Social Watch Brings to the Fore “Peoples´ Voices on the Crisis”

In order to bridge the Conference on the Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impacts on Development to be held in New York this June with civil society leaders, Social Watch and a broad-based coalition of civil society organizations and networks is organizing “Peoples´ Voices on the Crisis”, an event to showcase the human and environmental impacts of the crisis and try to ensure that solutions to the crisis are built upon the principles of respect for human rights and the promotion of environmental sustainability.

Despite claims by some politicians and pundits in the mainstream press that the “light at the end of the tunnel” of the current economic crisis is becoming visible, less optimistic analysts confirm that this global downturn continues to worsen, with UN DESA predicting that the global per capita growth rate for 2009 will be an appalling -3.4%, and the OECD affirming that the volume of international trade is likely to shrink 13% this year in comparison with 2008 levels. Behind these chilling statistics lie tragic consequences for people, especially workers, small farmers and the poor, who are being pushed into situations of even greater economic vulnerability. In addition, they imply the possibility of further degradation of our already all-too-fragile environment. However, the voices of these forgotten victims of the crisis have been absent from the venues in which policymakers and business leaders are designing the possible solutions to this global economic meltdown. Due to this, Social Watch, together with a broad-based coalition of civil society organizations and networks, is organizing the “Peoples´ Voices on the Crisis” event, in order to showcase the real human and environmental impacts of the crisis, as well as provide a space for civil society activists to discuss how to build a global movement to ensure that these possible solutions to the crisis are built upon the principles of respect for human rights and the promotion of environmental sustainability.

“Peoples’ Voices on the Crisis” will bring together civil society activists from an international level from the Social Watch network as well as from other global groupings such as the Hemispheric Social Alliance, ESCR-Net and the International Gender and Trade Network in a dialogue with nationally and locally based groups, in order to share experiences on how the crisis is impacting their communities and livelihoods, and to construct proposals to take back the global economy from the financial speculators and profiteers who have driven the current system into ruin. Activists from countries such as Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Nigeria, and Sudan, as well as grassroots labor, environmental, immigrants’ rights and womens’ rights activists from New York and other parts of the USA will offer their testimonies on the effects of the crisis to the “Peoples’ Crisis” audience, with video testimonials taken from other corners of the globe also to be screened.

The “Peoples’ Voices” event, which will be held in conjunction with the UN Conference on the Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impacts on Development in New York later this month, will also attempt to raise the profile of this crucial international Conference among local and international civil society. The UN Conference, which is being spearheaded by the President of the General Assembly Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, is the first truly multilateral forum which will bring to the table both developed and developing countries (the G-192, involving all UN General Assembly member States) to seek lasting solutions to the economic crisis. It is hoped that this Conference can lay the groundwork for reforms to the Bretton Woods Institutions, enhancing the influence of developing countries in their decision-making structure, increasing transparency, and eliminating conditionalities that constrain the policy space of the world’s poorest nations. These demands have been at the heart of the anti-globalization movement which surged to life during the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, yet this Conference has not been seen as an important moment by many of the groups that make up that movement, despite the important role that it can and should play in the restructuring of the global economy and the international financial institutions. “Peoples’ Voices” will attempt to build a bridge between local and international activist movements and the UN Conference, by presenting the points of view of civil society leaders who have advocated for the realization of this Conference to the NYC activists who will participate, and by delivering the testimonials and conclusions of the event to the official Conference delegates, so that they can take into account in their deliberations the voices of those who have felt the brunt of the crisis most acutely.

Governments, civil society and the world’s population in general are all caught in this “perfect storm” of economic crisis, complemented by the additional crises brought on by the depletion of non-renewable natural resources, growing environmental disequilibrium, and unsustainable models of food production, as well as the armed conflicts that continue to plague many nations. Both “Peoples’ Voices” and the UN Conference will be important opportunities to highlight how this systemic crisis is playing out not just on Wall Street and the City of London but also in places like Sudan, San Salvador and the South Bronx. In addition, the Conference will offer a forum in which real changes in the global financial architecture that can make a difference in the lives of the millions of people who have been pushed into poverty by the failures of the neo-liberal economic model, can be proposed. For this reason, Social Watch urges all of its member and partner organizations as well as policymakers and representatives of international institutions to play a part in these events this month in New York, where all “peoples’ voices” will finally get to be heard.

For more information on “Peoples’ Voices on the Crisis”, see http://www.socialwatch.org/en/noticias/noticia_352.htm.