Comment on the streets at the Racism Conference Lorenzo Komboa Ervin On the opening day of the United Nations' sponsored World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, almost 20,000 persons marched to protest the failure of the South African government's land reform policy for the poor, and its anticipated sale of major industries and utilities to private entrepreneurs. One marcher criticized "this fraud of a conference for the corporate rich, while the poor suffer", as his picket sign said. I joined a small group of people from the U.S., Asia, Europe and other places who left the Non-Government Organization portion of the conference to march in solidarity. This march was organized by the Durban Social Form, an umbrella group of the Landless People's Movement, the National Land Committee, COSATU (the largest labor union in the country) and numerous other social and community groups. The demonstration took place as part of a 2-day general strike called for by COSATU, which involved millions of South African workers, and crippled the transport, construction, and other industries, and snarled traffic all over the city of Durban and other parts of South Africa. Protesters carried picket signs calling President Thabo Mbeki "a liar", "bully", and warning that the government will face even more disruptions, which would threaten the power of the African National Congress government and "their rich friends backing them." Many described the conflict between the groups in the Social Form and the ANC government as a "class war", which they saw as resulting one day into a "coup of the poor" to throw the rich and their ANC politicians out of power. The marchers angrily spoke about the "treachery" of the ANC, whom they said had "sold out" the poor of the country. When the march ended at the main conference site, a rally was held, where speakers condemned the United States and Israel as "evil twins" sanctioning and carrying out genocide in the Middle East. President George W. Bush ("that racist cowpoke") and the USA was especially condemned for "arrogantly thumbing their noses" at the conference and attempting to dominate the conference agenda, when Bush called for the elimination of any discussions around reparations for slavery and any designation of Israel as a "racist Zionist" state. The march included a number of urban homeless, rural landless and other desperately poor. The the ANC government had recently used police forces to drive these groups out of shanty towns and settlements in the months preceding the conference. Leaders of the landless movement said that landlessness itself was a symptom of racist and economic domination, a carryover from the racist apartheid regime, but was not being made a priority by the ANC ruling party. I have never been in a protest march like this one, though I had been to a lifetime of protests all over the world. Thousands of ordinary working class and poor people came out of their houses, churches, stores, and other places to join in, and thousands of others stood on the sidewalks to spur us on. It literally stopped all action in Durban, a city of 3.2 million people. I know I will never forget this march, and felt that I was part of a great historical happening. Most felt that this was the start of a new movement, a poor people's movement which would not be denied or ignored. They were insistent that neither ANC government bureaucrats, heads of state, or anybody else would speak for them anymore. They would not be victims in a country they had fought to create in the battle to overturn apartheid, and they forcefully said that they would take control of their own destiny. The real story in South Africa is not what is happening at the World Conference Against Racism, with politicians mildly "debating" over racism. The real story is not with lawyers at the NGO, arguing over fine details of resolutions and political statements on reparations or United Nations procedure. The real story is what is happening in the streets with the poor and working class people of South African developing a new social revolutionary movement. That's where I always want to be: on the streets with the common people while they make revolution. Back to Anarchism And The Black Revolution