March on Sandton

Yesterday, Roberto, Nadia, and I participated in a march from Alexandra township, one of the poorest sections of the city, to Sandton, where the summit is being held and also the richest part of the city. This route provided a juxtaposition of rich and poor communities to highlight the growing inequality around the world. The march was organized by several South African social justice organizations. The Anti-Privatisation Forum and the Landless People's Movement were two of the major groups. While I am not sure of the exact number of marchers, I know that there were thousands.

The march was entirely peaceful and the police seemed overdressed with their helicopters, armored personnel carriers, horses, and machine guns. There were no arrests that I know of, and the South African government went so far as to thank the organizers this morning on the radio for such a peaceful march.
Throughout the entire march, the main music was call and response singing and chanting in Zulu, one of 11 official languages. We were taught a few of the songs by our fellow marchers before the day was through, although our pronunciation leaves a lot of room for improvement.

The march was primarily black South Africans, but also had a strong international mix and NGO presence. It was wonderful to finally be surrounded by people who held a holistic radical critique of the Summit and the world. The march provided me with the energy that is so noticeably lacking in the halls and meeting rooms of Sandton. If the official participants of the Summit at one time were excited at the prospect of social and environmental justice and committed to struggle for such goals, it is hard to discern at this point.

When compared with the delegates, the marchers take a different approach to problem solving. Some of the organizations at the march yesterday are those that turn water back on when water supplies are going to be cut off, block electricity companies from shutting off electricity, teach other townships how to do the same, and work for long term solutions to their problems so that they will not have to continue in their current predicament indefinitely.

While the Summit seems to be bogging down and the end compromise will most likely not be anything extraordinary, it was refreshing to be reminded that social change is not in the hands of the delegates to the WSSD. This power is in the hands of the people all over the world and no political compromises will change that. People change the world every day through their struggles, and while it would be nice to see some semblance of movement at the international level, it is not a be all end all. My apologies to those in Sandton; I do value there work. It is just that, while I knew that this conference alone would not solve our problems even if it went extremely well, the march yesterday reminded me that neither will it be our end if the U.S. gets it way and shreds all committments. The march helped me to put the conference in perspective so that while I still think global frameworks and committments are important, I think that these frameworks may end up needing to be cultural. Political frameworks are miserable in their prospects at this point: compromised words and no actions. The conference so far has been a great reminder of why so little has been accomplished since the Earth summit in Rio, and the march yesterday was a great reminder of why things have been accomplished at all.

Talk to you all later, Noah

Posted by noah at September 01, 2002 11:38 AM