[mgj-discuss] Tue. 6/12: October mobilization strategy meeting

[Basav Sen]

Dear friends, 

This is to invite you to a strategy meeting next week.
DATE: Tuesday June 12, 2007
TIME: 6:30 pm.
PLACE: St. Stephen’s Church, 1525 Newton St. NW (16th and Newton), near Columbia Heights Metro

This is a continuation of the meeting on May 30 – an informal coalition is coming together to plan the october demonstrations!

During the World Social Forum in Nairobi in January 2007, activists from all over the world got together to call for International Days of Action against the IMF and World Bank from October 14-21, culminating in their annual meetings in Washington DC on October 19-21.

The Mobilization for Global Justice in Washington DC, as well as other activists in Washington DC and nationwide, are hoping to use this opportunity to revive a compelling resistance to neoliberal global capitalism in North America – a resistance that is both internationalist and locally rooted. .

Worldwide, the policies of the “Washington Consensus” stand discredited. The IMF is struggling for relevance, the WTO is on the verge of collapse, and Latin America in particular is asserting its political and economic independence from the global capitalist world order. Paradoxically, resistance to global capitalism is weak in North America at present, even while it picks up everywhere else. 

However, there are hopeful signs as well, such as last year’s upsurge in the immigrants’ rights movement; the growing trend of immigrant communities in the U.S. openly resisting the neo-colonial attack on their home countries (for example, Congolese community-led protests against World Bank-funded mining in the Congo, and Korean-American resistance to the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement); and militant movements of low wage workers, low-income tenants, and other marginalized people. The call from Nairobi is a tremendous opportunity for us to revive a movement for global justice here in North America, building on these recent successes. 

The upcoming meeting is the second planning meeting. On May 30, we had a first check-in to brainstorm about the possibilities for major actions against the IMF/WB annual meetings in Washington DC on October 19-21. It was attended by 16 people. We hope you can come this time, whether or not you made the last meeting.

On May 30, we brainstormed possible themes and targets for the demonstrations, and came up with the following themes for our activities that weekend:
•	Expose the role of the IMF and World Bank in the bigger picture of US imperialism.
•	Connect the IMF and World Bank to critical local issues such as housing and gentrification, and the privatization of health care and education. 
•	Connect the IMF and World Bank to the immigrants’ rights struggle.
•	Connect the IMF and World Bank to war and militarism – in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, and elsewhere.

The actions will also be an opportunity to mobilize those communities in the U.S who have the most first-hand experience of the devastating global economy – namely immigrant communities from African, Latin American, Carribean, and Asian countries – to take the lead in this struggle.

We want you to bring your ideas, energy, and creativity to the meeting to make this mobilization happen. We look forward to seeing you at the meeting! Please call us at 202-898-5953 or e-mail us at mgj at riseup.net if there's anything more you want to discuss or to know about this meeting.