FIGHT THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM
WITH SOLIDARITY FROM THE BOTTOM UP!
November 30
1999
An International Day of Action
Against the
World Trade Organization
and
Global Third Worldization
An international day of action, resistance, and carnival against the global capitalist system will take place on NOVEMBER 30th this year. This day coincides with the 3rd ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Seattle, where officials from more than 150 governments around the world will decide on new policies that will further escalate the exploitation of our planet and its people by the global capitalist system.
The November 30th global day of action against capitalism is intended
to build on the June 18th global day of action that took place earlier this year, when separate grassroots' movements in more than 30 countries on all six continents worked together and joined forces locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. These included workers, the unemployed, students, trade unionists, peasants, women groups, ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, peace activists, environmental activists, ecologists and many more. They prepared and co-ordinated their actions in recognition that the capitalist system, based on the exploitation of people, societies and the environment for the profit of a few, is the primary cause of our social and ecological troubles.
Some of the actions that took place include 10 000 people on the streets of Nigeria protesting the oil industry and imperialism, marches by Bangladesh garment workers, a fake trade fair by Uruguayan activists, thousands of people taking part in a carnival and day long actions with police assaults on protesters eventually ending in substantial damage to the capitalist infrastructure of London's financial district, occupations and street parties in Spain, Italy, USA, and Canada, a prominent politician hit with a cream pie and a logging multinational blockaded with dead wombats in Melbourne, among many other creative actions. For more information, see <www.infoshop.org/june18.html> and <www.j18.org.>
We are now putting out this call for November 30th as a next global day of action against the oppressive economic and political institutions of the capitalist system. We hope to see communities and individuals across the globe stage creative actions, protests, and carnivals on this day, while opposing and transforming the capitalist social order in the streets, neighbourhoods, fields, factories, offices, commercial centres, and financial districts in their respective countries, all in the spirit of building new social and economic structures based on co-operation, ecological sustainability, and grassroots' democracy.
This call is made in the spirit of continuing the process of building up a strong international grassroots' movement. For as we realise that no issue is single, be it exploitation of workers, the peasant farmers going bankrupt, the indigenous peoples getting displaced by 'development' programmes or our environment being destroyed, we also realise that we must act together and unite our struggles. Only a strong and united grassroots' movement can bring power away from the social and economic institutions of the capitalist system, and push for a better social order based on the grassroots and working people themselves.
The November 30th global day of action will be a step further along the path of building up a strong, bold, and creative international grassroots' movement - a decentralised network of autonomous groups that struggle for solidarity and co-operation while employing non-authoritarian, grassroots' democratic forms of organisation. Hopefully, we will be able to continue this process through other global days of action in the future. (Already, there have been some discussions among June 18th participants pointing to mayday next year as a perfect symbolic and real opportunity to escalate our resistance.)
Our occupation and transformation of economic centres simultaneously around the globe on November 30th will be an essential contribution both to the process of making connections locally, nationally, and internationally, and to that of building alternatives to the present social order. On the day, we will oppose the capitalist system from the global to the local level and actively take the control of our own and our communities' life back from it (employers, politicians, large corporations, etc.), while jointly struggling for a society based on decent social, economic, and ecological conditions for all.
In many cases, our target will be the centres of big finance, such as banking districts, corporations, and commercial centres. However, these are just a limited part of the oppressive capitalist system as a whole, which extends to the fields, factories, offices, communities, neighbourhoods,
streets, the environment, and our family life - to almost every aspect of our lives. The realisation of a better world requires that we actively work on many levels, and everywhere seek to build alternative social and economic structures founded on a spirit of grassroots' democracy. The November 30th day of action is a way of bringing these different struggles together in solidarity with one another, strengthening their mutual bonds at each level. But likewise, we encourage the groups that participate on this day to use the occasion to inform of the very existence and feasibility of alternative social and economic structures, and generally seek to promote them in creative and inspired ways.
