THE Fight Inequality Alliance, along with activist leaders and representatives from 24 countries, gathered in Manila from September 4 to 7, 2024, to advocate for "a new economic system that serves everyone, not just the wealthy few."
“Across the world, people are suffering from the effects of inequality caused by historical and ongoing exploitation, from colonialism to neoliberalism,” said Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of the Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD).
“The challenges faced by the people of the Global South can only be addressed by breaking free from systems that benefit only the few and exploit the well-being of people and the welfare of our planet,” added Nacpil, one of the convenors during the "Fight for Alternatives Global Assembly" at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Manila.
In a statement to the media, the alliance accused global agencies such as the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of being “notorious for dysfunction, the implementation of anti-people policy frameworks, and collusion with multinational capital interests.”
“At the state level, much of the Global South is caught in a self-reinforcing cycle of inequality and repression, while the affluent, industrialized West continues to slip into far-right extremism, the prospect of nuclear war with Eastern rivals, social unrest, and economic turmoil,” the APMDD leader said.
To change the system, the groups proposed mobilizing and organizing against inequality through social movements, job creation, climate justice, people- and planet-centered economic models, civil liberties and rights, debt cancellation, food security, and the urgency of reasserting the role of young people in managing public affairs, among other actions.
“We need to expand and strengthen our movements of resistance and alternatives to compel governments to deliver on their responsibilities. We must end the rule of elites and corporations to eradicate poverty and inequality and achieve political, economic, gender, and climate justice," Nacpil said. (Ronald O. Reyes/SunStar Philippines)