Representatives from 112 different social organizations and 16 different Mexican states met in Tepeaca, central Mexico, for a meeting concerning alternative lives for the people, between the fourth and sixth of July.

During this meeting the following was manifested:

The government led by Vicente Fox has forced upon Mexico an economic politics, which are continuations of the neoliberal politics begun by the PRI government. These politics only benefit the transnational companies and lead to ever greater poverty and unemployment. Every year, 50 000 Mexican citizens risk their lives when forced to migrate to USA. This phenomenon strike especially hard on the women, who under very harsh conditions become responsible for homes.

By operating a politics meant to privatize businesses in the public sector the government led by Vicente Fox completely violates the constitution, taking what belongs to the people and giving it away to transnational companies.

The standpoint of the Mexican government to side with North America is as obvious as troublesome. This standpoint is breaking the strike against the Latin-American block and its leading countries Argentina and Brazil. The position is also manifested in the latest conflict with the Cuban government.

Despite their public declarations, the Mexican government forces on mega projects as well as PPP and violates the basic rights (human, cultural and ecological). If these projects are driven trough, it would mean large, forced/coercion moving of labor resulting in repression and enormous environmental damages.

It is clear that the increasing aggressiveness of the Mexican government political standpoints is a result of lacking respect for the poor parts of the population. The brutality brought to fore by the police groups in Gualdalajara is a clear sign stating a radicalization of the PAN government.

As a result of this the participants of this meeting declare the following:

1. We completely oppose the impossible project PPP (Plan Puebla Panama) and every other mega project which means the end of our people, their culture, a violation of their rights or the destruction of natural resources.

2. We oppose the privatization of public posts and resources, which are the properties of the Mexican people.

3. We declare that we will continue our struggle for the sovereignty/autonomy/self-determination and in the spirit of this demand the implementation of the San Andreas Agreement.

4. We oppose the working reform named the Abasca law and demand respect for human rights and working right for employees within the Maquila industry.

5. We express our opposing of gene manipulation of plants/growth/sprouts, especially concerning corn. It has been shown that these plants do not only give physical damages when consumed but that the gene manipulation also results in an increase of Mexican farmers? dependence of transnational companies.

6. We will continue our struggle for self-support and for the construction of life facilitating projects based upon the respect of the dignity of our people, our culture and Mother Earth.

7. We will continue our struggle for gender-equality and we are opposed to all forms of violence directed toward women.

8. We oppose the violation of our right to freely express ourselves and demand that the government of Vicente Fox fully respects our media, for example our local radio stations which plays an important role for our people.

In the context of this, the organizations in this meeting encourage the organized groups of the Mexican people to:

- Initialize an extensive mobilization between the 30th September and the 15th October, against the company privatization, demanding the end of PPP and ALCA and promoting the fulfilling of the San Andreas Agreement.

- Showing their solidarity for those Indians and farming communities being robbed of their land at the construction of dams and motorways in Oaxaca, Pueblo, Chiapas, Guerrero and Veracruz.

- Promoting the alliance and the solidarity between countryside and city organizations with the target to fortify the struggle of our people and advance in the construction of actual and realistic alternatives of the neoliberal model and of the authority that today control us.

- Initializing mobilization against the violence of the government and their continuing violations of human rights.

- As a right for the villages and an obligation of the government we demand a public financing targeted to improve the base service and financing alternative projects for improving the living standards in our villages. This funding should be completely without demands and lacking obligations toward the government.

Because the people always are the highest priority ? No to Plan Puebla Panama!

Enacted in Tepeaca during six days in June:

Proposals from the meeting concerning alternatives for the village lives

We find one of the main problems with adapting self-determination in our villages facing the invasion of the neoliberal economy and its mega investing projects as well as the free market (called PPP, ALCA or something else, depending on the region) is the lack of socioeconomical alternatives allowing us to exceed the actual mobilization for the defence of our rights and allowing us to stand on our feet protesting and constructing alternatives. Many such alternatives already exist, but have not yet reached out to the population and hence remain unknown. One may find these alternatives among women, farming and working organizations, Indian communities, among organized and unorganized farmers, among the consumers of the cities, among environmental activists and ecologists, among free media groups and in the free creativity of the youth. As the main strategy for changing the neoliberal reality oppressing us we must gather, gain knowledge of, disseminate, construct and participate in alternative ways of life realized as formulated alternatives as regards to our reality with the target to within a longer period defining an alternative plan of life for the people, with room for everyone. As a continuation we present the proposals for alternative ways of work from the participants of this meeting for alternative lives for the people.

