WLOE E-Newsletter: 26 August 2003
Cancun and USA
- Cancun
Jean Grossholtz, Globalisation is happening, 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).
read full article at: http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/information/globalization/jgmore.html
Where is Cancun? http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/cancun/map.htm
For lots of information on Cancun
actions/meetings going on during the WTO meetings see: http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/cancun/
"What is a WTO ministerial?"
– a "sharp and pointed introduction" from: The
Indian Indian Economic Times, 18 August 2003
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/wto/news/0821wto_ministerial.htm
To see the draft of the text
that the Ministers are planning to agree on at Cancun:
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/wto/news/0718cancun_draft.htm
For good background articles
on WTO issues see: http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/wto/news
For a listing of actions being
planned around the world see: http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/cancun/action
Starhawh, Why You Should Come, 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.
Read report at: http://www.starhawk.org/activism/activism-writings/cancun.html
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
Read the full report at: http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/information/globalization/starcancun.html
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/
To find
out about mobilizations and actions, or for suggestions for organizing your
own: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
The Heat is on in Geneva From
Nicola Bullard, Focus on the Global South
"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…" http://www.focusweb.org/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=98#
By Marwaan Macan-Markar, BANGKOK, Aug 20
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''.
http://www.focusweb.org/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=99#
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…" http://www.focusweb.org/publications/Books/Behind-the-Scenes-at-the-WTO.html
- Meanwhile, movement in the USA continues…
War’s byproduct is peace activists, 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. http://www.gazettenet.com/06092003/news/6489.htm
"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..." http://www.monthlyreview.org/0703dohrn.htm
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