Tanzania's general elections were on the whole peaceful, however, with the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi garnering a huge majority in Parliament, the legislature has no chance of holding the Executive to account. In Kenya months of high voltage acrimony in the Cabinet culminated in voters rejecting a government-supported constitutional draft. In Uganda,the incarceration of opposition leader, Dr Kizza Besigye, does not augur well for the country's democracy.

Opposition Forum for Democratic Change leader Kizza Besigye walked to freedom after the High Court ordered his immediate release. However, the public celebrations after his release was announced turned sour when riot police engaged his supporters in running battles. The presidential candidate has been in jail since his arrest on November 14 on treason and rape charges. The government immediately filed a notice of an intention to appeal against the ruling.
* Uganda Goes Through a Rough Patch
http://allafrica.com/stories/200601020005.html

It’s been a frantic year for Africa. On the international stage there’s been the release of Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa report, the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland and the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, all of which have had enormous implications for Africa. There have been elections in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Kenya and elsewhere, while the crises in the Ivory Coast and Darfur have dragged on throughout the year. To this you can add ongoing issues related to women’s rights, human rights, justice, the environment, HIV/Aids and refugees. We’ve tried our best to bring to the fore commentary and analysis on these issues that can’t be found anywhere else, to showcase the voices of the African continent. The result is over 150 originally commissioned or submitted pieces of commentary and analysis from over 100 writers. It would be impossible to summarise or reflect all of these in one article, but in this issue you can find a selection of key quotes from the year 2005. Click on the links to read the full articles or browse the back issues to find out what happened in the year that was.

MAKING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS A REALITY

“Within the health sector systemic violence against women remains highly invisible and there are glaring gaps within the health sector as well at the community level for dealing with violence against women. Most health providers have consistently failed to recognize and consider violence against women an important part of their work. Some health workers, being products of a culture that condones violence against women, view it as a normal way of life and do not feel obligated to pay attention to women who present with signs and symptoms of abuse.” - Anne Gathumbi, Pambazuka News 190: 20 January 2005

TRADE LIBERALISATION, HUNGER AND STARVATION

“The agriculture negotiations when taken up by our governments are treated as gender neutral. These discussions do not take into account the 75% contribution women make to agricultural production. They assume a common myth that separates affluence from poverty. If you produce what you consume, you do not produce. This is the basis on which the production boundary is drawn for national accounting that measures economic growth.” - Mohau Pheko, Pambazuka News 191: 27 January 2005

ZIMBABWE: ELECTIONS, DESPONDENCY AND CIVIL SOCIETY'S RESPONSIBILITY

“The official results of Zimbabwe's March 31 parliamentary elections, announced on 2 April, give the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) 78 seats, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) 41 (down from 57 seats in 2000), and 1 to an independent (Mugabe's notorious former information officer, Jonathan Moyo). What happened? Simply this: the urban poor and working-class were cheated. The rural poor were intimidated into supporting a government whose costs to them now far outweigh the limited benefits (for 130 000 households) of the ineffectual land redistribution strategy that began in 2000. And the regional super-power collaborated to the full.” - Patrick Bond And David Moore, Pambazuka News 201, 7 April 2005

ECONOMIC ALTERNATIVES TO NEOLIBERALISM

“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.” - George Dor, Pambazuka News 209: 2 June 2005

THE LIVE 8 CONCERTS: HOLD ON AFRICA – HERE WE COME!

“The real reason the rich world should be racing to deal with African poverty is the central role we have played in causing and perpetuating it. Has anyone told Paul Wolfowitz that vastly more money pours out of Africa each year back to rich countries than flows in? That's the key to Africa's development crisis, and it's almost entirely unrecognized.” - Gerald Caplan, Pambazuka News 212: 23 June 2005

FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS OF AFRICA'S REFUGEES: WORLD REFUGEE DAY 2005

“The problem (with participation rhetoric in regards to refugees) is that it is just that, rhetoric. The first thing that any agency assisting refugees would have to do to allow them to meaningfully participate in 'planning' is to tell them how much was the budget for a particular project. Can you imagine an Oxfam or a Save the Children or a UNHCR actually sharing such information with refugees?” - Barbara Harrell-Bond, Pambazuka News 212: 23 June 2005

ASPIRATION INTO ACTION: RATIFY THE PROTOCOL NOW!

