north american Peoples' Global Action meeting

We invite you to participate in the 1st north american Peoples' Global Action meeting to be held June 1st - 3rd in Amherst, MA.

People's Global Action is an international network that was originally inspired by the Zapatista struggle that began in Chiapas, Mexico, in 1994. PGA is not an organization but a fluid, umbrella network of grassroots peoples' organizations worldwide who are building alternatives to neo-liberalist policies.
In Sept. PGA held an international meeting of continental convenors in Prague, Czech Republic, in conjunction with the protests against the IMF and World Bank meetings there, as part of the call that PGA put out for the Global Day of Action Against Capitalism on September 26. Convenors, representing peoples' grassroots movements around the world, met to discuss PGA's goals for the future. From this meeting emerged a plan for two sustained global actions:
a) building a movement to stop Plan Colombia, and
b) linking the struggles of people to reclaim our water and land rights.

The next international PGA conference will be in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in September of 2001. The intent of this meeting is to further define and develop strategies and tactics for the two sustained global actions, and to continue building a positive resistance to capitalism. Before that meeting, conveners in each of PGA's represented continents will hold meetings to prepare for Cochabamba, discuss PGA's sustained global actions, and choose convenors for the coming year.

The North American meeting is being called by the Tampa Bay Action Group, of Florida, USA and The Anti-Capitalist Convergence of Montreal - Quebec (Convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes- CLAC - the temporary co-conveners for North America.

To ensure the most democratic process, we are inviting like-minded north american groups to participate in the organizing and planning of the meeting. At this early stage, a suggested tentative agenda for the conference includes an overview of PGA and detailed investigations of the issues surrounding the two sustained global actions and a day devoted to networking and brainstorming for concrete ideas for direct actions that support and further these global actions. The goals of the north american meeting is to build the PGA network in north america and to plan for the Cochabamba meeting.

Those organizations interested in having a voice on the organizing committee for the North American PGA meeting should
contact the mailing-list by email: pga-request@riseup.net (please include only the word "subscribe" without quotes in body of the letter),
or call 727-896-TBAG or write La CLAC, 2035 St-Laurent Boulevard, 2nd floor, Montreal (Quebec) CANADA, H2X 2T3.

If your organization is interested in attending the PGA meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia, please contact the above e-mail addresses for further information. All north american groups and individuals wishing to participate in the PGA meeting in Cochabamba must participate in the north american meeting and agree to the following

PGA Hallmarks:

The hallmarks of the alliance are:

1. A rejection of neo-liberal politics and institutions, which promote socially and environmentally destructive globalization.
2. A rejection of all forms of oppression and exploitation such as patriarchy, white supremacy and imperialism
3. A confrontational attitude toward undemocratic organizations in which capital is the only real policy maker.
4. A call to nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience and the construction of local alternatives by local people as answers to the actions of governments and corporations.
5. An organizational philosophy based on decentralization, direct democracy and local autonomy.

For more information on PGA please go to the PGA web page at http://www.agp.org.

We are suggesting north american workgroups be formed to help organize the north american meeting. These workgroups would be local (based on building for the north american meeting within their geographical areas) and continental (i.e.. Labor, environmental, etc. workgroups, that would organize specific "interest"). Folks from the Canadian Postal Workers Union have volunteered to facilitate the labor workgroup. The ideal scenario would be to have a group of co-facilitators for each group.

So- we have a lot to do and a short time to get it done. Please let's use the list serve to communicate and organize.

For general discussion NOT immediately directed to the organizing of the pga north american meeting or bus tour please use the pga list serve at pga-org@lists.tao.ca

As part of the Sustained Calls to Action that was put out by the convening groups in Prague PGA, we are putting together a bus tour. If you want to help organize the tour in your city - please contact the list serve at pga@riseup.net. If you have the possibility for raising immediate funds for this tour, have good contacts for facilitating visa approval, want to be on the planning committee for either the tour or the north american meeting - Please contact now!

Also - we are desperately in need of Spanish, French, and other translation - can anyone help?

peace,
eric rubin
part of the PGA/ north american workgroup/Tampa Bay Action Group
PGA/NA temporary co-conveners

PGA