Statment of Solidarity with Abahlali baseMjondolo

In 2008, delegates from 33 countries gathered in Durban to address the growing population of individuals and families living in slums and shacks around the world.

Governments, non-profit organizations and shack dwellers came together to propose a partnership in favor of all poverty-trapped individuals in these circumstances. Just one year later, in September 2009, Durban experienced some of the most troubling acts of discrimination against the very individuals who were at the heart of this meeting in 2008:

Abahlali baseMjondolo, South Africa’s Shack Dwellers Movement, based at Kennedy Road. The recent violence against Abahlali is a grim reminder of the structural edificethat millions of the world’s citizens confront in their daily struggles with poverty and deprivation.