We are the People’s Alternatives

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About Peoples’ Alternatives

Peoples’ Alternatives is a global collective effort to organise people across the world to build a different economic system for an equal future, to face the current crisis run by the greed of the rich and powerful. The current economic system works for the few and not the majority. The solutions to the crisis cannot and should not be dictated by the elites. The same elites who created the problem in the first place and benefit from the status quo. What is needed are solutions that come from people who are confronted by the challenges.The World Bank and IMF will meet in Marrakech, Morocco on African soil for the first time in over 50 years in October.They have failed to give the answers that people demand.

It’s time for a Peoples' Alternative.

peoples_alternatives_logo

Our Demands:

  1. Introducing higher taxes on the rich
  2. Funding public services such as education, health and water abundantly
  3. Cancelling sovereign debt
  4. Abolishing tax havens and tax dodging by corporations and the rich
  5. Putting the international institutions who uphold the current economic system to a People’s Tribunal.

How to Participate:

  1. Peoples’ Assemblies (14 - 21 August)

    What will we be doing?
    At the country level across the Peoples’ Alternatives we will convene Assemblies where members come together to highlight their inequality struggles, alternatives and demands on how inequalities should be addressed. In these Assemblies we will show the role of governments and IMF and World Bank collusion in pushing more and more people towards breaking point. The Peoples’ Assemblies will be a dynamic and inclusive space for people to raise their voices and share their demands. 

    These Assemblies will take place both physically and online to ensure wider participation and engagement. The Peoples’ Assemblies space will create wider awareness of the correlations between the IMF and World Bank and rising levels of inequalities. Additionally Assemblies will be a space for the Alliance nationally to collate demands and alternatives for the Peoples’ Tribunals taking place in September 2023. 

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  2. Peoples’ Caravans (28 August - 2 September)

    What will we be doing?
    The Peoples’ Caravans will build on and a continuation from the People's Assemblies. At this stage of the action we will be sharing more broadly the inequality struggles confronted by people in the country and how these struggles are of national importance. The Caravans will travel through various communities stopping at key landmarks, public spaces,  government offices/buildings and share their demands and alternatives with the wider public at large and government officials. 

    The Peoples’ Caravans will serve as a moving billboard, capturing public attention and  highlighting the urgency around the issue of inequality and the role of the IMF and World Bank. We will use the caravans to invite active and wider participation, people sharing their own experiences, personal stories and create a sense of community and solidarity.

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  3. Peoples’ Tribunals (23 September - 30 September)

    What will we be doing?
    The Peoples’ Tribunals will hold public hearings where selected individuals from the Assemblies and the Caravans share their testimonies on the impacts of inequality and the IMF and World Bank impacts in their contexts. The Tribunals will be open to the public and to the media for wider dissemination and awareness. 

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Communication Materials:

  1. Digital Materials
  2. Offline Materials

Directory

  1. National Groups:
  2. Regional Groups:

The Peoples’ Alternatives in Marrakech

Join our week of global action in October. 

FAQs

The cost of living and inequality are on the rise and austerity measures implemented by our governments are only pushing us to breaking point. The climate crisis is already here.

Meanwhile, governments and financial institutions continue to pursue a destructive neo-liberal economic model that has already failed us. They push for tax cuts for the rich and corporations, cutting public services, and prioritising money over people, but not money for the people.

Their short-sighted pursuit of an ever growing, unsustainable economy has brought us to a tipping point. It’s time for an alternative economy that serves the people, not the elites.

That’s where Peoples’ Alternatives come in. We are making heard the demands that come from the people on the frontlines of inequality, those who are most affected. It’s about promoting real solutions, from real people, that really work. If the elites won’t fix inequality, together we will.

There is increasing realisation by people across class, race and gender that inequality is being driven by the existing neoliberal economic model. In this context, our people powered organising from the grassroots up is more urgent than ever to advance alternatives to the current trajectory.

The current trajectory we are on works for the few and not the majority. The solutions to the crisis cannot and should not be dictated to by the elites, the same elites who created the problem in the first place. What is needed are solutions that come from real people who are confronted by the challenges.

 

The Fight Inequality Alliance is coordinating Peoples’ Alternatives alongside many other movements, activists, artists, academics, and groups across the world. People’s Alternatives is anopen space for the growing inequality movement. Any group or individual who shares our vision is welcome to join.

No! The meeting taking place in Marrakech, Morocco is only the beginning. The vast majority of the organising and mobilising efforts will take place in your country over the coming months.

