[antiwar-van] Stop the FTAA & the BC Liberals!!

[Macdonald Stainsby]

On Thursday, October 31 (Halloween, that is!!), the Solidarity Network to Stop
the FTAA (SNSF) Has been planning a rally at Victory Square to extend our
solidairty with the actions in Quito, Ecuador against the latest round of talks
to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas.

We have been organising to say no to that.

However, we also realise that the "contradiction" between actions to resist
Gordon Campbell and actions to resist corporate globalisation is a false one.
Gordon Campbell is the neo-liberal agenda; when his government attacks women,
homeless people, organised workers and unorganised workers, students in high
schools and students in post-secondary, his agenda is the same agenda being
pushed by agreements like the FTAA to make these neo-liberal 'scriptures' become
international law.

We see that Gordon Campbell is just the same thing that has been done in Ontario
under Harris, and Mexico under NAFTA. We are resiting all of these forces, they
work together so we resist them together.

Our demonstration/march will move from Victory Square to the Hyatt Regency to
greet Premier Campbell as he hypocritically gives a speech on health care,
despite his government's intentions to use the FTAA to dismantle health care
services in this province, if he can't do it alone.

We are moving our deomnstration against his friends in the FTAA to let Gordon
Campbell know that wherever he speaks, he will find opposition. We are not
interested in his corporate agenda, his entrenchment of the most ruthless dog
eat dog world. We are going to stop the FTAA and we will stop Campbell!

Campbell and the FTAA need us disarmed and disconnected. They intend to keep us
from seeing the connections between the one local government and the
international agreements. However, we have recognised that neo-liberalist
resistance starts at home, and for that matter-- so does "regime change".

So what's your costume gonna be?

Rally at noon (Halloween) in VICTORY SQUARE, march to HYATT REGENCY hotel to
rally against Gordon Campbell. After this, we head back to Harbour Centre, where
we will carry out the "Unmasking the FTAA", a series of teach-ins at 130pm,
including:

[We are hoping all people in the crowd for the march and the teach-in will be in
costume. Let's mask up against corporate globalisation.]

 The teach-in begins with a mass-plenary:
1:30pm
Intro to Globalisation and the FTAA
with Garth Mullins (anti-globalisation activist and phd student at UBC)
and Gary Teeple (sociology professor, SFU).

then breaks into different workshops:
2:30 -3:45pm
A)
THe FTAA and the corporate takeover of education
with Robin Wylie (Douglas College instructor)
and Jamie Matten (student movement)
B)
The School of the Americas
with Veronica Miralles Sanchez
C)
Women and the Effects of the FTAA
a Grassroots Women workshop.
D)
BC and Globalisation in context--
the Crackdown on Working People.
with Blain  (Anti-Poverty Committee[APC], QUAK)
and Terry Engler (International Longshore and Warehouse Union[ILWU])
BLOCK B
4:00- 5:15pm.
A)
Militarism and Globalisation: Plan Colombia, the Middle East and the Imperialist
Context.
with Hari Sharma (South Asian Network for Secularism And Democracy),
Mordecai Briemberg (CanPalNet) and
Janet Munoz.
B)
 Indigenous Struggles & Globalisation Worldwide
with: TBA.
C)
The Environment and the FTAA
with Ken Wu (Western Canada Wilderness Committee).

5:30-6:00pm
Closing Plenary:
Round up and "what can we do?"
Reports back from far and near.

Stop Campbell, Stop the FTAA!



-------------------------------------------
Macdonald Stainsby
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
--
In the contradiction lies the hope.
                                     --Bertholt Brecht