgersfort,
as well as residents of five villages who were relocated to Magobading.

This case has been raging for months, and Angloplat — mostly
vociferously challenged by the communities’ lawyer Richard Spoor — has
been accused of removing the communities from their ancestral land
without ethical processes, strong-arming members of the community to
ensure this happens, and gagging voices of resistance.

There were other winners: AngloGold Ashanti won the Loot the Minerals
and Bloodstain the Soil Award, and Engen finally won a Corpse award on
its third nomination.

These awards are “tongue-in-cheek” accolades from activists, but it
illustrates an important point for Angloplat: its efforts to hush Spoor
and railroad this matter through the courts have abjectly failed to keep
a lid on the matter.

Not only did Angloplat come out on the wrong side of its court bid to
get an urgent interdict preventing Spoor discussing this matter, but it
also bent the truth about the finding in this case when it issued a
press release referring only to its “important victory” rather than its
embarrassing loss.

Of course, in other situations, companies have had to deal with
truculent communities. But Angloplat’s disturbing arrogance has been the
chink in its armour, as it refused to even meet Spoor — preferring to
flex its financial muscle in the courts.

Again, this should illustrate that Angloplat’s high-minded talk of
“stakeholder engagement” means nothing if it has such a fractious
relationship with the communities that live on its mines. Which makes
you wonder what would happen when another stakeholder challenges the firm.

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