-Caveat Lector- [radtimes] # 155 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to assist RadTimes--> (See ** at end.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --RI Lawmakers Consider Ballistic Fingerprinting --Cyber scams threaten integrity of the market --Computer And Internet Security --Surveillance In A Digital Age --Terror groups hide behind Web encryption --Monsanto CEO outlines strategy for next year --Porto Alegre Call for Mobilisation =================================================================== RI Lawmakers Consider Ballistic Fingerprinting http://www.jointogether.org/jtodirect.jtml?U=83952&O=265915 A bill proposed in the Rhode Island legislature would require handgun makers to provide the state with a shell casing and bullet fired from each new weapon sold in Rhode Island. =================================================================== From: internetcrimenews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: SURVEY - FTIT: Cyber scams threaten integrity of the market Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2001 SURVEY - FTIT: Cyber scams threaten integrity of the market ONLINE STOCK FRAUD by Stephen Phillips in San Francisco: The US Securities and Exchange Commission has now assembled a formidable arsenal of technology to combat the menace of online stock fraud By STEPHEN PHILLIPS While the internet has revolutionised stock trading, democratising access to the public markets, it has also empowered online criminals, handing them the most devastatingly effective tool for defrauding investors. False information posted on the web last year lured scores of investors into decisions that cost them tens of millions of dollars. The US Securities and Exchange Commission fields about 400 e-mails a day from concerned investors flagging potential wrongdoing on the web. With cyber crime posing a significant threat to market integrity, Richard Walker, director of enforcement, has branded online stock manipulation the SEC's "greatest concern". Using bulk e-mails or chat room postings, a lone conman armed with an internet-connected home computer can accomplish in hours what took months for the notorious boiler rooms of telephone canvassers run from places such as Amsterdam in the 1980s and 1990s. The power of the internet to manipulate stocks was shown to most chilling effect in two spectacular stings last year. In separate incidents, Lucent Technologies, the telecoms network equipment giant, and Emulex, a computer network hardware vendor, saw Dollars 7.1bn and Dollars 2.6bn wiped off their respective stock market values within hours of bogus press releases appearing on the web. Both companies swiftly recovered their valuations after the announcements, designed to sabotage their stock, were exposed as phony. However, out-of-pocket investors were left facing protracted legal battles to seek redress. The increased incidence of online financial fraud tracks the internet's explosion as a popular share-trading platform. Assets in US online brokerage accounts totalled about Dollars 415bn in 1998, and are expected to reach Dollars 3,000bn by 2003, according to the internet market researcher Jupiter Communications. The amount of money held in US online accounts totalled roughly Dollars 1.2bn at the start of last year, it says. Nevertheless, while the internet imparts a patina of sophistication to online stock fraud, classic web cons are as hoary as the three-card trick. In the most ubiquitous online stock scam, the so-called "pump- and-dump", owners of shares in an unheralded company promote a stock to drive up its value. Once it is sufficiently inflated, the stock is quickly sold, leaving the price to collapse and investors out of pocket. Anonymity To promote stocks online, criminals gravitate to the slew of websites that have sprung up to service teeming online investors. At investor chat rooms and bulletin boards, they tout stocks using anonymous postings. Stocks may also be promoted using a barrage of internet press releases trumpeting technology breakthroughs, marketing pacts or featuring glowing testimonials from "experts". Conmen also direct potential investors to impressive corporate websites easily created with off-the-shelf software tools. "You can create substance on the internet far faster and more easily than in real life," says web stock fraud sleuth Bob Davis, who tracks suspicious stocks in popular online investor newsletter, 'The Napeague Letter' (www. napeague.com). Tricksters send unsolicited e-mails touting hollow stocks that are dressed up as exclusive investment tip-offs, sent to recipients "by mistake", to encourage investors to think they are privy to inside information. So-called microcap stocks, representing obscure public companies with low-volume - even dormant - businesses, are typically targeted for cons because their seldom-traded shares and scarce financial analyst coverage make them easier to manipulate. Such companies, which may not file quarterly statements - making it still harder for investors to verify fraudsters' claims - fall short of listing requirements for major exchanges, such as the Nasdaq, but can be traded on the OTC Bulletin Board exchange as so-called "penny stocks". Some internet scams take their cue from today's public investment market. Fraudulent pre-initial public offering stock pedlars cash-in on investors' clamour to grab a piece of the next big thing, supposedly offering ground-floor opportunities in the next Amazon or eBay before they float shares on the public market. Businesses may sell pre-IPO stock legitimately by registering such transactions with the SEC. But this requirement has been overlooked by many internet start-ups bent solely on capitalising on investors' appetite