A Canadian federal official said Friday the government will look into accusations that a Canadian-incorporated mining firm allowed soldiers in Democratic Republic of Congo to use its equipment in an operation that killed unarmed civilians last year. "The Canadian government is concerned by the serious allegations concerning Anvil Mining regarding the events in Kilwa in October 2004 and will be questioning the company about the events,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Andre Lemay said late Friday.

The international community should put pressure on Ethiopia to respect a legally binding ruling over its disputed border with Eritrea, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki said on Monday. Diplomats have warned that Ethiopia and Eritrea, which went to war from 1998-2000 over the border, run the risk of starting a new conflict unless there is a breakthrough.

On World Refugee Day 2005, Amnesty International turns its attention to the practice of arbitrary detention and unlawful expulsion of refugees and asylum-seekers. Amnesty International is launching three reports on detention and practices of expulsion. Many of those detained are in search of asylum. Some are detained automatically as soon as they arrive in a country of asylum if they do not have proper documentation or authorisation. Others are put in detention while their asylum claim is under consideration. For many, detention is used once their asylum claims have been dismissed following asylum determination procedures that fail to meet basic standards of fairness.

To mark World Day against Child Labour on Sunday, the United Nations labour agency is spotlighting the problems of over a million children around the world who help to support their families by working as miners, often for small unregulated enterprises in dangerous conditions. “Because the money they earn is crucial to ensuring that they and their families survive, many are unable to attend school at all. These children are digging for survival,” the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) says.

A global walk against child hunger is due to take place in 90 countries around the world.
The Walk the World event, organised by the UN World Food Programme, is raising funds for school meals in poor nations. Every year, about 6.5 million children under the age of five die because hunger leaves their bodies too weak to resist disease.

More than ten years after South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, apartheid’s social and economic legacy remains. The majority of its nearly 45 million people continue to live in conditions resembling those of a decade ago. The bulk of the country’s wealth remains in the hands of a small percentage of the population. Though corporate giving is one of the largest sources of funding for civil society,[2] companies remain reluctant to address inequalities and take on social justice grantmaking.

Ironically, it was apartheid, and its consequent social unrest and threat to the economy, that provided the first real stimulus for corporate social investment (CSI). After the 1976 student uprisings in Soweto, several companies banded together to establish the Urban Foundation, which focused on urban development, housing and education in black townships. At about the same time, the Sullivan Principles were introduced, requiring American companies to justify their presence in the country by contributing to local communities, which encouraged more formalized giving by the private sector in general. In 1984-85, the groundswell of the liberation movement against apartheid and the international attention it brought provided a further stimulus to corporate giving.

However, while the Urban Foundation supported community centres, education and training in black townships, it disposed of relatively small financial resources, and did little to dismantle the system that kept black people in those townships in the first place. Other efforts to pool company funds (the Joint Education Trust (JET), formed in 1992, and the Business Trust, formed in 1999) similarly focused more on service delivery than on attacking the root causes of problems. While JET did contribute to the development of government policies and programmes throughout the 1990s, it focused primarily on educational service delivery. The Business Trust’s main focus was on job creation, education and crime. Although it was established jointly by the private sector and government, it appears as yet to have focused little on policy reform.

CSI in South Africa today

Overall, the picture has changed little. The 2004 CSI Handbook covers issues such as knowledge management, employee involvement, evaluation, communications and sustainability, but there is no discussion of policy reform or advocacy. As of 2003/04, CSI funds have gone predominantly to education and training (46 per cent) and health and social development (24 per cent), with the remainder going to a combination of job creation, sports, environment, arts and culture, safety and security, and housing (in descending order of size of contribution).

Over the past four years, with companies recognizing the impact of HIV/AIDS, there has been a significant increase in funding for health and social development. One example is provided by Anglo American’s programme, principally directed towards its 13,900 employees. Initially focused on education and prevention, this has now grown to include voluntary testing and counselling as well as anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy, a controversial stance in South Africa, given the government’s initial reluctance to recognize the need for ARVs (see p58). Another example is Absa Bank, which has over 2,500 employees participating in its ‘give as you earn’ campaign, which deducts contributions from employees’ monthly salary. The contributions are then matched by the Absa Foundation (the separate organization responsible for the bank’s CSI) and given to NGOs focused on HIV/AIDS treatment and care.

These HIV/AIDS programmes represent some of the most creative and forward-thinking elements of CSI, but they hardly amount to social justice grantmaking. The private sector has been hesitant to fund advocacy organizations such as the Treatment Action Campaign. In general, the emphasis is on service delivery. Relatively few CSI initiatives advocate major policy reform or fund organizations that provide a voice for those who are usually outside the arena of policy formation. CSI has not tended to promote public debate on issues such as economic policy and the development of a social safety net that could result in greater attention to social justice. Nor has it paid much attention to rural areas or the needs of women.

Why is CSI not focused on the most marginalized?

