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.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

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. (tajudeen28@yahoo.com or [email]thursdaypostcard@justiceafrica.org)

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

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.

Bridges.org's "Comparison Study of Free/Open Source and Proprietary Software in an African Context: Implementation and Policy-Making to Optimise Public-Access to ICT" was published last week to provide needed background information and advice to people who want to make sound software choices that are right for their local environments. The report represents the first comprehensive analysis of software choices in the African public-access context. The study looked at 121 computer labs in Namibia, South Africa and Uganda, examining the range of factors that affect software choices; the realities of the current situation in Africa; and the long-term implications of software choices for Africa.

A new study on climate change has warned of escalating drought in southern Africa, directly linked to the warming of the Indian Ocean. According to the US-based National Centre for Atmospheric Research, since 1950 the Indian Ocean has warmed more than one degree Celsius; "well beyond the range expected from natural processes", but consistent with projected increases in greenhouse gas emissions.

As the Africa leg of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) campaign gears up, Hellen Tombo explains that the symbolic white bands that will be worn by campaigners are not indicative of surrender. Rather they are a demand to world leaders to cancel crippling debt burdens and end the unjust trade rules that are killing African children and youth.

“I am a symbol of many of the children and youth of Africa wearing white, crying out to be heard.”

The wearing of white bands is not significant of surrender. Instead, it represents the innocence of the children and youth who make up half of the population of the continent. Our white wristband defines our stance in solidarity with the Global Call to Action against Poverty.

Twenty years ago, a cry was heard. Soweto wailed for her slain children as they were mowed down by proponents of the apartheid regime as they peacefully marched along the road to demand their rights. Today the world mourns for the 30 000 plus children and youth that are killed everyday through denial of basic human rights.

Children and youth are at the core of GCAP. African countries are called upon to put in place statutory, developmental and governance interventions to address the plight of the children and the youth. As world leaders prepare to meet at the Gleneagles G8 summit in July, the voices of children and youth call for an increase in aid and debt cancellation. Answering this call is key to opening up space for children and youth to enjoy their basic human rights. The aim of wearing the whiteband and joining the GCAP community in this struggle is to create widespread mobilisation of youth and children to demand action and accountability from leaders in their commitments to eliminate poverty.

Poverty is a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is further compounded by trade injustices that keep people poor. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other national and international statutes, protects the rights of all people to an adequate standard of living and well-being. These include education, food, clothing, housing, and medical care: rights whose achievement is undermined by inadequate commitment and policies that do not favor the implementation of globally-agreed upon declarations and statutes.

Today, millions of children and youth are trapped in abject poverty and lack access to basic education. Every day more than 800 million people, a high percentage being children and youth, go to bed with empty stomachs. HIV/AIDS kills more than 2 million people every year and adds to the league of orphans. Hunger is a daily norm rather than an exception: every year six million children die of malnutrition before their fifth birthday.

Who can tell the torments of the grave better than the dead? Who can fathom the discomfort that a poor girl has to live with month after month, year in year out due to a lack of sanitary pads. Unjust trade policies have destroyed the social infrastructure so much that more than school fees, it is the shame of using leaves or pieces of mattresses as sanitary towels that is locking the girl child out of the school system.

If you are a leader who has put food in the dustbin while 8 000 children and youth die of hunger in the last 24 hours, be the first to cast a stone. Cast it if you have not uttered the word ‘my right’ while six year olds are being married off, thousands consoling themselves with drugs due to unemployment. If these leaders cannot cast a stone, let them put on a white band and highlight the issues afflicting the children and the youth, such as:

- Children and young people whose school uniform doubles as their Sunday best because they cannot afford another set of clothes.
- Serial rapists who traumatise girls and young women.
- Children and young people who are exposed to the danger of rape by the long distances they have to cover in search of water or fire wood or forced to commercial sex by the need to feed siblings.
- Children and youth who are left out of government strategies and national plans.
- Children and youth who have to drop out of school to take care of their siblings when their parents die of HIV/Aids.
- Girls and young women who are married off as property.
- Children and youth who have to balance heavy home duties and school work on an empty stomach.
- Youth who have to console themselves with alcohol, ganging up and committing crime to get money to buy food and clothes, getting into drugs and roaming the streets due to lack of employment.