for internet stocks, with little immediate intention of going public. Such bogus financing vehicles, exposed by the SEC last September, had robbed 1,670 investors out of almost Dollars 5.3m. However, where these crimes often unravel is in the incriminating audit trail many leave in their wake. The SEC and Federal Bureau of Investigations nabbed the suspect in the Emulex case, for instance, using Internet Protocol addresses to trace the computer from which he allegedly sent the fake press release. "The internet provides a platform for law enforcement by providing a resplendent evidentiary trail," says John Reid Stark, chief of the SEC's office of internet enforcement. The SEC's cyberforce of more than 200 lawyers, accountants and investigators has mounted four dragnet operations, each focused on different types of online stock fraud. In a pump-and-dump sweep last September, enforcers rounded up 33 companies and individuals accused of pocketing more than Dollars 10m from driving up the prices of more than 70 small stocks by Dollars 1.7bn. Offenders are typically served with cease and desist orders and stripped of their assets, while the SEC joins forces with the FBI in serious cases to seek criminal prosecutions carrying jail terms. The SEC has also assembled a formidable technology arsenal to combat online stock fraud. The agency recently began piloting a customised search engine to expedite fraud detection on public websites, while a new computer laboratory at its Washington DC headquarters enables the latest crime-cracking software programs to be put through their paces. Addressing the borderless nature of internet crime, the SEC liaises extensively with overseas' counterparts to apprehend international criminals defrauding US investors. The SEC's efforts are being scrutinised in the UK, where the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is gearing up for this summer's Financial Services and Markets Act, which will hand it wider powers to prosecute market abuse, including online fraud. Despite authorities' success in apprehending perpetrators, the practical difficulties for investors of recovering losses via lawsuits underscore the importance of simple precautions to avoid falling prey to online scams in the first place. The ability of fraudsters to manipulate share prices has often reflected the inexperience of many investors flocking to the web. Perhaps more startling than the opportunistic audacity of many crimes has been the apparent gullibility of their victims, who were taken in by false stock tips that could have been debunked with cursory research. For instance, a 15-year-old New Jersey schoolboy, pocketed Dollars 273,000 from selling stocks he had artificially inflated using vague chat room postings such, "this is the most undervalued stock ever," before the SEC caught up with him last year. Accordingly, enforcement regimes are prioritising investor education. The FSA has issued statements flagging the perils of heeding anonymous web stock tips. Meanwhile, the SEC has supplemented these efforts with a touring roadshow of leading enforcers, criss-crossing the US urging investors check facts and act with care. Ultimately, the power to nullify the threat from online criminals rests with investors themselves. Financial Times (London) February 7, 2001, Wednesday Surveys IIB1 =================================================================== Computer And Internet Security Monday, February 05, 2001 Hope you might post this link to the list, really good personal computer security and privacy stuff, really good news on those issues strictly non-corporate and for the politically active. Thanks for your efforts and your entertainment. http://security.tao.ca/ Keith =================================================================== Surveillance In A Digital Age: Time For Serious Thought February 05, 2001 by Frederick Reed A few years back I was chasing beans and bacon as a high-tech writer and ran across a company called Viisage,* whose business it was, and is, to make computers that recognize faces. Technologically, the idea was cute, though not original. A camera looked at your face. The computer then reduced your mug to a set of numbers and stored them. Next time you came by, it knew who you were. At the time, if memory serves, Viisage could not do it in real time. That is, the computation took long enough that it couldn't pick faces out of a moving crowd. But computers were getting faster. I wrote a column somewhere saying that one day we'd have cameras everywhere, tracking us. People who didn't follow computers doubtless dismissed the idea as paranoia. Those who did, didn't (if that makes sense). A few days ago, on the web site of The Register, a British site that covers developments in computers, I discovered the following story, also in many US papers: "Super Bowl 2001 fans were secretly treated to a mass biometric scan in which video cameras tied to a temporary law-enforcement command center digitized their faces and compared them against photographic lists of known malefactors." Bingo. Not good, not good at all. But Fred, you you might say, what a convenient way to catch bad guys. It sure is. Hidden cameras could be put in all manner of public places. If a wanted criminal, or missing child, or suspected terrorist walked past, an alarm would go off, and the gendarmes would appear. Note the words, "fans were secretly treated" in the Register's story. The public needn't -- apparently didn't in Tampa -- know it was being watched. After a while, we would get used to it. This is fundamentally different from the use of security cameras at Seven-Eleven. Unless the store is robbed, nobody has the time or interest to look at those tapes. There