Tag Archives: Latin America

Ibarra, Ecuador: Culture of peace, the way towards a good coexistence

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article in Diario El Norte (translation by CPNN)

Ibarra. “For us, a culture of peace is to see from another point of view how we can solve problems,” said Jesús León, a young man who dreams of living in a safer parish and city; and a culture of peace may be the key.

Jesús is part of The Warriors collective, a group made up of adolescents and young people between 14 and 22 years of age. The great challenge of this group of young people is, through a true culture of peace, to change the image of the Guayaquil de Alpachaca parish, one of the most populous sectors of the capital of Imbabura.


Months ago, several of these adolescents and young people participated in training and workshops supported by international organizations and carried out by the Social Group Ecuadorian Fund Populorum Progressio.

(Article continued in right column)

(Click here for the article in Spanish)

Questions for this article:

How important is community development for a culture of peace?

(Article continued from left column)

The youth prepared themselves on various themes. For example: in cultural issues and community journalism. Omar Becerra is an expert in this type of area and has worked in various provinces of Ecuador. In an interview with Diario EL NORTE he explained: “In the past the culture of peace was seen as only values ​​and ethics. But we believe it should also include cultural actions, organization and civil participation as well”.

For this reason, Jesús and his companions have participated in meetings that have been held in his parish to discuss the issue of safety and good coexistence.

They have also participated in youth agendas.

León also explained that they hold meetings to define in which neighborhoods of the Alpachaca parish they will later work. These sectors include: Vista al Lago, Mirador de Alpachaca, Miravalle, Primero de Enero and Santa Teresita.

Jesús León also took the opportunity to call on institutions and NGOs to provide them with help and to continue strengthening the issue of a culture of peace.

Adolescents and young people from Alpachaca and from other Ibarra parishes have participated in several fairs that have been held in different sectors of the city.

For example, Yadira Ulcuango, who plans to be a peacemaker, lives in the La Dolorosa parish of El Priorato. Ella ulcuango explained that she is part of this project, she has made them see life differently and to solve problems and resolve conflicts.

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

Mexico: UAEM and PJEM will coordinate activities in the “Week of Access to the Culture of Peace”

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article from Diario Portal (translation by CPNN)

Cybersecurity, Builders of Peace, Digital Culture and Emotional Reengineering, are some of the topics addressed in the “Week of Access to the Culture of Peace” that takes place from May 16 to 20, organized by the Judiciary of the State of Mexico and the Autonomous University of the Mexico (UAEMéx).

(Click here for the Spanish original. . )

Questions for this article:

Can festivals help create peace at the community level?

The meeting brings together specialists from the Cloister of Sor Juana, the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí, the EJEM Judicial Research Center, the Electoral Judicial School, the UAEMéx and the Anahuac University.

Among the activities are two Film-Debates with the Films: Hotel Rwanda and Little Voices; the book “A transitional justice for Mexico. Experiences and realities”; a 5km or 2.5km Walk for Peace, at the Alberto “Chivo”; Córdoba, from University City; and the prizes of the First Culture of Peace Poster Contest.

The week includes the Inauguration of the “Memory and Tolerance Tunnel”, Exhibition of the Museum of Memory and Tolerance; the Monologue “The culture of peace in the words of a superhero”; the Workshop for teachers of the Upper Secondary Level “What do I do with the emotions of my students?”.

A dialogue table and five conferences, among them, “Builders of Peace” will be given by Paolo Pagliai, Director of the College of Human Rights and Peace Management, and Law of the University of the Cloister of Sor Juana.

The inauguration by Judge Ricardo Sodi Cuellar, head of the Judicial Power of the State of Mexico and Doctor Carlos Barrera Díaz, Rector of the UAEMéx, is on Monday, May 16, in the Aula Magna “Lic. Adolfo López Mateos” of the Historical Building of the Rectory and the closing on Friday 20 in the Aula Magna “Mgdo. Lic. Gustavo A. Barrera Graf” of the Judicial School of the State of Mexico.

