1995 municipal elections as a common front - "Together to
Badara Ndiaye explains why the African Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS) is participating in the alliance. He also outlines the challenges facing the radical anti-capitalist left in the struggle for democracy and against the implementation of the IMF-backed structural readjustment plan for Senegal.
International Viewpoint #264 MARCH 1995
Change Senegal. International Viewpoint: President Diouf liberated opposition leaders Landing Savané (PADS) and Abdoulaye Wade of the liberal right Democratic Party (PDS) in February 1994, following international protests. What has happened since?
Badara Ndiaye: The 'majority' presidential block in parliament has been widened to include the Democratic League (LD, a splinter of the PDS) and the Labour and Independence Party (PIT, former Communist Party). None of the other promised reforms have been implemented. The political situation is so clearly blocked that a majority of the population supports the PADS initiative of calling for the creation of a kind of constituent assembly. This "National Conference" would create a duality of power at the institutional level, and which could be the basis of new, legitimised politics.
The French government is pressing president Diouf to integrate the PDS liberal right opposition into the parliamentary game by appointing commissions which would prepare a government of national unity!. This way,
Diouf could avoid recognising a national conference of the type PADS is proposing. The pressure on the opposition, including the PADS, to accept some vague national consultation will grow enormously in the coming months. International capital is desperate to find a way to continue making profits without visibly supporting dictators, and France would see an anti-imperialist break in Senegal as a clear defeat.
The opposition is divided in its attitude to the national conference. PDS 12
### SENEGAL leader Abdoulaye Wade and the rest of the liberal right would like to institute a more honest management of the state. The PADS and the Movement for Socialism and Unity (MSU) want to use the conference to generate a radical break with the present system and challenge the structural adjustment plan imposed by the World Bank. You have formed an electoral alliance with the PDS and MSU. Why?
We have no common strategic point with the liberal right, beyond the struggle for democracy. This is the sense of our common slogan, "together to change Senegal." But this alliance allows us to reach out to thousands of people who want to see Diouf go.
Obviously, the differences in this alliance will become more important one day. In the meantime, we try to reinforce the left inside the alliance. We have even begun unification negotiations with the Movement for Socialism and Unity (MSU). This self-management oriented current strongly promotes African unity, and stresses the need to organise a continental conference for change. Some PADS militants think that a unification congress, held soon, could have enormous political consequences.
Participation in elections is a new challenge for the left, in a country where seven out of ten adults are illiterate. In the trade unions, the left has been pushing for the rejection of the World Bank and IMF-imposed policies. But in the political sphere, the population is fairly reticent about the possibilities of change. There were urban riots in 1988, when Wade and the other opposition leaders were arrested, but this unrest was channelled and controlled by the regime. The PDS entered the 'Socialist Party' government in 1990. Its not surprising that people are sceptic about the possibilities of change. And the PADS itself?
The PADS was born only one year before Senegal's last presidential elections in 1993. The founding literacy in Senegal Age Women Men 15-19 70 49 20-29 77 57 30-39 82 61 40-49 93 72 50-59 96 78 60+ 97 83 Total 82 63 Source: Ministry of Literacy, 1993 manifesto of the party clearly presents socialism as an alternative to the existing order. But it also stresses the importance of the struggle for reforms, such as the abolition of foreign debt. Our disappointing score in the 1993 elections (2.95%) did not reflect our implantation in several important sectors of the working class, including the health service, the post office, and telecommunications. We now have between 15,000 and 20,000 members, and a significant capacity for mass mobilisations on specific issues.
Our aim is to maintain the alliance with the PDS and MSU until the November 1995 municipal elections, and to present a strong opposition to the Socialist Party. Although our party was only recently created, we already have a
Campaign to Abolish Third World Debt
Badara Ndiaye is the author of a comprehensive French-language brochure on senegal and the international Monetary Fund,
The USA invited all the American states and Miami to a meeting in December 1994.
They excluded Cuba, but did not manage to obtain a condemnation of the Castro
In these contrasting circumstances, activities of solidarity in favour of lifting the blockade against Cuba are of great importance. *
International Viewpoint #264 MARCH 1995 certain credibility, and most of the important political initiatives in the country are generated by us. PADS leaders have never collaborated with the
Diouf regime, which gives them a certain credibility.
The PADS is the result of the fusion published in French last month by the Belgian organisations GRESA and CADTM (Committee to Abolish Third World Debt)
of four organisations in 1991. The largest was the Maoist group And Jef. The
Senegalese section of the Fourth
International, the Organisation socialiste
To order send 50 FFr or equivalent to or La Breche, 9 rue de Tunis, 75011
CADTM, 29 rue Plantin, 1070 Brussels, Belgium, des travailleurs (Socialist Organisation of
Paris, France, tel. (33) 1/43 67 63 57, fax: (33) 1/43 79 29 61
Workers - OST) was another of the constituent elements of the new party.
Our central demand is that Abdou
Diouf must go - by the ballot box or by the will of the streets, and that we must present an alternative programme for the country's development. Beyond this, there is a considerable diversity of views in side the party. Some members think