By Che Oyinatumba
 Published
August 31st, 2008
The Roxa Luxemburg Foundation (rls), in
conjunction with Social Action, United Action For Democracy
(UAD), Ogoni Solidarity Forum, Chima Ubani Centre and
numerous other NGOs have successfully ended a five day
anti-imperialism camp which was held at the Leadership and
citizenship Training Centre Aluu Rivers State.
The camp drew participants from over 12
organisations impregnated with about 100 activists spanning
from the revolutionary, social democrats to the NGOs.
Under the moderation of Comrade Adamu of the UAD, the camp
opened with an oppressive movie The Harder they come, the
harder they fall, Staring Jimmy Cliff. The intellectual
flood was opened by a caustic lecture delivered by the
Nigerian Revolutionary legend, Professor Eskor Toyo with a
paper titled Primitive Accumulation: its philosophy and
logic. Other papers presented at the camp include;
Neo-Liberalism/Free Market Fundamentalism On The Global
Scale By Femi Aborishade, The Challenge Of Power(X-ray of
the Nigeria Democracy Movement/Street Power) By Jaye Gaskia,
The Right Of Nations to Self-Determination By Wale Adeoye,
Liberation History of Nigeria By Comrade Abiodun Aremu .
The burning issues of the Niger Delta were also discussed in two papers. The first was
Focus On The Niger Delta Struggle By Asume Osuoka and the second paper was presented by Ogoni Solidarity Forum titled
Focus On Ogoni Struggle For Self-Determination
No paper drew the ire of the participants than
Non-Violent Approaches To Social Change by Fidelis Allen
of Centre For Global Nonviolence. The participants during
the Work Group On Action Plans, opined that the method to be
employed is determinant of the response of the oppressor as
no oppressive regime willingly hand over power or allow for
a restructuring of society that will be detrimental to its
class interest. The participants while not being
hole-heartily committed to violence as an instrument of
social change, did not rule it out, rather advised that it
should be used constructively and strictly and sparingly to
arm the political wing negotiating for a social change.
Like a booth camp, the camp comes alive at 6 am with
physical exercise and winds down with a documentary film
such as The weather Underground, When The mountain tremble.
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