Act Together - Housing For All!

Two major world forums focused on urban issues – the U.N.-sponsored World Urban Forum (WUF) and a social-movement-sponsored Social Urban Forum (SUF) – took place in Rio de Janeiro in the last week of March, 2010. The forums were extremely different, almost existing in two different worlds, but they tolerated each other; the contrasts and similarities were striking. 

In its own words, the World Urban Forum 

…was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing problems facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies. 

It brings together government leaders, ministers, mayors, diplomats, members of national, regional and international associations of local governments, non-governmental and community organizations, professionals, academics, grassroots women’s organizations, youth and slum dwellers groups as partners working for better cities. The theme for Rio 2010, The Right to the City - Bridging the Urban Divide, is in harmony with U.N.-HABITAT’s flagship report, State of the World’s Cities 2010-2011. 

The theme sounds very socially-oriented indeed, and the report it references is a gold mine of data on urbanization around the world today. 

In its own words, the Social Urban Forum

took place in a nearby venue, with a similar time schedule and with a similar array of debates around urban issues, also focused on urban poverty and the environment. The SUF gathered social movements, networks and civil society organizations around the world to share their experiences and express their concerns on the collective construction of a different perspective of the city through dialogue, expression of diversity and the strengthening of social movements and organizations’ articulations around the globe. 

The WUF was, of course, much better funded, and claimed perhaps 13,000 attendees. At the WUF, present were Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president; Ana Tibaijuka, director of U.N.-HABITAT; Shaun Donovan, secretary, Housing and Urban Development (HUD); Ron Sims, deputy HUD secretary; Esther Brimmer, assistant secretary of state; Adolfo Carrion, director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs; and Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation. The language was overwhelmingly English, with simultaneous translation.  

At the SUF, at various larger meetings, over 1,000 may have been present. The call to it came from Social Movements and Organizations of Rio de Janeiro, including many favela-based groups, advocacy organizations and a significant number of African and other developing countries groups; many had booths at the giant warehouse space the SUF had rented. The language was overwhelmingly Portuguese; at major sessions, simultaneous translation was provided.  

At both events, the talk was extensively of poverty, inequality, the divide between rich and poor and measures to address those issues. Each forum was overtly tolerant of the other, and accepted the existence and legitimacy of the other, with disagreements civilized rather than confrontational.  

The contrasts between the ideological content of the two forums was sharp. To highlight some: 

• At one of the “Dialogues” at the WUF, David Harvey spoke of and traced the economic problems of poverty and inequality to capitalism and the operations of the market, suggesting that the market as practiced had failed and needed to be replaced. The moderator, Neil Pierce, a respected urban journalist from Washington, D.C., asked whether the market was, nevertheless, inescapable as a way of allocating resources and motivating economic activity. Harvey pointed out that, judging by its results, the market didn’t do a good job of it, and most people in fact found the motivation for their actions outside of the market. Pierce simply shook his head in disbelief. The desirability/inevitability of capitalism was a foundational belief at the WUF; not so at the SUF, where it was often called into question.

• Issues of poverty, homelessness, insecurity and disease were major topics at both forums. At the WUF, these were documented, measured, graphed and displayed in powerpoint slides, and the difficulties of measurement and the quality of indicators were often discussed. At the SUF, these issues were narrated as part of daily experience, and their ubiquity was simply assumed, with little interest in measurement or indicators. Even more striking, the discussion in both places was limited to the condition of the poor, rather than their relationship to the activities of the rich (perhaps a limitation of some progressive planning also). But, at the WUF, the poor were dealt with as the objects, the beneficiaries of the policies there debated; inequalities in the distribution of goods was often referred to, inequalities of power rarely. At the SUF, the poor and their movements were the subjects of concern, the actors whose ideas and struggles for increased power were the key issues to be addressed.

