a ‘Peoples’ World Conference On Climate Change And The Rights Of Mother Earth’div>h2>-

Jai Sen, cacim.net, India, March 2010

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Jai Sen, cacim.net, India, March 2010[1]

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Because of climate change, the world we know – the planet we as human beings call home – is today in crisis, and is perhaps in a kind and scale of crisis that has never been known before in history : Of a possible incremental and then non-linear, cataclysmic collapse of the ecosystem, one that threatens life as we know it. In its course, this collapse threatens to open social conflict, violence, war, and widespread individual and social trauma - and even deeper injustice on the planet at an unprecedented scale, along with immense accompanying suffering for huge numbers of people across the world.+

Because of climate change, the world we know – the planet we as human beings call home – is today in crisis, and is perhaps in a kind and scale of crisis that has never been known before in history : Of a possible incremental and then non-linear, cataclysmic collapse of the ecosystem, one that threatens life as we know it.[2] In its course, this collapse threatens to open social conflict, violence, war, and widespread individual and social trauma - and even deeper injustice on the planet at an unprecedented scale, along with immense accompanying suffering for huge numbers of people across the world.-

In this context, on December 21 2009 – within a few days of the conclusion of the Copenhagen Conference - the President of Bolivia announced that “a world conference of social movements” would take place in Bolivia on April 22 2010, “which is the International Day of Mother Earth”. And on January 5 2010, two weeks later, the government of Bolivia issued its full Call for a “Peoples’ World Conference On Climate Change And The Rights Of Mother Earth” (text below; also available @ www.cmpcc.org), to be held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, during April 19-22 2010.+

In this context, on December 21 2009 – within a few days of the conclusion of the Copenhagen Conference - the President of Bolivia announced that “a world conference of social movements” would take place in Bolivia on April 22 2010, “which is the International Day of Mother Earth”.[3] And on January 5 2010, two weeks later, the government of Bolivia issued its full Call for a “Peoples’ World Conference On Climate Change And The Rights Of Mother Earth” (text below; also available @ www.cmpcc.org), to be held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, during April 19-22 2010.-

It is also very significant that the Conference is being held in the city of Cochabamba, which in the year 2000 was the site of the historic and successful popular ‘Water War’ against the privatisation of water supply.+

It is also very significant that the Conference is being held in the city of Cochabamba, which in the year 2000 was the site of the historic and successful popular ‘Water War’ against the privatisation of water supply.[4]-

One, although the Call has been issued by a government, this is a government with a difference. We need to recognise and read that the Bolivian state, as it stands today (but more on this below), is a social movement state. This is not only the term used by social and political analysts (eg Guillermo Delgado-P, forthcoming (2010) – ‘Re-founding Bolivia : A Social Movements State ?’, in Jai Sen and Peter Waterman, eds, forthcoming (2010a) - Worlds of Movement, Worlds in Movement. New Delhi : OpenWord) but by itself and by its president Evo Morales Ayma, its vice president Álvaro García Linera, and its ambassador to the UN Angélica Navarro, among others. They see themselves that way, as having grown out of social movement and as still rooted there – and in many ways they seem to see government as being an instrument for the aspirations of social movement in the addressal of social, economic, and political issues; and also the ecological.+

One, although the Call has been issued by a government, this is a government with a difference. We need to recognise and read that the Bolivian state, as it stands today (but more on this below), is a social movement state. This is not only the term used by social and political analysts (eg Guillermo Delgado-P, forthcoming (2010) – ‘Re-founding Bolivia : A Social Movements State ?’, in Jai Sen and Peter Waterman, eds, forthcoming (2010a) - Worlds of Movement, Worlds in Movement. New Delhi : OpenWord) but by itself and by its president Evo Morales Ayma, its vice president Álvaro García Linera, and its ambassador to the UN Angélica Navarro, among others. They see themselves that way, as having grown out of social movement and as still rooted there – and in many ways they seem to see government as being an instrument for the aspirations of social movement in the addressal of social, economic, and political issues; and also the ecological.-

We need also to read the fine print and note that the person whose name the Call has been issued, Evo Morales Ayma, is identified as the president of a “Plurinational State”. This – which is perhaps a unique self-identification – is a radical departure from any normal governmental position.+

We need also to read the fine print and note that the person whose name the Call has been issued, Evo Morales Ayma, is identified as the president of a “Plurinational State”. This description, which comes from Bolivia’s new Constitution that was prepared and passed after Morales’ election,[5] is perhaps a unique identification, and a radical departure from normal governmental nomenclature.- -

Two, we need to recognise that Bolivia also has another very special legitimacy for making this Call, having played a key role at the Copenhagen Conference, along with the Maldives and one or two others, in articulating not just the perspective of ‘the South’ but of ordinary peoples everywhere in the world.5+

Two, we need to recognise that Bolivia also has another very special legitimacy for making this Call, having played a key role at the Copenhagen Conference, along with the Maldives and one or two others, in articulating not just the perspective of ‘the South’ but of ordinary peoples everywhere in the world.[6]-

Four, more generally we need to read, recognise, and act in critical solidarity with the emancipatory, insurgent, and anti-imperialist content of the present government of Bolivia’s general domestic programme (such as land reforms, fiscal reforms, and the take-over of certain key industries from multinationals and their nationalisation / being brought under social control; and most comprehensively in the vision of the new Constitution it has drafted and got approved ) – and especially at this juncture in world history.+

Four, more generally we need to read, recognise, and act in critical solidarity with the emancipatory, insurgent, and anti-imperialist content of the present government of Bolivia’s general domestic programme (such as land reforms, fiscal reforms, and the take-over of certain key industries from multinationals and their nationalisation / being brought under social control; and most comprehensively in the vision of the new Constitution it has drafted and got approved [7]) – and especially at this juncture in world history.-

Five, we need also to read this upheaval – and in particular, this Call – as a part of and in relation to the wider stirrings taking place among indigenous peoples in the Americas today, and especially in South and Central America; and with the major social and political changes taking place in that part of the world (only one of which has been the recent election of presidents in nothing less than eight countries who can broadly said to be ‘leftist’). Among other things, the call for this World Conference is very similar to the spirit of the Call issued in May 2009 by CAOI - Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indigenas (Andean Coordinating Body for Indigenous Organisations) and others for a ‘Minga (Convergence, Mobilisation) for Mother Earth and a Forum on the Civilisational Crisis and Alternative Paradigms’, and to the content of the Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples that was issued by CAOI and others from the World Social Forum that took place in Belém, Amazonia, Brazil, in January 2009.+

Five, we need also to read this upheaval – and in particular, this Call – as a part of and in relation to the wider stirrings taking place among indigenous peoples in the Americas today, and especially in South and Central America; and with the major social and political changes taking place in that part of the world (only one of which has been the recent election of presidents in nothing less than eight countries who can broadly said to be ‘leftist’). Among other things, the call for this World Conference is very similar to the spirit of the Call issued in May 2009 by CAOI - Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indigenas (Andean Coordinating Body for Indigenous Organisations) and others for a ‘Minga (Convergence, Mobilisation) for Mother Earth and a Forum on the Civilisational Crisis and Alternative Paradigms’,[8] and to the content of the Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples that was issued by CAOI and others from the World Social Forum that took place in Belém, Amazonia, Brazil, in January 2009.[9]-

