AUT: (en_ [caravan99] INTER CONTINENTAL CARAVAN NEWSLETTER # 1 (fwd)

["Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 16:19:04 -0500
From: Caravan <caravan@xxxxxxxxxxx>
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Subject: (en_ [caravan99] INTER CONTINENTAL CARAVAN NEWSLETTER # 1

 ________________________________________________
      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
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LEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY
PEOPLES' GLOBAL ACTION AGAINST "FREE" TRADE
AND THE WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION (WTO)
INTER CONTINENTAL CARAVAN (ICC NEWSLETTER 1, JANUARY 1999
This is the first Newsletter of the Inter Continental Caravan (ICC). It
is hoped that there will be a newsletter produced regularly, at 6
weekly  intervals, between now and May, when the ICC starts. This
newsletter will be translated into several languages, and can also be
read on the web site <http://stad.dsl.nl/~caravan>. To receive this
Newsletter regurlary, please send an e-mail to: <caravan@xxxxxxxxxxx>

CONTENTS:
1. Brief Introduction to the Inter Continental Caravan=20
2. Organisational Process=20
3. Pretour
4. Country Reports=20
5. International Participation
6. Transport During the ICC
7. Food During the ICC
8. Media and Informational Tools (Media, Webpage, General Publicity, and
Analysis Pack)
9. Money
10. Finalised Route
11. List of Endorsers
12. Report of June 18th International Action in Financial Districts
13. Appeals For Donations
14. Overview of Political Events Connected to the ICC in May and June

*************************************

1. INTRODUCTION TO THE INTER-CONTINENTAL CARAVAN

Several hundred activists from all over the world will come to Europe in
May-June 1999, to participate in non-violent actions against the most
important centres of power of the continent (like headquarters of TNCs,
banks, institutions, corporate lobby groups, parliaments, etc), and meet
groups from different countries.

The timing of their visit will coincide with two major political events:
the summit of heads of state of the European Union and the summit of
heads of state of the G8 (USA, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Canada, Italy
and Russia). The G8 meeting, which marks the end of the visit, will be
the highest point of the ICC, and will coincide with other initiatives
going on at the same time, such as non-violent actions in financial
centres all over the world. Some of these are briefly listed in section
13 below.

Since this project was originally conceived in India (by KRRS, the
biggest farmers' movement of that country), a large share of the
activists coming will be Indian farmers, but the programme is open for
activists from all over the world and different social sectors to join
it. It is anticipated that there will be about 500 activists from India,
and about 100 from other countries.

The ICC is a project initiated and co-ordinated through the PGA (Peoples
Global Action against "free" trade and WTO) -network, which was set up
at a conference in February 1998 In Geneva, Switzerland, and
co-ordinated actions against the WTO Ministerial Conference in May 1998
In Gevena, also. The political position of the ICC is based on the PGA
philosophy on non-violence, non-hierarcical strugtures, and will
maintain a confrontational attitude and practicnon-violent civil
disobedience and direct action as tools for political change rather than
lobbying. For more information about the PGA, see Homepage:
<http://www.agp.org>.

The name Inter Continental Caravan shares it's initials (ICC) with the
large corporate lobby group, the International Chamber of Commerce,
which was instrumental in drafting the MAI. We would like to apologise
for any inconvenience this may cause the International Chamber of
Commerce!=20

CONTACT: European Co-ordination office c/o PO BOX 2228, 2301 CE Leiden,
Holland
=09       Tel/fax: 00 31 71 517 3094, e-mail: <caravan@xxxxxxxxxxx>

                   PGA Secretariat: <pga@xxxxxxx>

**********************************************************

2. ORGANISATIONAL PROCESS=20

The ICC is based on non hierarchical and decentralised organisational
structures, which are also hall- marks of the PGA network as a whole.
There is a European coordination group, based in Leiden, Holland, which
currently is made up of an environmental activist from Finland, an
activist from the unemployed movement in France, and one  from the UK
who has been working on globalisation related issues. This is for
coordination purposes only, and is not a headquarters of the ICC as
such. In each county there are local Welcoming groups which comprise of
people from the different organisations in that country who have decided
to work on the ICC.  Since November, there has been a European wide
meeting about every 6 weeks, where people from all the different
Welcoming groups, and the European coordination group meet for a
planning weekend. The European coordination group was selected at the
first such meeting in November, in Germany.  Each European wide meeting
is in a different country. The next one will be at the end of February
in Switzerland.  In between such meetings there is regular email
discussion between groups involved.  Unfortunately, this is only in
English, since this is the common language we have decided to work in.
Activists in each country are translating regular summaries of the
discussion into their own language for local use. All work related to
the ICC, at both the local level, and European level is unpaid. Funding
will be done in a decentralised manner also (see also section 9).