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

Querétero, México; What is the culture of peace?

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An editorial by Rodrigo Mancera in the Tribuna de Querétero (translation by CPNN)

With the aim of promoting a series of values, attitudes and behaviors that reject violence and prevent conflicts, the Culture of Peace aims to learn and teach to engage in dialogue, reflection and consensus, as well as to solve problems through respect for human rights. It is not the absence of violence, but a refocus that guarantees learning from conflict and the positive development of people and their communities.

Approved by the United Nations Organization (UN) on October 6, 1999, in the document Declaration and Program of Action on a Culture of Peace, the General Assembly emphasizes the Charter of the United Nations, the constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It recognizes that peace is not only the absence of conflict, but also a process aimed at a solution.

Made up of nine articles, it includes a Program of Action with Objectives, strategies and main agents and a consolidation of the measures to be adopted by all peace agents, relevant at the national, regional and international levels, in which measures are discussed to promote a Culture of Peace mainly through education. It calls on all (individuals, groups, associations, educational communities, companies and institutions) to bring to their daily activities a consistent commitment based on respect for all lives, solidarity, generosity, understanding, environmental preservation and rejection of violence.

According to the Manifesto for a culture of peace and non-violence of the year 2000, this movement seeks a fairer, more supportive, freer, dignified and harmonious world, as well as prosperity for all. It urges countries to maintain a world free of wars, without conflicts and corruption. Its four axes include rejecting violence, practicing active non-violence and rejecting physical, sexual, psychological, economic and social violence in all its aspects, particularly towards the weakest, such as children and adolescents.

The Manifesto calls for generosity through actions, sharing time and material and psychological resources with the people who most need it and giving them the privilege of having an opportunity; Contribute to the development of the community, promoting the full participation of women and respect for democratic principles, in order to create together new forms of solidarity; And preserve the planet, by promoting responsible consumption and taking into account the importance of life and the balance of the natural resources of the planet on which we live.

(Article continued in right column)

(Click here for the original article in Spanish)

Questions for this article:

How can we promote a human rights, peace based education?

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

(Article continued from left column)

By October 2006, the movement for a culture of peace had more than 700 organizations, which participated in a report on the advances in this culture in 2005. As well as the culture of non-violent resistance, it became a form of protest related to civil disobedience that advocates the achievement of political, social and cultural change without the need to use violence as a political weapon. Symbolic protests and acts of non-cooperation in the political and economic areas are used in this practice.

Currently, the culture of peace is formed in a long-term process of action based on moral and ethical principles of personal recognition in the relationship of people with people. It continues the search to sow the values ​​of peace in the minds of human beings.

As Elsa Rojas Bonilla, a teacher in Social Sciences in Colombia, points out, educating for a culture of peace and citizenship education is a challenge for the community. Its different components are a way to transform the society to allow human beings to find solutions that allow conflicts to be faced without violence, with the necessary strength to reach solutions in a convulsed society so thateveryone is a winner,

In her article “The culture of peace and its importance in the process of citizen training”, Rojas Bonilla points out that the objective is to search for a new type of citizen, capable of relating to other people, respecting the rules of coexistence, knowing their rights, fulfilling their duties, and inserting themselves constructively in the new society. The pedagogical processes that allow the creation of a culture of peace must promote the process of appropriation of knowledge related to the territory, culture, the economic and social context and historical memory, with the purpose of reconstructing the social fabric, promoting general prosperity and guarantee the effectiveness of the principles, rights and duties.

In the Mexican context, although the culture of peace has few investigations and lacks applications to a great extent, there are organizations that seek the same goal as that previously stated by the UN. Mexico suffers from an internal war between the authorities and organized crime, the processes and acts of corruption, as well as statements with hate speech by both local and state leaders as well as the head of the executive, which makes the country a candidate for the process and the necessary practice of the culture of peace and non-violence.

