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PEOPLE’S SUMMIT PLAYED COUNTERVAILING ROLE AT RIO+20 The just concluded UN summit in Rio de Janeiro saw the gathering of thousands of people providing alternative views and solutions from the grassroots. Since 15 June, the People’s Summit on Rio+20 has gathered thousands of participants from civil society and social movements from around the world in “Atero do Flamengo” – a park in downtown Rio de Janeiro – to articulate alternative analyses and proposals from the official Rio+20 Conference taking place in the outskirts of the city. The motivation for organizing a People’s “Summit” (as opposed the conventional civil society forum) was sparked by widespread disillusionment with the ability of governments and the multilateral system to implement effectively the agreements reached at the landmark 1992 Earth Summit – as illustrated through the continued deterioration of the environment, the cascade of multiple crises and rising inequalities in last two decades. Through a combination of self-managed activities, thematic plenaries and people’s assemblies, the Summit aims to build convergences around three cross-cutting axes: 1. Structural causes and false solutions; 2. Our solutions; 3. Agenda for future campaigns and struggles The main themes discussed in the plenaries cover 1) Rights for Social and Environmental Justice; 2) Defence of Common Goods Against Commodification; 3) Food Sovereignty; 4) Energy and Extractive Industries; and 5) Work: For Another Economy and New Paradigms for Society. Debating “Green Economy” A major highlight of the Summit was an open dialogue between Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and People’s Summit representatives on 16 June around the “green economy,” one of the major themes of the official Rio+20 Conference. The dialogue, brokered with the Summit organizers and NGLS, was an opportunity for a frank exchange on one of the most controversial themes of both summits, under a packed plenary tent which gathered some 800 participants at very short notice. In opening the meeting, Brazilian activist and summit organizer Fátima Mello said “the People’s Summit is critical of the green economy, because we are the people who have suffered the crisis of capitalism and of its model of production which, the worse things get, the more it undermines our rights.” Mr. Steiner heard the critiques and perspectives of representatives of indigenous peoples, the farmers’, workers’, environmental movements, people of colour and NGOs on what they perceived as an agenda to reinforce the current unsustainable mainstream economic model, by creating new sources of profit and exploitation through commodification and financialization of nature and life. The UNEP Executive Director expressed his surprise at these critiques of the green economy, which he said is conceived of as a “major transformation of the current models of production and consumption, aimed at curbing pollution and the exhaustion of natural resources.” The critiques assume a perpetuation of the current model, which UNEP also denounces as having led to the catatrophic ecological destruction we see today. He said that the green economy was meant to confront and engage the economic system that is dominating the political agenda in every country around the world. It is not because there is the word “economy” in “green economy” that we necessarily refer to the existing capitalist economy, he said. “Giving also an economic value to ecosystems can help governments better understand how essential it is to preserve them. For instance, the value of the Amazon forest is much more than the value of the timber that can be extracted,” he said – explaining how it also plays an essential function in regulating water flow systems for the entire continent. Placing a monetary value of ecosystems in national accounts does not mean that this value will then be turned into private assets to be bought and sold. “In fact, I would argue that….maybe the opposite would happen: we would actually issue laws to protect nature, we would increase protected areas, we would have far more indigenous peoples managed lands and reserves and we would have laws and criteria for the private sector and business to conduct business in a way that is not destructive.” In second round of comments, one participant, Pat Mooney from ETC Group, argued that UNEP [as one of the main instigators of the green economy concept] may be the messenger, but “you cannot control what is done with your message.” He gave examples of transnational corporations’ explicit plans to gain private control of the earth’s biomass. He stated that the green economy agenda is being promoted at the official Conference by handing over its implementation to the private sector through financialization and relying on technological breakthroughs. “The crises we are in have been driven by financial interests and proponents of disastrous technologies” such as nuclear power, or transgenic crops. “And now we are asking the same people to lead the way out of this mess.” In effect, financialization and technological quick fixes are replacing responsible public policy, he said. Pablo Solón, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South and former Ambassador of Bolivia to the United Nations, argued that it was hard to believe that the purpose of putting a monetary value to nature would somehow stop at inclusion in national accounts. “The purpose of the green economy is too clear: when capitalism assigns a monetary value to ecosystems and biodiversity, it is not only to place it in national accounts, but to introduce it in the market.” Referring to the multi-trillion dollar price-tag attributed by UNEP and other institutions to the cost of the transition to a green economy, he said: “governments say they are broke because of the financial crisis, and many are pushing for this financing to come from the private sector. How is that not commodification/financialization of nature?” He proposed a financial transactions tax that could generate the scales of revenue needed as an alternative to the financialization agenda. Juan Herrero, from the grassroots global farmers’ movement La Via Campesina, stressed that the alternatives being developed at the People’s Summit are following a “very different logic” from what is discussed at the official Conference, built on a “popular, social