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ACTION ALERT
From Miami Activist Defense
Support FTAA protesters in Miami!
"The Miami Activist Defense (M.A.D.) committee and
National Lawyers Guild Legal Observers have
observed numerous illegal practices that
Miami City leadership has referred to as a
ìblueprint for Homeland Security,î
including:
* Indiscriminate, excessive
force against hundreds of nonviolent
protesters with weapons including pepper spray, tear gas, concussion grenades
and various types of rubber bullets.
* Police stopping and
snatching protesters at random and taking
them away in unmarked vehicles.
* Violation of agreements made
with organizers and M.A.D. prior to
protests.
"Please take some time now and CALL the Mayors,
the city attorney, police chief Timoney
and others responsible for these
violations. Demand a full-scale,
independent investigation into the police officersí
alarming behavior.
ALEX PENELAS
Mayor, Miami-Dade County
305.829.9336 home
305.375.5071 office
MANUEL A. DIAZ
Mayor, City of Miami
305.250.5300
305.375.5071
JOHN TIMONY
Chief of police
305-673-7925
305-579-6565
ALEJANDRO VILARELLO
City Attorney
305-416-1800
JOHNNY WINTON
Miami City Commissioner
305.858.7344 home
305.250.5333 office
KATY SORENSON
Miami Dade County Commissioner
305.375.5218
305.378.6677
Local media have been grossly biased in their
coverage. While this is somewhat to
be expected the following are numbers that
people could call and voice frustrations.
CBS4: 305-639-4551, 305-639-4601, 305-639-4426
WPLG channel 10: 305-576-6397
WSUN Fox: 954-524-0388 (Rosh Lowe)
"Free Trade" needs to rely on oil maximization and other forms of violence As world trade is mainly an oil-burning/spilling activity, especially in terms of ecological impact and also to a large degree in its geo-political effect, we bring you news and commentary on World Trade Organization meetings and protests. Ralph Nader makes the point that world trade means more oil depended upon for the shipping, based on our paper on world trade dated 1994 that he gave to members of Congress. Sustainable Energy Institute/Culture Change wrote to the WTO asking about oil supplies used for trade, and has received no response so far since early summer. The Free Trade Area of the Americas ain't for the people; it's for an elite. 'Nuff said. You can't vote directly on the FTAA or the WTO, so you protest. In Miami in November shall be a large convergence of grassroots activists and unions against the FTAA and its leaders, to perhaps shut down the WTO meeting in Seattle or cause meeting-collapse as in Cancun in September. See plea for direct-action players. Cancun
Support anti-FTAA convergence in Miami TIO MARCO will put some savvy desperados hundreds of feet high near the Miami FTAA convention center ( maybe thousands of feet si tu quieres ) with giant banners to do sell phone interviews for days before and during the hemispheric fat cats meeting. The joke is on the millionaires and corporate criminals when we tell them what the world thinks about their trade-economics-for-the rich. Help us think up good banner titles (SHORT!) Sponsor a Banner - they cost around $2,000 to do right. Most of all we need people - all kinds of people - some just like you - True we are hoping for a few hot-shots not afraid of heavy charges and fines, but we definitely need anyone who wants to help - AND it is just for a few months AND Bang-up Political art placed with skill to show the powers they are not so ALL POWERFUL. HA! Here we go, Cancun was fun... Miami is just a cheap bus ride away from 80 million americans If the Mexican Students and poor campesinos could send 5,000 to the Cancun WTO! WE have to get everyone to MAIAMIAMI... Rock the Hemisphere - SEND Us: climbers, climbing gear, cell phones, money, laptops gortex and an office we can do the rest. JOIN SKYTEAM at: abovewto@yahoo.com, or (520) 540.0013
Hello
friends and acquaintances and all involved in building a just world, My
name is Marcel Idles or Almond, I have worked tirelessly for several decades in
struggles such as the Redwood forests of California, Mt Graham in Arizona and
against US intervention in Central and South America. Many of these struggles
were long and difficult both because of the powers that we opposed and because
of our own movement weaknesses and disorganization. I
have a hard time telling young activists that I meet what group I think is worth
putting their effort (or my own) into. Single issue campaigns do not seem to be
effective activism or educational tools. My best proof is the popularity of Bush
despite his war crimes and global arrogance. I
have long felt that the rising consciousness and rebelliousness in America
Latina is the best hope that the Western Hemisphere has for real change. This is
why the US vigorously attacks popular movements in Nicaragua, Guatemala, El
Salvador, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia...etc. It is why I attended the WTO
Protests in Cancun and why I am now in Chiapas preparing to tour Mexican
activist communities in order to help them network with North Americans and help
us understand the struggles important to them and how we can unite against
US-led free trade enslavement schemes such as the WTO, FTAA and NAFTA. Miracles
began in Cancun. For the first time in more than 10 years I feel energized
and now have something to ask people to put their energy into. I watched
and participated in a difficult organizing scene where international activists
who were poorly funded and fearful of the Mexican police state came together
with the Mexican student and campesino groups to create effective and dramatic
actions despite the problems we faced with languages, styles and threats from
the thousands of well-armed and fortified military. I