In fact, speeches like “I want to address you, criminal; I don’t care where you are or where you’re hiding” by Mauricio Kuri, Governor of the State of Querétaro, and the various threats made by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador himself against the opposition and the national press, these cases, among others, create a context that discourages peace in our country. As the UN manifesto reminds us, one of the challenges is to transform the perspective, traditions and imposed cultures that were created based on violence, racism and corruption, because : “only in societies that live in equity, freedom, equality and solidarity, can there be peace”.

Click here to see how these principles are put into action for education at the Autonomous University of Querétaro.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Ecuador: Hip-hop and urban art are reaffirmed as a ‘culture of peace’ at a festival in Garza Roja

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from El Universo (translation by CPNN)

Given that the hip-hop movement and its cultural values ​​are growing in Ecuador, thanks to the various initiatives of artists, managers, communicators and activists, this Saturday, May 21, the first meeting of local urban art and culture will be held, called Hip-hop to the Garza.


The event is rooted in the Hip-Hop Peace Declaration, which Temple of Hip Hop, Ribbons International, UNESCO and 300 pioneering hip hop culture activists signed in May 2001. The declaration recognizes the movement as a culture of peace, personal development and international prosperity at the service of communities. The movement fights against the realities of inequity and social inequality in society and governments. It is celebrated annually in the month of May.

(continued in right column)

(Click here for the original Spanish version of this article.)

Question for this article:

Do the arts create a basis for a culture of peace?

(continued from left column)

This year the initiative is a development of the groups Música en Casa, Casa Impro, Wide Mixer and the Garza Roja Cultural Foundation.

“Most of the urban areas in Guayaquil are engaged in the urban culture of hip hop. We want to show that urban culture not only encompasses singers, graffiti artists, but also many people who make other types of art, and that is why this event is important so that all these actors can also get to know each other and that the public can identify with them”, explains Sara Arana, the Rap Lawyer and spokesperson for the meeting.

“We don’t need to sing rap or dress in a stereotyped way, we live urban art every day”.

The festival is projected as an outdoor urban experience with the four elements of hip hop: the MC (master of ceremonies), the DJ (beats), break dance and graffiti. It includes comedy, poetry, circus arts, cultural endeavors and freestyle, with special guests such as Junox Mc, A2H+, De Jota El Máximo Exponente, Las Ratas, Juliana Solís, Lucky Luciano, Dj Mandy, La Abogada del Rap. Graffiti artists like Kamikaze Mc, from Quito and representing female power, Hans Knopf from Guayaquil and more than 20 artists on stage.

It is a family event and suitable for all audiences, and will take place in the facilities of the Garza Roja Cultural Park (km 37 via Daule – Nobol), from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Admission is free, with prior registration.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Brazil: The culture of peace and non-violence is the theme of the III Graffiti Festival

. EDUCATION FOR PEACE . .

An article from Dourado News (translation by CPNN)

From April 25 to June 12, 2022, UFGD (Federal University of Grande Dourados) will receive applications from artists interested in participating in the third edition of the Graffiti Festival, which will have the theme “The culture of peace and non-violence”, part of Goal 4.7 (Sustainable Development Goals – ODS 16) of the United Nations (UN) 2030 agenda. Objective 16 includes the pillars for the promotion of a culture of peace such as: disarmament, human rights, solidarity, respect, tolerance, the right to be and belong, sustainable development, gender equality and democratic participation.


From the 2017 edition: painted graffiti on the walls of Unit 1 – Credit: Divulgação

The University will select five artistic interventions with this theme, two in the national category and three in the regional category, with prizes of R$ 5 thousand and R$ 3.3 thousand, respectively. For each selected intervention, a space of 10 meters in length by 1.94 meters in height will be allocated. In return, the award-winning artists will offer a free workshop to the community.

(click here for the article in Portuguese.).)

Question related to this article:

Do the arts create a basis for a culture of peace?

(continued from left column)

The graffiti will be carried out on the walls of UFGD, from August 24th to 27th, during the III Graffiti Festival event. The workshops will be held at a place, day, time and public service defined by the artist and by the Culture Coordination.

