[mobglob-discuss] Fwd: New listserv - Mobilizing toward WTO in Cancun Sept. 2003

[Tom_Childs at Douglas.BC.CA]

  ----- Forwarded message: -----
By way of Peter Rosset <rosset at foodfirst.org
To: StopWTORound at yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 17:58:55 -0800
Subject: [StopWTORound] CALL FOR MOBILIZATION TOWARD
               THE WTO MEETING IN CANCUN 2003

CALL FOR MOBILIZATION TOWARD THE WTO MEETING IN CANCUN 2003

Dear compa~eros y compa~eras concerned about the WTO:

Last 15 and 16 of November, we came to together in Mexico City as a
broad spectrum of Mexican and International civil society
organizations, and held a strategy session to discuss our approaches
to the upcoming 5th Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), which will be held in Cancun, Mexico from
September 10 to 14, 2003. We were 240 people in all, from 89 Mexican
and 53 foreign organizations, from 16 countries in the Americas,
Europe, Asia and Africa.

We agreed to send, to Mexican and International civil society, this
CALL to organize and coordinate actions and information exchanges
with the goal of derailing the WTO in its attempt to use Cancun to
wrap up the consolidation of the current phase of the global
neoliberal model and launch a new round of negotiations on new themes.

We make this CALL considering that:

* The WTO is turning into a new "corporate" world constitution...
* It is the over-arching keystone of the neoliberal global economic
architecture, which also includes regional initiatives like NAFTA,
FTAA, Plan Puebla Panama, Plan Colombia, G7, CAP, APEC, etc...
* The "free" trade system being imposed via the WTO is undercutting
the livelihoods of peasant and family farmers, workers, indigenous
peoples and those of African ancestry, women, the landless, urban
dwellers, fisherfolk and the poor and middle classes worldwide...
* The Cancun Ministerial will be the most important meeting to date
for the WTO, because of the fundamental topics to be addressed
(agriculture, intellectual property, services, investment) and the
new issues being proposed, which amount to a neoliberal and free
trade vision for those sectors which are of vital importance for our
economies and our sovereignties...
* The worldwide movement against neoliberal globalization has been
building through meetings and protests at key points from Seattle to
Prague, Gottemburg, Bangkok, Genoa, Quebec, Quito, Porto Alegre and
so many others, and that in this context the upcoming WTO meeting in
Cancun acquires historic proportions.

The Mexican and international organizations who participated in the
November 15-16 meeting, believe that the upcoming meeting of the WTO
in 2003 in Cancun, Mexico, represents a key crossroads which may
determine the future of the neoliberal model, of globalization
itself, and of our peoples.

Therefore we CALL for the organization and coordination of
information exchanges, massive public education, mobilization, and
actions of protest, pressure, lobbying and repudiation, in Cancun
itself, in the rest of Mexico, throughout the Americas, and around
the world.  Although these activities should reach a crescendo in the
week of September 10-14, 2003, they should begin now, and if possible
should continue after.

We do not suggest a new and separate campaign on the WTO, isolated
from the work that each of our organizations is already doing on
related topics (NAFTA, FTAA, GMOs, PPP, Plan Colombia, the war,
indigenous rights, the environment, privatization, etc.),  but rather
to ADD the topic of the WTO in a very visible manner, to all of the
other campaigns already underway,  and in each and all of our
on-going struggles, in such a way that it becomes very evident to all
what the relationships are that each other issue has with the WTO, as
the over-arching keystone of the neoliberal global economic
architecture.

In this process, we propose the following principles and methodologies:

* Social movements should have a central, lead role in this process.
* There should be space for participation by the diverse sectors
critical of, and impacted by, the WTO, including farmers and rural
peoples, indigenous peoples and those of African ancestry, unions,
environmentalists, anti-privatization groups, women, youth,
fisherfolk, urban movements, and many others.
* We see this process as part of a broad, inclusive, diverse and
flexible movement, tending toward the strengthening of mechanisms of
coordination between movements and other civil society groups who are
critical of the WTO and the neoliberal model.
* Any coordination should be operative and in the nature of exchanges
on the elements mentioned above, more than a coordination to
establish or impose common positions or the signing of general
agreements.  In no way do we propose the centralization of, or
control over, the participation of organizations with respect to
Cancun in 2003.  Of course, this should in no way impede those who
already have, or wish to develop, common positions or joint
activities, from moving ahead among themselves.

With this CALL we launch the open and bilingual (Spanish/English)
electronic list-serve acancun-l at laneta.apc.org

You may sign up for this list at:
www.laneta.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/acancun-l

We ask those who understand only one of the two languages for their
patience and forbearance with messages in the other language.  WE ask
all who can, to put their contributions in both languages.

The next meeting point in the process is Porto Alegre, Brazil, during
the Word Social Forum on January 23-28, 2003.

Signed,

The participants in the  Social Movements Strategy Meeting in
Preparation for the 5th Ministerial of the World Trade
Organization/Cancun 2002

Centro de Estudios para el Cambio en el Campo Mexicano (Ceccam)
Vito Alessio Robles No. 76 casa 7
Col. Florida. Mexico, D.F. 01030
tel: 525 6 61 19 25 y 525 6 61 53 98


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Tom Childs - Audio/Visual Resources
Douglas College Library
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