GEF's Outlook

Egypt and Tunisia on the minds of activists at Dakar Forum

Recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt are a sign that normal people can shape the destiny of their nations towards more justice and fairness, activists at the World Social Forum in Dakar said on Sunday.

"What Egyptians, Tunisians, Ivorians, Guineans and all the peoples of the world are saying is that we should fight for justice," said Tawfik Ben Abdallah, a member of the African Social Forum.

"We do not have to allow anyone blcakmail us or allow anyone to take our lives and destiny," he added, as thousands of anti-capitalist activist gathered at the University of Dakar.

The attendees had marched through the streets of Dakar carrying banners and placards urging governments worldwide to support the rights of children and women and to allow freedom of speech.

 

The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales was the guest of honour at the opening ceremony. He encouraged actors of social movements, including trade unions, to see how they could organise to move from unions and movements to capture political power in the way he did in Bolivia.

Egypt and Tunisia on the minds of activists at Dakar Forum

Recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt are a sign that normal people can shape the destiny of their nations towards more justice and fairness, activists at the World Social Forum in Dakar said on Sunday.

"What Egyptians, Tunisians, Ivorians, Guineans and all the peoples of the world are saying is that we should fight for justice," said Tawfik Ben Abdallah, a member of the African Social Forum.

"We do not have to allow anyone blcakmail us or allow anyone to take our lives and destiny," he added, as thousands of anti-capitalist activist gathered at the University of Dakar.

The attendees had marched through the streets of Dakar carrying banners and placards urging governments worldwide to support the rights of children and women and to allow freedom of speech.

 

The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales was the guest of honour at the opening ceremony. He encouraged actors of social movements, including trade unions, to see how they could organise to move from unions and movements to capture political power in the way he did in Bolivia.

World Social Forum 2011 opens in Dakar

This Sunday afternoon hundreds of social activists (essentially leftist groups) will march through some streets of the Senegalese capital, Dakar, to launch the World Social Forum (WSF).

It is the biennial gathering in which these groups proclaim and explain that there is another world order apart from capitalism and globalization, piloted (in their view) by the world leaders and business executives who meet at approximately the same time in Davos for the World Economic Forum.

Africa is playing host for the second time (Nairobi 2005 was the first) and the organizers would want the fundamental questions about the continent’s economic and social development, its security and its relations with the rest of the world to be central to the Forum’s debates.  

Incidentally, this is happening at a time when the north of the continent is boiling. A popular uprising which was sustained through the use of social networking tools toppled a more than two decades old regime in Tunisia while protesters are defying Hosni Mubarak’s 30 year old rule in Egypt.

Would the Forum provide techniques, ideas and tools to further such “revolutions” across the continent given that many of those who partake in it don’t tend to have a soft spot for leaders like Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Egypt’s Mubarak?