is no computer and no network. Nobody can track your movements with an ordinary catch'em-robbers camera. But when a computer takes over, it becomes possible to keep a database of faces anywhere -- say at the FBI building in Washington -- and check huge numbers of people across the continent. The Internet makes it easy. Notice how fast Google does a search of an appalling numbers of Web sites. With perfect ease, the central server could record the time, the place, and a still of the video. Presto, you're being tracked. People wouldn't know whether they were on the watch list, and probably wouldn't notice the camera. The legitimate uses of face-recognition are compelling. Putting a camera at entrances to governmental buildings appeals: What better way to stop terrorists? Department stores would love to know when a convicted shoplifter entered. With a central repository of faces, a serial killer wanted in Massachusetts would be caught when he walked into a gas station in Texas. Why would a gas station want this kind of equipment? Because it would instantly warn the proprietor that the customer was a robber, and flash the villain's identity to the police along with his tag number, and record pictures of him. All this for a few grand. Why not cameras on street corners? In many jurisdictions they are already in use, without image-recognition, to catch runners of red lights. Add the right software and the police could automatically read the license of every passing vehicle to find stolen cars. Surely you want to recover stolen cars? Now of course the cops will say that they just want to catch criminals. That's true. I know lots of cops. They don't favor Stalinism. Neither, however, do they usually think beyond their immediate mission. For example, USA Today in its story quotes Major K. C. Newcomb of the Tampa police as saying, "I was fully comfortable that we were not infringing anybody's rights." I have no doubt that he meant it. And he has a point. If a cop can legally stand at a ticket gate and look at people walking by, which he can, why can't a camera? The problem is that Major Newcomb clearly hasn't a clue as to the downstream ramifications of what he is doing. Therein lies the danger. The paper also quotes Beverly Griffin, of a company that uses the technology in the casinos of Las Vegas, as saying, "It's the wave of the future. It's for you protection." See? It's good for us. Actually it's good for the casinos. But it's going to be sold as good for all of us. The likely progression of uses is obvious. First we will look for criminals. Then for wanted suspects who haven't been convicted. (What? Don't you want to catch the guy suspected of chopping up three co-eds before he does it again?) Then for known troublemakers. Don't you think hit men for the Mafia ought to be watched? Next will come people disliked by incumbent politicians. Finding one's political opponent going into a gay bar, or out with someone else's wife, would be just real handy. Remember that government already has your photo. Check your driver's license. Some states already digitize them. Some already deal with Viisage. The potential for intimidation is fantastic. If the technology becomes widespread, which it will, you will never know whether there is a camera, or what it is networked to. It won't matter, unless you do something that displeases those in power. Then it will matter. A digital, networked world isn't like the world of twenty years ago. Previously, the sheer work involved in spying on people made it largely impractical. Sure, it could be done. With effort and a large likelihood of getting caught, the government could steam open mail, read it, and put it back together. Phones could be tapped. Cars could be tailed. But watching many people, much less everybody, just wasn't workable. Digital is different. Cheap cameras, commodity computers, and ubiquitous networking make mass surveillance easy. Monitoring email, without anyone's knowing it, is technically a snap. Telephone conversations aren't safe: Shrink-wrapped software for voice-recognition is fairly good; you can bet the spook agencies do it a lot better. Now we have cameras that know who you are. Do I think the government is out to get us? No. But the technology of mass surveillance that catches criminals is precisely the technology of a degree of social control America cannot imagine. It's creeping in, innocuous step by innocuous step. =================================================================== Terror groups hide behind Web encryption http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen.htm By Jack Kelley USA TODAY 02/06/2001 WASHINGTON - Hidden in the X-rated pictures on several pornographic Web sites and the posted comments on sports chat rooms may lie the encrypted blueprints of the next terrorist attack against the United States or its allies. It sounds farfetched, but U.S. officials and experts say it's the latest method of communication being used by Osama bin Laden and his associates to outfox law enforcement. Bin Laden, indicted in the bombing in 1998 of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, and others are hiding maps and photographs of terrorist targets and posting instructions for terrorist activities on sports chat rooms, pornographic bulletin boards and other Web sites, U.S. and foreign officials say. "Uncrackable encryption is allowing terrorists Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida and others to communicate about their criminal intentions without fear of outside intrusion," FBI Director Louis Freeh said last March during closed-door testimony on terrorism before a Senate panel. "They're thwarting the efforts of law enforcement to detect, prevent and investigate