Children and the youth can be empowered to take charge of their lives. While some people may dislike and work against the conditions that would force them into accepting these challenges we want to ensure that children and the youth are mentored and provided for so that we are ready for any obstacle. Do this not for the children but with them.

Efforts to tackle poverty and deliver sustainable development, as pledged in the Millennium Declaration, have been grossly inadequate. Governments too often fail to address the needs of children and youth. Aid from rich countries is inadequate in both quality and quantity. Rich countries have yet to act on their repeated pledges to tackle unfair trade rules and practices: promises of debt cancellation have not been realized.

Debt servicing currently costs the world’s developing nations $39 billion annually. This, often times illegitimate debt, accounts for the lack of funding for the most basic healthcare, education, access to clean water, food, shelter etc. Behind the cold statistics of failed promises and empty rhetoric are lives of real children and youth: millions of children and youth abandoned; without basic health care, sleeping on the pavements in our cities. These children and young people must be cared for, taken in and treated as children.

Poverty is a very unnatural and abnormal state. It is man made and can be eradicated and overcome by the actions of human beings. Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity; it is the protection of a fundamental human right to dignity and a decent life. We do not wear white to surrender to poverty. We display our wristbands to mark our solidarity in the calling of others to action against poverty. It is a reminder to the G8 leaders and world leaders in the UN summit and WTO that with greatness comes responsibility: 2005 is the time to demand they take responsibility.

Naturally trade can create prosperity for Africa as it has in other regions. However, our actions have designed the same trade to deny many children the right to live to see their fifth birthday. We must address the widening gap between the rich and the poor if we aim to safeguard the security of our children and youth for today and tomorrow. Trade must be facilitated in such a way that it builds a future asset base for all children and youth irrespective of their culture, race, sex or creed. All children and youth worldwide must be born free: free from debt and free from any form of deprivation. Somebody must answer the cries of the children and youth.

I am crying as one of the millions of African children and youth. Debt is killing us, trade injustices are killings us, poverty is killing us, empty promises are killing us…

My call to our African and world leaders is:

We need strategies, interventions and real programs to serve us today and for the future of Africa and the world…

African leaders, you have had your priorities wrong. It is not too late to change. Let the children and youth be your priority and you will save the world…

World leaders, cancel the debt – it is killing us. We demand trade justice and better and more aid. We demand that world leaders keep their promises in achieving the MDGs.

* Hellen Tombo is executive director of the Kenya Youth Education and Community Development Programme (KYCEP).

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

What is the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP)? In short, GCAP is a global alliance that aims to force world leaders to live up to their promises to end poverty in 2005. The main demands of GCAP are trade justice, debt cancellation, a major increase in the quantity and quality of aid and national efforts to eliminate poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals that are sustainable and implemented in a way that is democratic, transparent, and accountable to citizens. Visit www.whiteband.org to find out more about the issues involved and activities taking place in your country.

In Africa, the GCAP process is well under way, with the key dates for mobilisation set as June 16 (Day of the African Child); July 01 (Pre African Union Summit and G8 meetings); September 10 (pre United Nations MDG Summit) and December 10 (pre World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong). Show your support for GCAP by wearing a white band on these days.

Anyone can join the campaign. Some of the ways you can get involved include:

1. Using your mobile phone
You can join the call by sending an SMS message with “No to Debt”, followed by any comment you wish to make and your name and surname to +27 82 904 3425 .

You can also access more information about the campaign by
- Sending a SMS/text message with ‘subscribe’ and ‘your name and surname’ to +27 82 904 3425
- Sending an email to gcapsubscribe@fahamu.org with subscribe in the subject line and your name and mobile/cell phone number (including country code) in the body of the email.

