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Summit of the Peoples in Santiago: public call

Over 120 social movements, organizations and networks are organizing the Summit of the Peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe "For social justice, international solidarity and peoples’ sovereignty" to take place from January 25 to 27 in Santiago, capital of Chile.

The meeting will take place in the Urban Planning and Architecture School of the University of Chile, in parallel to the EU-CELAC Summit to take place in the same city. The peoples summit will be covered by Real World Radio as part of a convergence of communication media that will follow the different activities.

The organizers, among them over 60 Chilean groups, more than 30 social organizations, movements and networks of the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean, over 20 European groups and five international organizations highlight that the Summit of the Peoples aims to “visibilize the demands and proposals of the mobilized peoples (…) who struggle against neoliberal policies that hit our societies and want to eliminate our rights”.

“We call all social, popular and political movements of Chile and of both continents to join the Summit of the Peoples (…), so that their just claims are heard and so that their struggles and resistance against the unfair policies imposed on them find a place for articulation and building of alternatives”, reads the public call.

In addition, the summit “will be developed in favor of social and environmental justice, solidarity and unity among the Latin American and European peoples, the defense of common goods and a rejection to the commodification of nature and life”.

The text circulated by the Facilitation Group of the Summit of the Peoples explains that the event will take place in the context of a global economic and financial crisis without precedents since 1930s. According to the organizers, the sectors that caused the crisis and increased their wealth from it want the peoples to pay, imposing “huge” social and democratic setbacks. “The “austerity” policies, also implemented in Europe, and the political evolution in Latin America and the rest of the world demands a unified answer from our peoples and an alternative exit to the strengthening of the current neoliberal model”, reads the call. “This historical moment requires to reassess the relationship between both continents”, it adds.

For the over 120 social organizations, movements and networks, the Summit is an important opportunity to question the different dimensions of the crisis and the governmental attempts to use European capitals in Latin America as a way out. In the current context "where our peoples rebel against the extractivist, unequal and predator model", they say. “This is why it is necessary to assess the effects of these investments and the Free Trade Agreements in general, especially due to their predator feature against social, environment and labor rights and as a driver of the the social inequality that hits our societies”, reads the text.

“The peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe say no to these FTAs, we demand the renegotiation of those in force and an end to the negotiation or ratification” of those in advanced stages. The organizers demand the peoples to be consulted about the type of bi-continental relations that they want to establish to serve their interests, and not the interests of investors or transnational corporations.

They also call to build a new type of relationship among the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean, based on equality, decolonization, the primacy of the rights of the population over the profits of transnational corporations and the respect of sovereignty and the rights of the peoples. “We don’t accept that the crisis caused by the transnational financial system serves to promote social setbacks to the detriment of rights and the wellbeing of the peoples”, they say. “This meeting will demand an end to the adjustment and austerity policies and a reassessment of the international financial architecture”, they add.

For the social organizations, movements and networks, the Summit of the Peoples should include their vision over numerous aspects: the model of society they want, democracy and citizen participation, human rights, the claims of native peoples, women and different sectors, over the common goods, nature and Mother Earth, over integration, investments and trade, over the democratization of communications, global governance and the dominant model.