Although we do not as yet know whether CAOI and the other organisations it works with have endorsed Bolivia’s Call, there is no question that even the co-existence, and possibly the confluence, of these two currents promises to be world changing – redefining emancipation and renewing left and emancipatory politics. We need also to be alive to the fact that this is perhaps the first time in history that a proposal by indigenous peoples has reached the world stage in quite this way, and therefore – reading also the cultural politics and historic moment of the situation – we need to act in a spirit of transcommunal solidarity. To act in solidarity with such an initiative will mean to act in solidarity with a major emerging movement of reassertion – and through this we can perhaps renew and revitalise our own politics.+

Although we do not as yet know whether CAOI and the other organisations it works with have endorsed Bolivia’s Call,[10] there is no question that even the co-existence, and possibly the confluence, of these two currents promises to be world changing – redefining emancipation and renewing left and emancipatory politics. We need also to be alive to the fact that this is perhaps the first time in history that a proposal by indigenous peoples has reached the world stage in quite this way, and therefore – reading also the cultural politics and historic moment of the situation – we need to act in a spirit of transcommunal solidarity.[10] To act in solidarity with such an initiative will mean to act in solidarity with a major emerging movement of reassertion – and through this we can perhaps renew and revitalise our own politics.-

Six, given all this, we therefore need to recognise the emancipatory, insurgent, and anti-imperialist character also of this international, transnational, and transcommunal Bolivian initiative, at a regional and world level, at several levels of meaning and in terms of several empires; we need equally to recognise that as such, it will be under great pressure from all those who oppose addressing climate change as well as the broader political-economic changes that are required for this – pressure to co-opt the Conference, pressure to disrupt it; and that we therefore need to do everything we can to critically engage with and support it.+

Six, given all this, we therefore need to recognise the emancipatory, insurgent, and anti-imperialist character also of this international, transnational, and transcommunal Bolivian initiative, at a regional and world level, at several levels of meaning and in terms of several empires;[12] we need equally to recognise that as such, it will be under great pressure from all those who oppose addressing climate change as well as the broader political-economic changes that are required for this – pressure to co-opt the Conference, pressure to disrupt it; and that we therefore need to do everything we can to critically engage with and support it.-

Seven, the Call – in particular - has very special interest and significance for social movement in India. First, it is broadly very consistent with the spirit of the Statement issued by the India Climate Justice Network in November 2009, as a letter to the Prime Minister.+

Seven, the Call – in particular - has very special interest and significance for social movement in India. First, it is broadly very consistent with the spirit of the Statement issued by the India Climate Justice Network in November 2009, as a letter to the Prime Minister.[13]-

Second, because of the extremely prominent position that the government of India has succeeded in leveraging for itself in the climate change process by linking up with other big economies of what till recently was called ‘the South’ (Brazil, China, and South Africa, forming the so-called ‘BASIC’ group) and by the BASIC countries striking a deal with the US. There is of course no question that we need to see the global negotiations around climate change, and therefore also this Conference, not only in terms of the UNFCCC process but also in terms of the global economy and of geo-politics; and therefore, whether or not Bolivia agrees with the actions of the BASIC group in Copenhagen, it will need to attempt to get this group, and the member countries, to play a leading role in the Cochabamba Conference – but where, if this happens, the Bolivians may well be asked by such countries to step back from its very radical proposals.+

Second, because of the extremely prominent position that the government of India has succeeded in leveraging for itself in the climate change process by linking up with other big economies of what till recently was called ‘the South’ (Brazil, China, and South Africa, forming the so-called ‘BASIC’ group) and by the BASIC countries striking a deal with the US. There is of course no question that we need to see the global negotiations around climate change, and therefore also this Conference, not only in terms of the UNFCCC process but also in terms of the global economy and of geo-politics; and therefore, whether or not Bolivia agrees with the actions of the BASIC group in Copenhagen, it will need to attempt to get this group, and the member countries, to play a leading role in the Cochabamba Conference – but where, if this happens, the Bolivians may well be asked by such countries to step back from its very radical proposals.[14]-

And third, because there is such a continuity between this profound idea of a Mother Earth – here, articulated by the indigenous peoples of the Andean region of the Americas both as Madre Tierra and in indigenous languages as Pachamama – and the concept of dharati ma that is so widely respected and practised both by Adivasis (indigenous peoples) and farmers in India and that is therefore so deeply rooted in our own cultures of this region of the world. We, as humanity, are therefore already linked together across the planet – and indeed, bound together - by this fundamental concept; and so it becomes our responsibility as human beings in all parts of the world to respect, protect, and promote this concept.+

And third, because there is such a continuity between this profound idea of a Mother Earth – here, articulated by the indigenous peoples of the Andean region of the Americas both as Madre Tierra and in indigenous languages as Pachamama – and the concept of Dharati ma that is so widely respected and practised both by Adivasis (indigenous peoples) and farmers in India and that is therefore so deeply rooted in our own cultures of this region of the world. We, as humanity, are therefore already linked together across the planet – and indeed, bound together - by this fundamental concept; and so it becomes our responsibility as human beings in all parts of the world to respect, protect, and promote this concept.-

Eight, and in direct relation to this, we need also to recognise that this Call by Evo Morales Ayma as President of the “Plurinational State of Bolivia” is significantly different from the Call made last year by Hugo Chavez, as President of Venezuela, for the formation of a ‘Fifth International’. This is the case, first, in terms of its spirit of openness and where it is not immediately calling for a new institutional international but of a process international (or movement international) – building or contributing to world movement around climate change and a world wide web of resistance and emancipatory alternatives based on a very real crisis; and second, in terms of its seeing this process as directly growing out of the pains of Mother Earth and organically related to them – and not separate. The very conception of the two Calls, and of the politics in the two Calls, is radically different. Even if Morales and Chavez are otherwise seen at a regional (Latin American) and world level as allies and as both being of the ‘left’, and even if both are from non-settler sections of their respective societies, it is crucial to recognise that the two projects are different and that we need to carefully, critically, and separately relate to each.+

Eight, and in direct relation to this, we need also to recognise that this Call by Evo Morales Ayma as President of the “Plurinational State of Bolivia” is significantly different from the Call made last year by Hugo Chavez, as President of Venezuela, for the formation of a ‘Fifth International’.[15] This is the case, first, in terms of its spirit of openness and where it is not immediately calling for a new institutional international but of a process international (or movement international) – building or contributing to world movement around climate change and a world wide web of resistance and emancipatory alternatives based on a very real crisis; and second, in terms of its seeing this process as directly growing out of the pains of Mother Earth and organically related to them – and not separate. The very conception of the two Calls, and of the politics in the two Calls, is radically different. Even if Morales and Chavez are otherwise seen at a regional (Latin American) and world level as allies and as both being of the ‘left’, and even if both are from non-settler sections of their respective societies, it is crucial to recognise that the two projects are different and that we need to carefully, critically, and separately relate to each.-

