[stop-imf] Ending Global Apartheid: a teach-in for action on the IMF and World Bank; this Thursday - Saturday

[Robert Weissman]

ENDING GLOBAL APARTHEID: A TEACH-IN FOR ACTION ON THE IMF AND WORLD BANK
Sponsored by Essential Action, 50 Years is Enough, Jubilee USA Network,
Global Exchange, Center for Economic Justice / World Bank Bonds Boycott

This Thursday - Saturday, Sept. 27-29, in Washington, DC.

Information and on-line ticket sales at www.essentialaction.org/wbimf

Full schedule follows below:


T H U R S D A Y, September 27, 2001

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Conversation about Peace with Howard Zinn
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies (U.S.)
Sam Husseini, Institute for Public Accuracy (U.S.)
Location: All Souls Church

7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Opening Plenary: Ending Global Apartheid
Salih Booker, Africa Action (U.S.)
Jonah Gokova, Ecumenical Support Services and Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt &
Development (Zimbabwe)
Aggripina Mosha, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (Tanzania)
Cristobal Sanchez, Peasants' Association of Rabinal Maya-Achi (Guatemala)
Moderator: Njoki Njoroge Njeh=9E, 50 Years Is Enough Network (Kenya/U.S.)
Location: National Baptist Church

F R I D A Y, September 28, 2001

10:00 am - 11:30 am Plenary
Democratizing Development: The Case Against Structural Adjustment
Lidy Nacpil, Freedom from Debt Coalition and Jubilee South (Philippines)
Trevor Ngwane, Anti-Privatization Forum (South Africa)
Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research (U.S.)
Moderator: Joanne Carter, RESULTS (U.S.)
Location: National Baptist Church

11:45 am - 1:15 pm Action Sessions

World Bank Bonds Boycott
This session will provide information and organizing training on the World
Bank Bonds Boycott campaign. The boycott, launched at the initiative of
economic justice movements in the global South in April 2000, is based on
the fact that the World Bank raises $20 billion annually on private
financial markets by issuing bonds. Through the World Bank Bonds Boycott,
people of faith, taxpayers, working people, and students are building
political pressure to end harmful World Bank policies by getting their
churches, religious communities, municipalities, etc. to commit not to buy
World Bank bonds in the future. Dozens of municipalities have already
signed on and the Bank is growing concerned about the growing campaign.
The workshop will emphasize "how to" organize a campaign to boycott World
Bank bonds on your campus, in your city council, or in your church or
union.

Matt Feinstein, Clark University, (U.S.)
Vineeta Gupta, Insaaf (Justice) International (India)
Laura Livoti, Economic Justice for Africa Now (U.S.)
Moderator: Neil Watkins, Center for Economic Justice (U.S.)
Location: All Souls Church

Poverty Reduction Strategy Process &Private Sector Development

Nancy Alexander, Global Challenge Initiative (U.S.)
Aggripina Mosha, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (Tanzania)
Carol Welch, Friends of the Earth (U.S.)
Moderator: Lidy Nacpil, Freedom from Debt Coalition and Jubilee South
(Philippines)
Location: Casa del Pueblo

1: 15 pm - 2:30 pm Lunch Break

2: 30 pm - 4:00 pm Action Sessions

Jubilee & Reparations

Jonah Gokova, Ecumenical Support Services and Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt &
Development (Zimbabwe)
Lidy Nacpil, Freedom from Debt Coalition and Jubilee South (Philippines)
Moderator: Marie Clarke, Jubilee USA Network (U.S.)
Location: All Souls Church
Legislative
Jaron Bourke, Congressional Staffer (U.S.)
Joanne Carter, RESULTS (U.S.)
Moderator: Soren Ambrose, 50 Years Is Enough Network (U.S.)
Location: Casa del Pueblo

S A T U R D A Y, September 29, 2001

9:00 am - 10:30 am Plenary
Our World is Not for Sale!

