This is the first Newsletter of the Inter Continental Caravan (ICC). It is hoped that there will be a newsletter produced regularly, at 6 weekly intervals, between now and May, when the ICC starts. This newsletter will be translated into several languages.
Contents:
1 Introduction to the Inter-Continental Caravan
Several hundred activists from all over the world will come to Europe in May-June 1999, to participate in non-violent actions against the most imp ortant centres of power of the continent (like headquarters of Trans National Corporatons (TNCs), banks, institutions, corporate lobby groups, parliaments, etc), and meet groups from different countries.
The timing of their visit will coincide with two major political events: the summit of heads of state of the European Union and the summit of head s of state of the G8 (USA, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Canada, Italy and Russia). The G8 meeting, which marks the end of the visit, will be the highest point of the ICC, and will coincide with other initiatives going on at the same time, such as non-violent actions in financial centres all over the world. Some of these are briefly listed in section 13 below.
Since this project was originally conceived in India (by KRRS, the biggest farmers' movement of that country), a large share of the activists coming will be Indian farmers, but the programme is open for activists from all over the world and different social sectors to join it. It is anticipated that there will be about 500 activists from India, and about 100 from other countries.
The ICC is a project initiated and co-ordinated through the PGA (Peoples Global Action against "free" trade and WTO) -network, which was set up at a conference in February 1998 In Geneva, Switzerland, and co-ordinated actions against the WTO Ministerial Conference in May 1998 In Gevena, also.
The political position of the ICC is based on the PGA philosophy on non-violence, non-hierarcical strugtures, and will maintain a confrontational attitude and practicnon-violent civil disobedience and direct action as tools for political change rather than lobbying. For more information about the PGA, see Homepage: http://www.agp.org.
The name Inter Continental Caravan shares it's initials (ICC) with the large corporate lobby group, the International Chamber of Commerce, which was instrumental in drafting the MAI. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may cause the International Chamber of Commerce!
CONTACT: European Co-ordination office c/o PO BOX 2228, 2301 CE Leiden, Holland, tel/fax: 00 31 71 517 3094, e-mail: caravan@stad.dsl.nl
PGA Secretariat: agpweb (AT) lists.riseup.net
2 Organisational Process
The ICC is based on non hierarchical and decentralised organisational structures, which are also hall-marks of the PGA network as a whole. There is a European coordination group, based in Leiden, Holland, which currently is made up of an environmental activist from Finland, an activist from the unemployed movement in France, and one from the UK who has been working on globalisation related issues. This is for coordination purposes only, and is not a headquarters of the ICC as such. In each county there are local Welcoming groups which comprise of people from the different organisations in that country who have decided to work on the ICC. Since November, there has been a European wide meeting about every 6 weeks, where people from all the different Welcoming groups, and the European coordination group meet for a planning weekend. The European coordination group was selected at the first such meeting in November, in Germany. Each European wide meeting is in a different country. The next one will be at the end of February in Switzerland. In between such meetings there is regular email discussion between groups involved. Unfortunately, this is only in English, since this is the common language we have decided to work in.
Activists in each country are translating regular summaries of the discussion into their own language for local use. All work related to the ICC, at both the local level, and European level is unpaid. Funding will be done in a decentralised manner also (see also section 9).
3 Pretour: 21 st January - 9 th February
Between the end of January and the beginning of February there will be a "pretour" of 3 activists from India, and one person from the European coordination group, travelling around Europe to hold meetings with different organisations. From India there will be the president of the Karnataka State Farmers Association, the president of Shetkari Sanghatana (a farmers organisation in the state of Maharasthra) who is also the president of the All-India Inter-State Coordination Committee of Farmers' Movements, and an Adivasi indigenous landrights activist from the state of Kerala.
The aims of the pretour will be to consolidate and legitimise the political process here in Europe, to broaden the political participation from different organisations and sectors, to facilitate the fundraising process, and to enable hosting activists and some activists from India to get to know each other prior to the ICC actually starts.
