Porto Alegre – January 31st 2005
Call from Social Movements
31/01/2005
- Opinión
For mobilizations against the war, neoliberalism, exploitation and exclusion
Another world is possible
We are social movements gathered in the 5th World Social Forum.
The great success of the plural and massive participation in the
Forum gives us the possibility and the responsibility to organize
more and better our campaigns and mobilizations, to expand and
strengthen our struggles.
Four years ago the collective and global call for ANOTHER WORLD IS
POSSIBLE broke the lie that neoliberal domination is unavoidable
as well as the acceptance of the “normality” of war, of social
inequalities, racism, casts, patriarchy, imperialism and the
destruction of the environment. As people take this truth as their
own their strength becomes unstoppable and it starts materialising
in concrete actions of resistance, for demands and proposals.
Therefore what is new about our proposal is the outbreak and the
scale of the social movements in all continents and their ability
to build within diversity new convergences and common actions at
global level.
In that frame, tens of millions of men and women were mobilized in
all corners of the world for peace, against the war and the
invasion led by Bush against Iraq. Summits like the G8 and the WTO,
the IMF and the World Bank, where few intend to decide for
everybody, were questioned and de-legitimized by the action of
social movements. Popular struggles in defence of nature, the
rights of people and the common good, against their privatization,
such as in Bolivia, Uruguay and other peoples, demonstrated the
possibility of creating a crisis for neoliberal domination. New
spaces for political and social struggle were opened to us.
Neoliberalism is incapable of offering a dignified and democratic
future to humanity. Nevertheless, nowadays it again takes the
initiative responding to its crisis of legitimacy with force,
militarization, repression, criminalization of social struggles,
political authoritarianism and ideological reaction. Millions of
men and women suffer every day. We want here to remember the war
in Congo that has already caused four million victims. For all
that, another world is not only possible, but necessary and urgent.
Conscious that we still have a long way ahead of us, we call all
movements of the world to fight for peace, human, social and
democratic rights, for the right of people to decide their destiny
and for the immediate cancellation of foreign debt from the
countries of the South, from the AGENDA that we share in the 5th
World Social Forum:
AGENDA OF STRUGGLES
- We call all organizations and social movements which have
participated in the World Social Forum and those who could not
be in Porto Alegre, to work together in the campaign for
the IMMEDIATE and UNCONDITIONAL CANCELLATION OF THE FOREIGN and
illegitimate DEBT of the countries of the South, beginning with
the countries victims of tsunami and other that have undergone
terrible disasters and crisis in the recent months.
- We support Social Movements from the South that declare
themselves CREDITORS of
historical, social and ecological debts. We demand the end of
the implementation of projects
and “integration agreements” which facilitate the looting of
natural resources form the
countries of the South.
We support demands from peasant and fisherfolk Social Movements
in areas affected by the
Tsunami, in order to have the resources for emergency aid and
reconstruction managed
directly by local communities in order to avoid new debts,
colonization and militarization.
– After two years of the Iraq invasion, global opposition to
the war is constantly increasing. It is time for the anti-warm
movement to increase actions and do not retreat.
We demand the end of the Iraq occupation. We demand the US to stop
threatening Iran, Venezuela and other countries. We commit to
establish more contacts with the occupation forces in Iraq and the
Middle East. We will strengthen our campaigns against
transnationals committed with the invasion, we support soldiers
who oppose to participate in the war and we defend activists that
have been persecuted for being against the war. We call all
movements to organize on March 19th a global day of actions to
demand the retreat of US troops from Iraq. No more war!
– We support all campaigns for disarmament and
demilitarization, including the campaign against US military bases
in the world, the campaigns for nuclear disarmament, for the
control of arms trade and the cut on military spending.
– Under the pretext of “Free Trade” neoliberal capitalism
advances under the weakness of the US, in the de-regulation of
economies and the “legalization” of privileges for transnational
corporations through free trade Agreements (FTAs). After the
failure of FTAA due to popular pressure, now Central America and
other countries have been obliged to subscribe to Bilateral Free
Trade Agreements that we the people reject. In Europe the European
Union Bolkenstein directive wants to impose the complete
privatization of public services. We call everyone to mobilize
during the Global Action Rally, from April 10th to 17th, in the
Summit of the People of the Americas, in Mar del Plata, Argentina,
in November 2005; and during the 6th WTO meeting in Hong Kong, in
December 2005.
– We support the Women’s World March which is organizing a
campaign of global feminist actions throughout the world starting
from São Paulo on March 8th and ending on October 17th in Burkina
Faso, to restate their commitment with in the struggle against
neoliberalism, patriarchy, exclusion and domination. We call all
movements to organize feminist actions during this period against
free trade, sex trade, militarization and food sovereignty.
– We support the efforts of social movements and
organizations that promote the struggle for dignity, justice,
equality and human rights specially the dalit movement; afro-
descendents, indigenous people, romas, burakumins and the most
oppressed and repressed sectors of society.
– We call for mass mobilization against the G8 meeting in
Scotland on July 2nd to 8th. We will take to the streets and will
participate in the counter-meeting in Edinburgh and Gleneagles.
We demand: poverty to go to history, to stop the war, to cancel
debt and impose a global tax on financial transactions to finance
development.