ask you to be serious at this time, to put aside a few months of your life
and all the resources that you have available, I ask for your love and strength
now. We all have to go to Miami at least for a day or two... millions of us. The
home of Governor-Brother Jeb Bush, the place where the lies of the George Bush
Team began with the theft of the last election and the home of this years FTAA
free trade meeting. More than this small effort I ask that you contribute
financially to help students from America Latina attend these hemispheric
meetings. We
also need immediate assistance in finding safe venues for these students to
acquire visas to enter the US. Please contact professors and university or
humanitarian organizations to get their immediate commitment to put in requests
for visas for educational and culture purposes - be creative, bold and fast! Please
contact us at Ecosolidarity Andes with any questions you have on how to help and
please send us and other related groups any information on how to assist these
efforts. Thanks
you for reading this and a thousand blessings if you follow through and do your
part - this is much bigger to me than the elections - this is the people saying
no to Bush in America by all of the Americans from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego,
Argentina. We
will see... Marcel Idels Ecosolidarity Andes 520. 540.0013 from Culture Change e-Letter #25 Industrial society has polluted enoughShutting Down the WTO Economy? by Jan Lundberg Activists are proud of themselves for shutting down the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organization on November 30, 1999. A local songwriter there, Jim Page, rouses audience up and down the coast to "Didn't We (Shut It Down)." In June 2003 a mini-repeat was attempted at the Sacramento, Calif. meeting of the WTO's agricultural ministers.
However, for all the foes of globalizationórepresented by up to 4,000 protesters at Sacramento and maybe 50,000 at Seattleófew people are trying to actually shut down or totally restructure the fundamental problem or culprit: the economy of worldwide polluting industry. In this column we explore a sure but benign and legal way. People know well that our global climate should not be tampered with, but they still want "the System" to keep rolling along. Many who wish this are not necessarily fond of the system or of their own lot in life, but they just want to get money they need for the short term and foreseeable future. (That may not be the only way to live; modern humans are finding out the hard way.) Breadwinners are forced to buy frankenfoods, or GMO- (genetically mutilated organisms) laced corporate products that have not been properly tested. Tests that have been done have alarmed scientists on the harm that GMOs do to consumers of the food. That information has been suppressed in the U.S. media, so the spirited protests in Sacramento June 22-26 appeared odd to some who rely on TV news. Seeds of Deception, by Jeffrey Smith, hits the bookstores in September as the WTO meets in Cancun. Published by Yes! Books, distributed by Chelsea Green Publishing, the book explains why George Bush has just gone to the WTO to force the European Union to accept U.S. GMO "food."
"It is not necessary to base a way of life on desecrating the environment. The fact that this is not obvious to masses of modern people attests to the power of institutional education and other forms of propaganda." - Depaver In Sacramento June 22-25, the WTO ministerial meeting drew hundreds fewer delegates than hoped for by the organizers and cheerleaders, because protesters were anticipated. The expected heavy-handed police presence and instances of brutality were no doubt a factor as well. This WTO meeting, protests were fruitful and spirited, partly because people feel so passionately about protecting their food from GMOs that the WTO meeting was promoting.. Some delegates and members of the press learned how people value their local, natural foods and that people will fight for their rights. One observer, Jack Nounnan of the Humboldt County contingent of protesters, was deeply satisfied over the message and demeanor of the protests. An experienced elder, and defender of the Earth, he is right that progress is being made when protests are counted on and brought off successfully. When collapse comes, people may remember the issues involved at the WTO events so that mistakes are not repeated. Building anew will likely involve little if any petroleum industry assistance, let alone a monster motor vehicle fleet. Monsanto is known for its GMO seeds, but it's basically a petrochemical maker that wants to sell poison. The whole system depends on trucking along with oceanic shipping and some rail freight--all petroleum fueled. No major road system will endure long, as the luxury of pavement staying in repair depends on a growing economy that can afford to fix what the heavy trucks chew up at taxpayer expense. Those who say the system that the WTO represents should be stopped dead appear to be limited to the notorious black bloc (anarchist protesters in the U.S.), Euro street demonstrators of a hard core bent, and the Earth Liberation Front which since the Clinton Administration has been labeled the nation's top terrorist group. Some independent activists and commentators adhere to the shut-it-down prescription for the unsustainable industrial economy, as philosophers likely to be found growing organic kale. But most critics of the WTO simply want corporate power reigned in, so that an imagined democratic pollution society can return and seem less threatening. This approach is like looking for lost keys at night under the streetlight because it is easier, not because the keys were really dropped there. And there's certainly little funding from foundations