From karenb at gn.apc.org  Sun Aug 26 20:34:19 2001
From: karenb at gn.apc.org (Karen Banks)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:04 2007
Subject: [Wa-news] testing
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.1010826203326.15802A-100000@ns0>

hi

this is a test to the wa-news@womenaction.org list.. i need to see if the
@womenaction.org works..

and.. who get's this post for approval! - at the moment there are 5 list
owners :) jenny, natasha, sarita, sally and myself..

karen




From karenb at gn.apc.org  Sun Aug 26 20:41:16 2001
From: karenb at gn.apc.org (Karen Banks)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:04 2007
Subject: [Wa-news] testing
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.1010826204011.15806B-100000@ns0>

please inore..

karen


From karenb at gn.apc.org  Sun Aug 26 20:50:01 2001
From: karenb at gn.apc.org (Karen Banks)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:04 2007
Subject: [WA-News] testing
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.1010826204951.15811B-100000@ns0>

yet again..

karen




From karenb at gn.apc.org  Mon Aug 27 15:01:51 2001
From: karenb at gn.apc.org (karen banks)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:04 2007
Subject: [WA-News] WomenAction members at the WCAR
Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20010827150054.02866008@pop.gn.apc.org>

** News from WomanAction and the World Conference Against Racism, 
Xenophobia and Other Related Intolerances (WCAR) **

Greetings!

You are receiving this message as you subscribed to one of the three 
WomenAction information lists that were run during the UNGASS Beijing Plus 
5 Review, June 2000.

Continuing with our objective to bring you news and information that 
strengthens and integrates a feminist analysis in the information and media 
landscape in relation to social movements and the women's movement around 
the world, we are pleased to be able so share information with you from the 
World Conference Against Racism, Xenophoboia and other Related Intolerances 
(WCAR), during the coming weeks.

Several WomenAction participants are in Durban and will be posting news and 
bulletins to this list - as well as posting information to their own websites:

* the WomensNet/Apc-Africa-Women 'Intersection' Gender News Bulletin 
(http://www.apc.org/intersection)
* we hope to have reports from FIRE (Feminist International Radio 
Endeavour) (http://www.fire.or.cr)
* reports from the ISIS International Media Team (http://www.isiswomen.org)
* information from ALAI, through e-mail in the Americas and on the web-site 
www.movimientos.org/foro-racismo/

Further resources will be posted here as and when we receive them.

We will be trying to provide some information in french and spanish and 
will post addresses for the spanish and french lists here when we have them.

*** If you would like to subscribe, or unsubscribe from this list please 
send an email to either karen banks (karenb@gn.apc.org) or jennifer radloff 
(jradloff@iafrica.com) or you may unsubscribe yourself by visiting the
subscription page at:

http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/options/wa-news/

** Please visit the re-launched European and North American WomenAction 
(ENAWA) website this Tuesday [ lin ?? ] at
www.enawa.org.


Warm regards,
Karen Banks for WomenAction

===========================================================
          GreenNet Limited/GreenNet Educational Trust
4th Floor, 74-77 White Lion Street, London, N1 9PF, England
                  e-mail: karenb@gn.apc.org
       tel: +44/207-713-1941  fax: +44/207-837-5551
===========================================================


From jradloff at iafrica.com  Mon Aug 27 15:34:48 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:04 2007
Subject: [WA-News] Intersections - Issue 1 - Part 2
Message-ID: <0GIQ00CSPE6N66@smtp08.iafrica.com>

Intersections – Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum, Durban 2001
Issue 1 – Part 2
*****************************************************************
This bulletin is an APC-Africa-Women project, implemented by Women’sNet South 
Africa. 
For the full version or to add your stories and information please go to:
http://www.apc.org/intersections

About us:
Women’sNet is a joint project of the Southern African Non-Governmental 
Organisation Network (SANGONeT) and the Commission on Gender Equality. It is a 
vibrant and innovative networking support program designed to empower South 
African women to use the Internet to find the people, issues, resources and 
tools they need for Social Action.
http://www.womensnet.org.za
 
APC-Africa-Women is a network of organisations and individuals that work to 
empower African women's organisations to access and use Information and 
Communication Technologies (ICTs) for equality and development. (APC stands for 
Association for Progressive Communications)
http://www.enda.sn/synfev/apcfemafr/indexapc.html
******************************************************************
Items in Issue 1 – Part 2

*Gender Events at WCAR
* Poetry – Mama Wipe your Tears by Righteous the Common Man
******************************************************************
Gender Related Events at the WCAR
This is not an exhaustive list but rather an example of what is happening 
around gender at WCAR.

Roundtable discussion on gender, race and exclusion and launch of a gender 
gateway www.siyanda.org

Roundtable on Colonialism, slavery and reparations

Live radio broadcasts – FIRE PLACES : Voices without brackets 
http://www.fire.or.cr

Grassroot women sharing their experiences : Breaking Boundaries – United in our 
Diversity organised by Ilitha Labantu

International seminar on Racism, Xenophobia and Gender organised by Lola 
Feminst Magazine

Grassroots women speak on slavery as a form of oppression : Contemporary forms 
of slavery and other forms of oppression organised by Ilitha Labantu

Unmarking Bodies organised by Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era

Gender and racism in South Africa – Historical perspectives organised by 
Masimanyane Womens’ Support Centre


Poetry
Mama Wipe Your Tears by Righteous the Common Man

>From the first moment of my consciousness
My perception of you was that you are the greatest
Ever since that moment you’ve been to me
the only goddess I know and respect
Many have tried to deny the value of your presence
and yet they survived by sucking milk from your breasts
Your existence has always been the essence of life to mankind 
Mama pleeze wipe your tears
Echoes of your cries in my heart is all I hear
Swallow your fears coz the glorious times are near
Mama pleeze wipe your tears 
For so many centuries you’ve been in misery
coz only you can comprehend the complexities of your tragedies
you’d always manage to overcome adversities
Your hospitality has caused you so many enemies
because they were guided by selfish needs, vanity and greed
They turned many of your children into hungry beasts
Divide and rule was the golden rule of these subhuman beings
They are the fools who glorify destructive tools 
Their passion is orchestration of atrocities
But they’ll always fail to diminish your everlasting spirit
Mama pleeze wipe your tears
Echoes of your cries in my heart is all I hear
Swallow your fears coz the glorious times are near
Mama pleeze wipe your tears

[End of Issue 1 Part 2]


---------------------------------------------
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From jradloff at iafrica.com  Mon Aug 27 15:27:54 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:04 2007
Subject: [WA-News] Intersections - Covering Gender & the WCAR NGO Forum
Message-ID: <0GIQ00GLDDWGQ5@smtp07.iafrica.com>

Intersections – Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum, Durban 2001
Issue 1 – Part 1
*****************************************************************
This bulletin is an APC-Africa-Women project, implemented by Women’sNet South 
Africa. 
For the full version or to add your stories and information please go to:
http://www.apc.org/intersections

About us:
Women’sNet is a joint project of the Southern African Non-Governmental 
Organisation Network (SANGONeT) and the Commission on Gender Equality. It is a 
vibrant and innovative networking support program designed to empower South 
African women to use the Internet to find the people, issues, resources and 
tools they need for Social Action.
http://www.womensnet.org.za
 
APC-Africa-Women is a network of organisations and individuals that work to 
empower African women's organisations to access and use Information and 
Communication Technologies (ICTs) for equality and development. (APC stands for 
Association for Progressive Communications)
http://www.enda.sn/synfev/apcfemafr/indexapc.html
*****************************************************************

Items in Issue 1 – Part 1

* I have a dream of reparations and more by Leonard Tim Hector
* Racism, Colonialism, and the heritage of Slavery By Yvette Abrahams, 
Research Co-ordinator ‡Khib Women's Centre
* Guerrilla reports by  Elizabeth Araujo,

******************************************************************
I Have A Dream of Reparations and more

By Leonard Tim Hector

The other day I had to marvel at the ignorance, the conservative stupidity of 
some of the black men who taught me. I came across an article by one of my 
former teachers, one Leonard Shorey, arguing the white man’s case for not 
paying reparations for centuries of Black slavery. Shorey made the white 
supremacist case better than any Klu  Klux Klan high priest would have done. He 
argued that since Black men sold other black men into slavery, whites were not 
solely responsible for slavery – blacks were too - and therefore, no 
reparations should be paid.

I have rarely seen such ahistorical simple equation reasoning in all my life. I 
shudder to think that such foolishness taught me as they attempted to make me 
grow up stupid under the union jack.

This view reflects ignorance of the fact that where one finds oppression, 
members of the oppressed group help to enforce their own oppression. It was 
true for mediaeval Serfs, and for Jews in Hitler’s holocaust. 

This argument is as stupid as saying that because Jews participated and 
collaborated in the holocaust, there should have been no trial at Nuremberg, no 
trial of Eichman. 
 
This argument also reflect lack of knowledge of the origins of slavery, so 
eloquently outlined in one of the most celebrated passages in history, found in 
the opening of CLR James’ world-renowned Black Jacobins - the one historical 
and sociological analysis of plantation society which puts the Neanderthal 
views of Shorey in the schoolboy’s rubbish bin:
"The tribal wars from which the European pirates [of slaves] claimed to deliver 
the African people were mere sham-fights; it was a great battle when half-a-
dozen men were killed. It was on a peasantry in many respects superior to the 
Serfs in large areas of Europe, that the slave trade fell. Tribal life was 
broken up and millions of detribalised Africans were let loose upon each other. 
The unceasing destruction of crops led to cannibalism; the captive women became 
concubines and degraded the status of the wife. Tribes had to supply slaves or 
be sold as slaves themselves. Violence and ferocity became the necessities for 
survival and violence and ferocity survived. The stockades of grinning skulls, 
the human sacrifices, the selling of their own children as slaves, these 
horrors were the product of an intolerable pressure on the African peoples, 
which became fiercer through the centuries as the demands of industry increased 
and the methods of coercion were perfected."

If every West Indian schoolgirl and boy had to learn this passage it could help 
to remove some of the black guilt and inferiority complexes which plague some 
of us, making us enemies of our own people. We in the Caribbean have hailed 
as "great teachers" men who were authoritarian and brutish, who believed that 
blacks were so incorrigible and hard-headed that the strap as an instrument of 
coercion and unmitigated violence became the principal instrument of education. 
It needs to be said that teachers, in their authoritarianism, unbridled 
arrogance, and undiluted reactionary views, made us all uncritical objects of 
our subjection and subordination. They did not lead us out, but reinforced our 
inferiority and accommodation to oppression. 

Views like that of Shorey are echoed by those who white wash Dr King’s legacy 
with his "I Have A Dream" speech - which is all most modern people know of him. 
By glorifying this speech, America has tried to reduce one of the finest men of 
the 20th century to mere oratorical brilliance. King was much more than that 
and was one of the key figures who called for reparations as demonstrated in a 
striking passage from, “Why We Can’t Wait":

"No amount of gold could provide an adequate compensation for the exploitation 
and humiliation of the Negro in America [or the Caribbean, or Brazil] down 
through the centuries. Not all the wealth of this affluent [American] society 
could meet the bill. Yet a price can be placed upon unpaid wages. The ancient 
common law has always provided a remedy for the appropriation of one human 
being by another. The law should be made to apply for American [Caribbean and 
Brazilian] Negroes. The payment should be in the form of a massive program by 
the government of special, compensatory measures, which could be regarded as a 
settlement in accordance with the accepted practice of common law. Such 
measures would certainly be less expensive than any computation based on two 
centuries of unpaid wages and accumulated interest. I am proposing, therefore, 
that just as we granted a GI Bill of rights to war veterans, America launch a 
broad based and gigantic Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged, our veterans of 
the long siege of denial."

The Rev. Michael Eric Dyson did an analysis of King’s profound and enduring 
demand for reparations. Dyson noted that "[o]ne of the greatest pitfalls of 
idolising the "I Have A Dream" speech and failing to grapple with King’s views 
on compensation to blacks is that it obscures King’s dramatic change of heart 
and mind about the roots of racism."

There is no doubt that King hoped for a colour-blind society. But he came to 
recognise that its realisation would come "only as oppression and racism were 
destroyed." It is impossible to understand King’s hope for society where men 
and women will be judged not by the colour of their skin – but by the content 
of their character - without holding uppermost in mind that though King 
believed that the concept of white supremacy is so imbedded in white society 
that many whites "are unconscious racists," some do confront notions of their 
racial superiority and struggle to overcome it. 

However, King himself in "A Christmas Sermon on Peace", acknowledged on 
Christmas Eve 1967 to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation "that not long 
after talking about the dream in Washington, I started seeing it turn into a 
nightmare." King, with his marvellous and unrivalled cadence of speech, spoke 
of the degrading poverty he observed in U.S. ghettos "as the antithesis of his 
dream". He and said that "if something isn’t done, and in a hurry, to bring the 
coloured peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long 
years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed."

It is obvious that such injustice must be overcome and overthrown. It is 
obvious too, that it is in this "necessity or fear of a worse evil" that the 
overwhelming majority of the world’s working people live.

It is well to note when slavery was abolished by the British in the Caribbean, 
millions of pounds sterling compensation or reparations was paid to the slave-
owners in 1834, the perpetrators of the worst inhumanity of man to man. The 
victims, enslaved Africans, were paid not a cent. It is full time to correct 
that grave historical wrong.

The colonization of the world by Europeans was not an act of Innocence. It was 
not a charitable act by any fantasy of the imagination or any objective  
analysis. Entire cosmologies were dumped on the trash heap of a crusading 
European ideology that meant to plunder, not only the peoples’ mind, but their 
bodies as well (Reading, 1950). The liberation of the minds of the African 
people will be a tougher battle than the eradication of settler regimes.


[Editors’ note: This article is an extract from a much longer article].

RACISM, COLONIALISM, AND THE HERITAGE OF SLAVERY

By Yvette Abrahams, Research Co-ordinator ‡Khib Women's Centre


In my work on eighteenth and early nineteenth century South African history, I 
have spent five years writing about the enslavement of the Khoekhoe (the 
indigenous peoples of South Africa) during this period. A volume later, it 
still seems to me that I have left much unsaid. What does it mean to be 
enslaved in your native land? What are the cultural consequences of this 
process, not only amongst the Khoekhoe themselves, but also in the society 
which has developed, and gained wealth upon their unpaid labour? Above all, 
what is the cultural legacy of two hundred and fifty year's of slavery? I have 
come to believe that the racist and sexist stereotypes developed during this 
formative period of South African history came to affect not only the Khoekhoe, 
but eventually all other Black people. Today, we would like to think slavery is 
over. We can believe this only because we are a society in denial about the 
racism which still exists.

