One last comment on the USSF - Fabulosa Mujer, who I had the pleasure of meeting and spending some little time with watching musical fountains in Atlanta and just hanging out, posts her thoughts on the forum. One particular unpleasant experience she had with some “another world is possible, another America is necessary attendees” was over her taking Baby Fab to a workshop

One moment I have to highlight, even though I’m conflicted about giving these couple of incidences more of my time and energy than deseved, it is about the structure of anti-family friendly activist spaces and the ageism AND sexism behind shit talking to parents, usually mothers about caretaking small children in public. As mentioned already by BFP I fought with my unshaken presence a few hostile but loud Another World is Possible, Another US is Necessary attendees about the audacity of taking a small child into a workshop. I got the look, the “ssshhh” and the calm your child and take her out of this room, she’s too young to be here remarks

As Fab goes on to say, most people were helpful and welcoming but still the experience leaves you with a bad taste especially when some so called progressive social form another world people are so hostile to children, women and families. Fab’s story reminded me of a post I wrote a couple of years back which received some reactionary anti-baby, woman hating responses…….Mama’s Tendo’s Story
was a very short piece about the right to breast feed in public.

Here is the first comment -

Well, I know that every mum has a right to feed her kid but I don’t understand why women have to breast feed their kids in public. I’m also female and I can tell you that it is a very disgusting thing to watch women breast-feeding their kids in public. I think it is something that women should do in the privacy of their homes

It gets worse as the next comment in response to my statement that breast feeding is natural, begins by associating breast feeding with shitting and pissing and then having sex……..

“Why should mothers have to go scurrying to their home or to the toilet of all places to do something that is so natural.” Isn’t passing water and defecating also “natural?” And yet they are not done in public. What about sexual intercourse? For most people that is done in private as well. Yes, babies need to be fed, but doesn’t that mean the mother needs to adjust her life to the baby’s schedule, not to her own personal convenience?

Jannie of Startle the Echoes has the last word - unfortunately she’s not blogging anymore - she ask’s the question

Are women really filled with so much self-hate that the mere thought of seeing a breast is found to be disgusting? I hope not.

But its not just about self-hate but the right we as women have over our own bodies and the right of our children to be nurtured and cared for by us - if that is what we choose, while we try to negotiate our lives and our work. If you can afford a baby sitter or trust one, great but there are many of us out there who cannot and or choose not too and are not going to lock ourselves in doors because the sight of our children or breasts offend some people.

Tags: Babies; Breast Feeding; USSF;

What’s it all about?

Debates on neo-liberalism and discussions on borders and exclusion are juxtaposed with the US Social Marketplace, exploitative food prices and space rentals. Chanting drummers, Palestinian voices excluded (Fortunately on this one there was a public apology - but none the less it shows the tentacles of Zionism reach far and wide. Guards at the entrance to the Civic centre demanding your “USSF Badge” or else - No homeless allowed here just like at the WSF! No pay $15 no entry.

The sheer amount of paper wasted in the form of leaflets, newsletters, announcements - most of which are completely unnecessary and unwanted since everyone has a programme of workshop and events. What happened to the supposedly environmentally and socially conscious people?

GoLeft - Someone gave me this leaflet

and told me to go to the site, and get this, “win an interracial kiss”! Now that is really progressive, radical and transformational. The site describes itself as

The goal of GoLeft is to build an online community where we, as isolated progressive activists, can gather.

We want to do something different here. GoLeft is not just a site for individuals to aimlessly list their activities. We’re a community. A community of activists. A community of progressive-minded media junkies. A community of people who understand the web as a portal to in-person actions. We think about this virtual site as a gateway to building our real-world activities

But you have to pay $35 ($100 for organisations) to join - a social networking site for activists that’s exclusive to those who can afford to pay $35 for the privilege and dares to call itself ” GoLeft”

I came here with much optimism and yes there have been some uplifting moments of sharing and learning but for the most part workshops have been more like lectures followed by question and answer sessions - not my understanding of a workshop which is supposed to be participatory and solution orientated. On the whole the African Tent has also been a disappointment though this afternoon there was an excellent heated debate on Zimbabwe followed by a film on Haiti “We Must Kill the Bandits” which I will write up tomorrow.

I missed the forum’s evening plenary session because it coincided with the Haitian film - hard decision but I believe I made the right choice for me ( See BFP for a report on the plenary)

The best thing to come out of the forum has been the informal discussions with people outside of workshops, just chatting on the grass - I met some incredible dedicated activists from Haiti and from the Gulf and had the honour of spending this evening with 3 badass bloggers - Fabulosa Mujer, Brown FemPower (Women of Colour) who is totally energised and brilliant and Vegan Kid who told us about some experimental production of meat growing on trees that has put me off eating meat - yuk - add that to eugenics and we are moving into one scary world!

Tags: US Social Forum

Sister Song presented two excellent workshops on reproductive justice and neo-liberalism. We had presentations on neo-liberalism, reproductive oppression, health rights justice and eugenics. The eugenics or “Emerging Genetic Reproductive Technology” was really scary stuff. Incidentally eugenics started in the US not in Nazi Germany as I had thought but the “movement” came to a close with the rise of Hitler in Germany. The Sister Song collective are engaged in some excellent action orientated work in communities of colour across the US. Anyone interested in reading more on Reproductive Justice and there other work can do so at the Sister Song site “Understanding Reproductive Justice”.

