International multilateralism and social inclusion. World peace, environmental protection and autonomous civil society. At the gates of the G20 heads of state meeting which opens on Monday, Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, delivered a fiery speech at the closing of the G20 Social, civil society leadership being permitted for the first time in the history of the G20. “The G20 must take place every day because 733 million people suffer from hunger. In recent years, the world has spent $2.4 trillion on weapons and almost nothing on food for the people who need it,” the Brazilian president said. Lula, received like a real rock star at the G20 Social, he was particularly critical of economic neoliberalism: “To reach the heart of the common citizen, governments must break the growing dissonance between the voice of the markets and that of the street. Neoliberalism has worsened the economic and political inequalities that plague democracies today. To overcome the dead endLula believes that the G20 must urgently discuss a series of measures aimed at “reducing the cost of living and promoting more balanced working days”.
Two hours after meeting Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, at the Copacabana military fort, Lula highlighted the reform of global institutions. Surrounded by social movements and representatives of international civil society, Lula called for democratizing the Security Council: “When the UN was created, it had 56 participating countries, today it has 196 countries. Where is the African continent in the Security Council? Where is the Latin American continent? Yemeni Tawakkol Karman, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who thanked Lula for his defense of the Palestinian people against the “Israeli genocide”, declared a few minutes earlier that only the reform of international institutions would make it possible to achieve world peace.
For his part, Ronald Ramola, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of South Africa, pledged to replicate the G20 Social next year, when the country assumes the presidency of the G20. Ramola, who also associated the voice of global civil society with the process of multilateralism, harshly criticized Israel and compared the apartheid South African history with Israel’s occupation of Palestine: “We will continue to hold the Israeli government to account. We are with the Palestinian people. We will liberate Palestine. Free Palestine,” concluded Ramola. “The G20 must commit to peace,” declared President Lula.
The Brazilian president also made an allusion to the climate emergency. Citing various recent environmental disasters, including that of DANA in Valencia, Lula called for urgent action on the climate issue: “We are responsible for the only home we have, which is planet Earth. »
Lula promised to deliver to the rest of the G20 presidents the declaration of the Social Summit, with the proposals of civil society worked throughout the year and discussed over the last three days.
G20, side B
Brazil has placed great emphasis on the parallel programming of the G20. Since last Wednesday, the warehouses of the port of Rio de Janeiro, reclaimed for the city for the 2016 Olympic Games, have been bustling with activity. Building on the legacy of the World Social Forum (a benchmark for civil society participation in the 2000s) and the participatory legacy of the PT governments (2003-2016), the G20 Social was one of the Brazilian Paris to revolutionize the vertical dynamics of civil society. G20. “Never again will these snobs hold the G20 without the participation of the people,” declared Márcio Macêdo, Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, at the opening of the social G20.
In addition to meetings, debates, plenary sessions and hundreds of self-managed activities, the Píer Mauá, in the port of Rio de Janeiro, hosted the Urban 20 (U20, meeting of the main mayors of the world), the Cria Rede (a space with conferences and digital influencer workshops) and the Aliança Global Against Hunger and Poverty music festival, coordinated by Janja da Silva, first lady of Brazil. Side B of the G20, in addition to serving as a debate for civil society, constitutes a strategic springboard for the Brazilian government. “There could not be an effective debate on these issues if there was no dialogue with society,” said Mauro Vieira, Brazilian Foreign Minister. Margareth Menezes, Minister of Culture of Brazil, maintains that the Social G20 wants to leave the “world with a proposal for global governance that recognizes the participation of civil society.”
From food sovereignty to AI
Tiago Ribeiro, of the Coleta de Sementes cooperative, of the Movimiento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), sold indigenous seeds at the G20 social solidarity fair. “This space is an opportunity to show that there are alternatives to the international agricultural system based on patents and pesticides,” he assures. elDiario.es. Against monoculture, Tiago defends agroforestry systems that combine protection of native forests and agriculture. A few meters away, inside one of the warehouses, a sign on food security highlighted the importance of solidarity kitchens, popular restaurants, food baskets and family farming. Initiatives that Brazil will integrate into the Global Alliance against Hunger, Brazil’s flagship initiative for the G20, which will be launched next Monday and which already has the participation of 41 countries.
The G20 Social is an extension of the Lula brand. Not only its historic flags resonate there, but also the echoes of more glorious times past. In the warehouse of the World Forum of Favelas, intended for dialogues from the world’s peripheries, the legendary footballer Cafú presented on Friday to Angela, a black teenager present in the audience, the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the last won by Brazil. “The favela is a global power,” said Cafú, captain of the 2002 team. The importance of local governments U20 also dialogues with the progressive municipalist wave that preceded Lula’s rise to power in 2002. “Let’s do what the Trump government is doing nationally, we will work locally against climate change,” Neicy Shutley of the Los Angeles City Council said Thursday during a U20 panel.
Although the Social G20 is an attempt to salvage the legacy of thirteen years of Workers’ Party (PT) governments, some historic flags have been absent. The changes experienced by the world have modified certain debates. The union centers included in their proposals a universal basic income and measures against job insecurity caused by digital platforms like Uber. Technological sovereignty, the historic flag of the Lula governments, has disappeared from both the G20 and the social G20. During the Cria Río event, the world of influencers replaced the historical debate over the use of free software and licenses such as Creative Commons. “We opted for collaborative participation, to give voice to a network of collaborators already operational in the territories. Free technologies should be included in future meetings”, Marcelo Branco, historical activist of the free software and one of the articulators of the coordination of social communication of the G20.
In counterpoint, key people in the fight against fake news They closed the Cria Río with the G20 talks panel Fight against disinformationeither. After three days of workshops on algorithms, TikTok filters and keys to monetizing Instagram accounts, Felipe Neto highlighted the importance of fighting hate speech, Humberto Ribeiro (founder of Sleeping Giants Brazil) and shared how the organization fights against companies whose advertising finances the extreme right. and Filipino activist Mitzi Jonelle took on climate denialism.
Brazil’s big technological bet for the G20 concerns artificial intelligence. The São Luiz declaration, prepared in meetings held throughout the year, launches recommendations for artificial intelligence without algorithmic racism, digital inequalities and violation of human rights. Aisha Sayuri da Rocha, representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), assured that artificial intelligence technologies that do not respect human rights must be banned.
Notice
Despite the efforts of the Brazilian government, not all civil society organizations participated in the G20 Social. The Brazilian Press Association hosted the Cúpula dos Povos, a counter-dome led by social and trade union movements that criticize the “law of silence” imposed by the government on participants of the Social G20. “At the Dome, the model of control of public expenditure which only benefits the financial market and the environmental contradiction of the Lula government, which tries to reconcile economic development with the discourse of preservation and energy transition, have been criticized,” says -he. eldiario.es André Lobão, from the Rio de Janeiro Oil Workers Union (Sindipetro).
While Lula received Antonio Guterres at the Copacabana fort, the Marcha dos Povos, organized by three hundred social organizations, sent a clear message on its main banners: “Lula, let’s break with Israel, against the genocide”, “No more G20 and the global genocides. .