“Affirmative action in politics in Uganda has delivered numbers. Presence and action of women has expanded and relatively deepened public concerns. Both at the national and local levels, the relative presence of women has brought new questions on the political agenda. The experience of the constitution making process in 1994 and the resultant 1995 constitution indicate that numerical presence of women in the Constituent Assembly had a lot to contribute to the gendered contestations and outcomes. The outlook of decision-making bodies has changed, ideologically accommodating the construction of a leader as male and female.” - Jacqueline Asiimwe, Pambazuka News 213: 30 June 2005

IT WILL SUFFICE TO STOP THE BLEEDING

“My image of Africa is a beautiful, welcoming and sharing person bearing a gaping and bleeding wound that threatens her/his happiness and life. Africa’s wound is old (historically rooted) and still festering. There are scars around its edges suggesting partial but superficial healing. The wound is constantly poked both by external objects as well as self. As a result, it is still gashing. Stopping the bleeding is a first aid priority to protect life, before healing is possible. To heal, we must get the diagnosis right and recognise the age of the wound, how it was caused and what continues to exacerbate it.” - Charles Abugre, Pambazuka News 217: 28 July 2005

IN SEARCH OF THE “DISAPPEARED”: TAKING THE CAMPAIGN TO AFRICA

“Enforced disappearances are an ongoing worldwide phenomenon. While the exact numbers for and extent of disappearances in Africa is not known, estimates clearly run into the tens of thousands. After twenty years of debate, the United Nations is now poised to finalise an international treaty to deal with disappearances in September 2005. It is critical that African civil society organizations and families of the disappeared join the debate and ensure that this international legal instrument becomes a reality and addresses the needs of African victims.” - Polly Dewhirst and Ewoud Plate, Pambazuka News 218: 04 August 2005

THE CHANGING DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE IN AFRICA

“All in all, the development discourse in Africa among African intellectuals is alive, kicking, mentally refreshing and intellectually formidable, notwithstanding declarations of World Bank technicians, called consultants, proclaiming ‘the end of development’. Africans are reclaiming their right to think for themselves. - Issa G. Shivji, Pambazuka News 224: 06 October 2005

IMPUNITY AND INDIFFERENCE LEADS TO “DRAMATIC DETERIORATION” IN DARFUR

“Even as attacks on civilians have continued uninterrupted albeit without the aid of government air forces, the international community have taken little substantive action to resolve the situation and thus alleviate the humanitarian disaster unfolding in the region. The rhetoric from United Nations bodies including the Security Council has been one of condemnation and outrage; however rhetoric has failed to translate into action with the exception of the African Union (AU).” - Adwoa Kufuor, Pambazuka News 229: 10 November 2005

WORLD AIDS DAY 2005: PAMBAZUKA NEWS INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN LEWIS

“I do think it's dawning on even the most regressive policy makers, though, that the AIDS pandemic is part of the price we are paying for allowing unabated gender-based violence and inequality. But that dawning awareness is excruciatingly slow, and we just don't have time for incremental progress. Entire countries run the risk of being depopulated of women! Nothing short of a global social movement demanding an immediate end to all forms of gender inequality can begin to reverse the trend.” – Stephen Lewis, Pambazuka News 232: 01 December 2005

STRONG-ARMING, SWEET-TALKING AND BELLY ROLLING – BUT NO DEAL ON AGRICULTURE IN HONG KONG

"The WTO is meant to be a forum of governments, and to the extent that governments represent the will of their people, peoples' voices ought to be heard at the WTO. It just happens that very few governments represent any kind of popular will, and the few that are able to represent these are sidelined, bought off, or brow-beaten." - Raj Patel Pambazuka News 233, 08 December 2005
[email protected]

EDITORIAL: George Dor from the Southern Africa Centre for Economic Justice introduces a series of articles on alternatives to neo-liberalism
COMMENT&ANALYSIS:
- An alternative vision to water privatisation trends in Ghana
- Economic Demands take on Political Form in Mauritius
- Swaziland: Developing a participatory course in environmental education
- The case of the Malawi Economic Justice Network: Economics for the people, by the people
- Working towards another Southern Africa: The ANSA initiative
LETTERS: Africa in Hong Kong/Human Rights Day
BLOGGING AFRICA: Race riots, air crashes, harassment of women, fuel shortages and the legacies of colonialism
Pan-African Postcard: Time to get tough on Darfur talks, says Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
BOOKS&ARTS: A review of Kwani, a compilation of contributions by Kenyan writers/Poems on 16 days of activism against violence
GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST POVERTY: GCAP trade demands presented in Hong Kong
CONFLICTS&EMERGENCIES: UN out of Eritrea/ICC interviews Darfur witnesses
HUMAN RIGHTS: Call for investigation into Egyptian police killings
REFUGEES: Toddler latest to die in Sudanese refugee protest in Cairo
ELECTIONS&GOVERNANCE: Call for suspension of Zenawi regime/Civil society challenge to dictatorship in Nigeria
WOMEN&GENDER: Gender and Human Rights in the Commonwealth
DEVELOPMENT: All the news from the WTO in Hong Kong
RACISM&XENOPHOBIA: Indymedia Sydney reports on race riots
ENVIRONMENT: Climate talks end in Montreal
MEDIA&FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Discussing advocacy journalism
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: The Execution of Stan Tookie Williams
ADVOCACY&CAMPAIGNS: Appeal to AU to confront Eritrea on human rights violations
INTERNET&TECHNOLOGY: FrontlineSMS now available FOR NGOS
+ E-newsletters, Fundraising, Courses and Jobs

