Interview with PADS leader Landing Savané
• What is the current political situation in Senegal?
There is a very peculiar situation, because Abdoulaye Wade, the leader of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), who was the main opposition leader, has just joined the government. As a result, there are now only three opposition MPs of the total of 120 and the only credible opposition party in Senegal which can fill the vacuum left by the PDS is now our African Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS). This is a big challenge for our party, which has, since March, thrown itself into organizing a major grassroots campaign in order to widen its base of support and form the new central political force around which the Senegalese opposition can get organized.
The 50% devaluation of the Communauté financière Africaine (CFA) franc in 1994 has made the situation even more difficult: the consequent price rises have fuelled rampant inflation and misery among the people. This background of poverty and misery that our party faces — which enjoys potential support from the Senegalese masses, but lacks resources — requires an enormous effort. • Doesn't Wade's entry into the government call into question PADS' alliance policy with his PDS, particularly given that this same government has already gone ahead with price rises and privatization of some parts of the public sector?
The government in which Wade is participating is dominated by the
Landing Savané addressing the 14th World
Senegalese Socialist Party (PSS), which has been in power for 35 years. Wade's
Congress of the Fourth International, May 1995 entry will not mean any basic shift in government policy, it simply means that the opposition has been neutralized
President Diouf has brought Wade into the government to reduce the threat of social unrest and all the evidence suggests that
Wade is ready to play that role.
However, it should be made clear that even before the formation of the coalition with Wade and others, we knew and said that Wade would end up in the government. Our tactic was firstly to postpone that moment for as long as possible, so as to make the vulnerability of the ruling party as clear as possible to the people of Senegal and, secondly, to make the Senegalese aware of the PDS' real nature and its inability to bring about real change in Senegal.
I think that the circumstances of Wade's entry into the government have allowed such an understanding, since he has won no new concessions from the PSS. The people of Senegal know that it was Abdou Diouf's regime which, in February 1994, had Abdoulaye Wade and myself arrested So now they can't understand Wade joining this government, especially since
29 International Viewpoint #268 July 1995
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Senegal the PDS has achieved nothing concrete. Nor do I think that the Senegalese have hopes of this participation, which is why I think that our party's credibility is going to steadily increase and we will attract the electorate and part of the rank-and-file of the PDS, who want change and have had enough after 35 years of the PSS in power. We are now the only force in the country which has succeeded in sticking to its principles. • What does PADS propose regarding the austerity policy and the application of the structural adjustment programme ?
We have raised demands in the student movement, in the face of the privatization of the universities resulting from IMF and World Bank policies.
On the industrial front, our central themes are the fight against the privatizations being prepared and defence of jobs.
The major concern of the peasantry is the rejection of price rises on inputs and the need for a rise in the prices they receive for their produce.
So, depending on the sector, there are concrete demands, but it all comes together around the effort to throw out the existing regime and work for the taking of power in order to advance the anti-imperialist revolution. This is the central plank of our work. • What is your position on Senegal's foreign debt?
PADS thinks it is an unjust debt, but we are aware that cancelling the debt with this government means offering it new
• What is your view on the development of the Moustarchidat current?
This is not an Islamist or Islamic fundamentalist current. It's a Muslim organization which supported Abdou Diouf's candidacy in 1988 and which soon after saw that Diouf was not keeping his promises. In 1993 this organization decided to support Abdoulaye Wade who was the best-placed opposition leader in terms of replacing Diouf and it has continued to act as part of the opposition sInce.
Since Wade joined the government, this current has retreated into watchfulness They have not publicly supported the move, and have said nothing publicly. They are deeply unhappy with the way the country is going. Traditionally in Senegal all the Muslim leaders support the existing government and the Moustarchidats were the first to form a Muslim religious organization which has broken with this tradition and publicly opposed the government. This is a very important novelty and may in the future encourage other similar religious movements. Senegal is a 95% Muslim country. Nothing is done there without the agreement of a number of key religious leaders and the progressive movement has to fight for the support of the most far-sighted elements in the religious leadership, which includes people relatively conscious of development issues and with an interest in politics. PADS has links today with the heads of all the Muslim brotherhoods. We even have activists amongst them and believe that in the future we will be in a position to mobilize significant religious layers in the fight for change and that they have a role to play in the transitional period we are in.
We must build a relatively strong and integrated state and nation which can tackle the question of a more egalitarian and just economic development model in the decades ahead. • PADS is the fruit of the fusion of several organizations. What is your assessment of this process so far?
The PADS unification congress was in • December 1991. There were two groups from the Trotskyist tradition and two from the Maoist one. The fusion came at the end of several years of moving closer. In 1982 the Socialist Workers Organization (OST - Senegalese section of the Fourth International supported my candidacy in the presidential elections, which made it possible for us to work together subsequently. Thus the unification came after a long period of collaboration, which makes the unification a durable one. Now unification is a reality, we are shoulder to shoulder in the struggles and there is a common PADS spirit. We are making an experiment which is quite original in African — perhaps in world.- terms. We are very satisfied with the experience and its practical results on the ground. * possibilities for corruption, a new lease of • PADS and international links life. So we think that with the current government still there the debt should not Savané: Some of us in PADS do not also appreciate the interest shown by the be cancelled, as this would not benefit the people and the workers at all. If PADS were in power, it would do everything to cancel the debt. But cancelling the debt is not an absolute; it has to be looked at in relation to the existing political regime.
The balance of forces will not allow a PADS government alone to cancel the debt. We will have to negotiate with the creditors on relatively acceptable conditions so that this debt ceases to be a rope around our necks. It's clear that the economy of indebtedness in which we live today is unhealthy and makes development impossible. The prevailing system does not offer the prospect of development to the majority of Senegalese. 30
International Viewpoint #268 July 1995 have very much experience in the workings of international networks. This is true in my case. I have never belonged to an International. I have always been a Senegalese Pan-Africanist activist. This is a new experience which I am beginning to have through the work of the Fourth International (FI). It was decided at the time of the unification of PADS that each component would keep its convictions, which means for some that they could continue to take part in international bodies if they did so before. This is true in particular for the comrades linked to the Fourth International. All this enriches the thinking and work of the party as a whole. It is beneficial for all of us to be able to discuss in a non-sectarian and undogmatic way. We very much appreciated the Fl's campaign when I was in prison with other Senegalese oppositionists. The Fl's action contributed to isolating the Senegalese regime and forcing it to release us. We
Fl in what we are doing in Senegal and we hope to improve the quality of our dialogue with the FI so that it better understands our work and can help us by using its international network to gain a wider We also have relations with others who are further from us ideologically, but who are interested in what we are doing and clearly see that we are a progressive force in Senegal which merits coverage in the international press. But it is incontestable that the Fl, with its ideological and programmatic foundations, is capable of helping us in a far more disinterested, far more practical and powerful way than others who are not so close to our anti-imperialist fight. For the 1993 election campaign we benefited from a certain amount of cooperation with the Fl comrades from the material point of view. We need constant support; Senegal is a poor country *