Bolivia’s Call is a call for a radical alternative, made in the interests of the planet called Earth that is our Home, and for power-to among the peoples of the world : The power to transform ourselves and the world, and to build a life and world of well-being, justice, mutual respect, and peace. It is also, in the words of John Holloway, a crack : A crack in the wall that is government; a crack in the path to the future that is currently being laid out for us, of governments and corporations converting every crisis into one more profit-seeking opportunity; a crack within which there are now seeds – seeds that can break open those walls, these paths. The Bolivian proposals are those seeds. All of us are, or can be, those seeds. If we believe in social transformation and in protecting and nurturing the Earth, we need to critically but openly relate to and work along with this initiative; and we need also to work to ensure that this radicality remains its essential character, since this will always be under threat.+

Bolivia’s Call is a call for a radical alternative, made in the interests of the planet called Earth that is our Home, and for power-to among the peoples of the world : The power to transform ourselves and the world, and to build a life and world of well-being, justice, mutual respect, and peace. It is also, in the words of John Holloway, a crack[16] : A crack in the wall that is government; a crack in the path to the future that is currently being laid out for us, of governments and corporations converting every crisis into one more profit-seeking opportunity; a crack within which there are now seeds – seeds that can break open those walls, these paths. The Bolivian proposals are those seeds. All of us are, or can be, those seeds. If we believe in social transformation and in protecting and nurturing the Earth, we need to critically but openly relate to and work along with this initiative; and we need also to work to ensure that this radicality remains its essential character, since this will always be under threat.-

And second, the government of Bolivia has also been open enough to invite all nation-states to come to the Cochabamba Conference, whatever their role was in Copenhagen. Ostensibly, the objective of their doing this is to allow such delegations to observe and to interact with social movements and NGOs - but where the reality is that they, should they come, will of course also be acting to heavily influence the outcomes of the meeting. In short, it is quite possible that because of this, the resulting focus on COP will again tend to derail and/or overwhelm the Bolivian initiatives.+

And second, the government of Bolivia has also been open enough to invite all nation-states to come to the Cochabamba Conference, whatever their role was in Copenhagen.[17] Ostensibly, the objective of their doing this is to allow such delegations to observe and to interact with social movements and NGOs - but where the reality is that they, should they come, will of course also be acting to heavily influence the outcomes of the meeting. In short, it is quite possible that because of this, the resulting focus on COP will again tend to derail and/or overwhelm the Bolivian initiatives.-

Finally, we need also to be alive to the criticism that is emerging within Bolivia – such as that while the government has issued this Call for an international people’s conference, with radical proposals, its actions within the country with respect to directly related issues such as protection of the environment are not consistent. , We need to be aware of this possibility and to study such criticisms and developments closely, even as we act in solidarity.+

Finally, we need also to be alive to the criticism that is emerging within Bolivia – such as that while the government has issued this Call for an international people’s conference, with radical proposals, its actions within the country with respect to directly related issues such as protection of the environment are not consistent.[18], [19] We need to be aware of this possibility and to study such criticisms and developments closely, even as we act in solidarity.-
<p>::!PEOPLES’ WORLD CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE />AND MOTHER EARTH’S RIGHTS<br />::
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center;">PEOPLES’ WORLD CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND MOTHER EARTH’S RIGHTSdiv>h1>-

The Government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia calls on the peoples of the world, social movements, and Mother Earth’s defenders, and invites scientists, academics, lawyers and governments that want to work with their citizens to the Peoples’ World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth’s Rights to be held from 20th to 22nd April 2010 in Cochabamba, Bolivia.+

The Government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia calls on the peoples of the world, social movements, and Mother Earth’s defenders, and invites scientists, academics, lawyers and governments that want to work with their citizens to the Peoples’ World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth’s Rights to be held from 20th to 22nd April 2010 in Cochabamba, Bolivia.[20]]]> Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:37:45 +0100 http://www.cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=CACIMEvents .diffchar { color:red; } -

• January 19, 2010 WRI Ahmedabad Conference Open Letter | Exploratory Workshop Discussion - English | Exploratory Workshop Discussion - Spanish+
  • January 19, 2010 WRI Ahmedabad Conference Open Letter | Exploratory Workshop Discussion Note - English | Exploratory Workshop Discussion Note - Spanish]]> Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:34:49 +0100 http://www.cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=WRIworkshopSpanish .diffchar { color:red; } -
    !!Guerra y Resistencia en el Próximo Medio Siglo
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    Guerra y Resistencia en el Próximo Medio Siglo>>]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:12:04 +0100 http://www.cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=WRIworkshop .diffchar { color:red; } -

    Contact details : Jai Sen (jai.sen@cacim.net) and Rajni Dave (+91-79-2929 6413)

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    Contact details : Jai Sen (jai.sen@cacim.net) and Rajni Dave (+91-79-2929 6413)

    + ]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:52:19 +0100 http://www.cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=LetterToWRI .diffchar { color:red; } +

    Embracing and addressing the unfolding future : Some suggestions for the WRI Ahmedabad Conference

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    Open letter on the WRI (War Resisters’ International) Ahmedabad Conference List, January 19 2010 @ 4:31:53 pm IST (GMT+05:30)

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    Tuesday, January 19 2010+

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    Dear friends organising and/or coming to the WRI Conference in Ahmedabad+

    + +

    I am writing, as a fellow traveller and participant at the Ahmedabad Conference, to comment on the agenda and programme, and to put forward a request for modifying it. In these terms, I have been glad to note that the document that has been circulated says that the programme is still provisional, so I do hope that what I have to say can be taken into account !+

    + +

    Let me first lay out the ground. In short, I want to suggest that we, as a species, are today faced with what is in some ways almost totally new forms, or manifestations, of war and violence. Given this, I want to suggest, in all modesty – as a relative outsider - that WRI, as one of the most significant and creative anti-war formations that today exists, must make its business to address this new situation – and even if requires, as I think it does, new ways of thinking and new ways of looking at war and violence; and that given the urgency of the issue and that WRI happens to be organising a world conference at this juncture, it should take this opportunity to do so at Ahmedabad itself.+

    + +

    The new form/s of war and violence are related to climate change. First, I suggest we need to see what is happening in the world today – the rape of the planet – as human beings waging war on Planet Earth. We need to have this on our agenda.+ (In case you have not seen the film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand? titled ‘Home’, please do so; you can see and/or download it @ www.home-2009.com/.)+

    + +

    Second, as I see it – drawing of course from others, and from the debate that is raging in the world today – we are today faced with a situation where there is every likelihood that we are going to go past the tipping point in the foreseeable future; and that as the heat builds up over the next fifty years, literally and figuratively, and as waters rise and other resources such as land are depleted, we will move into a historically totally new stage of unpredictable non-linear system collapse, in turn unleashing forces in combinations that we as yet know nothing about and therefore today, as yet, have no ways of addressing; for the so-far somewhat linear, predictable systems and processes of ‘national’ social organisation, planning, government, and decision-making that we so far know and depend on are likely to be completely inadequate.+

