A Message of Support  
Re The President's Promise ----->

All over the world the political leaders, when they face political problems, unwittingly open opportunities for the poor by making promises they never intend to honour.

They do this, in part, because they know that poor people are not organised and do not have the mechanisms to arbitrate with political leaders around these empty promises and turn them into real delivery opportunities.

Little do the politicians in SDI countries realise that there are Federations of urban poor communities who can take up these empty promises and turn them into real gains for the people, through negotiation, strategy, pressure - a combination of these and many other activities.

What a wonderful opportunity to invite Estrada to Payatas courtesy of the Federation for a house model exhibition similar to those you have seen in India, Nepal and Thailand. You also invite all your co-Federation members from other settlements and other cities plus your SDI colleagues.

This gives you a real chance to praise him for his offer, help puff up his feathers and then with Federation and SDI support open meaningful negotiations to turn the offer into a reality.

That is what we have done on numerous occasions in the SDI network. Even in an oppressive society like Zimbabwe and a bureaucratic society like India this process has tied politicians to their promises.

Even if you don't get a result you will have used the President's promise to bring the Federation together and walk them through new strategies of interaction with Govt. They will then take this knowledge back to their regions and who knows, in the future, some other regional or local politician will be drawn into the same public dialogue with the Federation and something WILL come out of it.

So we in SDI look forward to hearing how we can help you try to turn an empty promise into a victory for the people of Payatas.

We wait to hear how we can assist. Federation groups from Thailand, Zimbabwe and South Africa are already on standby to come to Payatas if you decide to start the cat and mouse game with your President.

Good luck

Joel Bolnick  People's Dialogue South Africa Member of Slum / Shack Dwellers International.

April 5, 2000
From the Bangkok Post 

PAYATAS' POOR and the PRESIDENT

Estrada Plan aims to help squatters buy land

     President Joseph Estrada is considering a plan to sell government and private lands to squatters occupying them in an ambitious programme to legalise their status and provide potential loan collateral for them to start business, officials said yesterday. 

     The plan will also enable the government to identify previously unregistered small entrepreneurs and collect taxes from them, said presidential assistant for poverty eradication Donna Gasgonia.

    Mr Estrada announced the plan during a visit on Monday to the Payatas garbage dumpsite in suburban Quezon City, part of metropolitan Manila. He said the plan "will strike a mortal blow into the heart of Philippine poverty".

    Mr Estrada wants the Payatas shanty town, long regarded as one of the symbols of wrenching poverty in the Philippines to become a pilot area for the programme, Ms Gasgonia said.

    Under the plan, the government intends to sell at affordable terms public land to squatters occupying it, with the exclusion of dangerous areas such as riverbanks and near railways.

     If the land is privately owned, the government is willing to buy the land from its owners and sell it to the squatters at easy terms as long as a land deal is forged by the squatters and the owners, according to Ms. Gasgomia.

     Land ownership will shield poor Filipinos from constant threats of expulsion and abuses. It also will provide collateral that could be used by poor Filipinos to finance backyard businesses, she said.

    About one third of 74 million Filipinos are considered impoverished: Landlessness has contributed to a 31 year Marxist uprising. 

It was reported to us that thousands of protest faxes from NSDF (India), SDI (International) and ACHR (Asia) members and contacts throughout the world  were sent to the authorities in Bombay. 

News was distributed as it unfolded at the People's Dialogue Website. 

This was perhaps our first cyber war against evictions. And perhaps the most effective use of the web yet to directly support the urban poor in Asia. However there's no doubt that the NSDF strategies as described on the right were the main reason for the victory.

Update from SDI by Joel Bolnick    March 6th 2000

There has been a dramatic change of fortunes for the railway slum dwellers of Mumbai.

Last week over 1500 families, who have lived for many years along the central and western lines, were forcefully evicted when the National Railway Authorities defied State law and ignored the resettlement efforts of their local counterparts in the city.

The Railways acted on the pretext that they were clearing illegal structures that had been erected after 1/1/95. (Maharashtra State Law decrees that no slum dwelling constructed after that date may be demolished without alternative land being provided). However the railway authorities brought in their demolition squads and police protection with the clear intention of destroying all informal structures along the city lines.

After several attempts by the Secretary of State to normalise the situation had been thwarted by the heavy-handedness of the railways the demolitions were finally brought to a halt  - five days after they had started.

