-- PV Srinivas
August 31, the opening day of the UN sponsored 3rd World Conference Against Racism, Racial discrimination, Xenophobia and related Intolerance (WCAR), in Durban, South Africa. Twenty thousand people marched an 8 km route under the banner of Durban Social Forum and held a rally outside the Glitzy International Convention Centre and Hilton Hotel, where the UN conference was being held. Speaker after speaker condemned George W. Bush (“that Racist Cow Poke”) and the US Government for bullying and dictating the Conference agenda by demanding elimination of any mention of reparation for slavery and colonialism and the designation of Israel as a racist state.
On August 30, thousands upon thousands of women and farm-workers gathered for the International People’s Assembly called by the Landless People’s Movement. All the participants seemed to agree on “The WCAR could never conquer Racism without addressing the colonial and apartheid legacy of land disposition”. The most significant event was the two-day national strike by 55 lakh workers against privatisation on August 29-30. It was a massive success for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), fully supported by the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). There were massive demonstrations in all the cities of South Africa, while in Durban alone around 30,000 workers marched to the Durban City Hall on August 29.
While all the three mass-mobilisations coincided with the WCAR in the streets providing an environment outside the venue, the Cuban President Fidel Castro addressed at the Conference on September 1. He said: “Racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia are not naturally instinctive reactions of human beings but rather a social, cultural and political phenomenon born directly of wars, military conquests, slavery and the individual or collective exploitation of the weakest by the most powerful all through the history of human societies.”
Delegations from 163 countries including 16 heads of States participated in the Conference. The US pulled out of the conference after sending a low-level delegation on September 3, followed by Israel. This was neither new nor unexpected. US is bent on always operating outside International Law, and it had boycotted the two earlier WCARs too. Earlier, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reminded: “To conclude the conference without a final consensus would only serve the worst elements of the society.” But Washington won’t listen. No wonder when the news of US walk-out spread, a large number of people gathered outside to voice their protest.
Because Israel has chosen the very same week, when the conference was going on, to attack the Palestinian cities on the West Bank, there had been serious tension between Israeli “peace nicks” and Palestinian delegates in the NGOs conference preceding the UN-sponsored WCAR. There were daily demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, sometimes even leading to clashes between them.
The conference adopted its final programme a day behind schedule after 9 days of talks and hard bargaining unto the last minute. The declaration defined “slavery and colonialism as crimes against humanity”, and acknowledged massive human sufferings and the tragic plight of millions of men, women and children “as a result of slavery, slave trade, trans-Atlantic slave trade, apartheid, colonialism and genocide”. However, the demand for reparation got diluted into the programme for economic assistance to Africa, of course with a tag of foreign direct investment and market access. The declaration recognises the “inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to the establishment of an independent state.” Acceptance to this extent was possible only due to the firm stand taken by the African and Arab states and many other Third World countries.
The Indian Government acted as a party to block the discussion on Zinoism and took a pro-Israeli stand. Secondly, there was no strong voice from India in support for reparation against slavery and colonialism, on which the fight against racism was focused. All these betoken the Indian Government’s shift from the consistent policy of fighting Zinoism and racism. Thirdly, the Indian Government held that the references to caste oppression and untouchability are “highly exaggerated and misleading propaganda.” The Indian delegation went further to the extent of denying even any discrimination based on “work and descent”. They insisted deletion of “work” as a basis of discrimination. They succeeded in excluding the word from the final declaration, even though everybody knows that in real life both casteist and racist practices of degradation and discrimination treat men and women as sub-human beings.
In brief, the conference thoroughly exposed the hypocrisy and true nature of US imperialists, Zionists and Indian communal fascists. In the inaugural address at the conference, South African President Mbeki reminded that under the current economic globalisation, poverty and deprivation of human dignity has increased and given rise to a new type of apartheid. To build a global solidarity to fight against the globalisation of apartheid, instead of pinning hope on the benevolence of the oppresors, is an urgent and important task facing all humanist, progressive and democratic people of the world.