**************************************

3. PRETOUR: 21 st January - 9 th February

Between the end of January and the beginning of February there will be a
"pretour" of 3 activists from India, and one person from the European
coordination group, travelling around Europe to hold meetings with
different organisations. From India there will be the president of the
Karnataka State Farmers Association, the president of Shetkari
Sanghatana (a  farmers organisation in the state of  Maharasthra) who is
also the president of the All-India Inter-State Coordination Committee
of Farmers' Movements, and an Adivasi indigenous landrights activist
from the state of Kerala.

The aims of the pretour will be to consolidate and legitimise the
political process here in Europe, to broaden the political participation
from different organisations and sectors, to facilitate the fundraising
process, and to enable hosting activists and some activists from India
to get to know each other prior to the ICC actually starts.

A tight two week programme of meetings has been arranged for France,
Italy, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. There will be
meetings with all local welcoming groups, many major European farmer's
movements (including the Confederation Paysanne from France, and the
Coordination Paysanne Europeene in Brussels, both of which are members
of the international coordination Via Campesina), many large
foundations, public information meetings, meetings with politicians, and
also with journalists. There will also be meetings with those involved
in campaigning against biotechnology (such as GenetiX Snowball from the
UK, activists involved in the global protests against the G8 summit,
anti third world debt organisations (such as the Coalition pour la
Annulation du Dette de Tiers Monde, in Belgium), and anti nuclear
activists (such as For Mother Earth in Belgium). It is hoped also that
there can be meetings with people from the international anti MAI
networks.

In addition to these meetings, the pretour will join two major meetings
which are occuring independently of the pretour. The first is the
Reclaim Europe meeting in Cologne, where groups from across Europe
(including the Euromarches) are meeting to prepare coordinated activity
around the EU summit, which will take place in Cologne during the ICC.
This is an important part of the pretour, since it will give an
opportunity to meet many movements from across Europe, including from
Spain, where the pretour is unfortunately not going. The second event
the pretour will participate in is the demonstration against the
corporate lobby group, the World Economic Forum, at their annual meeting
of the in Davos, Switzerland. It is also hoped, but as yet unconfirmed,
that there can some possibility of participation in the international
press conference which will take place in Davos, "the Other Davos",
since this an important process to cooperate with.

CONTACT: <caravan@xxxxxxxxxxx>

*******************************

4. COUNTRY REPORTS

The ICC will travel throughout most of Western Europe, and also a small
part of Eastern Europe. There are currently Welcoming groups preparing
to receive all, or part, of the ICC in the Netherlands, Belgium, UK,
France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, and Poland. There
is also the possibility of Spanish involvement in the project, though it
is unlikely that the ICC can actually go there, due to large travel
distance. There are also possibilities of a small delegation of
individuals from the ICC going to Scandinavia.

**************************


NETHERLANDS: 22nd - 27th May

The organisational process for the ICC began very rapidly right from the
beginning. There are several different organisations involved, and a lot
of other groups and organisations have expressed their interest (among
them the NAV, Dutch Agriculture Association.). There is a mediagroup
information is being spread very widely, there is a leaflet (over 6.000
copies already spread around !) and different plans for publicity and
documentation of the ICC. Information evenings will be held in squats
and other places, and a studygroup will start to develop the analytical
and educational aspects of the ICC.

For fundraising efforts several funds and other places have been
contacted.

For accommodation, there is an offer of a very political farmers
organisation in the middle of the Netherlands to camp in their grounds.
They have been working for years on issues like contacts hence and forth
with f.e. Costa Rica, ethical ways to run a farm, biological farming
etc.

The ICC will start in Amsterdam on the 22nd May. There will be a big
welcoming press conference at the Schipol-airport with a picnic
afterwards. On the following days there will be a very varied programme
including visits with farmers' organisations, meetings at different
universities, visits to farms, organisations working on food and fair
trade. On the 26th May there will be an action day, one possible theme
being biotechnology.

Both the collectives which offered to work on transportation
(Theaterstraat) and food (Rampenplan) are from the Netherlands and also
involved in the Dutch co-ordination.

