98-04-27: Letter from the PGA secretariat
Dears,
Things are getting hot in the run-up to the days of action against "free" trade that will take place parallel to the G8 meeting in Birmingham (16-17 May) and the 2nd Ministerial Conference of the WTO and the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of GATT (18-20 May).
You should have received already the PGA bulletin #1 with information about the upcoming actions (as well as the draft manifesto and a small report of the 1st PGA conference). If you didn't get it, visit http://www.agp.org - you will find out about the upcoming demonstration of half a million in India, the worldwide mobilisation of fisherfolk, the global call for street parties on the 16th, the different actions planned for Geneva (including the mobilisation of the Swiss peasants, the French marches of the unemployed, the several hundred Italians that will join them, the German bike tours that will climb the Alps, etc), and the many other actions all over the world.
Regarding the actions in Geneva, we have fantastic news: several hundred Indian peasants will come to Geneva to join the protests! KRRS is organising a group (the size is not definitive yet, but it could be several hundreds) to bring the rage and rejection that many millions in India and the whole world feel about the WTO and neoliberal policies. We are still not sure whether the plans will work out (the visas are still pending) but they and we are working on it!
With this message we want to encourage you to participate in these mobilisations, in case you are not yet involved. If you want to join the millions mobilising in these days against the globalisation of misery, please let us know at press-action@agp.org (we might be able to put you in contact with people mobilising in your area).
If you want to do something but do not know what, here you have some ideas, in order of increasing difficulty:
1. Phoning different media in your country or region before the 16th to find out who will be covering the WTO ministerial, and keeping these journalists informed of all the actions that will take place all over the world from the 16th to the 20th. If you want to do this, we will provide you the relevant materials (press dossier, releases, pictures, etc). If do not have time to act as contact person for the press, please send us anyhow their emails or fax numbers and we will send them the information from here.
2. Organising a public burning of the final act of the Uruguay Round of the GATT, by which the WTO was created, in a key place (e.g. in front of the parliament or local authority, in the office of a multinational, in the stock exchange, etc). It would be great if representatives of different sectors (farmers, industrial workers, indigenous peoples, women's organisations, etc) would participate in the burning. You can download the final act, which has one single page, at http://www.wto.org/wto/legal/03-fa.wp5
3. Organising a press conference with the people / organisations that participated in the burning, linking up the issues of WTO and economic globalisation with local issues and conflicts, and presenting also the global linkage of struggles with information about the other actions taking place all over the world at the same time.
4. Organising a direct action - e.g. squatting the office of a multinational corporation, a fast food restaurant or the parliament; organising a Reclaim the Streets! party (get in touch with rts@gn.apc.org for more information); etc.
If you are thinking about doing any of these things, please send us a message to press-action@agp.org with the following information:
- what you are planning to do (please do not include information on any "surprise" that you might be preparing - our email is definitely being "listened to")
- a brief presentation of your organisation (anything, even a press article) to include in the press dossier we will give to journalists
- the name of the person that we should be keeping contact with, if possible with a telephone number and an e-mail address
From the 10th or so of May there will be a new page about the actions around the world at the PGA web (http://www.agp.org).
One last detail: remember that the deadline for comments on the manifesto is coming soon (30 April). The final version of the manifesto will be done at the beginning of May. You can find the draft in the web page.
In solidarity,
The PGA Secretariat
manifesto-related questions: agpweb (AT) lists.riseup.net
information about PGA : info@agp.org
action proposals / press questions : press-action@agp.org