File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_2001/anarchy-list.0103, message 34


Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 12:19:42 -0500
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: Weaving a Web of Solidarity 



Weaving a Web of Solidarity 
A feminist action against globalisation 
Summit of the Americas on the FTAA 
Quebec City, April 2001 

On the weekend of April 20-22, leaders of thirty four countries will
come
to Quebec to tie a new strand in the web of corporate globalisation: the
Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), the regional accord that
will expand NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) throughout the
hemisphere. In response, thousands of us will come to Quebec City to
resist them. From Canada to Argentina, women and men will take action to
express our opposition to the extension of the corporate web. 

Women bear the brunt of the violence of globalisation, yet despite all
the oppression, repression and exploitation, women continue to rise up.
This is a call to rise up as we join together in a Women's Action, to
take place alongside the many actions and events of the weekend. 

We are taking action because we will no longer tolerate the web of
corporate control that binds us down and constricts our lives. We will
not allow this system to continue. We have taken its measure: its time
is
done. Instead, we will become spiders, spinning a new web of connection,
of solidarity out of our rage, out of our love. 

We will, as women, weave together our hopes and dreams, our aspirations,
our indictments, our testimony, our witnessing, our demands, our
visions.
We will write on ribbons, on strips of cloth, on rags. We will draw,
paint, knot cords, braid yarn, whisper into pieces of string. And from
these materials we will weave our web. 

If they ignore our voices and continue their deliberations, the cries of
women will haunt them and undo all their plans. Though they erect a
fence
to stop us, we will twine our web through its mesh to be the visible
symbol of the power of women, of the revolution we weave. When they try
to wall us out of their meetings, they will only wall themselves in. We
claim all of the world beyond their wall. 

We ask our brothers to support us, to honor our women's space so that we
who have so often been invisible can stand forth and be seen. We ask you
to support us by looking honestly at the ways that, even within our own
movements, women are ignored, suppressed, or discounted. And when you
support us in this action, where we stand together as women, it will
spark actions where we fight side by side. For we know that you too, are
weavers of this web. 

We ask the ancestors to stand with us. For the web of life links the
living and the dead. We ask the generations of the future to stand with
us, for we fight for the world you will inherit. We ask the spirits of
the earth to support us and be our ground, for we fight for the
continuance of life. 

We are invincible, for life itself weaves with us. 

AN INVITATION TO THE WOMEN OF THE WORLD TO… 

Form an affinity group… 

An affinity group is a group of 10-20 people with whom you have
"affinity"; that is, a common bond (family, friends, common issue, work
colleagues, etc.), that meets regularly to discuss common issues and to
act. Choose one or two members to represent your group at the Council of
representatives. The Council of representatives will "meet" in virtual
space until the week before the Summit of the Americas, at which point
meetings will take place in Quebec. The Council of representatives
meetings will be the forum to decide on strategy for the action. Keep
your eye on the CMAQ (Quebec Centre for Independent Media) website
(www.cmaq.net) for a Women's web of solidarity action link. 

Initiate (or continue), in your affinity group, a dialogue on the
impacts
of globalisation on women in your home area… 

Women around the world bear the brunt of globalisation… our voices
together will allow us to add to the feminist 
analysis of globalisation, and to strengthen our cause (see article, and
fact sheet). 

Weave your part of the web of solidarity… 

Take what comes out of your dialogue on women and globalisation, and, as
a group, weave a section of the web of solidarity to represent your
consensus. Use your imagination… use yarn, materials, photos, newspaper
clippings. The sky is the limit. 

Add your section of the web to the web of solidarity in Quebec City in
April 2001… 

Here are some suggestions on the many ways to join your section of the
web to the larger web of solidarity: 
· Come as an affinity group to Quebec City in April 2001, to participate
in the collective weaving of the web of solidarity… 
A fence is being erected around the buildings where the Summit is being
held in order to keep protesters out - residents inside the perimeter
are
required to have identity cards in order to gain access to their own
homes during the Summit. This fence symbolises, for us, the
anti-democratic process of the FTAA - we want to reclaim that fence,
that
space. Those wanting to weave (literally or symbolically and
non-violently) their parts of the web into the fence are invited to do
so
on the 19th of April (the day preceding the opening of the meeting).
Affinity groups not wanting to approach the fence are invited to plan
other kinds of actions using the web parts (blocking an intersection to
catch Summit negotiators in the web, or decorating a park with parts of
the web, etc.). Creativity and imagination are key! The sky is the
limit!


· Send your section of the web to the address below and the women
present
in Quebec will ensure that your section is woven into the larger web. 

· Send a photograph of your section of the web to the address below, and
the women present in Quebec will enlarge it and add it to the larger
web.


· Get together with other affinity groups in your area and weave your
sections together closer to your home. 

Québec contact information: 
E-mail address: toile_femme-AT-moncourrier.com 
Mailing address: Toile femme Québec 2001, C.P. 70021, Québec, Québec
(Canada) G1R 6B1

   

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