World Social Forum Meets In Tunisia

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, sitting with Ashaki Binta of Black Workers for Justice at the United States Social Forum held in Detroit during June 2010. Azikiwe spoke on seven panels during the gathering that drew 15,000 people., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

World Social Forum Meets in Tunisia

70,000 gather to discuss a myriad of issues including refugees, Saharawi and Palestine questions

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Tens of thousands of people marched through the capital of Tunisia on March 26 to initiate the World Social Forum (WSF). The march went down Habib Bourguiba Avenue where over two years ago demonstrations took place that resulted in the overthrow of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January 14, 2011.

This event which was organized by activists reportedly attracted 70,000 people under the theme “Another World is Possible.” WSF was started in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil and meets on a bi-annual basis.

With the Forum being held this year in Tunisia, it took on an added significance in light of the upheavals that have swept through North Africa and the Middle East since late 2010. After the uprising in Tunisia and the fall of Ben Ali, unrest spread to Egypt where long time ruler President Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down on February 11, 2011.

A war in Libya that was engineered by the United States and NATO sought to place itself within the context of the so-called “Arab Spring,” soon led to the first full-scale military operation of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The current government in Libya was installed by the Pentagon and NATO where ongoing extra-judicial killings and assaults are taking place on a daily basis.

In Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood has taken power through the allied Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). Demonstrations and rebellions have continued all over the country where many feel that the FJP has hijacked the revolution with no fundamental changes being made in both the domestic and foreign policy of the government in Cairo.

In Tunisia, the Ennahda Party, an Islamist formation, has dominated the administrative and legislative branch of the government since the fall of Ben Ali. Similar to Egypt, the state has remained within the orbit of U.S. and European imperialism resulting in continuing high unemployment and political repression.

According to Ahmed Ben Messaoud, a supporter of the opposition Patriotic Democratic Unified Party, whose leader, lawyer Chokri Belaid, was assassinated in February, “If the Tunisian experience leads to a kind of democracy that brings a different conception to countries in Africa and the Middle East, it will give people hope to think that democracy is possible. The country is in a big dilemma: Islamists want a totalitarian government, and civil society wants a more open, more secular government.” (truth-out.org, March 29)

After the assassination of Belaid, unrest spread quickly throughout the country largely organized by the Popular Front leading to the resignation of the government. A new government has been established that is tasked with drafting a permanent constitution.

Messaoud says of the current situation that “It’s not going to be an easy task to write this Constitution and to lead the country from dictatorship to democracy. We’re not just making a Constitution to go—one that gives the chance of another dictatorship in the future takeover. We want a Constitution for the next generation.”

Trade Unions and the Debt Crisis

One major criticism of the WSF is that it lacks representation from major political parties, social movements and organized labor. This observation was reflective of the discussions held in a panel entitled “Which Labor Unions and Non-Profit Alliances to Face the Debt?”

In this session European workers discussed how the debt crisis has become a major factor in fighting neo-liberalism even in the industrialized states. One speaker from Belgium was quoted as saying “We have to demystify the question of indefinite financing and think about how we’re creating debt in Europe and then create a common front against debt.” (truth-out.org., March 29)

The mechanism proposed for this struggle was a “Citizens Debt Audit.” Another trade unionist from Senegal noted that his country in West Africa was being strangled by $6 billion in foreign debt which has eroded state services within various sectors of the economy.

This same worker from Senegal said that “Trade unions realized that they had to work on this question of debt in Senegal. Now they’re seeing they must work on it, because it’s not the population that created the debt, but the small number of people who benefitted from it. The question of the debt audit is international.”

A trade unionist from the Basque territory in Spain also raised similar concerns in the face of the rising unemployment and poverty inside this southern European country. The so-called bailouts in Europe are really designed to ensure that the banks are paid at the expense of social needs.

