April 11, 2000
Subject: Green Files #10: JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL ON "TRUE LOVE" + MoveOn petitioning the U.S. auto industry to build real fuel efficient cars + "Mobilization Against Corporate Globalization:" -- Round II + SEATTLE II
Hello everyone
Here are first the most eloquent words of a celebrated activist who remained for 738 consecutive days up in a giant sequoia tree in California to protect it from the chainsaw. I saw her tonight on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. She was fabulous and is a most wonderful being!
Then I also included a complementary suggestion to create a real "Gas-Out".
And after this you'll find what I sent last week to my worldwide mainstream media list (over 962 recipients). On the BBC news tonight they have shown the beginning of the week of protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington DC and the training in Florida of lots of people with the Ruckus organization who were so successful in staging very effective demos in Seattle. The chief of police is expecting just as much "action" this week as what took place in Seattle. Let's all hope that this time it will remain non-violent and that there will be no police brutality.
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
P.S. I received *numerous* feedbacks on my last post of the "Fail Safe" movie and will send them to all of you soon.
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000
From: Earth Day Mom <earthday@earthdayspirit.org>
Subject: EARTH DAY 2000 with JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL: "TRUE LOVE"
EARTH DAY 2000 with JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL: "TRUE LOVE"
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2000/2000L-04-05-01.html
[This special interview with Julia Butterfly Hill is part of the
Environment News Service Earth Day 30th Anniversary Newsmaker
Series.]
<SNIP>
In Hill's view, the point of Earth Day is love. "I compare Earth
Day to days like Valentines Day. We should love each other every
single day. Sometimes we get so hurried and busy in our lives that we
need a gentle reminder to stop and be still and take a moment to
think about those we cherish and find a way to show our appreciation.
To me that's what Earth Day's about" she told ENS.
"The frustration is that many of the corporations are latching
onto it that are doing horrific things to the environment,
greenwashing themselves, donating money to various Earth Day events
and saying, 'See, we're good stewards.' But this is our time as
conscious people to say, 'You need to do more. Throwing money at us
is not going to save the planet. You have to hold yourself
accountable for your actions, and that's how we're going to protect
the Earth.'"
For the future Hill hopes that "with each Earth Day we have a
platform that we build upon, a springboard that we spring from and
launch ourselves further and further into mainstream consciousness of
making the Earth a priority in our lives."
Her message is simple, "Love the Earth, and love each other."
"Love in our society has been devalued," Hill says. "To me,
love, spirituality and life are all the same thing. To me they're
all about honoring the circle, and they're just different ways of
defining the same understanding. Our society as a whole, because we
have placed our love for money above our love for life, has devalued
the sacred and devalued love."
"I've had difficulties with the message because some people
react violently to it. They don't think it's progressive enough for a
movement. They don't think it's active. Love is the most active thing
I know - a true love is. True love is what made me sit in that tree
for 738 days to protect it. Love is what gives me the strength to
keep going day after day, when I'm very human and sometimes I want to
go crawl in bed and not get out for a month."
"Love is an important message. As we talk about what's wrong in
our world, we have to talk about what's right. As we point those who
are making mistakes, we have to promote the solutions. We have to
embody them. To me, love is the only way to do that. When you love
something or someone, you not only will not destroy it, you'll do
everything in your power to protect it," she says.
NOTE FROM JEAN: I SUBSCRIBED TO DAILY GRIST AND TRULY ENJOY THEIR SHORT NEWS SUMMARIES. JULIA HILL WAS CERTAINLY INSTRUMENTAL IN THE RECOMMENDATION TO PROTECT 355,000 ACRES OF NATIONAL FORESTS IN THE U.S. LET'S HOPE CLINTON WILL ACTUALLY HEED THIS RECOMMENDATION
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000
From: Grist Magazine <grist@gristmagazine.com>
Subject: DAILY GRIST, April 10, 2000
DAILY GRIST
April 10, 2000
News summaries from GRIST MAGAZINE
http://www.gristmagazine.com
1.
