See the following websites:
http://pittsburghendthewar.org/
http://bailoutpeople.org
http://bailoutthepeoplemovement.blogspot.com/
Showing posts with label G20. Show all posts
Showing posts with label G20. Show all posts
Sign Online Petition To Drop Charges On G-20 Protesters & Against Police Repression
Click Here To Sign Petition
To: Pittsburgh Mayor Ravenstahl, Pittsburgh City Council, Pittsburgh Police Chief, Allegheny County Council
CC: PA Congressional Delegation, Congressional Leaders, the PA Legislature, Federal Officials, Pittsburgh business leaders, members of the Pittsburgh and national media
I demand that the military occupation of Pittsburgh be disbanded immediately; all charges against the people arrested in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24 and 25 especially the youth – including those involved in direct action confronting the G-20 summit – be dropped. Everyone detained must be accounted for and released. I support an independent worker-community-student investigation of the homeland security occupation and repression during the G-20 summit.
Sincerely,
(Your signature will be appended here based on the contact information you enter to the right)
Click Here To Sign Petition
To: Pittsburgh Mayor Ravenstahl, Pittsburgh City Council, Pittsburgh Police Chief, Allegheny County Council
CC: PA Congressional Delegation, Congressional Leaders, the PA Legislature, Federal Officials, Pittsburgh business leaders, members of the Pittsburgh and national media
I demand that the military occupation of Pittsburgh be disbanded immediately; all charges against the people arrested in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24 and 25 especially the youth – including those involved in direct action confronting the G-20 summit – be dropped. Everyone detained must be accounted for and released. I support an independent worker-community-student investigation of the homeland security occupation and repression during the G-20 summit.
Sincerely,
(Your signature will be appended here based on the contact information you enter to the right)
Click Here To Sign Petition
Struggle for jobs comes to G-20
By Brenda Sandburg, Bail Out The People Movement
Pittsburgh - More than 1,000 protesters marched through the streets of Pittsburgh on Sept. 20 demanding a real jobs program, like the public works program the Roosevelt administration enacted during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
It was the first demonstration related to the G-20 summit, a gathering of Treasury officials and central bankers from 20 countries that will take place in Pittsburgh Sept 24-25. The goal of the G-20 is to protect bank profits. The goal of the March for Jobs is to revive Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for the right of all to a job. The march was organized by the Bail Out the People Movement and the Rev. Thomas E. Smith, pastor of the Monumental Baptist Church, and endorsed by the United Steelworkers union and the United Electrical Workers.
The march garnered coverage and interest from major big-business media, both nationally and locally, including the Associated Press, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, the French Press Agency and others. Organizers of the march attributed the media interest to the fact that the march addressed the crisis of joblessness and its devastating impact on the Black community.
People came from cities throughout the country to join a significant number of Pittsburgh area residents for the march. The cities represented included Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Cleveland, Akron, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Miami, New York, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Providence, the North Carolina Triangle area and Boston. Many have been laid off or lost their homes to foreclosures. Despite the crisis, people were spirited, drawing strength from being together and from building a movement.
“In honor of Martin Luther King we are continuing what he started in uniting people together in a poor people’s campaign,” the Rev. Tom Smith, pastor of Monumental Baptist Church and one of the organizers of the march, told the rally. “The G-20 is structuring deals to protect the corporations and not the workers. It’s time for the workers to come together and make a difference.”
People gathered in the morning at Monumental Baptist Church located in the historic African-American Hill district of Pittsburgh. A tent city dedicated to the unemployed had been set up next to the church the day before. Many of the protesters will stay at the tent city throughout the week with more people expected to join as the G-20 summit opens.
An opening rally was held before the march stepped off at about 2:30. People marched carrying hundreds of placards with the image of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and chanting, “We got the right! We got the right to a job!” The march ended at Freedom Corner, where in 1963 people got on buses to go to the historic civil rights march in Washington, D.C.
Larry Holmes, an organizer of the Bail Out the People Movement, said the government claims a jobless recovery is on the horizon. He emphasized that this is unacceptable. “A jobless recovery is like a dead patient after a successful operation,” he said.
Monica Moorehead of the organization Millions for Mumia recognized the more than two million people in prison who couldn’t be at the demonstration. She introduced a taped message from political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
At the closing rally, Fred Redmond, United Steelworkers vice president, noted the need for universal health care and affordable education as well as jobs for all. “Enough of our kids are going to school where the rats outnumber the computers,” he said. “We have to assure that every child receives an education to equip them for the 21st century.”
Other speakers at the two rallies included Oscar Hernandez, a participant in the 11-month Stella D’Oro bakery strike in New York City; Clarence Thomas, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 and Million Worker March Movement; Brenda Stokely and Jennifer Jones, NYC Coalition in Solidarity with Katrina/Rita Survivors; Rob Robinson, Picture the Homeless; Rosemary Williams, Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign; Mick Kelly, Coalition for a Peoples Bailout; Nellie Bailey, Harlem Tenants Council; John Parker, Bail Out the People Movement organizer in Los Angeles; Sandra Hines, Michigan Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs; Rokhee Devastali, Feminist Students United, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart; Larry Hales, FIST (Fight Imperialism Stand Together); Larry Adams, People’s Organization for Progress; Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Victor Toro, an immigrant facing deportation and member of the May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights; Berna Ellorin, BAYAN-USA; Father Luis Barrios, Pastors for Peace; Kali Akuno, U.S. Human Rights Network; and Pennsylvania state Sen. Jim Ferlo.
Why people came to Pittsburgh
The march was a powerful draw for people, many of whom traveled long distances to be part of the event. Strikers from TRW Automotive, a seatbelt-making plant in Mexico, had been in Detroit speaking out about their struggle when they heard about the protest in Pittsburgh and joined the bus from Detroit. One member of the TRW group, Israel Mouroig of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, said it was necessary to forge alliances at the international level. “Corporations that generate billions of dollars a year produced the crisis in our country,” he said. “There is a lack of jobs because they see the working class as robots, as numbers. We have to appropriate the means of production and be the actors of our own history.”
Several people drove from Los Angeles, including Guy Anthony, who lost his job as an organizer with the Service Employees union in June. Now living in his car, he has traveled around the country writing a blog about his experiences (thedistantdrummer.com). “You can’t talk about joblessness without talking about homelessness,” Anthony said. He met people in Seattle who had set up “a fabulous tent city” on church property. He also stayed with people who set up a homeless community at a roadside stop off of Route 280 south of San Francisco. “You couldn’t want better neighbors,” he said. “Nobody went hungry. It was a beautiful socialist community.” The county recently shut the group down.
A large contingent from the Boston School Bus Drivers union, USW Local 8751, including Gary Murchison, former three-term president of the local, and Frantz Mendes, current president, showed up three days before the march to help organize and build the tent city.
Detroit activists, who organized a hugely successful tent city in June, brought a busload of people to Pittsburgh. “We had to be here,” said Sandra Hines of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition. “We have to mobilize, organize before they take every right we have away from us.” Latonya Lloyd, who was part of the Detroit delegation, recently battled the shut-off of utilities at the Highland Towers apartment building.
Mary Kay Harris came with about 40 other people on a bus from Rhode Island. A member of DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), Harris said that as soon as they heard about the March for Jobs they decided they had to be there. Rhode Island, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, has a tent city of the homeless. “We feel that solidarity is the most important thing,” she said.
Activists in Cleveland also brought a busload of people, including a large contingent from the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. And a group of 18 youth came from North Carolina, including Tracy Gill, a member of FIST who said this was the first big protest she had ever been to.
Members of the Minnesota People’s Bailout Coalition also came to the march. Angel Buechner said the organization had fought for legislation last year that would have provided immediate jobs or income and a moratorium on foreclosures and on the state’s five-year limit on receiving welfare. But Gov. Tim Pawlenty defeated the measure. Despite the setback, Buechner is ready to continue the battle.
At the ending rally at Freedom Corner, Holmes announced—to the approval of the crowd—that the next step is to build a national march for jobs in Washington next April to continue Dr. King’s dream.
Photos By Leilani Dowell, Brenda Sandburg, Dante Strobino and G. Dunkel. Click here to see photos.
Videos of the Tent City and March for Jobs:
http://kdka.com/local/g20/tent.city.protest.2.1196577.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkUxvX5JNJg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx-n2DrLrJw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCnBqnB7j-o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIVoFbILRIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoNtah2Fkcs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjg-FtB5xEY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-fCmmxZd6Y
Pittsburgh - More than 1,000 protesters marched through the streets of Pittsburgh on Sept. 20 demanding a real jobs program, like the public works program the Roosevelt administration enacted during the Great Depression of the 1930s.It was the first demonstration related to the G-20 summit, a gathering of Treasury officials and central bankers from 20 countries that will take place in Pittsburgh Sept 24-25. The goal of the G-20 is to protect bank profits. The goal of the March for Jobs is to revive Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for the right of all to a job. The march was organized by the Bail Out the People Movement and the Rev. Thomas E. Smith, pastor of the Monumental Baptist Church, and endorsed by the United Steelworkers union and the United Electrical Workers.
