[mgj-announce] Solidarity Demo

[Madeline Jean]

      **We Stand Together Against Corporate Rule**


Please circulate widely


What: A RALLY to stand in SOLIDARITY with the people of the social movements gathered in JOHANNESBURG SOUTH AFRICA.

Who: Everyone who believes in global justice and supporting our comrades in the Global South.

Where: At the park across from the World Bank, 18th and H st.

When: 5pm on Tuesday September 3rd.

Bring: Puppets, signs, visuals, your voice, yourself.


*This statement was read at an international press conference in Johannesburg this morning.

Declaration of Solidarity from People Gathering to Protest the IMF and the World Bank in Washington D.C.  with the Social Movements Gathered in Johannesburg 



We Stand Together Against Corporate Rule 



The Mobilization for Global Justice ­ an umbrella group preparing mass protests in Washington, DC against the policies of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the governments and transnational corporations that stand behind them - declare our support for the representatives of global civil society who have mobilized around the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg.. Together we stand united across the oceans and time zones, across our diverse cultures, races, movements and traditions.  We stand in solidarity to demand an end to a global system that puts corporate greed before human need and treats our planet and communities merely as resources to be exploited. 



We join our brothers and sisters in South Africa in demanding that the governments of the world cease taking their marching orders from transnational corporations, and begin responding to the needs of the majority of their citizens. We demand the end of secret meetings where a handful of bureaucrats make life and death decisions affecting millions. We demand the cancellation of Third World debt. We demand an end to socially and environmentally destructive projects such as oil, gas, mining, logging and the construction of large dams.   We demand the end to primary school fees, health and water privatization, union-busting, and other structural adjustment policies that deprive poor people of their right to live.   We reiterate our opposition to a "new round" of negotiations in the World Trade Organization and to the creation of a "Free Trade Area of the Americas," as these are both clearly designed to further the corporate take over of our governments, economies and cultures. 



We express our solidarity with the people of the Townships of Johannesburg and all South Africa. We are outraged that those who most personally understand the failings of corporate globalization are being excluded from the WSSD summit.   We are tired of seeing ³sustainability² become yet another code word for greed and exploitation.  We call on all people of goodwill to support the mobilization and to oppose all efforts to silence their voices.