[WSF-Discuss] Peoples' Integration

[CACIM]

ALAI, América Latina en Movimiento2009-03-27
@ http://www.alainet.org/active/29631〈=es<http://www.alainet.org/active/29631&lang=es>Peoples'
IntegrationJose R.
Vidal<http://www.alainet.org/active/show_author.phtml?autor_apellido=Vidal&autor_nombre=Jose+R.>
,  Tamara Rosello<http://www.alainet.org/active/show_author.phtml?autor_apellido=Rosello&autor_nombre=Tamara>
------------------------------

The Charter of Social Movements of the Americas, approved
in Belem do Para during the World Social Forum, constitutes an initiative
that deserves all the attention and support of the movements, networks, and
organizations committed to the present and to the future of our peoples.
 The charter calls for integration from below, using as a reference the
principles of ALBA (The Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and
the Caribbean).

This initiative arose from specific experiences that various movements have
with ALBA projects and was furthered by a seminar of social movements and
organizations that took place in Brazil in the middle of last year.  An
charter open to all movements and organizations emerged from that seminar
containing the proposal and asking for contributions and ideas for the
initiative.  Subsequently, in the Social Forum of the Americas that took
place in October in Guatemala, the letter was presented with additions,
which came about in the consulting process and was then submitted for
further recommendations.  The final draft of the
*document<http://www.movimientos.org/fsm2009/show_text.php3?key=13672>
* was agreed upon in Belem do Para.

Starting with the successful continental campaign against the FTAA, this
call aims to interconnect various social forces not only about condemnation
of and struggle against multiple forms of oppression committed against
popular interests, but furthermore aims to take full advantage of the
potential that ALBA offers, reaching beyond the countries whose governments
form part of the agreement, so as to benefit all the peoples of the region.

The letter explains that the objective of this process of integration of
social movements and organizations is to build a continental coordination
regarding these principles and to promote diverse mechanisms and
potentialities that this initiative offers for the integration of the Latin
American peoples.

In one part the Charter expresses:  *“In this phase we are intensifying
resistance actions, as well as strengthening alternative experiences, of
popular power, of the exercise of sovereignty, as well as relationships with
some governments that express - though with contradictions - the interests
of the majority.*

*It is necessary to collectively construct a peoples' project of Latin
American integration that rethinks the concept of “development” so that it
is based in the defense of natural and life-sustaining  common goods, and
advances the creation of an alternative, civilizing model to the pillaging
project of capitalism; that safeguards Latin American sovereignty in the
face of imperialist looting and that of transnational companies, and that
incorporates the whole range of liberating dimensions, confronting the
multiple instances of oppression generated by capitalist exploitation,
colonial domination, and patriarchy, which reinforces the oppression of
women.”*

This is about strengthening the active participation of the organized
popular sectors, generating initiatives while taking maximum advantage of
beneficial government projects.  In this way cultural processes unfold that
go beyond specific social and economic realities to lay deep roots for the
essential Latin American integration.  The most significant aspect, however,
might be the consolidation of a common agenda of struggles that has been
forming in the past years, and the coordinated activism of various popular
forces to push forward liberating alternatives in the face of neoliberalism
and multiple forms of oppression.

The global landscape for our countries and for all of humanity is loaded
with threats.  The financial, food, energy, and environmental crises
accumulate and their consequences deepen.  Many analysts think this is about
a system in crisis and a way of civilization that has provoked on the one
hand an irrational accumulation of wealth and the unjust continuation of
poverty, and on the other hand an abuse of the planet’s resources that is
now inciting grave imbalances in the natural ecosystems.  Despite  the
enormous inequalities between countries and between social classes within
them, they will have to face equal challenges to the existence of life.

We think that divided, as the colonial period left us and neocolonialism has
kept us, we will not be able to face these challenges.  Only the real and
effective integration of our people will permit us to survive the present
and future crises.

The contemporary setting also tells us that the people of Latin America have
great opportunities.  In the last ten years the region has transitioned from
an almost absolute predominance of neoliberal politics imposed by oligarchic
regimes subordinate to the so-called “Washington Consensus,” to a [politics]
driven by popular sectors which has permitted the emergence of diverse
governments that, in varying degrees and with important nuances, challenge
this prevailing order.

