The assembly of social movements and NGOs rejects the official statement of Rio+20 and offers an alternative.
Described by Barbara Stocking, director of Oxfam UK, as “a vision of a future we want with people at its centre, and a rejection of business as usual” and “a solitary light in the fog of Rio”, the Peoples’ Summit offers its alternative vision:
The so-called “green economy” is an expression of the current financial phase of capitalism which also makes use of old and new mechanisms, such as increasing public-private indebtedness, super-stimulating consumption, the appropriation and concentration of new technologies, carbon and biodiversity markets, acquisition of land by fraud and its sale to foreign interests, public-private partnerships.
The alternatives are in our peoples, our history, our customs, knowledge, production practices and systems, which we must maintain, renew and scale up as a counter-hegemonic and transformative project.
The defence of public spaces in cities, with democratic management and popular participation, a cooperative economy based on solidarity, food sovereignty, a new model or production, distribution and consumption, a change in the energy matrix, all these are examples of real alternatives to the present agro-urban industrial system.
The full statementi n Portuguse can be found here.