illegal activities." A terrorist's tool Once the exclusive domain of the National Security Agency, the super-secret U.S. agency responsible for developing and cracking electronic codes, encryption has become the everyday tool of Muslim extremists in Afghanistan, Albania, Britain, Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Syria, the USA, the West Bank and Gaza and Yemen, U.S. officials say. It's become so fundamental to the operations of these groups that bin Laden and other Muslim extremists are teaching it at their camps in Afghanistan and Sudan, they add. "There is a tendency out there to envision a stereotypical Muslim fighter standing with an AK-47 in barren Afghanistan," says Ben Venzke, director of special intelligence projects for iDEFENSE, a cyberintelligence and risk management company based in Fairfax, Va. "But Hamas, Hezbollah and bin Laden's groups have very sophisticated, well-educated people. Their technical equipment is good, and they have the bright, young minds to operate them," he said. U.S. officials say bin Laden's organization, al-Qaida, uses money from Muslim sympathizers to purchase computers from stores or by mail. Bin Laden's followers download easy-to-use encryption programs from the Web, officials say, and have used the programs to help plan or carry out three of their most recent plots: * Wadih El Hage, one of the suspects in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, sent encrypted e-mails under various names, including "Norman" and "Abdus Sabbur," to "associates in al Qaida," according to the Oct. 25, 1998, U.S. indictment against him. Hage went on trial Monday in federal court in New York. * Khalil Deek, an alleged terrorist arrested in Pakistan in 1999, used encrypted computer files to plot bombings in Jordan at the turn of the millennium, U.S. officials say. Authorities found Deek's computer at his Peshawar, Pakistan, home and flew it to the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md. Mathematicians, using supercomputers, decoded the files, enabling the FBI to foil the plot. * Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, used encrypted files to hide details of a plot to destroy 11 U.S. airliners. Philippines officials found the computer in Yousef's Manila apartment in 1995. U.S. officials broke the encryption and foiled the plot. Two of the files, FBI officials say, took more than a year to decrypt. "All the Islamists and terrorist groups are now using the Internet to spread their messages," says Reuven Paz, academic director of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, an independent Israeli think tank. Messages in dots U.S. officials and militant Muslim groups say terrorists began using encryption which scrambles data and then hides the data in existing images about five years ago. But the groups recently increased its use after U.S. law enforcement authorities revealed they were tapping bin Laden's satellite telephone calls from his base in Afghanistan and tracking his activities. "It's brilliant," says Ahmed Jabril, spokesman for the militant group Hezbollah in London. "Now it's possible to send a verse from the Koran, an appeal for charity and even a call for jihad and know it will not be seen by anyone hostile to our faith, like the Americans." Extremist groups are not only using encryption to disguise their e-mails but their voices, too, Attorney General Janet Reno told a presidential panel on terrorism last year, headed by former CIA director John Deutsch. Encryption programs also can scramble telephone conversations when the phones are plugged into a computer. "In the future, we may tap a conversation in which the terrorist discusses the location of a bomb soon to go off, but we will be unable to prevent the terrorist act when we cannot understand the conversation," Reno said. Here's how it works: Each image, whether a picture or a map, is created by a series of dots. Inside the dots are a string of letters and numbers that computers read to create the image. A coded message or another image can be hidden in those letters and numbers. They're hidden using free encryption Internet programs set up by privacy advocacy groups. The programs scramble the messages or pictures into existing images. The images can only be unlocked using a "private key," or code, selected by the recipient, experts add. Otherwise, they're impossible to see or read. "You very well could have a photograph and image with the time and information of an attack sitting on your computer, and you would never know it," Venzke says. "It will look no different than a photograph exchanged between two friends or family members." U.S. officials concede it's difficult to intercept, let alone find, encrypted messages and images on the Internet's estimated 28 billion images and 2 billion Web sites. Even if they find it, the encrypted message or image is impossible to read without cracking the encryption's code. A senior Defense Department mathematician says cracking a code often requires lots of time and the use of a government supercomputer. It's no wonder the FBI wants all encryption programs to file what amounts to a "master key" with a federal authority that would allow them, with a judge's permission, to decrypt a code in a case of national security. But civil liberties groups, which offer encryption programs on the Web to further privacy, have vowed to fight it. Officials say the Internet has become the modern version of the "dead drop," a slang term describing the location where Cold War-era spies left maps, pictures and other information. But unlike the "dead drop," the Internet, U.S. officials say, is proving to be a much more secure way to conduct clandestine warfare. "Who ever thought that