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Personally , the Africa Tent has been a bit of a disappointment as the workshops tended to be on an introductory level so for me and those familiar with the issues, there hasn’t been much to learn or gain. Still there have been some good informal post workshop conversations. Yesterday I stayed for the Liberia workshop which was based around how to start a campaign to highlight Firestone’s abuses over the past 100 years in their rubber plantations. For more on the campaign to date see the “Stop Firestone”

Tags: US Social Forum

Some notes from the Gulf Coast plenary session held last night

Myths

Natural disaster

This was a man made disaster - the floods were due to the levees breaking - the levees broke because they were inadequate and not built properly - they were not built properly because the US government did not want to spend the necessary money - the US government is responsible for the Gulf Coast disaster not Katrina

New Orleans is below see level therefore dangerous

It is not dangerous at all. Other places are below sea level - one excellent example is the Netherlands that has built a flood protection system (not a levee) to protect their citizens against a one in a million (maybe more) chance of flooding. If the will is there then New Orleans and other below sea level areas can be protected and safe for people to live.

Rebuilding the levees

The Army Core of Engineers are only working in white neighbourhoods. Only they will see flood reduction. No communities of colour. The poor are having to pay more insurance. Those who are not so poor will soon be poorer.

People dont want to come back

Not true. Barriers to returning are being created - families are split up. Public housing are fenced off using razor wire fences and are locked up preventing people from returning.

A systematic plan is taking place to gentrify New Orleans which is racist and anti-immigrants and is directed at preventing people from returning to their homes. Migrant workers were brought in to work on rebuilding the city. One worker now activist from the centre for Racial Justice explained - he has since lost his job so is an illegal alien. He was recruited from Peru. Once he arrived he saw what was happening. He and other Latino’s were brought in to be exploited and used after African Americans were displaced and prevented from returning. They were given many promises none of which materialised and they realised the lies and the bad situation they were in. The names of each worker’s employers is on their passports - they are owned by their employers. If they do not obey their employers they will be deported. They can be sold for $2000 to another employer. Some workers had their passports taken away so they could not escape.

THIS IS CALLED SLAVERY and the slaves are BRANDED.

But like the old slaves the new slaves are fighting back. The plan to set the Latino’s against the African Americans has failed because they two communities are building links and working together against the common enemy of capital with it’s developers and their allies the local, state and national governments with Bush at the helm.

The women of New Orleans have also taken control of their lives. Coastal women for change (I think that was the name but please if correct me if I have got the organisations names wrong) came together to organise for transportation, women’s rights and affordable housing. They bombarded local government with thousands of emails and send questions to the developers demanding answers. They made notes of all the meetings and when necessary returned to the developers and local politicians with more questions. They empowered themselves to rebuild their communities themselves. They have an elderly project, a single parent project, a child care project - they are self sufficient. All this was against the transitional housing by FEMA, lack of resources, the increase in rents and unaffordable housing.

Vietnamese. I did not know that there was a community of 30,000 Vietnamese living in Biloxi Mississippi for 30 years who were affected by the hurricane and many displaced. They were treated disgracefully. Cultural and language issues were not addressed which added to the trauma experienced by the community. They too are trying to rebuild themselves.

Tags: Katrina;
US Social Forum

This is called

Things I started blogging about but its been a manic week and I am travelling over the next 48 hours so here is a rushed post:

Strikes in Nigeria - finally yes finally there is a nationwide strike in Nigeria - there are two sides to this : demands for increase in salaries, the price rise of N10 on fuel, sale of oil refinaries and recent purchase of 9 oil tankers ($27million) destinated for the ship cemetary, by the government - headlines we have been waiting to see:

Strike grounds Nigeria: Crude oil export stops - Oil workers withdraw from export terminals - Workers shut airports, ports closed - Secretariats nationwide deserted - Nationwide strike continues today

I would like to think that the other side of the story is the protest we have all been waiting for - over the blatantly fraudulent elections and the refusal to accept Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as President. An important story but not time to cover it - hopefully some of the other Nigerian bloggers will give it the time it needs.

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A very glossy presentation from the Miami Hearld on African Latin Americans
The descendants of Africans living in Central and South America have for the most part lived the past 400 years as invisible people as this video shows. A couple of years ago I wrote about a meeting I attended of mainly African Latino women in Washington DC and was shocked to listen to their experiences of racism in their respective countries:

“Brazil, Panama, Columbia and Belize and a smaller community in Costa Rica. I did not realise that there were also considerable numbers of descendants of Africans in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Venezuela and Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Uruguay. In fact 45% of Latin Americans are Black.”

Now it seems that there may be just the beginnings of a “flicker” of change as this report shows. There is of an awareness of both the existence of Black people throughout the continent but more importantly in some countries, the people themselves are asserting their presence, their cultures and their aspirations to be included as enfranchised members of their communities. Nonetheless racism is still very much part of people’s lives and still internalised by some though it differs from country to country.

Interactive Map: African descendants in Latin America

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My 48 hours travel is to the US and includes 5 days at the US Social Forum in Atlanta. For a taste of what’s in store check this - I am astounded! Looks like a bloody fancy wedding rather than a social forum.

Thanks to Kameelah, Annie and Rethabile for some great posts over the past couple of weeks. I hope you can all keep things moving here. Apparently internet access at the USSF Africa Tent isnt brilliant but the less internet access there is the more time to social forumise.