(Palestine) Naheeda comes from just outside Ramallah. She fled Palestine in 1967 as a child. She went to live in Libya and then Jordan. Her family is scattered all over the world. She came to Britain in 1985 as a mature student and has three children and lives in Burnley with her husband. She is a member of the recently formed Friends of Palestine in Liverpool. They stress that they are not anti semitic. Their organisation includes Jewish people. They go into schools to talk to children about Palestine. They organised a demonstration in Liverpool in January attended by 2000 people. "Palestinian women have no choice but to be organised. Many run the family, look after children and participate in the Palestinian struggle, even. young girls. We are in touch with people in Ramallah. "I have relatives there and I am in touch with them all the time. There's 70% unemployment and they rely very much on help they receive from outside.
"The situation is beyond imagination. To live under occupation there is no normal life. There are 165 checkpoints - huge blocks of cement blocking the main roads but also the small roads. For my village, for example, it is only a very small village, there is only one road. At the entrance to the village there has always been a checkpoint not just recently but always. Palestinians are literally prisoners in their own village and their own homes.
"My little nephew he looks out of the window onto tanks. His home is full of bullets. He lost two of his friends, a 4 and an 8 year-old, when their house was destroyed.
"Women have their babies on the checkpoint. 27 babies have died on the checkpoint because they were not allowed through. We have been dehumanised. The humiliation we face every day is beyond imagination. "My auntie lives in Ramallah and my other auntie lives in the village where I was born. For two years they couldn't see each other even though they only lived 15 minutes apart. During raids neighbours gather together and eat together. They feel being together gives them strength." Aisha (Western Sahara AISHA is from occupied Western Sahara. She left with a group of Moroccan students who came to the UK to study and stayed when they went back. She is seeking asylum. She stayed for her own sake but also to •
"With independence they want to play a major part in the governing of Western Sahara. There is very little water: it's just desert. They manage through the use of ancient irrigation methods to grow vegetables for the young, elderly and sick. eign aid. In occupied territories the situation is worse and recently there have been demonstrations and arrests. Families are divided between the refugee camps and the occupied territories. assaulted by Moroccan soldiers. My "The rest of the food comes from forabout. "At the age of 15 I was arrested and nation's continuous suffering - a nation that deserves to be heard. Joyce (Tanzania) "POVERTY causes the problems. Africa is not free - it is still run by other people. I want to talk about HIV, which so many politicians don't want to talk
"There are 28 million people in subSaharan Africa infected by HIV.
"They have been going on about the drug companies making medication cheaper, and that is good. But even if it is cheaper, many people in these drugs have been given free for previous epidemics of other diseases, so why not for HIV?
"Imagine being a woman, a single parent, a refugee - and then black and then HIV positive. Just think how life would be. When you are given your HIV diagnosis your life changes completely. You start life from that day.
"Worse still you are a bit educated so people ask why you can't work. You are not allowed to work. So you are a mother, you are a role model for your
"You have always told them to fight for the best, and then you are stuck in this. All of a sudden you are a beggar and your children say, Why are you doing this?' And you can't explain. You don't even know how to deal with it
"You are given vouchers for £27 and go to Tescos and try to shop. All the time you are thinking of the £27. You get to the till and it's £34. You are over so you have to put out some things or they ask if you have money to top it up. And all these people are looking at you with your vouchers.
"You get your tools to survive. You find your groups, you get your medication. Then you get your letter from the Home Office. According to them medication is available, widely available.
"And you think, well there is water in the Sahara and beautiful gardens but it depends how much money you have. Here you get drugs through the NHS, so you know what you are getting but supposing you go there and kill yourself working to get the £500.
"How sure are you of what you are purchasing unless it is coming through the World Health Organisation?
"The drugs only control the infection, they don't cure: your health has to be monitored. People die of other diseases because they're weakened. If they are not killed in wars and fighting, people don't notice, but people are dying of AIDS all the time.
"Globalisation means people in Africa can see what happens in the rest of the world. And they can see that people in Britain can get medication and we can't. Because we don't matter, because we are black."
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12 socla st resistance March 2003 Fourth International Congress The Fourth Fourth International Congress and the Lula presidency. This has been pop-