Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

WSF in Kenya stormed by slum kids

ab | 26.01.2007 12:53 | Free Spaces | Globalisation | Social Struggles | World

Reuters reports that the people from the slums invaded the WSF in Kenya whilst refusing to pay the entrance fee. According to Reuters' account the kids then continued to raid the canteen.

pics from Indymedia Belgium
pics from Indymedia Belgium




The seventh World Social Forum took place in Nairobi, Kenya, in opposition to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and ended yesterday.
In previous years, the WSF has been organised in Porto Alegre (Brasil), in Mumbai (India), in Bamako (Mali), Caracas (Venezuela) and Karachi (Pakistan).
According to a report on Indymedia Germany, the gathering opened on 20th of January with several colourful demonstrations before continuing with workshops and seminars in the Moi International Sports Centre.

Indymedia Belgium published more pictures under:
 http://www.indymedia.be/en/node/6806
 http://www.indymedia.be/en/node/6807
 http://www.indymedia.be/en/node/6808

The gatecrash is also discussed in today's Comment is Free on the Guardian's website:
 http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sasha_simic/2007/01/post_997.html

TAZ reports about 100 000 participants at the WSF with about 1200 workshops and seminars.
 http://www.taz.de/pt/2007/01/20/a0191.1/text

Junge Welt reports about an Alternative WSF taking place in the slums, called the "People's Parliament". According to critiques, the WSF has to be an "open space" in future without an exclusive entrance fee. In the interview with Dorothea Härlin from ATTAC, she stated that the most important issue discussed was the free access to potable water, on which the "water forum" in Porto Alegre will focus next year. According to her, the WSF will not be taking place anymore in its current form, but include a week of actions and protests and take place simultaneously in many different cities and will be timed to co-incide with the WEF.

---

Poor people gatecrash World Social Forum in Kenya
Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:57 PM GMT146

 http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-01-25T145750Z_01_BAN553856_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-FORUM-AFRICA-20070125.XML

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Slum dwellers, who could not afford the 500 shilling admission fee, gatecrashed an anti-capitalist festival in Kenya's capital of Nairobi, forcing their way into an event designed to tackle poverty and debt.

Organisers said hundreds of poor from the Nairobi slums on Wednesday thronged the stadium where the seventh annual World Social Forum was taking place and demanded to be let in without paying the entry fee.

"When the people became rowdy ... we opened the gate and many people from neighbouring settlements did come in," Oduor Ong'wen, a member of the organising committee told a news conference on Thursday.

"There has been a very heavy participation for people in the slums."

Local media on Thursday reported that about 40 street children raided the tent of a food caterer, chased away staff and helped themselves to the food there.

More than half the population in Kenya is poor and lives on less than one dollar a day.

Organisers defended themselves against accusations they had locked out the poor and said the fee had been waived for some participants who had requested it.

"This forum is about changing the world, not about assembling the poor or parading the poor for show," Ong'wen said.

At least 49,000 paid the entrance fee for the five-day jamboree, which ends on Thursday, with participants from the developed world paying as much as 80 euros.

The event, organised with the participation of African and international social movements, is intended to be a counter-balance to the World Economic Forum of business and government leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

Coordinators said the social forum, which has been held annually since 2001, would not take place in 2008 but social movements all over the world would arrange campaigns to be carried out simultaneously on a single day."

ab

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. time comes, it goes — once upon a
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech