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worldwide resistance round-up inspired by
Peoples Global Action
BULLETIN 5 - FEB 2000 - UK EDITION
'We do not want your charity, we do not want your loans. Those in the North have to understand our struggle and to realise it is also part of their own. Everywhere the rich are getting richer, the poorpoorer, and the environment is being plundered. Whether in the Northor South, we face the same future... Globalisation should mean wewant to globalise human society, not business. Life is not business.'
A farmer from Karnataka, India
"They never knew what hit them. They had assumed it would bebusiness as usual, the way it had been for decades. Rich men gather,meet, decide the fate of the world, then return home to amass morewealth. It's the way it's always been. Until Seattle."
- Michael Moore, U.S comedian (not the WTO director general)
"In a very real sense, the Zapatista movement emerged as atentative and transitory solution to precisely the problem whichconfronts us everywhere: how to link up a diverse array oflinguistically and culturally distinct peoples and their struggles,despite and beyond those distinctions, how to weave a variety ofstruggles into one struggle that never losses its multiplicity."
Foreword
Peoples' Global Action (PGA) is an international network thatwas originally inspired by the Zapatista struggle in Mexico. PGA hada hand in events such as the June 18th Global Day of Action which sawLondon's financial centre shut down, and the 'Battle ofSeattle' anti-World Trade Organisation protests, alongside hundredsof other not-so-(in)famous events. Due to its diffuse and fluidnature as well as not having any offices, paid staff, funds or bankaccounts, the role of PGA and its link between different events hasremained obscure. We hope this publication clarifies these links andhelps to further build the PGA network and the whole movement ofpositive resistance to capitalism.
When deciding toput this together we have been faced with the complexities ofrepresentation. While not wanting to speak for, or on behalf ofanyone beyond ourselves, we have been forced by limitations of spaceand the sheer volume of information available from groups, to edit -sometimes severely - other people's writing. We've highlighted whatseems to be exciting, interesting and inspiring and tried our best tokeep its content and 'feel' of writing. But no doubt we'llhave made mistakes, so sorry if this is the case...
What you hold in your hand is anexpanded and revamped version of the PGA bulletin number 5 whichalready exists in various non-English forms. PGA bulletins havepreviously been a series of action reports, written by thoseinvolved, compiled by a team and sent around mostly via email and theweb. Many people do not have access to the internet, and arenot on the email lists where much of this information flows, so it isnecessary to regularly compille this information in printedform. We have used the action reports as the foundation forthis bulletin, which traces the trajectory of the PGA from itsfirst conference in February 1998 until now.
What follows has been collated, edited and laid-outby a collective of revolutionaries/activists/people (OK, so we've hadproblems defining ourselves!) living in the UK who often work underthe banners 'Reclaim The Streets' and 'Earth First!'. This isessentially a PGA bulletin for a UK audience, but we've produced alarge print-run so we can give copies to groups requesting them fromother English-speaking countries. This is in the hope that ourall-night editorial get-togethers might inspire other groups to makemore use of the information collected for future PGA bulletins.
We welcome comments, corrections and all yourfeedback, however vitriolic(!) Ideas for writing/ theory/ analysis tobe included with the next collection of action reports are welcome,which we'll pass on to the next group mad enough to take on the nextedition. We can be contacted via the Reclaim TheStreets (London) address, see resources on page 30.The editorialcollective, London, Feb 2000.
Discontents
Our resistance is as transnational as capital
-So what is this Peoples' Global Action? A brief history.
-The Inter-Continental Caravan and the 2nd PGA conference in
Bangalore.
-J18: High finance takes a low blow on the day withno name.
-The revolution will be reflected upon: thoughts on J18.
-Every day is an opportunity for action: some reports from Narmada,Itoitz, Athens & West Papua.
-Seattle is everywhere: reports from N30 -against capitalism and the WTO.
-It's not about free - or even fair - trade, it's about... N30reflections.
-Seizing the moment: actions since N30, including Ecuador, UNAM,U'wa, Davos & Bangkok. The pie's the limit...
-Getting involved... Possibilities, pitfalls and prisonersupport.
-La lucha continua: future actions and events: Mayday, anti-IMF inWashington and Prague.
Weaving the fabric of global struggle
Never heard of Peoples' Global Action (PGA)? Our impassionedchronicler presents a review of the history, inspirations and manifestations of the PGA network; with a nod to the revolutionarypossibilities beginning to (re)emerge...
The Accelerating History of PGA
Capitalism had won; many had declared it was the end of history -it was November 1989, the Berlin wall had just fallen. Travel amere ten years forward in history... it's November 1999, theWorld Trade Organisation (WTO), legislators of global capitalism, tryto meet in a city reeking of tear gas and paralysed by tens ofthousands of demonstrators. A piece of graffiti is painted allover Seattle: "Don't Forget - We are Winning". It wasclear that history had a lot further to go.
Whether you were on thestreets of Seattle that day dodging the rubber bullets, or followingthe hundreds of bullock carts converging on the Narmada dam in India,or marching with trade unionists in Manila, or in London trapped bythe £3m police operation, or mocking the stock exchange in BuenosAires, or even occupying a McDonalds in Milan... one thing was clearto everyone: at the end of the 20th century resistance hadbecome as transnational as capital.
As the state, transnational corporationsand their puppets the International Monetary Fund and WTO impose"free market" policies on every country on the planet,putting profit and economic growth above all else, they areunwittingly creating a situation where diverse social movements areable to recognise each others struggles as related and are beginningto work together in new ways. But where did this extraordinary showof international solidarity spring from?
It wasn't in the acridmist of Seattle's tear gas that this global movement was born, but inthe humid mist of the Chiapas jungle, in Southern Mexico on New YearsDay 1994 the day. This was the day the North American Free TradeAgreement (NAFTA) came into effect, a day when two thousandindigenous peoples from several groups came out from the mountainsand forests. Masked, armed and calling themselves Zapatistas, theirbattle cry was "Ya Basta" - "Enough is Enough".An extraordinary popular uprising, which was to help change thelandscape of global resistance, had begun. Using a jungle batteredlaptop computer and intermediaries to get the discs to an internetconnected computer, the Zapatistas were able to bypass the mediacensorship of the Mexican state and communicate directly. Peopleeverywhere soon heard of the uprising.
These masked rebels, from povertystricken communities, were not only demanding that their own land andlives be given back, neither were they just asking forinternational support and solidarity; they were talking aboutneoliberalism, about the "death sentence" that NAFTA and other free trade agreements would impose on indigenouspeople. They were demanding the dissolution of power whileencouraging others all over the world to take on the fight againstthe enclosure of our lives by capital. "Don't join us - do ityourself" was their message.
The sense ofpossibility that this uprising gave to millions of people across theglobe was extraordinary. In 1996, the Zapatistas, withtrepidation as they thought no-one might come, sent out anemail calling for a gathering, called an "encuentro"(encounter), of international activists and intellectuals to meet inspecially constructed arenas in the Chiapas jungle to discuss commontactics, problems and solutions. Six thousand people attended,and spent days talking and sharing their stories of struggle againstthe common enemy: capitalism.
This was followed a year later by a gathering in Spain, wherethe idea for the construction of a more action focused network, to benamed Peoples' Global Action (PGA), was hatched by a group made up ofactivists from ten of the largest and most innovative socialmovements. They included the Zapatistas, Movimento Sem Terra,(the Brazilian Landless Peasants Movement who occupy and liveon large tracts of unproductive land) and the Karnataka StateFarmers Union (KRRS), renowned for their "cremate Monsanto"campaign which involved burning fields of Genetically Modifiedcrops.
The group (who became the PGA convenorscommittee, a role that rotates every year) drafted a documentoutlining some of the primary objectives and organisationalprinciples of the emerging network. It outlined a firm rejection ofappeals to those in power for reforms to the present world order. Asupport for direct action as a means of communities reclaimingcontrol over their lives, and an organisational philosophy based onautonomy and decentralisation. In February 1998, Peoples'Global Action was born. For the first time ever the worldsgrassroots movements were beginning to talk and share experienceswithout the mediation of the media or Non Governmental Organisations(NGO's).
This first gathering of the PGA washeld in Geneva - HQ of the much hated WTO. More than 300delegates from 71 countries came to Geneva to share their anger overthe current phase of the capitalist project. From the CanadianPostal Workers, and Earth First! to anti-nuclear campaigners, toFrench farmers, to the indigenous from the Maori, U'wa and Ogonipeoples, to Korean Trade Unionists, to Reclaim the Streets, to theIndigenous Women's Network of North America, to Ukrainian radicalecologists... all were there to form, "a global instrument forcommunication and co-ordination for all those fighting against thedestruction of humanity and the planet by the global market, whilebuilding up local alternatives and people power." One ofthe participants spoke of this inspiring event: "It is difficultto describe the warmth and the depth of the encounters we had here.The global enemy is relatively well known, but the global resistancethat it meets rarely passes through the filter of the media. And here we met the people who had shut down whole cities in Canadawith general strikes, risked their lives to seize lands in LatinAmerica, destroyed the seat of Cargill in India or Novartis'stransgenic maize in France. The discussions, the concrete planningfor action, the stories of struggle, the personalities, theenthusiastic hospitality of the Genevan squatters, the impassionedaccents of the women and men facing the police outside the WTObuilding, all sealed an alliance between us. Scattered around theworld again, we will not forget. We remain together. This is ourcommon struggle." One of the concrete aims of thisgathering was to co-ordinate actions against two events of globalimportance that were coming up in May of that year, the G8 meeting(an annual event) of the leaders of the eight most industrialisednations, which was to take place in Birmingham and the secondministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation which was beingheld a day later in Geneva. The outcome of the gathering was thatthree months later in May 1998 for four consecutive days, acts ofresistance echoed around the planet.
In Hyderabad India, 200,000 peasant farmerscalled for the death of the WTO, in Brasilia landless peasants andunemployed workers joined forces and 50,000 of them took to thestreets, while over thirty Reclaim the Streets parties took place inmany countries, ranging from Finland, to Sydney, to San Francisco, toToronto, to Lyon and Berlin. In Prague, the biggest singlemobilisation since the Velvet Revolution in '89 brought thousandsinto the streets for a mobile street party which ended with severalMcDonalds being "redesigned" and running battles with thepolice. Meanwhile in the UK 6,000 reclaimed the streets blockingcentral Birmingham as the G8 leaders fled the city to a local manor,to continue their meeting in a more tranquil location. In Geneva thestreets exploded: world leaders had congregated there for the WTOministerial, and to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the GeneralAgreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), the forerunner of the WTO.Over 15,000 people from all over Europe and many from othercontinents demonstrated against the tyranny of the WTO, banks hadtheir windows smashed, the WTO Director General's Mercedes was overturned. Three days of the heaviest rioting ever seen in Genevafollowed.
It was clear something was happening, something big, and themomentum was becoming unstoppable. A year later anintercontinental caravan of 500 people from the global South touredEurope, directly confronting governments, corporations andbanks. On June the 18th the caravan ended in Koln where the G8was holding its annual meeting. That day carnivals against capitalismtook place in financial centres on every continent. The term"anti capitalist " became common currency in many mediareports. Five months later on November the 30th the World TradeOrganisation is brought to its knees... the rest is history...
At over 100 years old, activist Hazel Wolf has lived through aRussian Revolution, a Chinese Revolution and the fall of the BerlinWall. "the thing about all of them is, nobody knew they weregoing to happen." she says. A revolution, by its nature, hardlyseems possible before it takes place; but it may seem obvious andeven inevitable in hindsight. But one thing is sure, revolutionaryepochs are periods where tyrannical institutions lose theirlegitimacy. They are eras of convergence, when apparently separateprocesses collect to form a socially explosive crisis. They aremoments when hope is ignited, the hope that everything can betransformed, and transformed quickly. They are times when historyspeeds up >> >>
Ecology has influenced many movements today and that is perhaps whytheir model of organisation and co-ordination resembles an ecologicalmodel, why it works like an ecosystem. Highly interconnected, itthrives on diversity, works best when embedded in its own localityand context and develops most creatively at the edges, the overlappoints, the in-between spaces. Those spaces are where differentcultures meet, such as the coming together of the American EarthFirst! and Logging Unions or London tube workers and Reclaim theStreets. The societies that they dream of creating will also be likeecosystems, diversified, balanced and harmonious.