An urban focus
Most companies are urban-based and their development efforts reflect this. In 2003, two-thirds of CSI spending was targeted towards urban and peri-urban areas, with only 34 per cent targeted towards rural communities. Given the high levels of poverty in rural areas, this funding pattern is in almost inverse proportion to need.

An insular focus
Fifteen per cent of funds from CSI programmes focus on company employees and their families and another 49 per cent on the communities in which the companies operate. While this may seem logical, it also means that those people and communities who have little or no connection to corporate South Africa, as employees or customers, are badly underserved. With the broadly defined unemployment rate at over 40 per cent, CSI is not reaching those who are most marginalized with least access to resources and information.

Promoting the government line
The new government has promoted the concept of public-private partnerships to address social needs and implement government programmes. Companies are encouraged to support this trend in order to achieve greater exposure and win government favour. It is unlikely, therefore, that companies will publicly criticize government policy or support local communities and organizations that do so. Promoting a social justice agenda would inevitably involve this.

Internal considerations
The majority of CSI budgets in South Africa are not determined through a formula, as they are in the UK and the US, which makes them more vulnerable to the arbitrary decisions of management and less likely to be strategically focused. When it comes to evaluation, companies tend to focus on inputs and anecdotal evidence, with little effort to assess developmental impact, lessons learned and implications for policy reform.

CSI in South Africa is thus limited in scope, often unstrategic, and emphasizing service delivery not structural reform. Without giving attention to the areas of weakness outlined above, it is unlikely to make any significant contribution to social justice. A set of initiatives that have encouraged greater reflection and improved reporting are described below. They are not specifically aimed at promoting social justice programmes, but it is possible that the greater reflection on the role of companies in society that they encourage could lead in this direction.

Broader corporate accountability needed

CSI needs to be complemented by broader corporate accountability in regard to workplace conditions, approach to the environment and sustainable development. In recognition of this, the UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) encourage a ‘triple bottom line’ approach. There are several developments in South Africa that have built on this approach.

* The King Report on Corporate Governance (King II) Launched in 2002, this provides a South African voluntary code of conduct, which embraces the ‘triple bottom line’ concept.
* The Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Index Launched in 2004 on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, this assesses companies on a range of social, environmental and economic issues.
* Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Initially focused on extending black equity participation, predominantly to a small black elite, government now encourages BEE to take a broader approach to empowerment that includes guiding government’s procurement decisions to benefit black-owned companies, development of small businesses, skills development, etc. Unfortunately, to date, BEE has focused on redistribution at the apex rather than at the base.[3]
* Industry charters Developed by several industries (banking, mining and finance), with government encouragement, these provide a scorecard for transformation, featuring issues such as black ownership and control, skills development, financing and procurement, and CSI.

Working through other grantmakers

Working through other types of grantmaker, especially those that focus on human rights and reaching the most marginalized, offers a potential way for companies to give their CSI activities a social justice focus. Possible partner organizations include community foundations and women’s funds, two new institutional forms of philanthropy in South Africa in recent years.

Community foundations
A community foundation pilot programme led by the Southern African Grantmakers Association (SAGA) resulted in the creation of the Greater Rustenburg Community Foundation (GRCF) in Northwest province and the Uthungulu Community Foundation (UCF) in KwaZulu Natal. Both serve populations that are predominantly rural with high levels of poverty. Local corporations have shown great interest in the idea. Billiton (a mining corporation) provided UCF with R5 million in endowment support and Impala Platinum provides support to GRCF. Community foundations can channel CSI funds in a way that permits greater community control and influence on how the funds are spent. It remains to be seen, however, whether this will help shift funds away from charity towards social justice.

Women’s funds
There is even greater potential in the WHEAT (Women’s Hope Education and Training) Trust, a women’s fund in Cape Town, with an explicit social justice agenda. WHEAT focuses on issues of violence against women, women’s rights as human rights, HIV/AIDS and support to local women’s community organizations. WHEAT has tapped corporate funding from the retail and IT industries as well as building a R1 million endowment with contributions predominantly from individuals.

Other local grantmakers
Corporates have also begun to partner with other local grantmakers such as the Social Change Assistance Trust (SCAT) and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF). SCAT is a grantmaking development agency that funds rural, community-based organizations focusing on human rights, gender equity, HIV/AIDS and local economic development. It has received money from the De Beers Fund and has helped develop Ditikeni, an investment company that is building assets for a set of non-profit organizations, SCAT included. Given its name and profile, NMCF has received numerous corporate contributions. The organization has been affected by political influences but, given its R250 million endowment, may develop greater independence and a stronger social justice emphasis in the future.

Working through local grantmakers such as these could enable companies to reach those communities outside their immediate ambit. If that greater outreach combines with well-designed advocacy campaigns driven by local communities, there is the potential to influence corporate grantmaking for the better.

1. This article is part of a longer paper by Christa Kuljian commissioned by the Global Equity Initiative (GEI) at Harvard University as part of a series on philanthropy and equity in China, India, the Philippines, Brazil and South Africa. The full paper will be available later this year at www.fas.harvard.edu/~acgei/philanthropy.htm. For the purposes of this paper, social justice is defined as promoting advocacy and policy reform to benefit those who are most marginalized in society.

