# Conversations with Gamechangers: Grassroots Liberation (part of the [[Conversations with Gamechangers]] webinar series.) ## Organised by SEA ([[Solidarity Economy Association]]) - small coop based in UK - multiple small projects for solidarity economy from below - SE - being done all over the world (although maybe not called SE) - SEA: sharing tools tips and solidarity from around the world ## [[Grassroots Liberation]] ### Speakers - Waringa Wahome - social justice and human rights lawyer - Brayan Mathenge - writer on politics - Gacheke Gachihi - Kinuthia Ndung'u - all members of differnt social justice centres, involved in grassroots liberation, part of young communist league kenya - music played at the beginning, tribute to the leader of the Mozambique people ([[Eduardo Mondlane]]?) ### [[Mathare Social Justice Centre]] - economic crisis in east africa - mathare social justice centre started in 2015 - collective political power and economy from below - documenting human rights violations - fight for the right to organise - in the face of extrajudicial killing and torture - inspired by [[democratic confederalism]] of [[Rojava]] - the centres have around 30 membres - campaigns: rights to water, extrajudicial killing, ecological justice ### Genesis - how are the conditions historically changing - colonialism to neoliberalism - spread of hopelessness in [[Kenya's informal settlements]] - broken healthcare, education systems - high levels of unemployment - police brutality, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings - activities engaged in by the SJCs: - monitoring these things, stepping up to be a vanguard of the community - organised both legally and when legal means fail taken to mass actions in the streets - organising ecological justice hubs, parks in local neighbourhoods - building a popular power within local neighbourhoods - Ecological Justice hubs - people's park - clean up garbage and plant trees - not just for the park - but in memory of those affected by state violence, police brutality and killings - Kenya has a history of police state and violence - former british colony that has remained violent - sustainable economy - in urban areas Ecological Justice is pressing - growth - people trying to make profits from housing - open sewers, causing myriad of chronic conditions - in shanties (informal settlements) lots of people suffering from cancer and similar - also a lot of land grabbing, minimal green spaces - air is polluted - can't drink the water that is in the rivers - social justice centres - organised in different ways in different areas - own means of sustenance - home where people can communicate - two struggles - first, building a civic space for community organising - second, building a sustainable basis for these - these spaces are sites of struggle ### Informal settlements - [[Kenya's informal settlements]] - what is the life like there? - history, problems, typical lifes - poverty is violence, poverty is crime, drugs - 70% of people live in settlements - no water, housing - crises of capitalism - police stop people from organising against poverty and hopelessness - SJC are to give a space to start organising - protest marches every year ### Political education - international solidarity is critical to send message to gov to stop cleansing and criminalisation of the youth - hard to do community organising where there is poverty and hopelessness - political education is important - ecological justice campaign has helped challenging for a democratic space to organise - political education - important to understand our history - to know where we are going - looking at history, all struggles are political questions - politicisation of human rights - in kenya, HR has been suspended - borrow from history, such as Che Guevara - first duty of revolutionary is to be educated - very important in understanding neoliberalism - students of walter rodney: revolutionary must understand the system - different ideological factions with doing opinions - standardised political programme - hopelessness in informal settlements (because of poverty) - wretched of the earth are detached - PE reawakes the wretched of the earth - to expose systemic forms of oppression - taking up sites of struggle - e.g. to help connecting water shortages to political organisation - create a syllabus of political thinkers and political writers - network of political thinkers - to organise around the same issues, and conduct education - jeff miley - lives in england, political sociology - kurdish freedom movement in 2014 - very involved in that since then, 2018 involved in dialogue with people in mathare social justice centre - affinity between kurdish movement and movement in nairobi - beyond NGOs and the nation state - grassroots liberation was born out of internationalist spirit - trying to do things at grassroots - organised a series of seminars done in the communities themselves - rasta resistance - women's lib in the 21st century (from kurdish freedom movement) - social ecology as a revolutionary paradigm - legacy of walter rodney - he saw need for grassroots education - not political speeches, but go to grassroots and engage - arusha declaration for