The election in 1998 of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the clamorous fall of
governments by way of popular insurrections in Ecuador, Bolivia, and
Argentina, the electoral triumphs of Lula in Brazil, Evo in Bolivia, the
Frente Amplio in Uruguay, Correa in Ecuador and Lugo in Paraguay, and the
political evolution of other countries in the region toward a view more
focused on the social, together form a new geopolitical setting.  This
expresses on the one hand the exhaustion and crisis of neoliberalism, which
is now shaking even developed capitalist countries, and on the other hand
the emergence of a population that refuses to continue its existence and
that of its children by suffering the consequences and crises of neoliberal
policies.

Visible results of these changing times are the incorporation of Cuba in the
Río Group and the proposal to convert it into an organization of Latin
American states, the carrying out for the first time of a regional
presidential summit without a European or North American presence, the
emergence of various integrating initiatives such as UNASUR, the Banco del
Sur, and Petrocaribe.  The most important result is the existence of ALBA,
which initiates from different principles oriented toward the well-being of
the population, with a focus on the social, the cultural, as well as the
economic, that have already been realized with *Operacion Milagro*, the
literacy campaign *Yo si puedo*, the Latin American schools of medicine,
sports, and agroecology, the ALBA Bank , and projects of the Great Nation.

Nevertheless, the consequences of the profound economic crisis that is
rapidly overtaking the world could set back some of these accomplishments
and obstruct these initiatives.  The Right will attempt to capitalize on the
discontent that derives from the effect of the crisis on daily life, some
technocrats will revert to formulas contrary to integration, which in the
short term favor the national oligarchies, never the people.

The Social Forums, the Campaign Against the FTAA, the struggles against free
trade agreements, against the payment of illegitimate debts, for agrarian
reform and sustainable agriculture, among others, and the many forms of
organization by sector, ethnicity or gender, are an important accumulation
of the region's peoples that can be empowered, joined, and made cohesive by
common agendas.   These agendas have been forming and deserve continual
consolidation.  Unity for integration of our peoples according to the
principles of ALBA could constitute one of the main ways of achieving the
indispensible cohesion of the popular forces of the region.

Integration cannot wait for governments to decide to take part in these
processes, neither can integration be limited to governmental agreements
mediated in most cases by bureaucracies that bear or represent interests
that are remote from those of the people.  Integration has to rise from
below.

The popular sectors cannot wait, because those who are hungry or dying, or
whose children are dying from curable illnesses, cannot wait.  Those who do
not have work, or a roof over their head, or who live in precarious
conditions cannot wait.  Those who live in poverty, or who become poorer
each day cannot wait, and neither can the middle classes, who watch in
anguish as they work tirelessly and yet their families’ quality of life
deteriorates.  Pushing for profound change to address the cause of all of
this suffering is the only way possible, and in order to push forward, we
must unite from below.

The Charter approved in Belem is not limited to a reflection, but is rather
a call to action:

“From Belem, where we meet as hundreds of social movements from all
countries of the Americas that identify with the process of the construction
of ALBA, we convene and we commit to the following:

1.  To carry out national assemblies* *that generate unified collectives for
the construction of ALBA.
2.  To promote a great continental meeting of all the movements in the
second semester of 2009, in order to move toward a coordination of the
social movements that are with ALBA.
3.  To put all of our energy toward the World Mobilization Against War and
Crisis during the week of March 28 - April 4, emphasizing March 30 as the
day of continental mobilization.
4.  To participate actively in the mobilizations and interests of the
people, in the events that celebrate the historic dates of our peoples:
March 8, April 17, May 1, and October 12.
5.  To continue to encourage real solidarity with peoples struggling against
imperialism in Haiti, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia.
6.  To continue progress with concrete action toward the construction of
ALBA, with programs such as ELAM [medical school], adult literacy, the
courses at the ENFF, the IALA, Operacion Milagro, etc.”

We think that answering this call, without delay, with a spirit of
integration, without sectarianism, the predominance of narrow interests,
egotism and other evils that we have inherited from the culture of
domination - that we carry inside, even those who fight for freedom - is a
good way to move forward.  (Translated by Rachel Horowitz)

- José R.  Vidal and Tamara Roselló are members of the Popular
Communications Program of the Centro Memorial Dr.  Martin Luther King,
jr., Havana, Cuba
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