After a very intense day on the 6th, affinity groups were at it again. Two of the gates held strong, and even got to a Woodstock-like mood. The other gates were more difficult to hold. There were three waves of people leaving on the morning of the 7th to retake the West Gate (II): 4am, 6am and a large group of 2,000 at 9am. Many we not planning on going, but they were woken up by the police helicopter at 7am and decided to seize the day. These early birds managed to hold off the water cannons in the morning and with the help of samba bands and the clown army, a festive atmosphere was achieved for most of the day, and police violence was deescalated. By the evening, however, the police returned in full force with nine water cannons, this time putting mace into the water solution. There were a lot of serious injuries sustained by those who refused to budge. Its immensely humbling to see how far some people will risk their heath and safety.
A note the composition of the this group of super-heroes and on their ingenious strategies: as mentioned, there are large groups of non-violent protesters who swarm the roads and access points, evading police until they reach a point where they hold for as long as possible. This group most accurately resembles your everyday Jane and Jo. In contrast, there is the Black Bloc, which is almost always violent, and just plain scary. Usually they’re the ones to mar non-violent actions, but they do occasionally serve a useful purpose: for example, they destroyed a fence that restricted the movement of the main blockade at the east gate, thus allowing an exist point into the forest. The ‘Antifa’ faction of this group is vital in protecting demos/camps against Nazi attacks.
More light-heartedly, there are also the clowns: hard to take seriously at first, but you soon begin to realise how important they are. They have an ability to just float around, being silly, and creating an atmosphere were the police can’t really justifiably use violence to repress them. They’re the best antidote against horses, which are used to intimidate protesters. As well as being key to deescalating, they also distract the polices attention, and lower their morale (or make them laugh – I did catch one or two rare smirks).
Then there are is the samba band. Essential for deescalation, and keeping spirits up while you are being doused with water cannons, or squeezed into a police kettle.
And one of my favourites: the naked bloc. How and you beat up a naked hippie? And if 60 bare-bodies running round the fields and circling the streets is not a distraction, I don’t know what is.
So with this wonderful melange of groups, it seems we have the power to overwhelm the state’s riot squads. 10,000 of this motley crew vs. 17,000 heavily armed and well supplied cops. An epic battle in the fields, trees, with the climaxes back on the streets.
Unusual for this strand of the alterglobalisation movement, they’ve gotten one or two good headlines in the papers, such as ‘We will Bloc You – at least to a moderate degree’ in the Guardian, and in the French paper, Le Monde, ‘Mobiles, les manifestants se jouent de la police, a travers champs’. No songs of praise, but at least its not the usual ‘anti-globalisation activists reek havoc blah blah blah’
I thought that the success of the first day of the blockades was just a one off, but people continued with their autonomous direct actions, and the police seemed even more confused about how to contain us. Those who felt left out on the first day, got stuck in on the second. For those who were injured, the Action Medic team tended to their wounds; for those who were traumatised (from hiding in a river, being beaten, or chased into a thorn bush), there was the ‘Out of Action Tent’ were you could just hang out, and let the Trauma Team take care of you; and if you got nicked for whatever random charged they drummed up, the legal team and prisoner support group be on the case in minutes.
Unfortunately, all this exciting, adrenaline-pumping, collective action has to come to an end. We leave the blockades, have our last anti-capitalist beer at the bar-tent, share our ‘war stories’ – leaping across rivers, out flanking cop-squads, resisting the water cannon at the highest pressure, and neutralising a CS-gas attack all-by-yourself, without the help of an Action Medic – and eventually pack up our tents, and move on. Some have a last jab at the system and skip the trains all the way to the border. Others still haven’t had enough and are off to Berlin for more action.
As for me, I’ve already left that special place, and slowly re-entered the ‘real world’. Yesterday I pulled money out of the wall, paid for an expense beer while waiting for my connecting train in Frankfurt.
Mutual aid is not completely non-existent outside the anti-G8 summit protests. Someone held the door for me in the metro. Not quite a free vegan-organic meal, but hey, its something right?
