Enough_for_everyones_need_Paper_of_the_International_Conference 9.41 Mb
From 30 January to 3 February 2010 took place in Bhopal international symposium organized by Gandhi International, Ekta Parishad and the South Asian Peace Alliance. These meetings were to determine whether there is a non-violent economy and how to implement objectives.
A non-violent economy is it possible? What are the foundations, the principles, modalities, examples?
Gandhi was not an economist, but his vision is rich with an understanding of the dynamics of economic processes and the human and social reality. For what it offers is both creative and credible alternatives.
Mahatma Gandhi, is human dignity and not its hardware prosperity must be the basis of economic organization of any template. According to him, the economy must be governs on three principles:
-The economic independence (swaraj), based on the needs and not on abundance creates by mass production: “the Earth provides enough to meet the needs of all but not greed of each.
-The domestic economy (swadeshi): a mode of decentralised, domestic, handicraft and environmentally friendly production (including animal) life and the environment.
-supervision of ethics and spirituality (trusteeship) economy.
”Non-violent economy” must indeed show a link between ethics and Economics according to Gandhi:
“The real economy will never to the ethical principles higher, along with real ethics, must be at the same time the good economy” economy must promote social justice and worry about the good of the greatest number. Regain his dignity and freedom, is therefore recover economic independence. Lhomme should no longer be subject to the vagaries and constraints of the economy and nature.
On reflection focused workshops, participants explored alternatives existing in the current dominant economic system, to define the axes of action in the following areas:
the nonviolent rural economy
-sustainable development and alternative enterprises
-alternatives on urbanization.
This different practices were presented by women and organizations that have implemented homes
Some examples :
Everywhere on the planet, groups or individuals experience in their daily practice forms of economy and friendly social organization of the individual and the community.
The reflection process adopted for this symposium will be to revisit the three founding principles of thought economic gandhienne lighting of the 21st century, based on a wide range of successful experiments from all over the world.
A tour of different very concrete practices will be proposed and presented by men/women/organizations who have implemented.
- Give priority has food and organic agriculture as the basis of an economy and a sustainable society (food, health, maintenance of the campaign, human-nature relationship) (José Bové – presentation subject to confirmation)
- Ensure self-sufficiency of each village, region and country in the satisfaction of basic needs (the sri Lankan Sarvodaya movement presented by its founder Dr. Ariyaratne)
- Reverse the rural exodus, remove the slums and disadvantaged neighbourhoods, encouraging the return has campaign where labor will be needed (Jean-Pierre Dardaud, President of Frères des Hommes) anticipating and cope with the decrease and the end of oil resources and develop renewable energy (Green Peace India)
- Put the machine in the service of man and ensure that it does asservisse it not (Rajagopal P.V. – Ekta Parishad)
- Reduce income differentials (Ana Juanche, Coordinator of the SERPAJ, Servicio Paz y Justicia)
- Finance to service the common good and especially the poorest, promote alternative forms of savings and credit (Jacky White, President of the NEF, cooperative solidarity finances)
These symposia was also an opportunity to refine international actions of October 2012 targets inform each other about the actions planned in various countries, and coordinate these activities. This Conference was an opportunity to formally communicate around the “Jansatyagraha 2012” project and various other events non-violents planned for October 2012 in India and the rest of the world. The goal was to stimulate the involvement of the participants in these projects.
This event was centered around the following themes:
food sovereignty; the right of peoples to access to natural resources; intercultural and interreligious dialogue; a culture of peace and non-violence; socio-economic alternatives; how to give power to those who do not.
Some of the interventions invited delegates are available on this blog: http://bhopal2010.wordpress.com/
At the end of this seminar, the following motion was adopted by all the participants
Objective 2012
At the invitation of the French association Gandhi International and the Indian movement Ekta Parishad, 120 people from 20 countries met at Bhopal (India), from 30th January to 3rd February 2010, during an international conference on the theme of “Towards a non-violent economy”.
Current situation
Whereas half the inhabitants of our world are farmers, ¾ of them, in the countries of the South, still toil with their hands by preserving the environment and without contributing to the global warming. Many of them do not have property titles, and their rights are often threatened by projects run by governments or mining companies, agribusiness enterprises, companies which exploit forest resources, tourism business, etc.
However, whereas projects of this type can give rise to negative effects, there is, in law, a principle of free, prior and informed consent by local communities and indigenous people, recognized by several texts of the UN, the ILO[i], and by Article 22 of the Rio declaration adopted in June 1992[ii].
Further, markets of the South are flooded with agricultural products from the North, produced with huge machines, and subsidized by the public authorities. As a result, cultivation of food crops and local cottage level production are ruined by this competition and eliminated from the economy.
In the western countries also, farmers find it difficult to have access to land.
Commitments
We have a deep faith in the strength of the poorest and we wish to recognize the Peoples in their dignity, their know-how and their culture.
We commit ourselves to ensure that people have the right to access to natural resources (land, water, forest, seeds, minerals, etc) with a view to bringing about a new type of harmonious development which will respect Man and Nature.
We urge that, in international law, the right to food sovereignty be recognized as superior to the rights to trade.
Action
The political actions that we are proposing rely on concrete realizations and they are the premises of a non-violent economy and society.
A march called Jansatyagraha (“people’s non-violent march”) of 100 000 people will be organized by Ekta Parishad, in 2012, to ensure respect of these rights.
The climax of this mobilization will be between 2nd October (International Day of Non-violence) and 17th October 2012 (International Day Against Misery).
This march is in line with vital stakes at the global level: access to natural resources, food sovereignty, plight of the deprived in our societies, place of women in the society, as also participative democracy, role of multinational companies, international economic system and development model.
This is why we wish to support this Indian march and reaffirm the rights to access to natural resources and food sovereignty by organizing, in 2012, in several continents, simultaneous and concerted non-violent actions: marches, sit-ins, human chains, observing silence, etc.
Men not only have rights, but also responsibilities, as defined for instance in the Charter of Human Responsibilities.[iii]
We appeal to the responsibility of all individuals and groups concerned with justice throughout the world so that the 2012 mobilization has the greatest possible impact.
Bhopal, 3rd February 2010
Signed by delegates from Algeria, Bangladesh, Burma, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, India, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Mexico, Nepal, Paraguay, Senegal, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand.
Contact:
Ekta Parishad,
Gandhi Bhavan, Shyamla Hills
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
Tel: + 91 11 2437 3998/99
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=78&ArticleID=1163