The march garnered coverage and interest from major big-business media, both nationally and locally, including the Associated Press, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, the French Press Agency and others. Organizers of the march attributed the media interest to the fact that the march addressed the crisis of joblessness and its devastating impact on the Black community.
People came from cities throughout the country to join a significant number of Pittsburgh area residents for the march. The cities represented included Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Cleveland, Akron, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Miami, New York, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Providence, the North Carolina Triangle area and Boston. Many have been laid off or lost their homes to foreclosures. Despite the crisis, people were spirited, drawing strength from being together and from building a movement.
“In honor of Martin Luther King we are continuing what he started in uniting people together in a poor people’s campaign,” the Rev. Tom Smith, pastor of Monumental Baptist Church and one of the organizers of the march, told the rally. “The G-20 is structuring deals to protect the corporations and not the workers. It’s time for the workers to come together and make a difference.”
People gathered in the morning at Monumental Baptist Church located in the historic African-American Hill district of Pittsburgh. A tent city dedicated to the unemployed had been set up next to the church the day before. Many of the protesters will stay at the tent city throughout the week with more people expected to join as the G-20 summit opens.
An opening rally was held before the march stepped off at about 2:30. People marched carrying hundreds of placards with the image of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and chanting, “We got the right! We got the right to a job!” The march ended at Freedom Corner, where in 1963 people got on buses to go to the historic civil rights march in Washington, D.C.
Larry Holmes, an organizer of the Bail Out the People Movement, said the government claims a jobless recovery is on the horizon. He emphasized that this is unacceptable. “A jobless recovery is like a dead patient after a successful operation,” he said.
Monica Moorehead of the organization Millions for Mumia recognized the more than two million people in prison who couldn’t be at the demonstration. She introduced a taped message from political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
At the closing rally, Fred Redmond, United Steelworkers vice president, noted the need for universal health care and affordable education as well as jobs for all. “Enough of our kids are going to school where the rats outnumber the computers,” he said. “We have to assure that every child receives an education to equip them for the 21st century.”
Other speakers at the two rallies included Oscar Hernandez, a participant in the 11-month Stella D’Oro bakery strike in New York City; Clarence Thomas, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 and Million Worker March Movement; Brenda Stokely and Jennifer Jones, NYC Coalition in Solidarity with Katrina/Rita Survivors; Rob Robinson, Picture the Homeless; Rosemary Williams, Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign; Mick Kelly, Coalition for a Peoples Bailout; Nellie Bailey, Harlem Tenants Council; John Parker, Bail Out the People Movement organizer in Los Angeles; Sandra Hines, Michigan Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs; Rokhee Devastali, Feminist Students United, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart; Larry Hales, FIST (Fight Imperialism Stand Together); Larry Adams, People’s Organization for Progress; Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Victor Toro, an immigrant facing deportation and member of the May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights; Berna Ellorin, BAYAN-USA; Father Luis Barrios, Pastors for Peace; Kali Akuno, U.S. Human Rights Network; and Pennsylvania state Sen. Jim Ferlo.
Why people came to Pittsburgh
The march was a powerful draw for people, many of whom traveled long distances to be part of the event. Strikers from TRW Automotive, a seatbelt-making plant in Mexico, had been in Detroit speaking out about their struggle when they heard about the protest in Pittsburgh and joined the bus from Detroit. One member of the TRW group, Israel Mouroig of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, said it was necessary to forge alliances at the international level. “Corporations that generate billions of dollars a year produced the crisis in our country,” he said. “There is a lack of jobs because they see the working class as robots, as numbers. We have to appropriate the means of production and be the actors of our own history.”
Several people drove from Los Angeles, including Guy Anthony, who lost his job as an organizer with the Service Employees union in June. Now living in his car, he has traveled around the country writing a blog about his experiences (thedistantdrummer.com). “You can’t talk about joblessness without talking about homelessness,” Anthony said. He met people in Seattle who had set up “a fabulous tent city” on church property. He also stayed with people who set up a homeless community at a roadside stop off of Route 280 south of San Francisco. “You couldn’t want better neighbors,” he said. “Nobody went hungry. It was a beautiful socialist community.” The county recently shut the group down.
A large contingent from the Boston School Bus Drivers union, USW Local 8751, including Gary Murchison, former three-term president of the local, and Frantz Mendes, current president, showed up three days before the march to help organize and build the tent city.
Detroit activists, who organized a hugely successful tent city in June, brought a busload of people to Pittsburgh. “We had to be here,” said Sandra Hines of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition. “We have to mobilize, organize before they take every right we have away from us.” Latonya Lloyd, who was part of the Detroit delegation, recently battled the shut-off of utilities at the Highland Towers apartment building.
Mary Kay Harris came with about 40 other people on a bus from Rhode Island. A member of DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), Harris said that as soon as they heard about the March for Jobs they decided they had to be there. Rhode Island, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, has a tent city of the homeless. “We feel that solidarity is the most important thing,” she said.
Activists in Cleveland also brought a busload of people, including a large contingent from the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. And a group of 18 youth came from North Carolina, including Tracy Gill, a member of FIST who said this was the first big protest she had ever been to.
Members of the Minnesota People’s Bailout Coalition also came to the march. Angel Buechner said the organization had fought for legislation last year that would have provided immediate jobs or income and a moratorium on foreclosures and on the state’s five-year limit on receiving welfare. But Gov. Tim Pawlenty defeated the measure. Despite the setback, Buechner is ready to continue the battle.
At the ending rally at Freedom Corner, Holmes announced—to the approval of the crowd—that the next step is to build a national march for jobs in Washington next April to continue Dr. King’s dream.
Photos By Leilani Dowell, Brenda Sandburg, Dante Strobino and G. Dunkel. Click here to see photos.
Videos of the Tent City and March for Jobs:
http://kdka.com/local/g20/tent.city.protest.2.1196577.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkUxvX5JNJg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx-n2DrLrJw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCnBqnB7j-o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIVoFbILRIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoNtah2Fkcs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjg-FtB5xEY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-fCmmxZd6Y
A Labor Day Appeal: A Jobless Recovery Means Fight Back Or Starve!
SEPT. 20 MARCH FOR JOBS IN PITTSBURGH BEFORE THE G20 SUMMIT
"Fight or Starve" read the headlines of a leaflet being distributed by the Unemployed Council members in 1933. Flash forwards 76 years and it’s Labor Day 2009. A year ago the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a worldwide melt down of the banking system and the biggest world economic crisis since the 1930s. One year later, after more than 13 trillion dollars of help from the government, they say Wall Street is okay. As finance ministers prepare for the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh this month, the spin is that the recovery is here or near and that U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke saved the country and the planet from a second great depression.
Saved who from a depression? The official unemployment rate in Detroit , Michigan is 29%. That’s depression-level unemployment. But it’s not just Detroit . While the official national unemployment rate just edged up to 9.7%, when the unemployed and underemployed who are not counted in the official rate are added, it’s really closer to 17%. For teenagers it’s a whopping 25% and for African-American young adults it’s closer to 50%.
We're talking about depression-level unemployment. The rate of home foreclosures continues to soar and it’s only going to get worse.
High unemployment affects every worker. Why? Because it drives down wages and benefits across the board and weakens or breaks union contracts. The real news is that things are never going to be the same unless we do something about it. The jobs that were lost are not coming back. The global economic crisis that hit the fan a year ago has ushered in a permanent and ever-escalating war on the working class and the poor. There will be no more respites of peace and prosperity for most of us.
The only question is what are the workers going to do about it? What are the labor unions going to do about it? What are organizations and activists who are dedicated to social and economic justice going to do about it? Will there be a massive fight back of the kind we haven’t seen since the workers said “we’re not taking anymore” in the early and mid-1930s and then proceeded to stop evictions, organize, strike, occupy factories and scare the hell out of the powers that be?
There’s no nice way of putting this. If poor and working people don’t start fighting back we are going to be destroyed by the greedy, profits before people, rich sociopaths from all the Wall Streets all over the globe.
The eyes of the world will be on Pittsburgh in a few days because the heads of governments and their head bankers will be meeting there to talk about how they can continue their jobless recovery on the backs of the working people of the world.
On Sunday, Sept. 20, the first day of the week of the G20 summit, there’s going to be a major march for jobs. Unemployed and homeless people and their supporters will be coming to Pittsburgh for the march for jobs. With the support of some labor including the United Steelworkers union--which is headquartered in Pittsburgh --and the support of the Black community in Pittsburgh , the march for jobs will assemble in the historic Black community of Pittsburgh known as “The Hill”. The goal of the march is to revive the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. devoted the final days of his life to--a second civil rights movement for the right of all to a decent paying job. After the march and rally that day, many will return to a patch of land next to the Monumental Baptist Church on the Hill, where they will live in a tent city dedicated to the unemployed people of the world for the rest of the G20 summit week.