Reintegrating has been and will be a struggle. I have already been shot down with comments like ‘ok, you kind-of stirred some shit, but in the end it does not change anything, and you just added more carbon emissions and wasted resources’. Well, yes, the G8 leaders still had their ceremonial meeting, and there were carbon emissions; but in the meantime, activists gained more experience in collective mobilisation, connected networks, practiced consensus decision making, and had a time and place to bring various narratives together for one simple objective: bloc the G8. We have showed what we are capable of: not just to the world, but to ourselves. This is paramount for a group of self-critical people who often tread the fine lines between hope and despair, idealism and pragmatism, theory and action. The past few days were not about talking (like the WSF, or other social fora); it was about acting, together.
09 June 2007
blocG8 - mission accomplished?!
This has to be quick...
To our great surprise, we actually succeeded in blocking the G8. It was only partial, as delegates could still access the venue via helicopters and sea. There was definitely inconvenience caused, in particular to the French and Canadian delegations which we both blocked. Take that Harper and Sarkozy!
There were two main BlocG8 groups, each with around 3,000 participants, and both operating under strictly non-violent principles. These groups were, in the end, very well organised, and managed to reach the main access roads with virtually no one being arrested. They used a 'five finger' strategy in which the group split off into different files as it approached the police line. Eventually the line becomes too dispersed for the police to control, and the blockaders pour through.
Our group was at the East Gate, where the blockade is still going on 24 hours later. Once we secured the blockade at mid-day and the police gave up and retreated to secure the gate.
We heard that at one point all access points were blocked, and so was the airport. The smaller autonomous groups had also emerged from the forests and built makeshift barricades on both primary and secondary roads. Right on. An actual all out vicotory, even if only for a few hours.
Once we were through basking in the glory of successfully disrupting the summit a group of 1,000 of us decided to take to another gate were the blockade was not as strong. We trecked three hours through the fields and forests, and eventually came across riots cops as we skirted the fence. The tried to cut us off, its impossible to keep up a light jog with all the gear on, so we managed to get to the road before them. A quick sit down blockade was organised. Within minutes there were about twice as many riot cops, and two water cannons. They gave there customary three warmings, and the protesters egged them on, chanting "we are peaceful; riot cops, what are you?" Within a few hours, the blockade was evicted. High powered water cannons and truncheons, and eventually mace, all became too much for the weary members of the autonomous off-shoot of the initial BlocG8 mass.
On the way home we stopped by a rest point for activists, with plenty of water and humous sandwiches to go around.
What a day!
Today, the actions continue...more soon.
To our great surprise, we actually succeeded in blocking the G8. It was only partial, as delegates could still access the venue via helicopters and sea. There was definitely inconvenience caused, in particular to the French and Canadian delegations which we both blocked. Take that Harper and Sarkozy!
There were two main BlocG8 groups, each with around 3,000 participants, and both operating under strictly non-violent principles. These groups were, in the end, very well organised, and managed to reach the main access roads with virtually no one being arrested. They used a 'five finger' strategy in which the group split off into different files as it approached the police line. Eventually the line becomes too dispersed for the police to control, and the blockaders pour through.
Our group was at the East Gate, where the blockade is still going on 24 hours later. Once we secured the blockade at mid-day and the police gave up and retreated to secure the gate.
We heard that at one point all access points were blocked, and so was the airport. The smaller autonomous groups had also emerged from the forests and built makeshift barricades on both primary and secondary roads. Right on. An actual all out vicotory, even if only for a few hours.Once we were through basking in the glory of successfully disrupting the summit a group of 1,000 of us decided to take to another gate were the blockade was not as strong. We trecked three hours through the fields and forests, and eventually came across riots cops as we skirted the fence. The tried to cut us off, its impossible to keep up a light jog with all the gear on, so we managed to get to the road before them. A quick sit down blockade was organised. Within minutes there were about twice as many riot cops, and two water cannons. They gave there customary three warmings, and the protesters egged them on, chanting "we are peaceful; riot cops, what are you?" Within a few hours, the blockade was evicted. High powered water cannons and truncheons, and eventually mace, all became too much for the weary members of the autonomous off-shoot of the initial BlocG8 mass.