Dear Subscribers,

Please note that this will the last edition of 2005. The next edition of Pambazuka News will be on January 5th. We wish all of our subscribes a restful few weeks.

The Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN) campaigns for just economic policies by engaging in economic literacy programmes, budget monitoring and lobbying on trade issues and trade agreements that relate to Malawi. Historically, the space for civil society organisations to engage government has been limited or non-existent, leaving MEJN and other civil society organisations (CSOs) with much to do in offering alternative suggestions to influence economic policies.

In the five years (2000-2005) of its existence, the Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN) has recorded tremendous achievements in the areas of economic literacy, formulation of Malawi’s PRSP, budget monitoring and trade and trade agreements in Malawi. Through the economic literacy programme, MEJN has reached many people to make them understand the dynamics of the political economy of the country. Its interventions in policy formulation processes show the critical role of civil society organisations (CSOs) as partners with government and donors in poverty reduction programmes.

However, a question that is often asked is to what extent has the work done by MEJN shifted the boundaries of engaging with government to influence economic policy change for the country?

The danger of cooption

The danger and dilemma faced by CSOs working with government, especially in the areas of economic justice, relates to maintaining independence and legitimacy. There is a fine line between implementing their programs so as to be able to influence change of policy and being submerged or co-opted into the government machinery in the process.

This has a lot to do with the political governance that a country has as well. For instance, in Swaziland and Lesotho, which are monarchies or semi-monarchies, the role and influencing abilities of CSOs in the fields of economic justice is greatly diminished. Giving alternative suggestions to the budget process is seen to be opposing the powers of the monarchy to control the economy, hence the weak role of CSOs in Swaziland and Lesotho.

In Malawi, MEJN has been associated mostly with monitoring the national budget. To that effect, MEJN has been making statements as to how budget allocations could be improved through advocating for a prioritized budgeting process and also by involving other stakeholders to scrutinize the national budget. Through its district chapters, MEJN has been able to track budget allocations and even to do satisfaction surveys to check on the quality of the outcomes of the budget allocations.

Government’s View of MEJN’s Role in Economic Justice

A snap survey on the extent to which MEJN’s role is influencing government policy in Malawi indicated varying answers. From government circles, MEJN is seen as a very important partner in development of Malawi’s Economy and it is for that reason that MEJN is always brought aboard whenever government is discussing economic programmes. They regard MEJN as the most active NGO/Network in Malawi that is helping to disseminate information on poverty reduction and educating people in Malawi to understand budgetary issues.

However, according to government officials, MEJN cannot influence government policy in terms of changing economic policy developed by government. Consultations and involvement of MEJN in economic policies is meant to solicit views on the development of economic policies. According to officials from government, it is the role of government thereafter to decide on the formulation of economic policy.

Civil Society’s View of MEJN’s Role in Economic Justice

In civil society circles in Malawi, MEJN is applauded for the work that it has done in the field of economic justice in Malawi, more especially in the area of giving economic literacy to people. However, the country is yet to see the real impact of MEJN’s work in changing policy direction in government circles.

Involvement of MEJN in economic policy formulation by government could be cosmetic in that decisions may already have been made and, for the sake of inclusion of CSOs, MEJN could be called in but not to change anything. There is also the problem which was so apparent with the Muluzi Government whereby people were allowed to talk but government would not listen. And so the government was stubborn despite allowing dissenting or alternative views from civil society. In that type of atmosphere, no matter how good MEJN’s alternative views could be, they would not be effective because of government’s unwillingness to listen and use the ideas.

Another point which has been remarked about MEJN’s role is the fact that MEJN at times has made too much noise without giving alternative criticism or without giving expert advice as an alternative. MEJN has made statements on many aspects, some of which were not within its mandate. A good example is where MEJN commented on purely political matters as opposed to economic issues. This irritated policy makers but also showed lack of focus on the side of MEJN and to a certain degree did undermine MEJN’s credibility.

Lack of focus, lack of specialization and making unnecessary comments has the potential of derailing the work of MEJN and its ability to be taken seriously by policy makers in government.

