Globalization

At CorpWatch - Feb.2002
- The Whole World Was Watching: New York Protests the World Economic Forum
   World wide demonstrations last week posed a test to the anti-corporate globalization movement and its targets. Kenny Bruno reports from the Anti-World Economic Forum protests in New York that parts of the movement an A for attitude. Surprisingly, he says the police passed. The WEF, well, they flunked as usual.
- Globalizing Hope: Another World is Still Possible
   The only way to really describe the World Social Forum that just ended  in Brazil, is a global political "carnaval." The astounding event, an alternative to the World Economic Forum, was part-political convention, part-art and music festival and part-intellectual gathering of social movements. CorpWatch's Joshua Karliner, still recovering in Rio, files this dispatch.
IN THE NEWS
·  Afghanistan: Oil Execs Revive Pipeline From Hell
·  Brazil: Tobacco Makes Farmers Sick
·  France: Activist Gets Jail for Ransacking McDonald's
·  Costa Rica: Eco-Tourism Slump Endangers Wildlife
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Indymedia offers alternatives to the WEF and corporate globalization - Feb.2002
"WE KNOW WHAT YOU'RE AGAINST, BUT WHAT ARE YOU FOR??"
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EU Summit Reports - Dec.2001
- 80,000 at EU summit demo
- EU summit demo, day 2
- Belgium, Real nice Pictures of Anarchist March
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G-20 Protest Notes – One Humanity, One Struggle
- notes and photos from the Nov 16th and 17th demos in Ottawa By Gary Morton
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FTAA a Threat to Western Hemisphere's Forests – Jan.2002
The Free Trade Area of the Americas would endanger forests by:
- Limiting conservation measures in the service sector.
- Loss of democracy and public involvement. Governments would surrender to unelected international tribunals the adjudication over their safeguards for forest protection.
- The FTAA would weaken standards that prevent the importation of invasive pests, species or threats from genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
- Spread of invasive species. Precautionary measures aimed at preventing the spread of ecologically and economically destructive invasive plants and animals would be further impeded if proposed Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures are adopted.
- Genetically modified tree risks. If the draft text is accepted by FTAA countries, they will be required to allow the patenting of genetically modified organisms, including genetically engineered vascular plant and tree species capable to disrupting native ecosystems.
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From:  Robert Weissman -  05 Dec 2001
- The Global Justice Movement: Alive and Kicking
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2002 G8 Summit in Kananaskis to be Militarized - Nov.30.2001
   Alberta's Kananaskis resort will likely be designated a special military zone for the G8 Summit next summer. During a briefing for provincial justice ministers on the Public Security Act, a Privy Council official said provisions of the Liberal's second anti-terror bill could be used to designate a military zone around international summits.
   The official specifically cited last April's Summit of the Americas in Quebec City as an example in which the new military exclusion zone power could be used, Quebec Justice Minister Paul Begin said yesterday.
   Asked about the creation of military zone around Kananaskis, Alberta Solicitor General Heather Forsyth did not rule out such a drastic measure.
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World Bank Poised to Devour Afghanistan - Nov.25.2001
(Prisoners of War Slaughtered as Globalization Rushes In)
- read the full article on this site
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Anti World Trade Organization 2001 Reports
- A report on the Beirut anti Capitalism conference against the WTO
- USA Strategy Summit
- Global Exchange news
- International Forum on Globalization on the WTO
- Public Citizen
- The WTO and the Prison Industrial Complex
- WTO and the fate of the World's Forests
- 10 Reasons to Dismantle the WTO
- Beyond the WTO – Alternatives at the International Forum on Globalization
- 10 ways to Democratize the Global Economy
- Focus on the Global South
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Food First News, Information and Criticism of the fall 2001 Quatar WTO Meeting is  at:
www.foodfirst.org/progs/global/trade/wto2001/index.html
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WTO Protested - Human Need Not Corporate Greed
- notes and photos on the Toronto Nov 9th Protest Against the World Trade Organization
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Liberal Bill C-36 – Invasion of the Terrorist Body Snatchers (Nov.15.2001)
- read the full article
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Bill C-36 Online Petition Defend Civil Rights - Wed, 7 Nov 2001
From:  CAWR Toronot <cawr_toronto@yahoo.ca>
As agreed last night at the Coalition Against War and Racism Weekly meeting, the Petition regarding the proposed Bills C-36 and C-11 is online,  We would like to get the maximun number of signatures before coming friday to present to Minister of Immigration Elinor Caplan.
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/AWDACAWR/
Minister of Immigration will be the Arab Canadian Mural at CAF office this Friday November 9, 2001 7:00 - 9:00 PM CAF National Office (Beituna)
Mughir Al Hindi
On Behalf of Coalition Against War and Racism
The Terror in Anti Terrorism Legislation  - Bill C-36 - Nov.4.2001

Dear Friends,
   For an update from the Mobilization for Global Justice on the whirlwind planning for protests at the World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington DC. please visit
http://www.globalizethis.org
S30 Moblization for Global Justice Calendar of actions and events
http://www.globalizethis.org/s30/calendar.cfm
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At Essential Action -Sept/2001
[stop-imf] background info on Mobilization for Global Justice demands
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McLabour: Big Mac backs Blair – Sept.2001
    TONY BLAIR has triggered a potentially damaging row  over Labour's increasingly close links with big corporations after it emerged that he is to attend a  £15,000 reception at the party's annual conference paid for by the burger chain McDonald's.  It agreed to sponsor the food and drink for 450 guests at a high-profile event in Brighton to celebrate Labour's 100th conference only after receiving assurances that the prime minister would attend.
   Hosted by the cabinet minister Charles Clarke, appointed party chairman by Blair after the election, the invitation-only soiree, on the eve of the leader's keynote speech, is one of the most controversial commercial "opportunities" offered by Millbank to raise upwards of £4 million during the week.
   The US corporation, a target of anti-globalisation protesters who plan to demonstrate outside the conference when it opens on September 30, is anxious to receive the implied endorsement of Blair and other ministers.
    Executives initially intended to finance a football stunt within the conference security complex, but switched when they found that Blair was unable to make the kickabout.
   McDonald's said a director would "say a few words" at the reception. A corporate video crew is expected to film the gathering. The company also raised the  possibility of the prime minister wearing a McDonald's hat, according to a lobbyist with knowledge of the discussions, but Millbank ruled that out as unacceptable.
   The arrangement prompted unease within the party.
   Labour MP John McDonnell, a critic of transnational corporations such as McDonald's, said: "It turns my stomach, I don't know how low we can sink. It just shows how out of touch the Labour leadership is with the rank and file of the movement."
    John Edmonds, the head of the GMB who fears unions are being sidelined in the party, said: "I hope this is not the first step towards renaming us the McLabour  party"
(Guardian News Service)
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WHAT CAN THE 'QUEBEC TO QATAR' CARAVANS DO FOR YOU?
Contact: the CFWTO Caravan <caravan2001@sympatico.ca>
Phone: 613-236-7230 x7953
Website: http://www.wtoaction.org/cfwto

The 'Quebec to Qatar' caravan will be coming to your community joining and helping initiate local actions, collecting signatures on a giant Qatar Travel Permit, handing out resources, and helping organize movement building workshops and public forums.  Following is a list of activities and
resources the caravan can bring to your community:

POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
Invite the caravan to your MP's office and ask her/him to sign the Qatar Travel Permit.  Organize a direct lobby session with your local politicians and other decision-makers.

MOVEMENT BUILDING
ACTIVITIES and WORKSHOPS
Choose from our list of creative workshops to raise your community's awareness of corporate-led globalization.  Puppet making, street theatre, campaign planning, anti-oppression, and WTO and globalization workshops are excellent activities on their own or can be included in a dynamic teach-in.  Organize a public debate, a forum, or a tour of corporate wealth, ecological destruction, or housing crisis in your communities.  The caravan's national and international speakers can share their experience and knowledge on the issues.

DIRECT ACTION
If scheduling allows, we can join actions you are planning with resource people and materials.  Take the caravan to the picket lines to support
workers on strike.  Organize a colorful and noisy rally where the caravan can participate with speakers, sound and video equipment, chants, and campaign materials.  Plan an occupation of your MP's office where the caravan can join you and support you in your demands.  Unmask and challenge the corporationspushing the WTO that might be right in your community with an anti-corporate campaign!

MEDIA OUTREACH
An important event is soon going to take place in your community, and the media can report on it.  In conjunction with other activities, organize a
press conference or some media interviews.  Caravan speakers can participate in media outreach activities and will deliver a clear message to your localmedia.  Contact us for a copy of the Common Front on the WTO's Media Advisory and Press Release templates to assist you in your mediaoutreach.  Also, the caravan will be able to provide the media with on the road updates of the tour via the Internet.

