Manifesto Lisboa - English
October 15 2011 – Democracy takes the streets!
Non-partisan lay pacific protest
- For participatory democracy
- For transparency in political decisions
- For the end of an imposed precariousness / For the right to work with working rights
We, working people, precarious individuals, unemployed, replaceable or about to be
discarded, students, migrants, retired, «makeshift generations in a fix», frustrated with
our living conditions, take the street today, in Europe and the World, to express our
non-violent anger and protest against the present model of politic, social and
economic government, which oppresses us, which does not serve us, which does not
represent us.
Current government models are based on a fake democracy where decisions are taken
inside closed rooms of parliaments, ministerial offices and international agencies,
with no access or control by citizens, hostage to financial and economistic
orientations, with no social or environmental concerns, promoting inequalities,
misery, poverty, global and gradual loss of human rights. This is not democracy!
We want a participatory democracy, where people will have a say and participate
effectively in decision-making processes. We want a democracy where public posts
shall be held by righteous citizens, in defense of our welfare and well-being.
We want a democracy with no exceptions to protect the rich.
We want a gradual and transparent fiscal system, where wealth shall be equally
shared and health care uncut and provided to all. We want a democracy to which
all will contribute fairly and impartially, and where all citizens shall be granted their
rights and duties.
We want a democracy where those who abuse their power or perpetrate financial
crimes shall be accountable, through independent courts in a debureacratized judicial
system. We want a democracy where structural politics will be adopted with the
understanding and active participation of the people, according to their desires. We do
not take this crisis as inevitable. We demand to know how this recession got to us,
whom and why we owe, and what are the clauses impending our debt.
People are not disposable, and cannot have their lives depending on stock market
speculation or financial interests that reduce them to the condition of commodities.
The constitutional principles conquered on the Revolution of the 25th of April 1974
and consecrated throughout the democratic world, stating that the economy must be
subordinate to the general interest of society is being overwhelmingly perverted by
the imposition of measures such as those of the troika programme, that lead to the loss
of labor rights, the destruction of our health care system, of public schools and culture
on the basis of strictly economistic theories.
Natural resources such as water, and other strategic sectors such as electricity, are
public goods that cannot be privatized. A democracy abandons its future when work,
education, health, housing, culture and welfare are seen as a privilege for a few or are
simply privatized with no benefit whatsoever for the people.
The quality of a democracy is measured by how it treats its people. It does not have to
be like this. In Portugal and all over the World, on the 15th of October we say enough
is enough!
Democracy takes the streets. Take a walk with democracy.
15h00 Protest
Gathering at Marquês de Pombal
19h00 Popular Assembly
São Bento - before Parliament
0h00 Night Vigil