Local sovereignty

They propose a strategy for local sovereignty promoting the regional markets which are strengthened by the internal market. To attain this they will work on three levels involving the production and the essential necessities, just and equitable sharing, the support of public financed services such as small banks.

Similar are the strategies concerning the support of the equitable economy that bind together consumers and producers and, with social criteria as foundation, support trade with goods from the countryside. These strategies involve demands for the elected politicians to help producers attaining a real and available economical support intended to create a healthy and satisfactory environment for the entire society.

To create an information committee adapted for each region handling matters concerning e.g. the local sovereignty, mega projects, the economical, social and cultural rights as well as the right to natural resources.

The mass investing projects

The mass investing projects are forced upon our country by the dominating world capitalism in the form of the neoliberal model. The projects are revealed in every part of life within the nation, especially in the looting of natural resources and the hunt for privatization of every asset. The assets that are in particularly subjects to these privatizations are oil, electric energy, natural gas and water. The neoliberal model results in that more than half the Mexican farmers are forced to move and leave their soils and homes, resulting in an emptying of the countryside/resulting in a deserted countryside. If these mega projects are driven through it means moving and a deteriorated quality of life and living conditions for one of the social groups, namely the poorest. Simultaneously, these mega projects enrich the capital and company owners, in this century of the transnational companies and foreign capital.

As a reaction to this we suggest:

- Never again accept them forcing these expensive local projects on us as necessary.

- Never accept the forced relocating of our people and communities for installing and implementing of mass investing projects.

- Bring the defense of our human rights to the fore, especially the economical, social and cultural rights as well as the right to use natural resources.

- We suggest that we cooperate with all our comrades/companions/friends/peers to attain a response from the entire region.

- We demand the cases of aggression to be documented for the purpose of organizing a response and turning our demands to reality.

- We will launch a bulletin with our central demands and the main principles of our resistance to the main media.

- As AMAP we demand the necessary information for knowledge on planned and already existing mega projects.

All this will be seen as a part of one uniform front fighting against all different kinds of mega projects, wherever they are located.

Women

We, the women present at the meeting, took upon ourselves to elicit space for education and knowledge on gender equity as a form of resistance against both the patriarchy and neoliberalism. We consider it to be necessary to build alliances of all sorts that strengthen the female leadership and representativity for success within gender equity as well as political equity.

Indian rights and local sovereignty

We encourage all Indian communities to in all aspects, economical, social and ecological, strengthen their cultural identity. We know that the capital and government protect interests that want to destroy the local. We know that since we have grown experts on withstanding their attacks, trying to force upon us their individualism and consumerism. Also in the future we will remain experts.

The Indian sovereignty is simultaneously a suggestion for an alternative way of life. We must continue this work to strengthen our local knowledge and the work within our villages.

We will slowly but surely advance forward to reinforce the autonomy and sovereignty which are our rights as indigenous people. In addition to this strategy, we suggest: strengthen the local investors, the traditional medicine, holding workshops to strengthen the local genuine agriculture, protect the crop and the domestic market with equitable and healthy products, importing of local legal processes and construction of new ways of education that entirely cover and strengthen the culture of our people. In the same way we suggest to through AMAP continue the villages work with a further development of the information system for e.g. urgent documents and encouragements.