On the way home we stopped by a rest point for activists, with plenty of water and humous sandwiches to go around.
What a day!
Today, the actions continue...more soon.
05 June 2007
from social fora to summit-protest - Nairobi to Heiligendamm
From the WSF in Nairobi, to the G8 summit protest in Heilingendam. I sit here in the Indyemdia tent at the Redderich camp, on a very old computer, surely cycled through numerous summits, but with the most up-to-date linux open software.
There are about 4,000 of us in this camp. We are all here to protest against one of the single most intense concentrations of state power. It all part of a lengthening tradition of summit protests, with Seattle 1999 coming to mind as the beginning of the story for the current wave of activism.
A hundred meters away from me is the "Zapatista barrio", where my friends from Brighton have set up camp, with the "anarchist teapot" acting as the centre of the universe. There is core cooking group, but the duties and labour is split up in a very spontaneous and non-hierarchical way. Three meals a day for 1,500 people, and all prepared with competing sentiments of stress and humour. The latter has been the victor thus far: my cheeks often ache from excessive laughter.
Ah the teapot: self-organising at its finest. The meals - both organic and vegan - are free of charge, though donations are encouraged so as to cover the costs (27,000 euros 4 days into the camp, with about half of that in donations).
Aside from this one joyous centre of nourishment, there is a broader infrastrcture to the camp to sustain a decent standard of life: the sanitation, for example, is working better than any expense music festival I've been to (Route du Rock, Reading, Rock Wrechter), where insane amounts of money is raised through extortionate ticket prices and rampant corporate spornorship.
But why bother? After all there are 17,000 cops ready to round us up so that we don't disrupt the proceedings in any sort of way. Well, its not just about disrupting the proceedings, its about our own convergence. For example, friends with whom I found political affinities at the World Social Forum in Nairobi are now here, and are now in a group with my comrades from Brighton. There is a really sense of coming together: members of a disparate family, all known to one another through stories, finally meet face-to-face. We laugh, eat, sing, dance, discuss our politics, and the actions we want to take. And of course, during all this we try to live out revolutions in everyday life (self-organised activites, treating everyone and the environment around us with respect). For a moment, a brief time and place, we have that allusive 'other world' that is the seems to be the overarching goal of those involved in the summit-protests and social fora. As one of my nomadic friends said: "I like this place; I want to stay here"
But of course, the principle objective of blocading the G8 remains. You've all probably read about the riots on Saturday in Rostock city centre. A fascinating event to witness, but of course dangerous to be close to. But that was already a long time ago in camp time. While we can all acknowledge that there is an existence of a more violent wing, but this is relatively small, the there actions are not all thoughtless and barbarian. The police are experts in provocation, and many of them are there just for a fight, too (arguably most of them are: why else would you want to be a riot cop if you did not want to beat up punks and hose down crowds with those ever-so-fun water cannons?)
We'll see how it all unfolds in the next few days. Maybe there will be lots of arrests, but hopefully not many injuries. Saturday was a bit much for most of the people here, and the large blocades will be policing themselves so as to not give the riot-cops the excuse to whip out their water cannons and rubber bullets.
Stay tuned...
There are about 4,000 of us in this camp. We are all here to protest against one of the single most intense concentrations of state power. It all part of a lengthening tradition of summit protests, with Seattle 1999 coming to mind as the beginning of the story for the current wave of activism.
A hundred meters away from me is the "Zapatista barrio", where my friends from Brighton have set up camp, with the "anarchist teapot" acting as the centre of the universe. There is core cooking group, but the duties and labour is split up in a very spontaneous and non-hierarchical way. Three meals a day for 1,500 people, and all prepared with competing sentiments of stress and humour. The latter has been the victor thus far: my cheeks often ache from excessive laughter.