    + +

    Even though this might sound rather like a doomsday prediction, I believe we need to accept that this is today a definite possibility, in large part because the most of the governments of the world – and especially those of large countries, both from the North and the South, have - by virtue of their greed for power-over and their focus on ‘national interests’, and their consequent short-sightedness and inability to think of the interests of the planet as a whole - already made clear at Copenhagen this last month that they are unwilling to address the incipient war and violence that is looming (and in some ways have already been unleashed) in the form of cataclysmic climate change; and that they are structurally incapable of doing so.+

    + +

    (This is not at all to suggest that governments are the only agent of social and political change, but simply to recognise the political reality that as things stand, we as human beings have so far given governments the virtual monopoly of making decisions on our behalves at the global level.)+

    + +

    To my understanding, if any of this makes any sense, then there are at least four key aspects of this situation that we must address :+

    + +

    One, and as above : What is the nature of this war ? How should we conceive of war on a planet, and how can we fight this ?+

    + +

    Two, that as the serial impacts of climate change begin to be experienced, we are going to see human migration at a scale that has not been known in history, and as resources deplete and competition rises, wars – serial wars - will break out between peoples, between communities, and between nations; and also, in a new development, between movements representing different constituencies – a situation that will pose entirely new challenges;+

    + +

    Three, not surprisingly, the forces that are primarily responsible for the climate change and crisis that Planet Earth is today facing are primarily corporate in nature, driven by profit and greed; but as the situation worsens, we are also going to see opening up a situation both of struggle between corporate forces that finally declare their autonomy of social-governmental control to defend the profit and rape that they believe is their right; and where in doing so, they will also take up arms against the rest of society that now begins to openly struggle for the same scarce resources;+

    + +

    And :+

    + +

    Four, since we are today already in a situation where large numbers of ordinary human beings have also become accomplice to the violence being inflicted by corporate greed - by virtue of our lifestyles and individual consumption habits – we must therefore look not only at corporations but also at ourselves and our complicity; and how to break these chains, in terms of production, consumption, and the handing of waste.+

    + +

    As I say, to my knowledge at least (and where I am the first to admit that this is very limited) we as yet have very little understanding of this unfolding future; and so my further suggestions to WRI and this conference are first, that implicitly, this new situation fundamentally re-defines ‘war’ (or rather, in some ways takes us back into definitions that I think we thought we had moved past, centuries ago) - and WRI therefore perhaps needs to reformulate its conceptualisation of the subject; and beyond this, two, that this new situation possibly brings into question all forms of organisation and resistance that we today know of, possibly even making them irrelevant; in part because of its enormous, all-encompassing scale and in part because of its non-linear, unpredictable, and ‘chaotic’ nature.+

    + +

    But if this scenario is at all valid, then I think we must ask ourselves : In a phrase, what does this scenario have to say to WRI ? And equally, what does WRI have to say to it, and what does non-violence and non-violent resistance have to offer to this future ?+

    + +

    Over these past weeks, and as I waited for the Conference programme, I had been hoping to see some reflections and refractions of this scenario in the exchange on this group and in the proposed agenda; or other interpretations of it. Now that I have seen the programme however, and even though I recognise that the issues that the programme has laid out are in themselves totally valid and are even structurally related to the new forces that I have sketched out above, I do not see this content there; and so I would in short like to humbly suggest that being held as it is in January 2010, immediately after the farce, failure, and tragedy of Copenhagen, the Ahmedabad Conference must surely try – even at this late stage – to address this new scenario.+

    + +

    (Ideally, the organisers of the Ahmedabad Conference would have anticipated the almost certain failure that was going to taken place in Copenhagen, and planned ahead for this (and/or planned ahead anticipating all the likely outcomes); but even if this is not the case, it is - I would like to suggest – never too late, and on the contrary that it is incumbent on an organisation such as WRI to do so.)+

    + +

    With all due respect, while the agenda that has been proposed for the Ahmedabad Conference is certainly very valid in terms of history and reality as we today know it and as we have experienced over the past fifty years – and indeed, where much of this will in principle also hold true for the next fifty years, too – I would like to suggest that the issues that have been otherwise so well articulated there will be totally dwarfed by the new scenario of war and violence that is unfolding in our times, on our planet; and that we must, as sensate beings, take a longer view and try and read this fundamentally existential moment in the history of life on planet earth, and address it. With whatever acumen we have, and with all the force that we have.+

    + +

    I know that raising such issues two days before a major conference may be seen as being not very helpful, but I urge you all to please – please – take a step back to pause and reflect on what I, at least, see – and have laid out above – as happening, and to consider my suggestion and request. I am hoping that what I am saying will be seen in terms of the urgency of the times we are living in, and also of the moment we have in Ahmedabad, of bringing together some of the finest and most sensitive and creative anti-war and resistance strategists in the world. Do we seize this opportunity, or do we not ?+

    + +

    One more point : If my arguments and suggestions make any sense to you, then I also urge the organisers and participants of the Ahmedabad Conference to also look ahead to the ‘Peoples’ World Conference On Climate Change And The Rights Of Mother Earth’ that has been called by Evo Morales as President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia in April this year, which to my understanding says many sensible things; and, moreover, attempt to actively relate to it. As I am laying out elsewhere (in an initiative some of us in India are planning to take towards acting in solidarity with this initiative), I believe that the Bolivian initiative, by itself but all the more if taken together with other initiatives being taken by the indigenous peoples and nations of South and Central America, is something very special; and so, and even though I think it is perhaps the case that WRI has in the past tended to act somewhat independently, charting its own course, I suggest that today it is time to collaborate and to synergise. You can get more information at http://cmpcc.org/.+

    + +

    With warm greetings, with the deepest concern but also in hope, trust, and peace –+

    + + +

    Jai Sen+

    + ]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:33:14 +0100 http://www.cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=test .diffchar { color:red; } - <p>
    
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    <div class="Section1">
    

    MergerITUsRevis2006

    
    

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    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">3,500tt>
    

    
    

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    style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-GB">The
    International
    Union Merger of November 2006:n>

    
    

    al"
    

    
    

    style="text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"tt>
    

    
    

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    style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-GB">Top-Down,
    Eurocentric and…

    r />

    
    

    <tt> style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span
    

    
    

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    style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-GB">

    
    

    e="text-align: center;"
    

    
    

    align="center"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">[A
    revised and extended version of a
    contribution to International Union Rights,

    
    

    href="http://www.ictur.org/">www.ictur.org, Autumn
    2006]span>

    
    

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    lang="EN-GB"><a href="mailto:p.waterman@inter.nl.net">p.waterman@inter.nl.net
    

    
    

    
    

    align="center">oma;" />

    
    

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    style="font-family: Tahoma; color: red;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">At a
    conference
    in Vienna, early November, 2006, there will take place the unification
    of most
    of the major international and of certain national trade unions in a
    new
    organisation. Unlike previous such launchings, however, this is
    occurring
    without any general global upsurge of union protest or expressions of
    labour
    self-confidence, and without public knowledge. Although the parties
    involved
    talk about the creation of a new union international, the word
    ‘merger’ seems
    rather more appropriate. This for two reasons.

