The Rabat Roadmap: Activist resistance, militarism and the global economy
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Article summary
- The declaration and roadmap state that economics and climate change cannot be separated from politics, nor justice from liberation from militarism and extractivism.
- It holds international financial institutions, including the IMF and World Bank, accountable for their role in deepening economic and social crises.
In May of this year, feminist, economic justice and environmental activists gathered in Rabat, Morocco to formulate “The Rabat Declaration and Roadmap – A Collective Feminist Agenda for People and Planet”.
The event responded to the crisis of multilateralism in both international institutions and civil society spaces. Critical approaches have pointed out that the system has failed to confront the challenges of the polycrisis, and has been superseded by a new multilateralism of the Global South. Filipino academic and activist Walden Bello, has argued that today’s crisis is in reality a continuation of a political project that has involved a steady intensification of extractivism, militarism and border violence in the Global North, and human and environmental destruction in the Global South. In a recent article, Bello argued that the “hegemony of the North” represented by “the multilateral system it set up to dominate the Global South is breaking down”, paving the way for the formulation of “a radical counter-agenda”.
The Roadmap’s demands
Rooted in the experiences of activists from the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region, the roadmap connects the global economic system, rooted in a colonial international financial architecture, and the climate crisis and militarism – which has historically, and continues to, enable the extraction of profit from the Global South. The declaration states that “economics and climate change cannot be separated from politics, nor justice from liberation,” and places struggles in Palestine, Sudan, the Congo and Yemen “at the heart of the fight against colonialism and militarisation.”
It holds international financial institutions, including the IMF and World Bank, accountable for their role in deepening economic and social crises and demands “an end to/of austerity policies as a colonial tool that undermines basic services and disproportionately harms women and marginalised groups.”
“The Rabat Roadmap is a collective feminist call to dismantle the colonial economic order that fuels austerity, militarism, and climate destruction across our region and the Global South. From Palestine to Sudan to Yemen, our struggles are interconnected. The declaration asserts that liberation and justice cannot be separated, and that those who claim solidarity must confront the international financial system and militarised economies that perpetuate our crises,” said Shereen Talaat, of the MenaFem Movement for Economic, Development and Ecological Justice.
“This biannual convening is designed to elevate the voices of feminists from the SWANA region and to build solidarity from the South to the North. MENAFem joins movements across the South in insisting that another world is not only necessary but already being built from the ground up by women, workers, and communities resisting domination”, she added.
The Rabat Roadmap and its accompanying Declaration points out that the Global North must confront these systems in order to truly stand in solidarity with the Global South. It also extends an invitation to all progressive forces and free peoples to join this global movement to build a just, sustainable world free from domination and exploitation.
