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DERAIL
THE 5TH MINISTERIAL OF THE WTO
The World Says No to the WTO
September 13: Worldwide Day of Action
Against Corporate Globalization and War
Kicking
off a Fall Campaign of Action for Peace and Justice
List of
endorsing organizations
Calendar
of Upcoming Events
Updates on Cancun and Solidarity Actions
From
September 10 to 14, the World Trade Organization (WTO) will hold
its
Fifth Ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico. Pushed by multinational
corporations, the United States, the European Union, and other
developed
countries are seeking to launch a new round of “free trade”
negotiations and
expand corporate globalization – further eroding human rights,
workers’
rights, environmental protections, and democracy - in the interest
of
corporate control.
Popular
movements in Mexico and their international allies will mark these
meetings with massive demonstrations to demand a world that puts
democracy
and human dignity ahead of corporate profits. Solidarity actions
around the
world will focus on September 13 as a Worldwide Day
of Action Against
Corporate Globalization and War.
We
call on people throughout the United States to join this global
uprising
for peace and justice by organizing events in your community throughout
the
week leading up to the WTO Ministerial and on September 13. Resist
the WTO
and the failed model of corporate globalization, militarism and
“free
trade,” through a wide variety of creative means: teach-ins,
vigils,
protests, direct action, street theater, festivals of resistance,
cultural
events, meetings with elected officials, public forums, and so
on.
These
September actions to derail the WTO will kick off a powerful autumn
campaign of action for peace and justice, involving major mobilizations
for
immigrant rights, against the Free Trade Area of the Americas,
and against
militarism and occupation.
Whose
Trade Organization?
The WTO is designed and managed for the benefit of transnational
corporations at the expense of most of the world’s population
and the
environment. The neoliberal agenda of “free trade,”
deregulation,
privatization and special corporate protections enshrined in the
WTO leads
to greater poverty, inequity, gender inequality and indebtedness,
while
concentrating the world’s wealth in the hands of a few. The
corporate agenda
implemented by the WTO pits worker against worker and nation against
nation
in a race to the bottom.
The
last time the WTO met in North America, in late 1999, tens of
thousands
of people converged on Seattle to expose the real agenda behind
“free trade” devastating the environment and eroding
basic rights, protections, and
services for the vast majority of the world’s population.
Four
years after the historic showdown at the 3rd WTO Ministerial in
Seattle, we live in a changed and even more dangerous world. Using
the
horrible terrorist attacks against the U.S. of 2001 as a pretext
to invade
Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush administration is on a reckless
quest for
empire, combining the global might of the United States military
with the
global reach of massive corporations. The Bush doctrine of preemptive
strike
and permanent warfare goes hand-in-hand with a program of economic
domination through “free trade,” and, not coincidentally,
masks the woeful
U.S. economic situation.
The
“Watchtower State”
Under the rules of the WTO and proposed agreements like the Free
Trade Area
of the Americas (FTAA), the government role in regulating the
market place
to promote fair labor conditions, access to basic services, safe
products
and a clean environment are strictly constrained. WTO rules provide
a
“security exception” that protects and fosters weapons
manufacture and the
arms trade. Under agreements being negotiated now, virtually all
other
governmental services – including schools, health care, public
transit,
water supply and other public utilities – could be subject
to corporate
takeover. Basic worker and consumer rights and environmental protections
could be jettisoned as “unfair barriers to trade.” The
vision of government
enshrined in the WTO and the FTAA is a “watchtower state”
– a fortress
security state on a permanent war footing.
The
Assault on Immigrant Rights
Corporate globalization has destroyed the lives and livelihood
of millions
of workers and farmers throughout the world. Many are forced to
leave their
homes, their land, and often their countries in search of increasingly
scarce jobs. Yet trade agreements that protect the flow of money
and goods
across borders don’t allow the free movement of people. Borders
are
militarized and immigrants are criminalized – even as millions
of people are
dislocated by “free trade.”
More
than nine million undocumented workers who live in the United
States
today lack basic legal protections and human rights, living in
constant fear
of round-ups, detentions, and deportation. The WTO and FTAA would
create new
injustices for immigrants by giving corporations the right to
import people
to work in industrialized countries like the United States, while
maintaining the low wages and minimal worker protections of their
home
countries, creating a system of legalized sweatshops.
Another
World Is Possible
We have before us a choice: the world of militarism and corporate
globalization, or a world built on global solidarity, rooted in
a foundation
of democracy, dignity, sustainability, and cooperation. This fall
we have an
opportunity to bring our vision to life, through a series of actions
and
campaigns that will build toward a better world.
List
of Endorsing Organizations:
ACERCA
Alliance for Democracy
ARISE for Social Justice
ATTAC--Japan (see Japanese people's anti-WTO
statement...)
