We met in Belém-Pará, city friendly to all peoples, from the 16th to the 19th of January, at the II Pan-Amazonian Social Forum. We came from Suriname, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, French Guiana and from Brazil. We traveled over many different routes: by river, land and air. We came to declare that another Amazonia is possible; and that furthermore, we announce to the world that its construction has already begun. We met for four days. We were over seven thousand participants, including indigenous peoples, negroes, mestizos, riverbank dwellers, urban and rural inhabitants of Amazonia, homeless, landless, people with nothing, nothing except great hope, the indispensable fuel for transforming the world. Pan-Amazonia is likened to a constellation. Although we are quite diverse, yet we all wish to be together. This is from whence we draw our strength. The II Pan-Amazonian Social Forum began from a consensus: All America Against the FTAA. During the course of our event we deepened our understanding that unless a people possess sovereignty at all levels, including over its food, there can be no true national sovereignty. For this reason we have positioned ourselves on the side of self-determination for indigenous peoples, or the rights of traditional communities, against the Colombia Plan and against the installation of US military bases on our soil. We commemorated the democratic victories of Brazil and Ecuador, we declare our solidarity with the Bolivar Revolution, we repudiate the coup attempts in Venezuela and we declare that French Guiana must be free from the French colonial yoke. We condemn the militarization of the continent and the destabilization by outside forces of democratic governments. We position ourselves as favorable to a democratic and negotiated solution to the Columbian conflict There should be no borders amongst peoples. We hear pf the dramatic reports of immigration, considered to be illegal, and demand that measures be taken so that millions of Pan-Amazonian women and men may regain their dignity. We hear the voices of Nature: the rivers, forests, our natural resources which are sources of life and cannot be transformed into commodities. They belong to the peoples; they cannot be privatized or negotiated. We are not blind, nor against development; we are against blind development, which only seeks profits, and cannot see nor takes into consideration the women and men that constitute Amazonia´s greatest wealth. We discussed alternative proposals, we exchanged precious experiences and we are sure that paths do exist that allow for a communion of all, and of all with the environment in a world where prosperity is a common good. We also talked about ourselves, our multiple identities, at once singular and plural, part of a common mosaic: America, the new world, the continent of hope that is currently witness to important democratic experiences at many levels, from the local to national. We are convinced that these experiences may be expanded further and further, instituting the rights of citizens where heretofore barbarian monopolies of all types have reigned. The conquest of equality in all fields for all races, ethnic groups and between genders is an urgent and undeniable necessity and is at the center of our attentions. We recognize that for this to become reality, we must combine the fight for rights with the permanent exercise of equity. We had at our Forum friends from the Caribbean, Canada, Europe and the Middle East. We shared our dreams, our concerns and desires. We have much in common and amongst these is our repudiation to war: the drums of death must be made silent; the threatened US attack on Iraq must not take place. We are ready to add our forces to progressive forces around the world to avert this hideous crime. The II Pan-Amazonian Social Forum was an event that arose from the movement of boats, the dust of the roadways, the willpower of the Preparatory Without Frontiers Meetings. We are on a good path. We shall march forward. ALL AMERICA AGAINST THE FTAA
ANOTHER AMAZONIA IS POSSIBLE