2 According to Mark Swilling and Bev Russell, ‘The Size and Scope of the Non-profit Sector in South Africa’, linked to the Johns Hopkins international comparative study, private sector funding accounts for 25 per cent of all non-profit income in South Africa compared to an average of 11 per cent in 28 other countries in the study.

3 For those interested in a longer analysis of BEE, see ‘Black Economic Empowerment: Elite enrichment or real transformation?’ by Frank Meintjies in the Isandla Development Communique at www.isandla.org.za

* Christa Kuljian is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies in Johannesburg. She can be contacted at [email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Today, national development programs have sunk into oblivion, as well as development economy. One does not find any definition of economic development in the recent documents of the international organisations. There is only ‘human development’ or ‘poverty reduction’. The economy has become a part of nature, with laws that have to be respected but that we cannot change. All we can do is to try to have these laws function properly in order to help the poor.

A US promise to disperse 674 million dollars for famine relief in Africa has disappointed independent development groups, who decried the proposal as a sham that offers too little in face of the continent's mounting crises. President George W. Bush announced the funding Tuesday in response to humanitarian emergencies in Africa. Some 414 million dollars of this sum will be provided immediately to avert famine in the Horn of Africa. The White House says that the aid will help 14 million people at risk in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti.

When historians look back over the past 25 years, one of the great crimes they will identify is the Third World debt crisis. Now, finally, the rich countries have agreed to cancel the debts of the poorest countries to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. But they continue to differ over how to do it. It is now clear a compromise agreement among the rich countries over cancellation of IMF debt can only be reached if the sale of IMF gold is a component of the financing package for debt cancellation. But a decision to sell some of the IMF's stock of gold is being blocked by the gold industry.

Spending on weapons around the world topped $1 trillion (£560bn) for the first time in 2004, a new report says. A study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) found that countries around the world spent $162 on weapons for each person alive. The US alone accounted for 47% of the global total, mainly because of soaring spending on its "global war on terror".

African trade ministers have the opportunity to set out a bold agenda for trade reforms that will benefit developing countries at the African Union meeting in Cairo this week, said an alliance of African and international campaigning organizations. Six months before the next World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial in Hong Kong, African leaders should challenge rich countries to keep their promises to put development at the heart of the negotiations, said the alliance from Cairo on the eve of the meeting. "With time running short before WTO members meet in Hong Kong, there is a pitiful lack of progress towards tackling the concerns of developing countries, heralded as central to these negotiations," said Cheikh Tidiane Dieye of ENDA-Tiers Monde, Senegal. "This is why it is crucial for African leaders to remain firm on their demands from the WTO."

Basic sanitation must reach 138 million more people every year through 2015 – close to 2 billion in total - to bring the world on track to halve the proportion of people living without safe water and basic sanitation, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF warn in a new report. Meeting this Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target would cost US $11.3 billion per year, a minimal investment compared with the potential to reduce human illnesses and death and invigorate economies.

Brazil's lower house of government on Wednesday approved a bill that would suspend patents on all antiretroviral drugs and allow Brazilian companies to produce generic versions of the drugs if the Brazilian government cannot negotiate price reductions or licensing agreements with patent-holding pharmaceutical companies, Bloomberg.com reports.

In the sugar-dominated economy of Mauritius, workers demanded from their bosses that they be allowed to plant vegetables in between rows of sugar cane, the beginning of a broader campaign to convert land under sugar to land for food production and thus develop an alternative economic system. In the context of rampant neo-liberalism, how can alternatives be constructed and what are the strategies and methods that can be adopted? A recent conference entitled ‘Economic Alternatives to Neoliberalism’ took place in Johannesburg and tackled exactly these issues. George Dor from the Southern Africa Centre for Economic Justice provides more details.

Alternatives to today’s dominant neoliberal system must be built from the bottom up. They must be developed through worker and community struggles against the very real ways in which workers and communities are oppressed by the imposition of neoliberal policies.

The development of alternatives entails transforming the state from one that serves neoliberal interests to one that addresses people’s needs. It also requires doing away with certain institutions that advance corporate globalisation. In particular, the World Bank should be shut down.

Alternatives to neoliberalism should not culminate in a more welfarist version of capitalism. They need to challenge the capitalist system itself and lead to a socialist society different from the examples to date that have been called ‘socialist’ or ‘communist’.

These are some of the points that resonated at a workshop, titled Economic Alternatives to Neoliberalism, organised by the Southern African Centre for Economic Justice (SACEJ) and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLS) and held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in May.

The Growth of Resistance to Neoliberalism in Southern Africa

The workshop was an outcome of an increasing interest in debating alternatives in the region. This, in turn, is a consequence of the rapid growth of resistance in various organisational forms over the last few years contesting neoliberialism in our region.

