Thousands in Direct Action Protests - Washington April 16-17! Week of Activities Begins with CONVERGENCE on Saturday, April 8 Organizational Endorsements and Support Needed Now
We need your support for the continuing struggle for economic justice. Endorse the Mobilization for Global Justice and join us in our protest against IMF and World Bank policies.
The movement for global economic justice in the U.S., which has been building for years, had its coming-out party in Seattle at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meetings. Our next big opportunity to demand a peaceful, people-centered, and environmentally-sound global economic system will be in April 2000 in Washington, DC.
The nation's capital is the home of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group, whose backing by the wealthy governments of the North has made them the rule-makers for the global economy. The IMF and World Bank, more than any other institutions, are the coercive powers which have created a global economy based on corporate profit derived from exploitation of artificially cheap labor and raw materials. The conditions they created were the foundation for the birth of the WTO. Their semi-annual meetings will be the occasion for a demonstration of our rejection of their rules and their system for imposing them.
We are working with coalitions across the continent that are organizing to come to Washington, including groups in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Winnipeg, Bloomington (Indiana), Chicago, and many other communities. In the United Kingdom and South Africa, whose Finance Ministers will chair the main IMF and World Bank committee meetings on April 16th and 17th respectively, our partners are organizing to give them a send-off. We have also already heard from activists in Haiti, Thailand, Mali, Brazil, South Korea, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, Kenya, and the Philippines who want to come or stage events of their own.
On Sunday, April 16, the highest-level architects of the global economy, including World Bank Group President James Wolfensohn, the new head of the IMF, and about 25 Finance Ministers and heads of Central Banks, will come together for a meeting of the governing body of the IMF. Also likely to be in attendance is Mike Moore, head of the WTO; he and his predecessor have regularly attended this group's meetings, along with the heads of other powerful international institutions. April's sessions are among the routine high-level meetings dedicated to making the world safer and more profitable for corporations -- and more dangerous for people and the planet. The formal joint meetings of the World Bank Group and IMF continue through April 17.
Activists from around the world will be there too, staging a mass non-violent direct action, demonstrating the people's rejection of the anti-democratic, non-transparent proceedings in the IMF headquarters.
Experienced activists from dozens of organizations are now meeting regularly in Washington and have formed the Mobilization for Global Justice coalition. These groups have planned a week of activities, starting with the Convergence for training and production on Saturday, April 8. Teach-ins, trainings, non-violent demonstrations, a Jubilee 2000/USA mobilization for debt cancellation (April 9), and lobbying opportunities will span the week between that event and those of April 16-17.
Included in this burgeoning coalition are international solidarity activists, faith-based organizations, artists, women's organizations, labor groups, peace groups, environmental organizations, health rights activists, and many more. A dozen working groups (communications, logistics, outreach, etc.) are now meeting regularly and making concrete plans.
The organizations working on the April mobilization locally, nationally, and internationally include Continental Direct Action Network, the Freedom from Debt Coalition (Philippines), PAPDA (Haiti), the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO, Alliance for Global Justice, Global Exchange, Rainforest Action Network, and the 50 Years Is Enough Network. Many of them played leading roles in organizing the Seattle demonstrations.
We will be demonstrating that activists in the U.S. know about the negative impact of World Bank and IMF programs and stand in solidarity with the people of the global South. We will be demanding an end to the devastation they cause in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. We will also be exposing the links between the IMF, the World Bank Group, the WTO, and multinational corporations and how they work to maximize private profits and limit the power of people in both the North and South to protect the environment, determine their economic destiny, and safeguard their human rights.
Like the events at the WTO meeting in Seattle, the support, both moral and material, for the April actions in Washington must come from around the country and around the world. We want to demonstrate the broad base of support for the call for global economic justice, so let us know that you are on board!
- Tell us that you endorse a week of educational events and non-violent protests on and at the IMF and World Bank.
- Tell us what human and material resources you can and will devote to making this week of actions a success.
- Tell us how many people you are bringing to Washington for the week of activities. Of course, we also need your financial contributions to make it all possible. Please donate what you can for success in April and for building the this tremendous movement for people's empowerment. Please fill out the attached form indicating your endorsement and what kinds of commitments you can make to the success of the movement for a just global economy, one that serves people rather than profits.
Sincerely,
Njoki Njoroge Njehu for the MOBILIZATION FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE
P.S. To stay informed about plans for the April mobilizations, check out the website www.a16.org and join the e-mail listserv by sending a blank e-mail message to a16-international-planning-subscribe@egroups.com.
ENDORSE!! COMMIT!!