Conclusion

Influencing policy change and making in government by civil society is a process that requires a democratic, transparent and accountable culture to achieve. It is an on-going process. For the case of Malawi, participation of NGOs in government policy is a recent phenomenon that is still being understood by both parties.

During the Banda era nobody ever thought of opposing a national budget let alone the national assembly. And so the change of the political system has also brought in a political economy that allowed dialogue with NGOs in Malawi. What remains to be honestly achieved is reaching a point where the government would be influenced positively by civil society in policy formulation for the good of the country’s economic growth. MEJN and other CSOs have much to do in giving expert and focused alternative suggestions to influence economic policies.

* Francis Ng’ambi works for the Malawi Economic Justice Network

* Please send comments to

Lalit, a political party in Mauritius, has been conducting a campaign for “an alternative economy”. As Lalit’s Alain Ah-Vee, Lindsey Collen and Ram Seegobin explain, its just not acceptable that those who own land refuse to produce food for people to eat, while people who want to produce food to eat have no land.

Since 2004, Lalit, the political party we are members of in Mauritius, has been accentuating its campaign for what we call “an alternative economy”. This involves looking at questions like: “What are the demands that working people and the unemployed today see as eminently reasonable and that, at the same time, put into question the entire economic system? And, how do we identify these demands collectively? What is the process?”

Stated differently, “What is the content of the political program (and by what processes is it developed?) that would bring us, as socialists, off the defensive on economic issues, and on to the counter-offensive? What political demands, in these times, simultaneously pose questions of ownership and economic control?”

This paper is a brief outline of what our campaign means, both as an idea, and in practice, focusing on two of our demands as examples.

Politics in the economy

At certain times in history, the economy moves to the centre of the political stage all by itself. In the press, the “economy” is on separate pages; in the universities, economics and politics are in different departments; and during elections, newspapers and radios avoid any genuine debate on control over the economy. Bourgeois ideologues believe in the two following contradictory statements: that the economy is not linked to politics, and that it ought not to be. The truth is that it is linked, and it ought to be consciously linked to every human being’s political opinions and interests.

Today, sugar and free zone textiles, two of the major sectors of the Mauritian economy, have both become politically hot issues. The price of petroleum products is also being discussed politically. All this is on the agenda because of contradictions within capitalism, exposing very clearly the international realities of the Mauritian economy.

The open-ended political agreement between African, Caribbean, Pacific countries and Europe, known as the Lome Convention, included a sugar protocol. Earlier this year, the sugar quotas and guaranteed prices under the convention’s Sugar Protocol came to an abrupt end. A World Trade Organization Disputes Settlement Unit judgment, provoked by sugar producers in Australia, Thailand and Brazil, ruled that European subsidies on sugar are illegal. So, all the Mauritian Ministers are running around looking for political palliatives to the immense price drop that has ensued, but they are looking within a very narrow choice of economic alternatives.

The first of January saw the demise of the Multi-Fibre Agreement, another political treaty that gave privileged access to European markets to countries like Mauritius for their industrialists’ textiles. So, these two economic sectors, together with oil prices, have leapt out into the political arena. And this is where our Lalit campaign comes in.

Past political debates, strategies, positions and activities help. Lalit, from its earliest beginnings as the Lalit de Klas monthly political magazine from 1974, was well known for constant criticism of the short-term limited form of “development” that could be expected from sugar and textiles. These stands were accompanied by thorough arguments around the need for diversification of the agricultural and agro-industrial sector, for both local consumption and for export, and the need for developing renewable non-polluting energy. One of our early campaigns, in 1984, was called “What future is there in sugar?” It was famous partly because the Government banned our popular slide show on beet sugar and Brazilian workers’ struggles. So, when these two sectors, sugar and textiles, are in crisis, people look to us.

What is the Lalit campaign for an alternative economy, and who is in it? Our aim is to have ongoing economic and political analyses that are sufficient to put us one or two steps ahead of the next moves of the different sections of the ruling class, of the State, the press, and of the political parties in power, so that we are often predicting what will happen next.

At the same time, we involve working class people, union members, women and young people in active research. We publicise this through leaflets, neighbourhood informal meetings, slide shows and public meetings on street corners with PA systems. We use the press, whenever they are not in practice banning us. We make our perspectives known through participation in electoral campaigns, often putting up candidates for parliament or municipalities, through poster campaigns, sometimes hand-painted, sometimes printed, even through court cases, for example challenging the constitutionality of the Privatization Fund Act.

This all involves a two-way movement of ideas not just within our party, from its centre to its branches and districts, but within the women’s movement, the homeless peoples’ movement, education organizations, language promotion organizations, and through working with the trade unions, preferably at delegate or grass roots level. It also involves us being on the political arena during elections, sometimes by putting up candidates, other times by defining the agenda through other means.

