[asia-apec 303] FOCUS-on-APEC#9 Part 4

[gonzalo]

Declaration: Manila PeopleÕs Forum on APEC
November 21-24, 1996

Reaffirming the historic Kyoto Declaration of November, 1995, we 
have gathered in Manila as representatives of people's movements, 
women's movements, trade unions, non-governmental and religious 
organizations from 22 nations of Asia, Pacific, the Americas and 
Europe. In five Pre- Forums we have studied and developed plans 
of action related to gender equality, labour and migrant rights, 
people's rights and democratization, environment and ecology, and 
economic and social development. In each of these events we 
prepared recommendations for action and further research related 
to APEC. While we recognize the importance  of trade and rules to 
govern trade, we are here to oppose the kind of trade represented 
by the APEC process of global economic integration in service to a 
corporate agenda at the expense of the human rights, dignity and 
well-being of the peoples of this region. We are also here to learn 
from each other and to strengthen our linkages and solidarity with 
organizations and movements throughout the APEC region.

APEC '96 has been portrayed by the host government as having 
injected a "social face" into the process by the inclusion of 
elements of civil society in preparation for this week's meetings. 
However, the real face of APEC has been deftly revealed by the 
refusal of the host Philippine government to allow Nobel Peace 
Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta and other foreign delegates entry 
into the Philippines to participate in this forum, as well as the 
repression of any form of protest for the duration of the APEC 
meetings. It has also been painfully demonstrated by the 
demolition of urban poor homes and the forced removal of 
hundreds of thousands of poor people from Manila so that the 
corporate and political elites attending APEC will not be disturbed 
by seeing them.

Hiding the poor will not erase poverty. Nor will refusing entry to a 
Nobel Peace laureate bring peace and justice to the people of East 
Timor. These acts only amplify the demands and strengthen the 
resistance of the people of this region against the wholesale 
surrender of their sovereignty, their cultural integrity and the 
economic well-being to the APEC agenda. The people are not 
"human resources" to be minded, exploited and depleted. The 
people are the wealth and the future of our nations, whose well-
being defines development and whose participation makes it 
possible.

Political leaders, following the lead of transnational corporations 
like mice following a trail of spilled grain, are pursuing an illusion of 
a borderless world in which riches would flow without impediment 
into their national cofferes or the accounts of their corporate allies. 
We call on them to abandon that fantasy, and wake up to the 
reality that our legacy, our dignity, our culture and our natural 
world are being drained away instead into the offshore accounts of 
global robber barons.

We call instead on all the governments participating in the APEC 
"summit" to fulfill the democratic mandate to secure justice, 
preserve the dignity and advance the economic, social and cultural 
well-being of all the people, and protect the natural heritage for our 
children's children.

In particular, we recommend to the governments of APEC, NGOs 
and people's organizations the following considerations and 
principles for action:

GENDER AND ECONOMIC LIBERALIZATION

In every country, women and the poorest of the poor. Women 
carry the brunt of free trade policies which have had a devastating 
impact on women's rights. The loss of livelihoods and decreasing 
control over resources are increasing women's inequality. We reject 
economic and social systems which create and perpetuate the 
exploitation of women's bodies, and call on
governments to make the eradication of women's poverty a 
priority. Further, the unpaid labour of women should be measured 
and included in satellite accounts parallel to national accounts as 
agreed to at the Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing in 
1995.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

In a global economy dominated by transnational corporations with 
their operation in almost every country, the theoretical 
underpinning of free trade is no longer tenable. Yet, free trade is 
still dominant in APEC's development policy.

Genuine development must be centred on the needs of people and 
nature, and deliver real social and economic justice. However, the 
kind of globalization being pushed by big business and neo-liberal 
governments and institutions is creating an economic and financial 
framework that widens povery throughout the APEC region. In 
both developed and underdeveloped countries, poverty continues 
to deepen both in character and magnitude. No longer do most 
people of developed countries enjoy the economic and social 
benefits of their countries' affluence. Worse, structural adjustment, 
which is integral to APEC agenda, dictates severe cuts to social 
infrastructure, leaving poor people more vulnerable and 
intensifying social stratification and disintegration.

APEC governments are instituting economic, financial and social 
policies and programmes that are biased against sustainable and 
self-sufficient production in favour of rapid industrialization for 
export markets. The net effect is further dispossession of 
indigenous peoples, heightened rural poverty and aggravated 
exploitation of newly urbanized industrial workers. Women suffer 
most from these changes, ending up as cheap labour, overseas
migrant workers or prostitutes at the mercy of international 
traffickers.

Children too are not spared. Child labour and child prosititution are 
becoming rampant in many APEC nations. The violation of the 
rights of the child, including the right to education and security of 
person, are also common in many APEC nations. We call upon all 
governments, NGOs and people's organizations and civil society to 
defend and promote the child's best interests, as provided for in the 
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

HUMAN AND PEOPLES' RIGHTS

We reaffirm the universality, interrelatedness and interdependence 
of human rights as the highest priority of states. The rights of the 
majority of our populations continue to be violated. We are already 
living with the negative impacts of economic liberalization. In the 
face of overt human rights violations spawned by the accelerated 
economic liberalization policies of Asia-Pacific and Latin American 
governments, we call on the peoples of the region to assert and 
defend their rights, including the right to basic food security and 
livelihood; to independent economic, social, political and 
environmental policies and programmes, to self- determination to 
manage, protect, develop and defend ancestral domains of 
indigenous peoples; to gender equality; and to the rule of law in 
respect for human rights.

