Global democracy conference in SA dodges Trump bullet fired by an irate Zwelinzima Vavi

15 Nov 2024

Scheduled to kick off on 20 November in Johannesburg, the 12th Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy had been waiting for months to welcome 600 civil society activists from 100 countries. But on 9 November, just four days after US voters had elected Donald Trump as president, the local hosts came under fire for affiliating themselves with the American organisers. Things got heated, of course — and yet the resolution was classically South African.

From the tone of the opening paragraph, it was clear that Zwelinzima Vavi was angry. By the final paragraph, five pages down – where he ended his screed with the observation that the United States government had abrogated its right to lecture anyone about “democracy” – it was clear, a little more to the point, that he was incandescent with rage.

And on a surface reading at least, he appeared to have good reason.

Vavi, the labour movement stalwart who made his name during South Africa’s transition to democracy, had offered a version of our new reality as a species that was nothing if not partially true. In that sense, in the face of the unprecedented threat to the global democratic order, he was only doing what the rest of us could ever hope to do.

As the current general secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), Vavi was channelling his rage (in an original version of the screed, sent as a letter on 9 November 2024) at the executive director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Neeshan Balton. What he wanted to know was whether Balton’s organisation, founded by one of South Africa’s greatest struggle icons, would remain “complicit in the US imperial agenda” through its participation in the 12th Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy, scheduled to take place in Johannesburg from 20–22 November.

According to Vavi, it was no secret that the “discredited conduit” of US imperialism at the conference was the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a bipartisan non-profit organisation – funded largely by the US Congress – that was acting as its main organiser.

“One local host — Mistra, the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection —has withdrawn,” Vavi wrote. “Saftu is calling on the Kathrada Foundation to withdraw, too.”

A few thousand words later, after offering a narrative and so-called evidence in support of the alleged “fact” of NED’s role as a proxy for the CIA, he concluded with a deft sleight of hand:

“In other words, we see ordinary South Africans, Africans and the whole world rising to say to Donald Trump: we reject your proto-fascist version of ‘democracy’, we reject your leadership in the Axis of Genocide, and we reject US imperialism.”

The “true” parts, in Daily Maverick’s estimation, were the parts about Trump. Vavi had written that the US president-elect was about to summon a full-scale climate apocalypse through an anticipated withdrawal from United Nations climate negotiations and an authorisation of “massive fossil fuel extraction by Big Oil”; that a global trade war would ensue “once Trump imposes the promised illegal tariffs on imports”; and that the horrific dispossession and suffering of Palestinians was “suddenly now so much more stressed thanks to Trump”.

Sleight of hand

The apparent sleight of hand, of course – so delicate in our age of rage as to pass almost unnoticed – was the conflation of NED with Trump, the CIA and the US government, in general. And yet running as a slow and steady hum in the background, in the form of another thread that was essentially true, was the historical role of the nations of the Global South as the victims of US imperialism.

From Guatemala, Costa Rica, Indonesia and British Guiana in the 1950s and ’60s, to Bolivia, Zaire, Angola and Grenada in the 1970s and ’80s, to Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan and Libya from the 1990s to the present, Vavi enumerated a long list of nations that had sustained an “attempted or successful overthrow” by the US government since the end of World War 2.

“In the context of Trump’s victory,” he wrote, now extending his ire further afield than Balton, “it is therefore scandalous that the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation, and Defend Our Democracy have unwittingly, we hope, chosen to align themselves with the NED.”

But was it unwitting? Did the bearers of the legacies of Kathrada and Tutu know something that Vavi didn’t? Or was Mistra, overseen by the redoubtable struggle veteran Joel Netshitenzhe, correct for pulling out?

On 13 November 2024, a week before the conference was scheduled to kick off, Daily Maverick put the questions to the respective parties. Balton replied almost immediately, telling us that he would “not accede” to Vavi’s request, and guaranteeing that a full response would be forthcoming that same night from all the local hosts.

As promised, at around 10pm, the media release landed. Signed by 15 local participants, including – aside from the aforementioned – Freedom Under Law, the Human Rights Institute of South Africa and the Rivonia Circle, the release noted that the Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy was scheduled to attract 600 civil society activists from 100 nations, “many of whom are actively involved in varied struggles against repression, undemocratic rule and autocratic regimes in their respective countries”.

To the question of Palestine, which Vavi had held out as his strongest argument that there would be differences only in degree between the outgoing administration of Biden-Harris and the incoming administration of Trump, the signatories were impressively forceful.

“We commit ourselves to highlighting the desperate plight of the Palestinian people, activists, humanitarian aid workers, journalists and political prisoners at the Global Assembly,” they noted.

“We will use the Global Assembly to draw attention to the genocide and atrocities taking place in Palestine, Lebanon and the wider Middle East, as well Sudan, the DRC and in other conflicts around the world. We will denounce threats to genuine democracy and peace, including from the United States and others, as we have always done in the past, and will continue to do in the future.”

From Mistra, meanwhile, Daily Maverick had heard nothing at the time of writing. And as for the NED, the most pertinent response to our questions came in the form of the rebuttal to Vavi’s accusations about the CIA.

“As a publicly funded NGO that supports democracy in non-democratic states,” Daily Maverick was informed, “NED is often the target of attacks for its mission and work. NED is an independent non-profit dedicated to advancing democratic ideals worldwide. We are not an arm of the US government, nor do we carry out its policies. Our focus is on supporting civil society, political parties, trade unions, and the many institutions that empower people to make their voices heard…

“Our board, which is bipartisan and independently appointed, includes representatives from public policy, business, labour, academia and national security.”

Of course, it would have been nice had NED not mentioned “national security”. But this was clearly a conference for adults, who knew the world for what it was.

And in that light, as representatives of the hosting country, there was no better sign-off than the last word from the South African NGOs.

“Our view is that South Africans should utilise the Global Assembly to highlight the plight of peoples around the world,” they averred. “We should also learn from the struggles and experiences of those who have gained credibility from years of fighting for their causes. For us there is more to gain from attending and participating in the Global Assembly than from boycotting it.” DM

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Sleight of hand