Civil society in Chiapas took another step towards construction of a wide-based movement against corporate globalization by holding the I Chiapaneco Encounter on Neoliberalism last October 9, 10 and 11 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas.  Some 82 representatives of 36 social organizations, 124 representatives of 44 non-governmental organizations , 63 observers, 30 of them from diverse countries attended the encounter.

The Encounter is the result of the agreements reached by more than 1,000 representatives of 400 civil society organization from throughout Mesoamerica that met last July in Managua, Nicaragua, on the occasion of the III Mesoamerican Encounter on the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP).

One of the principal tasks coming out of Managua was the coordination of activities locally among social and civilian organizations, in order to translate opposition to the PPP into actions.  Without denying the need for more analysis on the PPP, a “hallway consensus” at the Managua meeting was the need to undertake direct action in order to:

·         continue disseminating on a grass-roots level what the PPP is and its relationship to the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) and the WTO (World Trade Organization);

·         continue strengthening grassroots alternatives to neoliberal economics;

·         oppose privatization, especially with regards to basic services such as light, water, education, health.

But the Managua Encounter was at the same time the result of previous events, each one drawing more organizations and participants in opposition to the PPP.  The first, in Tapachula, Chiapas, drew 350 representatives from 100 organizations.  The second, in Xelajú (Quetzaltenango), Guatemala, brought together 800 representatives from 300 organizations.  In addition there have been numerous local and regional events, among them:

·         II South-North Encounter in October 2000 in San Felipe Ecatepec, Chiapas

·         I State Encounter of Chiapas Organizations in San Felipe, Ecatepec, also in October, 2000

·         I Encounter for Democracy and Life in San Cristóbal, November, 2000

·         I Mesoamerican Forum for Life, subtitled “Regional Front on Dams”, in Petén, Guatemala

·         Two week-long events “For Biological and Cultural Diversity” in San Cristóbal, Chiapas, and Xelajú, Guatemala.

Each event helped to spread the word a bit farther on diverse topics related to globalization, knitted a bit tighter the networks among social and civil organizations and activists in different countries, with a growing conviction that building another world is possible.

In four of the eight countries that make up the PPP area (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama) national coordinations on the PPP have been established.  In the case of Mexico, the resistance to the PPP by many organizations evolved into the AMAP (Mexican Alliance for Self-determination of the People) in January, 2002.  In Guatemala the coordination is the “Mesa Global”; in El Salvador the Salvadoran Social Movement; in Honduras the “Bloque Popular”.

In Mexico last October 12 there were coordinated actions by the social and civil organizations that belong to AMAP, in Chiapas, Puebla, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Guerrero and Mexico City.  Likewise in keeping with the call made by the Mexico and Central American coordinations, 70 US groups in a anti-PPP network blocked several entry points on the Mexico-US borders, and carried out marches in Washington, Boston, and 18 other cities.

In Chiapas ten social and civil organizations convoked the I Chiapas Encounter on Neoliberalism with the intention of improving coordination in activities and exchange of information.  We believe that there is a need for a plural, wide-based, democratic, multisectoral space where we can all, in an organized fashion, globalize alternatives, resistance and the hope that another world is possible.

The principal objective of the I Encounter was to arrive at “concrete, urgent, opportune, priority and effective actions” at eleven discussion tables:

1)      Food sovereignty, campesino (peasant) production, just trade;
2)      Land, PROCEDE (government land certification program), Migration
3)      Corn (or maize);4)      Agro-toxins and genetically modified organisms;
5)      Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), PPP and free trade;
6)      Dams, civil resistance to light bills, privatization of energy and water;
7)      Human rights, indigenous peoples, autonomy;
8)      Biodiversity, protected natural areas (ANP), biopiratry, and tradition medicine;
9)      Maquiladoras;
10)   Militarization and paramilitarization; and
11)   Coffee;

The methodology led to the integration, in concluding sessions, of activities coming from these discussion tables and commitments to carry them out in the diverse region of Chiapas: Altos, Selva, North region, border, Isthmus-Coast, Sierra, and the Soconusco-Frailesca-Center region.

Commitments include:

Joining the National Encounter against the PROCEDE;
Participating in the state-wide front against privatization of electrical energy, water, and against dams;
“Toxic-free” days to transform advertisements of the agro-chemical multinationals into positive messages;
Creating regional centers of training in organic techniques;
Creating an information center on the PPP

            and many more.

It was also decided that the next Encounter will be in February, 2003 in the rural town of Nuevo Huixtán.