CAMPAIGN MATERIAL
The caravan will be coming to your communities with CFWTO campaign materials:
-Qatar Travel Permit for you to sign (listing our demands to Canadians representatives traveling to Qatar)
-Campaign Handbill (with information on the GATS and WTO)
-GATS Attack Card Game
-Corporate Profile Stickers
-WTO Video: "They Can Run, but they Can't Hide"

EDUCATION MODULE
The caravan will be hauling tons of
handy resource material for communities to choose from.  CFWTO member organizations have produced excellent education materials that will be distributed during the tour, as well as other material specifically for the fall 2001 WTO campaign.

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS
The caravan will have a selection of skilled speakers from different national and regional organizations, long-time activists, and international spokespeople from Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.  A wealth of knowledge on board each Winnebago!

FOR MORE INFO:
Email: caravan2001@sympatico.ca
Phone: 613-236-7230 x7953
Website: http://www.wtoaction.org/cfwto
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The DC Masquerade- Aug.2001
The DC Masquerade:will raise money to buy and fabulously decorate hundreds of gas masks for free distribution at the IMF/World Bank protests in Washington Sept 29.
http://www.masqueradeproject.org
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Toronto Buses to Washington D.C., Sept 2001
-PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
   For those interested in travelling to Washington D.C. for the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Demos at the end of September, Toronto Mobilisation for Global Justice is sending six buses. Space is very limited so buy your tickets now to avoid disappointment.
   Price: $80 - $110 sliding scale (alternate arrangements can be made). Ticket info: mob4glob_buses@hotmail.com or (416) 208-0785.
   Contact - mob4glob_buses@hotmail.com
   Cheques can be made payable to Toronto Mobilisation for Global Justice.
Please mail them to: Toronto Mobilisation for Global Justice, c/o Canadian Federation of Students, 720 Spadina Ave. Suite 201, Toronto, ON M5S 2T9
   Buses are TENTATIVELY scheduled to leave on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 28 and return on Saturday, Sept. 30.
Good Links:
- Here's a great - article on the World Bank/IMF.
- I think this is the official demo website.
- This is one of the best pieces out there (Susan George's "Brief History of Neo-Liberalism").
- The goods -straight from the horse's mouth:
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Genoa News Digest (young man murdered by police, hundreds injured) July.21.2001
- Protestor Shot Dead by Paramilitary Police in Genoa
- Vigils for Victims of Police/State Violence at Genoa Summit
- Click here to read a full news digest with photos
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Italy/G8 Summit(Aug.1): Amnesty International calls for commission of inquiry
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WTOAction.Org!- July.2001
-Protest World Bank / IMF, September 28, Washington DC
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Article - Free trade', rape and murder (July.2001)
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The FTAA text in English is at http://www.ftaa-alca.org/alca_e.asp
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Agriculture and the FTAA - Wed, 04 Jul 2001
From: "Henry Martinuk" <hmartinuk@hotmail.com>
- Full Article at http://www.mob4glob.ca/agri.html
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Student Deaths in Papua New Guinea- July.2001
-PNG Death Toll Rises to 4
-PNG families demand compensation
-PNG Govt announces inquiry into students' deaths
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Indy Media - july.1.3002
- PNG revolts against World Bank
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BioDevastation - Protests over the BIO 2001 International Convention – June.2001
- See photos/reports from San Diego and Toronto
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At the Globe
- Police gun down 3 in Papua New Guinea - June.26.2001
Port Moresby — Riot police opened fire with automatic weapons on a crowd of students protesting economic reform.
- Talks to open on Niagara free-trade zone
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BARCELONA, Spain Protest - Reports from Plaça Catalunya - Sun, 24 Jun 2001
From:web@j25.org
   Today, we are told, was the pacifist event. During said event Burger king lost its signs and all its windows, many shops on one  side of the road were smashed and banks locks were glued and windows covered in Grafiti.
We spent a lot of the afternoon in bars building international links. At one point the police came under fire from bottles but responded by shooting the fuck out of everyone. The day has been charcterised   by skirmishes and extreme force from the police. Quite a few people have decided   they have had enough and have called it a day I think. It is very good that we have been able to regroup etc, given police tactics. When we were able to  push lines back and the police on other side of square were attacked with bottles which was empowering.
http://www.j25.org/latest.htm
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/
http://uk.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=6357
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Swedish Police Violence Protested in Toronto – Thurs.June.21
   A protest took place at the Swedish Trade Office in Toronto today. The issue being  the police attack on protesters at the EU meeting in Gothenburg Sweden. Three people were shot by the police in Sweden where demonstrators were opposing the idea of Fortress Europe, neo-liberalism and the presence of George Bush and his scrapping of Kyoto and selling of the new Star Wars Militarization of Space Plan (NMD).
Toronto Photos:
Protester chalks out body mark
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/gothen1.jpg
And lies shot on the pavement
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/gothen2.jpg
   The Toronto protest was an information picket. People signed a petition, spoke through a horn and handed info to passersby.
   Info on Swedish Police Violence – In Sweden police targeted a high school that was legally being used as an organising centre for the protests. Hundreds of protesters were trapped inside and many arrested.
   The next morning 5,000 people attempted to march to the European leaders' summit, which was sealed off behind giant steel walls. Police halted the march with a barricade and started batoning people. Among the first victims was Knut Jensen, convenor of the print workers' union at one of Norway's main newspapers. He fell with blood pouring from his head.
   After the baton assault a snarling pack of police dogs and their handlers appeared. They tore into the march and dozens of protesters needed treatment for bite wounds. Seconds later baton-wielding mounted police charged into the rear of the demonstration. Only after these assaults did some protesters start throwing stones. Some went on to vent their rage at shops along the city's main street, mainly hitting symbols of the global system like McDonald's.
   The Shooting - People were dancing, enjoying themselves. Then the police started charging. As police kept charging, some people started fighting back, throwing stones. The police then fired leaving a young man on the ground.
   Three people were shot by police in the square and the next morning some 30,000 people joined an already planned demonstration. Some of them accepted the entirely false government claims that the police acted in self defence.
   Others condemned the police, but also accepted media tales of violent protesters. Many others understood that the police alone were responsible for the violence.
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Stop the Attacks on Anti-Globalisation Activists  in Indonesia - Mon, 11 Jun 2001 Police and Islamic militia raid  a peaceful anti-globalization conference in Jakarta.
- read the full report.
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A PROPOSAL FOR AN ONTARIO NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION NOVEMBER 9 AS THE WTO MEETS IN QATAR
 - read the full article from Homes not Bombs
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Declaration of the Forum on Human Rights
Second Peoples' Summit of the Americas
© Quebec City, Canada, April 16-21, 2001
- read the full document.
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Globalization is no excuse for states to shirk their human rights responsibilities - 31 May 2001
- Full report by Amnesty International
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Call to action against the World Bank Barcelona - June 22-25.2001
   A new web site is being set up to "encourage and facilitate mass international mobilisation to Barcelona in June".  It is being put together by a group, mainly based in the UK, that is excited by the prospect of doing a positive action, that celebrates our ability and intent to change the world, in the most symbolic of places.  It can be found at:
http://www.j25.org
Please send comments, inquiries etc. to:
mailto:web@j25.org
Thankyou and see you on the streets.