• The Right to the City as a slogan was in the heading of the call to the WUF, and the words were frequently used in the SUF as well. But the content was quite different. For most at the WUF, the Right to the City was at best a laundry list of goals to be achieved by better designed, managed and targeted policies. At the SUF, its content was much more radical—a demand for an alternative organization of the city, one in which not only the laundry-list items would be achieved, but the whole organization of the society gave priority to the well-being of all of its members. Bridging the Gap, in the call for the WUF, was there seen as moving the poor a little closer to those above them; in the SUF, it was rather eradicating the distinction between above and below.

• “Best practices” were a mantra at the WUF, barely mentioned at the SUF. Best practices, after all, result from a survey of what is now being done, of the existing practices of existing cities. The vision of the SUF is oriented to deal with immediate problems, with what exists today, but goes beyond these. Thus, utopias were a topic of discussion there, in the sense not of something impossible, but of something to be pursued, something necessary, something toward which the existing needed to be turned.

The relationship of mutual recognition between the two forums raises interesting questions of strategy for progressives concerned about the shortcomings of liberal approaches to problems of social justice. Sometimes confrontation and sharp criticism are appropriate; at other times, cooperation on immediate actions, even if with different long-term perspectives, is productive. On the last day of both forums, an informal committee of activists from Brazilian social movements presented a statement at the SUF which was explicit in the radicalism of its analysis and goals, and it was adopted at a well-attended general session at the SUF’s great rented space. The text can be found at http://www.choike.org/2009/eng/informes/7826.html, and it is well worth a close look. It concludes with the call for a further meeting of the SUF paralleling the next meeting of the WUF in two years. It will be interesting to see what happens to this forum of movements in the meantime; it is worthy of international support.

Peter Marcuse is a professor of urban planning emeritus in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. He spoke at both the World Urban Forum and the Social Urban Forum. For more information, see Marcuse’s chapter “Rights in Cities and the Right to the City?” in Ana Sugranyes and Charlotte Mathivet (eds.), 2010, Cities for All: Proposals and Experiences towards the Right to the City, also available at http://www.hic-net.org/content/Cities%20fol%20All-ENG.pdf.

¡Qué bueno que quieran sumarse a la expresión FSM 2010 que los movimientos y organizaciones urbanas proponen en contrapunto al FUM5!

Por si no lo saben, les cuento que el FUM es una gran feria institucional de las Naciones Unidas. En el caso del FUM5, UN-Habitat decidió hacerlo en Rio de Janeiro sobre el Derecho a la Ciudad (concepto a lo cual añadió una frase rara “bridging the urban gap”, que no quiere decir gran cosa, pero que amenaza colocar el derecho a la ciudad a la altura de las propuestas neoliberales que nos entornan).

No es casualidad que el FUM5 de Rio de Janeiro corresponda al Derecho a la Ciudad:

- es el resultado de más de 20 años de lucha de movimientos y organizaciones urbanas, especialmente en Brasil, que han logrado colocar este llamado al derecho colectivo de ciudades para tod@s en una carta mundial, en la constitución de países, en pactos ciudadanos con autoridades de ciudades.

- es una conquista y, como bien lo saben, queda tanto por que el Derecho a la Ciudad sea efectivo.

Debemos juntar más fuerzas para que:

- cesen los desalojos arbitrarios,

- los pobladores seamos respetados,

- las políticas respondan a compromisos sociales y no a los negocios de unos pocos que se realizan a cuesta de las mayorías,

- los megaproyectos, como ahora la copa de fútbol y los Juegos Olímpicos en Rio, dejen de seguir invirtiendo en los sectores ricos de las ciudades,

- las ciudades superen sus niveles de segregación,

- aseguremos el acceso de tod@s a la tierra y a los servicios,

- logremos pistas de desarrollo sustentable,

- y todos los demás desafíos que debemos identificar, formular y colocar en las agendas políticas de cada ciudad y cada país.

Les cuento que estamos empezando a organizar esta expresión del FSM 2010 en contrapunto al FUM.

 

Necesitamos vuestro apoyo y de muchos más. Para los detalles de las actividades fuera del FUM, contacten se con el FNRU (el Foro Nacional de Reforma Urbana, si no lo sabían) que forma parte del grupo local Rio para esta organización.