Everything has to start sometime and somewhere. Maybe we can help start the fight back in Pittsburgh this month. Will you be there? Find a bus, a car, a van or a train headed towards Pittsburgh and bring everyone you can with you. Go to BailOutPeople.org.
March For Jobs and Tent City Conveners include:
Bail Out The People Movement
Picture The Homeless
The Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign
Peoples Organization For Progress
May 1st Coalition for Immigrant and Workers Rights
United Electrical Union
United Steelworkers union
San Francisco Central Labor Council
Million Worker March Movement
Local 10 ILWU
Peoples Fight Back Campaign
Moratorium Now! Coalition Against Foreclosures and Evictions
Pastors For Peace
If your community, union or student group is not already on board—there is still time to get involved.
If you are going to be participating at the ‘Solidarity with the Unemployed’ Tent City following the March 4 Jobs—it’s critical to register to make sure there are resources and space available. Space is limited. Pre-registration is required.
Register at http://www.bailoutpeople.org/septg20register.shtml
"Fight or Starve" read the headlines of a leaflet being distributed by the Unemployed Council members in 1933. Flash forwards 76 years and it’s Labor Day 2009. A year ago the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a worldwide melt down of the banking system and the biggest world economic crisis since the 1930s. One year later, after more than 13 trillion dollars of help from the government, they say Wall Street is okay. As finance ministers prepare for the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh this month, the spin is that the recovery is here or near and that U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke saved the country and the planet from a second great depression.
Saved who from a depression? The official unemployment rate in Detroit , Michigan is 29%. That’s depression-level unemployment. But it’s not just Detroit . While the official national unemployment rate just edged up to 9.7%, when the unemployed and underemployed who are not counted in the official rate are added, it’s really closer to 17%. For teenagers it’s a whopping 25% and for African-American young adults it’s closer to 50%.
We're talking about depression-level unemployment. The rate of home foreclosures continues to soar and it’s only going to get worse.
High unemployment affects every worker. Why? Because it drives down wages and benefits across the board and weakens or breaks union contracts. The real news is that things are never going to be the same unless we do something about it. The jobs that were lost are not coming back. The global economic crisis that hit the fan a year ago has ushered in a permanent and ever-escalating war on the working class and the poor. There will be no more respites of peace and prosperity for most of us.
The only question is what are the workers going to do about it? What are the labor unions going to do about it? What are organizations and activists who are dedicated to social and economic justice going to do about it? Will there be a massive fight back of the kind we haven’t seen since the workers said “we’re not taking anymore” in the early and mid-1930s and then proceeded to stop evictions, organize, strike, occupy factories and scare the hell out of the powers that be?
There’s no nice way of putting this. If poor and working people don’t start fighting back we are going to be destroyed by the greedy, profits before people, rich sociopaths from all the Wall Streets all over the globe.
The eyes of the world will be on Pittsburgh in a few days because the heads of governments and their head bankers will be meeting there to talk about how they can continue their jobless recovery on the backs of the working people of the world.
On Sunday, Sept. 20, the first day of the week of the G20 summit, there’s going to be a major march for jobs. Unemployed and homeless people and their supporters will be coming to Pittsburgh for the march for jobs. With the support of some labor including the United Steelworkers union--which is headquartered in Pittsburgh --and the support of the Black community in Pittsburgh , the march for jobs will assemble in the historic Black community of Pittsburgh known as “The Hill”. The goal of the march is to revive the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. devoted the final days of his life to--a second civil rights movement for the right of all to a decent paying job. After the march and rally that day, many will return to a patch of land next to the Monumental Baptist Church on the Hill, where they will live in a tent city dedicated to the unemployed people of the world for the rest of the G20 summit week.
Everything has to start sometime and somewhere. Maybe we can help start the fight back in Pittsburgh this month. Will you be there? Find a bus, a car, a van or a train headed towards Pittsburgh and bring everyone you can with you. Go to BailOutPeople.org.
March For Jobs and Tent City Conveners include:
Bail Out The People Movement
Picture The Homeless
The Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign
Peoples Organization For Progress
May 1st Coalition for Immigrant and Workers Rights
United Electrical Union
United Steelworkers union
San Francisco Central Labor Council
Million Worker March Movement
Local 10 ILWU
Peoples Fight Back Campaign
Moratorium Now! Coalition Against Foreclosures and Evictions
Pastors For Peace
If your community, union or student group is not already on board—there is still time to get involved.
* Endorse – Organize – and Mobilize!VERY IMPORTANT: Please REGISTER for the Tent City.
* Distribute flyers and send out email notices.
* Bring a bus, van or car from your city, town or neighborhood – tell us so we can plan parking.
* Donate $ so that those without funds can attend.
If you are going to be participating at the ‘Solidarity with the Unemployed’ Tent City following the March 4 Jobs—it’s critical to register to make sure there are resources and space available. Space is limited. Pre-registration is required.
Register at http://www.bailoutpeople.org/septg20register.shtml
Protect Civil Liberties - Defend Right To Protest The G20 Meeting in Pittsburgh
As we prepare to protest the G-20 in solidarity with the people of the world who are experiencing the ruinous effects of globalization and war, we in Pittsburgh need your solidarity now too. We are facing the repression of the G-20 national security state, which is using propaganda and political tactics in an attempt to SCARE PEOPLE AWAY and SQUASH OUR RIGHTS TO PROTEST.
We will not be shut down – we are determined to hold mass, nonviolent and constitutionally permitted protests because we not only have the right to protest but WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD. But we need your help as we prepare in all likelihood to launch a federal court case against the Secret Service and the City for our protests, as well as to defeat repressive big-brotherish legislation introduced in City Council by the Mayor (most likely taking his cue from the Federal Government).
Please take a moment to make a quick couple of calls and emails now as we continue the struggle for EVERYBODY’s civil and human rights. This struggle has been a good one, garnering public support for the protests and gathering momentum – let’s step it up a notch and keep opening up the political space for all.
Thanks,
Pete Shell
Pittsburgh Thomas Merton Center Antiwar Committee
PROTECT G20 CIVIL LIBERTIES, CALL THE PITTSBURGH CITY COUNCIL & MAYOR!
Yesterday's public hearing on G20 free speech went well with the City Council. And from that, we anchored today's front page in the Post Gazette (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09246/995280-482.stm)! But we need to keep the pressure on to preserve, advocate for our civil liberties and win permits for the G20 demonstrations and educational activities.
1. Call, fax and email the members of the Pittsburgh City Council. Please ask them respectfully but firmly that:
- Do not pass Ordinances 2009 1708 and 1709 which criminalize intent when carrying certain materials or wearing masks. Reaffirm these ordinances can be used to repress free speech, violate search and seizure laws, facilitate preemptive arrests, and give too much latitude to law enforcement to determine intent in a high pressure environment.
- Pass the Pro-Democracy Resolution (http://g20media.org/city-council-resolution) and affirm that Pittsburgh welcomes dissent and those that oppose the G20.
- Ask Representative Peduto to sponsor the Pro-Democracy Resolution in the City Council as he said he would do at Wednesday's public hearing.
Email each representative by clicking on their picture here: http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/council/
District 5, Council President Doug Shields Phone: 412-255-8965 Fax: 412-255-0820
District 1, Darlene Harris Phone: 412-255-2135 Fax: 412-255-2129
District 2, Teresa Kail-Smith Phone: 412-255-8963 Fax: 412-255-2821
District 3, Bruce Kraus Phone: 412-255-2130 Fax: 412-255-8950
District 4, Jim Motznik Phone: 412-255-2131 Fax: 412-255-2821
District 6, Tonya Payne Phone: 412-255-2134 Fax: 412-255-0737
District 7, Patrick Dowd Phone: 412-255-2140 Fax: 412-255-2419
District 8, William Peduto Phone: 412-255-2133 Fax: 412-255-0738
District 9, Rev. Ricky Burgess Phone: 412-255-2137 Fax: 412-255-8658
2. Call the Mayor's Office and firmly demand the prompt and full granting of the G20 demonstration permits.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl Phone: 412-255-2626 Fax: 412-255-2687
email: askpgh@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
Chief of Staff Yarone Zober Phone: 412-255-2636 Fax: 412-255-2687
Email: yarone.zober@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
Director of Public Safety Mike Huss Phone: 412-255-8615
Email: mike.huss@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
After you make phone calls or get email responses back, let us know how it went. This is a fast-moving issue, and any real-time responses we can get will help.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dE5FeU1Wd184M1JyOG5JeWhoR2xXNWc6MA
Thank you for being active and speaking out!
For more information contact the G20 Media Support Team at www.g20media.org
We will not be shut down – we are determined to hold mass, nonviolent and constitutionally permitted protests because we not only have the right to protest but WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD. But we need your help as we prepare in all likelihood to launch a federal court case against the Secret Service and the City for our protests, as well as to defeat repressive big-brotherish legislation introduced in City Council by the Mayor (most likely taking his cue from the Federal Government).
