G20 Social: Lula highlights 'discrepancy between market and street voices' and calls for 'more balanced work schedules'

At the closing ceremony of a forum parallel to the summit of heads of state, the Brazilian president received a document with demands from civil society At the closing ceremony of the G20 Social on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva emphasized that he will bring the demands presented by civil society to the discussions at the summit of heads of state starting Monday. He also advocated for the continuation of the "social forum" in the coming years. G20 in Rio: See how traffic and commerce will be during the mega-holiday in the capital Fun in Rio: 20 paired activities for the G20 holiday weekend in Rio de Janeiro Lula stated that the forum, an unprecedented initiative by the Brazilian presidency, aimed to ensure civil society "assumes the role of reinforcing that things truly happen for the people," adding that "economics and international politics are not the monopoly of specialists and bureaucrats." The president also called for discussions on "more balanced work schedules," a topic currently engaging Brazil's National Congress. — Governments need to break with the increasing discrepancy between market voices and street voices. The G20 must discuss a series of measures addressing the cost of living and promoting more balanced work schedules. (...) So that extremism does not lead to setbacks and threaten rights — Lula asserted. The final declaration of the G20 Social, presented to Lula on Saturday, was read by civil society representatives in the morning at Armazém 3, in Rio's Port Zone, one of the event venues. Among other points, the document advocated for the "progressive taxation of the super-rich," emphasized that democracy "is at risk when far-right forces promote misinformation," and called for a reform of the UN Security Council with increased participation from Global South countries. The push for reforming multilateral organizations and taxing the super-rich is part of Brazil's priority agenda and is included in the negotiations for the G20 Summit. The document also supported a "reform of global governance to ensure the end of armed conflicts" and efforts to "combat hunger, poverty, and inequality," with the "imperative adherence of all G20 countries to the initiative of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty." Combating hunger In his speech, Lula expressed hope that the G20 Social would not repeat the mistakes of the World Social Forum, first held in 2001 in Porto Alegre with the participation of Lula during his first presidential term. According to Lula, the forum "involved much discussion, but we went home without knowing what to do the next day." The Brazilian president stressed the need for governments and international organizations to allocate resources to combat hunger, contrasting this with recent military expenditures. Lula also argued that civil society mobilization is essential to advance goals such as "increasing the use of renewable energy and achieving carbon neutrality sooner." He reminded that Brazil will host the next Climate Conference (COP) in Belém (PA) next year and urged wealthy countries to contribute financially to forest preservation. — Now it's time for the Amazon to tell the world what we want. People need to know that beneath each tree canopy is a human being, an indigenous person, a rubber tapper, a fisherman. And to protect our forest, these people need to eat — Lula declared. South African absence The ceremony for the final declaration of the G20 Social was also attended by South Africa's Foreign Minister, Ronald Lamola. The country will host the next G20 summit of heads of state next year. Lamola stood in for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was expected at the G20 Social but could not attend due to "personal and political reasons in South Africa," according to Lula. In the presence of the South African representative, Lula expressed confidence that President Ramaphosa would hold the social forum in 2025, affirming he would attend the event. President Lula and Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karman at G20 Social Closing in Rio Daniel Ramalho/AFP In his remarks, South Africa's Foreign Minister praised the Brazilian initiative and indicated plans to hold a similar event to the G20 Social next year, emphasizing the importance of "involving children and teenagers" in the event. — South Africa wants to use its presidency (of the G20) to shape the future. When the world is so divided, we want to strengthen our commitments with engagement groups to have the 'People's G20.' The belief in ensuring civil society participation in the G20 network is crucial — said Lamola. Positions on the war in Gaza The international civil society representative was Yemeni Tawakkol Karman, a human rights activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In her speech, Karman addressed Lula as a "representative of all the people on the planet who are sacrificing and dreaming of equality and justice." She also thanked Lula, "on behalf of the Palestinian people and the Arab people," for condemning Israel's military actions in the armed conflict against Hamas, which erupted at the end of 2023. Karman referred to these actions as "a genocide occurring in Palestine (...) committed by Israel." The stance on the Gaza war was supported by Karman, who concluded her speech with chants of "Free Palestine." The translation of this text into english was carried out by Project Irineu, O GLOBO's initiative to develop artificial intelligence tools. Here is the link to the original report.