ALAI, América Latina en Movimiento
2003-10-30
Final Declaration of the International Conference
In Defense of Humanity
We, intellectuals from the sectors of academia, the
media, culture, and social movements in diverse regions
of the world, participants in the international
conference In Defense of Humanity, have gathered in
Mexico City to reflect on the extremely grave situation
facing the world today. We are aware of our
responsibility, and have therefore adopted the following:
Declaration
The human race has reached a critical point rife with
serious dangers. A new age of barbarism looms before us.
It is not merely that a minority has accumulated an
enormous proportion of the world's wealth, while the
impoverished masses are barely able to survive. Moreover,
the hegemonic system functions like an apparatus of
social exclusion.
An ever growing number of human beings have been declared
dispensable within this currently spreading model, while
the prevailing philosophy is that state bodies should
ignore the fate of those excluded by globalization.
If the fate of those excluded is of little concern, even
less important are their values and cultures, their
identities and communities, unless they are reduced to
market imperatives. Under this exclusionary model,
distinctive human communities or ways of life are
destined for extinction. Suffering with them are millions
of overexploited workers, subjected to the injustices of
the capitalist system and the constant erosion of their
rights.
The environment, biodiversity and ecosystems that have
coexisted with the human race for millennia are being
transformed into commodities of trade and accumulation,
at the service of private interests. Water and other
resources essential for human life are the prey of these
same interests. Consumerism and squandering of resources
are the norms promoted by neoliberal capitalism.
The human race is confronting dangers that directly
attack its social, cultural and environmental
foundations. These threats do not emanate from natural
forces, but rather from the economic and political powers
that negate the highest values formed throughout human
history and exalt greed and selfishness.
Diversity is inherent to human society and has survived
all attempts at homogenization. Nevertheless, the goal of
imposing sociocultural uniformity serves the goal of
domination. Human plurality can become a source of
conflicts, confrontations between peoples,
fundamentalisms and ethnic hatreds. In line with
exclusionary globalization, the so-called laws of the
market require an undifferentiated and uniform human
race. But despite the effort to convert human society
into a homogenous whole, the linguistic and cultural
differences and diversity among peoples and nations
continue to flourish. In fact, contrary to the hopes of
the ideologues of globalization, and despite the
neoliberal siege, we are witnessing a rebirth of ethnic
and nationalist struggles throughout the world, with new
and promising horizons of liberation, alongside the
social struggles underway.
The centers of power strive to impose their own
sociocultural model on all of humanity, under the premise
that it constitutes the only true path to a full life. We
oppose this tendency and assert that the world's
diversity is of value in itself and part of the shared
wealth of humankind.
At the dawn of the 21st century, imperialism - with its
different expressions, alliances and internal
contradictions - has become a political and military
megapower in which national states have relinquished
their public responsibilities.
The "sovereign equality" of the members of the United
Nations, as established in the first article of the 1945
founding charter, has been placed in question. More than
a half century after the end of World War II, this
organization is violating its own legal framework: "to
suppress acts of aggression or other breakings of the
peace" (Art. 1); the "peaceful settlement of conflicts"
(Art. 3); the rejection of "the use of force against
territorial integrity" (Art. 4); "non-intervention in the
internal affairs of States" (Art. 7); and other
resolutions that assert the "inalienable right of peoples
to the integrity of their territorial rights" (1960).
In this regard, the validation of the military attack and
occupation of Iraq by the United States (through UN
Security Council resolution 1511) casts doubt on the
hopes for peace that the world's nations had placed in
the United Nations.
The ideological messianism that characterizes the
political team in charge of the White House today
represents a grave threat to world peace. The U.S.
government freely attacks and harasses any nation that
refuses to bow down to its imperial policy, while the
world is facing the threat of endless military
confrontations as a result of its doctrine of
"preemptive" strikes.
For the U.S. government, the only valid "international
law" is the law dictated by its own Congress and
executive power. Any other interpretation runs the risk
of being linked to "terrorism". Nevertheless, the UN
itself, in its own documents, differentiates between
terrorism and national resistance against foreign
occupation and the right to rebelion, rights that are
also established in many of the world's constitutions.
Thus, those responsible for the most heinous of state
terrorism in history label the patriots who fight for the
freedom of their peoples as "terrorists". Covert actions,
the use of mercenaries, the violation of human rights,
the application of extraterritoriality to prisoners of
war, and the incitement of assassination of heads of
state, as in the case of Israel and Palestinian leaders,
make up the current political scenario.
In 1989, the imperialist powers claimed that with the
fall of the Berlin Wall, the world would enter into an
era of understanding and prosperity. Nevertheless, other
walls impede this goal: walls on the border between
Mexico and the United States and around the occupied
Palestinian territories; legal and racial walls in the
legislations of the countries of the European Union,
which establish degrading treatment of immigrants from
poor countries; economic walls of protectionism that
block access to the "free market" preached by
neoliberalism; walls that violate the rights of women and
children; walls of intolerance of the sexual orientation,
the tastes, habits and ways of life of different human
beings; political-economic walls that marginalize the
African continent.
