Reflections on the 3rd Americas Social Forum

Michael Leon Guerrero and Cindy Wiesner
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

The 3rd Americas Social Forum (ASF3) convened October 7-12, 2008 in Guatemala City was an important and exciting benchmark for the global social forum process. It was grounded by its grassroots nature with strong participation of peasants, women, and indigenous peoples, and by the dialogues and debates of alternatives to neoliberal capitalism based on actual experience. We would like to share what we see as some of the key characteristics of ASF3 that marked the event as an important advance for the overall World Social Forum (WSF) process.

The central role of indigenous peoples and women – thousands of the indigenous people were represented from throughout Guatemala and the region. Many of them integrated into the National Coordination of Indigenous Peoples and Campesinos (CONIC), Waqib Kej, the Committee of the Peasant Union (CUC) and broader alliances such as the Confederation of Latin American Peasant Organizations (CLOC) and Via Campesina. The Central Plenary: “Failures of Capitalism: Our Struggle for Land Reform and the Integration of Peoples to the ALBA” was represented by all indigenous panelists, Daniel Pascual from CNOC, Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network, Moira Millán, Frente Mapuche y Campesino de Argentina and Mirallay Painemal, Mapuche de Chile, CLOC, Via Campesina. Indigenous communities throughout Guatemala are under attack by multinational corporations and the government for mineral resources, water and transportation infrastructure. This was a common theme throughout the Americas reflected in the workshops and debates.

Local, regional and international women's organizations had a strong and visible presence at the forum – groups like the Sector de Mujeres from Guatemala, Mesoamericanas en Resistencia, Las Dignas from El Salvador,, Health Network of Women in Latin American and the Caribbean (RSMLAC) with representation from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras, and the World March of Women, which has been one of the central movement networks in the social forum process. The dialogues reflected the political advancement of feminist theory beyond the right to one’s body or the right to choose. Slogans, banners, literature, and workshops, consistently integrated theme that the fight for sovereignty is a fight for one’s body and one’s territory/land and that feminist struggles include the fight against capitalism, racism, patriarchy and homophobia.

Feminists also generated one of the major debates within the forum as strong declarations were made denouncing the Sandinista government in Nicaragua for its ban on abortion rights. This was a concession of the Sandinista government to establish a coalition with the Catholic Church that could hold power in the country. Some local organizers and Sandinista supporters criticized the denunciation, asserting that the debate should not have been brought before the ASF.

The sharpening of common struggles – at the beginning of the decade, neoliberalism was symbolized by global financial institutions like the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the G-8 and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Largely due to the success of the global justice movement, these initiatives have either been defeated or stalled. The FTAA was declared dead and buried by Hugo Chavez and other Latin American Presidents in November, 2005 in Mar de Plata, WTO negotiations have met strong popular resistance and is currently in limbo, the IMF and WB have lost much of their financing and political influence.

In the absence of these common targets, however, the social movements have found it increasingly difficult to define common points of reference. Many of the movements reverted to local and national struggles against new bilateral trade agreements, national elections and other local fights. The overall themes defined by ASF3 helped to reveal and sharpen common trends, primary among these were:

- The militarization of the Americas. With the expansion of U.S. military bases, the revival of the U.S. Navy's 4th Fleet, and an increase in covert operations by the U.S. against Venezuela and Bolivia, the fledgling Leftist governments face a renewed assault by U.S. imperial aggression.

- Bilateral trade agreements – Both the U.S. and Europe have begun to engage in negotiations for trade agreements with individual nations like Peru and Colombia, and regions such as Central America and the Andes.
Environmental justice and sovereignty – Communities throughout the Americas are under attack for exploitation of energy, minerals, water and other resources. This is intensifying health and environmental impacts as well as global warming.

- Control over resources – militarization of the Americas accompanies the overall strategies of the U.S. and Europe to lock down control over vital natural resources. Trade agreements are accompanied by energy and security agreements like the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the Mérida accords, and the Plan Puebla Panamá. These pacts include massive infrastructure projects to move water, energy and minerals north, while the trade agreements move products south to the markets opened by the trade agreements.

- Criminalization of social movements – in addition to the mobilization of armed forces, internal security laws are being adopted by Latin American governments modeled after the U.S. Patriot Act and Homeland Security. Political resistance to neoliberal strategies are being violently repressed. Several movement organizers at the ASF3 noted that interrogations and monitoring of organizations, as well as political assassinations are increasing. An assassination attempt was made on one of the coordinators of ASF3 3 weeks before the forum convened.
As Hector de la Cueva of the Mexican Network Against Free Trade (RMALC) recently commented: “the face of neoliberalism is now militarism.”

