Anti-capitalist forum opens in Nairobi

More than 80,000 people gathered for an annual anti-capitalist conference in Kenya's capital on Saturday, hoping to network with other activists and protest global policies they say hurt the poor.

The World Social Forum will be a chance to showcase "Africa and her unbroken history of struggle against foreign domination, colonialism and neocolonialism," according to a statement on the event Web site.

The forum kicked off with several hundred protesters marching from Kenya's sprawling Kibera slum to downtown Nairobi. About a third of Nairobi's total population, at least 700,000 people, is crammed into a single square mile in Kibera, with little access to running water and other basic services.

The slum stands in sharp contrast to Nairobi's many elegant homes and hotels.

Former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda flagged off the march.

"We must fight poverty together," he yelled to the crowd.

Among them was Philip Kimani, an 18-year-old homeless man.

"I was working at a car wash and I was told to come here today, I was told I would learn something," he said, wearing a new World Social Forum T-shirt.

Demonstrators waived placards, many with a portrait of President Bush subtitled, "World's Number One Terrorist."

Kibera residents are mostly squatters, with no legal claim on the land even though many families have lived there for generations.

The World Social Forum was first held in Brazil in 2001 and coincides each year with the market-friendly World Economic Forum of political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland. Those at the six-day social forum, in contrast, traditionally criticize free trade and denounce the evils of capitalism.

Planned events include a debate on public health moderated by Kenyan Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, a festival for Nairobi's street children _ many of whom have lost parents to AIDS and other diseases or have been cast out of their homes _ and a marathon.

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On the Net:

http://wsf2007.org