    
    

    stify;">r />

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�span>p>
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Firstly,>
    >>
    <p> style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB"> what is
    taking
    place here represents a largely administrative unification between two
    Western
    European-based international trade union centres of the
    social-reformist
    tradition. These are the International Confederation of Free Trade
    Unions/Global
    Unions (ICFTU/GU) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL).

    
    class="MsoNormal"
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Given the
    serious
    effects on them of neo-liberalism and globalisation – in both
    membership and
    financial terms – this makes managerial sense. The ICFTU
    (1949), inheritor of
    the international Social-Democratictitle="Create page: Social-Democratic" class="wiki wikinew">? tradition, is here the major
    partner,
    claiming some 150 million members. The WCL (1968) descends from the
    International Federation of Christian Trade Unions (1920), is of
    Social-Catholic="tiki-editpage.php?page=Social-Catholic" title="Create page: Social-Catholic" class="wiki wikinew">? inspiration, and claims some 26 million –
    largely in Latin
    America. (The WCL wildly exaggerates its own membership figures. It has
    one or
    two major West European affiliates, but in the South is to a large
    extent a
    development project of West-Europeaniki wikinew">?a> Christian Democracy, without whose
    funding
    it would collapse).

    
    

    al"
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Other
    international organisations involved, such as the European Trade Union
    Confederation (1974) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee of the
    Organisation
    for Economic Cooperation and Development (TUAC 1948). are similarly
    social-reformist and based in Western Europe. The unification also
    involves the
    trade-specific internationals (e.g. public service or agriculture) of
    the ICFTU
    and WCL. Some of these have already merged. However, these further
    complicate ther />merger. The Global Union Federations associated with the ICFTU in the
    Globalr />Unions network, are much older than, and autonomous from, the ICFTU.
    Those of
    the WCL are merely departments. The WCL, moreover, seems reluctant to
    have the
    global or regional merger reaching down to national level. The role of
    the ETUC
    in the whole process needs emphasis for two reasons. Firstly, it
    >provides an
    explicit or implicit model of a unified union body, being formally
    autonomous from
    the existing international centres and having long included national
    unions of
    both the Communist and Catholic tradition (Moreno 2005). Secondly,
    however, it
    is itself self-subordinated to the European Union and thus to an elite
    social
    accord of problematic value. This has been extensively argued by
    veteran left
    labour specialist, Richard Hyman:

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="margin: 0in 36.85pt 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">With the
    advent
    of labour diplomacy, a distinctive model of international trade union
    bureaucratisation became the line of least resistance. We may note, in
    this
    context, that the double-edged certification of labour as a 'social
    partner'
    within the institutions of the European Union has had analogous
    effects:
    providing recognition and material resources, but incorporating the
    ETUC within
    an elite policy community largely detached from those it claims to
    represent.
    (Hyman 2002)

    
    

    
    

    style="margin: 0in 36.85pt 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

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    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">And:span>

    />

    
    

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    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="margin: 0in 36.85pt 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">All too
    often, official
    trade union practice seems implicitly to accept that internationalism
    is an
    elite concern, that it is safer if the membership does not learn too
    much of
    policies which they might perhaps oppose. In some unions, certainly,
    international issues are given reasonable prominence in internal
    communications
    and education; I fear that this is far from typical, though opennessr />may be
    increasing as unions struggle to find a response to
    ‘globalization’. In any
    event, since effective international solidarity is impossible without ar />‘willingness to act&rsquo; on the part of grassroots
    trade unionists, it is
    unattainable without an active strategy by union leaders and activists<br />to
    enhance knowledge, understanding and identification of common interests
    cross-nationally. This means engaging in what might be termed an
    ‘internal
    social dialogue’. (Hyman 2005)>
    

    
    </p>
    

    style="margin: 0in 36.85pt 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    class="MsoNormal"
    

    
    

    style="margin-right: 1.3pt; text-align: justify;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Given that
    there
    is no international, or even Southern, union criticism of the ETUC
    model, it
    seems likely that the new organisation will reproduce this model. There
    is,
    further, a rumour that the new international will move to Geneva, the
    city that
    also hosts the International Labour Organisation. Whether it does or
    not, there
    is plentiful evidence of the increasing dependency of the international
    unions
    on this global-level ‘partner’. The ILO is an
    inter-state body in which the
    unions have only a 25 percent vote but are treated as representing also
    that
    majority of the world’s labour force that is un-unionised or
    un-unionisable.

    
    

    style="text-align: justify;">

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">The wordtt>
    ‘merger’
    seems appropriate, secondly, in analogy with the
    contemporary corporate
    world, in which it is the boards of directors who are involved, whilst<br />those
    lower down the hierarchy are either uninformed, passively observe or
    – where
    more actively concerned and involved – may at best express
    some opinions or hope
    that ‘unity means strength’. In this union case the
    merger has been virtually
    invisible to the 176 million or so of union members claimed, to world
    public
    opinion in general - and even to that progressive part of such in the
    new
    ‘global justice and solidarity movement’
    (GJ&SM). Information denial here
    goes to the point at which a relevant article by the ICFTU’s
    Joint General
    Secretary was published not on the ICFTU website, but in Medellin,
    Colombia (Oliveira
    2006).

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">This
    virtual
    invisibility has also been true of ‘virtual
    reality’. Bearing in mind the increasing
    number and professional quality of international union or labour
    websites, and
    the ease of publication on them, this invisibility is puzzling, at the
    very
    least. Neither on the site of the ICFTU, the Global Unions or the WCL
    has it
    been possible to find more than a few meagre messages on something
    supposedly
    of significance to tens of millions! (This invisibility extends even tor />the
    otherwise innovative and autonomous site, LabourStart). pan
    

    
    

    style=""> Indeed, an inquiry about this lack,
    addressed
    to the Press Office of the ICFTU, produced only a reference back two
    yearsi>
    to a resolution of its 2004 Congress! One can only speculate about this
    virtual
    silence. Perhaps the leaderships are themselves ambiguous about the
    project, or
    worried about its success, or simply aware that this represents a new
    form
    without a new content.

    
    

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    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">I wouldtt>
    have
    considered taking the two-hour train journey from The Hague to try to<br />solve
    this puzzle. But I was apparently fortunate in being thousands of air
    miles from
    Brussels, base of both major centres involved, whilst writing this
    piece. For
    it is in Latin America that there has been most interest in the merger
    – at
    least at regional level. This may be because of a recent rise in labour
    and
    other social protest in Latin America. Or because it is here that the
    WCL has a
    certain presence. It is in the sub-continent, in any case, that there
    has been
    expressed most concern about the political content of the merger, the
    autonomy
    it will allow at regional level and its implications at the national
    one. This I found
    in a slim collection produced by a regional
    consultative labour council (Consejo Consultivo Laboral Andino 2005)
    and
    published by the Peruvian labour NGO, PLADES. It consists of 13 short
    contributions, from union leaders and specialists, national, regional
    and
    international, and from a wide range of tendencies, including the<br />Communist. It
    is available in both print and digital form, and provides a model which
    regrettably does not exist at the international level or in languages
    other
    than Spanish.