Ah the teapot: self-organising at its finest. The meals - both organic and vegan - are free of charge, though donations are encouraged so as to cover the costs (27,000 euros 4 days into the camp, with about half of that in donations).
Aside from this one joyous centre of nourishment, there is a broader infrastrcture to the camp to sustain a decent standard of life: the sanitation, for example, is working better than any expense music festival I've been to (Route du Rock, Reading, Rock Wrechter), where insane amounts of money is raised through extortionate ticket prices and rampant corporate spornorship.
But why bother? After all there are 17,000 cops ready to round us up so that we don't disrupt the proceedings in any sort of way. Well, its not just about disrupting the proceedings, its about our own convergence. For example, friends with whom I found political affinities at the World Social Forum in Nairobi are now here, and are now in a group with my comrades from Brighton. There is a really sense of coming together: members of a disparate family, all known to one another through stories, finally meet face-to-face. We laugh, eat, sing, dance, discuss our politics, and the actions we want to take. And of course, during all this we try to live out revolutions in everyday life (self-organised activites, treating everyone and the environment around us with respect). For a moment, a brief time and place, we have that allusive 'other world' that is the seems to be the overarching goal of those involved in the summit-protests and social fora. As one of my nomadic friends said: "I like this place; I want to stay here"
But of course, the principle objective of blocading the G8 remains. You've all probably read about the riots on Saturday in Rostock city centre. A fascinating event to witness, but of course dangerous to be close to. But that was already a long time ago in camp time. While we can all acknowledge that there is an existence of a more violent wing, but this is relatively small, the there actions are not all thoughtless and barbarian. The police are experts in provocation, and many of them are there just for a fight, too (arguably most of them are: why else would you want to be a riot cop if you did not want to beat up punks and hose down crowds with those ever-so-fun water cannons?)
We'll see how it all unfolds in the next few days. Maybe there will be lots of arrests, but hopefully not many injuries. Saturday was a bit much for most of the people here, and the large blocades will be policing themselves so as to not give the riot-cops the excuse to whip out their water cannons and rubber bullets.
Stay tuned...
16 February 2007
Looking back on my WSF experience: personally, a success; politically, a failure?
Apologies for the pause in posting: I started travelling, and my internet connection was never good enough to edit the blog. C’est la vie
On Saturday the 26th of January, I was able to attend the International Council meeting. This is a group that oversees the WSF process. There were some initial thoughts on the WSF in Nairobi, with the Kenyan Organizing committee starting the feedback session. They were on the defensive from the get-go. They remained ultimately positive, however, and stated that the forum was a success because it actually happened. So their criteria for success was the mere fact that the WSF was not cancelled – it ‘happened’.
On Saturday the 26th of January, I was able to attend the International Council meeting. This is a group that oversees the WSF process. There were some initial thoughts on the WSF in Nairobi, with the Kenyan Organizing committee starting the feedback session. They were on the defensive from the get-go. They remained ultimately positive, however, and stated that the forum was a success because it actually happened. So their criteria for success was the mere fact that the WSF was not cancelled – it ‘happened’.
The arguments coming from the other side were slightly more rigorous, and based on the events of the 5 day forum. Here is a non-exhaustive list:
- The 500 Shilling entrance fee was brought up time and again;
- high cost of water and food. The main chairperson of the Kenyan Organising committee informed the council that 50,000 litres of water was actually donated, but the many volunteers who were in charge of distributing this ended up selling it;
- There was the overall participation of the WSF, with only 50,000, which did not even reach conservative estimates of 60,000, and was way off the hopefully number of 150,000;
- And then, there was financial mismanagement all along the way. Many who invested in bus services, tents and camping facilities lost a considerable amount of money;
- The presence of religious groups whose views were anti sexual and reproductive rights. Firstly, there was a display of a crucified pregnant women (pictured below), which some groups asked to be taken down because they considered in blasphemous. Secondly, there were anti-abortion stands using the propaganda tools of displaying enlarged photos of mutilated foetuses;
- Commercialisation and institutionalisation of the forum: Celtel – one of two major mobile phone services – was one of the main sponsors, as well as Kenya Airways; lots of Oxfam 4x4 driving around the stadium delivering the late programs.
