Inspired By Guadeloupe

On Monday, I attended a packed meeting hosted by the Inter-Religious Task Force here in Cleveland, OH hosting a main spokesman and labor leader from Guadeloupe. If you don't know about the awesome workers movement which took place there earlier this year, hopefully this post will change that. The event was a reminder of the massive effect everyday people can have on international debates about globalization and development.

The headliner of the event was Elie Domota, who I had a chance to speak with personally after the official program. Elie Domota is the secretary general of the UGTG, the main trade union in Guadeloupe. He is also spokesman of the Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP), which means the Movement Against Exploitation in creole. The general strike which began January 2009 in Guadeloupe over widespread anger about living standards, brought 100,000 people into the streets in a country of only 400,000.

The strike was met with repression by the French military and police who in 2009 still consider Guadeloupe as a region of France---thousands of miles away. A historian from Guadeloupe also shared a brief history of political events and the workers movement in Guadeloupe. In the midst of the general strike, an uprising occurred in the streets of Guadeloupe pitting protesters against the French authorities and a young man was killed in the chaos. When an agreement was finally reached on increases in the average wage of Guadeloupe, it was named in honor of the fallen protester, Jaques Renee.

A translator assisted Elie as he spoke to the audience about the general strike through his own eyes. A video was also shown as well detailing key movements of the struggle, its highs and lows. The full edited version hasn't been released yet but is expected soon. Alternative media station, Democracy Now, did a good piece earlier this year about the historic protests that you can follow by clicking here.

There was a fairly large and diverse crowd for the event and after all was said and done the audience had the opportunity to ask questions of both Elie and a Haitian labor leader who spoke about the UN's unjust actions in his country. Many consider UN presence in Haiti today nothing short of an occupation including horror stories of rape of young girls and repression of political parties.

There was so much information presented at the event, that there isn't enough space here in this blog to do it justice. What I can say is that if you have not heard about the workers movement in Guadeloupe, it is definitely worth taking a very close look at. In conversations about global development, the Caribbean is often overlooked. However, like Africa and South Asia the region is what with persistent poverty, inequality and populations hungry for social change.

Below are some pictures I took on my camera phone from the event. You can expect to hear much more from me about the ongoing sagas in both Guadeloupe and Haiti.

War and Famine, Peace and Milk: Avoiding Another Missed Opportunity in Somalia

The first half of the title of this post is a traditional Somali proverb, which I find particularly moving in the context of contemporary events in the eastern Horn of Africa. The longer the decades old conflict between various factions continues in Somalia, the more difficult a reversal of the tremendous human suffering, disease and hunger there becomes.

New ideas and fresh solutions are hard to come by, but it is crystal clear that endless war is not the answer to the devastating circumstances in which the Somali people now live. For advocates of peace and development, its time to let the US military know a middle-east style "war on terror" is unacceptable in east Africa.

The chain of events which led to this year's turmoil is long and can be difficult to untangle. BBC news has a fairly accurate time line of the major events in Somali history over the centuries. However, regardless as to how Somalia arrived at this point, the important thing now is turning the corner. So far, so bad.

Whatever their intentions for doing so, the US military's mobilization of new weapons armaments to send to the Somali government is a failed strategy---one that in the past has brought terrible consequences for the people. The US government's attempts to prevent a potential hot bed for future acts of extremism are doomed to fail when they involve further militarization of the conflict.

There has been a wealth of evidence that supporters of the rebel group Al-Shabaab (the youth) are motivated by a strong hatred of foreign intervention, and a desire for order and stability. Until now, the actions of the United States and other foreign actors has merely fed the flames, bringing more instability and chaos. Human Rights Watch and other international observers have accused Ethiopian, Somali and African Union forces of committing war crimes on innocent civilians since the chaos reignited in 2006.

Now, like a self-fulfilled prophecy, perhaps hundreds of foreign fighters under a proclaimed banner of Islam are entering Somalia to join Al-Shabaab. As the African Union prepares for its July summit in Libya, they should go fully aware of the long list of violent responses to Somalia's political crisis that have failed before. If by chance they decide to follow the example of the US military's recent actions, they risk any potential hope of lasting peace and development. Militarization of the conflict is not the answer.

The Aid VS Trade Debate Rages On

The debate rages on in the development community between "aid versus trade" strategies for African development. Rest assured, there are absolutely no holds barred here.

In an article clearly aimed at pro-trade advocates like Dambisa Moyo, John McArthur of Millennium Promise argues that Africa has actually made considerable progress in both economic and social development contrary to the opinion that there has been a long-term decline in these areas due to Western aid. "Debunking the Claims of African Regress", lists a few examples of where Africa, compared to South Asia, has reduced extreme poverty, expanded AIDs treatement, and decreased mortality rates.

"These are just a few of the success stories arising from strong local leadership and supportive international partnership. These successes can be replicated and expanded, which is why it is so important to debunk the claims of African regress and to understand how misguided it is when people call for the international community to disengage from supporting Africa."

Ouch! McArthur's article is most certainly entertaining and it does rightly identify some successes in African development. However, it ignores a whole host of failures in the recent past that Moyo and others allege are a result of aid dependency. I personally, would spend a good amount of my summer intern stipend for a ticket to see a debate between Dambiasa Moyo and John McArthur.