I would like to begin by defining slavery from a gendered perspective as a 
system of institutionalized rape. This is reflected in the legal system at the 
time, which defined slaves as property, that is, objects without a motive will. 
A slave woman could therefore, by definition, not be raped. She could not be 
raped because, by definition, she could neither consent nor refuse any use of 
her body. While Khoekhoe women were, by and large, not legally enslaved, but 
rather owned and used under a category of  "prisoners of war", this legal 
definition of slavery tended to be reflected in the cultural and social systems 
in which the Khoekhoe also, perforce, had to live. Colonial society was one in 
which women of colour, Black women, could not be raped. Uses and abuses of 
their bodies, both as sexual beings and as free labour power, were part of the 
social fabric.

What is the legacy of this system? First, there is the issue of the profits 
which were made off these women's unpaid work. Today one of the widest fault-
lines between the races is that of wealth. The descendants of slave women are 
poor, the descendants of slave owners are rich. Because slavery was a system 
based on racial difference, this outcome is a clearly racist outcome. 

Second, the stereotype of Black women as constantly sexually available is one 
which is still with us in our mass media and literary culture. The woman who 
could not, would not, say no, is still a constant in the South African social 
consciousness. Regardless of the efforts of the women's movement in spreading 
awareness of the need for a human rights culture even for women, it is time 
that we realized we are up against centuries of history. We need to be 
realistic in our expectations of how long it will take to rectify that.

Third, there is the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder. Rape trauma 
syndrome has been shown to affect individuals detrimentally for years, 
sometimes decades, after the traumatic event. Some women never really get over 
it. Now, think of this in terms of social psychology! It is not so that the 
women who lived through slavery were in any way treated for their trauma, on 
the contrary, in addition to their constant vulnerability to sexual violence, 
they had to work harder than any human beings should have to work. Yet it has 
been demonstrated that the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorders can be 
passed on from generation to generation. So what we can be said to have here is 
two and a half centuries of rape trauma syndrome, followed by the final land 
dispossession of the Khoekhoe, followed by segregation, followed by apartheid. 
Where has been the opportunity for us as a people to heal, not just the psychic 
wounds of our own time, but our legacy of generations of unhealed, festering, 
wounds caused by slavery as a system of institutionalized rape? Is it 
acceptable for leaders of this country now to turn their back on us, the 
descendants of slaves and Khoekhoe, and expect us to move on as if nothing has 
happened? How does our past history and our present abandonment affect us, our 
activism, and the possibilities of building a strong culture of human rights, 
when our right to a healthy mind was taken from us long before we were born? 

Finally, there is the crucial issue of reparations. For anyone not stricken 
with collective amnesia, it is clear that the legacy of slavery is still with 
us. To deny this legacy is to deprive our female forebears the respect due to 
them. They survived a system the inhumanity of which we are hard put to imagine 
today.  To give just one example amongst many to make this point clear: there 
is a law firm, Fairbridge Arderne and Lawton, which owned slaves in the 
nineteenth century. This firm still exists; as a legal person it presents an 
unbroken continuity with the era of slavery. The profits this firm made from 
the unpaid labour of colonized human beings have either remained in the firm or 
been distributed to its partners over the past two centuries. The descendants 
of those slaves remain poor. The question I want to pose is: does this firm, 
and the many, many legal persons who have historically profited from slavery, 
have no moral obligation to make restitution? Should it not be making some 
contribution to a mental health service for the descendants of slaves? It is 
not a complex exercise to calculate the value of the unpaid labour, to say 
nothing of the human suffering, inflicted by this legal person. 

The issue of reparations is not about restitution - there can be no restitution 
for the suffering of our female ancestors. Their lives cannot be measured in 
money. Neither do I consider reparations necessary for punitive purposes. The 
harm that was done was done - there is nothing we can do to undo it. But I do 
believe that we need reparations to safeguard the future. This paper concludes 
by arguing that the only way we can build a human rights culture which is 
secure and stable for generations is to ensure accountability. To walk away 
from our history in South Africa, to pretend that it is over when the pain and 
suffering of our history is still so obviously part of us, is the surest way to 
risk the proliferation of human rights abuses. People need to take 
responsibility for what they have done and what they have profited from. Only 
when potential abusers know that their abuse shall be tracked down to the last 
detail, no matter how matter over how long the centuries; and only when the 
last profit of human rights abuses is paid over to its victims; only then will 
we be able to rest at ease, secure in the knowledge that the girl-children yet 
to be born have a fighting chance to lead decent lives. 

===============================
Guerrilla reports:
Our Guerrilla reporter, Elizabeth Araujo, asked people at the conference what 
their expectations of the NGO Forum were. Here is what they said:

Our organisation is expecting to learn strategies for dealing with issues of 
racism at  different levels. We want to find out what are the best strategies 
that others have adopted and to create as much awareness as possible. Racism is 
not an issue of Black and White. It exists even where you speak the same 
language and have the same skin colour.
Barrister Oby Nwankwo 
Executive Director of CIRDDOC  (Civil Resource Development and Documentation 
Centre ) in Nigeria, which addresses human rights violations.

To now be free from the hands of the oppressor. The rights that have been 
denied us will be restored to us. Our presence here will be an eye-opener…Human 
rights going global is not an exception.
Paul Anike
At the conference with CIRDDOC

We have to come out with very good visions to fight racism. Not only ideas, but 
actions.
Omer Kebiwou Kalameu
Consultant Researcher in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Coordinator for 
International Service for Refugees and Peace

I think there’ll be some change, things like not to treat people badly, to 
treat people fairly, equally. We are the same.
Osborne Gwala
South African citizen

I find it strange that in the year 2001 we’re having a Racism Conference. In 
fact, that we’ve spent all these resources to get  people here. It shouldn’t 
have been about colour; it’s  a question of human beings getting along. It’s 
about tolerance, people trusting. Trust and love – human emotions that have 
been prostituted.
Connie Nagiah
Conference Media Liaison Team

To ease the tension between people – Black, White, Coloured, Indian, men and 
women. Let’s move away from that. People are people – each to their own and 
lets respect each others cultures.” & “Basically people are people.
Fikile and Sengetile
South Africans at Conference

I’m hoping for a greater awareness of issues.
Erika Harriford
Human Rights Advocates, Inc.

[End of Intersections Issue 1 Part
1]

---------------------------------------------
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From jradloff at iafrica.com  Tue Aug 28 16:17:27 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:04 2007
Subject: [WA-News] INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS (ICFTU)
Message-ID: <0GIS007ZOAV6UT@smtp07.iafrica.com>

(Throughout the week in Durban, the LABOUR CAUCUS (all are welcome) will
meet at 8.30am at the ICFTU booth in the exhibition area)

INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS (ICFTU)
ICFTU OnLine... 135/310801/CL 

Trade unions say NO to racism and xenophobia (I)

Because of their race, the colour of their skin or their national origin,
more and more people today are the target of serious discrimination at the
workplace, on the labour market and in the community.  Determined to combat
this phenomenon and its impact on the trade union struggle for social
justice and freedom, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
has accepted the invitation by the United Nations to attend its World
Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban,
from August 31 to September 7.  It sees this conference as a unique
opportunity to share its experience with other participants and press home
its demands on this important issue.

What is the scale of the problem? What are unions on the ground doing to
fight it? What is the ICFTU fighting for at the Durban conference? ICFTU
Online answers these questions in three instalments.

WORLDWIDE INCREASE IN NEGATIVE TREND

(By Cécilia Locmant)

Brussels/Durban August 28, 2001 (ICFTU OnLine): Inter-ethnic violence in
Africa, racial tensions in North America,  rejection of foreign workers in
Europe, marginalisation of South American Indians, economic exploitation of
migrants in Asia.  A quick look around the globe today shows an alarming
level of racism and xenophobia.  And while this intolerance may take many
different forms, the general trend is the same:  acts of racism are on the
rise everywhere and affect the most vulnerable people and groups.

According to a 1998 report of the United Nations, no region is immune to the
rise in racist violence. Whether in developed or developing countries,
migrant workers are subjected to increasing discrimination. "This problem
also exists in Africa where many countries have organised the large-scale
deportation of undocumented immigrants on board chartered aircraft or
detained them in camps before having them repatriated". Another development
of great concern to the United Nations is the emergence of conflicts of an
ethnic nature. "In some sub-Saharan African countries, the document says,
certain criteria (territory, language, race) for ascertaining where ethnic
minorities come from are not only used as factors in integration and
unification but can also be used as a means of differentiating between the
respective ethnic groups. If these criteria are used to emphasise
differences, this could lead to serious conflicts". The events of recent
months would appear to have proved the UN specialists right. Take, for
instance, the case of Cote d'Ivoire, where the concept of what constitutes a
native of the country is today the origin of increasing hostility towards
foreigners. This danger was highlighted by  Senegalese President Abdoulaye
Wade at the African regional conference against racism,  which was held in
Dakar last January when he said that "Africans would do better to
concentrate on the real problems of the continent, notably ethnic conflicts
and fratricide"(1). 

Another reason for xenophobic violence and mass expulsions in Africa is the
problem of access to resources, which became an issue in the 1980s when the
Nigerian President at the time, Shehu Shagari, tried to deport all illegal
immigrants from the country "in 15 days". This action was repeated several
years later by his successor, Mohamed Buhari, faced with 90,000 Ghanaians as
well as immigrants from Benin and  Chad.  Moreover,  at the Dakar Regional
Conference,  Mary Robinson pointed to the economic and social situation of
the region and the Aids epidemic as factors in the rise of racism.   

In the recent history of sub-Saharan Africa, there has been a dramatic
increase in ethnic conflicts (the genocide in Rwanda in 1994), wars and
environmental catastrophes (famine, drought) which have all had a major
impact on the increase in the number of refugees on the African continent
(see box). All these civilian populations are a difficult burden to bear for
the respective African host nations and have often been the cause of
increasing distrust and hostility on the part of local communities.

North America's response to increasing multi-ethnicity

A report published in December 2000 by the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) on racism in the American labour market highlighted two
important facts:  whereas companies have never invested as intensively in
managing their staff diversity, the number of complaints by minorities
claiming discrimination in matters of promotion has never been so high. More
than 5,000 complaints were registered for the financial year ending on 30
September 2000, compared with 3,208 registered 10 years previously.
Representatives of many multinationals have also been accused. After a law
suit brought by black members of staff last November, the Coca-Cola company
was forced to pay out compensation of nearly $200 million to some 2,000
black employees. Other industrial groups, such as Texaco and Boeing, have
also been taken to court for similar offences. 

What is more disturbing is that racial discrimination is spreading to other
areas of society. Two reports published within months of each other by the
US State and Justice Departments which highlighted widespread  ignorance
regarding the existence of racism within white communities and the fact that
it was reflected, on a daily basis (in lower incomes, longer prison
sentences and insufficient access to education and health care) for the
members of most minority groups. 

The prime reason given by both reports for the rise in racial tension is the
growing diversity of the American population. While the 196.1 million  white
Americans are still a majority, their proportion in the overall  population
dropped from 75.7% to 71.9% between 1991 and 2000. During that same period,
the Asian population rose by 46% (to reach 10.9 million) and the Hispanic
population rose by 40% (to reach 31.4 million), the population of native
Americans rose by 16% (to reach 2.4 million) and the percentage of black
Americans went up by 14% (to reach 34.9 million).

Europeans face mounting racist violence

In October 2000,  at a preparatory meeting for the United Nations World
Conference Against Racism, the 41 Member States of the Council of Europe
expressed alarm at the violent manifestations of racism and anti-semitism.
"Migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, displaced persons, non-nationals,
indigenous peoples or persons such as Roma/Gypsies  are still all too often
victims of continued and widespread racism and discrimination,  and
contemporary forms of slavery, in Europe and other parts of the world."
What sort of incidents are they referring to?  What do they mean by violent
racism and xenophobia?  Sadly, there are all too many examples to chose from
in Europe.  Think back to the persecution of the Kosovar Albanians in 1999,
or more recently the rise of the extreme right in some EU countries, the
orchestrated attacks in the Andalusian province of  Almeria against North
African workers, or the fatal fires that destroyed the homes of Turkish
immigrants in Germany.  These headline grabbing incidents of racial violence
however are sadly not the only ones to rock the European democratic boat.
Other forms of discrimination, less concentrated and therefore harder to
identify, are also on the increase, in the criminal justice system, in
education, employment, housing and the provision of or access to goods and
services.  The latest report of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and
Xenophobia (EUMC, set up the European Union in 1997 following the June
Directive prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic
origin)  gives many examples.

The legacy of colonialism and slavery

Participants at a meeting organised by Central American NGOs held in Mexico
in November 2000 fiercely criticised  the situation in this region of the
continent.  They pointed  out that Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras,
Nicaragua and Costa Rica did not show sufficient willingness to apply the
international agreements and resolutions intended to fight racism.   Indeed,
the existence of racism and racial discrimination is ignored or even denied
which, in the opinion of the participants, was "tantamount to brushing aside
the historical consequences which colonisation, slavery and the various
waves of migration have had, and are continuing to have,  on the situation
in the region."  They stressed that these phenomena primarily affect the 80
different groups of  indigenous populations,  i.e. at least 12 million
Mexicans and over 6 million people from other Central American countries. 

The same forms of racism are also encountered in the rest of Latin America.
For instance, in Brazil, a country for which recent statistics are
available, blacks suffer flagrant discrimination on the labour market: their
level of unemployment is higher,  they are in the lower- paid jobs and
rarely hold management positions.  A report written by the Inter-American
Trade Union Institute for Racial Equality (INSPIR) in 1999 reviewed the
position of black workers in the six largest cities in the country. While
Brasilia did not come out of this exercise too badly, there was clearly
unequal treatment of black workers in northern cities such as Recife and
Salvador.  About 26% of black Brazilians are reportedly out of work,
compared with 18% for the rest of the population. Only 9% occupy responsible
positions, compared with 30% amongst other ethnic minorities. The report
also reveals significant disparities in wages between black and non-black
Brazilians, with the latter earning on average 40% more than the former.
When this report was presented, Vicente Paulo da Silva, President of the
CUT, did not hide his concern about the very worrying position of black
Brazilian workers. He explained that the data in the report should be used
as a means of fighting discrimination of black workers more effectively. 