The global "race to the bottom" in which workers,communities and whole countries are forced to compete by loweringwages, working conditions, environmental protections, and socialspending, to facilitate maximum profit for corporations, isstimulating resistance all over the world. People everywhere arerealising that this resistance is pointless if they are resisting inisolation. E.g - say your community manages, after years of tirelesscampaigning, to shut down your local toxic waste dump, what does thetransnational Company that owns the dump do? They simply move it towherever their costs are less and the resistance weaker - probablysomewhere in the Third World or Eastern Europe. Under thissystem, communities have a stark choice either compete fiercely witheach other or co-operate in resisting the destruction of our lives,land and livelihoods by rampaging capital.
KRRS, Capitalism and coconut curry...
The second PGA Conference took place in Bangalore, India, in Augustlast year. For six days people from over 25 countries as diverse asNicaragua and Indonesia, gathered to talk about the network, itsstrengths, weaknesses and the direction in which it was moving. Formany the gathering also provided a focus for discussion on how toco-ordinate global resistance to the forth-coming WTO Ministerial onNov 30th.
The conference resulted in a number offundamental changes to the structure, philosophy and self-perceptionof the PGA. It was felt by almost all of those present that there wasa need to extend our critique beyond the WTO and free trade and toattack capital and other forms of domination in their entirety.
Although meetings werecharacteristically chaotic (being in English, Spanish and often twoIndian languages), it was decided to explicitly distance the PGAnetwork from groups who hold fundamentally different ideas to ourown, for example far-right groups, political parties and reformistNGOs.
The conference also provided an opportunity tobegin calculating methods of both expanding and consolidating thenetwork, whilst taking it out of the realms of cyber-space andrelating it to our own, and others, lived experiences. Mostimportantly, the convergence of individuals from the most disparateand diverse social movements allowed for inspiration andunderstanding to be shared, built upon and taken home to be put intopractice. http://www.squall.co.uk (features) for fullreport.
Enquentro:
The latest Zapatista-inspired 'enquentro' was for the Americas only,and took place in the Amazonian city of Belem in December 1999. Oversix days nearly 3000 people participated in hundreds of discussionsabout linking struggles, sharing information and ideas, andimportantly some serious partying. Groups attending ranged from theWorkers Party, Brazil's main opposition political party, toindigenous peoples including the Yanomami, to Brazil's strong blackmovement, and the inspirational radical 'hip-hop' street movement.While problems arose leaving two parallel meetings for two days -broadly the 'official enquentro' attended by the left politicalparties, and another 'alternative enquentro' attended by most of theother groups - it was impressive that the spirit of continueddialogue allowed these parallel meetings to coalesce for the finaltwo days.
'If you come only to help me, you can go back home. But if youconsider my struggle as part of your struggle for survival, thenmaybe we can work together'.
The Inter-Continental Caravan, spring 1999 was made up of 400 farmersand grassroots activists including members of India's KRRS,Zapatistas, Colombians and women from the landless movement inBangladesh. It was a month-long tour to protest against debt, unfairterms of trade, economic globalisation, GM foods and recolonisationof the South. Eleven buses carried them around 12 European countriesto meet and exchange experiences with local environmental and socialactivists. Actions took place at Monsanto and Cargill's Europeanheadquarters, at an anti-GM 'crop squat' in Norfolk, England. Therewere also meetings with Polish ecological farmers. The Koln G8 laughparade was frustrated by a state crackdown and logistical problems,but many strong links were made across cultures and countries.
More details:
www.agp.org
N30:www.nadir.org/nadir/ initiativ/inter/UScaravan/
J18: June 18th 1999
An international day of protest, action and carnival aimed at theheart of the global economy: financial and banking districts.
Seventy two places across all continents burst into action whilst theG8 leaders met under armed guard in Köln, Germany. (www.j18.org)
The proposal for a worldwide day of action
in the financial centres around the world was translated into 7languages and distributed to over 2000 groups worldwide by post andemail:
"...Wherever there is Oppression there is Resistance... Aproposal has been made by various groups and movements of activistsfrom England to hold an international day of action aimed at theheart of the global economy: the financial centres, banking districtsand multinational corporation power bases. The suggested date is the18th June 1999... This proposal is made in the spirit ofstrengthening our international networks and follows from the successof co-ordinated global action during May 16-20th 1998. Theseevents coincided with the G8 meeting in Birmingham, Great Britain,and the second ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation inGeneva, Switzerland... Next year between the 18th - 20th June the G8will meet in Koln, Germany... Each event would be organisedautonomously and co-ordinated in each city or financial district by avariety of movements and groups. It is hoped that a whole range ofgroups will take part including workers, peasants, indigenous people,women, students, the landless, environmentalists, unemployed andothers... everyone who recognises that the global capitalist system,based on the exploitation of people and the planet for the profit ofa few, is at the root of our social and ecological troubles... OURRESISTANCE WILL BE AS TRANSNATIONAL ASCAPITAL!"
As the proposal weaved its way through the world's communicationsystems, enthusiasm for the day began to gain momentum. Inspired bythe possibilities which lay within the simultaneous occupation of theworld's primary financial districts, and ever conscious of the newconnections and understandings we were beginning to make, the dayfinally arrived...
London Actions:
30,000 copies of a spoof newspaper 'Evading Standards' werehanded out to explain the J18 events, analyse capitalism and providevisions of a brighter future. At 00.01 on J18 the action began whenthe London Metal Exchange was paint-bombed. Then in the early hoursof the morning Tower Bridge was closed by absailing climbers hanginga 'Life before Profit' banner. From 7.45am through to midday a 600cyclist strong Critical Mass toured The City blocking traffic. 50people barricaded London Bridge with cars, chains and a 'Stop TheCity' banner. Mid-morning saw an Animal Rights march wind through TheCity visiting animal exploiters, and CAAT the Campaign Against theArms Trade, occupy Lloyds Bank and Friends Provident for their rolesin arms exporting. The Association of Autonomous Astronauts picketedcompanies involved with the 'militarisation of space'. LondonGreenpeace picketed various McDonalds and their subsidiary Aromaduring the day. The International Solidarity with Workers in Russiagroup targeted clothing company GAP for their slave labour practicesin Russia.
Carnival against Capital: London, - a personal account...
The Carnival kicks off in Liverpool St station and the drums areloud and thrilling on the marble type floor of the huge concourse. Wesnake out with the drums to a dead plaza with a McDonalds and abrazen office block of the Thatcher era. The drum beat isthrilling, mountaineers climb up the office block to do a cheekydance on the parapet, wild cheering of the Naked Protest while theofficers of the office stand looking out of the window, they thepassive spectators of what is normally their undisputed territory.
I'm reading the greatspoof of the Evening Standard paper called Evading Standards that arebeing given out. One of many sharp headlines reads "The FinalAct of Enclosure". The drummers keep up the momentum. Someonegives us Green masks, this is the Gift Economy, the selfless andanonymous work that is making all this happen. The mask has apractical suggestion inside- "On the signal follow yourcolour...Let the Carnival Begin. In the station there are also Red,Black and Gold Masks. Inside the mask too is printed a web siteaddress and a keen understanding of the mask:
"Thesein authority fear the mask for their power partly resides inidentifying, stamping and cataloguing: in knowing who YOU are... Thewearing of a mask symbolises the rejection of the cult of personalityso crucial to consumer capitalism...While the elite gangs of stateand capital become evermore faceless their fear of the faces ofeveryday resistance grows."
We are with the Greens and at the wordset off away from the main crowd, a thousand of us. No leaders butmessages are passed and there is a mood of trust, the very productionof the mask and the paper speaking of the intelligence and nous ofthose who have worked to make this happen. This is a Magical MysteryTour to be enjoyed. With whistles and drums, inviting those in theoffices to come out on the street we cross Bishopsgate and downMiddlesex Street. The cops are hardly anywhere to be seen. Somein the masks are dressed in suits. Meanwhile those in the offices andbanks have been told to dress down. More identity confusion. Thesuits that are in suits look strangely sheepish.
The move it transpires is for Aldgate EastStation. The few cops there let us stream through. The word is for aWestbound District Line train. Not the first train. We wait for thesecond. Full of blank faced passengers it does not stop, nor the oneafter. For a moment the trust is shaky. Feels like a trap down in thetube but the word is to make it out of the other exit. Back out onthe street we start back westwards back into the heart of the City.Complete take-over of the street, traffic halted. London sightseeingbuses full of tourists who wave. Some angry guy wants to smash ourfaces in but 'there are too many of you' - precisely.. Security guysstood in Bank doorways. So many faces at the windows.
Then that great feeling, we are all re-united, masksof all colours, right in the belly of the beast by the LondonInternational Financial Futures Exchange or LIFFE building wherebillions of dollars are sent whizzing round the globe from computerscreens on a 24 hour basis. More anonymous geniuses have been atwork. In the cobbled street running down to the Thames by the side ofthe building a whole area has been blocked off by our side and bestof all in the heat a hydrant let off and turned into a forty footwaterfall as the drums beat out in these alien buildings. It'sfucking mental. Dancing and singing in the rain. Which is also coverfor the bricking up of some LIFFE entrances and the smashing ofothers. We blocked up the drains of Dowgate Hill to flood it and tooka rest with some other joyous faces down on a tiny bit of beach onthe Thames.
The LIFFE building is part of amulti-storied bridge across Cannon Street. Right along is strung up ahuge banner: THE EARTH IS A COMMON TREASURY FOR ALL. This is PreciseProtest, where it matters. Other geniuses the musicians, have used anunderground car park as a base to ferry in speakers, decks, computerseven. Down Cannon Street beat the drums. More banners are raised upusing the CCTV cameras to tie their ropes to. The musicians havetaken a bit of precinct further back.
We have a break a couple of streets away to get a drink andreturned to find a new mood. News of a young woman being run over bya police van and some of the fearless youth who had stormed into theLIFFE building itself. Now the cops showed themselves, they were hot,they had been given the run-around, had never dealt with thefast-moving fearlessness of the generation who are the children of usmiddle-aged 'anti-capitalists', as the media had begun to say, thatis a kind of victory in itself. They had the new telescope batons,the shields, the all-in-one helmets and they were on the charge.Young guys in suits brought out flare canisters out of suitcases tojoin the bottles flying in the face of the police charge. Adrenalinewas up and running. A luxury Mercedes showroom was trashed, anotherbank attacked as the police charge was held off.
After many clashes the crowd seemedto be split in two large groups with many heading towards another'autonomous action' in central London while others were forced acrossthe river away from 'The City'. Plumes of smoke could be seen risingfrom the financial centre and the sound of a police helicopter filledthe air. The 'J18 Carnival' was over but for sure, a new mood ofresistance is rising.
"My Lords, is there evidence that there is a potent folk memoryin certain political circles of the success of an extremist group intaking over a demonstration and assaulting and bringing down theWinter Palace? It launched a most momentous revolution with terribleconsequences."
- Lord Simon of Glaisdale, House of Lords Discussion of the attemptedoccupation of LIFFE building during London's J18 carnival.
A"Suggesting people partying will take it indoors 'storming theWinter Palace' style is also pretty unlikely, given the passivity ofstreet parties."
Green Anarchist magazine, no.56 spring '99
"We are conscious of the devastating capability of transnationalcapital but we are also conscious of the creative capacity ofimagination and freedom.
That's why we will protest in force on J18 but we will also celebratewith joy, the joy of making possible human contact, warmth, art andlife."
Club de los Intelectuales Podridos (Decaying Intellectuals' Club)from Bogota, Colombia.
Nigeria: Carnival of the Oppressed: a personal account...
People from across Nigeria and the Niger Delta ethnic nationsjoined the rest of the freedom-loving world to observe the J18International Day of Action. The Nigeria event tagged "carnival ofthe oppressed" kicked off about 9.00 a.m. when thousands of peoplefrom all walks of life gathered at the Port Harcourt InternationalAirport to wait for Dr. Owens Wiwa, younger brother of the slainOgoni Ken Saro-Wiwa. Owens was four years ago forced into exile inNorth America by the late dictator General Abacha.
By 10.30 a.m. theplane conveying Owens from Lagos landed in Port Harcourt. He wasaccompanied by Sam Olukoya, a journalist and Doifie Ola, journalist,environmentalist and member of the Co-ordinating Council of theChikoko Movement. A brief speech by Owens expressed optimism that thepeoples of the Niger Delta would overcome in their struggle againstthe alliance between the Nigerian state and Western multinational oilcompanies like Shell, Agip, Mobil, Chevron, Elf and others who havefor over four decades destroyed the basis of livelihood of the NigerDelta peoples. The crowd then moved in a convoy to Agip junction inPort Harcourt where a street named after General Abacha wasunofficially re-named after Ken Saro-Wiwa and the old signpost pulledout. The Agip offices in Port Harcourt were stormed where two mockcoffins where deposited in its front in protest against the humanrights atrocities of the company, the most recent being the carnageat Ikebiri, Southern Ijaw local government of Bayelsa State wheresoldiers on the orders of Agip shot eight villagers, including atwo-year old baby last April.
