The democratic opposition to the corrupt "Socialist Party" regime of president Abdou Diouf will contest the November 1995 municipal elections as a common front - "Together to Badara Ndiaye explains why the African Party for Democracy Chande Senedal." Change Senegal. and Socialism (PADS) is participating in the alliance. He also outlines the challenges facing the radical anti-capitalist left in the struggle for democracy and against the implementation of the IMF-backed structural readjustment plan for Senegal.
International Viewpoint: President Diouf liberated opposition leaders Landing Savané (PADS) and Abdoulaye Wade of the liberal right Democratic Party (PDS) in February 1994, following international protests. What has happened since?
Badara Ndiaye: The 'majority' presidential block in parliament has been widened to include the Democratic League (LD, a splinter of the PDS) and the Labour and Independence Party (PIT, former Communist Party). None of the other promised reforms have been implemented. The political situation is so clearly blocked that a majority of the population supports the PADS initiative of calling for the creation of a kind of constituent assembly. This "National Conference" would create a duality of power at the institutional level, and which could be the basis of new, legitimised politics.
The French government is pressing president Diouf to integrate the PDS liberal right opposition into the parliamentary game by appointing commissions which would prepare a government of national unity!. This way, Diouf could avoid recognising a national conference of the type PADS is proposing. The pressure on the opposition, including the PADS, to accept some vague national consultation will grow enormously in the coming months. International capital is desperate to find a way to continue making profits without visibly supporting dictators, and France would see an anti-imperialist break in Senegal as a clear defeat.
The opposition is divided in its attitude to me mattona comerence, tos attitude to the national conference. PDS leader Abdoulaye Wade and the rest of the liberal right would like to institute a more honest management of the state. The PADS and the Movement for Socialism and Unity (MSU) want to use the conference to generate a radical break with the present system and challenge the structural adjustment plan imposed by the World Bank. You have formed an electoral alliance with the PDS and MSU. Why ?
We have no common strategic point with the liberal right, beyond the struggle for democracy. This is the sense of our common slogan, "together to change Senegal." But this alliance allows us to reach out to thousands of people who want to see Diouf go.
Obviously, the differences in this alliance will become more important one day. In the meantime, we try to reinforce the left inside the alliance. We have even begun unification negotiations with the Movement for Socialism and Unity (MSU). This self-management oriented current strongly promotes African unity, and stresses the need to organise a continental conference for change. Some PADS militants think that a unification congress, held soon, could have enormous political consequences.
Participation in elections is a new challenge for the left, in a country where seven out of ten adults are illiterate. In the trade unions, the left has been pushing for the rejection of the World Bank and IMF-imposed policies. But in the political sphere, the population is fairly reticent about the possibilities of change. There were urban riots in 1988, when Wade and the other opposition leaders were arrested, but this unrest was channelled and controlled by the regime. The PDS entered the 'Socialist Party'
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International Viewpoint #264 MARCH 1995 government in 1990. Its not surprising that people are sceptic about the possibilities of change. And the PADS itself?
The PADS was born only one year before Senegal's last presidential elections in 1993. The founding literacy in Senegal Age Women Men 15-19 70 49 20-29 77 57 30-39 82 61 40-49 93 72 50-59 96 78 60+ 97 83 Total 82 63 Source: Ministry of Literacy, 1993 manifesto of the party clearly presents socialism as an alternative to the existing order. But it also stresses the importance of the struggle for reforms, such as the abolition of foreign debt. Our disappointing score in the 1993 elections (2.95%) did not reflect our implantation in several important sectors of the working class, including the health service, the post office, and telecommunications. We now have between 15,000 and 20,000 members, and a significant capacity for mass mobilisations on specific issues.
Our aim is to maintain the alliance with the PDS and MSU until the November 1995 municipal elections, and to present a strong opposition to the Socialist Party. Although our party was only recently created, we already have a
certain credibility, and most of the important political initiatives in the country are generated by us. PADS leaders have never collaborated with the Diouf regime, which gives them a certain credibility.
The PADS is the result of the fusion of four organisations in 1991. The largest was the Maoist group And Jëf. The Senegalese section of the Fourth International, the Organisation socialiste des travailleurs (Socialist Organisation of Workers - OST) was another of the constituent elements of the new party.
Our central demand is that Abdou Diouf must go - by the ballot box or by the will of the streets, and that we must present an alternative programme for the country's development. Beyond this, there is a considerable diversity of views in side the party. Some members think we will always have to work with the IMF and World Bank, others say we must get rid of them. A minority of our members think we should repay the existing foreign debt. The majority, including the entire trade union leadership, think Senegal should refuse to pay, and that we should leave the French-controlled CFA currency zone. If we came to power, the exact policy would obviously depend on the balance of forces at that time. For the moment, the stress we put on the rejection of the IMF and WB plans reflects our base in those sectors of society which are most implicated in the opposition to the structural adjustment programme - the unions, youth organisations, and community groups.
Most PADS militants come from the Maoist current. This affects their view on the kind of party we should build. But there is general agreement on the needs to fight in the trades unions against the structural adjustment plan of the regime and its consequences, to organise students at the secondary and university level to fight for autonomy from the regime and to create independent, recognised student unions.
In practice, the various currents in the party, including the OST (Fourth International) develop and defend their own positions both inside and outside the party. The different currents are represented on the Internal pluralism is an important part of the PADS statute. The question of external activities is still under debate. *
1) If the 1993 elections had not been manipulated by Diouf, the PDS would have won a majority nationwide, not just in Dakar.