GO WITH THE PHLOEM
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman recommended on Friday that President Clinton give national monument status to 355,000 acres of national forest in California's Sierra Nevadas, a move that would safeguard about half of the giant sequoia groves remaining in the U.S. Federal policy already forbids the cutting of massive sequoias, but Glickman suggested that logging of other nearby trees be banned as well because such logging can harm the sequoia groves. Clinton is expected to designate the Sequoia National Monument soon, perhaps on Earth Day, April 22. He can do so without Congressional approval. Talk of the move is angering some House Republicans, who claim it will hurt the timber industry.
straight to the source: New York Times, Barbara Whitaker, 04.09.00
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/040900sci-sequoias-preserve.html
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Bettina Boxall, 04.08.00
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environ/20000408/t000033090.html
To subscribe to DAILY GRIST, go at http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/daily/" or send a blank email message to daily-grist-subscribe@egroups.com.
Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2000
From: Carol Geary <caroling@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: "Car-Out" Days!!!! Not Gas Out Days!
Hi, I just got this message from the "move on" folks. It seems right in tune with "gas prices are way too low"! This is a quote from the email:
"Dear MoveOn petitioner,
You've probably heard about the proposed "Gas Out" (April 7th - 9th) - where citizens are urged not to buy gasoline for a three day period. It's great that so many people want to act, but what about the root problem?
Automakers in Detroit could be making cars that get 40-70 miles per gallon, including family cars and SUVs. If we were driving these cars, we could cut our gas costs in half, not to mention clean up our air. Automakers overseas are now ready to mass-produce cars that get up to 60 mpg - why can't Detroit?
American car companies say that consumers don't care about fuel efficiency. We need to set them straight.
You can do something that will really help. MoveOn has joined a grassroots alliance called GreenCar.org to lobby the auto industry. At GreenCar.org you can instantly send a FREE postcard to automakers. Go to: http://www.greencar.org/moveon
A three day Gas Out? How about a real gas out! Send that free postcard in today. And send THIS message out to everyone who wants to a make a real difference about this issue. Don't send this message indiscriminately. Spam hurts the campaign.
-Wes Boyd MoveOn.org
HERE IS NOW A COPY OF WHAT I SENT LAST WEEK TO MY WORLDWIDE MEDIA LIST:
Hello
Here is some timely information on the next round of public protests against Corporate Globalization. If you did not see Seattle I coming, now you have a chance to prepare for Seattle II, the sequel. And you even have in the first article all the needed elements to explain - if you care to do so or if you are allowed by your boss to do so... - why there should be massive public resistance to current globalization efforts underway.
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
P.S. May I also recommend you read the article "Oil is well with Bush" posted at: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_excomm/20000316_xex_oil_well_wit.shtml
If you still had any illusion regarding the fair play of U.S. elections, you'll lose them...
The article below was excerpted from Z magazine
"Mobilization Against Corporate Globalization" -- Round II
by Mark Weisbrot
The demonstrations against the WTO [World Trade Organization] in
Seattle were probably among the most effective protests in modern
American history. The sequel - on April 16 in Washington, DC, at the
IMF/World Bank spring meetings - may have an even greater impact
on the world.
The main reason that these demonstrations can be so effective
is that U.S. FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICY CANNOT WITHSTAND
the kind of PUBLIC SCRUTINY that is brought to bear when protest
reaches a certain CRITICAL MASS. [emphasis added]
The point was brought home when President Clinton made his
speech endorsing the concept of labor rights enforceable by
trade sanctions, the day after Seattle protesters made good on
their promise to "shut down the WTO." That speech effectively
ended the millennium round of WTO negotiations, at leas for
some time.
And it did more than that. Hand-wringing by the world's financial
and economic elite dominated the World Economic Forum in
Davos a month later. "Those who heard a wake-up call in Seattle got the
right message," said Clinton. Others expressed similar views -- they had
discovered that they would have to make some concessions to the opposition if
they were to proceed with their project.
These pronouncements represent an important development, but not because any
substantive reforms are on the agenda. Clinton's plan for including labor
rights in the WTO would take decades to implement -- anything that far off in
the future can hardly be taken seriously enough to be called reform. Indeed,
the WTO is not set up to regulate trade in the interests of the environment
or labor, and it would surely be scuttled before it took on responsibilities
so completely alien to the goals of its creators.
The globalizers' new willingness to talk to their opposition is important
because it represents an impasse in the process, and one that they have now
been forced to come to terms with. THIS SHOWS THE POWER OF A UNITED
OPPOSITION, AND WHAT IT CAN ACCOMPLISH if it continues along its present
path. [e.a.]
