November 2000

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

New England Global Action Conference

November 11-12, 2000 Worcester State College, Worcester, MA

Everyone's complaining about the global economy, but who's doing something about it? Hundreds of activists who will come to Worcester next month and build a regional movement. The conference is sponsored by the newly formed New England Global Action Network, and it will feature:

Saturday, November 11, 10 till 8

• Analysis of corporate globalization, the global movement, and who's organizing in New England

• Workshops on labor and globalization, immigration and globalization, NAFTA, the WTO-IMF-World Bank, international solidarity, and Globalization 101

• A special track on the next NAFTA--the Free Trade Area of the Americas (see box), plus

• Music, satirical theater, a featured speaker, and free time to compare notes with other activists.
  

Sunday, November 12, 9 till 3

• Skills workshops on media work, fundraising, nonviolence training,

• Network meetings to make plans with other activists in your state.
  

That's just the start. For a full conference agenda, directions, and details, contact conference organizer Cassie Watters at 617-524-8110 or cassiefw@hotmail.com, or go to www.bostonglobalaction.org and follow the links to the NEGAN conference.

The opportunity FTAA offers us

FTAA, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, is the expansion of NAFTA to the entire western hemisphere. It includes the worst features of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, which global activists defeated two years ago. FTAA negotiators have been working for several years, and are supposed to wrap up in 2005.

In April 2001, the negotiators are holding a summit meeting in Quebec. Canadians are already organizing a massive protest which they invite everyone to join. Beyond the protest, FTAA offers us much more--the opportunity to build a movement in this country big enough to tame corporate capital.

Think about the fight over NAFTA, which pulled together the original Teamster-turtle coalition that went on to shut down the WTO five years later. Think how NAFTA and the organizing against it shifted the frame of public opinion. Practically every poll since then shows two-thirds to four-fifths of the country supporting worker rights and environmental standards as a central part of their preferred global order. Then think about a NAFTA for the entire hemisphere.... which Washington is pushing on a country that doesn't want any more NAFTAs. Think of organizing against it, starting with a highly mobilized movement that is looking for local battles to tame the global economy. FTAA offers a five-year opportunity to build long-lasting "Seattle coalitions," state by state across the United States. Among other things, we could:

• build much stronger working relationships between organized labor and other wings of the global economic justice movement.

• pull together environmentalists across many issues and reach into the mainstream environmental movement.

• build working relationships with grassroots organizations from the global South.

For more information contact Mike Prokosch at United for a Fair Economy, 617-423-2148 x 24 or mprokosch@ufenet.org.

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