AUT: Fwd: CALL TO RESIST THE WTO! (fwd)

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

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 16:19:37 -0500
From: Manuel Callahan <motinrfm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: accion-zapatista@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: accion-zapatista@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Fwd: CALL TO RESIST THE WTO!

>X-Sender: medaille@xxxxxxx
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>Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 15:18:15 -0500
>To: treehugger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, campus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>From: Bill Medaille <medaille@xxxxxxx>
>Subject: CALL TO RESIST THE WTO!
>Reply-To: medaille@xxxxxxx
>Sender: owner-campus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY!!!
>
>COME TO SEATTLE NOV. 29 - DEC. 3, 1999
>FESTIVAL OF RESISTANCE * NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION * STREET THEATER
>Increasing poverty and cuts in social services while the rich get richer;
>low wages, sweatshops, meaningless jobs, and more prisons; deforestation,
>gridlocked cities and global warming; genetic engineering, gentrification
>and war:
>Despite the apparent diversity of these social and ecological troubles,
>their roots are the same -- a global economic system based on the
>exploitation of people and the planet.
>
>>From Nov. 29 to Dec. 3 in Seattle, WA,  thousands leaders of  transnational
>corporations, governments officials and an army of bureaucrats will come to
>the World Trade Organization's Summit to further their drive for profits,
>and their control over our political, economic and cultural life, along
>with the environment. Their new strategy to concentrate power and wealth,
>while neutralizing people's resistance, is called "economic globalization"
>and "free trade." But these words just disguise the poverty, misery and
>ecological destruction of this system.
>
>Tens of thousands of people will converge on Seattle and transform it into
>a festival of resistance: mass nonviolent direct action;  reclaim the
>streets with giant street theater, puppets, celebration, music, street
>parties and pleasure; vibrant sounds of community, creativity and
>resistance and glimpses of life as it could be in the face of hundreds of
>deadening businessman, bureaucrats and politicians. A new world is possible
>and a global movement of resistance is rising to make it happen. Imagine
>replacing the existing social order with a just, free and ecological order
>based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation. Join us. Come to Seattle.
>
>Here is some of what is planned and what you need to know to come to
>Seattle:
>
>RESIST THE WTO: ROADSHOW
>Art and Revolution Street Theater Troupe will join a multi-media, giant
>puppet and dance performance, teach-in tour of the Western U.S. and Canada
>from September 28 to October 18 (in Seattle October 5) to educate, agitate
>and organize against the World Trade Organization Summit. Cosponsored by
>Global Exchange.
>
>ACTION/STREET THEATER CAMP NOV. 20-28
>We are planning for nine days of street theater, giant puppet, dance and
>music making/skillsharing/performing, nonviolent direct action trainings
>and affinity(action) group formations, community building fun, meetings to
>coordinate it all and prepare ourselves for the WTO, outreach and
>performance around Seattle, and more. Come early and help organize and
>prepare. Contact us or check the website for more details.
>
>NOV 30 SHUT DOWN THE WTO
>MASS NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION INFO
>We are planning a large scale, well organized, high visibility action to
>SHUT DOWN the World Trade Organization on Tuesday November 30. The World
>Trade Organization no right to make undemocratic, unaccountable destructive
>decisions about our lives, our communities and the earth. We will
>nonviolently and creatively block them from meeting. Hundreds of people
>will risk arrest, reflecting the diversity of groups and communities
>impacted by the WTO and corporate globalization. We envision colorful and
>festive actions with large scale street theater as a major element.  We
>will make space and encourage mutual respect for a variety of nonviolent
>action styles reflecting our different groups and communities. The WTO
>Summit offers a historic opportunity to halt corporate globalization and to
>help catalyze a widespread mass movement in North America.
>Cosponsored by the Direct Action Network (Against Corporate Globalization),
>Earth First!(Seattle), Global Exchange and Rainforest Action Network.
>
>WHY NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION AND STREET THEATER?
>It is time to raise the social and political cost to those who aim to
>increase the destruction and misery caused by corporate globalization, as
>movements in other parts of the world have. Nonviolent direct action can
>force corporate globalization onto the front burner of public discussion
>and coupled with high visibility street theater, will get national and
>international alternative and mainstream media coverage. The time is ripe
>for massive nonviolent direct action against the World Trade Organization
>(WTO) and the corporate globalization it serves. Demonstrations and protest
>have been an essential part of every successful social change movement in
>North American history, but they are too often marginalized by corporate
>media, too easily dismissed by those we want to engage, and bore
>participants. Street theater used as a tool for making social change can
>break into people's consciousness, communicate powerfully and capture the
>imagination of participants and  observers. Well planned nonviolent direct
>action can intervene into a process that we have been left out of, showing
>the depth of our opposition and forcing the issues onto the public agenda.