The application form is available at: https://forms.gle/hz2ntCV6oSziPb5J8. Among the documents that candidates must attach in the form are: project containing identification, conceptual text and techniques to be used; sketch in digital format, in color A4 size, of the “artistic intervention” project; resume; artistic portfolio; proposal of the workshop to be given and; Declaration of Assignment of Copyright and Patrimonial Rights. To enter, you must be over 18 years of age. UFGD servers are prevented from submitting proposals.

According to the schedule, after the application and candidate selection phase, the preliminary result will be released on July 5th and the final result on July 22nd, with deadlines for appeal at each stage.

Regarding the costs of participation, UFGD will not be responsible for the transportation, accommodation and food of the selected artist/group. Nor will it be responsible for the materials used for the interventions and workshops, the expenses being the responsibility of the winners.

The announcement of the III Graffiti Festival of UFGD can be accessed at: https://editais.ufgd.edu.br/processo/420/PROEX.

Additional information can be obtained from the Culture Coordination of the Dean of Extension and Culture (COC/PROEX) by e-mail at cultura@ufgd.edu.br.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Brazil’s Lula proposes creating Latin American currency to ‘be freed of US dollar’ dependency

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article by Benjamin Norton in Multipolarista

Brazil’s left-wing leader Lula da Silva has proposed creating a pan-Latin American currency, in order to “be freed of the dollar.”

A founder of Brazil’s Workers’ Party, Lula served as president for two terms, from 2003 to 2011. He is now the leading candidate as Brazil’s October 2022 presidential elections approach.

If he returns to the presidency, “We are going to create a currency in Latin America, because we can’t keep depending on the dollar,” Lula said in a speech at a rally on May 2.

He revealed that the currency would be called the Sur, which means “South” in Spanish.

Lula explained that countries in Latin America could still keep their sovereign domestic currency, but they could use the Sur to do bilateral trade with each other, instead of having to exchange for US dollars.

The Sur could also help to contain inflation in the region, Lula argued.

Lula said the goal of the currency would be to deepen Latin American integration and strengthen the region’s economic sovereignty, weakening its dependence on the United States.

Under Brazil’s current government, led by far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, the South American giant has subordinated itself to Washington, while viciously attacking the left-wing governments in the region.

Bolsonaro’s Brazil has refused to recognize the legitimacy of the leftist Chavista government in its neighbor Venezuela, and has even supported violent cross-border terrorist attacks against it.

If he returns to the presidency, Lula pledged that Brazil “will strengthen its relations with Latin America.”

Lula has also vowed to revive the BRICS system, integrating Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa in an independent economic architecture to challenge Western financial hegemony.

In 2020, Lula published a call “For a Multipolar World.” He explained his goal is “the creation of a multipolar world, free from unilateral hegemony and from sterile bipolar confrontation,” that “would permit a true re-founding of the multilateral order, based on principles of real multilateralism, in which international cooperation can truly flourish.”

(article continued in right column)

(Click here for the Spanish version)

Questions related to this article:
 
Can Latin America free itself from US domination?

(article continued from left column)

Hugo Chávez’s attempt to create a pan-Latin America currency, the Sucre

Lula’s proposal for the Sur is certainly not the first time progressive politicians in Latin America have tried to create a common currency. This has long been a dream of left-wing leaders in the region.

Venezuela’s revolutionary former president Hugo Chávez developed an international currency as part of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA), an economic coalition of left-wing governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This currency was called the Sucre, and was adopted in 2009 by Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

Sucre was an acronym for “Unified System for Regional Compensation,” but also a reference to Antonio José de Sucre, who helped lead the South American independence struggle against Spanish colonialism, alongside Simón Bolívar.

Ecuador’s government, under leftist President Rafael Correa, who has a Ph.D. in economics, was the main adopter of the Sucre.

At its peak in 2012, the Sucre was used for more than $1 billion in bilateral annual trade in the region.

