Globalization
is happening...
By Jean
Grossholtz, 20 August 2003
Globalization is
happening; fortunately more rapidly by those opposed to
corporate takeover than by the governments and
transnational corporations operating across national
borders to take control of the economy of the world, from
the peasant agriculture in Mexico to the oil resources of
Iraq. They are attacking our local way of life and our
relation to the earth in order to promote commodities and
profits. Protests in Cancun, Mexico, and worldwide,
including one in Springfield at Springfield Tech on Sept
13, will correspond with the 5th ministerial of the World
Trade Organization (WTO). The Springfield protest will
focus around the four elements of nature and represent
the areas that are under attack. Earth ? the environment
and the food supply. Air ? clean air for all and the
media air-waves for a truly informed public opinion. Fire
? non-renewable energy resources to be used for the
common good. Water ? the sacred necessity of life, our
common heritage, clean water for all beings??
read full article at: womenandlife.org
Where is Cancun? nadir.org
For lots of information
on Cancun actions/meetings going on during the WTO
meetings see:
nadir.org
?What is a WTO
ministerial?? ? a ?sharp and pointed introduction? from
The Indian Indian Economic Times, 18 August 2003
nadir.org
To see the draft of the
text that the Ministers are planning to agree on at
Cancun:
nadir.org
For good background
articles on WTO issues see:
nadir.org
For a listing of actions
being planned around the world see: nadir.org
Call to
Cancun... and Why You Should Come
- From Starhawk,
ecofeminist activist
Call
to Cancun: Sept 1-15, 2003
The
next ministerial meeting of the World Trade
Organization will take place in Cancun, Mexico on
September 10-15. From the 8th on, a huge
mobilization will greet the meeting with creative
protest and visions of alternatives. The
governments involved in the WTO are going into
this meeting with strong disagreements on key
areas such as agriculture. Many of the key
elements that derailed the Seattle ministerial
are in place--strong internal divisions, heavy
opposition, and, we hope, a powerful presence of
resistance in the streets. Below is our
report on some of the preliminary organizing we
did in August in Cancun and Mexico City. If you
can come to Cancun, do! Read report at: starhawk.org
and: ?Why You
Should Come to Cancun?
?On
the agenda for this ministerial are some of the
basic issues of life: food, agriculture,
services. To simplify the complexities of tariffs
and subsidies and all the rest of it, the vision
put forth by the corporate globalizers is like a
bad science fiction film. In their version of the
world, no country will produce its own food,
devote common resources to provide for human
needs or the nurturing of the next generation.
All food will be grown in large, industrialized
farms for export, using chemicals and herbicides
on patented, genetically engineered crops that
are further packaged, irradiated, branded, and
shrink-wrapped before being sold to you at your
corner large corporate supermarket. Profit, not
health or sustainability, will be the determining
factor in agriculture as in every area of human
endeavor?
Read
the full report at:
womenandlife.org
l
For
information and updates on Cancun:
Indymedia
Cancun: cancun.mediosindependientes.org
To find out about
mobilizations and actions, or for suggestions for
organizing your own: unitedforpeace.org
(Scroll down to
September 13 Global Day of Action.)
The Heat
is on in Geneva
From
Nicola Bullard, Focus on the Global South
?The
heat is on in Geneva. With just four weeks to go
before the 5th ministerial meeting of the World
Trade Organisation in Cancun, Mexico, director
general Dr Supichai Panitchpakdi is going to have
to pull out all stops to avoid a Seattle-like
meltdown.
It
is just over 20 months since the Doha
"development round" of trade
negotiations was launched, and one can safely say
that absolutely no progress has been made towards
putting the "development" into the
round??
focusweb.org
WTO-CANCUN:
Activists
Want to Convert Conference into Battlefield
By Marwaan Macan-MarkarBANGKOK, Aug 20 (IPS) -
Asian
activists have set their sights on convertingnext
month's World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting
into a battlefield witha single aim in mind:
destroying the relevance of this multilateral
tradebody.For weapons, they will bring their
newly sharpened ideas and razor-edgedmessages on
why the Geneva-based WTO ''should be got rid of''
or ''pushedback''.
focusweb.org
Behind
the Scenes at the WTO:
- the Real World of
International Trade Negotiations
By
Fatoumata Jawara and Aileen Kwa
Zed
Books, London.
?This
immenselyThis important book on the politics of
the WTO, which takes the lid off how the WTO
really works, and what really happened before,
at, and after the Fourth WTO Ministerial
Conference in Doha in 2001, on the basis of
interviews with 33 Geneva-based delegates to the
WTO and 10 Secretariat staff members.
This
is the ammunition the critics of the WTO have
been waiting for??
www.focusweb.orgMeanwhile, movement in the
USA continues?
War?s
byproduct is peace activism
By
MARY CAREY, Staff Writer
Monday,
June 9, 2003 -- Though the combat in Iraq is
mostly over, many peace activists are as busy as
ever, attending meetings on a broad range of
issues they see as inextricably connected with
the war. gazettenet.com
-
- Homeland
Imperialism: Fear and Resistance
by
Bernardine Dohrn
"The
creation and cultivation of fear is one of the
pillars of empire both abroad and within the
imperial ?homeland.? And that fear is always
accompanied by the threat of discipline,
punishment, and violence. Every state uses
violence to enforce its power against its
enemies, but we must recognize that a major
change has occurred. September 11, 2001 gave a
green light for a full blown, and bipartisan,
agenda of repression at home, as well as for the
expanded imperial project abroad. Yet it?s important when we
talk of repression always to pair it with
resistance. As we pile up the evidence of
consolidated state power we must remember that a
part of what has happened since 9/11 includes
2/15?that is February 15 of this year, when as
many as ten million people around the world
simultaneously joined to cry out against U.S.
imperialism..."
monthlyreview.org
Bernardine Dohrn,
activist, academic, and child advocate, is
director of the Children and Family Justice
Center and clinical associate professor of law in
Chicago.
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