Please take a moment to make a quick couple of calls and emails now as we continue the struggle for EVERYBODY’s civil and human rights. This struggle has been a good one, garnering public support for the protests and gathering momentum – let’s step it up a notch and keep opening up the political space for all.
Thanks,
Pete Shell
Pittsburgh Thomas Merton Center Antiwar Committee
PROTECT G20 CIVIL LIBERTIES, CALL THE PITTSBURGH CITY COUNCIL & MAYOR!
Yesterday's public hearing on G20 free speech went well with the City Council. And from that, we anchored today's front page in the Post Gazette (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09246/995280-482.stm)! But we need to keep the pressure on to preserve, advocate for our civil liberties and win permits for the G20 demonstrations and educational activities.
1. Call, fax and email the members of the Pittsburgh City Council. Please ask them respectfully but firmly that:
- Do not pass Ordinances 2009 1708 and 1709 which criminalize intent when carrying certain materials or wearing masks. Reaffirm these ordinances can be used to repress free speech, violate search and seizure laws, facilitate preemptive arrests, and give too much latitude to law enforcement to determine intent in a high pressure environment.
- Pass the Pro-Democracy Resolution (http://g20media.org/city-council-resolution) and affirm that Pittsburgh welcomes dissent and those that oppose the G20.
- Ask Representative Peduto to sponsor the Pro-Democracy Resolution in the City Council as he said he would do at Wednesday's public hearing.
Email each representative by clicking on their picture here: http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/council/
District 5, Council President Doug Shields Phone: 412-255-8965 Fax: 412-255-0820
District 1, Darlene Harris Phone: 412-255-2135 Fax: 412-255-2129
District 2, Teresa Kail-Smith Phone: 412-255-8963 Fax: 412-255-2821
District 3, Bruce Kraus Phone: 412-255-2130 Fax: 412-255-8950
District 4, Jim Motznik Phone: 412-255-2131 Fax: 412-255-2821
District 6, Tonya Payne Phone: 412-255-2134 Fax: 412-255-0737
District 7, Patrick Dowd Phone: 412-255-2140 Fax: 412-255-2419
District 8, William Peduto Phone: 412-255-2133 Fax: 412-255-0738
District 9, Rev. Ricky Burgess Phone: 412-255-2137 Fax: 412-255-8658
2. Call the Mayor's Office and firmly demand the prompt and full granting of the G20 demonstration permits.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl Phone: 412-255-2626 Fax: 412-255-2687
email: askpgh@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
Chief of Staff Yarone Zober Phone: 412-255-2636 Fax: 412-255-2687
Email: yarone.zober@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
Director of Public Safety Mike Huss Phone: 412-255-8615
Email: mike.huss@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
After you make phone calls or get email responses back, let us know how it went. This is a fast-moving issue, and any real-time responses we can get will help.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dE5FeU1Wd184M1JyOG5JeWhoR2xXNWc6MA
Thank you for being active and speaking out!
For more information contact the G20 Media Support Team at www.g20media.org
September 5: Raleigh Forum on Economic Crisis and G20
Fight for jobs, human rights, education, and an end to imperialist wars!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
12:00pm - 1:30pm
The Richard B. Harrison Library
1313 New Bern Avenue
Raleigh, NC
Sponsored by Triangle F.I.S.T. and the Bail Out the People Movement
Info: BailOutPeopleNC@gmail.com
Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144891892094
"If you don't have a job, fight to get one-
If you have one, fight to keep it"
"A new world is possible, but we must fight for it."
Unemployment, especially of youth and people of color, is skyrocketing, despite the misrepresentation in the mainstream media that unemployment is still low*. Many, many more are underemployed, often having to work two, even three jobs to barely make ends meet. Even more do not receive adequate benefits, such as affordable health insurance, from employment.
Many of those fortunate enough to have jobs are facing forced cuts in hours, pay, and benefits. Tuition is increasing and financial aid options are decreasing whilst class sizes continue increasing and the quality of education is decreasing.
On September 24-25, delegates from the 20 countries with the largest economies and delegates from the IMF and WTO will gather in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the G20 summit to discuss how they can further further corporate and imperialist interests.
To protest the G20, a Tent City march will occur outside from September 20-25.
Protests will commence with a mass March for Jobs on Sunday, September 20, where we will fight for jobs at a living wage for all.
On August 29, 2009, a panel of speakers will present on the aforementioned various issues working class people are facing in relation to the G20 (youth issues, unemployment, workplace oppression, along with general information on the G20) and answer your questions
Triangle F.I.S.T. and Bail Out the People Movement NC are organizing a caravan from NC to Pittsburgh for the march and summit. More information will be provided at this forum.
So, invite all your friends and build the movement!
*mainstream unemployment figures only take into account those who are still actively searching for jobs, not taking into account people who have withdrawn from the job market, are underemployed, and/or have resorted to working 2-3 part time jobs to make ends meet.
This is even worse for youth, as: “Only 65 of every 100 men aged 20 through 24 years old were working on any given day in the first six months of this year. … For male teenagers, the numbers were disastrous: only 28 of every 100 males were employed in the 16 through 19-year-old age group. For minority teenagers, forget about it. The numbers are beyond scary; they’re catastrophic.” (source http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/opinion/11herbert.tm)
**NOTE: This forum is for anyone who's interested in the economic crisis at hand, unemployment, tuition hikes, budget cuts, repression in the workplace, and how to fight the increased burdens being placed on the backs of working people, NOT just people who are interested in going to the G20 march and/or tent city.
If you need a ride, we will provide it for you.**
http://raleighfist.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/aug-29-raleigh-meeting-to-build-for-g20-protest-jobs-march/#more-542
http://bailoutpeople.org/
Saturday, September 5, 2009
12:00pm - 1:30pm
The Richard B. Harrison Library
1313 New Bern Avenue
Raleigh, NC
Sponsored by Triangle F.I.S.T. and the Bail Out the People Movement
Info: BailOutPeopleNC@gmail.com
Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144891892094
"If you don't have a job, fight to get one-
If you have one, fight to keep it"
"A new world is possible, but we must fight for it."
Unemployment, especially of youth and people of color, is skyrocketing, despite the misrepresentation in the mainstream media that unemployment is still low*. Many, many more are underemployed, often having to work two, even three jobs to barely make ends meet. Even more do not receive adequate benefits, such as affordable health insurance, from employment.
Many of those fortunate enough to have jobs are facing forced cuts in hours, pay, and benefits. Tuition is increasing and financial aid options are decreasing whilst class sizes continue increasing and the quality of education is decreasing.
On September 24-25, delegates from the 20 countries with the largest economies and delegates from the IMF and WTO will gather in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the G20 summit to discuss how they can further further corporate and imperialist interests.
To protest the G20, a Tent City march will occur outside from September 20-25.
Protests will commence with a mass March for Jobs on Sunday, September 20, where we will fight for jobs at a living wage for all.
On August 29, 2009, a panel of speakers will present on the aforementioned various issues working class people are facing in relation to the G20 (youth issues, unemployment, workplace oppression, along with general information on the G20) and answer your questions
Triangle F.I.S.T. and Bail Out the People Movement NC are organizing a caravan from NC to Pittsburgh for the march and summit. More information will be provided at this forum.
So, invite all your friends and build the movement!
*mainstream unemployment figures only take into account those who are still actively searching for jobs, not taking into account people who have withdrawn from the job market, are underemployed, and/or have resorted to working 2-3 part time jobs to make ends meet.
This is even worse for youth, as: “Only 65 of every 100 men aged 20 through 24 years old were working on any given day in the first six months of this year. … For male teenagers, the numbers were disastrous: only 28 of every 100 males were employed in the 16 through 19-year-old age group. For minority teenagers, forget about it. The numbers are beyond scary; they’re catastrophic.” (source http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/opinion/11herbert.tm)
**NOTE: This forum is for anyone who's interested in the economic crisis at hand, unemployment, tuition hikes, budget cuts, repression in the workplace, and how to fight the increased burdens being placed on the backs of working people, NOT just people who are interested in going to the G20 march and/or tent city.
If you need a ride, we will provide it for you.**
http://raleighfist.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/aug-29-raleigh-meeting-to-build-for-g20-protest-jobs-march/#more-542
http://bailoutpeople.org/
Steel & Electrical Workers Endorse March for Jobs and Tent City at G20 Summit in Pittsburgh - Register Today for the Tent City following the March
 | The March 4 Jobs before the G20 Summit is Growing! Breaking News Bulletin: United Steel Workers Union and United Electrical Workers have endorsed and are mobilizing. These are two powerhouse unions with a long and rich history with international headquarters in Pittsburgh Pa. |
Join USW – UE and many, many others on Sunday, Sept 20th, 2 p.m.
In front of Monumental Baptist Church, Soho Street & Wylie Avenue in Pittsburgh
In front of Monumental Baptist Church, Soho Street & Wylie Avenue in Pittsburgh
If your community, union or student group is not already on board—there is still time to get involved.
- Endorse – Organize – and Mobilize!