These developments are a reflection of the international upsurge in activism against corporate globalisation, including the Zapatista uprising of 1994, the building of international solidarity in support of the Zapaptistas and against neoliberalism, the growth of the Jubilee campaign calling for the cancellation of debt, the Seattle protests against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1999, subsequent actions against the WTO, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the formation of the World Social Forum (WSF) and the growth of the international anti-war movement.

Southern Africa has seen the emergence of organisation around issues such as debt, trade and war. It has also seen the mushrooming of grassroots organisations around issues affecting people’s daily lives, such as privatisation, land, water and large dams. In some countries, these organisations have come together in the form of economic justice networks and this has been complemented by various regional networks.

The formation of the World Social Forum has sparked forums at continental, regional, country and local levels. The African Social Forum (ASF) was first held at the beginning of 2002, and the Southern African Social Forum (SASF) met before the end of 2003. Last year, Malawi and Zimbabwe have held national social forums.

The development of these organisational forms has in large measure been prompted by the very real hardships faced by the vast majority of people, both urban and rural, in the countries of the region. The content of organisational activities and struggles has initially of necessity been largely one of contesting the conditions in which the majority find themselves. This has included protest against the harsh realities of life, such as non-delivery of basic needs, high charges for services of poor quality, local corruption and enrichment of the few at the expense of others, to name a few.

Many organisations and networks have played an important role in educating people about the local, national, regional and international context which results in the gross levels of poverty and inequality experienced in the region. There has been a significant deepening of understanding of the way in which neoliberalism undermines people in their places of work and in their communities. The World Social Forum, held for the first time in 2001 under the banner “Another World Is Possible”, raised the inevitable question as to how this other more people-friendly world can be built and the beginnings of attempts to address this question.

Debating Alternatives at the African Social Forum

These developments prompted the hosting of a three-hour seminar at the African Social Forum, held in Lusaka, Zambia, in December last year. It proved to be a very popular event and attracted nearly 200 people.

It was noted that the relative lack of attention to alternatives was perhaps in part due to a fear of reopening divisions that characterised the left in years past. It was also out of concern not to make the mistake of speaking on behalf of people affected by neoliberalism. Nonetheless, elements of alternatives have been part of debate and practice. For example, in Africa, documents such as the Lagos Plan of Action and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) critique of structural adjustment were fundamentally different to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad). Anti-debt campaigners have called for and developed ideas around and African People’s Consensus to contest the Washington Consensus. Public sector delivery has been promoted in opposition to water privatisation. Land redistribution, agricultural support and food security have been stressed against GMOs.

The seminar debated how we start to give content to the slogan “Another World is Possible” and how do we do so in a way in which people in social movements drive the development of alternatives.

It was said that talk of alternatives from the top down will run into problems. There is a need to share collective knowledge to demand alternatives. We need social movements to catalyse social change. We must be part of building a groundswell against neoliberalism. In addition, we need to address a theoretical gap, to debate, develop and clarify our ideology. It is important to identify our enemy. We are not fighting poverty, but a system that is ripping us off. We must start to search for alternatives from a position of strength. We have to start talking about political power and collective ownership.

People continued debating in groups and added that we must discuss an alternative vision in local languages, hear people’s voices and develop this vision from the grassroots. This alternative vision must draw from local experiences and emphasize humanity. It must be community based and put people first, not profits. Debate must start on the ground and move to the national, the regional and the international levels. Debate is important because, when you define where you stand, this opens up possibilities for defining solutions. But, debate should result in concrete action and solidarity.

The level of energy and enthusiasm in the seminar and the positive response to the question of whether we should take these debates forward beyond the social forum prompted the organisation of the May workshop. It was attended by some 100 participants, including representation from the union sector, labour researchers, academics, community organisations, social movements, organisations of displaced persons, gender and youth organisations and national and regional economic justice networks.

Understanding Neoliberalism in Southern Africa

On the first day of the workshop, participants shared their collective knowledge of how neoliberalism affects the people of Southern Africa. They provided information on their country experiences, which highlighted the very similar ways in which all the countries in the region are affected.

For example, the textile company, Ramatex, played off three countries, namely Namibia, South Africa and Madagascar, against each other. The Namibian Government exempted the company from taxes, ploughed US$100 million into providing infrastructure for the company’s operations, ensured labour at rates from R300 to R600 a month, required that prospective employees are tested for pregnancy and allowed the company to operate free of health, safety and environmental regulations. The company locked up its factory in the Eastern Cape, an impoverished region of South Africa suffering from a high rate of unemployment, leaving 5 000 people without jobs, and set up in Namibia. This is portrayed by the Namibian Government as a success story.

The state subsidy of the clothing and textile companies in Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho and other countries in the region has, at most, provided temporary employment in these countries as the imminent lifting of WTO quotas on Chinese exports will lead to a relocation of production to China.