También hay desafíos internacionales: Debemos enlazar este expresión de Río con muchas más en el mundo. Ustedes que usan el sitio OpenFSM, ya deben conocer el espacio Ecosol. ¿Qué les parece si desarrollamos algo similar para el derecho a la ciudad? ¿Se apuntan? Avisen.

La crise financière actuelle met en évidence les limites du capitalisme et les effets nocifs des négligences en matière de dérégulation et de surconsommation. La crise financière, et ses multiples conséquences, constitue non seulement une des nombreuses menaces contre la vie dans la ville et dans les autres établissements humains, avec la spéculation immobilière, les mégaprojets urbains, l’agrobusiness et la privatisation des biens et services publics, mais elle multiplie également les formes d’exclusion sociale et les désastres de l’environnement. Parallèlement, ce modèle aggrave la fracture ville/campagne.

Les différents aspects des crises affectent la qualité de vie des citadin(e)s, et particulièrement celle des classes populaires, qui ne parviennent pas à obtenir le respect de leurs droits basiques à la terre, au logement, au travail, à l’espace public, à l’éducation et à la santé. Elles ne parviennent pas non plus à exercer une participation effective à la formulation des politiques. Les expulsions forcées, toujours plus fréquentes et de plus en plus massives, sont un indicateur évident de l’intensité de ces crises. Les conflits les plus importants se concentrent et sont particulièrement visibles dans les villes, de même que les opportunités de changement vers la mise en oeuvre du droit à la ville. Ce droit est porté par les aspirations à une autre ville possible, et par l’urgente nécessité de construire un nouveau paradigme, pour donner plus de visibilité à une proposition alternative aux prétentions trompeuses et prédominantes du néolibéralisme. Il est également nécessaire de favoriser la convergence des mouvements sociaux, par une vision partagée de l’habitat pour toutes et tous, des droits de l’homme, de la justice sociale et de la préservation de l’environnement.

Le Forum Social Mondial est un espace où il est possible d’identifier des compétences et des connexions oeuvrant pour la construction du droit à la ville, mais également de rassembler autour d’une cause commune les autres luttes, aussi indispensables et urgentes, comme celles des paysan(ne)s et des indigènes, ainsi que celles des sansterre. Ce Forum réunit déjà les expressions et manifestations de résistance et de propositions. Les protagonistes de ce défi sont les mouvements sociaux et d’autres acteurs engagés, universitaires,

professionnels et autorités locales. Ces organisations et ces individus originaires du monde entier sont ici représentés au FSM 2009 Amazonie. Les réseaux qui articulent ces groupes souscrivent à la proposition de convergence suivante:

· La promotion du droit à la ville, sans expulsions et pour la mise en Å“uvre de la réforme structurelle de l’ urbanisme, en accord avec l’objectif 6 du FSM.

· Un processus de démocratisation du Forum Urbain Mondial (FUM), qui se tiendra à Rio de Janeiro en 2010, afin que les mouvements sociaux et les autres acteurs puissent participer pleinement avec l’UNHabitat et le pays d’accueil à l’organisation de cet événement.

· Inclure le concept du droit à la ville, sans expulsions et vers une réforme structurelle de l’urbanisme, dans les préparatifs et l’élaboration du Forum Urbain Mondial.

· L’articulation des luttes urbaines lors du FSM 2010, qui poursuivra l’expérience du Forum 2008, avec un appel dans le monde entier et au même moment en provenance des forums locaux, nationaux et régionaux.

· L’encouragement au dialogue avec les mouvements paysans et indigènes, afin de préciser les exigences relatives à l’ensemble de nos droits communs à l’habitat, donc pour renforcer les expressions et manifestations de solidarité.

· La préparation d’un Forum Urbain Populaire, ou Forum des Populations et/ou l’Assemblée Mondiale des Habitants, autour du prochain FSM 2011.

