‘Community of Movements’ Assembly July 2024

Four different approaches to change: Collaborating for transformation

“There is the cosmos and humanity. We are fighting for free societies and for free people.

You must be yourself and be part of the community.”

IPs = Indigenous People; SJC = Social Justice Centres; Kurds = Rojava; G2G = HeartPolitics

A note on song: The solidarity singing, chanting, humour and defiance of social justice centre comrades contrasted with the much gentler indigenous peoples’ laments and their songs of the beauty of their lands and the struggle of their peoples. Both were equally powerful. Both were equally appreciated.

DAY ONE: On People power: “What are we fighting for?”

Notes from one of the six small group discussions on the first day:

Social Justice Centres (SJCs):

-        To have a society that values human dignity. People in another class are treated more humanely. Our campaigns on judicial killings, on evictions. You shouldn’t be mistreated because you are from Mathare

-        To have a society free from domination, from inequality. Improved material conditions so people can afford to live without discrimination. The point is to create a culture of social Justice

-        We are fighting for socialism, total sovereignty of our lands, language, production. To be able to protect the ecological integrity of our motherland: “Land, food and freedom”

Indigenous Peoples (IPs):

-        To have our home where we can carry out our culture. Land is the basic function of production and value of our culture

-        To get our lands back. Where we can call our permanent home. If you don’t have that then everything is a mess. Also for human rights - we should be recognised as human beings. Our cries should be heard by those guys in government. We are fighting to have a voice. If you kill someone, what if the game turns? I am asking: Are these guys human beings? Do they love their families as we do? They should at least give us the core - to have where to sleep, permanent homes, schools, hospitals

Grassroots to Global (G2G):

-        Fighting to recognise we are all equal, for everything to be completely turned right way round. To stop having politicians, and instead have ordinary people making decisions by listening to a range of experts and view, but then making the decisions.

Social Justice Centres (SJCs):

-        We can’t all be at home when some feel they are more human than we are. All means of production have to take place on land. All land is needed to create employment, to build factories. If you have land you can live.

G2G to IPs: Do you only value land for production?

IP:

-        We depend on the forest for beekeeping, livestock, herbal medicine, and boys’ circumcision are done in December in the forest. It’s a taboo to cut certain trees when they are flowering or it is like destroying the womb of a woman. When someone is buried here - when you sleep at night the ancestors talk with you, mostly when you are 60 and above. We also do libations when we slaughter, or someone will get sick. But when you do the libation people will be healed. If they want to construct a road through the forest they have to avoid the sacred ground.

SJCs: Those who control land control society, so they want to detach people from their land

G2G: An example was the Liberian Minister of Agriculture came to a community in response to villagers protesting against being evicted from their lands to make way for oil palm plantations. The Minister said “We no longer want you to grow food for yourself, but to work for the plantation to earn money to buy food”

SJC:    People are also evicted for carbon credits

IP:  We need to protect ourselves from external forces. The Government still pursues a colonial policy. Our forest was gazetted in 1954

SJCs to IPs: You also work for gender equality. What’s the role of women in protecting the forest?

IP:

-        We compose songs where we praise our land and condemn our government.

-        We have a community structure with a council of elders, youth group, disabilities, all can air their view on what to do so we can stay on our land.

-        Women lead because men are targeted.

SJCs:

⁃            The Constitution has not been implemented one bit.

-        We’re calling on the government to implement the constitution that speaks on the people's sovereignty. When we’re in the streets we’re wanting the world to know we are the majority and are faced with such violence. We want to show people we’ve tried other ways but are having to protest on the streets in order to be heard. The state needs to recognise us as humans

-        We go on the streets sometimes to demand reform gains like “Make hunger go down”. At the back of our heads, we know we need to fight for the immediate needs of the class we are struggling for, because the people can relate to them and we can continue with them so they understand more.

SJC to IPs: In the city a council of elders is old men sitting around talking, how is it here?

IP:  Our council of elders is the supreme body that gives direction on what should be done.

G2G: One chairman of a council of elders of IPs has dodged bullets, he is a real activist. The same here amongst theis IP community - those who are now on the council of elders were the activists in their youth and since

IPs:

-        How can I connect the experience here in Kenya with where I come from in Uganda. After eviction we moved to different districts. After the total eviction in 1991 life was so hard. We don’t have land to dig on. Where we stay we rent. NEMA banned us from getting food, goods etc from the swamp and forest. Why can’t we have just the little we need to live?

G2G: Why do we only ask for little? We cannot leave the billionaires in charge.

SJCs:

-        The danger is people might be ok with the reforms. It can make people comfortable so they don’t demand what is really needed.

-        It can depoliticise the struggle so we then try to intensify the struggle through political education.

-        We are demanding land, food and freedom

-        It was a small demand asking them to drop the Finance Bill. But the bigger picture is we are tired of this system so we want them gone. They fell for the trap and dropped the bill, but then we came back saying we want the whole government gone.

SJC to IP: The Uganda regime is unpopular in the urban, but popular in the rural, why?

IP:  If they are not indigenous then they have land and are comfortable with their lifestyle.

-        They say: “I have my cows, family, education - what’s my problem?”

DAY 2 & 3 – Presenting and Discussing the Four Approaches

 1. URBAN Kenyan Social Justice Centres’ Presentation:

1. The 15 comrades from the urban informal settlements talked, sang, chanted and performed the impact of severe poverty, their socialism/ communism resistance, their use of song and theatre as political education, and their part in helping mobilise and give direction to the hugely effective ‘leaderless’ protests on the streets of Nairobi.

2. The reps were clear about the effectiveness of their protests (despite so many being killed) especially the storming of Parliament [which had included taking care of MPs in wheelchairs once the other MPs had fled, despite one of those MPs having just voted for the hated Finance Bill]

3. Their strategy is to build a 4th liberation struggle: the 1st was against colonialism and for independence, the 2nd against dictatorship and for multiparty rule, the 3rd against impunity and for the 2010 Constitution, and they see this 4th liberation struggle as being against the ongoing colonial capitalist patriarchal system that disregards the constitution and the well-being of almost everyone, and is for ‘equality, land,

Core of the SJC presentation:

“SJCs started in Mathare in order to highlight police murder of youth in the informal settlements, that had been normalised. Also to create a platform for other issues. Young people in informal settlements would be harassed and murdered where youth from rich areas would not.

