International multilateralism and social inclusion. World peace, environmental protection and an empowered civil society. At the doors of the meeting of the G20 heads of state that begins on Monday, Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, made a fiery speech at the closing of the G20 Social, the leadership of civil society enabled for the first time in history of the G20. “The G20 has to happen every day, because there are 733 million inhabitants suffering from hunger. In recent years, the world spent two trillion and 400 billion dollars on weapons and spent almost nothing on food for people who need it,” stated the Brazilian president. Lula, received as a true rock star in the G20 Social, he was especially critical against economic neoliberalism: “To reach the heart of the common citizen, governments need to break the growing dissonance between the voice of the markets and the voice of the streets. Neoliberalism aggravated the economic and political inequality that plagues democracies today.” To overcome the impasseLula believes that the G20 urgently needs to discuss a series of measures to “reduce the cost of living and promote more balanced work days.”
Two hours after meeting with Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, at the Copacabana military fort, Lula stressed 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 countries participating, today it has 196 countries. Where is the African continent in the Security Council? Where is the Latin American continent? Where is India? The Yemeni Tawakkol Karman, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2011, who thanked Lula for his defense of the Palestinian people against “Israel’s genocide,” stated a few minutes before that only by reforming international institutions will global peace be achieved.
For his part, Ronald Ramola, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of South Africa, committed to replicating 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 historical South African with Israel’s occupation of Palestine: “We will continue to demand the accountability of the Israeli government. We are with the people of Palestine. We are going to liberate Palestine. Free Palestine,” Ramola concluded. “The G20 needs to commit to peace,” said President Lula.
The Brazilian president also made an allusion to the climate emergency. Citing various recent environmental catastrophes, including the DANA in Valencia, Lula urged 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 proposals from civil society worked on throughout the year and discussed in the last three days.
G20, side B
Brazil has placed a lot of emphasis on the parallel programming of the G20. Since last Wednesday, the warehouses of the port of Rio de Janeiro, recovered for the city for the 2016 Olympics, have been a hive of activities. Relying on the heritage of the World Social Forum (reference of civil society participation in the 2000s) and the participatory legacy of the PT governments (2003-2016), the G20 Social has been one of the Brazilian bets to revolutionize the vertical dynamics of the G20. “Never again will these snobs hold the G20 without the participation of the people,” said Márcio Macêdo, minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, at the opening of the Social G20.
Apart from the meetings, debates, plenary sessions and hundreds of self-managed activities, the Píer Mauá in the port of Rio de Janeiro has hosted the Urban 20 (U20, meeting of the main mayors of the world), the Cria Rede (a space with talks and workshops digital influencers) and the musical festival Aliança Global Against Hunger and Poverty, coordinated by Janja da Silva, first lady of Brazil. The B side of the G20, apart from serving for civil society debate, is a strategic springboard for the Brazilian government. “There could not be an effective discussion on these issues if there were no dialogue with society,” said Mauro Vieira, Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Margareth Menezes, Minister of Culture of Brazil, maintains that the Social G20 wants to leave for “the world a global governance proposal that recognizes the participation of civil society.”
From food sovereignty to AI
Tiago Ribeiro, from the Coleta de Sementes cooperative, of the Movimiento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), has sold native 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 exploitation systems that combine protection of native forests and agriculture. A few meters away, inside one of the sheds, a panel on food safety It highlighted the importance of solidarity kitchens, popular restaurants, food baskets and family farming. Initiatives that Brazil will incorporate into the Global Alliance against Hunger, Brazil’s star initiative for the G20, which will be launched next Monday and already has the participation of 41 countries.
The G20 Social is an extension of the Lula brand. In it, not only its historical flags reverberate, but also the echoes of more glorious times past. Inside the World Forum of Favelas warehouse, intended for dialogues from the global peripheries, the legendary soccer player Cafú, on Friday presented Angela, a black teenager in the audience, with the 2002 FIFA soccer world cup, the last one won by Brazil. “The favela is a world power,” said Cafú, captain of the 2002 team. The importance of the U20 local governments also dialogues with the progressive municipalist wave that preceded Lula’s arrival to power in 2002. “Do what make Trump’s national government, we will work locally against climate change,” Neicy Shutley, from the Los Angeles City Council, stated on Thursday in a U20 panel.
Although the Social G20 is an attempt to rescue the legacy of the thirteen years of Workers’ Party (PT) governments, some historical flags have been absent. The changes suffered by the world have modified some debates. The union centers They have included in their proposals universal basic income and measures against job insecurity caused by digital platforms such as Uber. Technological sovereignty, the historical flag of the Lula governments, has disappeared from both the G20 and the Social G20. At the Cria Río event, the world of influencers has replaced the historical debate on the use of free software and licenses such as Creative Commons. “We have opted for collaborative participation, for giving voice to a network of collaborators who already have an operation 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 G20 Social communication coordination.
As a 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 reinforced 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 far right and the Filipino activist Mitzi Jonelle attacked climate denialism.
Brazil’s big technological bet for the G20 has to do with Artificial Intelligence. The declaration of São Luizprepared in meetings held throughout the year, launches recommendations for an Artificial Intelligence without algorithmic racism, digital inequality and violation of human rights. Aisha Sayuri da Rocha, representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), assured that artificial intelligence technologies that do not respect human rights must be banned.
Reviews
Despite the efforts of the Brazilian government, not all civil society organizations participated in G20 Social. The Brazilian Press Association hosted the Cúpula dos Povos, a counter-dome led by social and union movements that criticize the “law of silence” imposed by the government on the participants in the Social G20. “At the Dome, the public spending control model that only benefits the financial market and the environmental contradiction of the Lula government, which tries to reconcile economic development with the discourse of energy preservation and transition, have been criticized,” he tells 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, break with Israel, against genocide”, “Out with G20 and global genocides”. ”.
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