- Distribute flyers and send out email notices.
- Bring a bus, van or car from your city, town or neighborhood – tell us so we can plan parking.
- Donate $ so that those without funds can attend.
VERY IMPORTANT: Please REGISTER for the Tent City.
If you are going to be participating at the ‘Solidarity with the Unemployed’ Tent City following the March 4 Jobs—it’s critical to register to make sure there are resources and space available. Space is limited. Pre-registration is required.
Register at http://www.bailoutpeople.org/
We need your help:
- Funds are urgently needed to help subsidize buses and vans and to assist with organizing costs for the "March for Jobs." - http://bailoutpeople.org/
donate.shtml - Volunteer - http://www.bailoutpeople.org/
septg20volorgcents.shtml - Download leaflets at http://www.bailoutpeople.org/
pdfs/g20leaflecolor.pdf - Join the BOPM Facebook Group - http://www.facebook.com/
business/dashboard/?ref=sb#/ pages/Bail-Out-The-People- Movement/112781742929 - Follow BOPM on Twitter - http://twitter.com/
bailoutpeoplem
G 20 -- or More G-Money?
By Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison Radio, Written 8/10/09, Recorded 8/17/09
click here to listen to audio column
click here to listen to short version
As the G 20 gathers again, they assemble amidst the wreckage of their own creation.
Representatives of 20 of the alleged developed economies, they are instead representatives of casino capitalism, the use, misuse and grand-theft of public wealth, to fund the bonuses of financial pirates which have looted the treasury of billions.
A few months ago, as they gathered in London, the nation's finance ministers talked about tax havens, but few had any real substantial solutions to the economic turmoil roiling in their own countries.
Much has been said about stimulus packages, and even of the enormous amounts of money being allocated for this purpose, but a modest amount has actually been spent, with the lion's share being devoted to boosting the very banks and businesses that created this disaster.
And while banks and billionaires have been rewarded for their insatiable greed, average people, working people, families struggling in the worst economic environment since the 1930's, are on their own. Millions are jobless. Many are homeless. Many more are helpless.
And while they barely survive day after day, big buck bonuses are back on track at Goldman Sachs and other such entitles in the City.
Politicians, meanwhile, talk of a 'jobless recovery'. If there are no jobs, who can really speak of a recovery?
Wall Street is recovering-- but are you?
Even the French conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy said the economic disaster of last fall spelled the end to laissez-faire (French for 'let it be'), economic theory. Governments on both sides of the Atlantic are giving various stimulus packages to banks and businesses that looks an awful lot like life support.
If this is free market, then slavery was free labor!
Only a bold, unified people's movement can put the people's interests before that of big finance. It's going to take protests -- real protests -- to break through this vampire's bite on the wealth of nations.
--(c) '09 maj
*******************
Info on G20 protests at http://bailoutpeople.org
***************
The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!
URGENT Need for Petition Signatures at: http://www.iacenter.org/mumiapetition/
Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org
http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/
Mumia's got a podcast! Mumia Abu-Jamal's Radio Essays - Subscribe at the website or on iTunes and get Mumia's radio commentaries online.
Mumia Abu-Jamal's new book -- JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: PRISONERS DEFENDING PRISONERS V. THE USA, featuring an introduction by Angela Y. Davis -- has been released! It is available from City Lights Books: http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100448090
If you are planning to organize an event or would like to order in bulk, you can also receive a 45% discount on any bulk orders of 20 copies or more. The book retails for $16.95, for orders of 20 copies or more the discounted price would be $9.32 per book, plus shipping and handling. Prepayment would be required and books are nonreturnable. If you or your organization would like to place a bulk order, please contact Stacey Lewis at 415.362.1901 or stacey@citylights.com
Let's use the opportunity of the publication of this brilliant, moving, vintage Mumia book to build the momentum for his case, to raise the money we desperately need in these challenging economic times, to get the word out – to produce literature, flyers, posters, videos, DVD's; to send organizers out to help build new chapters and strengthen old ones, TO GET THE PEOPLE OUT IN THE STREETS … all the work that we must do in order to FREE MUMIA as he faces LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE OR EXECUTION!
Please make a contribution to help free Mumia. Donations to the grassroots work will go to both INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL and the FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION (NYC).
WWW.FREEMUMIA.COM
Please mail donations/ checks to:
FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL COALITION
PO BOX 16, NEW YORK,
NY 10030
(CHECKS FOR BOTH ORGANIZATIONS PAYABLE TO: FMAJC/IFCO)
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
215 476-8812
212-330-8029
Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Subscribe: mumiacolumns-subscribe@topica.com
Read: http://topica.com/lists/mumiacolumns/read
Subscribe ICFFMAJ email updates list by e-mailing
icffmaj@aol.com!
www.FreeMumia.com
click here to listen to audio column
click here to listen to short version
As the G 20 gathers again, they assemble amidst the wreckage of their own creation.
Representatives of 20 of the alleged developed economies, they are instead representatives of casino capitalism, the use, misuse and grand-theft of public wealth, to fund the bonuses of financial pirates which have looted the treasury of billions.
A few months ago, as they gathered in London, the nation's finance ministers talked about tax havens, but few had any real substantial solutions to the economic turmoil roiling in their own countries.
Much has been said about stimulus packages, and even of the enormous amounts of money being allocated for this purpose, but a modest amount has actually been spent, with the lion's share being devoted to boosting the very banks and businesses that created this disaster.
And while banks and billionaires have been rewarded for their insatiable greed, average people, working people, families struggling in the worst economic environment since the 1930's, are on their own. Millions are jobless. Many are homeless. Many more are helpless.
And while they barely survive day after day, big buck bonuses are back on track at Goldman Sachs and other such entitles in the City.
Politicians, meanwhile, talk of a 'jobless recovery'. If there are no jobs, who can really speak of a recovery?
Wall Street is recovering-- but are you?
Even the French conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy said the economic disaster of last fall spelled the end to laissez-faire (French for 'let it be'), economic theory. Governments on both sides of the Atlantic are giving various stimulus packages to banks and businesses that looks an awful lot like life support.
If this is free market, then slavery was free labor!
Only a bold, unified people's movement can put the people's interests before that of big finance. It's going to take protests -- real protests -- to break through this vampire's bite on the wealth of nations.
--(c) '09 maj
*******************
Info on G20 protests at http://bailoutpeople.org
***************
The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!
URGENT Need for Petition Signatures at: http://www.iacenter.org/mumiapetition/
Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org
http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/
Mumia's got a podcast! Mumia Abu-Jamal's Radio Essays - Subscribe at the website or on iTunes and get Mumia's radio commentaries online.
Mumia Abu-Jamal's new book -- JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: PRISONERS DEFENDING PRISONERS V. THE USA, featuring an introduction by Angela Y. Davis -- has been released! It is available from City Lights Books: http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100448090
If you are planning to organize an event or would like to order in bulk, you can also receive a 45% discount on any bulk orders of 20 copies or more. The book retails for $16.95, for orders of 20 copies or more the discounted price would be $9.32 per book, plus shipping and handling. Prepayment would be required and books are nonreturnable. If you or your organization would like to place a bulk order, please contact Stacey Lewis at 415.362.1901 or stacey@citylights.com
Let's use the opportunity of the publication of this brilliant, moving, vintage Mumia book to build the momentum for his case, to raise the money we desperately need in these challenging economic times, to get the word out – to produce literature, flyers, posters, videos, DVD's; to send organizers out to help build new chapters and strengthen old ones, TO GET THE PEOPLE OUT IN THE STREETS … all the work that we must do in order to FREE MUMIA as he faces LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE OR EXECUTION!
Please make a contribution to help free Mumia. Donations to the grassroots work will go to both INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL and the FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION (NYC).
WWW.FREEMUMIA.COM
Please mail donations/ checks to:
FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL COALITION
PO BOX 16, NEW YORK,
NY 10030
(CHECKS FOR BOTH ORGANIZATIONS PAYABLE TO: FMAJC/IFCO)
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
215 476-8812
212-330-8029
Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Subscribe: mumiacolumns-subscribe@topica.com
Read: http://topica.com/lists/mumiacolumns/read
Subscribe ICFFMAJ email updates list by e-mailing
icffmaj@aol.com!
www.FreeMumia.com
Permit denial wouldn't daunt G-20 protesters' planned march
By Matthew Santoni, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Aug. 17, 2009
A protest march is planned from Oakland to Downtown on the second day of the Group of 20 summit, even as the city warns participants they might not get permission for it from the Secret Service, organizers said Sunday.
The Garfield-based Thomas Merton Center and its Antiwar Committee plan a rally starting at noon Sept. 25 in Oakland. At 2 p.m., participants hope to march down Fifth Avenue toward Downtown and the City-County Building, where they will speak out against what a statement from the Merton Center called a "lack of opportunity for public input at the upcoming G-20 summit."
From there, groups plan to march to the Federal Building at Grant Street and Liberty Avenue for another "speak-out" and will attempt to march down 10th Street to a point one block away from the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, site of the international summit of government and finance leaders.