In Latin America, the United States continues to harass
Cuba, with the threat of a direct military intervention
against a revolution that has survived 45 years of
countless destabilization campaigns, aggressions and an
economic blockade, thanks to the support of the people
and the determination to build another kind of society.
We must therefore strengthen solidarity and forge closer
ties with the besieged island, and oppose all aggressive
actions on the part of the U.S. government.
"America for the Americans" (of the United States) is
once again the banner held aloft by the hawks ruling in
Washington. Through the Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA), whose first chapters have been the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Puebla-Panama Plan,
imperialism aspires to impose its own "laws" of the
market. The discourse that preaches "spreading democracy
and freedom" has its counterpart in the growing
militarization of Latin America. It has been demonstrated
time and time again that democracy has an instrumental
value for imperialism: it supports the formal aspects of
democracy when it suits its interests, but conspires
against it if popular forces reach power through
democratic means. This concept becomes null and void when
it is used by leaders allied with neoliberalism as carte
blanche to hand over resources to transnational capital.
This is illustrated by the fact that within the framework
of "Plan Colombia", and under the pretext of fighting
"narcoterrorism", the Pentagon has installed a large
military base in the port of Manta, Ecuador, facilitating
interventionist missions in all of the countries of the
Andean subregion. Likewise, the governments of the
Southern Cone have found themselves obliged to carry out
frequent joint military maneuvers with the United States,
under the presupposition that there could be Islamic
terrorist groups based on the "triple border" (dividing
Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay).
Neoliberalism stigmatizes social conflict and strives to
dismantle community action. It suppresses political
awareness, foments cultural alienation, responds to
poverty with philanthropy, and crushes popular discontent
through police or military repression.
In opposition to these policies, a whole new generation
of socially committed intellectuals and activists is
rising up around the world, fighting back against the
machinations of corrupt professional politicians.
Pushed to the breaking point of indignity and armed with
the invincible weapons of awareness and organizational
capacity, the Bolivian people rose up in defense of their
natural resources and ousted a government totally
subordinated to the United States.
The popular rebellion in Bolivia coincides with the civil
and political resistance in Haiti against the
authoritarian power of Jean Bertrand Aristide; with the
resistance in Puerto Rico demanding the withdrawal of the
U.S. naval base in Vieques; with the resistance in
Argentina, where the unemployed are protesting and
blocking traffic; with the resistance of the indigenous
people of Ecuador, who are rising up against racism and
discrimination; with the resistance in Brazil, where the
demands of the landless peasants continue to go unmet;
with the resistance in Mexico of those who are defending
their strategic resources from the voracious greed of the
transnationals, and the Zapatistas expanding their
struggle for autonomy; with the resistance in Venezuela
of the activists fighting to defend the Bolivarian
revolution; and finally, with the resistance in Chile,
where the young are fighting back against a sophisticated
model of social exclusion.
Today, the imperial forces are seeking to combine,
through more refined methods, the ruthless use of
military power with control of the hearts and minds of
the people. They purport that the world of neoliberal
globalization is the only one possible, that there are no
viable alternatives, and that the only possible attitude
towards life is that of conformity and resignation.
Supposedly, the neoliberal regime is not the creation and
practice of national and international interest groups,
but rather the natural result of the development of
things. In accordance with this philosophy, any change in
this way of organizing the world would simply worsen the
situation. There is a single economic and political line
of thought that all governments must implement, they say.
A trend that is leading inexorably towards the further
entrenchment of this philosophy is the conversion of
public universities into instruments of the neoliberal
economic, political and cultural project. This trend
results from the current logic of the neoliberal process
of accumulation, leading to the privatization and
"elitization" of education and the gradual suppression of
the humanistic branches that foster critical thinking and
"subversion".
Imperialism is using religious beliefs to legitimize its
neocolonial military expansion, coopting the leaderships
of majority religions, stripping them of their role as
voices for protest and social commitment.
This military and ideological combination must be exposed
in all of its manifestations, with all of its destructive
and dehumanizing power, and subjected to rigorous and
forceful criticism. Here the role of intellectuals is
more vital than ever. To achieve this, we must strengthen
or revive, depending upon the specific case, the critical
role of all intellectuals in defense of humanity. The
battle against the current system must also be fought on
the intellectual, cultural and moral fronts. The fruit of
intellectual labor is knowledge, but its strength lies in
its critical and demystifying powers. Social thought, and
the social sciences in particular, find their true
meaning when they reveal the deceptions and real
interests that underlie certain ideologies, and uphold
their commitment to the truth and the interests of
society.
We are fully aware that over the recent years, under the
influence of neoliberal thinking, some intellectuals have
forgotten their critical capacity, and at times have even
jumped on the bandwagon of a single way of thinking. What
is more, in our countries we have a supposed left that
upon assuming power adopts the same precepts and
implements the same neoliberal formulas.