“There is no longer normalisation of the killing of young people. Police know they will be made accountable.

“We then asked what causes this situation. It’s poverty and the system causing poverty.

“We have aimed for short term goals geared for the long term. They may charge a police officer, or create IPO [Independent Police Oversight]. It s not enough. We want a community that has no such inequalities.

“We lobby more young people into the movement. The youth can relate to our smaller demands. They can relate to protesting the high cost of living but not to seizing back Kenyatta’s land. Going for reforms is a tactic but we need constant political education

“The march every Tuesday and Thursday. People thought it was just the Finance bill, so they dropped that. Then we demanded the cabinet go, so they were fired. Now we’re demanding Ruto goes. They didn’t see that coming.

“If we change one thing but don’t completely change the system, we don’t restore this as a country that gives respect to everyone.

“The floods took the lives of almost 2,000 people in Mathare. It was not just rain there was a dam upstream that was opened. The Government said these people died not just because of the floods but because we built on riparian land. After the floods we had an assembly. Our office was stormed and 27 people were arrested. The Government say they want to build affordable houses on this land, and plant trees - we know this is just their land grab. We decided to plant trees ourselves and build affordable homes ourselves. 

“Occupy campaign is strategising on how we can use these assemblies to give direction to the country. We need to build grassroots democracy, so when we go to the national we know what we are demanding. The SJCs and the Travelling Theatre: youth relate more to art and creativity than to sitting in meetings. The Travelling Theatre has helped reshape our message. We live in a country with enough resources yet some cannot affords shoes. We want a country that is dignified. Some have big big ranches they are doing nothing yet people are sleeping on the streets. We have to struggle to get these things.

“We organise, then educate, then liberate”.

SJCs on Travelling theatre - Art as revolution:

We did our first theatre ‘Our lives matter’ in response to judicial likings. This was before we knew anything about Theatre of the Oppressed. Art as a tool of liberation. In the 1st liberation People used songs to talk to the people. In the 2nd liberation people used art ‘I will marry when I want’ and did open air theatre during Moi, like on how those in power use religion to take out land.

Our performances are normally a dialogue on an issue, and spark emotions

This is edutainment. We do performances - legislative theatre - in schools. We have also done softer performances in church. We love doing street theatre - going to where the people are

We do invisible theatre where people don’t know you are doing theatre, to engage people.

We let people know that having a house is your constitutional right. We go to find out what people’s issues are before performing. 

We start with a song. Art as a way of resisting. You can also put the songs out on social media.

We use murals, songs, theatre, music. To create our plays we sit down to share experiences from our communities, so we create theatre that provokes emotions

‘Parliament of the owls’ is studied by all kids and is of the animal kingdom. The olsl portray themselves as the most knowledgeable. They are trying to create a moonlight bill: if you make noise after 6pm you will pay a fine. A small bird tries to rally the other birds - last time the owls killed our birds, the owls eat well. The only issue the owls are concerned with is their makeup. Mr Moneybags is both the speaker in the parliament supporting the bill, and moneybags. This relates to what is happening in the country.

 SJCs on women’s power:

Giving birth is labour and the system exploits our rights.

Some comrades' fragile masculinity feel threatened by struggling side by side with us.

 It has been a crisis of women's struggle. We believe this is a decade of women’s liberation.

The successes of our struggle have been the success of women. In terms of ecological justice - do women own land here?

Discussion post-SJC:

1. We discussed their underlying strategy of focusing on immediate needs (affordable food, affordable housing, ending police brutality, ending impunity etc) and then linking these in people’s minds with the need for deeper change. In these ongoing protests, they first focused on “the Finance Bill must go’” then when President Ruto dropped it, “the cabinet must go”, then once they were sacked, “Ruto must go”. The need is to ensure small successes lead to deeper change, rather than success securing reforms that lead people to not demand deep change.

2. One indigenous leader commented that: 90 to 95% of Kenyans still think that changing the President or the party in charge is the solution when what we need is complete system change. Interestingly, his community and those from other indigenous communities present (while living in a way that is so much more outside that system and so much more based on mutual well-belong, however much that may also involve patriarchy) were far less conscious of the need for total system change than their sisters and brothers from the urban slums. 

Question: “Many people practise negative tribalism, voting for someone who will be very negative to others. Others, like our community, practise positive tribalism.  How do you deal with communities which identify as indigenous, not to oppress others but to assert our rights?”

Answer: “Tribalism has been used to divide us through trickery to make us fight amongst ourselves, but a person without tribe and land is a person without integrity, like a boat in the sea without direction”

Dreadlocks Question: A Massai woman asked the SJC men with dreadlocks why they didn’t cut off their dreadlocks? She seemed very concerned that they might suffer police violence because of their dreadlocks when they are not criminals.

 Massai Question: “After learning from the great work you SJCs are doing in society, your great demos in Nairobi and elsewhere. I want to ask the men with dreadlocks, given the government treat you as criminals because of your dreadlocks, Is it possible for you to change? We don’t what to lose you guys. My idea is to differentiate you from other guys. What we want is our land, our rights.”

There were many responses from the Social Justice movement, including:

-        “You will be called a criminal whether you have dreadlocks or not”

-        “When Mau Mau were fighting this was a sign of resistance”

-        “If you see an old man like [xxxxx] with dreadlocks, it is because he never compromised”

-        “Even Maasai had dreadlocks. The bourgeoise create a story of us as bad”

-        “We follow the constitution. We demand the same respect as corporate criminals who get taken off in fancy vehicles whereas we get roughed up. We don’t accept criminality in our communities. The biggest criminals are those wandering around in suits and heavy vehicles”

-        “We need to own our bodies and decide how we look. Our humanity is not about what we look like. We are not walking as officials, as the killers of humanity”

-        “We are trying to regain our ancestry. By cutting our hair - your hair is your brain. The issue of the hair is about a colonial legacy. Taking off their culture, their hair, their clothing, their land, their identity. After the failed coup against Moi that played reggae, he banned reggae and banned dreadlocks.”