and solidarity economy” rather than the profit motive. Achim Steiner expressed his gratitude for this opportunity to – at least for a brief moment – to connect the two summits. He said he understood and shared the frustration of the people with the way the negotiations were going at the official Conference. “But I want to assure you that – even if you find it hard to believe – there are people in the United Nations and in the official process who care deeply and are listening carefully at what is being said at the Summit of the People.” Articulating people’s alternatives Among the many ideas for more sustainable development paths articulated at the People’s Summit is the growing movement for a “social and solidarity economy” built on the values of cooperation, complementarity, sharing, mutual support, human rights and democratic control over economic decisions and resources. Many summit workshops gave examples of the myriad initiatives taking place on the ground – notably in Brazil – to promote these new forms of economic relations that can meet social and environmental goals. These include the establishment of community banks that issue their own complementary currencies to support local entrepreneurial activities in a manner that ensures that the wealth generated in the community stays within the local territory, is equitably shared, and creates “multiplier effects” through faster circulation of money and reinvestments in job creating projects. Proponents argue that the strategy for the poor and excluded is not to begin with political demands on the State (for e.g. basic public services such access to housing, water or sanitation), but to build up first their autonomous economic base, which then places them in a stronger position to make demands on the authorities. One Brazilian community leader stated that local community banks, besides issuing complementary currencies to fuel social, economic and environmental initiatives, can also serve as a strong basis for the development of new social movements at the territorial level. Another “moment” when the two summits connected was on 19 June during a side event at the official Conference venue on the social and solidarity economy (SSE). People’s Summit participants entered into a constructive dialogue with government representatives of countries that tried (with very limited success) to include the SSE in the official Conference outcome document. The meeting was facilitated by Les Rencontres du Mont-Blanc. The Brazilian Government’s National Secretary of the social and solidarity economy, Paul Singer, noted that the current economic model is proving disastrous even for advanced countries. “History is going back: the fact that countries of the European Union are in deficit is enough to make the poorest members of their populations pay the bill and roll back decades of social achievements that had been gained through hard won struggles,” he said. “More than a social and economic crisis, this is a very grave political crisis…. Young people understand that this overconcentration of wealth and capital has to be reversed, and they are in revolt… It is our duty to support them in this struggle.” Ben Quiñones from the Philippines-based Asia Solidarity Economy Forum and chair of the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS), argued that the social solidarity economy is a growing .reality although it does not get any visibility in mainstream development debates. It is much more developed in Latin America, but is also growing in parts of Asia, including through fair trading partnerships among networks of small producers and cooperatives, organic production, ethical finance, and the use of complementary currencies. He described it as a bottom-up movement starting from the grassroots up to the global level, and strongly rooted in the values of “Buen Vivir” (well-being, harmonious relations with other human beings and nature), and human rights. Dania Quirola, Advisor to the Ministry of Planning and Development of Ecuador, explained that including Buen Vivir and SSE in the new Ecuadorian constitution was only the first step of what she described as the “citizen revolution” underway in her country. Currently, these approaches are being integrated in development planning, through a range of policies that include new regulations on foreign direct investment to ensure greater amounts of profits are reinvested in the country, public purchases (government procurement) from small producers, notably for food and nutrition programmes, and policies to build the capacities of small producers and promote decent work. Benoît Hamon, the French Minister Delegate of the newly created Ministry of the Social and Solidarity Economy (falling under the Ministry of Finance) argued that the low turnout at elections is because many young people have the feeling that democracy is not working – whichever political party is elected, whether right or left, “they are told that there is only one economic model and there is no space for democratic economic choices.” He argued that the social and solidarity economy provided a well-tested example of an economic alternative that works (“in fact it resisted much better to the crisis than the conventional economic system”) – and can become a space for people to “reconquer economic choices.” He announced concrete steps his government would take to promote SSE by facilitating cooperative worker takeover (“récupération”) of the management of failing enterprises, new financial instruments (including with funds from a public investment bank); skills development, and other measures. He described the SSE as the “third sector” of the French economy, alongside the private and public sectors, and expressed his admiration of countries such as Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela for having included SSE in their laws and constitution. He announced that the French government would press this idea, not only to its European counter-parts, but also in international institutions, through a strategic alliance with like-minded countries and civil society organizations. This alliance would begin with Franco-Latin American strategy to press the SSE as an economic alternative to the neoliberal model promoted by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, he said. – Third World Network Features. -ends-
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