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WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Latin American Groundswell In Motion

Franz Chávez

LA PAZ, Jan 22 2007 (IPS) - The struggle against social exclusion and the defence of the environment and natural resources such as water have made progress in Latin America – so much so that they have become an influential groundswell of opinion which is giving shape to a new way of life, say Bolivian activists.

The director of the Solon Foundation, Elizabeth Peredo, and the president of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights in Bolivia (APDHB), Guillermo Vilela, in interviews with IPS outlined the region’s most relevant contributions to the 7th World Social Forum (WSF), a global meeting of civil society taking place Jan. 20-25 in Nairobi.

Peredo and Vilela were both members of the organising committee of the Social Summit for the Integration of the Peoples, which took place in December in Cochabamba, in central Bolivia. Held in parallel with the 2nd Summit of the South American Community of Nations (CSN), it was attended by 5,000 Latin American delegates.

Setting aside the confrontational stance that has often characterised the WSF, and building a connection to the summit of heads of state and government officials in decision-making positions, were some of the major achievements of the Social Summit, Peredo said.

Latin American social movements, which in many cases now find themselves working in countries with leftwing or centre-left governments, have agreed common fronts for their struggle, including defence of human rights, rejection of all forms of social exclusion, and putting people at the centre of government policies, Vilela said.

Bolivia hosted both the Social Summit and the official CSN summit under the administration of the first indigenous president of this country, Evo Morales, whose policies are directed towards the defence of natural resources and of Bolivia’s 36 ethnic groups living in harmony with the environment.

Peredo highlighted the participation of young indigenous delegates from all over the region, who steered the movement in a new direction, towards the integration of the peoples and a permanent dialogue with government leaders, as distinct from previous scenarios marked by confrontation.

“The vision of indigenous peoples has grown broader with proposals for respecting nature,” related to reflections on global warming, pollution in big cities and their impact on people’s quality of life. These issues focused the attention of participants, Peredo said.

Peredo is also an activist for the defence of water, and she emphasised the initiative taken by the peoples of the region to create community management to protect water resources.

In May 2000, Cochabamba was the scene of social mobilisation against privatising the supply of drinking water, and thus it became the cradle of a social struggle which eventually spread to La Paz and to other nearby countries in defence of consumers’ interests.

In Cochabamba as well as in La Paz, the seat of the Bolivian government, private companies supplying drinking water were replaced by companies managed by local municipalities jointly with the central government.

“Water is a human right. No one can be deprived of it. If we agree with this principle, why are mining, forestry, electricity and municipal companies taking water away from small farmers and indigenous communities all over the planet?” asked President Morales, speaking then as a union leader at the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto in 2003, before he was elected to his country’s highest office.

Peredo said that the struggle to control water resources is ongoing. Among the immediate goals are the removal of water from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) list of tradeable commodities, and the creation of a Social Convention on Water, promoted by social organisations and governments.

Civil society groups, workers’ organisations and original peoples are the leaders of a movement opposed to models of exploitation, domination and subordination, which is fighting for the rights of Latin Americans and now wants to see the speeches transformed into policies, Vilela said.

Migration, an entrenched problem in Latin America, was also examined by delegates at the Social Summit. From this debate there arose the proposal to create an International Commission for the Protection of Forcibly Displaced People, who have had to leave their homes for economic or political reasons, the APDHB president said.

In proportion to its population of 9.2 million, Bolivia has a higher rate of emigration than Mexico, which has the highest absolute number of emigrants in the region, he said.

According to statistics from the office of migrations, an estimated 15,000 Bolivians a month leave their country to seek job opportunities and better living conditions in Argentina, Spain and the United States.

Another concern the Social Summit delegates had was discrimination in their societies. In Bolivia, people are discriminated against particularly on grounds of race, sex, religion and ideological persuasion.

Vilela gave examples of people who have complained to the Human Rights office that they were excluded because they were women, indigenous people, Afro-descendants, had some degree of disability, or because of their sexual orientation.

APDHB is, in fact, preparing a draft law to eradicate exclusion of all kinds, and Vilela expressed the hope that, under a leftist government like Morales’, the draft law will receive backing and prompt passage.