-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- Dave Hartley http://www.asheville-computer.com/dave FWD: ----------------- Subject: Seattle II Date:Fri, 31 Mar 2000 17:24:02 -0500 From:Richardson_D <[EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To:pen-l <[EMAIL PROTECTED] Hi -- We are writing to ask for your ONE-TIME SUPPORT FOR A MAJOR DEMONSTRATION ON APRIL 16 IN WASHINGTON, DC, against the IMF and World Bank. If you contribute, your name and address will not become part of a "list." We will not share your name and address with other organizations. PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS. David Schlein, National Vice President American Federation of Government Employees Robert L. Clark, Secretary-Treasurer United Electrical, Machine, and Radio Workers The Alliance for Global Justice is acting as the fiscal sponsor for the April 16th Coalition. Please donate on-line at http://www.a16.org/form_support.html, Or by check, made out to Mobilization for Global Justice/AGJ, 1247 E Street SE, Washington DC 20003. THE MOVEMENT FOR GLOBAL ECONOMIC JUSTICE HAD ITS U.S. COMING-OUT PARTY IN SEATTLE. The movement that came to light with the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings - the movement all of us have been building - will have its next big opportunity to demand that people be put ahead of profits in Washington, DC, the home of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, the rule-makers for the global economy. WTO head Mike Moore is expected to join World Bank President James Wolfensohn, new IMF head Horst Koehler, and the Finance Ministers and heads of Central Banks who make up the governing body of the IMF on Sunday, April 16. This is one of the routine high-level meetings dedicated to making the world safer and more profitable for corporations - and more dangerous for the planet and its people. The formal joint meetings continue April 17. ORGANIZATIONS FROM AROUND THE U.S., AND AROUND THE WORLD, ARE MAKING PLANS TO COME TO WASHINGTON to tell the economic decision-makers that we are not going to close our eyes to their actions. Please see the list at http://www.a16.org. We know that the injustices of the global economy were not born with the WTO, and are hardly the sole responsibility of the WTO. The IMF and World Bank, more than any other institutions, are the coercive powers which have shaped the present global economy, and which gave birth to the WTO in the first place. The reason that the Seattle mobilization was so effective was that labor stood with the direct action folks, if not alongside, at least near by. The result was a story that could not be relegated to the back pages or the cutting room floor. The purpose of April 16 is to re-unite this coalition. Therefore the AFL-CIO together with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), United Electrical Workers (UE), United Steel Workers (USWA) and the central labor councils of Washington DC, San Francisco, and San Jose, are sponsoring a legal Rally and March for Global Justice. A week of activities is being planned, including *Sunday April 9, Jubilee 2000/USA mobilization for debt cancellation *Wednesday April 12, AFL-CIO lobbying day against China most favored nation *Saturday April 15, Latin America/Caribbean Solidarity Conference *Sunday April 16, Two Main Events: Legal Rally and March for Global Justice Direct Action for Global Justice The schedule for the direct action will not be final until April 15. The Legal Demo will assemble on The Ellipse, between the White House and the Washington Monument, at 11:00 AM on April 16, 2000. The tentative schedule is *11:00 Music and cultural events *12:00 Speakers, with a song or two *1:30 March *3:30 Return to Ellipse, more talk, a few songs. *5:00 Disperse to numerous receptions and SpokesCouncil *Tuesday April 18 11:00 - 1:00 Rally on the Ellipse Invited speakers include *Members of Congress Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney, *AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, *AFGE President Bobby Harnage, *UE Secretary-Treasurer Robert L. Clark, *Michael Moore, *Amy Goodman, *DSA's Horace Small, TransAfrica's Randall Robinson, Philippines Freedom from Debt leader Matet, India's Vanetta Gupta, South Africa's Dennis Brutus, Kensington Welfare Rights' Cheri Honkala, and Public Citizen's Ralph Nader. Please donate on-line at http://www.a16.org/form_support.html. Many of the organizations that played leading roles in organizing the Seattle demonstrations -- Direct Action Network, the Ruckus Society, Global Exchange, Rainforest Action Network, and others -- are organizing for April 16 in Washington. Caravans are being planned from as far away as the West Coast and even from Winnipeg, Canada. Experienced activists from dozens of organizations have formed the Alliance for Global Justice coalition with 10 working groups (e.g., communications, logistics, outreach, labor, more being are added all the time) that have been meeting regularly and making concrete plans. WE WILL BE SHOWING THAT U.S. ACTIVISTS KNOW ABOUT THE IMPACT OF WORLD BANK AND IMF PROGRAMS and stand in solidarity to demand an end to the devastation they cause not only in the global South, but also here in America. Our partner organizations around the world have challenged these destructive policies in the streets for years. Time and again they have asked us what we in the U.S. are doing to help them. The strong showing made in Seattle on behalf of the world's victims of savage corporate globalization gave a new impetus to the movement for economic justice - both here and abroad. Please donate on-line at http://www.a16.org/form_support.html. The events in Seattle continue to reverberate through the corporate boardrooms and the halls of power. PRESIDENT CLINTON, speaking to the heads of the world's richest transnational corporations in Davos, Switzerland told them, "We cannot pretend that globalization is just about economics." The Washington Post in its coverage of Clinton's Davos speech opined: "Clinton's remarks seemed designed as a reminder that these fears - even