Statement signed at 18 February 2024 at World Social Forum in Kathmandu, Nepal
Nobody can doubt any longer that the multiple crises have deepened worldwide. Superpowers and market-oriented international institutions including the European Union, Russia, and the United States of America, NATO, the World Economic Forum and others have driven the world into a spiral of increasing competition, hate speech and sea of bloody wars, ethnic cleansing and genocide, economic and ecological disasters, and neocolonial injustices supported by increasingly authoritarian governments.
The majority of the world population are in various ways suffering the consequences of these disastrous policies. The cost of living crisis affects the majority of both rural and urban people across the world. Social and democratic rights are under attack. Violence against women and other vulnerable groups in society is increasing. Inequality is rising to unprecedented levels. Food scarcity and famine increases and societies are torned to pieces. Democracy is at risk of becomjng an empty shell influenced due to lobbying in the interest of rich people and corporations more than people in common and repression of human rights, including the freedom of expression. Global warming, the loss of biological diversity, lack of water and other environmental destructive processes affect us all.
We, the undersigned, commit ourselves to work together in order to counteract by peaceful means the imperial and neocolonial ambitions of super powers, the global corporates and authoritarian governments.
PEACE is not only the absence of wars between nations, but also absence and repression of universally guaranteed Human Rights, including the freedom of speech, human dignity, indigenous peoples’ rights, freedom from racism and casteism, the right to have your ethnic, sexual or other identity accepted, and the right of all, including future generations, to a healthy environment.
The deepening tensions between states and power blocs propels a militarization of politics in nearly all fields. Independent voices and civil society have their space limited or are openly repressed in all parts of the world. At the same time we witness the rise of right wing extremism, xenophobia and racism in all parts of the world. What we need instead is peaceful coexistence, disarmament and constructive solutions for social and ecological concerns locally, nationally and between nations.
In order to change the direction of social and political development we call for a worldwide mobilization of the civil society on all continents and all fields of action. We need a coherent simultaneous struggle for urban and land reform, for right to the city and agroecology. Housing, energy, water, healthy food, education and health care should be provided for all. We need both resistance and the building of alternatives to bring about peace and justice. We need this in every rural community, municipality and city of the world. For this it is necessary to produce not only a unity on the conceptual level, but also a convergence of as many social and ecological movements as possible, around action in which clear priorities for our struggles in the near future are defined.
We encourage all interested to propose actions towards peace and justice that are concrete, action-oriented and open to all social and ecological movements of the world. We post below the proposals that have been presented in the preparatory process and in our session today.
Signed 18 February 2024 at World Social Forum in Kathmandu, Nepal, by the following participants in a session registered in the programme of the WSF event as its activity 155 by the organization “Asamblea Social Mundial de Luchas y Resistencias del WSF.” Co-organisers of the actvities were Ciranda Net, ATTAC France and the International Peace Bureau (IPB).
Signatures:
In the discussions the following actions were highlighted as important in 2024 in order to bring many movements together.
These suggestions for common struggles will be supported by those interested in a separate sign on process:
*A common action day with the following demands:
– Stop genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and elsewhere
– Ceasefire now in all wars!
– Disarmament for social and climate justice!
Date to be set together with Palestinian solidarity movements and International Peace Bureau in April/May
* Uniting peace, justice and climate movements
in a common call for Global Day of Action on Military Expenditure (GDAMS) in April/May, a call for protests during the NATO 75 year Summit in the US in July and call for an action day on Peace and Climate justice in the autumn of 2024.
* Support the initiative by CADTM
to launch a worldwide campaign from Porto Alegre against the rise of right wing extremism and fascism with the support of both social movements and political parties.
* Support calls for protest against austerity
imposed by IMF and the World Bank saying 80 years is enough and call for campaigning for economic equality
* Support the calls made at WSF in Nepal on climate justice and especially the emphasis on social rights, rural, water and glacier melting issues
* Support strengthening of solidarity against repression everywhere and the shrinking of civil space including specific cases as the death in prison of Alexei Navalny, the ill treatment and imprisonment of Julian Assange, and protests against the renewed imprisonnment of social forum activist and war resister Boris Kagarlitsky.
Please write your own suggestions for common struggles action as well as for a Common
Action Plan (CAP) to the following email address: worldsocialassembly@gmail.com