Call to action against the World Bank Barcelona - June 22-25th
BARCELONA PEOPLE: 1 - WORLD BANK: 0
    On June 25th-27th the World Bank was to hold its Annual conference on Development Economics in Barcelona, and following the example of Seattle, Melbourne, Prague, and so many others, we started organizing the Campaign Against the World Bank Barcelona 2001, which received a great response from, social movements, unions, neighbourhood associations, student associations, workers on struggle, political parties and organisations and lots of different people who saw this as an opportunity to spread the idea that 'A different world is possible'. The success the campaign had in bringing people together meant that, when the WB approached some NGOs in order to strenghten their image-washing strategy, those NGOs made clear that their place was not at the WB conference, but at the Campaign's counter-conference. Facing all this, on May 19th the WB announced the cancellation of their meeting. The mobilization of thousands of people around the Spanish state to organize a counter conference, a massive demonstration and the siege of the WB s delegates, made them change their mind. The pressure from below made them realize that their slogan our dream, a world without poverty would have looked like nothing but a joke, as thousands of demonstrators would have been tear-gassed and arrested while shouting Our world is not for sale .
   We think that the reasons we had to protest against the World Bank still stand, and therefore we will continue to organize around the slogan
A DIFFERENT WORLD IS POSSIBLE
GLOBALIZE RESISTANCES AND SOLIDARITY
   And we would like to invite you to join us for the counter-conference, the demonstations and the people's trial against the institution.
   If you would like to join us in this big celebration of people s power or to know anything about the Campaign, contact us at logisticabm@hotmail.com (english prefered, but all languages accepted) or subscribe to our mailing list in English bcn2001_ensubscribe@egroups.com. If you can understand spanish and/or catalan, join our main list, bcn2001-subscribe@egroups.com. You can also visit our website www.rosadefoc.org.
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Musings on a hemispheric war
By Adam Strange, May.2001
* Column on Quebec, the FTAA, Oppression, Mike Harris, Capitalism and anti-Capitalsm
- read the full article
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European Days of Action Website and Calendar
Updated Events Calendar - http://www.tao.ca/~ridefree/summithop/
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Free Trade/Globalization – a simpler argument against it.
* I usually do write-ups covering what other people say on the issues. Their arguments are often complex so I've done a simple one in this letter to a friend.
- read the article.
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Report on the Toronto anti-Capitalism conference by Dave Marshall
May.6.2001
- read the full report
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Oppose the IMF - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank will be holding their Joint Annual General Meetings in Washington, DC from September 28 to October 4, 2001.
An organizing listserve for the coordination and networking among activists for the counter actions has been established.
To subscribe, send a blank message to following address:
DestroyIMF-subscribe@topica.com
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Protest the World Economic Forum (FTAA Meeting Oct. 7-9th, 2001.)
   HEY! YOU! (ESPECIALLY YOU in Quebec City, or Traveling around the country in A BIG BUS.) Please spread this to other activists. NOT just through email! If possible use the text for a small flyer to hand out in large quantities...maybe even give it one of those hip, over-used, mass action, power to the people graphics...thanks
CALL TO ACTION?
the WEF is planning on meeting in Miami, primarily to assess the progress of the FTAA negotiations. The date they've decided on, tentatively, is Oct. 7-9th, 2001.
   There is intent on mobilizing opposition on a large scale in south Florida and we are seeking to find support from other activists around the state/country/world in these areas:
-Indy Media
-Legal aid
-Medical team
-Food
-Action Trainings
-Logistics
-Outreach
WE NEED TO GET STARTED NOW!
The south FL activist community is not very large, and dwindles even more in the summer, but this state's network is pretty tight. Planning for October could help strengthen these both, as well spreading the global movement to new places. Please get in touch ASAP if you can help coordinate in one of the above areas, especially if you think you wanna spend the summer in the tropics,
helping prepare locally.
For info. and updates: rodentuprising@hotmail.com
This post came in from   David Levy <dglevy@cepr.net>
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Economic Reform Article
- The International Monetary Fund's Four Steps to Damnation by Gregory Palast - May.2001
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A SMALL MIND FOR A SMALL WORLD - May.2001
Mike Harris and the Political Agenda of Globalization
By JOHN CLARKE, ONTARIO COALITION AGAINST POVERTY (OCAP)
- read the full article
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Armies Of Compassion: GW Bushs' Compassionate Fascism
by Robert Lederman
- read the full essay
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International Monetary Fund Water Privatization Kills Millions each Year - 9 Feb 2001
(IMF Forces Water Privatization on Poor Countries)
info from: Sara Grusky Globalization Challenge Initiative
   A random review of IMF loan policies in forty countries reveals that, during 2000, IMF loan agreements in 12 countries included conditions imposing water privatization or full cost recovery.  In general, it is African countries, and the smallest, poorest and most debt-ridden countries that are being subjected to IMF conditions on water privatization and full cost recovery.
   Ironically, the majority of these loans were negotiated under the IMF's new Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), a reform announced with great fanfare in 1999 when IMF officials claimed that the new loan facility would re-focus the IMF's controversial structural adjustment measures on activities that borrowing government's would identify as leading to poverty reduction.  Rather than contributing to poverty reduction, water privatization and greater cost recovery make water less accessible and less affordable to the low income communities that make up the majority of the population in developing countries.  The most immediate impact of reducing the accessibility and affordability of water falls on women and children.
   More than five million people, most of them children, die every year from illnesses caused from drinking poor quality water.  When water become more expensive and less accessible, women and children, who bear most of the burden of daily household chores, must travel farther and work harder to collect water - often resorting to water from polluted streams and rivers.
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**** THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM ****

Dave Bleakney, staff member of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) reports from Prague
From: "dave bleakney" <bleakneyd@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000
   What a crazy few days it's been. What will I take home from Prague? Will it be the thumbs up and waves from Prague citizens from their balconies as we marched by? Was it the Czech people who left their  apartments and came filled the street when the armoured personal carrier went by? Was it the fifteen delegates that tried to leave the conference centre by foot and were turned back by people linking arms? Was it the old man that shook my hand and said "thank you to come her" in broken English? Was it the humiliation of some delegates having to be hustled out of the Convention Centre in ambulances (they were not injured but ambulances were not stopped)? What a coincidence that five ambulances in a row entered and left the conference centre with covered windows! I couldn't help thinking that those who structurally adjust us and destroy our health care have no qualms about using ambulances to hustle them to their $300 hotel rooms.

Last night the main square was closed. The suits missed the opera (closed by protestors). McDonalds and Mercedes Benz were smashed to pieces. I must confess, I didn't feel even a little bad about that.

According to one IMF delegate from Argentina the meeting was one of the usual talk of rich nations displaying their arrogance toward the rest of the world. Little was accomplished he said.

I marched with Peoples Global Action. What a joy to march with Nicaraguan workers, the Landless Peasant Movement (MST) of Brazil, an Indian representative of the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, the Maori and many more. We were Bolivian and Korean. We were Russian and Banglaeshi. We were Canadian and Colombian, Italian and German. For one brief moment in time we were one people of many streams celebrating and defending our beautiful planet, communities and people who have not even been born yet.

And while the labour movement may still be sleeping, the presence of the Greek Telecom Workers Union, the Nicaraguan Woekrs Central, U.S.  Longshoreman and English teachers suggest that this is not entirely true.

For those that haven't reported their actions, you will do us a huge favour by sending them to http://www.wtoaction.org and the indy media centre whose email I do not have presently. It means a lot. Reports are that the Czech police are treating Czechs much worse than foreigners. Most demonstrators that were arrested are Czech, contrary to some reports by the media that this was a group of "outsiders". It is not surprising they would say this.  The truth hurts. Maybe that's why USA TODAY and the Financial Post today had absolutely no mention of what occurred here.

These days have not been without repression. Freedom fighters have been jailed, denied food and lawyers while the police so far are refusing to identify those they have arrested. Yet, still we march and still we cry "we will not go away". You will see our face in Seattle, Melbourne, Washington, La Paz, Windsor, Bangkok, Kyoto and anywhere else where the global masters and extortionists choose to plot. Soon we will have to do more than cost them their egos. We must hurt their production and their finances.

Solidarity, we will win, the times they are a changing, enough is enough,

Dave Bleakney
<bleakneyd@hotmail.com>
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Friday Sept.29 Day of Protest for S26 Prisoners
Horrific conditions in the Prague jails
   More than 859 prisoners are being held as a result of s26 activities. Of these 859, all but 200 or so are Czechs who are reportedly being treated worst of all.  Friday the 29th has been declared an international day of action to demand the immediate release of these prisoners and all s26 prisoners.  Various groups have called for demonstrations/occupations at Czech Embassies, Consulates, Czech airline offices and other appropriate venues at the hour of 12:00 noon.  Please distribute this as widely as possible.  Czech prisoners will not simply be deported and are vulnerable to severe reprisals once the international support network is gone.  We must not let this happen.
   PRAGUE - In addition to the mass denial of the legal rights, individuals have faced extreme brutality in Czech Jails.  Paul Rosenthal from Seattle Washington who was released this morning from the Olsanska jail in Prague after forty hours states, "What is happening inside the Czech jails is more than frightening.  People have no rights, they are being beaten severely, they are disappearing.  Women are being forced to strip in front of male guards and perform exercises.  People with serious medical problems have been denied help."
INPEG International Press Agent
http://www.inpeg.org
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Toronto: Arrests at S26 Anti-Globalisation Solidarity demo in Toronto
   Anti-poverty activist Fernando Soto was arrested on charges stemming from his alleged participation in the June 15th Ontario Coalition Against Poverty Demo.  He was taken to the 52nd division to be processed. A sizeable group came to 52 division to show support. The charges are Participating in a riot, Assault police officer, Assault with a weapon, Weapons dangerous, Obstructing a police officer, Attempting to injure an animal.
   Fernando's hearing is tomorrow morning (Wednesday) at 9:00 a.m., Old City Hall, room 111. Fernando has been very active in anti-poverty activism in Toronto. Fernando was instrumental in designing and building the 'Homeless Moose,' (The Moose has made appearances at the 'Safe Park' anniversary and the Labour Day parade, the DEC bookstore window and is presently at York U)
-- There are unconfirmed rumours that two other people were arrested and an ugly scene between police and demonstrators.
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Photos of S26 Protest Action in Prague
- at Indy Media
- at Yahoo
Updates - PRAGUE, Sept 26.2000  - Protesters besiege International Monetary Fund Meeting
   Police tried to force rioters back with water cannon, tear gas, dogs, thunderflashes and even threw cobblestones as they were at times overwhelmed by hundreds of masked youths shouting anti-globalist slogans.
   The worst threat to those at the conference occurred when protesters stormed a hotel just across the road from the congress centre. They pelted financiers and journalists with stones until police pushed them back with dogs and truncheons.
   Despite arrests, thousands of people are still in the streets of Praha. Confrontations with police are still continuing. Reports of more than 500 arrested in the last hour.
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At Corporate Watch - Protesters Parade Through Prague

