African Struggles, Global Struggles

Social Movements Assembly at the World Social Forum
Nairobi, 24 January 2007

We, social movements from across Africa and across the world, have come together here in Nairobi at the 2007 World Social Forum to highlight and celebrate Africa and her social movements; Africa and her unbroken history
of struggle against foreign domination, colonialism and neo-colonialism; Africa and her contributions to humanity; Africa and her role in the quest for another world.

We are here to celebrate and reaffirm the spirit of the World Social Forum as a space of struggle and solidarity which is open to all people and social movements regardless of their ability to pay.

We denounce tendencies towards commercialisation, privatisation and militarisation of the WSF space. Hundreds of our sisters and brothers who welcomed us to Nairobi have been excluded because of high costs of
participation.

We are also deeply concerned about the presence of organisations working against the rights of women, marginalised people, and against sexual rights and diversity, in contradiction to the WSF Charter of Principles.

The social movements assembly has created a platform for Kenyans and other Africans from different backgrounds and communities to present their struggles, alternatives, cultures, talents and skills. It is also a space for civil society organisations and social movements to interact and share the issues and problems affecting them.

Since the first assembly in 2001, we have contributed to building and strengthening successful international networks of civil societies and social movements and reinforced our spirit of solidarity and our struggles against all forms of oppression and domination.

We recognise that the diversity of movements and popular initiatives against neo-liberalism, world hegemony of capitalism and imperial wars, is an expression of a world resistance.

We have now to move towards a phase of effective alternatives. Many local initiatives are already existing and should be expanded: what is happening in Latin America and other parts of the world -- thanks to the joint action of social movements -- shows the way to establish concrete alternatives to world capitalist domination.

As social movements from all five continents gathering in Nairobi, we express our solidarity with the social movements in Latin America whose persistent and continuing struggle has led to electoral victories for the Left in several countries.

ACTIONS

We are calling for a broad international mobilisation against the G8 in Rostock and Heiligendamm (Germany) 2-8 June 2007.

We will mobilise in our communities and movements for an International Day of Action in 2008.

Notes from Nairobi:

Habari,

The experience in Africa has been wonderful!

There are many accomplishments to report back. The most important is the local connections we have built in Kenya. The youth that we visited in Korogocho have continued to visit and participated throughout the WSF. Their work is very impressive and have been a motivation throughout our stay here.

At this WSF we have built strong relationships with the immigrants rights movement. We participated and presented on several panels and workshops related to migrants. Our presence in these spaces was felt and the reality of the US and the border were key.

During the Forum the folks from Korogocho protested the main food court that was owned by the former Minister of the Economy, owner of a country club and is personally responsible for many people being jailed. They were able to shut it down and eat a free meal. This was very important due to the presence of corporations at the WSF, like the cell phone company.

The days have been very long. A new addition to the Forum this year was the fourth day activities, organized by the Social Movements Assembly. The fouth day served as a space to develop common actions on each tematic area, finishing with a series of reports backs. This has been a great addition and a calendar of actions was developed.

During our time here we visited the United Nations Environmental Program on the impacts of military toxics. They are now moving a process to collect information form organizations and governments on military impacts around April of this year. This will culminate with a global conference on military pollution in 2008.

We have distributed thousands of pieces of information from SWU and the buttons were a great hit. Many of the days have been intense work.

We were also able to attend the International Council meeting of the WSF. There were over a hundred people participating and the participants shared great information on evaluation the WSF in Nairobi. The meeting is quiet long.

The experiences are numerous and the trip has been a great success. It has been very cool (poa sana) using and practicing swahili. People tend to be very surprised when they hear it.

Willie is on his way back and should be getting in today. I told him to swing by the staff meeting and share some of his experiences with you. I pretty tired and excited. I will traveling with Emery and a couple of friends to Tanzania today. We will go to Arusha which is at the base of mount kilimanjaro? and then down to Dar es Salam. It should be quiet an trip!

Genaro