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A powerful U.S. movement
for economic and human rights and fair trade had its coming-out
party at the WTO meetings in Seattle. A range of forces who value
human and ecological dignity over corporate profits and trickle-down
economics came together there. We challenged one of the most insidious
tools of unaccountable profit-driven rule, the World Trade Organization,
and we scored an important series of victories against some daunting
odds.
In
April, the struggle continues in Washington, DC ö the very heart
of political and institutional control over the global economy:
the U.S. Treasury, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank. They are the chief instruments used by political and
corporate elites to create today's unjust, destructive global economic
order. The World Bank and the IMF have been quietly writing the
rules that keep the world safe for multinational corporations while
economically depriving billions around the world.
Your presence in Washington
is needed! The finance ministers and international bureaucrats who
shape the world economy to make the rich richer and the poor poorer
need to know that Seattle was not just a bump on their road to global
domination. What we asserted at the WTO must be repeated to the
rulers of the global economy. We must make clear, again, that the
peoples' movements of the world, will not stand idly by while those
holding power continue to impoverish and oppress the majority of
the worldās peoples and ravage the earthās environment and resources
while enriching themselves and corporations.
Activists
in the United States must insist ö firmly and consistently, until
the system is changed ÷ that decisions about the fate of the planet
and its peoples must not be made behind closed doors.
The IMF and World Bank
are in many ways the "parents" of the WTO; today, they
form an "unholy trinity" to preserve corporate power and
constrain the rights and opportunities of the majority of the world's
people. Because of that, many of the groups that helped organize
the victories in Seattle are already preparing for days of protest,
education, training, and direct action during the week of April
9-16 in Washington.
The week begins
on Sunday, April 9th
with a Jubilee 2000/USA mobilization for cancellation of the debts
of African, Latin American, Asia-Pacific, and Caribbean countries,
and continuing with teach-ins and trainings on the global economy.
It will culminate with a MASSIVE RALLY AT IMF HEADQUARTERS ON
SUNDAY, APRIL 16TH.
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