*{ http://attac.org/planet/en/intro.htm
19 aout 2002



Another world is possible

(International Meeting from 24th to 26th June 1999)

Initiated by ATTAC - CADTM - Coordination contre les clônes de l'AMI - DAWN - Forum des alternatives 
 
ATTAC: Proposals. Globalisation
 

The Dictatorship of the Markets ? Another World is possible
  
The opening speech of Bernard Cassen, President of ATTAC
(Traduction : Jane Holister et Catherine Aldington)

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Presidents, dear friends and companions in our common struggle,

Just one year ago, when we were founding the association ATTAC here in France, we never imagined that in so short a time a vast international movement would be created, as personified by the 80 or so delegations represented here amongst us, that have come from every corner of the planet and who are soon to be introduced to you by Susan George. Beyond our differences and the diversity of our situations, what brings us together today is a common diagnosis - but also a common aim, as indicated in the title itself of these meetings : ”Financial Dictatorship ? Another World is Possible ”. 

 The common diagnosis is of course the devastating effects of the all-powerful financial markets. Markets as murderous and as fatal to human freedom on an international level as the worst modern-day political and military tyrannies. Our common aim is to reject this dictatorship and to fight for the emergence of another type of world : because we believe that this other world is possible. 

 With the international network of partners who have prepared these meetings along with ATTAC - the Committee for the cancellation of the third world debt (le Comité pour l’Annulation de la Dette du Tiers-Monde), the Coordination against the MAI and its clones (la Coordination contre l’AMI et ses Clones), the world forum of alternatives (le Forum Mondial des Alternatives) and DAWN, the Development of Alternatives for Women in a New era - and with all of you who represent such varied forms of political, trade union, social and civil commitment, from Africa, the Near East, Asia, the Americas and Europe, we represent a small-scale model of a veritable international archipelago of struggles against financial hegemony and against what I do not hesitate to call the politburo of international ultraliberalism. 

This politburo, whose principal members are made up of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization and the G 7, is trying by every means available - numerous and powerful means - to associate the idea of the universal common good with what is in fact no more than the implacable management of international capital gains. 

I have just spoken of an international archipelago of struggles. An archipelago is composed of islands, large and small. These islands of struggle exist everywhere, in every hidden recess of the world : struggles for land rights, for access to water, to health care, to education, to knowledge, to employment, to civil, trade union and democratic rights, for equality between men and women. But the men and women who are involved in these conflicts are often working in a parallel and isolated way, unaware of their own numbers. The near totality of the media clearly does nothing to encourage the growth of public awareness. If they devoted as much space to the inventory of these islands of struggle as they do to financial operations, the fusions of companies and other daily trading activities, we would in fact see an entirely different international landscape take shape. 

 One of the primary merits of this gathering is that of giving a global visibility to fights that are dispersed and unaware of one another’s existence. There is also the merit of demonstrating the coherence and convergences between them. During these three days we will analyse, exchange our experiences and elaborate plans of action for the months and years to come. Above all, we will get to know one another, within the same country, within the same continent, and between continents. We are going to build bridges to each other. 

Internet and the electronic networks are not just a good thing : they have become essential to us. 

We can be very glad that this extraordinary communications device, used by the transnationals as a major means of exerting power, can also be turned against them and serve other goals than that of financial profit. But nothing can replace personal contact, the human warmth it gives rise to and the promise of coordinated action that will inevitably spring from it. 

In this respect the exchanges that are to take place between us beyond this marquee - during meals taken together, with those participating in town meetings who are welcoming us this evening and tomorrow evening, on the Metro that brings us here to the University of Saint-Denis, and in the close companionship of next Saturday’s demonstration - will be at least as important as what we are to debate and decide upon in our workshops to come. This human factor is not only of added value - to use the jargon of company directors - to our meetings : it constitutes its essence. 

It is significant that we meet in a university, in a place where knowledge is produced and diffused. We have often said in France that ATTAC is also a movement for civil education, for popular education. In order to claim back our future, in order to prove that alternatives exist, we must first take on those unwanted mechanisms that govern the world. But to master the understanding of these mechanisms is not an end in itself - which is what distinguishes our approach from that of academic activity. Our aim is focused on action. 

We must give ourselves the means for action on an equally informed basis in the face of those who would like to persuade us that economy and finance are the business of experts, out of the reach of simple citizens. This is to be one of our work objectives. There is nothing the powerful fear more than informed citizens, citizens who cannot be hoodwinked. And the primary task, for each one of us wherever we are, is that of pursuing and reinforcing what our Latin American friends call “ conscientisation ”. Those of us who are here are indisputably more socially conscious than the majority of our fellow citizens. It is for us to share with the largest possible number of people what we have learnt and what we are to learn. It is this shared knowledge, added to the awareness of the force we represent together, that will give structure to our future combats. 

Before handing you over to Susan George, who is a sort of “ International ” in her own right, I would like to thank on behalf of ATTAC and its network of partners, all those who have allowed these meetings to take place. Primarily the president and secretary-general of this university, Paris 8, which before at Vincennes and later here at Saint-Denis, has always been concerned with the international dimension of affairs, and which, with its administrative personnel, directors, and the students of its Institute of European Studies, has worked towards ensuring the success of our meetings. 

I would then like to thank the president and members of the General Council of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis - a working people’s region and itself international in its population’s diversity of origin - whose material and moral support has been - and I weigh my words - decisive for the meetings. I must equally thank the mayors of the towns of Bondy, Stains, Epinay-sur-Seine, Romainville and La Courneuve, who will be welcoming us this evening and tomorrow evening, as well as the Association of Communist and Republican Mayors of this region, that has also offered us considerable material support. 

Then may I express our gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ civil servants who, with record timing and with great understanding, allowed us to overcome the difficulties in obtaining visas experienced by a certain number of our guests from abroad. Our extreme gratitude, also, to the Cabinet of the Ministry of the Interior, who this morning resolved, in difficult circumstances, a complicated situation regarding the Air and Frontiers Police of Roissy airport. 

Allow me also to pay respects in the name of all of us here to the local committees and members of ATTAC who have welcomed many of you into their homes, in the provinces those from abroad, and in the Paris region those from elsewhere in France and further afield. What a wonderful example of international solidarity ! 

I would now like to point out all we owe to our incredible team of permanent and voluntary members at the ATTAC headquarters, whom you have met through Internet and the telephone, and the names to whom you can from now on fit faces. Along with those in charge of the international section of ATTAC, they have offered themselves unstintingly over the last few weeks, from very early in the morning until far into the night. For a certain number of the younger members, it has been their first international associative experience, and they are not liable to forget it. Nor are the team of voluntary interpreters who have taken on the extremely difficult task of helping communication between you in a dozen languages. A big and warm thank you to everyone ! 

Dear friends, dear companions in a common struggle, we are soon to put ourselves to work, modestly but resolutely, on the task of demonstrating that, in the face of financial dictatorship another world is possible, and tomorrow we will be there in even greater numbers, to give it birth.