By working this way, we come up with demands that workers and unemployed people, whatever their political affiliations for the moment, consider reasonable right now. At the same time, even while we all find these demands eminently reasonable, it is also evident that, as we push for them, we will increasingly find that the present way society is organized will prevent us winning our demands, or winning in full. Thus, there develops a conscious awareness that the demands also involve putting into question the social organization of the economy.

The first effect of both the cuts in sugar prices and the end of the Multi-Fibre Agreement is that bosses and government have only one type of solution. They cut production costs by sacking people, cut losses by closing down factories and make profits by exporting capital to where labour is cheaper (in Madagascar, other parts of Africa, China) or by bringing in cheaper labour on a contract basis. In overall terms, the solution of the bosses and government means making a large percentage of human beings redundant, and as many as possible as poor as possible. They say so themselves.

Let us take the example of the sugar sector, to explain our campaign. Our aim is this: “To build up enough popular support for our demands so that the government is obliged to force the sugar estates bosses to implement them. Or else, how can the sugar estate bosses justify their monopoly control over land and capital?”

Everyone’s political consciousness permits the idea that the people can influence the Government. This is where people’s ideas are at. Everyone also knows that it is difficult to force the sugar estates to do anything they don’t want to. Thus the importance of the “or else”, which opens up the possibility of questioning their ownership and control of the means of production.

If, by contrast, we just said: “Nationalize the Land!”, people would not think the demand reasonable. And they would be right in a way, because it implies that the present government and its state would run agricultural production, whereas our demand does not. Ours implies that the people will mobilize behind a government, which forces the bourgeoisie to act in favour of the people or else risk sacrificing its monopoly control over production. That’s the program.

So, to get down to the nitty-gritty, we have developed, amongst others, the following two related demands:

* That the government obliges the sugar estates to arrange the way they plant their rows of sugar cane so that they can plant other useful crops in between the rows. This inter-line-cropping, as it is called, has already been successfully used, and this is known by all workers, but the sugar estates have limited its use to only once every seven years, when the cane is pulled up. We are proposing a wider spacing, either between all the rows or between half of them, allowing inter-line-cropping every year, before the cane gets too high. This way they will need to take on more workers, instead of destroying jobs. It also means that, instead of burying their heads in the ground ostrich-like over the price of sugar, they would, as we already are, be facing the reality. And it means, with exchange rates making imported things more costly, we could get cheaper potatoes, onions, vegetables, canned and freeze-dried vegetables and cooking oil, as well as food crops for export earnings. It also means that the economy would be more flexible: if it was necessary to pull up some cane altogether, this could be done. The alternatives will already be in the process of taking over. Seeds, know-how, fertilizers, markets, will all already have been acquired, tried and tested. It means, in broader terms, that people are consciously putting political pressure to an economic end.

* That the sugar estates not be given the government permit that they already require by law to close down a sugar factory. Instead, they should be granted a permit to convert their factory into some other agro-industry, such as processing tomatoes, making oil or freeze-drying. Again, this means workers would be taken on instead of being fired, and the economy would be developing. The form of development would be related to what the land produces.

Both demands immediately involve a new fluidity of certain capitalist categories. The concept that the owners have total control over “their” factories and expanses of land stands questioned. The idea that peoples’ labour is just like any other commodity that can be demanded or supplied stands challenged. The idea gets born that some crops are more useful than others.

We also point out the collusion of the State with sugar, by reminding people of the massive subsidies that could be shifted from sugar to whatever people think more useful. All we have to do at a meeting is call on people to list the actions and institutions that support sugar, over time. Many are often entirely government funded. From 1853 to 2005, the State has supported the sugar industry in various ways, including the building of dams and irrigation systems, the opening of tertiary education institutions for agriculture and the establishment of the Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute, Bulk Sugar Terminal and Sugar Authority. It has introduced insurance and related funds, devalued the rupee, given concessions on and finally removed the export tax on sugar, granted tax concessions for land conversion and allowed factory closures and job destruction.

This makes us all realize that to change the direction of the economy is not so difficult. Governments that we all elect can and do support parts of the economy.

Now, where do the demands take us? If you win your demands (which is possible), then the victories give everyone who has participated in the campaign confidence, a very particular kind of confidence: that political action can change the way the economy runs. This in turn creates possibilities that working people think up further common demands that will make humans more human, and life more liveable. These can then be put forward, and worked on. And, the more people there are in jobs, means the more people free to participate in political life, and the higher their hopes for a fulfilling life become.

If you lose, then time is immediately ripe for political activists and for Lalit, as a party, to put into question how it is that the bosses can control the means of livelihood, in this way, to the exclusion of other human beings on the planet.

