CHAPEL OF LOVE There were 100,000 people and a mind boggling 1,714
events. They were crammed into a Catholic University, football stadiums,
a gymnasium, five marquees and some dockside warehouses. Described by
some as the "People's UN," this was the World Social Forum
(WSF) which happened in Porto Alegre, Brazil last week. Since the very
first WSF three years ago, the event has become, according to Noam
Chomsky, "unparallelled in world history." So what is the WSF?
Conceived as a direct alternative to the corporate knees up globalisation
ball known as the World Economic Forum, the WSF is a week of workshops,
discussions, and brainstorming for social change without profiteering and
neoliberalism-and it runs at exactly the same time every year as the
World Economic Forum. In addition to WSF workshops, several
"parallel conferences" sprang up around the city, including an
anarchist convention and a youth camp in a nearby park where about 10,000
people pitched camp, including representatives of Indymedia from around
the world. The choice of Porto Alegre is symbolic too. For 15 years the
city's governing Worker's Party - which now rules Brazil through the
leftwing President Lula - has been deciding the budget through a process
of popular participation, redistributing wealth, reducing poverty and
eliminating corruption as a result. One SchNEWS hack sorting through the
myraid of events and opinions said that three issues seemed to stand out:
Palestine, opposition to the war on Iraq, and the Latin American issue of
the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, which Bolivian Indian
leader Evo Morales described as a charter for "transnational
pirates." This year, Brazalian President Lula went to both the World
Social Forum in Porto Alegre AND the World Economic Forum in Davos. Many
weren't happy with that - the leader of Lula's Worker's Party, Jos�
Genoino, received a pie in the face as a protest. As the Confectioners
without Borders who delivered the pie-ing said in their communique,
"The wave that carries Lula's Worker�s Party to electoral success is
not, in any form, the same wave that supports the movement against
capitalist globalization. Our movement is without leaders or
representatives. No one can speak in our name. If someone in Davos
'represents' the movement, it is ourselves, the thousands that occupy the
roads of Geneva in protest against the reunion of bankers, businessman,
and governments that the Worker�s Party legitimates. The hope for change
that we carry cannot one more time be co-opted and frustrated by
politicians and political parties that wish to promote themselves at our
expense. This time we are going to do things differently."
http://www.portoalegre2003.org/publique/
CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK For writing about Cuba on the internet. When his friends attended an unsanctioned conference in Cuba and attracted the attention of the Treasury Department, Tom Warner, the 77-year-old secretary of the Seattle / Cuba Friends Committee was unsurprised. What did surprise him was when a letter arrived accusing him of 'organising' the event and threatening to fine him $20,000. This was all the more surprising due to the fact that he wasn't even AT the conference! Tom's major mistake was to put details of the conference on his website. Making his mark on history, Tom's nefarious actions have made him the first man to be arrested by the Bush Administration for using the internet to promote something against government policy.
POSITIVE SchNEWS The government has just announced they have �10 million in grants for households and communities to develop their own renewable energy projects. Free info service availabe from the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), for individuals and groups who would like advice about participating in the renewable revolution. 01654-705950 www.cat.org.uk DON'T ATTACK IRAQ! On the 15th of Feb, London will see Britain's biggest ever anti-war demo. There are 3 starting points: 12 noon @ Embankment or 12.30pm @ Gower Street. Or for cyclists, a 'Wheels against the War' critical mass, 12 noon under Waterloo Bridge. The march ends at Hyde Park. There will also be a mass sit-down at Picadilly Circus, meet 5pm Green Park. Transport to London is being organised from across the country - www.stopwar.org.uk. Tickets on coaches from Brighton can be bought from Community Base, Queens Road �7/�4. RAF AMERICA On Wednesday, the Defence Select Commitee agreed to the use of Menwith Hill and RAF Fylingdales in North Yorkshire for U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence systems otherwise known as the 'Son of Star Wars' (see SchNEWS 307). Fylingdales will house an early warning system and Menwith Hill will process the data. A public discussion paper on upgrading the facilities at these two sites was released in December, but even then it was clear that the decision to use the bases had already been made. Minister of War Geoff Hoon has come under severe attack from peace