Czech, Report from Prague

Protestors block center of Prague in first major demo

S26 in two days .. and Anarchists attack skinheads

NDP Demands Appeal of WTO Drug Ruling -Sep.9.2000
WINNIPEG - NDP health critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis has called on the federal government to appeal the World Trade Organization decision delaying access to generic drugs.
She said Canada should do everything possible to make sure Canadians have access to reasonably priced pharmaceuticals. The federal government's decision to repeal its own regulations rather than appeal the WTO ruling will delay access to generic drugs and their much needed cost savings.
"This government has signaled to international pharmaceutical companies that it's open season in Canada," Ms. Wasylycia-Leis said. "The Canadian drug industry has been deregulated to the point that increasing drug costs are now threatening the very survival of medicare."
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NEW ON CORPORATE WATCH - Sept3.2000

   S8 Mobilization is a coalition of international organizations working to mobilize a massive people's presence at the Millennium Summit to reclaim the United Nations for all and to advance a people's agenda for the 21st century.
   On September 6-8, 2000, the United Nations will host the UN Millennium Summit, the largest gathering of heads of state in history, to set the agenda for the world for the new millennium.
   Political and corporate leaders will consider the ratification of over 500 treaties that declare the need for economic, social, political, and cultural human rights for all peoples. However, the hierarchical structure and openness to corporate influence of the UN make it close to impossible for the will of the people to be implemented and renders it a forum for impotent rhetoric.

CSIS - Canadian Security Intelligence Service releases report on Globalization Protests
Read it - Anti-Globalization - A Spreading Phenomenon
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New articles: Aug.2000

     The recent International AIDS conference in Durban spoke of an Africa that is dying. An epidemic of HIV, and other diseases being labeled as HIV is raging across Africa, taking 6,030 lives each day. This number is expected to double during this decade.
     Longer-term economic consequences for Africa are falling food production, deteriorating health care, and disintegrating educational systems. With the virus continuing to spread, life expectancy could drop to 30.
   The good news is that some countries are halting the spread of the virus. Senegal responded early to the threat. As a result, it held the infection rate to 2 percent of its adults.
     Saving Africa depends on a large-scale international plan to curb the spread of the virus and to restore economic progress. Yet the plan put forward at the recent AIDS conference in South Africa is lacking. The USA Export-Import Bank has announced it will "Offer Africa $1 Billion a Year to Fight AIDS." Bank Chairman, James Harmon says, "Rather than using the limitations of our mission as an excuse to do nothing, we are finding a way -- as a credit agency -- to do something constructive.''
     This sounds great until we remember that The World Trade Organization ruled that it is illegal for developing nations to manufacture low-cost generic drugs, either for their own use or for export. This is due to new "intellectual property rights" laws that protect the profits of the multinational pharmaceutical/chemical corporations.
     Africa's borrowing to purchase the expensive drugs means a corporate bonanza, reaped from human suffering. Now Africans can borrow the money, at interest, to buy expensive drugs that they were beginning to produce themselves.
     This isn't helping Africa, it is an absolutely brilliant, absolutely criminal scam.
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Free Tibet Protesters Win Victory Over China.
Info from:Josh from Milarepa/Students for a Free Tibet. ustc@igc.org
   The World Bank has decided to cancel the China Western Poverty Reduction Project! And Protesters who camped outside the building to block China's resettlement of Tibet are claiming victory.
   "When we got the announcement, people screamed and shouted, and soon we were spraying champagne all over the place. It was amazing to be there, and to be a part of this victory that has been a long time coming."
1. For almost the first time, the governments of the world have stood up to the Chinese government and refused to support their activities.
 2. The Tibetans inside Tibet will probably be overjoyed to hear the news that the world community came together and refused to support population transfer.
 3. We insured that the Chinese government will never be able to get International Aid money for its colonization efforts.
 4. We had a profound effect on the World Bank and how it operates. This campaign will have such a major impact on how the Bank operates in the future, and will force a level of accountability that the Bank has never known!
Original Post - Protesters Oppose Chinese Resettlement of Tibet at World Bank - July.4.2000
FROM WORLD BANK BASE CAMP!!!
   Since the World Bank seems so determined to resettle Chinese farmers into Tibet, free Tibet protesters decided to resettle themselves in front of the Bank! They were present 24 hours a day til the vote on the project.
    They hung prayer flags in the park across from the bank, unfurled a giant Tibetan flag, and held placards that read “The World is Watching” and “Resettle This!!!” For over two hours people shouted: “World Bank Out of Tibet!” and “Don’t Fund the Chinese Government.” Whenever a World  Bank worker left the building, the shouting got louder.
Josh Schreitake action at www.tibet.org/sft
coalition action site www.milarepa.org/action4tibet
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Globalization as Apartheid - In a brilliant speech Martin Khor details the damage globlization has done to the Third World and labels it a form of apartheid.
Millenium Forum speech by Martin Khor of the Third World Network -posted July.2000
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U.S. and WTO target Canada's wheat board - July.2000
(Action would increase food costs in starving world)
   The U.S. has reiterated its intention to target the Canadian Wheat Board and other government initiatives
   U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky told Congress of the plans last week. Ottawa's milk pricing export system has already been declared illegal by a hostile World Trade Organization.
   The U.S. has said it wants to kill the Canadian Wheat Board and similar organizations that offer lower prices for wheat and food. The inefficient American system leads to high prices and the US want to compensate for that through a WTO attack on other nations.
   Canada's farm supply management programs are also under attack as the WTO continues to move toward eliminating the sovereignty of nation states.
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At Corporate Watch - June 2000

2,000 to 3,000 people, surrounded by hundreds of curious onlookers and surveyed by lots of uniformed and ununiformed cops, gathered at Eau Claire Centre as scheduled, 3pm on Sunday, June 11.

The Edmonton Radical Cheerleaders, in their red and black tops and skirts, kept the energy level high. A lot of placards defended human rights and condemned the murder committed directly or indirectly through corporate incursions in various areas of the world. There was special attention paid to the situation facing indigenous peoples.

Families, young people, elderly people of various backgrounds participated, smiling in the face of police intimidation. They shouted slogans such as "This is what democracy looks like!", and "No Blood for Oil!", and "I Say Shell, you say murder"!. There was a strong message of support for solar energy methods as well.

There was a request that no participant speak to the National Post and the Calgary Herald reporters. Scores of media cameras and reporters watched; they may have hoped for a riot but the colourful parade only made the city, corporations and paramilitary look worse and worse. It was clear who represented the interests of democracy and rights.

WE walked for about twelve blocks, the corporate greed puppet and Greenpeace polar bears joining us along the way. We filled the Olympic Plaza outdoor theatre bowl with whoops of joy, surrounded by 3-meter high wire fencing behind which the riot squads and oil magnates cowered.

As the plaza filled, one could see the full array of the carnival-cloud, sun and bird puppets, including the anti-oil thunderbird (gas hose and nozzle ensemble). Four dinosaurs on bikes arrived. Someone brought a windmill. There was a Ralph Klein puppet carried by two elderly women opposed to privatization. Many banners spread under the hot afternoon sun.

A skit portrayed the enslavement of people oppressed by the oil industry development and the shallow concern with consumer prices of gasoline. What is the true cost of oil?

An environmental contingent, boasting the native woman puppet and Radical Cheerleaders, circulated throughout the downtown streets while the rally proceeded.

The event was graced by the Raging Grannies and a singer/guitarist who performed between speeches by NAC, CDLC, Council of Canadians (Loretta Gerlach) and someone from Sudan. The rally lasted about an hour.

The whole area had been closed off, with the false pretext of "protecting" persons and property. Even the C-Train had been re-programmed. It was clear the "authorities" did not want anyone to see the political action and get inspired by it. But knowledge of the protesters, whether seen or unseen, was inspiring as was the heavy police presence.