But of course, the winning and losing, because we are thinking beings, are discussed all the time, on the way. Some discussions are around the most theoretical of questions. In particular, Lalit has held dozens of sessions on “What is labour?” based on Karl Marx’s writing, which we have made available in Kreol. We have also initiated debate on the Marx and Engels Manifesto and have developed CD-audio and booklet versions in Kreol.

Other discussions are around practical issues. Here are some further demands that have come out of the campaign:

* The government must use any “European Compensation” money (for which negotiations are taking place) for the conversion from cane to food production, for local use and export.
* Work conditions in the agricultural diversification sector must be improved to the level of the (better) conditions already won in the cane and sugar sector.
* Government must prevent the estates from continuing making people redundant and give them targets for job creation.
* Government must convert the existing “Sugar Authority” into an “Optimal Land Utilisation Authority”. Similarly, it must convert all the institutions that support sugar into institutions that support food production.
* The Cyclone and Drought Fund must be extended to vegetable planters and animal keepers.
* Government must give advances (“fezans”), which are currently only given to cane planters, to all small vegetable planters and animal rearers.
* There must be a stop the destruction of traditional agriculture. Scientific knowledge must be built on to the existing knowledge and experience of the people.
* Profit-based GMO production must be stopped at once. The government must amend the law on bio-technology so that it is based on the precautionary principle.
* Government must compel the private sector to invest in fishing on a large scale, enforcing rights over the Economic Zones around all the islands of our Republic. This includes Chagos and Diego Garcia, now housing the US military base, and Tromelin, occupied illegally by France. The US military base must be closed. A big, nature-friendly fishing industry would be a source of new employment, and would replace the pillage that goes on at the moment.
* Government must itself invest in Barachois, marine farms, and the transformation and preservation of marine products, not just the “Sea-Food Hub” they now have that is like a fisheries “free-zone”.
* Energy production should not be privatised. This process must be reversed, and the CEB Bureaucracy replaced by a “CEB under democratic control”. There should be a massive development of ‘clean’ and ‘renewable’ energy, like solar energy, wind energy, tidal and wave energy. Thus, Mauritius (with a well-organised CEB) can situate itself as a country at the avant-garde of clean, durable and cheap energy production.
* The process of privatization where it has started and the privatization of any further sectors must be stopped.
* Government must oppose any new WTO “round”, and put all existing agreements on hold till a “World-Wide Audit” of the effects of liberalization exposes its crimes.

Our conclusion is that it is just not acceptable that the people who have the land and capital refuse to produce food, while people who want to produce food do not have land and capital. It is not acceptable that people who possess capital don’t create employment while people who need work do not have control over the capital that they themselves produced.

It is not just in Mauritius that capitalist rule is exposing itself as bankrupt. Its rot is showing up all over the place, perhaps most clearly at its centre. The US economy is in double-debt (balance of payments and budget), it is resorting to criminal military activity to exert its influence and it is unable to look after its own people after the cyclone in New Orleans.

Its allies are weakened. Blair has 40 of his own backbenchers not prepared to vote for 90 days’ detention without trial. Howard has had to face 600,000 striking Australian workers. In France, 300 cities were recently taken over by rioting youths, unhappy with unemployment, burning cars by the thousand. In Latin America, challenges to US capitalism grow apace.

Eventually, this destructive capitalist system must be overthrown and replaced by a socialist system where people organise collectively in association with one other. Already, especially in the case of women, we run much of our lives this way. This change will need to happen world-wide, so that, wherever we are, we are part of this future. This will need very clear political demands for the economy, as part of its program, every step of the way.

NOTES: LALIT is a political movement born out of the mass workers’ movements of the 1970s, out of the women’s movement and students rebellion of the same epoch. Its name means “struggle” in Mauritian Kreol and “beautiful” in Hindi.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

How do we challenge neoliberalism and corporate globalisation? Can we develop demands that enjoy the support of those most severely affected and simultaneously lay the ground for an alternative system? How do we develop educational programmes that encourage critical thinking in countries where such thought is actively discouraged? Can the demand for reparations for damage caused by neoliberalism and its predecessors be conceptualised as part of a process of fundamental change? These are the types of questions that are tackled in the series of articles in this week’s Pambazuka News. The articles reflect a growing debate on economic alternatives to neoliberalism from countries as far afield as Mauritius, Swaziland and Mali. In this article, guest editor George Dor, who was responsible for bringing together these articles, introduces some of the issues playing themselves out in the debate over alternatives.

