Not on Our Watch (12 page)

During the late spring and early summer of 2006, the situation in Darfur deteriorated significantly, even after a peace deal was signed between the government of Sudan and one of the three Darfurian rebel groups. Bush administration officials continued to give the president no workable options to ameliorate conditions in Sudan beyond the status quo, so the president’s bold assertions were never followed up and operationalised fully.

We hope that such a bureaucratic fumble is never allowed to happen again. The only way to do that is by turning up the heat and making as much noise as we can about Darfur and other crises involving mass atrocities against our fellow human beings.

Through the stories in this book that show individuals making a difference in a variety of ways, we hope to inspire people to get involved. The smallest of actions—writing letters to government representatives and parliamentarians, meeting members in their constituency offices, penning opeds, raising money—
can
make the biggest of changes—even galvanising action to end genocide!

DON:

It seemed innocent enough. My manager asking me, ‘Do you want to be a presenter at the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia?’

This ‘super,’ worldwide concert was going to be an unprecedented, historical event.

It took all of a second for me to answer.

‘Hell, yeah.’

It wasn’t until I stepped out of the wings and took my first step onto the stage in Philadelphia that I truly considered where I was and what I had agreed to. And that is absolutely the wrong time to consider anything other than reading the words off of the teleprompter. My little voice inside my head was thinking the same thing, and he must’ve been nervous too, ’cause he started yelling at me: ‘Just keep walking; you out here now, fool! Can’t do anything about it at this point! Go! Get on your spot! Read the teleprompter! Oh yeah, and relax, man!’

I’d never been to Philadelphia before but had always wanted to see the city that one of the baddest groups in hip-hop, The Roots, placed at the centre of most of their songs. So Bridgid and I—kiss, hug, love to the kids—hopped on a plane and headed to the land of sound. We were a little giddy. We don’t really do a lot of the celebrity life thing, so this major concert outing was very big for us. Incredible entertainment by some of the most exciting acts in the world, happening all around the world, yet free to the Philly folk, and in service of an inarguably noble cause. Wow. All that altruism sounded too good to be true. This was an enormous outpouring of energy and effort, promoters forgoing the opportunity to maximise their financial upside, all for Africa, no less? It didn’t make sense on the face of it. I better understood the goals of the G-8 meeting next week: ‘Get money, baby!’ But Bob Geldof was the creator of both Band Aid, the supergroup of popular musicians that raised millions through hit singles, and Live Aid, the huge concerts that had generated over $100 million for famine relief. If I was going to throw in with anybody in such a grand way as this, might as well be with him.

I’m introducing two acts tonight, Bon Jovi first (classic) with Kanye West to follow (Mr. Kanye ‘George Bush doesn’t care about Black people’ West? Love that). And punctuated throughout my introductions is the message of the evening: Wake up. Stand up. Get involved. Do the right thing. Speaking of which, after complaints that there weren’t enough Black acts on the bill, Russell Simmons made some calls and changed the profile. Bono also called Jay-Z to ask him to pull more hip-hop artists into the mix, and was equally accommodated. I wondered if in four days the G-8 Summit, the meeting of the most powerful people in the world, would enjoy similar cooperation: ‘Yo, Chirac, need more bases in the southern part of France. Cool?’

‘You got it, GW. Anytime. Holla at your boy.’

Probably not. How the world leaders would react to the plea from the Live 8 family—to ‘Make Poverty History’ by wiping out debt for 18 of the poorest countries in the world, a $50 billion request—that remained to be seen. But today in Philly, Alicia Keys, Linkin Park and Jay-Z, Maroon 5, Stevie Wonder (just to name a few), and dozens more in ten such concerts all over the world, are lifting their voice as one. Music as movement. Beautiful.

‘And now, Jersey’s own, Bon Jovi!!’

The Philly crowd screams in unison as if these orange state boys were born and bred just down the block.

‘See there? Listen to ’em. You did fine. OK. You’re done. You can go ... C’mon, move your …’

‘Wait!’ I scream back at my little voice, tired of being pushed around. I take my eyes from the teleprompter and let myself look up for the first time at the full expanse of human beings grooving in front of me. Some say there were 600,000 people stretched down the parkway in front of the Museum of Art. Others say 1.5 million. I say, ‘Damn, that’s a lot of people. I don’t care how you slice it.’