Photos to be available soon at the VAN-DAN.
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Windsor Mistreatment - Call for Testimonials - July.6.2000
From: ilene77@hotmail.com
   To all who were present at the Organization of American States protest in Windsor
   We are the Windsor Peace Committee! Due to the many Human Rights violations and mistreatment of protestors that occurred before, during and after the OAS General Assembly we have formed an accountability committee.
   It is the job of this committee to make sure that the brutality that occurred is brought out to the Canadian public and that the people responsible be held accountable.
   In order to gather evidence for our legal team we are sending a call out for written testimonials. Everything from border hassles, campsite rejection, seizure of personal property, to the severest police brutality is important to this documentation. It is our intention to give a voice and a sense of validity to those who were mistreated and abused against all the laws of our country.
   If you have any questions or concerns about your statement please feel free to call co-ordinator of the statement team, Ilene Sova after 4:30 at 519-977-8787. You can e-mail your statements to
Ilene Sova ilene77@hotmail.com
Jahan Kargar jsk314@hotmail.com
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Final Four Released - OAS Protesters out of Jail - 9.Jun.2000
   Ending their hunger strike after several nights in jail, the final four OAS Shutdown protesters were released from jail yesterday afternoon.
   One, a young offender charged with assaulting the police officer whose boot was on her face, was released on her own recognizance.
   The other three prisoners had been part of a group arrest of direct action ‘organizer’ types charged with mischief. One woman and two men, they were released on condition that $500.00 cash bail be paid, and they leave the city of Windsor within 24 hours. They are not to return, unless their visits are court-related.
   The Canadian Auto Workers generously posted the $1500.00 bail, in addition to the $1500.00 they had contributed the day before.
   Pursuit of civil action is being considered by the prisoner who suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of police, both during and following her arrest.
For more information, including future action against police misconduct, write to: stopftaa@tao.ca
The OAS Shutdown Coalition legal team has run up many expenses working for the release of the political prisoners.  To make a contribution, please send
your cheque payable to:
OPIRG Toronto (memo: OAS Shutdown Coalition Legal Fund)
563 Spadina Ave,Toronto, ON,M5S 2J7
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Canada, Windsor, Hunger Striking Political Prisoners still being Jailed in Windsor
From: "Stefanie Gude" <stefgude@hotmail.com
June 7th, 2000, Windsor -- Four protesters have been on a hunger strike since 2pm on Tuesday after being arrested with trumped-up charges during the protests of the Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly meetings in Windsor, Ontario.
   Three are charged with mischief, and one protester is facing an assault police charge.  The woman tried to remove an officer’s foot from her face.
At 17 years old and only 5’2, seventy riot police felt intimidated enough to charge her with assault police.  Another woman protester has allegedly been sexually and physically assaulted at the hands of the authorities.  She is one of the four who have still not been released. Most of the other protesters have also reported mistreatment upon arrest.
   The protesters are being targeted for their political beliefs, and according to the police, are integral organizers of the action.  The activists are being persecuted in jail for their principles of practicing non-compliance tactics in order to maintain jail solidarity. They are being held unnecessarily long, in relation to the crimes they are accused of.  In addition, the bail conditions themselves are excessive.
   An urgent request by the Legal Committee of the Coalition to Shutdown the
OAS / FTAA has been released.  The public is urged to express their outrage by calling the Crown Attorney’s office at 519-253-1104 (fax 519-253-1813).
People can also contact the Chief of Police at 519-255-6700 x4486, MP and
Deputy Prime Minister Herb Gray at 519-257-6817 (fax 519-257-6820) and Mayor  Hurst at 519-255-6315 (fax 519-255-7796).
Any contributions for legal costs can be sent to stopftaa@tao.ca.
For more information, contact:
Coalition to Shutdown the OAS / FTAA
Media                   519-258-9193
Legal Committee 519-944-4749
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URGENT JAIL SUPPORT NEEDED - June 6.2000
Eleven more activists have been arrested during a  support rally outside the "secret" OAS jail in Windsor, ON, Canada.
As yet, we are unaware of the charges, but they were arrested during a soft blockade.
We can expect the same treatment as the previous activists have experienced.
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Windsor arrestees still in Jail, June 6, 8:00 pm
 Hi........
 Nine people arrested in Windsor today, denied access to lawyers, denied bail hearing until June 9.
 I just got a call from Windsor, June 6, 7:45 pm.
 I was told that the following info had been sent out by email.  But, it has not appeared in my email box yet.
 - Nine people, who were marching peacefully in protest of the OAS meeting in Windsor, arrested today, June 6.
 - Ten people now in custody
 - Denied access to lawyer
 - Denied bail hearings until June 9
 - One woman arrestee reported verbal and sexual abuse in jail
 - Arrestees participating in jail solidarity
 - Arrestees threatened with being moved to  separate jails across the province
 You are urgently requested to immediately phone:
 - Mayor of Windsor          519-255-6315
 - Detention Centre           519-944-6603
 - Herb Gray, MP              519-257-6817   <Gray.H@parl.gc.ca>
 - Windsor Police             519-255-6700
You may be able to get more info from Black Star Legal Coalition in Windsor
519-564-4554.  But that's just a guess.
   Bob Olsen, Toronto      bobolsen@interlog.com
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Jailed Activists in Windsor - Tue, 6 Jun 2000
From: smack@dojo.tao.ca
   Two american activists have been detained on bogus immigration charges in Windsor as part of the Canadian government's ongoing efforts to silence dissent against the Organization of American States, which is currently meeting in Windsor. Arthur Foelsche is being detained on the grounds that he
"might" commit an indictable offence (equivalent to a felony) while David
Solnit (a puppeteer from California whose skills helped to create the colourful masks and puppets at the protests in Seattle and Washington, D.C.) is being detained for having a 14 year old charge on his record. The two are  appearing at the Canadian Immigration Review Board over the next two days, and need your calls and faxes asap!
These charges are clearly political in nature and being used to detain and target activists. No offences have actually been committed. The government is attempting to undermine the rights of everyone to protest the reprehensible actions of the Organization of American States.
Call or fax the Immigration Review Board Adjudication Division at:
ph: 416/973-0853 FAX: 416/973-0852.
Demand that the two be released, and that they not be deported!
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Latest -  OAS pepper spray continues, students walk out - June 5, 2000.
   We are here to help shut down the OAS summit. We already feel we have been successful since they had to build a 16 city block prison downtown to keep the OAS in and the demonstrators out. As the Canadian Foreign Minister
blabs about Canadian values and human rights the cops are beating people and confiscating their banners.
   I came to Windsor with postal workers from Toronto. Yesterday the police were very brutal and violent. Cops sprayed people with pepper spray whenever they felt like it. The brutality is what you did not see on tv. Fortunately, there is lot's of video footage around of the violent cops.
   The police even sprayed people who got too close to the fence they set up. Anyone who got close got sprayed. The CUPW Toronto local president called on labour organizers to support the direct action folks. It was clear the cops were preparing for more violence and beatings directed against the demonstrators. Announcements were made calling on workers to support the direct action people, thus preventing the cops from going crazy.
   Today, I am joined by some postal workers as we march around Windsor in several large groups. We are visiting high schools. Students are walking out of Walkerville Collegiate. Teachers are standing on the steps trying to hold them back but they are walking out and joining us. The cops are disoriented. They don't know what to do. There is an incredible police presence and they are following us around everywhere. Our numbers are growing.
Our resistance is as transnational as capital.
In solidarity, Mike, a letter carrier

David Bleakney
From: Dave Bleakney <DBLEAKNEY@CUPW-STTP.ORG>
National Union Representative
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
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Organization of American States Protest June 4, 2000 in Windsor Canada.
Latest -  OAS pepper spray continues, students walk out - June 5, 2000.
   We are here to help shut down the OAS summit. We already feel we have been successful since they had to build a 16 city block prison downtown to keep the OAS in and the demonstrators out. As the Canadian Foreign Minister
blabs about Canadian values and human rights the cops are beating people and confiscating their banners.
   I came to Windsor with postal workers from Toronto. Yesterday the police were very brutal and violent. Cops sprayed people with pepper spray whenever they felt like it. The brutality is what you did not see on tv. Fortunately, there is lot's of video footage around of the violent cops.
   The police even sprayed people who got too close to the fence they set up. Anyone who got close got sprayed. The CUPW Toronto local president called on labour organizers to support the direct action folks. It was clear the cops were preparing for more violence and beatings directed against the demonstrators. Announcements were made calling on workers to support the direct action people, thus preventing the cops from going crazy.
   Today, I am joined by some postal workers as we march around Windsor in several large groups. We are visiting high schools. Students are walking out of Walkerville Collegiate. Teachers are standing on the steps trying to hold them back but they are walking out and joining us. The cops are disoriented. They don't know what to do. There is an incredible police presence and they are following us around everywhere. Our numbers are growing.
Our resistance is as transnational as capital.
In solidarity, Mike, a letter carrier

David Bleakney
From: Dave Bleakney <DBLEAKNEY@CUPW-STTP.ORG>
National Union Representative
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
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News Digest - Organization of American States Shutdown protest in Windsor - Sunday June 4, 2000

   The OAS protest is related to worldwide protests against globalization and free trade. Our regular media will probably simplify the issue to whether or not protesters succeeded in shutting down the meeting. The Federal Liberals will likely say that the OAS is about improving human rights and that most Canadians support free trade. Yet the real issue is sovereignty. Agreements through these global bodies are more about removing national sovereignty and democracy than they are about trade. Environmental regulations, the auto pact and on and on have been destroyed by international bodies that do not represent the Canadian people.

