[stop-imf] Fall Teach-ins!: Touring the US & Canada,culminating in DC

[Robert Weissman]

End Corporate Rule:
Global Struggles Against the IMF & World Bank
=================================
A Teach-In Tour on the Impact of -- and the
Resistance to -- the IMF, World Bank, & Corporate Domination

Across the USA & Canada – Sept. 6 – 24, 2002

Culminating in a Washington, DC Teach-In – Sept. 25-29, along
with:
* Public Debates   * Prayer Vigils  * Non-violent Direct Action
* Film Festival  * Rallies & Marches   * Street Protests & More…

Educate!  Organize!  Mobilize!

Poor and working people around the world are under siege.  And
they are fighting  for change:  demanding work and livelihoods
with dignity, they call for debt cancellation, an end to economic
policies that put corporate profits before life and rights,
access to basic services like safe water, education, health
services, food security, environmental protection and
conservation.

***We are looking for organizations and coalitions interested in
hosting the Teach-In Tour. We have commitments from colleagues
from the Global South to visit cities across the United States
and Canada between September 6 and 24, 2002.  Each Teach-in Tour
will feature two activists, who will speak at events of varying
size. The Teach-In Tour will culminate in Washington, DC from
September 25 -29, for the Mass Mobilization prior to and during
the World Bank and IMF meetings.

To host a Teach-In Tour please contact us immediately - Shrayas
Jatkar at organize@50years.org or call 202/IMF-BANK (463-2265) -
include contact info. - name, address, email, and phone and fax
numbers.***


Impoverished people in our world are daily being sacrificed to
economic and development policies that continue to fail in
country and after country, but that succeed spectacularly in
making profits for corporations and G7 countries.  Throughout the
Global South (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean,
and former Soviet-bloc countries),  Structural Adjustment
Programs (SAPs) imposed by the World Bank and IMF have been
disastrous to the health, education, food security, environment,
livelihoods, and general well-being of the people. As just one
example, a study found that 72% of countries that participated in
IMF programs between 1978 and 1995 saw an increase in
unemployment.

The World Bank and the IMF continue to demand that poor countries
make payments on unjust and illegitimate debts rather than cancel
them to free up government funds for meeting essential social
needs. The World Bank and the IMF have offered paltry debt relief
that keeps poor countries dependent on the international
financial institutions -- and deprived of resources for primary
schooling, clean water, food security, and other crucial
services.

The World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, and harmful trade agreements
like the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), promote a form of
globalization that gives corporations increasing control over the
lives of ordinary citizens throughout the world.  In the U.S.,
rampant corporate greed and corruption are finally being exposed
by almost weekly scandals. People are making the connections to
the socio-economic problems little spoken of during the “boom
economy” of the last decade -- jobs with wages that can support a
family have been steadily disappearing, the environment has been
sold off to the highest bidders, the right to organize is
continually eroded, and in the Global South workers face
incredibly high rates of unemployment and increasingly abusive
working conditions.  The worldwide race to the bottom on wages,
rights, environmental protection, and livelihoods with dignity
and has made it clear: corporate globalization does NOT work for
poor and working people.

Those truly benefiting from corporate globalization are the
multinational corporations and wealthy investors. Exploiting the
desperation of workers in the Global South, multinational
corporations based in North America, Europe, and Japan have
abandoned workers in their countries and shifted operations to
the developing world where they pay starvation wages and expose
workers to hazardous working conditions - all the while reaping
unprecedented profits.

***Host a Stop on the End Corporate Rule Teach-In Tour!
Tell us the following:
* Name and location of your organization, with contact
information;
* The focus of your organization;
* Beyond general explanations of Corporate Rule and the World
Bank and IMF, what issues would you like to see addressed in such
a teach in? (i.e. gender, labor, environment); and
* We are looking for hosting organizations to help with the costs
of the tour (travel costs, hotel costs, and honorariums for
speakers). Would your organization be able to contribute funds
for your event?

Contact Shrayas at 202/463-2265 or <organize@50years.org>***



The End Corporate Rule Teach-In Tour Culminates with a 3-Day
Teach-in and Mass Mobilization in Washington, DC – September
25-27, 2002

During the joint Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF this
September, thousands of people will converge in Washington, DC to
demonstrate their commitment to the ever-growing Global Justice
Movement.  We will be calling for an end to the policies and
practices of the IMF and World Bank that have caused widespread
poverty, inequality, and suffering among the world's peoples and
damage to the world's environment.

For more information on international debt, corporate rule, the
destructive policies of the World Bank and the IMF, resistance to
harmful projects and policies, and related issues, visit the
following websites:


www.50years.org
www.essential.org
www.jubileeusa.org
www.econjustice.net
www.worldbankboycott.org
www.globalexchange.org
www.irn.org (International Rivers Network)
www.focusweb.org (Focus on the Global South)
www.twnside.org.sg (Third World Network)
www.jubileesouth.net
www.brettonwoodsproject.org

Sponsored by -  50 Years Is Enough Network & Jubilee USA Network
Co-Sponsored by -  Essential Action, Global Exchange, & Center
for Economic Justice/World Bank Bond Boycott Campaign