over in the darkness! As committed as some activists and protesters are to shutting down WTO meetings, as well as even advocating an end to the present dominant socioeconomic system, a bona fide movement to do this is but a flea on an elephant today. But there may be a way, in the form of boycotting the buying of new cars.. Even if you love war for oil, why waste $5,000 by just driving a machine off a new-car lot? Some young environmentalists are too impatient to let people make the choice to boycott new global-warming speed coffins, so the choice is made for us: taking steps to forcibly shut down pollutionóinvolving any property destructionódoes occur and it brings down the wrath of society as ruled by the kings of private property. An Earth First!er named Free got a 23-year prison sentence for setting a couple of unoccupied SUVs on fire in a dealership in the middle of the night. Clearly, fighting fire with fire
raises issues of hypocrisy and becoming one's own enemy as a polluter. It would be
possible to shut down pollution with direct nonviolent action, but it appears to
be a most doubtful and unpopular prospect--no matter how urgent a mile-high stack of
Worldwatch Institute reports may appear on the ailing life-support system of our
planet. When it comes to the idea of using force, ask the Luddites: their smashing of
exploitative capitalists' factory machines, to defend the Luddites' village
crafts, resulted in capital punishment two centuries ago. The difference
is, Free had very little public support. Don'tcha want a nice new SUV? When consumers keep buying the products of major polluters, there is no hope for ending the level of pollution that threatens life as we know it. By the same token, there is no hope for dismantling the nuclear threat when people keep paying for nuclear weapons and waste through paying the taxes. However, the end of abundant, cheap oil will change all that. Polluting and destroying the beautiful, biologically diverse Earth are tied to the availability of money in the form of consumer buying power (two-thirds of the U.S. economy). The other main contributor to maintaining the pollution economy is plentiful, low-cost petroleum. However, not only is a distorted climate among the costs we really pay for the petroleum; oil and natural gas are rapidly depleting resources. Boycott
buying new cars A boycott of new cars would have a strong restructuring effect on the economy in a matter of weeks, because at least 25% of all U.S. jobs are motor-vehicle-industry related (aside from depending on transport). Advocating this would be irresponsible if destruction and hardship were the object. However, this economy has to go anywayóit will of its own weight. So, the sooner the better? And if its demise is anticipated or planned, people will be more prepared to institute sustainable practices for survival. Such as: exclusively buying locally made products that one needs. Even a used car when purchased puts money into the community instead of distant corporations. Here in Humboldt County, people are proud to have old cars and use them little. Loving and trusting nature and ourselves is key to survival and enjoying life. The root word of "economics," ecos, is Greek for household, and this root word is also what "ecosystem" is based on. To separate the economy from the ecosystem is impossible, and to attempt it is damaging even though profitable in the short-term. Long-term, collapse of the present dominant economy is advisable and leads to sustainability if collapse comes soon enough in the right way. Short-term, collapse is painful, but more painful the longer it is put off. It was painful in the 1930s, but not nearly so much as will the next, final, giant depression. In 1930, people in the U.S. were not yet virtually eating petroleum. Now that they are, population growth has been accommodated to reach a size more than double what is was in 1930 at the dawn of the petroleum-agriculture age (or, in perspective, an age-lette). When the economy collapses, whether from a concerted campaign to buy only used cars (the weakened economy will also force people to do so) or from inevitable petroleum supply shortage around the corner, people will eat local food to the extent that they can and must. To the extent they cannot, they will starve. Cannibalism will reign; the question is how much. It will be worse in New York City than in Havana where they grow their own organic food and get around on bikes. The average piece of food consumed in the U.S. nowadays travels 1,400 miles before it is eaten, thanks to the wonders of transportation relying on oil. Peak global oil extraction is occurring perhaps as we speak, and there is no alternative energy future for this overbuilt Petroleum Civilization. The solar, windmill and hydrogen buffs wish for a magical transformation of an entire infrastructure, and it won't happen without a lot of rebuildingóby a much reduced population eking out subsistence in the trashed ecosystem. So, do we extend this unwinnable, lethal game of propping up the Waste Economy, or cut our losses now? A WTO trade-show participant reports:
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The
Cancun, Mexico meeting of the WTO "collapsed" on Sept. 14
according to the Associated Press. AP reported that the WTO talks were
designed to change the face of farming around the world, despite
"differences between rich and poor nations." If tariffs had been
lowered by countries charging for imported farm goods, this might have meant
that "Consumers could have gotten cheaper fruits, vegetables and meat from
distant shores," said AP. Clearly there is no thought to the oil
required for transport, and by extension we can assume that the petroleum for
growing the food is also thought of as inconsequential.