Now another wake-up call has been scheduled, this time directed to the IMF
and the World Bank, with large-scale protests planned for April 16 (See
www.A16.org) The Fund and the Bank are many times more powerful than the
WTO, in that they actually dictate the most important economic policies
adopted by more than 50 countries. The DAMAGE THAT THESE INSTITUTIONS DO IS
INCALCULABLE. [e.a.] Their programs have caused and worsened economic
crises, and toppled governments. (Lacking a sense of irony, the Fund
actually tried to claim credit for helping to bring down Suharto in
Indonesia; which they did do, in their own roundabout way, by wrecking the
economy to the point that the country became ungovernable). They have
exacerbated unemployment and poverty, and perhaps most harmful over the long
run, they have helped to prevent most of the underdeveloped world from
pursuing the economic strategies that they would need to pull themselves out
of poverty.
But the same relations that make the IMF the most powerful institution in the
world are also the source of its vulnerability. Its POWER RESTS ON the
mostly informal ARRANGEMENT IN WHICH NATIONS THAT ARE POOR OR IN ECONOMIC
CRISIS MUST AGREE TO IMPLEMENT THE FUND'S ECONOMIC POLICIES, or be denied
credit from the WORLD BANK, other multi-lateral agencies, and often private
sources as well. If the IMF is subjected to the kind of PUBLIC CRITICISM
that followed the Seattle protests, THIS AGREEMENT WILL SURELY BEGIN TO
UNRAVEL. [e.a.]
Readers of this magazine do not need to be reminded of our government's long
and sordid history of destroying scores of movements or governments that were
dedicated to democracy or national economic development. But the violence
that Washington has used to snuff out these flames of hope -- from Sandino's
Nicaraguan resistance in the 1930's to Haiti's first democratically-elected
government in 1991 -- is their last resort. The IMF is the CIA and Pentagon
of international finance.
Moreover, the Fund is also by far the most powerful and damaging adversary of
the labor movement in the United States. For all the reasons that labor
opposed NAFTA and the WTO, the IMF is even more threatening to the direct
needs and interests of American workers.
The IMF imposes NAFTA-like conditions on countries whenever it can. Just as
NAFTA made it easier for U.S. corporations to move their operations to
Mexico, the IMF makes it easier for them to move almost anywhere in the
world. IT FORCES GOVERNMENTS TO REWRITE THEIR LAWS, as NAFTA did to Mexico,
so that they are more favorable to foreign investors. This drives down wages
everywhere, and especially in countries like the U.S., where businesses can
threaten to move when workers try to unionize or demand higher pay. It also
leads to job losses when these employers actually move their operations out
of the country.
The IMF also pressures countries to produce for export rather than for
domestic markets. This can cause a glut of manufactured or agricultural
goods on world markets, driving down prices, encouraging "dumping," and
putting more downward pressure on wages. Many of the thousands of
steelworkers who lost their jobs over the last two years are casualties of
IMF policies in countries like South Korea, Russia, and Brazil.
Many union activists are aware of the damage that the IMF does to labor, and
there is a great deal of support for the April 16 actions especially among
those unions who were most strongly opposed to the WTO, such as the
Steelworkers and Teamsters. The protests will help to highlight these issues.
As the IMF gets dragged into the spotlight, the nature of the discussion will
change. This is what happened with the WTO: although much of the press
coverage of Seattle missed the point of the protests, there were also
advances in the way some of the issues were framed. The New York Times, for
example, ran articles that explained the protesters' point of view on labor
and environmental issues. The WTO's aggressive attempts to expand the
monopolistic protection of intellectual property rights (e.g., pharmaceutical
patents), as the WTO does through its TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights) agreement, was increasingly noticed to be
inconsistent with its supposed commitment to free trade and international
competition.
The IMF will be more difficult to defend than the WTO. While the rich
countries dominate the WTO, power is even more concentrated in the Fund,
which is mainly run by the U.S. Treasury department.
Currently, the press still treats the Fund as though it were an international
lender of last resort that "bails out" countries in trouble, encouraging them
to adopt "sound macroeconomic policies." But its fiascoes on three
continents over the past two and half years -- in Asia, Russia, and Brazil --
have already begun to undermine this myth. In Asia, the Fund's major
accomplishment was to force the governments of major borrowers like South
Korea and Indonesia to guarantee the debt of private banks and corporations.