A tight two week programme of meetings has been arranged for France, Italy, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. There will be meetings with all local welcoming groups, many major European farmer's movements (including the Confederation Paysanne from France, and the Coordination Paysanne Europeene in Brussels, both of which are members of the international coordination Via Campesina), many large foundations, public infor mation meetings, meetings with politicians, and also with journalists. There will also be meetings with those involved in campaigning against biotechnology (such as GenetiX Snowball from the UK, activists involved in the global protests against the G8 summit, anti third world debt organisations (such as the Coalition pour la Annulation du Dette de Tiers Monde, in Belgium), and anti nuclear activists (such as For Mother Earth in Belgium). It is hoped also that there can be meetings with people from the international anti MAI networks.
In addition to these meetings, the pretour will join two major meetings which are occuring independently of the pretour. The first is the Reclaim Europe meeting in Cologne, where groups from across Europe (including the Euromarches) are meeting to prepare coordinated activity around the EU summit, which will take place in Cologne during the ICC. This is an import ant part of the pretour, since it will give an opportunity to meet many movements from across Europe, including from Spain, where the pretour is unfortunately not going. The second event the pretour will participate in is the demonstration against the corporate lobby group, the World Economic Forum, at their annual meeting of the in Davos, Switzerland. It is also hoped, but as yet unconfirmed, that there can some possibility of participation in the international press conference which will take place in Davos, "the Other Davos", since this an important process to cooperate with.
Contact: caravan@stad.dsl.nl
4 Coutry Reports
The ICC will travel throughout most of Western Europe, and also a small part of Eastern Europe. There are currently Welcoming groups preparing to receive all, or part, of the ICC in the Netherlands, Belgium, UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, and Poland. There is also the possibility of Spanish involvement in the project, though it is unlikely that the ICC can actually go there, due to large travel distance. There are also possibilities of a small delegation of individuals from the ICC going to Scandinavia.
The Netherlands: 22nd - 27th May
The organisational process for the ICC began very rapidly right from the beginning. There are several different organisations involved, and a lot of other groups and organisations have expressed their interest (among them the NAV, Dutch Agriculture Association.). There is a mediagroup information is being spread very widely, there is a leaflet (over 6.000 copies already spread around!) and different plans for publicity and documentation of the ICC. Information evenings will be held in squats and other places, and a studygroup will start to develop the analytical and educational aspects of the ICC.
For fundraising efforts several funds and other places have been contacted.
For accommodation, there is an offer of a very political farmers organisation in the middle of the Netherlands to camp in their grounds. They have been working for years on issues like contacts hence and forth with f.e. Costa Rica, ethical ways to run a farm, biological farming etc.
The ICC will start in Amsterdam on the 22nd May. There will be a big welcoming press conference at the Schipol-airport with a picnic afterwards. On the following days there will be a very varied programme including visits with farmers' organisations, meetings at different universities, visits to farms, organisations working on food and fair trade. On the 26th May there will be an action day, one possible theme being biotechnology.
Both the collectives which offered to work on transportation (Theaterstraat) and food (Rampenplan) are from the Netherlands and also involved in the Dutch co-ordination.
Contact: infocent@wnet.bos.nl
Belgium: 27th May - 30th May
In Belgium there are plans to receive about half of the ICC (about 300 people), whilst the rest of the ICC travels to the UK. There is involvement from international solidarity organisations, squatters, anti nuclear organisations, development NGOs, the Coalition pour la Annulation du Dette Tiers Monde (CADTM, Coalition for the Cancellation of Third World Debt). The ICC will participate in the final stage of the international 2000 Walk for Nuclear Disarmament, which will go from the International Court of Justice in Den Haag, to the NATO headquarters in Brussels, joining with this protest as it approaches NATO. The accomodation will be provided by t he walk's Peace Camp, which will be organised by the anti nuclear organisation For Mother Earth. Other sites for possible actions include the head quarters of the biotechnology giant Monsanto, and hopefully also the European Commission, and various corporate lobby groups in Brussels. Fundraising is still at an early stage here, but several fundraising and food raising" events are planned for February and March. In March the CADTM are organising a very major international meeting against Third World Debt in Brussels. It will be important that organisers of the ICC link up with this meeting, since there will be representatives of very major social movements from around the world participating.
