Durban racism conference

The United Nations World Conference Against Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa last month was an opportunity to make a worldwide statement. Indeed it accomplished putting many of the contradictions in the fight against racism onto the world stage. However, it did not resolve any of those contradictions. Instead, it proved to be a cantankerous ideological struggle between the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), that are related to the social activities of the UN, and the capitalist powers, mainly the U.S., which in actuality controls what the UN does and refrains from doing.

This ideological struggle has not appeared often in the headlines nor has it been seriously evaluated. The primary reason for this is: both prior to the opening and through the UN's conference the most politically charged issue was the effort by several Arab states to equate Zionism with racism and call Israel's policies in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights a holocaust of "ethnic cleansing of Arabic people."

U.S.'S HYPOCRISIES

This negative characterization of Israel by the Arab countries was the U.S.'s reason for boycotting the conference and not sending Secretary of State Colin Powell to Durban. However, even without Powell in Durban, the U.S. was there in the form of its delegation to the UN. From reports of Americans active in the UN's NGOs, the U.S. governmental delegates "tried to intimidate them to endorse meaningless, toothless declarations against racism in general with no mention of specific countries or specific atrocities or specific policies of redress and reparations."

As one African American put it: "the Arab [rulers] stole the show." By focusing the media's attention on the issue of "Zionism is racism," the points of Black African NGOs were ignored.

The other contentious issue at the Durban conference was the demand by African Americans and Africans for financial reparations for the enslavement of millions of Africans in the "New World." While African Americans demanded that the U.S. pay today's African Americans, the Africans formed a bloc to demand payment from the countries of the European Union, many of which participated in and benefited from slavery. They described slavery as a crime against humanity and demanded funds "to rebuild Africa, since Europe as a technologically developed and industrial based economy was built off the sweat and blood of the people of Africa."

UNHEARD VOICE OF THE POOR

As Lorenzo Komboa Ervin put it in his report from the conference: "...the UN's bureaucrats simply will not allow real empowerment of the poor...They would rather like to empower lawyers and international lobbyists to get grants and fees... Any honest evaluation of the conference would show that this conference is set up for lawyers and non-profit association/civil rights bureaucrats. The poor only had a voice in the conference when thousands of landless 'squatters,' workers, students, indigenous people and others protested in the streets OUTSIDE the conference venue. This class difference was one of the most blatant and disheartening features of this conference itself, too many were marginalized and had their cries muffled. These were both oppressed and indigenous peoples." ("Some dangerous political thoughts" by Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, Sept. 9, 2001, posted on AntiRacismNet)

Also, the concentration of African Americans and African NGOs on reparations and an apology from western capitalism for their historic exploitation failed to align their cause with other peoples who were exploited by world capitalism. The African American NGOs should have carried to Durban a more universal agenda on their opposition to TODAY'S exploitation and oppression of capitalism.

No UN conference will call for the transformation of capitalism by the creation of a new society based on transformation of real human relationships. Instead, what the UN conference proposed in Durban last September was: "Recognizing that failure to combat and denounce racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance by all, especially by public authorities and politicians at all levels is a factor encouraging their perpetuation. [And] reaffirming that states have the duty to protect and promote the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all, including indigenous peoples, people of African descent, people of Asian descent, migrants-documented and undocumented, refugees and asylum-seekers...."

Here, clearly the state and only the state is the protector of human freedom. African Americans know from historic experience that this is pure nonsense, the state only protects us when masses in the street are doing battle. Our constitutional rights are continuously violated by racial profiling, police brutality and other discriminatory practices. The question on the agenda, how to get beyond the barbarism of capitalism, cannot be solved by legal constitutional means, even in the international arena. Only when masses themselves confront these contradictions with a more universal idea of freedom that is one with their self-activity can we
build a new society, free of racism.

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