_____________________________________________________________
E-MAIL NEWS LETTER
TO PREPARE
THE JUNE 24/26 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 24, 1999
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Content :
- Invitation letter to the international conference
- A reply form for June
- Alter-Davos declaration
"PLANET" e-mail news letter will be of use to broadcast texts and
news for the conference. You can utilise it for your's own contacts.
The French version will arrive in a couple of days, and the Spanish
version later.
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>From International department : Attac, Coordination against the clones
of MAI, World Forum for Alternatives
To�: foreigners partners
Subject: International meeting of June 24, 25 and 26 juin 1999
Date�:
Dear friends,
You are very kindly invited to join us at an international meeting
that will gather social and civic movements from all around the world.
It will be held in Paris on June 24, 25 and 26
The international meeting scheduled in June will address two major
concerns :
- to promote direct exchanges of experiences in recent struggles.
- to plan joint campaigns on an international scale.
These campaigns will deal with :
- commerce and investment : actions against the resurgence
of MAI in WTO, against PET (transatlantic partnership between
european Union and North America), and against the "Millenium
Round" of WTO ;
- international financial system : steps against speculative
transaction (Tobin tax, struggle against fiscal paradises, etc...)
and in favor of the annulment of the debt of dependent countries ;
- development : to oppose IMF structural adjustments plans with
the aim of establishing a new international financial system based
on transparent and fair distribution of ressources in order to
answer to people basic needs.
The long-term goal is to promote convergence of social movements
and networks that are involved in struggling, each within its field
of competence, against neoliberal policies and their consequences.
Each initiative should become so an opportunity to strengthen links
amongst these movements and networks and to reinforce an unitary
and additionnal dynamic.
The program of these days will include :
- a conference and numerous workshops.
- public initiatives
- a party
This meeting was initiated by several international networks which
already gathered on January 28 and 30, with different social movements
from all over the world (cf. list in the declaration that was carried
in Davos, here inclosed).
The concern, wether in Davos or in Zurich, was to hold "an Alter
Davos" in order to weigh up trough other arguments at the occasion
of the international meeting of business executives and politicians.
These later have been the main promoters of ultraliberalism for more
than twenty years.
The gathering should allow actors from activit circles and from
various politic backgrounds to compare their practices and their
ideas. French participation will be widely pluralist. We expect
the same from all the countries. For this reason, we will do our
best so that the travels cost for the guests who do not have local
ressources, can be supported by France. Within this aim it would
be desirable that our partners in the concerned countries collectively
draw up representatives lists of delegates including the various
components that participate to this initiative.
In order to allow most of East-european and southern countries
delegates to stay in Paris, in addition to their travels financing,
we will organize "twinnings" and sponsorings with local Attac or
"anti-MAI" comittees, and with trade Unions, associations and networks,
in France and in bordering countries.
We hope that this will give the opportunity for genuine local meetings
between foreign the invited delegations and the comittees who invited
them. It will also be a way to to promote international sustainable
links amongst various social movements and to renew solidarity modes.
Foreign participants should get prepared to stay in Europe for one week.
We are lookinf forward to hearing from you very soon and to meeting
you in Paris at the end of June.
In solidarity,
The International Office for the June Conference
International Office:
Attac, 9 bis rue de Valence
75005 Paris - FRANCE
Tel. 00 33 (O)1 43 36 30 54
Fax. 00 33 (0)1 43 36 26 26
E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Please feel free to trasmitt us adress, phone, fax and e-mail
number of any organisation, association, trade-union or of
acquaintance of yours liable to express interest for the
initiative. We will adress them the same letter.
______________________________________________________________
Demand for further informations
Please return this reply coupon to the international department
if you wish to receive further informations�:
Sir Madam
NAME Surname
Organisation, trade-union or association
Adress
City
Postcode
Country
Tel Fax
E-mail
List ��transattac���:
We drew up a list which allows us to exchange informations
about struggles of the different countries and continents
and to prepare at the same time the international meeting
of June 99 in concret terms.
I want to enrole my mon organisation in the Transattac list
I want to enter my name in the Transattac list
Name Surname
E-mail
International department:
Attac, 9 bis rue de Valence
75005 Paris - FRANCE
Tel. 00 33 (O)1 43 36 30 54
Fax. 00 33 (0)1 43 36 26 26
E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
______________________________________________________________
DAVOS REVISITED
The policies applied in recent years and initiated by the "global
leaders" present at the Davos meetings - policies defined by the
GATT/WTO (World Trade Organisation), of the IMF (International
Monetary Fund) and the World Bank - have led to a distribution of
resources which is inefficient, unequal, "illiberal" and unjust.
