A bom. Women's Strategies for Rio of January 2012 Thematic Social Forum - Porto Alegre

Transcription

1 A bom Women's Strategies for Rio of January 2012 Thematic Social Forum - Porto Alegre During the activity "Women's Strategies for Rio +20" which took place during the Thematic Social Forum in Porto Alegre on 27 and 28 of January, the AMB counted with the participation of women from Brazil and from 4 continents, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Discussions have been preceded by the projection of the video "Planeta Fêmea", that shows the successful participation of women in the ECO92 and which moved both who was present there 20 years ago and those who were not. The activity aimed to prepare the women's participation for Rio +20, in June 2012, in view of articulating the greatest possible unity of the women s movement globally. (1) In the first table, on January 27, we discussed "What is at stake in the in the Rio +20?". For this we counted with the presence of Graciela Rodriguez (Articulação de Mulheres Brasileiras / Instituto Equit -Brazil), Lilian Celiberti (Articulación Feminista Marcosul / Cotidiano Mujer -Uruguay), Gigi Francisco (DAWN-Filipines), Vera Baroni (Articulação Nacional de Mulheres Negras/Brazil), Lourdes Huanca (Federación Nacional de Mujeres Campesinas, Artesanas, Indígenas, Nativas y Asalariadas del Perú - Perú) e Carmen Foro (Coordinator of the Marcha das Margaridas / CONTAG/CUT - Brazil). During the presentations various themes have been addressed such as the global financial crisis, the proposed theme of the official Conference - the so-called ",green economy", - that need to be further discussed as it come as an economy with a green makeup while carrying the same evils of the hegemonic development model. Furthermore we touched issues such as environmental racism, the sexual and reproductive rights, the development model; political, environmental, cultural, social and economic sustainability among others. Lourdes Huanca, Graciela Rodriguez, Lilian Celiberti, Gigi Francisco Among the participants of the panel, Lilian Celiberti emphasized that in reality the true sustainability is the social justice, which is currently traversed by the defeated system of racist domination, lesbophobic, homophobic, sexist and hetero-sexist. She also recalled that 20 years ago one of the most innovative contributions that feminism brought to public debate was the "ethics of another world," namely the idea that we need not only to change some things on the model, but its very base.

2 Vera Baroni placed the relevant discussion on environmental racism, with all the specific impacts of both climate change and natural disasters and contaminants in production processes especially on the quilombola and black populations the countryside and the city. She also noted how the utopia of the Brazilian elites that the industrial development would overcome underdevelopment and poverty did not take place, and now the "green economy" means one more rearrangement of capitalism to continue taking advantage of the same model. Lourdes Huanca stressed the importance of showing the strategic alliance countryside-city for women to gain strength in the feminist struggle against patriarchal society. She told that thanks to their feminist sisters, she learned to value to be a woman and to her body. So she said ",as I defend the territory of my land, I also defend the territory of my body. So I consider myself as a feminist peasant". Gigi Francisco considers the Rio +20 as an opportunity for women from Brazil and throughout Latin America to join, but she emphasizes that the process should be expanded to include women's movements around the world for the Rio +20 to be a truly global event. In this sense she also highlighted the importance of connecting Rio +20 with Cairo +20 (in 2014 will be celebrated the 20th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Egypt, Cairo in 1994). Lourdes Huanca, Vera Baroni, Graciela Rodriguez, Carmen Foro e Gigi Francisco Carmen Foro emphasized the need to expand women's participation in the construction of the Rio +20, mobilizing those who are not yet involved, but who suffer the consequences of the current development model. She also highlighted the need to be "joint and separate" at the same time, i.e. each organization being able to perform actions separately, but also undertake joint actions as from the common agenda of struggles.. On her side, Graciela Rodriguez put her emphasis on the need to analyze the framework of the global financial crisis that crosses the world and the growing power of transnational corporations, starting from her analysis that the Rio +20 will be a business scenario, seeking to draw the new possible post- petroleum energy matrix and the growing capital need of biomass appropriation and bio-economy in general. So, the issue of the defense of the Commons of the earth and of humanity becomes central to the resistance of the people of the world during the June conference. Carmen Louw from Women on Farms-South Africa highlighted the importance of thinking on the issue of land. In South Africa colonialism caused a strong concentration of land ownership. Today the "landless" and women in particular are organizing themselves to regain their land back, questioning the exporting model that puts the population and in particular women workers at risk.