And there’s even more watching in stadiums, on streets, television, and a live Internet stream—many, many millions more, all listening to our prayers for peace, our calls to action.

My voice crowds in. ‘All silently judging you. Get the hell off the stage!’

Discretion being the better part of valour, I obey and slink back to the wings just in time to see Beyoncé building with Alicia Keys backstage. It’s then that I know I’ve died and gone to hip-hop heaven, a small sacrifice to be sure.

6

Activist Beginnings and Success Stories

‘To stay quiet is as political an act as speaking out.’

Arundhati Roy, author and activist addressing an audience at UCLA, 27 May 2003

Over the past two decades, many citizens’ movements have sprung up in the United States and around the world that have addressed international issues with intelligence, creativity, dedication, and, most importantly, success. By examining activist efforts from around the world and even in Sudan before the Darfur genocide, we can learn what tools were successful during the recent past and apply them in the fight to end mass atrocities today.

Anti-Apartheid

Citizen activism played a crucial role in ending the apartheid system of racial discrimination in South Africa. We were overjoyed to see the climax of this incredible surge of activism—the fall of apartheid and the release of Nelson Mandela—and the world played a role in making it happen. During the late 1970s, the media increased its coverage of the racial discrimination and increasing violence of the regime in South Africa. People wanted to do something to help end apartheid, and activist groups began divestment movements to channel support for the cause into meaningful change. Activists recognised that convincing city and state governments to dump their stock in companies that did business with the white supremacist apartheid government would put financial pressure on those companies to stop doing business in South Africa. As a result, the South African government would become more isolated internationally.

In its early days, this divestment movement was largely student driven. Though condemned by university officials, student protests during the early and mid 1980s had the support of human rights, labour, and civil rights leaders, such as Reverend Jesse Jackson. When constituents began voicing their support for the students, the lawmakers responded. In 1986, the US Congress passed the Anti-Apartheid Act, which blocked the import of South African products and prevented new corporate investment in the country as well as US bank deposits from South African government agencies. US investment in South Africa dropped from $2.8 billion in 1983 to $1.3 billion in 1985, with 80 out of 350 US companies operating there leaving by 1987. The economic pressure generated by American citizens helped to force the South African government to change its ways. Mandela was released from prison in February 1990 and was elected president of South Africa in 1994. The apartheid era was over.

Debt Relief

For many decades, the world’s poorest countries spent billions of dollars to repay debts to wealthy nations and international institutions, often leaving little for development, health care, or education. These debts were incurred by past regimes mostly during the Cold War, when the United States, the Soviet Union, and international banks loaned billions of dollars to mostly corrupt and unaccountable governments. Current governments are saddled with these debts, siphoning off funds that otherwise could be used for investment or social services. Recognising the debilitating effects of debt on poor countries, development agencies, trade unions, students, and churches came together in the 1990s to advocate for debt relief.

Debt relief activists recruited high-profile spokespeople, including Bono, the charismatic lead singer of the Irish rock group U2. By the time world leaders met in 2005 for the annual G-8—the ‘Group of Eight’ of the world’s most powerful economies—summit meeting, debt relief was on the global agenda. In the lead-up to the summit, the anti-poverty organisation ONE teamed with Bono, Bob Geldof, and the screenwriter Richard Curtis to plan rock concerts in each of the G-8 countries. Over one million people attended the concerts, with another 3.8 billion watching online or on television.

When the G-8 met in Scotland they agreed to 100% debt cancellation for 18 of the world’s poorest countries and significant increases in foreign assistance spending. Debt relief activists cite the rewards of their activism: When governments provided debt relief to Uganda, the country used the money that would have gone to debt payments to improve primary education and HIV/AIDS education and treatments; in Mozambique, half a million children were immunised; in Tanzania, school fees were eliminated; and in Benin, school fees for rural students were waived. Reduced or forgiven debt payments have helped these countries concentrate on the basics—raising the standard of living and ending extreme poverty.

