World Social Forum 2016 in Montreal (Canada): Call for mobilization to
social and citizens’ movements
We invite social movements from around the world to make the next World
Social Forum (WSF) a meeting essential for sharing our mobilizations and
our resistance and for strengthening our struggles. We want the WSF in
Montreal to be not only a place for sharing broad guidelines, but also
to be a space that allows social movements to put forward political
responses that can change the course of history.
For the first time the WSF 2016 will be held in a northern country, in
Canada, and in a new political context. In the October 2015 elections,
Canadians voted the conservative government out of power ending ten
years of ultra-neoliberal economic policies based on predatory
extractivism and a deep social conservatism.
The struggle against Tar Sands and oil pipelines in Canada, the
mobilizations of indigenous peoples for their rights and the strength of
social movements all contributed to this political change and was one of
the reasons for the decision to hold the WSF in Montreal.
The struggles have been ongoing since the Quebec student strikes in
2012. These include the opposition movement to austerity policies, the
fight to defend the environment and the historic mobilization of the
trade union movement as part of negotiations in the public sector.
This shows that in North America, Quebec is an important territory of
resistance to neoliberalism and a place where initiatives to build
collective alternatives to the dominant system multiply (peasant and
ecological agriculture, urban agriculture, social and solidarity
economy, multi-sectoral coalitions and many other civic actions).
The existing capitalist model dominated by increasingly aggressive
neoliberal elites, has widened the gap between the 99% of the world’s
population and the richest 1% throwing the planet into an unprecedented
social crisis. Austerity and structural adjustment policies have been
imposed across the majority of countries while corruption continues
unabated.
Nations are subject to restrictive economic policies that make victims
of all of us, and especially of society’s most vulnerable members;
women, youth, the disabled, the elderly and communities that are
discriminated against because of their race or ethnicity. The
unravelling of the social fabric continues and public services disappear
under the transnationals’ insatiable appetite for privatization.
The corporate dominated economic system based on overproduction and
overconsumption is directly responsible for climate changes that
threaten the integrity of ecosystems and the survival of humanity. 2015
was a year marked by the Paris agreement on climate change and by the
adoption of new sustainable development goals (SDGs) at the United
Nations. These agreements rather than being bold and confronting the
crisis, reflect instead the failure of political elites’ will to act.
Social inequality is growing and the horizon of global warming greater
than two degrees celsius foreshadows a dramatic disruption of the
climate for the most vulnerable populations across the world.
The constant wars and migrations of populations are the symptoms of a
profound crisis of the system that feeds isolationism, hatred,
xenophobia and racism, and tramples on human dignity and democracy.
Over the past fifteen years, Social Forums have developed significantly.
They have been held on various continents and have dealt with concrete
issues affecting people. Social Forums have mobilized hundreds of
thousands around the world and demonstrated that alternatives exist, and
that action is required.
As part of large mobilizations against free trade agreements, against
the World Trade Organization, against the G7 and against the Davos World
Economic Forum, social and citizens’ movements have come together to
proclaim that another world is not only possible, but that it also
urgently needed.
This first WSF in the North continues this collective commitment. It
presents unique challenges from the point of view of the participation
and mobilization of social movements. However, it offers the opportunity
to take action and to continue building a global convergence of
struggles for a world of social and climate justice.
We invite social movements and civil society from across the world to
gather in Montreal from the 9th to the 14th of August 2016 to proclaim
that we are that other possible world!
World Social Forum 2016 | Another world is needed. Together, it is possible!
* If your organization / collective wants to sign the call for
mobilization to social movements and citizens, contact
communications@fsm2016.org
