|
It's Time to Globalize
Hope
by Audrey Dupleich <adupleich@yahoo.com>
"It's time to build our own globalization.
Fight to globalize hope!" said the members of one of
the working groups on the second day of the American Encounter
that is taking place in Quito.
"By identifying our own power, which
already exists", is how social fighters believe that
new relations can be built on the Continent. One of the
largest challenges facing the peoples of America is to approach
a model of society based on social ideology instead of the
present model based on economic factors.
The foundations for this new society have
to be found in ethical methods of protest, in the reinforcement
of popular organizations, in an increased effective militancy
in base organizations. They will be the result of concrete
action, building and strengthening the framework for social
movements in areas such as the Alliance for a Responsible,
Plural and United World.
What power do we have?
=======================
"We have to understand the type of
power that we are creating in our organizations", continues
one group, because "the Continent is controlled by
a dictator, and that dictator is capital". This approach
leads to initiatives such as the need to create networks
for exchange and alternative marketing mechanisms.
The need was identified to extend local
self-government experiences, emphasizing formal democracy,
reinforcing the Continent's social movements to cross the
barriers of the nation-state.
One of the most urgent tasks identified
by the work groups was to identifythe different subjects
of diversity and establish links to integrate past experiences
into new activities that are applicable on the Continent.
America condemns the deterioration of the environment that
is primarily caused by the logic of the market that is predominant
on the Continent."Who could cut up the pachamama (motherland)
into pieces and sell them?" asked one Peruvian participant.
The lack of respect for the communities who have always
inhabited the land my multinational companies supported
by their governments, and the way that the environment is
treated as something that is separate from the economy and
society in general are, among others, two of the problems
that were identified.
Human beings before markets
====================================
Faced with these problems, it was suggested
that social movements, unions, native organizations and
resistance networks should take up the environmental issue
and work to restore the balance between the human race and
nature.
It was decided that both cultural diversity
and the relationship between man and nature should be part
of formal education, so that new generations move towards
the globalization of mankind, and not of markets.
>From Quito, Ecuador, America, 20 June
2001
American Continental Encounter
|
