Objective:
To deepen solidarity between communities globally.
Actions:
- We brought community activists from South Africa and Swaziland to Zimbabwe just before their elections in 2018 to share experiences and to learn from these. Solidarity requires that relationships are formed and nurtured, and we hope to have a reciprocal visit by youth in Zimbabwe to engage with their counterparts in the region. Click here for pictures / report
- At the inaugural Solidarity Hub in 2017, we hosted the MST, Landless Peoples Movement of Brazil, and it marked the start of a relationship of solidarity that we will nurture and that we will learn from through exchanges. And so when activists and social justice movements in Brazil asked for our support to protest the murders in 2018 of activists and human rights defenders, including the highly publicised death of Marielle Franco, we demanded action from the Bazilian embassy in South Africa as part of a global call.
We remember those who have died in the pursuit of justice and equality in Brazil:
- Paulo Sérgio Almeida Nascimento –in Pará (+13/03/2018),
- Márcio Oliveira Matos líder do MST – in Bahia (+26/01/2018),
- Leandro Altenir Ribeiro Ribas – community leader in Rio Grande do Sul (+19/01/2018),
- Jefferson Marcelo – community leader in Rio de Janeiro (+04/01/2018),
- Carlos Antônio dos Santos – community leader in Mato Grosso (+08/02/2018),
- George de Andrade Lima Rodrigues – community leader in Recife (+23/02/2018),
- Valdemir Resplandes – community leader in and MST activist – Pará (+09/01/2018).
Click here for the letter.
We also will continue to connect local communities and parishes from Europe and Southern Africa, to promote solidarity among people and not just organisations, where local experiences of pursuing social justice can be shared and supported.
ACT Alliance at a global level is also engaged in various advocacy initiatives, and we will continue to explore how to bring those collaborations into the Southern African region. Already we are active participants in the Southern African Regional Forum of the ACT Alliance. https://actalliance.org/forums/act-southern-africa-sub-regional-forum/