Malawian organization Zenith for Young Women Achievers campaigned with to legalize abortion. Although public debate was sparked in on- and offline media, the government indefinitely postponed to vote on new abortion laws.
The majority of abortion procedures in Malawi are performed under clandestine and unsafe conditions. Complications from abortions have been estimated to account for between 6% and 18% of maternal deaths in Malawi. Abortion is only legal in Malawi to save a woman’s life. A national debate is currently being held on whether or not to liberalize Malawi’s abortion law by providing more exceptions under which an abortion could be legally obtained.
Zenith for Young Women Achievers, together with other organizations, organized a public campaign to discuss and pass the new Termination of Pregnancy Bill. More than 3000 young women and girls in Blantyre and other cities in Malawi participated. The campaign included a solidarity walk in support of members of Parliament, so that the bill can be discussed and passed before the sitting of parliament on October 23rd, 2020.
The organization reflected that the campaign has been successful in igniting a conversation to change the public debate around the bill. The campaign captured the media attention it deserved and members of the general public discussed the bill on social media platforms, radio and television programs. Consequently, many Malawi are aware of the need to deal with unsafe abortion by having legislative and policy reforms. It has not been a complete success, however, because Parliament did not deliberate the bill and the National Assembly has been indefinitely adjourned.
Zenith commented that there is a strong need for mindset change of Malawians on the effects of unsafe abortion. Currently, religion is being used to curtail discussions around the topic, on the back of ideas such as that those dying from unsafe abortion are sinners. This frame of thought is directly resulting in deaths, but on top of that, a lot of resources are being lost treating post abortion complications. The proposed legislative reform will thus protect girls and women directly, but also prevent complications and release pressure on the health care system.
Following earlier actions against the unsafe living conditions for the LGBTQIA + community in the Kenyan refugee camps, action group Community Support Initiative for Refugees (CoSIR) once again took action to ensure the safety of the group.
Unsafe situation
“The police had failed to guarantee the safety of the refugees and had therefore decided to move them elsewhere. But the camps where the refugees were taken were the same ones they had fled a few months earlier. After a few extremely violent incidents, the organization had indicated once again that they could not guarantee their safety.”
CoSIR once again organised a protest to force UNHCR Kenya and the government of Kenya to end the inhumane encampment policy for all LGBTQIA + refugees. After the protest, a petition was filed with the Commissioner Refugee Affairs Secretariat (RAS) and the Head of Protection and Asylum at UNHCR. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent government security measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, communication with RAS and UNHCR has been rather difficult. Nevertheless, CoSIR expects a definite answer soon about the measures to be taken to improve the situation in the camps.
Bram Ieven is a philosopher and cultural theorist whose research centers on art, politics, and literature in times of globalisation. He is an assistant professor at Leiden University. This article is based on his contribution to our series “New activist perspectives on COVID-19”. Curious for more? Check our social media for new content! Also: consider becoming a donor, and support activists and social movements in these dangerous times.
Relations between global capitalism and the COVID-19 pandemic
I believe that there are four ways in which the emergence of COVID-19 and the unfolding of the pandemic are related to global capitalism in general and to neoliberalism in specific.
First, the way it has entered human society. Like Ebola and Sika before it, COVID-19 entered our society as an indirect result of human invasion and destruction of age-old ecosystems. The marketization of wildlife consumption, which likely caused COVID-19 to enter society, is only one aspect of this. In the past few decades we have seen massive landgrabbing and deforestation taking place. This is done by multinational agriculture companies that buy up forest land in debt-ridden countries and then proceed to repurpose the land for agriculture. We are now starting to realize that massive deforestation and marketization of wildlife is a structural aspect of global capitalism that has led to far reaching and largely irreversible climate disruption, but also to the entrance of deadly pathogens in society.
Secondly, the fact that COVID-19 spread like a wildfire throughout the globe has everything to do with the global flows of capital. Air traffic has increased immensely over the last couple of decades. In as far as human interaction is concerned we are living in a truly globalized world. But that interaction is mostly driven by marketization: a global network of economic exchange and an experience economy that has facilitated an explosive growth in tourism.
Thirdly, the neoliberal character of global capitalism is revealed in the way governments throughout the world initially responded to the virus and in the way they are now already searching for an economically viable exist strategy. In their initial reaction, most Western countries tried to downplay the virus, quite simply because of the impact it would have on the economy.
Fourth and finally, COVID-19 tells us something about the neoliberal nature of global capitalism because it has shown us the extent to which most Western countries have cut down on health services and social care. Recent events have really driven home the complaint that we have been hearing from people working in the health care industry for years now: we are massively understaffed, wages have frozen or have been declining, and the number of hospital beds is spiralling downwards in the name of so-called efficiency.
This system is both untenable and indefensible
I believe it shows us that the current model of society is untenable and indefensible.
It is untenable: we cannot go back to the global capitalism that we have had up until now. If we keep things like they are – if we continue the aggressive deforestation, marketization of animals and wildlife, air pollution and the structural racism and global inequality – then the future is going to be an endless repetition of our current situation. Over the next 100 to 500 years we will slowly but certainly destroy the entire ecosystem, while the racism and global inequality that are needed to keep the structural exploitation of global capitalism alive will only increase.