The demonstratorsalso blockaded the gates leading to the offices of Shell in PortHarcourt. The blockade lasted for about two hours and solidaritymessages were presented by representatives of virtually all theethnic nationalities in Niger Delta and groups like the NationalAssociation of Nigerian Students. There was dancing and singing inthe streets, bringing Port Harcourt, Nigeria's petroleum capital,to a standstill.
The June 18 event in Nigeria was co-ordinated by the ChikokoMovement. Several ethnic nationality organisations, social movementsand NGOs participated in the event, including:
Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth, Nigeria), MOSOP,Ogoni Solidarity Movement, Ijaw Youth Council, National Associationof Nigerian Students, Peoples Democratic Liberation Party and Womenin Nigeria-Rivers State. Other groups are Pan African Youth Movement,Niger Delta Women for Justice, Society for Awareness and Growth inEtche, Civil Liberties Organisation-Rivers/Bayelsa,Watch the NigerDelta, Oodua Peoples Congress, Isoko National Youth Movement, EgiForum, Oron National Forum and the Supreme Egbesu Assembly.
World Wide Web: The Electronic Disturbance Theatre launched aninternational Internet blockade of the Mexican Embassy in solidaritywith the Zapatista communities - 18,000 people from 49 countriesparticipated, clogging the embassy website.
Video footage and detailed reports of many of the actions were on theJ18 website within 20 minutes of them taking place. The server wasfull to capacity with people logging on all day. And within 3 days avideo documentary of the London J18 events had been produced.
J18: Reflections and analysis
June 18th: Just another day, or an unprecedented global movementin action? An all too sketchy look at the reality of theinternational links, the internet hype surrounding the event, thefocus on finance and the language of 'globalisation'...
The revolution will not be emailed
"The internet is an elite organisation; most of the world hasn'teven made a phone call." Most British media reports andcommentaries on the events of J18 repeatedly declared that the actionhad been organised on the internet. While the internet was indeeduseful, the mainstream media's devotion to exploring its use byradical groups reflects more the current technological restructuringof the global economy then the reality of peoples' knowledge of andparticipation in the event.
Thoseinvolved in J18 organising in London for instance, though prone toforgetfulness, were well aware of the elitist connotations of thetechnology. In addition to website and email use organisers sent outover a thousand action proposal letters in several languages throughlibertarian and anarchist address lists, printed up a succession ofleaflets in runs of 30,000 or more, held and attended regularmeetings, conferences and the like, all of which are, contrary tomedia- imposed impression, still crucial to any successfulmobilisation or movement.
The media may have ignored thisold-fashioned organising but any movement serious about confrontinginequalities of power and creating free and ecological communitiescan ill-afford to do so. Internet access and use is controlled anddominated by 'the north', and the rich in the north at that. Likevarious lifestyle choices, internet access tends to coincide with howmuch cash there is in your pocket and with a particular background.We will not 'connect' with the peoples' of 'the south' throughinternet-working; regardless of the Zapatistas mythical laptopcommuniqués from the Mexican jungle. Nor will we connect with theneeds and desires of many people in our own regions through anynumber of email discussion lists. Why? Because the internationalisedmarket system will increasingly polarise the inequalities of internetaccess along class lines and tolerate radical use only to the extentthat it doesn't hinder the technology's commercial development.
Even if organising mainly through the internetwere possible it wouldn't be desirable. Given the present socialsystem, the internet is to communication what the motor car is totransport: useful for getting you, or your message, from A to B butultimately an atomiser of social space and a commodified substitutefor human association.
We shouldof course continue to use the internet for information sharing andfor initial contact with like-minded groups but with awareness of itsmarket-led trajectory, its limitations and always alongside moreinvolving and humanising activities. For a radical grassrootsmovement will require the real warmth of human togeth-erness and theraw 'shout on the street' to make a true social and ecologicalcommunications revolution; and it probably won't beemailed.
From "WTO under fire... from left and right..."
"The discourse on globalization fits so well into right-wingracist rhetoric because it blames an international capital not tiedto a geographical location, for the economic and social difficulties.The simplistic analysis overlooks the role of local capital in theprocess of accumulation and exploitation and thus allows the demandto protect the latter against the international financialcapital...
The Globalisationdiscourse also easily fits in with conspiracy theories. It is not anylonger the processes of production and of capital accumulation thatare at the centre of the attention, but clubs of influential men (andsome women) who negotiate among themselves the future of the worldbehind closed doors...
A substantial part of eventhe leftist variants of the discourse on "globalisation"work through emotionalising, calling upon fears about the threat onone's livelihood represented by "multinationalcorporations". This is very pronounced in the struggles againstMonsanto and other gene technological corporations, for instance.
In parts ofthe ecological left the perceived threat on their livelihoods is notseen so much as a power relation between social groups, but as thedestruction of "Mother Earth" by a "modern world"gone astray. Traditionally leftist ideas of self-management andautonomy get mixed with discourses on regionalism which tend towardsracism, and leftist criticism of technology receives support fromessentialist and fascistic discourses.
The close look at localconsequences of global processes, the analysis well rooted in thematerial, and especially the connection made with a criticalassessment of "public space" including the mechanisms ofits racist regulation, are hard to integrate into a right-wingdiscourse...
More J18 reflections: www.infoshop.org/octo/j18_reflections.html
Nearly real: the virtual reality of PGA
Of all the millions that allegedly participated in actions over the16-20 May '98 and the global day of action on June 18th '99, how manyhad actually heard of the G8 or the WTO? How many knew of protestshappening in other places? How many had heard of Peoples' GlobalAction? And so on. Partly PGA may inspire people because it offers anew internationalist way to look at existing social movements. Butsooner or later we will have to work out real ways to encourage thereal convergence of these movements. From this point of view thevalue or contribution of PGA can hardly be measured by simply addingup protests that we might somehow imagine are connected. Nor bysimply listing the groups or individuals that have variously beenconnected to us, whether as convenors, conference participants orwhatever.
The way to assess the value or contribution of PGA isin the extent to which we are able to transform the quality ofrelations between movements, to increase our knowledge about eachother, our ability to take action in solidarity, and to offer eachother mutual support. The value of PGA lies not in the abstractsummation of different movements but in the real existingcommunication between movements and between individuals in touch withthe movements. From this point of view then, PGA hardly exists.
Rather thanfantasise about being a unified global voice of all these movementswe need to work on thickening the density of the realinterconnections at the base, whether we are talking of individualfriendships, resource sharing, joint actions, mutual aid, 'movementtwinning', whatever. People live and struggle locally. The global ishow we imagine the rest of the world from where we are. There is nocentre anywhere that could hope to organise and oversee all thismutual thickening of ties. It would be like trying to instruct aforest how to grow.
In building a global movement of resistance we can assert our will tostruggle as peoples against all form of oppression. But we do notonly fight the wrongs imposed on us (and our planet). We are alsocommitted to building a new world. We come together as human beingsand communities, our unity deeply rooted in diversity.
J18 worldwide actions >> >>
AUSTRALIA: >> Melbourne opposition leader Kim Beazeleycustard pied... moving demo visited stock exchange and Westpacbank... Nike store paint bombed. >> Sydney anti-business lunchand 'scumbags tour' of financial district... evening critical massbike ride toured the city. >> Perth: demo against WesternMining's desecration in the Philippines and action against localengineering company - Clough - who are backing plans to build aninternational nuclear waste dump in Western Australia. >>Adelaide the Wildcat Collective 'stuck coins around in strategicplaces' including the stock exchange... Everyone for a Nuclear-FreeFuture did a banner walk near the main branch of Westpac bankinvesting in the Jabiluka uranium mine. >> >> ARGENTINA:Buenos Aires multi-religious assembly against debt and globalcapitalism in general staged in front of the I.M.F and Central Bankbuilding... march through streets of financial district. >>>> BANGLADESH: Dhaka hundreds of domestic workers demonstratedin the centre of the city against the IMF, World Bank, Capitalism,TNCs, and exploitation both local and international. >>>> BELARUS: Minsk two groups organised a picket at McDonald's.Handing out pamphlets about multinational corporations, and toiletpaper to people entering McDonalds... A "NoCorporations"-open air festival was staged without permissionfrom the state. >> >> BRAZIL: Desterro the 12 meters highclock in the centre of the city, erected by media giant "GloboNetwork" to celebrate 500 years since the 'discovery' of Brazil,was stained with red paint symbolising the blood of indigenous peopleshed by the European conquerors then spray painted with the question:"celebrating what?" >> >> CANADA: Calgary localactivists converged on the headquarters of Shell Canada, insolidarity with the peoples of the Niger Delta. >> Ottawa amoving demo of around a 100 people visited, the bank of Nova Scotia,the US and Mexican embassies, Monsanto and arms manufacturerRaytheon, closing down a Shell station along the way. >>Toronto streets reclaimed with over 2000 cyclists, dancers,pedestrians >> Vancouver about 100 people"quarantined" the Stock Exchange and the local HQ's oftimber giant Macmillan Bloedell. >> >> CZECHREPUBLIC: huge street parties in Brno and Prague in the weeks leadingup to J18, while on the day itself info shops were organised in anumber of cities and in Prague a crowd of 400 caused trouble atvarious bank branches and corporate HQ's. >> >> FRANCE:Bordeaux a 50 strong group visited and occupied around 20 differentbanks. >> >> GREECE: Athens 300 people took over citycentre streets, burning pallets, setting up barricades, and makinglots of noise. >> >> ITALY: Bologna autonomous zones werecreated for the night, blocking traffic and involving interactiveperformances. Similar actions happened in Milano, Roma, Siena,Firenze and Ancona. >> ISRAEL: Tel Aviv a 'goodbye to the mall'street party was held in the financial district. >> >>MALTA: Movimenti Graffitti staged a rock concert under the banner'Malta not for sale'. >> >> NEPAL: Activist groupscomposed a memorandum and gave it to the Nepalese representatives ofthe IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank. >> >>NETHERLANDS: Amsterdam 50 activists blockaded the stock exchange,hanging banners. >> >> PAKISTAN: Gujarat A march againstnukes broke through police cordons to tour parts of the city. Laterpolice charged and teargased protesters arresting scores of peopleand holding union leaders on charges equivalent to high treason.>> >> PORTUGAL: Lisbon a street protest informed aboutthe environmental destruction and social inequality of capitalism...they also simulated the demolition of a bank. >> >>SENEGAL: 600 people assembled for performances and speeches inprotest against child exploitation. >> >> SOUTH KOREA:Seoul hundreds of people gathered for a rally with speeches andperformances by farmers groups and unions. >> >> SPAIN:Barcelona at 8am, 25 people blocked two main roads transforming oneinto a beach, bike demos closing a motorway... 100's of peoplereclaiming a piece of land where an evicted squat had been demolishedto make a vegetable garden. At 7pm groups converged for a massivestreet party >> Madrid: A j18 street party ended 7 days ofaction for social rights that included an invasion of the Madridstock exchange >> Ovideo, Avilles, Gijon (Asturias): in all 3cities banks, developers and McDonalds were picketed and info stallsset up - later people gathered for music, dancing and the painting ofa mural. >> Valencia a carnival of 400 people danced throughthe streets before occupying the financial district. >>>> SWITZERLAND: Geneva actions on city banks and in the eveninga mobile carnival blocked roads and served blackcurrant syrup todrivers. >> Zurich 300 people occupied a developmentconstruction site, holding a party which, to the authorities dismay,continued all night. >> >> UK: Aberdeen crowd leafletedthe city centre. >> Ashton Court Activists from the AshtonCourt Quarry Campaign visited the offices of Pioneer Aggregates,responsible for expanding the quarry and destroying meadow. hangingbanners and disrupting the directors board meeting. >>Edinburgh Reed employment agency was paint-bombed and flyposted.>> Glasgow 500 joined a moving carnival parade touring the citystreets stopping at the Council Chambers, Army Careers office, Bankof Scotland and police station. >> Lancaster the J18 collectiveoccupied the offices of City law firm Freshfields unfurling a banner"capitalism is killing the planet". large critical Massgathered in the town centre. >> Lincoln an action against TheGAP's sweatshop practices was followed by street theatre, info stallsand critical mass bike demo. >> Newbury demo held outside theoffice of Vodaphone, mobile phone company, against their plans totrash greenfield sites. >> >> URAGUAY: Montevideo thecentral square was turned into a 'trade fair' then later a 'recycledparade' through the city occupied the Montevideo bank and the stockexchange. >> >> USA: Asheville 100 people held a streetparty, "although small we are in solidarity with 1000's across Theworld". >> Boston: over 100 activists held street theatreperformances outside Bank Boston in the heart of the financialdistrict. >> Eugene: bank and shop windows smashed and teargassing of demonstrators - 20 arrests and 8 police officers injured.>> Los Angeles a first RTS party took place complete withsoundsystem, trashed car and an instant skatepark. There were 17arrests. bomb squad was sent in to check the trashed car! >>New York 500 reclaimed the streets in the financial district rallyingoutside the stock exchange. >> Olympia street party held a fewdays before in solidarity with J18 events. >> Washington DC 600demonstrators formed a chain around the US treasury dept. >>>> ZIMBABWE: Harare 5 people took to the streets spreadinginformation about global issues...
and the struggle continues...
