Socialist Action /September 2001
UN Conference on Racism - Empty Rhetoric,
no Action
By JEFF MACKLER
The UN-sponsored World Conference Against Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAM), as with
the two similar United Nations conferences that preceded it in past decades,
proved to be a fraud, a farce, and a failure.
The week-long Durban, South Africa, meeting opened
on Aug. 31 in the presence of 6000 South African soldiers. It included delegations
from the world's leading imperialist nations and representatives of their
subject capitalist neo-colonies.
Delegations from UN-linked NGOs, private corporations,
youth organizations, and assorted social and political groups were also
invited to give the appearance of breadth and vitality.
About 14,000 attended the conference and its pre-conference
associated proceedings, the NGO Forum and Youth Summit.
The leading players were cloistered in private
negotiations in an effort to draft a series of hollow and toothless declarations
designed to give the impression of international concern for issues that
have wreaked horror on most of the world's people. But they failed to impose
their views completely on the conference as a whole.
The U.S. government delegation-joined by Israel,
imperialism's military outpost and agency in the Middle East-walked out
of the conference on Sept. 3. They left after the majority of nations present
refused to exclude resolution language that associated Israeli Zionism with
racism, condemned Israeli repression and murder of the Palestinian people,
and addressed the issue of reparations to nations and peoples that had been
victims of the colonial slave trade.
The U.S. role was accurately described in the Sept.
4 New York Times: "From the moment the mid-level delegation representing
the United States arrived at the meeting, their marching orders were clear-engage
actively in behind-the-scenes talks to moderate the conference's tone toward
Israel and do little else to participate unless that effort succeeds."
The notion that the United Nations, a central agency
for the implementation of imperialist intervention and plunder the world
over, could even approach a solution to central problems that are inherent
in capitalism was not on the agenda.
Also absent from the agenda was the UN- sponsored
U.S. genocidal and racist war against the virtually defenseless people of
Iraq, which murdered 250,000 people in a week. Nor was discussion scheduled
on the racist UN-approved war against North Korea or the more recent UN
slaughter in the former Yugoslavia.
In the name of "peace keeping" and "humanitarianism,"
the imperialist powers, when they can, broker deals within the UN framework
to justify and implement their neo-colonial, and racist objectives. Otherwise,
the UN is largely a powerless association of capitalist and pro-capitalist
nations. Their General Assembly resolutions are routinely ignored with impunity
by the world's imperialist superpowers.
U.S. tries to dash condemnation of Zionism
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and members of the Congressional
Black Caucus (CBC) sought to achieve some credibility as dissident negotiators
when they scored the Bush administration for its refusal to send Secretary
of State Powell and a high-level U.S. delegation.
But Jackson and the CBC joined U.S. and allied
negotiators in the Durban charade when they attempted "behind the scenes"
to pressure Palestinian Authority leader Yasir Arafat-initially with some
success-into backing off in regard to the justified efforts of the Arab
nations to condemn the racist policies of Israel.
An early statement by a high ranking Palestinian
delegate, Nabil Shaath, read, "We are not interested in raising an
ideological issue against Israel. Therefore, we will not support statements
against Zionism. Nor are we going to support statements equating Zionism
with racism."
But even Arafat, who generally looks to U.S. and
world imperialism for financial and political support, had to renounce this
statement and accede to a condemnation of Israel. Arafat was responding
to heavy pressure from the continued mobilization of the Palestinian masses.
Delegations representing countries of the European
Union then offered "compromise" language recommending that Israel
and Palestine reopen "peace" talks. Egyptian Foreign Minister
Ahmed Maher responded that this was insufficient. "We are talking about
a war waged using the most sophisticated weapons against a civilian population,"
said Maher. "This is a government that has taken an official position
to assassinate people. You want this conference which deals with discrimination,
not to mention these things?"
That was precisely the U.S. objective. But not
only was the United States present to defend its client Zionist associate,
it was there to make sure that its own racist policies were excluded from
mention. These policies include the fact that the U.S. racist criminal "justice"
system has incarcerated more people in absolute terms and a higher percentage
of its population than any nation on earth. The majority of those in U.S.
prisons and on death row are non-white.
Representatives of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the world's
most well-known political prisoner and the innocent victim of a racist frame-up,
were blocked when they fought to bring the case to the attention of delegates
and for its inclusion in conference resolutions.
The United States also joined the European delegations
to dash any discussion of reparations for the crime of slavery. They were
concerned because of potential financial costs, especially to countries
like Britain, Spain, the U.S., and Holland that reaped billions from the
slave trade.
COSATU led mass demonstration
Despite the iron control exercised over the proceedings
by major imperialist powers in collaboration with UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan, the voice of protest could not be excluded. Close to 40,000 South
African working people, led by the Confederation of South African Trade
Unions (COSATU) and other unions, massed at the conference doors to protest
their government's move to privatize South Africa's core industries.
The capitalist African National Congress (ANC)
government, which includes COSATU itself, pulled out all the stops to pressure
COSATU to call off its planned two-day general strike. A letter from President
Thabo Mbeki, published in daily newspapers, asked, "Whose interests
are reserved by those who abandon their revolutionary morality and use the
workers as canon fodder to launch an offensive aimed at imposing a defeat
on their very own liberation movement?"
The ANC's threats to excommunicate and isolate
COSATU were ignored. The massive outpouring of South African workers was
joined by many rank-and-file observers and participants in the conference.
The ANC's aura of a liberation movement is wearing thin in South Africa
today. A tiny layer of ANC leaders have enriched themselves, while their
capitalist policies have reduced additional millions to poverty and disease.
President Mbeki's Washington meetings with President
Bush last month cemented South Africa's agreement with U.S. imperialism
to serve as the military "peacekeeper" on the African continent
in order to foster international private investment.
Mbeki and the South African delegation and Annan
were relegated to scurrying about the conference to secure secret meetings
with the European Union to reverse the condemnation of apartheid Israel
and other resolution wording that drew U.S. objections.
Salvaging the conference, and with it, the credibility
of both the ANC and the UN as compliant allies of the United States, were
their chief objectives. Annan stated, "If we leave here without agreement,
we shall give comfort to the worst elements in every society. All of us
must continue to play our part."
In addition to COSATU's general strike, which represented
a major break with the ANC's pro-imperialist policies, the conference was
besieged by some 17 mass protests organized by organizations representing
South Africa's oppressed and exploited.
In this manner, the fig leaf of UN and imperialist
concern for the victims of racist oppression and exploitation was removed
and the voices of opposition were heard loud and clear.
Socialist Action /September 2001 |