sending encrypted streams of data across the Internet could produce a map on the other end saying 'this is where your target is' or 'here's how to kill them'?" says Paul Beaver, spokesman for Jane's Defense Weekly in London, which reports on defense and cyberterrorism issues. "And who ever thought it could be done with near perfect security? The Internet has proven to be a boon for terrorists." =================================================================== Monsanto CEO outlines strategy for next year PR Newswire February 07, 2001 ST. LOUIS/PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Citing Monsanto Company's unique capabilities in agriculture, Chief Executive Officer Hendrik A. Verfaillie expressed his confidence that a combination of a strong core business, great upside from biotechnology and genomics, and focused management will produce steadily increasing revenue and income growth for the company. Verfaillie is speaking today at the Goldman, Sachs & Co. Fifth Annual AgChemicals/AgBiotechnology Conference. "We have a unique business model that combines our herbicides, biotechnology traits, seeds and genomics into integrated solutions for our customers," Verfaillie said. "Our customers win as they can grow their crops at lower cost and higher value. We gain a competitive advantage that allows us to sell seeds, biotech and herbicides as an integrated solution on more crops, on more acres. "This combination of innovation and margin expansion from our new technology offers us a great opportunity for steady profit growth," he added. Verfaillie noted that Monsanto's management is focused in three areas in 2001: -- One, growing sales of Roundup herbicide through brand leadership and volume growth worldwide; -- Two, gaining approvals for biotechnology traits and commercializing them globally; and -- Three, realizing the full value of the company's research and new product pipeline. The strategy for growing sales of Roundup herbicide is based on volume growth, brand leadership and a low-cost position. Monsanto is growing volumes through expanded use of Roundup in conservation tillage applications or over the top of Roundup Ready crops, Verfaillie said. Conservation tillage allows farmers to replace plowing with the judicious use of herbicides to control weeds. The result is reduced costs, increased yield potential, and greater environmental benefits. Roundup often is the herbicide of choice in conservation tillage systems. Through 1999, Monsanto has penetrated only one-third of the estimated 750-million-acre opportunity in conservation tillage. The potential for expansion for Roundup Ready crops also is significant, Verfaillie noted. For example, Roundup Ready corn currently is used on 3 million acres, but the global potential is more than 200 million acres. Roundup Ready soybeans, which have been on the market longer than Roundup Ready corn, are planted on 53 percent of the total soybean acres suitable for the Roundup Ready technology. Branded Roundup products offer opportunities for growth both in volumes and in sales, as these specially formulated herbicides offer unique benefits and thus garner higher margins. One recently introduced product, Roundup UltraMAX, gives farmers excellent weed control and convenience from a specially formulated version of Roundup that works particularly well with Roundup Ready crops. Additionally, Monsanto has staked a low-cost position for glyphosate through continued improvements in process technology and with the scale advantages achieved through continued volume growth. Beyond Roundup, the next largest source of growth for the company is biotechnology traits. Current commercial products include Roundup Ready corn, cotton and soybeans; Bollgard insect-protected cotton; and YieldGard insect- protected corn. "In the short-term, we are focused on several key regulatory approvals, including Brazilian approval of Roundup Ready soybeans, European approval of Roundup Ready corn, and Indian approval of Bollgard cotton," Verfaillie said. "There are positive signs that the regulatory processes in Brazil and Europe are moving forward, and our Indian submission is currently undergoing regulatory review." On the horizon for growers are three new products that have been filed for regulatory reviews. These include a new version of Roundup Ready corn; MaxGard insect-protected corn, which protects against corn rootworm; and Bollgard II, a second-generation product for insect protection in cotton. "We have focused our product pipeline on four platforms, -crop yield and productivity, insect and disease management, weed management, and feed and food products-, in major crops," Verfaillie said. "As a result, our pipeline is well balanced between short- and long-term opportunities and with potential blockbusters." Verfaillie concluded his comments by noting that Monsanto is a unique investment. "We have a solid business in the short-term based on growth of the core business combined with significant cost management opportunities. We have potential breakthrough growth in the medium-term assuming biotechnology growth re-accelerates and our genomics capabilities accelerate our seed business growth. And we have long-term growth potential from our pipeline of new products," he said. Monsanto Company, an 85 percent owned subsidiary of Pharmacia Corporation, is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity. Notes to editors: Roundup, Roundup Ready, Roundup UltraMAX, Bollgard, YieldGard and MaxGard are trademarks owned by Monsanto Company. Certain statements contained in this release, such as statements concerning the company's anticipated financial results, current and future product performance, regulatory approvals, currency