A Belem, le premier février 2009, s’engagent à cette convergence :

Asociacion Latinoamericana Organizaciones de Promocion (ALOP)

Association Internationale des Techniciens, Experts et Chercheurs (AITEC)

Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)

Dignity International (DI)

Enda TiersMonde

Forum des Autorités Locales (FAL)

Foro Nacional de Reforma Urbana, Brasil (FNRU)

Habitat International Coalition (HIC)

Hábitat para la HumanidadLatinoamérica

y el Caribe (HPHLAC)

International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI))

Local Communities Organizations in Asia (LOCOA)

Poor People Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC)

Programa de Vivienda del Centro Cooperativo Sueco

Servicio Latinoamericano Vivienda Popular (SELVIP)

La crisis financiera actual evidencia los límites del capitalismo, los efectos de negligencias dañinas en la desregulación y en el alto consumismo. La crisis financiera y sus múltiples consecuencias es tan sólo una de las tantas amenazas a la vida en la ciudad y en asentamientos en todas partes, entre la especulación inmobiliaria, los megaproyectos urbanos, los negocios del agro y la privatización del bien y de los servicios públicos, así como multiplica las formas de exclusión social y de desastres ambientales. A la vez, este modelo intensifica la división campo/ciudad.

Las distintas fases de las crisis afectan a la calidad de vida de las y los ciudadanos, especialmente los sectores populares que no logran el cumplimiento de sus derechos básicos a la tierra, a la vivienda, al trabajo, al espacio público, a la educación y a la salud; tampoco logran una participación efectiva en la formulación de políticas. Un indicador evidente de la intensidad de estas crisis son los desalojos forzados, cada vez más frecuentes y de mayor impacto.

En las ciudades se concentran y se visibilizan los mayores conflictos y, a la vez, las mayores oportunidades de cambio hacia el derecho a la ciudad. Este derecho proviene de los deseos de otra ciudad posible, dentro de la necesidad urgente de construir un nuevo paradigma, haciendo más visible una propuesta alternativa a las pretensiones engañosas y predominantes del neoliberalismo. Es necesario también  facilitar la convergencia de los movimientos sociales, articulando una visión compartida del hábitat para todas y todos, los derechos humanos, la justicia social y la sostenibilidad del ambiente

El Foro Social Mundial es un espacio donde es posible identificar capacidades y enlaces hacia la construcción del derecho a la ciudad, así como para estrechar causa común con otras luchas tan indispensables y urgentes, como de los y las campesinas, de las y los indígenas, así como de las y los sin tierra. Este Foro ya reúne expresiones de resistencia y de propuestas. Los protagonistas de este desafío son los movimientos sociales y otros actores comprometidos, académicos, profesionales y gobiernos locales. Estas organizaciones e individuos provenientes de todo el mundo, están aquí representadas en el FSM 2009 Amazonia. Las redes articulando a estos grupos suscriben la siguiente propuesta de convergencia:

o    La promoción del derecho a la ciudad, sin desalojos y hacia la reforma urbana, coincidiendo con el objetivo 6 del FSM

o    Un proceso de democratización del FUM que se celebrará en Rio de Janeiro en 2010 para que los movimientos sociales y otros actores comprometidos puedan participar plenamente con UN-Hábitat y con el país anfitrión en la organización de este evento.

o    La inclusión del derecho a la ciudad, sin desalojos y hacia la reforma urbana, en la preparación y desarrollo del FUM.

o    La articulación de las luchas urbanas en el FSM 2010 que seguirá la experiencia del Foro 2008 con una convocatoria en todo el mundo, desde foros locales, nacionales y regionales en un mismo momento.

o    La facilitación de oportunidades de diálogo con los movimientos campesinos e indígenas, para precisar las exigencias de todos nuestros derechos comunes al hábitat y, por lo tanto, para reforzar las expresiones de solidaridad. 

o    La preparación de un Foro Urbano Popular, o Foro Poblacional, y/o Asamblea Mundial de Habitantes en torno al próximo FSM 2011.