We demand the end of state-supported violence in the name of 
economic and financial liberalization, and the incorporation of 
respect for human and peoples' rights in the negotiation of trade 
and economic agreements. We demand the unconditional release of 
all political prisoners.

GOVERNANCE AND THE ROLE OF THE STATE

Since its inception, APEC has deliberately conducted its agenda in 
an antidemocratic manner without transparency, accountability, or 
popular participation. This is symptomatic of the underlying neo-
liberal model, which seeks to transfer power from states to 
markets. The resulting lack of democracy is manifested in all levels 
of the policies and practices of APEC
-- subsuming states to the directives of business advisory bodies, 
corporations and international financial institutions.

Among APEC states are some of the most authoritarian 
governments in the world. More and more governments, due to 
pressure from their neighbours or on their own volition, are 
undertaking anti-democratic practices. What is urgently needed 
now is a strategy to mobilize democratic forces against the 
arbitrary powers of state, corporations and policy bureaucracies 
and their economic institutions, including APEC.

Governments must put in place rules and mechanisms to regulate 
and monitor the conduct of TNCs, particularly with respect to 
their ecologically damaging practices and their obligations to their 
employees with respect to laws regulating wages, benefits, health 
and safety and other labour standards.

We demand a highly inclusive level of political participation in the 
selection of leaders and policies so that no major social group is 
excluded. We demand a level of civil and political liberties -- 
freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom to form 
organizations -- sufficient to ensure the integrity of governance and 
meaningful participation. We further demand support for the 
democractic values associated with community and social justice 
which lend substance to a genuine concern with social and 
economic rights.

LABOUR AND MIGRANT RIGHTS

Global market pressures reinforce and magnify state repression of 
workers, or undermine the ability of some governments to protect 
labour standards. Globalization also undermines the security of 
employment, the right to a living wage, and the ability to organize 
and bargain collectively. The resulting pressure on workers to 
survive leads to the "informalization" of
the workforce. Informalization is turning workers, in both the 
formal and informal sectors, into an even cheaper, more docile, 
exploited and un-unionized labour force, and impacts particularly 
on women. It forces families to resort to sending their children to 
work, and some women to engage in prostitution to survive.

Globalization intensifies migration, and also has a particularly 
negative impact on women. The exploitative system of migrant 
labour recruitment, often operating outside state regulation, must 
be addressed by governments. Special attention must be given to 
the rampant and brutal abuses associated with the feminization of 
migration, and the violation of the human rights of both 
documented and undocumented migrant workers.

Governments must respect, improve and enforce national labour 
laws, which are consistent with internationally recognized basic 
labour rights, and refrain from involving military or police in labour 
disputes to intimidate workers, or as corporate scabs. We insist 
that each government develop and maintain workplace health and 
safety laws and that failure to provide, or continually lowering, 
workplace safety standards no longer be used to entice
or retain investment.

We demand the repeal of anti-migrant laws and policies in both 
sending and receiving countries. These measures must include the 
regularization of all undocumented workers. Governments should 
advance the welfare and protection of migrant workers by ratifying 
the UN Convention for the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant 
Workers and Members of Their Families, and through bilateral 
agreements with receiving countries.

ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT

The experience of Chile and Taiwan demonstrates that liberalized 
trade and investment will further accelerate environmental 
degradation. Exploitation of natural resources for export resulting in 
deforestation, depletion of fish stocks, destruction of coral reefs 
and mangrove forests, desertification and loss of control by 
communities and indigenous peoples over their ancestral doman 
(land, air, water, skills and knowledge) are what we have already 
witnessed. Continuing to rely on non-renewable, polluting energy 
sources to fuel the demands of industrialization causes irreversible 
damage to ecosystems and human health, and robs future 
generations of a resource base for their survival. The dumping of 
toxic waste, export of hazardous materials, and migration of dirty 
technology to developing countries leads to environmental 
catastrophe, with terrible consequences for human health.

To prevent thse devastating effects, we bind ourselves to the 
principles of ecologically and sustainable social development that is 
people-oriented and environment based, protects biodiversity, and 
places a premium on preserving women's livelihoods, people's 
participation, and improved quality of life. We reject any slogan of 
"sustainable development" which fails to include these elements.

We call for the support and strengthening of people's movements, 
especially farmers and fisherfolks, who are resisting injustice and 
encroachment to their lands and livelihoods by transnational 
corporations and so-called development programmes.

ONWARD TO VANCOUVER

We are confident that the struggles of people throughout Asia, 
Pacific and the Americas to expose the false promises of APEC 
have succeeded in challenging the narrow interests that are driving 
this process. We have grown in numbers and understanding, in 
mobilization and strength during the past three years of popular 
activity. We have established an ambitious programme of research 
and mobilization to prepare for the next phase of our work in 
developing liveable and sustainable alternatives to market-driven 
globalization based on the principles of democracy, equality and 
social justice. We will meet next year in Vancouver to continue this 
effort. During the next year, our work will focus on the role of the 
state, the
environment, and an alternative economic agenda.

Action proposals from the Pre-Forums and the People's Forum are 
appended to provide guidance for this work. 
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