Privatisation is a key feature of neoliberalism and is being implemented throughout the region. In Tanzania, 45 000 public sector workers lost their jobs, virtually overnight. In Zambia, the figure is 60 000. Privatisation has been accompanied by the growth of labour broking, in which some retrenched workers are hired on a contract basis as non- unionised labour at lower wages and without benefits.

The impact of privatisation is acutely felt by communities throughout the region in the form of the increased cost of services such as water and local telephone calls as well as the decline in the standard and quality of services provided. Inability to pay for housing and services has led to disconnections and evictions. Prepaid meters are increasingly being used to deny people access to services.

The workshop took place on the eve of the new president of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, taking up office and after his stated intention to visit Africa, so the World Bank received special attention. The World Bank, together with the IMF, has used debt as a means to exert a central role in imposing neoliberal policies on countries throughout the region. In Zambia, these institutions have used the promise of ‘debt relief’ under the Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC) to intensify cuts in government services and force through privatisation of almost all parastatals. Teachers and nurses earn a pittance, but even so the country cannot stay within the spending limits imposed on government services. When targets are not met, the IMF and World Bank cut resource flows and signal to other funding sources to follow suit. Zambia is thus ‘condemned to debt’.

In Tanzania, these institutions are again promising ‘debt relief’, together with growth and employment, under the latest variant of structural adjustment, namely the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). People have been called on to participate in writing these papers, but the ministry leading the process is that of finance and the international institutions continue to dictate the overarching macroeconomic policy, resulting in a widening gap between rich and poor.

The compliance of the new post-colonial elites has been a central feature in implementing these neoliberal policies. In most countries in the region, the burden of debt makes it very difficult to withstand the imposition of structural adjustment, but, in the case of South Africa, only a small portion of its debt was owed to the World Bank and IMF. Yet, the Government introduced the Growth, Employment and Redistribution Strategy (Gear), which bears all the hallmarks of a structural adjustment programme. Moreover, the South African Government has been central to launching the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, endorsing the features of and the institutions that impose structural adjustment.

This facilitates the opening up of the region to the giant corporations and finance houses of the North. At the same time, it creates opportunities for South African corporations to impose themselves on the region and across the continent. These corporations have already had a devastating impact, destroying local production and employment, plundering mineral resources and damaging the environment. Now, the United Kingdom’s Barclays Bank, a key supporter of the Apartheid regime, is bidding to take over the South African ABSA bank, with the willing agreement of the ABSA executive, because the deal will open opportunities to, in the words of the ABSA CEO, “rule the continent”.

These are some of the ways in which neoliberalism manifests at an economic level. Women bear the brunt of these policies. They bear the cost of the failure of neoliberalism to provide services, both financially and emotionally. Women fetch water, bring up children and take care of the sick. This burden is increasing as the impact of HIV/Aids intensifies. The youth in the region are misplaced, unable to find jobs and therefore not in a position to participate economically in society.

The cumulative impact of neoliberalism, structural adjustment and corporate greed is perhaps most starkly illustrated by the deep decline in infant survival rate and life expectancy throughout the region.

But neoliberalism cannot be seen merely in economic terms. Its disastrous consequences inevitably generate resistance, involving various levels of organisation. The implementation of the neoliberal project thus entails both ideological and repressive elements.

At the ideological level, neoliberalism hides behind the façade of democracy. The G7 governments and the international financial institutions have blamed governments in countries suffering the consequences of structural adjustment and the new international trade regime for being corrupt and engaging in wars. The response in the form of Nepad and from many individual countries has been to agree to multiparty democracy and a limitation in presidential terms of office. Yet, policies such as Gear and Nepad and the macroeconomic elements of the PRSPs are strictly non-negotiable.

Neoliberalism also relies on the media, educational institutions and the homogenisation of culture to impose a set of ideas at odds with reality. People are told there is no alternative to the status quo, that this is the way it is. The youth are encouraged to aspire to be rich, in an environment where there are few job opportunities. They are inculcated with notions that individualism and greed are necessary qualities to this end. Lack of service delivery is accompanied by housing lists, prepaid meters and other mechanisms of control that escalate individualism into competition amongst the poor for insufficient resources, fuelling antagonisms such as xenophobia. People are encouraged, from an early age, through advertising and Western forms of culture to aspire to the individual purchase and ownership of commodities and property.

When these mechanisms fail to stem the collectivisation of anger into increasingly organised forms of resistance, the neoliberal system resorts to repression in the forms of legislation restricting protest, national intelligence gathering and the use of the police and military forces. In the case of Zimbabwe, the introduction of structural adjustment led to the free fall of the Zimbabwean dollar, dramatic cuts in services and jobs, resistance and repression. The emergence of the opposition party from the labour movement led to an intensification of violence. The combination of lack of economic opportunities and political violence has resulted in millions of Zimbabweans fleeing the country. Those that have tried to settle in South Africa are continuously harassed by the South African neoliberal state that also faces a crisis of unemployment.