From West Papua to France, Greece to the Philippines, hundreds ofthousands of people take action daily to resist the furtherencroachment of their lives by various forms of oppression. Here arefirst-hand reports.
19/11/99 Greece, Athens:
Left parties and groups demonstrated in cities across Greece againstClinton's first visit after the Kosovo war. The nights before thevisit there were several attacks on US car shops, and on the day ofhis arrival 25.000 people demonstrated in Athens against a wide rangeof issues including world trade. While Greece is a NATO member and USally, people were overwhelmingly against the NATO bombing ofYugoslavian civilians. Autonomous groups from all over Greece faced ahuge police presence demonstrating outside the US embassy, and the500 protesters were equipped with 2 meter sticks and helmets toprevent the police from getting too close. The police started firingtear gas when a few syndicates tried to break through the policeline, resulting in many anarchists, also people from leftistgrassroots groups and even the communist party (!!!) fighting thepolice back. The protestors continued to clash with the riot policethroughout the day and night, and banks and shops in the centre ofAthens were attacked with stones and fire. Results: 8 banks burntdown (including a two story building), more than 50 luxurious shopsseriously damaged, two Kiosks and several luxurious carsdestroyed.
22/11/99 Switzerland, Geneva:
WTO headquarters was occupied. One group, posing as"visitors" occupied the hall and chained themselves to themain stair leading to WTO Director-General's office with a bannersaying "No Trade, no Organisation: Self-management!".Others occupied the roof of the building and deployed two banners(below) The occupants beamed pictures of the occupation out directlyonto the Internet from a portable installation.
Indigenous struggle continues in West Papua:
In 1963 Indonesia annexed West Papua - a beautiful land of mountainsand jungle with over 200 indigenous cultures. The military marched inguns blazing and the multinational mining and logging companiesfollowed soon after. Ever since, the tribes have waged armedresistance against the Indonesian army and the exploitation andecological destruction they defend. Since the occupation began asixth of the population (300,000) have been killed. Despite thisgenocide the resistance continues.
Since the elections last year the Jakarta basedpoliticians have been trying to project a caring democratic image.But as the elite stage press conferences in Java, the army are stillshooting demonstrators in West Papua. In the most recent incident inDecember, hundreds were injured and three were killed at aflag-raising attended by thousands. Scattered units of the LiberationArmy of the Free West Papua Movement (OPM/TPM) remain in the jungle.On October 4th the offices of three corporations active in W. Papuawere occupied across Britain. The following quote is taken from acommunique of thanks sent from the OPM:
"The struggle to free W. Papua is not to take away onegovernment and replace it with a new government. We do not want toadminister ourselves the capitalist 'profit-making'. It is thestruggle between modern society and tribal people. We have our commonenemy, and we need to work together, throughout the world to make itdisappear from this planet earth. We can only make it happen if weare united. The unity of all people in this world will make ithappen. Yi Wa O!"
The British OPM Support Group is organising a European speakers tourmid-Feb to mid-March by a West Papuan. For more information or to geta copy of the 'West Papua Action Update' contact us. OPM SG, c/o 43Gardner St, Brighton, BN1 1UN, UK.
Or visit: http://www.eco-action.org/opm/
15/11/99, Amsterdam, Netherlands some 20 activists, occupied amuseum ship, one of the earliest symbols of Hollands' colonial past,in the harbour of Amsterdam, in a protest against the WTO.
24/11/99 Manila, Philippines: Anti-ASEAN (Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations) demonstrators were beaten by riot police andhad water cannon spray used against them during a protest rallyagainst ASEAN's fast track trade and investmentliberalisation.
New York, USA:The protestors erected a two-story tripod in 44th Street, a busyintersection, bringing traffic to a standstill and drawing a largecrowd on the one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
25/11/99 Paris France: 5000 farmers with their sheep, ducks andgoats, feasted on regional products under the Eiffel tower in protestat the impact of trade liberalisation
27/11/99 Nantes, France: 200 people, some dressed as carrots,salads, aubergines and strawberries went into a supermarket carryingbanners saying "No WTO, no GMOs, No to agri-business", and'it's not GMOs you have to eat, it's capitalism that has to beabolished".
27/11/99 Padua, Italy: A peaceful demo in front of the GMOExhibition "Bionova" - attended by the top managers of GMOcompanies - was wildly attacked by the police, twice.
27/11/99 Geneva, Switzerland: Two columns of demonstrators,almost 2000 farmers and 3000 city dwellers from all over Switzerlandmet in the center of Geneva and marched on the WTO HQ.
27/11/99 Milan, Italy: Groups from the anarchist/ Social Centresarea joined a grassroot trade union demonstration and gave it astrong anti-globalisation character. Workers and squatters were foronce united against WTO. Meanwhile, a group of "WhiteCoveralls" (direct action group from the zapatist/ socialcenters area) occupied the main McDonald's, locking themselves on thebuilding facade, hanging banners denouncing neoliberalism anddistributing flyers. Later the White Coveralls joined a city-widemeeting for the closure of the migrant prison camps, with aAnti-McDonalds banner hung upside down to symbolise the non-foodserved by this multinational.
29/11/99: Milan, Italy: Students of the new University 'LaBicocca' occupy the faculty of 'Biological Sciences' to protestagainst WTO and biotech food.
France: 75,000 people in 80 different cities in France took tothe streets protesting at the dictatorship of the markets and theWTO.
Struggles against Dam construction
Narmada dam, India: Communities of farmers and Adivasis(indigenous peoples) living on the banks of the Narmada river,organised within the grassroot movement NBA (Narmada Bachao Andolan,Save Narmada River), have been fighting for 12 years against a damconstruction known as the Sardar Sarovar project. NBA is also memberof the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, which has been a PGAConvenor. After successful resistance in the early 90s, which led tothe withdrawal of the World Bank in 1993 and a halt of theconstruction in 1995, the NBA has intensified the struggle again.Some villages were flooded three times last year. On November 29th500 people from the Narmada valley arrived in New Delhi for 3 days ofactions with 2 specific targets - the coalition of Indian industry,multinational corporations and the German state to build the dam -against the WTO regime, for the vandalistic and insidiousdispossession that it creates globally.
The Itoitz dam, Basque country: On February 6th 1996, 8 peoplefrom the direct action group Solidarios con Itoitz entered the damconstruction site, where they cut cables, stopping work for 9 months.In 1998 the 8 were sentenced to 5 years each in prison, and after anappeal the high court resolution is about to be delivered.
TheSolidari@s are now on an action/information tour of Europe, and onOctober 25th, eight members of Solidari@s con Itoitz and thesolidarity group Narmada UK climbed London's Millennium Wheel toprotest against the destruction created by big dams, unfurling bigbanners with the slogans "Stop The Dams!", "FreeNarmada, Free Itoitz!" and "Let The Rivers RunFree!".
24/11/99. New Delhi, India: Adivasis Occupy World Bank. Morethan 300 Adivasis [i.e. indigenous peoples] from the Indian state ofMadya Pradesh, representing all mass Adivasi movements, jumped overthe fence of the World Bank building. They blocked the building,covering it with posters, graffiti, cow shit and mud, shoutingslogans and singing traditional songs at the gate.
N30: November 30th 1999
An international day of protest action and carnival, againstglobal capitalism, to coincide with the third ministerial meeting ofthe World Trade Organisation in Seattle, USA. Over seventycities worldwide erupt in anger. (www.n30.org)
Seattle... Thursday... 01/12/99... 01:10:14...
As I write this riot squads and the national guard are shooting teargas, concussion grenades, rubber bullets, pepper spray (from cannonsand directly into faces), using long batons, boots, etc. againstpeaceful protesters, shoppers, workers, and anyone else they comeacross.
Yesterday (Nov 30),what seemed to be at least 100,000 people took to the streets ofSeattle for non-violent protest, civil disobedience, direct action,and also fucking shit up. Riot cops gassed people sitting on theground and dancing in front of them at 9:30am. The next time I wasgassed, I was again sitting non-violently - backed up by the InfernalNoise Brigade, a marching band of anarchists in matching bandoutfits, fuzzy hats, and gas masks with flag twirlers, a drum corpsand others, marching and standing in formation, as we waited to getgassed! As we dispersed they shot the tear gas ahead of us up theblock, in front of us, trapping people in alleys.
By 3pm, the United Steel Workersand IWW decided to break from the homongous (and only permit granted,cop escorted) march and head straight into the heart of things andget into a face off with cops. There were many people now arriving intown who had not received any protest training, had no experience ofthis sort of thing, and had no idea what was going on.
This face off led toconfrontation (another attack from cops), this led to a huge standoff at 5pm. Again, the Infernal Noise Brigade marched right up infront, this time blockaded with burning dumpsters, in front of theriot squads and 'the peacemaker', an armoured artillery cop vehicle.More people were out in the streets, checking things out, pissed atthe cops, who fired gas, concussion grenades, rubber bulletsconstantly. It was about this time that the rioting really brokeloose, curfew was declared, and the cops started to drive people outof downtown. They followed far beyond the perimeter they declared, atleast two miles out of downtown into a neighbourhood which thenresponded in kind as best they could. This fighting kept on untilearly hours.
I've been gassed more times than I can countnow, sprayed with pepper spray, seen children, old women, and anyoneelse you can imagine, brutalised. A girl shot between the eyes with arubber bullet. People lying on the ground losing consciousness inclouds of gas, running blind and vomiting if they can.
Today hascontinued beyond that, with the declaring of martial law, policechief refusing to comment when asked if gas and bullets are beingused, claiming that all explosions (the concussion grenades which arefired in rapid succession into crowds) are pipe bombs thrown bydemonstrators. The police declared a NO Protest zone in the core ofdowntown. By this early afternoon, they went outside of that zone,way beyond it, firing gas and grenades and rubber bullets intocrowds, driving us into an outdoor market and gassing the people onthe streets shopping, eating lunch, going home, etc. Then columns ofriots squads began to occupy streets, beating people, herding peopleto the waterfront. There has not been a curfew imposed in Seattlesince WWII, and martial law was last declared in 1919.
The solidarity here has been amazing, steelworkerssupporting ecology activists supporting anarchists. Lots of citizenscompletely in agreement and completely disgusted by the police stateactions. The space that is being used by Direct Action Networks(including Art and Revolution, Reclaim the Streets, Food Not Bombs,etc.) is an amazing hub. The few days before this civil war erupted,they held workshops on legal rights, direct action training, etc.
There are over 500 people in jail, practicingdisobedience and jail solidarity there. Supposedly jails are full,which is why the cops have become so much more brutal, as they havenowhere to put us. Yesterday they arrested almost no one atall, and when asked why not, the chief replied "you can't justarrest people for nothing." Oh, but you can brutalise them intosubmission.
What some would call deservingbusinesses were "targeted" (starbucks, nike, gap, etc.). In myexperience, almost all destruction came in response to police attackson non-violent protestors (not to mention the young black kids takingto the streets after years of police attacks). This is an all-out warat this point, and it is amazing to me that in the face of bodyarmour, batons, grenades, gas, pepperspray, rifles, and what ispretty much a tank, we are defending ourselves with only wettedbandanas, swim goggles (if you're lucky), baking soda and watersolutions, and solidarity. I am writing to you from a militarizedzone where they are laying siege to entire neighbourhoods in the nameof "restoring peace", a peace that exists save for theviolence they bring. For every news segment showing "theanarchists in black" smashing windows, how about us anarchistsgiving medical aid and helping people in the streets while underattack? The organizing is incredible, medical and communicationteams, daily meals, jail solidarity. It's amazing to see all thered/black flags and neckerchiefs flying everywhere.
The millennium round.
