Speech to Global Dialogue - by fisherman Andrew Johnston
       
Pretoria, South Africa, 2nd September 2005
The purpose of my discussion is to highlight the disastrous effect of
Globalisation/WTO policies on the ordinary fisherfolk and to clarify the
myth that it is beneficial. I am hoping that I can share with you and make
you understand the painful plight that we the artisanal/traditional are
undergoing, - our marginilazation, our denial of rights, the destruction of
our culture, our loss of a livelihood, the deprivation of food, unequal
ownership, the denial of human rights. I wish to note that as a bona-fide
fisher and therefore a victim, I am talking only within the realm of
fishing policy and what we are actually experiencing on the ground.  We the
fishers are presently

feeling the disastrous effects of Privatization,
Industrialization, Globalization, [the PIG System], incorporating
international agreements. [The ANC's neo-liberal] Gear policies.  This has
resulted in widespread unemployment, intensified discrimination, as well as
the disintegration of families and communities; it has brought the fishing
communities to greater poverty and misery.
Why Then? When George Bush and the E.U. proclaim that globalisation will
reduce poverty and all those who are against it, are aiding poverty. Even
some of our own academics and government officials are claiming that
globalisation is a force for poverty reduction and that Africa has a lot to
lose if it misses out on globalization.
Yet we are witnessing the destruction of local food production, food
security, our culture, local knowledge systems, and our bio-diversity.
Centuries of traditional culture, human values and beliefs are being
obliterated

through recent years of acceptance or subservience to an
uncaring global capitalist system. The small-scale farmers and fishers are
the groupings suffering the most and therefore we are the most opposed to
globalization and WTO policies.  Globalization we understand is some
process or mechanism that determines the way the market exerts pressure on
local resources and people in such a way that the social and economic
impact is unjust. 
South Africa has a coastline of nearly 3,000 kilometers stretching from
Mozambique to Namibia. The Atlantic Ocean on the West coast and the Indian
Ocean on the East coast provides a abundance of various fish species that
for hundreds of years has been harvested by fishers both small-scale and
large commercial. South Africa has very large commercial industrial
fisheries with a fleet of approximately 4500 large vessels and employing
more than 22,000 people some full time but a large percentage on a

casual
employment basis. The previous racist government promoted the
monopolization of the fishing industry by allowing four industrial
companies to obtain 90% of all fish allocations. The indigenous tribes have
harvested fish by various means for ages even before the advent of
colonization; the evolvement of artisanal/traditional fishing communities
has been over the years transformed through the impact of global
consumption  export economics.  What does fishing mean to us? We that
brave the sea to harvest the resources it is not only a cheap food, a
necessary protein, a livelihood but more important it is the very cord that
builds us into a way of life that has special traditions, language and
cultural beliefs.
This has changed for fish has now become green paper with the word dollar
on it. We are witnessing how the marine resources are being classified as
HIGH value and LOW value. The traditional fisher folk basic needs

and
aspirations have no value only the resources are classified in monetary
terms. Our Marine Living Resources Act [our fishing policy] is a reverse
Robin Hood policy because it takes access and money from the poor fishers
and gives it to rich opportunists and are rendering us jobless. It does not
meet the basic need of the fishing communities but creates need.  The
fishing policy is materialistic-cantered and a top down system where money,
resources and power flow from the weak vulnerable peoples to the powerful,
influential groupings including politicians.  The World's Financial
Institutions along with our own government promote the Individual
Transferable Quota System all that goes hand in hand with the WTO and World
Bank development and privatisation policies. 
We are being brainwashed into believing that this is the only system to
preserve the resource and benefit the fishing communities. It is a most
destructive

system with the dumping, poaching, data fouling, price dumping
and super efficiency. This corruptible and unmanageable quota system
benefits the few at the expense of the illiterate and poor. It is neither
equitable nor just in its implementation and makes beggars out of the
genuine fish harvesters. The process of Globalisation has not only ensured
the free movement of capital away from the vulnerable peoples, but also it
is being forced upon us to accommodate commercialisation along with its
export-orientated forces. There are Fishing agreements but I will change
the word to arrangements between African Governments and the Developed
Nations.  One of the important facts to remember about trade, wealth and
the unequal world we live in is that the rich countries and their
surrogates use their economic muscle to get exactly what they want.  The
struggle for control of the oceans by powerful nation states for defense,
trade, and natural

resource extraction is vital importance for capitalist
growth.
There are five types of arrangements namely:
1 Reciprocal Agreement.
These allow access by the vessels of each contracting party to the fishing
zones of the other party.
2 Access to resource  - Access to Market.
This allows access to fishing grounds in exchange for trade advantages in
the form of trade concessions
3 Accesses to Surplus Stocks Agreements.
This allows for countries on the payment of fees to fish for stock that it
is unable to exploit.
4 Financial Compensation Agreements.
The developed Countries pay financial compensation in exchange for fishing
rights. This is signed exclusively with A.C.P. countries.
5 Access to Resources in exchange for Compensation plus tariff concession
Agreements.
Here the Countries combine financial compensation and tariff concessions in
order to secure access for E.U.