One indigenous woman responses included:

-        “I love your energy. I’ve been trying to grow my dreadlocks. My dreadlocks are resistance. When [this place] gets its freedom, [xxxx] will cut his dreadlocks”

Supporter from Catalonia (she has lived long in Rojava) responded:

-        “We want to support you with your deadlocks. Us as a movement - our biggest characteristics as a revolutionary is not how we look but concerns what is it to have a revolutionary personality? But also things can be a symbol of resistance. There is history, culture. In both sides there is truth.”

-        IP from Uganda: “We have the opposition. National Unity platform. On Tik Tok people wedge between the opposition leaders (Bob While) who’s son who has many dreadlocks and he had and was a drug addict. I cannot support someone to be President who was a drug addict and might make Uganda grow marijuana. They take advantage of you”.

-        SJC woman: “We need to do a lot of education because this comes from colonial education. You will not hear what I say because you only see my appearance. You can’t judge people by their appearance or disability or age.  We need to un-educate ourselves”

5.     We need a conversation on communities having community land but most of us come from communities where men own the land.

-        This issue is returned to in the women-led indigenous assemblies’ presentation below

6.     Responding to question on women’s role in the struggle

-        “We don’t just put women there because they are women but because they can lead. We have a women’s study cell, where we analyse. We have a movement of collective writers who document our stories as women. Power is not given. We take.”

2. KURDISH Rojava Struggle and Society Presentation

Core of the Kurdish presentation:

“PKK is a revolutionary movement. It is the heart of our movement and society.

We are not officially allowed to speak our language. Rojava is where ancient peoples live - not just Kurds, Armenians etc. They have all experienced genocide from the state. Kurds are 45 million but many had to emigrate. Our land is divided between 4 nation states. All the 4 states have many alliances based on the isolation of the Kurds. Before PKK there were many uprisings. PKK bases its struggle in and as society. It created an army for self defence and plays a role in politics.

At first we didn’t know our history or culture well, then we knew it better and build our lives for ourselves, based on the question “How shall we live?”

It was important to to analyse who was endangering our community. We were fighting to regain our land, but also analysing how we were reproducing the mindset of the landlords and the state.

In the beginning, we realised that if women is not free then society will not be free. We have women in all dimensions, but we women are fighting a lot to defend our freedom within our struggle.

Part of our struggle is social but also military. Everyone takes part in both. The people’s revolutionary war starts from the country not from the city.

When we talk about the strength of the tribe playing their part in our democratic system it is also because the tribes are very strong and the states are trying to bring them to their side.

This is built on Ocalan who was arrested in Kenya in 1999

Different people can live together in a democratic way. Most of the contradictions between the tribes and people were because our ethics have been brought to the lowest level. The basis of our revolution is the recclaming of a political and ethical society.

The practice:

We were building communes and organising self defence. Then when there was the Islamic State we were able to push them out and we also had our own system of communes and councils.

We have co-leadership of men and women, and don’t want the rights of women to be postponed.

Many times before we had women in the self defence forces. Before there was a lot of femicides, rape, kidnap. Now we have our justice systems.

Our goal is the free life between men and women. When we talk about women’s autonomy we are speaking also of men’s freedom. Not all our male friends are accepting this. But the women cannot behave as before because women have gained a lot of strength socially.

The dominant mentality. When we build the council to say there is co-leadership the male said the female signature should be lower down. 

We are building autonomy in every sphere for the women and the people.

Jineoloji is women and society science for the free life, trying to recover our history to know who we are. Jiniology: women bring proposals from society to solve these problems. Our biggest problem is our mindset. We cannot solve our problems with the same mindset.

We are not only thinking of violence against women in our society, we are linking with women elsewhere in the world against the Taliban, against forced marriage etc to build a common mindset.

We have our dream. Then we need to bring our dreams to reality. Eg we have to get our schools recognised by the state while remaining autonomous in our education.

They don’t accept our schools or universities because they bring their mindset through their schools or universities. We are educating free minds.

We have a lot of problems to build free minds because there are always personalities who want to get the power, also children being married very young. It is not just that the states are attacking us, but there are also problems inside us of people trying to take power.

We are fighting religious fundamentalism that doesn’t accept other religions, against nationalism, against sexism.

The force that is most important is the strength of women. So women leaders are targeted.

Our strategy is developing different tactics in Turkey, Europe etc. The heart of our revolution is the guerrillas in the mountains - both general units and women’s. They are struggling for free life and freeing their minds from domination.

Turkey is attacking Rojava to destroy all the people have built. They destroy something but people are organised and rebuild it.

Death is not a problem. The question is why we die. Life and death. If we die for our freedom it is not a problem.

The Turkish state cannot defeat us in the mountains. For every attack - e.g. chemical weapons or drones - the guerrillas respond (e.g. living in caves or creating a system to make the drones fall). When you get nearer to the free will you can get everything.

Europe calls our organisation a terrorist one. Until now more than 50,000 have given their lives. In Turkish Bakur thousands of us are in prison. We organise even in prison, taking part in free minds. We are taking part in social and women’s liberation, asking: ‘What is a free mindset?’

When friends fall as martyrs for the struggle, all of them continue  to live. We collect their notebooks, analyse every one of them to know how they were fighting. We are following in the footprints of our martyrs and are struggling to bring their dreams to reality.

We are writing our own history [of our struggle] and think everyone should do the same.

The capitalist system is always trying to split us into pieces. We are focused on what brings us together. In our organising we have contradictions, but we are clear about what we are trying to bring together.”

Discussion of the Kurdish struggle:

1. Nation state question (SJC):

“We are still faced by the force of capitalism. How do we respond without a state? Are we evading a reality. Is the state a place to resolve class antagonism?”

-        “Since the very beginning we were collecting money from our people and our natural resources. We were never asking for resources from outside. We built ‘Democratic Confederalism’. We built the economy, but the most important thing is the mindset. A free mindset cannot be killed.

-        “The nation state continues but as our autonomy grows the state becomes weaker. We started with Rojava then it was all of north-east Syria now we look at all of Syria.

