M A M A    C O C A

Thematic Social World Forum: “Democracy, Human Rights, Wars and Crops Used for Illicit Purposes”*

Cartagena de Indias, June 16 -l 20, 2003

- Background and Goals-

The Social World Forum was first held in Porto Alegre, capital of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in January 2001. It took place on the same dates as the World Economic Forum held in Davos, a small and luxurious ski resort in Switzerland. Protests against neoliberal domination strategies and their devastating repercussions, however, are prior to this public world forum. They are, initially, a reaction to the disclosure regarding the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and its scheme to liberalize investment regimes by establishing further rights for foreign investors and constraining the power of governments to regulate their activities thus posing an even greater threat to civil rights.

This agreement —secretly debated since 1990 in the Organizations for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)— was first divulged in Le Monde Diplomatique on the basis of the revelations made in the US by the Public Citizens movement headed by Ralph Nader, through an article signed by a lawyer pertaining to this movement, Lori Wallach. Adverse reactions to the abuses projected were immediate and gave birth to the first social mobilization, principally promoted by ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens), in 1998. ATTAC expanded its reach and citizens worldwide mobilized in acts of social resistance to enterprises’attempts at wiping out social rights. Citizens mobilize against a globalization which concentrates 50% of the world’s riches in the hands of the G-8. Mass mobilizations in Amsterdam, Seattle, Prague, Genoa, Brussels, Barcelona, Florence y Gothenburg signal transnational civil society’s unrest and search to make its demands heard:equal rights for all in a diverse world.

In 2001, these social demands crystallize in a forum proposed from Brazil and backed by, among others, Bernard Cassen, General Director of Le Monde Diplomatique and President of ATTAC France. The forum is held in Porto Alegre due to the democratic experiences implemented in the Rio Grande do Sul sate. The WSF becomes thus a space for deliberation and alternative proposals that gathers together people from all countries and social perspectives."The World Social Forum is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party context "(No. 8 Charter of Principles WSF)) The IIWSF is once again held in Porto Alegre in January 2003. This forum agreed that the III FSM would be held in Mumbai (Bombay) India from January 16 – 21, 2004.

In a meeting held on the 11th and 12th of November 2002, in Florence (Italy), the WSF’s International Council, upon demand from the International Network EURALAT (Euro-Latin American Observatory on Democratic and Social Development) decided to convene —in accordance with its Charter of Principles— a thematic social forum to “diagnose and design proposals regarding issues such as narcotics trafficking (and crops used for illicit purposes), war, democracy, and Human Rights.” The city of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia was chosen for this forum and the task of organizing this forum is currently being carried out by a large group of Colombian civil society organizations, 59 in all: human rights activists, indigenous and peasant communities, environmental and women’s movements, among others.

The general goal of the Thematic Social World Forum is to convene multiple and diverse social sectors so that we might analyze alternatives and coordinate our efforts at mobilizing towards socially strengthening existing overarching instances to counterbalance growing militarization and make other worlds possible.

The Cartagena forum will not only deal with Colombian issues. Nonetheless, Colombia’s crisis is significant insofar as in this country concentrates many of the problems affecting the rest of the world and the policies implemented —as in the case of the Plan Colombia— reflect the programs construed within the framework of a New World Order. What occurs in Colombia undoubtedly has notable repercussions on the Andean-Amazonic Region, and on the world at large. In the current juncture, wherein hegemonic imperialism perpetrates “preventive” wars in order to design a one-sided world order, the role played by the Colombian government in the region and continent’s militarization —in alignment with the Bush Administration’s security terror— must be duly analyzed.

PROGRAM PROPOSED:

Monday June16

8 a.m./3 p.m.:              Credentials and badges delegates
3:30 p.m./5 p.m. :        Central Conference - Boaventura de Sousa Santos“Globalization and Democracy”
5:15 p.m.                     March

Tuesday June 17

8 a.m./5 p.m. Sector Forums
• International Meeting on Democracy
• International Meeting Environmentalists
• International Meeting Youth
• International Meeting Union Members
• International Meeting Women
• International Meeting Education
• International Meeting on Migration
• Children’s Forum

6 p.m./7:30 p.m.         Central Conference - Peter Lock “The New and Preventive Wars”

Wednesday June 18

8 a.m./11:30 a.m.       Panels.
• Pluralism, Citizenship, Identities and Democracy
• Wars, Terrorisms and Security
• Security and Human Rights
• Cultures, Territories and Autonomies

11:30 a.m./1 p.m.     Central Conference - Mary Robinson  “Globalization and Human Rights”

2:30 p.m./5 p.m. Workshops

5 p.m./8 p.m. Roundtables

• A New Democratic World Order
• Wars, Economy and Development
• The UN’s Role in Promoting and defending Human Rights
• Drug Policies’ Environmental, Social and Economic  Impacts

Thursday June 19

8 a.m./ 11:30 a.m.      Panels
• Globalization, Democracy and New Practices in Global Citizenship
• Conflicts and Urban Violences and Narcotics Trafficking
• Wars and Humanitarian Crises
• International Economic Policies and Achieving Human Rights
• Counterdrug Policies, Andean Regional Initiative and Plan Colombia

11:30 a.m./1 p.m. Central Conference – Evo Morales “Cocalero Movement, Politics and Globalization”
2:30 p.m./5 p.m. Workshops

5 p.m./8 p.m. Roundtables
• International Security and Democracy
• Wars, Sovereignty and the International Community’s Role
• Free-Commerce Models, Integration Models and Their Role in the Defense of Human Rights
• The Truth Behind “Antinarcotics Strategies”

Friday June 20

8 a.m./ 11:30 a.m.  Panels

• Freedoms, Terrorisms, and Democracy
• Civil Resistances  and Counterpowers to War
• Human Rights as a Means to Overcoming Discrimination and Exclusion
• ‘Drugs’: Depenalization, Legalization, Co-Responsibility or Prohibition

2:30 p.m./5 p.m.        Workshops

5 p.m./8 p.m.    Roundtables

• Democracy, Militarization and Counternarcotics Struggle. The Bets.
• Local and Global Movements Against Wars. Limitations and Scope
• Foreign Debt and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Decriminalization, depenalization, Co-responsibility and Legalization



*Informaciones tiradas de  textos varios del FSM (Chico Whitaker) y de los Ejes del FSMT de Cartagena.

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