– We protest against neoliberal policies and the EU military
support in Latin America. We call for a solidarity mobilization
among the peoples during the Meeting from Latin American and
European Union Presidents in May 2006, in Vienna, Austria.
– We struggle for the universal right to healthy and
sufficient food.
We struggle for the right of the peoples, nations and peasants to
produce their own food. We manifest against subsidies to exports
which destroy the economies of rural communities. Let’s avoid food
dumping.
We reject GMO foods because besides threatening our health and the
environment, they are an instrument for five transnationals to
have control of all markets. We reject patents on any form of life
and in special on seeds, since the intention is the appropriation
of our resources and the knowledge associated to them. We demand
the Agrarian Reform as a strategy to allow the access of peasants
to land, and healthy and sufficient food, and not to be
concentrated in the hands of transnationals and latifundiários.
We demand for actions against peasants around the world to be
called off, for the immediate liberation of peasants and political
prisoners in the world, and the end of militarization of rural
areas.
We support sustainable production based in the preservation
of natural resources: soil,
water, forest, air, biodiversity, water resources etc. We
support the development of organic
and agro-ecological production.
We call for mobilizations during the national peasant day on
April 17th; and on the
anniversary of the death of Mr. Lee on September 10th against
the WTO.
– We support campaigns and struggles in defence of water as a
common good, against its privatization and for the recognition of
the right to access to water as a human right, such as the
campaign ”No to Suez in Latin America”. We invite all to
participate in International Forum from March 18th to 20th in
Geneva.
– We share the demands to build an alliance between social
movements and networks for a “World contract on climate: a solar
world is possible”.
Energy is the right to life and it is a common good. The struggle
against poverty and climate change demands sustainable energy to
be among the priorities of initiatives and campaigns from social
movements. We support the international march on climate in
November.
– The “Social Responsibility of Transnationals” did not
manage to eliminate abuses and crimes committed by transnationals.
It must be seriously challenged. Movements will work together to
take power away from transnationals and stop their abuses and
crimes. Communities must have the freedom to protect themselves,
their environment and society against the power of transnationals.
– We support campaigns against transnationals that violate
human, social and trade union’s rights, such as those against
Nestlé and Coca-Cola in Colombia; and Pepsi and Coca-Cola in India.
– We support the struggle of the Palestinian people for their
fundamental and national rights, including the right to return,
based on the international law and in the UN resolutions.
– We ask the international community and governments to
impose political and economic sanctions to Israel, including an
embargo on Arms.
We call social movements to also mobilize for de-investments and
boycotts.
These efforts aim at pressuring Israel to implement international
resolutions and to respect the decision of the International Court
of Justice for the immediate stop and destruction of the illegal
apartheid wall and the end of occupation.
– We support Israeli activists for peace and the refusnik for
their struggle against the occupation.
– We condemn the unfair embargo of Cuba and demand a fair
trial to the five Cubans who have been arrested in the US. We also
demand the withdrawal of military foreign troops in Haiti.
– We recognize diversity in sexual orientation as an
expression of an alternative world and we condemn mercantilization.
Movements commit to participate in the struggle against exclusion
based on identity, gender and homophobia. We will unite our voices
against all forms of mercantilization of the body of women and
GLBT.
– We support the process of building a global network of
social movements committed to defend migrants, refugees and
displaced peoples.
Neoliberalism and the policies of “the war against terror” have
increased the criminalization of migrants, the militarization of
borders, clandestine operations and the access to cheap labour. We
support the campaign to ratify the United Nations Convention for
the rights of migrants, which no government from the North wants
to accept. We support the campaign to establish an independent
organism to sanction governments that do not respect the Geneva
Convention for refugees and the rights of migrants.
– We support campaigns and struggles for children’s rights,
against labour and sexual exploitation, against the trade of
children and sexual tourism.
– We support the call of the excluded, of those with no voice,
to develop an active solidarity campaign to propel a world march
in which the oppressed and excluded of the planet will raise their
voice to conquer the right to a dignified life.
– From September 14th to 16th, in the general Assembly of the
UN, government heads of the whole world will make decisions about
the agrarian reform in the United Nations and will revise their
commitments to eradicate poverty. They are mainly responsible for
the critical situation of humanity now. We support the call for
international networks which invite to mobilize globally on
September 10th for a new world democratic order and against
poverty and the war.
– We support the call for a mobilization on November 17th,
international student day, in defence of public education, against
privatization and the trans-nationalization of education.
– In solidarity with Venezuela, the youth of the world is
calling to participate in the 16th World Youth Festival and of the
Students from Venezuela between August 7th and 15th.
– Communication is a fundamental human right. We support the
call for mobilizations during the World Conference of the
Communication Society, in Tunis from November 16th to 18th. We
support the call for a strong international convention about
Cultural Diversity and we oppose the mercantilization of
information and communication from the WTO.
– We support social economy as a concrete expression of an
alternative for a fair, mutual, democratic and equitable
development.
– In defence of public health and against its privatization,
we call all peoples of the world for a permanent struggle. We call
for mobilizations during the General Assembly in Defence of the
Health of the People, in Cuenca, Peru, in 2005 and in the World
Health Forum during the World Social Forum in Africa in 2007.
This is a small demonstration of the struggle of social movements
GLOBALISE STRUGGLE, GLOBALISE HOPE!
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