Another World in Practice
Debate about concrete alternatives to neoliberalism and global capitalism
The central purpose of the social forum process is to define alternatives to neoliberal capitalism. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and throughout the globe, for a moment the social movements were all that stood in the way of the march of neoliberalism. Mass mobilizations were key in challenging the neoliberal juggernaut at the turn of the century, but it was clear that resistance had to be matched by a process to define alternatives to capitalism and the failed models of Soviet socialism. The World Social Forum (WSF) heralded that “Another World is Possible” and established a political broad and strategically diverse “open space” to define this other world. Yet discussions and debates tended to be theoretical exercises, lofty and ambiguous declarations, or strategic responses to struggles.

The latter half of the decade saw the emergence of electoral victories for the Left in a number of countries, particularly in Latin America: Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Lula in Brazil, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Christine and Nestor Kirchner in Argentina, Tabaré Vazquez in Uruguay, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Raúl Castro in Cuba. Although these Presidents represent a broad political spectrum from the center-left to revolutionary ideology, they are generally aligned in challenging the neoliberal agenda that imposes privatization of public resources, domination of the market in determining social and political relationships, deregulation of laws that protect the public and the environment, and reduction of the government's role to supporting corporate power.

The presence of most of the governments was strongly felt, although not officially (keeping in accordance with social forum principles). Two factors made their presence even more significant: 1) the backdrop of the ongoing collapse of the US financial sector, and 2) discussion about these Left experiments based on concrete experience and practice, not just on theory and ideology.

Alberto Acosta, President of the National Constituent Assembly of Ecuador, arrived with the new Ecuadorian constitution fresh in hand. The Constitution is founded in the concept of “buen vivir” or “quality of life” guaranteeing basic rights of all Ecuadorians to basic services such as health, education, water and electricity. They also establish the concept of “universal citizenship” meaning that all those who live within the borders of Ecuador, although not citizens, enjoy the same benefits of citizens.

Acosta said in a panel on the new socialist governments: “There will not be one recipe, we must all respond to our unique situations.” He also spoke of the need to establish a “dynamic relationship between the market, the government and society.” Acosta's vision concedes that the market is important to the economy, but that it “must be in service to society, not the other way around. Similarly, all power cannot be centralized within the government. “We must humanize the government and civilize the market.”

Evo Morales was scheduled to speak at the forum, but is currently confronting the challenge of the wealthy white oligarchs in the Media Luna region of Bolivia, who are fighting to maintain control of land, oil and gas. Morales has nationalized these resources in order to redistribute revenues to the entire population of Bolivia. In a statement to the ASF3, Morales also defined principles of “quality of life” as the agenda for Bolivia, challenging capitalism and imperialist exploitation of the Americas.

Defining “socialism for the 21st century”, named by Hugo Chavez at the 2nd ASF in 2006, has become the new challenge for the emerging governments as well as the social movements. In a workshop packed with organizers and activists throughout the Americas, social movement representatives from Chile, Cuba, Brazil, and the U.S. spoke about the new opportunities presented by the Bolivarian Alternatives to the Americas (ALBA), a model of economic integration established as an alternative to the “free” trade agreements being imposed by the U.S. and Europe. The ALBA has now been signed by 8 countries (Honduras signed as the workshop was happening), which agree to share resources in a cooperative way. The ALBA is primarily anchored by Venezuela and Cuba who exchange oil and technical assistance for doctors and teachers respectively. The ALBA also makes room for participation of social movements through a special advisory committee, which is unheard of in other trade regimes.

However, the ALBA has not generated universal support. Indigenous communities are concerned about the agreement and what integration will mean. Despite the participation of Evo Morales and the Bolivian government in the ALBA process, many indigenous nations remain marginalized from it. In one of the large gatherings, an indigenous representative said, “this little word (integration) usually means that we lose our land and resources”.

Challenges Moving Forward
Two key challenges face the evolution of the socialist experiments and the social movements in the Americas. 1) The need to assure that indigenous leadership is central to the process. Socialism for the 21st century cannot be realized without a true incorporation of indigenous thought, practice and vision where such a large percentage of the Americas is indigenous. Ecuador is one country that is grappling with this as their Constitution envisions a “plurinational” state. 2) The need for the feminization of the movement and a central role for queer and transgender people. Overcoming patriarchal leadership models will be key to building true democratic practice and allow for vital diverse leadership to flourish. 3) The need for African descendant populations to also have central leadership in the process. This has yet to be effectively addressed. Hopefully the location of the next WSF in the Amazonian city of Belém, Brazil will mark a turning point in participation by African descendants, as the ASF3 was for indigenous peoples.

