Asia-Europe People’s Forum gathered 1000
citizens in Vientiane (Laos):
“We demand a people-centered world not a
system based around deregulation of markets and increasing power of
multinational corporations”
Press release – International Organizing
Committee – Asia Europe People’s Forum
Vientiane, Laos, October 2012
At the 9th Asia Europe People’s Forum we
focused on developing strategies and demands to the governments which meet at
the 9th ASEM meeting in Laos in November.
Over 1000 citizens from Asia and Europe joined
together from 16th to 19th October 2012 in Vientiane at the 9th Asia Europe
People’s Forum. The AEPF9 tackled four major themes, Universal Social
Protection and Access to Essential Services; Food Sovereignty and Sustainable
Land and Natural Resource Management; Sustainable Energy Production and Use;
and Just Work and Sustainable Livelihoods.
Preceding the 9th Asia-Europe People’s Forum we
held three preparatory workshops in South and South-East Asia. In Laos, 16
Provincial level consultations. These brought together the reflections,
aspirations and visions of the Lao people from a wide range of civil society
organisations.
The AEPF brought into sharp focus the drastic
inequalities, injustices and poverty experienced by people across Asia and
Europe. What is often presented as a ‘financial crisis’ is in reality part of a
series of interlinked crises - food, energy, climate, human security and
environmental degradation - that are already devastating the lives, and
compounding the poverty and exclusion faced on a daily basis by millions across
Asia and increasingly across Europe.
There was a strong consensus among Asian and
European citizens gathered at the AEPF9 that the dominant approach over the
last decades - based around deregulation of markets, increasing power of
multinational corporations, unaccountable multilateral institutions and trade
liberalisation – has failed in its aims to meet the needs and rights of all
citizens. We need to go beyond an analysis and response that focuses solely on
short term measures benefiting a few financial institutions and large
corporations. There is a deep felt need and demand for change and for new
people-centred policies and practices.
On the press conference held on October 19th,
the following quotes were made:
Andy Rutherford, member of the International
Organizing Committee of the AEPF (Great Britain): “We are in Vientiane for
fundamental change. The current system of deregulated markets, unfair trade,
forced privatization of public services has completely failed the majority of
people causing and compounding the financial crisis, climate change. The gap
between the rich and the poor is widening, and access to resources, livelihood
and basic services remain grossly unequal. The AEPF was a significant
achievement and success: over one thousand citizens attended representing
people’s organizations, NGOs and social movements. It will be of a great
inspiration for the future work of the organizations who participated in the
people’s forum. The final declaration was handed over today to the Laos
Government with the commitment that it will shared with the Head of States at
the ASEM9 summit. The ASEM9 is an historic opportunity for ASEM governments to
take the timely and decisive actions needed to address this.”
Mary Ann Manahan, Focus on the Global South
(Philippines): “We are facing a global water crisis. Never has there been such
pressure on water resources and such water scarcity. The AEPF has shown how the
water crisis has been manipulated by the International Finance Institutions' to
fuel water grabbing and the takeover of water resources and services by
corporations and private companies. On the other hand large-scale irrigation
projects and hydropower in Thailand and the Mekong countries have negative
impacts on food security on rice cultivation and river-based livelihoods
especially fisherfolk. The new phenomenon of hydrological fracturing or
“fracking”, which is the extraction of unconventional gas from rock formations
presents high risk of water contamination. AEPF encourage civil society to form
alliances to resist corporate capture of water resources. We demand to the
Asian and EU government to uphold the human rights approach to water,
especially in terms of allocation, distribution and resource management. We
also ask the authorities to promote and support alternatives that are
people-centered, just and ecologically sustainable such as the inspiring
examples of public power and public water service provision in Thailand that
challenge private companies, and promote traditional ways of water management
by communities, especially indigenous peoples and rural folks.”
Mariana Mortagua, Debt-Audit Campaign
(Portugal): “We, the social movements, organizations and citizens here in the
AEPF agree, that austerity, liberalization and the attacks on labor and social
rights that is happening in Europe will only bring more poverty and economic
disasters. It repeats the experience of Asia that suffered the crisis in the
1990s with imposed structural adjustment programs, unemployment, austerity
measures, tax increases on the poorest, illegitimate debt burden, privatization
and financial deregulation. The AEPF calls on the governments to stop austerity
programs, halt paying the debt of the banks and markets, and reverse trade and
financial liberalization and privatization. Therefore we demand that the EU
Governments break up with memorandums signed with the Troika (IMF, ECB,
European Commission) and with the Fiscal Treaty as well as unjust fiscal
policies. We need new ways to finance the public budgets outside financial
markets. We need public policies in order to invest public money to create jobs
and to reverse precairity. We reclaim dignity for the working class.”
Vaishali Patil, Jaitapur Anti Nuclear Movement
(India): “During the Asia-Europe People’s Forum we launched the 'Asia-Europe
Initiative against nuclear power and nuclear weapons'. After Fukoshima nobody
can deny the danger of nuclear power projects for humanity and the planet. We
appeal to Asian and European Governments to phase out all nuclear energy like
the German government has done. We also demand the elimination of all kinds of
nuclear weapons. In the context of
the economic crisis it is completely unacceptable to continue investing public
money into nuclear energy and the weapons industry, when millions of people are
still suffering from poverty and hunger and struggling to survive. Renewable
energies –like solar or wind- have proven to be cheaper, safer and more
efficient than fossil fuel or nuclear. As the first action of this Asia-Europe
initiative we are going to pressure and denounce the Indian government for its
repression against anti-nuclear movements and thousands of villagers who are
protesting non-violently. We will organize a Parliamentarian Mission to India
to visit the anti-nuclear movement and the places like
Jaitapur where one of the biggest nuclear power plants worldwide is being
built. We want to avoid another Fukoshima.”
Sombath Somphone from National Organizing
Committee (Laos): “There is an urgent need for action and education is a key
one. Our societies have to learn to live a simpler way and reduce consumption,
especially in the rich countries. We have to reduce carbon emissions. We have
seen that the private sector only wants to increase their profits. We have to
resolve the root causes of the problem to have real happiness and not have our
societies working most of the time to reproduce the current system.”
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