fishermen.
In the context of South Africa much of the fishing arrangements are clouded
in secrecy but from our discussions at the E.U Fisheries Commission it
became clear that a new type of arrangement of  "we will help develop and
assist your communities" in exchange for the supply of fish stock under the
Cotonou Agreements. Where E.U. companies operate they are powerful, well
organized and well connected to E.U. and local institutions. In Madagascar,
Angola and Mozambique who are amongst the poorest in the SADC region where
support is given, as development aid to EU owned activities (in aquaculture
and fishing activities), the small-scale sector are being more and more
marginalized.
Industrialization and international agreements is probably the biggest
contributor to overexploitation of our natural resources. In the fishing
industry trade the rampant consumer demand is an influential driving force.
Serious questions has to be

raised where the European Nations especially
Norway can actively influence the formulation of our National Fisheries
Policy and are promoting Aquaculture as a program for job creation. As
stocks in the North fished by developed Nations with their high tech boats
have become depleted, their vessels are now moving on to exploit the fish
stocks along the West and East African Coasts, under Trade Arrangements.
These gigantic vessels are indiscriminate in harvesting and have size nets
that can encircle the whole of central Cape Town.  These vessels may
"legally" fish in the borders of our continents, destroying the livelihoods
and food security of future generations and contributing to the destruction
of the local resources with the full support of African Governments.
Commercial trawlers also hone in to unmonitored high seas deliberately
flying Flags of Convenience [F.O.C.]. The owners register their ships in
"adopted" countries in order

to hide their true identity and to circumvent
international law. Flags of Convenience States such as Belize, Panama,
Equatorial Guinea and twenty or so others open their registries in order to
obtain foreign money. The European fishing companies own the highest number
of Flags of Convenience vessels with the E.U. subsidizing their companies
that reflag their vessels as a reward.  Globalization and sustainability of
our resources within the Fishing sector has no commonality, as it is a
"rape and run" enterprise.
Globalisation is intensifying the practice of export  orientated
industrial fishing in order to satisfy the culinary delight of the rich but
also the money-makers, the Large Import Multi-National Companies both
locally and internationally.  No more has fish become the food of the poor
but a delicacy to satisfy the palates of the rich developed nations. These
fishing companies are consolidating their interests and

increasing their
control over fisheries governance through Black Empowerment Fronts and
Corporate Co-option.  They are using government structures and political
figures to promote their products and economic dominance.  In my
participation in the drafting of the Human Rights - Right to Adequate Food
- in Rome over the past three years the G8 nations continually stressed the
importance of creating the necessary conditions for economic growth in
Africa, which meant more liberalization, deregulation, industrialization
and the great advantages of export markets to solve our problems.
We have observed how democratic principles have over the years been
subverted by the power of money and greed. We have not fully understood the
impact of  "market economies" on our lives and it is only recently with the
help of international and local social progressive organizations that we
have been enlightened.  We are fully aware that

globalization is a system
that allows for widespread injustices, corruption and cronyism, a system
that allows the privileged and well connected to greedily grab the
resources of our lands and to concentrate immense wealth for themselves.
We know that the economy is not serving the people but the people are
serving the economy.  By disregarding the rights of the landless peoples,
small-scale farmers and fishers is resulting in the manifestation of
dangerous social degradation with an increase in crime, disease, family
violence, homelessness and corruption.  Along side of the implementation of
World Organization development policies is a phenomenon that runs parallel
with it is the despicable third  "illegal" economy. This is the trade of
drugs, money laundering, unnecessary arms dealing, poaching, and government
corruption.
We the fishing communities are at a defining moment in our struggle to
obtain our

rights.
We want to stop this economic exploitation, to ensure that globalization
does not as imperialism did bring in its wake a new form of political
domination. We will continue to struggle so that globalization and the
benefits accrued from it, will not be used as an excuse by the ruling elite
to continue violating human rights and destroying democracy.  We want to
end the predatory activities of some companies that are damaging whole
communities often with the full co-cooperation of the governing elite and
media. We wish to reclaim our democracy, by reducing the major corporate
powers and the system that they represent.  We want to educate moral caring
people that there is a tragedy taking place here in Africa, a tragedy that
is enacted by not recognizing that poverty and food security is related to
access to land and sea and that the poor are bearing the brunt of WTO
policies.  We are in the process of alliance building

and in a court battle
to achieve our aims. It is not merely economic development that we want but
a quality of life with meaning, human rights and fulfillment.
All we want is to live a dignified life here and now, to be recognized as
human beings with rights, to be allowed to provide for our families and not
to be impoverished by those in power who promote  "market forces". We also
want to savior the fruits of true democracy and freedom that our government
so beautifully promulgates.
I thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you all today.
The only power that can bring about a better change in our society that
will enhance the welfare and rights of our people, to bring about a fair
and just equitable distribution of wealth is the power and struggle of all
of us.
"When in society the shameful triumph, when the abuser is admired, when
principles end and only unethical opportunism prevails, when the

arrogant
rule and people tolerate it, when everything becomes corrupt but the
majority is quiet. It is time to review our activities and return to
ourselves."   
- Berkley, 1987