constituting fHUMAN

WHAT IS NEO-LIBERALISM ?
Rampant marketisation. Destruction of welfare capitalism by Thatcher-style policies. Destruction of state services in many Third World countries -- e.g. Mozambique, Vietnam, Tanzania -- in the interests of `structural adjustment'. Suppressing wage demands to `keep down inflation' - often associated with violence against the working class. Loss of labour protection in the name of' `flexible labour'. 'Free trade' to enable a walkover by the multi-nationals and ever-lower wage rates in the interests of `competition'. `Freedom to invest' in destroying forests, rivers, and homes, expropriating people and their environment for the profit of far-away shareholders. In other words, all the horrors of an internationalised capitalist economy which link the working class of the `first', second `seond' and `third' worlds in potentially common struggles.

WHAT WAS THE ENCUENTRO ?
At the end of July more than 3000 people from the five continents met in the jungle of South East Mexico, Chiapas, in the territory held by the insurgent Zapatista army, hosted by indigenous communities. The participants of this First Intercontinental Meeting against Neoliberalism and for Humanity -- in brief, the Encuentro -- came from a large variety of social backgrounds and political affiliations. At the end of one week of discussions, debates, chats, music and dancing, the participants approved a document called "The Second Declaration of La Realidad". Realidad is the "town" where it took place.

A NEW NETWORK OF STRUGGLE
As we face the globalisation of capital and capitalist strategies for exploitation, we need new forms of counterattack and ways of linking struggles together. People have fought neo-liberal policies by strikes, riots, rebellions, occupations, campaigns and conferences. Yet these diverse struggles are weakened by their fragmentation, in the face of a highly mobile global capital and increasing state repression. A related problem is the fragmentation of alternative communication to inform, debate, propose patterns of resistance and ways of living which are alternative to the ones imposed by neoliberal policies. The Second Declaration of La Realidad proposes the constitution of an intercontinental collective network of resistance and struggle and of alternative communication against neoliberalism and for humanity. The declaration emphasises that these two networks "don't have a centre of command and a hierarchy". These networks are all of us who resist, talk and listen to each other at the global level. The Second Declaration of the Realidad will be the subject of global consultation in five continental meetings planned for December 1996. These meetings will also have the purpose to strengthen and expand the process of networking which has already begun. It will also serve as a step towards the Second International Meeting against Neoliberalism and for Humanity to be held in Europe in the second half of 1997. The process of global coordination of different resistances, struggles and communication is of course just at the beginning. The Encuentro was a landmark in the struggle against neo-liberalism, against the rule of money over people. It is the opportunity for many of us, those who believe that the better life that we want is only possible if the peoples of the entire world participate in its construction.

WHAT IS fHUMAN?
A group of people in London have taken up the spirit of the Encuentro and promoted the constitution of fHUMAN London Committee (fHUMAN = for HUManity Against Neoliberalism). We aim to:

1. Promote forms of local and national participation in the global network of communication and struggles.

2. Promote meetings, seminars, debates, workshops, etc., on the realities of local, national and global neoliberalism, ways to fight it, and alternative ways of living.

3. Promote information on the Zapatista struggle and connect with other groups for support action.

4. Promote local and national representation of the next International Meeting against Neoliberalism and for Humanity to be held in Europe in the second half of 1997.

5. Promote local and national representation in the European consultation on the Second Declaration of the Realidad to be held in December 1996.

6. Provide information and support for the creation of other groups in the UK similar in spirit to fHUMAN.

fHUMAN therefore should serve as a catalyst to link different experiences of alienation and struggles and promote discussion, political debates and practices on concrete ways to circulate locally, nationally, and globally constitutive movements for new human ways of living.

fHUMAN is all that its members make of it.

WHAT fHUMAN IS NOT
fHUMAN is not a vertical organization with a given "political line".

fHUMAN is not a site for ideological battles among different party programmes.

fHUMAN is not abstract theoretical contemplation of reality. fHUMAN is not voluntaristic calls for practice.

PARTICIPATION IN fHUMAN
fHUMAN is all the people who participate in it and their interaction. If you believe it is time to say "enough" to a inhuman life in your neighbourhood, , in your city, in your country, in your world, join the process of discovery of how and in what forms we can say it together. For more information on the Encuentro: http://planet.com.mx/~chiapas/

For information abour the public meeting contact: massimo@uel.ac.uk or Mexico Support Group, Latin America House, Kingsgate Place, Kilburn, London NW6 4TA, 0171 3282865.