    
    

    
    

    <tt> style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">r />

    
    

    style="color: red; font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">The most
    obvious challenge />in Latin America has been the competition between the regional
    organisations of
    the ICFTU and the WCL. The regional body of the ICFTU, the ORITr />(Organizaci�n
    Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores, 1951), is actually a hemispheric
    organisation, including the major national union centres of the USA and
    Canada.
    That of the WCL, the CLAT (Confederaci�n Latinamericana de
    Trabajadores), is
    restricted to Latin America. In the past the ORIT was widely associated
    with
    what was then called the &lsquo;AFL-CIO-CIA’, in other<br />words, with the use of the US
    unions as a channel for US corporate or state manipulation of Latin
    American
    unions (Agee 1975). In the
    past, the
    CLAT has struck radical notes, in favour of worker self-management, or
    the
    organisation of the self-employed. But neither the one thing nor the
    other
    means that today the CLAT is more radical than the ORIT. Its
    credentials have
    in the past been also seriously challenged (Stichting Imperialisme en
    Onderontwikkeling 1984). The ORIT has recently itself been rather more
    assertive
    than its mother organisation in Brussels. So much so that this mother,
    the
    ICFTU, has ignored its Labour Platform for the Americas (2006),
    >despite
    its hardly revolutionary orientation. The relative radicalism of ICFTU
    affiliates in the region is suggested in concerns about the composition<br />of the
    new international and its relationship with the broader social
    movements:p>r />

    ormal"
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="margin: 0in 36.85pt 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.85pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">ki" href="T" rel="">Ta>here<br />has to be a more balanced relationship between numerical and
    occupational
    representation in the new leadership, as also with gender and
    ethnicity. A
    union centre cannot be truly global if it is controlled solely by white
    men
    from industrialised countries. :p>

    
    

    
    

    style="margin: 0in 36.85pt 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.85pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="margin: 0in 36.85pt 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.85pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">…
    One of the great victories we have achieved in the continent was the
    non-implementation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. This
    agreement, nefarious
    for all workers, particularly those of Latin America and the Caribbean,
    was
    only possible thanks to the united struggle of union centres of all ther />countries, from Canada to Argentina, through the mediation of the ORIT
    and the
    Continental Social Alliance (CSA). This alliance, in addition to being
    of the
    North with the South &ndash; even if for different motives />– also incorporated a
    series of social movements and NGOs, and was a great victory we cannot
    lose. (Jakobsen
    2005:66-7)

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">One should
    not,
    finally, discount the influence in Latin America of the World Social
    Forum and
    its regional spin-offs, most of which have taken place in ther />sub-continent.
    The WSF has provided not only a site at which some of the (closed-door)
    union
    negotiations have taken place, but have also suggested more holistic
    alternatives to globalisation than have been traditionally offered by
    the major
    union internationals. Involvement in general social protest may have
    itself
    stimulated Latin American union concern about the content
    or ideology
    of a unification that is likely to continue a model forged in Western
    Europe
    during the years of both the Welfare State and the Cold War - both of
    which
    have pretty much disappeared.

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">p>�

    r />

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">The Cold
    War
    requires mention because this unification excludes the World Federation
    of
    Trade Unions (WFTU), an organisation that became increasingly Communist
    because
    of the Cold War and then reproduced the misfortunes of its sponsoring
    bloc. A
    shell of its former self, it still has some following. This is largely
    sentimental
    insofar as WFTU is not demonstrably to the left of the ICFTU/WCL. For
    evidence
    of this consider the Beijing Consensus (2004), in which the WFTU was
    involved. In
    so far as WFTU still has affiliates that are extensions of the state in
    Communist (and certain Middle Eastern?) countries, it can hardly
    complain at
    its non-invitation to the party.

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Withinr />Latin
    America, the WFTU is largely dependent on the Cuban state and its
    unions. There
    may even still exist its regional affiliate from the 1960s-80s, the Congreso
    Permanente de Unidad de los Sindicatos de America Latina (CPUSTAL),
    but
    this has only a skeletal web existence in Wikipedia. However, the WFTU
    has national
    affiliates elsewhere in the region, and these are predictably critical
    of a
    unification which excludes their tradition (Pacho 2005). Such concerns
    have
    emerged from Communist-oriented unions elsewhere (Majumdar 2000). But
    these complaints
    are either iterations of traditional Communist ideology, or simply
    objections without
    any new ideological elements or strategic proposals. Neither the
    presence nor
    the absence of the (ex-) Communist unions seems likely to make muchr />difference
    to the new organisation.

    
    

    al" />

    
    

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    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Questioned
    about
    the coming merger, a North American international labour-rights
    specialist,
    based in Vienna itself, said he knew nothing about it though he was
    interested
    in attending the event. pan>

    
    

    
    

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    ass="MsoNormal" />

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">antt>
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">When I
    asked a
    Latin American with 10-15 years experience in international unionism,
    for a sentence
    or two on whether the event would be significant for the labour
    movement
    internationally, he replied with one word, ‘No’.

    
    

    
    

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    style="color: black; font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">A
    veteran South-Asianf="tiki-editpage.php?page=South-Asian" title="Create page: South-Asian" class="wiki wikinew">? labour organiser, currently engaged in labour and
    social
    movement solidarity internationally, was certainly aware of the coming
    merger.
    He suggested it would have no positive effect at either regional or
    national
    level. He considered it a Western and top-down initiative, with any
    unifying
    prospects locally being obstructed by self-interested national
    leadership
    concerns ‘to keep hold of their assets, such as buildings,
    and their foreign
    project funding’. Moreover, he argued that exclusion of the
    WFTU meant the
    exclusion of major national union centres in the region.

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">an />

    
    

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    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">And a
    highly-experienced
    and qualified European observer commented:

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">r />

    
    

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    />

    
    

    style="margin: 0in 36.85pt 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">r />

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">ss="wiki" href="W" rel="">Wtt>
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">hat is the />politics of the new International
    supposed to be? No one knows...but I fear it might be a divorce from
    any sort
    of explicit ideology, although I guess they won't be able to escaper />from the
    subliminal, immanent ideology of the trade union movement which is
    obliged to
    wage the class struggle whether it wants it or not, or even knows it or
    not. It
    will probably be couched in human� rights terms.

    
    

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    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">�

    tt>
    

    gn: justify;">

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">I eventually
    found the proposed politics of the new international,
    along with its proposed name, in a document buried on the website of
    the World
    Confederation of Labour (2006). I would characterise this policy as
    somewhat
    broader, though hardly more radical, than a human rights policy. I
    characterise
    it as a ‘global neo-Keynesianism’. By this I mean
    the promotion at global level
    of the old West-European? model of national welfare capitalism. Two
    immediate
    and obvious challenges to this are: 1) In so far as Keynesianism was
    successful
    within nation states, what argument or evidence (as contrasted with a
    hope or
    dream) is there for its possible success at global level? and 2) given
    that
    even powerful unions were unable to prevent the destruction of this
    model at
    national level, what evidence or argument is there that a dramatically
    weakened
    international movement could establish it at global level? The answer
    that its
    promoters might provide lie, perhaps, in an even greater dependency on
    the ILO
    (itself seriously marginalised by neo-liberal globalisation) than I had
    previously thought. Reference to the global justice movement, on the
    other
    hand, is both brief and obscure. This new international, in other
    words,
    appears to be appealing less to the world’s workers, major
    new social movements
    and global civil society than to hypothetical patrons above.

