Eric Mann on Durban

[Michael Pugliese <debsian@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: k.skvorak <k.skvorak@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: antiwtodiscuss@xxxxxxxxxx <antiwtodiscuss@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 8:34 AM
Subject: [wto discuss] Fwd: [BRC-NEWS] Durban: Putting the Heat on the U.S.



>>From: Eric Mann <ericmann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>Subject: [BRC-NEWS] Durban: Putting the Heat on the U.S.
>>Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 20:38:10 -0400 (EDT)
>>
>>August 24, 2001
>>
>>On to Durban: Putting the Heat on the U.S.
>>
>>By Eric Mann <ericmann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>>This Saturday, I leave for the World Conference Against
>>Racism in Durban, South Africa, as part of a multi-racial
>>delegation initiated by the Applied Research Center. If this
>>was 1955, at the historic conference of Non-Aligned Nations
>>in Bandung, Indonesia, or 1965, after the passage of the
>>Civil Rights and the Voting Rights Acts in the U.S., or in
>>1975, when the Vietnamese people defeated the U.S. invasion
>>- the air would be filled with hope. Third World peoples
>>inside and outside the U.S. would be pushing an
>>international antiracist agenda against the main enemy -
>>U.S. Imperialism, the political, economic, and military
>>system of monopoly capitalism that subjugates whole nations
>>and peoples. At that revolutionary time in history, the
>>strategic linkage of national liberation,
>>self-determination, socialist economic development, and
>>antiracism gave the "Third World" its moral and political
>>power.
>>
>>In Durban today, that strategy is needed more than ever. In
>>the post cold-war era, however, the antiracist movement is
>>weak, disorganized, and in some instances, recolonized, as
>>the world balance of power has shifted. The U.S. throws its
>>weight around more than ever - not challenged by the former
>>Soviet Union and formerly anti-imperialist Peoples Republic
>>of China, at present, while many Third World governments are
>>enthusiastic or subordinated participants in neo-liberal
>>schemes, and the U.S. civil rights establishment,
>>representing the privileged and bourgeois classes, functions
>>as an appendage to the Democratic party. As we approach
>>WCAR, the big questions are whether the U.S. and the
>>so-called "Great Eight" colonial powers will allow any
>>debate at all and who will stand up to them.
>>
>>The U.S. government is threatening to withdraw funding and
>>boycott the conference altogether, ostensibly in protest
>>against conference resolutions to debate Israeli racism
>>towards the Palestinian people and demands by U.S. blacks
>>and Africans for reparations to atone for the centuries of
>>the U.S. and European transatlantic slave trade.
>>
>>As 8,000 delegates prepare for the Non-Governmental
>>Organization (NGO) pre-conference (August 27-September 1)
>>and the official United Nations Conference (August
>>31-September 7) many liberals in the U.S. are begging the
>>Bush administration to send a delegation. But whether the
>>U.S. sends a "high level" delegation (Colin Powell,
>>Condileeza Rice, John Ashcroft?), or no delegation at all,
>>its objectives are the same - to undermine, suppress, and
>>prevent the success of the conference and the rebuilding of
>>a world-wide movement against racism. And this is no time
>>for Democrats to take cheap shots against Bush, for if Bill
>>Clinton or Al Gore were in power their objectives, if not
>>their methods, would be the same. Remember, it was Clinton
>>who destroyed "welfare as we know it" and permitted a
>>national rampage against black and Latina women and
>>children. It was Clinton who signed the "effective death
>>penalty act" that violated centuries of habeas corpus rights
>>and made the imposition of the racist death penalty more
>>"effective." And it was House Democrats, including most
>>members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who just passed
>>House Resolution 212 that urged the U.S. to attend the WCAR,
>>but goes out of its way to oppose any discussion of Israeli
>>racism or U.S. reparations to blacks. Instead, they urge
>>delegates to "mitigate, rather than aggravate, racial,
>>ethnic, and regional tensions" by only discussing racism in
>>general "without reference to specific regions, countries,
>>or present day conflicts" - the identical view of the Bush
>>administration.
>>
>>Whether under Republican or Democratic tactical leadership,
>>the strategy of U.S imperialism is to rule the world. In a
>>society in which big business is king, U.S. led monopoly
>>capitalism relies on profits and superprofits from Third
>>World nations. It achieves these objectives by "integrating"
>>Third World nations into an international economy
>>structurally dominated by the IMF, World Bank, WTO, NATO,
>>and yes, the UN, which in turn, are controlled by the U.S.
>>Under this totalitarian capitalist system, Third World
>>nations are systematically underdeveloped through a global
>>network that destroys their local industries, obliterates
>>protective tariffs, penetrates their local markets,
>>privatizes their national and natural resources, and
>>impounds cash crops to feed Western banks. As Christian
>>charities get rich exploiting pictures of emaciated Third
>>World children, they exhibit a racist blindspot where they
>>refuse to connect the dots between Third world poverty and
>>first world wealth, between structural racism and U.S.
