By Evo Morales Ayma – Aug 3, 2021
Evo Morales sets out the guiding principles of RUNASUR, a nascent alliance that will be launched for the plurinational integration of indigenous peoples, afro-descendant peoples, worker’s unions, territorial organizations, and social movements in Latin America and the Caribbean. RUNASUR, created by movements, aims to resolve the historical debt that the peoples are owed in the face of economic, social, cultural crises.
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The principles are as follows:
For a Plurinational America
Sisters, brothers, peoples of Abya Yala:
We are experiencing multiple crises in the world; it is time for unity, to build and to forge our Plurinational America and our identity with dignity. For this reason, from the South of the continent, we propose these principles that guide our path, our Qhapaq Ñan.
1.- Defend the self-determination of the people. Plurinational America fights against all forms of domination, against interference and racism, to consolidate the self-determination and identity of the peoples. The process of reconstruction and re-founding of the state is our proposal, where the priority is not capital or excessive consumption, but human beings and nature, where the government belongs to the people and for the people, a state without discrimination or classes.
2.- Strengthen democracy, human rights and collective rights. Plurinational America is the expression of plurality and recognizes all democracies that respond to the will and sovereign exercise of the people. We promote full respect for the individual rights of men and women who inhabit our vast territory, as well as the collective rights of indigenous peoples and afro-descendant peoples. We promote the dialogue between peoples, under the common principles that allow us to build an alliance to articulate joint processes that enhance our voices. We must make freedom of expression an act of emancipation so that the truths of the people can be expressed.
3.- Strengthen the integration between peoples. Plurinational America is the expression of the indigenous movements, the different social and worker sectors, with political-ideological clarity, principles and values that have been our instruments of resistance and struggle since the colonial period. The integration of our peoples is unity and solidarity as a bloc of struggle, defense and vindication of our historical rights. Our purpose is to strengthen integration of organizations to consolidate our unity as a movement that promotes the liberation of peoples in Latin America, the Caribbean, and in the world.
4.- Reaffirm our plurinationality, pluriculturalism and plurilingualism. Plurinational America is unity in diversity, it is the meeting of millenarian and contemporary identities. We are diverse peoples; the knowledge, ancestral wisdom and identity of our peoples are our wealth. Plurinational America recognizes ourselves as equal human beings, with the same rights and obligations.
5.- Consolidate the anti-Imperialist struggle. Plurinational America is the response of the peoples and social movements, against all forms of interventionism and interference. We reject the actions of imperialism and capitalism that impose economic sanctions, that impose coups, that promote fascism and racism that threaten the sovereignty of the people. Plurinational America defends natural resources, the redistribution of wealth and solidarity between peoples. We reject capitalism and consumerism as a failed system that causes inequality, death and destruction.
6.- Build peace through justice. Plurinational America promotes the right of peoples to peace, as well as cooperation and solidarity between states and regions of the world. We reject military interventions that use the pretext of seeking peace. Peace is built with more democracy and more development, with basic services, with education, health, housing, where wealth is redistributed in favor of equality.
7.- Promote ‘Buen Vivir’: Living Well. Plurinational America proposes the recovery of Sumaq Qamaña, Sumaq Kawsay, Ivi Marey as a form of coexistence, well-being and development, as opposed to living better as the few. Living Well seeks to achieve harmony between peoples and with Mother Earth, where we all exercise our rights and fulfill our obligations.
8.- Strengthen the defense of Mother Earth and her rights. Plurinational America promotes the rights of Mother Earth. Indigenous peoples always live in harmony with nature. The human being without nature cannot live, nature without human beings may perhaps live better.
9.- Recover our millenarian principles of life, accelerate decolonization and depatriarchalization. Plurinational America is the expression of the peoples that recovers, revalues and promotes the millenarian knowledge of our peoples, fights against all impositions inherited from the colonial era, promoting the processes of decolonization at the continental and intercontinental level, to guarantee our liberation. Plurinational America fights for de-patriarchalization to build fairer and more equitable societies, where women’s rights are fully recognized, greater equality between women and men also means greater development for our peoples.
10.- Develop a plural and social economic model. Plurinational America, promotes the fair distribution of wealth among peoples. Individual and collective property are part of the historical constructions of our societies, therefore, we must recognize and respect them. The ultimate goal of the economy should not be the accumulation of capital but the well-being and Living Well of the human being and Mother Earth.
For our identity, for our dignity, for the unity of our people,
¡JALLALLA AMERICA PLURINACIONAL!
Featured image: Bolivian leader and former president Evo Morales has proposed the guiding principles of the new Latin American integration organization RUNASUR. Photo: Kawsachun News