This form will soon be on our web site - <www.a16.org>
ORGANIZATION:
CONTACT PERSON/PEOPLE:
ADDRESS:
PHONE:
FAX:
E-MAIL:
WEBSITE:
ENDORSEMENT
On the occasion of the first meetings of the governing bodies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in the 21st century, we call for the immediate suspension of the policies and practices that have caused widespread poverty and suffering among the world's peoples and damage to the world's environment. We assert the responsibility of these institutions, together with the World Trade Organization, for an unjust world economic system.
We issue this call in the name of global justice, in solidarity with the peoples of the Global South struggling for survival and dignity in the face of unjust, imperialistic economic policies. Only when the coercive powers of the international financial institutions are rescinded shall governments be accountable first and foremost to the will of their peoples for equitable economic development. Only when international institutions are no longer controlled by the wealthiest governments for the purpose of dictating policy to the poorer ones shall all peoples and nations be able to forge bonds - economic and otherwise - based on mutual respect and the common needs of the planet and its inhabitants. Only when the well-being of all, including the most vulnerable people and ecosystems, is given priority over corporate profits shall we achieve genuine sustainable development and create a world of justice, equality, and peace.
___ Our organization endorses this statement and a call for its expression at the time of the April 2000 meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
___Our organization also endorses the Mobilization for Global Justice, a week of educational events and non-violent protests which aim to realize these principles. This is not an endorsement of any specific tactics or actions but rather of the peoples' mass mobilization to bring the World Bank and IMF to account.
_____ We will be committing staff time to do the following (spread the word locally, organize a caravan to Washington, produce materials, conduct popular education on the global economy, etc.):
____ We will be bringing approximately _____ people to Washington. They will be there for (check one) ____ the entire week of events; ____ part of the week: _____; ____April 16-17
____ We will contribute the following materials toward props for the demonstration or other support for the activities and people involved:
____ We will be bringing/hosting international partners and colleagues during the week of events.
__ Yes, they are available to speak to the public and/or media;
__ No, they are not available to speak to the public and/or media.
____ We would like to help plan/sponsor activies in Washington (name specific campaign or activist skills training, educational event, action, etc.):
____ We can pay for the following services (e.g. printing, communications equipment, etc.). Please specify approximate amount and service:
____ We can make a financial contribution to the Mobilization for Global Justice coalition. Please make a tax-deductible contribution to our fiscal sponsor Alliance for Global Justice.
___ We are contributing $1000 or more and/or dedicating over 25% of total staff or member time from March 1 to organizing for the April mobilizations, and would like our name to appear on promotional material, the website (www.a16.org), etc. as a sponsor.
RETURN THIS FORM TO:
<a16endorse@yahoo.com>
50 Years Is Enough Network/Alliance for Global Justice 1247 E Street, S.E. Washington, DC 20003 USA fax: 202/544-9359
Current Endorsers:
50 Years Is Enough Network;
ACERCA (Action for Community & Ecology in the Rainforest of Central America);
Alliance for Global Justice;
Art & Revolution;
Campaign for Labor Rights;
Center for Economic Justice;
Center for Economic & Policy Research;
Citizens' Alliance for Consumer Protection -Philippines;
Committee For Academic Freedom in Africa;
DC Area Earth First! Collective;
Colorado Progressive Coalition;
DC Statehood Green Party;
Direct Action Network;
Economic Justice Now (San Francisco Bay Area);
Energy Efficiency Program of CEE Bankwatch (Prague);
Essential Action;
Fair Trade Coalition of Colorado;
Food First/Institute for Food & Development Policy;
Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL);
Global Exchange;
Friends of Clayoquot Sound;
Houstonians Against U.S. Military Intervention (HAUSMI);
INHURED International (Nepal);
Interconnect (Rochester, NY);
International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet;
International Socialists (Canada);
Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America - SF;
Just Act: Youth ACTion for Global JUSTice;
Jubilee 2000 Afrika Campaign (USA);
Kalpavriksh - Environmental Action Group (India);
Latin America Emergency Response Network;
Mangrove Action Project - Port Angeles, WA;
Massachusetts Earth First!;
Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO;
Mexico Solidarity Network;
National Concerns Society (Nepal);
Nicaragua Network;
PeaceSmiths (Long Island, NY);
Plattform gegen Atomgefahren (PLAGE) - Salzburg, Austria;
Quixote Center;
Rainforest Action Network;
Rochester Committee on Latin America, (Rochester, NY), Ruckus Society;
STITCH (Support Team International for Textileras);
Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network (TIRN);
United for a Fair Economy;
The United Peoples (Denmark);
Washington Action Group;
Witness for Peace;
Young Democratic Socialists - NYC;
Young Communist League - Midwest;
Youth Coordination Centre - Thailand