[asia-apec 1307] International Day of Protest Against WTO and Imperialist Globalization

[BAYAN]

People's Campaign Against Imperialist Globalization (PCAIG)
Peoples' Assembly and March-Rally: SAY NO TO WTO!
BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance)


NOVEMBER 30 is fast shaping up as an International Day of Protest Against
WTO and Imperialist Globalization. 

The November 30 march-rally -- SAY NO to WTO! -- being organized by
Sentenaryo ng Bayan and the Peoples' Assembly Committee (PAC) will be the
culminating activity of the Peoples' Assembly being held in Seattle on
November 28-29. The march will join up with the downtown rally being called
by the Seattle-based NO to WTO Coalition.

In the Philippines, November 30 is celebrated every year by KMU (May First
Movement of Filipino Workers), BAYAN and its member organizations like KMP
(Peasant Movement of the Philippines), GABRIELA and LFS (League of Filipino
Students) in honor of Andres Bonifacio, a worker who led the 1896
Philippine revolution against the Spanish colonialists. November 30 is
commemorated every year as a Filipino day of protest against imperialism.
This year, the Filipino activists will make November 30 a day of peoples'
action against imperialist globalization with the World Trade Organization
as its specific target of opposition.

In the Alternatives to APEC Forum held recently in Auckland, a proposal was
made to declare November 30 an international day of protest against the
WTO. GATT Watchdog in Aotearoa, Direct Action in Canada and PICIS in South
Korea are strong advocates against WTO and globalization.

The Network Opposed to APEC, which convened the 1997 PCAIG -- Continuing
the Resistance, is likewise expected to hold anti-WTO activities in Canada,
especially in Vancouver, and join the Peoples' Assembly and march-rally in
Seattle.
 
Below is a short write-up we got from the internet about other anti-WTO
protest actions being planned by various groups:

Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 
Activists ready for 'festival of resistance'
By James Cox, USA TODAY

Protesters plan to disrupt WTO talks

It promises to be a "festival of resistance" against the evils of corporate
"conquistadors," activists say.

Little noticed by the public, the upcoming World Trade Organization summit
has energized protesters around the world - from indigenous tribes to
longshoremen - like few events before.

Opposition forces are descending on Seattle from places as far-flung as Togo
and Finland to express outrage at the excesses of globalization and, if
possible, prevent world leaders, bureaucrats and corporate executives from
meeting to talk about expanded trade.

"Globalization is so out of control," says Dave Solnit of Art and 
Revolution, a group specializing in political theater and dance. "This is
one of those critical times like there were in the civil rights and
anti-war movements when regular people have to take a stand."

The Nov. 30 gathering will be an eclectic party. President Clinton will host
other world leaders, along with 5,000 delegates from more than 150 
countries. Cuba's Fidel Castro, himself a foe of free trade and capitalism,
is among the WTO's invitees.

Boeing CEO Phil Condit and Microsoft's Bill Gates are heading the Seattle
Host Organization. Big business is sponsoring dozens of events and
receptions.

. . . 

"There's going to be a wide range of rowdiness. Some people are going to try
to shut down this town," says Mike Dolan, organizer for Public Citizen, 
Ralph Nader's consumer group.

Many of the protesters are trained in "urban climbing" techniques enabling
them to scale buildings and bridges to unfurl banners. Greenpeace activists
prevented trawlers from heading out to Puget Sound by dangling themselves
from Seattle's Aurora Bridge in 1997.

. . . 

Protesters plan to disrupt WTO talks
World leaders to gather in Seattle for trade meeting
By James Cox, USA TODAY

Activists ready for 'festival of resistance'

Thousands of globalization foes, from Teamsters and Gray Panthers to Mexican
peasants and radical street artists, are preparing to disrupt a historic
world trade gathering this fall in Seattle.

Hundreds of groups, from Canadian postal workers to turtle-habitat 
advocates, are calling for the "protest of the century" at the World Trade
Organization (WTO) summit Nov. 30 to Dec. 3.

The WTO meeting will bring together heads of state and trade officials for
the launch of a three-year round of trade talks. The talks are intended to
lower trade barriers in agriculture, services and industry and to set rules
for electronic commerce, biotechnology and foreign investment. The 
4-year-old WTO, based in Geneva, interprets and enforces trade rules agreed
to by its 134 member countries.

. . . 

Who's doing what:

Organizers from dozens of protest groups head for the Globalize This boot
camp in the Cascade Mountains Thursday.

Ruckus Society, an activist training group, will spend six days teaching
steel workers, biotechnology foes and environmentalists to build underground
radio stations, scale buildings and attach themselves to meeting venues with
hardened steel locks.

An opposition coalition that includes Nader, members of Congress, unions and
environmental groups was rallying at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.,
Wednesday.

Art and Revolution, a San Francisco theater group, starts its "Resist the 
WTO Roadshow" Sept. 28. The show, to be performed in several West Coast
cities,
will dramatize the plight of sweatshop workers with music, dance and giant
puppets.

People's Global Action, a network of unions, farmers, consumer advocates and
AIDS activists, plans a cross-country caravan to take peasants, fishermen 
and other globalization "victims" to Seattle.

The AFL-CIO will hold a rally and march Nov. 30. It hopes to mass 15,000
protesters in support of minimum WTO labor standards.

Protest organizers have encouraged other activists to infiltrate the summit
by applying for jobs as volunteers .