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TWN Info Service
on Intellectual Property Issues (Apr09/02) - The Declaration does not provide answers to the Global Economic Crisis, even though this crisis constitutes the greatest challenge faced by humanity in the last decades and is the most serious threat of the current times to the welfare of our peoples. -
The Declaration unfairly excludes The
Draft Declaration was contested at the ALBA
was initiated by The full ALBA Declaration of 21 April is reproduced below. With
best wishes, Alternativa
Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (ALBA)
The
Declaration of Cumaná ALBA We,
the Heads of State and Government of Bolivia, - The Declaration does not provide answers to the Global Economic Crisis, even though this crisis constitutes the greatest challenge faced by humanity in the last decades and is the most serious threat of the current times to the welfare of our peoples. -
The Declaration unfairly excludes For this reason, we, the member countries of ALBA believe that there is no consensus for the adoption of this draft declaration because of the reasons above stated, and accordingly, we propose to hold a thorough debate on the following topics: 1. Capitalism is leading humanity and the planet to extinction. What we are experiencing is a global economic crisis of a systemic and structural nature, not another cyclic crisis. Those who think that with a taxpayer money injection and some regulatory measures this crisis will end are wrong. The financial system is in crisis because it trades bonds with six times the real value of the assets and services produced and rendered in the world, this is not a “system regulation failure”, but a integrating part of the capitalist system that speculates with all assets and values with a view to obtain the maximum profit possible. Until now, the economic crisis has generated over 100 million additional hungry persons and has slashed over 50 million jobs, and these figures show an upward trend. 2. Capitalism has caused the environmental crisis, by submitting the necessary conditions for life in the planet, to the predominance of market and profit. Each year we consume one third more of what the planet is able to regenerate. With this squandering binge of the capitalist system, we are going to need two planets Earth by the year 2030. 3. The global economic crisis, climate change, the food crisis and the energy crisis are the result of the decay of capitalism, which threatens to end life and the planet. To avert this outcome, it is necessary to develop and model an alternative to the capitalist system. A system based on: - solidarity and complementarity, not competition; - a system in harmony with our mother earth and not plundering of human resources; - a system of cultural diversity and not cultural destruction and imposition of cultural values and lifestyles alien to the realities of our countries; - a system of peace based on social justice and not on imperialist policies and wars; - in summary, a system that recovers the human condition of our societies and peoples and does not reduce them to mere consumers or merchandise. 4.
As a concrete expression of the new reality of the continent, we, 5. We question the G20 for having tripled the resources of the International Monetary Fund when the real need is to establish a new world economic order that includes the full transformation of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, entities that have contributed to this global economic crisis with their neoliberal policies. 6. The solutions to the global economic crisis and the definition of a new international financial scheme should be adopted with the participation of the 192 countries that will meet in the United Nations Conference on the International Financial Crisis to be held on June 1-3 to propose the creation of a new international economic order. 7. As for climate change, developed countries are in an environmental debt to the world because they are responsible for 70% of historical carbon emissions into the atmosphere since 1750. Developed countries should pay off their debt to humankind and the planet; they should provide significant resources to a fund so that developing countries can embark upon a growth model which does not repeat the serious impacts of the capitalist industrialization. 8. Solutions to the energy, food and climate change crises should be comprehensive and interdependent. We cannot solve a problem by creating new ones in fundamental areas for life. For instance, the widespread use of agricultural fuels has an adverse effect on food prices and the use of essential resources, such as water, land and forests. 9.
We condemn the discrimination against migrants in any of its forms.
Migration is a human right, not a crime. Therefore, we request the 10. Basic education, health, water, energy and telecommunications services should be declared human rights and cannot be subject to private deal or marketed by the World Trade Organization. These services are and should be essentially public utilities of universal access. 11.
We wish a world where all, big and small, countries have the same rights
and where there is no empire. We advocate non-intervention. There is
the need to strengthen, as the only legitimate means for discussion
and assessment of bilateral and multilateral agendas in the hemisphere,
the foundations for mutual respect between states and governments, based
on the principle of non-interference of a state in the internal affairs
of another state, and inviolability of sovereignty and self-determination
of the peoples. We request the new Government of the 12. With regard to the US blockade against Cuba and the exclusion of the latter from the Summit of the Americas, we, the member states of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America, reassert the Declaration adopted by all Latin American and Caribbean countries last December 16, 2008, on the need to end the economic, trade and financial blockade imposed by the Government of the United States of America on Cuba, including the implementation of the so-called Helms-Burton Act. The declaration sets forth in its fundamental paragraphs the following: “CONSIDERING the resolutions approved by the United Nations General Assembly on the need to finish the economic, trade and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba, and the statements on such blockade, which have been approved in numerous international meetings. “WE AFFIRM that the application of unilateral, coercive measures affecting the wellbeing of peoples and hindering integration processes is unacceptable when defending free exchange and the transparent practice of international trade. “WE
STRONGLY REPEL the enforcement of laws and measures contrary to International
Law, such as the Helms-Burton Act, and we urge the Government of the
“WE REQUEST the Government of the United States of America to comply with the provisions set forth in 17 successive resolutions approved by the United Nations General Assembly and put an end to the economic, trade and financial blockade on Cuba.” Additionally,
we consider that the attempts at imposing the isolation of Cuba have
failed, as nowadays Cuba forms an integral part of the Latin American
and Caribbean region; it is a member of the Rio Group and other hemispheric
organizations and mechanisms, which develops a policy of cooperation,
in solidarity with the countries in the hemisphere; which promotes full
integration of Latin American and Caribbean peoples. Therefore, there
is no reason whatsoever to justify its exclusion from the mechanism
of the 13. Developed countries have spent at least USD 8 billion to rescue a collapsing financial structure. They are the same that fail to allocate the small sums of money to attain the Millennium Goals or 0.7% of the GDP for the Official Development Assistance. Never before the hypocrisy of the wording of rich countries had been so apparent. Cooperation should be established without conditions and fit in the agendas of recipient countries by making arrangements easier; providing access to the resources, and prioritizing social inclusion issues. 14. The legitimate struggle against drug trafficking and organized crime, and any other form of the so-called “new threats” must not be used as an excuse to undertake actions of interference and intervention against our countries. 15. We are firmly convinced that the change, where everybody repose hope, can come only from organization, mobilization and unity of our peoples. As the Liberator wisely said: Unity of our peoples is not a mere illusion of men, but an inexorable decree of destiny. — Simón Bolívar
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