By Rachel L. Swarns
New York TimesAugust 31, 2002
From the top of the hill, the protesters today could see the gleaming buildings of stone and steel where world leaders will meet in the coming days to debate a new plan to reduce poverty and preserve the environment. More than 100 presidents and prime ministers are scheduled to discuss ways to save dying lakes and retreating forests and to uplift impoverished nations.
But today, surrounded by teetering shacks, mounds of garbage and children in tattered shoes, thousands of people marched through the streets to demonstrate their distrust and disillusionment with promises by governments to help the poor and protect the environment.
There were Malawians protesting hunger in Africa, Paraguayans warning about the dangers of dams, Palestinians complaining about Israel's policies and Americans assailing President Bush's decision not to participate in this meeting. But most of the protesters were poor, ordinary South Africans who hoped to deliver a message to the leaders attending the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development.
"Water for the thirsty!" shouted some demonstrators as they marched through the township of Alexandra toward the marble-lined convention center where the leaders will meet. "Light for the people! Homes for the homeless!"
As the police followed in armored trucks and helicopters circled overhead, the protesters waved banners calling for the dismantling of the World Bank, an end to privatization and greater access to water and land for the destitute. The crowd condemned Mr. Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, but reserved some of the bitterest attacks for President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who was criticized for not tending to the needs of the poor.
"People are crying here," said Muzi Tshabalala, 24, who lives in a one-room shack in Alexandra's teeming shantytown with his parents and siblings. "We must have bathrooms in the houses and ceilings. President Mbeki makes promises, but afterward he forgets about us."
The leaders have already agreed that the meeting's action plan must help alleviate poverty, protect wildlife and deliver electricity and housing to the poor. Officials hope to build on the ambitious, but poorly carried out, agenda set at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro 10 years ago.
But government negotiators, who have been meeting here all week, are deadlocked. Developing countries want the world to agree to halve by 2015 the number of people without sanitation. They also want the United States and Europe to reduce or eliminate the subsidies that protect their businesses and farmers from competition from poor nations.
The United States has balked at the target for sanitation and, along with officials of the European Union, has refused demands to specify reductions in agricultural subsidies. American officials say they have already agreed to increase foreign aid to the poor and to begin partnerships with poor nations, civic groups and businesses to expand access to water, electricity and sanitation in the developing world.
Negotiators here have already agreed to offer incentives for investment in cleaner forms of production, to provide additional resources to keep deserts from spreading and to meet another goal by 2015: to reduce by half the number of people living on less than $1 a day. But none of these commitments are groundbreaking; the commitment on poverty, for instance, was adopted two years ago at the Millennium Summit at the United Nations.
At the Earth Summit, marchers said, similar promises were made with little effect in places like Africa.
In the 1990's, Africa had the world's highest rate of deforestation as poor people cleared trees for farmland and firewood. Pollution worsened as millions of Africans abandoned rural villages for urban shantytowns, foreign aid from wealthy nations declined and poverty deepened. Africans are poorer today than they were in the late 1960's.
Hoping to quell the mounting anger and disillusionment, Mr. Mbeki came to Alexandra township today to address thousands of protesters at the local soccer stadium. He assailed what he described as a new form of "global apartheid" that divides the rich and the poor and promised that he was fighting for ordinary people.
"Poor people in Alexandra want jobs," Mr. Mbeki said as the crowd cheered. "Poor people in Alexandra want to come out of their shacks and live in decent houses. The people need health, access to water and sanitation. They want to end poverty and have a decent standard of living. These are the same things that the poor of the world are saying."
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