Reflecting on last month’s World Social Forum in Dakar, Giuseppe Caruso offers an initial assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of an event plagued by logistical problems on the ground but sweetened by successful revolution in Tunisia and Egypt.

Tracing Colonel Gaddafi’s dubious history of collusion with Western interests, Horace Campbell stresses that current developments in Libya must push towards a people-centred democratisation of the country’s society.

Activists gathered at the World Social Forum's Assembly on the Right to Communication issued the following declaration on 11 February.

Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative is calling on the AU Peace and Security Council to ensure that the right to nationality is respected for all, following the anticipated secession of Southern Sudan to become a new state on 9 July 2011.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) today called for an immediate investigation into the excessive violence being used by officers at the Shebin al-Kom Prison in Monufiya against prison inmates since 25 January, which has left dozens dead and hundreds more injured.

With Ugandan MP David Bahati in Johannesburg this week, the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project is organising a protest against the politician, in memory of the murdered activist David Kato.

The MenEngage Alliance, a global network working worldwide to increase men’s support for gender equality and human rights, mourns the death of David Kato, a fearless advocate for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersexed people (LGBTI) rights in Uganda. We call on the Ugandan Government and the African Union to take swift action to bring his murderers to book and to make clear their commitment to protecting the rights of LGBTI people across the continent.

'What social media has created is a sort of an alternate space for reviving a dormant public consciousness into a sentient, dynamic social discourse,' says this blog post reflecting on the significance of social media in the Egyptian revolution. 'The assumption that social media’s largest influence was during or shortly before the 18 days in which Mubarak’s regime was brought down is very naive.'

'Since the beginning of this year, we have been aware of several online ‘corrective rape’ petitions and campaigns. We have made a deliberate decision not to sign or endorse these petitions. Our position and core concerns regarding these campaigns are as follows. The public exposure of bruised and battered faces and bodies of survivors is unethical and sensationalist. Many seem to assume that these petitions have been driven at least in part by survivors themselves. If you read carefully through the online petitions and the articles associated with these campaigns, you will find that the voices of survivors are largely absent. Once again black women in Africa are being cast as voiceless victims, as voiceless faces. No consideration seems to be given to the wide-ranging emotional and social impact that this kind of global and local exposure might have on survivors. The harm that this kind of sensationalist exposure is likely to have on survivors, their families and extended networks seems to have been overlooked.'

Morocco will address labour concerns and unemployment by providing 'solutions as quickly as possible', according to Communications Minister Khalid Naciri. 'The labour situation is worrying. Wages are still frozen at a time when prices are skyrocketing. Unemployment is rising. We must enter into serious discussions. As unions, our role is to prevent the country from getting into difficult situations,' said Abdelhak Azzouzi, General Secretary of the Democratic Labour Federation.

A group of prominent African writers has signed a letter condemning 'in the strongest possible terms the murder of Mr David Kato, the Ugandan gay rights campaigner'. The signatories 'state emphatically that homosexuality is neither a sin nor a social or cultural construct. Noting that 'homosexuals are human beings like everybody else,' the letter calls for all 'violence against gays and people deemed to be gay in Africa' to cease forthwith.

'As the Social Movements Assembly of the World Social Forum of Dakar, 2011, we are gathered here to affirm the fundamental contribution of Africa and its peoples in the construction of human civilisation. Together, the peoples of all the continents are struggling mightily to oppose the domination of capital, hidden behind illusory promises of economic progress and political stability. Complete decolonization for oppressed peoples remains for us, the social movements of the world, a challenge of the greatest importance.'

The has been spreading from town to town, from squatter camp to squatter camp, since 2004. Last week it arrived in

ZANU PF Member of Parliament for Gokwe Central Dorothy Mhangami with the help of war veterans and party youths on Tuesday 26 January 2011 force marched villagers to attend a rally at Gokwe Centre where she told scores of people in attendance to come in their numbers and sign a petition calling for the removal of sanctions. This is part of a ZANU PF campaign to have more than a million signatures throughout the country against the targeted sanctions imposed by the West on President Robert Mugabe and his allies endorsed on a petition.

The SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Satawu) would be meeting with members to decide whether to accept an industry wage deal. The union had agreed to the revised offer in principle for its freight worker members on Sunday. The offer included a nine percent increase across the board for 2011 and 8.5 per cent for the second year.

In an interview with Zahra Moloo,

In ETC Group, says that 15 months remain for humans to get ourselves through one of the most dangerous times in history. ‘Copenhagen was a tragedy, Cancun was treason,’ says Mooney, referring to the last international climate negotiations and their effects globally. From the upcoming Durban climate conference to the Rio+20 Earth Summit, there is only a small window of time for people to take to the streets and to the negotiating rooms to set the agenda of the coming years and the fate of the planet. Rio+20, he says, will be an ‘earth grab’ rather than an ‘earth summit’, adding that it is important for activists and social movements to have a clear agenda on how to organise against the ongoing expropriation of resources and the grabbing of biomass and the stratosphere.

Two marches were held (17 February) by different delegations to the World Social Forum, with opposing views on Western Sahara. Zahra Moloo speaks to representatives from both sides - [mp3], president of the Association Sahraouie de solidarité pour le projet d’autonomie et de développement durable (French/français).

In the Rio+20 next year are part of the same track, says Solon, and its essential for progressive forces to mobilise in preparation for the Durban conference in partnership with strong social movements like Via Campesina and the trades unions.

In a venture aimed at getting tomorrow's leaders tested today, Innovative Medicines of South Africa (Imsa) has launched a university-based HIV counselling and testing (HCT) campaign called First Things First. 'First Things First aims to help South African students, as future leaders, to be responsible, get tested for HIV, know their status and commit to behaviour that will benefit themselves and their peers,' said Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi.