[asia-apec 418] 1000 multinationals will soon meet - action

[Play Fair Europe!]

  **Please help us to distribute this message**

Dear friends,

The 1.000 most important multinacionals of the world will meet in Davos,
Switzerland, from the 29th of this month to the 3rd of February, to take
major political decisions that will influence everyone's lives. If you do
not like this way of setting the "Priorities for the 21st century" (as they
call their meeting) please do one or more of these proposed actions:

1. Sign the declaration attached to this letter and propose other
organisations (trade unions, farmers' organisations, environmental, women's
and solidarity organisations, church-related groups, etc.) and individuals
to sign it and collect more endorsements. Every person is welcomed to sign -
the more signatures, the better. However, in order to have more impact in
mass media, we especially encourage you to contact well known persons, like
intellectuals, writers, professors, singers, football players, actors... The
declaration will be used all over the world as press release.

2. If you collect some signatures, please type the reply forms and email
them to playfair(asta.rwth-aachen.de by the 28th of January. We will compile
all the signatures and email the complete list to thousands of people and
organisations all over the world. Please take into account that we cannot
type ourselves thousands of names in one day; this is the reason why we ask
you to send the names by email. If you do not have access to email, please
fax your list before the 27th of January.

3. Once you receive from us the whole list of signatories, please send it
along with the declaration to the local and national media (press,
television, radio). 

4. Please organise a local action between the 29th of January and the 3rd of
February and send your own press release along with the declaration,
announcing your action and inviting the press. If you do this, you will
multiply the chances of the media publishing something, since journalists
tend to report about photogenic stories much more than about declarations.
Any kind of action that is visual and can be photographed is good, the range
is very broad and you do not need many people to catch media attention. Just
to give some examples in increasing order of difficulty, you can stand in
front of a symbolic building with some banners (the office of any
multinational of your choice, the parliament, the chamber of commerce, the
city hall, etc.), or perform street theater (like a symbolic bury of the
parliament by the multinationals, or two dinner tables, one full of luxuries
and with nicely dressed people around it, and the other with some rubbish
and very poor people), or organise an event (a public lecture, a panel
discussion, etc) or do a direct action (block the entrance of the stock
exchange or squat it, occupy the office of a multinational, etc). Please
inform us if you are going to do something (unless you do not want to make
it publicly known beforehand), since we want to send the list of planned
actions along with the list of signatures on the 29th, so that you can use
it too for the media work.

Thank you for your attention. The Play Fair Europe! Team

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(Place), (Date)

Press Release

Declaration against the Globalisers of Misery
Worldwide opposition to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos 

Throughout this week (29th January-3rd February) the World Economic Forum,
the club of the foremost 1000 Transnational Corporations, is holding its
Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. During this period, hundreds of
actions are taking place in many different parts of the world to denounce
this event (1).

This meeting is, in the World Economic Forum´s own words, "the world's
global business summit" (2), where "each year, major initiatives are
launched...which go far beyond the pure business realm". At the Annual
Meeting, "1000 top business leaders , 250 political leaders, 250 foremost
academic experts in every domain, and some 250 media leaders come together
to shape the global agenda." As they boast, "the World Economic Forum has
played a leading role in the economic globalisation process... at the
beginning of the eighties it played a major role in launching the Uruguay
trade negotiations. The foundation has made a contribution to the process
and negotiation of financial services liberalisation." 

We oppose the accelerating centralisation of political and economic power
caused by globalisation, and its gradual shift to unaccountable and
undemocratic institutions, such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO). We
denounce the role of "informal" business groups (such as the World Economic
Forum) in this process, which only benefits multinational business elites,
while increasing numbers of people are going hungry, unable to afford basic
health care and education, and forced to cope with environmental destruction.

This denunciation of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum is the
first coordinated activity of the PEOPLES' GLOBAL ACTION AGAINST "FREE"
TRADE AND THE WTO. (3)

This declaration has been signed by 

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(1) For information about the actions, please get in touch with ......
(local contact) or with Play Fair Europe!, e-mail
playfair at asta.rwth-aachen.de; fax +34-8-524.11.21

(2) All direct quotations and factual information regarding the World
Economic Forum have been taken from the Forum's web page http://www.weforum.org

(3) For more information about Peoples' Global Action Against "Free" Trade
and the World Trade Organisation (PGA) and its first worldwide conference
please contact: 
local contact: .........
Secretariat: kmp at info.com.ph; 
web page: http://www.agp.org

(ENDS)

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Endorsement to the Declaration against the Globalisers of Misery
Please email to playfair(asta.rwth-aachen.de or fax to +34-8-524.11.21
Name of person or organisation:
Country:
Contact email or fax: 
Field of action of the organisation / Profession:
For organisations: number of members: 
Do you want more information about the World Economic Forum and similar topics?
Are you going to organise an action? If yes, please describe it in a few words:

************************************************************
Play Fair Europe! Oviedo	Tel/fax +34-8-524.11.21
Pedro Masaveu 1 10 E		playfair at asta.rwth-aachen.de
33007 Oviedo, Spain		check http://www.agp.org

______________________________________________________________________
TACHIBANA Masahiko      Dept.Chem.,Saitama Univ. Phone:+81-48-858-3388
             Email:mtachiba at chem.saitama-u.ac.jp   Fax:+81-48-858-3700
** SAY NO to WIRETAPPING BILL schemed to be passed in DIET next JAN **