ASF3 made great strides on these fronts, but there is still much work to be done. Although diverse representation and leadership in the process was strong, there was still a noticeable disconnect between sectors. Women's movements primarily congregated around the Women's tent, indigenous peoples centered around the IGLU (University building) or the Campesin@s Tent, social movements activities converged in the S10 building as did the youth. There were few moments where all of these different forces came together. When it did happen, the debates were dynamic, and challenging. The Social Movements Assembly was a reflection of this, and captured the overall spirit, character and substance of the forum. The closing march and rally were also a call for the deepening diversity of the Left. An important example is a leaflet put out announcing the closing march by the National Guatemalan Campesin@ Alliance- CNOC. It was titled: A Call to March on October 12. Day of Resistance for Campesinos, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendants, Lesbians, Unions and Popular Movements.

The Process of the Americas
Participation from the U.S. was also key in ASF3. The Grassroots Global Justice Alliance brought 40 representatives from 20 grassroots organizations. Southwest Workers Union and the Indigenous Environmental Network co-organized workshops on the “Wall of Death” on the U.S.-Mexico border, climate change and environmental justice, the National Domestic Workers Alliance laid the groundwork to internationalize their network and organized two workshops. GGJ also held a workshop giving an overview of grassroots struggles in the U.S. The delegation met with representatives from the Hemispheric Social Alliance, which was established to challenge free trade policies throughout the Americas, COMPA, and the World March of Women. GGJ will seek to deepen relationships and build working partnerships with these groups.

In addition, the U.S. Social Forum National Planning Committee sent representatives and organized a reception to honor the Guatemala Facilitation Committee and the Hemispheric Council (HC) – the two bodies tasked with organizing the forum process. GGJ and Southwest Workers Union also had representation on the HC, participating in planning meetings over the course of the past year. GGJ had a staff person in Guatemala a week before the event to help coordinate with the local facilitation committee.

“The US Social Forum and ASF3 mark the closing of the loop in U. S. participation in the Americas social movements,” commented Joel Suarez of the Martin Luther King Center in La Havana, Cuba, “Now we can truly talk about a process of the Americas.”

In an op/ed piece for La Prensa Libre, Ileana Alamilla eloquently described the Americas Social Forum as a politically significant event in the struggle against tyranny. In her words, the forum was triumphant in “liberating the words that for centuries of silence have been held hostage.” In Guatamala, we all witnessed a glimpse of what another America looks like and most important what it is saying to the world.

Michael Leon Guerrero and Cindy Wiesner are Co-Coordinators of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJ): www.ggjalliance.org. For more information about GGJ's delegation to the Americas Social Forum, visit http://ggjalliance.blogspot.com.

Building hemispheric unity from below and from the left in a moment of deep global economic crisis

Jerome Scott & Walda Katz-Fishman

In the 21st century we’re fighting a global enemy; and, therefore, we are going to have to have a global movement.

Americas Social Forum 3 – a convergence of hemispheric struggles
We gathered 7,000 strong at the Americas Social Forum 3 (ASF3) in Guatemala City in a dynamic convergence of social movements of the hemisphere. We gathered in an historic moment of deep structural global economic crisis; intensifying war, militarism and repression; social destruction of our communities; and ecological crisis threatening the survival of the planet. The power of Indigenous struggles for sovereignty and mother earth; of women and working class feminist struggles against patriarchy, militarism and violence; of compesina/o struggles for land and life; and of student and youth struggles for their future was highly visible throughout the social forum.

Guatemala has been the site of centuries of imperialist domination and U.S. intervention and occupation – including the U.S. overthrow of democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in 1954 in the name of anti-communism. The Guatemalan people suffered decades of U.S.-backed civil war in which revolutionaries and the left experienced huge losses. Guatemalan women today are confronting widespread femicide, with 100s of women murdered every year. The ASF3 Facilitation Committee was determined that this historic memory and these realities be lifted up, as well as the ongoing struggles of Guatemala’s social movements,

The task of building hemispheric unity – as a strategic next step in building the global anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movement from below that envisions another world and has the collective power to make it happen – is central. The peoples of the hemisphere are tied together by a long history of genocide of Indigenous peoples, enslavement of African-descent peoples, and exploitation and oppression of the working classes and the women of these classes and peoples. Part of the international responsibility of U.S. social movements is to stay the hand of U.S. empire and war in the hemisphere and globally.

The current moment and capitalism’s global economic crisis: the system is broken

What was especially important about the participation of U.S. social movements in the ASF3 was our discussions with the hemispheric social movements about the economic crisis coming from the U.S. and spreading throughout the world, and its meaning for our struggle for another world. In the early centuries of global capitalism, capital’s drive for primitive accumulation of wealth though military conquest, theft of land and resources, and exploitation of labor (slave labor and wage labor) was the common tie of working peoples of the Americas. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, global capitalism’s application of new technologies and tools (computers, robots, etc.) to production, distribution and communication and new forms of financial instruments and speculation again link our peoples in life or death struggles. Today’s economic meltdown and our growing unemployment and poverty reflect a deep structural crisis of global capitalism, not a cyclical crisis from which there will be full recovery and new prosperity.

