Mobilization Against the WTO Mini-Ministerial in Montreal

As part of the ongoing struggle against capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy, and other forms of oppression, people are invited to converge in Montreal on July 27-30 to oppose the World Trade Organization (WTO). Mega-demonstrations are planned in response to a so-called 'mini-ministerial' -- at which an exclusive group of trade ministers will be conspiring here in Montreal to engineer a 'successful' outcome at a larger WTO ministerial to be held in September in Cancun, Mexico.

"Mobilization Against the WTO Mini-Ministerial in Montreal" -- an open organizational assembly process called by Montreal region activists affiliated with various local anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-war groups -- has adopted a basic action plan. This will include direct action disruptions to the upcoming meeting (possibly a 'shutdown') and an emphasis on complementing the efforts of local groups dealing with antiwar, refugee, immigrant, and indigenous struggles. There will be several days of action, allowing space for various issues, such as a focus on the pharmaceutical industry's refusal to permit low-cost, life-saving and life-enhancing AIDS drugs to the global South, on the GATS (General Agreement on Trade and Services), on WTO agricultural policies, and more. The events will be kicked off with a large-scale, popular, child-friendly march on July 27 under the theme "No One is Illegal". The focus of this will be on the WTO's links to colonial genocide, militarization and war, as well as the displacement of migrants (this march follows from the No One Is Illegal march, of more than 5000 people, last June in Ottawa against the G8). Other specific events will be announced in future updates.

The WTO - VEHICLE OF OPPRESSION

With 146 member countries, the WTO is the world's most powerful instrument in controlling international trade. It is a main vehicle of the 'neoliberal' agenda -- a philosophy in which everything and everyone is reduced to a commodity to be bought and sold in markets, with the ultimate goal being a relentless expansion of profits. In concrete terms, the WTO administers over 20 agreements, facilitates future trade negotiations, and oversees and enforces trade dispute resolution - a secret process which allows countries to challenge each others' laws as violations of WTO rules. Since its inception in 1995, the net effect of the WTO has been to undermine governments' capacity to implement progressive labour, social, health, safety or environmental laws, and to jeopardize the rights of peoples to determine their own futures.

But after being shut down in Seattle in 1999 and forced to hide out in Qatar in 2001, the WTO process has begun to unravel beneath the weight of its own illegitimacy. Externally, it is universally reviled as a symbol of corporate domination; internally, the majority of its own members are fed up with being shoved around by a minority of powerful interests. A powerful popular resistance in Montreal will help to unsteady the WTO so that protesters massed in Cancun can deliver the knockout blow.

OVERALL BASIS OF UNITY

The basis of unity of the organizing assembly "Mobilization Against the WTO Mini-Ministerial in Montreal") is the PGA Hallmarks (see http://www.agp.org), a set of principles which have evolved out the struggles in the global south. They are as follows:

1. A very clear rejection of capitalism, imperialism and feudalism; all trade agreements, institutions and governments that promote destructive globalisation;

2. We reject all forms and systems of domination and discrimination including, but not limited to, patriarchy, racism and religious fundamentalism of all creeds. We embrace the full dignity of all human beings.

3. A confrontational attitude, since we do not think that lobbying can have a major impact in such biased and undemocratic organisations, in which transnational capital is the only real policy-maker;

4. A call to direct action and civil disobedience, support for social movements' struggles, advocating forms of resistance which maximize respect for life and oppressed peoples' rights, as well as the construction of local alternatives to global capitalism;

5. An organisational philosophy based on decentralisation and autonomy.

CONTACTS / GETTING HERE

A Montreal organizing site will be online soon at
http://montreal.resist.ca at which updated information will be posted regularly.

Meanwhile info updates in English and French about Montreal-area organizing against the WTO are available via the wto-montreal-announce e-mail list which you can join by visiting the following webpage:
http://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/wto-montreal-announce

arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)