Labor law

In the same way the following make possible alternatives for the workers in the Maquiladora industry. First we demand from the government, which establishes all kinds of different reliefs for the capital, to follow the guaranties to compensate the communities and workers economically, ecologically and socially. We also demand the companies to follow the labor rights and the international laws for company business as well as facilitating the rights of the workers. One of the main problems facing the workers in the Maquiladora industry is the ignorance on the subject of their rights. To face this we suggest a strengthening of the juridical counseling on the labor rights in the state as well as benefiting from those experiences of others organizing or creating union movements within Maquiladoras. We also suggest strengthening the social and economical alternatives binding worker organizations and the workers within agriculture and the Maquiladora industry. We do this to avoid phenomena such as narcotic trade, drug cultivation and drugs. Like migration, these are a result of the neoliberal system. To as groups and organizations or a community generically create a punctual monitoring for human, economical, economical, social, environmental and cultural rights for the workers in the Maquiladora company and confronting them with the international and national public opinion. Lastly establish international alliances with other workers after the principle “think globally, act locally”.

The organization and resistance of the villages

We organizations and movements having participated in this meeting have decided to continue organizing us to maintain unity. We will also continue searching better ways for coordination and communication to defend ejiodos and municipal soil, building on the social base, defending the national sovereignty and our natural resources as well as our economical, social, ecological and cultural rights.

We will continue our strong resistance and the internal organizing with and through a long period of mobilization on a local, regional, national and international level against the neoliberal politics. This will be in the form of participation in the dialog and discussion on meetings, forums and seminars as well as defending the political prisoners before national and international instances. We will also form a commission with the tasks to work for the release of the political prisoners and acting to end all the sentences/judgments/verdicts concerning the social activists.

We will integrate two commissions: one producing through the cooperatives of production, having responsibility over the needs of the Indian villages, the other for strengthening of identity. We support the workers on the hospital Niño Poblano and the struggle of the independent universities. We suggest on the following meetings to also include the theme education to neutralize the ideological indoctrination which is currently conducted by the government on e.g. universities and centers for study.

Bulletin for the resistance

Regarding the bulletin for resistance we will center the strategies to deal with creating regional diagnoses surveying needs within education, infrastructure and identification and realization of the mentioned education. The final goal is to be able to exchange this strategic information and having access to a database which will work as basis/foundation for bulletins, radio programs and so on. The information will also be available as a web page. During the meeting participants were appointed responsible for each region to realize the diagnosis and regional forum. Those appointed will also create an invitation to all social organizations regarded to belong to this movement. They will also continue to draw up/work out the forming of local radio and formulation of the defense for these.

Plan of action

Special statements: Against president Bush’s war and attack on Cuba; against the hard repression in Guadalajara and demands for immediate release of our imprisoned comrades/companions/friends/peers in Jalisco; for a ceasing of the harassments against the local radio stations; demands for Fox’s resignation and request not to vote for PAN again.

6 June 2004- Visit at the communities Magdalena Axocopa and Santa Cruz Alpuyeca, Cuantinchan, Puebla.

6 June 2004- Workshop on economical, social, cultural and ecological rights in Tepeaca.

20 June 2004 ? Solidarity meeting with the farmers in La Parota.

July, 2004- Bring the result of this meeting to the fifth meso-american forum and to the previous farmer, women, dam, biodiversity and worker forums and meetings against: the transnational companies, political corruption, privatizations and multi lateral institutions (e.g. IMF, World Bank, BID, ALCA and PPP). This period will be a part of the global mobilization against the World Bank and IMF.

30 September ? 3 October 2004- Participation in the first national meeting on the effects of the dam building as well as the defending of our rivers, which will take place in the community Aguas Calientes, Bienes Communales de Cacahuatepec in the municipality of Acapulco in the state of Guerrero. Also this meeting is a part of the global mobilization against the World Bank and IMF.

12 October 2004- Meso-american mobilization for the sovereignty of the villages.

15 October 2004- Celebration of the anniversary of the coordination of the local governments in Colombia de Guadelupe, Minialtepec in Guerrero.

The summoning to and participation in, as AMAP, the second meeting concerning the nature reserves. The meeting will take place in the month of November in Montes Azules.

Plantón and press conferences supporting our compañeros being affected by the dam building Parota.

(Information: CIEPAC will publish the result of this meeting on our web page: http://www.ciepac.org)

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