Dear Red Pepper,

in reply to your article on the Tunis WSF, as a volunteer translator for the International Alliance of Inhabitants in Italy, one of the organisers of the WSF this March, I’m enclosing a draft translation of their current appeal for support.

As this is only a first draft, please check it with Cesare Ottolini, Coordinator of the International Alliance of Inhabitants, at iai_tr_man@habitants.org

in solidarity
George Wright
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Let’s develop the WIN process together in solidarity
to face up to more difficult challenges.

To all Inhabitants’ Organisations and Networks:

Dear friends,

At a time when social movements are facing very powerful adversaries in difficult conditions, the World Inhabitants’ Network (WIN) has been able to achieve its goal of consolidating a common space in Tunis, open to any campaigns organised by inhabitants and cities around the world.

Today, Inhabitants’ Organisations in many countries have begun to speak the same languages, and to meet and plan common initiatives, in solidarity with each other.

We’re happy because this is one of the aims we’ve struggled for. But obviously it’s not sufficient. Now we must face up responsibly to more diifficult challenges – for the good of the planet, for the good of nature, and for the good of human beings – especially to help to bring about a change in the neoliberal capitalist system’s obsolete model/ paradigm.

Therefore, it’s fundamentally important to guarantee the continuity of this space for the convergence of struggles, and to make our voices and our presence heard, starting with concrete shared initiatives by:

the organisers of World Zero Eviction Days;
the Right to Live ( from this October ?) ;
the Constitution of Unitary Promotion Committees at a local level;
reinforcing the International Evictions Tribunal at Geneva;
agreeing a common instrument such as the Unitary Pilot Committee, and its diffusion to present different cases;
shared elaboration of the Urban World Living Map, as an aid to launch our campaigns to help a thousand million people to find a home in the coming period.
support for the creation of the pan-African network of inhabitants;
help to kick-start a campaign to fulfil the social function of the earth, of our cities, and of food at a world level, defending our common goods in this way.

At the same time, whoever has participated in, and recognises the WIN process, has a right and a duty to analyse and evaluate the progress made by the convergence process so far, in order to put forward suggestions for improvements that could expand it and involve more people.

Therefore the International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI) would like to affectionately invite all organisations, networks and movements of inhabitants to lively up their forces at a local, regional, national, continental and global level.

We are also asking people to aim ahead on the basis of shared ideas, from a pragmatic point of view – beginning from the mass debates that took place at each event connected to WIN in Tunis, and in the declarations reporting these debates.

These include organisational guidelines setting out concrete mechanisms for coordinating policies, aimed at precise objectives, with a planning calendar to be jointly agreed on.