Join the WSFM delegates for a public concert at 7:00 PM at the Quezon City Hall. Performers include: Zoto Band, Dong Abay, Bagong Pilipinas, Radio Active Sago Project and many more artists.
We are more than 1,800 international and local delegates coming from over 50 countries worldwide, gathered as an assembly of social movements at the 5th World Social Forum on Migrations (WSFM) held on 26-30 November 2012 in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines.
More than half of the delegates are women; and many come from migrant, worker, peasant and other grassroots groups. We are joined by 6,000 more trade unionists from the NAGKAISA alliance in the Philippines and international federations, migrants and dependents from communities, youth, and students in public actions and cultural events during the 5th WSFM.
The 5th Forum is a milestone in our journey together as social movements. This year, our recommendations for a better world directly incorporate the inputs of participants from each of the four days of workshops. Daily plenaries allowed us to explore complex themes and led us to multi-faceted recommendations.
We achieved another milestone with the interlinking of the migrant and social movements in Asia and throughout the world―refugees, anti-trafficking, workers and trade unions, peasants, women’s rights, faith-based, environmental justice, indigenous peoples, domestic workers, progressive academics, trade and development, anti-racism and human rights advocates.
This convergence is necessary because by ourselves and separated, we cannot change the current economic model that exploits migrants. The participation from all regions of the world allowed us to see the global nature of migrant and labour class struggles and provided inputs for collective and strategic actions.
Crisis, critique and consequences of neoliberal globalization: the migration and labour question
1. Like never before we are facing a humanitarian crisis that threatens civilization. The current international scene is undergoing a profound multi-dimensional financial, overproduction, environmental and global social crisis.
2. This crisis is a consequence of a strategy of imperialist domination led by multinational corporations in search of low cost and flexible labour, as well as natural resources from the Global South.
We have seen climate change related phenomena with intensity never seen before, like Hurricane Sandy, in many parts of the world in the past year. We no longer have the luxury of time as incidents of increasingly severe storms, floods, droughts, disruption of water cycles and other similar events are becoming the “new normal” for many countries. It is also becoming apparent that climate change is instigating more forced migration, and will create more climate refugees. An estimated 200 million people could be displaced by climate change by 2050. In 2010 alone, it was estimated that more than 30 million people were forcibly displaced by environmental and weather-related disasters across Asia and this number will continue to rise. Climate change has also been wreaking havoc on crops and farmlands, worsening the already growing food crisis and pushing even more people into hunger.
And yet, despite the increasing devastation wreaked by climate change on farmlands, livelihoods, and homes, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations are moving backwards instead of moving closer to a global agreement that will stabilize and cut greenhouse gas emissions. The premise of the climate negotiations has always been based on the principle that developed countries need to live up to their historical responsibility and yet from Cancun to Durban to Qatar, negotiations have instead focused on how developed countries can escape their previous commitments. Now, with the current proposals on the table, not only are developed countries going to be able escape commitments by watering obligations down to voluntary pledges but they will also be able to create more carbon markets and loopholes in order to not take any action at all. Estimates from a study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have calculated that even without all the loopholes, these current pledges will lead to an increase in the temperature of up to 5 degrees centigrade.
Radio 1812 covers the 5th WSFM in Manila Philippines. Listen to the WSFM resource persons, members of the International Committee talk about the significance of the WSFM and the what it means to organize the forum in Asia. Please see the Radio 1812 website for the interviews: http://www.radio1812.net/article/voices-2012-wsfm-philippines
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The organizing of the program on 30 November is led by NAGKAISA (United), the biggest and the broadest labor coalition formed in the Philippines in more than 2 decades. Spanning more 40 trade unions and labor organizations with varying ideological perspectives, NAGKAISA ushers a new era in the Philippine labor movement which has been generally regarded as historically fragmented.
NAGKAISA vows to work towards restoring the right to full protection and the chance to live a decent and dignified life for all Filipino working men and women — whether formal or informal, private or public, here or abroad. It aims to fight contractualization and all other forms of precarious work and to rollback neoliberal policies that led to massive unemployment and perpetual increases in oil prices and the costs of food, electricity and other utilities and basic services such as education and health.

Delegates Join Hands to Discuss Migration and an Alternative World
Manila, Philippines – More than 1,000 participants from over 70 countries have gathered for the 5th World Social Forum on Migration (WSFM) on the campus of Miriam College in Quezon City. The forum brings together social movements, the migrants’ rights community, and civil society organizations to build solidarity for international action and advocacy on migrants’ rights, and to explore alternative global models to achieve a just society. This is the first time the event is taking place in Asia.
On the first day of the forum, delegates joined in a rally along Katipunan Avenue to celebrate the opening of the forum and affirm solidarity among the diverse groups that flew in from all over the world. The rally has been followed by two days of high-spirited discussions on a wide range of issues including freedom of movement, citizenship, social movement capacity building, and irregular migration. On the third day, delegates undertook field visits of regions close to Manila, where migration for work impacts the daily lives of almost every Filipino citizen.
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Reference: Joyce Sierra +63917-5221065 / Joyce Sierra:
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PHOTO/VIDEO OP: Parade of colors/March of international and local delegates along Katipunan Ave.
8 AM-9:00 AM
Sta. Maria de la Strada Church
OPENING CEREMONY
9:00 – 11:00am
Auditorium, Main Building Miriam College
Welcome Remarks: Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista
Keynote
Rep. Walden Bello
Chair, Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs
House of Representatives
MEDIA INTERVIEWS
11:00am – 1pm
Auditorium, Miriam College
Note: Media can interview Mayor Bautista and Rep. Bello after their talk. Other guests and speakers for media interview are as follows:
Charles Santiago (Member of Parliament, Malaysia)
Linda Machuca Moscoso (Member of Parliament, Equador )
Plenary Speakers:
A) Principles
• The WSFM is a globally-oriented space for democratic debate, reflection, the formulation of proposals for the exchange of experiences and the articulation of action plans among social movements, networks, non-governmental organizations, and other civil society organizations. These different stakeholders are opposed to neoliberal globalization which restricts the Rights to citizenship, Human Rights, the political, economic, social and cultural Rights of migrants, displaced populations, refugees and individuals without citizenship.
• The IC will take into account principles of diversity, regional and global equilibrium, gender and generational equity when it evaluates membership applications for the IC of the WSFM.
B) Criteria
Organizations applying for membership must:
• Be a regional network working on the migration issue (or issues clearly linked or related to it), and that share the principles of the World Social Forum.
• Be a migrant organization, or one that Works with or is closely linked to migrant populations (immigrants, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, displaced persons, etc).
• Be committed to acting upon the responsibilities and tasks which emanate from the International Committee in a constant and active way, involving different levels of action.
Presentation of resource persons can now be downloaded. Please check the link below to download the file
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