STATEMENT OF THE ASIAN SOCIAL FORUM

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday January 10, 2003 14:20 by Nikhil Nigam nigamnikhil at yahoo dot com

"Evolving our world" - Statement Issued at recently concluded Asian Social Forum - part of World Social Forum(WSF), held in India 3-7 January

We, the people's movements of Asia have come together in Hyderabad India from
3-7 January at the People's Movements Encounters at the Asian Social Forum.
This encounter testifies to the increasing resistance of people against
imperialist globalisation and that a New World is evolving. We are 35
movements representing Dalits, peasants, workers, women, Adivasis, indigenous
peoples, fisherfolks, urban poor and the physically and mentally challenged.

Imperialist globalisation led by the G8 and the transnational corporations
(TNCs), facilitated by the WTO and international financial institutions
and supported by national elites, has devastated our lives, resources and
the environment. As a result we are losing our livelihoods, shelter, land,
water, forests and other resources. We have little or no access to food
and employment resulting in hunger, starvation and famine. We are being
displaced. We face unemployment and bonded form of labour, including forced
migration. This has brought increased vulnerability to exploitation, oppression
and subordination of our people and communities.

Our productive resources and means of production are being monopolised
and concentrated in the hands of the landed elites and a few giant corporations
through corporate agriculture. This form of agriculture is externally dependent
and promotes hazardous technologies including pesticides and GMOs that
threaten health, food safety and the environment. The dominance of corporate
control is further entrenched by patents on life forms.

Fundamentalism through fascist forces has led to widespread communal tensions,
violence and genocide of communities in Asia. It has eroded the unity
of people, universal beliefs and divided people on the basis of religion,
caste and race.

The US-led War on Terrorism is the continued global economic, political,
social, and cultural domination of the G8 on the world, and entrenches
their control of resources especially oil, gas and uranium. This war on
terrorism is used by the State to violently suppress people's movements
and resistance, and to criminalise and imprison movement leaders. It is
used to dismantle all mechanisms that protect and promote the universal
rights of people. It has also increased militarisation and the arms trade
at the
expense of people.

These same imperialist forces with the support of patriarchal institutions
and values are further denying the reproductive and health rights of women;
their land and political rights; and right to housing. This has increased
different forms of violence against women, forced migration, trafficking,
violence against tribal and minorities, and has reduced their access to
justice.

The society we live in is a caste society based on the purity and impurity
concept hence the practice of untouchability prevails in communities. It
has denied the Dalits equal status in society, and land and political rights.
More than ever today the communities and people are raising their resistance
against these imperialist forces and their lackeys at all levels. Women
are resisting the introduction of machines that displace labour. Women
have succeeded in preventing the construction of dams. Peasants are occupying
lands. Dalits are asserting their rights. Agricultural workers are organising
for the right to work and livelihood. Workers are also driving out transnational
corporations such as Syngenta and Monsanto. Farmers are practising sustainable
agriculture and livelihoods. These are only a few examples of the diversity
of the resistance of Our New World.

No one else can speak for us except we in the people's movements. We have
our victories, our culture, our political agenda and our aspirations.
We have come together here in the People's Movements Encounters to further
strengthen, consolidate and heighten our resistance within Asia.

We will forward our struggles with greater determination, force and strength.
We therefore:

1. Reject WTO. We will derail WTO at Cancun. Towards this, we will develop
actions and proposals at all levels. As a first step we want WTO out of
food and agriculture and health. There will be a special Global Day of
Protest to derail WTO.

2. Reject TNCs, and we will drive them out of our communities, our nations
and in Asia. The resistance that has already been organized, will now
be further strengthened and consolidated with special focus on TNCs that
promote hazardous technologies particularly Syngenta, Monsanto, Aventis,
Du Pont and Bayer.

3. Assert our people's food sovereignty i.e. the right of people to decide
our own food and agriculture policy, founded on right to land and productive
resources including water, seeds, forests, our knowledge and skills. We
will only achieve food sovereignty when we are free and independent from
all forms of foreign and local domination. We will take back the Panchami
land (land allocated to Dalits by the government) and other lands and distribute
land to the landless and women. We reject labour replacement technologies.
We will expand sustainable agriculture and promote sustainable livelihoods.
We will have fair prices for agricultural products where Trade will respect
the rights of peoples and assert food sovereignty.

4. Protect and promote the rights, equality and dignity of women. We reject
and resist the culture of violence and torture arising from repression
and subordination, particularly against women. In our rejection of patriarchal
values and institutions, we will strongly defend and promote reproductive
rights and health of women. Land and other productive resources will be
equally distributed to women. Recognising women's role and contribution
in food production and use of resources, women are equal partners in the
struggle.

5. Resist and will destroy Fundamentalist culture, values and forces through
our struggles for democratic rights, equality and freedom. The discrimination
and atrocities on Dalits should be immediately stopped and the caste system
and untouchability practices eradicated with immediate effect.

6. Strongly oppose the US led war on terrorism. We demand the immediate
withdrawal of US troops placed for the war against Iraq. We reject state
terrorism on our people and demand the immediate release of all political
activists from prison. We also demand transparency and accountability at
all levels on the use of people's money, especially on arms trade and defence.

Towards this end we will build international solidarity with people's movements
everywhere.

A PEOPLE UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED