INTRODUCTION TO THE NETWORK
Over the past decade, a number of the conscious and patriotic citizens of our Caribbean civilization have been mulling over the need to re-establish a progressive anti-Imperialist regional organization with international links.
And in recent times, the Cuban Ambassador to Barbados-- His Excellency Francisco Fernandez Pena-- has brought to our attention the existence of the multi-territory, anti-Imperialist "Network In Defense Of Humanity".
The notion has therefore emerged of combining these two ideas.
A number of the sons and daughters of the Caribbean have therefore decided to establish a Caribbean Chapter of the "Network of Intellectuals and Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity".
In the first instance, the organization will be an internet connected Network of activism, scholarship and cultural activity consisting of representatives from the countries of the Caribbean Community, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Curacao. It will operate an internet based blog where it will engage in analysis and public education. In addition, members will be periodically galvanized to collectively engage in specific Campaigns.
The "Network of Intellectuals and Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity" is a Movement of action and thought that is committed to resisting all forms of human domination by creating networks of information and cultural arts actions, and by constructing mechanisms of trans-national coordination and mobilization that are designed to link artists, intellectuals and activists with social forums and peoples’ struggles . The Network is also committed to ensuring the continuity of such efforts and their articulation into a powerful international Movement in defense of humanity.
The roots of the concept of such a Network are to be found in the June 1935 Congress of Writers that was held in Paris, France, and out of which emerged the International Alliance of Writers for Defense of Culture.
However, the more recent constitutive assembly that produced the unique "Network" that our proposed Caribbean Chapter would be a component of, was the World Meeting of Intellectuals and Artists In Defense of Humanity that took place in Caracas, Venezuela in December 2004 and that brought together intellectuals and artists of some 52 countries.
From that founding conference has emerged a veritable "Network of Networks" in which members are connected to each other through national chapters in more than 30 countries, with the general coordination of the over-all "Network of Networks" being based in Venezuela under the direction of Professor and historian, Carmen Bohorquez - the 2012 winner of Venezuela’s national Prize of Culture.
From the very outset, the Caribbean was represented in the Network in Defense of Humanity by the Cuban National Chapter. However, with the establishment of our Pan- Caribbean chapter ( potentially embracing some 18 Caribbean nations) our Caribbean region will substantially enhance its presence within this world-wide Movement for justice, freedom, peace and development.
The objectives of our Chapter of the Network are as follows :-
(1) to support people’s struggles throughout the world by demonstrating solidarity with processes of social change;
(2) to sustain and promote cultural diversity and cultural rights, and to advocate in defense of the environment;
(3) to oppose imperialism and its neo-liberal policies such as its projects of socio-cultural uniformity and its monopolization of knowledge that should instead be put to the service of all humanity;
(4) to combat and denounce all imperial aggressions, including terrorism and its causes;
(5) to combat hunger and misery and problems of education, as well as to confront the health crises that the majority of human beings are suffering from;
(5) to foster the exercise of autonomy by indigenous peoples and people of African and Asian descent, and to promote the fundamental rights of peasant and workers’ organizations, in order to establish and enforce, from the grass-roots level, the autonomous powers of communities and people’s resistance Movements;
(6) to provide legal assistance and historical data and analysis for the prosecution of cases of genocide, ethnocide, and crimes against humanity;
(7) to develop actions and alternative thinking in keeping with the progressive world-view that : "A better world is possible !";
(8) to de-colonize and politically, and economically unify, integrate, and democratize our Caribbean region; and
(9) to transform the Caribbean into a Zone of Peace, and to maintain it in such a state of Peace.
-David Commissiong is the interim Chairperson of the Caribbean Chapter of The International Network in Defense of Humanity.-