Bertha Caceres, COPINH (Honduras)
Vanessa Dixon (U.S.)
Chatinkha Nkhoma, Global AIDS Alliance (Malawi)
Virginia Setshedi, Anti-Privatization Forum (South Africa)
Location: National Baptist Church
10:45 am - 12:15 pm Action Sessions

HIV/AIDS & Intellectual Property Rights
For all but a lucky few of the 30 million people in the developing world
who are HIV+, and HIV diagnosis is a death sentence. Even though existing
drug treatments enable people with HIV in rich countries to survive, the
drugs are priced out of reach for people in poor countries. This session
will discuss what people in the United States can do to respond to the
humanitarian nightmare: how activism can lower drug prices, provide
funding for treatment and prevention in developing countries, and end
IMF/World Bank policies that contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Salih Booker, Africa Action (U.S.)
Chatinkha Nkhoma, Global AIDS Alliance (Malawi)
Robert Weissman, Essential Action (U.S.)
Location: All Souls Church

Labor & Sweatshops
Privatization jeopardizes the jobs and lives of electrical workers in
Haiti; labor and gender exploitation compound each other in the sweatshops
of Saipan and Mexico; and workers, recently emigrated from countries
suffering from structural adjustment, are denied the right to collective
bargaining in the fields of Florida. Hear about these cases and about
ongoing projects in the US that allow consumers and activists to get
organized in support of workers' campaigns around the world.

Chie Abad, former sweatshop worker in Saipan (Philippines)
Lucas Benitez, Coalition of Immokalee Workers (U.S.)
Harry Clerveau, Haitian Platform for Advocacy for Alternative
Development-PAPDA (Haiti)
Norma Guillermina Sol=92s Torres, Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras
(Mexico)
Moderator: Daisy Pitkin, Campaign for Labor Rights (U.S.)

Location: Casa del Pueblo

Corporate Globalization & Indigenous Rights

Bertha Caceres, COPINH (Honduras)
Ernesto Ledesma, Global Exchange (Mexico)
Ibe Wilson, Kuna Youth Movement (Panama)
Moderator: Orin Langelle, ACERCA (U.S.)
Location: National Baptist Memorial Church

12:15 pm - 1:15 pm Lunch Break

1:15 pm - 2:45 pm Action Sessions

Privatization
The IMF and the World Bank have required developing countries to
privatize
an amazing array of government-owned assets and government-provided
services, including mines, oil refineries, electricity utilities and
banks. IMF/Bank mandated privatization frequently involve mass layoffs and
union busting, giveaways to wealthy elites or foreign investors and
diminished service for consumers. Also on the IMF/Bank privatization hit
list are many services which frequently remain in the public sector in
rich countries, such as water and sanitation, healthcare, airports, and
even customs and tax collection; the privatization record in these areas
is: private profits up, public access down.

Harry Clerveau, Haitian Platform for Advocacy for Alternative
Development-PAPDA (Haiti)
Vineeta Gupta, Insaaf (Justice) International (India)
Virginia Setshedi, Anti-Privatization Forum (South Africa)
Moderator: Sara Grusky, Global Challenge Initiative (U.S.)
Location: All Souls Church

Land and Environment
The World Bank has a decades-long record of financing development
disasters - megaprojects that offer huge rewards to multinationals but
despoil the environment and displace rural and indigenous populations. New
Bank initiatives to support land reform programs threaten to further
disrupt the rural sector, and corrupt the concept of land reform. This
session will provide cutting-edge reports on Bank projects and policies,
and explore how public opposition -- in the United States and around the
world -- is beginning to turn back the Bank's momentum.

Tania Arosemena, Civil Society Initiative for the Environment (Panama)
Bertha Carcares, COPINH (Honduras)
Katia Grams de Lima, Landless Workers Movement - MST (Brazil)
Moderator: Daphne Wysham, Sustainable Energy and Economy Network (U.S.)
Location: Casa del Pueblo

Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA)

Carrie Biggs-Adams, Communication Workers of America (U.S.)
Evelyn Larrieux, Haitian Women's Organization (Haiti)
Manuel Perez Rocha, Mexican Action Network Against Free Trade - RMALC
(Mexico)
John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies (U.S.)
Moderator: Margrete Strand Rangnes, Public Citizen (U.S.)
Location: National Baptist Memorial Church

3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Closing Plenary

Ending Global Apartheid: Another World Is Possible
Reflections on the state of the movement against corporate globalization,
and of campaigns to shrink the power of the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank. An inspirational call to action.

Marie Dennis, Religious Working Group on the World Bank and IMF (U.S.)
Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange (U.S.)
Luis Gilberto Murillo, former governor of Choc=97 State (Colombia)
Moderator: Robert Weissman, Essential Action (U.S.)
Location: National Baptist Church