-Round 1: 29/11/99 - Hundreds of delegates are kept waiting outsidethe conference centre following a "security breach". Policesearch the building for 5-1/2 hours before it is reopened. Asymposium for trade ministers and WTO officials to listen i.e. co-optand neutralise the critical views of Labour, environmental and humanrights groups has to be rescheduled.
-Round 2: 30/11/99 - Kofi Annan and Madeleine Albright'smotorcades are prevented from reaching the building by thousands ofactivists blockading access to the conference centre. Otherdelegates are stuck in their hotels. The opening session of the WTOis cancelled.
-Round 3: 3/12/99 Many Third World countries revolt against thenegotiating process, and their complete exclusion from somediscussions . The negotiations collapse. The closing ceremonies arecancelled and the WTO is forced to adjourn in disorder andconfusion, without an agenda for the next round...
Geneva, Switzerland: While in Seattle hundreds of protesterswere jailed and a curfew declared, the WTO Head quarters in Genevawas plunged into darkness. Computers crashed, communications toSeattle were wiped out; the chaos could only be solved after a fewhours. A group with the poetic name of 'Les Reinettes Vertes'(the green apples) caused a short-circuit and explosion in the powersupply building of the WTO. The group said in a brief communiqué ithad targeted the WTO because it believes the watchdog doesn't givepeople a voice and aimed to maximise the volume of internationalcommerce while forgetting that all transport pollutes.
From Canada to Mexico, the whole length of the West coast ofNorth America, dock workers known as 'longshoremen' shut ports insolidarity with those in Seattle. Dozens of trucks carrying shippingcontainers were delayed at the entrance to the California Unitedcontainer terminal as hundreds of West Coast dockworkers stopped themovement of cargo.
Seoul, South Korea. KOPA staged a demonstration in front ofthe downtown Government buildings. A farmer cried "the UruguaryRound has been the source of countless tears and blood shed byfarmers, the WTO New Round is a matter of life and death to thefamers. Also the Seoul Human Rights Film Festival acted in solidaritywith the international day of action, showing 3 films on the effectsthat the WTO, IMF and neo-liberal globalisation has had on the peopleof the world.
The KOPA said "We are recieving news from Seattleof the demonstrations and are greatly motivated and moved by them.Our struggle is your struggle! Power to the People!
Brazil, Santos: On November 30th, the Green AlternativeCollective (CAVE), the libertarian network of Baixada Santista (RLBS)and the libertarian union of Baixada Santista (ULBS), organised aprotest against the global capitalist system in Santos, in the stateof Sao Paulo. The action involved environmentalists and anarchistsperforming a theatre piece based on "The Governed", a text byFrench anarchist Pierre Proudhon. Besides the performance there wereabout 30 people dressed as clowns who distributed about 1000 leafletsdenouncing poverty and capital to people passing by. There were alsopeople holding posters and banners saying "Resistance and DirectAction to Globalisation", "Rebel Yourself", "No toDestructive Progress" and "Brazil, 500 years of Indian, Black andPopular Resistance".
N30 in Israel: about 30 people went to the US embassy toprotest the WTO. Among them were a group from the "women inblack" vigil, people from the East Mediteranian AnarchistCollective, direct action greens (two from the PGA caravan toseattle) and a few commies who insisted in holding their partypropaganda high...
"They are worried about a few windows being smashed. They shouldcome and see the violence being done to our communities in the nameof liberalisation of trade." A Philippino activist
Solidarity with those facing repression in Seattle:
Manila, 3rd Dec, Protesters tried to force their way into thegates of the U.S. Embassy in Manila for a "lightning rally"against the violent dispersal and arrests of protesters in Seattle,Washington.
Amsterdam 3rd Dec, people demonstrated in front of the Americanconsulate in Amsterdam, to show solidarity with all those arrested inSeattle.
Pakistan, 5th Dec, Multan. More than 20 goups demonstrated,while the leaders from different communities and organisations heldspeeches against the police violence in Seattle.
Mexico, On 11th Dec, around 500 students at the UNAM (AutonomousUniversity of Mexico) staged a march and rally in front of the U.S.Embassy protesting the repression in Seattle during the meeting ofthe WTO and demanding freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal. - a blackjournalist facing death penalty in the US. The State police repliedwith very violent repression as the students were leaving.
Interference FM, the pirate radio collective that broadcast acrossLondon on June 18th, repeated broadcasting again on November 30thagainst the commodification of the airwaves. They transmittedon the frequency used by Millennium FM 106.9. The pirates were takenoff air at around 4pm in a large operation by the Department of Tradeand Industry (DTI), responsible for enforcing the state control ofradio and TV transmissions.
Cyber activities: The official WTO website (www.wto.org) was put outof action for part of the day. Throughout the night the SeattlePolice Department radios were fed live over the Internet, allowinglisteners to hear the latest developments in Seattle as the'troops' moved in, and the curfew began.
N30 worldwide actions >> >>
Argentina: Buenos Aires an activist coalition carried out amocking performance in front of the Stock Exchange. People, nature,and "values" were sold and auctioned at low price anddemonstrators had their bodies "deregulated" to the soundof a band playing. The street was declared a "beyond themarket" zone.>> >> Australia: Brisbane Activistsprotest against the WTO outside Brisbane Stock Exchange. >>>> Brazil: Santos Green Alternative Collective, the libertariannetwork of Baixada Santista and the libertarian union of BaixadaSantista performed street theatre, while clowns distributed leafletsdenouncing poverty and capital. People carried posters and bannerssaying "Resistance and Direct Action to Globalisation","Rebel Yourself", "No to Destructive Progress"and "Brazil, 500 years of Indian, Black and PopularResistance". >> >> Canada: QuÈbec demonstratorsfrom the anti-WTO coalition toured the heart of the city visiting theParliament, Ministry of Industry and several banks, street theatrewas performed and the day culminated in a dance for people beforeprofit. >> Czech Republic: Prague Food Not Bombs served freefood, and supermarkets were leafleted. >> >> England:Halifax a Nestle factory was occupied and a banner dropped outside.>> London: the Construction Safety Campaign held ademonstration outside the Canadian Embassy protesting at Canada'sattempt to use the WTO to reverse the decision by several EUcountries to ban asbestos use. A group of students picketed theLewisham branch of Citi bank against the under funding andprivatisation of education. A street theatre/ people's court relatingto human rights abuses and environmental devastation in the NigerDelta was performed by Nigerian exiles and British environmentalactivists outside the Magistrates Court in Covent Garden. 2,000people gathered at Euston station for a rally jointly organised byReclaim the Streets and the London Strike Support Group to highlightlinks between the WTO free trade agenda and the privatisation ofpublic transport. Later a police van was overturned and set on fire.>> Leeds: faced by over 300 police around 50 protestors handedout leaflets outside companies. >> Manchester: Lloyds Bank wasoccupied and shut down by 50 activists, who then proceeded to blockthe road outside. >> Totnes: A disused garage and an old TollHouse, soon to be "luxury flats" were squatted to drawlocal people's attention to the WTO. >> >> France: Lille12 banks got painted in red during the night, including the 'BanqueCentrale de France'. >> Avesne-sur-helpe: flyers weredistributed in different schools and in front of the Chamber ofIndustry and Trade and art groups performed a theatre piece. >>Dijon: 30 people chained themselves to the doors of the Dijon Chamberof Commerce and the next door bank. >> Toulouse: people hungbig anti-WTO boards in the main street of the town centre, while anticapitalist Father Christmas's gave rotten capitalist fruits topassersby. >> >> Germany: Berlin a parade pointed out theconsequences of neoliberal politics and globalisation at local levelwith mock slogans and fake banners crying for more order, moresecurity and more police. Slide shows projected on building walls("Jam the WTO"). >> Tuebingen & Bochum: twogroups symbolised the WTO negotiations as a football game, the ballbeing the world. >> Hamburg: Food not Bombs distributed food topeople in the street. >> Munich: 150 people protested againstSiemens, a TNC which became rich during the Hitler's fascismbecause they used Jewish and other prisoners as slaves, they havealso recently tried to get involved with in the construction of theMaheshwar dam in the Narmada valley. >> >> South Korea:Seoul KoPA staged a demonstration in front of the governmentbuildings in downtown Seoul. The Seoul Human Rights Film FestivalOrganising Committee showed three films on the effects that the WTO,IMF, and neo liberal globalisation has had on the people of theworld. >> >> India: New Delhi: representatives andsupporters of Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement, NBA)enter the German embassy to deliver 11,000 protest postcards frompeople of the Maheshwar area. 100 other NBA activists protest outsidethe embassy with banners and placards against the dam and the WTO.500 members of NBA, along with scores of activists from JagertiMahila Samiti (Committee for the Awakening of Women, a grassrootsmovement from the slums of Delhi), Prawaha (a students'organisation), the National Alliance of Peoples' Movements andseveral local organisations, held a protest against the WTO near RajGhat, where the ashes of Mahatma Ghandi are buried. >> Narmada:More than 1000 people from 60 villages participated in an anti-WTOprocession with bullock-carts organised by Rewa Ke Yuva (Youths forNarmada.) >> Bangalore: Several thousand farmers from alldistricts of Karnataka (KRRS), >> >> Ireland: Limerick 20people from various groups held loud protest outside a McGarbage, aHMV, a Burger King and a Penny's. >> >> Iceland: Proteststargeted a US military base and embassy demanding "YanksOut". >> >> Italy: Rome A group occupied the HQ ofthe "National Committee for Biosafety", hanging bannersagainst GMOs and the WTO. >> Milan: Permanent info tent inLargo Cairoli, a very central square, to inform the citizens aboutthe WTO and the reasons for the protests against it - but also aboutthe Narmada and Itoitz dams and the prison camps for migrants. In theevening public debate at the Social Centre Leoncavallo. >>Arezzo: Jugglers, musicians and artists made a creative demonstrationthrough the main streets.. >> >> Luxembourg: the"central council of dispersed anti-WTO opponents" penetratethe ministry responsible for the WTO negotiations and drop a bigbanner from the second floor saying "Stop the WTO - for fairtrade". >> >> Netherlands: Amsterdam at Schipholairport over 100 activists demanded free tickets to Seattle from thethree airline companies sponsoring the WTO summit. Banners wereunfurled and pamphlets were distributed exposing the sponsors.>> >> Philippines: Manila 8000 union members andactivists rally outside the U.S. embassy and presidential palace.>> Bacolod: rally against President Joseph Estrada's plans toamend the constitution allowing for greater foreign investment.>> Iloilo: protest against the 1995 Mining Act, which allows100 percent foreign equity in local projects. >> >>Pakistan: more than 8000 demonstrated at the Muzafer, carryingbanners and posters with the slogan 'Shutdown the WTO', 'WTO is adangerous tool for agriculture of developing countries'. >>>> Portugal: Lisbon About 300 people from leftist andenvironmental organisations and anarchist movements stopped thetraffic carrying billboards, a couple of earth's and an octopus torepresent capitalism. The city's Christmas tree and McDonald'swindows was covered with graffiti, fireeaters and street artistsperformed. The march ended in a square - the WTOctopus was burned.>> Porto: protesters handed out flyers outside Via Catarina, aShopping Centre, wearing t-shirts with slogans like "the worldis not merchandise", "Against Capital, GlobalResistance", "Economy suffocates, idleness withers".Joined by musicians, fire-eaters and other street artists thedemonstrators entered the shopping centre handing out fake money.>> >> New Zealand: Wellington The Committee for theEstablishment of Civilisation (Wellington Anarchist Group) gave outfree veggie burgers with a leaflet on WTO. There was a display and avideo showing how the sanctions are effecting the people in Iraq.>> Aotearoa: About 25 people took part in a street theatreprotest against the WTO, involving faceless stilt walkersrepresenting the WTO leading politicians with 2 faces along thestreet and politicians with corporate serfs caught up in a net.>> >> USA: Baltimore a Critical Mass and a black block ofAnarchists joined 125 demonstrators. >> Nashville: Protestersentered the reception area of Al Gore's presidential campaigncarrying a 13 foot Ronald McDonald puppet and a large butterfly,singing 'No, no, no WTO'. >> Washington: protestors turned outto express their displeasure with corporate greed and FDA inactionabout genetically-engineered foods. Boston: Demonstrators protestagainst the WTO outside the Federal Reserve Building. >> SaltLake City, Utah: The local Carpenter's Union along with theUniversity of Utah Student Labour Action Committee and environmentalgroup Terra Firma hosted a fun march through the downtown area.>> >> Wales: Cardiff an anti-WTO procession marchedthrough the centre of town. >> Bangor: A coalition ofgroups held a protest march in the high street...