>>imperialism. Today, Third World nations, subordinated to the
>>needs of the world's superpower, choking with debt
>>repayments, their environment and ecosystems raped and
>>pillaged, their options precluded for a social democratic
>>much less socialist economy, are literally starving to
>>death.
>>
>>At the Durban conference, we can expect the U.S. and the
>>European governments to try to decontextualize racism, to
>>restrict its discussion, and its solution, to isolated acts
>>of seemingly irrational and individual cruelty. By contrast,
>>a nascent world Left will try to draw the explosive and
>>revolutionary connection between anti-racism and
>>anti-imperialism:
>>
>> * Organized forces from the U.S. and Africa are
>>demanding reparations from the European and U.S.
>>perpetrators of the transatlantic slave trade. In the U.S.
>>this movement has been given focus by Randall Robinson's
>>book, "The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks." In 1965,
>>Malcolm X proposed that black people bring their demands as
>>a colonized people to the United Nations - today in Durban,
>>some U.S. groups will be doing just that.
>>
>> * International Condemnation of U.S. Racist
>>Practices is Growing. Amnesty International's "Racism and
>>the Administration of Justice" published in preparation for
>>WCAR, reports that "black and ethnic minorities" constitute
>>60% of the 1.7 million people currently in jail in the U.S.
>>The racist character of the death penalty is demonstrated by
>>cruel and unusual statistics: in Pennsylvania blacks are
>>800% more likely to be executed than whites, in Georgia,
>>1100%. The war on drugs also reeks of racism, as blacks
>>constitute 63% and whites 37% of all drug offenders sent to
>>state prison. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial
>>Discrimination noted that in the U.S. "members of
>>minorities, (especially Blacks and Hispanics) may be
>>disproportionately subject to adverse treatment throughout
>>the criminal justice process" - seemingly meek words but
>>courageous in terms of UN parlance.
>>
>> * Durban represents an international arena in which
>>a new antiracist movement can come to life. The Black
>>Radical Congress, progressive black legislators like Cynthia
>>McKinney from Georgia and John Conyers from Michigan,
>>grassroots groups like the L.A. Bus Riders Union, the Center
>>for Third World Organizing, and several key women of color
>>delegations represent important pieces of the puzzle for a
>>broad antiracist united front in the U.S. - seeking
>>international allies.
>>
>> * A growing South African resistance can shape the
>>conference and the movement. South Africans are seeking
>>allies as well. The Durban Social Forum, a new coalition of
>>grassroots groups, is planning demonstrations at the
>>Conference to highlight the growing poverty and mass
>>suffering in post-apartheid South Africa, while the South
>>African Congress of Trade Unions (COSATU) is proposing "the
>>mother of all strikes, a general strike" if the South
>>African government does not abandon its neo-liberal policies
>>that include the privatization of water and mass evictions
>>from housing and land.
>>
>>
>>I go to South Africa with many questions. What is the
>>strategy of the South African Communist Party and COSATU to
>>challenge privatization and neo-liberalism, the new face of
>>international racism? Is there any form of organized Third
>>World caucus or movement or tendency that is willing to
>>challenge the U.S. at WCAR? And is it strong enough to force
>>the discussion of Palestinian self-determination and black
>>and African reparations onto the public debate? Is there a
>>true left wing to many of the NGO's, or are most of them
>>integrated into their own nation states and world
>>capitalism? Can the left, anti-racist U.S. forces work in
>>any coordinated fashion and towards what ends? Will the
>>demonstrations by South Africans challenge the entire
>>conference and create a new political reality on the
>>streets? What role will the Peoples Republic of China and
>>Cuba play?
>>
>>I go on my journey in two roles, with two goals. As a
>>correspondent, I will find every way possible to give more
>>voice to the voiceless, through my own daily dispatches from
>>Durban, and working with the Independent Media Center. As
>>part of a multi-racial delegation of antiracist organizers,
>>I will try to demonstrate that there are Jews in the U.S.
>>who care deeply about Palestinian rights, and whites in the
>>U.S. who want to challenge the racist policies of our
>>government - as part of a strategy to help coalesce the
>>left, anti-imperialist forces against racism.
>>
>>I will keep you posted.
>>
>>--
>>
>>Eric Mann has been an anti-racist, civil rights,
>>environmental, and labor organizer for 35 years. He is a
>>veteran of the Congress of Racial Equality, Students for a
>>Democratic Society, and spent ten years as a United Auto
>>Workers assembly line worker. He is presently a member of
>>the Planning Committee of the L.A. Bus Riders Union and the
>>director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center. The views
>>expressed in this article are his own. He can be reached at
>><ericmann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>.
>>
>>Copyright (c) 2001 Eric Mann. All Rights Reserved.
>>
>>
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