<nettime> Towards a World Social Alliance - August, 2001, Mexico City + fear military attack against EZLN

["ricardo dominguez" <rdom@thing.net>]

Originally published in Spanish by the FZLN
Translated by irlandesa

Date: Friday, August 17, 2001 20:36:03 -0500
From: fzln fzln@fzln.org.mx

Against Neoliberal Globalization

Towards a World Social Alliance

Call by the First International Encuentro of Social Movements

August, 2001,  Mexico City


We, two hundred and seventy men and women from social organizations,
networks and movements, from thirty-nine countries and from all the
continents on our planet, have met together in Mexico - a nation victim to
neoliberalism, but also a land of popular resistances like that of the
zapatista indigenous - in order to analyze the dynamic which continues
to follow a globalization of capital that is clearly increasingly at the
service of the great economic and political powers.  Additionally, in
order to exchange the diverse experiences of struggle and resistance
which have been developing throughout the world against this globalization
of injustice.  And, further, in order to discuss the actions and forms
which will allow the growing international resistance movement a
greater level of convergence, of coordination and of effectiveness in its
global action.  It is, thus, stemming from those reflections held during
this encuentro, that we have agreed to issue the current Call:

Considering:


1. -  That the globalization of capital continues, come hell or high
water, to impose on the peoples and nations of the world its logic of
plunder disguised as "free trade," of absolute freedom for speculative
investments and capital while subjecting millions of migrants to all kinds
of controls and humiliations, of indiscriminate privatization -
including vital sectors -, of retreat in social achievements, of the
perpetuation of discrimination and violence against women, of increasing the
social exclusion of the always marginalized.  Its logic, in short, of the
globalization of abject poverty, of injustices, and of inequalities,
while strengthening the supranational powers who nullify the right of
peoples and nations to sovereignly decide their development programs,
everywhere sowing social disasters, environmental destruction and hunger.

2. -  We denounce the actions of capital which, in order to preserve
its interests, desires to dominate peoples when it practices:

* The growing violence, which was displayed in Genoa and other places,
against mobilizations;

* The economic blockades against Cuba and Iraq;

* The military aggressions which are being waged against various
peoples;

* The Israeli army's repression of the Palestine people;

* The Columbia Plan, the Puebla-Panama Plan and Dignity Plan in
Bolivia.

3. -  Nonetheless, ever since the zapatista indigenous uprising, and
continuing on to the recent mobilizations in Genoa - including the
historic march of Seattle;  the indigenous and popular uprising in Ecuador;
the Sin Tierra struggle in Brazil and the campesino movement in general
in America, Europe and Asia;  the worker and popular protests in
Argentina and the marches against unemployment in Europe;  the World Women's
March and the successive mobilizations in each one of the meetings of
the powerful in Washington, Windsor, Gutenberg and Quebec, as well as
the holding of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre - continue to
demonstrate that popular resistance to this neoliberal model is growing
irrepressibly on a world-wide scale.  It bears witness to the failure and
exhaustion of this model, representing an increasingly greater challenge
to its plans, making the stormy summit meetings of the powerful more
and more difficult, driving them almost into the clandestine;  and d!
emonstrating that they may still have power and money, but they are now
losing the battle for legitimacy.

We are calling on all social organizations, networks and movements in
the world:

1. -  To mobilize ourselves and to support each other in the following
gatherings of international action:

* The Summit Against Racism, to be held from August 31 to September 7
in South Africa.

* The World Forum on Food Sovereignty, in Havana, Cuba, from September
3 -7.

* Forums and mobilizations during the IMF and World Bank meeting in
Washington, September 28 and 29.

* Forums and mobilizations against the OMC in Qatar, from November 8 to
11.

* To participate in mobilizations for the Cry of the Excluded, around
October 12, in all the countries of America.

* Forums and mobilizations during the World Summit of Food Security in
Rome,  from November 9 to 11.

* To mobilize in front of the European Union Summit in Brussels in the
month of December.

* To hold a World Ethical Tribunal on Foreign Debt, in February of
2002, in Porto Alegre (inside the World Social Forum).

* Forums and mobilizations centered on the UN Summit concerning
Financing for Development, in Monterrey, Mexico, in March of 2002.

2. -  To organize, in all the counties of the American continent, a
popular consulta during the year 2002 (possibly in October), so that the
people can decide on the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (ALCA), by
plebiscite.