CONTACT: <infocent@xxxxxxxxxxx>

***************************

BELGIUM: 27th May - 30th May

In Belgium there are plans to receive about half of the ICC (about 300
people), whilst the rest of the ICC travels to the UK. There is
involvement from international solidarity organisations, squatters, anti
nuclear organisations, development NGOs,  the Coalition pour la
Annulation du Dette Tiers Monde (CADTM, Coalition for the Cancellation
of Third World Debt). The ICC will participate in the final stage of the
international 2000 Walk for Nuclear Disarmament, which will go from the
International Court of Justice in Den Haag, to the NATO headquarters in
Brussels, joining with this protest as it approaches NATO. The
accomodation will be provided by the walk's Peace Camp, which will be
organised by the anti nuclear organisation For Mother Earth. Other sites
for possible actions include the headquarters of the biotechnology giant
Monsanto, and hopefully also the European Commission, and various
corporate lobby groups in Brussels. Fundraising is still at an early
stage here, but several fundraising and =84food raising" events are
planned for February and March. In March the CADTM are organising a very
major international meeting against Third World Debt in Brussels. It
will be important that organisers of the ICC link up with this meeting,
since there will be representatives of very major social movements from
around the world participating.

CONTACT: <icc99belgique@xxxxxxxxxx>

*******************************

UK: 27th May - 30th May

About half of the ICC will come to London between 27th and 30th of May,
while the rest of the ICC is in Belgium.

There is already a lot of support in the ICC on UK, amongst them, Third
World solidarity groups, strikers against casualisation (Hillingdon
Health workers), Corporate Watch, Reclaim the Streets, Undercurrents,
Earth first! -activists, Anti-MAI -campaigners and anti-militarist
organisations, and MEPs. Media interest already is stepping up and there
is a very well known journalist interested in visiting India to report
on the KRRS and the preparations for the tour.

Action plans include an 'surround the Dome' action (the Dome is a strong
symbol of Tony Blair's new corporate Britain), something around Genetic
engineering (with Genetix and the accountable 'Snowball' campaign) and
Global Financial Markets, and cancelling the Third World Debt. There may
also be actions related to nuclear and militarist issues.

CONTACT: <icc99uk@xxxxxxxxxxx>

*********************************

FRANCE: 30th May - 2nd June, 5th June - 8th June, 10th - 14th June

The situation in France began quite slowly, but now things are moving
faster. There are groups constituted in Lyon, Lille, Dijon, Nantes and
Toulouse. The ICC will visit several places in France, with the whole
Caravan going to Paris, and later in 2 different parts to the North and
South parts of France.

In Paris the squat movements are beginning be involved, as is the
National Co-ordination of the Autonomous Unemployed Group, and the
Benghali community, who will organise a food donations. There is also
the support of the Confederation Paysanne, the biggest small farmers
organisation of Europe, and a member of the European wide Coordination
Paysanne Europeene, which is a member of the international peasant
co-ordination Via Campesina. An important organisation working on
migration issues, Droits Devant! is also backing the ICC. There have
been efforts to try to involve some politicians.=20

On the 6th of March, a concert will be held in Dijon, and a couscous
party in Lyon as fund raising efforts.

There are plans for actions at  the OECD, and of course at the ICC (we
won't loose the opportunity for  the ICC to confront with the ICC !),
both of which are in Paris. In Lyon there's the idea of actions at Rhune
Poulenc, a big biotech transnational that just merged with Hoechst.

CONTACTS:=09Lyon: <ybon@xxxxxxxxxxx>, tel: 04.78.39.98.40, fax:
04.78.22.71.02
=09=09Lille: <lbhoyez@xxxxxxxxxx>, tel/fax: 03.27.57.45.14
=09=09Paris: <vespa@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, tel: 01.42.58.82.28
=09=09Nantes: tel: 02.40.41.65.21/22 fax: 02.40.14.31.73
=09=09Dijon: <maloka@xxxxxxxx>, tel: 03.80.66.81.49, fax: 03.80.30.60.72

***************************

GERMANY: 2nd June - 5th June, 27th May - 30th May, 15th June - 20th June

The ICC will be in Germany 3 times. It will link up with and do its own
actions against the EU- Summit (3rd-4th June) (only about half of the
ICC will be here at this time) and G8 Summits and the Global Action Day
in Cologne (18th June), and also one bus will meet the "Geld oder Leben"
(Money or Life) -Caravan for one day and then carry on to Berlin, and
later on, after a visit to Poland and Czech Republic, will also visit
Munich. Other actions that will take place include activities against
genetic engineering and possibly against patents on life. There will be
also a day of rest at farms in different parts of the country.=20

The general process has been slow to start, due to the amount of work
all the other actions in Germany need, but is now proceeding well. Some
money has already been arranged, there will more meetings with potential
funders, and press conferences are being planned.