   Nearly all Canadian politicians support globalization. The exceptions are a few NDPers, the Canadian Action Party, Green Party and the Socialists. If there is a key reason why activists don't give up in the face of these overwhelming odds it is that many moral issues are involved that relate to world poverty and suffering. Canadian citizens are now to the left of their governments on most issues and it has been shown that they swing to the left when they are educated on the issues. In that sense, our government's greatest enemy is the democratic citizen, slowly educating the public as to the negative effects.
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Links
For in-depth non-corporate media coverage of the ongoing protests against
the Organization of American States' meetings in Windsor, Canada, point
your browser to the Windsor Independent Media Center's newswire, at
"http://windsor.indymedia.org".  Today, June 4, 2000, police clashed with
demonstrators who are trying to shut down the meetings, using pepper spray
and arresting many activists.
Main site
http://www.shutdownOAS.org
OAS Discussion list
http://phorum.tao.ca/list.php3?num=13
OAS Shutdown Video Centre
http://www.tao.ca/~stopftaa/tvac/
Photos
http://www.tao.ca/~stopftaa/tvac/stills.html
Shutdown OAS Detroit Site
http://stopoasdetroit.webjump.com/
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News Clips
Amnesty International Statement Condemns the Organization of American States Human Rights Record - June 4,2000

   In a public document released today, Amnesty International and other Non Governmental Organizations expressed their concern over the failure of the OAS to seriously tackle the issues of human rights. These include widespread impunity for human rights violations; the persistence of practices such as torture, enforced "disappearance" and extrajudicial executions; appalling prison conditions in many countries in the region; and the continued application of the death penalty in some of them.

   The adoption of a resolution last year by the OAS General Assembly has not been translated into any positive improvement of the situation of human rights defenders, who continue to be the victims of human rights violations in several countries in the region, Amnesty International said.

   The OAS has been taking little or no reaction to overt steps taken by some member states to limit human rights protection. One example of this is the withdrawal of Trinidad and Tobago from the American Convention on Human Rights. The OAS has not reacted to Peru's refusal last year to comply with decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on fair trial.

Amnesty and NGO's want many improvements including
- Establish a Human Rights Action Plan, which would include the participation of organizations of civil society.
- Urge the full ratification of the American Convention on Human Rights and other inter-American human rights systems by all member States of the OAS.
- Urge all American States to take the necessary steps for their national legislation to conform with their international human rights obligations;
-  Reiterate its recognition and support for the work of human rights defenders and urge States to provide guarantees for human rights defenders to carry out their work.
-  Urge states to adopt the necessary measures to ensure that the system of consultative status for organizations of civil society provides for their effective participation in the work of the OAS.
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Cops clash with Protesters in Windsor- June.4.2000

   Windsor has been turned into a fortress, with concrete barriers and steel fences keeping thousands of protesters away from the downtown convention centre. The demonstrators are made up of a wide range of groups, from mothers against domestic violence to priests lobbying for social justice.

   Students banged on drums and tied themselves together with rope as police helicopters clattered overhead and police snipers stared down from office towers. A no public access zone was created and it included public parks on the riverfront. Police set up several base camps within the perimeter. Officers were posted on rooftops and others carried riot gear. Still more patrolled streets outside the perimeter in golf carts, utility vehicles and motorcycles. The police state measures are standard procedure in a globalization agenda that pretends to include the public while at the same time disallowing it.

   Pepper spray, batons, armoured police vehicles, sniffer dogs, riot squads and other police violence was used to stop protesters. In one case they were blocked from putting up a banner.

   Police later arrested more than two dozen protesters who sat in front of a bus being used by delegates. 41 people were arrested in total.

   Most think police have overreacted to the presence of the protesters.

   At the same time, about 400 people across the river in downtown Detroit paraded with Shut Down OAS banners, chanting ''Clean up this mess, stop the OAS.'' After listening to several speakers, the protesters marched on Detroit's Woodward Avenue as police equipped with nightsticks and gas masks observed from street corners and rooftops.

   Earlier in Detroit police attacked the critical mass bike ride, arrested between 15-20 people and confiscated their bikes.  Police felt that attacking the bike riders was an action against anti OAS protesters.

OAS Opposition Activities included
- North American Peoples Global Action Conference
- Teach-In on the FTAA with Tony Clarke
- A Teach-In with Labour and Social Activists
- Towards A Democratic Hemisphere
- Shut Down the OAS  - Direct Action Resist!
- Visions from the Four Corners of the Continent With Noam Chomsky.
- Rally & March for Democracy, Social Justice and Fair Trade in the Americas
- OAS and Human Rights Inter-Church Committee for Human Rights in Latin America
- A grassroots teach-in and speak-out on the Organization of American States, the Free Trade Area of the Americas and capitalist globalization presented by the Coalition to Shutdown the OAS/FTAA, in collaboration with People's Global Action.
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Here is one account of police overreaction before the protest

