Do constitutions matter? The Dilemma of a Radical Lawyer. A presentation by Prof Emeritus @IssaShivji

#Katiba10YearsLater #TekelezaKatiba @ICJKenya @StrathmoreLaw

'Without correct ideological anchorage, those in the struggle may just wonder around.' Elisha Ongoya. #Katiba10YearsLater #TekelezaKatiba

How a radical lawyer engages in the right struggle while keeping passion for social justice alive:
1. Disinfect from liberal virus, effective vaccine being Revolutionary theory and conscientious practice.
#Katiba10YearsLater #TekelezaKatiba

2. Disabuse self from notion that law is neutral & apolitical, it is not. Qn is what kind of politics? radical politics isn't on offer& cannot be picked from seminars but sh'd be learnt from the masses as real politics is where the masses are. #Katiba10YearsLater #TekelezaKatiba

3. Humbly acknowledge that legal struggles are only one front of social struggles for the working people, therefore cannot be waged in isolation. @IssaShivji #Katiba10YearsLater #TekelezaKatiba

4. Go beyond the constitution as a terrain of struggle and identity other sites which matter to the people; urban neighbourhoods, slums &villages and where they get their livelihoods; land factories. @IssaShivji #TekelezaKatiba #Katiba10YearsLater

5. Recognize that the sites of struggle are sites of organizing people for organised masses are like steam which evaporates in air and disappears but when same steam is kept in the engine pushes piston and moves the engine. @IssaShivji #TekelezaKatiba #Katiba10YearsLater

The 5 guidelines concretized in a triangle of the right to life(living with dignity & decent livelihood), freedom of expression & freedom of association around which local struggles should be strategized & the masses mobilized.
@IssaShivji
#Katiba10YearsLater #TekelezaKatiba

It is around these rights and freedoms that litigation strategies should be worked out. Highlighting and focusing on selected strategic rights and freedoms allows one to move away from a plethora of fragmented rights discourse.
@IssaShivji
#Katiba10YearsLater #TekelezaKatiba

Crystalizing rights struggle on the ground, in the real-life situations of the masses of the people gives radical activists a handle of the demands that should be made of the state at the national level. Working from the bottom upwards. @IssaShivji #KatibaAt10 #TekelezaKatiba

Drawing in a concept of commons; traditional like land, water, natural resources, & new commons; education, health-sanitation, energy, communication & finance. Here, the strategic demand would be to decommodify& deprivatize the commons. @IssaShivji #KatibaAt10 #TekelezaKatiba

For the working people to reclaim the commons & liberate them from the clutches of monopoly-financial capital invariably assisted by our compradorial states. @IssaShivji #Katiba10YearsLater #KatibaAt10 #TekelezaKatiba