Contact: icc99belgique@altern.org
UK: 27th May - 30th May
About half of the ICC will come to London between 27th and 30th of May, w hile the rest of the ICC is in Belgium.
There is already a lot of support in the ICC on UK, amongst them, Third World solidarity groups, strikers against casualisation (Hillingdon Health workers), Corporate Watch, Reclaim the Streets, Undercurrents, Earth first! -activists, Anti-MAI -campaigners and anti-militarist organisations, and MEPs. Media interest already is stepping up and there is a very well known journalist interested in visiting India to report on the KRRS and the preparations for the tour.
Action plans include an 'surround the Dome' action (the Dome is a strong symbol of Tony Blair's new corporate Britain), something around Genetic engineering (with Genetix and the accountable 'Snowball' campaign) and Global Financial Markets, and cancelling the Third World Debt. There may also be actions related to nuclear and militarist issues.
Contact: icc99uk@hotmail.com
France: 30th May - 2nd June, 5th June - 8th June, 10th - 14th June
The situation in France began quite slowly, but now things are moving faster. There are groups constituted in Lyon, Lille, Dijon, Nantes and Toulo use. The ICC will visit several places in France, with the whole Caravan going to Paris, and later in 2 different parts to the North and South parts of France.
In Paris the squat movements are beginning be involved, as is the National Co-ordination of the Autonomous Unemployed Group, and the Benghali community, who will organise a food donations. There is also the support of the Confederation Paysanne, the biggest small farmers organisation of Europe, and a member of the European wide Coordination Paysanne Europeene, which is a member of the international peasant co-ordination Via Campesina. An important organisation working on migration issues, Droits Devant! is also backing the ICC. There have been efforts to try to involve somepoliticians.
On the 6th of March, a concert will be held in Dijon, and a couscous party in Lyon as fund raising efforts.
There are plans for actions at the OECD, and of course at the ICC (we wo n't loose the opportunity for the ICC to confront with the ICC !), both of which are in Paris. In Lyon there's the idea of actions at Rhune Poule nc, a big biotech transnational that just merged with Hoechst.
Contacts: Lyon: ybon@worldnet.fr, tel: 04.78.39.98.40, fax: 04.78.22.71.02
Lille: lbhoyez@easynet.fr, tel/fax: 03.27.57.45.14
Paris: vespa@globenet.org, tel: 01.42.58.82.28
Nantes: tel: 02.40.41.65.21/22 fax: 02.40.14.31.73
Dijon: maloka@chez.com, tel: 03.80.66.81.49, fax: 03.80.30.60.72
Germany: 2nd June - 5th June, 27th May - 30th May, 15th June - 20th June
The ICC will be in Germany 3 times. It will link up with and do its own actions against the EU-Summit (3rd-4th June) (only about half of the ICC will be here at this time) and G8 Summits and the Global Action Day in Cologne (18th June), and also one bus will meet the "Geld oder Leben" (Money or Life) -Caravan for one day and then carry on to Berlin, and later on , after a visit to Poland and Czech Republic, will also visit Munich. Other actions that will take place include activities against genetic engineering and possibly against patents on life. There will be also a day of rest at farms in different parts of the country.
The general process has been slow to start, due to the amount of work all the other actions in Germany need, but is now proceeding well. Some mone y has already been arranged, there will more meetings with potential fund ers, and press conferences are being planned.
Contact: icc99@gmx.de
Italy: 2nd June - 8th June
About half of the ICC (300 people) will go to Italy. The arrangements for ICC in Italy are proceeding rapidly, the main centers being Milan and Rome, with a delegation of the ICC being invited also to Padova, Bologna, Firenze and Napoli. In Milan the co-ordination is done through the Zapatista association 'Ya Basta', but there is a lot of involvement and interest from other groups also, such as different peace organisations, environmental movements, politicians, Christian organisations etc. The media has shown already very strong interest and support for the ICC.
In Milan the Social Center Leoncavallo will be available for accomondation and catering. Financing will be done through concerts, cultural evenings and different funders have been contacted.
The actions and events in Italy include on 3rd June a press-conference, 5th June a demonstration at the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, 6th June a large anti-globalisation festival in Verona, and on the 7th June an action at the Milan Stock Exchange.