Arrests Continue in Windsor . . . by icm 8:59pm Fri Jun 2 '00
account of an arrest in windsor, june 2nd
   this evening around 7pm i was walking home from the teach-in and witnessed the following arrest:
   a guy was riding his bike down the other side of the street in the other direction. he waved at me, i waved back, then i noticed two cop cars (310
8EF and 313 9EF) pass the car in front of them and race down the road after him. they cut him off, and according to another witness, as they screeched to a halt dirt flew up in his eyes so that he put his hands to his face and  fell off.
   an unmarked van (345 4EF) had pulled up behind them at this point and I couldn't see him on the ground. as i was trying to get close enough to take some pictures a couple of cops came towards me and told me to take off, so I stayed put and took down license plates instead. as i stood there a guy on a red motorcycle pulled up and started talking to the cops. i'm pretty sure he had something to do with the whole thing, they seemed like they knew each other.
   eventually the cops got really pissed off that i was there and came towards me so i crossed the street with the other witness. one cop came over to ask me if i knew the guy, to see my id., if i was in town for the protest, etc.
i asked if i was under arrest to which he replied "you just jaywalked." i asked him again and he said no.
   an emergency services police truck pulled up and the back door opened up to let more cops out. there was about ten cops at this point for one guy already on the ground. inside the truck was what looked like a whole lot of riot gear. they put the bike in it.
   another windsor police car and then an opp car arrived. then the wagon (337 OEF). the other witness told me they were pushing the arrestee up against the bumper of the wagon, then i saw him sitting on the bumper being drenched with water. they put him in the wagon and took him away.
   according to whoever answers phones at the cop shop, it would be a breach of  privacy to let us know if they have him at the station or not.
   it's nice that the police are around to keep us safe...
peace, mandy :-)
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Public Education in Ontario on the Rocks of NAFTA - May.9.2000
   Public Funding for the Ontario post-secondary education system will be open to a challenge under
Canada's free trade agreement if Mike Harris moves ahead with his scheme to allow private universities.
- read the full article.
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Thousands Form Human Chain Around Asian Development Bank Meeting
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, May 8 - Anti-capitalism protesters formed a human chain around a luxury hotel hosting the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting Monday, demanding a rethink of its policies in Thailand.
   Several thousand protesters linked arms and chanted slogans watched by hundreds of riot police lined up around the building, as the final day of the conference got under way inside.
   Protest leaders have threatened they will try to storm the hotel if their demands issued on Sunday for compensation for people affected by ADB projects and a reassessment of bank policies are not met.
   Demonstrators say that ADB policies have exacerbated poverty rather than loosened its grip on Asia -- which is home to 70 percent of the world's poor.
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Leaders at Cuba Summit Support World Bank, IMF Protesters
UPI, April, 2000
   WASHINGTON - Leaders of the world's poorest countries who met in
Cuba this week for a three-day summit voiced solidarity with anti-World Bank/International Monetary Fund protesters the Washington Post reported Sunday.
   About 40 heads of state attended the Group of 77 summit in Havana.
   Spokesman for the Group of 77, Arthur Mbanefo, of Nigeria, said on Saturday, "I, for one, support the demonstrators."
  "Many countries have rejected the results of various policy initiatives of the World Bank and IMF," he said.
  "We are very supportive of demonstrations that could forcefully handle those concerns,"he added.
  South African President Thabo Mbeki said, "We believe consciousness is rising, including in the north, about the inequality and insecurity globalization has brought about the plight of the poor countries." Mbeki added that the skirmishes in Seattle at the WTO meeting and the planned World Bank and IMF protests are a sign of "a changing atmosphere which a more coherent Third World voice can take advantage of."
   Cuban President Fidel Castro called the economic difference between Cuba and the United States "a new apartheid," the paper reported.
   The newspaper also reported that Nigerian President and G-77 Chairman Olusegun Obasanjo said, "It is indeed time to recover our fighting spirit." He added, "No doubt that from here we go forward, determined to make a difference."
   About 80 percent of the world's population is represented by the
Group of 77, which was founded in 1964 to help alleviate poverty. The group is composed of 133 members.
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Michel Chossudovsky  - The IMF-World Bank's "Economic Medicine" by Michel Chossudovsky
* Through the imposition of deadly macroeconomic medicine, the IMF and the World Bank are responsible for destroying national economies and impoverishing millions of people.
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Read -The Price of Dissent - by Renée Menius - Mar.31.00 (So it goes with protests against mega-corporations and their power, whether performed online or on the streets of Seattle. With the media framing these issues in terms of war, the US Justice Department and FBI using taxpayer-funded resources to protect US businesses against activist citizens, and the US judicial system imposing sentences on hackers that are usually reserved for violent perpetrators, today?s activists have heard the message loud and clear: there is no room in the land of the free for dissenters of capitalism)
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Economic Reform - William Krehm deals with the dot.com boom and how funding that is available for web companies that are not profitable is not available for older productive industries - and concludes that neglect of infrastructures essential for the productive economy and society itself are bound to pull the economy out of shape.
The Virtues of Virtuality! - By William Krehm (Apr 2000)
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GLOBALIZATION: SOME IMPLICATIONS & STRATEGIES FOR WOMEN -Apr.00 -
www3.sympatico.ca/truegrowth/womenstrat1.html
Written by Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Laurell Ritchie, Michelle Swenarchuk, and Leah Vosko
National Action Committee On The Status of Women (Canada)
nac@web.net   416-932-1718
Laura Cabarrocas <nacio@web.net>
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John Ralston Saul - Read his essay - How we will make Canada ours again
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Protest over Corporate Water Plans -  Mar.22.00 -  Maude Barlow says the international water conference has been hijacked by big business.  Barlow is leader of the Blue Planet Project.. The Blue Planet Project was among a number of groups which last night pleaded for delegations from 112 countries to call for the protection of water as a basic human right.
   "This entire conference has been hijacked by the multinationals,'' Barlow said. "It's an outrage that decisions on the future of water are happening according to the agendas of some of the world's biggest companies."
   Barlow's alternative action plan calls on the industrial world to immediately cancel foreign debt to the
developing world, so they can finance water-treatment facilities. It also calls for a restoration of foreign aid to 0.7 per cent of gross domestic, and for the Tobin Tax on global electronic money transactions.
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APEC Protesters Withdraw Complaints - March 1st - Three unrepresented APEC complainants have formarly withdrawn from the process.  Rob West, Jonathan Oppenheim, and Jaggi Singh formally and irrevocable withdrew their complaints today, and asked that all complaints made on their behalf be ignored.
Read their letters
more at
http://www.physics.ubc.ca/~jono/pcc/pcc.html
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Jubilee Year Clips
World Bank chief says debt relief would "screw up" market
   MANILA, Feb 26 (AFP) - Using Christianity's Jubilee year as a platform to press for debt relief for the world's developing countries is "whimsical" and could "screw up the market," World Bank president James Wolfensohn said here Saturday.
   "The notion that for the Jubileum for someone to come along and forgive that debt is whimsical," he said. The Roman Catholic church is celebrating the 2,000th birthday of Jesus Christ. Some church leaders and church-based pressure groups have called for debt write-off for poor countries by lending institutions, including the World Bank, to mark the celebrations.
Forgiving a Dying Man's Debt isn't enough, says OAU President
   Bangkok, 21 Feb -- A comprehensive analysis of the plight of Africa and a devastating critique of the response to it by Western governments was presented by the President of Algeria and current Chairman of the Organization of African Unity OAU), Abdelaziz Bouteflika, on the final day of UNCTAD X.
   Bouteflika's speech and answers to questions, which came at a panel made up of world leaders were a major highlight not only of the final day but of the Conference. The Algerian President's views and comments were greeted with loud and long applause.
   The OAU President's main message was that writing off the debt of 33 poorest African countries which could not pay the debt anyway was only a gesture -- a "macabre scene" where a creditor visits a dying man to forgive his debts.
   Much more needed to be done by the international community, if Africans, who are a disappearing people threatened with extinction, are to survive.
    Bouteflika's presentations at the very end of the Conference served as a stark reminder of how the poorest continent had been subjected not only to exploitation but to hypocrisy from rich nations that purported to help the poor countries.
    Current debt relief measures only apply to bankrupt states that could not repay the debts anyway. For debt alleviation to go beyond the symbolic, it must be provided for middle-income African countries, as it had been to Russia.
   Bouteflika said Africa had been split away from the flows and processes of development of the rest of the world. "Globalization can only benefit those countries with the material basis and technological foundation to operate," he added. "Only they can benefit from globalization."
   He also said that "We can't live with a conscience side by side with this large part of humanity, which faces drought, disease, AIDS affecting up to 40% of the population. Africans are a disappearing people, going extinct. Developed countries now have third-generation AIDS drugs, but not a single African country has benefitted yet from the first generation of such drugs. Everything is happening as if we are trying to regulate the world's population through Malthusian logic, to let the weakest die so we can have a world of the rich and let the poor go to the wall.."
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Brazil Clashes With I.M.F. Over Plan to Aid the Poor - RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 20-- A new Brazilian government plan to spend more than $22 billion on social programs in the next decade has led to a squabble with the International Monetary Fund, which argues the money should be used to reduce Brazil's indebtedness rather than to fight poverty.
The public dispute has added to the unpopularity of the I.M.F., which in the past has been accused of provoking recession in Brazil and trampling on the country's sovereignty. It has also given President Fernando Henrique Cardoso badly needed political help, forcing opposition parties to line up behind him and potentially strengthening his hand in continuing talks with the I.M.F.
Departing managing director of the I.M.F., Michel Camdessus told a United Nations trade conference that, "We in the I.M.F. believe that what is important in the strategy of a country is not to get rid of the problems of the poor by doing some charity from time to time."
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Bangkok Protest Against Globalization - Sun, 13 Feb 2000 -  A thousand activists marched on a major UN trade conference calling for radical changes to the global financial system which they say keeps much of the world locked in poverty.
   Demonstrators were not deterred by a massive Thai security curtain around the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) designed to prevent a repeat of violence which marred trade talks in Seattle and Davos. As world leaders and delegates met inside a conference centre, singing and yelling protestors carried banners lambasting the World Bank, World Trade Organization and IMF.
   Flanked by cordons of police, several hundred Thai and foreign protestors were later allowed to approach the conference centre hosting UNCTAD and stand across the road from the venue. Once in front of the venue, protestors slammed globalization and presented their demands to UNCTAD officials, who came out to police barriers to meet demonstrators. Among their demands demonstrators called on UNCTAD delegates to reform the world's financial system to benefit developing countries and help protect natural resources.
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DAVOS - a personal account - report at TAO on the the Davos demonstration against the WEF (World Economic Forum) Feb.2000
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Protests mar Davos meeting Boisterous group smashes windows, starts bonfire; but held in check by police
http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos03174.html
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US Ownership - Government Misleads re Free Trade - by Paul Hellyer, Jan.6.00
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Michel Chossudovsky "Seattle and Beyond: Disarming the New World Order"
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Tony Clark -World Trade Organization  - By What Authority
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Susan George has written an excellent brief history of international trade negotiations leading up to the  Seattle WTO negotiations that begin on November 30, 1999.
TRADE BEFORE FREEDOM: SEATTLE PREPARES FOR BATTLE
http://www.tni.org/george/wto/trade.htm
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Facts World Trade Organization
WTO  Sets rules for the global economy and enforces them
US delegations to the Uruguay Round; the vast majority were members of the corporate elite
GATS: Extends rules to include services: health care, education, water systems...
Key players - U.S. Coalition of Service Industries
TRIPS: Patents life forms, DNA, traditional medicines, etc.
Key Players - Intellectual Property Committee (Monsanto, Dupont, GM, Bristol Myers, Squibb, & 7 other major US corporations)
Financial Services: Gives "North" banks open access to entire world
Key Players - Financial Leaders Group (Barclays Bank, Chase Manhattan, Ford Financial Services, Bank of Tokyo, Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Canada, etc.)
Millennium Round
Lets corporations overturn national laws
Key Players - International Chamber of Commerce & the Investment Network (Fiat, Daimler-Chrysler, BP, etc.), and the U.S. Coalition of Service Industries
WTO Agreements
Agriculture: The Uruguay Round Agreement expands markets for global food corporations like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland, while undercutting small farmers and food self-sufficiency.
Food Safety: The WTO's Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS) tell countries "how much safety" they can have - and even whether they can label possible hazards. The SPS Agreement protects trade at the expense of scientific caution and consumer protection.
Services: 70% of the U.S. Gross National Product now comes from services like banking, telecommunications, and health care. GATS, the General Agreement on Trade and Services, opens up the world to highly developed U.S. service corporations.
Patents and Copyrights: TRIPS, the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Agreement, extends U.S. "first come first patent" rules to the whole world. Under TRIPS, a corporation can patent a strain of rice grown for hundreds of years in India, a medicinal plant from the Amazon jungles, or even your DNA.
Investment: TRIMS, Trade-Related Investment Measures, give corporations more rights to use their money however they want without government interference.
Dispute Settlement: Under the WTO, trade complaints go to a secret, unelected panel of three "trade experts." Their decision is binding on all the countries in the WTO.
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Ten Reasons to Dismantle the World Trade Organization
From an article by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, 1999

