The
Call of the Assembly of Social Movements. 17.10.04
We
come from all the campaigns and social movements,
"no vox" organisations, trade unions,
human rights organisations, international solidarity
organisations, anti-war and peace and feminist
movements. We come from every region in Europe
to gather in London for the third European Social
Forum. We are many, and our strength is our
diversity.
Today
war represents the harshest and most real face
of neoliberalism. The war and the occupation
of Iraq, the occupation of Palestine, the massacre
in
Chechnya, and the hidden wars in Africa are
crushing the future of humanity. The war in
Iraq was justified by lies. Today Iraq is humiliated
and destroyed. Iraqis are prisoners of war and
terror. The occupation brought
neither freedom, nor better conditions of life.
On the contrary, today the supporters of the
thesis of "clash of civilisation"
are stronger.
We
are fighting for the withdrawal of the occupying
troops in Iraq, for an immediate halt to the
bombing and for the immediate restitution of
sovereignty to the Iraqi people.
We
support the Palestinian and Israeli movements
fighting for a just and lasting peace. Following
the judgment of the UN International Court of
Justice and the unanimous vote of the European
countries in the UN General Assembly we call
for an end to the Israeli occupation and the
dismantling of the apartheid wall. We call for
political and economic sanctions on the
Israeli government as long as they continue
to violate international law and the human rights
of the Palestinian people.
For
these reasons we will mobilize for the international
week of action against the apartheid wall from
9 to 16 November, and for European days of action
on December 10 and 11, the anniversary of the
UN Declaration on Human Rights.
The
destabilisation of global climate poses an unprecedented
threat to our children's future and to humanity:
We support the call from environmental
organisations for international action on climate
change in 2005. We support the campaigns against
GMOs and for safe agriculture, food and environment.
In
February 2005 we will join the actions of protest
against the NATO summit in Nice. We oppose the
G8's self-assumed task of global government
and neo-liberal policies, and therefore we pledge
to mobilise massively on the occasion of the
G8 summit in Scotland in July 2005.
We
want another Europe which rejects sexism and
violence against women and recognises the right
to choose an abortion. We support the international
day
of mobilisation against violence against women
on 25 November and the European initiative.
We support mobilisation to celebrate International
Women's Day on 8 March. We support the European
initiative on 27/28 May in Marseilles proposed
by the World March for Women.
We
stand against racism and Fortress Europe and
for the rights of migrants and asylum seekers;
for freedom of movement; for citizenship of
residence and the closing of detention centres.
We oppose deportation of migrants. We propose
a day of action on 2 April 2005, against racism,
for freedom of movement and for the right to
stay as an alternative to a Europe based on
exclusion and exploitation.
At
a time when the draft for the European constitutional
treaty is about to be ratified, we must state
that the peoples of Europe need to be consulted
directly. The draft does not meet our aspirations.
This constitution treaty consecrates neo-liberalism
as the official doctrine of the EU; it makes
competition the basis for European community
law, and indeed for all human activity; it completely
ignores the objectives of ecologically sustainable
society. This constitutional treaty does not
grant equal rights, the free
movement of people and citizenship for everyone
in the country they live in, whatever their
nationality; it gives NATO a role in European
foreign policy and defence, and pushes for the
militarisation of the EU. Finally it puts the
market first by marginalising the social sphere,
and hence accelerating the destruction of public
services.
We
are fighting for another Europe. Our mobilisations
bring hope of a Europe where job insecurity
and unemployment are not part of the agenda.
We are
fighting for a viable agriculture controlled
by the farmers themselves, an agriculture that
preserves jobs, and defends the quality of environment
and
food products as public assets. We want to open
Europe to the world, with the right to asylum,
free movement of people and citizenship for
everyone in
the country they live in. We demand real social
equality between men and women, and equal pay.
Our Europe will respect and promote cultural
and linguistic diversity and respect the right
of peoples to self-determination
and allow all the different peoples of Europe
to decide upon their futures democratically.
We are struggling for another Europe which is
respectful of
workers' rights and guarantees a decent salary
and a high level of social protection. We are
struggling against any laws that establish insecurity
through new ways of subcontracting work.
We
are fighting for a Europe that refuses war,
a continent of international solidarity and
ecologically sustainable society. We fight for
disarmament,
against nuclear weapons, and against US and
NATO military bases. We support all those who
refuse to serve in the military.
We
reject the privatization of public services
and common goods like water. We are fighting
for human, social, economic, political and environmental
rights to defeat and overcome the rule of the
market, the logic of profit and the domination
of the third world by debt. We refuse the use
of "war on terrorism" to attack civil
and democratic rights, and to criminalise dissent
and social conflict.
The
European Social Movement supports the national
mobilisation of the Italian movement on 30 October
to mark the signing of the European Constitutional
Treaty - against war, liberalisation and racism,
to get the
troops out of Iraq and for another Europe. The
European Social Movement supports the national
mobilisation in Barcelona against the European
summit on the European constitution in January
2005. We support the mobilisation on November
11, 2004 against the Bolkestein directive.
At
a time when the new European Commission shamelessly
boasts a high profile of laissez-faire politics,
we must start a process of mobilisation in all
European countries in order to impose the recognition
of both collective and individual social, political,
economic, cultural and ecological rights for
men and women alike. To enable all the peoples
of Europe to join this process, we must build
a movement that overrides our differences and
groups
all the forces of the peoples of Europe ready
to be involved in the struggle against European
neo-liberalism.
20th
March 2005 marks the second anniversary of the
start of the war against Iraq. On 22 and 23
March the European Council meets in Brussels.
We call for
national mobilisations in all European countries.
We call for a central demonstration in Brussels
on 19 March against war, racism, and against
a neo-liberal Europe, against privatisation,
against the Bolkestein project
and against the attacks on working time; for
a Europe of rights and solidarity between the
peoples. We call all the social movements and
the European trade union movements to take to
the streets on this day.
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