In the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, as production took a leap forward with the application of electronics – computers, robots, automation, digitization, etc. – global capital and global corporations could no longer make maximum profits the same old way, i.e., from the exploitation of labor in the productive process. Workers, with their labor, are the only commodity that produces new value. And, what determines the value of commodities is the socially necessary labor time contained in them. With fewer and fewer workers needed in production, capital turned to other ways of maximizing profit, especially speculative capital, which is the basis of neoliberal policies.

These realities gave rise to the neoliberal assault on working people and the environment in the developing and eventually the developed countries. Through privatization, deregulation, and destruction of the social safety net, infrastructure, and public services, capital was able to set in motion a global race to the bottom; to transfer public dollars, public land, and public property to private ownership, market forces, and new sources for profit; and to renew the centuries old appropriation of land and natural resources from Indigenous peoples across the globe.

Till the 1970s the U.S. economy was 90% real economy (production in auto, steel, rubber, etc.) and 10% speculative economy (speculation in complex financial instruments). By the 1990s this was reversed: 10% in the real economy and 90% in the speculative economy. Throughout this period the continual expansion of credit (along with growing debt), allowed for the expansion of the market.

By the 21st century even these processes could not generate sufficient profits to satisfy global capital, resulting in the creation of even more exotic and toxic financial instruments – hedge funds, derivatives, packaging and sale of mortgages including subprimes, credit default swaps, etc. – in an orgy of speculation. Together speculation and credit created a widening gap between the price of commodities and the amount of value contained in them, resulting in bubbles bursting, financial meltdowns, and a freeze on credit.

Given the crisis on Wall Street and the global financial sector that peaked in 2008, global capital and its governments were faced with a decision: the biggest bailout in world history and transfer of taxpayer dollars to private corporations or the financial collapse of global capitalism. The U.S. government stepped up with the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, biggest U.S. home mortgage holders; brokered sales of Wachovia and Washington Mutual, and investment bank Bear Stearns (while Lehman Brothers went bankrupt); and bailout of AIG, world’s largest insurance company, etc. To date the price tag for the U.S. people is over $1 trillion, and over $2 trillion for the world’s peoples.

With all this money flowing, none of it is going to the working class and the poor. And, in this stage of global capitalism, each successive economic crisis will be deeper, wider, and more destructive than the previous one. Capitalism will not collapse on its own, it will not transform into a socialist economy, but it will and is transforming into a fascist state. The criminalization of social movements and our challenge to global capitalism is the threat they are preparing for, propaganda notwithstanding, with more prisons, new repressive laws, new concentration camps, and domestic deployment of military forces. While global capital moves toward fascism, we as social movements move toward an anti-capitalist transformative vision and collective liberation.

Hemispheric unity building toward global movement

Global capital – our global enemy – knows what its for. The question is, do we know what we’re fighting for and how we’re going to get there?

Global and hemispheric social movements have used the social forum process to gather, to dialogue, to vision, and to chart the path forward. We, as U.S. social movements, have participated in that process and organized the US Social Forum in 2007 to form deeper relationships, unity, and internationalism; build movement infrastructure; and advance our vision and struggle.

The ASF3 was a powerful moment and convergence. From throughout the hemisphere social movements of those most oppressed and exploited were in the leadership. There was much discussion about the electoral and governmental forms throughout Latin America and especially of the ALBA – the Venezuela-led alternative to the “free trade” model of global capitalism, including the Bank of the South.

A question that came up time and again was: “What do we mean by socialism in the 21st century?” Socialism, a cooperative society, is the next stage of human history. The challenge to our social movements is to vision the content of this society. For U.S. social movements this is the next step.

Critical related questions include: “What does Indigenous sovereignty look like in the 21st century with many contending forces for land and resources?” And “How do social movements insure the visibility and participation of African-descent struggles in the hemisphere?”

Joel Suarez of the Martin Luther King Center in La Havana, Cuba observed: “The US Social Forum and this forum mark the closing of the loop in U.S. participation in the Americas social movements. Now we can truly talk about a process of the Americas.”

Only we, as conscious and visionary forces within and with the social movements, can finish capitalism off. The future is up to us. Make it happen.

Presentation by Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network at ASF

Hear the presentation by Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network at workshop by the National Coordination of Indigenous Peoples and Peasants at the Americas Social Forum. Real World Radio: http://www.radiomundoreal.fm/rmr/?q=en/node/26397

Free Speech Radio News Report from ASF

Hear the report by Marc Becker and Jeff Juris from the Americas Social Forum on Free Speech Radio News: http://www.fsrn.org/content/report-americas-social-forum/3513.

