One of the activists who triggered the discussion at the plenary session was Larissa Packer, a member of Terra de Direitos and Carta de Belem. Real World Radio spoke with Larissa to know more about the Peoples’ Summit and its goals.

Larissa said that the peoples’ summit is not an event but a social process that has been built for a long time. “The summit is parallel to Rio+20, but that does not mean it has a strong link with that event”.

The member of Terra de Direitos claims that this is “an independent summit where the peoples of the world meet to expose the false solutions and the structural causes of the environmental, ecological, food, financial, economic crises and to present the peoples’ real alternatives and to unify the struggles”.

For the activist, the unity of the struggle of social movements and organizations is one of the clear goals of the Peoples’ Summit: “We are demanding an anti-capitalist, counter-hegemonic unity against the model to really identify structural patterns where the movements can organize and mobilize and continue this historical process of social struggle”.

She also explained how the Peoples’ Summit works and its main objectives. On June 17 and 18 there will be five plenary sessions on different subjects that “will debate about false solutions and the structural causes of the crises, our solutions, the peoples’ solutions of the crises, by showing what is already being done in terms of practical solutions, wealth and income distribution, agrarian reform, etc. And there will also be debates about the upcoming struggles”.

The plenary sessions will lead to three peoples assemblies (from June 19 to 22) that will deal with the structural causes and solutions as well as an agenda and a calendar of future struggles. From there Larissa says the goal is to “have a more unified calendar of anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist mobilizations between the organizations”.

The activist explained that plenary 4 discussed infrastructure megaprojects, mining and oil projects with “debates on the hydroelectric complex in Amazonia: Belo Monte, Complejo Tapajós; oil extraction and the contradiction implied in Brazil’s increasing its fossil fuel base and the fact that it wants to sell environmental services to the world as a green power”.

Larissa also talked about the fifth plenary “where the trade unions will discuss about dignifying work, reducing working hours, together with the indigenous cosmovision and the good living. This means good living for the work environment. So, may be for the first time, there will be an interesting meeting between the labor world and a different work paradigm that goes beyond work and surplus value”.

Photo: RMR