URGENT NEWS FROM ARGENTINA--PLEASE FORWARD THIS INFORMATION 1.WORLD SOCIAL FORUM IN ARGENTINA: "The crisis of the neoliberal model in Argentina, and the challenges for the global movement. BUENOS AIRES, August 22-25,2002 2.GLOBAL CAMPAIGN AND NETWORK OF SAVERS AND INVESTORS AGAINST THE CURRENT CAPITALIST MODEL ("SAVERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!") Dear friends throughout the world: My name is Pablo Bergel, and I'm writing you from Buenos Aires, Argentina. We are in the midst of preparing the World Thematic Social Forum on the Argentine Crisis that will take place in Buenos Aires from August 22 to August 25. The Forum will unite a variety of social activists with a diversified schedule of activities, including representatives from the unemployed "piquetero" movement, the neighborhood assemblies, unions, movements of agricultural women, ecological groups, human rights organizations, etc. Among the protagonists emerging from this profound crisis are the small investors, whose funds have been taken by the financial system under a governent decreed and bank-supported "bank freeze", thus violating their private property rights, their legal rights, and the contract betwen savers and the banks who have always promised them "Your money is safe with us". This aspect of the Argentine crisis, that has much in common with the crisis of the huge multinationals in the countries of the North ( Enron, Worldcom, Vivendi,etc.) has had several new and important effects: a) It has mobilized in a radical way members of the middle and lower middle classes against the current financial system, the banks the government, the IMF, the World bank, etc. b) It has produced an enormous "illegimitazation" of the global financial system. c. It has opened a huge opportunity for the construction of a long term global network that rejects the current capitalist world financial system and works to create alternatives that we have provisionarily named "Savers of the World Unite" The objective of this campaign is a worldwide mobilization of savers and small time investors against the current global financial system and in favor of new and transparent institutions which include democratic control and ecologically sound practices and are committed to real economic growth. We have decided to dedicate a day of the forum to this issue, with activities conducted by savers and others who have been harmed by the world banking and financial system. We are planning, in conjunction with the Independant Movement of Argentine Savers a series of panels and activities throughout this day, including a discussion of the global campaign "Savers of the World, Unite!" People from various social movements and non-profit organizations, as well as lawyers, judicial specialists, and political representatives have already committed to participate in the activity, which will take place in the Ateneo Theater in the center of Buenos Aires. First,we'd like to invite you personally to participate in the diverse activities of the Social Forum in Buenos Aires this August. Second, we'd like to invite you to participate and collaborate with a worldwide social network whose objective is a campaign against the current financial system and for the development of humane financial alternatives. Third, we'd like to ask your help in disseminating this initiative and invitation, especially to people who have been harmed by Enron, Worldcom, Vivendi and other companies and to activist and non profit organizations. Their participation, along with the Argentine savers, in the Buenos Aires forum would be vary valuable. We are aware of the short time remaining before the Forum, as well as the fact that August is a month of vacation in the north. These times of crisis have forced us to work creatively and improvisationally. Thank you very much, we are looking forward to your collaboration and participation! pablo bergel - pablobergel@house.com.ar ; arcoiris@house.com.ar ; (54-11) 4553-0845 - Buenos Aires. ------------------------------------------------------ WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: FOCUS ON ARGENTINA. " The crisis of the neoliberal model in ARgentina, and the challenges for the global movement. Thursday, 22 August, to Sunday 25 August, 2002. Day Long Forum: "Savers of the World Unite!" Saturday 24 August 2002. 9:00-5:00PM. Ateneo heater, Paraguay 918, Buenos Aires Objectives: An in depth discussion and analysis of all aspects of the Argentine situation as a precursor and herald of the world financial crisis which has already begun. "Globalization" of the Argentine situation, to let others know what could be the possible consequences of the world financial crisis, to invoke solidarity with the Argentine people, to develop campaigns and programs which work to insure the legitimate interests and rights of small time savers worldwide, and for the transformation of the current global financial system towards a more democratic,ethical, secure and environmentally responsible financial system. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTIVITY: Panels, Conferences and Discussions about the savers and others who have been harmed by the financial and banking system, in Argentina and in the World, with the presence and participation of: -Savers Groups from all over the country, who have been cheated and swindled by the financial system. -Urban and rural debtors (homeowners with mortgages, small businesses and farms, etc.) -Workers and employers of banks and financial insitutions. -Other groups and social movements whose rights have been abused by the financial system. (The unemployed, etc.) -Professionals, non profit organizations and others who are in solidarity with the savers movement. -Foreign representatives and individuals of savers groups who have been victims of financial fraud in the first world (ie, with Enron, Worldcom, Vivendi,)and in neighboring countries. TENTATIVE SCHEDULE: 9:00AM: Reception/Sign-up 9:30AM: Opening Talk. Explanation of the local and global meaning of the " Savers of the World Unite" under the rubric of the World Social Forum. Explanation of the program and day's activities. 10-11:00AM: Argentine Savers: "From the pain in the pocket to the pain in the soul," Four speakers from savers groups in different regions of the country. ( Ten minutes each, followed by 20 minutes of questions and open debate, conducted by a moderator.) 