Presentación de la Alianza Popular para la Justicia Global a la Asamblea de Movimientos Sociales

Tercer Foro Social de las Americas
11 de octubre, 2008

Frente a la contínua crisis financiera y las oportunidades que pueden presentárnos las elecciones en los EEUU, la Alianza Popular por la Justicia global convoca una estrategia coordinada que ponga fin a las ocupaciones y guerras de los EEUU, que derrumbe el muro en la frontera, y que pone fin a la explotación de tierrenos indígenas y de los recursos de la tierra. Exigimos plenos derechos y la buena vida para todos los pueblos inclusive los migrantes, inmigrantes, y aquellos desplazados por el desastre, el control social, y la criminalización. Exigimos soberanía indígena, comercio justo, y derechos laborales para el sector informal.
Somos mujeres, somos homosexuales y gente transgénero, somos indígenas, somos afro-americanos, somos asiáticos, somos latinos, somos trabajadoras domésticas y migrantes, jóvenes y ancianos, y somos sus compañeros solidarios en la lucha contra el imperialismo.

Como Guatemala,
Otro Mundo Florecera

Statement of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance to the Social Movements Assembly

3rd Americas Social Forum
Guatemala City, Guatemala
October 11, 2008

We want to first thank the Guatemalan Facilitation Committee, the Hemispheric Council and the people of Guatemala for your tremendous efforts to make this forum possible. We also want to acknowledge companer@s from social movements throughout the Americas for your resistance and successes in the face of extremely difficult conditions.

We submit this statement as reps of GGJ, as part of the ongoing and growing movement in the U.S. As members of the movements that have organized the mass migrant marches, the US social forum, we submit this in the spirit of making connections based on people to people relationships, rather than US government or corporate interventions. Similar struggles connect us across very different contexts.

Yesterday President Bush announced that the financial crisis is a global crisis that will require a global response. It looks like he just figured out what we all know. We want to acknowledge that we share the crisis of capitalism and the resistance to it. We also want to acknowledge that the US exists as it does today only through appropriation of indigenous land and genocide, a level of wealth based on the slavery of African peoples, and international expansion. It continues to survive by the exploitation of people around the world. Our commonality lies in the conditions of a colonial project that has never ended, even within the US. We hold in our hearts the urgency of survival through shared resistance. The advances of movement building here in the global south benefit, inform, and inspire our movements. We are excited to build a strategic solidarity, that integrates our struggles and strategies through shared leadership. The financial system depends on the massive displacement of peoples, militarization and criminalization, and the exploitation of natural resources, land and people.

While the world is told that anyone can achieve the American dream we know that people of color are criminalized and force into poverty conditions, and prisons, an expanding industry, act as a form of social control and as a form of exploited labor.

While the world is told that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are securing freedom and democracy, we know that this endless “war on terror” is an actual source of terror through the occupation and restructuring of communities, military base expansion war on drugs, on every continent, in every community, in our homes, and in our very bodies.

While U.S-based multinational corporations do not respect borders, U.S. borders are sites of tremendous and deadly violence.

While the U.S. government says that it exists for protection and security, we are witness to the U.S. impulse to exploit the most vulnerable moments of disaster in order to unleash its greed on the most impoverished through land grabs, privatization of public health and housing and imprisonment.

We know the difference between the lies and the hard truth of our histories.

We come here not as representatives of the U.S., but as members of social movements fighting on multiple fronts from many nations. As member organizations of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, connected to hundreds of communities and thousands of people.
We resolve to:

1)Oppose the mining industry on native lands in North America as well as mining operations destroying lands throughout the hemisphere. We call for a moratorium on new fossil fuel developments and megahydro dams. We will build sustainable practices in the U.S. through combatting unsustainable consumption and waste of energy at the expense of people, land, and global well being. And we will continue to learn from alternative models of our compañer@s in the south.
2)We will fight for legalization and the rights of all migrants and immigrants living in the U.S., including the 12 million undocumented people, specifically,
1.We demand the use of remittances, shut down the detention system and stop the criminalization of migrant workers.
2.As the US border exists to control our land, body and minds we commit to tear it down completely through coordinated mobilizations of communities living on all sides.
3)As poverty increases through the expansion of disaster capitalism, we commit to secure quality education, affordable housing, accessible health care, living wages, and right of return of displaced people.
1.Simultaneously we will fight for equitable and sustainable labor and living standards for people across the hemisphere.
2.We call on massively increased support for Haiti and islands in the Caribbean that have been devastated by climate change.
4)We resolve to
1.Support trade policies that advance human rights, democracy, food sovereignty, environmental justice, economic justice and the sustainability of the planet.
2.Support efforts which promote policies based on the concepts of complementarity, cooperation, solidarity, reciprocity, prosperity and the respect for the sovereignty of every nation.
5)We resolve to ending the wars and occupations of the U.S. empire by deepening relationship among and coordinating with anti-war forces in the U.S. and internationally. We call for the release of all political prisoners including Leonard Peltier, The Cuba 5, Puerto Rican Freedom Fighters, and Mumia Abu Jamal among others.