But questions remain about whether the marchers will receive the permits allowing the Oakland rally and march Downtown. According to the center's statement, Pittsburgh officials have said "they can't guarantee the group's right to march because the Secret Service will be taking over the event."
Pete Shell, a member of the Merton Center's antiwar committee, said he hoped the city would advocate for their right to hold the rally and march.
"We want the world to see that Pittsburgh is a place where democracy is practiced and the right to assemble and dissent is allowed," he said.
Nadine Brnilovich, the Pittsburgh police special events coordinator, said local officials can't approve or deny any applications for special events until the Secret Service decides where it will set the security perimeters for the summit.
David Meieran, an organizer for Three Rivers Climate Convergence, said the lack of action on protest groups' permits makes it hard to organize events. Without official permission, the date and time of events can't be openly announced, making it difficult to attract participants from out of town, he said. If the details are announced before obtaining official permission, he said, authorities could use that information to stop them.
Edith Bell, local coordinator for the Women's International League of Peace and Freedom, said her group also is seeking a site where they'd be permitted to gather. With their permits in limbo, protesters face a dilemma, she said: Should they keep struggling to find an approved place to protest or fall back upon proclaiming their First Amendment right to assemble without being sanctioned by the city or Secret Service?
"With the denial of permits, it's going to be more chaotic," Bell said. "By not being able to get permits, we're forced to go without."
The Merton Center is anticipating thousands will take part in the march, requiring the closure of Fifth Avenue and Grant Street as they move, but doesn't anticipate it would cause any problems if the permits are granted.
"We've had many, many marches in Pittsburgh, mostly anti-war marches, and we've always been peaceful and legal," Shell said. "It's not going to be any different this time."
The center plans to keep the march nonviolent by recruiting many "peace marshals," veteran protesters who keep the crowd calm and instruct others on how to avoid conflict, such as ignoring counter-protesters, Shell said.
Participants will be joined along the way by "feeder marches" from other groups, such as the women's antiwar group Code Pink, and the environmental advocacy group Three Rivers Climate Convergence. Shell said several speakers are scheduled for the rally at Fifth and Craft avenues in Oakland, including Code Pink National President Madea Benjamin.
********************
For more information on the G20 protests see:
Bail Out the People Movement
Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee
A protest march is planned from Oakland to Downtown on the second day of the Group of 20 summit, even as the city warns participants they might not get permission for it from the Secret Service, organizers said Sunday.
The Garfield-based Thomas Merton Center and its Antiwar Committee plan a rally starting at noon Sept. 25 in Oakland. At 2 p.m., participants hope to march down Fifth Avenue toward Downtown and the City-County Building, where they will speak out against what a statement from the Merton Center called a "lack of opportunity for public input at the upcoming G-20 summit."
From there, groups plan to march to the Federal Building at Grant Street and Liberty Avenue for another "speak-out" and will attempt to march down 10th Street to a point one block away from the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, site of the international summit of government and finance leaders.
But questions remain about whether the marchers will receive the permits allowing the Oakland rally and march Downtown. According to the center's statement, Pittsburgh officials have said "they can't guarantee the group's right to march because the Secret Service will be taking over the event."
Pete Shell, a member of the Merton Center's antiwar committee, said he hoped the city would advocate for their right to hold the rally and march.
"We want the world to see that Pittsburgh is a place where democracy is practiced and the right to assemble and dissent is allowed," he said.
Nadine Brnilovich, the Pittsburgh police special events coordinator, said local officials can't approve or deny any applications for special events until the Secret Service decides where it will set the security perimeters for the summit.
David Meieran, an organizer for Three Rivers Climate Convergence, said the lack of action on protest groups' permits makes it hard to organize events. Without official permission, the date and time of events can't be openly announced, making it difficult to attract participants from out of town, he said. If the details are announced before obtaining official permission, he said, authorities could use that information to stop them.
Edith Bell, local coordinator for the Women's International League of Peace and Freedom, said her group also is seeking a site where they'd be permitted to gather. With their permits in limbo, protesters face a dilemma, she said: Should they keep struggling to find an approved place to protest or fall back upon proclaiming their First Amendment right to assemble without being sanctioned by the city or Secret Service?
"With the denial of permits, it's going to be more chaotic," Bell said. "By not being able to get permits, we're forced to go without."
The Merton Center is anticipating thousands will take part in the march, requiring the closure of Fifth Avenue and Grant Street as they move, but doesn't anticipate it would cause any problems if the permits are granted.
"We've had many, many marches in Pittsburgh, mostly anti-war marches, and we've always been peaceful and legal," Shell said. "It's not going to be any different this time."
The center plans to keep the march nonviolent by recruiting many "peace marshals," veteran protesters who keep the crowd calm and instruct others on how to avoid conflict, such as ignoring counter-protesters, Shell said.
Participants will be joined along the way by "feeder marches" from other groups, such as the women's antiwar group Code Pink, and the environmental advocacy group Three Rivers Climate Convergence. Shell said several speakers are scheduled for the rally at Fifth and Craft avenues in Oakland, including Code Pink National President Madea Benjamin.
********************
For more information on the G20 protests see:
Bail Out the People Movement
Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee
NC Meeting to Plan Transportation to Upcoming G20 Protest, Jobs March and Tent City
There will be a meeting of endorsers of the G20 Protest, Jobs March and Tent City in Raleigh, NC on Saturday, August 29th at 1pm. Location TBAEndorsing organizations from North Carolina will be going up to Pittsburgh in a series of caravans. Please join us!
Contact BailOutPeopleNC@gmail.com
Info on Sept. 20 Jobs March & Sept. 20 - 25 Tent City at http://bailoutpeople.org
Bail Out the People Movement
Info on Sept. 25 People's March on the G20
http://pittsburghendthewar.org/
Jobless Crisis "Catastrophic"/ Momentum grows for Jobs March on Sept 20
Youth jobless stats “beyond scary; they’re catastrophic,” says NY Times Columnist Bob Herbert
Sept. 20 Pittsburgh march for jobs right on time
On Sunday, Sept. 20 a National March for Jobs will step off from the historic Hill District in Pittsburgh, PA just prior to the G20 summit declaring that the unemployed, the homeless, the hungry and the poor must no longer be invisible and silent. This is particularly urgent for young workers as highlighted by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert this week. (www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/opinion/11herbert.html)
Herbert wrote, “Two issues that absolutely undermine any rosy assessment of last week’s employment report are the swelling ranks of the long-term unemployed and the crushing levels of joblessness among young” workers. … The plight of young workers, especially young men, is particularly frightening. The percentage of young … men who are actually working is the lowest it has been in the 61 years of record-keeping, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.
“Only 65 of every 100 men aged 20 through 24 years old were working on any given day in the first six months of this year. … For male teenagers, the numbers were disastrous: only 28 of every 100 males were employed in the 16 through 19-year-old age group. For minority teenagers, forget about it. The numbers are beyond scary; they’re catastrophic.”
Herbert called the 0.1 percent unemployment drop in July “wildly deceptive,” because the decline was “not because more people found jobs, but because 450,000 people withdrew from the labor market. They stopped looking, so they weren’t counted as unemployed.”
Herbert noted that "The country has lost a crippling 6.7 million jobs since the Great Recession began in December 2007. No one is predicting a recovery in the foreseeable future powerful enough to replace the millions of jobs that have vanished in this historic downturn."
The magnitude of the jobs crisis is giving momentum to the September 20 National March for Jobs. On Monday, August 10, the San Francisco Labor Council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing the march, which reads in part:
There is much work to be done in the next few weeks. Here's how you can help:
Sept. 20 Pittsburgh march for jobs right on time
On Sunday, Sept. 20 a National March for Jobs will step off from the historic Hill District in Pittsburgh, PA just prior to the G20 summit declaring that the unemployed, the homeless, the hungry and the poor must no longer be invisible and silent. This is particularly urgent for young workers as highlighted by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert this week. (www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/opinion/11herbert.html)Herbert wrote, “Two issues that absolutely undermine any rosy assessment of last week’s employment report are the swelling ranks of the long-term unemployed and the crushing levels of joblessness among young” workers. … The plight of young workers, especially young men, is particularly frightening. The percentage of young … men who are actually working is the lowest it has been in the 61 years of record-keeping, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.
“Only 65 of every 100 men aged 20 through 24 years old were working on any given day in the first six months of this year. … For male teenagers, the numbers were disastrous: only 28 of every 100 males were employed in the 16 through 19-year-old age group. For minority teenagers, forget about it. The numbers are beyond scary; they’re catastrophic.”
Herbert called the 0.1 percent unemployment drop in July “wildly deceptive,” because the decline was “not because more people found jobs, but because 450,000 people withdrew from the labor market. They stopped looking, so they weren’t counted as unemployed.”
Herbert noted that "The country has lost a crippling 6.7 million jobs since the Great Recession began in December 2007. No one is predicting a recovery in the foreseeable future powerful enough to replace the millions of jobs that have vanished in this historic downturn."
