ARENA at the World Social Forum

A seminar on “ Reclaiming People’s Security, 50 years after banding” is being jointly organised by ARENA

Invited speakers: Suzuyo Takasato (APA Japan), Kinhide Mushakoji (ARENA/IMADR), Arjun Kumar Karki (ARENA/RRN-Nepal), Gigi Francisco (DAWN SEA), Amal Basha (Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights), Kamal Mitra Chenoy (APA), Alejandro Bendana (Jubilee South), Samir Amin (Third World Forum), Vinod Raina (ARENA/Jubilee South), Salim Vally (Jakarta Peace Consensus)

The Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA), Development Alternatives with Women for the New Era – Southeast Asia (DAWN SEA), Third World Forum, Pergerakan and the Asian Peace Alliance (APA)

In the aftermath of the tsunami, the year 2005 began with the biggest human tragedy ever known in Asia’s recent history. The tragedy only compounds the state of extreme insecurity which the world now finds itself in as a result of the ‘war on terror’, increased militarism and militarisation, and the imposition of neo-liberal policies and practices.

Today, fifty years after Third World states declared their alliance for peaceful co-existence in the face of the Cold War, in what has come to be know as the Bandung Conference, year 2005 should be known as the year of recalling the bandung vision of a more equitable world order and of forging an alliance to reclaim people’s security and Building a new future of peace. In the new context of war and globalisation, in which we are witness to the rise of militarism and increased militarisation of almost all aspects of life, the challenge to forge a stronger alliance of excluded and marginalized people of Asia, Africa and Latin America couldn’t be more timely and necessary.

In this seminar, we will

a) share and understand experiences of militarism and militarisation in various local and regional contexts;

b) attempt to draw lessons from the Bandung experience of building a counter hegemonic alliance and relate them to the new context of war, globalisation and Empire:

c) highlight new initiatives and experiences toward building a common framework of peaceful co-existance in which people’s security can rightfully be reclaimed.