Ecuador, epicenter of the continental resistance to the Free Trade of the Americas Accords (FTAA/ALCA)

Hope... constructs itself.

Brothers, sisters,

The Free Trade of the Americas Accords (FTAA) are an integral part of the logic of capitalist globalisation promoted by WTO, the World Bank and the IMF... of the militarism promoted by the transnationals and the US government, in its strategy to assure the control of the natural ressources of the planet. These continue to be the most important menaces to new projects for society.

October was a historic moment for the resistance to global capitalism. The heroic and massive days of struggle which took place on the whole american continent, in resistance to the FTAA inspire us with the necessity to strengthen the process of coordination of continental and global networks of resistance based on local and regional realities.

The experience of the days of struggle, which took place en all of Central America the 12th of October, against the Plan Puebla Panama and the FTAA, demonstrated the effectiveness of decentralised, but coordinated mobilisations, rooted in the capacities and realities of organisations and communities.

The massive mobilisation in Salvador against the privatisation of health and social security; the strike of peasants and indigenous, from the 16th of September to the 30th of October in Colombia; the mobilisations against privatisation in Peru; the marches of the « cocalero » farmers in Bolivia; the actions against FTAA in North America... and finally the meeting and days of action at the Quito summit — each of these mobilisations or actions was effective at a local, regional and sometimes international level, however if they had all been articulated together, all the sectors, agricultural, indigenous, blacks, trades unions, students, organisations of women, for the environment... concentrating their forces in one common action, the continental impact would have been truly enormous.

So there is a necessity to create a process of articulation and coordinated mobilisation which goes beyond the organisation of continental meetings, very costly in terms of human and economic ressources, and which most often concretely only organise the next meeting, without succeeding in articulating a continental strategy. This strategy must be the result of a process of coordination and unification of struggles rooted in communities and grassroots organisations which, in the medium term, can prepare the success of a general, continental uprising. We must gather the growing forces of resistance and struggle in Latin America, and unify them in view of a common action, the same day all over the continent.

For this it is necessary to make enormous efforts in our communities and at the grassroots level of our organisations to raise consciousness concerning the FTAA, the WTO, the consequences of the Plan Puebla Panama, of the Andes Initiative... concerning militarisation and intervention by the USA against our peoples... and together, at the level of the continent, but each of us in our locality, in our community, to say NO to the genocide and the slavery into which the USA and our neoliberal governments which to drive us.

Therefor, we call for a coordinated and decentralised action to be taken between the 10th and the 14th of September 2003 (the exact date can be determined later), to coincide with the massive mobilisation which will take place at Cancun, Mexico against the ministerial conference of the WTO. With respect to the continental days of action that we have already organised, this mobilisation should try to take more the form of a single, high profile and highly articulated common action. We are looking for an original concept, a form of disruptive action, something which will strongly underline the basic themes of our struggle, something which can correspond to the realities of each country, community or organisation, something which we can realise with only 10 months of preparation, something which — if it is done in every country — will be heard in all the hemisphere, something which will advance us in the process which we need to construct in order to arrive at a continental strike.

What we want to know today is whether we can count on the necessary support in the networks to start the process of planning and convening. For this reason, we request that your organisation respond to this proposition as soon as possible.

Today, the necessity of a global articulation of struggles is ever more essential strategically, if we are to reply coherently and decisively to global capital.

Until forever,