Rough deal for Asia's migrants

In December 1999, the ILO organised a regional Asia-Pacific symposium for
trade unions active in the defence of migrant workers' rights. Recognising
that this workforce now constitutes a permanent component of the region's
economies, the ILO issued a warning that certain negative consequences of
globalisation (in particular with regard to employment) made migrant workers
much less welcome in the eyes of the local populations.   Some blame them
for the deteriorating economic situation and call for their repatriation.
According to the ILO, while the migrant labour force represents only a small
percentage of the labour force worldwide, its presence in the Asia-Pacific
region has substantially increased in the past 30 years. In addition to
their important role in countries like Australia and New Zealand, which to a
large extent were colonised by them, migrant workers have become essential
not only for the economies of the Middle East but also those of Malaysia and
Singapore (where they account for up to 20 or 25% of the national labour
force). The same applies to the countries in East Asia, although to a lesser
extent. While over the past 10 years, the countries sending migrants have
remained more or less the same (in Southern and Southeast Asia), the
principal destinations for migrants have followed the pattern of economic
growth (East and Southeast Asia). 

Under what kind of conditions do they have to work? Whereas skilled foreign
workers - who are in the minority - on the whole enjoy good working
conditions, this is far from true for unskilled workers. Most of these
workers have to go through placement agencies acting as intermediaries in
the host countries and, consequently,  have to pay back money advanced by
these agencies to pay for their trip.  They are usually taken on for only a
fixed period of time and draw very low wages. Many of the agencies involved
are in fact illegal and do not act in the interests of the workers they send
abroad. There are dishonest agents operating at both ends of the chain aided
by complicit senior civil servants in the various host countries. Another
aspect of economic migration is the rise in the number of undocumented
immigrants, who account for 30 to 40% of the 6 million migrants in Asia. An
increasing number of them are reportedly also falling victim to trafficking
networks, especially in China, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines and India.
Particularly serious forms of economic exploitation, some of which are, in
actual fact,  forms of slavery have been the lot of all too many migrants. 

(1)	Liberation, 23/1/2001.

For more information about the ICFTU's participation in Durban:
http://www.icftu.org/focus.asp?Issue=racism

"Trade unions say NO to racism and xenophobia" is available on the ICFTU web
site: http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991213208&Language=EN

For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224
0232 or +32 476 62 10 18.

The ICFTU delegation can be contacted in Durban on +32 495288.536, and
eklatramos@aol.com.

The ICFTU represents more than 156 millions workers in 221 affiliated
organisation in 148 countries and territories. ICFTU is also member of
Global Unions: http://www.global-unions.org 


---------------------------------------------
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From jradloff at iafrica.com  Wed Aug 29 15:19:50 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:04 2007
Subject: [WA-News] Intersections - Covering Gender & the WCAR NGO Forum
Message-ID: <0GIU0034K2SELI@smtp06.iafrica.com>

Intersections – Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum, Durban 2001
Issue 2 – Part 1
*****************************************************************
This bulletin is an APC-Africa-Women project, implemented by Women’sNet South 
Africa.  For the full version or to add your stories and information please go 
to: http://www.apc.org/intersections
email:women@womensnet.org.za

**About us**
Women’sNet is a joint project of the Southern African Non-Governmental 
Organisation Network (SANGONeT) and the Commission on Gender Equality. It is a 
vibrant and innovative networking support program designed to empower South 
African women to use the Internet to find the people, issues, resources and 
tools they need for Social Action.
http://www.womensnet.org.za
 
APC-Africa-Women is a network of organisations and individuals that work to 
empower African women's organisations to access and use Information and 
Communication Technologies (ICTs) for equality and development. (APC stands for 
Association for Progressive Communications)
http://www.enda.sn/synfev/apcfemafr/indexapc.html
******************************************************************
Items in Issue 2 – Part 1

1. People’s Reaction
By Xolie Langa

2. Poverty, Gender and Landlessness in South Africa
By Samantha Hargreaves from the National Land Committee

3. No resolution but vital work done at Youth Summit 
By Samira Bayat, Happy Mzaca and Thobani Gumede
============================================

People’s Reaction
By Xolie Langa

The world community currently gathered in Durban has been mingling as if they 
have always known each other. The atmosphere is  alive with electricity.

There is no doubt that  everyone who has come to Durban for the World 
Conference Against Racism (WCAR) is wanting a change. Shortly before the 
opening ceremony, songs of jubilation were being sung in the stadium. When Mary 
Robinson of the United Nations took the stand and announced the issue of 
Palestine was to be discussed , the stadium errupted in applause.

We asked some participants in the stadium what they thought of the conference:
Joel Jones of Atlanta, USA said, '' I think with South Africa being a new 
democracy, they need to hold this kind of event.  I have found the people of 
Durban to be very friendly'.'

Keith Malo from Nigeria said he felt all the bad publicity  South Africa has 
been getting in the media is uncalled for. ''I almost didn't come, only to find 
this is a visitor friendly city'.'
Many people said they expected to be mugged upon arriving, only to find people 
who want to help them.

Mussafa Abdull from Egypt said  he hoped the conference would find a solution 
to the problems of Palestine,''It has been going on for a long time and it is 
about time it stopped. I hope it happens on African soil.''
====================================

Poverty, Gender and Landlessness in South Africa
By Samantha Hargreaves from the National Land Committee

Land is a precious resource for sustenance and livelihood. It is crucial to the 
preservation and development of culture and identity, and to have place to 
call “home”. This remains a distant hope for millions of poor, black, rural 
women in South Africa today. In the past seven years of our new democracy, 
black rural women have stood alongside their male kin and brethren, awaiting 
the restoration of land systematically taken from black people during 
colonialism and apartheid. Since 1994, South Africa has seen a mere 2% of land 
transferred from whites to blacks through the land reform programmes of 
government. Land ownership patterns are still highly skewed - about 85% of land 
remains in the hands of white people who constitute only 11% of the total 
population!

Racially skewed land ownership patterns are the legacy of almost 350 years of 
colonialism and apartheid. The state has sought to address it through a market-
based land reform programme in which it plays a small minimalist role. This 
land policy operates within and is shaped by a neo-liberal macro-economic 
policy that has come under serious criticism by progressive forces of civil 
society. This policy is responsible for the increased unemployment, low 
investment in social infrastructure and resource redistribution programmes like 
land reform, as well as higher prices for basic services.  The combination of 
these factors has had particularly devastating consequences for poor urban and 
rural women.

Land reform is framed by a constitutional commitment by which government must 
respect and protect existing property rights. This “property rights” clause 
means that land will only become available on a “willing buyer - willing 
seller” basis, and further guarantees that existing land-owners will be 
compensated  - at market rates – for any privately owned land the government 
targets for land redistribution. In establishing the legal framework within 
which land reform would occur, the constitution gave force and effect to a 
continued racially skewed pattern of land ownership established over centuries 
of colonisation and apartheid. This constitutional commitment has placed real 
legal and financial constraints on a potentially far-reaching programme of land 
redistribution. Instead of bringing about substantive changes in land 
distribution, the land reform programme – as far as the poor and landless rural 
communities are concerned - serves to further reproduce a legacy of racially-
based discrimination and oppression.

Racism - and the land distribution pattern created by it - was actively 
advanced by successive colonial and apartheid governments. Since the arrival of 
the colonists on the shores of South Africa in 1652, a battery of laws and 
institutions forced and legitimated the annexation of indigenous land and 
coerced Africans off their land so as to provide labour to white-owned mines 
and farms. 

Colonisation had particular consequences and effects for African women. 
Successive colonial and apartheid laws barred African women from migrating to 
urban centres and condemned them to barren areas reserved for exclusive 
occupation by Africans. Through African custom, African women were also 
prevented from gaining independent rights and access to land, giving rise to a 
gendered pattern of landholding within former reserves or homeland areas.

The highly unequal and racially-based as well as sexist distribution of land 
must be eradicated if we are to defeat racism and the increasing feminisation 
of poverty. This can only be achieved if the state plays an active and 
interventionist role. With its heavily reliance on the market, the state’s 
current programme of land reform will not correct the enormous social and 
economic imbalances of the past. Poor, black rural women, who live on the 
fringes of society with minimal access to resources, education and 
organisation, are most disadvantaged by a neo-liberal, market oriented land 
reform programme.  

The relentless process of land dispossession suffered by black people has not 
been uncontested. In the midst of massive state intervention to deprive black 
people of their land, communities and individuals have tenaciously struggled to 
defend their rights to land. This struggle for land remains a feature today. 
Communities are using a wide range of tools and strategies, including the 
threat of actual land occupations, to assert their need for land and register 
their concern about the slow delivery of land reform.

Poor rural women and men are grasping the nettle, setting the agenda, and 
determining the parameters of a new programme for land reform that will 
fundamentally recast the social and economic landscape in South Africa. It is 
struggle, forged and fought from below, as well as centred on the experiences 
and needs of the poorest rural women, that will see the racist and sexist 
legacy of our past soundly defeated.

Support the Landlessness=Racism campaign by joining us at the Landless People’s 
Assembly on the 30th August at Hoy Park, 9:00am to 6:00pm and March with Us to 
Demand Real Land Reform on the 31st August, beginning at Natal Technikon, 
10:00am.

===================
No resolution but vital work done at Youth Summit 
By Samira Bayat, Happy Mzaca and Thobani Gumede

The WCAR youth Summit, held on the 26th and 27th August at the Elangeni Hotel 
in Durban, ended yesterday without the adoption of a final Declaration or 
Programme of Action. However, a work in progress was handed to the UN 
Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson at the closing ceremony of the 
Summit.

Failure to reach a resolution on a final document can be attributed to the fact 
that consensus was not reached on some issues and proposals for amendments were 
still being put forward. The plan now is to hold a series of meetings to help 
resolve the issues and amendments that are outstanding so that an official 
document can be adopted. 

At the last meeting, held prior to the closing of the Summit last night, 
delegates raised some concerns about the way forward as well as the follow-up 
mechanisms to be put into place. The main concern was that the written 
recommendations would not be translated into practice once delegates returned 
to their home countries. The general consensus on this, repeated by many 
delegates from around the world, was that the Summit would be rendered an 
exercise in futility, unless, it was backed up by concrete forms of action and 
practical application.

Although the outcome of the Youth Summit did not include a final resolution, 
there was agreement that the work that had been done was of vital importance. 
The responsibility now shifts to each delegate who participated in the process 
to take the message back home and ensure that some practical value comes from 
it. 

[End Issue 2 Part 1]



---------------------------------------------
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From jradloff at iafrica.com  Wed Aug 29 15:23:37 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:04 2007
Subject: [WA-News] Intersections =?UNKNOWN?Q?=96?= Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum,
 Durban 2001
Message-ID: <0GIU0058M2YGN2@smtp06.iafrica.com>

Intersections – Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum, Durban 2001
Issue 2 – Part 2
*****************************************************************
This bulletin is an APC-Africa-Women project, implemented by Women’sNet South 
Africa. 
For the full version or to add your stories and information please go to:
http://www.apc.org/intersections

**About us**
Women’sNet is a joint project of the Southern African Non-Governmental 
Organisation Network (SANGONeT) and the Commission on Gender Equality. It is a 
vibrant and innovative networking support program designed to empower South 
African women to use the Internet to find the people, issues, resources and 
tools they need for Social Action.
http://www.womensnet.org.za
email: women@womensnet.org.za

APC-Africa-Women is a network of organisations and individuals that work to 
empower African women's organisations to access and use Information and 
Communication Technologies (ICTs) for equality and development. (APC stands for 
Association for Progressive Communications)
http://www.enda.sn/synfev/apcfemafr/indexapc.html
******************************************************************
Items in Issue 2 – Part 2

1. Gay group banned from WCAR written by Mark Brooks
2. Racism in the home written by Nothile Mcayana
3. SANGOCO President Mercia Andrews addresses WCAR NGO Forum African Regional 
Meeting written by Miriam Menkiti 
4. Women on FIRE!

====================
Gay group banned from WCAR
By Mark Brooks

Although the World Conference Against Racism does not begin in earnest until 
next week, the summit has already generated its fare share of controversy. In 
addition to the as yet undetermined question of U.S. participation and the 
debate over whether Zionism should or should not be on the agenda, another 
issue has been smouldering. 

The Belgium-based International Gay and Lesbian Association had applied to the 
UN for observer status at the world gathering. However, earlier this month, 
participating UN countries held a vote banning the organization from attending.

Led by Malaysia, a bloc of predominantly Muslim countries stood firm against 
the gay and lesbian umbrella organization, which had won support from most 
Western countries. Delegates voted 43-43, with 27 abstentions. Under conference 
rules, a tie throws out the application. South Africa, who declined to cast a 
vote, could have tipped the balance in the ILGA’s favour.

Muslim countries are among the most vocal at the UN in opposing groups fighting 
for homosexual rights. In some of these nations, homosexuality is illegal, 
sometimes punishable by death. The victory demonstrated the bloc's strength as 
many of its members push to have Israel denounced in the final declaration of 
the conference.
Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, has expressed alarm that the conference 
had "opened up deep fissures on a number of sensitive issues. We need a 
declaration that ... inspires all peoples."

============================
Racism in the home By Nothile Mcayana

It is clear on the faces of confererence participants that they want the very 
curable disease of racism to be beaten.

Some women participants at the WCAR spoke of how they have experienced racism 
in their homes and in the outside world. A Ugandan woman talked of her 
experience of racism in her home.

"I've been married to my white husband for six years, but my in laws don't want 
to accept the fact that we love each other till death do us apart. They have 
been treating me like I'm  not a member of the family (an intruder) because I 
am black" Angela Kigdo Anderson said.

Kigdo Anderson said her in-laws have called her names that are hard to repeat. 
She says she cannot leave her husband because her children need both her and 
her husband, and she does not want her children to grow up in a single parent 
family.

She concluded by advising all women never to allow anyone to look down on 
them. " Sisters out there, stand up for what you believe in".

======================================
SANGOCO President Mercia Andrews Addresses WCAR NGO Forum African Regional 
Meeting By Miriam Menkiti

As the  WCAR NGO Forum continues with meetings, workshops and  roundtable 
discussions, SANGOCO President Ms. Mercia Andrews
addressed the Africa Regional caucus meeting yesterday.[Tuesday] Ms Andrews 
expressed happiness that the Africa caucus gets together to discuss issues 
which they need to tackle. She said though many Africans were participating in 
the NGO Forum, many more needed to have attended   since it was taking place in 
Africa. According to her, Africans 
should ensure that the questions of colonialism, reparations and slavery 
do not fall out of the  agenda of the conference. She advised them to be
committed to the caucus and organize themselves to be active in the 
WCAR conference so as to make relevant contributions.

Ms Andrews emphasized the need for NGOs from Africa to study the  Draft 
declaration. Find out what they want and make their position known at the 
forum. Africans ,she said must make their issues loud.

