13 October 2004, Durban
Towards Future Strategies for Global Movements
Introduction
On behalf of the people and the Government of South Africa, it is a great pleasure to welcome you all. It is fantastic to see so many friends gathered here. Your presence in South Africa coincides with our celebration of 10 years of democracy.
Gathered in this hall are representatives of millions of people throughout the world that made an important contribution to ending the apartheid system and the creation of a non-racial, non sexist and democratic South Africa.
It is also appropriate that this conference highlighted the role of the FLS countries, which made supreme sacrifices so that we could be free.
The AA movement was born in response to many governments’ political, economic and military co-operation with the apartheid regime.
In the last few days you have been discussing the remarkable achievements of the AA movement, as we come to the end of this conference it is important that we consider how we can once again mobilise millions of people; this time to meet the challenges that humanity faces today.
We have identified three major challenges.
1. Poverty alleviation and sustainable development
1.1 We hope to achieve this in conditions of the accelerated pace of globalisation. As you are aware, the key characteristics of globalisation have been the liberalisation of international trade, the expansion of FDI, mass cross-border financial flows and the phenomenal development of information technology
1.2 Whilst globalisation is creating immense opportunities of growth and wealth creation for some, it has produced an abundance of poverty for millions.
Increasingly the world is being constructed into two contrasting global villages – one in which the rich are getting richer and another where the poor of the world are getting poorer and marginalised.
This ever increasing gap between the have and have-nots is occurring between countries, within countries, between regions, within regions, between North and the South, within countries of the North and within countries of the South. The world as a direct result of globalisation has been cast as a vast ocean of poverty in which a few islands of prosperity are to be found. Never before has the world witnessed such unprecedented alienation and marginalisation of societies from the institutions that shape and direct their lives.
121. In 2000 the historic Millennium Summit Declaration proclaimed that “we believe that the central challenge we face today is to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all the world’s people. For while globalization offers great opportunities, at present its benefits are very unevenly shared, while its costs are unevenly distributed. We recognize that developing countries and countries with economies in transition face special difficulties in responding to this central challenge. Thus, only through broad and sustained efforts to create a shared future, based upon our common humanity in all its diversity, can globalization be made fully inclusive and equitable.”
The Declaration identified fundamental values that were essential to international relations in the twenty-first century, these included
- Freedom. The right to live in dignity, free from hunger and from the fear of violence, oppression or injustice.
- Equality. All must have the opportunity to benefit from development.
- Solidarity. Distribution of costs and burdens fairly in accordance with basic principles of equity and social justice.
- Tolerance. Respect for diversity of belief, culture and language. Differences should be cherished as an asset of humanity. Promote a culture of peace and dialogue among all nations.
- Respect for nature. Prudent management of all living species and natural resources, in accordance with the precepts of sustainable development. Only in this way can the immeasurable riches provided to us by nature be preserved and passed on to our descendants. The current unsustainable patterns of production and consumption must be changed in the interest of our future welfare and that of our descendants.
- Shared responsibility. Responsibility for managing worldwide economic and social development, as well as threats to international peace and security, must be shared among the nations of the world and should be exercised multilaterally. The United Nations must play the central role.
The Summit resolved to:
- To halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and, by the same date, to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water.
- To ensure that, by the same date, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and that girls and boys will have equal access to all levels of education.
- By the same date, to have reduced maternal mortality by three quarters, and under-five child mortality by two thirds, of their current rates.
- To have, by then, halted, and begun to reverse, the spread of HIV and AIDS, the scourge of malaria and other major diseases that afflict humanity.
- To provide special assistance to children orphaned by HIV and AIDS.
- By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers as proposed in the "Cities Without Slums" initiative.
The Summit also resolved:
- To promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable.
- To develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work.
- To encourage the pharmaceutical industry to make essential drugs more widely available and affordable by all who need them in developing countries.
- To develop strong partnerships with the private sector and with civil society organizations in pursuit of development and poverty eradication.
- To ensure that the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication technologies, in conformity with recommendations contained in the ECOSOC 2000 Ministerial Declaration, are available to all.
This Declaration was enthusiastically welcomed by billions of the poor and the marginalised.