impact, business and financial plans and other non-historical facts are "forward-looking statements." These statements are based on current expectations and currently available information. However, since these statements are based on factors that involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: management's ability to achieve its cost-cutting objectives; the company's ability to successfully market new and existing products in new and existing domestic and international markets; the success of the company's research and development activities and the speed with which regulatory authorizations and product roll-outs may be achieved; the company's ability to achieve and maintain protection for its intellectual property; fluctuations in exchange rates; the effects of the company's accounting policies and changes in generally accepted accounting principles; the company's exposure to lawsuits regarding intellectual property and product liability, and other lawsuits and contingencies related to actual or alleged environmental contamination; domestic and foreign social, legal and political developments, especially those relating to agricultural products developed through biotechnology; increased generic and branded competition for the company's Roundup herbicide following the expiration of U.S. patent protection in September 2000; the seasonal nature of the company's agriculture business and the effect of weather conditions and commodity markets on that business; the company's ability to fund its short-term financing needs; general economic and business conditions; the company's ability to attract and retain current management and other employees of the company; and other risks and factors detailed in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements or any factors that may cause actual results to differ, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE Monsanto Company CONTACT: Lori J. Fisher of Monsanto Company, 314-694-8535 Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/114341.htmlor fax, 800-758-5804, ext. 114341 URL: http://www.monsanto.com http://www.prnewswire.com =================================================================== Porto Alegre Call for Mobilisation Social forces from around the world have gathered here at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. Unions and NGOs, movements and organizations, intellectuals and artists, together we are building a great alliance to create a new society, different from the dominant logic wherein the free-market and money are considered the only measure of worth. Davos represents the concentration of wealth, the globalization of poverty and the destruction of our earth. Porto Alegre represents the hope that a new world is possible, where human beings and nature are the center of our concern. We are part of a movement which has grown since Seattle. We challenge the elite and their undemocratic processes, symbolised by the World Economic Forum in Davos. We came to share our experiences, build our solidarity, and demonstrate our total rejection of the neoliberal policies of globalisation. We are women and men, farmers, workers, unemployed, professionals, students, blacks and indigenous peoples, coming from the South and from the North, committed to struggle for peoples' rights, freedom, security, employment and education. We are fighting against the hegemony of finance, the destruction of our cultures, the monopolization of knowledge, mass media, and communication, the degradation of nature, and the destruction of the quality of life by multinational corporations and anti-democratic policies. Participative democratic experiences -- like that of Porto Alegre -- show us that a concrete alternative is possible. We reaffirm the supremacy of human, ecological and social rights over the demands of finance and investors. At the same time that we strengthen our movements, we resist the global elite and work for equity, social justice, democracy and security for everyone, without distinction. Our methodology and alternatives stand in stark contrast to the destructive policies of neo-liberalism. Globalisation reinforces a sexist and patriarchal system. It increases the feminisation of poverty and exacerbates all forms of violence against women. Equality between women and men is central to our struggle. Without this, another world will never be possible. Neoliberal globalization increases racism, continuing the veritable genocide of centuries of slavery and colonialism which destroyed the bases of black African civilizations. We call on all movements to be in solidarity with African peoples in the continent and outside, in defense of their rights to land, citizenship, freedom, peace, and equality, through the reparation of historical and social debts. Slave trade and slavery are crimes against humanity. We express our special recognition and solidarity with indigenous peoples in their historic struggle against genocide and ethnocide and in defense of their rights, natural resources, culture, autonomy, land, and territory. Neoliberal globalisation destroys the environment, health and people's living environment. Air, water, land and peoples have become commodities. Life and health must be recognized as fundamental rights which must not be subordinated to economic policies. The external debt of the countries of the South has been repaid several times over. Illegitimate, unjust and fraudulent, it functions as an instrument of domination, depriving people of their fundamental human rights with the sole aim of increasing international usury. We demand its unconditional cancellation and the reparation of historical, social, and ecological debts, as immediate steps toward a definitive resolution