A March and a Walk to Different Worlds

Yesterday was the day of the Debt March at the World Social Forum, stressing the Forum theme that we can create a different – and fairer – world. Thousands of people collected in the Debt Free Zone – with drumming, dancing, chanting and tremendous energy – to send the messages round the Forum: “Debt Kills” “An End to Debt: An End to Poverty”. “Don’t Owe. Won’t Pay.” “Debt is Poverty. Debt is Slavery. Refusing to Pay is Justice”. Banners also highlighted the terrible debt statistics, such as 22% of Kenya’s budget being spent to service their debt, while millions are illiterate and die of preventable diseases.
The day included, too, thought-provoking analysis (like a seminar on Strategies for Economic Justice under Globalisation, from International Development Economics Associates from around the world); detailed practical discussions and planning (like how to avoid the dangerous effects of debt in post-conflict countries like Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – they want to avoid the suffering Sierra Leone’s debt travails have caused in the three years since the end of its civil war); and key networking (such as the development of the World Social Forum Declaration on Debt, the culmination of many discussions at all hours during the Forum).
To keep our feet on the ground and remind us of why this work is important, I accepted an invitation from a youth group from Korogocho, a slum around the rubbish dumps 10 minutes’ walk but a world away from the splendid stadium. Living in corrugated iron and cardboard shacks, squeezed among rat-infested piles of rubbish and rivers of sewage, the young people showed us their homes and, with laughter, drumming and dancing, celebrated the work of their groups focusing on handicrafts, football, removing garbage and other income-generating and empowering activities. With such intrepid and visionary young partners in the fight against poverty, surely we must win.