**Miriam Menkiti is a Nigerian journalist and chairperson Nigeria Association 
Of Women Journalists [NAWOJ] Enugu State Chapter.
=================================
Women on FIRE!
The Feminist International Radio Endeavour is holding a  FIRE-PLACE and will 
broadcast live daily from the Women’sNet Internet Café from 18h00 till 20h30 . 
The broadcasts can be heard on the Internet during the NGO Forum and the 
Official Conference and will also post regular news updates on their web site 
featuring women's perspectives and participation. Tune in from the FIRE web 
site at: www://fire.or.cr

[End Issue 2 Part 2]


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From karenb at gn.apc.org  Wed Aug 29 16:03:14 2001
From: karenb at gn.apc.org (karen banks)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:04 2007
Subject: [WA-News] WCAR resources and list information
Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20010828125843.02717ea0@pop.gn.apc.org>

** News from WomanAction and the World Conference Against Racism, 
Xenophobia and Other Related Intolerances (WCAR) **

dear list members!

Some of you have kindly pointed out that some of the URL references below 
are incorrect - and that the list subscription information is incomplete. 
Please find corrections below:

WomenAction Members covering WCAR (either on-site or remotely):

* WomensNet/Apc-Africa-Women 'Intersections' Gender News Bulletin 
(http://www.apc.org/intersections) (english)
* FIRE (Feminist International Radio Endeavour) 
(http://www.fire.or.cr/racismo01/wcar_main.htm) (spanish/english)
* ISIS International (Media Team) 
(http://kuanyin.isiswomen.org/campaigns/wcar/)
* ALAI (http://www.movimientos.org/foro-racismo/) (Spanish)

If you would like to share your resources with the list, please send 
information to: wa-news@womenaction.org

** Subscription/Unsubscription Information **
=============================================

Subscribing (email):
====================
Send a message to: wa-news-request@womenaction.org

with the following in the body of the message:

subscribe wa-news@womenaction.org

Subscribing (WWW):
==================
Please visit http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/wa-news and 
follow the online instructions for subscribing

Unsubscribing (email):
======================
Please send a message to karenb@gn.apc.org or jradloff@iafrica.com with 
'unsubscribe wa-news@womenaction.org' in the subject line.


Warm regards,
Karen Banks for WomenAction
===========================================================
          GreenNet Limited/GreenNet Educational Trust
4th Floor, 74-77 White Lion Street, London, N1 9PF, England
                  e-mail: karenb@gn.apc.org
       tel: +44/207-713-1941  fax: +44/207-837-5551
===========================================================


From jradloff at iafrica.com  Wed Aug 29 21:34:04 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (Jennifer Radloff)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:05 2007
Subject: [WA-News] Feminist International Radio Endeavour - reporting from Women'sNet
 CyberCafe @ WCAR
Message-ID: <NFBBLEHPGNKHJGEHKOAGAEDICAAA.jradloff@iafrica.com>

August 29, 2001
For Immediate Release from Durban, South Africa
**********************
The WomensNet CyberCafe: A Symbolic & Historic Space in the Hands of Women

By Mar?a Su?rez Toro and Margaret Thompson

Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE) (www.fire.or.cr)

The large room on the third floor of  Cricket Stadium is packed with more
than 60 computers, all occupied by journalists, communicators and
activists, busy writing news articles and other reports on e-mail to send
back home to their countries around the world about the first day of the
NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) Forum at the UN Conference Against
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and other forms of Intolerance
(WCAR) now underway in Durban, South Africa.

Welcome to the WomensNet CyberCafe, a symbolic and historic space in many
ways.  It is the first Internet Caf? organized and run by women at a UN
World  Conference, hosted by WomensNet, an African women?s organization
focused on training women in the use of new information technologies.

The CyberCafe is also a concrete example of one of the strategies being
debated at WCAR for combating racism, sexism and xenophobia in media, to
give access to and control over media and technologies in the hands of
those who are subject to discrimination, rather than to regulate and censor
the media content itself.

In addition, the WomensNet CyberCafe is also the latest temporary home of
the FIRE-PLACE, where Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE) is
producing live daily Internet broadcasts in Spanish and English about WCAR.

***************************
WomensNet Projects Focus on Women?s Access to Technology

Natasha Primo, a project manager with WomensNet, described how the Cyber
Caf? is one of several projects that her South African women?s organization
is doing to increase access to new communications technologies among
women.  She explained that they do training for women?s groups, and will
offer training in the CyberCafe for all persons and especially women who
are interested in learning to use the Internet.

WomensNet also conducts training with community radio staff on using the
Internet, as well as on bringing a gender perspective to their work to help
ensure that ?women?s interests and voices are reflected in radio
content.?   Natasha explained that WomensNet is linking new communication
technologies with traditional media and particularly community radio
?because in South Africa, radio is used especially by rural women.?    She
explained, ?We certainly see the potential of new technology, but don?t
want to put all our faith in it so that it doesn?t become a new form of
elitism.  We want to make technology accessible and have it used in a way
that is progressive and that advances the cause of gender equality within
South Africa.?  She noted that WomensNet also trains community radio staff
and other organizations on gender awareness and equality issues.

*****************
Nicaraguan Activist Opposes WCAR Language on Government Restrictions on
Racist Media Content

Discussions at WCAR have focused on how media and new communication
technologies are being used by racist and other xenophobic groups to
disseminate hate speech.  But Margarita Antonio, a community radio
communicator from Uraccan University on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua
described in an interview on the FIRE-PLACE how the negotiations of the
official WCAR document include a debate over language that calls for
governments to regulate racist and xenophobic media content including hate
speech on the Internet.

Margarita noted that members of target groups of hate speech who spoke at a
recent panel workshop oppose any government restrictions on media content
because in the long run the same groups whom the government is claming to
protect are the ones who are most often silenced with these
restrictions.  She argued that the struggle to overcome racism and break
the silence is best accomplished by creating and strengthening alternative
forms of media that are run by these marginalized groups themselves.

The need to  break the silence of those victimized by racism and xenophobia
was also emphasized by speakers at the opening ceremony of the NGO Forum of
the WCAR yesterday, including Mary Robinson, Secretary General of WCAR;
South African President Mbeki, and Marcia Andrews, President of SANGOCO.

Likewise, Dalya Massachi of Project Change in the USA noted how her
organization which focuses on ways to combat racism and break the silence
of victims is attending the NGO Forum to learn about strategies and
activities other similar organizations around the world and to build
networks.

*************************
First Night of FIRE-PLACE Focuses on Technology & Other Issues

As it has in almost every UN World Conference in the past 10 years, the
FIRE-PLACE broadcast live from WCAR in Spanish, English and Portuguese,
bringing the perspectives of women about the conference to a world
audience.  As described above, on its first webcast produced in the
WomensNet Cybercafe, FIRE staff interviewed Natasha Primo of WomensNet
about women?s access to media and new communication technologies and the
role of the Cybercafe.    Margarita Antonio of Uraccan, Nicaragua talked on
the FIRE-PLACE about the debate over government restrictions on racist
media.

Also interviewed by FIRE were Brazilians Rosalia Lemus of Culture House and
Neusa das Dores Pereira, from the Women?s Lesbian Collective of the Women?s
Issues Project.  They said they were skeptical of UN Conferences because
often governments such as theirs will issue impressive statements and
speeches at these forums, but in reality at home are implementing policy
that further marginalizes and increases poverty among the same sectors of
society that they claim to defend in conferences such as this.  But the
Brazilian women noted that they feel it is important to participate in
forums such as WCAR to make their demands be known to the international
community.

Bemardine Dixon of Uraccan, Nicaragua, also expressed her concern about the
actual impact of this conference on combatting racism.  She noted that the
forum has enabled many minority groups and other victims of racism to talk
about their issues concerns but few concrete mechanisms and practical
proposals have been created to deal with those issues and overcome racism.

  Lohana Berkins of the Association for Transvestite and Transexual
Identity in Argentina issued a call on the FIRE-PLACE to promote the
understanding of sexual and gender identity as a choice that must be
respected, contrary to what is happening in her country where more than 100
transvestites and transexuals have been killed by police becaue of their
sexual orientation.  She also described how feminism has given her and her
community a better understanding of gender identity issues and helped
improve their self esteem.

  The FIREPLACE will continue webcasting women?s voices every night between
6 :00 ? 8 :30 p.m. South Africa time from the womensNet
Cybercaf?  throughout the NGO Forum at www.fire.or.cr



From jradloff at iafrica.com  Thu Aug 30 17:48:42 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:05 2007
Subject: [WA-News] Dialogue between nations
Message-ID: <0GIW00JEW4FK6I@smtp07.iafrica.com>

INFORMATIVE BULLETIN AND INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE NOW 

DIALOGUE BETWEEN NATIONS 

during and after the UN World Conference Against Racism 

http://www.dialoguebetweennations.com 

FROM RACISM TO SELF-DETERMINATION 

August 28, 2001

Thousands of human rights advocates, individuals from diverse social, cultural 
and economic organizations,  goernments and the world press, are in South 
Africa for ten days of decision-making focused upon the need to improve the 
lives of the worlds' most marginalised and excluded communities, amongst them, 
Indigenous Peoples. 

Whether or not many of us are able to make the long journey to the United 
Nations World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and 
Related Intolerance (WCAR) in Durban, opportunities exist through the use of 
communications technologies to support those who are seeking genuine dialogue, 
or lobbying governments and international agencies in the days to come.  
Building "una cultura de confianza", an environment based in trust,  for the 
development of an agenda that acknowledges the possibilites for the creation of 
a realistic and fair program of action, which can engage the political, social 
and economic will of nation states and their citizens in the eradication of the 
doctrine of colonialism seems highly unlikely.  Without a doubt,  the debates 
between powerful nations, in the second week of events at the formal UN 
Conference, will become the buffet of international journalists, whose 
assignments will focus on the ongoing violent struggles between extremist 
factions seeking economic or religious control of territories throughout the 
world.  Many of these activities currently contribute to the ongoing genocide 
or assimilation of Indigenous communities. 

Within the framework of this UN mega-conference, DBN Digital Broadcast 
Network/Dialogue Between Nations, an Internet based webcast initiative 
operating out of Vancouver, British Columbia, in conjunction with reporters in 
the field in South Africa, is hosting ongoing  and original programming in an 
interactive format that addresses the goals of Indigenous delegates to both the 
NGO and formal UN meetings. 

This year a talented team of people working together in several parts of North 
and Central America, succesfully delivered provocative and responsible 
programming through a major tranmission from the International Broadcast Centre 
in Quebec City, during the Third Summit of the Americas, focusing on the 
exclusion of Indigenous Peoples in the hemisphere of the Americas. This archive 
can currently be viewed on the DBN site. 

Indigenous leaders in the international arena travel a very difficult road to 
find the collaboration needed to ensure that the recognition of their right to 
self determination is seriously taken up at the WCAR. 

You are invited to share testimonies or strategies, visions or case studies, 
within the virtual forums established on the DBN web site.  We anticipate that 
several Indigenous journalists, participating in the UN Office of the High 
Commissioner for Human Rights Indigenous Media Dialogue, 2000,  will be filing 
stories to complement the points of view of numerous Indigenous leaders 
throughout the world from our archives. These journalists bring with them the 
concerns of Indigenous peoples in their own countries: Kenya, Canada, the 
Philippines, Nepal, Algeria, Columbia, Panama, Kanak Islands, Australia and the 
Russian Federation. They reflect the concerns of Mohawk, Kanak and Kuna 
citizens. 

The issue of the recognition of the right of self-determination is guaranteed 
within several international instruments, yet the denial of this right 
underlies the agendas of many nation states. How can this situation be turned 
around? Be informed, become the solution.  There are seven areas you can post 
in which demand compassionate and powerful debate, in the long red road from 
Racism to Self-Determination and the empowerment of Indigenous PeopleS under 
international law.  Might we see some positive surprises coming out of South 
Africa? 

JOIN US DAILY on DIALOGUE BETWEEN NATIONS AT DBN: DIGITAL BROADCAST NETWORK 
  

www.dialoguebetweennations.com 

Problems posting? Contact us at: info@dialoguebetweennations.com

  
  








  


---------------------------------------------
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From isis at starcom.co.ug  Fri Aug 31 08:11:14 2001
From: isis at starcom.co.ug (ISIS-WICCE)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:05 2007
Subject: [WA-News] Women and War
Message-ID: <5.0.2.1.0.20010831092601.009f8520@mail1.starcom.co.ug>

Dear Collegues,

We are glad to inform you that Isis-WICCE launched two research reports on 
23rd August 2001. Below is an abstracts about the reports.

"Women's Experiences of Armed Conflict Situations in Uganda: The case of 
Gulu District 1986-1999 "and "Medical Interventional Study of War Affected 
Gulu District, Uganda" are essentially two parts of the same report.

Part one recounts one of the longest civil conflicts in the history of 
Uganda and examines its effects on individuals especially women and girls, 
families and communities. The report notes that the economy of the region 
has collapsed while marriage and family formation patterns have been 
irreversibly altered.  Rebels did not only destroyed infrastructure but 
also tortured and abused members of the community. The government soldiers 
were not clean either. They systematically looted personal property and 
livestock. The report gives disconcerting detail, mostly reported verbatim 
by women of their abduction and rape, forced marriages and mutilation as 
well as transformation into an effective murder machinery by the Kony rebel 
commanders. The women who survived abduction by rebels reveal the cruelty 
of government soldiers in livid tales of individual and gang rapes, forced 
prostitution, unwanted pregnancies, harsh punishments and the life of 
extreme deprivation in internally displaced people's camps or so called 
"protected villages". The women and men's tales of homosexual rapes (Tek 
Gungu) by government troops are as disconcerting as their stories of 
genital mutilation by Kony rebel child soldiers.

It is noteworthy that while the majority of men have failed to cope with 
the war trauma and many taken to heavy drinking out of frustration, women 
with the burden of trauma and fending for families have either individually 
or in groups organised self-help activities to support their families 
economically.

The major health problems faced by the survivors include; untreated fevers, 
reproductive health complications, STIs including HIV/AIDS, broken and 
severed limbs and a host of other ailments. Psychosocial problems were the 
most numerous.

Part Two: The outcome of the findings of the earlier documentation 
necessitated an intervention as a way of scientifically analysing the 
consequences of war especially to women and girls. A team of specialists 
from African Psycare Research Organisation (APRO), Association of 
Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Uganda (AOGU) and Department of 
Orthopaedics - Makerere University teamed-up in May 2001 with the district 
based counterparts in Gulu to undertake a one month data collection, which 
led to the medical intervention of emergency cases in the area of 
psychological, gynaecological and surgical.

This part of the report details a plethora of war related physical, mental 
and psychological malformations in just one of the over 30 Internally 
Displaced Peoples' Camps of Gulu (Awer camp), that were serious to warrant 
specialised attention. The intervention was aimed at providing lessons to 
enable medical rehabilitation of particularly women, girls and coping with 
the physiological and psychiatric conditions imposed by war.

Nearly everybody interviewed has experienced at least one torture event. 
The commonly reported physical torture experiences included; beating and 
kicking, forced hard labour deprivation of food, water and medicine and 
tying Kandoya.