N30: reflections and analysis
The events in Seattle and elsewhere hatched contradictions. Whydid some people smash windows when others insisted the day should bepeaceful? And is the enemy really the WTO?
From a leaflet at Euston Station, London on N30:
Capitalism will not be destroyed by one action - no matter how
exhilarating. It will require a sustained social movement of millionsof people. It will also require us to think about what we are doing,to understand our enemy and the forces we can draw on against it.
The concept of globalisation is now acommonplace both among those who support and many who try tocriticise the present world order, but this idea can be misleading.It is not about the weakening of good democratic nation states infavour of bad unaccountable corporations. It is the democratic statesthemselves and the big corporations that are setting up internationalframeworks like the WTO. The plan which governments and corporationsare trying to agree on is to dismantle the key barriers to the freepassage of money and commodities while keeping up the barriers to themovement of people. Nation states are in no danger from the processof globalisation because they are to remain prisons for theirpeoples. These states are not getting weaker but are increasing theirpowers of repression. The state and capital are two sides of the samecoin.
We need to think why we are against the WTO. Theproblem is not free trade because the opposite of free trade isprotected markets, which are still markets. The problem is notcorporate rule because the opposite of corporate rule is governmentrule, which is the control of our lives by politicians rather thanbusinessmen. The problem is not the loss of sovereignty to anundemocratic and unaccountable institution because we are no more incontrol
of the sovereign democratic state than we are in control of the WTO.The problem is not just private capitalists because state runenterprises rely on the same exploitation and drudgery. The problemis not big business because small business lives by the rules of themarket just as much. The problem is not that the free trade ofthe WTO is not fair, because all trade is about the trading in humanmisery. The problem is capitalism as a whole, the fact that humanityis divided against itself, politically into separate nation states,economically into separate capitalist enterprises (whether private orstate run) and individually into separate atomised worker/consumerscompeting with each other.
From a group destroying property in Seattle:
We contend that property destruction is not a violent activity unlessit destroys lives or causes pain in the process. Privateproperty should be distinguished from personal property. The latteris based upon use while the former is based upon trade.
In a society based on private property rights,those who are able to accrue more of what others need or want havegreater power. By extension, they wield greater control overwhat others perceive as needs and desires, usually in the interest ofincreasing profit to themselves. Advocates of "freetrade" would like to see this process to its logical conclusion:a network of a few industry monopolists with ultimate control overthe lives of the everyone else. Advocates of "fair trade"would like to see this process mitigated by government regulationsmeant to superficially impose basic humanitarian standards.
As anarchists, we despise both positions. Privateproperty--and capitalism, by extension--is intrinsically violent andrepressive and cannot be reformed or mitigated. Whether the power ofeveryone is concentrated into the hands of a few corporate heads ordiverted into a regulatory apparatus charged with mitigating thedisasters of the latter, no one can be as free or as powerful as theycould be in a non-hierarchical society.
When we smash a window, we aim to destroy thethin veneer of legitimacy that surrounds private propertyrights. By "destroying" private property, we convertits limited exchange value into an expanded use value....A storefrontwindow becomes a vent to let some fresh air into the oppressiveatmosphere of a retail outlet....The potential uses of an entirecityscape have increased a thousand-fold. The number of brokenwindows pales in comparison to the number broken spells - spells castto lull us into forgetfulness of all the violence committed in thename of private property rights and of all the potential of a societywithout them. Broken windows can be boarded up (with yet morewaste of our forests) and eventually replaced, but the shattering ofassumptions will hopefully persist for some time to come.
From 'ColourLines', US magazine of race and action:
"I was at the jail where a lot of protesters were being held anda big crowd of people was chanting 'This Is What Democracy LooksLike!' At first it sounded kind of nice. But then I thought: is thisreally what democracy looks like? Nobody here looks like me."
In the vast acreage of published analysis about thesplendid victory over the World Trade Organization in Seattle, it isalmost impossible to find anyone wondering why the demonstrators were overwhelmingly Anglo. How can that be, when theWTO's main victims around the world are people of color?Understanding the reasons for the low level of color, and what can belearned from it, is absolutely crucial if we are to make Seattle'spromise of a new, international movement against imperialistglobalization come true.
A major reason for not participating given by manywas lack of knowledge about the WTO. As one Filipina said, "Ididn't see the political significance of how the protest would beanti-imperialist. We didn't know anything about the WTO except thatlots of people were going to the meeting." The problem ofunfamiliarity with the WTO was aggravated by the fact that black andLatino communities across the U.S. lack Internet access compared tomany white communities. So information about WTO and all the plansfor Seattle did not reach many people of color.
Limited knowledge meant a failure to seehow the WTO affected the daily lives of U.S. communities of color."Activists of color felt they had more immediate issues,"said one activist. "Also, when we returned people told me ofbeing worried that family and peers would say they were neglectingtheir own communities, if they went to Seattle. They would be asked,'Why are you going? You should stay here and help your people.'"Along with such concerns about linkage came the assumption that theprotest would be overwhelmingly white as it was. A Bay Areaactivist originally from Mali, West Africa, said she had originallythought, "the whites will take care of the WTO, I don't need togo." Another activist said, "I think even Bay Areaactivists of color who understood the linkage didn't want to go to aprotest dominated by 50,000 white hippies."
Yet if only a small number ofpeople of color went to Seattle, all those with whom I spoke foundthe experience extraordinary. They spoke of being changed forever."I saw the future." "I saw the possibility of peopleworking together." They called the giant mobilisation "ashot in the arm," if you had been feeling stagnant. More thanever, we need to work on our ignorance about global issues...we needto draw specific links between WTO and our close-to-home struggles incommunities of color.
'Seattle marked the end of a period. The idea of PGA was launched tofocus on the WTO and 'free trade'. This chapter is over now. Mostpeople by are aware that this is not enough: The discourse is easilyrecuperated by the NGO reformist community which goes hand in handwith governments playing the trick of 'dialogue with civilsociety'. Most agree we need to extend our discourse and analysisif we don't want to end up cont-ributing to the stabilisation andmodernisation of capitalism.
The WTO and 'freetrade' are nothing but expressions of underlying social relationswhich need to be examined, understood and tackled. If we don'tmanage to formulate what we stand for, our protest will be easilyrecuperated and incorporated in the capitalist development.'
and the struggle still continues...
Where next after Seattle? From Ecuador to Mexico, Columbia toThailand, the question is answered with continued and connectedresistance.
Ecuador:
In January 2000 a peoples' uprising against the freemarket-obsessed government came close to beginning a positive newbeginning for the country, until it was frustrated by US and othermajor investors along with the military. The grassroots indigenousgroup CONAIE was a convenor of PGA until the Bangalore conference.Indigenous peoples’ representative Antonio Vargas said thegovernment is committing an error by arresting leaders instead ofopening a dialogue with the indigenous movement. "They're nevergoing to shut the people up," said Vargas, "because the peopleare rising up and seeking changes."
Davos, Switzerlands:
On the 29th of January people demonstrated outside the World EconomicForum (WEF) meeting in Davos, the meeting of the 2000 self proclaimedworld leaders in business and politics. This year, the WEF hada special significance, since it was the one after Seattle andwe know that TNCs and industrialised governments are still keen onopening more markets. The mobilisation was surprising. Many peoplecrossed half Europe to make it to the Swiss Alps. We ended up being1300 people, from France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy.
The mood wasgood, kind of euphoric. The demo was fluid, not divided too much intoblocks, with a nice diversity of people. People’s banners andshouts were very diverse also including anti-fascist, free Mumia,against corporate rule, solidarity with the people in Ecuador,TNCs won't rule the world, anti-capitalists. The anti-WTOco-ordination had a clear 'no dialogue with the WEF'’ position.A beautiful moment was when a few people tore down one of these hugeMcDonald's ads saying 'Think global - eat local'. It was justsuch a provocation that it was enthusiastically torn apart by thecrowd and the tissue set on fire. The big smoke cloud resulting fromthis fire went straight into the windows of the hotel where the WEFwas meeting, and people joked that "the ghost of Davos was exorcised".
UNAM support demo Mexico's biggest in 12 years.
More than 100,000 people demonstrated in Mexico City on February 9thto demand the liberation of students arrested when police regainedcontrol of the country's main campus closed by a nine-monthstrike.
The demonstration, which includedstudents, parents of the detainees, trade unions and leftist groups,was the largest in 12 years in Mexico, and came at the height ofcampaigning for July 2 presidential elections. Chanting"freedom, freedom," the demonstrators demanded the releaseof the 85 students still held since police took control of UNAM'smain campus on Sunday. They held up banners pledging tocontinue their strike even though they lost control of the NationalAutonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Latin America's largestuniversity, which they had blockaded for more than nine months. Thedemonstrators also chanted slogans calling for an end of theInstitutional Ruling Party (PRI)'s 70-year hold on power. Chants of"not a vote for the PRI" echoed across the historic citycentre as more than 100,000 people - some estimates put the number of150,000 people - converged on the central Zocalo square.
Zapatista leader sub-commandante Marcosdenounced what he described as the jailing of "hundreds of youngstudents in clear violation of the law, common sense andreason." "No one can talk of democracy in thiscountry as long as students fill the jails," he said.
We are everywhere! Solidaridad con los estudiantes de la UNAM! Hastala victoria!
Colombia: U'WA:
Feb. 3, 2000 marked an international day of action in support ofthe U'wa of Colombia, who are protesting the plans of US-basedOccidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) to drill for oil on theirtraditional lands. A group of indigenous Colombians from the U'watook part in a protest march and encampment that encircled theEnvironment Ministry building in Bogota. Environmental and humanrights groups demonstrated on Feb. 3 outside Fidelity Investmentsoffices in Boston and 19 other cities (including London andAmsterdam) to protest the mutual fund company's stake in Oxy. The dayof action was organized by groups including the Rainforest ActionNetwork, Amazon Watch and Project Underground. In Prague, Geneva, andTel Aviv, protest groups demonstrated in front of Colombian embassiesin support of the U'wa.
The Colombian military began evicting theU'wa from their traditional lands for Occidental's Samore project innortheastern Colombia on January 25 in order to begin a major oildrilling operation. The U'wa consider the area, which includes intactAndean cloud forest and overlaps with the reserve, to be sacredancestral territory. "The region under contention has greatsignificance as a U'wa sacred site." said Berito KuwarU'wa,spokesperson for the U'wa people, "The protection of this areaadjacent to our reserve is fundamentally important to our way oflife." In 1995 the U'wa leaders grabbed international attentionwhen they threatened to commit collective suicide if theproject was not stopped.
In recent weeks the U'wa have repeatedly stated that they arewilling to die to stop the project. "With oil operations comesdestruction," said KuwarU'wa. "Each area of the forest thathas been developed for oil has paved the way for civil war battles,causing great violence against people and our Mother Earth."
There are plansfor a European tour by a member of the U’wa at the end of March2000; contact
[email protected]
The campaign against Fidelity and Occidental continues.
PO Box 92066, Amsterdam, 1090 AB, Tel: +31 (0)20 668 2236
Thais resist 'the new Imperialism'
A thousand activists marched on a major UN trade conference on Feb12th calling for radical changes to the global financial system whichkeeps much of the world locked in poverty. Demonstrators were notdeterred by a massive Thai security curtain around the United NationsConference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). As world leaders anddelegates met inside a conference centre, singing and yellingprotestors carrying banners lambasting the World Bank, World TradeOrganisation and IMF found their route to the venue blocked by riotpolice. 'WTO/IMF/ADB/WB - Go to Hell' and 'Struggle Against theNew Imperialism' read banners hung between balloon-decked truckscarrying the protesters.
Flanked by cordons of police,several hundred Thai and foreign protestors were later allowed toapproach the conference centre hosting UNCTAD andstand across theroad from the venue. Once in front of the venue, protestors slammedglobalisation and presented their demands to UNCTAD officials, whocame out to police barriers to meet demonstrators. 'We hopeorganisations realise globalisation is leading the world to chaos,inequality and madness,' said protest or Demoussa Dembele. Ealierin the day, some of the 300 trade unionists camped on the boundary ofthe exclusion zone managed to break through the police line.
The pies the limit!
Question - what do the following people have in common? Archfree-marketeer Milton Freeman, Monsanto CEO Bob Shapiro, ex-WTO DGRenato Ruggiero, outgoing IMF boss Michel Camdessus, and Bill'microsoft' Gates, (+ many others whose names we'veforgotten).