of the crisis this Debt provokes. Financial markets extract resources and wealth from communities and nations, and subject national economies to the whims of speculators. We call for the closure of tax havens and the introduction of taxes on financial transactions. Privatisation is a mechanism for transferring public wealth and natural resources to the private sector. We oppose all forms of privatisation of natural resources and public services. We call for the protection of access to resources and public goods necessary for a decent life. Multinational corporations organise global production with massive unemployment, low wages and unqualified labour and by refusing to recognise the fundamental worker's rights as defined by the ILO. We demand the genuine recognition of the right to organise and negotiate for unions, and new rights for workers to face the globalisation strategy. While goods and money are free to cross borders, the restrictions on the movement of people exacerbate exploitation and repression. We demand an end to such restrictions. We call for a trading system which guarantees full employment, food security, fair terms of trade and local prosperity. Free trade is anything but free. Global trade rules ensure the accelerated accummulation of wealth and power by multinational corporations and the further marginalisation and impoverishment of small farmers, workers and local enterprises. We demand that governments respect their obligations to the international human rights instruments and multilateral environmental agreements. We call on people everywhere to support the mobilizations against the creation of the Free Trade Area in the Americas, an initiative which means the recolonization of Latin America and the destruction of fundamental social, economic, cultural and environmental human rights. The IMF, the World Bank and regional banks, the WTO, NATO and other military alliances are some of the multilateral agents of neoliberal globalisation. We call for an end to their interference in national policy. These institutions have no legitimacy in the eyes of the people and we will continue to protest against their measures. Neoliberal globalization has led to the concentration of land ownership and favored corporate agricultural systems which are environmentally and socially destructive. It is based on export oriented growth backed by large scale infrastructure development, such as dams, which displces people from their land and destroys their livelihoods. Their loss must be restored. We call for a democratic agrarian reform. Land, water and seeds must be in the hands of the peasants. We promote sustainable agricultural processes. Seeds and genetic stocks are the heritage of humanity. We demand that the use of transgenics and the patenting of life be abolished. Militarism and corporate globalisation reinforce each other to undermine democracy and peace. We totally refuse war as a way to solve coflicts and we oppose the arms race and the arms trade. We call for an end to the repression and criminalisation of social protest. We condemn foreign military intervention in the internal affairs of our countries. We demand the lifting of embargoes and sanctions used as instruments of aggression, and express our solidarity with those who suffer their consequences. We reject US military intervention in Latin America through the Plan Colombia. We call for a strenghtening of alliances, and the implementation of common actions, on these principal concerns. We will continue to mobilize on them until the next Forum. We recognize that we are now in a better position to undertake the struggle for a different world, a world without misery, hunger, discrimination and violence, with quality of life, equity, respect and peace. We commit ourselves to support all the struggles of our common agenda to mobilise opposition to neoliberalism. Among our priorities for the coming months, we will mobilize globally against the: · World Economic Forum, Cancun, Mexico, 26 and 27 February · Free Trade Area of the Americas, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 6-7 April and Quebec City, Canada, 17-22 April ·Asian Development Bank, Honolulu, May ·G8 Summit, Genova, Italy, 15-22 July · IMF and World Bank Annual Meeting, Washington DC, USA, 28 September - 4 October · World Trade Organisation, 5-9 November (Quatar?) On April 17, we will support the international day of struggle against the importation of cheap agricultural products which create economic and social dumping, and the feminist mobilization against globalization in Genova. We support the call for a world day of action against debt, to take place this year on July 20. The proposals formulated are part of the alternatives being elaborated by social movements around the world. They are based on the principle that human beings and life are not commodities, and in the commitment to the welfare and human rights of all. Our involvement in the World Social Forum has enriched understanding of each of our struggles and we have been strengthened. We call on all peoples around the world to join in this struggle to build a better future. The World Social Forum of Porto Alegre is a way to achieve peoples' sovereignty and a just world. Hundreds of organizations have signed this call. If you want to see the endorsements, please check http://attac.org/fra/asso/doc/doc502sign.htm If your organization wants to sign it, please send a email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] mentioning your endorsement and giving all useful information. =================================================================== "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. 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