Wednesday May 9, 55 persons occupied the offices of CitiBank (Geneva) to protest the escalating massacres of Afrocolombians on the Pacific coast (more than 300 dead on the Rio Naya for Easter and several thousand refugees). We chose to confront a multinational bank because we think that an urgent strategic objective is to make the link between " globalisation " (which far too many people still think is basically a question of economics, decisions made at WTO, IMF, etc.) and the terror campaigns, so called "low level" wars and occasional genocides which the " globalisers " don't hesitate to use against their most determined adversaries.

Today, the most powerful movements of rebellion are in the Andes : Ecuador, Bolivia and Colombia. If the United States is allowed to drown these revolts in blood, that will probably be a decisive blow to the new wave of anti-capitalist revolt going around the world. (Already paramilitary attacks are starting in Bolivia.) That is why we chose a multinational rather than the Colombian or US diplomatic missions. There is a saying in french : " Its better to talk directly to God than to his saints " (or rather, to Satan than his devils).

We chose CitiBank because it admits to doing from 100 million to half a billion $ of business a year in Colombia, which makes it one of the big financial players (see www.coinvertir.col for an index of the 400 biggest foreign investors in Colombia) in Colombia, and the biggest at hand in downtown Geneva. CitiBank is already known for investing in particularly anti-ecological, anti-social activities (see Rain Forest Action Network www.ran.org and www.columbiasupport.net) and has been involved in at least three famous drug money laundering operations, one of them for the Salinas (ex-Mexican president) clan. There was until recently (rats !) a whole hacked CitiBank/CitiGroup web.page, a parody of their own, done by TWDC (Together We Can Defeat Capitalism) artists collective (contact andycox@earthlink.net).

We were only counting on about a dozen people to actually go in, but on Wednesday almost 100 people showed up for the demo, and when we started running into the building, more than half just followed us in ! And everyone really happy to be there. Every time another thunderstruck executive stepped out of the elevator people would sing " Happy birthday to you ! ".

Our demands :

• The Bank, not at all keen to have us arrested and thereby increase the already unwanted publicity, offered to negotiate our withdrawal. Of course we could have asked for them to withdraw their investments, or the end of the Plan Colombia, or of capitalism, but after some discussion we decided to make a demand that would seem totally acceptable to any normal human being, but which would be VERY hard for a banker to envision.
• So we said that we would leave if the Bank - or even the head of the Bank speaking as an individual - (see how reasonable we are ?) would make a simple statement to the press saying that the impunity granted to the paramilitary killers by the government of Colombia was unacceptable and that it was clearly unethical to continue investing in an industrial setting where a union organiser is killed every three days or in agriculture on lands whose real inhabitants are driven off by systematic terror campaigns.
• Imagine a banker saying that to the press ! Imagine him refusing to say it ! The vice-president of the Bank chewed on this dilemna for about five hours, making ridiculous counter suggestions, hoping that we would get hungry (but we called out for some pizza) or that we would finally back down to threats of arrest.
• Two hours after closing time he finally brought us a fax from european headquarters in London saying that Citibank was " a good corporate citizen whose behavior adheres to the highest standards of a global financial institution " (which of course is not very difficult) and that they would " respond in writing in due course " concerning our question ! Of course it was no deal, so the police finally carted us away for a night in solitary confinement.

But that gave us an idea :
We have decided to go back regularly, to get the answer to our question:
Do they approve or not approve of investing in this sort of conditions?
But if you want, you can all go to your local Citibanks to ask for the answer, in all sorts of ways and guises! After all - transparency oblige - we should at least get answers to such simple questions!

There are around a hundred CitiBanks around the world and a quick look just at the list of the " Private Banking " (ie money laundering) branches shows that there are PGA related groups in twenty of them : Belo Horizonte, Berlin, Bogota, Bordeaux, Boston, Buenos Aires, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico, Milan, New York, Palm Beach, Paris, Seattle, Toronto, Valencia, Vancouver, Lausanne, Lugano, Zurich. There's even one in Porto Allegre!

In case this interests you, we are attaching the CitiBank's fax so they will be able to find the dossier right away. Or tell them to contact M. Lancin, Vice-President of the Geneva Citibank. Hopefully it won't take them five hours every time, but take a sandwich, just in case ! Consult CITYBANK.COM and CITYGROUP.COM to find your nearest friendly banker.

