Translation of Poster:

What would a Livable World look like?

Gathering for a Livable World
Saintes - 27-30 October 2011-10-27 Salle Saintonge, 11 rue Chapsal

Personalities, writers, experts, witnesses, artists, citizens.

Films, lectures, workshops, plenaries, debates, musics

So as to write together the charter that we need, the Charter for a Livable World.

Open to the public.

 Information and registrations +33 (0)5 16 22 01 39

 http://mondevivable.over-blog.fr

 pourunmondevivable@gmail.com

Why this Gathering?

So as to build together a world free from everything that destroys or threatens it.

So as to coordinate the actions of civil society movements which are working in particular areas for the same humanist goal.

So as to enable every person who wishes, to specify the objectives they most want - objectives that should be given priority by the parties and candidates in the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2012.

Where and when?

Thursday evening 27th (Cinéma Gallia), Friday 28, Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October 2011 (Salles Saintonge, 11 Rue Fernand Chapsal) in SAINTES.

How?

By taking part in the Gathering, on 27-28-29-30 October.

Themes

1. Food, water, health; 2. Institutional and social Justice; 3. Public Services; 4. Energy, environment, alternatives to nuclearism; 5. Peace and disarmament; 6. Security, liberties, democracy, human rights; 7. Economy, employment, solidarity ; 8. Europe and international relations ; 9. Information, education.

The speakers

[16 = Charente, 17 = Charente-maritime]

 Jean Aubin, former farm worker, maths teacher, author of "Growth, the necessary impossible".
 Idrissa Badji, socio-cultural animator of the centre social de Crouin (16), who was one of the writer of the Migrants’ Charter at the World Social Forum in 2011 in Dakar.
 Eric Bastin, nuclear engineer.
 Benoit Biteau, vice-president of the Poitou-Charentes regional council, in charge of agriculture.
 Pascal Biteau, spokesman of the Farmers’ Confederation 17.
 Jean-Pierre Boucher, magistrate, member of the Human Rights League .
 Lilian Ceballos, ecologists, expert in soil toxicology.
 Marc Cendrier, association Robin des Toits.
 Karim Chevrel, association SSTOP 16.
 Daniel Chuillet, president of ATTAC 17.
 Dominique Cluzeau, treasurer of the Teachers’ League 17, in charge of culture and education.
 Bernard Coadou, doctor, activist.
 Vincent David, organic farmer, Farmers’ Confederation.
 Jean-Luc Guerbois, water technician, DE.
 Olivier Hahn, association Robins des Toits, electronics engineer, in charge of measuring.
 Thomas Johnson, film-maker.
 Dadou Kehl, president of the Poitou-Charentes Techers’ League.
 Francois Lemore, president of AWEL (listening to and supporting exiles).
 Jacques Maret, farmer, author of "Farm shipwreck, or how to see the future green".
 Jean-Marie Matagne, Ph.D, president of Action of Citizens for the total Dismantling of Nukes (ACDN).
 Thomas Matagne, "tracker" for "Adopt a Negotiator Project" at the climate negotiations in Tianjin, Cancun, and Copenhagen.
 Patrick Moquay, research teacher in the rural engineering school, mayor of St Pierre d’Oléron, president of Oleron’s CdC, president of SAGE in the Charentre basin.
 Sophie Morel, administrator of the Nuclear Phase-Out networ.k
 Jacques Pasquier, member of the Farmers’ Confederation.
 Jean-Francois Périgné, mussel farmer, member of the Farmers’ Confederation 17.
 Jean-Claude Pierre, founder of " Breton rivers and waterways" and the Coherences network.
 Denys Pinigre, documentary film-maker.
 Jean-Claude Quintalet, doctor of nuclear physics and molecular biology, former nuclear arms researcher, naval officer.
 Daniel Spoel, author, member of the Permanent Forum for Civil Society
 Stephane Trifiletti, agricultural teacher.

Artistes participants

 Ulysse Alix, singer;
 Jeff d’Argy, singer and story-teller;
 Les Bonar Padici, musicians;
 Patrice Boudeau, African music;
 Cyril Karenine, sculptor;
 Marie Tillard, painter.

More info in French:

http://mondevivable.over-blog.fr>http://mondevivable.over-blog.fr

Charter for a Livable World

Preamble

The Earth is our Home. Every human being must take care of her. Yet she is threatened with ruin. In her basement there are stocks of nuclear weapons inherited from the Cold War that could blow her up at any moment and wipe out her six billion inhabitants ten times over. Higher up there are some tenants waging war permanently, killing and massacring each other, and others threatening to do the same. The privileged few indulge in feasting and flaunt their luxurious lifestyles under the eyes of their starving neighbours. Some people waste water while others don’t even have enough to drink.

Crippling and lethal epidemics are spreading in a context of general indifference, sometimes being provoked by the negligence or greed of public health officials. Basic services to the people are sold off to private corporations.

Speculation ensures what a Nobel-Prize economist has called "the triumph of greed". The gap between rich and poor is becoming a chasm. A handful of predators with the slogan "All for us, nothing for others" can even cause the collapse of whole states.

The environment too is degrading. Landscapes become ugly, become arid, become concrete; wastes pile up and chemical pollution increases.
Invisible radioactive contamination, of civil and military origin, is making whole regions unlivable and increasing everywhere the risks of cancers, heart disease and deformed babies.

The genetic heritage of all life - human, animal and vegetable - is being attacked everywhere. Animals and treated as vile matter, and humans are too. Species keep disappearing, biodiversity is regressing or falling into the hands of cynical multinationals. Natural resources, raw materials, and fossil fuels are all being depleted.

The climate is deteriorating. In the last decades, the rise in average temperatures across the globe has provoked worrying phenomena, some insidious, some extreme: ice melting, sea-levels rising, floods, hurricanes, droughts and firesŠ The damage is huge, the victims are numerous, the future climate predictions are frightening. Migrations, erratic and tragic movements of population are developing, driven by necessity.

Thus the current crises are ecological, economic, financial, social, political, military, medical, demographic, cultural, humanitarian... The list of worries is long. And yet we are not necessarily doomed.

Politics and technology can offer solutions, provided they are subject to a humanist ethic that cares about freedoms, equity and solidarity.
It is still possible, if we act soon, to give our Home better foundations and a renovated structure, to make it a convivial dwelling for those who live in it and a welcoming one for future generations.

The Gathering for a Livable World, meeting in Saintes (France, Charente-Maritime) on 27- 30 October 2011, has given itself the goal of establishing a new charter - inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and other existing texts like the Earth Charter of 2002 - a Charter for a Livable World setting out the principles that should be basic to any political agenda that aims at the common good.

As from 1 November 2011, this Charter will be placed online for signing by our fellow-citizens, and (in France) by the candidates in the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2012. In addition, these candidates will be presented with a series of precise commitments that translate these principles into practical measures.

Citizens, readers, voters, it behoves each one of us to make our voice heard