CONTACT: <icc99@xxxxxx>

****************************

ITALY: 2nd June - 8th June

About half of the ICC (300 people) will go to Italy. The arrangements
for ICC in Italy are proceeding rapidly, the main centers being Milan
and Rome, with a delegation of the ICC being invited also to Padova,
Bologna, Firenze and Napoli. In Milan the co-ordination is done through
the Zapatista association =84Ya Basta", but there is a lot of involvement
and interest from other groups also,  such as different peace
organisations, environmental movements, politicians, Christian
organisations etc. The media has shown already very strong interest and
support for the ICC.

In Milan the Social Center Leoncavallo will be available for
accomondation and catering. Financing will be done through concerts,
cultural evenings and different funders have been contacted.

The actions and events in Italy include on 3rd June. a press-conference,
5th June a demonstration at the Food and Agriculture Organisation in
Rome, 6th Jjune a large anti-globalisation festival in Verona, and on
the 7th June an action at the Milan Stock Exchange.

CONTACTS: <tissino@xxxxxx>, <acunzoli@xxxxxx>

*****************************

SWITZERLAND: 8th June - 14th June

After the last year of international activity surrounding globalisation
and in particular the World Trade Organisation, which has happened in
Switzerland, groups there are very far into the ICC organisational
process. There are already concrete plans for protest actions in towns
and the countryside all across the country  (including at least Geneva,
Bern, and Vevey), mixing international institutions, corporate lobby
groups, biotechnology giants, and other TNCs, World Trade Organisation,
World Economic Forum, Cargill, Nestle, Pl=FCss Staufer, Novartis etc. to
take place during the ICC.

Contact is being made with a wide range of social sectors, including
unions, peasants' organisations (including Swiss members of the=20
Coordination Paysanne Europeene, and the international coordination Via
Campesina), squatters, immigrants, international solidarity
organisations, NGOs, and church groups, and there will be several public
meetings, including meetings with peasants in the countryside and an
"inter continental market place", and, of course, parties will accompany
the strong programme of actions. Miraculously, there are also plans for
2 days of rest while the ICC is in Switzerland!

There will be the full ICC in Geneva, and people will be accommodated in
a mixture of donated public buildings and also private accommodation,
involving a maximum amount of participation from the Swiss public. In
other areas of the country there will be about 300 participants of the
ICC, and the rest will be in France at this time.

CONTACT: <bordi@xxxxxxxxxx>, <nosuko@xxxxxxxxxxx>, <red-red2@xxxxxxx>

******************************

POLAND: 31st May - 3rd June

One bus is likely to travel to Poland (at this stage it is still
uncertain). A large number of organisations and individuals have already
expressed their will to participate in the process, ranging from the
Polish Anarchist Federation and different environmental and anti-nuclear
groups (f.e. Polish Ecological Club) to different farmers movements,
including the Ecosolidarity (foundation for organic farming),
Self-Defence Committee (direct-action farmers group) and Solidarity of
Individual Farmers. Contacts have been also made with Polish Maritime
and Economical Association, Catholic Action of Sandomierz Diocese, the
Farmers Party and The Helsinki Committee, and a lot of other groups will
be contacted. Also academics from the Warsaw University have been
interested.

In Poznan the food will be donated by farmers, fund-raising is done
through concerts and other parties, and the accomondation will likely to
be organised by squatters.

One idea for actions is the International Industrial Trade Fair.

The situation in Poland (and elsewhere in Eastern Europe) is quite
different from Western Europe, with very little knowledge and criticism
about globalisation and the Structural Adjustment Programmes taking
place in the Eastern Europe. Most opposition to foreign investments
comes from nationalistic groups, who are looking for support from
farmers. Because of this, it is very important to have an international
event such as the ICC to Poland.

CONTACT: <gawlik@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

******************************

CZECH REPUBLIC: 3rd June - 6th June

The process of contacting people and organisations for supporting the
Caravan is under way. For now, there has been interest within the
Charles University of Prague, amongst other organisations.

The plans in Prague include meetings with press and professors,
leafleting in the centre of Prague, meetings, and on 5th June there will
be a Street Party with infoshops. There also the possibility of a non
violent direct action.
=20
CONTACT: <zemepredevsim@xxxxxx>

**************************

FINLAND/SCANDINAVIA

There are small plans about a speaking tour of a few farmers, but they
are not finalised yet.

CONTACT: <punxaara@xxxxxxxxx>, <sajarvel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

*************************

SPAIN

There are some ideas about involving Spain also in the ICC, although it
is very unlikely at this stage that the ICC can actually travel to
Spain. As yet there are no concrete plans.

CONTACT: <maast@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

******************************

5. INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION end of part 1

CONTACT: <asta@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
                 =20
<http://www.uni-koeln.de/studenten/asta/internat/eu-wwg.html>



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