But is it all negative? There were lots of issues, but in the end lots of people came away feeling positive. As for my experience:
I met a lot of great people at the youth camp (although there were only around 200 people out of a projected 1,500 – so there was a feeling of emptiness with so many vacant tents!). These have now added to my own global network of politically minded friends. I had a chance to connect with some really inspiring Kenyan groups who can get so much done with so little. I also witnessed some really important networking. On this last point, the Belgian-based CADTM (committee for the abolishment of third-world debt) was able to connect with the People’s Parliament as a radical NGO wanting the forum to do better. And aside from making new friends, there is now talk of translating some of CADTM’s books on debt into Kiswahili, which would be amazing. It’s a great example – one among many more – of global networking that helps assist local struggles: directly, through providing support in terms of discussions, sharing of knowledge and contacts; and indirectly through a more general process of raising awareness and overall solidarity.
What is great is that the problems were identified so quickly, and people took action right there and then. It may even be that many of these contradictions were already in the WSF process itself, and the Nairobi edition helped to flush them out. At any other large international gathering, the organisational process is usually much more inaccessible and difficult to engage with and change.
So what of the future of the WSF? There were moment when I had some serious doubts, because of all the problems that occurred and the immediate feelings of frustration, and seeing that some people came away feeling more embittered than inspired. However, there is still a significant amount of energy to keep the process going, and the anger due to poor organisation has resided.
In 2008, there won’t be a WSF, but a series of local actions and forums to be held around the same time in January. In 2009, the WSF will continue as normal. The next WSF-related event will be the International Council meeting in Rostock Germany, which will coincide with the meeting of the G8, and the subsequent counter-mobilisations. (on an interesting side-note, if you google ‘G8 2007’ the first hits you come up with are to do with the planned protests and not the G8 summit itself).
So it seems as though the broader ‘movement’ – alterglobalisation, global justice, global solidarity – is doing alright for itself, and maintaining a sense of direction, build-up and overall continuity.
Over the past few weeks, there have been multiple reflections and reports on the Nairobi WSF. Here are some links to the ones that I think jive most with my experience:
Patrick Bond: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-02/01bond.cfm
Firoze Manji: http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/39464
People’s Parliament: http://www.cadtm.org/article.php3?id_article=2437
27 January 2007
More protests, solidarity marches, and initial evaluations of the WSF
So much has happened in the last few days, I’ve not had a chance to sit down for even a minute! I will separate the blog into two.
24th on Jan: The gates (partially) opened, and the protests continue.
The story of the Peoples’ Parliament – a group perpetrating real moments of action during the WSF – continues to unfold. After numerous protests, they eventually got the organisers to wave the fee on the last day of the WSF. Within the giant sports complex itself you could notice the difference with an influx of vendors and street kids running around asking for the participants to hand over the radio sets used for translation.
Peoples’ Parliament did not stop there, for there were plenty of other injustices to confront. One such injustice came in the form of two restaurant tents that where selling the most expensive food, even more inaccessible to the average Kenyan than the initial entrance fee. The worst part about these two tens, however, was that they were the extension of a hotel company owned by the country’s internal Security Minister John Michuki. He was known for his harsh tactics as “the crusher”. His most recent abuse of human rights was to raid the popular Kenyan daily newspaper, The Standard. Through a few simple text messages, People’s Parliament quickly mobilised many of the hungry children in the stadium to demand that they be fed for free. The pressure during their sit in mounted, and eventually the staff started to hand out free food until they were all out. The police stood by, to late to do anything and with too many cameras to use force. An hour later they packed up and took down the tent. Check out the following report on the BBC
Swift and efficient action to correct yet another ethical and political blunder made organisational committee.
It has been moments like these that have injected the forum with a sense of relevance and connection with the issues concerning the poorest of the poor who face multiple forms of oppression everyday - like hunger.