Aztlan Media Kollective, East Los Angeles, Califas, U.S.Aztlan
Baobabconnections
Bay
Area CISPES (Cmte. n Solidarity w/ the People of El Salvador)
BAYAN
International-USA
Bend-Condega Friendship Project
Bolivariancircles.net
Casa Baltimore/Limay (Nicaragua friendship-city project)
Central Coast Peace and Environment Council
Chicago Jobs with Justice--Global
Justice Comm.
CITTAC (Centro de Informacion para Trabajador@s A.C., Tijuana/San
Diego)
Citizens for a Vehicle Free Nipomo Dunes
Cordillera Peoples Alliance (Baguio City, Philippines)
Coalition
of Immokalee Workers
Corazon Cultural Commission
Cuernavaca Center for Intellectual Dialogue and Development
Doctors for Global Health
Fellowship Of Reconciliation, Charlotte, NC
First Nations North and South (NM)
Florida
Fair Trade Coalition
Focus on the Global South
Fontana Native American Indian
Center, Inc.
Free CUNY
Friends of Black Lake Canyon
Friends
of Point Sal
Global
Exchange
The Greater Kansas City Fair Trade Coalition
Higher Grounds Trading
Co.
Hitec Aztec Communications Net'work'
Human Bean Company
International
ANSWER Coalition
International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS-US)
Ithaca Fair Trade Coalition
Jesus
Christ Prince of Peace Parish-Social
Justice & Peace Comm.
Jubilee
Economics Ministries
Knights of the Socially Conscious
Labor Notes
Latin Am. Solidarity Cmte. of Western New York Peace Center
Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas
Mexico Solidarity
Network
Migrante International (Philippines)
Mobilization for Global Justice
Nicaragua
Center for Community Action (NICCA)
Nonviolence
International
The Nicaragua Network
Progressive
Librarians Guild
Public Citizen
Queers For Peace And Justice
RANT
Rensselaer
County and Capital District Greens (NY)
Rights
Action
Rochester Peace and Rights Forum
Safe Earth Alliance
San Antonio Youth Speak Out! (SAYSO)
School of the Americas Watch
SUSTAIN (Stop US Tax Aid to Israel Now)
Syracuse Cultural Workers
Tamilnadu Wommen's Collective (India)
Texas Fair Trade Coalition
Theaters Against War (THAW)
Tiger Salamander Protection Society
The Tikkun Community
United for Peace and Justice
The United Peoples
War
Resisters League--Executive
Committee
Washington Peace Center
Why
War?
Wisconsin Fair Trade Campaign
Witness for Peace
The Women's Intl. League for Peace and Freedom, US Section
Worldview, Ltd. (NH)
Xicana/Xicano Education Project (San Antonio, TX)
Updated September 1, 2003
click here for your
organization to endorse
CALENDAR
OF EVENTS
(Inclusion in this calendar does not necessarily imply endorsement
by all
signers to this call to action)
September
9-12: Days of Global Action against the WTO. Use your creativity
to organize non-violent actions in your community, including vigils,
teach-ins, direct action, community meetings, meetings with elected
officials, street theater, press conferences, concerts, etc.
September
13: Day of Global Demonstrations against the Corporate Agenda
and
War. Join movements around the world and send a powerful message
to trade
negotiators at the WTO meetings in Cancun. Organize local demonstrations,
festivals of resistance, and teach-ins. No Business As Usual!
FTAA
Ballot initiative: Join the AFL-CIO, the Alliance for Responsible
Trade, Jobs with Justice, Citizens Trade Campaign, Witness for
Peace and
hundreds of organizations to vote NO on the FTAA. Ballots are
available at
www.aflcio.org/stopftaa.
Sept
20 – Oct 4: Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. Inspired by the
Freedom
Riders of the Civil Rights Movement, immigrant workers and allies
will set
out from eight major U.S. cities and cross the country in buses
in late
September 2003, converging on Washington, DC, to meet with members
of
Congress and then traveling to New York City for a mass rally
on October 4,
2003.
October
25: March on the Pentagon. International march on the Pentagon
will
include delegations from around the world demonstrating that the
World
Unites Against US Militarism.
November
19-21: FTAA demonstrations in Miami. Demonstrations, teach-ins
and
alternative conferences, as trade ministers from 34 nations in
the Western
Hemisphere continue negotiations on the FTAA.
November
22-23: Vigil and Direct Action at School of the Americas. Join
thousands from across the Americas from November 22-23, 2003 at
the gates of
the U.S. military base Fort Benning in Georgia - home of the notorious
School of the Americas (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for
Security
Cooperation), where the US trains the military muscle that enforces
the
corporate agenda throughout Latin America.
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