But the currency fell out of use by 2016, following Chávez’s death in 2013, a massive drop in commodity prices in 2014, the imposition of US sanctions on Venezuela in 2015, and violent coup attempts against Chávez’s successor Nicolás Maduro.

Ecuador’s subsequent right-wing President Lenín Moreno, with US backing, later removed his country from the ALBA, dealing a huge blow to the Sucre and dreams of regional integration.

Lula leads polls for Brazil’s 2022 elections, following US-backed judicial coup

Brazil’s presidential elections will be held in October 2022.

Polls consistently show Lula leading over far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s sitting president.

Bolsonaro only came to power in the 2018 elections due to a soft coup d’etat backed by the United States.

Lula had been significantly ahead in the polls in the lead-up to the 2018 vote, but Brazil’s judicial system imprisoned him on false charges, handing the victory to Bolsonaro.

The US Justice Department helped support this campaign of what Lula calls legal warfare, or lawfare, to prevent him from returning to the presidency.

The US government also backed the 2016 political coup against Brazil’s democratically President Dilma Rousseff, also a member of Lula’s left-wing Workers’ Party.

The UN Human Rights Committee found this April that the prosecution of Lula was politically motivated and violated his rights.

“The investigation and prosecution of former President Lula da Silva violated his right to be tried by an impartial tribunal, his right to privacy and his political rights,” the UN legal experts determined.

Latin America, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

World Social Forum 2022 Declaration: Building together a common agenda for another urgent and necessary world

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article from Pressenza

The 14th edition of the World Social Forum, which took place in Mexico City, ended on 6 May, coinciding with the commemoration of World Workers’ Day, 1 May.

We publish below in full the final Declaration of the WSF 2022, which calls to build in unity and with urgency, the “another world” that is possible and necessary.


BUILDING TOGETHER A COMMON AGENDA FOR ANOTHER URGENT AND NECESSARY WORLD

1- This 14th edition of the WSF 2022 kicked off on Sunday 1st May with a march that coincided with the events to commemorate World Labour Day. The WSF 2022, which took place from 1 to 6 May in Mexico City, is the first international face-to-face and distance (hybrid) meeting since the emergence of Covid in 2019.

2- The pandemic, which continues to cause damage worldwide, did not prevent representatives of associations, collectives and social movements from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe from meeting in Mexico City.

3- This WSF 2022 had to face obstacles that hindered or prevented the presence of representatives from several countries, especially from Africa and Asia. We denounce the denial of visas to members of delegations from several countries and the prevention by the immigration authorities of several of our colleagues from entering the country.

4- More than 3 thousand participants from autonomous women’s and feminist movements, youth, members of diverse sexualities, trade unionists, communities of native peoples, the social church, environmentalists, anti-racists, the urban movement, the countryside, migrant organisations, and many other social spheres; from more than 30 countries from four continents in 789 workshops and assemblies held in 15 venues in the Historic Centre of Mexico City and from social organisations in more than 50 rooms, patios and auditoriums, in addition to their epicentre in tents in the Plaza de Santo Domingo, invited to reflect, exchange and imagine actions to change the world. The themes included climate, agriculture in respect of the earth, sustainable economy, human rights, feminism, minorities, education, workers’ rights, culture, communication, self-determination of peoples… and so many other topics! It is already certain that this forum will give rise to many collective actions that will be launched without delay.

(Article continued in right column)

(Click here for an article in Spanish)

Question for this article:

World Social Forums, Advancing the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace?

(Article continued from left column)

5- Movements are facing various challenges as a result of the irrational exploitation of natural resources such as water, land and space, which are accelerating climate change, migratory flows, population displacements and with them the destructuring of our societies. This economic, social and cultural violence is a form of permanent warfare to which humanity is subjected, which can only be stopped by a radical change in the system.

6- Governments have used the pandemic to attack democratic freedoms, to promote various restrictions on the rights of the people and, above all, to give unjustified power to the big private laboratories, the first beneficiaries of a universal pandemic caused by the irrational action of capitalism.

