Inter Continental Caravan Press release
Date Mon, 17 May 1999
From the periphery to the centre of power: On the 22nd of Mai, 500 women and men from Southern countries will take part in an Intercontinental Caravan for Solidarity and Resistance through Europe.
This month of protest will culminate in Cologne / Germany during the summit of the most powerful nation states, the G7/8, coinciding with an international day of protest. Until then Europe will have experienced an initiative like never known so far. It is not academic experts giving lectures about the situation in their countries, but the people directly concerned: hundreds of Indian small farmers, but also traditional fishers and people displaced off their land by the construction of dams will come together with landless people from Brazil, textile workers from Bangladesh, mothers of the disappeared in Argentina and many more. These people will tour through Europe meeting local movements and will commonly take direct political action at the gates of global decision makers and corporations.
The impetus for this caravan is the recognition that the current world economic order, based on the exploitation of people and the planet for the profit of a few is at the very root of today's social and ecological troubles. The aim of the Caravaneers is not political lobby, but to confront institutions and multinational corporations with their presence.
A letter from the KRRS, India's largest farmers movement states : "We wish to bring to the North the point of view from the South about the system of exploitation imposed by your governments, by international institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and by multinational corporations. You will have a first hand report about the way these institutions break down our lives." The Caravan is precisely about direct contact and common action: " We are coming to speak with people in the streets and to get in contact with men and women who, like us, are affected by this world wide missorder."
The ICC will visit the following countries:
Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, England, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Poland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.