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Caracas, 1-5 December
2004
Gathering
in Caracas, the cradle El Liberator Simón Bolivar,
intellectuals and artists from fifty-two countries and
diverse cultures agree on the necessity of building a
barrier of resistance in the face of the world dominance
sought to be imposed today.
We are living at a time when the UN Charter is not
respected; international legality has been broken, and
principles such as that of non-intervention in the
internal affairs of states and the very concept of
sovereignty are being abolished. The Geneva conventions
on prisoners of war and the protection of civilian
populations have been violated; detainees are tortured
and abused, and lawless prisons have been created in the
usurped territory of Guantánamo and Iraq. The invasion
and devastation of Iraq, the threats against other
Mid-East nations, the martyrdom of the Palestinian
people, the big powers’ interventions in Africa reveal
the decision to impose, with great violence, an order
based on the use of force.
The purpose of a large number of these aggressions is to
take possession of the reserves of hydrocarbons,
minerals, biodiversity and water in the least developed
countries. We support the right of the peoples to keep
control of such resources and to repel expropriating
interventions.
The crimes against the Iraqi people show how far the
media and governments that call themselves champions of
human rights can go. The city of Falluja, in ruins today,
will remain as a symbol of heroic resistance in a tragic
moment of history.
Part of this dominance project is the collection of an
illegitimate external debt and the attempt to
economically annex Latin America and the Caribbean
through the FTAA and other programs and agreements
harmful to their independence and their real chances for
development. The peril of new ways of intervention and
aggression is growing before the surge of social
struggle and the process of change that the region is
living. The notions of “preemptive war” and “change of
régime,” proclaimed in the official doctrine of the
United States government are raised menacingly against
any country that does not bend to the imperial interests
or that is strategically important. A case in point is
the recent intervention in Haiti. Today more than ever
it is necessary to mobilize solidarity with Venezuela,
Cuba and every popular cause on the continent.
We also express our solidarity with the peoples of Iraq,
Palestine, Afghanistan and all those that resist
imperialist occupation and aggression.
A crucial component of the global fight against
imperialist adventures —together with the forces that in
Europe, Latin America and other parts of the world have
spoken out against the war— is without a doubt the
mobilization of the most sensible sectors of the U.S.
people.
We condemn terrorism, but oppose the political use that
has been made of the so-called “war on terrorism” and
the fraudulent appropriation of values and concepts such
as democracy, freedom and human rights. We are against
describing as terrorism the peoples’ resistance struggle
and as war on terrorism the oppressors’ aggressions.
While immeasurable resources are wasted in the military
industry, another silent and devastating extermination
caused by hunger, social problems, extreme poverty,
curable illnesses and epidemics takes place every day.
The suffering endured by the peoples of Africa, Asia,
Latin America and the Caribbean, as a result of the
policies fostered by international financial
institutions, is ignored by those that seek to dominate
the world and by the global elites that benefit from the
neocolonial plunder. The absence of programs for the
real solution of these problems is another sign of
dehumanization that characterizes our time.
We make ours the struggles of workers, peasants, the
unemployed, the deprived, the exploited, the excluded,
women, indigenous peoples, African descendants and
natives, migrants, sexual minorities, helpless children
and the victims of sexual trade. We support and commit
to the claims of those who defend their rights and their
identity against the totalitarian and homogenizing
pretense of neoliberal globalization.
Lacking any basic levels of feeding, medical care,
electric power, housing and drinkable water, a large
part of humanity is sacrificed by a system that depletes
natural resources, destroys the environment and, with
its irrational consumerist extravagance, endangers the
survival of life itself.
The vast majorities have a very limited access to
education and are excluded from the benefit that could
be brought to them by the new information and generic
drug production technologies. The dominant economic
system generates the corporatization of most
intellectual production, privatizes and turns it into an
instrument to perpetuate the concentration of wealth and
bringing minds under control. It is imperative to stop
the TWO —in its policy of turning the world into
merchandise— from wiping out cultural diversity.
The concentration of ownership over the mass media turns
freedom of information into a fallacy. The power of the
mass media, at the service of the hegemonic project,
distorts the truth, manipulates history, promotes
discrimination in its various variants and fosters
resignation about the current status quo, presenting it
as the only one possible.
It is necessary to go onto the offensive by concrete
actions. The first of them, decided at this Encounter,
consists on setting up an network of networks for
information, cultural artistic action, solidarity,
coordination and mobilization that links intellectuals
and artists with Social Forums and popular struggles,
and that ensures the continuity of these efforts and
their articulation into an international movement “For
the defense of humanity.”
It is essential to counteract the propaganda from the
hegemonic centers by making emancipating ideas flow
along every channel: radio and television stations, the
Internet, the alternative press, the cinema, community
and other media, and disseminating development projects
and experiences of people’s participation and education,
so that they can become benchmarks for the
reconstruction of the utopias that drive history.
The Venezuelan reality demonstrates that popular
mobilization is capable of conquering and keeping power
for the people as well as promoting and defending great
transformations for their sake. Our gratitude to the
Bolivarian government, to the people of Venezuela and
their president, Hugo Chávez, for their commitment to
the future of this international movement.
At this moment of special danger, we renew the
conviction that another world is not only possible but
also indispensable, and we commit and call to fight for
it with more solidarity, unity and determination. For
the defense of humanity, we reaffirm our certainty that
the peoples will say the last word.
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