Anti-Sweatshops

The modern effort to eliminate sweatshops and improve labour conditions for garment and footwear workers started to gain momentum during the early 1990s. As the debate over ‘globalisation’ heated up, increasing reports surfaced of abusive labour practices. By 1994, US Secretary of Labour Robert Reich began a campaign to enforce the Fair Labour Standards Act in response to media reports of sweatshops in the United States. Consumer, human rights, and labour groups started coming together, targeting specific corporations with strikes, boycotts, and demonstrations. Labour rights advocates began operating across national borders in an effort to expose and shut down sweatshops internationally.

In 1996, a furore erupted over the working conditions at Honduran garment factories that produced clothing for the Kathie Lee line at Wal-Mart. In a good faith gesture, talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford allowed these factories to be inspected by local, independent human rights monitors to ensure conditions improved. She has since become active in the anti-sweatshop movement, helping keep national attention on the topic. Growing unease helped launch sweatshop-free enterprises, such as American Apparel, the popular clothing store that began in 1997. A year later, this national concern about domestic and offshore sweatshop conditions led to more factory inspections, labour and wage guidelines, labelling, and the creation of a White House task force by President Clinton. Once again, citizen activists had influenced US policy.

HIV/AIDS

As HIV tore through Africa during the 1980s and 1990s, the epidemic far outstripped the resources dedicated to controlling it by Western countries. It was not until 2003 that this began to change, when President Bush made the surprising decision to create an Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a major increase in HIV/AIDS funding, announced during his State of the Union Address. In real terms, the results of these efforts are staggering. In 2003, the US government’s contribution to fighting HIV/AIDS was $840 million; two years later, that figure was $2.3 billion. In 2005, President Bush signed the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act into law and launched the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). PEPFAR dedicates $15 billion over five years to support prevention efforts, provide ARV treatments, and care for HIV/AIDS patients in 15 of the worst afflicted countries in Africa and the Caribbean. It is still not enough, however.

Bush referred to this initiative as ‘a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa.’
[1]
Why did an administration better known for its sceptical approach to foreign aid decide to confront the problem of HIV/AIDS in Africa? The answer lies in Bush’s allusion to a ‘work of mercy,’ a religious reference designed to resonate with a surprising constituency of citizen activists who had been pressuring the government for action: evangelical Christians.

During the 1980s and 1990s evangelical Christian groups were better known for denouncing HIV/AIDS as a consequence of homosexuality and drug use than for efforts to prevent and treat the disease. However, Christian missionaries and aid agencies working throughout Africa witnessed firsthand the devastating consequences of the disease for that continent. They realised that no matter the politics of HIV/AIDS in America, it was their responsibility as Christians to mobilise their fellow believers to do something about the pandemic.

In February 2002, Reverend Franklin Graham, son of the legendary evangelist Billy Graham, and a close spiritual advisor to President Bush, brought together more than 800 Christian leaders and overseas missionaries to promote the involvement of conservative Christians in fighting HIV/AIDS. Throughout the following year, Reverend Graham and other Christian leaders quietly prodded the White House to get involved. Key White House advisors, including speechwriter Michael Gerson, were receptive, and so was Senate majority leader Bill Frist, who had personally worked as a medical volunteer with HIV/AIDS victims. By coupling the moral imperative of fighting deadly disease with data to demonstrate the effectiveness of prevention and treatment efforts, Christian leaders were able to convince the President to act on HIV/AIDS.

There is much disagreement about the appropriateness and effectiveness of the strategies used to fight HIV/AIDS. The conservative Christian approach promotes abstinence and is skeptical of many of the traditional strategies of other HIV/AIDS activists, such as comprehensive sex education and condom distribution.

Some HIV/AIDS activists, including pastors in HIV/AIDS–ravaged countries in southern Africa, fear that focusing on abstinence and shunning condoms will lead to more unprotected sex and greater rates of HIV infection. These debates will continue, but the role of conservative Christian groups in engendering increased funding and attention to the issue from the US government in particular is undeniable.

