Foro Social Américas

REGISTER YOUR ORGANIZATION HERE

Secretaría FSA-CH — 2010-05-19T00:26:43Z

After registering your organization you will have access to the events registration.

- IV ASF Asuncion 2010

Self-sustaining initiatives (spanish)

Secretaría FSA-CH — 2010-05-04T21:35:28Z

- Program/Methodology / no inicio, information

Main Themes IV FSA

Secretaría FSA-CH — 2010-05-04T01:36:59Z

Theme 1

Scope and Challenges of the Changes in the Hemisphere: post-neoliberalism, integration, socialisms, Good Living and civilizational changes

Advancements and limitations in the building of changes: alternative models, new kinds of revolutions, neodevelopmentalism, neoextractivism and other critical nodes.
Alternative integration processes and from the peoples: geopolitical, economic and social challenges. South-South relations. New modalities of cooperation, solidarity and exchange. New financial architecture.
Sovereignties (food, energy, financial and other forms) and their multiple dimensions as the main hub for national, international and geopolitical transformation.
Recovering and transformations of the State: strengthening of the public sphere and of redistributive principles, plurinationality, gender equality and diversities.
Constituent Processes as a way to refund the State and society
Towards another democracy:social protagonism and participation; new ways of exercising political power. Relations between movements, political parties and States. Agenda and internal dynamics of the movement; exhaustion and limits of formal democracy.
Towards an economy that is diverse, equal and in solidarity. New patterns of production, energy, technology and consumption, oriented to care and the enlarged reproduction of life.
Latin America facing the economic crisis: implications and responses.
Resistance to change. Right wing strategies: coup d'état, media offensive, security-culture of life.

Theme 2

Militarization and imperial domination strategies, resistance alternatives from the peoples

Military bases, occupations and new control and military intervention tools, multiple war scenarios. The use of colonies in America as war platforms.
Anti-terrorist legislation, international security plans and treaties (Plan Colombia, ASPAN, Mérida Initiative…). Latin American Armed Forces participation in international bodies and missions.
Paramilitary, mercenary, security and war privatization.
Communication as a strategic dispute area.
Terror, terrorism and a culture of fear. Criminalization of social struggles, of poverty and migrations. Feminicide. Different forms of organized crime.
Imperial strategies in Obama's era.
Disputes and displacements in the unipolar order. ¿Subimperialisms in the continent?
Financial crisis and speculative attacks: economic, ethical and geopolitical implications.
Regional and continental scenarios of resistance: proposals, initiatives, ways of mobilization, coordinations, campaigns. The Empire questioned from the inside: resistances and alternatives in the North.

Theme 3

Defending and transforming the conditions and ways of life in the face of predatory capitalism

Climate change and environmental justice. Defense and restoring of Mother Earth and the Rights of Nature. New production and consumption patterns.
Catastrophes: new dimension of socio-environmental damage. Interventionist answers vs. sovereign responses in solidarity.
Struggle against commercialization of life and its legal-institutional instruments: free trade; external, ecological, social and historical debt; International Financial Institutions, WTO, FTA, IFI, corporations, multinationals.
Food crisis: character, causes and perspectives. Food sovereignty, agrarian reform, peasant and family agriculture. Agroecological alternatives, fair trade, sustainable consumption.
Impacts of the extractive industry; struggle and alternatives against the mining industry, the megaprojects and others alike.
Human rights: advances and tensions. Privatization and commodification of public services and social security.
Reaffirming sexual and reproductive rights against the conservative offensive.
Work, exploitation and reproduction of life: struggles, rights and alternatives. The impacts of crisis and new agendas.
Redefinition of key elements of life: land, territories, biodiversity, water, seeds and energy; their protection and redistribution.
Alternatives to urban-centralism, urban segregation, social exclusion and relegation of the peasant world. Democratization of rural and urban habitat and the rights to the city.
Resistance and struggle against the patriarchy and the commercialization of women's lives: programmatic and organizational innovations.

Theme 4

The ideological dispute: communication, culture, knowledge and education.

