Final Declaration of the Campaign against the World Bank,
Barcelona 2001
Another world is possible; globalize resistance and
solidarity.
This declaration can only start by condemning police
violence and the use of real munition against
demonstrators in Gothenburg, in which there were
several people injured, one of them in a extreme
condition. We condemn in deep concern the declarations
of the European leaders, justifying police acts and
announcing the introduction of extraordinary measures
to regulate movility and to control the groups
standing against neoliberal globalization, which makes
us foresee a notorious increase in repression and
criminalization of the social movements, an increase
in the activities of the information brigades, a
greater vulneration of the right to a truthful
information and of the privacity of communications.
The dossiers, the detentions, the fines and the trials
will multiply. Before this we can only state that the
thousands of collectives and organizations that act
against economic globalization will continue doing it,
and this fight will increase as the effects of
perversion and of descomposition of capitalism grow,
being the capitalist system the main enemy of
humanity. The European leaders will have to discuss
whether to restrain social and political rights of the
people, building up a police state, or to stop an
economic system based in corruption and expoliation of
the resources and workforce.
From the beginning of the year and through many
months, a growing social dynamic has flooded
Barcelona. People from all sectors of associative life
and social struggle have come together in a campaign
to dennounce the policy of the WB. A protest
mobilization with deep roots in associanism - that has
awakened extraordinary expectations in Catalan society
- has become a main reference for all the social
movements of the state and an important international
gathering.
The aim of the BCN2001 Campaign is to dennounce the WB
for its responsability in the increase of poverty, in
ecological disaster, in the precariousness of work and
in the social exclusion; for its responsability in the
design and introduction of policies of structural
adjustment that make thousands of workers each year
lose their jobs, for the accelerated destruction of
the productive grounds and the local resources, and
for its responsability imposing a depredator and
consumist productive system, that is destroying very
quickly the natural resources, sustainers of humanity.
The WB cancelled the conference while throwing big
accusations on the campaign and on the organizations
that promoted it. But the main reason for the
cancellation was not the fear of violence. The WB
itself announced "deep trust in the capacity of the
Spanish authorities to warrant safety during the
Conference". The main reason was precisely its
incapacity to confront a public debate on its
responsabilites; the impossibility of breaking the
cohesion of the collectives promoting the campaign;
and its incapacity to assume social critic. The WB
preferred to suffer the political cost of a
humiliating withdrawal rather than the cost of a
public debate in the presence of society.
The Campaign was never invited by the WB to a
dialogue; neither were invited the millions of workers
victims of wild privatizations in Latin America or of
financial speculation in Asia; nor were invited the
farmers and indigenous movements of the South. The
workers of Sintel were also not invited; neither the
platforms against PHN or against the emissions to the
atmosphere related to climate change; nor the farmers
economic victims of an agricultural policy that
produces chickens with dioxines, mad cows, pig fever
or foot and mouth disease. The representatives of the
inmigrants victims of economic precariousness were not
invited, victims of the expoliation of their lands of
origin and of their food soberanity, and also victims
of the 'Ley de Extranjería' ('Inmigration Law'). The
pacifists fighting against the military industry were
not invited; neither were the women, main victims of
the neoliberal thunder. The Campaign was not invited
because the meeting was to be one of "intellectuals
and academics", discussing and advicing on the best
way to improve the capitalist system without making
any change, in an atmosphere of "tranquility" and
impunity.
The Campaign is a further step in the process of
articulation and development, not only of the
resistence, but also of the alternatives, a growing
process in the last years through very different
initiatives and experiences in an international
context. More than 350 collectives subscribed to the
Manifesto and many more have given strength to the
associative dynamics, the mobilizations and the spaces
for debate that give it shape and content. Ecologists
and labour organizations, women and youth groups,
students, pacifists, 'insumisos' (people who refuse to
serve in the army), NGOs, political organizations,
local groups and national networks, farming
associations and citizens' platforms of all kinds.
The proclamation "another world is possible" and the
necesity of "globalize resistence and solidarity" is
not merely a slogan, but the fundamental challenge of
the present. We express our will to advance in the
articulation of the fights and in the elaboration of
proposals, to make possible the other world we believe
in. We consider that it is essential to project our
ideas to the people and to deepen the elaboration of
dynamics capable of articulating the local associative
net as the ground for an ongoing work connected to
society. We need projects and campaigns that let us
take the initiative, walk tomards united aims and
towards a society without capitalism.
In this sense, the BCN2001 Campaign against the World
Bank appeals to all social movements of the state and
of Europe, to continue - in the context of social
fight - a process of debate and united action, that
let us establish agreements that will constitute a
starting point to develop united campaigns and
objectives, with respect for plurality and
independence of the networks and associations.
Therefore we propose:
1. A meeting to be held in September, with the
participation of all social movements of the Estate,
to continue the debate about the objectives and united
campaigns in the short and medium term, joining the
maximum of forces and initiatives.
2. The necessity to specify the mobilizations and
spaces for debate to which we are giving priority in
the calendar of summits and events of next year, in
which we consider specially remarkable the campaigns
against the WTO in November in Qatar, the Spanish
presidency of the EU in the first semester of 2002,
the Rio+10 Summit of September 2002 in South Africa;
and the possibility to organize in Barcelona the
Social Forum of the Mediterranean, which is a
preparation for the Global Social Forum of 2003.
3. We consider that the Spanish presidency of the EU,
which implies summits of heads of state in Barcelona
(March) and in Seville (June), and summits of EU-Latin
America (Madrid) and EU-Mediterranean (Barcelona) in
May 2002, are remarkable references that need to be
considered. In this sense we believe that the
campaigns on the functioning and responsabilities of
the EU in the neoliberal globalization and in the
ecological destruction should form the basis of the
campaigns of next year. Not as an isolated event but
as a road for the long term.
4. To advance collectively towards a Social
Consultation in Europe in June 2004, understood as a
space for the elaboration of proposals that fill with
content the idea of "another Europe is possible" and
form the basis to summon the people - at the same time
that the elections to the European Parliament are held
- simultaneously in all countries that form the EU and
can be extended to the whole continent. It is not
presented as an alternative proposal to other
campaigns, but as a goal in the medium term that can
be used as the uniting thread of the debates and
mobilizations. We propose that the Consultation be
structured as an open space from which to continue
working on the grounds of the seven axis of the
Counter-conference.
5. We believe that the local spaces are the ones in
which connection and complicity with other sectors of
society are possible, and that this work should occupy
a preferential space in the united campaigns and
dynamics that will be elaborated. We consider that an
adequate ground for reflection, debate and
alternatives is, not only our experience of a united
work, but also the documents and conclusions
elaborated by the axis of the Counter-conference, to
be added to the inmense documental base created by the
social movements. We should give special attention to
develop ideas and proposals (local/municipal
assemblies, consultations, general campaigns,
materials, regional coordination, etc.) that help in
the building of associative and participative dynamics
in the local areas.
We appeal to the massive participation in the
mobilizations of the G8 Summit in Genoa, from the 15th
to the 22nd of July, as well as of the Day of Global
Action against debt, the 20th of July. This is our
main and urgent reference at this moment. The BCN2001
Campaign should not rest strength for this
international gathering, but rather the opposite, it
should reinforce it.
Another world is possible! Globalize resistance and
solidarity!
Campaign against the World Bank, Barcelona 2001
www.rosadefoc.org
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