WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: The Spirit of Bandung Alive and Well in Bamako

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

BAMAKO, Jan 19 2006 (IPS) - As the sixth World Social Forum (WSF) got underway in the Malian capital of Bamako, Thursday, memories of another landmark meeting were in the air – namely the Bandung Conference, held in the Indonesian city of the same name in 1955.

The Bandung talks brought 29 African and Asian countries together over concerns that the United States and then Soviet Union were intent on controlling Third World nations. Calls are now being made in Bamako for the Bandung initiative to be resuscitated; this echoes events last year when African and Asian states met in Bandung to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1955 gathering, which led to the creation of the Nonaligned Movement in 1961.

Civic groups say a revitalised Bandung movement could help address inequalities in developing states that are ascribed in part to policies adopted by the First World.

“What we have continued to see is a new form of colonisation, in which developing countries have continued to suffer dictatorship from developed countries,” said Samir Amin, director of the Third World Forum: a network of African and Asian think-tanks that is based in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

He made the remark during a conference held ahead of the Bamako WSF, also to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bandung initiative. The meeting attracted about 1,000 people, including representatives of civil society organisations and social movements from around the world.

“When 75 percent of the of the world’s population is under the domination of only a very small group, it is most unfair. We are facing a colonial system that deprives us (developing nations) of our right to choose our way of life,” noted Amin.

“This is the debate that may be advanced by the Bandung spirit; the debate addressing privatisation and liberalisation…which have continued to afflict Third World nations.”

States represented at the 1955 Bandung meeting also sought to promote Afro-Asian cooperation, with a view to reducing their dependence on wealthy nations. However, Cold War pressures undermined the effectiveness of the subsequent Nonaligned Movement, as supposedly neutral members of the grouping drifted towards the American and Soviet camps. Paradoxically, the end of the Cold War also affected the movement negatively, depriving it of its “raison d’etre”.

Francois Houtart, executive director of the Belgium-based Centre Tricontinental, believes the spirit of unity that prevailed at Bandung can be reclaimed.

“We are proposing to build a new world – to come out of this colonial era where we have been submerged by the WTO, IMF and World Bank, which have been dictating their terms: such as forcing us into privatisation and unfair trading policies,” he said at the Bamako meeting.

Critics of international trade rules policed by the World Trade Organisation have long pointed out that these disadvantage developing countries by forcing them to lower trade barriers – even as wealthy states maintain protection over their markets. They also say that privatisations urged by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have put social services such as those relating to health and education beyond the reach of poor citizens.

“It is important for all the African and Asian people to be well-informed on these matters and resist them as one. They need to assess the neoliberal reforms that have been implemented so far and the damage they have caused, and oppose them jointly,” Aminata Traore, former Malian tourism minister, told TerraViva.

This effort may be given momentum by the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership (NAASP), set up at the 2005 Bandung gathering.

“We note with satisfaction that since the 1955 Conference, Asian and African countries have attained significant political advances. We have successfully combated the scourge of colonialism and consistently fought racism. In particular, the abolishment of apartheid represents a milestone in Asian-African cooperation…” says the NAASP declaration.

“However, having made these political gains, we are concerned that we have not yet attained commensurate progress in the social and economic spheres. We recognise the need to continuously strengthen the process of nation and state-building, as well as social integration.”