2nd PfL People's Forum set for March '09 in Colombia (Peace for Life’s Second People’s Forum)

Peace for Life’s Second People’s Forum is scheduled to take place in Bogotá, Colombia on March 20-23, 2009 on the theme “Without Fear of Empire: Global People’s Resistance”. (PfL’s First People’s Forum, the founding forum, was held in Davao City, Philippines, in December 2004).

The People’s Forum is a regular event primarily envisioned as a space, a tribunal where stories about people’s struggles are expressed and aspirations are articulated; it also functions as PfL’s equivalent of a general assembly. It is both a political and cultural event and an arena for discourses and debates, for analyses and opinions; and a seat for reaffirmation of our common humanity, dedication to justice and respect for life.

These forums are aimed at re-invigorating the theology of resistance and liberation, nurturing progressive discourse within and among different faiths, and mobilizing faith communities to be in solidarity with movements for resistance against injustice and exploitation.

In the aftermath of the solidarity visit to Palestine and the following conference in Amman, we expressed our desire take on the subject of the Palestinian occupation and Middle East peace as the central thematic concern and the context from which 2nd People’s Forum would be organised. It was to be scheduled late this year in the Middle East.

It was not to be. Despite congenial responses from possible partners in the region, a thorough assessment of requirements and demands for holding the People’s Forum showed that more work would be necessary to build PfL’s capability to mount such an activity in an area as complex as the Middle East. Needless to say, the decision on the forum’s venue does not impinge on our commitment for a continuing engagement in the overall issue of justice and peace in the Middle East and in Palestine in particular.

PEOPLE’S FORUM IN COLOMBIA

PfL defines its peace and justice objectives against the core issues of empire, state terrorism, and militarised neoliberal globalisation. Specifically it has identified the empire-building of the United States as the single most formidable force today impeding the realisation of fundamental ethical values of justice, equality, human dignity, human rights, and respect for the integrity of creation.

Latin America has been the Empire’s backyard for many decades. As historian Greg Grandin has pointed out, Latin America is where the United States has the most extensive imperial experience, the area where it “learned how to be an exceptional empire,”—to “administer extraterritorial countries without actual direct colonialism,” where its foreign policy has served as model for U.S. actions in the Middle East and beyond.

Colombia is currently a most important country for the Empire’s geopolitical interests in the Americas as Israel is for its interests in the Middle East. And it is evidenced by the fact that for some years now, it is the world’s third largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel and Egypt, and through Plan Colombia and Plan Patriota U.S. troops and private-sector forces participate in the country’s conflict.

Colombia is in the throes of war. For 40 years the people have suffered living under a civil war, as guerrilla groups wage their struggle against the Colombian government, which response (invariably though various administrations, albeit in varying degrees) has been a scorched-earth military strategy. Additionally, the government seizes upon the conflict to strengthen further the elite groups in the country, and secure for them and for translational interests—the very tentacles of empire—greater control of resources and capital.

But beyond the nightmare that is the civil war, and one which many even within the peace movement fail to see, is the reason for the conflict in the first place. Clearly there is the need to acknowledge that the current conflict has its roots in the unjust social system that the majority of Colombians have suffered for so long and the resulting poverty and dispossession from centuries of colonialist plunder and years of overall subordination to U.S. neoliberal economics.

The situation in Colombia requires a closer look not only for its gravity, in terms of human cost and the degradation of the land and its people, but also to better understand the interlocking interests that power empire building, along with methods employed to frustrate resistance, of which Israel has been the emperor’s sorcerer, consistently conjuring and creating ever-new draconian strategies of security, surveillance and counter-insurgency warfare.

The forum in Colombia will dramatise what activists the world over often cry: that the struggle for emancipation from all forces and designs of empire is “one struggle,” a common struggle for people of all faiths and conviction.

PROGRAMME COMPONENTS

Pre-Forum events
As in the first People’s Forum, the second will aim to undertake pre-forum events that will allow participants, particularly the international delegates, to have a close interaction with local communities and victims as well as dialogues with organised groups that share a common vision with PfL.

Pre-forum activities will commence on March 17, 2009. Details will be issued as soon as programmes are finalised.

Forum Proper
The forum proper will have the following components

Opening Ceremonies – The formal opening will be marked by an interfaith and multi-cultural event featuring rituals, inspirational talk, sharing of stories, music, dance, performances and other creative activities.
Thematic Inputs and Plenary Discussions
Thematic Workshops
Organisational Workshops
Reports and Plenary Discussions
Closing Sessions

PARTICIPATION

All the members of the PfL Forum are invited to participate in People’s Forum along with individuals who are deeply involved in the issues to be discussed or those interested to get involved in the future.

Local partner organisation takes on the responsibility of inviting local participants, based on criteria previously agreed on. Given the limited financial capability of PfL, participants are expected to source their own travel expenses. Modest accommodation will be provided by the Colombian host-partners.

Participants who plan to join the pre-forum activities will need to be in Bogotá before the 17th of March 2009.

More detailed information will be circulated in the coming months as they become available.

Reference:

Peace for Life Secretariat

BLVM Ecumenical Center 2/F

NCCP Compound, 879 EDSA

West Triangle, Quezon City, Philippines

Telefax: 632-9278043

People’s Forum in Colombia 2009 (Project Proposal)