3 (2) On the second day, January 28, in the panel "The UN process, the Commission Brazilian National and the People's Summit - How will women be in it? Took part in the table, helping us to better understand all these processes, Iara Pietricosvsky (INESC/ Civil Society Facilitating Committee for the Rio +20), Sascha Gabizon (Women in Europe for a Common Future/ Women Major Group) e Graciela Rodriguez (I. EQUIT/ Articulação de Mulheres Brasileiras / Civil Society Facilitating Committee for the Rio +20) Iara Pietricovsky made an historical review, retrieving the struggle process of civil society in Brazil and the debate process inside the United Nations on the future of the planet, highlighting the issue of the entrance of the corporate sector within the UN at the beginning of the millennium. "Capitalism is having a hard time reconfiguring itself" she said. She examined the "Draft Zero", noting that this document - which will be the basis of negotiations in June - is an attempt to accommodate all sectors, emptying all political confrontations, whereas it should recover what have already been accumulated during the UN social conferences cycle. Today the challenge is to build up an agenda of minimum consensus that can boost a critical global movement, which does not end in the Rio + 20, and that can mobilize people in the streets to constrain governments and corporations and that can say that we stay out of the capitalist solutions. "We should not just say we are against the green economy, we should say what society and economy we want: an economy of rights, committed to sustainability." Sascha Gabizon e Iara Pietrikovsky Sacha Gabizon, a member of the Women Major Group that represents women in the official process of the United Nations for the Rio +20, invited all women of Brazil and Latin America to participate in this space. She stressed that they organized women's contribution to the base document of the Rio + 20 (Zero Draft) and highlighted the main points: criticism to neoliberalism and the hegemonic political economy; criticisms to the green economy as a way to incorporate more dangerous technologies such as geo-engineering and nanotechnology, need for visibility of women reproductive work which is not valued by societies. Finally, she emphasized the necessity to defend the precautionary principle and "the polluter pays" principle, as well as to pay attention to face the Malthusian policies of demographic control and, consequently, the body control and violation of women's reproductive rights. Graciela Rodriguez, in turn, pointed out that not only is the Rio + 20 thinking about green economy, but there is an articulation of the agendas of the G20, the COPs and the Rio + 20 in this direction. The G20 has currently a central role in global governance. They have the same themes: the green economy to overcome the crisis, the control by bio-economy and re-definition of the planet energy matrix in the post-oil era. It s very important to look at the articulation process of global governance in all these processes. We will have two meetings that take place simultaneously: G20 on 18 and June 19, Mexico, and then the Rio People's Summit - between 15 and 23 June The organizational process of the People's Summit, which will be held at Aterro do Flamengo, is being driven by the Civil Society Facilitating Committee, which is seeking to build a unity as well as expanding and internationalize the field of alliances. In the Facilitator Committee women are represented by AMB and MMM. We women have to organize a participatory process as broad and representative as possible. For this, it is necessary to seek to articulate the national and international women networks. This meeting represents a key moment to discuss how our presence in the People's Summit will be and how can we make this process of mobilization.

