Resist
International Campaign news
Enough MF
Preparations for the G7 counter- summit were discussed in Paris on 16-18 February. Over 200 people attended the Friday night session, which was followed by two days of workshops defining the content and the organisation of events planned to coincide with the meeting of representatives of the seven leading imperialist powers in Lyon, France on 21-23
June 1996.
Time pressure increased tension in a number of workshops, but there is no real decline in the common desire to organise another successful "Other voices of the planet" gathering. As well as events organised by anti-debt and third-world organisations, this
Counter-Summit will welcome the convergence of marches for jobs organised by the AC! group
A dress rehearsal for the counter- summit will be held in Lille, France on 30-31 March, when G7 employment and finance ministers meet to finalise the agenda for their June meeting. As our Paris meeting agreed, the absolute cynicism of the G7 necessitates an absolutely resolute response. Their preparatory documents admit that Lille is a massive public relations exercise: "The "Lille Conference" is another event in the long-term project to re-inject confidence and hope into a public opinion which has progressively succumbed to discouragement, and fears for their futures. We must reinforce their capacity to adapt to change [!!]. The conference must seek to re-establish the credibility of policies aimed at reducing unemployment and poverty, by demonstrating that the improvement of the employment situation is at the heart of G7 strategy today." Rather than attacking structural unemployment, the Lille meeting will seek to boost the image of the policies and politicians who have made Lille and the surrounding 'post-industrial' zones of northern France and southern Belgium into the disaster they are.
A four-page fortnightly bulletin has been established to circulate information in the run up to the Counter-Summit in Lyon.
For your copy contact COCAD,
Plantinstraat 29, B-1070 Brussels, Belgium.
© +32.2/523 4023, fax 522 6127
Resistant Strains
This is a year-long project organized by a group of artists and activists working with
Vermont Chiapas Action Network and the Vermont 50 Years Is
Enough Coalition
A series of 10 posters will be commissioned, focusing on the
Zapatista response to ongoing economic oppression, political exclusion, and genocide in
Mexico. Design proposals should be submitted by 1 April 1996. The posters will examine the implications and inspirations of the Zapatista rebellion, and stress the necessity of such resistance in light of economic globalization, conservative political climates, and bogus notions of democratic participation. Once printed, the posters will be distributed through activist organizations, community groups, and independent bookstores and galleries, in time for the May 5th celebrations. For artists' guidelines and any other information, contact: David Thorne, Box 153b, Glover, VT 05839 USA, (802) 5258853, e-mail: [email protected] Fight the Right In response to attacks on affirmative action, particularly in California, the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.) has initiated a call for a national demonstration in San Francisco on April 14. The "Fight the Right"
March will demand that there is no retreat on affirmative action, and address a broad range of feminist and progressive issues.
Demands for economic justice include an end for the "war on poor women"; opposition to proposed funding cuts and restrictions on welfare for single mothers; support for abortion rights and reproductive freedom;
opposition to racism; support for lesbian, gay and bisexual rights;
and support for efforts to end violence against women. violence against women
This is an unprecedented opportunity to build strong alliances for affirmative action, for women's rights, and against racism between the
(predominantly white) women's movement and the Civil Rights movements of African-Americans and other peoples of color. The
March should help cement the alliance between N.O.W. (the country's largest women's rights organization), organized labor, and the lesbian/gay rights movement.
The demonstration has already received broad endorsement from groups including the
Rainbow Coalition, American
Indian Movement (AIM), and the
National Welfare Rights Union.
The march is backed by the
California wing of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and trade unions in several states affiliated to the country's AFL-CIO confederation, numerous feminist, abortion rights and lesbian/gay rights groups. Large, multi-racial organizing meetings have been held in San Francisco, where representatives of labor, student groups and people of color organizations have met with N.O.W. representatives to discuss plans for the March. *This March will make clear that the feminist agenda is really about a return to community values" , N.O.W. President Patricia Ireland recently wrote in a letter asking hundreds of organizations to endorse the March. "[A return to] the policies and politics that favor the needs of people over the profits of the corporations and the comforts of a few. People will understand that the right-wing politics of division and diversion serve only to shortchange our country and our future". For more information call San Francisco (415) 436-9390
Cuba Si!
Every major union central in
Quebec and English Canada and a number of large NGOs have sponsored the March 15-16
International Conference in
Solidarity with Cuba which
Alternatives and the Centre intemational de solidarite ouvriere
(CISO) is organizing in Montreal,
Quebec.
Speakers will include Pedro
Ross, general secretary of the ventral de radajadores de Central de Trabajadores de
Cuba, Xavier Gorostiaga, director of Envio (Nicaragua), Francois
Houtart, director of the
Tricontinental Centre and Louise
Harel, Quebec Minister of
Cultural Communities and
Immigration.
Contact: Alternatives, 3680, rue Jeanne-
Mance, bur. 440, Montreal, Quebec, H2X
2K5, tel (514) 982-6606, fax: (514) 982
6122, e-mail: [email protected]
Sponsors include CTC-CLC, FTQ, CSN,
CEQ, FlIQ, SFPQ), the Cuban CTC trade union, and the United Church of Canada.
ACI
The anti-unemployment movement AC! (Together against
Unemployment) held a weekend conference on the 32 hour week:
a step towards ending unemployment' in Paris on 20-21
January. Discussion centred on the mass public sector mobilisation at the end of last year, particularly the impact of unemployment and job insecurity on the thinking and organising of the workers' movement. Many participants in the discussion believe that there is a new trend of organising among workers with precarious contractual status, and among those on worktare, 'reinsertion' and 'training' schemes. This will prove increasingly important, since a growing number of public sector and governmental entities are trying to replace full-time workers with these cheap, disposable substitute contracts. AC! militants, who are evenly divided between the unemployed and workers, will organise 'caravans against unemployment, which will leave localities around France after local May 1st demonstrations, and converge on Lyon during the counter summit organised to protest the G7 summit organised there on 21-23 June. JB] *
International Viewpoint n° 275 33
IMF World Bank WTO