By doing this, you will be able to;
- Subscribe to a free information service
- Be able to send messages to world leaders voicing their support for debt cancellation throughput the year
- See your messages on the website www.whiteband.org

You will only be charged the standard fee from your network provider. There are NO other hidden costs

2. Acting by
- Wearing a white band on your wrist in solidarity on June 16th, July 1st, September 10th and December 10th
- Wrapping buildings with white bands, participating in G8 lobby visits, public hearings/meetings in Parliaments, schools, universities, football stadiums, public radio programmes, caravans and petitions that target youth, religious leaders and women.
- Attending regional music concerts in Accra September and Kenya December/August

3. Listening and watching

- Six ten minute debt cancellation radio programmes are to be aired in at least ten African countries
- Short audio and video adverts are to be aired on public broadcasting radio and television programmes in fifteen African countries (English, Arabic and French)

4. Reading about the campaign and contacting your national coordinating coalition by visiting www.whiteband.org

By clicking on the link below, you can read a Preliminary Communiqué from Africa Consultation of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, held on
March 30-31st 2005 in Kenya; a declaration from a Johannesburg GCAP meeting in September 2004 and an April 2005 ultimatum to G8 leaders on debt cancellation.

Governments are betraying their promise of a world order based on human rights and are pursuing a dangerous new agenda, said Amnesty International as it launched its annual assessment of global human rights. Speaking at the launch of the Amnesty International Report 2005, the organization's Secretary General Irene Khan said that governments had failed to show principled leadership and must be held to account.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development is built on one crucial but unexamined assumption: that more aid will lead to more development. So far, nearly $1 trillion has been spent on aid to Africa, but most of the continent is poorer today than at independence. The Cold War played a big part, keeping aid flowing to loyal but corrupt regimes that should have been cut off from external assistance. War is also a culprit. Only 10 countries on the continent have not had a conflict or coup d'etat. Poor governance and venal political struggles - such as those tearing apart Togo and Côte d'Ivoire today - have destroyed economies and negated the positive effects of aid. Click on the URL provided to read the rest of this article from the South African Insitute of International Affairs.

The findings from this working paper suggest that conditions in the origin countries known to produce refugee outflows influence the way in which destination countries allocate protection to asylum-seekers. However, the amount of protection provided by destination countries is found to be impervious to refugee-generating conditions in origin countries.

Last Sunday - for those who may not have noticed - was World Biodiversity Day. This is an annual event nominated by the United Nations, and intended to deepen awareness of the fact that human survival depends on safeguarding plant and animal life on Earth. This year's biological diversity day sought to capture this concept in its theme: 'Biodiversity is the life insurance of life itself'.

Global banking group Barclays has just paid 33 billion rand (£2.9 billion or $5.5 billion) for a controlling stake in South African bank Absa, a cash injection that supporters of the deal have hailed as good news for Africa’s largest economy. Critics have slammed the deal as likely to benefit mainly foreign shareholders and lobby group Jubilee South Africa have called for Barclays to pay reparations for doing business with the apartheid regime. In the context of overwhelming corporate power devoid of ethics and based on the primacy of profits, this article charts the strong moral case to be made for reparations from corporations who cause suffering because of their actions.

Let's not kid ourselves. This world's socio-economic engine runs on capitalism, and corporations are driving the bus. Ever since the end of the Second World War, the power of transnational corporations has been in the ascendancy while that of organised labour, civil society, and the State has declined.

This rise - the spreading reach of financiers and businessmen into every corner of the globe, with no place free from a Coca-Cola sign and a marketing team - of corporate power in the latter half of the 20th Century has been well documented, starting with Dwight Eisenhower's prophetic warning in 1961 about the domination of America by an military-industrial complex. The fact that Eisenhower only warned the American people after serving as President hints at, even back then, the dark power of corporations to muzzle 'elected' politicians. Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal and others have since charted the rise of the corporate (and branded) sun, an ascent yet to reach its apex.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent end of an alternative to Yankee-style capitalism - known for its neo-liberal, trickle-down theories of economic nirvana and pushed, punted and rammed home by IMF and World Bank bureaucrats - marked the beginning of a sustained process of hyper-consolidation of corporate power and the total integration of each local economy into one financial system. We've noted and tagged this process. We've given it a name, globalization.