The workshop participants were quickly disabused of the notion that South Africa has moved beyond its violent Apartheid past through the showing of video footage of a peaceful demonstration protesting the lack of service delivery in Harrismith, a small town in the Free State province. The police suddenly, without warning, fired into the crowd, resulting in instant chaos and killing one person. Violence is thus not merely a manifestation of the rule of undemocratic leadership in counties such as Zimbabwe and Swaziland. It is, rather, an essential feature of neoliberalism.

This is not the only way in which violence occurs. The region, in particular the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a battleground between competing corporate interests. At an international level, the appointment of Wolfowitz as President of the World Bank is perhaps the most graphic illustration of the interrelatedness of neoliberalism and war.

Towards Alternatives to Neoliberalism in the Region

On the second day, the workshop moved towards debating alternatives on the basis of the collective understanding developed on the first day. An initiative was started last year, called Alternatives to Neoliberalism in Southern Africa (Ansa). It has been developed by researchers and research institutions affiliated to labour movements in the region. A concept paper was presented to and debated by the regional trade union body, SATUCC and it was agreed to do various sectoral studies. This process is nearing completion and the intention is now to debate the concept paper and sectoral studies amongst unions and social movements at national level.

The Ansa initiative identifies the state as a crucial site of struggle and sees the transformation of the state as critical to the implementation of alternatives. There was extensive debate about the nature of the state in Southern Africa. It was argued, on the one hand, that the nature of the state is essentially capitalist and that Southern African states are cogs in the big machine of global capitalism and, on the other, that the state is inherently neutral and can be reclaimed. The notion of the state as a capitalist state and as an institution that needs to be transformed thus requires much more debate.

It was also argued that the state is under siege, that it is disappearing and that it is becoming non-existent. This was countered by the perspective that the North needs the Southern African states, but in changed form, as vehicles to open up the region to Northern interests. The state is thus increasingly disappearing as a provider of services and a mechanism for regulating corporations and, simultaneously, increasingly visible as an instrument of repression.

The Ansa initiative also defines Africa as badly integrated into the global economy. It was integrated under colonialism and continues to be integrated in a way that reinforces exploitation. This requires selective delinking from the global economy and relinking on Africa’s terms. Related to this point is that of poor cooperation between states in the Southern African region and the domination of the South African economy over the other countries of the region. It is thus important to build a strong and balanced regionalism to both allow for integrated development across countries of the region and generate the economic weight to relink into the global economy on the region’s terms.

The bottom-up approach to developing alternatives, as so clearly stressed at the Lusaka seminar, was reiterated throughout the workshop. Alternatives must be based on the here and now. They have to be developed within the ambit and experience of the working class. We have to support grassroots struggles and become part of the rank and file. We must point the way forward beyond what already exists and challenge the rank and file towards developing a vision.

It was suggested that there are fundamental differences between neoliberalism and welfare capitalism and that there are many similarities between Keynesianism and Marxism. But it was countered that welfarism is introduced at times when capitalism is being challenged, in order to protect the rule of profit and the capitalist system. Neoliberalism is, in turn, introduced at times when the capitalist system encounters problems of accumulation, in order to address the crisis of profitability. There was broad support that an alternative vision needs to look beyond the capitalist horizon and identify methods and actions to challenge the rule of capital. Accommodation within the capitalist system will not provide a lasting solution. We need a different world “for all workers, at all places, for all time”.

The campaign for an alternative economy in Mauritius, led by Lalit, provides a good example of how to link the here and now to the development of an alternative economy. It entails building confidence through struggle. This requires the development of reasonable and winnable demands. These demands, in turn, need to be consistent with the development of an alternative economy, in this way functioning as the germs of a new society.

The Mauritian economy is based on the sugar, textile and tourism industry, all of which are in crisis. Lalit held discussions with workers in the sugar and agricultural industries who were anxious about their jobs. This led to a small pamphlet that served as a tool to initiate discussion. A demand that did not directly threaten the bosses was developed, namely to interline the rows of sugar cane with vegetables. This was followed by a demand that government taxes the sugar cane fields that are not interlined. This is now part of a broader campaign to convert land under sugar to land for food production, a key element of an alternative economy.

Various specific alternatives were explored, including the development of cooperatives and participatory budgeting. The Malawi Economic Justice Network, in its short few years of existence, has already grown to the point where it develops detailed analyses of the national budgets, educates parliamentarians on budgetary issues and influences government in its budgetary decision-making.

It was noted that cooperatives and participatory budgeting do not necessarily constitute the building blocks of alternatives to the neoliberal system. They can be used for strengthening the system or for fighting against it. Cooperatives must be economically successful, inspire confidence and be part of democratic movements in order to be part of the solution. Likewise, participatory budgeting must start from the ground and must incorporate more than just shifting money into different categories towards changing the way in which government works.

