Schedule (subject to change)
T
H U R S D A Y, September 27, 2001
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Conversation about Peace
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies (U.S.)
Sam Husseini, Institute for Public Accuracy (U.S.)
Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United
States (U.S.)
Location: All Souls Church
7:00
pm - 9:30 pm
Opening Plenary: Ending Global Apartheid
Salih Booker, Africa Action (U.S.)
Jonah
Gokova, Ecumenical Support Services and Zimbabwe Coalition
on Debt & Development (Zimbabwe)
Aggripina Mosha, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme
(Tanzania)
Cristobal Sanchez, Peasants' Association of Rabinal Maya-Achi
(Guatemala)
Moderator: Njoki Njoroge Njehû, 50 Years Is Enough
Network (Kenya/U.S.)
Location: National Baptist Memorial Church
F R I D A Y, September 28, 2001
10:00 am - 11:30 am Plenary
Democratizing Development: The Case Against Structural
Adjustment
Lidy Nacpil, Freedom from Debt Coalition and Jubilee
South (Philippines)
Trevor Ngwane, Anti-Privatization Forum (South Africa)
Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research
(U.S.)
Moderator: Joanne Carter, RESULTS (U.S.)
Location: National Baptist Memorial Church
11:45
am - 1:15 pm Action Sessions
World
Bank Bonds Boycott
This session will provide information and organizing
training on the World Bank Bonds Boycott campaign. The
boycott, launched at the initiative of economic justice
movements in the global South in April 2000, is based
on the fact that the World Bank raises $20 billion annually
on private financial markets by issuing bonds. Through
the World Bank Bonds Boycott, people of faith, taxpayers,
working people, and students are building political
pressure to end harmful World Bank policies by getting
their churches, religious communities, municipalities,
etc. to commit not to buy World Bank bonds in the future.
Dozens of municipalities have already signed on and
the Bank is growing concerned about the growing campaign.
The workshop will emphasize "how to" organize
a campaign to boycott World Bank bonds on your campus,
in your city council, or in your church or union.
Matt Feinstein, Clark University, (U.S.)
Vineeta Gupta, Insaaf (Justice) International (India)
Laura Livoti, Economic Justice for Africa Now (U.S.)
Moderator: Neil Watkins, Center for Economic Justice
(U.S.)
Location: All Souls Church
Whatever
Happened to Sovereignty?: The Plight of Countries in
Receivership
After
enduring years of criticism for imposing economic policies
on countries, the World Bank and the IMF in 1999 re-named
structuraladjustment and pledged to include civil society
in the crafting of economic programs. The institutions'
notorious structural adjustment programs (SAPs) overnight
became "poverty reduction and growth" policy
packages, and civil society organizations were invited
to help gauge poverty and examine budget priorities.
Participation in determining policies, however - such
as those affecting trade, investment, agriculture, interest
rates, availability of credit, labor rights, environmental
regulations - is usually not considered to be of interest
to, nor within the competence of, civil society groups.
Civil society "participation" in a process
like this risks lending legitimacy to the continued
imposition of inhumane policies - and can make the organizations
complicit in further eroding their countries' sovereignty.
Citizens’
groups press the Bank to rachet up lending for social
services, but such lending could turn out to be a curse.
The World Bank's new private sector development strategy
seeks to privatize even the most basic services in even
the most impoverished countries. The institution claims
to act on behalf of the impoverished, but it consistently
advances a neo-liberal agenda that concentrates wealth
and income in the hands of a few. The Bank is not "walking
its talk" when it comes to participation and poverty
reduction. Hence, campaigns to expose the World Bank's
private sector development strategy and the activities
of the International Finance Corp (IFC) and Multilateral
Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) have quickly gathered
steam.
Nancy
Alexander, Global Challenge Initiative (U.S.)
Aggripina Mosha, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme
(Tanzania)
Carol Welch, Friends of the Earth (U.S.)
Moderator: Lidy Nacpil, Freedom from Debt Coalition
and Jubilee South (Philippines)
Location: Casa del Pueblo
1:
15 pm - 2:30 pm Lunch Break
2:
30 pm - 4:00 pm Action Sessions
Jubilee
& Reparations
Jonah Gokova, Ecumenical Support Services and Zimbabwe
Coalition on Debt & Development (Zimbabwe)
Lidy Nacpil, Freedom from Debt Coalition and Jubilee
South (Philippines)
Moderator: Marie Clarke, Jubilee USA Network (U.S.)
Location: All Souls Church
Legislative
The
IMF and World Bank are multilateral agencies, owned
by the governments of the world. The U.S. government
has by far the most influence, having both the greatest
number of votes and the homefield advantage of having
the institutions in Washington. While the Treasury Department
is the lead agency in dealing with the IMF and World
Bank, and most Presidents have been content to use their
power at the institutions to extend the reach of their
foreign and economic policy, the U.S. Congress also
has an important voice. It must authorize and appropriate
the financial contributions upon which
U.S. influence rests. Conditioning Congressional allocations
has been one of the few paths through which the public
can have influence over the policies of the institutions.
This session will look at what has been accomplished
through the U.S. Congress, what current strategies are
afoot, and what might be possible in the future.
Jaron Bourke, Congressional Staffer (U.S.)
Joanne Carter, RESULTS (U.S.)
Moderator: Soren Ambrose, 50 Years Is Enough Network
(U.S.)
Location:
Casa del Pueblo
S
A T U R D A Y, September 29, 2001
9:00 am - 10:30 am Plenary
Our World is Not for Sale!
Bertha Caceres, COPINH (Honduras)
Vanessa Dixon (U.S.)