In this current phase, we value intellectual labor that
is based on rigorous procedures and at the same time is
sensitive to the injustice of the world we are living in;
that learns from the sectors in all regions, nations and
continents that are rising up against the established
order. We are referring to those intellectuals, formed
within the walls of academia or in the heart of social
movements, who are fighting on so many fronts against war
and against an economy in which the benefits are
monopolized and exploitation and exclusion grow ever
greater; intellectuals who struggle for peace and
comprehensive human rights (individual, collective, civil
and political, but also social and cultural), who defend
the free determination of the peoples, the right to
autonomy of indigenous peoples throughout the world, and
the equality of all languages; intellectuals committed to
economic and gender equality, and to the belief that
dignity, freedom and respect for the cultural wealth of
all humankind must prevail over capital.
Based on this political declaration we adopt the
following:
Strategies in Defense of Humanity
To establish an international coordinating committee made
up of the organizing committee of this conference and any
national and international guests who wish to join in
this effort.
To create support committees in unity with the social
movements that work in defense of humanity in the
countries, regions and cities linked to this coordinating
committee, which would have full autonomy to implement
their own initiatives and forms of organization.
To establish a network in defense of humanity that will
be linked with other existing networks and initiatives.
This network would be aimed at coordinating the efforts
of intellectuals working in academia, scientific and
humanities research centers, universities and other
educational institutions, as well as those who work in
the media and culture, and those who form part of social
movements and civil society organizations.
To establish a committee that covers a wide spectrum of
themes and countries and that could respond immediately
to any emergency situation that calls for a position from
our network and the necessary mobilizations.
The specific objectives of our network would be: a) to
analyze the reality in order to contribute and
disseminate knowledge, exposing that which is not
immediately obvious; b) to delegitimize the dominant
system, through critical analysis of the single way of
thinking; c) to propose alternatives based on the actions
of the social movements and processes of our peoples and
the analysis of their experiences in resistance and
innovation; d) to identify the common denominator of
resistance struggles in order to link local actions with
the global struggle; e) to promote resistance to the
dominant power though the use of alternative power, the
creation of intercultural networks and the dissemination
of the many and diverse voices of humanity.
To examine and when necessary promote the reformulation
of programs of research, teaching, communication and
dissemination in order to reveal the causes and effects
of imperialist action among our peoples and to stress the
true and historically valid meanings of democracy,
liberation and socialism, taking into account the
diversity of thought. We should concentrate on the
following priority areas: a) the new forms of imperialist
militarization; b) in addition to the deregulation of
work and precarious work, new frontiers of accumulation
(peasant agriculture, biodiversity and water, public
services and culture); c) disseminating, promoting and
supporting the exercise of autonomy by indigenous peoples
and of the basic rights of peasant organizations, in
order to establish and enforce, from the bottom up, the
autonomous powers of communities, resistance movements
and alternatives. The website will publish the texts of
members of the network and other authors on these
priority areas.
To undertake an inventory of the network's intellectual
resources, in order to effectively take advantage of the
specialties and fields of each of its members and make
these available to social movements.
To support existing initiatives, such as the Permanent
Tribunal of the Peoples, contributing legal and
historical arguments for the prosecution in cases of
genocide, ethnicide and crimes against humanity. We also
support the World Social Forum, the regional social
forums, and the World Alternatives Forum, as well as the
anti-war networks, the Jakarta Consensus and other
networks against neoliberal globalization.
To undertake an inventory in order to disseminate and
take advantage of the existence of more than 200
alternative publications and the community radio network,
electronic publications and e-mail lists, based on the
belief that the battle lost by the mass media is that of
credibility.
To propose the creation of an international university
whose goal will be to bring together humanists,
scientists and artists from around the world, to dedicate
their knowledge specifically to education, research and
cultural dissemination, with the aim of achieving peace
and a more free and just world. This university will
bring together all intellectuals who pursue these
objectives from democratic and socialist anti-imperialist
perspectives. It will strive to establish communities of
dialogue, with the participation of intellectuals of so-
called high culture and intellectuals organically linked
to the social movements of our time. It will be organized
in the form of a network with autonomous campuses, whose
members will cooperate on both a personal and long-
distance basis in common projects.
At the current juncture, to condemn United Nations
Security Council resolution 1511 on Iraq, in view of the
fact that it violates that founding charter of this
organization.
To support the worldwide resistance and massive
demonstrations against the war in Iraq on February 15,
2004.
To join in the summit proposed by Evo Morales, understood
as a meeting of leaders and social movements that
struggle in defense of humanity.
Mexico City, on the 200th anniversary of the Independence
of Haiti.
www.defensahumanidad.org
If you desire to support this statement, send a email to buzon@defensahumanidad.org indicating name, country and occupation.
http://www.alainet.org/active/4906
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