1. The WTO prioritizes trade and commercial considerations over all other values. WTO rules generally require domestic laws, rules and regulations designed to further worker, consumer, environmental, health, safety, human rights, animal protection or other non-commercial interests to be undertaken in the "least trade restrictive" fashion possible.
2. The WTO undermines democracy. Its rules drastically shrink the choices available to democratically controlled governments, with violations potentially punished with harsh penalties.
3. The WTO rules are biased to facilitate global commerce at the expense of efforts to promote local economic development and policies that move communities, countries and regions in the direction of greater self-reliance.
4. WTO rules force Third World countries to open their markets to rich country multinationals, and abandon efforts to protect infant domestic industries. In agriculture, the opening to foreign imports, soon to be imposed on developing countries, will catalyze a massive social dislocation of many millions of rural people.
5. The WTO eviscerates the Precautionary Principle. WTO rules generally block countries from acting in response to potential risk -- requiring a probability before governments can move to resolve harms to human health or the environment.
6. The WTO squashes diversity. WTO rules establish international health, environmental and other standards as a global ceiling through a process of "harmonization;" countries or even states and cities can only exceed them by overcoming high hurdles.
7. The WTO operates in secrecy. Its tribunals rule on the "legality" of nations' laws, but carry out their work behind closed doors.
8. The WTO limits governments' ability to use their purchasing dollar for human rights, environmental, worker rights and other non-commercial purposes. In general, WTO rules state that governments can make purchases based only on quality and cost considerations.
9. The WTO disallows bans on imports of goods made with child labor. In general, WTO rules do not allow countries to treat products differently based on how they were produced -- irrespective of whether made with brutalized child labor, with workers exposed to toxics or with no regard for species protection.
10. The WTO legitimizes life patents. WTO rules permit and in some cases require patents or similar exclusive protections for life forms.
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Peoples' Global Action against 'Free' Trade and the WTO
-    http://www.agp.org
View pictures of PGA Rallies
http://www.agp.org/agp/en/Pictures/manif2/manif_02.html
http://www.agp.org/agp/en/Pictures/manif5/manif_05.html
http://www.agp.org/agp/en/Pictures/manif7/manif_07.html
Web site of the Intercontinental Caravan
http://stad.dsl.nl/~caravan
Pictures
http://www.squat.net/caravan/fotos/ICCframe-fotos.htm

   The global PGA secretariat for the next year will be based at the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), 377 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA. The email address of the secretariat remains <pga@agp.org>. The temporaryregional technical secretariat for Latin America and the Caribbean will be based at Güises Montaña Experimental (GME), Rio San Juan, Nicaragua, email <gme@tmx.com.ni>, but only until the regional conference of Latin America and the Caribbean takes place in March 2000. This regional conference will also decide where in Latin America the next world-wide PGA conference will take place.
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Evils of a North American Monetary Union - June/99 -  Now that NATO has proved too big to beat in Kosovo, many of our brave pundits of the right and liberal corporate media have now got back to basics. Remaining true to the skunk stripes running down their backs they want to sell us the idea of a North American Monetary Union. This is the idea of killing Canada?s borders and adopting the American dollar.
   Richard Gywn in the Toronto Star gives advice on how to popularize and simplify the idea so that Canadians might accept it. In the Toronto Sun Michael Harris tells us that even Gretsky lives in the States.
   Here are some of negative effects we might expect from a North American Monetary Union. The comparison is with the already established European Monetary Union.

The whole EMU is under the control of an absolutist central bank. The European Central Bank (ECB) is independent of any level of institutional power. It never has to explain its policies and it rules over Europe in full secrecy.

It is a cornucopia for the banks since it generates gigantic revenues without increased risks.

The whole EMU is rooted in the absolute necessity of high unemployment to keep banks happy.

All member states must target a fiscal surplus regardless of social spending needs.

The sovereign Central Bank means the demise of any real degree of freedom for member states and of democracy itself.

By the Treaty of Maastricht, the Central Bank is forbidden to create money that might finance state outlays. This means that the state can never finance its outlays by asking its former national central bank, now become a local branch of the ECB, to create money at zero interest. Instead it must ask private banks to grant it the credits at whatever rate is their pleasure.

This prohibition is tantamount to the absolute privatization of money, which enslaves member states to the almighty private banks and kills national sovereignty.

A North American Monetary Union will impose either dramatic credit-worthiness rules, thus lower social spending, or charge us higher interest rates than is charged to the private sector.

Corporate Carbon Pushers Damaging the Planet - Aug/99 - Since 1995, much new evidence has come to light indicating that the Earth is warming. The Earth's average temperature has been rising for at least 100 years, but in recent decades the rate of increase has speeded up. Eleven of the past 16 years have been the hottest of the century. The average global temperature in 1998 was higher than it had been at any other time during the previous 1000 years.
   Cleaner sources of energy are already available and affordable. Adopting them in the U.S. alone would create 770,000 jobs, save $530 per household per year, and significantly reduce the threat of global warming
   A recent report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), U.S.
Public Interest Research Group, and the Union of Concerned Scientists points out that 80% of greenhouse gases are produced by only 122 corporations, which act as "carbon pushers" comparable to drug pushers. These 122 corporations are jeopardizing the integrity of the entire global ecosystem, endangering the future for all children, and holding the world's people and their governments hostage by a combination of bribery and brute force. This is antisocial -- even sociopathic -- behavior by executives and boards of directors?  And in spite of it we often here the old argument about how the private sector does things better.
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Criminal capitalism - Why must American taxpayers subsidize the greed, corruption, and recklessness of foreign regimes?
By Ralph Nader

   Washington, D.C., recently hosted a swarm of 3,000 central bankers and finance ministers from around the world. Limousines were thick as locusts, and hotels filled to bursting with the gushing hospitality of banks and securities firms. But the reason for their meeting was hardly cause for celebration. After all, the worsening crisis of runaway global capitalism isn't something to rejoice over.
   Conference rooms filled with concerned "three-piece suiters" and their cell phones, listening to speakers who pretended to offer a diagnosis for the problems confronting them. Out of the sobered and weighty discussions, one theme emerged: The capitalists called on socialism -- in the form of government bailouts, loans, and credits -- to save them. Small taxpayers -- mostly Americans -- would bear the financial burden and risks of subsidizing that aid. The message was relentless -- governments must do something; Congress must send $18 billion of taxpayer money to the International Monetary Fund to pour into Russia, Brazil, and other nations where corruption and oligarchy abound.
   Invoking socialism (i.e. taxpayers) to save capitalism has become routine in Washington. Our federal government and other western countries use our tax dollars to guarantee profits by subsidizing private investment with public monies.
   After so many years of such largesse -- at our expense and without our participation -- big corporations have begun to view such corporate welfare policies as entitlements. They demand them. And they often get them, while those who truly suffer -- the poor and the underfed -- are faced with two- or five-year welfare cutoffs, nonliving wage jobs, and heaps of opprobrium.
   It's bad enough that the United States must aid American corporations in financial trouble; can we also reasonably be expected to bail out foreign regimes and their speculating Western creditors? Apparently. If we don't -- secretary of the treasury Robert Rubin and president Bill Clinton warn -- our own economy will suffer.
   Globalization, as practiced by many multinational corporations and their governments, means interdependence -- GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs) style. Autocratic regimes are able to squash democratic processes and the rule of law. There is little room under corporate globalization devoid of democratic practices for community self-reliance or self-sufficiency. But criminal capitalism continues to expand, while innocent American taxpayers are forced to pay for the greed, corruption, and recklessness of others.
    Many consumer, labor, and environmental groups have been pressing for a sustained national debate on economic globalization during and between elections. If you'd like more information on economic globalization, send one dollar in postage to the Multinational Monitor Magazine, P.O. Box 19405, Washington, D.C. 20036. Oct 1998
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