En Belem, el primero de febrero de 2009, se comprometen con esta convergencia:

Asociación Latinoamericana Organizaciones de Promoción (ALOP)

            Association Internationale des Techniciens, Experts et Chercheurs (AITEC)

            Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)

            Dignity International (DI)

            Enda Tiers-Monde

            Forum Local Autorithies (FAL)

            Foro Nacional de Reforma Urbana, Brasil (FNRU)

            Habitat International Coalition (HIC)

            Hábitat para la Humanidad, América Latina (HpH)

            International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI)

            Local Communities Organizations in Asia (LOCOA)

            Poor People Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC)

            Programa de Vivienda del Centro Cooperativo Sueco

            Secretaría Latinoamericana para la Vivienda Popular (SELVIP)

The current financial crisis demonstrates the limits of capitalism, the hazards of malign neglect in its insufficient regulation and the rush to posses and consume more. The financial crisis, with its manifold consequences, is just one of many threats to life in cities and human settlements everywhere, distorted by land speculation, urban megaprojects, agrobusiness and the privatization of public goods and services, multiply forms of social exclusion and the environmental catastrophe. Meanwhile, this pattern usurps the production, development opportunities and very populations from the land such that intensifies the rural/urban divide.

The different phases of this crisis affect the livelihoods of all citizens, especially the working classes and the poor who cannot assert their basic rights to land, adequate housing, decent work, public space, education and health or effective participation in policy formulation. A clear indicator of this multiferious crisis is the increased frequency and widespread nature of forced evictions further victiming those same social groups.

In the cities, not only are these conflicts concentrated and highly visible, but so, too, are the opportunities for advancing the ”Right to the City”. The concept of this composite right emanates from the pursuit of another possible city, a new paradigm that creates an alternative to the false but  dominant neo-liberal pretenses and allows for the convergence of social movements articulating a common vision of a shared habitat of human rights, social justice and environmental sustainibility.

The World Social Forum is a space where it is possible to identify capacities and networks to promote the Right to the City and a unique opportunity particulary to form common cause with the indispensable and equally urgent struggles to the rights and livelihoods of women and men, peasants, landless and indigenous people.

This Forum already brings together forces of resistance and problem-solving. The protagonists of this new vision arise from social movements and committed activists, from academia, professionals and local governments. These organisations and individuals from around the world are present here in WSF 2009 Amazonia. The networks linking and interlacing these groups subscribe to the following points of convergence:

o    Promoting the Right to the City, without evictions and towards urban reform, coincident with WSF Objective 6;

o    Democratising the World Urban Forum (WUF) to be held in Rio de Janeiro during 2010 such that social movements and activists may participate fully and effectively with UN-Habitat and the hosts in the organisation, preparation and staging of this event;

o    Including the vision of the Right to the City without evictions and towards urban reform in the preparation and development of the WUF;

o    Articulating urban struggles in WSF 2010 to build on the 2008 experience of a global call for simultaneous local, national and regional fora;

o    Cultivating opportunities for outreach and enter strategic dialog with rural and indigenous movements, in order to refine claims to our common human rights habitat and form practical solidarity in doing so;

o    Preparing a Popular Urban Forum and/or a World Assembly of Inhabitants leading up to  WSF 2011.

In Belem, on 1 February 2009, committing to this convergence are:

            Asociacion Latinoamericana Organizaciones de Promocion (ALOP)

            Association Internationale des Techniciens, Experts et Chercheurs (AITEC)

            Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)

            Dignity International (DI)

            Enda Tiers-Monde                           

            Forum Local Autorithies (FAL)

            Foro Nacional de Reforma Urbana, Brasil (FNRU)

            Habitat International Coalition (HIC)

            Habitat para la Humanidad, Latin America (HpH)

            International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI)

            Local Communities Oorganizations in Asia (LOCOA)

            Poor People Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC)

            Programa de Vivienda del Centro Cooperativo Sueco

            Secretaría Latinoamericana para la Vivienda Popular (SELVIP)

welcome back to

Act Together - Housing for All!

Thematically, we are seeking activities that are covering the following issue areas:

Struggling against:
Evictions and any deprivation of housing and land rights
Financial speculation and the corruption
Negative effects of the privatization of land, housing, water and public services

We struggle for:
The inclusive city
The housing in dignity and in affordability
The security of tenure the sustainability of our environment

Geographically we are seeking activities in - Asia (especially Southeast), Latin America & Caribbean, North America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.