URGENT ATTENTION!
DATE AND LOCATION CHANGE FOR
PEOPLES' GLOBAL ACTION BUS TOUR - STOP PLAN COLOMBIA!!!
Seattle Caravan Bus
| former Bus-Tour Inv.
Plan Colombia |
Dear friends,
This is to inform you about some significant changes concerning the Peoples Global Action Tour to Build Resistance against Social, Cultural, and Political Genocide disguised as Plan Colombia as the War on Drugs in Latin America and north america that was tentatively scheduled from April 20th 2001 through June 12th, 2001.
Because of some problems concerning visas, logistics, and transportation it has been decided that the tour will now focus on five cities: Boston, NYC, Philadelphia and Washington, DC. The tour schedule is tentatively as follows : Washington DC - May 16th 19th, Philadelphia, PA- May 20th 22nd, New York City- May 23rd- 27th, and Boston, MA May 28th 30th, and Amherst MA June 1-3rd.
We apologize for those of you in cities that were originally scheduled and will not be part of the tour. However - all is not lost as this organizing tour is a prelude to a continental tour that will start in the fall of 2001 and include most cities in the United States and Canada.
This shortened tour will allow all the participating cities enough time to significantly build the organizing tour, and will allow for the knowledge accumulated during this abbreviated tour to be shared and discussed at the PGA north american meeting in Amherst. The PGA north american meeting can, in part, act as the organizing meeting for the fall tour, and hopefully create a sizeable working group to coordinate the tour, and to develop a long term strategy towards further organizing this movement.
So what can you do?
First! If you know any groups who should be participating in helping to organize the tour in the five cities that will be visited in May/June - please let us know by contacting us at napga@hotmail.com . Let us know the city, the group, an e-mail and phone number, and contact person. We would like to build these meetings in these five cities as broad as possible- both to further develop the network and to bring the most diverse representation of groups to the PGA meeting in Amherst, MA on June 1st - 3rd. At the Amherst, MA meeting, a long-term strategy for developing a sustained global action to stop Plan Colombia and to stop the criminalization of communities of color and poor and working class communities in the Latin and north america will be discussed.
Secondly! You can help organize for the Peoples' Global Action north american meeting! Your participation in the work groups at the PGA north american meeting on developing strategies to stop Plan Colombia will be instrumental in determining what cities the Fall organizing tour will visit. Locations for the fall tour will be determined and finalized at the PGA meeting in Amherst, MA based on an evaluation of the plenary work group as to the ability of infrastructure and funding of all requesting locations.
So IF you live in cities where the May tour will be visiting in the next few weeks - please let us know! If you know of groups that we should contact - please let us know. If you want to participate in decisions concerning the Fall PGA organizing tour - the Tour to Build Resistance against Social, Cultural, and Political Genocide disguised as Plan Colombia as the " War on Drugs in Latin America and north america", please register for PGA north american meeting now.
The list serve will act as a critical link in discussing planning of the current tour and discussion of the PGA north american meeting in Amherst, MA.. To join the list serve- e-mail us at pga-request@riseup.net (please include only the word "subscribe" without quotes in body of the letter).
See you in Amherst!
e-mail registration requests to napga@hotmail.com
.Tampa Bay Action Group/ PGA Stop Plan Colombia work group
Temporary co-convenors " Peoples' Global Action - north america
WHAT THE TOUR WILL FOCUS ON
This organizing tour brings together speakers who represent some of the most pro-active grass roots organizations in Latin America which have begun to create non-violent alternatives to capitalism with speakers representing Black, Latino, and working class organizations who are fighting against the criminalization of poor communities and communities of color here in the US. Discussion will focus on:
- How the US government uses 'the war on drugs' to criminalize communities of color and working class communities in the US, and how this is the same philosophy being used in attacking the Colombian people.
- The military and economic aspects of Plan Colombia and the relationship to corporate and national interests. How the military aspect of Plan Colombia is the other "arm" of "trade law" globalization.
- How "Plan Colombia" is the same 'arm of repression' that is being used in communities of color, indigenous communities, and working class communities in the US.
- The relationship of corporate contractors now running "welfare to work programs" and private prison systems in over ten states in the US and their role as major military contractors providing the weapon systems (under US government subsidies) for Plan Colombia.
- How Plan Colombia is being used to consolidate the privatization of water and land for the large multi-national corporations.
- The use of genetically engineered defoliants in Colombia
Come and help build this organizing tour! The goal in organizing these gatherings is to share information and to bring together groups who may have not worked together in the past, and to a) to build an ongoing network of radical/progressive groups to stop Plan Colombia and the criminalization of poor, working class, and communities of color in the US, b) build for the Americas' day of action, and c) to build support for the north american pga meeting June 1 -3 in Amherst, MA
Help build for the joint Latin American and north american direct actions to "stop Plan Colombia and to stop the criminalization of people in poor, working class, and communities of color in north and Latin america!"
