INVITATION WORLD PUBLIC FINANCES

INVITATION FINANCES PUBLIQUES MUNDIAL

Dear all,

At World Social Forum 2005 in Porto Alegre, a group of organizations and movements working around financial system issues formed a platform called “Otro Sistema Financeiro”. The involved organizations were a variety of actors, such as Attac groups from Brazil, Finland, France, Italy and Japan, the Tax Justice Network, NIGD, Unifasco and others. This fall, the scope has been enlargened and is now also reaching out to debt movements and organizations. The title has been adopted accordingly, now the heading is World Public Finances (WPF).

The start off for this new initiative will be at the WSFs in Bamako & Caracas, where we hope to gather a group of organizations interested in presenting collectively a practical-political proposal for a new basis of an international system of Public Finances, in a process of articulation between involved actors from the WSF in Bamako, at the WSF in Caracas, to the WSF 2007 in Nairobi. Please find an updated concept paper on the initiative in the below.

Our first WPF meeting will be in Bamako on 19 January, during lunch time from 12.00-14.00, at the hotel LE LOFT - 687,rue Achkabad - quartier Quinzambougou/Rue du 3ème arrondissement - Bamako MALI - Tél:221 66 90/91/92. Please find an indication of where this hotel is on this map: http://www.cttcampaigns.info/otrosistema/Bamako.jpg/view

Details of the WPF events in Caracas will follow soon.

Do join us, and do not hesitate to pass this message on to others who might be interested in learning of this initiative.

If you are not attending the WSF in Bamako, or Caracas, please sign up to the WPF mailing list (see below) in order to be part of the new platform and work together with us.

with kind regards,
Yoko Akimoto (ATTAC Japan)
Matti Kohonen (Tax Justice Network)
Antonio Martins (Liberdade Brasil)
Mika Rönkkö (ATTAC Finland)
Ruby van der Wekken (NIGD) -----------------------

CONCEPT PAPER FOR WORLD PUBLIC FINANCES

(Updated in Janaury 2006 from the December 2005 version)

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To participate in the initiative and receive further details of the WPF events in Bamako, please subscribe to the WPF initiative list wpf@sympa.kaapeli.fi.

*Subscribe to the list via the webpage http://sympa.kaapeli.fi/sympa/info/wpf.

*And spread the word about this new list and its web address to other persons and organizations who may want to participate.

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Dear Friends,

Our joint "Otro Sistema Financeiro" platform (at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre 2005 - ed.) and set of activities was a good start. We were capable of promoting dialogue between movements, each brining to the table their own perspectives on the themes of debt, tax havens, financial capital flows, taxes, national taxation systems, tax evasion, control of capital flows, the construction of an international taxation system, etc.

We believe it is possible to take our cooperation one step further. In the run up to WSF 2006, we are in the process of developing a new joint initiative. There are two novelties. Firstly, we propose a new name for our joint initiative: World Public Finances. Beyond addressing the debate on taxes and taxation, there is a clear sense in this name of being against the hegemony. In the face of capitalism, which is set on submitting the whole planet to its financial institutions, we propose an alternative: a system of international public finances, which will ensure an effective redistribution of global wealth.

The second novelty is something even more important. Beyond the fact that some of us have already registered activities for Caracas and Bamako in the context of our proposal (we would want to construct the final design on the basis of the discussions on this lists), we are interested in participating in a process, no just in singular events. Our idea is that the discussions we organize in Mali and Venezuela are the expression of an initial work of constructing a political basis - and that this effort will carry on after the WSF events. From then on, we would be working against the backdrop of a second horizon: The World Social Forum in Nairobi 2007. We should by then be capable of proposing much more concrete bases for a new international system of finances and taxation, clearly focused on the construction of a society based on the principles of solidarity, the redistribution of riches, the construction of a culture of peace, the protection of the environment and the reinvention of democracy.