3.-  To continue promoting the World Social Forum as a space for
interchange and coordination, and to hold the Second International Encuentro
of Social Movements during the next World Social Forum, which will take
place in Porto Alegre, Brazil  once again, at the end of January, 2002.
Assuming an even greater participation by organizations from the entire
planet, we will be able to progress in this process of convergence of
the international social movement.

3. -  By beginning a process of reflection and discussion, in order to
explore the possibilities and paths for coordinating international
actions which have their own agenda and which go further than the calendar
of the powerful or of each organization or network, and, in order to
advance in creating more permanent and effective forms of coordinating
the global movement - such as the building of a new world social
alliance, to be understood not as a new international structure or
apparatus,
but as a growing process of convergence of agendas, alternatives and
actions, diverse and multi-sector, horizontal and flexible, not as an
organizational formula, but as an expression of a need which has arisen
from below.

Globalizing the struggle/globalizing hope!

>From Mexican zapatista lands.
August 14, 2001.


Web Community of Social Movements
http://www.movimientos.org

*****<<<>>>****

Subject: Transl,Jornada,Indigeas fear military attack against EZLN,Aug 15
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 08:33:26 +0200

Wednesday, 15 August 2001 / La Jornada

¤ Autonomous council denunces arrival of hundreds of soldiers in the
military quarter of San Cayetano.
¤ Indigenas fear military attack against EZLN
¤ We ask our brothers in Mexico and the world to be watchful, they write in
a communique


Hermann Bellinghausen

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, August 14.

The autonomous municipal council of San Andre's Sakamch'en denounced the
increase of military movements in the quarter of San Cayetano, two
kilometers from the Aguascalientes of Oventic. "This causes tensions for our
communities, because it is feared that Mr. Vicente Fox is preparing a
military attack against the EZLN and their support bases", affirms a letter
to the public opinion and the mass media.

The authorities of the autonomous council reported: "On August 1, 19 army
vehicles, between trucks and light trucks, arrived at the colony San
Cayetano.  This did not happen for the first time, as for days soldiers have
entered in 2 or 3 vehicles to increase the number of troops; they did this
in a way that would not stirr attention, but on this day hundreds of federal
soldiers arrived".

The "denunciation and protest" coincides with the one of the council of the
neighboring autonomous municipality San Juan de la Libertad, published
yesterday, regarding the increase of patrols and troops in San Cayetano,
Puerto Cate' and El Bosque.  San Cayetano as well as other communities in
the
vicinity of San Andre's and San Juan de la Libertad (auch as San Antonio El
Brillante and Jolnachoj) have been the scene of indigenous protests against
the presence of soldiers in the past.

The autonomous council of San Andre's Sakamch'en declares now: "We as
authorities and our communities, reject energetically the increase of troops
in each military camp in any of our indigenous zones, because the military
presence and the encirclement suffered by the indigenous communities, signal
that Mr. Fox does not have the will for peace, but to continue the war
against our communities".

The new denunciations of the rebellious municipalities seem to indicate an
inexplicable 'heatening' of the military activity in their territories,
reflected in the preocupation of many communities of the Tzotzil region of
los Altos.  This is expressed by the council of San Andre's Sakamch'en when
it concludes: "We are asking all our indigenous and nonindigenous brothers
of Mexico and the world to be wachful".


More troops in Ocosingo and Las Margaritas

On the other hand, the communities of the autonomous municipality Tierra y
Libertad, in the border region, reported that an intense troop movement in
Nuevo Huixta'n and Poza Rica was verified last weekend. Tens of artillery
equipped vehicles for the transport of military personnel were on the ways.
The community of Poza Rica, located at the border highway, is one of the
accesses to the Lacandona forest from the south, about 15 kilometers from
Guadalupe Tepeyac and the way leading to La Realidad.

In the same days, the military bases of Maravilla Tenejapa and Amparo Agua
Tinta experienced an unusual activity. According to reports originating from
the autonomous municipality Francisco Go'mez, the Army has increased the
troops in the base of Patihuitz, a few kilometers from the EZLN's
Aguascalientes III, and installed a checkpoint.

Similar denunciation were made by the parish priest of Ocosingo and
Altamirano, Raymundo Tamayo, who after feeling harassed in Patihuitz sent an
opened letter to president Vicente Fox, in which among other things he is
asking the president: "Is the work of the diocese (of San Cristo'bal de las
Casas) again under surveillence?"


(trans.by Dana)

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