The two and a half days of work concluded on October 12 with a demonstration through the streets of San Cristóbal and a rally at the Plaza of the Cathedral.  The demonstration, together with the blockade of highways at seven junctions in Chiapas by hundred of members of social and civil organizations of all stripes, was Chiapas’ response to the agreement reached in Managua at the III Encounter on the PPP to organize days of mobilization and struggle throughout Mesoamerica.  (For a summary of the many astonishing mobilizations throughout Mesoamerica, South America and the United States, please see the following link (with information in English and Spanish:

http://www.ciepac.org/otras%20temas/even121002.doc

We here transcribe the final
Declaration of the

I CHIAPANECO ENCOUNTER ON NEOLIBERALISM

“Strengthening Resistance and Seeking Alternatives”

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, October 9-12, 2002

We the representatives of 80 Chiapas organizations, inhabitants of these lands, met at El Carmen, on this hill, that has become a palace of births.  During four days we have spoken our word on the four dangers that threaten the life of our Mother Earth.  Those who seek to poison her know that they will kill us too in the attempt.  We, seeds of the people, like maize, will germinate and grow within her only if we keep her alive.  We thus reject the science of death and we struggle to build a future where we shall give fruit, where we shall beget a government that respects us, and respects the mother who gave us all life.  Here, our first step has been to reclaim a place in Chiapas that will allow us communication and information, in the hope that it might become a road for joining all struggles that defend life throughout our planet.  The second step has been to decide on immediate actions that will unite us with those struggles.

For these reasons:

We demand respect for our natural resources, culture, traditions and human rights, because they are the hope for life for all of Creation.

We reject the FTAA, PPP, the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, the Free Trade Agreements, the building of dams, privatization of water, electricity, because they bring destruction, theft and death of our peoples.

We demand respect for the rights of all workers in agro-industries and in maquiladoras.  We oppose proposals that would modify labor laws in keeping with trade treaties.

We keep our word.  Yes to the San Andrés Accords.
Disarmament of the paramilitaries!  Get the army out of our communities!
Our mobilization is to avoid more rivers of blood of our people, who cry for justice.

As sons and daughters of this earth we say NO to PROCEDE.  We say that a campesino without land is a slave to the maquiladoras.  Let us recover our territory.

We reject the speculation with coffee prices in the New York exchanges and the government’s support of multinational corporations.  Let us promote a national consensus by means of fair trade.  Let us control what we produce and produce what we need.

We reject the “science of death” of the corporations that produce agro-toxins and genetically modified organisms.  We grew as maize, maize is our memory, maize our word.  We are seed of the people in defense of food sovereignty, the substance of our autonomy.  Our health, land and work are not for sale, and thus we work, promote and strengthen the production and the consumption of organic products, the conservation of soils, rivers, lands, community development, cultural identity, and a just, alternative trade, in solidarity.

We shall remain firmly opposed to the theft of our people’s patrimony.  We are the ones who have and will continue to care for, defend, and nurture all life of our mother earth, as it is our own life.

Signed at the I Chiapaneco Encounter on Neoliberalism:

Abogados y Asesores Pro Derechos Humanos, Alianza Cívica Chiapas, Área Diocesana de Derechos Humanos, ARIC, BACOSAN, CAPISE, Catequistas de Huitiupán, CCESSC / INCMNSZ, CEDIAC, AC, Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, CEPAZ, CIAM, CICE, CIDECI, CIEPAC, Circulo Sancristobalense de Abogados, A. C., CIRSA, COCIDEP, CODIMUJ, COLEM, Comisión Local de Reconciliación y DDHH de Los Altos, Comité Civil Electricista, Comité de Desarrollo Comunitario del Sur, COMPITCH, Comunidad Agua de Tigre, Comunidad Nueva Cruz, Comunidad Nuevo Monte Cristo, Comunidad Santa Rosalía, Comunidades afectadas por Represas, Comunidades Eclesiales de Base, Convergencia de Organizaciones Campesinas Indígenas de Chiapas, CORECO, Chiltak, A.C. , Defensoras Derechos Humanos de la Mujeres, DESMI, A.C., EDUPAZ, AC, Enlace, Comunicación y Capacitación, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales UNACH, Feminario, Foro para el Desarrollo Sustentable, A.C., Fundación León XIII, FZLN San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Global Exchange, Grupo de Mujeres de Amatán, Grupo de Mujeres Tzome Ixuk, Iglesia Católica de Región Sureste, Iglesia de la Parroquia de Santo Domingo, Jolom Mayaetik, La Voz de Cerro Hueco, Las Abejas, Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste, Melel Xojobal, Misión Altamirano, Misión de Guadalupe, Mpio. de Independencia, Chis., MUK`TA NA (Casa Grande), Municipio San Andrés Larráinzar, Nemi Zapata, Nuevo Amanecer Indígena 94 (NAI94), Nuevo Yibeljoj, Obra Kolping, OCOMITCH, OMIECH, OMITAC (Organización de Médicos Indígenas Tradicionales), Organización de Pueblos Indígenas de la Zona Patihuitz, Parroquia de Altamirano, Parroquia de San Andrés Apóstol, Parroquia de Santo Domingo de Guzmán, Plural Chiapas, Programa "Desarrollo Humano en Chiapas" UAM, Promedios , Pueblo Creyente, Red de Defensores Comunitarios por los Derechos Humanos, RICAA, Roberto Barrios, SADEC, Seminario de Género (UNACH), Sociedad Cooperativa Unión Lucha y Progreso, Unión Tzotzil de Diversificación SSS de Simojovel.

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Octubre 11, 2002.

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