Contacts: tissino@tin.it, acunzoli@tin.it
Switzerland: 8th June - 14th June
After the last year of international activity surrounding globalisation and in particular the World Trade Organisation, which has happened in Switzerland, groups there are very far into the ICC organisational process. There are already concrete plans for protest actions in towns and the countryside all across the country (including at least Geneva, Bern, and Vevey), mixing international institutions, corporate lobby groups, biotechnology giants, and other TNCs, World Trade Organisation, World Economic Forum, Cargill, Nestle, Plüss Staufer, Novartis etc. to take place during the ICC.
Contact is being made with a wide range of social sectors, including unions, peasants' organisations (including Swiss members of the Coordination Paysanne Europeene, and the international coordination Via Campesina), squatters, immigrants, international solidarity organisations, NGOs, and church groups, and there will be several public meetings, including meetings with peasants in the countryside and an "inter continental market place", and, of course, parties will accompany the strong programme of actions. Miraculously, there are also plans for 2 days of rest while the ICC is in Switzerland!
There will be the full ICC in Geneva, and people will be accommodated in a mixture of donated public buildings and also private accommodation, involving a maximum amount of participation from the Swiss public. In other areas of the country there will be about 300 participants of the ICC, and the rest will be in France at this time.
Contact: bordi@pingnet.ch, nosuko@hotmail.com or red-red2@span.ch
Poland: 31st May - 3rd June
One bus is likely to travel to Poland (at this stage it is still uncertain). A large number of organisations and individuals have already expresse d their will to participate in the process, ranging from the Polish Anarchist Federation and different environmental and anti-nuclear groups (f.e. Polish Ecological Club) to different farmers movements, including the Ecosolidarity (foundation for organic farming), Self-Defence Committee (direct-action farmers group) and Solidarity of Individual Farmers. Contacts have been also made with Polish Maritime and Economical Association, Catholic Action of Sandomierz Diocese, the Farmers Party and The Helsinki Committee, and a lot of other groups will be contacted. Also academics from the Warsaw University have been interested.
In Poznan the food will be donated by farmers, fund-raising is done through concerts and other parties, and the accomondation will likely to be organised by squatters.
One idea for actions is the International Industrial Trade Fair.
The situation in Poland (and elsewhere in Eastern Europe) is quite different from Western Europe, with very little knowledge and criticism about globalisation and the Structural Adjustment Programmes taking place in the Eastern Europe. Most opposition to foreign investments comes from nation alistic groups, who are looking for support from farmers. Because of this, it is very important to have an international event such as the ICC to Poland.
Contact: gawlik@plearn.edu.pl
Czech Republic: 3rd June - 6th June
The process of contacting people and organisations for supporting the Caravan is under way. For now, there has been interest within the Charles University of Prague, amongst other organisations.
The plans in Prague include meetings with press and professors, leafleting in the centre of Prague, meetings, and on 5th June there will be a Street Party with infoshops. There also the possibility of a non violent direct action.
Contact: zemepredevsim@ecn.cz
Finland/Scandinavia
There are small plans about a speaking tour of a few farmers, but they ar e not finalised yet.
Contact: punxaara@iname.com, sajarvel@sato.helsinki.fi
Spain
There are some ideas about involving Spain also in the ICC, although it is very unlikely at this stage that the ICC can actually travel to Spain. As yet there are no concrete plans.
Contact: maast@nodo50.ix.apc.org
5 International Participation
India
A large number (about 500) of the activists coming to Europe are from India, representing several different states and social movements (small farmers, landless, indigenous communities, dalits, fisherfolk etc). There will be representatives at least from the states Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka, including members from BKU (Indian Peasants Union), KRRS (Karnataka State Farmers Movement), Maharashtra Farmers' Movement and Adivasi indigenous communities.
Within this group, there is also a special group of people who will be helpful for all the participants, like ten doctors, one dentist and one gynecologist.
The people have been chosen in a manner to have an as broad representation of different social movements than possible. There has been a lot of enthusiasm about the ICC in India, and there are over thousand applications of people wanting to join it - all these applications are very serious, since along the application the applicants are already sending part of th e flight costs. The costs of travel are paid by a combination of communities collectively paying the trip of their representative, through individual savings and a certain number of free seats offered by the airline company.
