People’s Summit: Linking Alternatives III declaration
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16/05/2008
People’s Summit Linking Alternatives III Declaration
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 People’s 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.