The government army (NRA/UPDF) accounted for a quarter of all torture 
cases, and the rebel army LRA (Kony) for 70%. Torture usually took place at 
home affecting significantly more females than males. Psychiatric disorders 
diagnosed included post-traumatic stress, depression, alcohol abuse, 
generalised anxiety, panic anxiety, Agoraphobia, social phobia, somatoform, 
and suicidal thoughts.  In addition impaired function was reported in work, 
family relationships and sexual function. 6% percent of the respondents had 
homicidal thoughts while 23% of the respondents had suicidal thoughts.

The gynaecological effects related to war ranged from vesico vaginal 
fistulae (VVF), infertility, chronic pelvic pain, sexually transmitted 
infections, vaginal tears and laxity. The study revealed that only a 
quarter of the women had accessed a qualified health worker for their 
problems. Sexual function was adversely affected, 22% had unstable or 
broken marriages and 32% were not able to work.

70.4% of the camp residents were found suffering from orthopaedic/surgical 
complaints especially recurrent and mechanical low back pain, septic 
arthritis, congenitally deformed limbs especially in the region of knee 
joint, soft tissue injuries such as cut wounds, bruises, skin lacerations 
at various sites on the body especially the limbs, face and trunk. Many of 
these injuries were a result of gunshots, beatings and cuts by sharp 
objects such as knives and machetes. Other surgery complaints included 
hernia, burn contractures, neglected or poorly treated fractures, TB of the 
spine and chronic pus-discharging sinuses from swollen limbs especially 
among children, were identified as cases that needed immediate assistance.

The authors came to the conclusion that the war has practically debilitated 
the whole population. People live in "protected" Internally Displaced 
Peoples' camps where life is very difficult, health is poor and diseases 
are rampant. Men folk are few and decreasing in numbers. Women and children 
are overburdened with daily struggle to survive. This has caused numerous 
physical, psychological and social problems. The extreme conditions 
resulting from this war are compounded by severe gynaecological and 
orthopaedic complications. 88% had psychosocial problems.

The authors call on civil society in Uganda and the international community 
to bring pressure on the warring factions to ensure the war ends and hence 
pave the way for social, economic and medical rehabilitation of the 
tortured survivors. Ugandans have no other alternative but to forge for 
conflict resolution, peace building and co-existence since, there is no 
winner in any form of conflict.

  This report is a must read for NGOs, government planers, policy and 
decision-makers, the UN, humanitarian organizations, women and men, and all 
development workers as well as students undertaking peace studies. It 
provides an insight into the nearly forgotten war in the inter-lacustrine 
region of Africa where the population and particularly women have become 
pawns in a sinister civil/international war game whose motive defies common 
reason.

Copies are available in the Isis-WICCE resource centre at US$5 each and 
will online by end of September.

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From jradloff at iafrica.com  Fri Aug 31 08:20:38 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:05 2007
Subject: [WA-News] Intersections =?UNKNOWN?Q?=96?= Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum,
 Durban 2001
Message-ID: <0GIX00A9Z8RQN6@smtp08.iafrica.com>

Intersections – Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum, Durban 2001
Issue 3– Part 1
*****************************************************************
This bulletin is an APC-Africa-Women project, implemented by Women’sNet South 
Africa. 
For the full version or to add your stories and information please go to:
http://www.apc.org/intersections

**About us**
Women’sNet is a joint project of the Southern African Non-Governmental 
Organisation Network (SANGONeT) and the Commission on Gender Equality. It is a 
vibrant and innovative networking support program designed to empower South 
African women to use the Internet to find the people, issues, resources and 
tools they need for Social Action.
http://www.womensnet.org.za
email: women@womensnet.org.za

APC-Africa-Women is a network of organisations and individuals that work to 
empower African women's organisations to access and use Information and 
Communication Technologies (ICTs) for equality and development. (APC stands for 
Association for Progressive Communications)
http://www.enda.sn/synfev/apcfemafr/indexapc.html
******************************************************************
Items in Issue 3 – Part 1

1. African Women Share  Experiences and Identify Priorities 
By Mary Wandia and Atsango Chesoni, FEMNET

2. Broadcasting Hate by Mark Brooks

3. Guerilla Reports - Our Guerilla Reporter Elizabeth Araujo asks participants 
at the NGO Forum what they feel is the biggest threat regarding globalisation…
****************************************
African Women Share  Experiences and Identify Priorities 
By Mary Wandia and Atsango Chesoni, FEMNET

Women from Africa held a regional meeting at the Gender Commission meeting held 
on Wednesday. They identified priorities in the fight against racism and racial 
discrimination on their continent. The women observed that colonialism is a 
fundamental cause of racism that exists via hierarchies. Women are 
systematically devalued and placed at the bottom of this hierarchy. This is 
manifested in racial and ethnic intolerance in armed conflict resulting in 
refugees and internally displaced persons the majority of who are women and 
children.

 Modern slavery of African women continues in the form of trafficking of women 
and young girls to Europe and the Middle East. They are used as sexual and work 
slaves in the most deplorable conditions without pay. This has led to poverty, 
statelessness and the spread of sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS 
often through sexual violence.

The African women demanded that, in analysing the intersectionality of gender 
and race governments should take on board the concerns of women with 
disabilities. They called for an end to the operation of dual legal systems in 
Africa—whereby constitutions discriminate on matters of religious, customary, 
family and personal law. This undermines women’s equality by perpetuating 
harmful traditional practices such as wife inheritance, disinheritance of 
widows, and female genital mutilation. They stated that laws should grant women 
full citizenship rights to pass on citizenship to their children and spouses.

On racism and economic discrimination, they stated that the link between 
colonialism, imperialism and patriarchy resulted in the marginalisation of 
African women. Globalisation and structural adjustment programs have further 
impoverished women as the most vulnerable groups in the continent.

Racial and gender discrimination link to characterise African women as the 
primary couriers of HIV/AIDS. Women as the majority of the illiterate and poor 
bear the brunt of this disease through high rates of infection and as care 
takers of infected persons.

It was agreed that legislation should be enacted in all African countries to 
implement the outcomes of the WCAR conference and other international 
conventions and agreements protecting women from multiple forms of 
discrimination. In particular, the International Convention on the Elimination 
of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), The Convention on the Elimination of All 
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Beijing Declaration and 
Platform for Action. 

The meeting called on civil society organisations and states to eradicate 
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances. Women’s 
organisations must use existing legislation to protect women from all forms of 
discrimination.

There is also need to lobby and advocate for the review and repeal of 
legislation particularly the dual systems of laws that undermine the equality 
of men and women in Africa. Finally they said that mechanisms for monitoring 
the impact of racism and racial discrimination on women should be set up. This 
will bring out the reality on the ground and assist in designing measures to 
protect women who make up more than half of the population in the continent.
************************
Broadcasting Hate 

Mark Brooks

While many of us have heard about hate sites on the Internet, we may not be as 
familiar with hate radio. These stations, usually broadcasting out of the U.S., 
use short-wave radio to reach a potential audience of millions around the 
world. These stations take ruthless aim at immigrants, people of colour, gays 
and lesbians, and other minority groups. Their messages are disturbing, if not 
downright shocking.  

Radio for Peace International, a Costa Rican based organization working to 
counter hate broadcasting, currently monitors a number of hate stations 
emanating from the U.S. At their workshop on Tuesday, Gilbert Carmichael and 
James Latham played examples of the shocking material being broadcast around 
the world on a regular basis. 

The Hal Turner radio program, broadcasting out of Montesello, Maine, is a 
particularly egregious, although not uncommon, example of hate radio today. He 
talks of a “whiter and brighter” future for America, where streets and 
communities have been freed of blacks and immigrants. 

Programs such as these often advocate violent methods to achieve their goals. 
For instance, another hate broadcaster, Kurt Saxon, provides his listeners with 
a detailed account of “how to build bombs to kill Martians”. And he’s not 
talking about little, green aliens. Although these programs often have Aryan 
Nation and Ku Klux Klan affiliations, they tend to disguise their identities by 
sometimes calling themselves Christian or Liberty groups. They are well funded 
and highly organized.

How can these stations be permitted to freely broadcast messages of hate? 
According to RFPI, the United States currently has no legislation regarding 
hate broadcasting. Many other countries do have such legislation but, due to 
short-wave radio, they cannot prevent hate programs from penetrating their air 
space. Moreover, short wave and Internet radio stations sell airtime, not 
commercial space, so there are often no advertisers or licenses for the public 
to challenge.  

We should all be concerned about the propagation of hate radio. According to 
Carmichael, the Nazi movement today claims more members than it ever did during 
its heyday in the 1930’s. In addition to lobbying for hate broadcasting 
legislation, we can educate our communities about its access and its dangers; 
and when hate radio comes to our town, we have a responsibility to act. 

Many people who would be outraged by such programming may not even know what is 
being broadcast in their own communities. It is our duty to be informed. These 
programs always require a station from which to broadcast. These stations can 
be pressured not to transmit messages of hate. With the help of organisations 
like RFPI, it is both possible and essential that we all work to keep tabs on 
these broadcasters, and continue the fight against the global dissemination of 
hate. 

For more info on Radio for Peace International:
Visit www.rfpi.org or contact: info@rfpi.org
***************************************

Guerilla Reports

Our Guerilla Reporter Elizabeth Araujo asks participants at the NGO Forum what 
they feel is the biggest threat regarding globalisation…

I think the biggest threat of globalisation is the threat to human species. The 
threat in the way that life is becoming difficult for poop people, as the world 
moves towards maximisation of profit at the expense of human needs; the 
continuous scarcity of food, water, and basic needs and the increased power of 
world countries which are rich, at the expense of developing nations. That 
becomes the main threat of globalisation.
Philemon Lukhele 
Swaziland Youth Congress

It seems to me that globalisation is a concept, or process, of corporations who 
are coming together from around the world to get cheap labour. They are going 
into low-income communities, devastating the environment, paying sub-standard 
wages, actually, paying slave wages to hard-working individuals who deserve 
better. And so, there must be some kind of check in place. In the United States 
we're passing NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreemment), and we feel 
that that's wrong. The U.S. corporations must have global guidelines around 
wages, so that the U.S. corporations aren't moving into third world countries 
and exploiting indigenous  people.
Shirley McClain 
Rural Development Leadership Network, USA

I think globalisation is largely a problem, especially to the third world 
countries. Globalisation is to the benefit of those who make the rules, who are 
able to sanction others (for example, the G8 and the United States having veto 
powers and many others, sanctioning  resolutions authority). But, at the same 
time, globalisation is not to the benefit of those who are actually in need of 
support - the international support, those who are poverty stricken, dying with 
disease, where wars are raging. All  those countries find themselves 
continuously degraded. Globalisation is not necessarily with all the glossy 
picture that it was brought. Yes, it has brought some progress for some of the 
countries, in particular the G8 countries, but it has also brought some 
protectionist arrangements for those countries to further colonise other 
countries. They're coming in and getting out (the multinational companies), 
they minimise the role of the state in determining economic policies, etc.  All 
that disempowers the people. The people end up being spectators of the economic 
exchange, whilst the multinational companies and the states who are in this 
relationship wouldn't, because of deregulations. And anytime multinational 
companies think they can move out, they can just do that within a minute. All 
that, continues to perpetuate poverty. It continues to perpetuate restlessness 
to the third world countries. All what globalisation has brought is misery 
instead of progress.
Nqaba Ntswahlana (accompanied by comrade Kabelo Mataboge)
South African Youth Council, member of the ANC Youth League and SACP

I think what the WCAR NGO Forum has taught us about the challenges with regards 
to globalisation, is that if we engage within  a UN sponsored structure, if 
anything, the issue of globalisation and the perpetuation of a North/South 
divide is reinforced by structures like the NGO Forum, because you're working 
within the paradigm of a UN sponsored event. And what we need to be careful of, 
is looking at the NGO Forum as an appropriate way in which to raise issues of 
globalisation.
Anonymous

[End Issue 3 Part 1]




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From jradloff at iafrica.com  Fri Aug 31 08:27:11 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:05 2007
Subject: [WA-News] Intersections =?UNKNOWN?Q?=96?= Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum,
 Durban 2001
Message-ID: <0GIX0079R93SBD@smtp07.iafrica.com>

Intersections – Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum, Durban 2001
Issue 3 – Part 2
*****************************************************************
This bulletin is an APC-Africa-Women project, implemented by Women’sNet South 
Africa. 
For the full version or to add your stories and information please go to:
http://www.apc.org/intersections

About us:
Women’sNet is a joint project of the Southern African Non-Governmental 
Organisation Network (SANGONeT) and the Commission on Gender Equality. It is a 
vibrant and innovative networking support program designed to empower South 
African women to use the Internet to find the people, issues, resources and 
tools they need for Social Action.
http://www.womensnet.org.za
 
APC-Africa-Women is a network of organisations and individuals that work to 
empower African women's organisations to access and use Information and 
Communication Technologies (ICTs) for equality and development. (APC stands for 
Association for Progressive Communications)
http://www.enda.sn/synfev/apcfemafr/indexapc.html

******************************
In this Issue:

1. Women Call for the Recognition by Governments of Forms of Racial 
Discrimination that Links with Gender 
By Mary Wandia, FEMNET

2. Interview with Rehana Ebr. Vally, author of Kala Pani, Colour and Caste in 
South Africa
Sarita Ranchod, of APC-Africa Women, interviewed the author. 

3. WACR NGO FORUM… A Personal Perspective
 BY Miriam Menkiti

******************************
Women Call for the Recognition by Governments of Forms of Racial Discrimination 
that Links with Gender 
By Mary Wandia, FEMNET

The Women’s Caucus brought together women NGOs globally under the Gender 
Commission. The Commission was set up to strategise on how to influence, from a 
gender perspective, the text and language of the NGO and government’s 
declarations and programmes of action. 

The meeting also aimed at coming up with post WCAR strategies for women to 
monitor and lobby for the elimination of racism, racial discrimination, 
xenophobia and related intolerances.

The Commission noted that the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing 
identified how women are marginalized in similar and distinct ways from men. 
However, it was noted that forms of racial discrimination affecting women and 
men in similar ways are recognised as human rights violations and measures put 
in place to address them. On the other hand, forms of racial discrimination 
affecting women are not. They are seen as domestic issues yet women’s rights 
are human rights. Governments have to acknowledge this difference and reflect 
it in the WCAR outcomes in order to eliminate racial discrimination against 
women.

The Commission appreciated the fact that the declaration and programme of 
action from the WCAR were not legally binding. However, governments had a moral 
obligation to implement their commitments to eliminate racism. Non-governmental 
organisations had the task of bringing pressure to bear on governments to 
honour their commitments. From the government declaration and programme of 
action, issues and recommendations relating to women were outlined. 