Mechanisms and modalities of cultural hegemony to control the processes of knowledge and education.
Counter-hegemonic communication, democratization and resistance to dominant communication. Networks and communication links of movements and peoples.
Proposals on alternative technologies: challenges and practices. Political and cultural uses of new communication technologies.
Democratization and access to radio-frequency spectrum and the whole set of technologies and media.
Communication businesses and entrepreneurs as political actors.
Defense of public space and goods within communication, culture and education.
Counter-hegemonic knowledge and dialogue of know-how.
Resistance to ultra-conservative religious trends.
Cultural movements: new proposals of cultural plurality and expression of diversities.
The right to education and student struggles. Counter-hegemonic education models and experiences of popular education.
Youth cultures and identities
Latin American and regional identities; migrant identities.
Gender identities and sexual diversity.
Space and rights for the disabled.

Theme 5

Original, Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples and Nationalities: the challenge of plurinationality

Struggles and political projects of peoples and nationalities.
Territories, autonomy and self-determination. Defense of Mother Earth.
Peoples rights and collective rights.
Conceptions and practices of indigenous and afro-economies; economy of “good living”
The legacy of “good living” for the construction of pluricultural, diverse and egalitarian societies.
Culture, knowledge and spirituality of the indigenous and afro-descendant people.
Participation and leadership of indigenous women.
Continental articulation of the indigenous movement and its interrelations with other social movements.

Theme 6

Memory y historical justice

Colonization / decolonization: yesterday and today. Racism and the reproduction of colonial order.
XXI century colonies: more than a lag
Bicentennials: ¿what do we celebrate? unfinished independence 200 years later.
Paraguay's historical memory and its projection to Latin America
Repression, truth and justice: an open agenda
History of resistances.

Transversal Themes: Gender and Diversity

Call to register

Secretaría FSA-CH — 2010-05-03T22:02:21Z

The preparation process to the IV ASF has achieved a fundamental step: the defining of main themes, which summarize our continent´s proposals, ideas and struggles on the beginning of this XXI century's second decade.

These main themes have been built in collectivity. Hundreds of answers were sent to the open consultation than run through February, in which diverse continental and regional articulations, organizations, as well as national and local entities participated. The Hemispheric Council went through all these inputs, through an attentive political balance of actual processes, agendas and debates, to build this new formulation of the main themes.

With this new themes, we now open our call to register self-organized activities, an essential component of next ASF's program. We also invite you to spread this call enthusiastically.

Registration will be open online from may 2010 through June 2010.

Another America is possible!
Our America is on its way!

IV Americas Social Forum

Secretaría FSA-CH — 2010-05-03T21:08:16Z

A continent in transition

The first decade of the 21st century marked a unique period of transformations in the Americas. Ours is a continent in turmoil, where new types of resistances and revolutions get together in the quest for a new society, and at the same time, continue to be deeply-rooted in our traditions, in the sovereign construction of common life projects which leave behind the capitalist exploitation, colonial and imperialist domination, patriarchal and racist violence, wars, destruction of peoples and cultures, and predation of nature.

These are times of historical synthesis, where transformation projects can only be seen from a point of view of multiple dynamics and leaders from the past and the present, who have contributed to build collective experiences in the midst of injustice, and who have been frequently rendered invisible or underestimated. Radical challenges lead us to connect these times with facts which have been ongoing for centuries. This long-term duration can also be detected in the continuous existence, in spite of it all, of economies and cultures from/to peoples and life; it is also present in our intense colonial and imperialist heritage, full of induced conflicts which are revived at convenience from time to time, to affect the will of integration of peoples, transcending times and borders, to show itself strengthened in these times where we rememorize the bicentennial of unconcluded independences.

WSF-ASF: transformations in a decade

During this decade, the WSF-ASF as a space gathering and fostering ideological and movement struggles, has contributed to strengthen Latin American identity as a melting pot of diversities, to articulate advances aligned by a multiplicity of actors with a common destination. In brief, we have come a long way since the neoliberal threat of ALCA and its defeat, the relaunch of FTAs and other neoliberal tools, to reach vision and policy innovations falling under the concept of ‘Buen Vivir' (good living), food sovereignty and other types of sovereignty -economic, energetic, financial-, UNASUR, ALBA. It has also contributed integrate movements of the North to our continental transformation, a process never seen before.