-        “We are fighting also in the Parliament opening the political space to bring our system. We win a municipality and can practice there. There is not a separate political class. We are building our system within the system, but we are not dependant on the state, [to take part in the state’s politics] is just to build more space. It is a tactic. We can have very clear red lines ,so we don’t compromise our values.”

2. Religion: (SJC) “How do you counter religious fundamentalism?”

-        “We are against any religion that will make people slaves. They have to abide by our social contract. The basis of our movement is to look to the truth.  We don’t reject religion because every religion rose up to address social problems of its moment. The intention was good but in the end it was serving the state and power. In the beginning it was more of a move for liberation. We have to decolonise religion.

-        “Our aim in every group is to be looking for the truth religion, gender wise etc.

3. Education (IP): “How do you live and get employed if your schools are not recognised by the state?”

-        “People build their school and teach in their language if they don’t want to teach in Kurdish. We want every people to build their system little by little. When people finish in our universities they work in our region, but we are struggling for the right for our education to be accepted. Everyone has work. Our system of education is happening in every area, and there is an academy in every area whether they can read or not. There are many other ways to learn than University.

4. A cascade of questions followed:

(SJC) How do you use art? People who are abled-differently, how are they integrated?

(G2G) What are the practices that men engage in to try and stop being sexist and become more free?

(IP) Do you manufacture your own bombs? What language do you use in schools? How have you tried to curb the rape of women? Are the women’s army defending them?

(IP) How did you recruit people to join the armed struggle? We also have people who are scared? How do you get military supplies? How does the military women and the guerrillas work together harmoniously?

-        Answers here and below:

-        “We are organised as military, but also as social in every field. for all the topics - disabilities, people in prison - there are organisations of people with disabilities, organisations of people in prison and support from outside. Every problem we solve with organisations taking part in the general system. The 1,000s of injured are organised.

-        “We have strategical plans and tactical plans. Part of weapons we make ourselves and improve. There is nothing that is hidden. Everything is analysed and criticised

5. How is this system organised? (IP) How do you get funding to support your education systems? I imagine there are people in the liberated areas opposing the liberation - what are their concerns, and how are you addressing their concerns?

-        “In the beginning we were classical communist, but we are building communal and ecological economy. As it grows the capitalist shrinks. In all of us we have a bourgeoise mindset. Where is it being reproduced inside us? As ethical values grow, class goes. We don’t do expropriation but as they join the system they end up putting all theirs into the system. With big landowners they join and gradually may give their land. We have to convince even our enemies We will never accept that someone can make themselves rich at others expense. We have social and women’s agreement

-        “Part of our movement has tactical relations with the state, but we need people everywhere to be free for us to be free. Our movement came out of the learning from the movements they have come before

-        “How do we organise in our [Rojava] movement? Through

1) Love of our lands

2) Changing our mindset - infinite struggle

3) Organising - in relation to every struggle

4) Free thought - educate to free our thoughts

5) Ethic and aesthetic - our actions will be the mirror of our ethic

-        “In all the levels of org we will use periodic coming together to criticise our comrades and ourselves according to whether we are following/ developing our ideology

-        “In every organisation we look at how the org can be autonomous, then education, economy, self defence, media for that organisation. So the organisation can work on its own and liaise with the others, all be built on radical democracy, on women’s freedom, on ecology.

-        “There are many problems of women. But we have the mechanisms to address them.

-        “Different peoples have autonomy but there is a council where all the peoples come together. In reality most different peoples/ nationalities live together rather than being in ghettos

-        Elections: “It’s the second time the self government wants to hold elections. But each time Turkey sabotages - they annexed one region. There is a frame for these elections. There is a social contract (that can be reviewed). To go to election every party has to have agreed to the social contract. A state power party that doesn’t want democracy can’t go to the elections.

6. Nationalism: “How do different nationalities interact? How can other nationalities be happy with the name ‘Kurdistan’?

-        “We call ourselves Rojava. We can be called North Eastern Syria. The name ‘Kurdistan’ is not a problem, we could change it.

7. “How do you deal with mental well-being, understanding there is so much injustice, comrades killed, arrested? What are the legal ways / the follow up for the 10,000 arrested?” (SJC)

-        “What is Mental health/ psychological health for you?

-        “We have a lot of attacks, but our wellness is not ‘are we happy all the time’ but we are in balance because we are fighting for what is right.

-        “Mental ill health happens if we cut ourselves off from society. Our biggest goal is to give good motivation to the others, it is like a snowball

-        “The enemy is using tactics to play with our youth, cutting them off from our community. The youth may even kill themselves if they cut themselves off. Digital media plays a lot with the bodies of the women, to give a specific form of how women should be. We put a lot of methods into encouraging people to be your different self.

“There is the cosmos and humanity.

We are fighting for free societies and for free people.

You must be yourself and be part of the community.”

 Presentation to the gathering about women-led assemblies

3. WOMEN-LED INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES ASSEMBLIES Presentation

The main facilitator of the Assemblies - an indigenous woman from one of the mountain communities - explained that the Assembly began in 2022. She said that it now involves 13 indigenous communities from across East Africa (Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and DRC). The Assembly that meets 2 times a year, moving from community to community to learn from each other’s struggles and strategies, and to encourage each other in the struggle for community lands.

The Assembly asks

“How can we women contribute and offer leadership in the struggle, and how can we as communities recognise women’s role in sustaining our communities, cultures and the struggle?”

An indigenous peoples’ community can only be itself if it sustains its culture and its struggle.

The cultural norm is that we used to pass women through initiation. Can we have an alternative rite of passage instead of continuing harmful practices or dismissing rites of passage in a demeaning way?

We are led by women and include and welcome men. We are working to strengthen our collective struggle for justice. We began in 2022, so when I heard that the Kurdish struggle has been since 50 years, I think our children will still be in the Assembly.

There is a women’s guiding council that makes proposals to the assembly group as a whole, with the assembly group meeting online between assemblies.

