[Imc-africa] Fwd: [Action2-l] WSF Nairobi

[fabian]

Hello there,
  I found this report from a south african activist very much too the  
point and potentially helpful for our discussion and reflection of the  
nairobi wsf...

Fabian

> WHAT HAPPENED IN NAIROBI
> Trevor Ngwane
>
> The WSF was smaller than usual.  It was dominated by NGOs (the stalls)  
> and
> the churches (the opening march).  Some Christian fundamentalists even
> protested demanding that a statue depicting a pregnant young woman be
> removed from the cross it hung upon (the statue was in support of
> reproductive rights for women).  The latter incident prompted some  
> comrades
> to include in the statement of the social movements that organizations  
> not
> in line with the WSF politics should not be allowed to attend.
>
> The WSF was visibly commercialized with the cellphone company Celtel  
> doing
> the registration and linking this to comrades buying a Celtel simcard.
> Celtel adverts were all over the show.  The worst part is that it is  
> more
> expensive in Kenya to use Celtel than the other cellphone company
> Safaricom.
> The restaurants inside the WSF precinct were pretty expensive and there
> were
> many vendors selling water that at times cost at least double the usual
> Kenyan price.
>
> Kenneth Kaunda addressed the beginning of the march and a few hours
> later he
> gave a 40-minute speech at the opening rally.  His line was  
> anti-poverty
> and
> reconciliation (between rich and poor, Jew and Palestinian, etc.)  I  
> heard
> from a comrade that she saw the Organising Committee of the WSF in  
> Kenya
> having dinner with a minister at the Hilton hotel.  But the worst part  
> for
> many comrades was that many local Kenyans could not attend the WSF  
> because
> they had either not been informed and/or could not afford the 500  
> shillings
> charged at the gate (100 shillings = R12.50, I think).  As a  
> consequence
> some workshop sessions were devoid of any Kenyans, indeed some did not  
> have
> any Africans, or were dominated by "Northerners", mostly academics  
> who, to
> be fair to them, mostly support or claim to speak for the movements.
>
> The frustration with the picture painted above, especially entering  
> the WSF
> gates but leaving locals locked outside, was expressed at a meeting  
> whose
> aim was to prepare for the Assembly of the Social Movements to be held  
> on
> the last day of the WSF.  This meeting elected 4 comrades to raise  
> these
> concerns with the Organising Committee.  During the meeting it emerged  
> that
> the co-ordinator of the Kenya Social Forum and at least one member of  
> the
> Organising Committee were also unhappy about this situation.  They  
> told the
> meeting that they had repeatedly raised the issue of entry fees but had
> been
> overruled or outvoted by other committee members.  In the meeting a  
> Kenyan
> comrade gave a riveting speech about how they felt left out as they  
> had no
> money to pay and as a result they had decided to have their own  
> meeting, a
> "people's parliament" in a venue nearer to the struggling masses of  
> Kenya.
>
> I was part of the delegation chosen to meet with the Organising  
> Committee
> but we failed to make contact with them on the same evening.  But the
> following morning I met with 2 of the committee members including its
> chairperson Professor Oyugi.  I conveyed the meeting's concerns but  
> both
> were rushed and promised to look into the matter although Comrade  
> Oduor,
> the
> other committee member, was quickly on the defensive.  By the following
> morning the frustration was high and we decided to storm the gates to  
> allow
> the Kenyans in for free.  About 200 Kenyans got in free this way but  
> later
> in the day it emerged that the gates were again locked for those who  
> did
> not
> have 500 shillings.  We also heard that the fee had been reduced to 50
> shillings.  The South African comrades saw a parallel with the South
> African
> government's indigency policy and together with other comrades from  
> other
> countries and movements rejected this.
>
> We eventually secured a meeting with the Organising Committee where 3  
> of us
> met Prof Oyugi and Comrade Taoufik (secretary of the African Social  
> Forum).
> I was with Comrade Daniella, a Canadian from the Women's March and  
> Comrade
> Emily from Benin.  Unfortunately the other delegate (from the People's
> Parliament) could not make it as they could not get through without the
> official name tag which you only get if you are registered.  The  
> meeting
> was
> really bad with Oyugi raving and accusing us of lack of democracy and
> basically saying we were coming from the North and South Africa (a  
> kind of
> northern state in Africa) to undermine Kenyan processes.  To be fair  
> to him
> he confessed that he was flustered and angry because during the day he  
> had
> been confronted by demonstrators who were raising the same issues with  
> him.
> Earlier he had half-jokingly accused me of sending "my boys" to deal  
> with
> him.  We left in disgust (and demoralization) with no clear answer  
> from the
> Organising Committee.
>
> The next day we again planned to storm the gates but found police and  
> army
> reinforcements at the gates.  Those officers carried very big guns.
> Comrades decided to block the main road until the people were allowed  
> in
> for
> free.  This action took about half an hour and then the gates were  
> opened.
> The crowd than marched to the Organising Committee's offices to demand  