These changes make their way in the midst of a political acceleration modifying scenarios like never before. Only during the short time separating the third Americas Social Forum from the fourth edition -2008 to 2010-, new coincident facts transform the scenario: the outbreak of the crisis and the announcement of recovery or way out led by the spokesmen of capital –which will not hide its comprehensive, systemic, civilizatory nature-; the end of the “Bush era” with its resulting expectations and early disappointments marked by the continuity of militarist policies to preserve political hegemony in the line of armed neoliberalism; the unexpected coup d'état in Honduras –which generated repudiation all around the world- and the resistance of peoples who search for a true democracy based on a constitutional overhaul, encouraged by Latin American experiences and solidarity throughout the world.

On our way to the IV ASF

Within this framework, the organization of the IV ASF has begun. It will take place in Asuncion, Paraguay, from August 11 to August 15, 2010. From the dynamism of our reality and hand in hand with the protagonists, we anticipate the confluence of a range of issues and topics: the memory and fundamental presence of indigenous peoples of the Southern cone together will peoples coming from around the continent, the peasant force in the definition of new alternatives of life for all of us, escalating remilitarization, the struggles expressing the urgency of other production and life schemes to overcome the extractivist model; our experiences in the crisis and visions on its outputs, the interrelation and conflicts between movements and governments in the construction of change, new proposals coming from the youth, urban cultures, and much more.

Asuncion 2010

Paraguay will host the IV Americas Social Forum, an opportunity to update and deepen common visions and agenda of the struggles led by our continent; opening up to an exchange modifying the little knowledge the world has on the amazing history and reality, already marked by change. The Southern Cone, from its diversity and solidarity between peoples and movements, becomes the headquarters of the preparation for this IV Americas Social Forum. The organization of the IV Forum at its continental level will be ongoing until August 2010, where specific meetings will take place as part of the preparation process, with several initiatives of deliberation, mobilization, solidarity, and resistance that are already registered in the vast calendar of actions of movements and entities which are part of the process, and that will convegre in the collective construction of the programming of the Forum, from its continuities, innovations, and strengthening.

We invite you to be part of the preparation process in the continent and to be in Asuncion in August to present your initiatives, experiences, and transformation proposals.

Another America is possible!

Our America is on its way!

Information about the host

Secretaría FSA-CH — 2010-05-03T21:00:16Z

Data on Paraguay

Official Name: Republic of Paraguay.

Type of Government: The Republic of Paraguay adopts for its government the representative democracy, participatory and pluralista, founded in the recognition of the human dignity. It is represented by three Powers: Executive Power - Legislative Authority - Judiciary Authority.

Chairman: Excelentisimo Mr President Mr. Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez

Official languages: Spanish and Paraguay Guarani. Currency: Paraguay Guarani

Religion: It is the Religious freedom. The Catholic religion is professed for 92% of the village.

Town: 5,585,828 hab.

Capital: Asunción.

Other significant cities: City of This one, Villarica, Pedro Juan Caballero, Colonel Oviedo, Encarnación, St Ignacio, Concepción, Pilar.

Density: Total: 406,750 kilometers. Earth: 397,300 kilometers. Water: 9,450 kilometers. Coordinates: 23 00 S, 58 00 W

Climate: Subtropical to annealed. Mean temperature 27 degrees.

Field: Unvarnished grassy and hills enselvadas to the east of Rio Paraguay; The region of Gran Chaco to the west of Rio Paraguay unvarnished most notably in the bass, dry forest and thorny in the other part.

Location: In the centre of South America, northeast of Argentina, southeast of BolivIa, northwest of Brazil.

Schedule: GMT - 04:00 Airports: In Asunción, City of This one and Marshall Estigarribia.

Source: www.mre.gov.py

Documentation

There is no constraint of nationality for the deposit to Paraguay.