Between assemblies we also intervene in national and regional arenas to make sure our voices are heard as we try to combat injustice. We created a Declaration against colonial conservation, and one of us drew on it to speak to Heads of State in a Kigali conservation conference in 2022. One of us spoke out against carbon trading land grabs at the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi in 2023, and two of us spoke out against colonial conservation land grabs at the African Commission meeting in Arusha in 2023.

All of our communities have faced forceful evictions from our ancestral lands.

When you are evicted you either make a makeshift house on your lands until you can build something better, or until you are evicted again, or you are evicted and never go back. The Assembly provides a place where those who never went back can learn from those who went back.

Just now we are celebrating the Batwa of DRC winning their court case against having been evicted from their lands 50 years ago.

Most of us have gone through the court process, and when we lose the Government acts on the ruling and evicts us. When we win the Government ignores the ruling and evicts us.

If we hadn’t remained here on our land despite evictions, we would not be here now, despite winning our case. A vast area of our land is still under Kenya Forest Service control, but we are showing that when we are on our lands then we are the best people to protect and conserve it. We are working to regain all of our lands.

Land is a means of production but is also of community. When we regain control of all our lands, we will not go for individual title, we are going for block title. Our whole community will own all the land together. A block title solves the problem of not needing men or women to have title. I’ll be entitled. My children will be entitled. We have bylaws to make sure we all take care of our land, and to make sure we take care of each other.

Indigenous Peoples have resources on their land, so others want to come.

The main strategies we’ve employed as an assembly are:

1. To be sure that our assembly meetings are at the grassroots level in the community. That way we get first hand information. Otherwise you can get Indigenous Peoples who are promoting their interests, not that of their community. Yesterday we were able to walk this land, so the person hearing about our conservation could see it and understand it.

2. We give more space to women to build their confidence and encouragement

3. We look for platforms where women can engage with those we need to address. [Kigali IUCN, Nairobi Climate change, Arusha ACHPR]

4. Having land means you know your identity. When you are evited it means you’re sent to other peoples’ land, so you’re forced to practice their culture to avoid being mocked and stigmatised.

Other members of the women’s guidance council added:

-         (from Kenya): We have a women’s council of 8. The assemblies are rotational with 5 reps from each community.

-        (from Tanzania): The reps are 3 women and 2 men, or 4 women and 1 man. Coming to another community - for example us coming from Loliondo in Tanzania to Kenya - builds confidence. When we go back we are ambassadors and help things to change

-        (from Uganda): Having Assemblies and visiting different IP communities - this creates a chance for those who can’t travel to understand and share the pain and challenges on the ground. When we went to the Batwa [of Uganda] we really felt their suffering. Then we bring back what we have seen, heard and understood to our communities.

-        (from Uganda): In Assemblies when we come from different countries and IPs, we think we’re the only people who are suffering, but we also hear others suffering, so we need to be a group to fight the brutality.

Discussion on the women-led indigenous assembly:

1.  “A journey of 1,000 steps starts with a step. What’s your ideology? What’s your mission objective? (SJC)

-        (Uganda): “Our dream is that, as we move, we listen to each other’s problems and try to support each other. So e.g. on Uganda side we were not recognised but now we are now a recognised tribe. Our dream is that as we move and share our challenges we solve them together.

-        (Tanzanian): “Our big dream is we overthrow the Government. Our dream as IPs is to be autonomous. The Kurds fund themselves. We don’t want to be beggars. We now know you guys so we can come together and be strong

-        (Kenyan) “The African court ruled in our community’s favour in 2017, but nothing was implemented. So as women we wanted to petition the Govt as women. We wanted as women to go to the Presidents summit.”

2. “What is your dream as a women led assembly in an organisational way? When you go back to your community what is your relation to the organisations in your community? How much are women-led assemblies accepted in the community?  (Kurds) / “Great to see IP movement across east Africa. Communities choose leaders, how long does rotation take? How can we synergies with other women’s struggles?” (SJC)

-        “There is rotation of the reps, then rotation of moving from community to community. Funds limit us. People have other engagements, so you don’t put your assembly when people are engaged elsewhere. We’ve managed 2 assemblies a year. We’d like to do at least 3, but 4 would be too many.”

-        “There are pre-Assembly meetings, and the community governing council plays a role in choosing reps and in hearing what has happened 

-        “We try to find leadership positions from village level to state level. Mostly in Tanzania we don’t have women in leadership. We need to be making decisions at all levels. This coming year I’m going to run for MP. I got the energy from the Assembly to rep IPs in Parliament

-        “One of our goals - at our assembly at Sengwer we decided we have to build ourselves financially as IPs.”

3. “The Climate conference of parties allocates resources to the indigenous communities. Have you explored how to get resources from COP?” (SJC)

-        “We’ve been beneficiaries of this as a community by the help of other partners to send reps to the COP, but there is only funding for participation in COP, not for activities on the ground”

-        “The money from the Climate COP is used by governments to evict IPs”

4. “What is your experience of getting funds from NGOs, and maybe being NGOs, it’s really problematic, it tends to separate people from their communities?” (G2G)

-        “The question is: ‘Are you absorbing the money to serve your interests or to serve the interests of the NGO?’ The climate money that was to be sent from EU would come through the Govt and be used to brutalise the community. We wrote to the funder to ask them to see what was happening at the grassroots level – our people were being brutalised and one of us was killed - and so the money had to be stopped.

-        “Some in NGOs are people like us, facing the same challenges as us. They can’t be in the same struggle and betray us. Like in Scotland. They are trying to get their land back. I don’t think they are trying to betray us.”

-        “We were asking for help, but we were too threatening to get funding. The trick is not just to accept any funding. Decide if an organisation is one you don’t want to get funds from.”

5. “How do you offer each other solidarity? How do people here offer solidarity to those in Uganda?” (SJC)

-        “We are using song a lot. This has been done very well by women. When you sing songs of liberation that are condemning the govt you tend to take them to the radio station. In countries with not much freedom of expression, the radio will not play them.

-        “How do we offer solidarity? In Tanzania - the evictions were happening in Loliondo during our first assembly in Simanjiro. Those who had had it leaked that they had attended the assembly had to leave for Kenya. We did a lot of emergency support and press statements that you can’t do in Tanzania. We were amplifying their voices.