expressed in unwelcome and sometimes violent ways, as they were in Seattle - have a legitimacy that deserves attention in the world's executive suites and government ministries." Of course the violence was almost entirely police violence, but the Washington Post and the New York Times are the keepers of "official reality," and in official reality it is always the protesters who are violent. It is vital that the rulers of the world's economic system understand clearly that Seattle was not a one-shot event and that now they can return to business as usual. They must understand as well that the WTO, in itself, is not the issue. The issue is the rules that promote profits over the needs of people and the environment. AFL-CIO PRESIDENT JOHN SWEENEY, also in Davos, told the corporate big-wigs, "Understand the message of Seattle ... It was a call for new global rules, democratically developed. Workers North and South marched together. And the many different voices made one clear statement: Fundamental reform is needed." On April 16 we will let them know that fundamental change does not mean renaming their programs or other public relations scams. Fundamental reform means rules that empower the people of the world to make the decisions about how they live their lives - not the transnational CEO's or their purchased political leaders. Sweeney also warned them, "If the global system continues to generate growing inequality, environmental destruction and a race to the bottom for working people, then it will generate an increasingly volatile reaction that will make Seattle look tame." Sweeney's prediction is actually a description of events going on right now. We are not much aware of them because they do not often get mentioned in our media. The Zapatista uprising in Mexico, the recent coup in Ecuador, the civil war in the Congo, the turmoil in Indonesia, and the threat of the U'Wa people to commit mass suicide, are all expressions of the social explosion that has arisen from the desperation caused by the policies of the World Bank, IMF, and their corporate directors. We are posting this message because WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT, BOTH MORAL AND MATERIAL. We need to know that you support this movement and these actions. And we need your financial contributions to make it all possible. We need to raise at least $50,000 between now and April 16. Publicity and outreach cost money. We need a stage and sound system, phones and office space. We need transportation subsidies for students and the disadvantaged. Many organizations are donating staff, copying, phones, postage, etc. to the effort, but it is not enough. We need your help. WE CANNOT LET THIS MEETING TAKE PLACE IN SECRET. Government officials paving the way for corporate profits - all the while claiming to work for development and poverty reduction - must be put on notice: The people power demonstrated in Seattle will not die. We demand global economic justice for all. Now! WE KNOW THAT CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION IS NO ACCIDENT. The rules that allow multinational corporations to plunder resources, devastate ecosystems, exploit workers, and require policies that prioritize their profits are made in meetings of Finance Ministers, Treasury officials, and Trade Ministers. Although the officials making these decisions represent governments, many of them formally democratic, their blueprint is one of corporate empowerment. They just assume the people will accept that greater profits for corporations will mean a better future for us all. MASSIVE DEMONSTRATIONS OF OPPOSITION TO THAT AGENDA at economic summits in Vancouver, Birmingham (UK), Cologne, Geneva, and most recently and importantly Seattle have shown that many, many people do not accept this logic. This April we will continue to bring this message to the decision-makers as they convene on US soil, making sure they understand that resistance to their agenda is truly global. We need your support, both moral and material. We need to know that you support this movement and these actions. And we need your financial contributions to make it all possible. We need to raise at least $50,000 between now and April 16. Publicity and outreach cost money. We need a stage and sound system, phones and office space. We need transportation subsidies for students and the disadvantaged. Many organizations are donating staff, copying, phones, postage, etc. to the effort, but it is not enough. We need your help. And please show up on April 16. THIS NEW CHALLENGE HAS INSPIRED AND ENERGIZED the Alliance for Global Justice. Three weeks before the event, we are all pitching in. We urge you to support this landmark event in the history of the worldwide movement for economic justice by helping to support the many added expenses involved with this mobilization. PLEASE PLAN TO COME TO WASHINGTON IN APRIL! We'll be putting together a week of teach-ins, training, and popular actions in advance of the big protest on April 16. *Sunday April 9, Jubilee 2000/USA mobilization for debt cancellation *Wednesday April 12, AFL-CIO lobbying day against China most favored nation *Saturday April 15, Latin America/Caribbean Solidarity Conference *Sunday April 16, Two Main Events: Legal Rally and March for Global Justice Direct Action for Global Justice http://www.a16.org/form_support.html. Or by check, made out to Mobilization for Global Justice/AGJ, 1247 E Street SE, Washington DC 20003. Your donation is tax deductible. Please be as generous as you can for this one-time request. In Solidarity, David Schlein, National Vice President American Federation of Government Employees Robert L. Clark, Secretary-Treasurer United Electrical, Machine, and Radio Workers P.S. To stay informed on the organizing efforts -- and to get further involved -- subscribe to our e-mail listserv by sending a blank message from your account to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit the coalition website at http://www.a16.org. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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