Churches & the Organised Poor
By Thina Khanyile, IUM-SiCiLi Barefoot Consultation, Pretoria, 28 August 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo is an egalitarian and democratic organisation of the poor. It is dedicated to the self-improvement and self-education of people who have been made poor by an unjust economic system. We organise ourselves to be able to discuss and understand our situation better and to be able to struggle for justice.
AbM is not a political party. We are a an independent poor people's organisation. We accept people regardless of the political parties that they are coming from but we keep party politics out of the movement and all our leaders must agree to remain independent from all political parties.
AbM was formed in the year 2005. Shack dwellers of Kennedy Road in Clare Estate in Durban were angry and concerned after living for a very long with empty promises from the local councillor and the municipality. People were demanding services and proper development in the area which is close to work and schools. However the municipality wanted to destroy the settlement and move everyone to Park Gate which is one of the human dumping grounds far outside the city. People in Kennedy Road organised a protest in March 2005. After that people in Kennedy Road started to work with people in nearby settlements in places like Sydenham and Reservoir Hills. The other neighbourhood areas played a huge and crucial role when the movement was formed in October 2005.
AbM was formed for the following objectives:
* To fight for, protect, promote and advance the dignity of the poor.
* To improve the lives and living condition of the shack dwellers especially by asserting the human dignity of shack dwellers. Although shack dwellers are the primary focus, AbM also works with the poor people not living in shacks like flat dwellers, street traders etc
* To take forward the struggle for equality and justice, by working to bring about a free and open society, based on respect for all in which men and women operate on an equal ground to pursue their happiness, nourish their values and appreciate the spiritual intangibles which make life a unique experience and a divine gift
* To oppose all forms of injustice and inequality, to democratise all forms of decision making and to replace the current top down system with a bottom up system and to struggle for equal rights to the cities and equal distribution of land, wealth and other resources.
* To assist its members, branches and affiliated communities in establishing the culture of self help and self reliance in their families to improve their immediate social and economic conditions.
* To ensure that the poor are aware of their rights under their South African law and are able to access these rights and to defend them from violation.
* To work towards meaningful engagement between Government structures and grassroots structures.
* To offer a maximum support to the poor living in and affected with HIV/AIDS.
* To actively oppose all forms of prejudice within settlements including sexism, racism, xenophobia, ageism, tribalism and prejudice against people living with HIV and AIDS
* To engage in public protest against the oppression of poor people when and where this is necessary.
AbM primarily sustains itself by membership fees but we do receive some other support too which is important for running the office etc. The movement does not accept any funding from governments or any funding that will compromise its autonomy in any way. It has found its most committed support from churches in South Africa and elsewhere.
Each year we draw up a calendar of events and commitments for the year but we also have to respond to crises as they happen.
Our movement had grown considerably since it was formed and we have experienced and learnt a lot from the struggle. Our experience tells us that the inhuman lives that shack dwellers are living is not just caused by a lack of service delivery. Often service delivery makes people's lives much worse! For example if people are forcibly removed from a shack that is close to friends and family, to work and schools and dumped in a government shack (which is called a 'transit camp') in the human dumping grounds outside the city that is service delivery but it is exclusion and not development. Many policies are highly regressive and so we can't simply demand that they are implemented with more efficiency. And even when service delivery is good it is undermined by cadre deployment, comradism and the way in which delivery is used to support local party structures rather than the so called 'benneficiaries'.
We have successfully fought some regressive policies. We defeated the Slums Act of Mabuyakhulu which was meant to eradicate the shack settlements in KZN. We have also overturned the ban on providing electricity to shack settlements in Durban but so far it is only going to very few settlements. We still have to struggle for a full roll out of electricity. We have also stopped many, many evictions and this is forcing the City to realise that they will have to upgrade settlements in the city rather than to forcibly remove people outside of the city.
To begin our discussion, ‘EDUCATING NGOs and CHURCHES to be BAREFOOT’
We do not see the role of NGOs as taking decisions for the poor and without the poor and then paying and bussing in poor people to support their campaigns. For us this is just another kind of exploitation. It might sometimes say that it is against the economics of neo-liberalism but it is not against the politics of neo-liberalism. We do not believe that NGOs can change the world on their own. They have no power, no mass support. Neither the government nor the capitalists fear an NGO meeting. What can change the world is the power of organised people. Therefore we see the role of the progressive NGOs and Churches being to support democratic formations, such as poor people’s movements and communities struggling for social justice in our society. Speak to us and not for us. Think with us and not for us. Organise with us and not for us. Work with us to build the power of the oppressed. Avail your selves to people in their difficult times especially when facing obstacles of injustice, eviction, arrests, fires and other factors that affect their living condition. When we are under attack use your power to protect us from repression so that we can continue to organise safely. Amnesty International has played a very important role in supporting us when we have faced repression.
There are already some church leaders and organisations that are willing to work with poor people on the basis of equality and within the logic of what we call a living solidarity such as Bishop Rubin Phillip and the Church Land Programme.
We often find that all kinds of NGOs want to come and educate us. However the starting point for any discussion about education must be that:
1. We are poor not stupid.
2. We are poor because of oppression and injustice and not ignorance.
However we welcome any shared learnings that respect our intelligence and our experience and is orientated towards working out, together, how to better confront injustice. We call this a living learning.
Right now the Anglican Church, Diocese of Natal, is working with us and SERI to run workshops in partnership with AbM and other poor people's organisations and movements that are a space where we can share our knowledge about how to use the law in struggle.
Each year the Church Land Programme supports us to elect five AbM members to attend a course on Participatory Development at the Pietermaritzburg campus of UKZN. They also facilitate discussions where these learnings can be analysed by the movement and shared with the movement. In this way the opportunity to access formal education is not privatised.
Poor people come from different places and so they not normally experience the same suffering. Therefore Churches and NGOs would be better if they made more efforts to see for themselves the context that people are living, suffering and struggling in. A living solidarity becomes much easier when you are with people, when you are part of their struggles, their meetings and events. It is important to be there when there are fires, floods, arrests and whatever others problems might arise. But always the point is not to do things for the poor but with the poor. Working with us to build our own capacity is the most important thing.
Because Churches, unlike NGOs, have local denominations they could really help to facilitate connections between people in different localities and to provide space for developing a broader movement for transformation rooted in strong local communities and struggles. In doing so the principle should be respected that the leadership and direction remains in the hands of poor people rather than the Churches speaking on their behalf. But church leadership in genuine solidarity with the poor and unafraid to assume its prophetic role of ‘speaking truth to power' can be a very powerful ally in the difficult but urgent struggle for an end to hunger, poverty and oppression of the poor – the struggle for life and freedom.
Finally I wish to call upon the NGOs and Churches for help with the comprehensive challenge of the displacement in 2009 of AbM leaders and their families, together with other AbM members, from the Kennedy road shacks settlement, who are still now homeless. Their issue has been given very scant attention by the Durban municipality and the Department of Housing. Some Churches have land that they own and we are sure that they can find way of turning this sometimes embarrassing and and burdensome legacy into are source for transformation.
I thank you.