-        “ACHPR - we did a statement at Arusha. It’s the only platform you can meet the Govts to challenge them.  The Govts don’t even accept they have IPs

-        “The women assemblies have been very strong on song. A Minister of Environment came to the Bennet [Mosopisyek) community. The women were welcoming him singing this song. The guy was dancing. The song was about “you have killed our children”

-        “Meeting people from other communities who have faced the same hardship is very empowering.”

DAY THREE: HEARTPOLITICS, then ‘HOW CAN WE (SJCs & IPs) BE IN SOLIDARITY? 

4. HEARTPOLITICS’ Grassroots to Global Presentation

NB: Since G2G was note taker for the whole assembly and was presenting and responding to questions, this presentation has been reconstructed, and there are no notes of the discussion.

G2G spoke briefly on how colonialism and domination exist within us, then offered practices (i) on recognising and releasing trauma, (ii) on mindfulness and self awareness, and (iii) on making decisions together in a way in which we can co-regulate and all be heard.

Colonialism and domination persist between and within us:

G2G referred back to the Wangũi Mathai film we’d all seen last night, and the brutality of British colonialism. In his presentation G2G n the 1880s, at the same time as the British arrived in Kenya, they were also forcing communities off their lands in Scotland, just as they had done in England: the ruling class taking the land, forcing people to dispossess and oppress others. The folk kicked off their land were forced to work for others for a pittance or to ‘settle’ (colonise) overseas, spreading the same misery as they were used to kick indigenous people off their lands.

Community lands are the future not just the past. In Scotland, there has been a movement towards communities regaining their lands. Meanwhile, community managed lands cover 75% of Africa (although 98% of that land is claimed by Governments). Community managed lands cover half the world’s land surface, where 40% of the world’s population live. Recovering communities control and care for our lands and each other is the revolution we need.

In the Wangũi Mathai film we saw how colonialism is the opposite of this care. It is about dominating people and land to extract profit to enrich the few. In the film we saw the arrogance of the British ruling class, and also saw how pathetic they were. In thinking themselves to be superior to others they were making themselves less than human.

You could see their inhumanity, and then also the inhumanity of the post-independence ruling class who replaced them. The domination system makes us inhumane. How do we take back the power without becoming the system that oppresses? We need to understand how that system of domination and alienation works in and through us, so we don’t reproduce it as we resist it.

Attempts to replace the powers we are up against by simply replacing people, parties and ideology so often fail. Citizens assemblies can be co-opted and delusional or they can be a way for ordinary people to make the decisions, and so could replace politicians, enabling communities of mutual care. These are the communities that actually sustain us. We need to surface them to replace colonial economies of extraction and hierarchies of domination.  

Freeing ourselves from trauma to make healthy collective decisions:

G2G shared some of Heartpolitics learnings. In her presentation Eva highlighted three elements of a new democracy that we think are game-changing - including embodied exercises - and centred on becoming aware of (1) how the traumatising system is carried in our bodies, (2) how to become aware of this and recover our agency and ability to work with others, and finally (3) how this can inform a way of organising which can enable quick and effective decision making.

1. The science of trauma - there are some useful articles and videos here. If you click on the ‘topics’ list at the top, these are more for each of them too.

1. The science of trauma is exploding at the moment and it gives us a huge amount of understanding about why we behave as we do - specially when our behaviour is not as we would like it to be. A quick and dirty summary of this is as follows:

2. Our nervous system is an extension of our brain tissue into the body. Although these neurons can’t ‘think’,, they are able to sense, hold information and communicate information if we take the time to find out how to do this (more on how to do  this in the second point.

3. ‘Trauma responses’ happen when it seems as though our life might be in danger. These are the very helpful, inbuilt capacities of our nervous system which immediately kick in without us having to think about them. These include fight, flight, freeze and fawn (this last is a more ‘social’ response, where we try to get out of danger by being nice to the threatening person - this can be behind overly ‘people pleasing’ personality traits).

4. As babies, we are intensely creating patterns to learn about and understand the world. At this time, because we are small, defenceless and inexperienced, we can often feel that we might be in danger, when an adult would know that is not the case. Much of our traumatic patterning is laid down when we are infants.

5. Discharging the trauma response: If, once we are out of danger, we are able to discharge the responses above (e.g. by shaking, crying, being held and soothed by someone we trust etc) then the trauma responses leave our system and our nervous system regulates itself again.

6. Trauma responses becoming stuck: But if we’re not able to fully discharge the responses, they become ‘stuck’ in our nervous system, living on, patterned into our body’s memory.

7. Becoming triggered: When we are in a situation that reminds us in some way of the original threat, these patterns can be activated and the original trauma response is re-activated. Without consciously realising it, we are back in fight, flight, freeze or fawn - and we often act out these responses, thinking that we’re being perfectly reasonable, when really we’re trapped in a locked in response.

8. Self-destructive ‘stuck’ behaviour: This can lead to all kinds of antisocial or self destructive behaviours e.g getting angry when someone disagrees with us; closing down when we’re asked to speak in public; lashing out when we feel ‘disrespected’; addictive behaviours; procrastination; anxiety; difficulty sleeping etc…

9. There are many ways we can work with these stuck responses - and sometimes we need to use more than one to fully clear them. These are often body-based and include: singing, dancing, shaking, stretching. Another very useful technique which can help us explore and consciously understand and process stuck patterns more fully is….

2. Mindfulness / awareness practice

1. There are many ways to do this! A very simple one is to focus on the breath, which can take us into our ‘inner’ experience. It’s interesting to notice that our external experience of our bodies is very different to our internal one.

2. Tracking out ‘trauma response’: Once we have become accustomed to this internal experience, we can start to track where our trauma response is coming from and start to understand and work with the issues that are troubling us.

3. For more, see this library of practices and this video conversation on The Power of Somatics for Collective Transformation.

She then took us through a guided process of shaking trauma out, and settling into our bodies, as preparation for effective (as opposed to trauma impacted) collective decision-making.

3. Consent (as opposed to ‘consensus’) decision making - from Sociocracy (This is a very good - and brief -  intro. Pages 2-7 have the consent process very well summarised)

Practised without a good level of self-understanding, consent decision making can be just as problematic and compromised as any other decision-making system.

