[E-rundbrief] Info 678 - Peoples Summit Alternatives Lima 5/08

Matthias Reichl info at begegnungszentrum.at
Di Mai 20 16:22:11 CEST 2008


E-Rundbrief - Info 678 - Peoples' Summit Linking Alternatives III 
Declaration, Enlazando Alternativas III, Lima, Peru, 10. - 16.5.2008.

Bad Ischl, 20.5.2008

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

================================================

Peoples' Summit Linking Alternatives III Declaration

Enlazando Alternativas III

Lima, Peru, 10. - 16.5.2008


Social, political and popular movements, workers, migrants, indigenous
and campesino communities, women's, youth and trade union movements from
Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe, gathered in Lima for the
Peoples' Summit, Linking Alternatives III, declare the following:

Cooperation and integration of our peoples is created by constructing a
system in which economic, political, social, cultural and environmental
rights of the majority are given priority and form the very substance of
governmental policies. As a result we reject the project of Association
Agreements proposed by the European Union and backed by diverse Latin
American and Caribbean governments which only aim to deepen and
perpetuate the current system of domination which has caused so much
harm to our peoples.

The European Union strategy "Global Europe: Competing in the world"
pushes for the deepening of policies of competition and economic growth,
the implementation of multinational companies' agenda and the
entrenchment of neoliberal policies, all of which are incompatible with
the discourse of climate change, poverty reduction and social cohesion.
Despite trying to hide its true nature by including themes such as
international aid and political dialogue, the core of the proposal is to
open up capital, goods and services markets, to protect foreign
investment and to reduce the state's capacity to promote economic and
social development. This has implications for both regions:

For Latin America and the Caribbean, this strategy reproduces the
framework of Free Trade Agreements which the majority of countries in
the region have signed with the United States and goes further than the
WTO policies that we reject. European multinationals are responsible in
large part for the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources of
these countries, displacing entire countries, devastating biodiversity,
exhausting water sources, and impoverishing the workforce. Latin America
has been a victim for many years of looting by multinational companies.
Now as democratic advances stimulate some countries to seek their own
development and integration paths in order to benefit peoples, other
governments who continue with free trade recipes are involved in
fragmenting the region and causing national and international
confrontations.

In Europe, the Lisbon Treaty, one of the biggest threats to democracy,
justice, peace and ecological balance, is currently being ratified by
elites without consulting the population. We reject this Treaty as we
have done before. This treaty reinforces a neoliberal Europe, increases
militarisation, exclusion, inequality and commoditisation, as well as
hardens repressive, security policies. This is reflected in growing
precarious employment, a general attack on social rights, in particular
on former labour conquests. At the same time, it is accelerating the
construction of a "Fortress Europe," which implies the closing of
frontiers, violation of asylum rights, and the criminalisation of
migrants and social movements, creating virtual and real walls which are
no different from those constructed on the frontiers of North America.

The Association Agreements which the European Union has signed with
Mexico and Chile have deepened inequalities and demonstrate what will
happen to those who sign similar agreements in Central America, the
Community of Andean Nations and MERCOSUR whose negotiations they want to
resuscitate. For the Caribbean nations, these agreements, recently
signed, will increase the vulnerability and dependence of these
economies, whilst also breaking down the dynamic of sub-regional
integration.

At a time in Lima when governments talk of social cohesion, climate
change, and poverty reduction, it is important to remember that the
principal cause of inequality, social polarisation, environmental
degradation as well as discrimination, is the placing of the market
above people's rights and the granting of guarantees by complicit
governments to corporations that eliminate the state's capacity to
define national development projects. Multinationals have double
standards, benefiting themselves from the asymmetries that Association
Agreements tend to reinforce. The discourse of International Aid and
Political Dialogue is merely the sweetener to hide the real interests of
these corporations.

In the face of the food crisis which is affecting many countries, we
denounce the hypocrisy and policies of multilateral institutions (WTO,
IMF, WB, IBD, EIB) who try to hide the real causes: the redirection of
countries' production towards exports, the loss of the State's role in
food regulation, the conversion of foods into a source of financial
speculation, all of which are results of "free trade" policies. It is
therefore unacceptable to propose more liberalisation and deregulation
as a solution to the crisis. The massive production of agrofuels is also
worsening the difficult living conditions for millions of people. We
reject again this false solution to the energy and climate crisis.

Confronting this situation, the organisations which make up Linking
Alternatives, reiterate that it is possible to create a different
integration based on the free determination of peoples, respect for the
environment, respect for human rights, and for the democratic processes
led by some governments who are moving away from neoliberalism and
looking for equal relations between peoples of the world. This will
involve the strengthening of cooperation in all areas between peoples,
the re-strengthening of solidarity, the end of all forms of
discrimination, and the end of policies that violate a country's
sovereignty. As we have shown in the 2nd Permanent People's Tribunal, we
are asking for justice and reparations for the offences, harm and damage
  done by European companies, and the redefinition of relations with
these companies in which they take responsibility for their social and
environmental liabilities.

We salute the actions of nationalisation of strategic companies and
natural resources for national development, resources which belong to
the people not multinationals, such as for example the nationalisation
of the Bolivian telecommunications company, ETI/ENTEL. We call on
governments who promote progressive policies to join in with the process
of transformation that we are pushing. We reject the defiant
interventions of the US and the European Union against the sovereignty
of the peoples. The European Union must take responsibility for the
historic debt with the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, in
particular with indigenous peoples. We call attention to the dramatic
situation in Haiti, result of decades of plunder, worsened by the
current military occupation. Similarly we denounce the acquiescent
European Union policies towards the Colombian government.

The only solution for the Latin American, Caribbean, and European
peoples is to unite together in defence of wellbeing and strengthen
resistance and mobilisation against neoliberal policies. We can inspire
ourselves with the involvement of women, indigenous and campesino and
other social forces, who via their massive presence in the Social
Summit, have given an example of the combativeness and the elaboration
of alternatives in search of progress based on harmony with nature,
human rights and the elimination of all forms of discrimination.

We call on governments to respond effectively to the demands of peoples
to construct another type of relationship between regions, based on
overcoming a market model. We call on the population not to continue
being tricked by authoritarian governments which try to criminalise just
civil protest. We call on all peoples of Latin America, Caribbean and
Europe to join the ever-growing number of organisations who are looking
for a better world for everyone, and to be take on the challenges which
today face humanity.

We ask all social and popular movements from both continents to start
preparing for the next People's Social Summit, Linking Alternatives IV,
which will take place in Spain in 2010.

www.enlazandoalternativas.org

-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at
Spenden-Konto Nr. 0600-970305 (Blz. 20314) Sparkasse Bad Ischl,
Geschäftsstelle Pfandl
IBAN: AT922031400600970305 BIC: SKBIAT21XXX








Mehr Informationen über die Mailingliste E-rundbrief