There is a need to list the victims of racism as given in the International 
Convention On the Eradication of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The current 
list is an exhaustive list and this makes it difficult to include other groups 
that could be victims of racism. There is a need to put in place mechanisms to 
enforce and monitor governments implementation of the commitments they make in 
eliminating racism- particularly forms that affect women and children 
distinctly. 

The Commission also called for the recognition and protection from racial 
discrimination of both documented and undocumented migrants, especially women 
and children. They have been termed as illegal and thus exposed to racism and 
racial discrimination. Reparations were necessary as compensation for the moral 
and psychological, and economic rehabilitation of the victims and survivors who 
have continued to suffer from the legacy of slavery and colonialism. On 
indigenous peoples, the footnote indicating reservations on the use of the 
word ‘peoples’ should be removed to ensure that the term retains the form 
recognized by international human rights laws. 

Lastly, the Commission emphasised the recognition of the link between gender 
and race throughout the government’s declaration and programme of action, which 
has not been done. In the form of a metaphor, Kimberle Crenshaw illustrated the 
multiple forms of discrimination experienced by women. She said that the 
different forms of discrimination could be illustrated by a network of roads 
crisscrossing each other from the north to the south, west to the east and 
intersecting at one point. The different street signs could be racism, sexism, 
post-colonialism, structural adjustment programs, homophobia and other ‘isms. 

The traffic on Racism Street would be slavery, massive race discrimination, 
discrimination in access to education, economic justice and employment. The 
traffic on Sexism Street would be sterilization of women, forced marriages, and 
sexual violence. Structural adjustment programs, globalisation, and lack of 
basic infrastructure would constitute traffic on the Post-colonialism Street. 
At the point where all these roads intersect, women are trying to cross and 
many accidents occur. These forms of discrimination cannot be separated and are 
the causes of the marginalisation of women. Racism and racial discrimination 
cannot be eliminated without the recognition of the intersectionality of gender 
and race and specific measures must be established to protect women.

************************
Interview with Rehana Ebr. Vally, author of Kala Pani, Colour and Caste in 
South Africa
Sarita Ranchod, of APC-Africa Women, interviewed the author. 

Exploring South African ‘Indian’ identity is what Rehana Ebr.-Vally’s new book, 
Kala Pani, aims to do. She explores the relationship between the caste system, 
transported from India to South Africa by ‘indentured labourers’ and ‘passenger 
Indians’ during the nineteenth century. Ebr.-Vally argues that the caste system 
found fertile ground under apartheid because the two systems of separation and 
hierarchy created a mutually reinforcing system of “surveillance and control”. 
The Apartheid Group Areas Act allowed “a system of control which allowed 
the “community” to ensure people went to the mosque, temple or church, that 
social stratification could be maintained”, she said.

 While all black people were oppressed under Apartheid, Ebr.-Vally 
argues, “Indians benefited from the social stratification of Apartheid because 
they had the opportunity to perpetuate caste system values which they brought 
from India. The experience of the caste system allowed ‘Indians’ to understand 
Apartheid,” she said. 

“While Indian immigrants were not able to transport the caste system wholly 
intact because the system was linked to the village and social structure of 
India, they were able to transport some criteria, reinvent and manipulate it to 
maintain some level of stratification, an inherent part of their cultural 
baggage”.

Ebr.-Vally says the question of skin colour is of particular importance to 
the ‘Indian’ community in South Africa, in India and throughout the Indian 
diaspora. “The lighter you are, the greater your chance of being pure and 
beautiful”. The obsession with skin colour continues today both in India and 
throughout the Indian diaspora. “If you look at the Lonely Hearts columns 
for ‘Indians’ on the Internet, you will notice the important stress on a light 
complexion”. Ebr.-Vally argues that skin colour has always been a big issue in 
India, dating to pre-history, and that the coloniser manipulated this existing 
reality to their advantage.  “While the issue of skin colour may once have been 
fluid, under colonialism it was made categorical.”

There is an urgent need for a critical reflection of the political and social 
roles that ‘Indian’ South Africans have played. Ebr.-Vally argues, “we need to 
burst a bubble” about the role of ‘Indians’ in the Anti-Apartheid struggle. “We 
can’t build a mythical idea of an entire community. We need to acknowledge that 
there were sell-outs cohorting with the Apartheid government, and that there 
were people who fought the system.” 

Asked why she chose to work on ‘Indian’ identity, she said,  “My experience as 
a student in France was a defining period during which I became interested in 
exploring South African ‘Indian’ identity. People in my class would ask me if I 
was Indian (from India), and I would say I was South African. They would ask 
how it was possible for me to be a South African when there were only black and 
white people in South Africa. When I said I was a black South African, they 
would say I was not black, but brown.” This experience of an identity under 
challenge prompted her to explore the formation and meaning of identity 
further. “Being a student in France allowed me an objective distance to look at 
my own country through different eyes.” The result of that exploration is the 
book, Kala Pani, meaning dark waters. 

Commenting on identity debates in contemporary South Africa, she argues that 
South African identities are fluid and constantly changing. “The cultural 
diversity of democratic South Africa allows every individual a multiplicity of 
identities. We can be South African, Zulu, Sotho, female, and every one of 
those identities will be right.”

Speaking to her own sense of identity, Ebr.-Vally said, “I left South Africa as 
a black South African, and I came back as a South African. I no longer need a 
hyphenated identity. We come from a segregated past. We haven’t before had the 
possibility and pride of being one. I am an ardent believer in the need for a 
South African identity. That doesn’t make me a nationalist, but a guardian of 
democracy.” 

Kala Pani was launched on Thursday, 30 August at the Art Gallery at Durban City 
Hall. Rehana Ebr.-Vally is a lecturer in the Social Anthropology Department at 
Wits University.
****************************
WACR NGO FORUM… A Personal Perspective
 BY Miriam Menkiti

World conferences organised by the United Nations are regular events, 
reports of which appear in the media. Yours truly has relished in reading 
such stories but has never had the privilege of attending any meeting of 
that nature.

Mother luck smiled on me with the opportunity to attend the WCAR 
NGO Forum leading to the government’s World Conference Against  
Racism taking place in Durban, South Africa 31st August –2nd September.

Not knowing what to expect at the NGO Forum where over seven  
thousand delegates from civil society organisations from all over the
world would be meeting to finalize their program of action for the World
Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia And 
Related Intolerance, I was thrilled at the thought that I will be part of the 
meeting.

On arrival in Durban on Sunday 26th August, I was surprised that rather 
than being checked into a hotel which was supposedly reserved for me, I 
was driven by a shuttle bus to the home of a nice couple. In my country
Nigeria, we are not used to the idea of guests being checked into private
Homes for paid accommodation.

On Monday 27th August at the forum venue, Kingsmead Cricket Stadium, 
I paid a hundred dollar 

registration fee for the meeting and I was given my accreditation badge, a 
conference bag with relevant materials and two T-Shirts.

At the tents for each region of the world, meetings were going on. The 
African regional meeting was short but interesting.

Workshops were being held at various centres and flyers were distributed
by representatives of groups and caucuses urging  participants to  attend 
their workshops. The activities were too many and too scattered that I 
was at a loss as to what I could do to meet up with the demands. 

However I had to be at one meeting  at a time. It was fun anyway.
……..the events continue today.

* Miriam Menkiti is  Chairperson Nigeria Association Of Women Journalists 
[NAWOJ] Enugu State Chapter and Controller Editorial Unit Radio Nigeria Enugu 
National Station, Suothe East Nigeria.

[End Issue 3 Part 2]

 




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From jradloff at iafrica.com  Fri Aug 31 08:34:17 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:05 2007
Subject: [WA-News] Intersections =?UNKNOWN?Q?=96?= Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum,
 Durban 2001
Message-ID: <0GIX0062B9CR2L@smtp06.iafrica.com>

Intersections – Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum, Durban 2001
Issue 3 – Part 3
*****************************************************************
This bulletin is an APC-Africa-Women project, implemented by Women’sNet South 
Africa. 
For the full version or to add your stories and information please go to:
http://www.apc.org/intersections

**About us**
Women’sNet is a joint project of the Southern African Non-Governmental 
Organisation Network (SANGONeT) and the Commission on Gender Equality. It is a 
vibrant and innovative networking support program designed to empower South 
African women to use the Internet to find the people, issues, resources and 
tools they need for Social Action.
http://www.womensnet.org.za
email: women@womensnet.org.za

APC-Africa-Women is a network of organisations and individuals that work to 
empower African women's organisations to access and use Information and 
Communication Technologies (ICTs) for equality and development. (APC stands for 
Association for Progressive Communications)
http://www.enda.sn/synfev/apcfemafr/indexapc.html
******************************************************************
In this Issue:

1.Roundtable on Gender, Race and Exclusion
By Sonja Boezak, from BRIDGE, member of APC-Africa-Women

2. Fighting Racism in an African Context: Women Speak Out 
By Nothile  Mcanyana

**********************************************
Roundtable on Gender, Race and Exclusion
By Sonja Boezak, from BRIDGE, member of APC-Africa-Women

This roundtable was a space to tell personal stories and share personal 
experiences around exclusion, gender and race. The conversational tone and 
informal nature of the discussion made it possible to have a more open 
discussion on what could easily have turned into an academic exchange. 

Susanna George, of Indian origin, grew up in Malaysia where her home is, and 
works in the Philippines. Her story highlighted both her experiences as an 
Indian immigrant living in Malaysia, and the different intolerances experienced 
in Manila, where she works. 

“There is a veneer of equality and sameness in Malaysia which means that 
difference is cancelled by pretending that races do not exist,” says George. 
This blanket of sameness makes it almost impossible to name the racism and 
levels of exclusion, she says. 

Speaking of exclusion, she calls hers a “self-expulsion” from uncomfortable 
spaces. Her Indianness was something to be embraced within her home, but she 
has never thought of herself as something other than Malaysian. George’s story 
also touches on how she is viewed when she travels – that it is impossible for 
people to look beyond her skin colour, or features, labelling her as Indian. 
She no longer fights it, and embraces this “bridged identity”

Questions of identity and a sense of belonging drove her to finding spaces 
where she would feel included. Choosing a feminist space over the imposed 
spaces and identities of community and church, was part of her “self-expulsion” 
but did mean that she would remain an outsider to the communities she broke 
with.

Picking up on this strain, a black South African woman shared her experience of 
having gone to a ‘white’ school and the difficulties of straddling her home and 
school spaces. At school she was acceptable because she sounded a particular 
way, at home she was unacceptable for the same reason. Her exclusion was not 
chosen, but imposed – not being black enough for home, or white enough to fit 
into the school or public experiences. 

 “How do I live inside my skin?” was the question Jennifer Radloff started 
talking to. She spoke of why it is difficult to speak of whiteness in South 
Africa in the post-apartheid era. “During the 1980s and before, it was easier. 
You knew where you fitted in as an anti-apartheid activist,” says Radloff. Now, 
outside of that role, the present leftist activists can be perceived to be 
inauthentic and patronising. This is something that Radloff has found 
particularly difficult – finding a way of behaving or being that lets people 
know that she is real; or for others to find a way of looking beyond her skin 
colour. 

This conversation around being identified or labelled on the basis of skin 
colour triggered similar experiences for women from other parts of the world. A 
Hungarian woman working in the United States spoke of her experiences of 
an “imposed white privilege” which she acquired in the US. 

A young woman, seemingly of Korean origin has been found acceptable in certain 
spaces and communities on the basis of her appearance, and the assumptions that 
go with that (of history, belonging, cultural identity). She relates it 
as “farcical”, since her adoptive parents are Italian Americans and her 
cultural references, history and sense of belonging have been based on that 
reference. 

Interestingly, stories related to gender took second place to that of race. The 
two central experiences focused on questions of colour, race, and personal 
identity. Although there was brief reference to feminism and feminist 
approaches, the more prominent discussion was about race, and to some extent 
class and social status. Looking at comments from conference goers, and 
listening to other conversations, it seems that the first point of call is that 
of race and social position as markers of discrimination and intolerance; and 
that we still find it hard to highlight gender even in ‘safe’ spaces. Some 
other strands of the conversation included some reference to feelings of shame 
and fear as it relates to ‘breaking a certain mould’. 
This roundtable was organised by BRIDGE, a gender and development research and 
information unit based at the Institute of Development Studies at the 
University of Sussex.
************************************ 
Fighting Racism in an African Context: Women Speak Out 
By Nothile  Mcanyana


The Ilitha Labantu, a community organisation based South Africa, held its 
second workshop in the Embassy Building in Durban to discuss the issue of 
violence against women and children.

Women stood up relate their different experiences of racism.  These women are 
confident that working together and breaking the silence will assist their 
communities.  They also believe that they are powerful and can accomplishing 
their objectives with God’s help.  

What they believe is: if God never sold their souls he will never do that now, 
that is why they begin by praying before doing anything.  What they emphasize 
the most is giving support to all those who are affected by racism .

The first woman to stood up and talked about her experience was Nombuyiselo 
Nomdaka from the Western Cape.  She grew up living with her grandparents 
because her mother had left after discovering her father had another two wives 
and children.

She got married when she was 16 years old and had seven children.  Her husband 
left her and she had to go out look for a job.  She found a job as an assistant 
in a surgery and later the doctor told her his wife was looking for a domestic 
worker.  “I decided to take the job in 1972 and I only earned R95 a month and 
[as] the time went on I ended up earning R55 a month.”

One could tell from her voice and the facial expressions how Nombuyiselo is 
devastated because at times she will stop and you will see the tears falling 
down from her eyes.  Her story continues: one day she received a phone call and 
in the presence of the wife’s doctor, spoke Xhosa.  

The wife called her names and even called her a “Kaffir”.  The doctor had told 
Nombuyiselo before that she must not tell the wife that she speaks Xhosa.  
Since then she had to eat on a different plate and was not allowed to come to 
the house wearing her clothes but she had to wear a cleaning overall the wife 
had bought.  She was also not allowed to feed the “madam’s” baby without 
washing her hands using spirits and was not even allowed to sit on a chair.

Most women shared the same experiences of racism. Patricia Steady, the second 
woman to speak out, from the National Association of People with Aids (NAPWA) 
was diagnosed with AIDS in 1992.  She says she came together with other women 
and formed NAPWA to educate and support those infected with the virus.  “We are 
doing this because were not lucky enough to be counselled after discovering our 
situation. I was just told that I will die within six months but even today I 
am still alive and you can’t tell that I’m HIV positive.”

She concluded by encouraging women to come to them for support and fight 
discrimination and oppression in their communities and in society.  She also 
called for education for our children HIV/AIDS.

