Call From Social Movements

Call From Social Movements For Mobilizations Against The War, Neoliberalism, Exploitation And Exclusion Another World Is Possibile, 31.1.2005

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 struggles of social movements
GLOBALISE STRUGGLE, GLOBALISE HOPE!