the 21st century ### Intergenerational movement? - focus on youth, intergenerational? how is it structured? - bring together different movements - emancipation from NGOism - majority of african population is young people in general - borrowed heavily from democratic confedarlism - three line - ecological justice (youth, young people) - women's rights - democratic confederalism - rasta population has a lot of similarities with the kurdish people ### What was the existing way of organising? - organising cooperatives around food and rural organising - organising around water - people were doing self-help but began organising around struggle - borrowing from south africa that organises around the housing question - existing resilience of the people - preexisting conditions - used to have individuals taking charge in the community - any time the community involved itself it was as a spontaneous reaction - that was not sustained organising - political education to help sustain the organising - individuals who defended the community might disappear - but if it's as a whole community, then it's harder to take down - the main road that runs through mathare - mau mau road - preexisting tradition of land and freedom movement - political consciousness in the ghettos - political history that was betrayed by post colonial activities - referenced [[Dedan Kimathi]] ### NGOism - recent form of colonialism is NGOism - international development, NGOism - how have they challenged NGOism? - last 30 years in neoliberal economy - politiclisation of social movements by NGOs - has affected many people - similar to as in latin america - organic intellectual networks is putting together a book on ngo discourse, role of ngos in east africa - community organisation has to challenge NGOism every day - NGOs don't ask fundamental question of why people are poor! - never look at political economy - NGO activities limit their struggle - neoliberalism is not necessariliy a tactic that people understand, this is part of the education work - NGOs fragment different political struggles in communities - the communities become depolitised - political education helps fight back against this - fundmental question within GLs circles - NGOism is very deeply rooted - NGOs were born from the belly of neoliberalism and free market economy - very tied to neoliberal system - move from dependency to dignity - a self-determined structure - some progressive NGOs have had a positive influence or positive contribution (but they are still a result of neoliberal economy) - jeff: from an internationalist perspective - even going in with the grassroots, it's hard to avoid a neocolonialist perspective - distinguish between NGOisation and leveraging our privilege - check our privelege and leverage our privilege - e.g. speak out about police violence, can be very dangerous for those threatened by it, leverage privilege to speak out about it - distinguish internationalism from neocolonialism ### Economic aspect ### Differences between rural struggles and urban struggles - [missed a bit] - as capitalism reinvents itself, the rural workers are experiencing similar struggles urban struggles as well, so there are overlaps ### international solidarity - sharing of their documents - online fundraising that can be shared with us by jeff - sharing about the crisis of capitalism - creating awareness across the globe - connect struggles - collective international campaigns ### power relations between those with abilities and those with needs - philosophical question - it is inherent in the nature of capitalism that ther eis an imbalance - there has long been a class difference - those who are privilege must leverage that - jeff: - fanon says that political education is different from coming in with speeches. help to be the midwife in the birth of critical thinking. - paulo freire - pedagogy of the oppressed - these webinars are one way of attempting to organise political education different ### what is the situation for women? - primary question is class struggle - particular issues that address the women question - patriarchy is prominent in capitalism - something to organise around - advocacy from women in SJC - women in SJCs are organising wmen in informal settings to politicise them - NGOs and red carpet feminism - glass ceiling and rock ceilings Do you have any interactions with local government? Are they supportive or antagonistic? (my computer is also struggling with zoom so I can't ask this personally, sorry!) ### social justice centres - even if people don't necessarily belief in the political theory - people can engage with questions of housing, poverty, police violence, etc - once reasoning about immediate needs - history of kenya: dictatorship, crisis of economy - social justice was a proposition from below - why do we have an economy that is inherently violent? - 21 SJCs in Nairobi - meet every 2 weeks (or twice a week?) - building a mass urban movement - organise forces against state violence - SJCs are found in informal settlements, where it is the less privileged and majority of poor people ### closing remarks - learn from each other and inspire international solidarity as the crisis of capitalism continues