Welcome to War on Want's daily blog from the World Social Forum in Nairobi
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Day 1
19 January
After a long flight, we finally arrived in Nairobi. It is very warm here and as we leave the airport, we are greeted by friendly WSF organisers in a big white tent just outside the airport. We get our transport and accommodation sorted, get to our hotel, and get an early night, so that we can have lots of energy for tomorrow’s opening ceremony.......
Day 2
20 January
The War on Want team get up early and head for the Kenyetta International Centre to register our group and activities. The atmosphere is vibrant and we begin to see activists and campaigners from all around the world as we head to the city centre. Groups are hanging up their flags around the green space and various groups are congregating and exchanging ideas before the event starts. Here, we met a few of War on Want’s partner organisations including Sikhula Sonke.
After registration and a bite to eat, we head out (albeit a little late) to the opening ceremony in Uhuru Park in the centre of town. When we got there we discovered that unknown to many including ourselves, there was a rally and march which took place that very morning at 10 am! Activists reported that it was colourful and well attended by some groups, but that there were only 10, 000 people there due to the fact that most participants didn’t know about this event. Anyway in Uhuru Park, the atmosphere was vibrant. Speakers from around the world made motivational speeches, and talks were punctuated with energetic dancing and singing that drove the crowds, especially those at the front of the stage, wild. A couple of Brazilian groups were particularly prominent, as artists sang “Viva Palestina!, Viva America Latina!” in between songs. As the sun began to set behind the park, many began their often long journeys back to their camps, hostels and hotels, to get a good night’s sleep in preparation for the conference’s commencement the following morning. We bumped into familiar campaigners from various other organisations such as Action Aid, North American Anti-Coke campaign, and various freelance journalists and writers from the UK. We decided that it would probably be a good idea to head back ourselves….especially since we planned to be at the conference venue at 7:30 the next morning!
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Day 3
21 January - first day of forum
We arrived early at the Moi International Sports Complex so that we could get a feel for the physical space, take in the atmosphere, and put up posters advertising War on Want’s sessions before the first session started at 8:30. Most of the sessions took place in the stadium seating areas that were covered by white sheets and divided from other “rooms” by white polystyrene boards. It became apparent that the geographical space was a good choice for the event, because everything was organised in concentric circles, with seminars in the middle, public space where people can meet, and small rallies took place outside that, then organisations stalls outside that, and still further outside bigger tents holding some events, cultural activities and food courts. The numbering on the stadium made it easy to get a sense of how far round you need to walk to get to the seminar you were due to attend. Many people were already running round putting up posters too, and several African campaigning groups from different countries held mini marches while dancing, singing and chanting, walking round the stadium…
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The first set of sessions saw us split three ways. Nadia chaired the session on diamonds, the arms trade and Israel organised by our Palestinian partner Stop the Wall, with speakers from Palestine, South Africa and the UK. Guillermo spoke on Decent Work and the Millennium Development Goals under the auspices of our European federation Solidar. John addressed the first of the three Our World Is Not for Sale sessions, looking at the trend from multilateral trade talks to bilateral free trade agreements – especially, for us, the importance of the new and damaging Global Europe strategy being implemented by Peter Mandelson right now. All three events were well attended and gave a sense of the energy and inspiration of all those who’ve come to the Forum.
The afternoon saw the first of our own sessions trying to build the international movement for sanctions against Israel for its occupation of Palestine. We spent a bit of time rushing around trying to ensure we had the right microphones and translation equipment. (The mikes were fine until the electricity cut off at around 7pm, but sadly the interpretation facilities have not worked so well.) The 150 people who turned up were treated to a great set of speeches from Jamal Juma, coordinator of our partner in Palestine Stop the Wall; Salim Vally from the South African Palestine Solidarity Committee; Sergio Yahni from the Alternative Information Centre in Israel; and Nadia from War on Want. The overwhelming focus was on how to build action to bring an end to the Israeli occupation, how to mainstream the issue of Palestine into the broader political debate, and (one of our key points for the Forum) how to hold companies to account for profiting from the Occupation. There were good contributions on this theme from Robert Kissous of the Association France Palestine Solidarité. Darkness fell over the end of the session, but there was a real feeling of inspiration as we left.
