Pan African Dilemmas of Humanity Conference

The conference was organized by Pan Africanism Today, an alliance between progressive organizations that are unified by popular education and international solidarity, and the International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA).

This was the first regional conference part of the Dilemmas of Humanity process, which is a space to debate the crises of humanity and the urgency to overcome capitalism with concrete alternatives and solutions, part of a popular and alternative project towards socialism. 

South Africa also is the country that will receive the III International Dilemmas of Humanity Conference which will take place from October 14th to 18th, 2023, in Johannesburg.

Under the banner ‘Dilemmas of Humanity - Pan African Dialogues To Build Socialism’, this meeting brought together 200 delegates representing around 40 organizations from 17 countries, from Africa and other regions. 

Some of the participating organizations were the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), Abahlali Basemjondolo (ABM), the Socialist Party of Zambia (SP), the Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG), Workers’ Democratic Way from Morocco (WDW), Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima from Tanzania (MVIWATA), and many more.

The four day conference was conducted using a methodology that ensured participation, dialogue, and collective construction of the delegates.

The Pan African Conference created a space for “movement leaders from all over the African continent to gather for the first time in many years to articulate our vision and path to socialism,” Jonis Ghedi-Alasow from the Pan Africanism Today (PAT) Secretariat, told Peoples Dispatch. 

The conference had eight central themes of discussion: 1. Building socialism through food sovereignty, agroecology, and the defense of nature; 2. Demands for health, science, and technology as a matter of dignity; 3. Gender struggles to end patriarchy; 4. Organizing the workers: employed, unemployed, organized and unorganized; 5. Building the future of our youth through quality education for liberation; 6. Urban struggles for dignified housing; 7. Battle of ideas: art, culture, media, and communications; 8. Sovereignty and self-determination: security, militarization, and national liberation.

The conference was divided into commissions, each with a mandate to deliberate upon a particular theme and draft a concrete plan of action which was adopted in the form of a resolution on the final day.

The consensus of the conference was that capitalism has no solutions for the problems that confront humanity. “We will build socialism in Africa, we will build socialism in the world. Socialism will conquer capitalism because it is the only system that can deliver justice- economic…social…political justice,” reaffirmed Kwesi Pratt Junior, the General Secretary of the Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG), during the conference.

Daily roundup videos were produced by Pan African Television and Peoples Dispatch on each day of the Pan African Dilemmas of Humanity Conference. Watch them here:

Day 1 Daily RoundUp, July 17th:

Day 2 Daily RoundUp, July 18th:

Day 3 Daily RoundUp, July 19th:

Day 4 Daily RoundUp, July 20th:

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