Peace for Life Final Conference Statement

A Call to Solidarity and Action
FINAL CONFERENCE STATEMENT


Keeping the 2002 Manila Covenant alive, we, people of faith from 19 countries, mostly of the global South—Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Latin America, Africa—along with those from North America and Europe, come together in Davao City, Philippines, to inaugurate Peace for Life, a people’s forum and interfaith peace movement for life and justice.

Our meeting in Davao City presents itself in a moment of kairos, when events in our midst impel us to delve deep into the imperatives of our faith, when concern for the victims requires the necessity to act and take sides. It marks a critical step towards building people’s solidarity and mobilising faith-based resistance to the empire’s war on terror and destructive forces of corporate globalisation. We join together to call on people of all faiths and convictions to speak out and rise up against the violence, fear, and greed that drive empire.

By “empire” we mean the combined economic, military, political, and cultural domination by a powerful state, assisted by satellite states and aided by local elites of dominated countries, to advance its own interests on a global scale. U.S. dominance (US $400+ billion military spending per year and bases in over 150 countries) conjointly with transnational corporate power makes up the heart of today’s empire.

Like past empires, today’s empire has religious voices who claim war is God’s will; who demonise Muslims and other groups that oppose empire; who criminalise peacemakers; and who celebrate Pax Americana as the highest form of civilisation. We reject this misuse of faith; this is a sin against God and against our sisters and brothers. Like past empires, today’s empire will not last. We call on people of faith to repent from worshiping the false gods of empire and war.

Solidarity with and among Peoples of Mindanao
We heard testimonies from Moros and Lumads, women and children who survived bombings, who were detained and tortured by the military, youths who refused to be cowed to silence; they are speaking out against increasing militarisation and oppression. We met with communities displaced by military violence who desire to return home but cannot yet. We met with small-scale miners and their families left with no options but to eke out a living in the midst of major health and environmental hazards. Now they may lose it all with the transnational corporations from the North coming to mine ores.

We, the participants of this conference, in solidarity with the tri-peoples of Mindanao—Moro, Lumad and marginalised migrant settlers—stand against the forces of war and militarised globalisation. We stand with farmers whose communities are about to be flooded by a large dam project. We have become aware of the legitimacy of the Bangsamoro struggle for the right to self-determination.

We are gravely concerned about the affliction that we have heard and seen. They are the faces of the victims of the resurgence of a new colonisation by the forces of empire. Sustained U.S. war exercises and increased interference with the internal peace process heighten the menace they face, and renewed influx of aid and corporate investment deepen the exploitation of Mindanao’s patrimony and natural resources

We celebrated with the tri-peoples of Mindanao who danced and sang and drummed their struggles for peace and justice in Mindanao. We take strength from their determined resistance and stand in solidarity with them in saying no to corporate exploitation and no to the Philippine government’s policy of an all-out-war to impose corporate control over Mindanao peoples’ land and resources.

The story of the people of Mindanao is the same story for many other people of the non-industrial South, pushed to the peripheries where no opportunities exist, untouched by economic programs, and unbenefited by development aid.

Christian-Muslim Solidarity
The mighty have become more brazen, more arrogant in their exercise of power; the powerless and disenfranchised who cannot find any effective resistance to global hegemony and state terrorism have embraced the agents of privatised terror. Imperial occupation and subjugation is alive and well, bearing weapons of mass destruction and the modern-day evangelism on ‘democracy,’ ‘freedom,’ free market and the global economy.

We are people of various faiths—Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus—who celebrate our common humanity and the universality of our spiritual heritage; who recognise that solidarity among people of all religions and convictions is necessary if we are to frustrate the certainty of an all-powerful empire and its wars of occupation and plunder. We are Christians whose faith teaches us the spirituality of resistance against those who arrogate power and use the scriptures to divide people according to religious beliefs and cultural practices; we gather to reclaim the progressive tradition of the world ecumenical movement. We are Muslims who believe that Islam is a religion of tolerance, compassion and peace, and we disapprove of the terrorist acts committed by the militant fringe within the community. Together, Christians and Muslims, we take an unequivocal stand against the Empire.

