We need a real European network of solidarity

Arab AIDS organizer Nabil Azouz left for a Barcelona conference on migrants and AIDS last October with Norway on his mind. Here, he recalls his impressions of the conference and of a solidarity meeting which was gate-crashed by an unexpected guest. Azouz’s message is that Norway’s campaign was an affront not just to Norway’s Africans but to all of us engaged in the harb (war) against AIDS.

(...) Upon arriving in Barcelona, I was shocked to learn the meeting would take place in a convent, far from bustling Barcelona. A firm believer in secularism from an Arabo-islamic country, I am a veteran of the struggle against fundamentalism in my country. (...) I understood that our political struggle against the injustices of AIDS is also a spiritual struggle - rejection, solitude and incomprehension, the hypocrisy of government policies, the impossibilities of access to treatment for immigrants who have been marginalized and stigmatized, the drama lived by those who [are gravely ill, targetted for deportation upon ending their prison sentence] (...)

I suddenly remembered that in the great hall would take place a meeting where we could express our solidarity with our friends from AFNOR [African Forum in Norway — ed.], who defended the Africans unjustly and odiously stigmatized by the Norwegian government during the unfortunate and racist AIDS campaign organized in July 1996.

What could be more natural than going to express my solidarity ? (...) After hearing a very moving text on the plight of our African friends in Norway, the microphone was suddenly given to a spokesman for the Norwegian Board of Public Health who appeared out of nowhere. (...) Ah, I told myself, all’s well that ends well : we are going to be treated to the most beautiful mea culpa. But no ! Like some unmovable iceberg in the North Seas, this calm little man announced that even though he might personally judge negatively the July campaign, we should certainly not expect his Government to make a public apology, much less, as AFNOR was asking, for the Minister of Health to resign. (...).

I insisted on telling him that the Norwegian campaign could easily have serious consequences in other European countries, especially in France. I wanted him to understand that words can kill and especially in our country where fascist LePenists and their acolytes can easily exploit this kind of argument. I was angry. I secretly wished that the Norwegian government’s spokesman would not leave the meeting unharmed.

Indirectly, this deception reinforced my belief that a European network of solidarity between our different organizations is more than ever necessary (...). nm

Nabil Azouz is Secretary-General of the Paris-based Fédération des tunisiens pour une citoyenneté des deux rives (FTCR). Shortly after penning this article for MAHA, he joined the working committee which is organizing a conference on migrants and AIDS. The conference, to take place in Oslo later this year, is sponsored by the European Commission and, for the first time, by the Norwegian government.