Re-Radicalize Earth Day with anti-FTAA actions!
Sun, 18 Feb 2001From the Sierra Student Coalition's "Student Action on the Global Economy" campaign:
When it was first celebrated 31 years ago, Earth Day was a radical event — a celebration but also a protest. Now, it is nothing more than a corporate-sponsored "greenwashing" event.
IT'S TIME TO "RE-RADICALIZE" EARTH DAY!
On April 20-22, 2001 massive protests against corporate globalization will take place in Quebec City, Canada, and around the world. April 22, is Earth Day. Let's make Earth Day 2001 a radical, anti-corporate, anti-FTAA day — and a day of celebration of the rights of all life on Earth, as it was meant to be!
THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION TO CELEBRATE AND RE-TAKE EARTH DAY WITH PROTESTS OF THE FTAA AND CORPORATE RULE!
Earth Day has become a sham. What started as a creative and possibly revolutionary idea — that we should celebrate the Earth — has been transmogrified into simply another corporate advertising gimmick. Earth Day is a convenient excuse for the Ford Motor Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell, and lots of other corporations to pretend to be good corporate citizens. Last year, the thirtieth anniversary of Earth Day was celebrated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. with booths representing Earth-rapers as diverse as Monsanto and the U.S. Forest Service.
April 22, 2001 is the first Earth Day of the new century. April 22, 2001 is the date to reclaim our holiday from its corporate bankrollers. The week before Earth Day this year will be marked by the largest carnival against corporate rule that this planet has ever seen, in Quebec City, Canada and around the world. The media will be focused on young, anti-corporate activists. A large number of fair trade, anti-FTAA, anti-corporate Earth Day events around the country could potentially change the public's perception of Earth Day — and make it again the radical day that it should be! So let's do it!
Here are some ideas for anti-FTAA Earth Day events:
- "Secede" from the corporate tyranny that is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — which is what the FTAA is based on. Alert the media that a group of citizens is going to declare autonomy from NAFTA and why (it threatens our environmental, labor, and human rights standards, and our very democracy, it has lead to massive environmental degradation in Mexico, and is a driving force behind corporate globalization). Try and get local notables or elected officials to sign on to your "Declaration of Independence" and then deliver it to your Congressperson, Mayor, or Governor.
- Publicize the concept of a Fair Trade "Bill of Rights." The Sierra Club has constructed a draft bill of rights that outlines the basic environmental, human rights, and labor protections that every trade agreement should include. For a copy of the Bill of Rights, contact Ben Gore at 802.443.4150 or thebravecowboy@juno.com or Nathan Wyeth at 301.656.8773 or nathanwyeth@mcsea.org.
- Either with or without the consent of the local officials, set up an autonomous "Fair Trade Zone" in your city or on campus. Have a teach-in about the Free Trade Area of the Americas, play music or have a drumming circle, and sell products produced under fair trade. The Sierra Student Coalition may be producing "Fair Trade Zone" police tape with which you can create your Fair Trade Zone.
- If an FTAA solidarity action is being planned in your area, try and get it scheduled for the 22nd in order to highlight the connection between corporate globalization and Earth Day.
These ideas are roughly formed and only starting points for actions. What you do depends on your group's preferences, local politics and many other things. The key thing is to begin to plan for your Earth Day Fair Trade actions now. Together, we will TAKE EARTH DAY BACK!!!
The Sierra Student Coalition would love to help you out with ideas, networking with people in your area or logistics. Please contact Ben Gore at 802.443.4150 or thebravecowboy@juno.com with any questions or to request the Bill or Rights or "Fair Trade Zone tape.
Nathan Wyeth
Trade Campaign Coordinator
SAGE- Student Action on the Global Economy
Sierra Student Coalition
301.656.8773
nathanwyeth@mcsea.org
"The people that stand outside and [protest]... they make me want to vomit."
- - Michael Moore, Director General, WTO
Hell no to NAFTA expansion! www.stopftaa.org