Throughout the crisis NSDF and SPARC, with support from the State Government and Slum Rehabilitation Authority of Mumbai, had tried to ensure that only illegal structures - those constructed after 1/1/95 - were being demolished. However the Railways ignored this intervention. Whenever NSDF leaders or other government officials were absent from the scene wholesale demolitions occurred.

The Railways apparently were under the impression that NSDF and SPARC had been painted into a corner because of their ongoing negotiations with the authorities (including the railways) around rehabilitation.  However NSDF members, in a move reminiscent of Gandhi's passive resistance to British Rule, responded to the demolitions by mobilising tens of thousands of its members to shut down the train services in the city by lying down on the tracks. On Friday SPARC and NSDF broke off all negotiations with the State, city and railway authorities.

On Saturday an emergency meeting was convened by the State Secretary. In a dramatic turnaround the meeting resolved that all demolitions were to stop immediately. The State Government also decreed that in future the responsibility to monitor the hutments along the railway line and any act of demolition was to be removed from the hands of the railway authorities. The monitoring of the hutments is now the sole responsibility of SPARC and NSDF. At the same meeting an 8 hectare piece of land was identified to accommodate those families whose hutments had been illegally demolished. NSDF was given the responsibility to manage the resettlement and to oversee the construction of formal housing. There will be continuing negotiations to ensure reparations for those families whose hutments were illegally demolished.

So, as things stand at present, a disastrous week, has had a positive outcome. How did a vicious and illegal demolition turn into a victory for the railway slumdwellers in the city? Such a dramatic turnaround would not have occurred had the slum-dwellers been week or disunited. By coming together in savings collectives and by federating these collectives to thousands of others throughout India (and many more throughout the world) the Railway Slum dwellers Federation was able to withstand the assault from the state and simultaneously turn its initial defeats into positions of strength. Eventually the authorities were forced to realise that the slumdwelllers had a massive following throughout the city, strong international support. Most important of all it became clear to the State Government that the Federation was the only institution in the city that had a workable plan to find a win/win solution for the slumdwellers and the authorities.

SUCCESSFUL  FOLLOW   UP  TO  THIS   STORY  
14th June 200 is on the NEW  

SPARC WEBSITE  www.sparcindia.org

Background Story 
from ACHR's E-News Nov 98

INDONESIA'S
PEDI-CAB DRIVERS  

In a video produced by the Urban Poor Consortium, Jakarta, one of Jakarta's pedi cab driver describes how the Governor of Jakarta's recent insensitive decisions have affected his life and thousands of others like him.

When the Governor decided to ban pedi cabs from Jakarta some years ago our driver's pedi cab was confiscated (along with others) and never returned thus depriving many families of a livelihood. 
Some time later, in order to be considered as part of the pro-reform movement, the newly appointed Governor invited pedi cab drivers to operate in Jakarta, despite the city regulation that rules otherwise.

Our pedi-cab driver hearing this decided to invest in another pedi-cab.  He returned to his remote village to retrieved his life savings and borrow all he could from already cash strapped relatives and friends.  Many others did like wise.  After one week of pedi- cab activity the governor, in response to the criticism from the House of Representatives, decided to once again ban the pedi-cabs.

Many ped-cabs were again confiscated, including our friend's, thus rendering him unemployed and hopelessly indebted for many years to come.

The Urban Poor Consortium organised the drivers to demonstrate, negotiate, appeal to the city authorities, and presented a survey which indicated over 86% of 1000 people surveyed were in favour of retaining pedi-cabs in the city.   The survey was dismissed by cynical members of the House of Representatives as having too small a sample. 
After about three months of struggle,  the municipality finally returned all the confiscated pedi-cabs. Ignoring the city regulations, the pedi- cab drivers now continue operating in Jakarta streets. 
They have no other means of earning income.

Nov 1998

Detentions In Jakarta  

Our friends, Ms. Wardah Hafidz from Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) together  with several other friends, Mr. Edi Saidi, Mr. Afrizal, Mr. Congki, and Mr. Anto were detained by Jakarta Special District Police Department due to their support for pedicab (becak - Indonesian word) drivers since Monday, 28 February 2000.

[ They have since been released. ]

_____________________________

JAKARTA POST City News    March 01, 2000

Court Declares Activists Guilty of Illegal Rally