Resist
International Campaign news Resist! is a new section of International Viewpoint. It reports on some of the campaigns our readers are involved in. If you have an update on one of these campaigns, or you want us to start monitoring a new initiative, get in touch! © (+33) 1/43792960, fax (+33) 1/43792961 E-mail <[email protected]> by trade unionists, mainly from the public service and teaching unions. Students and teachers worked together in a number of high schools to collect, pack and transport the aid, destined for trade union and school aid projects in the multi-ethnic Bosnian town of Tuzla. The campaign was also supported by a range of social and political associations, including the Antwerp-based Alternative Social Movement (BSV - Forum) where local Fourth International supporters are active. Boat for Bosnia is one of the largest Bosnia solidarity initiatives ever organised in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium). Antwerp port authorities waived all docking fees, while the town hall helped organise a reception in the town that evening. Organisers were, however, disappointed that the national press gave such little coverage to the campaign. Despite this, the arrival of the boat gave a real boost to the whole solidarity network, which is already planning a range of solidarity actions for Tuzla, the Bosnian region where democratic and multi-ethnic forces are strongest. For example, students and teachers in 25 Belgian schools are now twinned with Tuzla high schools. Boat for Bosnia was on its way to Barcelona as International Viewpoint went to press. After loading 30 containers of aid from trade unions and solidarity movements in Catalonia and the rest of the Spanish state, it will sail directly to the Croatian port of Makarska, where it will be unloaded. Contributions towards the campaign can still be sent to: Account 70100, Banco Exterior de España, Oficina institucional no. 1, Madrid, Spain. Mark all contributions "Barco para Bosnia - Paz ahora" For more information contact: Sweden: Radvaldsgaten 14, 118 46 Stockholm. Tel. 84620532, or Gotenberg tel. 31121327, tax 31141311 Belgium: 03.366.4800 (Jos) Spain: Paz Ahora association, C/Tudescos 4 - 3.D, 28004 Madrid. Tel./fax 91.5329692
IMF IMF World Bank WTO Enough The October 1995 Annual Meeting of the IMF and the World Bank in Madrid resolved to abolish 67% of the debt of seven of the world's poorer countries! Or so the Belgian Finance Minister (and President of the IMF Interim Committee) Philippe Maystadt told 500 participants in a recent public debate in Belgium. Apparently, Mr. Maystadt was not as well informed as WB/IMF/WTO: Enough!" coordinator Eric Toussaint, who informed the audience that the real figure is in fact 2.7%. A symbolic sum, "which will not modify the poverty of the populations of these seven countries." Minister Maystadt chose not to challenge this statement. In a written response to Pierre Galand, president of the National Centre for Development Co-operation (an association representing some 90% of NGOs in Frenchspeaking Belgium), Maystadt admitted that "in fact, no new means of alleviation has been engaged to reduce the weight of multi-lateral debt n the poorest countries" Confusion? Or just more example of the cynicism with which North-South relations are treated by those in power? One discourse in public, another in private... The public discourse, of course, is more and more a matter of creating the illusion that the IMF and the World Bank have changed, and an attempt to present their new "human" face.
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9 A range of alternative activities have been organised during the Spanish presidency of the European Union, which expires at the end of this month. "Practically every meeting of ministers will be replicated in an alternative activity or demonstration, writes Isabel Gali in El Viejo Topo. "The results of the '50 Years is Enough" campaign against the economic policies of the IMF and the World Bank, culminating in the Alternative Forum organised in Madrid last autumn were an invitation to organise a similar initiative for the six months of [Spain's] European Presidency. Co-ordinated from Madrid by the AEDENAT group, this new campaign "Contra la Europa del Capital" (Against the Europe of Capital) has invited us to organise parallel acts to the meetings of European Ministers which have been taking place in different Spanish cities. The common thread of all these activities is the need to give a radical twist to the way we pose questions about how we live in Europe, and the solutions we need. This is a decentralised campaign, which will culminate with a march which will leave various points in Spain so as to arrive in Madrid on December 16. This march, which started as an initiative of the CGT [anarchist and radical left-dominated trade union], Baladre, and the Civic Platforms (in which Izquierda Unida (United Left) is present), was called in protest against unemployment and marginalisation. The [official] EuroMediterranean Conference will be matched by the Conference for an Alternative Mediterranean, (CMA) which will take place in the same place, Barcelona, at the same time, 24-28 November. The Madrid Summit of Heads of State and Heads of Government will spark a whole range of activities between 11 and 16 December." For more information contact: AEDENAT, +34.1.541.1071, CMA +34.3.217.9527 Source: El Viejo Topo, no 88.
Ship for Bosnia A flotilla of sailboats crewed by local high school students met the Ship for Bosnia in Antwerp harbour on 16 November. A larger than expected quantity of aid was loaded, the result of weekly collections organised
This means we must be even more clear and penetrating in our own analysis. That we must make use of all the channels for distributing altemative information. And that we must strive to build the widest possible "Refusal front", in the South, North, and East. The Belgian group of the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (COCAD) is the world co-ordinator of the "WB/IMF/WTO: Enough!" campaign. The appeal which forms the base of the campaign already circulates in 55 countries. The committee in western Sierra Leone has sent in a list of 299 signatures. The last on this preliminary list is that of the Episcopal Commission for Christian Education in Kinshasa. There is clearly significant interest in the campaign to collect signatures for the appeal. But not enough is being done. Most of the signatures so far have been sent in individually, as the result of a chance or passing contact with the initiative or its literature. What we badly need is more local committees which can be relays for the appeal. Wherever such campaigns have been set up, the result is astounding. In Sardinia, two hundred signatures have been sent in only a short time after establishing the local committee. But collecting signatures is not enough! What this campaign ought to be about is the direct activities of associations and individuals, among their work mates and friends, in public meetings, in the milieu of solidarity activities in the widest possible sense. It is worth thinking hard about what opportunities exist. If need be, Re
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