Resistance

RESISTANCE

By Ignacio Ramonet

[This article originally published in: Le Monde diplomatique, May 14, 2004 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.taz.de/pt/2004/05/14.nf/mondeTextI.artikel,a0017.idx,3. Ignacio Ramonet is an editor of Le Monde diplomatique.]

Resistance means saying No: No to contempt, arrogance and the “new masters of the world”. No to finance capital and the G-8. No to the Washington consensus and total market rule. No to genetically modified organisms and expanding privatization. No to sexism. No to social cuts, to inequality and to the exclusion of the South. No to the deaths of 30,000 children of the poor daily. No to destruction of the environment and to the genesis of a military hyper-power. No, no, no – to preventive war, invasion war, terror war and to attacks on the civilian population. No to security obsession, to the surveillance state and thought police and No to gluttony with newspaper hoaxes.

But resistance also means saying Yes: Yes to solidarity of all 6 billion inhabitants of the earth. Yes to the rights of women and children. Yes to the renewal of the UN. Yes to a Marshall plan for Africa. Yes to the abolition of illiteracy and Yes to access to digital communication for everyone. Yes to an international moratorium for the preservation of drinking water. Yes to basic worldwide medical care and to resolute combating of Aids. Yes to the preservation of minority cultures and to the rights of the indigenous. Yes to a more social and less market-oriented Europe. Yes to less market. Yes to more cooperation. Yes to the consensus of Porto Alegre. Yes to the levy of the Tobin tax as a means for social redistribution. Yes to weapons taxation. Yes to debt relief for poor countries. Yes to abolishing tax havens. Yes to worldwide social and economic justice.

Resistance means thinking of the world differently and putting this thinking into action..