From: "mart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: Jim Yarker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 11:06 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Barry Lituchy Subject: Postmark Prague on Nato 2002 Summit [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] RedNet NewsNews and Views from the Communist Press Fw: Postmark Prague news release on Nov.2002 NATO summit in Prague >From Ken Biggs, 7/09/01 02:39:17 POSTMARK PRAGUE No.345 News release/feature (700 words) THURSDAY 6 SEPTEMBER 2001 NATO SUMMIT IN PRAGUE November 21st/22nd 2002 At a Communist Party press conference on August 23, the chair of the Czech Republic's Communist Union of Youth JOSEF GOTTWALD announced that the recent 15th World Festival of Youth and Students in Algiers had endorsed its call for an international peaceful protest action in Prague against the summit. Its call was also well-received by the more than 13,000 delegates from 143 countries who took part in the festival. Leaders of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, the festival's organiser, will meet in Prague shortly to discuss the nature of the protest. WHY DOES NATO HAVE TO MEET IN PRAGUE? asks Vaclav Vertelar of the Czech Left daily Halo Noviny* The size and militancy of anti-globalisation demonstrations at summits of the world's richest and most powerful is growing. They peaked at the G8's Genoa summit. What goes on at the meetings themselves is usually pushed far into the background. Instead, pictures of battles between the police and demonstrators and words full of blood and violence dominate the TV news and front pages. But two questions have to be asked. Why are these summits held at all and what are the results? Why are they held in different countries and cities, like world sports championships? * Negative results Only in some cases do these summits have an agenda dealing with specific fundamental issues of major importance to the world. Their results are usually very modest or virtually nil, especially from the point of view of the leaders and countries taking part. Of late they have brought only negative results for the organising state and city: huge sums spent on organisation, security and repairing the damage done during street battles. Perhaps originally the idea was that the organising city would enhance its reputation and benefit from related building projects and the profits from "summit-related tourism". In fact, quite the opposite has been the case. The cost outweighs the income, which is certainly not the case with sports championships! * Brussels or New York? The agenda, course and method of arranging political and financial summits mobilises the anti-globalisation forces and violent militant groups. They set "the timetable". If this doesn't change, the demonstrations and accompanying violence will increase further. So why go on with all this? Would they be any the less "world events" if they were more rationally organised and held at the UN's headquarters, which was set up for such purposes? Or, in the case of EU and NATO summits, in Brussels? Opponents of this idea will say that there would be demonstrations there too. This is only partly true. If the summit agendas were changed so that they dealt much more with real problems, and if the discussions were democratically prepared and the main opposition organisations and respresentatives invited, a substantial improvement in the situation could be expected. Anyway, the next G8 talks will be held deep inside Canada's forests or in the inaccessible Rocky Mountains, while the World Trade Organisation will meet in November in the sun-baked desert of the Arab emirate of Qatar. All other things being equal, this will solve nothing. The opponents of globalisation will simply look for other ways of making their point. * Prague The organisers of NATO's summit in Prague in November 2002 are granite-like in their resolve to go ahead. According to Alexandr Vondra, the Czech government's plenipotentiary for the summit and its US ambassador, he is not thinking of moving the summit from Prague. "It's inappropriate to react to disturbances by making concessions," he says. So there is no prospect of any reversal of the escalation of violent struggle by various groups at this stage of the establishment of global capitalism. (I have resisted the temptation to call this "an intensification of the class struggle.") The government has learned nothing from the IMF/World Bank summit held in Prague in September 2000. It promised a huge income for Prague from summit-related tourism and greater prestige for Prague and the Czech Republic throughout the world. Nothing of the sort happened. Quite the opposite. The summit cost several billion crowns which there is no hope of recovering. In addition, the situation today and in a year's time will be different and worse. So, while there is still time, why not discuss holding the NATO summit at NATO itself in Brussels? * This is an abridged translation of an article published in Halo noviny on July 27. It is taken from the September issue of the English-language magazine POSTMARK PRAGUE. Free sample copies of PP are available from PO Box 42, 182 21 Prague 8, Czech Republic. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