:::
25th: Marching through the slums
The final day consisted of a solidarity march from a near-by slum to Uhuru park in downtown Nairobi. I went with some comrades from the Youth Camp: a Brazilian, by the name of Andre who worked in Mozambique and caught Malaria; Shim, an Israeli refusenik who spent 21 months in jail instead of going to university and thinks he actually ended up learning a lot more about life; and Juliana, a youth activist trained as a nurse who likes to teach street kids how to juggle.
The march through the slums brought a sense of what the real Nairobi was like. It was sobering to get away from the spectacle of the Kasarani sports stadium and the business centre of Nairobi. We started at 10am, and marched 16km through three of the main slums. Now that’s a long way to walk by any standards, but add unpaved roads where dust is so easily kicked up in the air, and dodging the multiple puddles of who-knows-what, shaking all the hands of the street kids who enjoy the novelty of having a ‘mzungu’ pass by, and to top it off, the hot hot sun relentlessly beating down, give any good sun block a run for its money.
Along the way, we talked about how right it was to expres solidarity with the slum dwellers, and to see some of the ‘real Nairobi’; but also felt uneasy at being such ‘poverty tourists’, and the fact that we were blocking the traffic and hence hampering the ability of many to make their daily bread. Slowing traffic down in the business centre is justifiable and makes a point, but in the slums it just pisses people off. Luckily, the mass of people we found ourselves marching with were mostly Kenyan; otherwise the solidarity component would have been watered down a tad.
We also began reflecting on the WSF, and how we conceive of the event, and the sort of space it comprises. Some saw it simply as a space for critical encounter, others as a platform for radical social movements to plan actions, and a few saw it as a moment of ‘global civil society’ where new forms of global citizenship are beginning to form. Some of the most critical, who were slightly embittered by their experience saw it as a form of political capitalism, each group vying to undercut the competition in selling its issue.
From my initial evaluations based on my experience, I would argue it is a place for critical encounters between groups and individual, and one that needs to be carefully managed so as not to lose its legitimacy. If it is ‘global civil society’, it is only one among many global civil societies, each with their own collection of contradictions; and if it is where new forms of global citizenship are forming, it only one node in a series of networks that are fundamentally rooted in local places.
The next entry will divulge a little on the International Council meeting held after the WSF, and due to popular demand, I will discuss how the filming for the documentary has been taking shape.
24th on Jan: The gates (partially) opened, and the protests continue.
The story of the Peoples’ Parliament – a group perpetrating real moments of action during the WSF – continues to unfold. After numerous protests, they eventually got the organisers to wave the fee on the last day of the WSF. Within the giant sports complex itself you could notice the difference with an influx of vendors and street kids running around asking for the participants to hand over the radio sets used for translation.
Peoples’ Parliament did not stop there, for there were plenty of other injustices to confront. One such injustice came in the form of two restaurant tents that where selling the most expensive food, even more inaccessible to the average Kenyan than the initial entrance fee. The worst part about these two tens, however, was that they were the extension of a hotel company owned by the country’s internal Security Minister John Michuki. He was known for his harsh tactics as “the crusher”. His most recent abuse of human rights was to raid the popular Kenyan daily newspaper, The Standard. Through a few simple text messages, People’s Parliament quickly mobilised many of the hungry children in the stadium to demand that they be fed for free. The pressure during their sit in mounted, and eventually the staff started to hand out free food until they were all out. The police stood by, to late to do anything and with too many cameras to use force. An hour later they packed up and took down the tent. Check out the following report on the BBCSwift and efficient action to correct yet another ethical and political blunder made organisational committee.
It has been moments like these that have injected the forum with a sense of relevance and connection with the issues concerning the poorest of the poor who face multiple forms of oppression everyday - like hunger.