We need processes, such as those modelled by the Kurdish Freedom Movement’s tekmil (critic and self-critic) process and those mentioned above, that help us to understand and heal collectively rather than in the individualised way promoted by most psychotherapy.

1. Consent is a good way to take collective decisions - it tries to include everyone’s voice, while still enabling us to take action if we don’t all 100% agree. This works best when we have already agreed on a shared purpose for our project, group or movement, but it’s not essential if we have a general sense of what we want to do together. Once the group is familiar with it, it can be done very quickly. Here are the steps:

2. A small group of people are asked to create a proposal on whatever we decide we need - e.g. what’s our next action?; how do we handle a problem that has come up?; how do we relate to another community / movement etc…

3. They first need to seek advice (from as many people as possible who will be affected by the proposal) - the idea is to use this advice to make the proposal as useful and effective as possible. From this advice - and their own sense of what’s needed - they create a proposal for the group. When it’s ready (good to set a deadline for this!), the consent process can be held.

4. The consent process consists of 3 rounds - where everyone is offered a chance to speak:

• Clarifying questions (for parts of the proposal that people don’t understand / feel clear about);

• Feedback round - for people to say how they feel about the proposal After this round the people who created the proposal have the chance to change it based on the feedback - if they want to. If they do, the proposal should be restated in its new form.

• Objections round -  An objection is something you can’t live with in the proposal - ideally it should relate to the shared purpose and you should be able to say how you think the proposal would be damaging to the purpose. An objection is not valid if you can’t explain why you’re making it or if you just don’t personally like it. Valid objections are a gift to the group because they are trying to make the proposal better and avoid problems in the future. Objections are noted as you go along and dealt with together at the end of the round.

Dealing with objections is an attempt to tweak the proposal until the objection is resolved. Sometimes this can mean minor changes, sometimes putting a time limit will help resolve it.

Once a proposal has been consented the first thing to do is celebrate! The next thing to do is decide on a date when it will be reviewed - the assumption in sociocracy is that things change and few proposals stay relevant forever.

What is our way forward? Indigenous Peoples’ & Social Justice Movements

1.     Indigenous Peoples’ and Social Justice Movements struggles

2.     How might we work together?

3.     What is our way forward?

1. REPORT BACKS ON IP AND SJC STRUGGLES

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE report back:

What are our similarities and differences?

SIMILARITIES

We are all fighting for our land and against poverty

We are all fighting the Govt and the powerful tribes who want to Occupy our lands - the urban comrades need access to land for housing and growing food.

We all want to have our self-identification accepted and valued

We are all suffering marginalisation and not receiving amenities and social services

We are all facing the system. If they evict us we have to return to our land and rebuild

We are all fighting for political representation, and for involvement in decision making. We are facing oppression because we are never consulted and never have the chance to elect our own people.

DIFFERENCES

Our land is for grazing, settlement, sacred areas

Urban: land is needed for shelter and ability to be self-sufficient in food

We are fighting for our big land, those in urban fight for smaller areas

In the cities there are so many tribes, all fighting for housing and recreation areas

We are one people

Cultural beliefs

●      urban are dancing to the tune of the western culture - urban girls wear trousers, rural don’t

●      we are still sticking a bit to our own customs and belief

Living conditions

●  Here we have healthy air from the trees

●  Nairobi has so many industries and pollution

●  Here you enjoy nature - some of you had never seen an antelope

●  Food in rural is not processed (illness, diabetes, disabilities)

●  Here food is natural

SOLIDARITY

1. We need to learn each others realities - SJC and IP learn from each other, so we know what to offer in support

2. Creating platforms for updating each other on the current situation

3. Tte wat SJC do demos on Tues and Thurs we can learn from

4. Organising assemblies/ safe space where we can share success stories

5. Collective political ideology to face the oppressors which is the Govt of course

6. Because we don’t have our radio station we are not given the chance to play our songs and communicate - we maybe need to create something on our platform

SUPPORT NEEDED

1. If demo here or in Nairobi we can support each other

2. Share information

3. Joint research on problems we are facing

4. Our partners can help us make platforms so we can reach other areas

5. Creating safe spaces for HRDs who are in danger - if you are being targeted in Nairobi we can make safe space for you here

6. Social media & training. how to safeguard yourself as HRDs

SOCIAL JUSTICE CENTRES report back:

What are our similarities and differences?

SIMILARITIES:

We share a common enemy

Alienation - we are landless, your lands are under threat

Issues on dignity and identity

Primitive politics - passing laws that aid political elites that has no interest in the people

Patriarchy was mentioned at length

We experience the state dominating us, you experience domination by others

Education for slavery - what is taught is not liberating for kids, but to be turned out as workers

DIFFERENCES

Land question

Different ideology

Different terrain

Difference is language - one defining language we can speak; we are speaking a colonial language

Economic: here farming and hunting; we have industries

Here school is far away

Orgs are different

Here is community land, but ours is public land so the Govt takes it

Population - here is few, city is dense

Info - easier to go to library and get internet and get to public offices in city

Here is not industrialised

Different approach to advocacy and campaigning

Social Justice movements reporting back

HOW DO WE WORK TOGETHER?

1. Identify and prioritise key issues

2. Collective mechanisation: The workers concentrated in the city but can be a great resource by providing tractors and vehicles to the rural so your products can reach the market

3. Consistent exchange programme

4. Formulate a political programme - understand the roadmaps of rural and urban abd develop a minimum programme so we can move ahead as a unit

5. Document each others histories - we should document and carry your stories back, and you can do the same for us (no harm there)

6. Collective advocacy programmes

7. Central information point - how do we move if we don’t have a central form of communication. Eg if there is an upset here his can comrades in the city know and take action

WHAT SUPPORT IS NEEDED

1. Issue of resources - need facilitation (resources, money) for logistics

2. Capacity building – some of us are good at media

3. Solidarity

4. Communication equipment - this can go both ways. Be good for the community here to be able to join zoom, to be able to broadcast

5. Political education - to underside who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for

2. DISCUSSION between SJCs and IPS on WORKING TOGETHER:

Indigenous Peoples responses:

-        Urban areas: there are no pavements or footpaths by new roads, train services are non-existent, public spaces could be mobilised as community land. Uhuru Park should be community land (called county govt land, but these are community lands), social halls.