    
    

    soNormal"
    

    
    

    style="margin: 0in 36.85pt 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">�

    
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">It isr />significant – if hardly promising – that the only
    extensive
    analysis I have been able to find of the unification is on the website
    of a
    self-isolated Trotskyist international labour initiative. It is written
    by a former
    leader of the French Force Ouvri�re. He concludes:

    
    

    ustify;">an
    

    
    

    lang="EN-GB">This proposed merger has turned
    its back on the great founding principles of proletarian
    internationalism,
    based on the understanding that society is divided into social classes
    with
    opposed and contradictory interests - that is, on the one hand, the
    exploiters
    of wage labour and, on the other hand, the exploited who are forced to
    sell
    their labour to survive [] All the sectors involved in this trade union
    unification project would be well[] advised to reflect before heading
    down a
    road that could lead to a dead-end with totalitarian implications.
    (Sandri 2005)

    
    

    e="text-align: justify;">pan
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">The French
    CGT (ex-WFTU),
    however, has been playing an active part in the unification process (

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">Conf�d�ration
    G�n�rale du Travail 2006,
    Schwartz 2006).

    
    

    yle="text-align: justify;">r />

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">�span>

    tt>
    

    ass="MsoNormal"
    

    
    

    <tt> style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Given the
    extent
    to which the international unions have been themselves infected, if not
    significantly
    affected, by the global justice movement, a totalitarian outcome seems
    the />least imaginable of scenarios. A reformist orientation seems more
    likely –
    though one opted for without the information and debate demonstrated by
    the
    newest social movements. The founding event will tell us more. I am
    aware of a
    number of independent observers who will be present and from whom we
    can hope />for commentary. But further stagnation, disorientation and ambiguity
    seems
    likely until and unless an open global dialogue about the merger takes
    place. <o:p>

    
    

    
    

    <tt> style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    class="MsoNormal"
    

    
    

    <tt> style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">But such a
    dialogue will have to go beyond the diplomatic mode, in which the
    different
    parties who have spoken (including sceptics and opponents) are
    operating under
    a gentlemen’s agreement not to mention painful truths, for
    example about the
    problematically democratic credentials of many of their own national
    affiliates, about financial shenanigans, and about past subordination
    to states
    and blocs at every level.

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p>�

    
    

    al" />p>
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">A serious
    dialogue
    might be sparked by the translation and distribution, even after the
    unification, of the Latin American compilation I have both referred to
    and made
    use of. Without this kind of institutional initiative, we will have to
    look
    elsewhere for sources of a meaningful renewal and unification />(definitely in
    this order) of the international labour movement. But it seems to me
    that this is
    likely to come, if at all, from new sectors of the working class, out
    of their
    increasingly common militancy, and to be inspired less by the new union
    organisation
    than by the global justice and solidarity movement (Waterman and Timms
    2004-5,
    Waterman 2006). It is likely to also take the form less of a new union<br />institution based on a 19^th century model, more
    of effective global
    networks.

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    e="text-align: justify;">an
    

    
    

    <tt> style="" lang="EN-GB">Note: r />

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Thanks must
    be expressed to
    Dan Gallin for comments on drafts of this paper. He cannot, of course,
    be held
    responsible for what I have done with them.

    
    

    
    

    style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="" lang="EN-GB">Peter Waterman
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">(London
    1936) worked for the
    WFTU in Prague, 1966-9. As an academic (1972-98) he specialised on
    labour and
    other internationalisms. His latest book, in Spanish, is The
    New Nervous
    System of Internationalism and Solidarity (2006). Much of
    his other work
    can be found by a web search on man hague>.
    He is currently
    writing his autobiography as an internationalist..

    
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="" lang="EN-GB">
    
    i" href="if !supportLineBreakNewLine" rel="">if !supportLineBreakNewLine>
    
    endif>

    
    

    
    

    style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"
    

    
    

    lang="EN-GB"> style="page-break-before: always;"
    

    
    

    clear="all"> />
    

    
    

    style="" lang="EN-GB">Resourcesan>

    r />

    gn: justify;">

    
    

    style="" lang="EN-GB">�

    r />

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">r />

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">an
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Agee, />Philip. 1975. CIA Diary: Inside the Company.
    Harmondsworth: Penguin
    Books.

    
    

    al"
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Beijing
    Consensus. 2004. ‘Beijing Consensus: International Forum on
    Economic
    Globalization and Trade Unions’, October 11, 2004.

    
    

    style="">
    

    
    

    href="http://www.acftu.org.cn/Consensus.htm">
    

    
    

    style="" lang="ES">http://www.acftu.org.cn/Consensus.htm
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="ES">

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="ES">Consejo
    Consultivo Laboral Andino. 2005. Reflexiones sobre la unidad
    internacional
    sindical (Reflections on International Trade Union Unity).
    Lima: Consejo
    Consultivo Laboral Andino/Programa Laboral de Desarrollo.

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">Conf�d�ration
    G�n�rale du
    Travail. 2006. ‘Introduction de Bernard Thibault au CCN du 17
    septembre 2006
    sur l’ adh�sion � la
    Conf�d�ration Syndicale Internationale’
    (Introduction by
    Bernard Thisbault to the CCN of September 17, 2006, on Joining ther />International Trade Union Confederation). September 29.

    
    

    style="">
    

    
    

    style="color: blue;">ww.cgt.fr/internet/">http://www.cgt.fr/internet/
    <o:p>

    />

    
    

    <tt> style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">Gallin, Dan.
    2004. &lsquo;Not With
    a Bang But With a Whimper&rsquo;.

    
    

    href="http://www.global-labour.org/big_bang.htm">http://www.global-labour.org/big_bang.htm
    

    
    

    class="MsoNormal"
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">Hyman,
    Richard. 2002. ‘The
    International Labour Movement on the Threshold of Two Centuries:
    Agitation,
    Organisation, Bureaucracy, Diplomacy’,

    
    

    href="http://www.arbarkiv.nu/pdf_wrd/Hyman_int.pdf">http://www.arbarkiv.nu/pdf_wrd/Hyman_int.pdf.
    

    
    

    style="">

    
    

    lass="MsoNormal"
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">Hyman,
    Richard. 2005. ‘Trade
    Unions and the Politics of the European Social Model’, Economic
    and
    Industrial Democracy, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 9-40 an>

    
    

    
    

    <tt> style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">Jakobsen,
    Kjeld. 2005. ‘La />nueva central mundial: Pan y rosas? (The New World Centre: Bread and
    Roses?),
    in Consejo Consultivo

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Laboral
    Andino.. al;" />

    
    

    lang="ES">Reflexiones sobre la unidad internacional sindical
    pan>

    
    

    lang="ES">(Reflections on
    International Trade Union Unity). Lima: Consejo Consultivo Laboralr />Andino/Programa Laboral de Desarrollo. n> />

    
    

    <tt> style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Pp. 64-9.
    

    
    

    href="http://www.ccla.org.pe/publicaciones/cuadernos_integracion.php">http://www.ccla.org.pe/publicaciones/cuadernos_integracion.php
    

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;"><br />

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Labour’s
    Platform for the Americas. 2006.

