Resisting the globalisation of capital
Discussion,
on alternatives from below


International conference, workshops and meeting
Saturday January 26 2002, Zurich, Volkshaus, Stauffacherstr.60

The recent fall in stock prices has taken with it the last remaining myth of a "happy globalisation". Behind the firing of masses of employees lurks the specter of an international recession.

It is in this contexte the the heads of governement of the industrialised countries have started a war of "a new kind" that, they say, will last for many years and will touch the entire globe. This "first war of the 21st century", supposedly "fighting international terrorism", represents a very serious attack against democratic, social and economic rights of the vast majority of the world population. This war represents the culminating point of the domination of the world by a few who have now decided to attack further the working and living conditions of masses of human beings so as to draw more profit from them.

Through the decision of moving their annual meeting, the World Economic Forum (WEF), from Davos to New York, the "global leaders" show their solidarity with the warlords of our time. Their duty being to garranty the freedom of action of the big investors and transnational companies around the planet, even by military means, if necessary.

This war illustrates how bleak our futur shall be if the globalisation of capital goves on. A futur where the life and dignity of millions of humans counts less than the evolutions of shares and profits of major companies, "modern gods" whose good is more important than the needs of humanity. The expression of the suffering of hundreds of millions of women and men and the meaning of their struggle is often lost in the waves of information broadcasted by the mass media. This mass media shall again participate in the show staged by the WEF in New York, supposedly showing a "dialogue of cultures".

The appropriation of the social wealth and of natural ressources by a few represents a massive expropriation of the vast majority of the planet. However, millions of women and men fight against this "privatisation of a common futur", against the arrogance of the few who dispose of the many.

The Other Davos bases itself on the claims and fights of these women and men. In the fight against the globalisation of capital, the shape of another world is beginning to emerge. It will be a world where differences will not become hiearchies, a world where the citizens will truly be equal, will decide together of the repartition of the produced wealth and the use of the means of production, a world where they will finally be able to handle, together, their own futur

The Other Davos ?

The Other Davos took place for the first time in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1999. It was organized by ATTAC (Association pour une taxation des transaction financières pour l'aide aux citoyen-ne-s), the CCAMI (Coordination contre les clones de l'Accord Multinational sur 'Investissement), the FMA (Forum mondial des Alternatives), the SAPRIN (Structural adjustment participatory review International Network) and by the FUNDE (fundacion nacional para el desarollo, El Salvador). The following organizations also took part in it: the Mouvement des Sans-terre du Brésil (MST), the Fédération nationale des Organisations paysannes du Burkina Faso, the Policy and Information Center de la Corée du Sud, the mouvement des femmes du Québec as well as the mouvement des chômeurs de France.

This meeting was a very importante step before the first major international conference of ATTAC, which was held in Paris from 24 June until 26 June 1999 and before the first World Social Forum the was held in Porto Alegre (Brasil) at the end of January 2001.

On 26 January 2001, the second Other Davos drew 1200 people to the Volkshaus of Zurich. Another Other Davos will take place on 26 January 2002. This conference is a place of resistance against the globalisation of capital, a meeting point for all the who fight for another world and who want to talk about in depth alternatives to the system in which we live. The Other Davos conference will take place until the World Econoic Forum and the dominant world order that violates the needs of human beings will disappear.