And especially against women. Here we wish to pause, because under current conditions we may be discovering that the traditional modalities of engagement for social transformation must supplement and dynamised by way of the incorporation of the gender dimension. We refer not simply to the question of numeral equality, but to what women can contribute to the struggle in a qualitative fashion. In m opinion, women must increasingly go to the forefront if for no other reason that men have been those in the forefront of governance, and have botched the job in the course of a century. The second element that must be centrally injected into the contention is the environment.
Time is no longer on anyone's side.
The identification of the ethics and environmental survival has never been clearer, nor has the palpable unsustainability of the predominant mode of production and consumption, bent on ever expanding markets, profits and rampage of finite resources. From the standpoint of advancing toward full democracy and full human dignity on a global scale, the balance of forces is not positive. The popular movement, as a whole, has lost political and, for those that had no other option than the armed struggle, also military ground. The Soviet Union committed suicide and the social democratic movement in Europe is in frank retreat. Notwithstanding unprecedented new levels of wealth multiplication, real levels of development assistance are at the lowest level in 27 years.