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Day 4
22 January - second day of forum
The second day of the Forum saw us up early again, as the next of our sessions (jointly organised with the European Platform on Palestine) was due to start at 8.30 and we needed to get to the stadium, put up our remaining posters and ensure that the room was ready. Again the subject was Palestine – this time, how to build an international movement to commemorate the 40-year anniversary of the 1967 occupation, but also to expand that commemoration to include recognition of the 60-year anniversary of the Palestinian catastrophe. We had great speeches from Nihad Bokaee of the Palestinian coalition OPGAI and Ghada Zghier of the Coalition for Jerusalem, as well as from the veteran Israeli peace activist Mikado. John presented War on Want’s work in bringing together the Enough coalition in the UK, which is due to launch in London next week. All major UK trade unions have joined the coalition, and there was a good debate over how to involve unions in other countries in similar coalitions. Again the event was really well attended and the feeling from it was even stronger and more inspiring than the night before. The injustice facing Palestine is one of the central issues running through the entire Forum, and we are working to ensure that the Forum sends a strong call to the world to use 2007 to challenge Israel’s continuing occupation and crimes against the Palestinian people.
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In the meantime, just outside the actual stadium and in front of the stall areas, we noticed a prominent demonstration organised by some Kenyan participants, over the food prices at WSF. We also heard that there was an alternative social forum organised by the Kibira Slum Dwellers association in town, in protest to WSF entry prices...
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We split up for the next session, with John attending one on Electrifying Africa run by Public Services International, where we distributed copies of our Globeleq report. Nadia went to a meeting on Women living Under Occupation in the Arab World. Here, an Iraqi woman and her daughter gave detailed testimonies of the torture and interrogation they experienced while held in Abu-Ghraib prison in Baghdad for 6 months. The details of their experiences were beyond anything we had heard before. All of the 60 attendees were in shock and most were in tears. They spoke of the physical and psychological torture methods employed by the American soldiers. Afterwards there was a call for an international women’s solidarity network to be formed , to support and highlight the plight of women everywhere suffering under occupation.
We then regrouped for lunch in the tented field just outside the stadium. Guillermo continued to hold one-to-one meetings with those of our partners present at the Forum, collecting video testimonies from them for presentation at our forthcoming Members’ Day on 10 March.
The delegation of Western Sahara held a packed session in the late afternoon – a real sign that their campaign for liberation is alive and kicking in countries such as Spain (the former colonial power) and France. The Saharawi representatives have made their presence felt throughout the Forum, and we’ve joined their demos as the only major British NGO which works on the Western Sahara campaign.
Day 5
23 January - third day of forum
As soon as we arrived at the stadium at around 9:30, we noticed a lot of noise and chanting from the WSF media interview room. The Slum Dwellers Association and other groups had arranged an early press call to campaign for the rights of poorer Kenyans to enter the social forum. there was much debate, singing and dancing and calls for solidarity from other groups.
We then attended a lively meeting about food sovereignty and EPAs (Economic Partnership Agreements) called by Friends of the Earth UK, which had various Via Campesina rural workers from around the world on its platform. It was an inspirational meeting; it became apparent that these activists were increadibly articulate in expressing what they thought the structural problems with the global system were, and what action needed to be taken
more blogging to come soon.....if the internet connection is still working later on!
Excuse the slight break – problems again with the internet link, but now we’re online again.
The afternoon was split into two main events. John spoke on the International Campaign Against Coca-Cola platform, presenting the findings of our alternative report on the company alongside Indian activists and trade unionists – again, another packed meeting. We had then promised our friends from PARC (the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees) that we would help them show their film ‘The Iron Wall’ by setting up the projector and speakers we had brought with us from London. (We were happy to oblige – the other attempts we had made to use the equipment had failed due to absence of electricity connections at the key moments.) War on Want has been touring the UK showing the film to university groups and others over the past few months, and we were able to share the reaction of British audiences in the discussion which followed.