> a
> change of policy on the question of entrance.  Another demand was  
> added:
> free water inside the WSF precinct and cheaper food.  The demonstration
> found no one in the offices and then gatecrashed a press conference  
> where a
> member of the committee announced under pressure that henceforth all
> entrance would be free.  I did not get clearly how they responded to  
> the
> other demands (water, food, commercialization).  Comrade Njoki, another
> member of the Organising Committee, was shouted down by the crowd when  
> she
> repeated the Oyugi line that northerners were undermining local  
> processes
> because these were controlled by Africans (which seemed to me like a
> roundabout way of saying we were racists).
>
> The atmosphere changed for the better inside the WSF with locals being  
> able
> to come in and out as they please.  I attended at least one session by  
> a
> local movement fighting against evictions that would not have been a
> success
> if an entry fee had been demanded from its participants.  They simply  
> could
> not afford it.  But comrades were still unhappy as it emerged from a
> newspaper widely distributed in the WSF that the most expensive  
> restaurant
> inside the precinct belonged to the Kenyan minister of internal  
> security,
> known as "the crusher" for his strong arm tactics (which he honed as a
> servant of the colonists and later as minister of transport when he  
> sorted
> out the taxi industry and substantially reduced the road accident  
> rate).  A
> demonstration was organized to occupy his restaurant called Windsor  
> Hotel
> which had pride of place at the center of the WSF area while other
> eat-houses were located further away in food courts.  As things turned  
> out
> scores of Kenyan children, many who were street kids, enjoyed a free  
> lunch
> as the protesters liberated the food and served the hungry children.
>
> These 2 incidents, storming the gates and expropriating the hotel food,
> were
> organized by a minority but somehow spoke for the majority of those
> participants who felt that their WSF was being hijacked by our class
> enemies.  I met many comrades, including locals, who congratulated the
> steps
> taken to rectify matters.  Later I was asked to chair the Assembly of  
> the
> Social Movements and I have no doubt that this was because of being  
> part of
> the 2 actions.  The Assembly approved enthusiastically and supported  
> the
> demonstrations ex post facto.  My co-chair was Comrade Wa'hu who sits  
> on
> the
> Organising Committee.  She was apparently driven to support the  
> actions, or
> at least not oppose them, because on both occasions at the gate she was
> present and was given a platform to explain the committee's entrance
> policy.
> Her chairing of the Assembly indicated that there was no intention of
> rejecting the committee, let alone the WSF, but rather we had taken the
> necessary action to rectify an injustice which we found intolerable  
> within
> our space.
>
> In conclusion, I was involved in a debate with Comrade Chico Whitaker  
> and
> other prominent comrades of the WSF on whether the WSF should be a
> "space or
> movement".  This was in the context of a discussion of the Bamako  
> Appeal, a
> document issued by Samir Amin and other comrades suggesting a  
> political way
> forward for the WSF.  My opinion is that the "space or movement" debate
> in a
> way is a false debate.  Sometimes it looks like one of those debates  
> that
> start and end in the mid-air preoccupations of the professional middle
> class, especially if we consider the millions and millions who were  
> absent
> from the WSF and who know nothing about this debate.  Ordinary working
> class
> and poor people need and create and have a movement of resistance and
> struggle.  They also need and create and have spaces for that movement  
> to
> breathe and develop.  The real question is what place will the WSF  
> have in
> that reality.  What space will there be for ordinary working class and  
> poor
> people?  Who will shape and drive and control the movement?  Will it  
> be a
> movement of NGO's and individual luminaries creating space for
> themselves to
> speak of their concern for the poor?  Will it be undermined by
> collaboration
> with capitalist forces?  I think what some of us saw happening in  
> Nairobi
> posed some of these questions sharply and challenged some of the  
> answers
> coming from many (but not all) of the prominent NGO's and luminaries  
> in the
> WSF.
>
>
> conni gunsser wrote:
>
>> Hello friends,
>> I would be very interested to hear from people who were in Nairobi
>> about the discussions and results of the WSF, especially concerning
>> migration. There were very different reports and comments in the
>> German press - from "meeting of church people" (Frankf. Rundschau
>> 26.1.07) to "strategic discussions with mainly African activists and
>> regional movements" (comment in taz 26.1.07), and Peter Wahl from
>> attac Germany was quoted, money from the governments should not be a
>> tabu any longer, in order to have more effective conferences (taz
>> 26.1.07). As a result, I read that there will be a global action day
>> instead of a WSF in 2008. Who knows more? There will probably be
>> reports on the manifeste (after Rabat)-list, and if it is interesting,
>> I will translate some of it.
>> Conni
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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