Answer - They have all been recipients of the ancient andmysterious art of the pie-thrower or 'entarteur' inrecognition of their crimes against humanity and their generalpomposity. No dodgy public figure, shadowy corporate boss or shadyscientist is safe from the scourge of a carefully flug flan. There isno easier way to injure the dignity, poll ratings or PR image ofthose who want to screw the world and it's people. So as the BioticBakers Brigade would have it: try it yourself as we are allzapatisseristas.
Possibilities and pitfalls
The events of Seattle have reverberated around the world. Manydifferent groups have, or want, a stake in the future, Who are thesegroups, and are they really part of the movement againstcapitalism?
The battle for the mantle of Seattle.
The events in Seattle have reverberated around the world; all theelements of the broad coalitions involved and various elements whoweren't, are now looking to build on the 'success' of Seattle. In the UK they include, minority political parties, bothleft and far-right, non-governmental organisations, and what'soften called 'the direct action movement,' or by the media,'the anarchists'.
The most visible attempt to build on the eventsin Seattle has been a series of public lecture-cum-meetings organisedby the Socialist Worker Party (SWP) called 'People and Protest:where now after Seattle?'. The meetings have provided a forum forthe SWP and other speakers on the panel - often including the GreenParty and NGO's such as the World Development Movement and Jubilee2000 - to present their perspectives on the new "anti-capitalistmovement".
Attempts by the SWP,and others from the authoritarian left, to jump on the bandwagon ofburgeoning new movements is not a new phenomenon. Dynamic, vibrantand fluid resistance movements have time and again become victim tothe dogma and drudgery of the politics of the past. The passion andcreativity seen in the Spanish anarchist collectives of 1936, in thefactories and universities of Paris '68 and now on the streets ofSeattle have been jealously seized upon by such elements of theleft. Radical challenges to the power structures which dominateour lives are assimilated and recuperated by those who claim to be onour side but whose primary goal is simply to become the newelite.
Equally worrying is the potential for recruitment byfar-right political groups being opened up by debates around issuessuch as national sovereignty and the empowerment of local economies -issues being highlighted by some of those resisting the worstexcesses of the global economy. While far-right groups in the UK arealmost non-existent, in Australia nationalist groups sent messages ofsupport to those taking action on June 18th 1999, while in Belgiumthe anti-MAI (Multi-lateral Agreement on Investment) coalition wasdestroyed through the involvement of the extreme right.
Non-Governental Organisations are adiverse grouping, however they do share some common traits. Whoare NGO's responsible to? These are usually either mostlymiddle-class people who pay subscriptions, for example Greenpeace, ora mixture of subscribing supporters and government grants, forexample Oxfam. No NGO is going to bite the hand that feeds itso none will ask for any measure which may upset the middleclasses. While Christian Aid back the Brazilian landlesspeasants movement, they would never publically support radical landstruggles in the UK, for fear of alienating their funding base. Thus while many people's first involvement in political protest isvia local NGO groups, these groups cannot be the agents of thesweeping social change required.
Equally important isthe impact of NGO's in the Third World. They usually focus on localprojects benefiting a small section of the population, while their'self help' ideology helps divert popular attention from thesources of poverty - shifting the perspective from looking upward atthe owners of land, industry and banks to looking down at scarceresources and the poor working hard to solve micro-problems at alocal level. NGO's compete directly with social movements forthe loyalty and activity of the poor, often depolitising anddemobilising movements while their foreign funding co-opts localleaders.
Unlike those groups described above,those of us involved in putting together this publication come fromthe direct action movement. Direct action, unlike joining a politicalparty or ideology, or lobbying for reforms, is about the totalreclamation of all life. It is about people, both individually andcollectively, creating their own means of confronting and dismantlingthe power structures which dominate our lives and are destroying ourplanet. We have no leaders and no party line, only the dream of afree and ecological world in which competition and coercion arereplaced with community and co-operation
How to get involved:
Its easy to get involved in the PGA. Just send us your annualmembership and you will receive a monthly bulletin which you can readfrom the comfort of your own home. Once you have become memberyou can log onto our web site and download pro forma letters andpetitions to send to your pet hate corporations andpoliticians. Best of all once a year you can participate in amass action organised for you by a team of specialists working fromcentral PGA Headquarters in Geneva.
Well actually NO:
The PGA is founded around the concept of direct action, and directaction is about changing things through our own self organisation andultimately taking direct control of our lives and communities. The role of PGA is simply to help such action to be communicated and co-ordinated across the world.
To getinvolved is to get into the information flows, to spread your owninformation, to reflect on the ideas, to find out about and worktogether with direct action groups in your local area or to gettogether with friends and set up your own action group. To getinvolved is to highlight the common causes of diverse issues locallyand to use and remake the PGA bulletin, web site and e-mail networksto forge links internationally. To get involved is to helporganise regional PGA conferences which can support and co-ordinatewith the international PGA conferences. To get involvedis to recognise that the abolition of capitalism, domination andhierarchy will require sustained global grassroots action byco-ordinated and autonomous, groups, networks and organisationsworking together.
YOU ARE THEPEOPLES GLOBAL ACTION www.agp.org
Prisioners:
Direct Action has its risks, of the many who go through the courts anunlucky few end up in prison. (while many others successfully sue thepolice for wrongful arrest). Prisoner support is vital to any attemptat large-scale social change. If you challenge corporations or thestate, and you begin to be effective, strenuous efforts will be madeto criminalise you or your movement. If the innocent deserveour support, the 'guilty' do more so!
-Prisoner support: For reasons of space we could not evenbegin to list the addresses of all of those inside, or even all ofthose imprisoned for explicitly anti-capitalist activities. Wehave provided the contact addresses of a few UK based prisonersupport groups who can keep you informed about new prisoners alongwith the latest information on releases and addresschanges.
Life in prison can be hard, but receiving support from otherscan make a lengthy sentence appear much less daunting. If you'venever written to a prisoner before and are not sure what to say, whynot just send a postcard. Prisoners addresses available from contactsbelow.
-June 18th Prisoners: Although surprisingly few arrests were madeon J18 itself, the State has been waging a campaign of intimidationin its aftermath. The photographs of hundreds of people suspected ofcommitting offenses on the day have been circulated to police forcesaround the country, published in the press and displayed on the Cityof London Police web site. As a result arrests have been made.
Unfortunately investigationsand arrests are likely to continue. If you are arrested you shouldremember - and take advantage of - your right to silence. You areobliged to give your name and address but nothing else. Even if youare shown photographs of yourself committing offenses do not betempted to make a statement. It is their job to prove to a court thatthe photograph is actually of you.
Ask to speak to a good solicitor and contactthe Legal Defence and Monitoring Group (LDMG) as soon as possible.
LDMG contact: BM Haven, London, WC1N 3xx, 0181 533 7116
Earth Liberation Prisoner (ELP): Supports all of thoseimprisoned for ecological direct action, and publishes the reguarbulletin Spirit of Freedom. Contact them c/o Cornerstone ResourceCentre, 16 Sholebroke Avenue, Chapeltown, Leeds, LS7 3HB, U.K.
or e-mail:
[email protected]
Watch out for the terrorism bill. The state is running scared... TheBritish Government is pushing through sweeping new laws disguised asa bill to prevent domestic terrorism attempting to put a stop topolitical dissent outside the "proper" channels. If youhave ever supported the ANC or any similar foreign struggle, if youhave ever gone to a demo where property may be damaged, if you haveever suggested action which may risk anyone (including your own)"health or safety", if you have spoken at a meeting supportingsuch political dissent, posse's a leaflet about, or are suspectedby the police of any of the above... then you could be branded a"terrorist" and have your rights removed and be jailed foryears...
campaign contact Pilgrim on 0171 428 0872
http://www.blagged.freeserve.
co.uk/terrorbill/index.htm
Up coming insurrectionary opportunities...
Feeling inspired ? Itching to get onto the streets ? Well here aresome dates to pencil into your diary. But remember a revolutiondoesn't happen in one day, its a 24hr occupation...
Caravan to Washington DC to oppose IMF & World Bank,
Meeting on the 16th and 17th of April - The Global Unity Movement(G.U.M.) is organising the caravan using the affinity-group model toorganise. If any of you want in, or want to provide support, now isthe time to start talking to people and organising affinity groups tofund-raise and organise logistics.
We're alsogoing to be holding a series of workshops on everything from non-violence training to first aid to legal. Anyone who can volunteer toteach/assist/etc with those should also contact us - the (temporary)web site is http://members.xoom.com/arkeoptryx/globa
lunity.html
Thevoicemail/update line is: (510) 496-6000 ext. 105.
Demonstration in Washington against the IMF/World Bank:
Meeting April 16th - 17th. For more info contact: 50 Years Is EnoughNetwork ( Washington DC), www.50years.org and www.a16.org
Global week of action on GMO's in April 2000:
From April 1-8 an International Week of Action will take place underthe name: Resistance is fertile! The idea was born and worked out inBryansk, Russia, where around 40 Genetic Engineering campaigners andactivists gathered to talk about strategies. The idea has been pickedup in the US by the Biotech Action Network (BAN), and many groups inEurope are planning events. A web site with the basic information hasbeen set up at www.resistanceisfertile.org
For more information contact: Nina Holland, A SEED Europe, Postbus92066, 1090 AB Amsterdam Netherlands;
tel:+ 31-20-668-2236, email:
[email protected]
UK contact: Genetic Engineering Network, PO Box 9656, London N4 4JY;
[email protected] Tel: 0171 374 9516
International Woman's Day: On March 8 there will be a globalwomen's strike. For more information contact: International Wages forHousework campaign, Crossroads Women Centre, 230a Kentish Town Road,London NW5 2AB,
[email protected] or web sitehttp://womenstrike8m.server101.com
Latin America PGA meeting in Nicaragua
March 26-31st 2000 - focusing on Latin American movements.
Email Daniel Querol:
[email protected] for moreinformation.
May Day 2000 Global Day of Action:
Global day of Action celebrating what we are about and what we want..A day when historically the green, red and balck comestogether. A day to celebrate the powerful cocktail of pleasureand politics.. Actions planned in Europe and US so far...
In London, UK a 3 day conference of anticapitalist ideas is followedby a mass actions on Mayday.
For more info contact: lobster1.dircon.co/uk/md_index.html orinfoshop.org/mayday2000.html. For the latest London Mayday info seethe Mayday 2000 site @ http://www.freespeach.org/mayday2k
North American PGA meeting to be held in Windsor, Canadafrom June 1-4, 2000 during the meeting of the Organisation ofAmerican States. For more info please contact:
[email protected],
[email protected] or
[email protected].
A message from the MST (Brazil) - I would like to ask peopleto denounce a World Bank project in Brazil called "The LandBank". The World Bank - like the WTO and the IMF - was createdto benefit big capital. In the last 15 years, the World Bank has sentabout $10 billion to Brazil. In the same period, we have paid backabout $14 billion to the World Bank.
The WorldBank does not help us eliminate poverty. Instead, it takes out ourresources. To learn more about the World Bank project in Brazil andrespond to our action alert, check GX web site:http://www.globalexchange.org and http://www.mstbrazil.org - JaoPedro Stedile, MST National Board
Prague 26-28th of September: Proposal for a Global Dayof Action to coincide with the Annual General Meeting of theIMF/World Bank, Prague 26-28th of September. 'The dynamicgenerated by PGA has had major successes in the North with the globaldays of action, but is very weak in the South. Latin American groupshave been saying that IMF would be a good target to get the dynamicgoing again in the South, as it is much better known than the WTO.
In Prague and Eastern Europe theorganisation and mobilisation process has already started. Suggestions for organising towards this day is for each group in theNorth to twin up with a Southern group. This would permit exchangingpolitically in more depth. The European groups could helprepresentatives from their Southern partner to come north, doconference touring (maybe mini-caravans) and then come to Prague. Thetwinning idea should in any case be a good one for PGA. Please giveus a reply ASAP.
In solidarity; PGA support group who met after Davos, Geneva2/2/00. Contact:
[email protected] - www.destroyimf.org
From June 1st - EXPO2000 in Hannover, Germany.
During the five months of the world exhibition expo2000, 170governments, international organisations and corporations want topresent their view of 'our' global problems andsolutions.
Under the slogan "Man Nature Technology" the EXPO2000 is to deliver this one message: There is no alternative tocapitalism. The so-called new solutions are just the old ones:genetic and bio-engineering, information technologies, nucleartechnologies, etc..
The EXPO is an occasion andnot the reason of our work... The main aim of our politics is not tomobilise for the EXPO. We are for approaches going beyond this andallowing a continuous collaboration with others. Please directenquiries to
[email protected] more info on the expowww.expo2000.de
The Future is not business as usual
Never again will the elite economists and technocrats be able todecide the fate of the world in anonymous tranquillity. Thereare rumours going around that the next WTO Ministerial meeting may beheld in Qatar, in the Persian Gulf i.e. : in the middle of a very hotand extremely inaccessible desert. What are they afraid of ? Ifthis is the only place that the de facto world government feels safeto meet in, then capitalism has become extremely vulnerable oflate.