The magnitude of the jobs crisis is giving momentum to the September 20 National March for Jobs. On Monday, August 10, the San Francisco Labor Council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing the march, which reads in part:
"Whereas, there is no recovery in sight from the current economic crisis. Although government measures have enabled Wall Street to pocket hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, still unemployment, foreclosures and poverty continue to soar; andThe ILWU (International Longshore Workers Union) Local 10 and the Letter Carriers Union Local 214 have also passed similar resolutions in support of the March for Jobs.
Whereas, in September the eyes of the world will be on Pittsburgh, where the G20 countries will meet on what to do about the global crisis, and this will be an excellent opportunity for labor and its allies to present OUR workers’ recovery agenda; and...
Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council endorse the March for Jobs in Pittsburgh on September 20, 2009, and the Global Week in Solidarity with the Unemployed, on the occasion of the G20 summit in that city." (read the full resolution at : http://www.bailoutpeople.org/sflc.shtml)
There is much work to be done in the next few weeks. Here's how you can help:
* We need your help! Funds are urgently needed to help subsidize buses and vans and to assist with organizing costs for the "March for Jobs." - http://bailoutpeople.org/donate.shtmlBail Out the People Movement
* Become a local organizer - help organize a "Jobs or Income Now" caravan (cars, vans, bus, etc) to Pittsburgh for the G20. http://www.bailoutpeople.org/septg20volorgcents.shtml
* Volunteer - http://www.bailoutpeople.org/septg20volorgcents.shtml
* Download leaflets at http://www.bailoutpeople.org/pdfs/g20leaflecolor.pdf
* Join the BOPM Facebook Group - http://www.facebook.com/business/dashboard/?ref=sb#/pages/Bail-Out-The-People-Movement/112781742929
G20 countries practice ‘agricolonialism’ in developing countries
By Betsey Piette, Workers World, Aug. 3, 2009
Collectively the countries which participate in the Group of Twenty comprise 85 percent of the global gross national product, 80 percent of world trade and two-thirds of the world’s population. What many G-20 countries lack, however, is sufficient arable land to meet the needs of growing urban populations.
In recent years, many G-20 nations have engaged in agricolonialism, taking over arable land in developing countries.
One billion people worldwide face starvation, according to United Nations reports. The global recession is expected to drive 103 million more into hunger.
However, the land grabs, concentrated in Africa, Asia and Latin America where hundreds of millions lack sufficient food, are intended to grow food and biofuel crops for export, not for use by at-risk populations.
While the U.S., Britain and European Union nations have a long history of colonial control over land in developing countries, other G-20 countries, including China, south Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia, have recently bought up global farmland.
After the collapse of the former Soviet Union, even Russia and other former Soviet states became targets of land grabs.
Global “AgInvesting”
Last year, as the global economic crisis deepened, food “riots” destabilized many countries. In December, spiking grain prices that had led to food shortages fell by 50 percent. Today, grain prices remain above their 20-year average, and global food stocks continue at 40-year lows.
Over the next 40 years the world’s population is projected to grow from 6 billion to 9 billion, doubling demand, while arable land and water become scarcer. As a result, the cost of farmland keeps rising.
Food now rivals oil as a basis of power and economic security. Arable land has become the latest target for international investors, with more than 90 funds invested directly in farmland.
With the current credit crunch, large companies are investing in farmland as a means of control over future food supplies when food security could become a major concern.
In June a Global AgInvesting 2009 Conference, held in New York, aimed at investors eager for opportunities to invest in agricultural lands, commodities and infrastructure. It brought together top players from the global agricultural and investing industries, including Soyatech, Altima Partners, Bayer CropScience, Brazil AgroLogic, DuPont, Rabobank and the World Bank. The participating firms own and/or manage over 11 million acres of productive farmland worldwide.
The International Food Policy Research Institute reports that 37 million to 49 million acres of land in poor countries, valued at $20 to $30 billion, were sold or under negotiation for sale to foreign buyers since 2006.
Foreign investments in agriculture are not new, but today they are more strategic than commercial, with many transactions intended to insulate the foreign investor’s home country from future global food and energy crises.
Another significant difference is the scale of these purchases. A “big land deal” used to be 240,000 acres. Now the largest ones are many times that size.
The investment firm Blackrock has set up a $200 million hedge fund to invest in land. Dow Chemical has invested its pension funds in farmland futures. Morgan Stanley bought nearly 100,000 acres of Brazilian farmland.
Multibillionaire George Soros is getting into the global land-buying business. Jim Rogers Jr., Soros’ partner at the Quantum Fund, is involved with two farmland investment funds–Agrifirm and Agcaptia Farmland Investment Partnership. “I’m convinced that farmland is going to be one of the best investments of our time,” Rogers told ContrarianProfits. (July 27)
Land in Africa targeted
Africa imports 25 percent of its food, and the continent has become a prime target of land grabbers. Although sub-Saharan Africa is rich in minerals and natural resources, more than 450 million people live there on less than $2 a day. More than one-third of the population suffers from malnutrition.
A recent Food and Agricultural Organization study of five African countries found that 6.2 million acres of farmland valued at $920 million were bought or leased by foreign investors since 2004.
Most of the nearly 1 million acres taken over in Ghana were for biofuel production. Philippe Heilberg, chairman of New York-based Jarch Capital, controls nearly 2 million acres of land in south Sudan.
Saudi Arabian investors spent $100 million to raise grain on land leased to them by the Ethiopian government; the entire crop is for export back to Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, millions of Ethiopians face hunger and malnutrition and require emergency food assistance.
A proposed 99-year land lease deal with the south Korean company Daewoo would have included nearly half of Madagascar’s arable land, with almost no benefits to the host country. Public protest over this deal contributed to the overthrow of President Marc Ravalomanana earlier this year.
Genetically modified sugar cane in Latin America
Since 1994, U.S. farm policies through the so-called “North American Free Trade Agreement” have devastated farmers who produced corn throughout Mexico. NAFTA opened Mexican markets to corn imports from the U.S. and to the introduction of genetically modified seeds.
Now other countries are getting into the act. A French investment firm is buying up cattle ranches in Argentina and Uruguay to convert the acreage to the production of barley, corn and soy.
Within a 10-year span, nearly the entire Argentine pampas and large areas of forest and farmland in Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay have been converted to produce soy as a solo crop. Agribusiness giants Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, and Bunge made billions selling chemical fertilizers, while Monsanto and Syngenta raked in record profits from modified seeds and chemical pesticides.
Corporations that led the boom in soy production in Latin America are now aggressively moving into genetically modified sugar cane production. GM and Monsanto have been working on “Roundup Ready” sugar cane and sugar beets. Production of genetically modified sugar cane crops would devastate cane growers in Colombia, where panela, a sugar cane byproduct, is a source of nutrition.
Protests erupt in Southeast Asia
Many of the anti-agricolonialism protests have taken place in Asia. The 15-million-member Asian Peasant Coalition recently began a five-month Asia-wide Peasants’ Caravan for Land and Livelihood. The group is acting against global land grabbing in 10 Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. In India and Thailand, the theme is “Stop Global Land Grabbing! Struggle for Genuine Agrarian Reform and Peoples’ Food Sovereignty.”
An estimated 365 million people in Asia make their living off the land. Globalization has increasingly integrated Asian countries into the global market and intensified landlessness among Asian peasants. In Pakistan and the Philippines, almost 75 percent of peasants are now landless.
In the Philippines, Fil-Japan is using 1.49 million acres of land for biofuel production. South Korea has leased 232,000 acres of farmland for 25 years to grow 10,000 tons of corn annually. Protests halted plans to allow China to use 3 million acres of farmland.
Wagar Ahmad Khan, the Pakistani federal minister for investment, assures legal cover and tax breaks for investors and says his government “has decided to raise a special security force, which will help create an investment-friendly atmosphere.” (IslamOnline.net, April 21)
Impact on Indigenous populations
Since the 1970s, more than half of the farmland expansion has come at the expense of natural forests, including large tracts of land in Brazil’s Amazon region. While biofuels are promoted as a means to reduce climate change, expanding cropland for biofuel production has devastated rainforests and savannas.
Conversion of natural ecosystems for production of corn and sugar cane for ethanol, and soy and palm oil for biodiesel, causes substantial greenhouse gas emissions since these crops absorb far less carbon dioxide than the forests and wetlands they replace.
Monsanto, DuPont, Archer Daniels Midland, Deere & Co. and the Renewable Fuels Association have formed the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy, which spends billions of dollars to lobby U.S. lawmakers to support subsidies for biofuel production and to promote genetically modified crops.
The social consequences of these land grabs are significant. Indigenous groups who have lived off the land for generations are being driven off their lands. Even when local peasant farmers are able to retain the land, larger land tracts draw off most of the water supply.
G-8 code of conduct
Faced with growing pressure from developing countries, the recent G-8 Summit issued a code of conduct in international agricultural investments that reflects the debate over foreign land purchases in poor countries. It is not clear, however, how the code might work.