Chatinkha Nkhoma, Global AIDS Alliance (Malawi)
Virginia Setshedi, Anti-Privatization Forum (South Africa)
Location: National Baptist Memorial Church
10:45
am - 12:15 pm Action Sessions
HIV/AIDS
& Intellectual Property Rights
For all but a lucky few of the 30 million people in
the developing world who are HIV+, and HIV diagnosis
is a death sentence. Even though existing drug treatments
enable people with HIV in rich countries to survive,
the drugs are priced out of reach for people in poor
countries. This session will discuss what people in
the United States can do to respond to the humanitarian
nightmare: how activism can lower drug prices, provide
funding for treatment and prevention in developing countries,
and end IMF/World Bank policies that contribute to the
spread of HIV/AIDS.
Salih Booker, Africa Action (U.S.)
Chatinkha Nkhoma, Global AIDS Alliance (Malawi)
Robert Weissman, Essential Action (U.S.)
Location: All Souls Church
Labor
& Sweatshops
Privatization jeopardizes the jobs and lives of electrical
workers in Haiti; labor and gender exploitation compound
each other in the sweatshops of Saipan and Mexico; and
workers, recently emigrated from countries suffering
from structural adjustment, are denied the right to
collective bargaining in the fields of Florida. Hear
about these cases and about ongoing projects in the
US that allow consumers and activists to get organized
in support of workers' campaigns around the world.
Chie Abad, former sweatshop worker in Saipan (Philippines)
Lucas Benitez, Coalition of Immokalee Workers (U.S.)
Harry Clerveau, Haitian Platform for Advocacy for Alternative
Development-PAPDA (Haiti)
Norma Guillermina Solís Torres, Coalition for
Justice in the Maquiladoras (Mexico)
Moderator: Daisy Pitkin, Campaign for Labor Rights (U.S.)
Location: Casa del Pueblo
Corporate
Globalization & Indigenous Rights
Ever since the European encroachment on this hemisphere,
indigenous peoples have been subjected to the plundering
of their lands and culture. In this world of corporate
globalization this trend continues with indigenous lands
deforested, large scale hydroelectric dams developed
and privatization that forces indigenous peoples from
their traditional homes. Multinational corporations,
along with institutions like the World Bank, are responsible
for this continuing onslaught and pose an extreme threat
to indigenous peoples' rights and self-determination.
One of the newest threats to indigenous peoples is Plan
Puebla Panama. This plan will effect the entire isthmus
of the Americas from Puebla, Mexico to Panama. Fortunately,
there are many forms of indigenous resistance to corporate
globalization; the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico
is one example.
Bertha Caceres, COPINH (Honduras)
Ernesto Ledesma, Global Exchange (Mexico)
Ibe Wilson, Kuna Youth Movement (Panama)
Moderator: Orin Langelle, ACERCA (U.S.)
Location: National Baptist Memorial Church
12:15
pm - 1:15 pm Lunch Break
1:15
pm - 2:45 pm Action Sessions
Privatization
The IMF and the World Bank have required developing
countries to privatize an amazing array of government-owned
assets and government-provided services, including mines,
oil refineries, electricity utilities and banks. IMF/Bank
mandated privatization frequently involve mass layoffs
and union busting, giveaways to wealthy elites or foreign
investors and diminished service for consumers. Also
on the IMF/Bank privatization hit list are many services
which frequently remain in the public sector in rich
countries, such as water and sanitation, healthcare,
airports, and even customs and tax collection; the privatization
record in these areas is: private profits up, public
access down.
Harry Clerveau, Haitian Platform for Advocacy for
Alternative Development-PAPDA (Haiti)
Vineeta Gupta, Insaaf (Justice) International (India)
Virginia Setshedi, Anti-Privatization Forum (South Africa)
Moderator: Sara Grusky, Global Challenge Initiative
(U.S.)
Location: All Souls Church
Land
and Environment
The World Bank has a decades-long record of financing
development disasters - megaprojects that offer huge
rewards to multinationals but despoil the environment
and displace rural and indigenous populations. New Bank
initiatives to support land reform programs threaten
to further disrupt the rural sector, and corrupt the
concept of land reform. This session will provide cutting-edge
reports on Bank projects and policies, and explore how
public opposition -- in the United States and around
the world -- is beginning to turn back the Bank's momentum.
Tania Arosemena, Civil Society Initiative for the
Environment (Panama)
Bertha Carcares, COPINH (Honduras)
Katia Grams de Lima, Landless Workers Movement - MST
(Brazil)
Moderator: Daphne Wysham, Sustainable Energy and Economy
Network (U.S.)
Location: Casa del Pueblo
Free
Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA)
Carrie Biggs-Adams, Communication Workers of America
(U.S.)
Evelyn
Larrieux, Solidarité Famn Ayisen (Haitian Women's
Solidarity) -- SOFA (Haiti)
Manuel Perez Rocha, Mexican Action Network Against Free
Trade - RMALC (Mexico)
Moderator: Margrete Strand Rangnes, Public Citizen (U.S.)
Location: National Baptist Memorial Church
3:00
pm - 4:00 pm Closing Plenary
Ending Global Apartheid: Another World Is Possible
Reflections on the state of the movement against corporate
globalization, and of campaigns to shrink the power of
the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. An inspirational
call to action.
Marie Dennis, Religious Working Group on the World
Bank and IMF (U.S.)
Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange (U.S.)
Luis Gilberto Murillo, former governor of Chocó
State (Colombia)
Moderator: Robert Weissman, Essential Action (U.S.)
Location: National Baptist Memorial Church
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