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Makani N. Themba, Durban Diary: Up Close and Black at WCAR

As I look out the window of my high-rise hotel, I see lots of Black folk that I feel strong kinship with but I know in many ways we are different. Fifty percent of the very poor n Durban, just beyond my hotel, are Black. There are housands living in shacks, or under the open sky, with ittle to eat and even less on their backs. As a result, rime is high. The army and the police patrol the streets ith M16s ostensibly to protect us from them. We are told to tay away from the townships, from shanties, from “them” so e can be safe. And I don’t want to stay away. I want to be here “real people” are.

Frances Beal, NGOs at WCAR Target Globalization

Humberto Brown, International Secretary of the Black Radical Congress, is an example of U.S.-based racial justice activists that challenge this narrow view. He asserts that race alone cannot guarantee solidarity. “You cannot be a black liberationist and be a sexist,” he says. “Nor can you be homophobic or think your language is the only language.” Most importantly, he continues, “You can’t be a black liberationist and support corporatism.” Speaking in the Africa and African descendents caucus, Brown received enthusiastic applause when he referred to globalization and said the caucus should demand that the World Conference Against Racism “come out with a document that condemns the modern form of exploitation.”

Howard Winant, From Durban to Disneyland

But the Bush administration was already looking for an excuse to abandon the conference; the Middle East simply provided one. What worried the White House about the Durban conference wasn’t the West Bank. It was the race problem in the U.S. It was the continuing legacy of African slavery and of Native American genocide that the Bushies did not want to hang on the line for the whole world to see. Months ago, before the West Bank had even surfaced in the planning for the UN conference, the administration was already saying that the conference should “not focus on the past,” but rather “look toward the future.” In fact, the Clinton administration took that same view in its preparations for Durban. Neither Clinton nor Bush wanted to face criticism about the sorry state of race relations in the U.S. Like Walt Disney, they wanted their theme park to appear squeaky clean, sparkling with happy faces.

Eric Mann, U.S. Walkout Galvanizes U.S. NGO Delegation

I leave you with an excerpt from Fidel’s WCAR speech:

“Nobody has the right to sabotage this conference which, in some way, is attempting to alleviate the terrible suffering and enormous injustice that these deeds have signified and still signify for the overwhelming majority of humanity. Far less does anybody have the right to impose conditions, and demand that the issue of historical responsibility and just reparations are not even mentioned, or the way in which we decide to qualify the horrific genocide at this very minute being committed against our sister nation of Palestine (applause) on the part of extreme-right leaders who, in alliance with the hegemonic superpower, are currently acting in the name of another people which, over close to 2000 years, was the victim of the greatest persecution, discrimination and injustice committed in history. (applause)”

This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2001 at 2:34 pm and is filed under American Empire, Reparations, Oppression. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Salih Booker, Making a Statement in Durban

It is important this historic world summit on racism focus on four points. One is a declaration that the slave trade and the enslavement of Africans were crimes against humanity. Two, the right to reparations for slavery, colonialism, apartheid, and continuing racism. Three, the cancellation of Africa’s external debts. And four, the full financing for the global fund for HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

Stephen Zunes, U.S. Policy on the UN Conference Wrong

…the U.S. boycott of the conference is not out of any genuine concern about possible anti-Semitism, but as an excuse to avoid addressing issues of racism in U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Indeed, the way the U.S. has pressed this issue and has blocked compromise proposals emphasizing the unity of Semitic peoples raises suspicions that the U.S. was simply looking for an excuse to boycott the conference.

(The problem with calling what Powell and Bush did to WCAR a “boycott” is that it obscures the degree to Washington achieved a real, if modest propaganda victory, at least domestically. (It also obscures the principled meaning of “boycott” as a tool of political and moral struggle; the only principle at work in Washington’s actions was the eternal tendency of power to protect and entrench itself.) As with the attempts by Tony Blair to subvert the agenda before the conference, while seeming to be antiracist, Washington — which means, in this case, primarily Powell, proving once for all the dangers of tokenism — got to subvert and disrupt the conference, while seeming to be a staunchly antiracist foe. Powell was editorialized widely as an antiracist, who, but for the misguided attempts to call Zionism a racist ideology, would have been an ideal contributor in Durban. — editor.)

Kim Fellner, Palestine in Durban: Sideshow or Main Event?

Here in South Africa, those issues live and breathe. These are the people who struggled for decades and finally took back their country, who fought apartheid against great odds, and won. Here in South Africa, the culture of resistance sings and dances, argues and organizes. The Palestinian quest has resonated with that spirit. It may well become the next struggle to capture imaginations and commitments as apartheid did in the past decade; and over the long haul, it cannot be dismissed or denied.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2001 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Racial Privilege, American Empire, Racism, Reparations, Oppression. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.