People's Summit May 31 - "Another world is urgently possible - but we must fight for it."
The Bail Out the People Movement invites you to
a
People's Economic Summit in New York City
Another world is urgently necessary - but we must fight for
it.
Sunday May 31--11 a.m.
Inside tents in DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD PLAZA, 47th St. & 1st Ave.
(in conjunction with the UN Summit on the World Economic Crisis, June 1-3
in NYC)
Two meetings on the world economic crisis are taking place in NYC in less than
a month.
One of the meetings is the June 1 - 3 UN General Assembly's International
Conference on the Global Economic and Financial Crisis. On Sunday, May 31, the
day before the UN meeting, the People's Economic Summit will take place
directly across the street from the UN building, under tents in Dag
HammarskjÖld Plaza. The theme of the Peoples Economic Summit is "A
NEW WORLD IS URGENTLY NECESSARY!BUT WE MUST FIGHT FOR IT."
It remains to be seen whether these important meetings will get the same kind
of attention that the U.S. and world corporate media give to a meeting of the
G20--the Group of Twenty finance ministers and central bank governors. This is
because in different ways, these meetings are a challenge to the domination of
the world economy by the economic system and governments of the G20, especially
the U.S. and the other longstanding imperialist powers that still comprise the
so-called G7 nations. World events have forced these imperialist powers to
incorporate the major developing countries into a broader framework that is now
the G20.
The UN conference on the economic crisis, which some are referring to as the
G192 Summit--for the 192 member nations of the UN--is, at its most elementary
level, a response to exclusionary character of the G20 meetings. On another
level, the UN meeting is an attempt by some of the more progressive governments
to challenge both the hegemony of the major imperialist powers over the world
economy, as well as the capitalist system.
After recently meeting in Cumaná in the Venezuelan state of Sucre,
representatives of several governments including Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and
Nicaragua issued the April 21 Declaration of Cumaná. Wasting no time to
get to its central point, the Cumaná statement begins: "Capitalism is
leading humanity and the planet to extinction. What we are experiencing is a
global economic crisis of a systemic and structural nature, not another cyclic
crisis."
The statement asserts: "It is necessary to develop and model an
alternative to the capitalist system. A system based on: solidarity and
complementarity, not competition; a system in harmony with our mother earth and
not plundering of human resources; a system of cultural diversity and not
cultural destruction and imposition of cultural values and lifestyles alien to
the realities of our countries; a system of peace based on social justice and
not on imperialist policies and wars; in summary, a system that recovers the
human condition of our societies and peoples and does not reduce them to mere
consumers or merchandise."
In anticipation of the UN meeting, the statement affirms: "The solutions
to the global economic crisis and the definition of a new international
financial scheme should be adopted with the participation of the 192 countries
that will meet in the United Nations Conference on the International Financial
Crisis to be held on June 1-3 to propose the creation of a new international
economic order."
Because of the unique nature of the June UN conference, The Bail Out the People
Movement decided to call a People's Economic Summit in conjunction with it.
The goal of the one-day People's Economic Summit is to bring together
activists, organizers and leaders from the various movements and struggles
around the region, the country, and some from around the world.
The biggest worldwide economic crisis since the 1930s has re-raised, with even
greater urgency, the need for people in the U.S. and people everywhere to
liberate themselves from the grasp of the capitalist system, for the sake of
self-defense and self-preservation.
One of the panels during the People's Economic Summit, entitled
"Another World is Urgently Necessary," will examine the roots of the
financial and economic crisis, as well as the case for alternatives to
capitalism and imperialism. Another panel, entitled "But We Must Fight For
It," will take up the critical discussion of building the mass movement/s
and formulating a program and strategy essential to bringing into being a
serious mass struggle for jobs, an end to foreclosures and evictions, and new
rights for working and poor people.
Along with these and other panels there will be workshops on "Resisting
Imperialist War and Occupation," including the central importance of the
Palestinian liberation struggle. A major session of the People's Economic
Summit will be dedicated to planning major protests at the next G20 Summit,
which is being planned for NYC in late September.
Representatives of progressive governments participating in the UN conference
are being invited to participate in the People's Economic Summit.
Of course, the views of the governments that signed the Cumaná statement
do not represent most of the 192 member nations of the UN. Other governments
want to limit the UN conference to a discussion of merely reforming the world
financial system. It is not clear whether the U.S. government will attend the
UN economic crisis conference, or boycott it as they did the recent UN
conference on racism in Geneva. In either case, few harbor any illusions that
the UN conference will bring about any important change. Its main importance is
that it is a forum for widening the political struggle against imperialist
global hegemony. Our hope is that the May 31 People's Economic Summit will
amplify, strengthen, and make relevant to the struggle in the streets, the
struggle inside the UN.
What you can do:
1) Endorse: http://www.bailoutpeople.org/peoplessummitendorse.shtml
2) Spread the word - forward this message to friends, fellow
activists, community organizers, trade unionists, and student organizations.
Ask them to endorse and participate.
3) Donate to help with organizing expenses: http://bailoutpeople.org/donate.shtml
4) Volunteer: http://www.bailoutpeople.org/g20-peoplessummitsvolorgcents.shtml
5) Become a local organizer: http://www.bailoutpeople.org/g20-peoplessummitsvolorgcents.shtml
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