Call by the First International Encuentro of Social Movements
August, 2001, Mexico City
We, two hundred and seventy men and women from social organizations, networks and movements, from thirty-nine countries and from all the continents on our planet, have met together in Mexico - a nation victim to neoliberalism, but also a land of popular resistances like that of the zapatista indigenous - in order to analyze the dynamic which continues to follow a globalization of capital that is clearly increasingly at the service of the great economic and political powers. Additionally, in order to exchange the diverse experiences of struggle and resistance which have been developing throughout the world against this globalization of injustice. And, further, in order to discuss the actions and forms which will allow the growing international resistance movement a greater level of convergence, of coordination and of effectiveness in its global action. It is, thus, stemming from those reflections held during this encuentro, that we have agreed to issue the current Call:
Considering:
1. - That the globalization of capital continues, come hell or high water, to impose on the peoples and nations of the world its logic of plunder disguised as "free trade," of absolute freedom for speculative investments and capital while subjecting millions of migrants to all kinds of controls and humiliations, of indiscriminate privatization - including vital sectors -, of retreat in social achievements, of the perpetuation of discrimination and violence against women, of increasing the social exclusion of the always marginalized. Its logic, in short, of the globalization of abject poverty, of injustices, and of inequalities, while strengthening the supranational powers who nullify the right of peoples and nations to sovereignly decide their development programs, everywhere sowing social disasters, environmental destruction and hunger.
2. - We denounce the actions of capital which, in order to preserve its interests, desires to dominate peoples when it practices:
* The growing violence, which was displayed in Genoa and other places, against mobilizations;
* The economic blockades against Cuba and Iraq;
* The military aggressions which are being waged against various peoples;
* The Israeli army's repression of the Palestine people;
* The Columbia Plan, the Puebla-Panama Plan and Dignity Plan in Bolivia.
3. - Nonetheless, ever since the zapatista indigenous uprising, and continuing on to the recent mobilizations in Genoa - including the historic march of Seattle; the indigenous and popular uprising in Ecuador; the Sin Tierra struggle in Brazil and the campesino movement in general in America, Europe and Asia; the worker and popular protests in Argentina and the marches against unemployment in Europe; the World Women's March and the successive mobilizations in each one of the meetings of the powerful in Washington, Windsor, Gutenberg and Quebec, as well as the holding of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre - continue to demonstrate that popular resistance to this neoliberal model is growing irrepressibly on a world-wide scale. It bears witness to the failure and exhaustion of this model, representing an increasingly greater challenge to its plans, making the stormy summit meetings of the powerful more and more difficult, driving them almost into the clandestine; and d! emonstrating that they may still have power and money, but they are now losing the battle for legitimacy.
We are calling on all social organizations, networks and movements in the world:
1. - To mobilize ourselves and to support each other in the following gatherings of international action:
* The Summit Against Racism, to be held from August 31 to September 7 in South Africa.
* The World Forum on Food Sovereignty, in Havana, Cuba, from September 3 -7.
* Forums and mobilizations during the IMF and World Bank meeting in Washington, September 28 and 29.
* Forums and mobilizations against the OMC in Qatar, from November 8 to 11.
* To participate in mobilizations for the Cry of the Excluded, around October 12, in all the countries of America.
* Forums and mobilizations during the World Summit of Food Security in Rome, from November 9 to 11.
* To mobilize in front of the European Union Summit in Brussels in the month of December.
* To hold a World Ethical Tribunal on Foreign Debt, in February of 2002, in Porto Alegre (inside the World Social Forum).
* Forums and mobilizations centered on the UN Summit concerning Financing for Development, in Monterrey, Mexico, in March of 2002.
2. - To organize, in all the counties of the American continent, a popular consulta during the year 2002 (possibly in October), so that the people can decide on the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (ALCA), by plebiscite.
3.- To continue promoting the World Social Forum as a space for interchange and coordination, and to hold the Second International Encuentro of Social Movements during the next World Social Forum, which will take place in Porto Alegre, Brazil once again, at the end of January, 2002. Assuming an even greater participation by organizations from the entire planet, we will be able to progress in this process of convergence of the international social movement.
3. - By beginning a process of reflection and discussion, in order to explore the possibilities and paths for coordinating international actions which have their own agenda and which go further than the calendar of the powerful or of each organization or network, and, in order to advance in creating more permanent and effective forms of coordinating the global movement - such as the building of a new world social alliance, to be understood not as a new international structure or apparatus, but as a growing process of convergence of agendas, alternatives and actions, diverse and multi-sector, horizontal and flexible, not as an organizational formula, but as an expression of a need which has arisen from below.
Globalizing the struggle/globalizing hope!
From Mexican zapatista lands.
August 14, 2001
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