[WCUSP] Is another world possible without women's perspective

[Odile Hugonot Haber]

Is another world possible without the women's perspective?
by Patricia Daniel
18 - 1 - 2007

The World Social Forum must represent the best of the new world not
the patriarchal worst of the old, says Patricia Daniel.

The seventh annual gathering of the World Social Forum brings the
world to Africa as activists, social movements, networks, coalitions
and other progressive forces from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the
Caribbean, north America, Europe and all corners of the African
continent converge in Nairobi, Kenya for five days of cultural
resistance and celebration (20-25 January 2007).

The first World Social Forum (WSF) meeting took place in the city of
Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001, aiming to challenge the World Economic
Forum (WEF) in Davos. The WSF has since become an annual event for
individuals and organisations opposing the neo-liberal policies of
the WEF - which have particular impact on the sovereignty, human
rights and livelihoods of people in the developing world.
The WSF belief is expressed in their slogan: "another world is
possible". But to what extent does this include a women's
perspective?

In January 2006 the WSF came to Africa in the polycentric forum
Caracas-Karachi-Bamako. The forum in Bamako (Mali) was seen of
paramount importance to Africa - a continent particularly affected
by neo-liberalism. It offered progressive forces there the first
opportunity since the popular resistance of the 1990s, to
significantly set their struggles and alternatives in a global
seeking of solidarity towards the construction of a fairer world.
As one of the leaders of the organising committee, Aminata Traoré,
former minister of culture and tourism in Mali, worked hard to
ensure that the Bamako forum highlighted the position and concerns
of women. One of the key themes was entitled "the universe of
women". Discussions were held on FGM, domestic violence, HIV/Aids,
teenage prostitution, land rights, economic justice and economic
literacy. The role of women in peace-building was also included as
well as challenging questions such as: "do women leaders simply
follow the male model of operation?"

In addition, a session of the World Court of Women sat to hear women
bear witness. Set up in 1992, the court is a symbolic process that
holds public hearings on crimes against women, including the
violation of their rights. The court's theme for the 2006 WSF
was "resistance to wars - wars of globalisation, wars against women".
African women spoke fiercely about the challenges. "We know that we
have paid a hard price for globalisation. It is critical to
understand the process and what it has done to poor countries,
particularly women and children," explained Aminata Traoré.
In preparation for the Nairobi WSF, a discussion paper was presented
by Roselynn Musa of Femnet at a public forum, supported by the
Heinrich Böll Foundation, on "gendering the WSF process" (Nairobi,
May 2006).

The paper includes evidence from WSF participants of:
• a predominance of male presenters on panels followed by
largely male-dominated discussions
• a dismissal of women's complaints when they raise the
question: "how can we create another world when we don't have
healthy gender dynamics in these panels?"
• a resistance to the feminist agenda, which remains on the
margins of the forum
• the feminist struggle still seems something by women for
women. Few if any men are present in the gender/ feminist workshops
and panels
• gender/ feminist issues are not integrated into all the
themes: economy, for example, is still seen as a neutral issue.
And even on top of all that:
• Women participants are subject to sexual harassment,
physical violence, including rape, by male participants
Musa concludes: "The World Social Forum process, unfolding against
the complex tapestry of real and concrete social conditions, cannot
be hermetically sealed and insulated from all the troubling
manifestations of inequality between men and women."
Subsequently, Onyango Oloo, the (male) national coordinator of the
Kenya Social Forum, which is the lead organisational body for the
Nairobi WSF, has disseminated the findings of the paper more widely
in order to stimulate the debate locally.

Violence against women in Africa is an ever-increasing
concern. "Listening to the sports commentaries on the radio or
browsing through certain weekly columns by male writers", Oloo
says, "it is evident that sexism and misogyny in Kenya cuts across
age, class, tribe, race, religion, creed, urban/rural divides and
other cleavages (sic!) in society."
Oloo celebrates the involvement of African women in national social
forums around the continent. But he also points out that while
eastern African women are clearly "right in the thick of things when
it comes to planning, organizing and mobilizing for WSF Nairobi
2007, simultaneously the process itself remains male-driven and male-
centred."