We also live with the repression of Homeland Security. State violence increases against young people, poor people, LGBT and people of color through heavy militarization of our schools and communities. We commit to fighting for economic and racial justice on these fronts.

We are energized by the struggle for gender liberation and reproductive justice through the women's, trans and queer movements, sex worker movements, and we stand in opposition to patriarchy and U.S. Christian fundamentalism and its impacts across the world. We stand in solidarity with women's organizations targeted by governments, including the Nicaraguan government that represents the contractions that still exist among governments, even on the left.

Given this particular moment in history, the crisis of the U.S. financial sector, and the intensified assault on many people across the globe, we commit to finding strategic opportunities to build effective movements regardless of who wins the Presidency. We know, like you do, that it is social movements that strengthen the potential for fundamental transformation and the creation of new economic paradigms.

U.S. imperialism threatens our humanity and we commit to forging relationships and alliances throughout the Americas to preserve and strengthen our humanity.

We have the opportunity to connect movements, activate new forces, and surge forward towards collective liberation!

Guatemala: Americas Social Forum Rejects Neoliberalism, Celebrates Resistance

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1524/1/

The Third Americas Social Forum closed on Sunday with a massive rally from the Obelisk in Guatemala City's elite "Zona Viva," past the U.S. Embassy, to the National Palace on the main square in the center of town. With the participation of more than 7,000 delegates from throughout the Americas and Europe, the 6-day event condemned neoliberal economic policies, and pledged to build a better world.

This was the third meeting of the Americas Social Forum, and the first one in Central America. It first met in Quito, Ecuador in 2004, and in Caracas, Venezuela in 2006 as part of that year's Polycentric World Social Forum. Although somewhat smaller than the previous two gatherings, the participation of 350 organizations in pulling together a wide range of events meant that it was a very rich meeting. Organizer Jorge Coronado noted that the forum needs to move with current realities, and that despite problems with a lack of funds and translations (the forum was a primarily monolingual Spanish event), the social forum process is "more alive than ever."

The forum ran from October 7-12, bridging two symbolically important dates. On October 8, 1967, Che Guevara was captured in combat in Bolivia. Sympathizers have subsequently celebrated that anniversary as the Day of the Heroic Guerrilla. True to form, the first full day's activities closed with a special celebration of Che's life. On the main stage in the Plaza of Martyrs at the University of San Carlos where the forum's events were held, Cuban musicians played Nueva Trova music. During the day, Cuban veterans talked about Che's life on the school's Plaza of the Heroic Guerrilla, with a mural of Che and the Americas overlooking their activities. As with all of the forums in the Americas, red Che t-shirts were ubiquitous throughout the event.

Organizers intentionally organized the forum to culminate on October 12. Elites have historically celebrated the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas as the Día de la Hispanidad, or Day of the Race. Leading up to the quincentennial of that voyage in 1992, however, Indigenous peoples began to commemorate it as a day of resistance.

ImageResistance Forum

Each social forum assumes its own character, and Jorge Coronado of the Hemispheric Commission from the Americas Social Forum, identified the Guatemala meeting as "the forum of resistance of the continental people's movement." Coronado observed that participants debated "some of the most pressing issues that face social movement struggles: free trade agreements, neoliberalism, and the issue of mining, which affects rural and indigenous communities."

In addition to being a forum of resistance, the Guatemala meeting was an overwhelmingly Indigenous event. Because of the costs and complications of travel, most participants naturally come from the host country. Guatemala is the most Indigenous country in Latin America, with about 80 percent of the population belonging to one of 25 different Maya groups. As a result, Maya languages and colorful local dress were common throughout the forum.

In March 2007, Joel Suárez from the Martin Luther King Center in Havana, Cuba, invited delegates at the Third Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of the Americas to the 2008 forum. "For it to be successful," Suárez emphasized, "the forum must have an Indigenous and female face."

Last week, Suárez noted that "we tried to have a different kind of forum, one with a strong presence of women, Indigenous peoples, young people, and campesinos. I think we have seen a strong mobilization of Indigenous social organizations and young people, even children have had a presence in this meeting. Overall we are feeling really good about the event."

Indigenous and Peasants

Indigenous events at the forum were split along two different axis, betraying a lingering Indigenous/peasant or ethnicist/class division that emerged in a 1991 anti-quincentennial conference in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Organizations affiliated with Via Campesina met outside under the "carpa campesina" or peasant tent, whereas those more strongly identifying with the "Indigenous" wing of the movement gathered in an auditorium called the Iglu (Igloo).

Some delegates drifted back and forth between the two events, and some leaders presented at both events, but for the most part participants stayed where they had their organizational affiliation. The peasant tent had more banners and rhetorical slogans, whereas in the Iglu speakers disposed with much of those trappings. Beyond that, on the surface and in terms of content the two events seemed remarkably similar. Both had a ceremonial alter in front of the lead table, and both were heavily attended by people speaking Indigenous languages and wearing traditional clothing.

