Week-long ‘carnival of the opressed’ begins in Africa
Dakar, Feb. 7: Days after the global elite’s jamboree at the Swiss resort of Davos, a week-long carnival of the oppressed and the marginalised, and those speaking for them, has begun in the capital of this western African nation, with thousands of Left-leaning activists declaiming against globalisation and its discontent.
The 11th edition of the annual World Social Forum (WSF) kicked off here on Sunday, with drumbeats of rebellion against lords of global capital and those who control the neo-liberal globalisation.
Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Dakar carrying colorful banners and chanting freedom songs, reminding the world that is still reeling from the blowback of the global meltdown, that another world is possible — the original rallying cry that led to the founding of the WSF in Brazil 2001.
They had a long roster of grievances and spoke with the fury of righteousness, about all the ills plaguing the global system, including land grabs, restrictive immigration law and agricultural subsidies in Europe and the US to oppress and subjugate the developing world.
The march began near the offices of Senegal’s public broadcaster RTS and ended at the Cheikh Anta Diop University, the main venue for the week-long open-ended gathering.
Nearly 50,000 activists, grassroot workers and intellectuals from 120 different countries are participating in the WSF, which began as an open space where, the people who are opposed to neo-liberalism, and a world that is dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism, come together to pursue their thinking and act towards the cause.
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