Other parts of the world
Besides Indians, the ICC will be joined by 100 activists from all over the world. The invitation process has already started, and so far there has been interest among Women Peasants movement in Bangladesh, different groups in Nepal, and the Movimento Sem Terra (landless movement in Brasil). Other groups to be contacted are maquila and sweatshop workers, womens or ganisations, farmers movements, landless people, banana workers, fisherfolk, indigenous communities, black communities from South America, anti-military groups from conflict ares, human right campaigners, trade union activists and other groups effected by and fighting against globalisation and the neoliberal politics.
There will be different criteria for those directly invited: efforts will be made to achieve a gender balance, as well as a balance between different regions and social movements. Also everyone should agree with the four PGA principles (see web page: http://www.agp.org), and share the politi cal analysis written in the PGA manifesto, as well as the Indian manifesto for the Caravan.
Western Countries
Due to limited resources it is only possible to cater for a certain number of people (600), the ICC will organise and pay the travel in Europe only for people from the South and Central and Eastern Europe. People from the so called "rich" Western countries (Western Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, Australia etc.) are very welcome to join the Caravan, but they have to organise and pay for their own transport, accomondation and food etc. themselves.
6 Transpotation during the ICC
The transport will be in 15-20 restored buses. This will be organised by the Dutch organisation, Stichting Theaterstraat. At this stage, there is enough money to start on the preparation of 10 buses. Some of the busses come from Theaterstraat or other alternative bus co-operations (Eigengere id, IMS and Stichting Speelgoed), but most of them have to be bought.
Stichting Theaterstraat was founded in 1976. They support groups and people who want to go out on the streets to express (and more) their ideas a bout a different, more promising world: action groups, neighbourhood groups, cultural groups, NGO's, minority groups. Stichting Theaterstraat provides all kinds of equipment, like trucks, stages, sound and lightning systems, tents, generators, tables and chairs, and buses. In order to keep the costs down, all labour, including the driving of the buses, is done voluntarilly, second hand materials are prefered, in which also a great environmental interest is involved. In the last years Stichting Theaterstraat supported more then 200 political activities every year.
Contact: theast@dds.nl
7 Food during the ICC
The majority of the food will be cooked by the politcal activist mobile cooking collective, Rampenplan, which is based in the Netherlands, but has cooked for large scale political events all over Europe.The roots of Rampenplan's field kitchen date back to the early 80s: a period of mass action and blockades to stop nuclear power. Rampenplan cook vegetarian food, and by opting for ecological products they support the circle of responsible producers (organic, self-management). By doing so they not only hope to contribute to the growth of an alternative infrastructure but also encourage people to consider their own pattern of consumption. This is of big importance to the polical message of the ICC. They will travel with the ICC in their own vehicles to most places on the route. Where Rampenplan will not cook, local hosts will arrange food themselves.
In order to support the local Welcoming committees to receive food donations, there is a proposal to organise "Bring-a-pack-of-Rice" -parties around Europe, combined with certain action days or dates with a significant political meaning. Every party has a specific theme, please keep to these items. Contact the nearest Welcome committee or the European Co-ordination office for details.
Even places far away from the Caravan route (even outside of Europe) can also participate in these parties for example by organising traditional fund-raising parties. If you are interested in organising a party, please contact the local Welcoming committee closest to you, or the European Co-ordination office for more instructions.
All the food donated should be organic and Fair trade. Contact your local welcoming committee for more specific details about what kind of food/items they are looking for, and please keep to it.
In addition to this, there will hopefully be large amounts of food donate d by small farmers' organisations in Europe, since there are many farmers ' organisations involved in the ICC, and there is a large emphasis on far mers, and issues of food security, in the project.
Contact: ramp@antenna.nl, caravan@stad.dsl.nl
8 Media and informational tools
The publicity strategies of the ICC are yet to be finalised, but there are already several ideas. The main guidelines so far discussed are, that we will focus more on the issues than the actions itself, and that we should attract attention at all levels: local and international, an not just within Europe. There are plans of linking the media work with some of the other events happening in Europe at the same time, in particular the June 18th international day of action during the G8 summit.