Discussions revolved around common issues of the rights to land and water and food sovereignty. The Via Campesina group emphasized on going issues of agrarian reform, but that issue was also present in the Iglu. Blanca Chancoso, an Indigenous leader from Ecuador and long a key player in the social forum process, pointed to the importance of land and resources in social movement struggles. "Water is not a commodity, water is life," she said. "We are also saying that land is not a commodity, land is life. The land is our mother and our mother is not a commodity."

Humberto Cholango, president of Ecuarunari, the movement of highland Kichwas in Ecuador, emphasized the broad nature of Indigenous struggles. "From a position of unity, we bring together other social forces, not only Indigenous peoples who have been excluded and abused," he said. "A large majority of compañeros and compañeras, young people, women, students, and workers are also victims of the neoliberal model."

This theme of unity and of linking struggles and bridging divides was a theme that ran throughout the forum. Even while many participants were happy to stay within their comfort zones, leaders were willing to participate on panels organized by others in order to strengthen and deepen alliances.

ImagePlurinationalism

If the peasant tent's main issue was agrarian reform, for the Iglu it was definitely plurinationalism, a topic that delegates repeatedly returned to over the course of four days of meetings.

The Guatemala forum came right on the heels of voters in Ecuador approving on September 28 a new constitution that embraced that country's plurinational nature. As a result, that became a common topic of conversation at the Indigenous event. Ex-president of the constituent assembly Alberto Acosta is currently one of the Indigenous movement's strongest allies in Ecuador, and he gave a rousing speech in support of plurinationalism at the inauguration of the forum on the evening of October 7 at the Plaza of Martyrs.

At a seminar on Indigenous resistance to neoliberalism, Humberto Cholango contrasted plurinationalism with pluriculturalism that tends to reinforce neoliberalism and the folklorization of Indigenous peoples. Plurinationalism, Cholango argued, was a broad political, social, and economic concept. It means fighting for a new political process, not just for a small representation in government, but for a new concept of state structures. He argued that plurinationalism opened up a path to a socialist state that would provide social justice for everyone in the country.

In addition to plurinationalism, "sumak kawsay" or living well, was a theme that ran throughout the Indigenous meetings and spread throughout the forum. Bolivia's foreign relations minister David Choquehuanca had introduced this concept at the 2007 Indigenous summit in Guatemala. He noted that development plans look for a better life, but this results in inequality. Indigenous peoples, instead, look to how to live well, or "sumak kawsay" in Quechua. Choquehuanca emphasized the need to look for a culture of life.

Roberto Espinoza from the Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indígenas (CAOI, or Andean Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations) emphasized "sumak kawsay" involved Indigenous values of reciprocity, and an emphasis on collective rather than individual rights. Benita Simón, a Maya delegate from the Guatemalan town of Huehuetenango, was one of many people who returned to that theme during the forum. "Good living for us is also taking the position of moving from actions of resistance to actions that allow us to take back power," she said.

Indigenous summits

During the forum, Indigenous organizations solidified their plans to hold the Fourth Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala (the Kuna name for the Americas) in Puno, Peru, the last week of May 2009. The meeting will begin with the second summit of Indigenous youth and the first summit of Indigenous women.

Indigenous peoples also discussed their participation in broader social forums, including the upcoming World Social Forum at the end of January 2009 in Belem, Brazil. Roberto Espinoza insisted that Indigenous peoples not only be a folkloric presence in these meetings, but be integrally involved with debates on substantive issues. There has been a problem of a lack of Indigenous representation on the International Council that organizes the broader World Social Forum. Debates swirled around several issues of why that might be the case. Roberto Espinoza acknowledged that CAOI has been invited to site on the council, but with other pressing and more local issues it is often difficult to commit the resources necessary to attend these meetings. This reflects a broader problem with the social forum process, that it is often only those with the time, resources, and visas necessary to travel who attend them. Unfortunately, this all too often excludes precisely those whom the forum should embrace.

Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) who sits on the National Planning Committee of the United States Social Forum, however, found these efforts to bring Indigenous and peasant peoples into the planning of the forum an encouraging move. It adds a strength to the forum, he noted. While there are problems, they should not be insurmountable.

ImageWomen

As Joel Suárez noted, the forum did have much more of a female face than many of the previous meetings. Women's groups used the forum to build their ongoing struggles. Benita Simón declared in the Iglu "that the participation of Maya women from Huehuetenango in this space is part of a process, not a single event: our struggle will continue." Women's organizations had their own tent, and a full range of activities.

At the forum, the Nobel Women's Initiative, a group of women who have won the Nobel Peace Prize, released a statement in support of Mesoamerican feminists. They urged government "protection and respect for the rights of women and feminist leaders." They expressed concern for the deteriorating situation of millions of women in Central America, particularly in regards to attacks on abortion rights and feminicide.