It was suggested that all too often organisations are focused on their own issues and concerns. Building alliances, demonstrating solidarity with other struggles and engaging in joint campaigns are vitally important. For example, the region has been so decimated by the World Bank and IMF that organisations across countries need to stand together in opposing these institutions. The Wolfowitz presidency provides the ideal opportunity to link with the anti-war movement to build an international coalition against the role he played in the “military war” against Iraq and role he is now assuming in the “economic war” against Africa. This is a key moment to intensify the call to shut down the World Bank and other international financial institutions. Of course, this in turn provides the opportunity to debate the forces behind these institutions and identify further strategies against the G7 governments, transnational corporations and finance capital.

Any attempt to build economic alternatives to neoliberalism also needs to take account of its ideological and repressive elements. As potentially viable alternatives are developed, the neoliberal system will do all in its power to repress these initiatives. Therefore, as well as being visionary and identifying offensive demands towards realising that vision, attention must also be given to defending the space that is available to develop alternatives. The closing down of forms of expression, passing of restrictive legislation and acts of violent repression must be resisted together with the building of alternatives. Maintaining the space to be able to develop alternatives is thus an integral dimension of the struggle for alternatives.

Taking the Next Steps

The final day of the workshop considered practical ways forward. It was noted that the workshop was perhaps a first of its kind in bringing together such a wide range of organisations and movements for a rigorous discussion of this nature. In particular, it was recognised that the participation of people from the labour sector together with people from social movements and economic justice organisations was a major step forward.

Two divergent experiences of the unions and social movements were highlighted. In Angola, trade unions have only emerged in the last decade or so and are concerned primarily with wages. For example, the teachers union is not yet taking up issues relating to the lack of classroom facilities, syllabi, books and the like. There is very little interaction with other organisations.

In Namibia and South Africa, the unions were a central force for political change in the years of Apartheid. But they have since separated themselves from their social base in the communities. The unions engage in dialogue with government and business, the social movements resist neoliberalism in the streets.

This workshop thus signifies an opportunity to forge new alliances and to overcome divisions and rebuild old alliances.

All participants at the workshop will take forward the issues and debates in their organisations. National networks will share the debates amongst their members. Regional networks will identify ways in which to take forward joint campaigns, two of which include the campaigns to shut down the World Bank and against Barclays and ABSA. The Ansa initiative and SACEJ will explore ways to deepen debate between unions and social movements.

Finally, an event to share and take forward the debate will be organised to take place at the Southern African Social Forum, scheduled to take place in Harare, Zimbabwe, in October this year.

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British Prime Minister Tony Blair got the agreement he wanted on a massive new European Union aid package for sub Saharan Africa last week but questions still remain as to whether the United States and Japan will back the proposals. Six weeks ahead of the critical G8 summit at Gleneagles, the EU as a whole has committed itself to double its aid programme to Africa by 2010 with an additional promise to reach the UN goal of 0.7 per cent of GNP being spent on aid by 2015. Total aid to developing countries, including Africa, will rise from $40 billion this year to $80 billion by 2010.

Twenty years after Live Aid Sir Bob Geldof will take his charity music show to the stage again in multi-city concerts scheduled for Paris, Berlin, Rome and Philadelphia. Tajudeen Abdul Raheem is amazed that 20 years after Live Aid events like these are still being planned and executed without visible participation of Africans. The whole process, he says, is “like trying to shave someone’s head in their absence”.

Sir Bob Geldof (aka Saint Bob) on Tuesday ended speculation about staging a repeat of his 1985 Live Aid concert that raised global awareness about Famine in Africa. The successful re-release last Christmas of the record ‘Do they Know its Christmas time’, 20 years after the original release, fuelled speculation that Live Aid could be repeated in 2005.

Further pressures for this restaging had to do with the politics that led to the prominent role Geldof played in instigating Blair to set up his Commission for Africa (CfA). The CfA report committed the British government to making Africa a centre-piece of British Chairmanship of both the EU and the G8 from next month.

A number of campaigns by NGOs and development lobbyists in the UK culminating in the yearlong ‘Make Poverty History’ coalition are also contributing to shaping the British agenda.

The symbolism and propaganda value of these orchestrated coincidences were just overwhelming. The NGO world, but the very big international ones in particular, are more and more media-driven. Therefore packaging misery and targeting critical national and global events have become necessary tool kits for massive fundraising. In that context it was difficult to see how Geldof could resist the pressure for ‘another show’.

Despite initial declarations to the contrary the announcement Tuesday showed how Bob, despite being the global face of this humanitarian effort, is also driven by its opportunistic dynamics. The campaign has been so successful that even if he had refused to cooperate they would have manufactured another media saint to front it. It has become a global brand for sleek missionary activity on Africa. And there are plenty of mega stars and their publicists and assorted moguls of the entertainment industry who will do anything to harness the global good will and market that such a huge concert bring. Just as it is difficult for any big name to say no to Bob so it has become impossible for St Bob to say no to ‘one more time’.

