Lefebvre was deeply critical of the totalitarian statesocialism that came to exist in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China. Many of his peers, suchas Cornelius Castoriadis, Guy Debord, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, and Michel Foucault, wereall appalled by Stalinism, both in the Soviet Union and in the French Communist Party of the time.As a result, the work of all these thinkers is as much a reaction against the state and bureaucraticdomination as it is against capitalism. So it is important to be clear just what Lefebvre understoodsocialism to be. It is not at all a bureaucratic socialism in which the state is seized and dominated

Their mission statement acknowledges Lefebvre as an influence as well as the tradition ofhuman rights

The mostdeveloped example of this strategy is in the United States, where the national Right to the CityAlliance4brings together community-based organizations in an effort to achieve a wider scalarimpact on various urban problems. Member of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) work onissues such as gentrification, environmental justice, homelessness, cultural preservation, juvenilejustice, and the well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) youth.

oal is clearly to eventually establish these rights as formal legal protections guaranteed by the state.In addition to the Charter for Women’s Right to the City and the Montreal Charter, there are manysimilar initiatives working in this human rights vein. These include the Mexico City Charter for theRight to the City (Wigle & Zarate, 2010), the European Charter for Safeguarding Human Rights inthe City,1the World Charter of the Right to the City,2the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rightsin the City advanced by a group called United Cities and Local Governments,3

Equal accessfor women to the power and resources of government will result in important material gains forpeople who are currently discriminated against.

Sometimes the right to the city is advanced by the United Na-tions (UN) itself,

burgeoning

So Lefebvre sees a struggle for new rights and a new contract as initiating a “renewal of politicallife” that sets us on a path, moving toward a horizon, toward a possible world beyond the stateand beyond capitalism

The law thus means that the Brazilian state must recognize explicitly that urbanspace serves a complex social function in addition to its economic function. However, it does not seekto move beyond property rights; it merely seeks to balance the interests of property owners

The goal is to encourage urban policies that promote justice, sustainability, andinclusion in cities.