The Time is Now!

The Time is Now!
A new era of People-to-People Solidarity is launched in Johannesburg
TNI Press Release, 10 September 2004

Johannesburg: The sense of urgency as well as the potential for new levels of South-South solidarity were captured in The Time is Now! refrain chanted by the Latin American and African participants at the People's Dialogue in Johannesburg, 6-10 September 2004.

Three intense days of exchange, interaction and debate among the participating civil society organisations resulted in a joint programme of action to develop proposals and strengthen initiatives towards the construction of alternative regionalisms for equitable and sustainable development to be built around:

• Citizens' democratization, respect for diversity, solidarity among peoples
• The centrality of peoples rights and human rights, the right to gender equity and inclusion for all, human security
• Environmental and economic sustainability and social justice

The People's Dialogue was initiated by social movements, trade unions, women's networks and other civil society organisations from the regional grouping of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, known as Mercosur, and their counterparts in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). However this is a first step in a process which will also link to similar counterparts in Asia and other regions. Speaking at the Conference, Dot Keet (AIDC and TNI Fellow) said " The People's Dialogue between the two regions at the conference would form part of a broader global south-south dialogue and was aimed at providing a base of an alternative development model".

The development of such new inter-governmental alliances such as the IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa), and the G20 in the WTO was also highlighted at the Conference. According to Keet, "These alliances of developing countries have enormous potential to shift the balance of power in the current global regime, despite being undermined by the European Union and the United States".

In the concluding panel of the People's Dialogue, Candido Gryzbowski of IBASE, Brazil indicated that "this Peoples Dialogue will go forward on two tracks - building strategic challenges to neo-liberal globalisation and developing new forms of south-south solidarity - as an initiative which will also contribute to strengthening the WSF process".

According to Brian Ashley, of AIDC, South Africa the "greatest challenge for us will be the strengthening of movements and popular campaigns and their mobilisation in the People's Dialogue".

The People's Dialogue also issued a statement of solidarity with the struggles of trade unions and human rights orgnisations currently fighting against repression and for democratisation in both in Swaziland and Zimbabwe.