The days before, threatening thunders were heard at 2800 meters high in the capital city of “The Middle of the World”, but nevertheless it didn´t rain. It was as if The Andes themselves were paying attention to this meeting and its outcomes, and only after the political resolutions, and the lines of action and solidarity were read, it started raining, to water the collectively planted seed.

Transition and Charter

One of the short-term resolutions of this meeting was that a delegation of representatives will meet this week with Bolivian President Evo Morales, as they did with Ecuador´s President Rafael Correa, to submit the outcomes of the debates, as he had requested.

Also, according to Rafael Alegria from Honduras, FENOCIN from Ecuador will be in charge of the CLOC´s Secretariat, and in a year and half´s time, there will be another conference in the Southern Cone to formally pass the Charter and start a transition process to transfer the Secretariat to that region of the continent, in preparation to the 6th Conference.

Rafael Correa promised to support the presence of the Secretariat in Ecuador. In addition, there are plans to have a seminar among the organizations which participated in the Conference and representatives from “progressive governments” to inform them about the proposals of the peasant movement of La Via Campesina.

Of course not only to inform them, but also to increase participation in the official policies on issues such as agrarian reform, food sovereignty and the value of women in the rural areas.

Although some sub-regions regretted the fact that it was not possible to draft a Charter to strengthen the structure of the movement that is currently facing difficult challenges, in general it was considered convenient to write one within a year and a half. In the meantime, the identity of the CLOC will be built through the systematization of the working groups that met in Quito and through national and regional campaigns, said members of the CLOC to Real World Radio.

Rafael Alegria, on behalf of the Political Commission of the CLOC, described the wide range of ideas around this charter. He said, “it´s clear that we are a movement and not a federation, thus we are a coordination of peasant, indigenous, young people and women organizations and we continue being autonomous”.

He also said that there is no question about the anti-capitalist nature and the socialist character of the CLOC.

With reference to this, Bolivian representative Leonilda Surita said that the 5th Conference should support the law passed in her country against racism, and said that this law does not only refer to communication media, but to the “entire people”.

Solidarity

The closing ceremony was also focused on the reading of a statement in solidarity with the peoples resisting.

In each and every session of the commissions, at the youth and women assemblies there were many accounts of human rights violations in the rural areas, thus the element of denunciation and solidarity was extremely relevant for the Conference.

“We live and suffer the destruction and devastation of capitalism. However, the strength of our struggles, the unity we are building, the value of our contributions, visions and cultures make us be sure that our struggles and actions will help us dismantle capitalism and build a countryside and a world that guarantees the dignity and wellbeing of everyone”, reads the statement in solidarity with the peoples in resistance.

Photo: Bruna Gati (Communications Team 5th Conference of the CLOC)