PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT
FAIR TRADE NOT FREE TRADE
PROTECT LABOR RIGHTS, HUMAN RIGHTS, THE ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC HEALTH
ASSEMBLE
Friday, November 9, 2001, 10:00 a.m., Edward R. Murrow Park (across from the World Bank HQ), Pennsylvania Ave. & 19th St., NW, Washington DC
MARCH
11:00 a.m., through the streets of DC to the State Department in Foggy Bottom through the campus of George Washington University to the doorstep of the US Trade Representative at 17th and Penn. (Route subject to change.)
SHOUT OUT!
12:30 p.m. until . . .
at the U.S. Trade Representative's Office, 17th and Pennsylvania (one block from the White House)
Remind Free Trade Zealot Zoellick (US Trade Representative) what we're there for--let them hear it in Qatar.
ACTION against global kneejerk corporate capitalism
ACTION against the US Trade Representative
ACTION against the World Trade Organization
SOLIDARITY with other resisters against corporate hegemony worldwide
SOLIDARITY with the unrepresented citizens of the Global South (and Washington, DC!)
SOLIDARITY with victims of unchecked corporate greed everywhere
BRING signs, banners, incriminating facts and figures, drums, copies of the US Constitution and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, other instruments of musical resistance, amplification
BRING someone who has never demonstrated before
BRING recording devices (photo, audio, video)
BRING proposed alternatives to the status quo, and the courage of your convictions.
On November 9 through 13th, the World Trade Organization will be meeting in the country of Qatar to open a new round of agreements aimed ostensibly at reducing trade barriers between countries. Don't be fooled, this organization, along with its sinister sister organizations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, is hell bent on pushing the agenda of the corporate lobbyists that ply its hallways day in day out. Dozens upon dozens of impoverished countries are forced to accept the dismantling of welfare state protections in exchange for loans and grudging — and limited — access to wealthy countries' markets. It's a lopsided battle at the bargaining table that impoverished countries are likely to lose. And, not surprisingly, human rights activists, labor unionists and environmentalists will definitely lose because civil society (unlike the multinational corporations) is not even at the bargaining table. If these talks are successful, the rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer and sicker, and the environment will be raped and pillaged at an even faster rate.
Two years after the surging crowds of demonstrators against the WTO in Seattle, this meeting will take place in Qatar, a country that does not allow public dissent. The WTO intentionally chose this venue so that it could avoid the embarassment of having the American people rise up against it for all the world to see. In any country that allows public demonstrations, it would have been faced with public embarassment. But it has learned its lesson and has become an even more secretive and undemocratic organization than it already was. Now, not only will all decisions be made behind closed doors, but there will be no crowds banging on those doors to be let in.
Congratulations to the WTO: it has ruled that dissent is an illegal barrier to trade.
The U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick has engaged in a full court press for the past three weeks to persuade Congress that free trade is a crucial weapon in the fight against terrorism. (We're not making this up.) He wants Congress to pass "Fast Track" legislation now so that he can negotiate at the WTO with the knowledge that Congress will not meddle with the final agreement. He has been leading opposition to a document on patent protection and drug access issued by 60 poor WTO member countries who are seeking relief from the AIDS epidemic, among other things. Zoellich the Zealot is the number one free trade pusher in this country and deserves to hear the voice of the people rather than whispered instructions from the corporations for once.
Please join the Mobilization of Global Justice and friends in confronting the purveyors of corporate hegemony and global hypocrisy.
PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT!
FAIR TRADE NOT FREE TRADE!
PROTECT LABOR RIGHTS, HUMAN RIGHTS, THE ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC HEALTH!
For more information, visit www.globalizethis.org
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Global Action against WTO
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