Religious extremists/fundamentalists believe war is part of God’s will and they have been chosen to impose ‘God’s will.’ They exist on both sides of the current Christian–Muslim divide in the U.S. war on terror. One of the gravest threats to people’s security today is the merging of Christian religious extremism with the political, economic and military power of empire.

We call for an end to violence done in the name of religion and an end to intolerance. We call on people of all faiths and convictions to reject war; to reject fear-based, militarised national security; and to work for lasting peace grounded in justice.

Peace for Life: Our Common Vision and Principles
Peace for Life envisions a new world of peace with justice, that embraces equality and the fullness of life for all. It embodies peoples and communities, working in solidarity, who oppose the destructive forces of empire. As a movement for change, it derives its impetus from the global uprising for peace and the transformative force of faith. It is also a space for sharing cultural heritage, mutual support and reflection, and a site of on-going contestation and change. The shared stories of women and their discourse have sharpened our understanding of power and subjugation challenging us to forge diverse local and transnational coalitions. They have enriched our vision of peace based on radical egalitarianism, inclusivity and compassion. We strive for a new world nurtured by peoples upholding human dignity and human rights.

Peace for Life stands for
freedom from occupation by military forces in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, and anywhere; gender justice and women’s leadership in peacemaking at all levels; the protection of religious, racial, ethnic minorities and other marginalised communities from all forms of discrimination, persecution, and violence; respect and the celebration of God’s gift of diversity—each of our many cultures and religions contributes to the fullness of Peace for Life for all; economic systems and financial institutions that place people and the environment before profits and in which decisions are made by those most affected; food security for all; the rights and well-being of children who are most vulnerable to war and exploitation; respect and recognition of the aspirations and efforts of self-determining peoples.

We condemn and resist
the displacement of peoples from their lands and livelihoods by transnational corporations, large landowners and their use of military force; the plunder of earth’s resources and the exploitation of life forms by global corporations; threats against indigenous peoples and their traditional lands and life ways; the economic domination of capital that pushes wages and working conditions to lowest levels for the sake of profit; economic and political pressures through the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organisation over dependent and poor countries; all forms of commodification of people including sex trafficking of women and children.

We say no
to war and to the continued development and use of weapons of mass destruction; to pre-emptive strikes, policies of unilateralism and national security that impose military bases, military exercises, and increasingly repressive police and surveillance measures; to the violence of the armed against the unarmed, which devastates the lives of communities across the globe.

Our Common Call
We dare to live our hopes that a new world is not only possible but is already being built through people’s movements, through solidarity among people of the South and the people of differing faiths and convictions, and through our common struggles to realise for all humanity and all creation peace for justice and life.

We call for vigilance in unmasking the deceptive and ever-changing face of globalisation and the empire. We urge people of all faiths and convictions to work in solidarity with one another on the following urgent calls:

1.    an immediate end to U.S. domination and military occupation in Iraq;
2.    the permanent removal of U.S. troops, bases and military exercises from Mindanao and other parts of the world; and
3.    international solidarity for Mindanao (e.g., international fact-finding missions, an international people’s tribunal).

Peace for Life stands with a variety of networks, alliances, and movements where the poor, deprived and marginalised play a central leadership role. We draw strength in sharing one another’s grassroots stories and experiences to inspire, motivate, sustain and transform us in our struggle for just and lasting peace. We celebrate people’s victories, however small, as moments that foster an ethic and spirituality for overcoming empire.

Reference:

PEACE FOR LIFE SECRETARIAT
c/o Carmencita Karagdag
879 EDSA, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Tel: 09178428703, (632) 925-2008, 9288636
Telefax: (632) 9278043
E-mail: secretariat@peaceforlife.org