Second J18 Bulletin
June 18th - International Day of Protest, Action and Carnival in Financial Centres Around the World. What's happening and where?
With weeks to go till June 18th the list of actions is looking pretty impressive, with events being organised in 41 countries and more movements around the world taking up the call all the time. Of course, the process of building links globally between movements is just as important as the events on the day itself, as a strong international network is needed to counter the globalisation of misery under capitalism. The groups involved are incredibly diverse, from environmentalists in Zimbabwe, Poland, Israel and Portugal, to Unions incuding the Bangladesh National Garment Workers' Confederation, Indian Fisherfolk Union and Austria's Independent Unionists, to the unemployed in France and indigenous people in Nigeria fighting oil companies, to peasant groups in Indonesia and Senegal......
The internet is a powerful tool: electronic communications will allow us to know what is happening everywhere on the day though the main site www.j18.org. This site will have a continuous feed of text reports, photos, video and audio from as many places as possible. It will also be an invaluable tool for media work, prisoner support and a future archive for inspiration as well as a breakthrough in setting up our own direct communication channels. Send in what you want to say about your group or action to the June 18th website - www.j18.org - it belongs to all of us!
Links to other J18 web-pages are
www.nodo50.org/reclaim (Madrid, Spain)- http://utopiaverde.org/foros-huelva/actividades/18-junio (Huelva, Spain)
- www.j18.org/glasgow/html (Glasgow, Scotland)
- www.june18.freeuk.com (Lancaster, England)
- http://junio18.8m.com (Montivideo, Uruguay)
- http://xinet.com/rts/ (San Francisco, USA)
- Sydney will be doing a webcast through the day, at
www.j18.cat.org.au/ with real video, audio, photos and text updated all day.
So what is happening on June 18th and where? Obviously this is not the complete picture, but here we go...
On June 18th the sun will come up first (after New Zealand) in Australia, where political activists in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane are organising a day of festive protests.
The Sydney J18 Collective say: "The J-One-Eight Public Holiday will definitely be 1999's biggest anti-globalization event - a carnival, a direct action, a street festival"
"Mobile and bold squads of activists will be able to create a sense of mass agitation and excitement. There will be banner hangs on main arterial roads to Central Business District, street theatre on expressways to the city, autonomous actions targetting individual corporations, a lunchtime mass action "Anti-Business Lunch", and a "Scumbags Tour" of corporate HQ. Also planned are a mass "Friday Night Office Party" street procession at peak hour and a special J18 Critical Mass bike ride through the business district.
By this time activities should be in full swing in the South Korea in the Far East, and beginning in South East Asia: there are J18 contacts in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia (where the North Sumatra Peasant Union / NSPU are organising for J18).
The sun rises next on South Asia, with actions in Nepal and Bangladesh (where action is being taken by the1.5 million strong Bangladesh National Garments Workers Federation). In India, the National Alliance of Peoples Movements (NAPM). say:
"There will be protests across 25 states in India, involving hundreds of thousands of people who have been marginalised by the market economy and World Trade Organisation policies. Many capital developments are coming to India but they benefit only the rich."
A few hours later in the Middle East, Green Action is organizing for J18 together with other organizations in Israel. Simultaneously, Africa and Europe spin into life. Students for Environmental Action are getting it together in Harare, Zimbabwe. Chikoko, the network of indigenous groups resisting the oil industry in Nigeria will be springing into action at the same time as Earth First! Prague in the Czech Republic and actions against the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development in Minsk, Belarus. In Malta the Moviment Graffitti is organising a J18 punk concert, while in Italy: "we are planning in Milano, something like a street rave parade, and a similar one in Roma: we should be able to involve in the party a large number of squats, sound systems and common people, to create a fun partyin' venue in both cities"
In Cologne, Germany on the 18th of June, there's a mass 'Laugh-Parade', where thousands of people will make a laughing stock of the G8 leaders. There will also be a camp for activists coming from different countries (including 400 Indian activists at the climax of their direct action tour of Europe), and on the 19th, a mass demonstration against the G8 summit. And a call for mass fare-dodging has gone out for activists within an overnight train-ride to Cologne : "get together en-masse at your main train station and get on a train for Cologne and let us turn June 19 into another day to remember." No money. No passport. No problem.
There is a J18 street party organized in Lausanne, Switzerland. "Here, the streets, privatized by cars, will be given back to the citizens. A huge event with music and more"
In the Basque Country, actions are being organised in Bilbo (Bilbao) and Iruña, (Pamplona).
In Southern Spain, a network of environmental groups is organising for J18 in Huelva. From Valencia : We're planning two open "critical mass" in the afternoon, a big street party and some groups are going to do some direct actions all over the city." In Asturies, "feminist, autonomous, ecologist, sindicalist groups are organizing a carnival in front of the public savings bank CAJASTUR."
In Scotland there will be an action in Edinburgh on Sat 12th june with 10,000 £10 bank notes from the Bank of Bigotry distributed. And on the 18th a global street party in Glasgow.
