Declaration of the eThekwini Social Forum

eThekwini Social Forum is a duly constituted inclusive, democratic,
participatory network of organisations and individuals committed to social,
economic and environmental justice. We declare the World Economic Forum to
be an anti-democratic institution. Any decisions taken by the WEF cannot be
considered to be binding on the people of Africa and the world. We are
committed to an autonomous, unified Africa and demand that we the people of
Africa, and not the corporate and political elites, shape our own destiny.

We reject neo-liberal economic policies, as embodied in NEPAD and GEAR,
including privatisation and unregulated "free trade" instead of fair trade.

We demand that the WEF accept:

1 Business and corporate accountability, social responsibilities, and
complete liability for the consequence of their actions and decisions.

2 Protection of human rights.

3 Meaningful public participation.

4 Full access to all information relevant to the public good.

5 The end of unfair business influence over governance.

6 The need for satisfactory compensation for the ecological debts due to the
environmental footprints of business and industry.

7 The precautionary principle, to give preference to options that are known
to cause no harm to people and their environments.

8 True development that is environmentally, socially and economically
sustainable.

9 Immediate prioritisation of ecological issues.

10 Decentralised local economic activities, rather than the unequal elitist
concentration of wealth and political power, through corporate globalisation
of industrial capital.

11 The socialisation of the economy, placing people first and not profit.

In addition, we demand:

12 That all countries be allowed to produce, import and/or export generic
medicines.

13 The immediate rollout of a national HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention
programme.

14 A universally affordable and accessible public health care system.

15 Ethically accountable, and people friendly public services.

16 Social security provisions for all.

17 The right to work and job security.

18 Adequate housing, water, electricity, food and other services essential
to sustain a decent livelihood and a clean healthy environment, to be
declared an absolute human right.

19 Participatory, democratic, accountable and ethical governance, and the
right to recall elected and public officials.

20 An end to the patenting of life and life-giving forms.

21 The de-industrialisation of the agrarian sector.

22 Universal access to clean sustainable energy and the rejection of nuclear
fission options.

23 An end to large dam construction.

12 June 2003
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EThekwini Social Forum Announcement

The eThekwini Social Forum is a lose network of organisations and
individuals that are concerned about social democracy in the eThekwini area.
The Forum hosted a meeting and protest of concerned people during the World
Economic Forum and plan to keep this loose network to address some of the
issues that we are concerned about.

These issue include:

HIV/Aids, Water Cut offs, Evictions, Human Rights, Environment, Anti War,
Apartheid Debt, Land

The forum is a lose network that stands for social justice and the right for
the economically oppressed to be heard, it is not a political party nor does
it intend to become one. In order to plan and move forward collectively we
will hosting a meeting in the City Hall building on (West St Entrance) on
Saturday 21 June 2003

Date: Saturday 21 June 2003
Time: 9 am
Venue: City Hall (West St Entrance)

We invite all individuals and organisations to attend
Please attend and support this struggle

For more details contact:

Communities
· Mpumalanga (Youth for Work, Thando: 772-1084, Jhazz: 083-4755-9819)
· Chatsworth (Bayview Flats Residents Association, Brandon: 072-203-7746)
· Wentworth (Wentworth Development Forum, Des: 461-1991, Wentworth Poverty
Alleviation Project, Marcelle: 468-8581)
· Umlazi (eThekwini Environmental Protection Agency, Mandla: 909-6950)
· KwaMashu (Edenites, Dalicebo: 072-355-9502)
· Newlands (Democratic Socialist Movement, Patrick: 578-3782)
· Sydenham (Sydenham Heights Residents Association, Zelda: 207-7575)
· Merebank (South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, Ms Perumal:
468-6191)

NGOs
· Ecopeace (Alan: 465-7129)
· TAC-UND (Samantha: 260-2582)
· TAC-Provincial (Sfiso: 304-9007)
· Earthlife Africa eThekwini (Bryan: 0826521533)
· Groundwork (Bobby: 033-3425-662)