And it is a process accountable only to a specific minority, the shareholders of the transnational corporations that are leading the global economy. Shareholders, it might be pointed out, are almost always interested in one thing, the maximisation of profit in the shortest period of time possible.

The 1990s saw not only the opening of virgin markets in Eastern Europe, Russia and elsewhere, but also the increasing use of stock options as an incentive for corporate management. Whether by design or by accident, stock options for management has resulted in an alignment of the interests of corporate brass and of shareholders -profit. Neither God nor glory factors into today's equation. The days of the wise chairman of the board, the old man who had built the company up from two pots and a piece of string, looking after the community that had spawned his company are lost in legend and myth. At most, modern transnational corporations have only the faintest of ties to geographical locations or people. They have become divorced from communities, economically, politically and ethically.

An ethical transnational corporation is an oxymoron. When risk analysts sit down at conference tables, the end result of any corporate action is assessed according to profitability factors. If it does not make a profit (or a small profit at high risk), an action is deemed unworthy of pursuit. The converse is also true; highly profitable actions at the lowest possible risk are extremely attractive. The ethical component of an action is not considered, and, if it is, it is usually weighed in as a risk factor (i.e. the bad press and damage to a brand that an unethical action (like using sweatshop labour) can cause). In all cases, the determining factor is profit.

Not all organisations or groups of human beings act in this manner. In fact, most don't. The ethical considerations of actions are at the fundamentals of a lot of decision-making. For example, societies often try to build legal codes on their moral codes. Aristotelian ethics and politics are quite explicit on this point; the reason behind legislation is to make men and women moral. At the very least, it is hoped that laws reflect society's morals (what those morals are is at the heart of most major disputes within communities), although this is often subverted by the vested interests of politicians and their backers.

Philosophers and religious leaders for millennia have been promoting the primacy of morals; one should do A because A is the morally correct thing to do. While it is very hard to implement morally right actions all of the time, most people make an honest attempt at a near instinctive level.

Transnational corporations do not subscribe to this primacy of morals. They believe in the primacy of profits, and that is why we see, over and over again, transnational corporations working with immoral regimes and engaged in shady practises. From no-bid contracts in Iraq, to oil for the Burmese junta and its tanks, to sweatshops in Central America stitching branded sneakers together for First World teenagers, corporations are engaged in immoral activities, working in collusion with unethical parties. Why? Because it is profitable to do so.

The abolition of transnational corporations is not an achievable goal in the short or even medium-term. Not only will this not occur any time soon, the likely outcome of globalization is, ironically enough, the withering away of the State. The signs are in contracts and budgets across the world. Governments have been increasingly outsourcing their traditional activities - those actions which seek to achieve the public good - to corporations; social services, such as healthcare and rubbish collection, have been outsourced to private companies on the economic argument that the private sector is more efficient (read cost-effective) than the State. Even the core of the State and its monopoly on legitimate force, is slowly being outsourced. The cutting edge of penal theory deals with how best to outsource the prison system, in its entirety, to private firms that transport, house and discipline inmates. The world's most powerful military moves these days with a critical baggage train of private companies that do everything from transport and cooking of food, to maintenance of military equipment, to the provision of ‘security consultants’.

Citizen pay taxes in return for protection and various social goods (healthcare, education, etc.) from the State. The State now pays the private sector to deliver these social goods and protective services. Sooner or later, someone will decide to cut the middleman out of this equation.

Further, governments are rapidly losing the ability to set their own economic policies, except within pre-determined limits. Economic policies that are unfriendly to corporations (living wage, perhaps) can provoke massive capital flight in the short-term and disinvestment in the longer-term. As many jobs have become tied (often through contractors and other such middlemen) to the activities of corporations, capital flight and disinvestment means job losses and, possibly, economic collapse. This economic threat has resulted in countries throughout the developing world scrambling over each other to provide the cheapest labour with the kindest corporate tax system. This is George Monbiot's infamous race to the bottom, and it is a direct result of the economic power that corporations hold over governments. In attempts to change the behaviour of corporations, civil society and organised labour are often lashed with a variant of this argument; if you don't stop criticising corporation X, it will leave these shores, the global business community will lose confidence, foreign investment will dry up, and the whole country will descend into an economic crisis of dust bowl proportions.