7- The dominant policies of austerity and structural adjustment are reaffirmed. Neoliberal arrogance prevails. Destabilisation, wars, violent repression and the instrumentalisation of terrorism are imposed in all regions. Reactionary ideological currents and extreme right-wing populisms are increasingly active.

8- The WSF Mexico 2022 is a step in the construction of a new phase of alterglobalisation. Each phase of alterglobalisation is a response to the dominant logic of capitalism in its neoliberal phase and is based on forms of mobilisation.

9- The WSF 2022 was marked by this global situation, it was more oriented towards resistance. Social and citizens’ movements are aware of the urgency of defining strategic orientations. They affirmed that the need for resistance does not cancel out the contradictions and that all possibilities remain open.

10- This year another form of war has broken out, that of Ukraine, a product of the Russian invasion of that country. Faithful to its origins and to the Charter of Principles, the WFTU denounces this invasion, the death of thousands of civilians and the use of deadly violence, the effects of which are already being felt all over the world. This new scenario of war adds to many others where the peoples are suffering its consequences. Peoples must find the way to build peace.

11. The apartheid of the State of Israel, the war in Syria, Iraq, Mali, Afghanistan and other places between the imperialist world powers is the sublime expression of their pettiness and their clumsy dispute for world hegemony where in the end there will be neither winners nor losers, only desolation and death for our peoples.

12- The stakes at the World Social Forum 2022 were high. In a profoundly contradictory world situation, it allowed us: to redefine an alter-globalisation proposal corresponding to the new situation; to understand the new contradictions of the world system; to start from the movements to resist, to define alternatives, to build a new project of emancipation.

Another world is possible and together we must build it!

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America,

Children-centered initiative instilling culture of peace in Ecuador community

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article by Daniela Brik in La Prensa Latina

A UNESCO initiative is striving to instill a culture of peace and strengthen the social fabric in Tierras Coloradas, a violent crime-racked neighborhood of the southern Ecuadorian city Loja.

And the focus of those efforts is on the community’s children, who are seen as the best hope for a brighter future.


Seated around a kitchen table in front of a tablet computer that rests against a wall, Carla and Jose (fictitious names) listen to a law student on the other side of the screen.

That volunteer has assumed the role of teacher, making sure the children know what homework they need to do and clarifying any doubts they may have.

“One of our volunteers connects (with families) after mothers ask for help via a chat,” Gabriela Moreira, head of the UNESCO Chair of Culture and Education for Peace initiative at the Private Technical University of Loja (UTPL).

Around 3,000 people live in Tierras Coloradas, a Loja suburb, in precarious homes built on land donated decades ago to the Catholic Church.

Although the streets of that hillside community bear the names of saints, it carries the stigma of high levels of domestic violence, social marginalization, crime and drug use. The parish priest has even had to have security cameras installed after being robbed on several occasions.

Studies show households in that community earn an average of between $150 and $400 a month, or less than Ecuador’s legal minimum salary.

(Article continued in right column)

(Click here for an article in Spanish)

Questions for this article:

How important is community development for a culture of peace?

(Article continued from left column)

“It’s a very stigmatized neighborhood. There are people with problems identified by the community. But those who have approached us are people trying to improve their lot in life,” said Santiago Perez, the program’s coordinator.

Around 30 UTPL students and scholarship fellows from Spain’s University of Sevilla have participated in the project since it was launched in 2019, either helping children with their homework or giving talks to mothers and fathers.

Perez stressed the importance of working with parents on “managing conflicts in the home and in the community” to mitigate violence “in spaces where it’s been allowed in.”

University professors and students have gradually won the parents’ trust, visited the local school and health center and spoken with community police to see what steps are needed to extricate the population from pervasive violence and foster a climate of respect and public safety.

Parents were especially concerned about their children’s studies, considering many of these young people are alone in the afternoon or being looked after by siblings, or because they themselves lack the educational background to help their kids with their homework.