In particular, the Nobel Women's Initiative pointed with alarm to growing state violence against feminists in Nicaragua, and in particular against long time leader Sofia Montenegro. Members of Montenegro's organization, the Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres (MAM, Autonomous Women's Movement) were present at the forum to make denunciations against Daniel Ortega's government for these attacks. When Blanca Chancoso, for example, listed Nicaragua as part of the red tide sweeping Latin America, Gonzalo Carrión stood up to correct her, insisting that despite the historic association of the 1979 Sandinista Revolution with social justice the current government was not a leftwing government.

The Nobel Women's Initiative stated with certainty that Another World Is Possible, "and that world must include gender equality and a life free of violence for all women." Women, they said, "are a central part of our dreams and actions to achieve a better world."

U.S. Solidarity

As a movement that emerged out of the global south, the United States has always played a relatively marginal role in the social forum process. Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ) has worked harder than any other organization to bridge that gap. Once again, they brought an energetic delegation of several dozen activists from the U.S. to the forum. Michael Leon Guerrero explains that GGJ was formed in 2002 as a vehicle to "build a different solidarity with social movements around the world where we can start to talk about, together develop joint strategies around how we deal with neoliberalism and the conditions that are facing our countries." As GGJ delegation member and scholar-activist Walda Katz-Fishman from Sociologists Without Borders says, the forum has become "an important space for bringing social movements together across sectors, across race, ethnicity, gender lines."

The forum helped connect broader issues to communities of struggle in the U.S. Maria Poblet, from Saint Peter's Housing Committee says that "as an organization that works with immigrant Latinos, we have come here to Guatemala to be face to face with the conditions that cause people to migrate." She was inspired by her experiences at the forum, and in particular the spirit of resistance in Guatemala in the face of extreme violence and repression. "Here we are in Guatemala that presents to us the challenge saying after 200,000 people disappeared from our country and were killed, we are organizing this forum and we are inviting you to participate," Poblet says.

Stephanie Guilloud, Program Director of Project South worked on the United States Social Forum that met last summer in Atlanta. She says, "we are also here to connect to the forum organizers and look at the design, the structures of the flow of the organizing process so that we can really get in line with global movements that created the social forum." The sense of belonging to a common struggle across the Americas motivated many delegates from the north. Jerome Scott from the League of Revolutionaries for a New America summed it up with the statement that "we're fighting a global enemy, and therefore we are going to have to have a global movement."

Tom Goldtooth is very concerned about what is happening in the United States. "We are witnessing the collapse of capitalism," he says. He came to Guatemala to join with other Indigenous peoples across that Americas in opposition to "a neoliberal system that is not working and continues to oppress our people." He encouraged participants at the forum not to forget Indigenous peoples who are often at the front lines of struggles against mineral extraction and other devastating impacts of capitalism. Rose Brewer of Afro-Eco echoed the importance of engaging these issues, particularly those concerning free trade. "These are issues that have sometimes have been addressed but it is very clear here that both south-to-south and south-to-north fights against the FTAA have been successful." Brewer further pointed to Venezuela's Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) as an encouraging development.

Closing March

By the time of the closing march on Sunday, many international delegates had already returned home. As a result, the march become a primarily Maya Guatemalan event. The best organized delegations were from the Via Campesina-affiliated Comité de Unidad Campesino (CUC, Committee of Peasant Unity) and Consejo Nacional de Indígenas y Campesinos (CONIC, National Council of Indigenous and Peasant Peoples).

The march was advertised as a continent march of resistance of Indigenous peoples and nationalities of Abya Yala (the Americas), but explicitly Indigenous organizations had a relatively minimal presence. For example, the Coordinación y Convergencia National Maya (Waqib' Kej, or National Maya Coordination and Convergence) who had organized many of the Indigenous events had only a small delegation. CAOI, the primary co-organizer of events in the Iglu, was largely absent, with the significant exception of lead organizer Roberto Espinoza reading a document drafted at the meeting on the main stage at the closing rally.

The Third Indigenous Summit held in March 2007 similarly ended with a massive march on Guatemala City's main square. At that closing rally, as the sun set and a gorgeous full moon rose over the national palace, organizers launched three hot air balloons, two with the rainbow colors of the Indigenous flag. As the 2008 rally drew to a close in the early afternoon, organizers similarly attempted to launch hot air balloons. Wind gusts caught the first one, and it began to burn as it rose in the air. The second one burned even before it got off of the launch pad.

The 2008 Americas Social Forum was unique and successful, but that does not mean that it does not still face challenges that need to be overcome. Nevertheless, social forums still have an important role to play, and the future of the social forum process is promising.

Contact Marc Becker at Marc@yachana.org.