The Vaccaro momentum: building an organisation and developing a strategy and plan of action

The Vaccaro momentum: building an organisation and developing a strategy and plan of action

By Petros Tesfagiorgis

Let me start by quoting the slogan of the year, “Where is your brother?

What is the most extraordinary about the 4 Catholic bishops, the courageous spiritual leaders - is that they were able to give a comprehensive analysis of the situation Eritrea is in.  The mismanagement of the Eritrean society and the economy, the indefinite national service which gave rise to the frightening brain drain and other form of policies hostile to freedom, growth and prosperity.

What is significant is the power of their appeal. It is messianic and historic.  The Bishops are appealing to the politicians and the people at large to shoulder their responsibilities and engage in activities for change among which is to rescue the youth which Eritrea is losing at a fast rate. This awakening call is a profound inspiration for Eritreans to create new possibility for justice and democracy to prevail in Eritrea.

The Vaccaro momentum and his legacy as reflected in the activities of UK branch.

What is amazing about Tewolde Tesfamariam (Wedi Vaccaro) is that he was able to attract large number of listeners to come to listen to him. It is fundamentally important to acknowledge that, it is because people have related to him, to what he was saying, his approach, his simplicity, commitment and selflessness.  They shared his dreams for unity, justice and democratic Eritrea. And also of his genuine concern that the opposition is too fragmented to put up united and effective resistance to repression, even though the objective condition for change is ripe.

We witnessed his hurricane move in Atlanta, New York, Sweden, London, Norway, Switzerland, Holland, Italy etc. all in all up to 20 cities.  His talk was visited by 150,000 people on the assenna.com website.

I attended his talk at the end of 2013 in London. The big hall was full to capacity and many had to stand the whole time. It was stunning. Indeed his talk appealed to the ordinary grass root Diaspora and so the momentum is precious.

However, getting people in their thousands to listen to him is half of the work. The other half remains. It is to build an organisation or organisations that would translate what has been campaigned and debated into action. It is the hard work of mobilizing the missing voices.  This is largely the responsibility of the people in Diaspora particularly those who came to listen to him the “Vaccaroites.”   Tewolde (Wedi Vaccaro) remains a leading light.

The formation of “Eritreans for Unity and Justice UK branch

During the first talk of Tewolde, the issue of forming an organisation and electing a permanent management committee (UK branch) was raised but due to time constraints it was postponed. Instead it took place on May 4, 2014 in the presence of Tewolde (Wedi Vaccaro).

Prior to the nomination and election of candidates of the management committee a brief criteria was established. The most important was to restrict electing people who have responsibilities in other organisation be political, humanitarian or human rights in order to avoid conflict of interest.

The election was successful. What is encouraging is that there were competent people elected from the silent majority. Tewolde must have touched the conscience of thousands of people who were aloof in the past. Finally a management committee of 9 people was elected and the organisation was named   “Eritreans for Unity and Justice UK branch (EUJ-UK)”

The management committee held its first public meeting on June 22   2014: The Agenda was to brief the public of their activities and organise the trip to Bologna.

They briefed the audience that they have elected the chairman, the secretary and the treasurer and assigned the rest of the committee members’ specific tasks, such as in charge of mobilization, publicity and  running the website.  The secretary was given extra work to be the liaison officer with all sister organisations outside UK.   They have drafted and thoroughly discussed internal policy bylaws that govern the workings of the organisation. This is very important because it will bring harmony in working together and gain experience towards professionalism.  They put a logo in place.

After the meeting I asked the Chairman Mehari Kidane to have coffee together so that he can brief me on their action plan to use it in my article.  He said the core strategy is to work for unity but they will deal with all the burning issues as well. They are

1.  Helping refugees on humanitarian considerations.  2. Exposing PFDJ of the gross human rights violations.  3. He said they are also concerned with the mining companies and the use of forced labour from the ranks of National Service, scrutinize where the profits go. He believes this can be done better with other organisations such those in Canada who have already done a lot of work in this area.

Since this is a very good well thought beginning what impressed me is that they are allocating a specific time frame to various activities. It means they will evaluate and asses the work planned and how much of it is achieved during the time specified.

The Bologna Demonstration:

During the long years of struggle Italy’s Bologna was the cultural pride of the “Eritreans for Liberation in Europe “(EFLE) where people dance to the music of all Eritrean nationalities, socialize and meet old friends and relatives. The main objective was to evaluate activities of all the mass association branches like the work of fund raising, win political and diplomatic support for the struggle and draw action plan. At its height up to 8000 Eritreans and foreign supporters used to gather.  It has become a shrine for the struggle for independence.

Today things have changed.  To what extend are the PFDJ supporters in Diaspora willing to dance enjoy while the bodies of the Lampedusa tragedy are still in Italy not yet flown for burial in Eritrea. It is a festival to be used as a propaganda tool as if the people in Eritrea are living a decent life. This is a moral bankruptcy and historical blander.

A demonstration by all the opposition is underway and “Eritreans for Unity and Justice UK branch (EUJ-UK)”   is part of it and set on organising the trip to Italy. They gave briefing of the preparation taking place in Bologna. For those who are willing to go but have no accommodation they are advised to bring sleeping bags, places are arranged. They wanted names for those who would go by bus. They want to know the number.  For those who would not go they can give donations. It was encouraging when there was no less than £50.00 donations and mostly from ordinary people- grass root people. There was a woman who said “I am a single parent short of money but I am willing to pay £50.00.  There was talks praising the management committee. One said I belong to EPDP and I have a full go ahead to support the mission, well done folks. There was similar praises.  There was also criticism mostly by the women that there were few women in the meeting and they said the men in the meeting should encourage their wives to participate. Few of the women attended were mostly ex-fighters and they talked with clarity.

The demonstration against the PFDJ festival in Bologna has created a golden opportunity for all the opposition to work together to give the demonstration a high profile. High profile leaders in the opposition must deliver a talk as well.

To be continued:

One of the core strategies of Dr. Tewolde is to bring unity among the Diaspora or to make a considerable contribution: The Critical question is  how can one achieve Unity?