In England, Lancaster Freedom Collective have "a day of actions on local corporate nasties".... In Newbury "hundreds of happy, smiling folk, dressed up and armed with banners, posters, leaflets, custard pies, D-locks and much partying paraphernalia will converge on Vodafone and show them a better way of living!".
In London the day will begin with Critical Mass cyclists riding into the heart of the beast in the City (the financial centre of London), followed by pickets of Reed Employment Agency, Smithfields meat market and McDonalds. Meanwhile autonomous groups will be hitting targets all over the City. The Association of Autonomous Astronauts are calling a protest against the militarisation of space, and International Solidarity with Workers in Russia (ISWoR), are doing actions against Gap Clothing. At midday debt cancellation activists will start off a global chain reaction - a human chain around the Treasury in Whitehall, and then thousands of people will come together for a powerful Carnival of Resistance in the financial Square Mile organised by London Reclaim The Streets!
In Wales the 'cymraeg dim sharid a cymraeg' collective is planning a critical mass cycle blockade in Cardiff,. The Irish section of the International Workers' Association is organising for J18 in Belfast.
Meanwhile down in Dakar, Senegal, the peasant farmer group Concept is the contact for J18 organising,
A few hours later, as we move through time and space on to Latin America...In Brazil two networks have answered the 18th June call In Montevideo, Uruguay, the J18 network is working on ideas such as :
- a spoof trade fair
- banks for the poor outside the banks, where they can deposit misery and unemployment. Invite rubbish workers to deposit their rubbish (their capital!) in these banks, and block the streets with their carts. -posters and flyers, designed like cheques or dollars.
In Buenos Aires, Argentina the debt cancellation movement Dialogo 2000, (religious and social groupings including Madres de la Plaza de Mayo and trade unions), will hold a procession/march through the financial centre.
In front of the Central Bank/IMF building speakers will argue for non-payment by the peoples of the indebted South, and popular artists and musicians will perform under the banner Liberation from Debt
In Santiago, Chile a conscientious objection group, and street performers will march in protest against the banning of street performing.
In Medellin, Colombia, autonomous groups are organising a forum on globalisation, a carnival against multinationals with a potlatch bazaar, traditional games and puppets and acrobats, music videos and poetry, and a concert with local ska and punk bands. There will also be a demonstration at the multinational Banco Santander.
"we are conscious of the devastating capability of transnational capital but we are also conscious of the creative capacity of imagination and freedom. That's why we will protest in force but we will also celebrate with joy, the joy of making possible human contact, warmth, art and life." Club de los Intelectuales Podridos (Decaying Intellectuals' Club)
At the same time in North America, in New York, Reclaim the Streets NYC are organising an action in Times Square. In Boston, at noon on June 18, Boston Encuentro will rally near BankBoston and Fleet headquarters, "We'll begin with a conga line, music,puppets, street theater and leaflets. There's a rumor that Zapatistas may ride in on horses to show their solidarity." A mock letter from 'Fleece Boston', will send up the gigantic merger of BankBoston and Fleet Bank, which already promises layoffs of more than 5,000 workers..
"We plan to combine satire and entertainment with serious critique, to shine light on the dark side of finance capital - the giant banks at the center of the neoliberal conquest of the world." (Boston Encuentro)
Turning North to Canada, Peoples' Global Action - Ottawa (social movements such as the Canadian Federation of Students, coalition to stop the war against Yugoslavia, Industrial Workers of the World, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and Comite des Sans Emploi -Montreal folks-, Critical Mass) are organising actions on corporate institutions.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, (US) a J18party is being put together.. In Regina, Canada students and trade unionists are uniting following the "Stop Corporate Control" action to plan a bigger and more radical action for June 18th. In Albuquerque (US) a feminist activist collective, feminists liberating our world (flow), are organising for June 18th, Meanwhile, south of the border in Mexico D.F there will be an action on the Stock Exchange.
Back North, Eugene, Oregon will have a party and finance tours around downtown, stopping at particularly "bad" institutions. Also planned are music, games, and murals Further down the coast, The San Francisco Bay Area is bubbling with excitement as J18 draws near. Planning is focused on the ten worst locally-based multinational multideath corporations. 2500-5000 flyers have already been printed for SF. They say, "ART ATTACK HITS FINANCIAL DISTRICT" in addition to a graphic of a tripod. In Vancouver 3000 flyers and 2400 stick up posters have been printed with the meeting point for J18 revelrous subversion:
And the sun will set on June 18th in Downtown Los Angeles where there'll be a J18 Street Party:
"in mass we'll march, bike ride, dance, protest and party towards destinations to be announced. Have fun. Be creative. There will be music. There will be dancing. Remember, revolution is the festival of the oppressed!" (LA Reclaim The Streets)
Uuf! And don't forget to send reports of all your inspiring actions to the rest of the global network!!
"There are no limits to creativity . There is no end to subversion."
Raoul Vaneigem - The Revolution of Everyday Life.