Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 10:28:54 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave-AT-eco.utexas.edu>
Subject: AUT: Photos from the anti-WTO protest in Geneva, 20. may; PGA press , release (fwd)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 12:52:32 +0200 (CST)
From: Andreas Rockstein <anro0002-AT-stud.uni-sb.de>
To: MAI-not <mai-not-AT-flora.org>
Cc: Ed Deak <thinker-AT-uniserve.com>, "Janet M. Eaton" <jeaton-AT-fox.nstn.ca>,
    Bob Olsen <bobolsen-AT-aracnet.net>
Subject: Photos from the anti-WTO protest in Geneva, 20. may; PGA press , release

Dear MAI-nots!

some HOT pictures from the UN -Geneva, 20 may, Pl. des Nations;
photograph: DENIS PONTE - MAT you can download at:
<http://www.agp.org/agp/UN_pictures/1.html>

All the best!

Andreas
========================
May 20th, 1998

4th international PRESS RELEASE
by
Peoples' Global Action

The last day of the Second Ministerial Conference of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) in Geneva, the protests against the WTO and
Neoliberalism continued all over the World:

For the non-violent activists of Peoples=B4 Global Action it=B4s been too easy
today to demonstrate, from which side the violence comes from: On their
knees they tried to enter the WTO-conference. They even raised their
hands.
But still many of them were hurt badly. Some were arrested. Among them
Sergio Hernandez, a well-known activist from PGA, who didn=B4t leave the
authorized zone. So it has to be supposed they wanted to arrest him
especially.

In a briefing of the press just before this action several representatives
of grassroots movements all over the world pointed out what 50 years of
GATT and WTO meant to them. "We don=B4t have any transnationals in Africa",
said Paulo Cuinica from the Organisation of Mutual Help from Mozambique.
They want to use Africa only for its ressources. So we don=B4t have anything
to celebrate."

Yesterday evening 2000 walked gaged and hand-cuffed through Geneva to
demonstrate they have no voice within this world order. On the Rousseau
Island we celebrated a symbolic funeral to show our respect towards the
victims of an economic war that treats people like merchandise.

People walking through Geneva are picked up by the police if there is any
suspicion that they might have taken part in any of the demonstrations.
This means that anybody looking either young or foreign or according to
the
wim of the police can be arrested. This is done using physical and
psychological violence. The police has declared having made 200 such
arrests. PGA is going to send a report.

In Brasilia 40 000 jobless, landless and homeless people from all
Brasilian states have arrived in the capital during the last days. They
setled at the Esplanda de los Ministerios, occupied public buildings and
did a number of public acts in support of employment and housing. Today
they are demonstrating in the governmental district of Brasilia. In front
of the National Congres they are denouncing the misapropiatioin of
ressources  by the rich. Benedicto Roberto Barbosa from the Movement of
Housing Union said: "They will continue camping in front of the
supermarkets to denounce the situation the poor and the homeless are in.
In Brasil there are more then 40 million brothers and sisters suffering of
hunger. That is the reason why we will mobilize millions of people and
demand respect from the president and solidarity from society".

In Canada demonstrations, including direct actions, are going on in
various places: In Halifax, Jooa Slotia, Winnepeg, Manitoba, Ottawa,
Ontario, Regina and Saskatchewan. These protests are carried out by
students, aboriginals, trade unions, churches, immigrants and poverty
organisations.

In the Ukrain in Kiev people are resisting the implementation of the
States energy policies, which are being pushed forward without consulting
the people, although they are the ones bearing the brunt of the
consequences of the nuclear disaster that Chernobyl was.

Since the First of May nearly a million people from all social sectors
(farmers, indigenous peoples, workers, women, ethnical groups, unemployed
and others) are expressing our rejection of the multilateral trade system
and neoliberal policies - participating in the first international days of
action of Peoples' Global Action (PGA) against "Free" Trade and the WTO.

Peoples=B4 Global Action is a worldwide alliance of organizations and
grassroots movements formed last February during a conference where more
than 400 representatives of grassroots movements from 56 countries of all
continents came together to unit in our resistances. Unity in our great
variety: We are from the North and from the South, from the Middle East
and from the South Pacific. We are homeless=B4, indigenous=B4, farmers,
landless`, feminists, environmentalists, students, intellectuals and
unemployed people.

Capitalism is a failing system because people are starving and because the
logic of competition is forced upon everyone.

Here are the four basic points that unit us:

We reject the multilateral trade system and its policies.
We are not trying to reform the WTO - we want to destroy it.
We call for direct, non-violent actions because we don=B4t believe in
lobbying.
We work together in a basicly democratic way.

We are struggling together because we don=B4t want any nationlist solutions
to Neoliberalism. We want food, home, work, educacion, health services -
for all. Human rights - including basic needs - must be respected. We want
an economy that is made for the people - and not people having to serve
the economy.

Our actions will go on. In the next days: The OECD-Meeting in Montréal
from the 24th to the 27th of May will be blockaded. In the next weeks: The
actions in India, Brasil and other parts of the world are going on. In the
next months: There will be continental meetings in all parts of the world
in order to spread informations about the policy of the WTO and the spirit
of our resistance.

Millions are fighting against WTO and neoliberalism. Resistance is
gathering momentum the world over. A movement that wants to change the
world.

The next conference of PGA will take place in Bangalore, India, in April
1999. No more WTO-Conferences  - in any case not without us.
For more information please check http://www.agp.org or contact our press
office:
phone:  (0041) 22/ 344 47 31 
fax:    (0041) 22/ 940 20 70
e-mail: press-action-AT-agp.org



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