1.3 What progress have been made since the Millenium Summit
The world’s leaders, a few days ago, gathered at the United Nations (UN) in New York to outline their respective national priorities with a view to shaping an international agenda for the UN that would rally all nations on a common cause for global stability and development. What is clear from the proceedings of the UN’s General Debate (UNGA59) is that the challenges confronting our continent are reflective of a more general crisis in the global system. Our leaders recalled the immense hope that our peoples had at the dawning of the new millennium for greater peace and stability and for the positive possibilities of globalisation to benefit all of humanity. These and other global objectives form the universally adopted agenda by which our people, particularly the most disadvantaged, place their hopes and aspirations for a better future. The deliberations at UNGA59 however, pointed to a disillusionment that these goals and aspirations may yet be elusive unless more urgent political action is taken by the developed member states to take the necessary steps to achieve full implementation.
For Africa the debate once again brought into sharp focus the reality that Africa is the only continent where poverty in on the increase. Over 40% of Sub-Saharan African people live below the international poverty line of US$1 a day. More than 140 million young Africans are illiterate. The mortality rate of children under 5 years of age is 140 per 1000, and life expectancy at birth is only 54 years. Only 58 per cent of the population have access to safe water. Africa’s share of world trade has plummeted, accounting for less than 2%.
Between 1970 and 2002 Africa received $340 billion in loans, it paid back plus minus $550 billion in principal and interest, it still had a debt stock of $29 billion at the end of 2002.
Sub-Saharan Africa, received $294 billion in loans from 1970 – 2002, paid out $268 billion in debt service and still has a debt stock of $210 billion.
Add to this other capital outflows, some legally but most illegally, as well as the brain drain and one gets some sense of the transfer of resources from the world’s poorest continent to the richest countries of the world.
The report also contests the popular view that our debt problems are simply the legacy of irresponsible and corrupt governments. While this is part of the explanation, especially in the period of the Cold War and neo-colonialism, other factors such as exogenous shocks, commodity dependence, poorly designed reform programmes in many cases imposed from outside, and the actions of creditors have all contributed decisively to Africa’s debt crisis.
Most of the debt accumulated between 1988 and 1995 under the guidance of structural adjustment programmes, official lending was to implement these programmes.
1.4 Failure of Washington consensus and the neo liberal paradigm1.4.1 What are the alternatives?
1.5 We must recognise the fact that global poverty constitutes the deepest and most dangerous structural fault in the contemporary world economy and global societies. It constitutes the most challenging structural fault. Logically, this means that the correction of this fault has to be at the center of the politics, policies and programmes of progressive politics.
What is to be done?
As a start we must challenge the hegemony of the neo-liberal conservative paradigm, which worships the “market” and puts emphasis on the private as opposed to the public, the individual as opposed to the collective, the individual as opposed to the state. They believe in each for him or herself and devil takes the hindmost. This demands that the market must be given free reign to operate as it will.
We are constantly warned that all of us must accept the rules of liberisation, privatisation, absolute protection of private property rights, and deregulation and that failure to do so would force the private sector not to come or to move elsewhere.
We have to disagree with the assertion of “both about a market tendency towards equilibrium, as a beneficial quantum, and the objective regularity within this market to deliver the greatest good.
It is not possible to solve the problem of global poverty solely through reliance on “the market.”
The EU understood that with regard to its poor areas, it concluded that it is irrational and unreasonable to expect the market to prepare the material market conditions it needs that would enable it to come to such areas, as attractive investment target areas. It therefore established a comprehensive system of “structural funds.”
Africa has a greater need for official, non-private sector capital. However we are constantly told that we must depend almost exclusively on private sector capital. The question that millions ask is – why the double standard?
If we do not answer this question honestly and practically, the structural fault in the world economy will widen with serious consequences for all humanity.
The DG of the ILO, Juan Somavia noted that the poor of the world have the will to survive but need the support and possibilities to move up the ladder of opportunity. They expect, that the structural failures, the ineffective economic and social systems, the inadequate political responses, the bankrupt policies and insufficient international support that are the causes of their poverty, will be addressed.
Can we seriously expect that Africa and other countries of the developing world can deal with their under development by depending on a private sector that is driven by the profit motive.
The reality demands that there must be a political will, to transfer resources from the rich to the poor globally. In a globalised world, the war against global poverty calls for global action.