“At first, the activities were recreational for children aged three to five. Later they included help with school,” Moreira said. “At times, entire days were spent helping them to do an exercise.”

Mariuxi Jimenez, 29, takes her four children aged three to 14 to Santa Narcisa de Jesus church, where two young psychology and social work graduates teach a workshop to children on emotional regulation and anger management.

“What makes you feel happy?” one instructor asks the kids seated on a church bench while holding up some illustrations.

“My children like these types of talks because they help them with things they don’t understand,” said Jimenez, who agrees with the importance of “promoting peace with them so conflicts are avoided.”

The parish priest, Pablo Bouza, acknowledges that the district has been racked by violence due to “drugs, alcoholism, family problems.”

“Denying that reality would be like burying your head in the sand.”

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

World Social Forum: Days 3 and 4

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Articles from Prensa Latina for day 3 and Prensa Latina for day 4

(Editor’s note: News from the World Social Forum is not published by any main-stream media except that of Cuba. And even worse, as described below, some of the Cuba media is not accessible on the Internet)

The 14th World Social Forum (WSF) on Tuesday enters third day of debates, mainly focused on economic and labor issues, the continuity of gender violence and current affairs.


Among the issues is the international forum Organization of the Workers, Labor Reforms and Trade Union Freedom, sponsored by the New Central Union of Workers (NCT) and the Mexican Electrical Workers Union.

Papers on transformation economies, popular education, solidarity integration and good living in Latin America, and the experience in Colombia, are also on the program of the event.

The issue of gender violence, especially feminicide, will continue in debates with the paper “Decolonial feminist spiritualities in the face of gender violence.”

The New Central Union of Workers will present its criteria on employment in another possible world, in a panel of discussion in which the urgency of overcoming neoliberalism and labor precariousness will be addressed.

(Article continued in right column)

(Click here for articles in Spanish)

Question for this article:

World Social Forums, Advancing the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace?

(Article continued from left column)

_____________

The XIV World Social Forum is addressing, on its fourth day of sessions, the central theme Challenges of the new labor realities, as part of the global objective Work in another possible world.

The sessions, which are being held in plenary sessions and commissions at the Palacio de la Minería, in the historic center of Mexico City, began on May 1 and will conclude on May 6, when the venue for the next meeting is to be determined.

Today´s basic theme is presented by the New Workers Central with the co-sponsorship of the Mexican Union of Electricians, and will address, among other aspects, automation, outsourcing, teleworking and platforms.

At the same time there will be a panel within the same section on post-Tpandemic, health and labor, in charge of the same workers’ union.

The activities will be numerous, according to the program, as it includes, among many other presentations and debates on economic alternatives of the peoples and socio-economic justice, and defense of life, environment and territories.

As a topical issue, an exhibition on the elimination of hydrocarbons in Mexico, the Mexican alliance against fracking, as well as democracy, political participation, construction of critical global citizenship and autonomy.

(Editor’s note: The following sources about the World Social Forum are listed in Duckduckgo search engine but not in Google, and they are not accessible on the Internet, at least not in France where I am living: https://cubasi.cu/en/news/mexicoworld-social-forum-addresses-challenges-new-labor-realities and https://www.radiohc.cu/index.php/fr/noticias/internacionales/293776-le-forum-social-mondial-aborde-a-mexico-les-defis-des-nouvelles-realites-du-travail. And the following source, although listed in google, is not accessible: https://www.radioartemisa.icrt.cu/en/international/2022/05/04/mexico-world-social-forum-addresses-challenges-of-new-labor-realities/. Are they being jammed and banned from Google as part of the American Empire information war? Although Prensa Latina continues to be accessible and listed in Google, the latest news is that the United States is blocking visas for Prensa Latina journalists to work at the United Nations.)

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

World Social Forum 2022 in Mexico: First two days

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Two articles from La Coperacha and Prensa Latina

The World Social Forum 2022 (WSF) began yesterday (May 1) with a march from the Monument to the Revolution to the capital’s Zócalo in CDMX (Mexico City), joining with the May Day March for International Labor Day.