“The G-8 statement is pretty weak,” said Sarah Gillam of ActionAid, an anti-poverty group which is calling for an independent U.N. commission to establish an enforceable code of conduct for foreign land purchases. It would include adequate compensation for affected communities and an assessment of the impact on local food security and rural livelihoods.
Devlin Kuyek of GRAIN, an international nonprofit organization that supports struggles for community-controlled, biodiversity-based food systems, compared the danger of land investments to the subprime mortgage crisis. “It’s not just that they want to produce food. It’s that they want to produce it in a way that makes profit. ... Nothing is being done to address speculation or the amount of profits taken by the corporations in control of the food system.
“Land is fundamental to life particularly in many countries of the South,” stated Kuyek. “Governments are playing with fire, and better watch out what they are doing.” (See www.farmlandgrab.org.)
Article copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe: wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news: http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php
Web: http://workers.org
http://workersworld.net
Collectively the countries which participate in the Group of Twenty comprise 85 percent of the global gross national product, 80 percent of world trade and two-thirds of the world’s population. What many G-20 countries lack, however, is sufficient arable land to meet the needs of growing urban populations.
In recent years, many G-20 nations have engaged in agricolonialism, taking over arable land in developing countries.
One billion people worldwide face starvation, according to United Nations reports. The global recession is expected to drive 103 million more into hunger.
However, the land grabs, concentrated in Africa, Asia and Latin America where hundreds of millions lack sufficient food, are intended to grow food and biofuel crops for export, not for use by at-risk populations.
While the U.S., Britain and European Union nations have a long history of colonial control over land in developing countries, other G-20 countries, including China, south Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia, have recently bought up global farmland.
After the collapse of the former Soviet Union, even Russia and other former Soviet states became targets of land grabs.
Global “AgInvesting”
Last year, as the global economic crisis deepened, food “riots” destabilized many countries. In December, spiking grain prices that had led to food shortages fell by 50 percent. Today, grain prices remain above their 20-year average, and global food stocks continue at 40-year lows.
Over the next 40 years the world’s population is projected to grow from 6 billion to 9 billion, doubling demand, while arable land and water become scarcer. As a result, the cost of farmland keeps rising.
Food now rivals oil as a basis of power and economic security. Arable land has become the latest target for international investors, with more than 90 funds invested directly in farmland.
With the current credit crunch, large companies are investing in farmland as a means of control over future food supplies when food security could become a major concern.
In June a Global AgInvesting 2009 Conference, held in New York, aimed at investors eager for opportunities to invest in agricultural lands, commodities and infrastructure. It brought together top players from the global agricultural and investing industries, including Soyatech, Altima Partners, Bayer CropScience, Brazil AgroLogic, DuPont, Rabobank and the World Bank. The participating firms own and/or manage over 11 million acres of productive farmland worldwide.
The International Food Policy Research Institute reports that 37 million to 49 million acres of land in poor countries, valued at $20 to $30 billion, were sold or under negotiation for sale to foreign buyers since 2006.
Foreign investments in agriculture are not new, but today they are more strategic than commercial, with many transactions intended to insulate the foreign investor’s home country from future global food and energy crises.
Another significant difference is the scale of these purchases. A “big land deal” used to be 240,000 acres. Now the largest ones are many times that size.
The investment firm Blackrock has set up a $200 million hedge fund to invest in land. Dow Chemical has invested its pension funds in farmland futures. Morgan Stanley bought nearly 100,000 acres of Brazilian farmland.
Multibillionaire George Soros is getting into the global land-buying business. Jim Rogers Jr., Soros’ partner at the Quantum Fund, is involved with two farmland investment funds–Agrifirm and Agcaptia Farmland Investment Partnership. “I’m convinced that farmland is going to be one of the best investments of our time,” Rogers told ContrarianProfits. (July 27)
Land in Africa targeted
Africa imports 25 percent of its food, and the continent has become a prime target of land grabbers. Although sub-Saharan Africa is rich in minerals and natural resources, more than 450 million people live there on less than $2 a day. More than one-third of the population suffers from malnutrition.
A recent Food and Agricultural Organization study of five African countries found that 6.2 million acres of farmland valued at $920 million were bought or leased by foreign investors since 2004.
Most of the nearly 1 million acres taken over in Ghana were for biofuel production. Philippe Heilberg, chairman of New York-based Jarch Capital, controls nearly 2 million acres of land in south Sudan.
Saudi Arabian investors spent $100 million to raise grain on land leased to them by the Ethiopian government; the entire crop is for export back to Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, millions of Ethiopians face hunger and malnutrition and require emergency food assistance.
A proposed 99-year land lease deal with the south Korean company Daewoo would have included nearly half of Madagascar’s arable land, with almost no benefits to the host country. Public protest over this deal contributed to the overthrow of President Marc Ravalomanana earlier this year.
Genetically modified sugar cane in Latin America
Since 1994, U.S. farm policies through the so-called “North American Free Trade Agreement” have devastated farmers who produced corn throughout Mexico. NAFTA opened Mexican markets to corn imports from the U.S. and to the introduction of genetically modified seeds.
Now other countries are getting into the act. A French investment firm is buying up cattle ranches in Argentina and Uruguay to convert the acreage to the production of barley, corn and soy.
Within a 10-year span, nearly the entire Argentine pampas and large areas of forest and farmland in Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay have been converted to produce soy as a solo crop. Agribusiness giants Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, and Bunge made billions selling chemical fertilizers, while Monsanto and Syngenta raked in record profits from modified seeds and chemical pesticides.
Corporations that led the boom in soy production in Latin America are now aggressively moving into genetically modified sugar cane production. GM and Monsanto have been working on “Roundup Ready” sugar cane and sugar beets. Production of genetically modified sugar cane crops would devastate cane growers in Colombia, where panela, a sugar cane byproduct, is a source of nutrition.
Protests erupt in Southeast Asia
Many of the anti-agricolonialism protests have taken place in Asia. The 15-million-member Asian Peasant Coalition recently began a five-month Asia-wide Peasants’ Caravan for Land and Livelihood. The group is acting against global land grabbing in 10 Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. In India and Thailand, the theme is “Stop Global Land Grabbing! Struggle for Genuine Agrarian Reform and Peoples’ Food Sovereignty.”
An estimated 365 million people in Asia make their living off the land. Globalization has increasingly integrated Asian countries into the global market and intensified landlessness among Asian peasants. In Pakistan and the Philippines, almost 75 percent of peasants are now landless.
In the Philippines, Fil-Japan is using 1.49 million acres of land for biofuel production. South Korea has leased 232,000 acres of farmland for 25 years to grow 10,000 tons of corn annually. Protests halted plans to allow China to use 3 million acres of farmland.
Wagar Ahmad Khan, the Pakistani federal minister for investment, assures legal cover and tax breaks for investors and says his government “has decided to raise a special security force, which will help create an investment-friendly atmosphere.” (IslamOnline.net, April 21)
Impact on Indigenous populations
Since the 1970s, more than half of the farmland expansion has come at the expense of natural forests, including large tracts of land in Brazil’s Amazon region. While biofuels are promoted as a means to reduce climate change, expanding cropland for biofuel production has devastated rainforests and savannas.
Conversion of natural ecosystems for production of corn and sugar cane for ethanol, and soy and palm oil for biodiesel, causes substantial greenhouse gas emissions since these crops absorb far less carbon dioxide than the forests and wetlands they replace.
Monsanto, DuPont, Archer Daniels Midland, Deere & Co. and the Renewable Fuels Association have formed the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy, which spends billions of dollars to lobby U.S. lawmakers to support subsidies for biofuel production and to promote genetically modified crops.
The social consequences of these land grabs are significant. Indigenous groups who have lived off the land for generations are being driven off their lands. Even when local peasant farmers are able to retain the land, larger land tracts draw off most of the water supply.
G-8 code of conduct
Faced with growing pressure from developing countries, the recent G-8 Summit issued a code of conduct in international agricultural investments that reflects the debate over foreign land purchases in poor countries. It is not clear, however, how the code might work.
“The G-8 statement is pretty weak,” said Sarah Gillam of ActionAid, an anti-poverty group which is calling for an independent U.N. commission to establish an enforceable code of conduct for foreign land purchases. It would include adequate compensation for affected communities and an assessment of the impact on local food security and rural livelihoods.
Devlin Kuyek of GRAIN, an international nonprofit organization that supports struggles for community-controlled, biodiversity-based food systems, compared the danger of land investments to the subprime mortgage crisis. “It’s not just that they want to produce food. It’s that they want to produce it in a way that makes profit. ... Nothing is being done to address speculation or the amount of profits taken by the corporations in control of the food system.
“Land is fundamental to life particularly in many countries of the South,” stated Kuyek. “Governments are playing with fire, and better watch out what they are doing.” (See www.farmlandgrab.org.)
Article copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe: wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news: http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php
Web: http://workers.org
http://workersworld.net
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