[WSF-Discuss] Fwd: [DEBATE] : The Belem Ecosocialist Declaration: sign now

Wed Dec 24 02:54:47 UCT 2008

Begin forwarded message:

> From: glparramatta <glparramatta at greenleft.org.au>
> Date:  December 19 2008 7:02:01 AM GMT+05:30
> To: AA: debate <debate at lists.kabissa.org>
> Subject: [DEBATE] : The Belem Ecosocialist Declaration: sign now
> Reply-To: "debate: SA discussion list " <debate at debate.kabissa.org>
>
> The following Declaration was prepared by a committee elected for  
> this purpose at the Paris Ecosocialist Conference of 2007 (Ian  
> Angus, Joel Kovel, Michael Löwy), with the help of Danielle  
> Follett. It will be distributed at the World Social Forum in Belem,  
> Brazil, in January 2009.
>
> To add your name to the list of signatories who support the  
> analysis and political perspectives set forth in this statement,  
> email your name and country of residence to ecosocialism at gmail.com  
> <mailto:ecosocialism at gmail.com?subject=Add%20my%20Signature%20to% 
> 20Belem%20Declaration>,
> <mailto:ecosocialism at gmail.com?subject=Add%20my%20Signature%20to% 
> 20Belem%20Declaration>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --
>
>
>  The Belem Ecosocialist Declaration
>
> "The world is suffering from a fever due to climate change,
> and the disease is the capitalist development model."
> -- Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, September 2007
>
> Humanity's choice
>
> Humanity today faces a stark choice: ecosocialism or barbarism.
>
> We need no more proof of the barbarity of capitalism, the  
> parasitical system that exploits humanity and nature alike. Its  
> sole motor is the imperative toward profit and thus the need for  
> constant growth. It wastefully creates unnecessary products,  
> squandering the environment's limited resources and returning to it  
> only toxins and pollutants. Under capitalism, the only measure of  
> success is how much more is sold every day, every week, every year  
> - involving the creation of vast quantities of products that are  
> directly harmful to both humans and nature, commodities that cannot  
> be produced without spreading disease, destroying the forests that  
> produce the oxygen we breathe, demolishing ecosystems, and treating  
> our water, air and soil like sewers for the disposal of industrial  
> waste.
>
> Capitalism's need for growth exists on every level, from the  
> individual enterprise to the system as a whole. The insatiable  
> hunger of corporations is facilitated by imperialist expansion in  
> search of ever greater access to natural resources, cheap labor and  
> new markets. Capitalism has always been ecologically destructive,  
> but in our lifetimes these assaults on the earth have accelerated.  
> Quantitative change is giving way to qualitative transformation,  
> bringing the world to a tipping point, to the edge of disaster. A  
> growing body of scientific research has identified many ways in  
> which small temperature increases could trigger irreversible,  
> runaway effects - such as rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet  
> or the release of methane buried in permafrost and beneath the  
> ocean - that would make catastrophic climate change inevitable.
>
> Left unchecked, global warming will have devastating effects on  
> human, animal and plant life. Crop yields will drop drastically,  
> leading to famine on a broad scale. Hundreds of millions of people  
> will be displaced by droughts in some areas and by rising ocean  
> levels in others. Chaotic, unpredictable weather will become the  
> norm. Air, water and soil will be poisoned. Epidemics of malaria,  
> cholera and even deadlier diseases will hit the poorest and most  
> vulnerable members of every society.
>
> The impact of the ecological crisis is felt most severely by those  
> whose lives have already been ravaged by imperialism in Asia,  
> Africa, and Latin America, and indigenous peoples everywhere are  
> especially vulnerable. Environmental destruction and climate change  
> constitute an act of aggression by the rich against the poor.
>
> Ecological devastation, resulting from the insatiable need to  
> increase profits, is not an accidental feature of capitalism: it is  
> built into the system's DNA and cannot be reformed away. Profit- 
> oriented production only considers a short-term horizon in its  
> investment decisions, and cannot take into account the long-term  
> health and stability of the environment. Infinite economic  
> expansion is incompatible with finite and fragile ecosystems, but  
> the capitalist economic system cannot tolerate limits on growth;  
> its constant need to expand will subvert any limits that might be  
> imposed in the name of "sustainable development." Thus the  
> inherently unstable capitalist system cannot regulate its own  
> activity, much less overcome the crises caused by its chaotic and  
> parasitical growth, because to do so would require setting limits  
> upon accumulation - an unacceptable option for a system predicated  
> upon the rule: Grow or Die!
>
> If capitalism remains the dominant social order, the best we can  
> expect is unbearable climate conditions, an intensification of  
> social crises and the spread of the most barbaric forms of class  
> rule, as the imperialist powers fight among themselves and with the  
> global south for continued control of the world's diminishing  
> resources.
>
> At worst, human life may not survive.
>
> Continue reading at http://links.org.au/node/803
> _______________________________________________
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> DEBATE at debate.kabissa.org
> http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate

______________________________

Jai Sen
jai.sen at cacim.net
CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India
www.cacim.net
Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, +91-98189 11325 - PLEASE NOTE NEW SECOND NUMBER !

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