THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM IN DURBAN

Date: June 2001

Every generation out of relative obscurity, must find its own mission and either fulfill it or betray it. - Frantz Fanon http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Fanon.html

THIS EMAIL CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO MAKE A SAFE AND EFFECTIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMANITY AND AGAINST MARKET FUNDAMENTALISM

The World Economic Forum (WEF) meets at the International Convention Centre in Durban from 6 - 8 June 2001. The WEF has been around since 1971, and is the most important site for discussion between the world's major political and business leaders on how to drive "globalisation" (i.e. the forced imposition of market fundamentalism across the globe) and how to sell it. Business and political leaders pay a R150-000 registration fee to attend. The meeting will not include workers, youth, feminists, environmentalists and religious activists and only six representatives from non-government organisations (NGO's) will be allowed to attend.

The WEF's 968 members include top people in multinational companies like Shell (who pollute Ongoniland and co-operated with the regime that murdered Ken Saro-wiwa http://www.nologo.com/, Nike (who continue to use sweatshop labour http://www.nolongo.com/ and Pfizer (who have conspired to keep the price of fluconazole, a lifesaving AIDS medicine developed with public money, out of the reach of most HIV-positive South Africans).

At the last Asia Pacific Economic Summit in Australia, thousands of workers, unemployed people, religious activists, students, youth and women protested, blockading the meeting venue for three days. They were beaten up by police on a daily basis. http://www.greenleft.org.au/

At the previous meeting of the W.E.F. in Davos, Switzerland the people surged out from behind the fences and riot police and demanded to be heard. Davos joined Seattle, the Namada Valley, Prague, The Chiapas Mountains, Washington and Ongoniland as another place that has also become a battle in the great war for humanity and against The Market. <http://struggle.ws/> & <http://www.free-radical.org>) Now the eyes of the world will be on Durban. 5000 people marched against the Pharmaceutical Companies and Our Leader at the AIDS conference in July 2000. http://www.tac.org.za/

People are resisting evictions and water and electricity disconnections in Mpumalanga, Soweto, Chatsworth and Isipingo. Communities in South Durban are fighting against Engen's pollution and appalling labour practices. Students are fighting against the closing of the doors of learning and culture to the poor. A movement is growing.(getoutofyourcomfortzoneandopenyoureyes.com)

But struggle isn't only about mass action. It doesn't always require your face to connect with their boots or your eyes to stare back into their video cameras. It can also be a pie in Bill Gates' face, conscious graffiti, a song, an idea, a refusal, an affirmation, an opening or a blocking. Many people will be on the streets outside the ICC. If you desire to join them be there at 8:00am on Friday 8 June. Bring your hope for the future. But if you can't be there but still want to make some contribution read on. This email contains information that allows you to take part safely, and, if you like, anonymously, in the global movement struggling for humanity and against Market Fundamentalism.

I am Sister Red. I cook reverently and eat with my hands. I let the Indian Ocean do what it will with my body. I fight when I have to - with resolution and dignity. I look into my lovers's soul when I come. He looks into mine. I carry a child in my womb. So I must fight against a world in which the super rich have enabled the logic of profit to invade every sphere of life. I hack for humanity. I have found the cell numbers and e-mail addresses of most of the delegates to the WEF summit. Choose the people to whom you have something to say and bombard them, relentlessly - on and on and on and on - with messages of protest. Put Them under pressure. Shut down Their channels of communication. You should also CC your messages of protest to SABC TV news at tvnewsin@sabc.co.za <mailto:tvnewsin@sabc.co.za> and your local newspapers and radio stations so that Babylon can't hide its shame. To send messages to cell phones via email go to http://www.vodacom.co.za or http://worldonline.co.za.

To set up new email addresses go to
http://www.yahoo.com; http://www.hotmail.com
etc, etc.

Your anger is a gift
- Rage Against the Machine www.ratm.com
http://www.ratm.com/

Use anger to throw them into disarray - Sun Tsu, The Art of War
http://zhongwen.com/bingfa.html

So, tune them straight.

Here are the names and numbers - this time we're looking at Them.

High Priority

Fon Mathuros:
World Economic Forum, Public Relations Officer
Email: fmathuro@weforum.org

Valerie Weinzeirl
World Economic Forum, Public Relations Officer
Email: valerie.weinzierl@weforum.org

Trevor Manuel
Minister of Finance, South Africa
Cell: 082-854-3716

Alec Erwin
Minister of Trade and Industry, South Africa
Cell: 082-558-7074

Alistair Ruiters
Director-General, Department of Trade and Industry, South Africa
E-mail: faizel@dti.pwv.gov.za

Mark Shuttleworth
Director, HBD Management Services, South Africa
E-mail: mark@hbd.co.za

Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
Minister of Health, South Africa
Cell: 082-566-3608

Jacob Zuma
Deputy President, South Africa
E-mail: Deputypresident@po.gov.za
Cell: 082-990-4853