For the citizens of the MERCOSUR and of alone neighbouring other countries the identity document of its home country is required. Citizens of the UNION EUROPEAN can enter to the country with its passports. VISA is not required.

The other citizens of the world Valid passport with or without visa, consult to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs www.mre.gov.py. madas Telephonic

Codes: The international code of Paraguay is the 595. Asunción's code is the 021.

To call to Asunción is owed discar 595-21 followed by the telephonic number. Telephonic numbers have 6 digits.

Codes of the cellular ones are: 0961 for Vox 0971 for Staff 0981 for Telecel 0991 for Clear

For international calls to cellular, is owed discar the code of the country, the characteristic of the cellular one (961.971.981.991) and the phone number.

To call from Asunción to other countries is owed discar the 002, the country code, the city code and the phone number.

Public phone numbers and Booths: Pay phones are found in different points of the city.

In all areas of the city there are booths to carry out national and international calls, in addition to to have access to fax and internet services.

Schedules:

Banks: Monday to Friday of 8.45am to 12.15pm hs. Some banks open until 1.30pm hs.

Exchange houses: Monday to Friday of 8.45am to 4.00pm hs. Some houses at noon close. There are moneychangers in the historic centre of Asunción and exchange offices in the airport.

Businesses: Monday to Friday of 8.00am to 12.00pm hs, and of 3.00pm to 7.00pm hs. Saturdays: 8.00am to 12.00pm hs. Depending on companies, the schedule can be continuing starting from 8.00am.

Public Offices: Monday to Friday of 7.00am to 1.00pm hs.

Pubs and Discos: Domingo to Thursday until 1 hs. Friday, Saturdays and eves of ferial until 3 hs.

Restaurants, Bars and Coffees: Every day until 1 hs. Friday, Saturdays and eves of ferial can spread until 3 hs.

Shopping centres: Every day of 9.00am to 9.00pm hs. for businesses. Courtyards of food, cinemas or other activities within the shoppings until 12.00am

For more information on the headquarters such as an accommodation, transportation, climate, etc., can access the blog of the 4TH FSA, ahi will find these informations asi as they will be able to contact to the organisers in Asunción for questions and interests.

- www.fsapy2010.org -

ASF overview presentation

Secretaría FSA-CH — 2010-05-03T18:02:14Z

- ASF / no mostrar, no logotipo, information

Contacts

Secretaría FSA-CH — 2010-04-30T23:05:43Z

Continental contact: consejo@forosocialamericas.org Phone: (593-2) 2904242
Paraguay Contact: forosocialamericaspy@gmail.com Phone: (595-21) 481340 - Contacts / no inicio, information

Equality Policy of the WSF

Secretaría FSA-CH — 2010-04-30T22:57:12Z

Previous considerations

Since its beginnings, and according to the history WSF has followed up to now, diversity is one of its present and future principles. Diversity in the features of its actors, and of the experiences that are conveyed by organizations and people, that come from different cultures from around the globe; as a basis for the construction of another world and the visions that inspire it. A diversity that congregates, and which interlinks through interactions and alliances that are made possible through the Forum; that deepens their meanings as it creates a shared sense of struggles and actions that come together during the Forum and that search for a common horizon.

The principle of equality that sustains all the utopias, political perspectives, struggles, the alternative models of economic and social relations and of organizing life within this planet, is inseparable from diversities; it is also the grounds for some practices that seek to make it real here and now.

While there is a recognition of those principles and directions for action, the Forum's experiences have shown that its application is still unequal and insufficient, both at the level of thinking (thematic and content) and in its practices. The definition of the transversal themes of gender and diversity, adopted since the second WSF, shows political will, but their full implementation requires measures that underline their importance, making them viable within the Forum's events and process.

The balance of gender and diversities has not occurred in a spontaneous and automatic manner within the Forum's dynamics, since despite the awareness and the favorable political will, the Forum is still a chunk of reality, with its cultural baggage of male chauvinism and homophobia, among other things.