    
    

    href="http://www.gpn.org/research/orit2005/index.html">http://www.gpn.org/research/orit2005/index.html
    

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Majumdar,
    Chittabrata. 2006. ‘Problems of International TU
    Unity’, Working Class (New
    Delhi), June. ref="http://citu.org.in/wclass_june06_a3.htm"> />

    
    

    style="" lang="ES">http://citu.org.in/wclass_june06_a3.htm
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB"> <br />

    <br />

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="ES">

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;"><br />

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="ES">Moreno,
    Juan. 2005. &lsquo;Unidad sindical: un paso adelante’, in
    Consejo Consultivo Laboral
    Andino.. Reflexiones sobre la unidad internacional sindical (Reflections
    on International Trade Union Unity). Lima: Consejo Consultivo Laboral
    Andino/Programa Laboral de Desarrollo.

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Pp.30-33.
    

    
    

    href="http://www.ccla.org.pe/publicaciones/cuadernos_integracion.php">http://www.ccla.org.pe/publicaciones/cuadernos_integracion.php
    

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Noblecourt,
    Michel. 2004. ‘Le big bang du syndicalisme
    international’ (The Big Bang of
    International Unionism), Le Monde, July 26.

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="ES">Oliveira,
    Jos� Olivio M. 2006. &lsquo;Nueva Central Sindical
    Mundial y los desaf�os para el
    movimiento sindical de las Am�ricas’ (New World
    Trade Union Centre and the
    Challenges for the Union Movement in the Americas), Cultura
    & Trabajo
    (Medell�n), No. 68, pp. 15-17.

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="ES">Pacho,
    Valent�n.
    2005. ‘La utopia de la unidad sindical’, in Consejo
    Consultivo Laboral Andino..
    Reflexiones sobre la unidad internacional sindical (Reflections
    on
    International Trade Union Unity). Lima: Consejo Consultivo Laboral
    Andino/Programa Laboral de Desarrollo. Pp.20-29.

    
    

    href="http://www.ccla.org.pe/publicaciones/cuadernos_integracion.php">http://www.ccla.org.pe/publicaciones/cuadernos_integracion.php
    

    
    

    al" />

    
    

    <tt> style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="ES">PLADES,
    Programa Laboral de Desarollo.

    
    

    style="" lang="EN-GB">www.plades.org.pe
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">.

    
    class="MsoNormal"
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="DE">Sandri,
    Roger. 2005.

    
    

    lang="EN-GB">&lsquo;Some News on the Future
    &ldquo;Global” Union Organisation’, ILC
    International
    Newsletter N�. 163, pp. 3-6.

    
    

    href="http://www.eit-ilc.org/us/articles.php?%20lng=en&pg=560"> />

    
    

    <tt> style="" lang="ES">http://www.eit-ilc.org/us/articles.php? />lng=en&pg=560br />

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="ES">.

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;"> />

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Schwartz,
    Peter. 2006. ‘France: CGT Union Federation Moves Further to
    the Right,

    
    

    href="http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/cgt-m02_prn.shtml">http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/cgt-m02_prn.shtml />an>

    
    

    class="MsoNormal"
    

    
    

    <tt> style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Stichting
    Imperialisme en Onderontwikkeling. 1984. Latijns Amerikaanse
    Vakbeweging en
    Solidariteit: Kritische Analyse van CLAT in Latijns Amerika en
    Nederland (Latin
    American Union Movement and Solidarity: A Critical Analysis of the CLAT
    in
    Latin America and the Netherlands). Nijmegen: Stichting Imperialisme en
    Onderontwikkeling.

    r />

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Waterman,
    Peter and Jill Timms. 2004. &lsquo;Trade Union Internationalism and />a Global Civil
    Society in the Making’, in Helmut Anheier, Marlies Glasius
    and Mary Kaldor
    (eds.). Global Civil Society 2004/5. London: Sage.
    Pp. 178-202

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Waterman, />Peter. 2006. ‘A Global Labour Charter Movement?’. <i>South
    African Labour
    Bulletin. Vol. ?, No. ?. Pp. ????.

    
    

    href="http://laborstrategies.blogs.com/global_labor_strategies/international_labor_standards/index.html">http://laborstrategies.blogs.com/global_labor_strategies/international_labor_standards/index.html />an>

    
    

    lass="MsoNormal"
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="NL">World />Confederation ofr />Labour. 2006. Final Draft Programme of the New International Trade
    Union
    Organisation (ITUC)

    
    

    href="http://www.cmt-wcl.org/cmt/ewcm.nsf/_/31A6B28E68DD82FFC12571F6006E4CDF?opendocument">http://www.cmt-wcl.org/cmt/ewcm.nsf/_/31A6B28E68DD82FFC12571F6006E4CDF?opendocument />

    
    

    <tt> style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">r />

    
    

    style="font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    style="margin-left: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
    

    
    

    style="" lang="EN-GB">�

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    +

    yle="text-align: center;">Press Release

    
    

    ="text-align: center;">15th December 2009

    
    
    

    _heading" id="Chhattisgarh_Government_thwarts_peace_building_measures">Chhattisgarh Government thwarts peace building measures1>
    
    2 class="showhide_heading" id="Police_and_Salwa_Judum_join_hands_to_disrupt_the_Padayatra_and_harass_activists">Police and Salwa Judum join hands to disrupt the Padayatra and harass activists

    
    
    2 class="showhide_heading" id="Satayagraha_to_begin_from_25th_December:_Struggle_for_peace_to_continue">Satayagraha to begin from 25th December: Struggle for peace to continue

    
    
    

    New Delhi: Chattisgarh State Government and the Salwa Judum prevented Himanshu Kumar, Sandeep Pandey and others from taking out padyatra in Dantewada with the objective of restoring peace and normalcy in an area suffering from state repression, militarization and violence. Even though the DGP, Mr. Vishwaranjan has claimed in a newspaper report that the padyatra started under the police protection, it was evident from police and SPOs action that all efforts were made by the state Government to stop the Padyatra from taking place. Earlier yesterday, 39 women activists from all over the country who tried unsuccessfully to reach Dantewada from Raipur, on the way back were mobbed by Salwa Judum in Kanker who forced them to come out of the bus. The women activists were harassed before being allowed to return to Raipur.]]> Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:26:16 +0100 http://www.cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=CACIMHome .diffchar { color:red; } -

    ">

    CACIM - India Institute for Critical Action: Centre In Movement>>

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    CACIM - India Institute for Critical Action: Centre In Movement

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Jai Sen, May 2009 - On open space : Explorations towards a vocabulary of a more open politics ...Arguing that open space, horizontality, and networking are now emerging as a general tendency in the organisation of human social relations, and that the WSF is a major historical experiment in this idea, the paper seeks to open up the concept towards a more critical discussion and understanding of it, in relation to the times we live in... />

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The World Social Forum: Challenging Empires, Second Edition>>

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The World Social Forum: Challenging Empires, Second Edition

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Event Reports

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Event 1 English word pdf Portuguệs word pdf * Event 2 English word pdf Event 3 English word pdf

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>>Event Reports

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