Africa’s Response
The development and adoption of NEPAD is confirmation of the emergence of a growing number of progressive leaders and the increase of their influence. These are leaders who are not only visionaries, but also men of action who are committed to driving the implementation of their vision and plans. It is this development that makes the transformation movement both sustainable and irreversible.
The sectoral programmes cover many priorities, such as agriculture, science and technology, human development, industrialisation, transport, environment, economic integration, etc. Taken in totality, they address the important objectives of self-reliance and the internal and regional integration. Furthermore, they cover new areas that were not very urgent priorities when the Lagos Plan was drawn up, viz conflict prevention, management and resolution, political economic and corporate governance, protection and promotion of democracy and human rights and people-centred development.
NEPAD has placed African priorities such as agriculture, infrastructure, ICT, research and development, health, institution and capacity building, firmly on the international agenda, thus changing the dominant development paradigm that has for so long been imposed on our continent.
How will the progressive movement respond to these challenges?
“Left Wing” unconstructive criticism of NEPAD.
The second major challenge humanity faces is:
2. Peace and security
2.1 End of Cold War, emergence of one superpower
2.1.1 No post Cold War peace dividends. Today world more dangerous.
2.2 September 11
2.2.1 National Security Strategy. No political economic or military challenge to USA hegemony will be tolerated.
2.2.1.1 Concepts and policies that determine
2.2.2.2 USA policies included
- “axis of evil”
- “rogue states”
- “for us or against us”
- “clash of civilisations”
- religious “crusade”
- preventative action
- unilateralism e.g. Kyoto, ABM, ICC, Drafts of the Biological Weapons Convention
2.2.2.3 Some consequences
- The absence of a balance of power in the global system
- No common vision of global security
- The weakening of the multilateral system
- The transformation of global priorities following September 11, 2001
- The transformation of the very nature of war as witnessed in Afghanistan and Iraq. “Space war” also becoming a reality.
- Anti-Americanism
- Terrorism and their potential links with weapons of mass destruction
Some consequences
- Afghanistan
- Iraq
- Middle East
2.3.1 No sustainable development without peace
2.3.2 UN Report on Causes of Conflict August 2004
In 1998 14 countries in the region had experienced armed conflict or civil strife, 11 were under political crisis or turbulence and only 15 enjoyed more or less stable political conditions. All countries are signatories of the 1999 Algiers Declaration. The number of military coups has diminished. At present six African countries are in situations of armed conflict and very few others are facing a political crisis. 23 countries have acceded to the APRM, which was established to assess, monitor and promote good political, economic and corporate governance and human rights observance.
However we still face serious challenges.
- DRC
- Burundi
- Sudan
- Cote d’ Ivoire
2.3.3 African responses
- Sustainable development in the interest of the people
- Good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, commitment to solve differences through peaceful means
- Peace and Security Council
- African Standby Force
- Committee of the Wise
- Early Warning System
2.4 Non-proliferation of WMD
2.5 Terrorism
- Focal point of the USA’s foreign policy
2.6 African position on terrorism
2.7 Other threats to peace and security
3. The third major challenge we face is to restructuring of the global exercise of power.
The challenge, interalia, demands urgent reforms to make the UN more relevant to current realities. There is a need to transform all the organs of the UN to enable it to become more streamlined, efficient and effective.
Conclusion
The new world order that is emerging is unsustainable. In the interests of humanity we must urgently strive to build an international movement to fight for a world of peace, democracy, freedom from poverty, non-racism and non-sexism.
This movement must address the concerns of the billions of people in the world who are marginalised.
We must reject the tendency to accept as inevitable the legacy of the neo-liberal paradigm and of right wing political dominance that is committed to marginalising the masses. The Progressive Government Summit 2003 stated that
“This century has the potential to bring huge advances in health, in knowledge, in prosperity, and to bring billions of people out of poverty. We are optimistic that a truly prosperous, inclusive and secure global society is within our reach. However, realising that potential depends on careful and concerted action. It depends on the progress we make in further integrating our economies, societies, regions and communities. And it depends on our success in standing firm against division within societies - against prejudice, discrimination, and inequality - and against division at a global level into competing blocs. Some will continue to respond by turning inwards to the comfort of old identities, old ways of thinking and old structures. We believe that new challenges demand new solutions that combine fiscal responsibility, investment in citizens and democratic processes. As progressive governments, we will therefore accelerate our work in matching imaginative new ideas with practical means of putting them at the service of the citizens we represent.