This had led in turn to a hectic race for profits and the appropriation
- by a few people - of most of the world's riches and to the devastation
of the planet's eco-system.
Today "Davos people" recognize they were wrong. However, they continue
as thought the current functioning of a capitalist market economy, free
and unregulated, is the only option.
The four networks which have initiated this meeting believe that the
"globalization" of resistance and struggle is imperative. Everywhere
women and men are challenging the supposed inevitability of the present
system. Building alternatives is possible today, based on their experiences
and creativity.
Faced with the challenges with which the globalization of capital
confronts us, we are encouraged and strengthened by the resistance
and movements which we represent and with which we are in solidarity.
We shall co-ordinate our efforts and increase the pressures we bring
to bear on the system. It is time to strike back.
Commerce and Investment. Building on our initial victory over the MAI
(Multi-lateral Agreement on Investment), we oppose the plan to transfer
an almost unchanged text to the WTO or the TEP (Trans-Atlantic Economic
Partnership), and to the "Millenium Round" of the WTO. All these plans
are based on the subordination of political power to transnational capital.
International Financial System. We demand cancellation of the debt of
all Third World countries and those of central and eastern Europe.
The international financial system and its institutions should be
completely overturned and be subordinate to political democracy.
The "independence" of central banks is unacceptable. We demand the
elimination of tax havens, and the application of taxes on financial
transactions, for example the " Tobin tax ".
Development. We must break with the destructive structural adjustment
policies of the international financial institutions such as the IMF,
the World Bank, London and Paris clubs, and to rethink and reconstitute
a new international financial system based on a fair allocation of
resources for the basic needs of peoples, based on justice and freedom.
Peace and security. The overail policy of double standards in interna-
tional relationships is unacceptable, whether in international law or
in the application of United Nations resolutions, or in embargoes
imposed on peoples. The system of the United Nations must be democratized.
Rights and liberties. These demands cannot be separated from the
guarantee of civil, trade union and pohitical rights, nor from equal
rights between women and men, as well as the extension of individual
and collective rights to social, economic and- ecological domains,
as proposed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We propose many alternatives at different levels. They are rooted in
social needs and the fair allocation of wealth produced by work. Their
airn is to re-embed the economy in society, and to safeguard the future
of the biosphere. The principles of the social economy must prevail
this wilI entail agrarian reform, safeguarding the collective rights
of citizens and workers, guaranteeing freedom to travel and to settle,
improving systems of social protection, promoting public and civic
responsibility, improving and adapting health and educational institutions,
radically reducing spending on armaments while organizing the conversion
of these industries to civilian use.
They speak of the " invisible hand" of the market. We stress the hands
and the intelligence of women and men. These hands and these minds are
building today's economy, which generations to corne will inherit.
Against the oppression and arrogance of the powerful, the outlines of
a new world are being drawn. In this world, citizens and workers will
decide on the distribution of wealth and the organization of work.
They will be in charge of the future.
In this spirit we declare our support for several initiatives. Many are
already underway (see attached list). We shall also organize a major
international meeting in Paris between June 24 and 26, 1999, to share
experiences of struggle in different countries and to decide on future
common actions.
------
Who are we ?
- ATTAC (Association for taxation of financial transactions to aid
citizens), France and the group ATTAC-Suisse : a citizen's movement
to disarm the financial powers.
- CCCAMI (Co-ordination against the clones of MAI), France.
- WFA (World Forum for Alternatives), Senegal, Belgium, Canada.
- FUNDE (member of SAPRIN, Structural Adjustment Participatory Review
International Network).
Six social movements, from various continents, representing varjous
kinds of resistance took part in the meeting :
- MST (Movement ofthe Landless), Brazil;
- FENOP (National Federation of Peasant Organisations), Burkina Faso;
- PICIS (Policy and Information Centre for International Solidarity),
South Korea;
- The Movement of the Unemployed and those without rights in France;
- The women's movement in Canada and Quebec;
- Karnathaka State Farmers~ Association of India.
There were also a dozen analysts from five continents, economists,
sociologists, historians, philosophers, citizens, trade unionists,
politicians - all concerned with the future of humanity.
--
ATTAC International working list - Liste de travail internationale
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