>There is an incredible opportunity to use street theater-- art, dance,
>music, giant puppets, graffiti art and theater-- and nonviolent direct
>action to simplify and dramatize the issues of corporate globalization and
>to develop and spread new and creative forms resistance. This will help
>catalyze desperately needed mass movements in the US and Canada capable of
>challenging global capital and making radical change and social revolution.
>
>ORGANIZE YOUR COMMUNITY
>The WTO Summit offers an unprecedented historical opportunity to organize
>in our communities, build alliances with other groups and communities
>impacted by corporate globalization, and help build a movement capable of
>standing up to the existing economic and political system at the root of
>our problems. Here is a brainstorm of ideas of what you can do in your
>community:
>
>* Form, join or activate a local group to organize around the WTO.
>Publicize your meeting/s. This is a chance to work with local groups
>affected by corporate globalization: labor, eco, human rights, animal,
>agriculture, solidarity, etc
>* Call or e-mail us and ask us for a local WTO organizing packet and ready
>to copy flyer. Or get your computer friend to print it all out from our
>website.
>* Outreach to your community: get out flyers/posters, put in newsletters
>and zines, speak to groups, announce at events, write letters to
>editor/guest editorials, send out calendar announcements
>* Plan a public event about the WTO (speakers, video, music,
>performance..), organize a nonviolent direct action training with local
>trainers, or street theater making workshop, or a teach-in. Ask other local
>groups to cosponsor.
>* Fundraise to help cover costs, especially for those who need $ help for
>transport.
>* Plan transportation to Seattle: organize drivers and passengers, share
>renting of a van, ask to borrow vehicles, check out trains and buses.
>* Organize yourselves into affinity groups (5-20 person self reliant action
>groups-- the basic planning and decision-making bodies for the action)to
>take care of each other and stick together. Pick a name. Make a
>banner/puppet. Take a nonviolent direct action training together.
>* Plan a simultaneous solidarity event/action on November 30 for those who
>can't come to Seattle.
>* Make a public send-off event out of leaving, leave as a caravan, send
>press release to and call local press (offer to keep them updated and call
>from Seattle--"Local residents protest/arrested at WTO")
>* Plan a follow up meeting after the WTO to celebrate, take care of any
>legal or other loose ends, discuss sticking together as a local group or
>affinity group to keep working to overthrow corporate power.
>
>ACTION GUIDELINES
>All participants in this action are asked to agree to these action
>guidelines. Having this basic agreement will allow people from many
>backgrounds, movements and beliefs to work together for this action. They
>are not philosophical or political requirements placed upon you or
>judgements about the validity of some tactics over others. These guidelines
>are basic agreements that create a basis for trust, so we can work together
>for this action and know what to expect from each other.
>
>1) We will use no violence, physical or verbal towards any person
>2) We will carry no weapons
>3) We will not bring or use any alcohol or illegal drugs
>4) We will not destroy property
>
>JAIL/COURT SOLIDARITY
>We will encourage and facilitate jail and court solidarity for the mass
>action. This includes: Distributing information about and giving trainings
>on jail solidarity (Check the web site, or contact us for solidarity info);
>Setting up spokescouncil meetings to plan solidarity; Providing a legal
>support team who understands and will help negotiate solidarity demands.
>Through jail solidarity we can take power in a situation designed to make
>us powerless. We do this by making our decisions as a group, by acting in
>harmony with each other, and by committing ourselves to safeguard each
>other's well being. Every time there is a choice in the legal process,
>activists can either cooperate or things become more difficult for the
>authorities. Solidarity tactics mean that people noncooperate as a group
>unless the authorities agree to our demands. An overcrowded, expensive jail
>and legal system create additional pressure. This can give us some control
>legal consequences and get them over with more quickly, protect the
>authorities from singling some people out for harsher treatment, resist
>fines and probation, and extend the action to the prison and legal system
>with the strength and community of a group, instead of as individuals. We
>encourage action participants who are able, to clear their calendar in
>advance for several days or a week or so after the action should it become
>necessary to use a fill-the-jails tactic to win our demands. It is likely
>that those who want or need to leave will be able to do so.