-        Looking forward in the Kenyan context: The Constitution of Kenya which no one wants to implement. We can easily mobilise and educate based on the Constitution. 90% of people in Kenya think we just need to change the person in power but it is a whole system. Then people ask: what is the new system?

-        Why can’t we mobilise around public participation? Why can’t each village have a small justice centre to organise and educate. We need to educate the 90% or they will be mobilised against us.

-        Being here you have got to understand us indigenous, and we understand you. When we indigenous make a statement you can support us, and we can do the same. The strategies of SJCs can help us work. We’ve used the legal route which takes a long time. You have been using the direct action route. We can use both.

Social Justice movement responses:

-        We can offer political education. Members of the organic intellectuals can share the indigenous struggle for all to see.

-        The environment we organise in is very toxic. It is hard to find safe houses. Here you are in a place where you can continue to organise

-        We can do collective campaigning e.g. Nanenane, we can incorporate Indigenous days in our campaigns

-        We need to have such a big voice it will be impossible not to hear. We need to get as many people as possible to join us. Alternative media - make sure what is documented can be found

-        Pleased to be here connected to the environment. We were a society that was normalised to violence and we came up with Article 6 and the right to life. If in this community we create a bond that cannot be broken. Reality is a healing space. I am healed being here in nature.

-        Be conscious of our own security before we fight for other things. We need security training for all of us.

-        We must unify our struggle. My first time to be in an indigenous community. We have a common enemy the bourgeoise class that exploits us. We have all the power. The power belongs to the people. Let’s connect and build solidarity

-        Two-fold dimension: We need discuss strategy and tactics. Programmes that cut across. Find common ground.

3. DISCUSSION ON ‘WHAT IS OUR WAY FORWARD?’

-        (SJC) Now we are one movement. After one year what do the reflections look like? What is our programme and when are we convening again?

-        (IP) Action plan - prioritising on actions and who is doing what by when. Time frame

-        (SJC) We’ve created a political roadmap. IPs could use it as a guiding tool. We can have a minimum programme/ code of conduct

-        (IP): Form a mixed platform between Assembly and Social justice. We have a good video that SJC can share. You are welcome to our side

-        (SJC): We can use ecological justice campaign as rallying call for all. IPs have the forest and in it we have bamboo species. We can propagate and distribute to riparian areas in urban areas. Use bamboo campaign - economic sustainability programme. Bamboo propagation and seed banking. We can collect those seeds

-        (IP): After creating the platform we can discuss the assemblies adopting this campaign.

Grassroots to Global:

(IP): This was a first place to learn and interact from grassroots to global.

1. Grassroots to national: This cannot happen the same in each country. The Kenyan chapter of this grassroots to global movement should share much more between SJCs and IPs to understand what each person does. The way you do social justice in a rural area is very different to how you do it in an urban area. We each have tools the other doesn’t have.

1. National to regional: We need to look at how we can harmonise our issues on the African level

2. Grassroots to Global - learn from how things have happened elsewhere in the world. Everyone has learnt from being here.

-        (G2G): So, a national Kenyan meeting to talk about action and strategy for national level change? Then sometime having an African level meeting, then a global level meeting?

-        SJC): If we have timelines then we can have local to regional to national level. If we don’t have capacity to organise like that.

-        (SJC): Have more grassroots assembly then as we get to national level we think with everyone

-        (G2G): Let’s think about a series of conversations we want to have in our own places on the sane thing then bring these conversations together. Getting the wisdom of the local

-        (SJC): In Mathare we have started a bamboo belt and an assembly. After the platform has been created we can share links and start relationship which must start somewhere. We can start mapping our resources. If women-led assemblies can support us with bamboo species it can help create  long term bond. Our struggle is for our riparian land

-        (G2G): Maybe not just connect our struggles but also connect positive actions in the world that can inspire us

-        (G2G Italy): Lots of great ideas/ proposals. We want all this to continue despite how busy our lives and struggles get. A lot of enthusiasm without strong roots will fall.

-        One big bit is community and getting to know each other. Building real relations

-        Another is not just how can we make the system fall but what are we trying to build. What is our vision?

Suggestion re Organising and Researching (G2G Italy):

(i)              Organise spokespeople from SJC and IPs to organise the proposals, what needs organised, and be democratic to make sure everything gets fed back to the SJCs and IP communities

(ii)            Popular research team that would travel to each IP community in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya spending a week or two building an analysis. From that then building a political programme (understanding what has led to the current situation) so a small research team, and this can help people to know each other and build an analysis and a vision.

On Research (IP):

-        IPs have been facing evictions for a long time. Most recent ones are under the excuse of false climate change solutions. President wants to make Kenya the carbon leader. We were facing evictions before by World Bank. They give Govt money for conservation. The Govt then buy guns and evict us. So, we researched and targeted the money behind this, and behind the EU whose money was used to evict us. When someone in Embobut was killed, the EU asked Govt to negotiate with us but the Govt didn’t see us as worth talking with so the project was stopped. I’d like a team to research the money behind the new carbon market.

-        (G2G) - So need is to align the knowledge and creative thinking of SJCs and IPs?

-        One group as organising; One as sharing knowledge, research?

-        (SJCs) That would feed well into local assemblies

On Action (IP):

-        IPs in Kenya have been fighting for our tribal codes. We want to organise a sit-in in Nairobi and will call on others in SJCs and elsewhere to join us.

‘Community of Movements’ next steps:

At the end of the gathering, G2G facilitated a consent process using the form she had taught everyone earlier. This developed, arrived at, and agreed on the following crucial action:

“Today we’re going to talk amongst the people here to elect 3 or 4 from each movement - the indigenous and urban - to create a short life group for 6 months. It will meet within 2 weeks to come up with a proposal on the way forward.

“This organising group should make its proposal by the end of August 2024. After 6 months we’ll need a new solution which might be that the group continues. The members can be recalled if they’re not seen as doing a good job.”