Corporations, on this analysis, are entities 1) with a overriding concern for the maximisation of profit in shortest possible time frame, 2) that do not believe in the primacy of morals, and 3) are so exceedingly powerful that it is possible to conceive of them replacing the State, let alone influencing government policy.

Enter the issue of reparations.

The concept of reparations is rather simple. It states that if damage (suffering) occurred because of an entity's actions, that entity should pay reparations to those who suffered. Various civil society groups across the globe have applied this concept in several different contexts: Creditor countries should pay reparations for imposing odious and crippling debt on debtor nations. Colonial powers should pay reparations for colonialism, slavery, plundering of national wealth, etc.. Polluters should pay reparations to those who suffered from their pollution (for example, victims of groundwater contamination). The concept of reparations is not an economic or political concept; it is a moral concept; the perpetrator of suffering inflicted on others needs to make amends. This is a basic moral precept: If you do something wrong, take responsibility and, if possible, try to correct the situation.

The case for reparations from corporations has many angles, but one of the most current is that corporations must pay reparations for their support (direct or indirect) of illegitimate regimes. The case is, perhaps, strongest in terms of direct support.

Corporations that support illegitimate regimes are committing fairly serious moral violations. For example, an oil company pays royalties to a military dictatorship. The revenue from these royalties is then used to purchase guns and tanks, which are then used to suppress the population. Why is this an example of a moral violation? After all, the corporation wasn't (via its employees) doing the actual suppressing, and it was doing nothing illegal. It was operating within the law of a sovereign nation.

The latter objection falls away quite quickly. The case for reparations is a moral case, and is independent of the law. Throughout history, including the modern era, there have been a variety of laws that make some of the most immoral acts legal; the Apartheid system was one such legal framework. The concept of reparations relies on a primacy of morals, not that of law.

It is the former objection that has more strength, and it is here that the relative power of corporations comes in. Countries cannot easily force transnational corporations to purchase a particular bond. Countries, especially in the developing world, have a hard time telling transnational corporations what to do in general. Corporations can move domiciles, threaten to disinvest, choose not to deal with illegitimate regimes. When corporations deal with illegitimate regimes that commit human rights abuses, they do so willingly and knowingly. They are like gun stores that sell weapons to the enraged husbands of cheating wives; there's only one reason why such individuals want to buy 9mm pistols and fistfuls of hollow-point rounds; there's only one reason why the South African Defence Force issued bonds in 1976.

Corporations that continue to support illegitimate regimes do so in full knowledge of the ramifications of their support, and do so despite having the ability to do otherwise. And, for this, they must pay. This demand for reparations from corporations is a part of wider attempts worldwide to impose morality on corporations. This will be resisted, mostly due to their non-acceptance of the primacy of morals; business, as they are fond of telling us, is war, and all's fair in love and war.

They are wrong. This world does not belong to them. It does not move according to the dictates of currency traders in New York, London and Tokyo. This is our world. It is for all human beings equally, and what makes us special is not that we crawled to the top of the food chain or that we can travel to the moon and back again or that we can bet on the futures market. What makes us special is that we are the only form of life we know of that can differentiate between good and bad, between the virtuous and the wicked, and then act accordingly. Without this, we would be nothing more than a bunch of particularly vicious apes. The belief that human inventions such as corporations and capital are different, are immune to moral judgment and action, is the great public relations trick of our times.

* Tristen Taylor is the Apartheid Debt and Reparations Campaign Coordinator at Jubilee South Africa, which is currently embroiled in a campaign to force Barclays National Bank Ltd to address and pay reparations for its Apartheid past. The views in the article above are his and are not necessarily those of Jubilee South Africa.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org