altermonde -- Another World is Possible!

altermonde.jp
3F Maruko Building, 1-20-6 Higashiueno, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0015, Japan
Tel: +81-3-3831-4993 Fax: +81-3-3834-2406

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altermonde

Another World is Possible!

No WTO

On 25th of September, we established an NGO called 'altermonde' to work mainly on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Tobin Tax in Japan.

The name 'altermonde' comes from an English word "Alternative" and a French word "altermondialiste" put together. This is to aim for another world in Japan.

The volume of transactions at the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market, which is the third largest in the world, is 198.9 billion dollars per day (as of April 2004). If 0.02 % of the Tobin Tax which became law in Belgium is imposed on it, the tax revenues from it would be 4.7 billion dollars per year, supposing 240 business days a year.

On the other hand, the amount of the budget for the ODA (Official Development Assistance) of the Japanese Government is about 7.4 billion dollars (the initial budget of the fiscal year 2004). If the Tobin Tax is introduced in Japan, we can get more than 4 billion dollars as a public property that belongs to the international community, and should be used to achieve MDGs including poverty eradication around the world.

It will be the review year of MDGs next year, and problems of poverty in the world as well as problems of the economic gap between North and South will be highlighted. In concert with this opportunity, Japanese movements on these issues are starting to increase greatly.

altermonde: What we take action for

September 25, 2004

Where we are: In protesting against economic globalization

The Cold War came to an end by the end of the 1980s, which allowed us to take a glimpse of "hope" in international society. Reality is, however, such that the globalization age has started where market fundamentalism prevails over every part of the world, and information technology (IT) -armed financial capital and huge multinational companies are dominating the world in almost every aspect. This irregular globalization widens gap between North and South, making millions of people poorer and more distressed. In northern countries, at the same time, social inequality widened and anxiety swelled over employment and food, reducing social security, declining the regional economy and agricultural / forestry industry, and eventually endangering the right of people to live.

Many a citizen has developed international movements in protest against such a situation all over the world, since the end of the 1990s, and people have come to call their movement "Another globalization movement". They have protested against WTO (World Trade Organization), a propeller of globalization, IMF (International Monetary Fund) and World Bank, and demanded the cancellation of debts. These movements helped us hold World Social Forum (WSF) in and after 2001. We were also able to see big protest campaigns against U. S. A. over Iraqi War all over the globe.

In order to develop [Another globalization movement] more, we have to accept ourselves as we are, recognizing that we are different from each other, and take action, networking us with groups and individuals engaged in such movements. ATTAC, which was established in 1998 in France, presents a model for our movement. (ATTAC: Association that seeks the national government to tax financial transactions to help citizens). What characterizes ATTAC is that they have created an alternative such as Tobin tax, and are endeavoring to realize the idea to cope with economic globalization.

What we aim at：Acting up to a ground design conceived for human dignity

"Another world" we have in our mind is the one where every of us is able to live a life with human dignity. We have to struggle against market fundamentalism governed globalization. It is necessary for us, therefore, to invent an alternative to each issue and incorporate alternatives to build a ground design for [Another wolrd]. We have to unite citizens and researchers with us to think and act together.

What we take action for and aim at tells us that we should respect each other in individual dignity and diversity and we follow democracy. By doing so, the process itself will bring us happiness, we believe, in the course of meeting the challenge.

The main contradictions in today's international society are expressed as poverty and inequality in southern countries, and an intolerably growing difference or divide between North and South. The United Nations has put up milenium development goals (MDGs) to halve the extremely poor layer by 2015. They are short, nonetheless, of funds very badly to achieve the goals. They have only put emphasis on their efforts to increase ODA (Official Development Assistance).

We propose that the Tobin tax, an international tax, should apply. Taxing huge international financial transactions will suppress speculative money, and tax revenues may be allocated to the fulfillment of MDGs. In solidarity with international campaigns seeking the realization of MDGs, we will try our best to apply the Tobin tax in Japan.

Also, we will try our best to monitor huge multinational enterprises which violate workers' human rights, destroy the environment and monopoly patents as to medicine and seed to the extent they threaten our life and food. In particular, we seek Japanese multinational companies to take their social responsibility because they are in violation of the international labor code.

Let's eliminate poverty and violence from the world and devote ourselves more to preserve the earth environment and ecology. Let's hand over a hopeful future to the next generation. That is the responsibility we are to take. ”It cannot be said in my personal view that hope originally exists or doesn't. Hope is a road on the earth. Originally, there is no road there. As more and more people walk on the earth, there will be eventually produced a road ther” (Lu Xun: 1881-1936).

altermonde (Japan)

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