What Have We Learned?

Deadly disease, unforgiving debt burdens, horrific work conditions, and a segregationist policy that tried to deny equality and humanity to one group—these would seem to be overwhelming issues, certainly too large for one individual to take on. Yet in each instance one became many, and the many prevailed to support real change.

These lessons have also helped shape effective strategies in Sudan for the past decade. Before the genocide in Darfur began, the Sudanese government was engaged in other atrocities, including the decades-long war in southern Sudan. Through successful grassroots activists strategies, the United States and other governments became more involved in criticising and sanctioning the Khartoum regime and eventually helping bring peace to that region of the country. These successes show that with enough insistence our government can act and that the Khartoum government is responsive to international pressure.

There are some simple lessons to glean from each example of citizen action:

- Don’t be afraid to be innovative.

- Reach out to groups beyond your normal alliances—like student groups befriending labour unions.

- Talk to both sides of the political aisle.

- Continue meeting and educating average citizens while lobbying key political leaders.

- Understand that to be successful these movements have to in some way be global in nature, so be prepared to connect with other like-minded individuals and groups outside the United States, in a larger coalition for change.

- When appealing to political leaders, use brains—not pure emotions—to convey your message.

- Most of all—don’t be afraid to start small.

Pre-Darfur Activism in Sudan

Remember back to Chapter 3, where we told you about the war in southern Sudan that cost over 2 million southern Sudanese lives? During that time, a number of issues became important to a handful of committed people and organisations. We want to tell you about a few of those before we talk about the current efforts regarding Darfur. The main reason for this is to demonstrate that government and citizen pressure does work in changing the behaviour of the Sudanese regime. There were many important individuals in the US involved in building a movement to end the war in southern Sudan, and none more so than John’s good friend and mentor Roger Winter.

Roger is a longtime activist. In the early 1960s he was a part of the civil rights movement and got arrested a couple of times for his convictions. He was involved in urban anti-poverty campaigns in his earlier years. In the Carter administration, Roger was the director of refugee resettlement. At that point, this was a massive undertaking. The United States was accepting and resettling refugees from Vietnam, Cuba, Haiti, the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia. Ethiopians were among the first refugees from Africa to be accepted into the United States. It was in this position that Roger crossed the domestic/Africa policy divide and became more interested in resolving the conflicts and humanitarian disasters in Africa that produced the refugees that he was meeting.

When the reports of atrocities committed by the Sudanese regime against southern residents of that country reached Roger’s attention, he knew he had to visit. As you might have gathered from Chapter 3, southern Sudan was a tough place to travel in the 1980s. The southern SPLA rebels did not hold territory, but rather operated as a guerrilla movement in the zones in between government-held ‘garrison towns’. In 1987, however, the SPLA took a town called Kapoeta and held it. Suddenly, visitors had a place to stay inside southern Sudan and learn about the SPLA and the government’s war tactics. In one of his first trips to Sudan, John travelled with Roger in 1987 to Kapoeta, where the two met with Sudanese rebel leaders, internally displaced southerners, and hardy aid providers.

Roger, John, our friend Gayle Smith, and a few other activists had an idea to build a congressional constituency that cared about African humanitarian crises, and specifically about Sudan. In April of 1989, Roger helped Senator Gordon Humphrey, as well as Congressmen Frank Wolf and Gary Ackerman get to southern Sudan. They travelled by bumpy road to Torit, a town that the SPLA had just captured. This was the beginning of a long, continuous string of congressional visits to the region, often organised by Roger, and these visits were critical to building the constituency in Congress to support greater US involvement in humanitarian programmes and in ending the conflict.

The key to the growth and success of this constituency is that it has been durable and bipartisan. Congressional interest in Sudan has traditionally been driven not by partisan politics, but rather by a real sense of right and wrong. Two of the stalwarts on the issue are Democratic Representative Donald Payne of New Jersey and Republican Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia. Representatives Payne and Wolf have been outspoken defenders of human rights for the Sudanese (and other oppressed people around the world), and they have led the way in trying to impose stronger accountability measures on Khartoum for years of systematic crimes against humanity.