Mrs Cele from Eastern Cape originally from Port Elizabeth now in Monti was 
arrested in 1964 .  When she was arrested it was very cold. When the police 
took her she was not wearing anything warm.  Her sister tried to her give a 
jacket but the notorious Special Branch policemen threw the jacket away and 
dragged her into a van.   She was arrested with other women and men as early as 
2am in the morning.

The police denied their presence in the prison and said they were moved to 
another prison when their families came the following day.  One could here the 
pride in her voice when she said: “I was the youngest and they wanted me to be 
a spy but  I could  not sell my nation.   The Boers had 48 years in power and 
they will never love you (Blacks) again.  They will never understand because 
they never experienced the pain.  I feel sorry for the youth because they are 
used by the Boers through crime. “
 

Thandi Memela who stood up next with a powerful voice saying “wathinta abafazi 
wathinta imbokodo uzakufa” ( “you have touched the women you struck a rock) and 
all the women shouted the slogan with her. Thandi started by saying racism is 
worse than cancer and AIDS because those infected with these diseases are given 
love and support and feel peace.

Thandi was born in Clairwood South, a squatter camp. Her family was multi- 
racial, but because of her surname she had to leave the area, “According to the 
Boers a black child is not suppose to be in white schools.” 

She then went to Lamontville Hgh where they were harassed by the Special Branch 
police she had to leave again.   Thandi asked the women what were doing to make 
sure that by the time they leave this world their children will have something 
to look forward to.

“ I was refused by the Boers to bury my own son but I have one belief that my 
son died for the nation.  How do you forgive a person who does not feel sorry 
for what he did. Youngsters fight for your freedom because we are dying.”

The aim of the Ilitha Labantu workshop was to heal the scars of racism caused 
by the apartheid regime.  
[End Issue 3 Part
3]

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From jradloff at iafrica.com  Fri Aug 31 11:08:10 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:05 2007
Subject: [WA-News] ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE OPENS WITH QUESTIONS ON POVERTY
Message-ID: <0GIX00L5CGK393@smtp07.iafrica.com>

ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE OPENS WITH QUESTIONS ON POVERTY

By- Miuru Jayaweera
A program producer for Young Asia Television, is a member of the WCAR 
Women’s Media Team of Isis International-manila.

Durban- 28.08.2001

As the preparations for the United Nations World Conference against Racism, 
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and other related intolerance (WCAR) took 
Durban, the east coast resort of South Africa, a number of local leftist 
groups are getting together to resist the effects of capitalist 
globalisation on South Africa. A two-day strike coinciding with the opening 
of the conference on September 1 has been called, alongside, by major trade 
unions, to protest privatization.

Also known as ‘Izwe Labantu’ in Afrikaans, the Independent Media Center 
(IMC or Indy-Media), which is holding daily press briefings at the WCAR, 
emphasized the need to highlight poverty and the relationship of rascist 
and other forms of discrimination to poverty, rather than rascism per se. 
The IMC is also screening information videos and films, and coordinating 
all planned protests and demonstrations at the conference.

Indy-Media, supported by various South African groups, including the 
Anti-Privatisation Forum, the Jubilee Movement, the National Land Committee 
and the South African National NGO Coalition (Sangoco), held its inaugural 
press meet on 27 August at the famous Kingsmead Cricket Stadium, on an 
ironically worded theme eight years after the end of apartheid: ‘Why are 
black people taking to the streets?’

The answer, of course, is poverty and the government’s privatization 
attempts. Virginia Setshedi of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Commission, 
one of the main speakers at the meet, said categorically, “Racism is in a 
far distance compared to the poverty rate in South Africa.”

The unequal distribution of basic needs and the fact that a lot of people 
have no access to clean water and reliable electricity have triggered 
grassroots organizations to look at this conference in a not very 
optimistic way. As a recent piece for HYPE Information Service by Dennis 
Brutus and Ben Cashdan comments on te “irony” of the ANC government 
“hosting a world conference against rascism in a city where the majority 
are black and poor … [living] on hillsides surrounding the [oil and 
chemical] plants … inhaling noxious fumes … and eight times more likely … 
to get asthma, bronchitis and leukemia … and a minority, mostly still 
white, continues to enjoy the spoils of the economy.”

The audience largely agreed with another panelist, who said that rascism 
and poverty cannot be separated and are inter-connected. Many expressed the 
opinion that rascism is a globalised process and has, over the years, 
become organized and institutionalized, supported frequently by law.

With political topics yo-yoing between the panel and the audience, the 
discussion focused on the South African government’s policies with regard 
to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and the 
constitutional provisions regarding private property.

Speakers also criticized the dogmatic stand of the USA in opposing 
reparations to victims of colonialism.

The WCAR, which took 18 months to prepare, will see 7,000 international 
delegates pass resolutions on the hopes and aspirations of several 
segregated racial groups. However, issues of the Dalits in India, Buraku 
Min in Japan, the Romas in Europe and the Palestinians in West Asia, hang 
in the balance of powerful opposition, mainly from local governments.

Miuru Jayaweera, a program producer for Young Asia Television, is a member 
of the WCAR Women’s Media Team of Isis International-manila.


---------------------------------------------
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From jradloff at iafrica.com  Fri Aug 31 15:14:26 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:05 2007
Subject: [WA-News] 350 South African women not able to participate in WCAR
Message-ID: <0GIX00HE4RYLRH@smtp07.iafrica.com>

Breakdown in communication means no participation by 350 South African women at 
WCAR

Friday 31 August 2001

350 South African women who arrived at the WCAR on Monday and who had been 
registered by SANGOCO, were refused admission by security guards. The women who 
had travelled from Gauteng by train were finally admitted today (Friday) the 
day before the conference ends. They have to leave by train back to Gauteng 
today at 5:00 p.m. A spokesperson for the women, Joannie Fredricks, told 
journalists that the 350 women represented 56 organisations from South Africa, 
including farm workers, domestic workers and women from the Self Employed 
Women’s Organisation. For the last 3 days the women had had no food and were 
forced to live on a train under shocking conditions, sharing one toilet. 

At mid-day today the women said that although they had been threatened with 
arrest, they were not going to give up until they were let in. The women 
complained that a particular security staff member had refused them entry from 
the first day they arrived to participate in the conference. A SANGOCO 
secretariat representative said that they were treating it as a serious matter 
and wanted to find out who had refused to admit the delegates. 

When the letter from SANGOCO requesting security to admit the 350 women was 
read to the security guards – they were then admitted. A spokesperson from the 
Gauteng-based Self Employed Women’s Union, Sibongile Masangwane said that 
either the security guard had a problem understanding English or did not want 
to let in South African women who looked poor. She said that it seemed 
that “rich-looking” black and white women from other countries were let in with 
no problem. 

Yet another example of a breakdown in communication at the conference that has 
caused unnecessary anger and frustration. 


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From jradloff at iafrica.com  Fri Aug 31 14:04:02 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:05 2007
Subject: [WA-News] LA INTOLERANCIA RELIGIOSA COMO MANIFESTACION DE PODER Y CONTROL DEL
 ESTADO
Message-ID: <0GIX00APGOP911@smtp07.iafrica.com>

LA INTOLERANCIA RELIGIOSA COMO MANIFESTACION DE PODER Y CONTROL DEL ESTADO

Por Dafne Sabanes Plou, para Isis Internacional

Durban, 30 de agosto. La aplicación de fundamentalismos religiosos para 
conservar el poder y controlar a la población fue uno de los temas discutidos 
por el comité de trabajo sobre “Intolerancia religiosa” en el marco del Foro de 
ONGs sobre Racismo, Discriminación racial, Xenofobia e Intolerancias Conexas 
que se celebra en esta ciudad del 28 de agosto al 1 de setiembre. Los 
participantes condenaron abiertamente al nacionalismo basado en la religión que 
tiene como fin imponer creencias, regulaciones y formas de vida que violan la 
libertad religiosa del propio pueblo y en especial de las minorías. 

Teesta Setalvad, de la agrupación Lucha Comunitaria, de Mumbai, India, denunció 
el avance del fundamentalismo hindú en su país de la mano del partido 
gobernante Bharatiza Janata (BJ), que no presta atención ni condena los ataques 
a las minorías religiosas y a los dalits (intocables) que llevan a cabo las 
brigadas de la ultraderecha hindú, HINDUTVA. Esta activista de los derechos 
religiosos de las minorías en la India, se#aló que desde 1998, cuando el BJ 
llegó al poder, se han realizado ataques brutales contra la minoría cristiana. 
Estos ataques han incluído la violación de monjas católicas y el asesinato de 
un misionero protestante y su familia, que fueron quemados vivos. A pesar de la 
amplia condena que tuvieron estos hechos en los foros y en la prensa 
internacionales, los grupos ultraderechistas continúan con sus presiones sobre 
la población para imponer la supremacía de la religión hindú. 

“Poco antes de salir de mi país, tres jóvenes musulmanes fueron acuchillados  a 
sangre fría por negarse a contribuir con dinero a la realización de un festival 
religioso hindú”, dijo Setalvad. “Es común que en las zonas de la India donde 
gobiernan los ultraderechistas, se obligue a los ni#os musulmanes a dar examen 
en sus días festivos. También se amenaza y acosa a las instituciones educativas 
cristianas de manera constante”, agregó. 

Setalvad considera que el partido de gobierno “desea alterar de manera 
irrevocable la estructura democrática e igualitaria de la constitución de la 
India”. Esto traería aparejado también un deterioro de la situación de los 
dalits (casta de los intocables), quienes verían aumentada la violencia y la 
segregación debido a que los ideólogos del BJ predican que “el sistema de 
castas es uno de los grandes regalos que nos ha dado nuestra religión”.

Por su parte, el religioso musulmán Sayyed Mohammed Musawi, de Sudáfrica, 
condenó la intolerancia y los fundamentalismos en nombre de la religión. “Somos 
muchos los musulmanes que condenamos al régimen de los talibanes, por la 
violencia con la que imponen un estilo de vida pretendidamente religioso y por 
la manera en que sojuzgan a las mujeres y a los ni#os”, dijo. Musawi consideró 
que la intolerancia religiosa es “un gran pecado” y que si bien las comunidades 
religiosas tienen que combatir los fundamentalismos que surgen en su seno, las 
comunidad internacional representada en las Naciones Unidas debería condenar a 
los gobiernos que apoyan a grupos fundamentalistas que oprimen a sus pueblos y 
ejercen violencia contra mujeres y ni#os. 

“La ONU debe implementar las resoluciones acordadas sobre este tema e impedir 
que se violen los derechos humanos de miles de personas en nombre de la 
religión”, enfatizó Musawi. 

Dafne Sabanes Plou, periodista free-lance de Argentina, miembro del Equipo 
Internacional de Mujeres en los Medios, Isis Internacional.


---------------------------------------------
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From nwmc at ozemail.com.au  Fri Aug 31 14:00:33 2001
From: nwmc at ozemail.com.au (Helen Leonard)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:05 2007
Subject: [WA-News] Reposted: ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE OPENS WITH QUESTIONS ON
 POVERTY
Message-ID: <4.0.1.20010831225921.015dd0b0@pop.ozemail.com.au>


ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE OPENS WITH QUESTIONS ON POVERTY

By- Miuru Jayaweera
A program producer for Young Asia Television, is a member of the WCAR 
Women?s Media Team of Isis International-manila.

Durban- 28.08.2001

As the preparations for the United Nations World Conference against Racism, 
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and other related intolerance (WCAR) took 
Durban, the east coast resort of South Africa, a number of local leftist 
groups are getting together to resist the effects of capitalist 
globalisation on South Africa. A two-day strike coinciding with the opening 
of the conference on September 1 has been called, alongside, by major trade 
unions, to protest privatization.

Also known as ?Izwe Labantu? in Afrikaans, the Independent Media Center 
(IMC or Indy-Media), which is holding daily press briefings at the WCAR, 
emphasized the need to highlight poverty and the relationship of rascist 
and other forms of discrimination to poverty, rather than rascism per se. 
The IMC is also screening information videos and films, and coordinating 
all planned protests and demonstrations at the conference.

Indy-Media, supported by various South African groups, including the 
Anti-Privatisation Forum, the Jubilee Movement, the National Land Committee 
and the South African National NGO Coalition (Sangoco), held its inaugural 
press meet on 27 August at the famous Kingsmead Cricket Stadium, on an 
ironically worded theme eight years after the end of apartheid: ?Why are 
black people taking to the streets??

The answer, of course, is poverty and the government?s privatization 
attempts. Virginia Setshedi of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Commission, 
one of the main speakers at the meet, said categorically, ?Racism is in a 
far distance compared to the poverty rate in South Africa.?

The unequal distribution of basic needs and the fact that a lot of people 
have no access to clean water and reliable electricity have triggered 
grassroots organizations to look at this conference in a not very 
optimistic way. As a recent piece for HYPE Information Service by Dennis 
Brutus and Ben Cashdan comments on te ?irony? of the ANC government 
?hosting a world conference against rascism in a city where the majority 
are black and poor 
 [living] on hillsides surrounding the [oil and 
chemical] plants 
 inhaling noxious fumes 
 and eight times more likely 
 
to get asthma, bronchitis and leukemia 
 and a minority, mostly still 
white, continues to enjoy the spoils of the economy.?

The audience largely agreed with another panelist, who said that rascism 
and poverty cannot be separated and are inter-connected. Many expressed the 
opinion that rascism is a globalised process and has, over the years, 
become organized and institutionalized, supported frequently by law.

With political topics yo-yoing between the panel and the audience, the 
discussion focused on the South African government?s policies with regard 
to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and the 
constitutional provisions regarding private property.

Speakers also criticized the dogmatic stand of the USA in opposing 
reparations to victims of colonialism.

The WCAR, which took 18 months to prepare, will see 7,000 international 
delegates pass resolutions on the hopes and aspirations of several 
segregated racial groups. However, issues of the Dalits in India, Buraku 
Min in Japan, the Romas in Europe and the Palestinians in West Asia, hang 
in the balance of powerful opposition, mainly from local governments.

Miuru Jayaweera, a program producer for Young Asia Television, is a member 
of the WCAR Women?s Media Team of Isis International-manila.


---------------------------------------------
This message was sent using M-Web Airmail.
http://airmail.mweb.co.za/


_______________________________________________
Wa-news mailing list
Wa-news@womenaction.org
http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/wa-news

==================================
Helen Leonard
Convenor, National Women's Media Centre
nwmc@ozemail.com.au 
PO Box 123, Civic Square ACT 2608
Ph/fax 02 6257 0670
Mobile 0417 499 387
http://www.nwmc.org.au  
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From jradloff at iafrica.com  Fri Aug 31 13:56:07 2001
From: jradloff at iafrica.com (jradloff@iafrica.com)
Date: Mon Sep 10 18:57:05 2007
Subject: [WA-News] News from WCAR in Spanish
Message-ID: <0GIX0078IOC16M@smtp07.iafrica.com>

Greetings from the Cyber Cafe in Durban hosted by Women'sNet and APC-Africa-
Women.