We must seek the path of hope and solidarity, pursuing effective and constructive dialogue amongst peoples of the world based on mutual interests, benefits and a shared responsibility to the common issues that confronts humanity. This movement must indicate respect for international law and promote multilaterism as means to seeking consensus in the affairs of the world.”
This challenge to the status quo and to put in place something wholly new requires not only the full participation of progressive governments but the mobilization of the people of the world in their social movements behind an agreed-upon world agenda as a collective global agent for change.
Naomi Klein in her book, Fences and Windows, points to the need to developing a political framework and a political discourse “that is not afraid of diversity, that does not try to cram every political movement into a single model.” She argues that “we need a movement that encourages and fiercely protects the right to diversity: cultural diversity, ecological diversity, agricultural diversity – and yes, political diversity as well: different ways of doing politics. The goal is not better faraway rules and rulers but close-up democracy on the ground.”
George Monbiot in his latest book, The Age of Consent: a manifesto for a new global order, correctly points out that up until now:
“Everything has been globalised except our consent. Democracy alone has been confined to the nation state. It stands at the national border, suitcase in hand, without a passport.
“A handful of men in the richest nations use the global powers they have assumed to tell the rest of the world how to live.”
He tells us that this “Age of Coercion” needs to be replaced by an “Age of Consent” and that we need “to discover the means of introducing a new world order, in which the world’s institutions are run by and for their people.” We need to create the necessary conditions for transformation. We need to rely on our own efforts to make a difference, to entrench democracy even among ourselves and to recognise, respect and assert sovereignty in changing the ways of the world.
The movement must mobilise millions throughout the world to attain the objectives, goals and programmes agreed to at the Millennium Summit. The attainment of the Millennium Goals, the implementation of the programmes that emerged out of the World Conference against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), the World Food Summit, the Financing for Development Conference (FfD) and the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) are all central to the challenge of the development of countries of the South.
The movement must support the decision of the Progressive Government Summit to develop, promote and advance the global progressive agenda through a collective and concerted programme of action that ensures, amongst other things, the reduction of barriers to international trade and making international rules fairer; ensuring new and more stable sources of finance for sustainable development, ensuring that social justice informs the design of the international finance system; tackling the challenges of sustainable energy security and climate and improving access to health care, including drugs and treatment at affordable prices in poor countries.
The Campaign issues should include the following:
Why debt cancellation
Low levels of savings and investment leading to high poverty and adverse social conditions one of the biggest constraints on growth in low-income countries.
Action
UNCTAD assessment. The 23 African HIPC that reached their decision points by 20 have only a 40% chance of attaining debt sustainability by 2020, many poor African countries left out of the system; interim relief between decision and completion. Points are inadequate and fall short of the total debt relief that creditors had promised.
This challenge also points to the fundamental question of the right to be, the right to human dignity, the right to exist and to co-exist, the right to one’s own language and to develop a dynamic and living culture sensitive to the practices of others yet asserting one’s self as a person and a nation in the world. Thus part of our assertion should also be the right to a new world culture, rich in diversity and deep in dialogue, encouraging unity in action, characterized by cultural exchange and possibly coalescence. Thus the language of world liberation and transformation should take centre-stage to offer possibilities for a different future where cultural, economic and political domination of the powerful over the powerless becomes a thing of the past and our legacy is equality and a more egalitarian world society.
Campaign for
Campaign for
Campaign on
Campaign against
As we seek to build a broad social movement, let us be reminded of what an African intellectual Theophile Obenga recently wrote:
“Any renaissance must correspond to a period of strong emotions, intensive creativity and flames illuminating the countryside – an exceptional period when a nation’s creative genius discovers its mission, fulfils it to its best, without betraying, diminishing or downsizing it. It should correspond to great moments in history, and great works. All people want rebirth after misfortune; wars, genocide, holocaust, ignorance, obscurantism, colonialism. Rebirth is a positive attitude of hope.”
We have to mobilise the masses in Africa and internationally “to bless Africa with a generation creative genius that discovers its mission, fulfil it to its best, without betraying, diminishing, reducing or downsizing it – the missionary to achieve Africa’s integration and renaissance.