Who is making the proposal and to whom?
The responsible organisations are the ones that were involved in the construction of "Otro Sistema Financiero", in WSF 2005: Liberdade Brasil and NIGD. The call is especially directed to the many organisations and persons who participated in the organisation of activities in 2005. But beyond these persons, we are keen to involve all movements and civil society organisations whose work concerns the dictatorship of finances and that are interested in finding anti-systemic alternatives.

What is already prepared for WSF 2006?
NIGD and Liberdade Brasil have proposed collectively two activities for Bamako and five for Caracas. They are all registered under the common name "World Public Finances".

What is the objective of the events in January?

We want to articulate a group of organizations willing to present collectively by January 2007 a practical-political proposal for a new basis of an international system of Public Finances. We are convinced that social movements and global civil society should set this task for itself.

We believe that such a task can help us to endeavor beyond our specific current concerns.

All of the topics that come under the platform have been important, and have decisively contributed to create the global social and justice movement. But we believe that it is possible to find a new level of articulation between the actors - and this could be the presentation of the proposal for World Public Finances. This obliges us to deliberate certain decisive questions. For example: What changes are necessary to secure, for all inhabitants of the planet, the access to the essential human rights? How to create political and technical conditions in order for our common social wealth to be redistributed based on collective decisions, rather than being based on blind market forces? How to secure the provision of clean water to the inhabitants of Africa (who to a large part cannot pay for this), or to end of the logging and cutting down of tropical forests (also caused by the desperate struggle for survival)?

What are the next steps?br> We would not want that our activities in Bamako and Caracas are simply a repetition of the traditional form of debate: speakers arrive to present their knowledge to the public, a bit like a spectacle.

Therefore, we propose the following steps forward:
a) Initiate a debate, by Internet, on the bases for World Public Finances,

b) We construct the activities for January (Bamako, Caracas) as the presentation of our objectives in general and of the discussions already held, and

c) Invite participants to Bamako and Caracas relating to this initiative.

If we agree on this proposal, we are immediately faced with the next necessity. We need to involve other experts, and experienced persons beyond the movements that participated to "Otro Sistema Financiero" - All suggestions on this point are welcome.

How does the initiative continue after WSF 2006?
WSF 2006 will initiate a big challenge for the WSF at large: the turn towards Africa. It will not be possible for the Global Social Justice Movement to make this move without invoking self-reflection and adaptation. If we want to go beyond rhetorics, we should reflect profoundly on how to join our efforts to confront the immense inequalities that the continent faces. If we fail to act in opposing these inequalities, the WSF 2007 as such may not be possible.

In other words, we need to invent a new form of common action. In contradiction to the former traditions, ours would have to distinctively respect diversity, horizontalism, the non-existence of single directions or dominant social sectors. Common actions will be based on participation and membership.

We believe that the debate on World Public Finances can be a very positive impulse in this process. We will work with the idea of developing our thoughts based on examples. If we would be capable of putting forward a new system for the redistribution of world wealth, why would other networks not be able to do so regarding the working order; be that the protection of nature, or the struggle against patriarchism.

In other words, we will be working for Bamako/Caracas 2006, for Nairobi 2007 and for a new form of engaging our movements in the WSF. In order for this to be viable, we need to discuss from now onward, not only issues regarding a common idea for what to do in 2006, but also on the counter hegemonic and attractive idea of World Public Finances.

... It will be a great pleasure to meet all of you in Bamako/Caracas, and in Nairobi and furthermore be jointly working towards a new world - in which the overcoming of the dictatorship of finances will be an important step.

... With greetings,

Antonio Martins (Liberdade Brasil) and Matti Kohonen (Tax Justice Network and NIGD)
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How to participate in the initiative?
A new email list has been created for the participants in the World Public Finances-Initiative.
The email address of the list is wpf@sympa.kaapeli.fi.

Subscribe to the list via the webpage
http://sympa.kaapeli.fi/sympa/info/wpf. There you can also do your list settings and browse the list archive!
And spread the word about this new list and its web address to other persons and organisations who may want to participate!

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