Below are three articles covering events at the World Conference Against 
Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances in Spanish. With thanks to Isis 
International and ALAI.

=======================
1. DESMANTELAR LA DISCRIMINACION INSTITUCIONALIZADA

2. ENTREVISTA A EPSY CAMPBELL, coordinadora regional de la Red de Mujeres 
Afrocaribe#as y Afrolatinoamericanas

3. MUERTES INNECESARIAS POR SIDA SON RESULTADO DEL RACISMO, SOSTIENEN ACTIVISTAS

********************************
Para Isis Internacional

DESMANTELAR LA DISCRIMINACION INSTITUCIONALIZADA
Durban, 29 de agosto: La discusi’on en las sesiones plenarias y los comit’es de 
trabajo hoy estuvo centrada en la necesidad de aunar esfuerzos para desmantelar 
la discriminaci’on institucionalizada que existe en el mundo y que se refleja 
con crueldad en numerosos pa’ises y afecta a millones de personas. En el debate 
tambi’en estuvo claro que no se trata de luchar s’olo contra la legislaci’on y 
los procedimientos discriminatorios sino tambi’en prestar atenci’on a las 
pr’acticas sutiles de racismo y discriminaci’on que persisten a’un en 
sociedades que se consideran no racistas y antidiscriminatorias. El Foro de 
Organizaciones No Gubernamentales que se realiza aqui del 28 de agosto al 1 de 
setiembre, previo a la III Conferencia Mundial de Naciones Unidas sobre 
Racismo, Discriminaci’on Racial, Xenofobia e Intolerancias Conexas, cobra 
fuerza a medida que se avanza en la discusi’on de la declaraci’on y las 
recomendaciones para el Programa de Acci’on que se adoptar’an el ‘ultimo d’ia 
de sesiones.

“En India somos 260 millones de personas que vivimos la segregaci’on cotidiana 
por pertenecer a la casta de los intocables, los dalits, los marginados del 
desarrollo y de la dignidad”, se#al’o Ruth Mamorama, de la India, quien 
intervino en el panel sobre “Racismo y sistema de castas institucionalizados”. 
Mamorama relat’o c’omo a’un en la actualidad, los dalits son segregados en la 
sociedad india al punto de no permit’irseles habitar en el mismo barrio que las 
personas de otras castas sociales, ni construir casas con techo de tejas ni 
obtener agua del mismo aljibe o fuente que los miembros de las castas 
consideradas superiores. “En India existen 27 mil pueblos donde la poblaci’on 
vive segregada”, destac’o la panelista.” Tener acceso al agua potable puede 
convertirse en una verdadera lucha cotidiana para las mujeres dalits, que son 
tradicionalmente las encargadas de proveer de agua a sus hogares. Los dalits 
tienen prohibido sacar agua del mismo pozo que las castas consideradas 
superiores. Muchas veces ocurre que el gobierno provee de fondos para mejorar 
la situaci’on de los dalits en un poblado, pero como los comit’es locales 
est’an formados por miembros de castas superiores, cuando llega el momento de 
decidir la inversi’on rara vez se dedica a mejoras para la poblaci’on dalit”, 
agreg’o. 

El gobierno de la India se niega a que el tema sea incluido en la agenda de la 
Conferencia Mundial contra el Racismo, que comienza aqui el 31 de agosto. No 
obstante, la presi’on de las ONGs para que sea incluido es cada vez mayor y los 
dalits est’an recogiendo la solidaridad internacional para su causa. Los 
delegados de las ONGs por los derechos de la raza negra tambi’en est’an atentos 
a las cuestiones del racismo institucionalizado. Si bien ya no existen en los 
pa’ises sistemas legales que avalen la discriminaci’on racial de los negros, 
como fue el sistema del apartheid en Sud’africa o la segregaci’on racial en los 
Estados Unidos, sus representantes consideran que hay que estar atentos ante 
las formas sutiles de racismo y discriminacion que prevalecen en las sociedades 
y que se convierten en reglas de comportamiento para muchos.

Luke Harris, del Foro Afroamericano de Pol’iticas, Estados Unidos, y Akua 
Benjamin, soci’ologa canadiense, se refirieron a estas pr’acticas sutiles que 
se han convertido en una discriminaci’on sist’emica que a duras penas puede ser 
superada con la pr’actica de acciones positivas. “Hay que desenterrar lo que 
est’a oculto, lo que no se dice, los silencios”, se#al’o Benjamin. “Existen 
procesos en nuestras sociedades que est’an internalizados y que no se 
cuestionan. Por ejemplo, en la ciudad de Toronto, ya han habido varios casos de 
asesinatos injustificados de hombres negros por parte de la polic’ia blanca, 
pero hasta el momento ning’un polic’ia blanco ha sido condenado por ello”, 
agreg’o. 

Benjamin tambi’en resalt’o que el discurso de los medios de comunicaci’on ha 
contribu’ido a validar estereotipos. Como ejemplo, se#al’o que la 
palabra “nigger”, una forma muy despectiva de referirse a los negros, que su 
generaci’on luch’o por erradicar del vocabulario corriente, ahora  es utilizada 
en el trato habitual entre los adolescentes debido al uso corriente de este 
vocablo en las series televisivas. “Este es un t’ermino que nos denigra”, 
enfatiz’o. “Debemos prestar atenci’on a la ideolog’ia que promueve este trato 
ofensivo y contin’ua desvalorizando a la poblaci’on negra”.

La soci’ologa canadiense tambi’en se refiri’o a otros usos del lenguaje que 
resultan altamente discriminatorios. Se#al’o que en su pa’is las autoridades y 
la prensa est’an comenzando a hablar de “violencia negra”, estigmatizando a la 
comunidad negra y cargando sobre ella la responsabilidad de un fen’omeno social 
que es producto del racismo institucionalizado y para el cual la sociedad en su 
conjunto y las propias autoridades deben buscar soluciones. Benjamin consider’o 
que para luchar contra estas situaciones es necesario que la comunidad negra 
internacional recuerde y ponga en pr’actica las palabras de Bob Marley, quien 
se#ala en una de sus canciones: “debemos eliminar nuestra propia la esclavitud 
mental”.

En relaci’on a la superaci’on de la esclavitud mental, Espy Campbell, 
coordinadora de la Red de Mujeres Afrocaribe#as y Afrolatinoamericanas, 
consider’o que es importante luchar por una reparaci’on concreta por los 
sufrimientos provocados a su pueblo por el tr’afico de esclavos y el sistema 
esclavista. Campbell, de Costa Rica, consider’o que debe haber una restituci’on 
econ’omica que consista en entrega de tierras, de capital, de los recursos 
necesarios para recuperar la dignidad de su raza. Adem’as, consider’o que “los 
pa’ises colonialistas, como los Estados Unidos y los pa’ises europeos tienen 
que pagar, pero tambi’en deben hacerlo nuestros pa’ises latinoamericanos porque 
mucha de la riqueza lograda por ellos est’a basada en el trabajo esclavo de 
nuestros antepasados”.  

La cuesti’on de la reparaci’on econ’omica por el tr’afico de esclavos, la 
esclavitud y la pr’actica del colonialismo es uno de los temas m’as 
controvertidos que se discuten en este Foro de ONGs. 


Dafne Sabanes Plou, periodista free-lance, integrante del Equipo Internacional 
de Mujeres en los Medios, Isis Internacional.

*************************************
ENTREVISTA A EPSY CAMPBELL, coordinadora regional de la Red de Mujeres 
Afrocaribe#as y Afrolatinoamericanas


por Dafne Sabanes Plou, Agencia Latinoamericana de Informaci’on  (ALAI)
 
RESTITUCION ECONOMICA PARA RECUPERAR LA DIGNIDAD 

C’omo est’an encarando las mujeres negras el tema de la reparaci’on econ’omica 
por colonizacion y esclavitud, uno de los temas que m’as controversias genera 
en esta conferencia?

Es uno de los temas clave para el movimiento de mujeres afrodescendientes 
debido a que marca un momento diferente en la historia de las mujeres que hemos 
sido v’ictimas de racismo y de discriminaci’on. La reparaci’on s’olo puede 
considerarse a partir de las m’ultiples formas en que las mujeres somos 
discriminadas cotidianamente. Estamos viendo estas reparaciones en dos niveles. 
El primero corresponde al nivel de las pol’iticas p’ublicas, porque las mujeres 
afrodescendientes hemos sido marginadas e invisibilizadas de esas pol’iticas. 
Se da casos de pa’ises en Am’erica Latina en los cuales las mujeres ind’igenas 
o afrodescendientes no existen en las pol’iticas p’ublicas referidas a la 
mujer, por ejemplo. El segundo nivel tiene que ver con la reparaci’on 
hist’orica, o sea como hacemos las mujeres que estuvimos siempre marginadas 
para alcanzar los niveles de integraci’on y de igualdad de oportunidades. 
Nuestra pregunta tiene que ver con como hacemos para alcanzar determinados 
niveles de exigencia de la sociedad actual, si nunca tuvimos oportunidad de 
recorrer el mismo camino que los dem’as. En este tema pensamos en una 
restituci’on econ’omica que tiene que ver con entrega de tierras, de capital, 
de los recursos necesarios para recuperar nuestra dignidad humana. Creemos que 
los pa’ises colonialistas, como los Estados Unidos y los pa’ises europeos 
tienen que pagar, pero tambi’en deben hacerlo nuestros pa’ises latinoamericanos 
porque mucha de la riqueza lograda por ellos est’a basada en el trabajo esclavo 
de nuestros antepasados.  

Vemos que las delegaciones africanas tambi’en ponen en discusi’on el papel de 
las corporaciones en la explotaci’on del racismo y del trabajo esclavo. 
Consideran ustedes estos t’erminos tambi’en?

La cuesti’on de las corporaciones tambi’en tiene que ver con los Estados. Las 
corporaciones actuales no son m’as que la manifestaci’on actual del poder 
econ’omico de los que fueron esclavistas durante 400 a#os. Son tambi’en un 
reflejo de nuestros Estados antidemocr’aticos. Y, por supuesto, cuando pensemos 
en cuantos d’olares tendr’a que pagar cada quien, las corporaciones estar’an en 
la gran lista.

Qu’e expectativa tienen las mujeres afrodescendientes caribe#as y 
latinoamericanas de los resultados de la Conferencia oficial que comienza el 
viernes 31? 

Estoy muy poco positiva en relaci’on a la conferencia oficial. Estados Unidos 
se la ha pasado boicoteando, diciendo que viene y no viene, con su gobierno 
ileg’itimo, y acompa#ado por los pa’ises latinoamericanos que han bajado mucho 
su nivel de representaci’on en este evento. Debemos reconocer que nuestros 
gobiernos le han dado un baj’isimo perfil a esta conferencia y eso me hace 
tener poca fe en la efectividad de los resultados a nivel de gobiernos. Pero si 
tengo fe en que las organizaciones aqui presentes podamos constituir un 
movimiento social fuerte que presione y garantice que las pocas cosas que 
logremos aqui se conviertan en una realidad. Aunque sea con peque#os pasos, 
vamos a poder construir un mundo mejor.
******************************************
MUERTES INNECESARIAS POR SIDA SON RESULTADO DEL RACISMO, SOSTIENEN ACTIVISTAS

Por Dafne Sabanes Plou, para Isis Internacional

Durban, 30 de agosto: En la provincia de Kwazulu Natal, donde está situada la 
ciudad de Durban, la población infectada por el virus del SIDA alcanza al 
37%. “El SIDA se ha convertido en una plaga para la población negra y aunque 
como enfermedad no discrimina, en la actualidad está matando principalmente a 
los integrantes de la raza negra, Esta vulnerabilidad está ligada a la pobreza, 
y la pobreza a las cuestiones raciales, y estas cuestiones a la larga historia 
del tráfico de esclavos y el colonialismo”, se#ala un documento firmado por 
varias organizaciones africanas  que luchan contra el SIDA. El tema de la 
discriminación motivada por el SIDA y agravada por cuestiones raciales fue 
tratado por un comité de trabajo en el marco del Foro de ONGs sobre Racismo, 
Discriminación Racial, Xenofobia e Intolerancias Conexas, que se desarrolla 
aquí del 28 de agosto al 1 de setiembre. 

En el continente africano 17 millones de personas están enfermas de SIDA y 
otras 25 millones son portadoras del virus. Las organizaciones que han formado 
esta coalición para luchar contra el SIDA, entre ellas la organización Médicos 
para los Derechos Humanos, están trabajando en Sudáfrica para que el gobierno 
dé prioridad a un programa de prevención del traspaso del SIDA de madre a hijo. 
En Sudáfrica nace diariamente un promedio de 150 ni#os con HIV. En la 
actualidad la mayoría de las mujeres negras no tienen acceso a una intervención 
sencilla que salvaría a sus hijos de este mal, a la que sí tienen acceso las 
mujeres blancas y las mujeres negras de mejor posición social que se atienden 
en el sector privado. El 80% de la población sudafricana se atiende en el 
sector público, que no tiene recursos suficientes para hacer frente a este 
nivel de demanda. 

Zackie Achmai, de Treatment Action Campaign, se#aló que “el SIDA apunta a 
inequidades más profundas que las que plantea la enfermedad, haciendo visible 
un sistema de injusticia mundial, de apartheid en la aplicación de la 
medicina”. Este activista consideró que “la devaluación de la vida de los 
negros permite que el mundo mire hacia otro lado. Los países ricos del Norte 
tienen la tecnología y los recursos para prevenir millones de muertes 
innecesarias, pero su fracaso en hacerlo responde al racismo que todavía 
prevalece en muchos de ellos”.

Achmai también consideró que existe sexismo en la manera en que se encaran las 
campa#as contra el SIDA. Mientras en Sudáfrica, el gobierno reparte anualmente 
4 millones de preservativos masculinos, nada ha hecho por promover el uso del 
preservativo femenino ni por educar al respecto. “Nuestra estrategia debe ser 
la educación sexual para todos y todas. Debemos defender el derecho a la salud 
de toda la población, hombres y mujeres. Sabemos que vivir con SIDA en los 
países no desarrollados significa el fin de la esperanza para los afectados. 
Los gobiernos y las agencias internacionales deben asumir su responsabilidad en 
este tema”. Achmai también consideró que los esfuerzos de la sociedad civil 
deben centrarse en presionar a sus gobiernos para que implementen las acciones 
adecuadas y aporten al Fondo Global para la Salud con el fin de luchar contra 
el SIDA en todo el mundo. 



 

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