He proposes three measures to address the problem.
• establish a Women's Commission as a substructure in the
organising committee
• encourage African men to embrace the F word and regender the
planning process: "No one can be a socialist, a Pan-Africanist or a
self-declared revolutionary if they hold as anathema the
straightforward credo of feminism: equality between women and men"
• take a zero tolerance stand against rape and carry out an
active awareness-raising campaign on this during the forum, with the
help of Femnet, Oxfam and other relevant organisations.

The missing dimension
One of the issues that will be discussed at the Nairobi forum is the
G8 summit, to be hosted by Germany in June 2007. The G8 lobby also
brings together a range of civil society groups "in a worldwide
resistance against the neo-liberal economic system: we want to
attack capitalist politics, which are so contemptuous of humankind,
and to live alternatives to that."

In an early announcement of her plans for the G8 presidency,
chancellor Angela Merkel has proposed that each G8 country
should "pick a partnership" with an African country in order to
promote a different approach to development.

Merkel has also suggested a summit meeting with heads of African
governments to discuss the idea. So far, there is only one female
head of government in Africa (Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf) out of fifty-
eight countries.

Since the 2005 summit at Gleneagles, Africa remains a focus for G8
and therefore the WSF in Nairobi provides an ideal opportunity for
African civil society voices to be heard in the coordination of G8
lobby planning.

An international working group for anti-G8 action was set up at a
preparation camp of 1000+ participants in summer 2006 and an
international gathering to develop plans for the protests will be
held in Warsaw (9-11 February 2007). Civil-society groups are
particularly active in Germany, the Netherlands and France.
A quick scan over the relevant websites suggests that a similar male-
dominated process is at work as that identified in the WSF. None of
the major themes appear to be gendered. For example, the focus of
the protests on migration and the rights of refugees makes no
reference whatsoever to women, let alone those issues particularly
affecting them.

However, the dissent! wiki lists the contact group for cases of
sexist attacks - a deliberate political response to the recognition
that "sexism and sexualized violence are happening in every place
where many people meet - thus even on 'our' congresses and camps."
The group confronts those who commit sexual violence as well as
counsel those who suffer from it.

A women/ lesbian/ transgender meeting was held in the summer and a
network of groups in Germany has been established under this name,
to discuss "our vision for camp 2007 and our camp area as well as
what we expect from our own mobilisation."

But as regards the specific needs of women in Africa, there is
little on the G8 lobby's agenda. A series of lectures on "the UN
millennium development goals: global and local developments" has
been organised by Eine Welt Netzwerk (One World Network) in
cooperation with the university of Hamburg. The programme has a
focus on "poverty" but gender is only considered as a separate issue
(as in the third millennium development goal). There is no apparent
attempt to deconstruct each of the eight goals according to gender
equality, as the World March of Women did back in 2005.

Blogging the WSF
In an unequal world, civil-society participation often offers the
best, sometimes the only, means by which women can make their voice
heard. Yet, as this report indicates, the process remains
problematic. So, in an attempt to redress some of their own male
bias, openDemocracy are sending me to Nairobi to critique the World
Social Forum from a woman's perspective.

These are the questions I hope to be able to answer: What do the
women of Africa have to say? What are their main struggles and
alternatives for the future?
• To what extent has a process of "engendering" taken place in
the organisation, content and dialogue of the WSF?
• How far have African women's concerns been taken into
account in the G8 lobby preparation process and discourse?
In addition, I shall be looking for African women who might be
prepared to:
• contribute articles to openDemocracy on what the G8 (or
anyone else) should or shouldn't be proposing for Africa
• participate in an alternative discussion to that proposed by
Angela Merkel with African (male) leaders: an open summit on women
for Africa, to be facilitated by openDemocracy

Whose responsibility?
In his testimony to the WSF gender report, Candido Grzybowski,
director of Ibase and WSF director, disagrees with the analysis of
Musa and Oloo as to where the blame lies. "Women are a 'minority'
created by ourselves within civil society. With respect to that,
there is no point in blaming capitalism, neo-liberalism,
globalisation, exclusionary states, etc. This is a major problem
that is engendered, developed, and maintained in the culture of
civil society itself."

While I'm busy blogging in Nairobi, I should like to invite readers,
both male and female, to comment on that. And there's no need to
worry, I'm taking my mace spray with me. I'll be back!