Final Declaration of the Campaign against the World Bank, Barcelona 2001

Another world is possible; globalize resistance and solidarity.

This declaration can only start by condemning police violence and the use of real munition against demonstrators in Gothenburg, in which there were several people injured, one of them in a extreme condition. We condemn in deep concern the declarations of the European leaders, justifying police acts and announcing the introduction of extraordinary measures to regulate mobility and to control the groups standing against neoliberal globalization, which makes us foresee a notorious increase in repression and criminalization of the social movements, an increase in the activities of the information brigades, a greater vulneration of the right to a truthful information and of the privacity of communications. The dossiers, the detentions, the fines and the trials will multiply. Before this we can only state that the thousands of collectives and organizations that act against economic globalization will continue doing it, and this fight will increase as the effects of perversion and of descomposition of capitalism grow, being the capitalist system the main enemy of humanity. The European leaders will have to discuss whether to restrain social and political rights of the people, building up a police state, or to stop an economic system based in corruption and expoliation of the resources and workforce.

 From the beginning of the year and through many months, a growing social dynamic has flooded Barcelona. People from all sectors of associative life and social struggle have come together in a campaign to dennounce the policy of the WB. A protest mobilization with deep roots in associanism - that has awakened extraordinary expectations in Catalan society - has become a main reference for all the social movements of the state and an important international gathering.

The aim of the BCN2001 Campaign is to dennounce the WB for its responsability in the increase of poverty, in ecological disaster, in the precariousness of work and in the social exclusion; for its responsability in the design and introduction of policies of structural adjustment that make thousands of workers each year lose their jobs, for the accelerated destruction of the productive grounds and the local resources, and for its responsability imposing a depredator and consumist productive system, that is destroying very quickly the natural resources, sustainers of humanity.

The WB cancelled the conference while throwing big accusations on the campaign and on the organizations that promoted it. But the main reason for the cancellation was not the fear of violence. The WB itself announced "deep trust in the capacity of the Spanish authorities to warrant safety during the Conference". The main reason was precisely its incapacity to confront a public debate on its responsabilites; the impossibility of breaking the cohesion of the collectives promoting the campaign; and its incapacity to assume social critic. The WB preferred to suffer the political cost of a humiliating withdrawal rather than the cost of a public debate in the presence of society.

The Campaign was never invited by the WB to a dialogue; neither were invited the millions of workers victims of wild privatizations in Latin America or of financial speculation in Asia; nor were invited the farmers and indigenous movements of the South. The workers of Sintel were also not invited; neither the platforms against PHN or against the emissions to the atmosphere related to climate change; nor the farmers economic victims of an agricultural policy that produces chickens with dioxines, mad cows, pig fever or foot and mouth disease. The representatives of the inmigrants victims of economic precariousness were not invited, victims of the expoliation of their lands of origin and of their food soberanity, and also victims of the 'Ley de Extranjería' ('Inmigration Law'). The pacifists fighting against the military industry were not invited; neither were the women, main victims of the neoliberal thunder. The Campaign was not invited because the meeting was to be one of "intellectuals and academics", discussing and advicing on the best way to improve the capitalist system without making any change, in an atmosphere of "tranquility" and impunity.

The Campaign is a further step in the process of articulation and development, not only of the resistence, but also of the alternatives, a growing process in the last years through very different initiatives and experiences in an international context. More than 350 collectives subscribed to the Manifesto and many more have given strength to the associative dynamics, the mobilizations and the spaces for debate that give it shape and content. Ecologists and labour organizations, women and youth groups, students, pacifists, 'insumisos' (people who refuse to serve in the army), NGOs, political organizations, local groups and national networks, farming associations and citizens' platforms of all kinds.

The proclamation "another world is possible" and the necesity of "globalize resistence and solidarity" is not merely a slogan, but the fundamental challenge of the present. We express our will to advance in the articulation of the fights and in the elaboration of proposals, to make possible the other world we believe in. We consider that it is essential to project our ideas to the people and to deepen the elaboration of dynamics capable of articulating the local associative net as the ground for an ongoing work connected to society. We need projects and campaigns that let us take the initiative, walk tomards united aims and towards a society without capitalism.

In this sense, the BCN2001 Campaign against the World Bank appeals to all social movements of the state and of Europe, to continue - in the context of social fight - a process of debate and united action, that let us establish agreements that will constitute a starting point to develop united campaigns and objectives, with respect for plurality and independence of the networks and associations.

Therefore we propose:

1.
A meeting to be held in September, with the participation of all social movements of the Estate, to continue the debate about the objectives and united campaigns in the short and medium term, joining the maximum of forces and initiatives.

2.
The necessity to specify the mobilizations and spaces for debate to which we are giving priority in the calendar of summits and events of next year, in which we consider specially remarkable the campaigns against the WTO in November in Qatar, the Spanish presidency of the EU in the first semester of 2002, the Rio+10 Summit of September 2002 in South Africa; and the possibility to organize in Barcelona the Social Forum of the Mediterranean, which is a preparation for the Global Social Forum of 2003.

3.
We consider that the Spanish presidency of the EU, which implies summits of heads of state in Barcelona (March) and in Seville (June), and summits of EU-Latin America (Madrid) and EU-Mediterranean (Barcelona) in May 2002, are remarkable references that need to be considered. In this sense we believe that the campaigns on the functioning and responsabilities of the EU in the neoliberal globalization and in the ecological destruction should form the basis of the campaigns of next year. Not as an isolated event but as a road for the long term.

4.
To advance collectively towards a Social Consultation in Europe in June 2004, understood as a space for the elaboration of proposals that fill with content the idea of "another Europe is possible" and form the basis to summon the people - at the same time that the elections to the European Parliament are held - simultaneously in all countries that form the EU and can be extended to the whole continent. It is not presented as an alternative proposal to other campaigns, but as a goal in the medium term that can be used as the uniting thread of the debates and mobilizations. We propose that the Consultation be structured as an open space from which to continue working on the grounds of the seven axis of the Counter-conference.

5.
We believe that the local spaces are the ones in which connection and complicity with other sectors of society are possible, and that this work should occupy a preferential space in the united campaigns and dynamics that will be elaborated. We consider that an adequate ground for reflection, debate and alternatives is, not only our experience of a united work, but also the documents and conclusions elaborated by the axis of the Counter-conference, to be added to the inmense documental base created by the social movements. We should give special attention to develop ideas and proposals (local/municipal assemblies, consultations, general campaigns, materials, regional coordination, etc.) that help in the building of associative and participative dynamics in the local areas.

We appeal to the massive participation in the mobilizations of the G8 Summit in Genoa, from the 15th to the 22nd of July, as well as of the Day of Global Action against debt, the 20th of July. This is our main and urgent reference at this moment. The BCN2001 Campaign should not rest strength for this international gathering, but rather the opposite, it should reinforce it.

Another world is possible! Globalize resistance and solidarity! Campaign against the World Bank,

Barcelona 2001 http://www.rosadefoc.org