---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 12:21:08 +1300 From: janice <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Invitation Invitation to an international meeting in Paris, 11-12 December 1998 Dear friends, You should already have received an email from us, introducing the ATTAC association, which was created in France at the end of last June to campaign against the "dictatorship of the financial markets". The aim of this current message is to invite you to attend an international congress to be held in Paris on the 11th and 12th December, 1998. Before outlining the object of this congress in detail, a few words on the development of ATTAC. In France, the association has already inspired very significant interest. Although it was originally launched by various associations, newspapers and trade unions, it is now citizens and activists who are taking the initiative. We have almost 5,000 full members, dozens of local committees are being created each week and more than a thousand individuals attending our first general meeting in La Ciotat. The association's success has exceeded our wildest hopes. ATTAC's membership is made up, not only of individual citizens who wish to participate in the campaign, but also of many trade unions and organisations which have taken out collective membership. Outside France - in Brazil, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, etc. - associations like ATTAC are being formed. However we cannot pretend that ATTAC's rapid development, in France and elsewhere, is the answer to all the questions that face us. The contacts we have made in various countries have made us acutely aware of the sheer multiplicity of preoccupations and questions that need to be addressed. In Asia and Latin America, the plans imposed by the IMF have caused social disaster and have inspired significant and widespread opposition. In other countries and among other interest groups, it is the campaign against the MAI that has inspired them to combine their energies. Elsewhere, it is the campaign against third world debt that is mobilising activists. The multiplicity of the subjects being addressed and the scale of the mobilisations now taking place seem especially significant to us, coming, as they do, at a time when the world is facing a crisis that is not only structural, economic and financial, but also political. The time has come to organise on practical and concrete grounds: the taxation of capital, rejection of IMF schemes, opposition to the MAI or any other accord of the same kind, etc. It is time to put forward social alternatives to neoliberalism. As a first step, we believe that it is vital to open the way to the widest possible convergence of networks and social and activist forces. We are working on two initiatives: 1. A "contra-Davos", to be held at the end of January 1999 in Switzerland. We shall assemble in this temple of ultra-liberalism to demonstrate that there are alternative voices - voices that can bring about effective resistance. This scheme for a "contra-Davos" is under way, organised by various independent networks and organisations. The idea is that each initiative should be a step towards a common goal, coming together on an international scale. 2. A global conference, to be held during the summer of 1999, bringing together activists from all backgrounds. This assembly of several thousand participants, where associations, trade unions, intellectuals and leading journalists will mix with "ordinary citizens", could have considerable impact. Such a meeting, which could be held in Paris in late June or early July 1999, would allow experiences to be shared and common campaigns to be agreed. It would be open to anyone who wanted to participate and would be supported by sponsorship at all levels. Participants from the richer countries (Europe, North America, etc.) would pay their own way. Invitations to others would be sent out, not by any central organisation, but by local activist groups, associations and trade unions in Europe. These decentralised invitations would allow for the widest possible cross-fertilisation, encounters based upon common interests and meetings in the towns from where the invitations originated. The main purpose of the conference of 11-12 December in Paris would be to discuss this project. The first item on the agenda would be a general discussion directed towards the adoption of an agreed text that we could all use in further initiatives, at international and local scale. (You should have received, in our earlier email, the text of the ATTAC charter, which could provide a possible starting point for this discussion.) The conference would go on to discuss what initiatives should be taken, including concrete proposals regarding the IMF, the MAI and the taxation of capital, as well as long-term aims, further meetings, the establishment of international links, etc. Hoping to see you on the 11th and 12th December... -- For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/
