AROUND THE WORLD
AROUND
1) To establish a Technical Secretariat
THE WORLD AFRICA Pan-African Forum meets ON December 15, 1991, in Dakar, Senegal, during the founding congress of the African Party for Democracy and Socialism (see article on opposite page), an exploratory meeting of African political organizations was held to consider the possibilities for the rebirth of a militant, independent and anti-imperialist PanAfricanism.
The number of countries represented and the political diversity of the participants meant that the Dakar forum was no more than a first modest step in this alrection. But the impetus is now there. direction. But the impetus is now there Subsequent meetings will show whether the movement can broaden itself. We publish below the final declaration of this meeting. THE continent is in a critical situation. Despite its enormous wealth, Africa carries a derisory weight in the affairs of the world.
On the political, as well as on the economic and commercial levels, Africa is subject to the whims of foreign powers and multinationals. Its economy is ruined, weighed down by payment of the heavy foreign debt burden contracted in the name of the African peoples, but which has only served to enrich the bourgeoisies and the ruling dictatorships.
These foreign powers and multinationals imposed dictatorial regimes on the African countries at the time of independence and are now trying to hi-jack the developing democratic movement. Africa must remind the entire world that it owes its current bankruptcy primarily to capitalism (the market). Africa's failure is the failure of the political-bureaucratic bourgeoisies supported by the West which have pillaged the continent and transferred colossal fortunes to Swiss and other Western banks.
The winds of change which are blowing across the continent could be without effect if new bureaucratic regimes succeed the parasitic bourgeoisies which have, until now, presided over the destiny of Africa; and if the questions of internal co-existence are not properly resolved.
No African country can by itself resolve the enormous problems confronting it.
That means that it is necessary to develop Pan-Africanist ideas and make them a material reality for the deBalkanization of the continent which is, today, a central dimension of our struggle. It is necessary, in order to do this, to build new institutions controlled by men and women who are honest, competent and accountable to their people.
It also requires socio-economic choices defined in relation to the needs of the peoples and the possibilities of our coun charged with maintaining the links between the participating organizations;
2) To make contact with political parties, associations, mass democratic organizations and personalities who share the Pan-African ideal.
Signatories to the declaration included: the Gambian Anti-Apartheid Movement; the Uganda National Liberation Front (Anti-Dictatorship); Consciousness for a Democratic Alternative (Burkina Faso); Party for the Liberation of Labour (PUT-Niger); Nigerian Party for Democracy and Socialism; the Regroupment of the People of Guinea; the Ivorian Popular Front; The Ivorian Workers Party; the Union of Social Democrats (Ivory Coast); the Cameroon Popular Front; The Front of Resistance for Unity, Independence and Democracy in Mauritania; the Alliance for Democracy and Progress (ADP-Benin); And Jëf/ African Party for Democracy and Socialism (Senegal); Movement for Socialism and Unity (Senegal).
The Pan-African Forum can be contacted through PADS, Gibraltar 1, Numéro 168, Dakar, Senegal. * tries and not in relation of tries and not in relation of those of foreign powers.
The African forces of progress should attach as much importance to the problems of internal integration of the states as to regional or continental integration.
Only then will it be possible to go beyond the logic of the frontiers inherited from colonization and replace it with the logic of peoples and grass roots communities, which could promote an African unity which is neither bureaucratic nor authoritarian, an African unity freely consented to by the peoples, which alone is capable of promoting the new behaviour and the comprehensive changes that the state of our continent and of the world demands from us.
The Pan-African Forum of progressive parties, mass democratic organizations and associations which met in Dakar on December 15, 1991, constitutes a first step in this new direction.
Consequently, the Forum decides:
ANTILLES
Obituary - Vincent Placoly VINCENT Placoly, well known West Indian poet and writer and militant of the Fourth International, died at the beginning of January after a long illness. Vincent was a founder and leader of the Groupe Révolution Socialiste (GRS), the organization of supporters of the Fourth International in Martinique and Guadeloupe. He was 45 years old. Born in Martinique, Vincent was politically and culturally active since his schooldays. While still a student, he was involved in the launching of the anti-colonialist political and cultural magazine
Pigments in 1963.
Later, in Paris, Vincent was a student activist and became involved with dissident members of the Union of Young Communists (the student organization of the French Communist Party). Returning to Martinique, he was instrumental in the foundation of the GRS in the early 1970s. Now enjoying literary acclaim, he remained at the forefront of the activities of the GRS and was a candidate at the 1978 legislative elections. On January 10, more than 2,000 people accompanied Vincent's funeral procession, representing political parties, associations and institutions as well as ordinary people. Prominent French West Indian writers (including Edouard Glissant and
Aimé Césaire) were also present.
On January 13, the GRS organized a final evening of tribute to their comrade at which numerous poets, musicians and artists participated.
ex-USSR