>
>LEGAL
>We will have legal support for those arrested at the mass action through
>arraignment: this includes legal and solidarity briefings, a staffed legal
>support office, an experienced legal coordinator and lawyers who can make
>jail visits.
>
>AFFINITY GROUPS: Everyone participating in the action is asked to form or
>join an affinity group (a self reliant action group of 5-20 people, which
>includes some support people who do not risk arrest and are committed to do
>support before during and after arrest). Affinity groups are the basic
>planning and decision making bodies for the mass action. Form an affinity
>group with your friends, people from your town, neighborhood or workplace,
>from your organization or community, with people you share some other
>affinity, interest or identity with. Two or more affinity groups that have
>something in common, or want to do similar actions should work together as
>a "cluster" of affinity groups.
>
>Action Spokescouncil: Leading up to the action participants will coordinate
>the action and jail/court solidarity through an Action Spokescouncil, with
>spokespeople chosen by each affinity group responsible for carrying their
>groups plans, opinions and decisions to the spokescouncil and carrying
>information and decisions back to their group. Agenda items and proposal
>will be available before each spokescouncil so affinity groups can discuss
>them. We encourage mass action participants to try arrive by Sunday
>November 28, or as early as they can on Monday November 29 to get briefed
>and to coordinate.
>
>NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION TRAINING:  All action participants will be
>encouraged to take a nonviolent direct action training to prepare
>themselves for both the action and for jail and court solidarity to deal
>with the legal system. Trainings are already being set up in many local
>communities and will be available in Seattle during the week leading up to
>and the day and evening before the action.
>
>HOUSING
>If you have any connections in or near Seattle where you can stay, please
>pursue them. People for Fair Trade have said they will try to provide some
>housing at 1-877-STOPWTO. The Direct Action Network expects to have some
>limited housing or camping options during the Action/Street Theater Camp
>and possibly during the WTO, but call write first to check and confirm
>space- priority will be given to folks who confirm well in advance.
>
>NEEDS:
>* Housing: For Seattle area people: can you put up an out of town activists
>before and/or during the WTO?
>* Puppet supplies: Backpack frames, bamboo and wooden poles (6 feet and
>up), large pieces of ripstop nylon other water resistant fabric, white
>sheets, latex (water-based) housepaint (bright, not pastel colors-- like
>red, yellow blue, green and black only).
>* Food to share: call for specifics
>* Money: we need money for outreach materials, renting street theater
>making spaces, puppet supplies, phone calls, mailing, legal support and
>office space. Please send what you can. Make checks to "Art and Revolution
>(WTO)" and send c/o CAN, 4554 12th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98105
>
>DIRECT ACTION NETWORK (AGAINST CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION)
>The Direct Action Network is a network of local grassroots groups and
>street theater groups across the Western United States and Canada who are
>mobilizing our communities to creatively resist the World Trade
>Organization (WTO) and corporate globalization. We are organizing and
>coordinating mass nonviolent direct action and large scale street theater--
>giant puppets, dance, drums, music, spoken word, and graffiti art at the
>WTO Summit in Seattle, November 29 to December 3.  Our current social and
>ecological troubles are rooted in an economic and political system that is
>going global. Imagine replacing the current social order with a just, free
>and ecological society based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation. A NEW
>WORLD IS POSSIBLE and we are part of a global movement that is rising up to
>make it happen. Join us!
>(206) 632-1656  <can@drizzle    <www.agitprop.org/artandrevolution>c/o CAN,
4554 12th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98105
>San Francisco (415) 339-7801/ (510) 464-5921
>Vancouver, BC (604) 254-3145 <vga-van@xxxxxx
>
>WTO Radical Cheerlead
>
>they're trying to take control to do as the please
>globalizing power for their corporate sleaze
>WTO, your plan has got to go
>your scheming system we are gonna overthrow
>(everyone shout):
>take back the power! end corporate greed!
>Well there's poverty and misery all over the land
>the situations gotten out of hand
>when so few own so much
>it's time to take a stand
>(everyone shout):
>take back the power! end corporate greed!
>
>
>---
>GLOBAL ACTION
>pob 11703
>Eugene, OR. 97440
>(541) 302-5020
>http://flag.blackened.net/~global
>
>
>
>Angelfire for your free web-based e-mail. http://www.angelfire.com
>
_______________________
motinrfm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



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