Space for discussion

Veteran activist Remberto Nolasco Pacheco from El Salvador shares his hopes and expectations for the WSF

04. January 2007

Dear friends

My name is Remberto Nolasco Pacheco from El Salvador. Since the 1970´s I have been involved in grassroots social processes, especially related to the peasant sector. Currently, I am involved in the ecologist movement to promote actions of resistance and advocacy against the projects and activities of the neo liberal governments and transnational corporations.

Since the 70´s one of my dreams has been to participate with other social sectors to build and construct a new model of life. This goal requires a concrete social and historic process based on the sharing of knowledge and learning which aims to explore and build processes to gain collective empowerment of the social and political actors from each sector, zone, region, country as well as throughout the world.

The World Social Forum (WSF) is a space for discussion and construction of another society based on values and sustainable behaviour. The WSF is a political and ecological space for the global social popular movement which seeks alternatives to the neo liberal politics where each one of us dreams that, “Another World Is Possible.” The WSF will allow feedback on our political and ecological strategies at national, regional, Latin American and global levels.

For instance, the Central American region is undergoing the imposition of the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), similar to the World Bank “recipes,” implemented for over 50 years with the construction of large-scale infrastructure to increase the competitiveness and feasibility of economical growth, including the opening of the international market and the expansion of exportation.

The only difference from the 60´s and 70´s is the destruction of the Pacific jungle, converting the area into cotton crops, pastures, building roads and hydroelectric dams, sea ports, and airports, evicting the peasants from their lands, and urbanizing rural areas. The PPP aims to achieve such results on a massive scale and in fewer years.

The PPP comes as a “steamroller” to convert the Mesoamerican region from an agriculture area where a high percentage of the rural population lives on predominately subsistence-based agriculture, into a textile factory completely dominated by the interests of the United States and large transnational corporations. The so-called “development” that has been imposed in Mesoamerica relentlessly since the XX century, signifies the complete elimination of the peasant and the disappearance of the rural sector.

The WSF will allow us to continue struggling for our dream and belief that “Another World is Possible.

Sincerely,

Remberto Nolasco