:::
25th: Marching through the slums
The final day consisted of a solidarity march from a near-by slum to Uhuru park in downtown Nairobi. I went with some comrades from the Youth Camp: a Brazilian, by the name of Andre who worked in Mozambique and caught Malaria; Shim, an Israeli refusenik who spent 21 months in jail instead of going to university and thinks he actually ended up learning a lot more about life; and Juliana, a youth activist trained as a nurse who likes to teach street kids how to juggle.The march through the slums brought a sense of what the real Nairobi was like. It was sobering to get away from the spectacle of the Kasarani sports stadium and the business centre of Nairobi. We started at 10am, and marched 16km through three of the main slums. Now that’s a long way to walk by any standards, but add unpaved roads where dust is so easily kicked up in the air, and dodging the multiple puddles of who-knows-what, shaking all the hands of the street kids who enjoy the novelty of having a ‘mzungu’ pass by, and to top it off, the hot hot sun relentlessly beating down, give any good sun block a run for its money.
Along the way, we talked about how right it was to expres solidarity with the slum dwellers, and to see some of the ‘real Nairobi’; but also felt uneasy at being such ‘poverty tourists’, and the fact that we were blocking the traffic and hence hampering the ability of many to make their daily bread. Slowing traffic down in the business centre is justifiable and makes a point, but in the slums it just pisses people off. Luckily, the mass of people we found ourselves marching with were mostly Kenyan; otherwise the solidarity component would have been watered down a tad.
We also began reflecting on the WSF, and how we conceive of the event, and the sort of space it comprises. Some saw it simply as a space for critical encounter, others as a platform for radical social movements to plan actions, and a few saw it as a moment of ‘global civil society’ where new forms of global citizenship are beginning to form. Some of the most critical, who were slightly embittered by their experience saw it as a form of political capitalism, each group vying to undercut the competition in selling its issue.
From my initial evaluations based on my experience, I would argue it is a place for critical encounters between groups and individual, and one that needs to be carefully managed so as not to lose its legitimacy. If it is ‘global civil society’, it is only one among many global civil societies, each with their own collection of contradictions; and if it is where new forms of global citizenship are forming, it only one node in a series of networks that are fundamentally rooted in local places.
The next entry will divulge a little on the International Council meeting held after the WSF, and due to popular demand, I will discuss how the filming for the documentary has been taking shape.
22 January 2007
Food or Forum? Contradictions at the Kenyan WSF
On the eve of the World Social Forum, there was a gathering of all the French delegations at one of the plush hotels in business centre of Nairobi; they started with the first among thousands of speeches that will be made in the coming days. The French ambassador chipped in, they had one of the founders of the of this annual global jamboree, Chico Whitaker, comes and say his piece on the maturation of the forums over the last seven years, and many other leading French intellectuals and activists identified themselves.
Near the end, A Kenyan by the name of Wangui Mbatia took the mic with her comrades holding banners saying ‘Food or Forum?’ This powerful woman laid out some bare facts about the forum that hit most in the room quite hard. She and those that were a part of their political group – Bunge la wananchi (People’s Parliament) – could not participate in the WSF for several reasons: first, they could not afford the 500 shilling registration fee that is charged to Kenyans – a weeks worth of food; and second, they could not get all the way out to the venue because it was so far, and transport is too expensive.
She told the collection of French groups that they were of course very welcome to come and participate in the WSF in Kenya, and discuss issues such as poverty, but that they should all take note that the average Kenyan, who earns under a dollar a day, are not welcome. These were the grassroots voices hat the WSF process has benefited from, and gains any sense of legitimacy. And yet, because of some administrative decision, they were excluded. Now they would have to pay to talk about their poverty.
Many of us were left stooped in a funk for the rest of the evening. How could we carry on? But it turns out, the Bunge la wananchi do more than just complain and protest: they started mobilising immediately to make an alternative WSF in the public parks in downtown Nairobi that was free and accessible for all to attend. Some members of their groups would take the ‘Mzungus’ out to parts of Nairobi they don’t normally see, and would talk politics all along the way. Within a few hours of the first action at the French meeting, they had flyers and a progam; and by the following evening there were tents and chairs set up in the park.
What is more, apparently the gates of the main venue were stormed, and now the fee for Kenyans has been officially lowered to 50 shillings. But if you go to the registration office, you’ll find they are still charging the same fees as originally stated. Having such a diffusely organised event means that any changes are difficult to communicate to those on the ground.