The search for alternatives to neoliberalism is increasingly being identified with the need to transform the entire capitalist system. Debate on socialism is gaining increasing prominence. It is not just the nature of the alternatives that is being explored. The perhaps even more critical question of the process towards these alternatives is also a focus of increasing attention. There is a clear recognition that abstract academic formulas will not provide lasting solutions. Alternatives have to be developed from the ground through struggle. This entails the development of appropriate strategies, with workers, the unemployed and the poor at the centre of decision-making. It also entails the development of a vision of a new society as well as the values and principles that should underpin it.

Resistance and Alternatives

The debate on alternatives has its roots in the relatively recent growth of resistance to neoliberalism and corporate globalisation. In keeping with international developments, there has been an emergence of organisations across the continent around issues such as debt, trade, privatisation, land, food security, water, large dams, conflict and war.

Much of the initial emphasis in these new organisations and related networks was on resisting the very real hardships faced by people in impoverished rural and urban areas, as well as on developing a greater awareness of the neoliberal causes of these hardships. But, even as these organisations were being formed, the question of alternatives was already appearing on the agenda.

As early as 1999, newly-formed Jubilee campaigns and anti-debt coalitions met in Lusaka, Zambia, and identified the need for an “Africa Consensus” in opposition to the Washington Consensus. The concept was further developed by the African anti-debt formations at the launch of Jubilee South later in the year and was renamed the “African Peoples Consensus” in recognition of the very different class interests on the continent. It received further support at a large event of organisations representing a range of sectors and interests, held in Dakar, Senegal, at the end of 2000.

The formation of the World Social Forum 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 and for the second time in October this year. Many countries have held national social forums. Discussion on alternatives is an increasingly prominent feature of these forums.

The African Peoples Forum

A West African initiative, the African People’s Forum, has been convening every year since 2002. Just as the World Social Forum is counterposed to the World Economic Forum, the African Peoples Forum is held in opposition to the G8, at the time of the G8 annual meetings.

The four editions of the forum have been held in different outlying towns in Mali. There has been representation from, amongst other countries, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DRC, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo. The forums have included large numbers of small-scale farmers from the eight regions of Mali and the forum held in Fana this year had over 1000 participants.

Mrs. Barry Aminata Toure, Chairperson of CAD-Mali, a coalition for alternatives to debt, highlighted the importance of the forum in contesting the G8 and neoliberalism: “This People’s Forum is a critical opportunity to inform and sensitise African social movements on international political and economic mechanisms, which constrain the national policies of developing countries of the South. Faced with the G8, which plays the role of a totally illegitimate world board of directors, African social movements are organising themselves to formulate alternatives to current neo-liberal policies and are firmly resolved to show their determination.”

The forum in Fana was promoted under the slogan, “From Resistance to Alternatives”. It included debates on alternatives to the system of indebtedness and structural adjustment policies, reinforcing regional integration, finding a new approach to North/South relationships, the need to reinvent the education system in Africa, public funding and community participation in the management of basic social services, the possiblity of withdrawal from cotton agriculture, alternatives to the over-indebtedness of the farming community, alternatives to rice imports from the North and rural women’s access to land and agricultural inputs.

Given the large numbers of farmers, food sovereignty was a central issue. The forum concluded: “We refuse to become the waste bin of the world. We ask for just international regulations that guarantee an equitable trade. The international community should recognize our right to maintain, protect and develop our food capacity, while respecting the diversity of our crops and without threatening other countries’ food sovereignty. This right for each country - or region - we call the right to food sovereignty.”

Debating Values and Principles

Recently, there have been various activities on economic alternatives in Southern Africa, including an afternoon seminar at the African Social Forum in Lusaka, Zambia, in December last year and an economic alternatives workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa, in May this year.

The Lusaka event was a well attended and very well received event, highlighting the importance of engaging in debate on alternatives at events of this nature with a wide range of participants from different organisations and countries. There was a tangible sense that there is a widespread desire to take forward debate on alternatives.

The Johannesburg workshop built on this event by bringing together a somewhat smaller group of participants central to the question of alternatives in their organisations, sectors and countries. The nature of the workshop allowed for a more intensive interrogation of neoliberalism and debate on the nature of economic alternatives, including the process towards developing them.

The workshop concluded that it would again be important to further the debate at the Southern African Social Forum in Harare, Zimbabwe in October this year, including discussion on the values and principles that should underpin alternatives.

The forum was organised very differently to the Lusaka African Social Forum. The organisers deliberately organised the event outdoors in the major public park in central Harare to make it more accessible to people. In general, this proved to be very successful. There was participation in substantial numbers, perhaps some 3 000 in all, including many from the Harare townships and other parts of Zimbabwe. The event had the feel of a forum, with lively discussions, heated debates and very impressive cultural activities. This represents a significant advance on previous forums in Africa, which have often been criticised for coming across more as conferences than social movement events.

