Towards the democratization of Guerrero’s Countryside

The undersigned civil society organizations, gathered on this day in the city of Chilpancingo for the First Rural Forum Towards the Democratization of Guerrero’s Countryside to analyze the role of the organized rural sector in the democratization of political life in the national, state and local sphere and the challenges that it represents for:

1. Elaborating an alternative rural development program that outlines the main strategic demands of Guerrero’s peasantry and agreeing upon the necessary coordination mechanisms between rural organizations in order to make the program possible;
2. Establishing links of coordination and solidarity between peasant organizations and organized social sectors of urban areas;
3. Defining the role of rural social organizations in relation to political parties and their candidates;
4. Finding a way for rural social organizations to intervene in the local elections of 2008;
5. Evaluating, from the perspective of rural social organizations, the current government’s administration and its results in the area of rural development. and defining coordinated strategies for democratizing the existing participative spaces in government work;
6. Showing the worth of the right to know about the main public programs directed towards the countryside and establishing intervention mechanisms on behalf of rural social organizations in the definition of state and municipal public policy for the exercise of the rural budget for 2008;
7. Evaluating, and when necessary rephrasing, the current process of State Reform from the perspective of rural social organizations.

Based on the above, we have reached the following specific and general resolutions:

Specific Resolutions

1. Convergence of rural social organizations:
   
   1. It is proposed to build a network of peasant organizations in which we the participants assume the commitment to drive it forward.
   2. Set ourselves up, from now, as a Permanent Forum and from there jointly elaborate the alternative proposal for the rural development of Guerrero’s countryside.
   3. Put together an organizing committee that monitors the construction of the peasant organizations’ network.
   4. It is proposed that a state peasantry forum be held on the 10th of April, 2008 as a concrete coordination mechanism and in order to progress in the elaboration of the proposal for the alternative rural development program. This forum will be preceded by regional classes or workshops where proposals for the alternative rural development program can be put forward.
   5. Join the national campaign “Without corn there is no country” (“Sin maíz, no hay país”) as a way of opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement.
2. The relationship between rural social organizations and urban social sectors:
   
   1. Respect for the autonomy of the rural or urban organizations as well as for the differences between the two.
   2. Unconditional solidarity in any rural or urban movement.
   3. Make collective decisions based on consensus.
   4. Ensure that the information shared between rural organizations is always true.
   5. Break with the power structures of every day life in order to allow the participation of women.
3. The relationship between rural social organizations and political parties:
   
   1. Alliances between rural social organizations and political parties will be tactical as long as they are supported by agreements coming from within the organizations.
   2. The decision to support a party must be made by a qualified majority (over 75%), if a consensus is not reached, the differences should be discussed.
4. Ways for the rural social organizations to participate in the 2008 elections:
   
   1. Propose wider policy options for the community through the formation of citizen watchdog committees to monitor the candidates and apply pressure on them to act in favor of the rural social movement’s demands.
   2. Oblige the candidates to raise the profile of social organizations’ demands.
   3. Rural social organizations should promote commitments that cover the wider demand from the rural sector during the electoral process.
   4. Build regional fronts that encourage candidacies from social organizations and oblige political parties to register candidates from rural social organizations.
5. Social participation in government work:
   
   1. Inform and train rural communities on the existing participative spaces within the legal framework: open district councils, Coplademun, CMDRS and advisory councils.
   2. Encourage communities and rural social organizations to own and occupy the participative social spaces that are currently established by different laws.
   3. The table calls for the inclusion of direct democratic legal concepts, such as referendums, plebiscites and popular initiatives in the State Reform.
   4. Municipal and state Councils for Sustainable Rural Development should report on the different rural programs and the information should reach citizenry and social organizations.
   5. Create a culture of participation and organization at the community level.
   6. Organize municipal and regional forums in order to diffuse information on the participative spaces that are legally recognized. These forums should be organized by the citizenry.
   7. Social organizations should promote the formation of community advisory councils.
6. Reorientation of principal rural public programs:
   
   1. Promoting the participation of the rural social organizations in the CMDRS;
   2. Exercising the right to know about public budgets and participating in the reallocation of resources from social programs;
   3. Collect and compile, for the communities, all information to do with the rules of operation of social programs and the requirements for obtaining benefits;
   4. Promoting social participation in the creation of social programs’ rules of operation;
   5. Promoting gender equality in the accessibility of productive resources and control over the same.
   6. Demand that institutional programs and projects consider equality of access to and control of productive resources, factors of production and related services.
7. State Reform:
   
   1. Request the integration and incorporation of the peasant sector in a roundtable of issues on the reform of the State, where the agrarian problem would be put forward and a representative from each of the social organizations and communities would participate.

General Resolutions

• We pronounce ourselves to be against NAFTA and we specifically demand that the chapter on the agriculture and livestock be renegotiated; we join the campaign “without corn there is no country” (“sin maíz no hay país”) and we stand against the intrusion of genetically modified foods.
• We declare ourselves to be against the criminalization of social movements and we reject, in particular, the repression of the students from the rural area of Ayotzinapa. Likewise, we demand the freedom of all political prisoners and the accounting for of all those detained and missing, and that a fair trial is given to those imprisoned in Rincón de Chautla.
• We agree to initiate the process of building a State Peasant Front, in which we will carry out regional forums and a Second Rural Forum on the 10th of April, 2008. As part of this process, an alternative program for Rural Development will be elaborated in a participative manner.
• An extended meeting will be held on the 7th January in order to organize the building of the State Peasant Front.
• The organizing group of the present Forum will maintain its coordination in order to monitor and provide follow-up to the here mentioned resolutions.

Faithfully,

Coordinadora Nacional Plan de Ayala
Congreso Agrario Permanente
Red Alternativa Social Autogestiva
Unión de Organizaciones Económicas y Mujeres Productoras de Guerrero
Universidad Campesina del Sur
Organización Campesina de la Sierra del Sur
Consejo Supremo de Pueblos del Filo Mayor
Taller de Desarrollo Comunitario
Red de Organización Ciudadana de Atoyac de Álvarez
Frente Popular Revolucionario
Consejo de Ejidos y Comunidades Opositoras a La Parota
Asociación Nacional de Empresas Comercializadoras de Productores del Campo
Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos y Víctimas de Violaciones a los Derechos Humanos en México
Coalición de Organizaciones Democráticas Urbanas y Campesinas
Unión de Pueblos para el Desarrollo Sustentable del Oriente de Coyuca de Benítez y Poniente de Acapulco
Confederación Nacional Campesina
Central Independiente de Obreros Agrícolas y Campesinos
Jóvenes Emprendedores de Guerrero
Red de Agricultores Sustentables Autogestivos
Frente Democrático Popular de Ometepec
Consejo Estatal del Aguacate
Unión Nacional de Trabajadores Agrícolas
Colonia Plan de Ayala-CNPA, Marquelia
Organización de Colonias del poniente de Chilpancingo
Unión de Cooperativas de la Costa Grande
Red Guerrerense de Organizaciones No Gubernamentales de los Derechos Humanos
Organización Social de Xochistlahuaca
SPR Agricultores y Ganaderos de la Costa Alta de Coyuca de Benítez
Unión de Pueblos y Ejidos de Guerrero
Corporativo de Asesoría en Economía Política
UAG-ENAH
Promotores de la Autogestión para el Desarrollo Social
Consejo Consultivo de Ciudadanas y Ciudadanos para la Reforma del Estado
Estudiantes de Ayotzinapa

Chilpancingo, Guerrero, 27th November, 2007