Its macroeconomic policies were anything but sound, and roundly criticized by
prominent economists such as Joseph Stiglitz (who, not coincidentally, was
forced to resign from his position of Chief Economist at the World Bank last
December). The Fund's expensive, counter-productive, and ultimately futile
attempts TO FIX THE EXCHANGE RATES OF THE RUSSIAN RUBLE AND THE BRAZILIAN
REAL also raised further questions about its competence.
Russian ruble and the Brazilian real also raised further questions about
its competence.
These cracks in the consensus that has shielded the Fund and the Bank from
public criticism will widen after April 16. Since Washington is the leader
of the effort to remake the world according to the needs of global
corporations, PROTESTS ON THE HOME FRONT HAVE AN ENORMOUS IMPACT. [e.a.] It
is also possible that the dissension among the developed countries, which was
a significant factor in the collapse of the WTO's ambitious agenda in
Seattle, will increase. Europe and Japan have long wanted to have more of a
voice in the Fund; at present THEY HAVE VERY LITTLE, despite having a
combined voting power that is formally greater than that of the U.S.
North-South conflict within the IMF and the Bank may also widen, as it has
within the WTO, with Southern governments increasingly challenging the
colonial nature of these institutions.
The World Bank has also become the target of a newly launched international
campaign to boycott its bonds, through which it raises 80 percent of its
capital. Organized on the model of the divestment movement that helped bring
down apartheid in South Africa, the movement has already attracted more than
100 organizations from 29 countries. "Our intention is to turn the weapon of
denial of funds -- the same weapon the Bank uses so frequently and with such
destructive effect -- against the Bank," announced 50 Years Is Enough, the
U.S. coalition that has been fighting IMF and World Bank policies since 1994.
The April protests will also be a rallying point for this promising campaign.
There will be other battles in Washington that week, many of whose
participants and leaders are working closely with the April 16 coalition.
One is the movement for Third World debt relief, which will bring thousands
of people to Washington on April 9 to form a symbolic human chain around the
Treasury, the Capital, the IMF, and the World Bank. Led by Jubilee 2000
organizations throughout the world, this movement has been gathering
increasing support for canceling the debt of the world's poorest countries.
The mobilization this spring will boost this worthy cause as well. A word of
caution, however: debt relief administered by the IMF and the Bank, in which
poor countries are forced to submit to years of "structural adjustment
programs" in order to qualify for limited debt relief, could easily do more
harm than good. This is the current arrangement under the IMF/WB's Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) program, and most of the organizations
fighting for debt relief in the global South have gone on record against it.
The other major battlefront will be over China's entry into the WTO, and here
there is again enormous overlap and joint events with the IMF/WB protests.
Although there have been concerns raised from within the progressive
community that this opposition not degenerate into "China-bashing," there is
no reason that it should. There was a solid coalition of labor,
environmentalists, and other progressives against expanding the U.S.-Canada
Free Trade Agreement to include Mexico. It was not a struggle against Mexico
-- quite the contrary, Mexican trade unionists and progressives allied with
their U.S. counterparts to fight an agreement that now appears to have
lowered real wages and increased environmental destruction on both sides of
the border. Similarly, this is not a battle against China, but rather
against an enormous and downward-harmonizing expansion of the WTO. Business
groups are spending millions of dollars to lobby for this expansion, in the
hope that it will breathe new life into the gravely wounded TWO.
The weakening of the strangle-hold that the IMF, World Bank, and WTO now have
on economic policy in much of the world will open up new possibilities for
countries to pursue the many paths to economic development that are currently
blocked. If history is any guide, even one or two successful examples will
inspire many others. The deathly slogan, "There is No Alternative," that
Washington made the epitaph of the last two decades may well give way to a
new century of hope.
Z
Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
in Washington D.C.
SEE ALSO the "Platform for World Bank to Stop Funding Oil, Mining and Gas" proposed for endorsement by Friends of the Earth-US and posted at:
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/EndorsePlatform.htm
CLIP - I INCLUDED LARGE EXCERPTS IN MY EMAILING TO THE MEDIA LIST BUT I'VE TAKEN THEM OUT HERE SINCE I ALREADY SENT THIS TO YOU RECENTLY.
Subject: Seattle II
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000
From: Richardson_D <Richardson_D@bls.gov>
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 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
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.
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 a16-international-planning-subscribe@egroups.com or visit the coalition website at http://www.a16.org.