“The reason they give us for cutting services is that there is no money,” the Basque unionist said. “But under President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, they changed the Constitution to institute a measure obligating the country to pay its debts before it handles social needs, with nasty consequences for the working class. For this reason, the question of debt plays an essential role for organized labor.”

A Citizens Debt Audit, said trade unionists at the panel, is to provide a legal and policy mechanism on the municipal and federal levels to encourage communities to raise questions as to whether these debts are legitimate or not. The Basque trade unionist said that “If the debt isn’t legitimate, we don’t need to pay it.”

The Plight of Libyan Refugees Highlighted

Also at the WSF 2013 in Tunisia, the plight of refugees stemming from the imperialist war against Libya was brought into focus. There were millions of people displaced as a result of the rebel actions against the Jamahiriya and the bombing of the country for seven months by the Pentagon and NATO.

Bright, a Nigerian youth who is stuck at the Choucha refugee camp in Tunisia near the border with Libya spoke at the WSF. He and several hundred displaced persons have been stranded there for two years in the aftermath of the destruction of Libya.

Most of the refugees are from sub-Saharan African states. These residents of Libya were attacked by the U.S.-NATO rebels who claimed they were fighting alongside the loyalist forces in defense of the Jamahiriya.

50 Africans who have been dislodged since the Libya war made it to the WSF and began a hunger strike outside the United Nations Refugee Agency in Tunisia. The camp where they are located will reportedly be closed by the U.N. in June creating an even greater crisis.

A Ghanaian, Mousa Ibrahim, says there are 80 people from Ghana at the Choucha camp. He stressed to the WSF that “I registered in the camp because they promised that they would recognize us as refugees.” (IPS, March 31)

He went on to say that “The Tunisian refugee commission has rejected me. They say I have two options: to go back to my country or return to Libya. In Ghana I would be thrown into prison or killed. And in Libya, black people are persecuted.”

Many of the refugees from the Libya war want to be recognized by the U.N. and sent to third countries. The situation will obviously become more aggravated with the deadline for closing the camp in two months.

Saharawi People and the Plight of the Palestinians

Two major unresolved national questions are the situations of the Saharawi under Moroccan control at the aegis of imperialism and the oppression of the Palestinians by the State of Israel and the U.S. Both nationally oppressed peoples have waited for decades for a resolution to their quest for liberation and self-determination.

In reference to the Saharawi issue, the WSF expressed support for the independence of the territory from Moroccan control. A statement issued in this regard was reported by the Sahara Press Service.

The statement “announced that the leftist forces and the International Socialist Movement ‘strongly’ supports the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination, which drove the Moroccan delegation to withdraw from the workshop in a provocative way, as it usually does in such occasions.” In addition the Secretary General of the Tunisian Worker’s Party received the Saharawi delegation at their headquarters in Tunis.

With respect to the Palestinian question, the Ma’an News Agency reported that “The World Social Forum expressed support for Palestinian popular resistance and called for the rights of Palestinians refugees in its closing statement Sunday. The week-long anti-globalization forum, held in Tunis, also called for the release of Palestinian political prisoners, the dismantling of Israel's wall and an end to Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip.”

Climate Change and the Water Crisis

Other prominent issues at the WSF in Tunisia dealt with the growing problems related to climate change. Kristy Wright wrote that “One of the key themes of the week has been the need to look at how all the issues facing the world, and causing the climate crisis are interrelated—that we need to see the connections between problems that may seem separate at first glance.” (World Development Movement, March 30)

Related to this topic is the way in which water is being hoarded and contaminated in various parts of the world. A panel featuring activists from Peru, Greece and Tunisia addressed the crisis based on events in their own countries.

In Peru a community leader explained how the mining industry was polluting the water resources in this South American state. A leader from Greece told how the gold mining interests are also destroying water resources in this European country.

A trade unionist from Tunisia pointed out that the water system in the country was great but there were efforts underway to privatize the resources. He also pointed out that by 2025 shortage will in all likelihood exists requiring increased efforts to fight the corporatization of the access to water.