Or of course you could ask the same question to ANOTHER MULTINATIONAL involved in Colombia. Obviously BP and United Brands (Chiquita) which were among the first to finance the paramilitaries, or OXY, Exxon, etc., would be excellent. The Coinvertir web page lists the 400 biggest. We think that it could be a good way to continue and enlarge the campaign currently launched to stop public european financing of Plan Colombia (" Not a euro for state terrorism in Colombia ! "). Multinationals may well be more sensitive to bad publicity than the US, European or Colombian government and such a campaign would point to multinational capitalism as the real enemy - the fundamental cause of what's going on in Colombia - and make directly the link with the anti-globalisation movement in general.

One thing is sure. We have to act NOW to help our friends in Colombia. Yesterday came news that the paramilitaries have kidnapped 150 agricultural workers in the Arauca region and there are rumors of a new massacre on the Pacific coast.

There is a proposal already out in Europe to do coordinated local actions to welcome Bush to Europe (10 -12 june).

Hasta la Victoria!
APCM

FRANCAIS
Je résume le propos...

Mondialisation: l'envers sanglant du décor

Le 9 mai nous avons occupé la CitiBank à Genève pour protester contre les massacres sans précédent en Colombie (plus de 300 personnes sur el rio Naya à Pâques). Nous avons décidé d'agir contre une banque multinationale parce que

1. "A qui profite le crime?": les bénéficiaires et responsables finaux de ces massacres sont les multis et les banques qui les financent, puisqu'il s'agit fondamentalement d'exproprier les paysans pour développer l'agri-business d'exportation, les megaprojets minières, barrages, etc.
2. Il est essentiel de faire clairement le lien entre mondialisation et la terreur en Colombie, car pour l'opinion la mondialisation c'est encore qu'une histoire de libre échange, etc. Elle ne comprends pas jusques où Bush et cie sont prêts à aller.
3. Si ils écrasent la révolte la plus puissante, celle des les pays andins (Bolivie, Ecuador, Colombie), on pourra toujours s'amuser à Seattle et Prague - le mouvement aura reçu un coup décisif.

CitiBank était un bon choix parce qu'ils annoncent de 100 - 500 millions de $ par an de chiffre d'affaires en Colombie. Ce qui en fait de gros joueurs labas. La vérité c'est surement pire puisqu'ils se sont déjà fait piqué trois fois pour lavage d'argent sale dans la région (une fois pour les Salinas).

Nous n'avons pas de raison de croire qu'ils financent directement les paramilitaires mais DE TOUTE FACON toute investissment multinational a) sème la misère et le chômage dans ces conditions b) bénéficie des prix et salaires imbattables produit par un régime de terreur. Ce qu'on sait c'est qu'ils sont déjà dénoncé pour des opérations particulierement destructrices pour l'environnement et anti-sociaux (cf références dans texte anglais).

Notre action et proposition:

A notre étonnement, l'occupation a duré presque 6 heures, car la banque tenait beaucoup à ne pas porter plainte. Elle offrait de négocier avec nous. Après discussion nous avons décidé que ce serait plus malin de ne pas faire des demandes maximales (justes par ailleurs), style arrêt du Plan Colombia, mais au contraire demander une chose qui paraitrait aller de soi pour quiconque n'est pas banquier.
Nous avons donc dit que nous étions d'accord de partir si la banque (ou même le chef de la branche locale en tant que personne) faisait une déclaration à la presse disant qu'il serait éthiquement impossible de continuer d'investir dans un pays où les tueurs paramilitaires bénéficient d'une telle impunité, s'appropriant les terres, tuant un syndicaliste tout les 3 jours, etc., puisque dans ces conditions tous les investissements bénéficient forcément - directement ou indirectement - de ce climat de terreur...

Etre placé dans le dilemne de dire cela ou de ne pas le dire les a complètement paralysés. Comment justifier de ne pas le dire? Mais dire un truc pareil serait envoyer un signal fort embetant au gouvernement colombien...

Finalement, ils nous ont présenté un fax ridicule (en pièce jointe) de Londres disant qu'ils nous répondraient... plus tard! Evidemment on n'a pas marché. Alors, ils se sont décidés à porter plainte (deux heures après la fermeture) et on a passé la nuit au poste.

Nous avons dit que nous reviendrions de temps en temps, pour chercher la réponse.
Mais il y a plus de 100 CITIBank dans le monde, donc si vous voulez vous pouvez aussi aller la chercher!

Ou bien vous pouvez poser la meme question à une AUTRE multinationale (voir liste).

Il y a une proposition pour faire des actions coordonnées pour la Colombie du 10 au 14 juin pour l'arrivée de Bush en Europe.

A bientot!
APCM

Plan Colombia