Report on the Second Conference
of the Ecosocialist International Network
Belem do Para, Brazil, February 2, 2009
prepared by Michael Löwy,
drawing on notes by Cy Gonick, Hugo Blanco, and Gabriela Barbosa

On February 2, the day after the concluding session of the World Social Forum in Belem do Para, Brasil, an estimated 110 delegates turned up at the second meeting of the Ecosocialist International Network.

The first conference of the EIN, attracting 60 ecosocialists, was held in Paris in October 2007. That meeting, made up mainly of northern intellectuals, concluded that the second meeting needed to bring in ecosocialists of the south including indigenous peoples. That goal was fully accomplished at Belem : most of the participants were Latin Americans, mainly from Brasil, with a sizable group from Peru — including the veteran revolutionary Hugo Blanco and the liberationist priest Marco Arana — and one each from Africa and India.

The meeting took place thanks to the organizing efforts of the Brazilian Ecosocialist Network, who obtained the room and announced the initiative.

The Paris meeting of 2007 had decided that a new ecosocialist manifesto was needed (the first one, drafted by Joel Kovel and Michael Löwy, dated from 2001). This new document, written by Ian Angus, Danielle Follet, J.Kovel and M.Löwy, after consultation with dozens of comrades from the international network, was printed, thanks to the Brazilian network, in two languages, Portuguese and English. Signed by hundreds of people, mainly from Brazil, Greece, Turkey, the US and Canada, it was widely distributed during the World Social Forum, and can be consulted at the site of the network, ecosocialistnetwork.org.

The Belem conference, presided over by Gabriela Barbosa, a young comrade from the Brazilian network, started with the self presentation of the participants, and a short information on the international network, the Paris conference, and the Belem Declaration by Michael Löwy. Followed a general exchange on the meaning of ecosocialism.

Joel Kovel explained that if traditional socialism focused on more production and more work, ecosocialism is about the conversion of production and the reorganization of urban and rural life along ecocentric principles; only limits on accumulation will save the planet, he said, concluding that society will transcend capitalism only with ecosocialism, an historic idea with the potential to mobilize millions into action to meet the challenges of capitalist devastation and disastrous climate change.

Hugo Blanco recalled that the indigenous communities in Latin America had been struggling for 500 years for the same ideals as ecosocialism, namely collectivism and the respect for Mother Earth. He also noted that the first international conference against neo-liberalism was organized by the indigenous communities of Chiapas (the Zapatista movement) in 1994, paving the way for the World Social Forum. Several comrades, including Wahu Kaara, Ariel Salleh, Terisa Turner, Pedro Ivo Batista and Margarita Aguinaga contributed to the debate.

The following decisions were taken at the Belem Conference:

1. To participate in the international coordinating committee of the World Social Forum. The conference elected Pedro Ivo Batista (Brazil) as our representative, with two alternate delegates, Michael Löwy (France/Brazil) and Wahu Kaara (Kenya).

2. To write a shorter, more simple and direct, leaflet to be distributed at the Copenhagen meeting which is to negotiate an after-Kyoto treaty on climate change (December 2009).

3. To write a short and simple document to be distributed at the next Social Forum of the Americas, which will be also a Thematic Forum on the Indigenous Struggles, probably in Bolivia or Peru (January 2010).

4. To start reflection on a larger document, a pamphlet of 30 pages, explaining the meaning of ecosocialism.

A committee was elected to write these documents: Ian Angus (Canada), Marco Arana (Peru), Margarita Aguinaga (Ecuador), Gabriela Barbosa (Brazil), Pedro Ivo Batista (Brazil), Daniele Follet (France), Joel Kovel (US) , Michael Löwy (France/Brazil), Joaquim Nieto (Spain), Ariel Salleh (Australia), Terisa Turner (Canada), Gilney Viana (Brazil). Others, from existing local networks (Greece, Turkey) will be added.

The conference elected also a provisory coordinating committee composed of Ian Angus (Canada), Marco Arana (Peru), Margarita Aguinaga (Ecuador), Gabriela Barbosa (Brazil), Pedro Ivo Batista (Brazil), Hugo Blanco (Peru), Klaus Engert (Germany), Jane Ennis (UK), Sarah Farrow (UK), Daniele Follet (France), Vincent Gay (France), Wahu Kaara (Kenya , Joel Kovel (US) , Beatriz Leandro (Brasil), Michael Löwy (France/Brazil), Laura Maffei (Argentina), Joâo Alfredo Mello (Brazil),George Mitralias (Grecia), Jonathan Neale (UK), Tracy Nguyen (UK), Joaquim Nieto (Spain), Ariel Salleh (Australia), Terisa Turner (Canada), Gilney Viana (Brazil), Derek Wall (UK).

The committee will have, in addition to general organizing tasks, to decide the site for the next international ecosocialist meeting. Several possibilities were considered: Bolivia, at the next Social Forum; and Venezuela, where we could have the support of the Cultural Center “Miranda”.

The conference also called on its participants to help organizing local ecosocialist networks, following the examples of Brazil and Greece.