The 3rd European conference of the Peoples`
Global Action (PGA) network:
from the 23rd until the 29th of July 2004 in industrial zone around
Belgrade, Post-Yugoslavia
Peoples
Global Action is a global network of local struggles, worldwide
network that works towards a durable political, social, borderless
and directly democratic alternative to capitalism and all systems
of oppression, far away from the logic of parties , states and ideological
aparatuses of the state (etatized trade unions, NGO's and so on and
so forth). It is a place where anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist
initiatives meet. PGA hallmarks:
The purpose of PGA exchanges and the PGA network
is to connect local groups that agree with the PGA's hallmarks:
1. A very clear rejection of capitalism, imperialism
and feudalism; all trade agreements, institutions and governments
that promote destructive globalisation.
2. We reject all forms and systems of domination
and discrimination including, but not limited to, patriarchy, racism
and religious fundamentalism of all creeds. We embrace the full dignity
of all human beings.
3. A confrontational attitude, since we do not
think that lobbying can have a major impact in such biased and undemocratic
organisations, in which transnational capital is the only real policy-maker.
4 A call to direct action and civil disobedience,
support for social movements' struggles, advocating forms of resista
nce which maximize respect for life and oppressed peoples' rights,
as well as the construction of local alternatives to global capitalism.
5. An organisational philosophy based on decentralisation
and autonomy.
PGA is a tool for coordination, not an organization.
PGA has no members and does not have and will not have a juridical
personnality. Nor organisation or personality represents PGA.
Drugaciji Svet je Moguc! (DSM!) coalition is
the European convener of the upcoming PGA conference. DSM! invites
all friends from Europe to take part in organization process.
We would like to emphasize that at this point
we are sending a call, while more detailed information on thematic
areas, travel, etc. will be available soon online or in newsletters.
Why?
-Because it is important, in the time of military
interventions and increasing militarism to organize an alternative
European conference of radical poli tical networks, instead of accepting
the false dilemma posed by new European nationalism and Eurocentrism.
- Because it is equally important not to accept
the false choice of defending national state economies against the
economy of the United States or of the United Europe.
- Because of the Eastern European political
struggle: since the level of organizing among East European groups
working in accord with PGA principles is still scarce and unconnected,
we are sure that staging the next conference in the part of ex-post
Yugoslavia is going to be very beneficial for the PGA process in this
region. We think that it is about time to leave summit hopping behind
us and to link networking and local struggles. There is hardly a better
place to do this than in Eastern Europe- and Post-Yugoslavia in particular.
-Today, (ex-post )Yugoslavia is a country with
250,000 people that were killed in the war (from 1991 to date), while
a million and a half internally displaced people did not return to
their homes, meaning that their repatriation remains politicaly impossible.
The number of people who have emigrated is close to this figure and
always rising, as people prepare every day to cross the border of
the new Berlin wall [into] the Shengen state, which separates the
new Roman empire from the "Barbarian menace". The number
of missing people fluctuates on a daily basis , with the exhumation
of mass graves and remains of the unidentifed victims lying in white
body bags, pushed from one administrative form to another to get their
"case closed" (Tuzla).
The most important news are not the ones on the
cover pages, but tucked away in the back of newspapers, somewhere
between the sports and culture section, in the array of classified
adds: legal and illegal visas, human trafficking, laid-off people
accepting any avialable job, renting a workforce, as wel l as offers
in human organs (it is often the case that the invisible offer their
kidneys for sale in order to provide their children with education,
- an commerce that is still legally prohibited in Yugoslavia). Many
of those who have committed crimes are still free and at large, while
the agents of the "civil society" (read: burgeois middle
class) and their chief promoters - foreign NGOs fighting for "human
rights" - are exactly those who would have to pay for the change
in status quo and the real improvement of life conditions in our country,
with the loss of their several hundred thousand jobs and mega-wages;
in one word "nonsense as a political category" rules our
lands.
This brings the paradox to its pinnacle, because
capitalism brought "peace" (the western media and the international
community off corse have made a great effort to present the model
liberal-capitalist, in whose times the greatest initial robbery of
public p roperty, privatization and fortune making took place - i.e.
