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Call for participation

Thematic Social Forum

Capitalist Crisis, Social and Environmental Justice

24 to 29 January 2012

Porto Alegre (Brazil) and Metropolitan Area

Preparing the Peoples Summit Rio+20

People put themselves in motion

Occupy Wall Street spreads the United States. Protests and indigenous mobilizations produce a great ferment in the Andean region usually stormy. An unusual level of activity of mass movements affects even countries known for their social stability. On October 15 we had almost a thousand demonstrations in cities of 82 countries.

The indignation at the inequalities and injustices and social policy appears as a common brand for most of these movements that challenge the “system” and “power”, faces his destructiveness and break the passivity of the neoliberal decades. The austerity policy promises more misery and lead young people to mobilize for his future. On every continent, apathetic sectors before it set in motion in a peaceful, democratic, pluralistic, unitary and autonomous in relation to power.

These movements arise from the needs and aspirations of this, after three decades of neoliberal globalization. Mobilizations are bearers of values ​​such as empathy for the suffering of others, solidarity, defense of equality, for justice, recognition of diversity, critical market supremacy over life, appreciation of nature – central ideas for the urgent reconstruction of a possible new world.

The message is one: we need to reinvent the world

No effective response seems to be emerging from the established powers. The environmental crisis is being ignored by the United Nations (UN) and great powers and drag humanity into a catastrophic scenario. The commodification of life and growing portion of the appropriation of the earth’s biomass plays an increasingly destructive pressure on the different ecosystems and quickly reduce biodiversity. The deepening social crisis in the central economies and indignation against growing inequality doesn’t find more response than privatization and the defense of privilege by governments and multinational corporations. The advance of the extraction and purchase of land will continue to fuel the resistance struggles in defense of nature, of common goods and ways of life. Increases the number of people who believe it is impossible to address these issues facing the global response to a system whose crisis is affecting all mankind. It’s about changing the system to defend 99% of 1% of humanity who wants to play their crisis on the backs of others. We need to reinvent the world.

This seems to be a unique moment to rescue the accumulation of altermondialism and the World Social Forum. We move in Belém in 2009, the search for alternatives to developmentalism and consumerism from the ground socioenvironmental. But now social struggle is oxygenated and enriched by the movement seeking autonomy and control of power in the Arab world and the vast expressions of outrage at the financial capitalism and corporations in Europe and the United States. If another world is possible, be based on the convergence of political subjects, favoring that creates a sense of common purpose, identity and future vision.

Porto Alegre and Metropolitan Area may in 2012 be the meeting point indignant the expressions of indigenous peoples and the anti-systemic movements from all sides, able to claim a solution to the crisis, building guidelines and global campaigns. Moreover, this will only be effective if we can affirm and transmit an alternative paradigm of society, to build a common vocabulary able to articulate the demands of diffuse large proportion of the population. Being theme, the FST can build strategic thinking and program, may also be presented at the Rio plus 20 (Rio+20), in May and June 2012, will draw crowds to the Rio de Janeiro.

Considering this goal, we invite all men and women attend the Thematic Social Forum – Capitalist Crisis, Social and Environmental Justice to be held in Porto Alegre and Metropolitan Area on 24 to 29 January 2012.

A forum which sees itself as different process

Establish thematic groups a process able to accommodate the multiplicity of experiences and contributions of the various social actors around these broad themes capable of articulating and mobilizing actors of various movements. Thematic groups are being formed of subjects relating to the agenda of sustainability and social and environmental justice; the existence of networks able to facilitate policy and operational discussions and to systematize the discussion, in electronic forums, and systematize the discussion held in electronic forums, enabling discussions in different languages ​​for its participants making it ample. The thematic groups will meet in Porto Alegre for the systematization of the discussion of FST in the first day (25 and 26 / January /2012) FST and the following days (27 and 28 / January / 2012) there is an articulation of the various dialogues with each other around four axes cross, namely:

• a) ethical and philosophical: subjectivity, domination and emancipation;
• b) human rights, peoples, territories and defense of Mother Earth;
• c) production, distribution and consumption, access to wealth, common goods and economies in transition;
• d) political subjects, architecture of power and democracy.

This whole process will be facilitated by the Organizing Committee (GRAP plus Local Committee) and the facilitators of the thematic groups. In this collective decisions will lie about organization and evolution of FST methodological developments forum. Other initiatives will support this collective elaboration, such as a panel of climate and systematization of indicators.

www.dialogos2012.org – The platform will go live on November 15, with subsidies for the initial discussion of the various thematic groups and those who enrolled in thematic groups can follow the discussions in the Forum four languages: English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. To date, we will be receiving proposals for the thematic groups entries by e-mail grupostematicosfst@gmail.com. Upon verification of compliance with the pre-conditions and any clumps, send an e-mail confirming the formation of the GT and providing the platform for group use.

Find out about the process of preparing the Thematic Social Forum, registration of self-management activities and other issues on the website www.fstematico2012.org.br or write to fstematico2012@gmail.com Join and get ready to come to Porto Alegre and the Metropolitan Area.

We will continue reinventing the world!

Organizing Committee