With the gradual smoothing out of some of the most egregious contradictions, the WSF seems to be running along with all its diversity and vibrant energy. The first few days have seen a lot of confused people; it does not matter if you are a virgin to the whole process, or a seasoned WSF organiser: no body really knows what is going on. The eclectic program I mention in the previous entry – now in a hard copy which is roughly the size of three Sunday newspapers – was slow in being delivered, and very nearly caused a riot (who would have thought that people coming together in order to increase transnational solidarity and cooperation would be at eachothers throats over a program). Eventually you work out the idiosyncrasies of the forum - program or not - and learn to just go with the flow and enjoy.
ps: for a first hand account of an even more striking contradiction of having the WSF in Kenya, please read Adam Syned’s blog: http://cottonundrum.blogspot.com
Near the end, A Kenyan by the name of Wangui Mbatia took the mic with her comrades holding banners saying ‘Food or Forum?’ This powerful woman laid out some bare facts about the forum that hit most in the room quite hard. She and those that were a part of their political group – Bunge la wananchi (People’s Parliament) – could not participate in the WSF for several reasons: first, they could not afford the 500 shilling registration fee that is charged to Kenyans – a weeks worth of food; and second, they could not get all the way out to the venue because it was so far, and transport is too expensive.
She told the collection of French groups that they were of course very welcome to come and participate in the WSF in Kenya, and discuss issues such as poverty, but that they should all take note that the average Kenyan, who earns under a dollar a day, are not welcome. These were the grassroots voices hat the WSF process has benefited from, and gains any sense of legitimacy. And yet, because of some administrative decision, they were excluded. Now they would have to pay to talk about their poverty.
Many of us were left stooped in a funk for the rest of the evening. How could we carry on? But it turns out, the Bunge la wananchi do more than just complain and protest: they started mobilising immediately to make an alternative WSF in the public parks in downtown Nairobi that was free and accessible for all to attend. Some members of their groups would take the ‘Mzungus’ out to parts of Nairobi they don’t normally see, and would talk politics all along the way. Within a few hours of the first action at the French meeting, they had flyers and a progam; and by the following evening there were tents and chairs set up in the park.
What is more, apparently the gates of the main venue were stormed, and now the fee for Kenyans has been officially lowered to 50 shillings. But if you go to the registration office, you’ll find they are still charging the same fees as originally stated. Having such a diffusely organised event means that any changes are difficult to communicate to those on the ground.
With the gradual smoothing out of some of the most egregious contradictions, the WSF seems to be running along with all its diversity and vibrant energy. The first few days have seen a lot of confused people; it does not matter if you are a virgin to the whole process, or a seasoned WSF organiser: no body really knows what is going on. The eclectic program I mention in the previous entry – now in a hard copy which is roughly the size of three Sunday newspapers – was slow in being delivered, and very nearly caused a riot (who would have thought that people coming together in order to increase transnational solidarity and cooperation would be at eachothers throats over a program). Eventually you work out the idiosyncrasies of the forum - program or not - and learn to just go with the flow and enjoy.
ps: for a first hand account of an even more striking contradiction of having the WSF in Kenya, please read Adam Syned’s blog: http://cottonundrum.blogspot.com
18 January 2007
+A quick glance at the WSF program and some thoughts on what is to come+
The World Social Forum in
This year it seems there is a positive emphasis on gender issues, which thanks to pushes from Onyango Oloo, who presented a paper on “Gendering the WSF process”. The youth presence will also be felt, as well as a focus on the child poverty.
But in terms of more immediate concerns and needs for many Kenyans, the WSF is a bloody good business opportunity for some, and a possible career booster for others. Very few locals I have spoken to about the forum mention anything to do with its charter of principles which talks of opposing neoliberalism, patriarchy and all forms of oppression. For the taxi drivers, it’s a good thing because they'll make a few extra bucks; and the unemployed Kenyan youth volunteers may improve their prospects.
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