RECLAIM POWER! – PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY
People from all over the world, organized in networks such as Climate Justice Action, Climate
Justice Now, Via Campesina, or the Climate Caravan and many others have come together
today to enter the Bella Center and change the agenda. We all oppose the false market based
solutions that are being imposed by the same powers that have caused the climate crisis such.
We oppose agrofuels, carbon trading, dispossession of indigenous peoples, nuclear power,
GMOs and other techno fixes, and the privatization of the atmosphere.
The global movements represented here are struggling against these powers and already
building up concrete alternatives. Our agenda includes food sovereignty, energy sovereignty,
leaving the fossil resources in the ground, open borders, right of self-determination of
indigenous people, paying the ecological debt, and ´buen vivir´.
OPENING
* Giuseppe Villalaz from the Movimiento de la Juventud KUNA Panama, an organization that
works for the economic social and environmental culture of the indigenous youth of the Kuna
people. Today 70,000 Kuna manage their day-to-day affairs through an elaborate system of
direct democracy that federates 500 different autonomous communities. All the Kuna have to
prepare to move from their islands to the nearby mainland, as all these islands are less than a
meter above sea level.
* Josie Riffaud, France, La VIA CAMPESINA – the international movement of peasants,
small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth
and agricultural workers. La Via Campesina is an autonomous, pluralist and multicultural
movement, independent of any political, economic, or other type of affiliation. Its members are
from 56 countries from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
FALSE SOLUTIONS
* GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS and AGROFUELS
Javiera Rulli Argentina, Grupo de Reflexión Rural, aims to give like-minded individuals
from a range of different disciplines the opportunity to discuss the impacts off false ecolocigal
solutions on our society.
* TECHNO FIXES, example Corall Riff Programs
Pablo Rosales,Philippines, Sea Fish for Justice conducts campaigns and programs in
several Asian countries and calls for Justice in Fisheries which respects, upholds and protects
artisanal fisher’s right, women and children’s rights, access & control rights, and user’s right.
* NUCLEAR POWER
Nadia Shevchenko, Ukraine, Rainbow Keepers is an East European organization
with a radical ecological vision.
* CARBON TRADE
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* REDD (‘reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation’)
Diego Cardona, Colombia, Global Forest Coalition aims to reduce poverty amongst, and
avoid impoverishment of, Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent peoples, by
advocating the rights of these peoples as a basis for forest policy and addressing the direct
and underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation.
* GREN NEW DEAL
Ian Terry, was a worker at the Vestas wind turbine factory in the Isle of Wight in the UK.
When the company announced the closure of the plant last summer, he and his colleagues
organised an occupation of the plant which lasted two weeks, and which united both the
labour and the environmental movement in support.
ALTERNATIVES
* LEAVING THE FOSSIL RESSOURCES IN THE GROUND
Alejandra Almeida, Ecuador, Acción Ecologica, a group of radical ecologists that play a
key role in promoting and developing sustainable societies as well as actively promoting
social resistance to change and establish alliances with those who support their struggle.
* A WORLD WITHOUT BORDERS
Eugenio Pappalardo, Italy, Ya basta Network, whose groups organize around social
centers, having a strong degree of self management and consensus. They have been
carrying out many successful No borders-Actions of civil disobedience for years.
* RIGHT OF SELF-DETERMINATION OF INDIGINENOUS
Sina Davis-Brown, New Zealand, Te Ata Tino Toa, a collective of Maori activists, are
looking forward to forging a strong collective understanding and response to the dual threats
of neo liberalism and climate change.
* LABOUR IN DIGNITY
Dave Bleakney, Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The CUPW are not only uniquely
democratically organized, but among the global protest of the alterglobalization movement
from the scratch. Beside post office workers, they also represent cleaners, couriers, drivers,
vehicle mechanics, warehouse workers, mail house workers, emergency medical dispatchers,
bicycle couriers and other workers in more than 15 private sector bargaining units.
* PAYING THE ECOLOGICAL DEBT
Beverly Keene, Argentina, Jubilee South, is a network of jubilee and debt campaigns, social
movements, people’s organizations, communities, NGOs and political formations. The Jubilee
South network aims to and is in the process of emerging and developing as an international
South movement on the debt.
* FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
Alberto Gómez, Mexico, Via Campensina (for the organization, see above)
* ENERGY SOVEREIGNTY
Lucila Bettina Cruz Velazquez, Mexico, Asamblea en Defensa de la Tierra, is
especially fighting the disastrous use of enormous wind mill
* BUEN VIVIR
Aldo Amao, CAOI
After these speeches (very short each) there will be more from the delegation walking
out the Bella Center, and also a horizontal process in affinity groups on problems,
actions, and solutions. The People´s Assembly is an open horizontal process. We
consider this as a start for peoples assemblies all over the world. We´ve started a
process of handling the crisis ourselves and invite people to participate.