Moreover, the unequal conditions among the groups that are part of or attend the Forum is part of this reality; some of them appear weak or marginalized, in contrast with others that possess multiple resources, including commercial-type propaganda or diffusion, which augments the visibility of their presence and positions.

This cannot be left to self-organization and self-management, because we have already seen that this scheme tends to reproduce expressions of inequality, exclusion and over-representation. It is necessary to stimulate changes and to guarantee balance in the Forum's practice, for it to become a truly open space for the diversity of experiences and beings, for building equality into its vision and incorporating equality within collective experiences, which are organized by the Forum. The challenge is to live “another world”, in all possible ways, throughout the Forum's events and process.

Proposals

Bearing this in mind, we propose these criteria and initial measures:

a) Within the International Council, hemispheric councils and similar bodies

Try to have a balanced composition considering gender, regions and expressions of diversity. This means to recommend this specifically to the organizations and entities, when they register their delegations.

Stimulate in depth thinking and specific debates about these themes, putting them on the meetings' agendas, and integrating different political and analytical perspectives (including feminist perspectives), in the treatment of all the themes.

Apply mechanisms of “positive action” during the meetings, among speakers, moderation and coordination, and in all interventions (considering alternating participation for both genders, which is something that has already been done in recent meetings). The same applies to spokespersons, public presence and relations with the media.

b) Concerning contents, agendas, programs, political vision

The thematic axes and themes should go beyond being descriptive. They organize and group the initiatives and proposals that come from self-organization but they also need to communicate meaning, they are political statements. It is important to include different views on themes and issues, with multiple voices, as well as to build a shared meaning, that expresses synthesis, that expresses the integrated meaning of the thought, the actions and the alternatives.

We cannot think of or deal with equality without solidarity. In terms of content, equality cannot consist in putting themes and views next to each other, with the result of a simple sum; it is more about interlinking, combining perspectives of analysis, and integrating, in political terms, the “partial” causes so that they mutually enrich one another, so as to build a common perspective, in order, for example, for feminism become one of the pillars of the view for another world, and a commitment of everyone.

The agendas that result from the forums will thus also be more than juxtaposing the partial and the sectoral; they would be a new product, articulated, coherent, with a shared view, with a commitment to integral change, which at the same time affirms and enriches diversities and equality.

Both in self-organized activities and the co-organized activities, when defining the speakers, the balance of gender and diversities should be guaranteed. This cannot be treated as a last-minute exercise of “adding” women, afro-descendents, Indigenous, GLBT people – which sometimes may not be pertinent or may lead to an artificial situation –, but as an orientation that is applied from the beginning of the process, that seeks to give visibility to different voices and discourses, but also to stimulate the production of contributions, and promote the dialogue among different perspectives, integrating them.

c) The Forum events

The space and time in which the Forum's events take place do have a particular importance for living experiences that bring us closer to the world we want to live in, to bring about different social relationships.

Within the events the central elements are people, speaking, and the possibility of expressing oneself from one's own experience and discourse. This puts us face to face with practices and cultures that have more authorized or legitimate voices, while others are still inhibited. It is essential that we apply mechanisms of positive action such as giving the floor alternatively to women and men, giving the same opportunity to the diversity of origins.

We cannot talk about the Forums' success only in terms of numbers of people who attend them. Each person counts and each one should be able to express themself in physical conditions that make it easy for people to listen and talk among themselves. It is necessary to avoid interferences and logistical obstacles that limit the possibilities of exchange within the venues in which the events are taking place.

We should look for adequate logistical conditions for the development of initiatives from the widest expression of languages and cultures.

Within the areas or “territories” where the Forums take place, people should seek to reject certain practices such as male chauvinism, racism and homophobia through explicit messages (for example, put up signs with phrases such as “area free of sexist violence”; "homophobia is not acceptable here”). And the same time, the expression of diversity and equality should be celebrated and stimulated.

During the information and promotion of the events, its non-sexist, non-racist, non-homophobic, inclusive and diverse characteristics should be incorporated.

Among the available “services”, there will be some related to prevention and rejection of sexist and other violence.

With regards to image and diffusion, we should seek to reflect diversity in all its expressions, as well as our commitment to build equality.

