People united will never be defeated!
The Social Movements Assembly of the WSF 2015, Tunisia is the place where we come together through all our diversity, in order to forge a collective agenda to fight against capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy, racism and all forms of discrimination and oppression.
We have forged a common history and a common stream of work which led to some progress, with the hope to garner some amount of victory against the ruling system and to create several alternatives for a socially just development that respects nature.
People all over the world are suffering the effects of the aggravation of a profound crisis of capitalism, in which private transnational corporations, banks, media conglomerates and international financial institutions are trying to increase their profits by applying interventionist and neocolonial policies with the complicity of neo-liberal governments.
War, military occupations, free-trade neoliberal treaties (Trans-Atlantic, Trans-Pacific, ALECA, UE-MERCOSUR, APE, MERCOSUR-Israel and different bilateral treaties) and “austerity measures” are expressed in economic packages that privatize the common good, and public services, cut wages, violate rights, increase unemployment and precarious conditions, overload women´s care work and destroys nature.
Such neo-liberal policies have massive impacts both on the Southern and the Northern countries and contribute to an increase in migration, forced displacement, evictions, debt, and social inequalities. They re-enforce conservatism and the control over women´s bodies and lives. In addition, they impose “green economy” as a solution to the environmental and food crisis, which not only exacerbates the problem, but leads to commodification, privatization and financialization of life and nature.
We assert that the peoples are in no way responsible for this crisis and they must not continue to pay for it. We also assert that no solution is possible within the capitalist system. Here, in Tunis, we reaffirm our commitment to join forces to forge a common strategy to guide our struggles against capitalism. This is why we, social movements, struggle:
• Against transnational corporations and the financial system (IMF, WB and WTO), who are the main agents of the capitalist system, privatizing life, public services and common goods such as water, air, land, seeds and mineral resources, promoting wars and violations of human rights, and ransack resources. Transnational corporations reproduce extractionist practices endangering life, grabbing our lands and developing genetically modified seeds and food, taking away the peoples’ right to food and destroying biodiversity.
We fight for the cancellation of illegitimate and odious debt which today is a global instrument of domination, repression and economic and financial strangulation of people. We reject free trade agreements that are imposed by States and transnational corporations and we affirm that it is possible to build another kind of globalization, made by and for the people, based on solidarity and on freedom of movement for all human beings.
We support the call for an international day of action on 18 April, 2015 against the free trade agreements.
• For climate justice and food sovereignty, because we know that global climate change is the result of the capitalist system of production, distribution and consumption. Transnational corporations, international financial institutions and governments serving them do not want to reduce greenhouse gases. We denounce “green economy” and refuse fake solutions to the climate crisis such as bio-fuels, genetically modified organisms and mechanisms of the carbon market like REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), which ensnare impoverished peoples with false promises of progress while privatizing and commodifying the forests and territories where these peoples have been living for thousands of years.
We defend food sovereignty and support sustainable peasant agriculture which are the true solutions to the food and climate crises and which also entail an access to land for all who work on it.
We call for a mass mobilization on climate in December 2015 in Paris alongside the COP21. Let’s make 2015 the year of mobilizing social movements around the world for climate justice.
• Against violence against women, often conducted in militarily occupied territories, but also violence affecting women who are criminalized for taking part in social struggles. We fight against domestic and sexual violence perpetrated on women because they are considered objects or goods, because the sovereignty of their bodies and minds is not acknowledged. We fight against the traffic of women, girls and boys.
We defend sexual diversity, the right to gender self-determination and we oppose all homophobia and sexist violence.
We call upon all people to support the activities of the 4th World March of Women during March-October 2015.
• For peace and against war, colonialism, occupations and the militarization of our lands.
We denounce the false discourse of human rights defense and fight against fundamentalism, which is often used to justify military occupations. We defend the right to people’s sovereignty and self-determination. We denounce the installation of foreign military bases to instigate conflicts, to control and ransack natural resources, and to foster dictatorships in several countries.
We demand reparations for all the peoples who have been victims of colonialism across the world.
• For democratizing mass media and building alternative media, which are fundamental to overthrow the capitalist logic.
• For resistance and solidarity, we fight for our freedom to organize trade unions, social movements, associations and all other forms of peaceful resistance.
We denounce the intensification of repressive measures against people´s rebellions; the arrests, assassinations and imprisonments of activists, students and journalists; and also the criminalization of our struggles.
Inspired by the history of our struggles and by the rejuvenating strength of the people on the streets, the Social Movements Assembly call upon everyone to mobilize and develop actions - coordinated at the world level – in a global week of mobilization against capitalism from 17 to 25 October, 2015.
Social movements of the world, let us advance towards a global unity to shatter the capitalist system!
Let’s strengthen our solidarity with the people of the world who fight everyday against imperialism, colonialism, exploitation, patriarchy, racism and injustice in Tunisia, Palestine, Kurdistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Greece, Spain, Burkina Faso, Mali, Congo (DRC), Central Africa, and Western Sahara...
Long live the people’s struggle!
People united will never be defeated!
The Social Movements Assembly of the WSF 2015, Tunisia, 27 March 2015