21 - 27 February 2002
Issue No.574
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 February 2002 Issue No.574 |
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Another world is possible
Nawal El-Saadawi* found inspiration in Porto Alegre
The sun was shining. Its hot rays reminded me of Egypt in early summer. But I was in Porto Alegre, in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, a province in the south of Brazil, in early February, and for me this was normally mid-winter.
I was sitting on a platform. Before me in the huge auditorium stretched a sea of faces: men, women, and young people, their eyes shining like stars. Their faces were dark, bronze, white, red or yellow, 5,000 of them filling the auditorium, overflowing into the aisles, into every inch of space, standing, sitting, squatting.
They had come from every corner of the world, from North and South, East and West, from every city, town and village in Brazil, carrying their coloured flags, banners inscribed with the names and slogans of their organisations. Above this moving ocean of faces, flags and songs floated a huge purple and white banner. On it was the slogan of the World Social Forum written in different languages, all of which proclaimed the same thing: "Another world is possible."
Voices rose in a powerful chorus: "Down with neo-colonialism!" "Long live people's unity!" "Fair trade not aid;" "Abolish debt;" "We don't owe, we won't pay!"
I suddenly caught the sound of Arabic words: "Condemn Sharon!" I looked around and there was the Palestinian flag, red, white, green and black, borne aloft by men and women from Arab and other countries.
The platform on which I sat was that of the International People's Tribunal on Debt. We were six judges, three women and three men. The president was a jurist from South Africa called Dumisa Ntsebeza; the other judges were Dimitrio Valentini from Brazil; myself from North Africa; Loretta Rosali from the Philippines; Nora Cortinas from Argentina; and Chandra Sekkar from India. On the right of the platform was the prosecutor, Alessandro Teitlbaum, and assistants from Uganda, Mali, the Senegal, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, India, Angola and Brazil.
The jury, to our left, was composed of 12 members, women and men from Argentina, Ecuador, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, South Africa, Tanzania, the Fiji Islands, Indonesia, Cuba, Haiti, China and the Philippines.
The proceedings lasted for two whole days, from 9am until 7pm, during which time we listened to 18 witnesses: eight from Africa, five from Asia, and five from Latin America. They had come to give their testimony on the effects of foreign debt on the economy and the life of people in their countries, and the results of policies enforced by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the transnational corporations.
This people's tribunal, the first of its kind to examine and condemn the economic genocide of peoples of the South through the accumulation of foreign debt, had convened within the framework of the World Social Forum, held in Porto Alegre. It was sponsored and organised by a non-governmental association called Jubilee South, based in South Africa and Brazil, an off-shoot of the International Committee Against Foreign Debt.
I am a writer and a physician, but my interest in women's issues has led me to engage in diverse activities and struggles. In March 1992 I was a judge on an international people's tribunal headed by Ramsey Clarke, once attorney-general of the United States. The tribunal was examining George Bush Sr's role in launching the Gulf War. Today, his son is waging what he calls a "war against terrorism," which is in fact another war to expand and reinforce US global hegemony, and to ensure control of oil wherever it may be, underground or at the bottom of the ocean. I sat on the platform with the other judges, proud that this popular movement had chosen me to represent North Africa and the Arab region in judging those who continue to commit crimes against humanity.
I listened in pain and anger to the stories of destruction, plunder, starvation, illness, suffering and death. The accumulation of foreign debt has depleted resources, increased inequality in the balance of trade between poor and rich countries, forced poor economies to produce exports that only serve to repay debts, reduced services and government spending, and led to speculation by pinning domestic currencies to the dollar. It is no exaggeration to describe these effects of structural adjustment as economic and social genocide.
I was particularly interested in those who spoke of the link between foreign debt and war, for today, in our region and elsewhere, war threatens us once more. The war the United States and its "allies" are waging in Afghanistan has shown us what the most modern and destructive technology can do.
My husband, Sherif Hetata, chosen as a witness from North Africa, gave a vivid and graphic account of the relationship between the history of colonialism in Egypt, foreign debt and war. Britain occupied Egypt in 1882 to ensure that Khedive Ismail would pay off the debts he had incurred, and to subdue the popular revolt against foreign intervention in economic affairs. In 1956, President Nasser turned down a loan offered by the World Bank to build the High Dam in Aswan because the US insisted that it be tied to foreign supervision of Egypt's finances, similar to that imposed 70 years before by the British. Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal, a move that triggered the Tripartite Aggression of 1956.
In January 1991, the US pressured Egypt to join the 30 countries waging war on Iraq. The recompense was a reduction of Egypt's foreign debt -- which the United States and other Western countries rapidly retrieved through the imbalance in trade.
More serious, however, was the destruction of Iraq as an emerging Arab power, the further fragmenting of Arab solidarity, increased American economic and military control and the establishment of a regional balance of power even more favourable to Israel.
Since Nasser's death in 1970, Egypt's foreign debt has soared; the recent loans secured in Sharm Al-Sheikh have swelled it still further. The dollar exchange rate has skyrocketed, bringing unbearable increases in the prices of all commodities.
Hetata ended his testimony by saying: "Transnational capital needs war to fight the recession. Capitalism cannot live without war and we must fight for peace everywhere; for peace builds on justice. People in Egypt and everywhere need peace. They can defeat the war machine of the United States by putting their efforts together."
The last session of this important tribunal was attended by the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Olivio Dutru, who heads the Socialist Workers' Party, the leading group in a 14-party coalition. He made a short speech detailing some of the effects of foreign debt and neo- colonial intervention on Brazil.
At the end of the proceedings the jury issued a verdict condemning policies related to foreign debt and those responsible for the implementation of such policies -- namely, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, the transnational corporations, the governments of rich capitalist countries and the rulers of the South who capitulate to these policies.
The judges endorsed the verdict, and the tribunal decided to communicate it to the organisations and governments responsible for the offences it details. The representatives of these institutions will be invited to present their defence at a second session, scheduled for April. The tribunal will pronounce its final sentence after the accused have spoken -- or in absentia, if need be.
* The writer is a physician, novelist and activist who has authored numerous books on feminist and other social and political issues.
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