11:00-12:00AM. Harmed by the System: savers, debtors, bank workers, unemployed, small business owers: "Different victims of the same mafia." Ten minutes of speeches by five or six representatives of these groups. Recess: 30-45 Minutes. 1:00-2:00PM. Legal specialists: National and international Legal Campaigns. 2:00-3:00 4th Panel: Political represetatives: Political and legislative actions. Four panelists, ten minutes of speeches, twenty minutes of questions and answers. Recess: 15 minutes. 3:15-4:30PM. 5th Panel: The swindling of the savers of the North: the cases of Enron, Worldcom, Vivendi, etc. and their relationship with the Argentine case. Four or five panelists, Argentine and foreign specialists. 4:30-5:30PM. 6th Panel-" Savers of the World, Unite! Another Bank is necessary and possible." Explanation and discussion of the struggles of small time savers and investors in Argentina, the regiion, and the first world: worldwide global campaign and network against mafioso plundering and for new and democratic financial rules and institutions. Four or Five panelists from Argentina and elsewhere. 5:30PM. Conclusions and Closing Talk. ----------------------------------------------- SAVERS OF THE WORLD: UNITE! By Pablo Bergel "They are Enron, we are Argentina..." This slogan, chanted in rhythm with the banging of pots, accompanied the march against the representatives of global financial capitalism meeting at the Davos Forum in the beginning of Feburary in New York. Since then, the succession of frauds and swindles that have cheated small time savers and investors through banks, retirement and pension funds and all the paraphenalia of "financial products" that has been invented to capture the money of the working and middle classes of the developed world, has not stopped collecting more and more "big names"--Worldcome, Xerox, Merril Lynch, the auditor Arthur An derson, Citicorp, JP Morgan, Vivendi..the list goes on, mixed up with the names of politicians: vice president Cheney, president Bush. No, these are not isolated incidences, nor are they deviations of a healthy and legitimate financial system. Nor is the robbery of savers by private banks in Argentina,with the complicity of the IMF and the corrupt obsequience of politicians, judges and legislators, a "deviation of the rule", an isolated case that just happened to strike a decadent and distant country, something that "never could happen in the first world." On the contrary: this is the rule, this is the system in its phase of the bursting of the speculative financial bubble. This is world capitalism as it exists in its culminating stage, after having done away with productive activity, with employment, with public health and education programs, after having razed the environment and submitted the entire planet to its speculative logic, this system has collapsed upon itself, upon its own purported values and principles: private property, contracts between human beings and institutions, the rights of law and democracy. In this fall, it is eating its own children..the small time savers and investors of Argentina and the rest of the world: it lies to them, it cheats them, it robs them indiscriminately. World capitalism, which some have called "savage" and some have called "benefactor" now has become pure mafia. Small time savers, who constitute the immense mass of global financial capital are and will be the final victims of a system they continue feeding and sustaining by blindly delivering their savings and retirement plans and which leads to fraud, cheating, and robbery. Savers of the world: Are you sure of your money tonight, in the bank, in its investment fund? Is your money being used in the way you yourself would use it? Are you sure that whatever institution now has your money isn't robbing you this very minute? Or that they arenīt robbing someone else, spreading hunger, exploitation, child malnutrition, violence and wars, destroying trees and oceans with your money? How long are you going to put your own faith your own future and the future of your grandchildren in depersonalized and monstruous depersonalized institutions, Frankensteins out of control? The system has become insustainable: get out of it! "Save your money and save the world: run on your bank, before your bank runs over you!" Savers of the world: you have an immense power, the biggest of all, to stop the financial system from plundering the world with your savings and from ending up as its next victim. You have the power to say No, to take out your money; to demand radical changes in financial institutions, to create and contribute in developing new institutions of investment, savings, and credit. A "general global strike" of depositors and investors, a massive withdrawel of funds, is the decisive weapon for smalltime savers against transnational corporations. People, naturally, are going to ask: "Where am I going to save my money, in my house?" The answer is no, this won't be necessary. The answer is to create new banking models that answer to the real needs of the people. But even if this were necessary, it's worth taking a look at the Argentine example: here, the probability of being robbed in your house is less than 1%, while the probability of being robbed by your bank is 99.99%. Savers of the world: another bank is possible, another system of savings, investment and credit is necessary for you security and prosperity and for that of the entire world. A new system of financial services that is committed to a real economy, with production and consumption that is conscious of the world's population, a system that is transparant and democratic, with visibility and control, a service that links savers with workers in order to enhance social wealth and benefits for all. A bank that is on the scale of its members and community, without ususurious interest rates, where the redestribution of capital would be in fair proportion to the wealth that is created; a bank that is integrated with society, in the service of fair business and employment, and ecologically responsible. All this is necessary and possible: in your own economic self-defense, in defense of your society and of future generations: a global campaign of savers who reject the current financial system in favor of an ethical, secure and practical bank, organized by a social network of small time investors and creditors (urban and farmworkers, consumers, entrepreneurs, and others). This should be on the list of urgent global actions. Savers of the World, Unite! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.