Farmers unions, housing cooperatives, HIV/AIDS support groups, students and trade unions rallied around the call from Gender and Economic Alternatives Trust. GEAT Coordinator Tafadzwa Muropa highlighted that the key objective in Zimbabwe’s fight against poverty is the equal participation of women and men in formulation of the country’s economic policies.

The IMF/World Bank imposed their ESAP policies from the early 1990s which, according to Rita Nyampinga of ZCTU trade union congress, brought massive retrenchments across the country’s public and private sectors. Women continue to bear the brunt of harassment in the workplace from Harare’s municipal police, Chinese, Nigerian and other shop-owners, and even employers in civil society where vulnerable women were required to work until after 11pm. On these issues, NGOs and womens rights groups need to band together to test whether local and national loan agreements are sustainable.

The Extended group of WSF2011 learnt of GEAT’s efforts to bring three key political parties together since the elections in February 2009. After more than a decade of political and economic instability, there is still much rebuilding needed in the country’s economic and social fabric. Forced housing evictions from May 2005 were the target of the ZINAHCO housing cooperative association’s energies. Women’s voices were confined to the grassroots level in most housing cooperatives, with men dominating the cooperatives’ Boards and the highest level of decision making across the country.

Gertrude Ukomba on Thembinkosi highlighted the country’s dire unemployment levels as the greatest challenge facing women who live with the daily risk of HIV/AIDS. Together with Leyvinia Katshana of the Students Solidarity Trust, they highlighted that core cultural tendencies were at the heart of the Zimbabwe’s poverty.

’Of the 90,000 children that drop out of primary level of schooling in Zimbabwe each year, most are girls’, said Ms Katshana. ’The cultural tendency is to elevate the boy child at the expense of the girl child, and society finds it profitable to educate the boy, as he will carry on the family name, thereby compromising the country’s female education.’

Mastery of internet communications at this year’s World Social Forum means that Zimbabwe’s messages are brought to world attention. Understanding is generated in the common fight against poverty, and strength and support can be drawn from the broadest, and most unlikely, corners.

Representative of the farmers union (ZFU), Lilian Goliati reinforced the earlier message of ZINAHCO about lack of a women’s voice when decision making was concerned. ZFU drew encouragement at the village level, and the farmers have launched their own gender policy to tackle decision making processes at the level of the province and the Board. ’Launching a gender policy is one thing’ she said. ’The key challenge comes when the organisation tries to implement and adhere to that policy.’

There was broad agreement that recent actions by Harare City Council and the Ministry of Environment indicated a larger malaise. Women relied on the maize crops that the Council had destroyed in recent weeks. Demolition of wetland housing by the Ministry (for environmental reasons) meant that policy makers needed to be engaged, so that appropriate land could be provided for sustainable housing.

The struggle continues, with Tafadzwa, GEAT and all participants committed to an action programme to reclaim women’s economic and social rights in transitional Zimbabwe.

[Contact: GEAT Coordinator alternatives32 at yahoo.com for updates on the campaigns throughout 2011]

The Friday-night crowd in Adelaide’s premier retail precinct seemed intent on their Christmas shopping; everywhere, that is except outside Myers. This was Week 8 of the BDS protest in Adelaide, and the usually-bustling crowd of shoppers entering Myers had thinned to a trickle.

Many of those outside the store were engaged in animated discussion with the protesters, or just to learn why Adelaidians were being asked to support the international boycott of Israeli goods. How was it that cosmetics manufacturer Seacret is committing human rights abuses by stealing ‘minerals from the Dead Sea’ from Palestinian lands?

Sean Robinson and fellow protesters were engaging with Adelaide’s citizens in explaining why ‘It’s no SECRET: Israel is an apartheid state’. Most Australians are familiar with apartheid in a different context, and many see depictions of the wall as merely an artist’s fabrication. On this Friday night, they seemed unaware of the wall’s existence (and still do).

Eight weeks on, and Seacret’s Adelaide franchise owners are feeling the pinch. The private security staff at the store’s entrance were obviously uncomfortable, photographs in the store were ‘out of the question’, and it was clear the green-shirted protesters were unwelcomed anywhere within the Myer complex.

Radio Adelaide’s BackStory program continues to explain the campaign on its Wednesday night timeslot. Over the next couple of weeks, there will be interviews with AFOPA Chairman Paul Heywood-Smith QC, and Kim Bullimore, organiser of the national BDS conference held in Melbourne last weekend.

And next Friday night the green-shirted protesters will return, with the security staff and franchise owners more on edge as, in their views, the protest is becoming more militant and aggressive. More likely, they just don’t want to be there, as the franchise staff of black-shirted Israeli citizens seem out of place, and don’t have any customers to serve.

Videos from previous Seacret protests in Adelaide are available here.

he Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) is one of many non-governmental organisations that brings international volunteers into the West Bank to experience life under Israeli occupation.

The international accompaniers provide a protective presence for Palestinian communities, monitor and report human rights abuses and support Palestinian and Israeli civil society groups working towards peace.

Rebekka Christensen is a volunteer with the EAPPI and I spoke with her about her experiences in the occupied territories.

This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 6th of October.

Today, we send it for the media marathon

Listen to the audio

Photo: opening march, by Hilde Stephansen

Day 1 of the World Education Forum – Palestine

On the opening day of the forum, an online workshop was conducted between the conference venue in Palestine and Flinders University, in Adelaide (Australia) on decentralised education.

The differing educational experiences of Palestine and elsewhere in Asia were compared and discussed. Keynote speakers included Dr Mouhamad Shaheen (Teacher Creativity Centre, Palestine), Rosdiana Sijabat (Atma Jaya Catholic University, Indonesia) and M. Adib Abdushomad (Flinders University, Australia).

Dr Shaheen related a case example from Palestine, where education had been decentralised to the local level, as an experiment. Ms Sijabat responded that Indonesia also had experiences of decentralisation and, whilst there were similarities in implementation, there were key differences in context and experiential outcomes.

Abdu Shomad explored the concept of educational rigour, and promoting higher-quality research at the State Islamic University of Indonesia. There was a spirited discussion on the teaching of natural sciences, and its relationship to Qu’ran understanding.

The concept of an extended, on-line, face-to-face dialogue between students from Asia, and activists within the World Education Forum was a highlight of Day 1 of the event.

[Released, 11pm (Ramallah time), 29 October 2010]

Requests for further information should be forwarded to will0447 at flinders.edu.au