No we are not. The Fight Inequality Alliance is made up of social movements, NGOs, trade unions, community groups, activists, and artists from around the world fighting the root causes of inequality. However, some political figures, political parties and others may agree with some or all of our proposals. Everybody now says that tackling inequality is a problem and uses some of the language of the movement - that includes the IMF,World Bank, governments signing up to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (especially SDG 10 on fighting inequality), wealthy individuals, the Pope ,and many others. Despite this rhetorical agreement, there is no consensus on the systemic change that is needed to fight inequality.

The heart of Peoples’ Alternatives is large scale physical mobilisations where people on the frontlines of inequality can share their stories as well as create solutions with others. We aim to physically mobilise in over 60 countries across Africa, Latin America, Asia as well as Europe and North America. There will also be action happening digitally throughout the year, as well as globally at the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings as one global focal point.

  1. Africa
    • Burkina Faso
    • Burundi
    • Cameroon
    • Chad
    • Democratic Republic of Congo
    • Eswatini
    • Gambia,
    • Ghana
    • Kenya
    • Liberia
    • Malawi
    • Morocco
    • Mozambique
    • Nigeria
    • Senegal
    • Sierra Leone
    • South  Africa
    • South Sudan
    • Tanzania
    • Togo
    • Tunisia
    • Uganda
    • Zambia
    • Zimbabwe
  2. Asia and Oceania

    • Australia
    • Bangladesh
    • Fiji
    • India
    • Indonesia
    • Nepal
    • New Zealand
    • Pakistan
    • Philippines
    • South Korea
    • Sri Lanka
    • Thailand
    • Vietnam

       

  3. Middle East

    • Palestine

  4. Latin America and the Caribbean

    • Barbados
    • Chile
    • Colombia
    • Costa Rica
    • Ecuador
    • Haiti
    • Mexico
    • Panama

       

  5. North America

    • Canada
    • United State of America
  6. Europe

    • Denmark
    • Finland
    • France
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Iceland
    • Ireland
    • Italy
    • Netherlands
    • Norway
    • Portugal
    • Spain
    • Sweden
    • Switzerland
    • UK

       

Join us! if your country is not on the list you can still be involved by organising action in your country as well as participating digitally - contact us if you need advice.

This all started at the same time as the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF in April 2023.

Since then many more groups have joined the initiative for Peoples’ Alternatives and it continues to grow.

We have been organising Peoples’ Caravans since May to June 2023. There have been sub-national Peoples’ Assemblies already from May to July 2023, and national Peoples’ Assemblies from August to September. There will be People’s Tribunals and other events around the globe and in Marrakech from the 9th to 10th of October 2023 .

Beyond October, we see this energy and momentum continuing into further national and global action in 2024 and beyond.

Through the year, mass actions across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Global North will take place. Debates will be held and solutions will be created amongst people in their millions in person, on social media and through media. Peoples’ Caravans will move across countries holding popular education sessions and local discussions. Peoples’ Assemblies will be held at sub-national and national levels. Stories and demands will be heard at Peoples’ Tribunals, where the current system, including the role of the World Bank and the IMF will be scrutinised.

If you want to be part of this, sign up or contact us, and we will send you all the information you need to know about where in your country these actions will take place, or to organise a meeting with you to set an action together.

If we don’t rise up together on a global scale, with coordinated efforts, and send powerful messages to the rich and the power holders, the injustice of inequality is not going to change.

Movements around the globe are creating debate in the public sphere that in decades past were not taken with serious consideration. This is our moment to make change. Now is the time to come together.

Now more than ever, movements across the globe are putting into the public debate things that during decades will not even be considered seriously. Change takes time, and justice is rarely given but won.

Supporting Organisations

African Mind Empowerment Foundation Akina Mama wa Africa All Nepal Peasants Federation Bottom Up Censodev Climate Justice Coalition Colectivo Atemaxaque Compañeros en Salud MÉXICO CUTS International Daughters of mumbi resource centre Debt Justice Dzuka Cholinga Youth Zambia East African Tax and Governance Network (EATGN) Econews Africa Epworth Residents Development Association Gendes Global Alliance For Tax Justice Global Justice Now Green Institute Kiambu County Disability Network Nelson Mandela Community Youth Oxfam Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum Poverty Reduction Forum Trust Red de Justicia Fiscal de América Latina y El Caribe Social Justice Centers Working Group Tana citizen forum Tariro Foundation of Zimbabwe Trust Tax Justice Network Africa TECHO Mexico Tribeless Youth Voces Mesoamericanas, Accion con Pueblos Migrantes A.C Wote Youth Youth Arise Zambia Youth Development Initiative Trust Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association Zimcodd Zivanai Community Empowerment Trust