Main themes I FSA

Secretaría FSA-CH — 2010-04-21T21:36:18Z

Theme 1

The economic order: human and environmental impoverishment, debts, corruption, total market; the public space and economic rights; reproductive economy. Resistance, views of the future and the construction of alternative models.

Implantation of the total market under the postulates of free trade: WTO, FTAA, subregional and bilateral agreements. Commercialization, privatization and corporate control of production and life. Their scope and impact in all spheres.
Mass impoverishment and new forms of exclusion in North and South. How to characterize, identify and prevent them?
Other roads for regional integration: are the CAN, MERCOSUR, CARICOM short term alternatives? The perspective of Latin American integration as a historic project.
External debt as a mechanism of economic subordination and imposition of the model. Present processes of challenging it: illegitimacy, non-sustainability, etc. Are there short term solutions?
We are creditors: environmental debt, historical debt, debts owed to women. How can they be recovered?
The hidden face of the economy: sexual division of labor, reproduction and the caring economy. Macroeconomy and gender. Economic and gender justice; how to redistribute responsabilities, time, resources and recognition?
The other economy: alternatives for organzing production, reproduction, exchange, finance. The solidary economy. Environmental and economic sustainability.
The role of international cooperation and the new development trends.

Theme 2

The violent face of the neoliberal project: imperial hegemony, militarism, strategic control over biodiversity, sexist violence. Resistance and the emergence of new subjects.

Scope and implications of the US strategy. Resistance; peace and cooperation initiatives. Sub-regional military plans and the interrelations between war, the economy and politics. The strategic control of resources.
Regional peace and cooperation initiatives. Weaknesses and resistance in the Empire. Hemispheric routes for interconnecting peoples.
Military-authoritarian logic vs human rights. Expressions and responses in North and South.
Food sovereignty: a strategic proposal for rural and urban areas, for North and South. How to build it?
Privatization of protected natural areas and the role of NGOs in pursuing this goal. How to respond from a posture of national sovereignty and from peoples and local communities?
Bio-prospection and bio-pirating; intellectual property rights and the risks of negotiating profit-sharing.
"Environmental services" as an expression of commercialization and privatization of nature. How to respond from a posture of national sovereignty and from peoples and local communities?
Sexist violence: expressions and resistance in the context of militarization.

Theme 3

Power, democracy and the State: changes, continuity and views of the future.

How to build democracy, sovereignty and human rights in a period of breakdown of international structures.
Opportunities, limits and perspectives in experiences of social movements and alternative political forces in government.
Power dynamics and relations with international institutions at the sub-regional, regional and "world government" levels.
Ethics and politics of the democracy we aspire to.
Defense of social rights and the public space. A means of redefining the State and democracy?
Corruption and impunity: roots, scope and citizen responses.
Initiatives of advocacy in public policy, mechanisms and spaces for dialogue and negotiation. Towards a new public institutional framework?
Power dynamics in society and the private sphere.
Democracy and diversity: GLBT citizens.

Theme 4

Cultures and communication: resistance, memory, construction of identities; spaces and practice of creation; critical and alternative language; democratizing communication.

Culture and memory: "shields" against the imperial project.
Peoples, communities, ethnic groups: identities and resistance.
Building new urban identities.
Worldviews and spirituality.
Cultural aberrations: sexism, homophobia, racism: challenges for change.
The right to communicate and public policies.
The monopolization of the media and communication systems.
The commodification of information, journalistic independence and ethics.
Independent, alternative and community media.
Social appropriation and control of new technologies; civil rights vs. Control and surveillance.
Communication, gender and diversity.

Theme 5

Indigenous peoples and African descendents: territories; autonomy; diversity and multiculturalism; knowledge and intellectual property.

Democracy and collective rights: the State and rights in relation to indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants.
Sovereignties, institutionality and systems of representation.
Conceptions and practices of indigenous and afro economies, their contributions for an alternative economy.
Building multicultural, diverse and egalitarian societies.
Alternative proposals to globalization of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants.

Transversal themes: Gender and diversities