campaigners and even from his own backbenchers for the speed at which he has handed the bases over to America. His decision was of course in no way swayed by the promise of lucrative new contracts for UK arms dealers. In order to ease concerns, Hoon stressed there would be no change to the appearance of Fylingdales or its power output and that the upgrade would be paid for by the US - phew, so we can all sleep easily after all! There are ongoing peace camps at Menwith Hill and Fylingdales. For more information contact Yorkshire CND on 01274 730795 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.cndyorks.gn.apc.org For more info on the 'Son of Star Wars' see SchNEWS 307. War Briefs It was another busy weekend last weekend for anti-war demonstrations around the world. On Saturday there were protests in Genoa, Istanbul, Greece and closer to home Norwich was brought to a standstill, as well as protests in Edinburgh and Colchester. ** On Saturday over 200 protesters marched on RAF St Athans, in Wales and demanded to search for weapons of mass destruction www.icwi.org ** Over 1,500 people took part in a demonstration last Sunday at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and 50 people managed to get into the base www.gwi.org.uk ** On Monday the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, along with other boats, entered Marchwood Military port in Southampton and blocked the departure of UK military supply vessels heading for Iraq. www.greenpeace.org.uk ** On Tuesday Trident Ploughshares activists locked themselves to the gates of Rolls Royce in Derby and prevented workers getting to work. The factory produces nuclear fuel components for trident submarines. 0845 4588366 www.tridentploughshares.org ** On Wednesday a peace activist was arrested at Shannon airport, Ireland after she was found causing damage to an American military plane parked there. Although she didn't manage to disarm the plane, she did manage to cause 500,000 Euros worth of damage. There is now a permanent peace camp outside Shannon Airport. Contact 061-365871 www.shannonpeacecamp.org ** Cambridge peace march, Sat 1st,12 noon, Market Square ** Demonstration at USAF Lakenheath, Suffolk, used by US jets to bomb Iraq in the past and currently housing nuclear weapons, 12 noon Monday 3rd, Gate 1, USAF Lakenheath - Just off the A1065. Non-violence workshop the day before. 01508 550 446, www.lakenheathaction.org ** Sussex Action for Peace meeting, 4th Feb, 7.30pm, Brighthelm Centre Tel: 01273 706820 www.safp.org.uk ** Worthing against War demo next Saturday 8th 1pm in Montague Place. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ** Hands off Iraq, a morning of speakers, discussion, videos, banner making and children's activities. Sat 8 Feb, Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton 9.30am-1pm. ** The D10 affinity group, who helped organise the weekend of action at Northwood earlier this month, are producing a free news sheet on nonviolent action against the war for distribution at the big march in London on the 15th February. If you want to help distribute them on the day contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] MURDER BY DEGREE As Bush blunders on with his "War on Terrorism", the US courts are busying themselves handing out draconian sentences to scores of Human Rights activists who dare to oppose the training of terrorists on their own soil. The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Co-operation (see SchNEWS 382), formerly the School of the Americas, has spent the last 57 years spewing out 60,000 paramilitary graduates with honours in coercion and repression, ready for export to Latin America. SOA graduates include some of the region's most notorious dictators, like Norriega, Galtieri and Suarez. This isn't just for fun. The school is an integral part of US foreign policy-- influencing Latin American politics and economics in order to protect US interests by aiding and influencing South American militaries. Last November 10,000 activists gathered peacefully at the school in Fort Benning to demand its closure. 43 were nicked for the hideous crime of 'repeated line-crossing' and have been sentenced this week with up to 6 months in federal jail, with a $2000 fine to boot! Many of these dangerous criminals were nuns. One activist managed to get the last word. Addressing Judge Mallon Faircloth after getting 3 months, Eloy Garcia said, "Thank you Judge. These harsh sentences will only make our movement, our opposition to this unjust war which is shared by millions across the globe, even stronger." www. soaw.org/new/ Last weekend a group of 150 Colombian paramilitaries assassinated 4 Kuna indigenous leaders in an attack on a remote mountain community in Paya. Doing the dirty work for the US-backed (often trained) Colombian military, the paramilitaries systematically terrorise rural populations and 'silence' any opposition. www.zNet.org; www.lasolidarity.org;
http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos15862.html