However, this did have the unfortunate consequence in that the venues for the different discussions were not easy to find. The economic alternatives activities were some of those negatively affected. The forum programme included various organisations that had applied to make presentations on different aspects of economic alternatives, but only three of these organisations were able to locate the venue.

The South African Centre for Economic Justice (SACEJ) took up the role of facilitating the day-long discussion. Other participating organisations convened a discussion on socialism at a different venue on the same afternoon. Unfortunately, these events took place separately. SACEJ facilitated discussion in a way in which participants were given the opportunity to express their views as to the vision they have of an alternative society and the principles that should guide us towards the realisation of that vision.

It was stressed that current conventional development processes are not acceptable to the majority. Few have benefited. The colonialists and those in post-independence leadership “enjoying the class system hierarchy” had and have ulterior motives. It was passionately stated that “it is time to rise up as people and fight this capitalism.”

The development of alternatives by consultants from abroad and the “NGO syndrome” was criticised. It was argued that universities intellectualise knowledge and make it irrelevant. Universities are not generating holistic, environmentally and economically sustainable approaches to development. Urban, male and age biases were noted and it was asked whether we at the forum, reflecting these biases, are qualified to raise the discussion on alternatives.

It was argued that there is a need to develop theories relevant to alternative economics. Students should be drawn in. We are not sharing information and documentation. People and organisations should pull together across clusters and sectors in developing economic alternatives. There is a need to strengthen and consolidate alternative networks and develop a think tank that interrogates alternatives.

There was a fairly extensive discussion on language. This was sparked off by points raised on the corruption and the black market. The phrase, “black market”, has a negative connotation and is but one example of the way in which the word “black” is used in negative terms. It also assumes that the legal market has an ethical standing. Why not rather use a phrase such as “parallel market”?

The forum itself proved to be far from immune to the use of problematic language. There was widespread dissemination of stickers attacking “Zhing Zhong” goods, motivated by concern at the increase in imports from China, but encouraging the racist conclusion that Chinese people are the problem, masking the neoliberal roots of unfair trade.

It was argued that there is a need for a paradigm shift. We need to move beyond criticising and start the important task of identifying true values and establishing clear principles. Values have to come from the heart. We should look at ourselves. “Are we social ourselves?” Capitalism is not far away, in fact it is within us. The “I factor”, “what do I get out of this”, tends to dominate even in forums like the Southern African Social Forum. We have to change our mindsets, we have to practice the values we identify, it starts with us: “Let’s start by socialising ourselves”.

We also need to be more proactive in setting the agenda. This needs to draw on past values. We have to rethink what we have been doing. For example, in the agricultural sector, we have been changing to modern systems, thus abandoning organic farming and indigenous systems, losing a lot of traditional knowledge. We must engage in research as to what is suitable and what is not.

There were many points made on culture and values. Marginalisation and Westernisation has destroyed cultural and social values. Family forms are being eroded. People have become selfish and corruptible. All too often the poor are exploiting the poor. We need to cultivate a positive image of us as African people, as against, for example, pentecostal values that counter our values. We must introduce cultural values into educational materials and instill these values into the educational system, radio and TV.

The process towards developing alternatives was also addressed. One shouldn’t impose external alternatives. We should be mere facilitators to assist the emergence and strengthening of people’s structures. Inclusion to the benefit of people and participation in decision-making are crucial. An alternative society should embrace the positive qualities of inclusivity and maximum participation of the historically marginalised. It should take into account all of its members.
There must be democratisation throughout society. Those who produce have more control over their lives. There must be democracy in the workplace and educational institutions.

Participants tried the difficult, if not impossible, task of capturing the essence of the values and principles of an alternative society in a sentence:

- An inclusive society where processes and structures combine to allow people to coexist and actively participate in economic and social systems and live a life of dignity and justice;

- An alternative society portrays and projects positive values about human existence and livelihood into economic and social production and encourages development processes with a respect for human dignity

The discussion on values was located within the current context of neoliberal power. It was asked how we work towards a society with our values given existing power relations. Transnational corporations have financial resources, machinery, technical expertise and patents and control trade. To defeat the enemy, sometimes you have to use their tools. For example, small sugar producers should come together to increase their power. Where rights are not given, they must be taken. The building of strong organisations is central to the task of taking up the struggle against neoliberalism and for an alternative society.

It was again stressed that: “It is not supposed to end here.” The discussions need to be taken forward. It was suggested that we need to continue to engage ourselves through a centre that can take up the tasks of disseminating information and networking around the issues.

* George Dor is with the Southern Africa Centre for Economic Justice

* Please send comments to [email protected]

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