GPJA: Protest US Consulate, 11am, Sat Sept 13

Aucklanders have the opportunity to join a protest to mark the worldwide day of action and protest the NZ government's decision to send troops to Iraq at the end of this month to assist the US/UK occupation. There will be a rally outside the US Consulate, Customs St, from 11am on Saturday September 13.

Because of the short notice I have attached a poster as a PDF document for people to print and distribute where they are able. To read and print this poster you will need Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded for free from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

The poster will be put up on the GPJA website soon.

The following statement was issued by United for Peace in the USA.

September 13: Worldwide Day of Action Against Corporate Globalization and War

Kicking off a Fall Campaign of Action for Peace and Justice

>From September 10 to 14, the World Trade Organization (WTO) will hold its Fifth Ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico. Pushed by multinational corporations, the United States, the European Union, and other developed countries are seeking to launch a new round of "free trade" negotiations and expand corporate globalization - further eroding human rights, workers' rights, environmental protections, and democracy - in the interest of corporate control.

Popular movements in Mexico and their international allies will mark these meetings with massive demonstrations to demand a world that puts democracy and human dignity ahead of corporate profits. Solidarity actions around the world will focus on September 13 as a Worldwide Day of Action Against Corporate Globalization and War.

We call on people throughout the United States to join this global uprising for peace and justice by organizing events in your community throughout the week leading up to the WTO Ministerial and on September 13. Resist the WTO and the failed model of corporate globalization, and highlight the links between militarism and "free trade," through a wide variety of creative means: teach-ins, vigils, protests, direct action, street theater, festivals of resistance, cultural events, meetings with elected officials, public forums, and so on.

These September actions to derail the WTO will kick off a powerful autumn campaign of action for peace and justice, involving major mobilizations for immigrant rights, against the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and against militarism and occupation.

WHOSE TRADE ORGANIZATION?

The WTO is designed and managed for the benefit of transnational corporations at the expense of most of the world's population and the environment. The neoliberal agenda of "free trade," deregulation, privatization and special corporate protections enshrined in the WTO leads to greater poverty, inequity, gender inequality and indebtedness, while concentrating the world's wealth in the hands of a few. The corporate agenda implemented by the WTO pits worker against worker and nation against nation in a race to the bottom.

The last time the WTO met in North America, in late 1999, tens of thousands of people converged on Seattle to expose the real agenda behind "free trade": devastating the environment and eroding basic rights, protections, and services for the vast majority of the world's population.

Four years after the historic showdown at the 3rd WTO Ministerial in Seattle, we live in a changed and even more dangerous world. Using the horrible terrorist attacks against the U.S. of 2001 as a pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush administration is on a reckless quest for empire, combining the global might of the United States military with the global reach of massive corporations. The Bush doctrine of preemptive strike and permanent warfare goes hand-in-hand with a program of economic domination through "free trade," and, not coincidentally, masks the woeful U.S. economic situation.

THE "WATCHTOWER STATE"

Under the rules of the WTO and proposed agreements like the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the government's role in regulating the marketplace to promote fair labor conditions, access to basic services, safe products and a clean environment is strictly constrained. WTO rules provide a "security exception" that protects and fosters weapons manufacture and the arms trade. Under agreements being negotiated now, virtually all other governmental services - including schools, health care, public transit, water supply and other public utilities - could be subject to corporate takeover. Basic worker and consumer rights and environmental protections could be jettisoned as "unfair barriers to trade." The vision of government enshrined in the WTO and the FTAA is a "watchtower state" - a fortress security state on a permanent war footing.

THE ASSAULT ON IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

Corporate globalization has destroyed the lives and livelihood of millions of workers and farmers throughout the world. Many are forced to leave their homes, their land, and often their countries in search of increasingly scarce jobs. Yet trade agreements that protect the flow of money and goods across borders don't allow the free movement of people. Borders are militarized and immigrants are criminalized - even as millions of people are dislocated by "free trade."

More than nine million undocumented workers who live in the United States today lack basic legal protections and human rights, living in constant fear of round-ups, detentions, and deportation. The WTO and FTAA would create new injustices for immigrants by giving corporations the right to import people to work in industrialized countries like the United States, while maintaining the low wages and minimal worker protections of their home countries, creating a system of legalized sweatshops.

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

We have before us a choice: the world of militarism and corporate globalization, or a world built on global solidarity, rooted in a foundation of democracy, dignity, sustainability, and cooperation. This fall we have an opportunity to bring our vision to life, through a series of actions and campaigns that will build toward a better world.

List of Endorsing Organizations:

ACERCA ARISE for Social Justice Aztlan Media Kollective, East Los Angeles, Califas, U.S.Aztlan Bay Area CISPES (Cmte. n Solidarity w/ the People of El Salvador) BAYAN International-USA Bend-Condega Friendship Project Bolivariancircles.net Chicago Jobs with Justice--Global Justice Comm. Coalition of Immokalee Workers Corazon Cultural Commission Florida Fair Trade Coalition Fontana Native American Indian Center, Inc. Free CUNY Global Exchange The Greater Kansas City Fair Trade Coalition Higher Grounds Trading Co. Hitec Aztec Communications Net'work' Human Bean Company International ANSWER Coalition International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS-US) Ithaca Fair Trade Coalition Jesus Christ Prince of Peace Parish-Social Justice & Peace Comm. Jubilee Economics Ministries Labor Notes Latin Am. Solidarity Cmte. of Western New York Peace Center Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas Mexico Solidarity Network Nicaragua Center for Community Action (NICCA) Nonviolence International The Nicaragua Network Public Citizen Queers For Peace And Justice RANT Rights Action SUSTAIN (Stop US Tax Aid to Israel Now): Texas Fair Trade Coalition The Tikkun Community United for Peace and Justice The United Peoples Wisconsin Fair Trade Campaign The Women's Intl. League for Peace and Freedom, US Section

If your organization would like to endorse this call to action, write to msn@mexicosolidarity.org

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