We have entered a unique historicalperiod, a period of great transition. The whole system is incrisis and when systems reach such points of disequilibrium, small gestures can have big effects, radical change becomesmuch easier and more likely. And it is radical change, thecomplete rejection of capitalism, which is being sought bymovements across the world.
What makesthis revolutionary period unique is the complete delegitimisation ofthe state, an essential pillar of the present world system and anunprecedented awareness of the possibility of imminent ecologicalcollapse.
It has become clear that revolutionaryobjectives cannot be gained by some change in who controls the statestructures. The history of the last 200 years of failedrevolutions has taught us that state reformist action has gainednothing. All it has done is contain struggle and dampen anyhigher expectations. Everywhere people are rejecting politicalparties. It is significant that more people under 25 went onthe " J18 Carnival Against capital" in London than voted inthe 1999 European Elections. At no time since the Frenchrevolution of 1789 has there been such a pervasive antistatism andwithout the state the endless accumulation of capital is no longerpossible.
The urgency of the global ecological situationalso makes reform pointless. The whole basis of the presentsystem, progress defined by economic growth, is profoundly antiecological, and we can no longer wait for the right historicalconditions for revolution, time is rapidly running out for theplanet and its many species. Radical change must happen now,because there is no time left for anything else.
The future has probably neverbeen so uncertain, yet it is such moments of crisis, wheneverything is in disarray and disorder, that change is most likely tooccur. The word "crisis" comes from the Greek"Krisis" meaning the decision, the turning point of adisease. One thing is certain, the future will be what we makeit, and there seems to a very simple decision to be made, do we wanta future or not?
"The enemies of capitalism will be back..."
The Times newspaper editorial, London 19/6/99 the day after J18carnivals erupt on every continent.
Contacts / resources
GLOBAL ACTIVIST NETWORKS
Groups highlighted in colour have been key movers in the PGA
Peoples' Global Action:
Email:
[email protected]
www.agp.org
Campaign Against the Arms Trade:
Email:
[email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)171 281 0297
Reclaim The Streets:
Email:
[email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)171 281 4621
PO Box 9656, London, N4 4JY, UK
www.reclaimthestreets.net
A SEED Europe:
Email:
[email protected]
Contact person: Johan Frijns
PO Box 92066, 1090 AB, Amsterdam, NL
Tel: +31-20-6682236
Fax: +31-20-4682275
www.antenna.nl/aseed
International contacts:
AUSTRIA
Independent Unionists within the Austrian Union Federation OeGB(contact Karl Fischbacher)
Gablenzg 41/9, 1150 Wien, Austria
Tel./Fax: +43/1/98 33 992
[email protected]
Argentina
Buenos AiresArgentina:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]
Australia
Brisbane: Solidarity Infoshop 264 Barry Parade, Fortitude Valley,Queensland, Australia 4006. Tel +61 7 3252 9921, fax 61 7 3252 1950,email
mailto:
[email protected] [email protected]
Sydney: Reclaim the Streets
Email:
[email protected]
Conversations for the 21st Century:
Email:
[email protected]
www.ozemail.com.au/~nwinterb
Brazil
Santos Brazil: Agencia de Noticias Anarquistas ANA, CP 7811525-970Cubatao-SP, Brasil, email:
[email protected] andLeo
[email protected]
Bangladesh
Amirul Haque Amin, General Secretary, National Garnments WorkersFederation, Mr Hasna Banu, Member Secretary. Tel. +88 019 340262, fax+ 88 02 9562562,
email:
[email protected]
Basque Country (Spanish state):
con Itoitz, Unai Behrentt Baztan, Nagusia Kalea 38 5B 31.001 Iruna,Euskal Herria, Spanish State,
email, mailto:
[email protected]
www.s-o-s-itoiz.org.uk www.eusnet.org/partaide/solidarios/home.
htm
CANADA
Canadian Union of Postal Workers (contact: David Bleakney)
377 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario K2P 1Y3 Canada
Tel: 613-236-7230 ext 7953
Email:
[email protected]
CHILE
Santiago J18 network:
Email:
[email protected]
Colombia
Cacarica: Communities in Return to Carica, Self Determination, Lifeand Dignity! Justicia y Paz:
[email protected]
Libia Grueso PCN email:
[email protected]
Czech Republic
Prague: Zeme Predevsim (EF!) P. O. Box 237, 160 41 Praha 6, CzechRepublic, Europe, email:
[email protected] [email protected] , http://www.ecn.cz/zemepredevsim
France
Dijon: Maloka B. P. 536-21014, Dijon, France. Tel + 33 380 77 0940,
fax + 33 380 71 42 99,
email:
[email protected] , http://www.chez.com/maloka
Nantes: Nantes est une fÍte!
Email adress :
[email protected]
113 rue d'Allonville 44000 Nantes France
Germany
antiWTO/anti-Expo2000 coordination, website http://go.to/n30-de,
email,
[email protected]
German Anti-MAI and Globalization campaign:
Email:
[email protected]
India
Karnataka: KRRS ñ Karnataka State Farmers Association,
2111, 7-A Cross, 3rd Main, Vijayanagar 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560 040,India,
tel +91-80-330 09 65,
Fax +91-80-330 21 71,
email
[email protected]
National Alliance of Peoples Movements,
S7 D. V. Pradhan Road, Near Tilak Bridge, Hindu colony, Dadar(East),Mumbai, 400 014, India.
Phone & Fax: +91 - 471 - 50 1376
www.south-asian-initiative.org/wff
Korea
Seoul: Policy & Information Centre for InternationalSolidarity,
2nd Floor, 696 Shindaibang1-dong, Dongjat-ku, Seoul, Korea.
Tel + 82 2 834 8335,
fax + 82 2 834 8334.
http://picis.jinbo.net email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
Luxemburg
Jonk Lenk c/o LIFE Buro, 6 rue Vauban/Pfaffenthal, Luxemburg-city,Europe, email:
[email protected]
ISRAEL
Green Action Israel :
Tel: 972-3-5286722.
44 Baaley Melacha St. 63824 Tel Aviv, Israel.
Email:
[email protected]
Italy
Milan: Association Ya Basta ñ For peoples dignity againstneoliberalism, PGA convenor, Via Watteau, 7 20125 Milano, Italy.
Tel +39 02 67 05 185,
fax + 02 67 05 621,
email:
[email protected]
INDONESIA
Serikat Petani Sumatera Utara/SPSU (North Sumatra PeasantUnion/NSPU)
Jl. Karya Jasa 58, Pangkalan Masyhur, Medan, North Sumatera,
Indonesia 20143
Tel/Fax: +62 61 7862073
Email:
[email protected]
New Zealand
Wellington@ Committee for the Establishment of Civilisation, PO.Box9263, Te Aro, Wellington, Aotearoa, NZ,
email Lyn Ross
[email protected] and Proutist Universal,PO. Box 984, Nelson Aotearoa, NZ,
email Bruce Dyer
[email protected]
NEPAL
INHURED (contact person: Gopal)
PO Box 2125, New Plaza, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Tel: 0977-1-429741
Fax: 0977-1-419610
Email:
[email protected]
Nigeria
Niger Delta, Nigeria: Chikoko, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.Tel/fax + 234 84 236365, email
[email protected] ,
[email protected]
Malta
Moviment Graffitti, PO Box 24 Sliema, Malta, Europe,email
[email protected] , http://www.geocities.com/movimentgraffit
ti
Portugal
Lisbon: J. C.Astro
[email protected] . Porto: PO. BoxCAC/Apartado 4720/ 4012 Porto Codex, Portugal,
[email protected]
POLAND
Green Federation:
Email:
[email protected]
Pakistan
Asif Rasheed, Awami Committee for Development, PO. Box 598 Multan,Pakistan. Tel + 92 61 539821, fax +92 61 586764
RUSSIA
International Solidarity with Workers in Russia
Email:
[email protected]
Ecolodefence!
Moskovsky prospect
120-34236006 Kalingrad Keonigsburg, Russia
[email protected]
Sri Lanka
Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) ñ thePGA convenors for Asia, 43 Wanatha Road, Gangodawila, Nugegoda, SriLanka. Tel/fax 94-74-302311, email
[email protected]
SENEGAL
CONCEPT
Address: 3 Cite Jardiparc x Camberene, BP 21.014 Dakar - Senegal
Tel: (221) 835 45 27
Fax: (221) 835 45 37
E-mail:
[email protected]
SWEDEN
Stockholm: The Surrealist Group
Email:
[email protected]
SOUTH KOREA
Policy & Information Center for International Solidarity(PICIS)
TaeKwang bdg, 4th fl, 1410-3, Shillim 5 Dong, Kwanak Gu, Seoul,Korea, 151-015
Tel: +82-2-886 2853
Fax: +82-2-877 4353
E-mail:
[email protected]
Spain
Madrid: Ecologistas en Accion, anti-Maastrich Movement, comisioninternational, Calle Campomanes n. 13, 2 izda. 28013 Madris, Spain,email
[email protected] and
[email protected]
Slovenia
Ljubljana: KUD Anarhiv, Metelkova 6, 1000 Ljublijana, Slovenia,Skupina Neutro
[email protected]
and
[email protected] , http://www.ljudmila.org/anarhiv
Switzerland
Geneva: Action Populaire Contre la Mondialisation (MPCM), Maison desAssociations, 8 Vieux Billard, Geneve, 1205, Switzerland, email
[email protected] .
Coordination Anti-Millennium Round
[email protected]
Turkey
Working Group against MAI and Globalisation, Mecidiyek"ySivrita, Sokak No. 9 Daire.2 I li 80310 Istanbul, Turkey.Email, mailto:
[email protected] [email protected]
Thailand
Democratic Organizations & People Organizations Network
409 Soi Ratchadapisak 14 Ratchadapisak Rd, HauyWang, Bangkok,10320
Tel.66-2-6910820,66-2-6902536
Fax.66-2-6910820
E-mail
[email protected]
http://www.go.to/unctadx http://www.unctadx.org
UNITED STATES:
Direcat Action Network
PO Box 95113
Seattle WA 98145
[email protected]
(206) 632-1656
www.agitprop.org/artandrevolution/
Global action
Po Box 11703
Eugene, OR . n7440
tel: +(541) 302 5020
http://flag.blackened.net
URUGUAY
J18 network Montevideo:
Email:
[email protected]
Email:
[email protected]
www. junio18.8m.com
Wales
Bangor: Bangor EF! c/o The Greenhouse, 1 Trevelyan Terrace, Bangor,Gwynedd, Wales LL57 !AX. Tel: +44 1248 355 5821
[email protected];
[email protected]
Ireland
Limerick: environmental society
[email protected]
ZIMBABWE
Students for Environmental Action:
5 Abel Road, Athlone, Greendale, Harare
Email:
[email protected]
SOME RESPOURCES
Regular UK publications:
Earth First! Action Update:
EF!AU, PO Box 1TA, Newcstle upon Tyne NE99 1TA;
(goodcontacts list for UK groups)
SchNEWS:
(excellent weekly free news sheet) PO Box 2600, Brighton, BN2 2DX,England
Phone/Fax: 01273 685913
Email: [email protected]
www.schnews.org.uk/
SQUALL:
a fine news-based alterna-site and monthly paper version SquallDownload.
www.squall.co.uk
Corporate Watch:
c/o Box E, 111 Magdalen Road, Oxford OX4 1RQ.
Tel: 01865 791391
www.corporatewatch.org/
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
UNDERCURRENTS :
Uk based alternative news video crew. They provide video training foractivists and have a fantastic archive.
16b Cherwell Street, Oxford, OX4 1BG, England
Tel: +44 (0)1865 203661
Web site: www.undercurrents.org>
Email: [email protected]>
DIRECT ACTION MEDIA NETWORK
North American Independent activist news coverage includingdownloadable video. Has exellent mailing list for up to the minutenews of global actions.
http://damn.tao.ca
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleepingwith a mosquito.
DISCLAIMER: The people who threw this newspaper together wouldlike to reassure you, gentle (and not so gentle) reader, thatcapitalism isn't really that bad. So pop another Prozac, turn upthe TV (to drown the shouts from the street), and if you do have togo out, don't forget to shop like hell. Oh, and don't whateveryou do get incited by this product to do anything silly like takecontrol of your life. Or break any laws...