The People’s Summit “Out WTO”, held in Buenos Aires, in parallel to the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting, ended Wednesday with the Final Declaration of the Summit. As one of the highlights, a great march was held on Tuesday (12), which left the National Congress and went to the Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires, celebrating the result of pressures against the advancement of free trade agreements an official conference and calling for the participation of social movements in the next trench of planetary struggle: the World Social Forum to be held in Salvador, Bahia, March 13-18, 2018.
Once again, the WTO ends a biennial conference announcing the lack of results. The failure has been taking place since global movements surrounded the 1999 global meeting in Seattle against agreements favoring transnationals over social interests and sovereignty of nations themselves. The event in Seattle also marked the beginning of the demonstrations of the so-called new movements that, together with anti-hegemonic social and trade union organizations, would convene the first World Social Forum in 2001 in Porto Alegre.
The efforts of the government of Argentina, Maurício Macri, to keep social pressures apart have led to the organizers of the conference for the de-accreditation of activists and delegations of social organizations from various countries and the order of deportation of journalists without explanation or bases cool. The scandal – treated as a cardboard by the Argentine media and absurd authoritarianism by the international media – has led the embassies of countries such as Brazil, Ecuador and Norway to take action. Along with resources from foreign organizations, the Macri government was forced to retreat.
The Peoples’ Summit “Fuera OMC” denounced the proposals of agreements violating rights and discussed strategies of resistance. At the end, the summit document announced the call for the next major international actions: March 8 with struggle and women’s paralysis and the WSF 2018. “The organizations and movements of the People’s Summit outside the WTO call for the continuation of resistance struggles to the present offensive of international capital against the rights of peoples, in the collective construction of the next edition of the World Social Forum 2018, in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, from March 13 to 17. To resist is to create, to resist and to transform “- ends the document, reaffirming the motto of the WSF 2018.