The compromise show that may still be regarded by many as Live Aid 2 despite it being launched as LIVE 8. Despite the fact that it will bring together all the big names in Western music the concert will not be just about music and charity. Geldof and his colleagues, learning from both their two decades experience of doing charity and criticisms of opponents of Aid, have come to accept that charity (while still important as human demonstration of empathy and solidarity) is not the way forward for helping Africa. This is a very important shift. LIVE 8 will focus on the G8 leaders meeting the same week as the concert is being held in London and other 4 Western cities; Paris, Berlin, Rome and Philadelphia. In Britain the organisers are hoping that they will be able to mobilise a million protesters to converge on Edinburgh to demand an end to poverty in Africa, fair trade, debt write off and more aid for Africa. Similar protests are supposed to take place simultaneously in all G8 countries.

As one of those people critical of aid-addicted Africans and the Western aid pushers what can I possibly have against the proposed concert, especially the shift to some form of direct action? I welcome the shift and salute the courage of those building this solidarity movement for Africa. In particular shifting the debate away from aid may help to recover some of the loss of self-respect and attacks on the dignity of Africans consequent to constant negative images of starving Africa in order to extract Western sympathy. It may help to stop seeing Africa and Africans as victims but agents of our own fortunes and misfortunes, even if often in collaboration or collusion with others. More importantly the shift should help focus on the structural linkages between our mass poverty and the riches of the West. So pervasive has been the humanitarian disaster ideology about Africa that many westerners do not know that critical components of their computers, mobile phones, jewellery, motor cars, museums, and many of their day to day comfort items began life in Africa as precious metals and raw materials. While all these mental shifts are both desirable and necessary I cannot help being troubled by the processes of engagement. Even good things can be done in the wrong ways.

How is it defensible that 20 years after Live Aid and all the sea changes that Africa and the rest of the world have witnessed these activities are still being planned and executed without visible participation of Africans? It is like trying to shave someone’s head in their absence. Who are the big or small African artists, Musicians, cultural workers, etc, involved in this concert? Did they ask Hugh Masekela and was he too tired? Did Miriam Makeba say she was too busy? Is Fela Kuti unable to break an engagement? Where is Baba Maal? What about Yousou Ndor? What of Yvonne Chaka Chaka or Angelica Kidjo? Where are the Congo Musicians? We can go on and on. Could there not have been a symbolic African venue for this multi-city concert? Surely even if many African countries do not have the facilities South Africa does have the infrastructure to broadcast to the whole world?

Even the wider anti-poverty campaigns essentially use Africans as colourful canvasses to legitimise the narratives. They are wheeled on and off as the propaganda demands.

These omissions are not because of ignorance but the result of a mindset that “infantilises” Africans and cannot trust Africans to do anything for themselves including even telling the world where our shoes are pinching us. That’s why you see so many well-fed foreign ‘experts’ and increasingly their junior African partners getting huge sums of money to do poverty assessment and workshops across Africa. We are not even experts on our own poverty. Africans are the only people doomed to be perpetual students of their own condition and further condemned to be perpetually taught by outsiders as experts, consultants, activists, defenders or spokespersons!

It is a repackaging of the ‘white man’s burden’ ideology. The only way we can reverse this colonial mindset is for us to relearn the Uhuru spirit of doing things for ourselves and unlearn the mental slavery that makes us so vulnerable to outsiders.

Statistically, head for head, there are probably many millions more poor people in both India and China yet no western power dares suggest that they will create a commission for India or China. While India is seen as being able to solve her problems China is now even more feared as a serious global power.

Neither the Chinese nor the Indians will want to be invited by others to seek solutions to their problems.

No amount of marches in Europe and global concerts for Africa will end poverty in Africa if Africans are not marching in their millions demanding and enforcing pro poor and pro people policies and governance from their own governments and institutions. We cannot be spectators in our own affairs.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa. ([email protected] or [email][email protected])

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Across the globe, children who live and work on the streets are particularly vulnerable to human rights violations in juvenile justice systems. Not only are they more likely to have contact with the police and the courts, but they are also less able to defend themselves from abuse. Experiences reported by children go against rights specified in the UN Convention on the Rights of the child.

The International Monetary Fund's top economist on Wednesday criticized debt relief proposals for poor countries as being "one size fits all" and said they should be tailored to the situations of individual countries. In commentary in the IMF's Finance and Development publication, Raghuram Rajan said outright debt relief proposed by some Group of Seven rich countries were not suitable for all countries and should be better crafted.

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika can expect to face some major challenges for the remainder of his term in office after deciding to formally sever ties with the party that brought him to power, analysts warned on Monday. Mutharika launched his own political party on Sunday, three months after a bitter fallout with the United Democratic Front (UDF) forced him to resign from the former ruling party.

Well-heeled consultants and companies in the west are the beneficiaries of a global aid system which results in less than 40p in every pound helping to eradicate poverty in the developing world, according to a report out last week. Just over a month before Britain will make a doubling of aid a centrepiece of the Gleneagles summit, the charity ActionAid said the bulk of the money currently allocated was wasted, misdirected or recycled within rich countries. It found that 61% of aid flows were "phantom" rather than "real" - rising to almost 90% in the case of France and the United States.