Low Priority

Andile Ngcaba
Director-General, Ministry of Communications of South Africa
E-mail: director@doc.pwv.gov.za

Michael Storey
President & Chief Executive Officer, Inmarsat, United Kingdom
E-mail: michael_storey@inmarsat.com

Almiro Da Silva
Chief Operating Officer, Siemens Telecommunication, South Africa
E-mail: pete.dasilva@siemens.co.za

David A. Frankel
Director, Dimension Data Holdings, South Africa
E-mail: david@is.co.za

Sizwe Nxasana
Chief Executive Officer, Telkom, South Africa
E-mail: nxasanse@telkom.co.za

Sean M. Cleary
Managing Director, Strategic Concepts, South Africa
E-mail: seanmc@attglobal.net

Klaus Döring
Chief Executive Officer, Siemens, South Africa
E-mail: doering@siemens.co.za

Paul Edwards
Group Chief Executive Officer, Johnnic Holdings, South Africa
E-mail: paul_edwards@johnnic.co.za

Gary Fazzino
Vice-President, Government and Public Affairs, Hewlett-Packard Company, USA
E-mail: gary_fazzio@hp.com

Imogen Mkhize
Executive Chairman, The Zitek Group, South Africa
E-mail: imogenm@zitek.co.za

Ivy Matsepe- Casaburri
Minister of Communications, South Africa
Cell: 082-887-6874

Mohamed Valli Moosa
Minister of Energy Affairs & Tourism, South Africa
Cell: 082-808-5108

If you are lacking inspiration then perhaps you could start with the following:

  1. Fon Mathuros and Valerie Weinzeirl The WEF PR team will be using these e-mail addresses to send out their propaganda. Fill them up and shut them down. Huge attachments and requests for detailed answers to complicated questions are a good idea.
  2. Ask Alistair Ruiters, Director General of Trade and Industry, and Alec Erwin, Minister of Trade and Industry, why they decided to reduce the tariffs on clothing imported from sweatshops way ahead of the schedule demanded by Babylon. Need to know more? Take a stroll through the Cape Flats, Chatsworth or Mpumalanga (KZN) or read Ashwin Desai's The Poors of Chatsworth.
  3. Ask Trevor Manuel what its like to sell out to the World Bank. Do the money, and the limousines and the hotels, make up for the million South Africans that have lost their jobs since 1994? How does he sleep at night when our children gnaw at their tattered blankets? Need to know more? Read Patrick Bond's Elite Transition or check out:
    http://www.struggle.ws/africa/safrica/zabamag/z1_wb.html
    http://www.struggle.ws/africa/safrica/zabamag/z1_zulugear.html
    http://www.struggle.ws/africa/safrica/zabamag/z1_gear.html
  4. Ask Mark Shuttleworth how it feels to take his millions, earned in Africa, to Europe. How does it feel to be more than just a cog in the machine that has been stealing Africa's wealth for the last 300 years? How does it feel to be a big shot in the rapaciousness stakes? Need to know more? Look out the window.

Are you cynical about the prospects for ordinary people to change the world; for Us to stand up to They?
Then educate yourself about:

Want to know what's happening right now? Check out:
http://www.greenleft.org.au
http://www.accuracy.org/
http://voiceoftheturtle.org
http://www.zmag.org
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/
http://www.oneworld.org/ni/index4.html
http://www.amnesty.org
http://africapolicy.org/
http://www.blackradicalcongress.org
http://www.accuracy.org/
http://www.blumag.com
http://www.free-radical.org

Need some background?

Noam Chomsky
http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/index.cfm

Arundhati Roy
http://website.lineone.net/~jon.simmons/roy/

Edward Said
http://sun3lib.uci.edu/indiv/scctr/Wellek/said/

John Pilger http://www.johnpilger.com/

Need something to say?
How about? (for protest by SMS)

And for email:

Just do it. Say what you want to say or cut and paste from the sites referred to here.
Getting people to fight by letting the force of momentum work is like rolling logs and rocks. Logs and rocks are still when in a secure place, but roll on an incline; they remain stationary if square, they roll if round. Therefore, when people are skillfully led into battle, the momentum is like that of round rocks rolling down a high mountain - this is force. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
http://zhongwen.com/bingfa.html

So, feel free add to or subtract from this email in any way that you see fit. There is no copyright, here. Then pass this e-mail on to other people who might want to make some contribution in the struggle for humanity and against The Market. Cut and paste, don't forward.

They work hard to get what they want. We must do the same.

let the rocks roll down the mountain

love & rage
sister red
durban

here
now
alive
&
free

"Only the poor can break the cycle of exploitation and dependence. Power makes stupid. The Rest must hold their own. Not because the West will be so kind as to allow justice in international economic dealings, and dignity to those living on the periphery of their concerns, but because they will have no choice. It is only by mobilizing Africa's capacity to think from its own reality that they grip of Western charity and paternalism can be loosened." - Breyten Breytenbach.

WEF NYC | Actions 2001 | www.agp.org