It’s not only certain death for the planet, it will devoid us of our humanity. In that sense, we have learned that the current system is not only untenable, but also indefensible.
That’s why we cannot wait until this crisis is over to advocate for change. Right now, governments throughout the world are forced to act and anticipate upon the social and economic changes global society is undergoing. It is absolutely pivotal that the policies that are now being developed and that will determine the aftermath of this crisis are focused on human care and a different treatment of our ecosystem.
In as far as change is concerned it means that we need people to understand the structural interwovenness of global inequality, bio-industrial killing and ecocide, and racism that are endemic to global capitalism. On the basis of that awareness we can advocate for a society that has an eco-motived ideal of care as its starting point; a society that looks for ‘the good life’ not just for the 1% and not just for humanity – but for the earth in all its inhumane otherness.
In this crisis Het Actiefonds will double its efforts to keep on supporting activists and social movements all over the world. We ask you to keep on helping us in these difficult times. We call on activists to let us know what they need from us in this period. Activism, more than ever, remains necessary!
The corona crisis has an enormous impact on our lives, on the economy and on politics. Everyday life has been suspended and many actions cannot go through as planned. At the same time we see that many people are rethinking our way of life. All kinds of new initiatives to help each other are emerging. We all need each other to soldier on: solidarity isn’t a luxury, it’s a basic necessity. For Het Actiefonds this means an extra encouragement to keep on doing our work. The crisis makes it plain that fundamental change of our societies is the only true way out. Events are cancelled and demonstrations are prohibited, yet this is the time to work for that change. We will briefly explain why.
1. The corona pandemic is a natural disaster. Human beings aren’t the virus. At the same time it’s clear that the intensity of the pandemic is unthinkable without globalised capitalism. It’s this system that we all live in that undermines our health and makes our lives extremely vulnerable to economic crises. We must put people before profits again, during and after this crisis.
2. The climate crisis is the large version of the current crisis. The destruction of biodiversity is one of the reasons we’re exposed to contagious diseases. In many parts of the world the consequences of climate change are already claiming victims. We’re experiencing now, in the rich Western part of the world, that we’re not invulnerable either. In order to prevent this situation from getting even worse, we need urgent climate action now.
3. In combating the pandemic, states all over the world have increased their executive power. It was necessary to implement drastic measures, but we can’t allow this to become permanent. Already authoritarian leaders are exploiting the state of emergency to crush personal freedoms, democratic rights and political resistance. If we don’t continue to fight for our rights and those of our fellow human beings, this crisis might cause us to lose more than our health.
4. Rich countries have the healthcare and financial means necessary to save lives. This isn’t the case in the Global South. As a result, global inequality between rich and poor is turning into a matter of life and death. This is already the case for refugees in Europe: they’re abandoned to their fate. For poor people outside of Europe the same is likely to happen on an enormous scale. To save lives, what we truly need is international solidarity.
All over the world activists and social movements fight for fundamental change. They know that this system doesn’t work and that we have no choice but to work towards a world in which solidarity and equality can truly exist. This is now more important than ever. Het Actiefonds will therefore keep on supporting all those people who are fighting for change. We will figure out with them how we can help best in these times of crisis. We call on activists to let us know what can kind of help they require from us now. We ask you to keep on supporting us in these difficult times, and together with us and activists all over the globe help realising a better world.
Like always we will keep you up to date about our efforts, but for now we want to emphasise: stay safe and stay healthy!
The local population of the municipality Lousame in Spain took creative action against the mining activities on their land. By planting native trees in the mining shafts and holes, they simultaneously reclaimed and restored their stolen land. Now mining company Sacyr Group is giving up.
Multinational Sacyr Group has announced they will stop the extremely polluting mining activities. This message came after the local population took action. With support from Het Actiefonds they planted hundreds of trees and thus won back their land. A huge success! The communities have indicated they will continue to plant trees in the coming years, to cleanse the polluted soil.
De Indonesische actiegroep Aliansi Barisan Kesetaraan voerde de afgelopen maanden meerdere malen actie op Java. Ze demonstreerde voor de rechten van LGBTQIA+’ers. De regenboogvlaggen en de blauw, roze, witte transgender-pride vlaggen kleurden de straten. Tegelijkertijd deelden zij rozen uit, waar een activistische boodschap aan gebonden was.
Today we celebrate our 50th anniversary! We continue on our independent, just and revolutionary course of action, as steadfast and committed as ever.
But with a new appearance! Today we’re proud to launch our new website and new visual identity. With the help of design agency Cometa we went looking for a visual language that shows what we do: support activists in realising radical societal change.
Our name will also make clear what we do. From now on we will continue under the name Het Actiefonds. Because that’s what we stand for: action for change!
We’re gonna use this space even more to keep you informed of the actions we support, and will be posting updates regularly. And from now on it’s also even easier to support action groups with a one-time donation, through iDeal or an automatic monthly transfer. So put hetactiefonds.nl in your bookmarks!
We’re really happy and proud. What do you guys think?