After the march, the activities of the WSF moved to the Plaza de Santo Domingo, a few meters from the Zócalo, where a Nahuatl ceremony was held and a manifesto was read by three women, one from Cherán, Michoacán, and the other from Tunisia. and one from Palestine.

The WSF seeks to generate proposals and exchanges of organizations and social movements opposed to neoliberalism and all forms of capitalist and imperialist domination. This year CDMX has been the venue in a hybrid format, with face-to-face and virtual activities.

Participants from India, Ukraine, Palestine, Tunisia, Kurdistan, Morocco, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, as well as trade unionists from Mexico, solidarity economy groups and members of indigenous peoples began activities (which conclude on May 6) in several venues of the Historic Center, including the Plaza Santo Domingo, the Universidad Obrera, the City Museum, the Rule and the Museum of the City.

In Plaza Santo Domingo, the Social and Solidarity Economy dialogue tables were installed with around 100 producers, five urban gardens, eco-technologies, dry toilets and with the circulation of the Alegría solidarity currency. In addition, the tents of Palestine and Kurdistan were installed.

Solidarity, community or complementary currencies have become a practice that some of the members of the WSF have used to break with the use of official money, which they consider to be based mainly on a model of debt money.

For this edition of the WSF, 21 years after the first forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, a solidary lodging network was established where the majority of foreigners have stayed without generating excessive expenses.

(Article continued in right column)

(Click here for the original articles in Spanish)

Question for this article:

World Social Forums, Advancing the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace?

(Article continued from left column)

Other venues that will host the hundreds of activities of the WSF are the Corpus Christi Temple, the School of Public Administration, the Historical Center Trust, the Mining Palace, the Palace of Autonomy, the auditorium of the Mexican Union of Electricians and that of Section 9 of the National Coordinator of Education Workers.
_______________

The public debt and the abolition of debts acquired illegitimately, in particular due to the abusive payment of interest, are at the center of the second day of activities of the World Social Forum (May 2).

This section is held in the Ernesto Velasco Torres auditorium, of the Mexican Union of Electricians (SME), in conjunction with the New Workers Central and other labor institutions.

It is part of the theme Economic Alternatives for the Peoples and Socioeconomic Justice, and includes the study of the indebtedness processes in Latin America and the Caribbean and the struggles against illegitimate debts in Puerto Rico and Argentina.

It also addresses the vision of Latin America in the face of the fall of the dollar and its effects, the universal basic income as the foundation of another possible world, as illustrated with pilot tests in Catalonia and debates in Argentina. The presentation is carried out by the Humanist Network for Universal Basic Income.

On the same economic theme, the Kgosni group will present “Túmin, beyond a community currency” a reflection on the reconstruction of the social fabric and the importance of one’s own means of communication, as part of the economic alternatives of the peoples and socioeconomic justice.

Another basic point of the day is the one related to community feminism presented by Abya Yala in which she analyzes the struggles against discrimination, racism and for self-determination, as well as what women describe as a battle against patriarchy and heteronormative .

A very specific issue is that of resistance against the struggle for search, truth and justice for disappeared relatives in the “Dirty War” period of the 60s, 70s and 80s of the last century in the Mexican state of Guerrero, but related to today, especially the Movement for Truth and Justice for Relatives of Disappeared Persons.

The exhibition, which takes place in the Palacio de la Minería, one of the venues of the forum, is accompanied by a workshop on the disappearance of girls and women in Mexico under the title Community Feminism, organized by Abya Yala.

In this framework, a posthumous tribute will be paid to the Mexican social activist Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, who died last month.

Finally, another key point in this Monday’s session is the one entitled “Indigenous Migration in Mexico. Peacebuilding, migration and strategies against war. Comprehensive accompaniment from a feminist perspective for women on the move on the southern border of Mexico”, by the Red Mesoamericana Mujer, Salud y Migración.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, global, Latin America,