4 What is already being thought by the Facilitating Committee: on June 20 is scheduled the day of global mobilization that can be arranged as a march. The idea is that this global day will happen simultaneously in other places around the world. We have to think in a women demonstration and we have to move forward to reach unity as wide as possible in order to have a clear message to governments and societies: we must give a stop to not fulfilled agreements and stop to market solutions! (3) Discussion on the Strategies of Women for Rio +20 During the discussion proposals have emerged, such as the Schuma's who analyzed: we are helping to build the People's Summit and we understand that that space is ours, a space where we seek the visibility of women and of our agenda. Also we should put our efforts for the collective document to be consistent and strong. However we also want a moment for the women agenda to give visibility to women as a political subjects, a mobilization of different women networks that also claim our body as a free territory. At first, we thought about making a women tribunal, then a great act in the street, even though this idea is still without a defined format. For Diana Aguiar the AWID forum in Istanbul, Turkey from 19 to 22 of April will be an interesting space to move forward in international articulation and can be a moment of international connection to the Rio +20. Gigi Francisco from Philippines stressed the logistical challenges and especially resources to achieve women visibility: in the global day of action, and in a specific women space with music, poetry, handicraft products fair, etc. According to Iara, we have to want to "be outrageously happy." People are captured by the logic of consumption. So we need to re-capture the desires for a logic of harmony between men and women and with nature. Carmen Foro, CUT and CONTAG, and coordinator of the March of the Daisies (Marcha das Margaridas), which last August led women of the entire country to Brasilia, defended the realization of a day of women mobilization in the People's Summit in Rio The AMB wants to join the articulation of this national and international mobilization on a common proposal, plural and global. Organizations and networks such as the Movement of Rural Women - MMC, the UBM (União de Mulheres Brasileiras), the National Coordination of Quilombola Communities, REPEM - Popular Education Network among Women, the FPMM - Permanent Forum of Women of Manaus, Women on Farms (Africa South), among others, have undertaken the effort in mobilizing their fields of expertise. Also other international networks present have shown interest to engage in the preparatory process, and in this sense the organizational format must include methodologies and virtual means of communication to enable participation in the distance. We need to chose themes that unite us, to gain strength and visibility in the context of the Rio It was reschedule the importance of giving visibility to the Positive Experiences and Alternatives that women have.

5 (4) Achieved Agreements for our presence in the Rio +20 Among the reached agreements we understand that the women's event will be an autonomous process within the "People's Summit for Social and Environmental Justice" which has among its key ideas the denounce of the commodification of life and the false market solutions for the climate and environmental crisis that are contaminating, warming and poisoning the planet. We agreed to propose a unitary organization of a Women Territory to discuss how to use this space jointly as widely as possible and also with activities coordinated by each organization, network or social movement. We must continue to deepen the themes that are at stake in Rio +20 such as the so called "green economy" and the forms that the global environmental governance will adopt, which actually represent the exits to the crisis and the control of business that promotes such an economy by large transnational corporations and governments of richer countries. The theme of the exploitation of natural resources, of the Commons, of the access to land and agrarian reform are key issues of the debate around the Rio +20. For all this we want to mobilize a broad national articulation that seeks to preserve the unity of the women's movement to achieve a presence and a political strength in the Rio +20 of major significance and plurality. In this sense, we will promote forms of communication and dissemination of information through the articulation of networks and national and international entities, while trying to take advantage of activities such as the Summit of the Americas (April - Colombia), AWID Forum (April - Turkey), Meeting of Rural Women (Ecuador) to articulate and extend this organizational process. The mobilization of resources now becomes critical to ensure a broad and inclusive process. We need to engage at the national and international level to provide resources that enable the arrival of organized women to Rio next June. In political and operational terms, we rely on the of the Brazilian Society Facilitator Committee, which is the broad articulation of social movements and organizations, the open space of national and international connection, with an agreement in terms of themes, organization and social mobilization for Rio +20. There are several working groups - WG Methodology, WG Communication, WG Official Process, WG Mobilization, WG Territory and GWG Rio (composed by organizations of RJ). Finally, we consider fundamental to point to the unity of action of women in Rio +20 and one of the proposals would be organizing a day of Women Global Action during the People s Summit. We will be present in the Rio +20!. On us depends the incisiveness of this presence. Be it in women specific events or added to the People's Summit activities - such as the Global Day of Action - we will make our voices to be heard for a fair, equitable and sustainable planet. Rio de Janeiro, February Report prepared by: Erika Masinara / Graciela Rodriguez (Instituto Equit)