262/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!
meaning save that of giving capital and its thirst for immediate profits
control over all key decisions; and to smother culture in the quest for
a 'normal' way of life. The time is ripe for the millions of people and
tens of thousands of organisations in the struggle, to learn to live
together through a recognition of the complementarity and interde
pendence of their projects. To organise and promote the globalisation
of forces for the (re)building of our common future, to broadcast far
and wide a world view rooted in solidarity.
The time is ripe.
BOX 8 AN EXAMPLE OF CONVERGENCE: THE BELGIAN-
BASED COMMITTEE FOR THE CANCELLATION OF THE
THIRD WORLD DEBT
Impressed by the initiative taken by French activists to counter the
1989 G 7 summit, a number of people called on the French writer
Gilles Perrault- one of the spokespeople of the 'Enough is Enough'
movement - to explain the Bastille Appeal and the French
campaign for the immediate and unconditional cancellation of the
Third World debt. At the time, Belgian activists were very much in
the doldrums. Solidarity committees were stagnating; and trade
union mobilisation floundering, subsequent to a number of partial
defeats in various sectors. In such a climate, the February 1990
conference with Perrault was an undeniable success. It provided
an occasion to take stock of wide-ranging enthusiasm for work
around the debt question, however removed this question may
have seemed at first glance from the daily concerns of those
present.
The Belgian-based Committee for the Cancellation of the Third
World Debt (COCAD, or CADTM in French) has been pluralist from
the word go, not only in political outlook (socialist, Christian,
ecologist, revolutionary), but also in its composition (individuals,
trade union sections, NGOs, political parties, various associations).
This is definitely one of the reasons for COCAD's dynamism and
success.
COCAD's pluralist character has been the keystone for setting up
a unitary framework for every initiative, whether for contacting
and cooperating with other associations, for drawing up
statements and petitions, for putting together publications and
dossiers, or for organising public events.