For this purpose, the Globalisation News Network, a new project for networking journalists, is allowing the ICC to use its growing international database of journalists and media contacts sympathetic for such poitical activism.
Contact: katainger@gn.apc.org or voltairine@yahoo.com
The ICC webpage, which is separate from the PGA-webpage, was set up in November. It has already information in several languages: English, France, Spanish and German. In addition there is Esperanto, Greece, Polish and Finnish! And much more is coming, check it out!: http://tmtm.homelinux.org/caravan/icc/ (the PGA-webpage: http://www.agp.org)
Contact: flip@casema.net
By now, there are Dutch and English leaflets available, and translations into other languages taking place. Other ideas still to be worked on include a tabloid-magazine high-lighting all the political events in Europe during May and June, so as to increase the level of coordination between events, brocures with background information, a weekly newspaper published during the Caravan, and producing a photobook afterwards.
One key tool will be an analysis-pack, which will consist of in depth, yet accessible, analysis of the 5 main political themes of the Inter Continental Caravan, (see the web page), a discussion of themes raging from the diverse forms of non violent resistance to a critique of lobbying as a tool for political change. This will provide a basic political framework and is intended to facilitate local workshops, presentations, media and other publicity work etc. It will be a mix of theoretical analyses of systems, and more descriptive, personal material about the destructive effects of such systems on people and the environment, and also about the alternatives or resistances that people are continually developing through aut onomous collective self organisation. This will be written as a collective process by activists and intellecutuals from all parts of the world.
Contact: kolyaab@stad.dsl.nl, kessi@bitex.com
There are also plans of video-documentaries, and co-ordinating exchance of videomaterial through alternative video-networks. One idea has been to built up a network of free radio-stations to enable live broadcasting of the Caravan all the time.
Contact: n.a.holland@students.geog.uu.nl
9 Money
The financing of the Caravan is being organised in an as decentralised and participatory manner as possible: the activists from the South pay their own travel expenses to Europe; food and accomondation, as well as all the costs of actions and publicity are borne on the local level; the costs of travel within Europe and co-ordination are centralised, but fundraising efforts are shared by all Welcoming committees.
No money for the central costs will accepted from multinational corporations, national governments, EU institutions, or political parties.
Many organisations and foundations have been contacted, with a very promising response, and the pre-tour will meet several funds while travelling around Europe.
A large donation from Switzerland allows us to buy the 10 first buses during January, and get the preparation work going. Also the basic money to start up the co-ordination office, as well about 1/3 of the offices costs have been raised, but we still need a huge amount more.
Every penny we receive will enable us to go a little bit further, and by dividing the numbers into smaller sections they become easier to handle, for example:
(1 Guilder = 0,54 $ = 0,89 DM = 3 FF = 0,74 FS = 880 lira = 18 BF = £0,32 = 2,9 Fmk)
10 Route of the Inter Continental Caravan
This itinerary was developed and finalised in a participatory manner in European wide co-ordination meetings. There will be two main routes of about equal size, and one additional sidetrip of one bus visiting some Eastern European countries. Further details, including specific actions and meetings, will be finalised by the end of February (see also Country reports for specific acions in each place).
22.5. Arrival in Amsterdam.
22.5.-27.5. Netherlands.
30.5.-1.6. Paris.
8.-9.6. Geneva, Switzerland.
14.6. Basel, Germany.
15.-16.6. Southern Germany.
17.-19.6. Cologne, Germany (18.-19.6. G8 Summit, 18.6. international day of action in financial districts).
20.6. Depart from Amsterdam.
Side trip of one bus:
11 Supporters of the ICC
PGA Convenors Committee
Since the ICC is a PGA initiative, that means it has been approved by the PGA convenors committee, which currently consists of the following organisations:
Endorsements for the ICC
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
The Netherlands
Poland
Switzerland
UK
USA
12 Report of june18th - International action day in financial districts
June 18th is shaping up to be an extraordinarily effective and powerful day of action. In London, where the idea originated, there is involvement from diverse sectors, including, amongst others, the antimilitarist group Campaign Against the Arms Trade, and the environmental movement Reclaim the Streets. At the international level groups and activists in the follow ing countries are already planning or considering the proposal: Argentina, Nigeria, Mexico, Canada, Thailand, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Chile, USA, Spain and the Czech Republic. It is anticipated that people in many more countries will be involved by the time of the G8 summit in June.
