Feeling inspired ? Itching to get onto the streets ? Well here aresome dates to pencil into your diary. But remember a revolutiondoesn't happen in one day, its a 24hr occupation...
Caravan to Washington DC to oppose IMF & World Bank,
Meeting on the 16th and 17th of April - The Global Unity Movement(G.U.M.) is organising the caravan using the affinity-group model toorganise. If any of you want in, or want to provide support, now isthe time to start talking to people and organising affinity groups tofund-raise and organise logistics.
We're alsogoing to be holding a series of workshops on everything from non-violence training to first aid to legal. Anyone who can volunteer toteach/assist/etc with those should also contact us - the (temporary)web site is http://members.xoom.com/arkeoptryx/globalunity.htmlThevoicemail/update line is: (510) 496-6000 ext. 105.
Demonstration in Washington against the IMF/World Bank:
Meeting April 16th - 17th. For more info contact: 50 Years Is EnoughNetwork ( Washington DC), www.50years.org and www.a16.org
Global week of action on GMO's in April 2000:
From April 1-8 an International Week of Action will take place underthe name: Resistance is fertile! The idea was born and worked out inBryansk, Russia, where around 40 Genetic Engineering campaigners andactivists gathered to talk about strategies. The idea has been pickedup in the US by the Biotech Action Network (BAN), and many groups inEurope are planning events. A web site with the basic information hasbeen set up at www.resistanceisfertile.org
For more information contact: Nina Holland, A SEED Europe, Postbus92066, 1090 AB Amsterdam Netherlands;
tel:+ 31-20-668-2236, email: nina@aseed.antenna.nl
UK contact: Genetic Engineering Network, PO Box 9656, London N4 4JY;genetics@gn.apc.org Tel: 0171 374 9516
International Woman's Day: On March 8 there will be a globalwomen's strike. For more information contact: International Wages forHousework campaign, Crossroads Women Centre, 230a Kentish Town Road,London NW5 2AB, womenstrike8m@server101.com or web site http://womenstrike8m.server101.com
Latin America PGA meeting in Nicaragua
March 26-31st 2000 - focusing on Latin American movements.
Email Daniel Querol: gme@tmx.com.ni for moreinformation.
May Day 2000 Global Day of Action:
Global day of Action celebrating what we are about and what we want..A day when historically the green, red and balck comestogether. A day to celebrate the powerful cocktail of pleasureand politics.. Actions planned in Europe and US so far...
In London, UK a 3 day conference of anticapitalist ideas is followedby a mass actions on Mayday.
For more info contact: lobster1.dircon.co/uk/md_index.html or www.infoshop.org/mayday2000.html. For the latest London Mayday info seethe Mayday 2000 site @ http://www.freespeach.org/mayday2k
North American PGA meeting to be held in Windsor, Canadafrom June 1-4, 2000 during the meeting of the Organisation ofAmerican States. For more info please contact: MWMorrill@aol.com,
dbleakney@cupw-sttp.org or briane@tao.ca.
A message from the MST (Brazil) - I would like to ask peopleto denounce a World Bank project in Brazil called "The LandBank". The World Bank - like the WTO and the IMF - was createdto benefit big capital. In the last 15 years, the World Bank has sentabout $10 billion to Brazil. In the same period, we have paid backabout $14 billion to the World Bank.
The WorldBank does not help us eliminate poverty. Instead, it takes out our resources. To learn more about the World Bank project in Brazil andrespond to our action alert, check GX web site:http://www.globalexchange.org and http://www.mstbrazil.org - JaoPedro Stedile, MST National Board
Prague 26-28th of September: Proposal for a Global Dayof Action to coincide with the Annual General Meeting of theIMF/World Bank, Prague 26-28th of September. 'The dynamic generated by PGA has had major successes in the North with the globaldays of action, but is very weak in the South. Latin American groupshave been saying that IMF would be a good target to get the dynamicgoing again in the South, as it is much better known than the WTO.
In Prague and Eastern Europe the organisation and mobilisation process has already started. Suggestions for organising towards this day is for each group in theNorth to twin up with a Southern group. This would permit exchangingpolitically in more depth. The European groups could helprepresentatives from their Southern partner to come north, doconference touring (maybe mini-caravans) and then come to Prague. Thetwinning idea should in any case be a good one for PGA. Please giveus a reply ASAP.
In solidarity; PGA support group who met after Davos, Geneva2/2/00. Contact: contact@destroyimf.org - www.destroyimf.org
From June 1st - EXPO2000 in Hannover, Germany.
During the five months of the world exhibition expo2000, 170 governments, international organisations and corporations want topresent their view of 'our' global problems andsolutions.
Under the slogan "Man Nature Technology" the EXPO2000 is to deliver this one message: There is no alternative tocapitalism. The so-called new solutions are just the old ones:genetic and bio-engineering, information technologies, nucleartechnologies, etc..
The EXPO is an occasion and not the reason of our work... The main aim of our politics is not tomobilise for the EXPO. We are for approaches going beyond this andallowing a continuous collaboration with others. Please directenquiries to antiexpo2000@gmx.de more info on the expo www.expo2000.de
The Future is not business as usual
Never again will the elite economists and technocrats be able to decide the fate of the world in anonymous tranquillity. There are rumours going around that the next WTO Ministerial meeting may beheld in Qatar, in the Persian Gulf i.e. : in the middle of a very hotand extremely inaccessible desert. What are they afraid of ? Ifthis is the only place that the de facto world government feels safeto meet in, then capitalism has become extremely vulnerable oflate.
We have entered a unique historicalperiod, a period of great transition. The whole system is in crisis and when systems reach such points of disequilibrium, small gestures can have big effects, radical change becomesmuch easier and more likely. And it is radical change, the complete rejection of capitalism, which is being sought bymovements across the world.
What makesthis revolutionary period unique is the complete delegitimisation ofthe state, an essential pillar of the present world system and anunprecedented awareness of the possibility of imminent ecologicalcollapse.
It has become clear that revolutionaryobjectives cannot be gained by some change in who controls the state structures. The history of the last 200 years of failedrevolutions has taught us that state reformist action has gainednothing. All it has done is contain struggle and dampen any higher expectations. Everywhere people are rejecting politicalparties. It is significant that more people under 25 went onthe " J18 Carnival Against capital" in London than voted inthe 1999 European Elections. At no time since the Frenchrevolution of 1789 has there been such a pervasive antistatism andwithout the state the endless accumulation of capital is no longerpossible.
The urgency of the global ecological situationalso makes reform pointless. The whole basis of the present system, progress defined by economic growth, is profoundly antiecological, and we can no longer wait for the right historical conditions for revolution, time is rapidly running out for the planet and its many species. Radical change must happen now,because there is no time left for anything else.
The future has probably neverbeen so uncertain, yet it is such moments of crisis, when everything is in disarray and disorder, that change is most likely tooccur. The word "crisis" comes from the Greek"Krisis" meaning the decision, the turning point of a disease. One thing is certain, the future will be what we makeit, and there seems to a very simple decision to be made, do we wanta future or not?
"The enemies of capitalism will be back..."
The Times newspaper editorial, London 19/6/99 the day after J18 carnivals erupt on every continent.