Comrades, for the past three days…this hall has become the engine room for the hopes of the Global South. We did not gather here to be invited to ride on a train that others are driving.

For too long, the train of global development has raced past our stations …built on our resources, powered by our labour, yet leaving our people behind.

We came here to reclaim the engine, to change its direction, and to rebuild its tracks…..We will decide where it goes, who it carries, and how it serves our people.

We gathered here to build our own tracks…with our own path towards a different destination: towards climate justice, towards debt justice, towards economic sovereignty.

We leave this 2025 Global South Exchange with a crystal-clear mandate.

We have affirmed, in one powerful, united voice, that climate justice is inseparable from economic justice. We have declared that, we are not here to simply manage the environment; we are here to fundamentally and radically restructure the economies and power relations that brought us to this crisis…..We are here to assert a working-class agenda.

We are clear on who and what we are fighting….We have them clearly in our sight. The same colonial and economic systems that looted our minerals, our land, and our labour for centuries….are now returning, draped in a green flag.

They speak of “Just Transition,”but …they promote a green colonialism on the back of neo-liberalism, designed to trap us in new forms of dependency and enrich the few at the expense of the many.

They want to replace the old polluting elite with a new green elite, while our people remain excluded and impoverished, without access to affordable and accessible energy.

They want to privatize our sun, our wind, and our water.

They want to profit from our resources while offering us conditional loans that deepen our debt and undermine our right to develop…at our own pace, in our own way, for our own people.

To them, we say today: Our transition is not for sale!

Our vision, our non-negotiable demand…is for a wide and deep transition that is radical, South-led, and worker-driven.

The declaration we developed captures our collective vision, our demands, and our commitments to resist neoliberal climate agendas

and to advance a radically transformative Just Transition…rooted in solidarity, public ownership, and social justice.

It commits us to a programme going forward over the next year. It highlights the issues we must take to COP.

When we go to COP30 in Brazil, we will not go to plead..we will go to lead!

We will link arms with our comrades from the Global South and across the world. We will speak with one voice.

This Exchange marks a new phase of our struggle. We are moving from declarations to implementation.We are moving from advocacy to power.

As we leave here united, let us be firm in our resolve..to build our own tracks, to drive our own train, and to ensure that every stop along the way delivers justice, jobs, and dignity for our people.

The Global South will no longer be passengers of progress… We are the engineers of transformation!  The journey to justice cannot be outsourced…It must be driven by us, powered by us, and delivered for us.

So, comrades , as we return to our countries, our communities, and our movements,  let us carry this fire with us. Let us organise, mobilise, and humanise the struggle for justice.

From the factories of Johannesburg to the farms of Kerala,

from the favelas of Rio to the mines of Lusaka…the cry is one:

Justice! Equality! Dignity!

Let us speak as one, fight as one, and win as one…because our struggle is one,  and our victory will be shared by all.

Thank you to the Interpreters for the sterling work !!

Forward to worker unity

Forward to working class unity

Forward to working class solidarity