Slobodan Milosevic, as the "last communist of the century",
connecting his overthrowing with the importation of liberal democracy,
even with the use of bombs).
Despite 10 years of isolation and a large amount
of enthusiasm for a decisive capitalist "liberation", 45%
of the population on the last elections went boycotted parlamentarian
democracy as an option.
For all these reasons, confusion is at its peak
in Yugoslavia today.
The civil war, military aggression (by the own
military in the own country), embargo, NATO aggression, NATO occupation,
reconstruction, parliamentarianism, negationism, rampaging capitalism,
ethno-fascism, modern atavism, atavistic modernism, mass destitution,
in one word - the most black dream of European reality, are only a
few of the reasons for the Yugoslavs' feeling of complete misunderstanding
with the rest of the "normal world", that has no t experienced
a civil war and the listed political nonsenses in the past ten years.
The absurd feeling of returning into something
that already existed, the bloody breaking up of the United Yugoslav
states in order to enter the United states of market Europe, are but
another element of the average Yugoslav's feeling of hopelessness,
driven into the "joyful expectation of the civilized Europe".
That's why we feel it is of extreme importance
to promote direct democracy and self-organisation as legitimate resistance
and possible "alternative way(s) and direction(s)" , spreading
among our population the idea that behind big and unanimous propaganda
fleg, exist another side of capitalism.
-Because our country has been put up for sale
and faces mass deregulation of worker's rights, which is, paradoxally,
something that the citizens of West European countries have to worry
about as well.
- Becasue DSM, as the convenor of the next PGA
conference in Europe, feels that our country has been given the role
of a filtering corridor and courtyard before the gates of Schengen
Europe. According to the last UNHCR statistical data, the population
of Serbia and Montenegro rank third in the world in seeking asylum
in other countries! For this reason, this location is adequate common
ground for tackling the crucial issue of immirgation, which is equally
important for East and West.
- Because it is high time to shift the European
radical movement from place of occasional victories (Bolivia, Mexico,
Argentina, Brazil...) to the ground of its total defeat - ex (post)
Yugoslavia
When
and Where?
July 23 to 29, 2004 IN RESNIK,
RAKOVICA, INDUSTRIAL ZONE AROUND Belgrade (Post Yugoslavia)
Do we need your involvement?
Oh yes! Our local context , as our guests from
the last meeting (October, 2003) are now aware of, is very troublesome
in many regards. We cannot do this alone.
But who are we?
Many of you still do not know us. So who are
we? DSM is a group of groups, collective of collectives united under
the slogan "Drugaciji Svet je Moguc!". Together, we are
striving to create a new political space unaffiliated with political
parties or the so-called non-governmental sector. This new space prefers
direct political action to generally accepted forms of engagement,
such as lobbying or voting. We insist on a social dialogue that is
different from the one proposed by our government and the NGO sector.
The horizontal social dialogue we would like to be part of involves
marginalised social groups that are systematically prevented from
exercising their basic rights. We also dis tance ourselves from the
concept of civil society and instead suggest the concept of a "participatory
society".
Despite being a relatively young movement, DSM
has managed to attract a significant number of persons with various
social and professional backgrounds. Our diversity provides us with
a steady flow of ideas, which we have started to carry out through
short and long-term projects and activities.
Our country has been under isolation for a very
long time and what the people need most is a wake up call. And this
is what we are doing and will continue to do - by providing information,
through direct action and an open-minded approach that will try to
convince people to co-operate in building a new society, rather than
to compete for the crumbs contemptibly tossed to them by the ruling
oligarchy.
In conclusion, we hope that all who are concerned
can trust our incentives and positive plans for action and could get
involved to organize a successful conference in our ex-future country.
The next preparatory meeting will take place
April, 2004. in Belgrade
We expect to have the goals and thematic areas
defined before the scheduled date of this preparatory meeting. A more
detailed application form for participating groups will be available
soon.
drugacijimejl@yahoo.com
www.pgaconference.org
www.drugacijisvet.tk
