2nd Intercontinental Encounter of Peoples against Neo-liberalism
Greetings from the table of Alcobendas (Madrid)
Today is the third day of our often chaotic but always interesting meetings. Between the workshops which last until 10 pm and the writing of documents to summarize these meetings and the daily and nightly parties, we have had our hands full. In this site, which is to the north of Madrid about 1/2 hr outside, we have mesa 1 A and B which deal with the economy and mesa 3, which covers education and culture.
In the economic table we are about 100 people from 21 different countries:
- Spain
- Portugal
- Italy
- France
- Basque Country
- (dis) United Kingdom
- Denmark
- Switzerland
- (dis) United States
- Nicaragua
- El Salvador
- Peru
- Venezuela
- Morocco
- Burkina Faso
- South Africa
- Israel
- Austria
- Colombia
- Mexico
- Ecuador
Unfortunately, there are few people from the countries of the South, but the few representatives have been very informative about the conditions they face in their countries. The second day the tables were split into four groups according to language groups, English, Spanish, French/Italian, and all languages together (torre de babel). Every day the four groups summarized the results of their meetings for the plenary. There is an editorial group currently, at 3 am, working on the final document. Tomorrow that document will be discussed by the plenary and revised so that it can be sent to El Indiano for the closing ceremonies.
Besides all of the meetings there have been many complementary activities, including videos about the Liverpool Dock Workers, the struggle in Venezuela, the Basque country, and Burkina Faso. People have also been holding meetings about organizing against Mastricht, and one of the concrete movements which seems to be gaining strength here is a planned counter summit for the world trade organization meeting next year in Geneva.
As one comrade put it today, this is like a communist bubble in a capitalist world. And to help us all deal with the stress caused by this communist paradise we have breathing exercises, music, poetry and dancing at night.
vale,
Elliott Young and Isabella Toledo
ps. the folks from Morocco have offered their country as the site for next year's encuentro.
