JUST ONE WEEK before the Sixtieth Anniversary of the United Nation’s founding, the CivWorld Project of the University of Maryland working with Collegium International in Paris held their Third Interdependence Day international meeting and celebration in the French Capital. Like the first in Philadelphia and the second in Rome , this gathering brought together civic and political leaders, artists, and intellectuals for a series of public colloquia, roundtables and a concert as well as an official Interdependence Day celebration, all focused on the realities and possibilities of interdependence in our troubled world. Over one hundred participants, including artists, academics, statesmen, NGO leaders and patrons took part in the entire weekend, and more than 500 members of the general public took part in each of the public events, which included:.

• AN INTERNATIONAL NGO ROUNDTABLE at the American University of Paris on Saturday afternoon, chaired by Bernard Kouchner (Doctors without Borders founder) and Lord Frank Judd, with thirty leaders of international NGOs from organizations like the Smithsonian and the New York Library of Performing Arts to Solidarity and the world wide Catholic organization Focolare; the roundtable, moderated by Sondra Myers, was followed by an opening dinner on the Seine on the Yacht Bretagne that, with the help of excellent burgundy and French canard, kept delegates engaged in lively interactions and debate until midnight;
  
  
• A GLOBAL ARTS ROUNDTABLE at the Opera Bastille on this year’s theme “The Arts and Culture and the Heart of Interdependence” chaired by former French cultural minister Jack Lang featuring all of the artists who participated in the concert immediately following. The roundtable was opened by former Presidential candidate and Congressman Dennis Kucinich (just married and accompanied by his wife Elizabeth), who framed his work on world peace in the context of world culture; and by legendary director Robert Wilson who rushed from rehearsals in Berlin to be with us and who used his own biography as a way into talking about the nature of art and interdependence. The roundtable was followed immediately by
  
  
• A 9/11 MEMORIAL CONCERT AT THE OPERA BASTILLE’s amphitheater, featuring Robert Wilson, tenor Martin Best, choreographer Leah Kreutzer, poets Sonia Sanchez and Katherine Mosby, pianists Stacey Bartsch, Sergei Driznin and the celebrated composer/pianist Michael Nyman as well as composers Augusta Read Thomas and Bernard Rands, rap artist J. Ivy and the singer (and his wife) Tarrey Torae, and French playwright Gabriella Maione; the concert drew a full house of spectators and truly put the arts at the heart of interdependence;
  
  
• A PRIVATE HOT-BUTTON-ISSUES PRESS EVENT with Nouvel Observateur magazine Founder and Editor Jean Daniel, and Liberation daily newspaper editor Serge July. Focusing on France , Europe and Interdependence in the context of US-French relations, the meeting opened with a personal statement from Jean Daniel, followed by powerful comments from Harry Belafonte, who had made a special trip to Paris despite his deep involvement in organizing a civic response to the Katrina tragedy in New Orleans . Belafonte called for greater inclusion of Africa and Latin America in global interaction and Interdependence Day events. A debate ensued involving President Milan Kucan of Slovenia, former Prime Minister Michel Rocard of France, Solidarity Founder Adam Michnik, former President Ruth Dreyfuss of Switzerland and many others which lasted an intense  three hours including a luncheon;
  
  
• OUR FORMAL INTERDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION at the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) hosted by Mayor Bertrand Delanoe (perhaps France’s leading political personality after President Chirac), and featuring many of our participants listed above along with keynote addresses by Economic Minister (and French Presidential Candidate) Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Harry Belafonte, and then brief but forceful remarks by former Dutch prime minister Andries van Agt, Palestinian Delegate to Europe Leila Shahid, Independent Sector President Diana Aviv, Russian editor Andrei Gratchev,  German scholar Claus Offe,Solidarity Founder Adam Michnik, Eez festival founder Faouzi Skali from Morocco, Israeli peace activist Eliyahu McLean,  and mbassador Stephan Hessel. The Ceremony, which included readings of letters from President Michail Gorbachev and Focolare President Chiara Lubich, culminated in the signing of the Declaration of Interdependence, the playing of John Duffy’s Interdependence Chorale (commissioned for the first Interdependence Day) and a concluding address by founder Benjamin Barber. An evening banquet brought the weekend to a close.

This weekend of events was closely followed and supported by a large group of engaged patrons who not only helped make the Paris events possible but who by their presence and participation gave it added vitality and meaning. This group agreed to put Interdependence Day planning on a more professional and permanent foundation and help plan for Interdependence Day IV, provisionally scheduled for Morocco next year, with the collaboration of Fez Global Music Festival founder Faouzi Skali. It will also work to integrate the ongoing development of a Civic Interdependence Curriculum for schools (two students and a teacher from the Brooklyn public high school Williamsburg participated in the Paris program!); the establishment of a CivWorld organization to organize, coordinate and fund the spread of Interdependence Day and its associated programs around the world.

For the long term, our long term CivWorld project aims to gather millions of signatures for the Declaration of Interdependence signed in Philadelphia, Rome and Paris by thousands of participants; to continue to develop our Civic Interdependence curriculum for use in schools in the United States and abroad; and to ‘grow’ Interdependence Day into a global celebration on the model of such days as “Earth Day” to generate global consciousness of interdependence and nurture a global citizenry as a foundation for new forms of transnational civic and political governance; and finally to establish a permanent global “vision” project with partners in the United States and around the world among which Demos in New York and the Collegium International in Paris are crucial.

Benjamin R. Barber:  September 18, 2005.

Past Interdependence Day Events

Interdependence Day 2004: ROME
CivWorld’s Second Annual Interdependence Day in Rome, Italy , September 12, 2004, was a great success. The event brought together several dynamic participants including Governor and former presidential candidate Howard Dean, the Italian Speaker of the House Pier Ferdinando Casini, former President of Slovenia Milan Kucan, former French Prime Minister and European Parliamentarian Michel Rocard, and legendary poet/educator/activist Sonia Sanchez.  Click here for more

Interdependence Day 2003: PHILADELPHIA
The first annual Interdependence Day featured distinguished international luminaries including Harry Belafonte, former Senator Gary Hart, Lord Frank Judd, former university president Yolanda Moses and Leoluca Orlando (former Mayor of Palermo) were among those present to officially declare their interdependence. Messages were also read from Vaclav Havel, Kofi Annan, and Chiara Lubich. Click here for more

Other Celebrations Around the World
Interdependence Day events have taken place not only in Rome, but also in Philadelphia, Budapest, Ghana, New Zealand, Hungary, and in a number of schools and colleges in the US . Click here for more