Already, actions are being prepared in Canada and USA. A coalition of radical activists has been formed in Seattle to stage actions against the WTO meeting, and many other groups around the USA and around the world are planning to converge on Seattle. Plans include a constant street presence of carnivals and music, daily critical mass bike rides, a possible taxi
drivers' strike on the 30th, daily FoodNotBombs feedings, occupations by the homeless of either the local parks for a tent city or of abandoned buildings for squats, an alternative "trade" convention that is free and open to the people, a shutdown of streets and freeways, a general strike by local and international workers, and more. The international Peoples' Global Action (PGA) network will discuss and plan actions all over the world at its conference in Bangalore, India in late August, as part of a global campaign against the WTO regime; an inter-continental bus caravan composed mainly of representatives of Latin American movements and travelling through the USA, ending at the WTO conference in Seattle, has been discussed. Also, a touring road show to mobilise local groups in the USA for Nov. 30 and other activities during the Ministerial is in the works (contact [<globalaction at tao.ca>] for details or to host a presentation). Meanwhile, various groups and individuals within the June 18th network begin to prepare themselves for participating in their respective part of the world on November 30th.
The range of diverse, creative and inspiring actions that took place around the world on June 18th was immense, and we hope to see similar and other actions on November 30th:
- street parties, - strikes, - handing out flyers, - street theatre, - pickets, - demonstrations, - occupations of offices, - blockades, - shutdowns, - building gardens, - speeches, - appropriation and disposal of luxury consumer goods, - critical mass bike rides, - banner hangings, - sabotaging, wrecking, or interfering with capitalist infrastructure, - carnivals, - appropriating capitalist wealth and returning it to the working people, - handing out free food, - mock trade fairs, - marches, - music, - dancing, - solidarity actions, etc.
November 30th should also be a suitable occasion for demonstrating social and economic alternatives through such actions as:
- declaring oneself independent from global capitalism and authoritarian governments - setting up grassroots' community councils and holding meetings outside city halls - setting up economic alternatives, like workers' co-operatives - offering no interest loans outside major banks - reclaiming space (streets, government land, office buildings, etc.) for living, playing, etc. - free distribution of community controlled newspapers etc. etc.
(Please note that we encourage participating groups to plan and manage their actions with a view exclusively to non-violent means. However, we do acknowledge the right of protesters to defend themselves if repressed or assaulted.)
Your initiative and participation - no matter how small - is crucial for seeing the November 30 day of action through in your city or country: this proposal needs to be spread and discussed, meetings need to be organised, events planned, leaflets printed and distributed, funds raised, laughter and conversation shared. (A common strategy employed in many cities for organising the June 18th day of action was to form coalitions of various local groups. These groups would plan and prepare their own actions by themselves, and then all the actions were interweaved and combined in a surrounding atmosphere of carnival and festivity on the day of action itself.)
If you or your group plan to participate and stage actions on November 30th, please let the rest of us know as soon as possible (to facilitate
networking and communication). At the global level, we will communicate with each other and co-ordinate our actions by post, telephone, fax, email and international meetings. Please send your contact information to: [Details not clear yet (email (<N30 at tao.ca?>)+ fax)] Your contact information may later be included in our international contacts list. The more detailed and exhaustive information you send (land address, phone number, fax number, email address), the better it is, but for your own security, please make sure not to include any contact information that you prefer not to be made public.
As was the case with the June 18th network, we expect to communicate internationally primarily by email, and therefore encourage all participating groups and individuals to subscribe to any suitable mailing lists, and in general make efforts to stay in touch through this and other means. You will find a list of available mailing lists in the appendix below. Please get on one, and share your thoughts and plans with the rest of us. (There is a low-traffic announcement list for those who do not feel like getting on a discussion list.)
Finally, a request for help: We need to translate this proposal into as many languages as possible as soon as possible. Right now, translations are being prepared in Bengali, Bosnian, Castilian/Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Swedish. If you would like to translate this proposal into some language, please start as soon as possible, and let the rest of us know that a translation is forthcoming. The availability of translations will very much affect our chances of spreading this proposal at a truly global level.
Please forward this proposal to appropriate lists and to people who will be interested, reproduce it and circulate, put it on a web site, and most importantly ACT.
Global Action
Land Address: XXX ??
Telephone: +1 (541) 302-5020
Fax: XXX ??
Email: <globalaction at tao.ca>
Web site (will be up by XXX):
<http://www.globalaction.tao.ca> ???