In the final session of the day we looked in on the discussion around China’s growing influence in Africa, under the title of ‘New Colonialism or South-South Solidarity?’ During the 1960s and 1970s China sent thousands of its own engineers and other skilled personnel to many countries of Africa to assist in major construction projects as part of ‘people to people’ international socialist solidarity (and to bolster their international standing during the years of the Sino-Soviet split). Now China’s relationship with Africa is with government elites and focused on securing natural resources for China’s own development effort. The similarity with the West’s colonial and continuing exploitation of Africa’s natural resources is too close for comfort – yet, as one Chinese participant pointed out, no one should expect anything else from international capital, even if it now wears a Chinese as well as a Western face.
That evening we said goodbye to Guillermo, who had finished his set of interviews and meetings with our partners from around the world. We wished him well in snowy England, as the sun continued to shine on Nairobi.
Day 6
24 January - fourth and final day of forum
The final day of the Forum’s activities dawned to find us up early again, as we wanted to make the journey to the stadium in time for the 8.30 anti-war assembly. The aim of the session was to draw together the different strands of the anti-war movement into a coherent whole to be presented to the afternoon’s wider assembly of social movements, and thence for inclusion in the final call to action from the Forum to the wider world. Iraq and Afghanistan topped the list, with compelling speeches on Lebanon, Somalia and Sudan as well. Palestine was picked out for special mention in respect of the international days of action planned for this 40th anniversary year of occupation – with 9 June highlighted as the date for the major rally in London, as well as in other cities and towns across the world.
We then split to attend sessions on the anti-G8 mobilisation this summer in Germany, and on the rights of flower workers around the world. War on Want has partners among the flower workers’ unions in Kenya and Colombia, and it was good to hear of the moves to improve working conditions for the men and women involved at the sharp end of the industry. We will be publishing a report into the harsh reality of this sector in the next couple of months, so it was good to link up with other groups working on the issue from different parts of the world. Even still, we had to leave before the end to take part in the Palestine demo which had been set for 1pm.
In the afternoon we looked in on the final assembly of social movements, where all the many strands of the Forum are brought together into one call. Although we seem to have covered an amazing range of themes, we’ve only been involved in a fraction of the sessions which have taken place here. We were sadly unable to join in activities such as the big ‘Stop EPAs’ demonstration outside the EU’s Nairobi office to protest against the Economic Partnership Agreements they are trying to impose on the peoples of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. And we also missed out on the discussions around tax justice (including the launch of the African Tax Justice Network) which would have been useful for our own forthcoming work on corporate tax dodging.
Not all sessions have been up to the standard set by the best. That’s inevitable, but still there are lessons to be learned in distinguishing between the good and the not so good. While it’s important to ensure that people can participate in strong analysis and information sharing, especially on more complex issues, this must be complemented by more concrete planning to confront the challenges. The most successful sessions have combined awareness raising with genuine planning for joint action on the international level.
All in all it’s been a truly inspiring few days in the company of some of the most courageous and committed people on the planet. The luxuries and advantages which we take for granted in Britain are beyond the wildest dreams of most people we’ve met here, yet our efforts pale into insignificance next to theirs. It has been a privilege to share debates and platforms with our partners from across the global South, and to make new friends among the international activist community. War on Want will continue to take its place in the worldwide movement as it continues the struggle for global justice.
Now just the closing ceremony back in Uhuru Park, one more strategy meeting of the Our World is Not for Sale coalition, and then home. We hope you’ve enjoyed this set of impressions and images from the World Social Forum, and that you’ll come along to hear more at our day for members and supporters on 10 March. Follow the link from our homepage for more details – and see you there!
Nadia, John and Guillermo x