In every city where there is opposition to Plan Colombia and the criminalization of communities of color and working class communities, there will be direct actions exposing that the war on drugs is nothing but a war on peoples movements.
Groups from Latin America Participating in the tour:
Proceso de Comunidades Negras: PCN have played a key role in the creation of the Afro-American network and in its involvement in international processes of coordinated resistance. The Black Communities Process (PCN) is one of the most important and creative autonomous movements of Colombia and Latin America. The PCN's struggle has been based on the recognition of cultural, ethnic (the right to their own identity) and collective territorial rights and seeks to challenge Western modernization and development efforts for the vast rainforest region of the Colombian Pacific coast.
The Colombian Pacific Coast is rich in natural resources (gold, timber, biodiversity, water, fish, etc) and of interest to both legal and illicit capitalist development. The Afrocolombian communities' collective land rights are an obstacle to globalization. As a result, these communities have been the targets of an intensified campaign of systematic violence and terror leading to their massive forced displacement. Afro Colombian people are the most affected among the 2 million forced internally displaced people in Colombia. As they leave behind their ancestral territories, these become available for extraction and exploitation by global interests.
The Black Peoples Process resists becoming symbols of an active and peaceful struggle facing a devastating process that has turned them into the main victims of genocide. As of May 2000, military and paramilitary violence against the Afro Colombian communities increased dramatically. Over 76 lives have been lost from May to December 2000.
ANUC-UR - Colombia - National Association of Peasants - ANUC-UR is an independent rural organization affiliated with Via Campesina (as well as with the Movemento Sem Terra in Brazil). In spite of the assassination of a large number of its leaders, the peasants claim their rights by peaceful means. At this difficult time they are faced with a gigantic battle against agricultural reform being carried out by paramilitary groups and the Convivir security cooperatives. The ANUC-UR has been the main support for families forced into exile including those of Bellacruz, a property owned by the Ex-ambassador of Colombia in Brussels.
Organizacion Femmina Popular O.F.P.. Colombia - The OFP, Popular Women's Organization is one of the most visible and exemplary women organizations in Colombia. Established in Barrancabermeja, home of the largest oil refinery in Colombia and to the strongest popular social organizations and Unions in the country, the town is the victim of the worse crimes against humanity in Colombia. The May 1998 massacre in Barrancabermeja, one of many against unarmed civilians by military and paramilitary forces, led to the Toronto and Montreal tribunals where Canadian jurors heard evidence of military involvement in this atrocities. The October 2000 Women's Path for Peace rally took place in Barrancabermeja and was hosted by the OFP. This organization has worked for justice and reciprocity from interpersonal to collective, national and international relationships. Their leaders have led Unions, strikes, research projects, political projects, educational and organizational national and international solidarity efforts. They have fallen victims of state and paramilitary terror. Yet, they remain an example of strength and commitment against insurmountable obstacles.
Movimiento de la Juventud Kuna; the youth movement of the Kuna people of Panama, one of the first Latin American indigenous peoples to obtain self-governance. . GOAL: To fortify the viability of the way of Kuna life. 2. GENERAL MISSION To equip Kuna Youth with the instruments necessary to fulfill the goal. 3. OBJECTIVES ESPECIFICOS
- To create and to foment in Kuna Youth the spirit of human solidarity between the towns.
- To promote actually in theory and of educative activities that contribute to the taking of individual conscience and collective on the damages that cause the social problems.
- To take active part in the development from civic, cultural, social and moral the well-being of the community.
- To provide a forum for the free and ample discussion with all subject of public interest, except the partisan policy.
- To promote to responsible people in the community and to stimulate the efficiency and development of ethics elevated in the social life.
- To organize and to execute compatible cultural and recreational activities to the principles of the Movement of Kuna Youth.
- To promote, to organize, to program in activities the young people so that they become aware on the damages that cause to the environmental contamination and the destruction of the ecosystem.
- To establish relations and interchanges of experience with as much as international compatible national organisms.
Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE): the backbone of indigenous organizing in Ecuador for decades; the main peasant movement in Ecuador, strongly involved in the take-over of the Parliament in January 2000. The CONAIE is an independent organization, does not depend on a political party, nor on state, foreign or religious institutions. The CONAIE responds to the historical necessity to fight by the rights of the indigenous towns to construct a plurinacional state. The indigenous nationalities we are towns that we have a same origin, a common history, own languages, and that we are prevailed by own laws.
The CONAIE supports the specific fights of the communities like the one to equip with potable water and fight against governmental policies that attempt against the indigenous towns. Thousands of natives we have risen pacifically and with dignity, to make listen to our voices.
PGA web page www.agp.org
IF YOU WANT TO HELP ORGANIZE THE TOUR CONTACT napga@hotmail.com
OR CALL 727-896-8224