The website is up and running: http://www.gn.apc.org/june18. At present this is only in English, but it is hoped that it will soon be in other languages also. There is also a discussion list. To participate in this discussion, send an email to listproc@gn.apc.org with 'subscribe j18discussion your email address' in the subject box.
13 Appeals for donations
A project the size of the ICC requires a very large amount of resources, in terms of money, human effort, food, accommodation and many other things. Most of this has to be arranged through donations, and we want these to come as much as possible from grass roots organisations who want to support the ICC, and in as decentralised a manner as is possible. Although we have made large efforts since the ICC preparation started, there are, of course, big efforts still ahead. Any help is most gratefully appreciated! Remember, if enough people give small donations, rapidly large amounts of things can be gathered together. Every little bit counts!
A) Money:
Contact: European Coordination Office: caravan@scad.dls.nl, tel/fax: 00 31 (0)71 517 3094 or Local Welcoming groups in your own country: see contact details in country reports above.
B) Transport:
We need to find offers of cheap second hand buses that we can buy to rest ore. In addition to this, materials are required for the restoration process, such as tools and paint. Also, we are still looking for volunteer bus drivers who are interested in driving for all or part of the ICC.
Contact: theast@dds.nl, tel: 00 31 (0)20 497 6076
C) Food:
As mentioned above, all efforts will be made to use a combination of locally produced, organic and fair trade, so that this is consistent with the political goals of the ICC. As rough guides, 600 people need about 60 kg of grains (eg rice, couscous etc), 36 kg of beans, 120 kg of vegetables and about 120 kg of bread, 24 kg of spreads, 25kg of muesli, 16 kg of coffee, 16 kg of tea per day. Things like rice, beans, nuts, tea and coffee can be donated in advance to local welcoming groups.
Contact: ramp@antenna.nl and also local Welcoming groups (contact details in the country reports).
D) Accomodation, matresses, etc.:
Contact: Local Welcoming groups, see contact details in country reports a bove.
E) Office equipment:
Computers, faxes, answer machines, laser printers, photocopiers etc. Lap top computers and mobile phones for during the ICC itself. These can probably be returned after the ICC is over.
Contact: European Coordination Office caravan@stad.dsl.nl, tel/fax00 3 1 (0)71 517 3094 or local Welcoming groups - see contact details in country reports above.
Big thanks to you all here!!!!
14 Overview of political events connected to the ICC in May and June
There are many other major political events taking place in Europe while the ICC is on the road. To increase the level of co-operation between different activities below is a list of contact details for some of these events. Please note that some of these are on different political lines than the political manifesto of the ICC (see web page http://tmtm.homelinux.org/caravan/icc/) or of the PGA (see web page http://www.agp.org), and maybe based more on lobbying than confrontation.
2000 Walk for Nuclear Disarmament 16th-30th May
There will be 2,000 people walking 200 km from the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the Netherlands to NATO headquarters in Brussels in Belgium.
Contact: international@motherearth.org, http://www.motherearth.org/
The Second Euromarch Against Unemployment, Discrimination, and Racism
The Marches from all over Europe begin in April and will meet with the anti-EU-summit on Cologne, Germany on the 3rd and 4th June. There are groups participating from Germany, Spain, France, Luxemburg, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Contact:: marches97@ras.eu.org, http://www.multimania.com/ras/marches/marches.html
Geld oder Leben -Caravan 23rd May.-6th June
Like last year for the Geneva WTO-meeting in May, there will be now a Bike Caravan organised inside Germany for the EU-Summit. There will be 2 different Routes.
Contact: wiwawend@mail.nadir.org
The EU- and G8-Summits 1999 in Cologne
Contact: asta@uni-koeln.de or http://www.uni-koeln.de/studenten/asta/internat/eu-wwg.html