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March and shout out!  See the gigantic 70 ft.
long dragon of the people's will!  Make your
voice heard at the U.S. Trade Representative's
Office and all the way to Qatar!  Tomorrow
(Friday) is the big day.  I hope everyone who
works downtown will take their lunch break and
head over for our shout-out at 17th and Penn.  As
for everyone else, please come early, help put
the dragon on its feet, march and rally together.
 Original call to action is below for those who
haven't seen it.

BRING SIGNS, PLACARDS, NOISEMAKERS!

In solidarity and anticipation,

--Adam

*** Call to Action! ***

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT
FAIR TRADE NOT FREE TRADE
PROTECT LABOR RIGHTS, HUMAN RIGHTS, THE
ENVIRONMENT & 
PUBLIC HEALTH


PROTEST the opening of the anti-democratic WTO
round in Qatar 
BLOCK the "Washington Consensus" of
arch-corporatist supremacy and self-serving "Free
Market" mythology
ATTEST to the evil of unchecked global corporate
capitalism and the institutional violence it
engenders
ATTEST to the power of direct democracy
ATTEST to the power of the people to build
benevolent models of social change
MARVEL at the awesome spectacle of our giant 70
foot long DRAGON symbolizing the struggle
CELEBRATE and DANCE to the drummers and musicians
heralding a better future for all living beings
of this planet in a FESTIVAL OF RESISTANCE

ASSEMBLE
Friday, November 9, 2001, 10:00 a.m., Edward R.
Murrow Park (across from the World Bank HQ),
Pennsylvania Ave. & 19th St., NW, Washington DC

MARCH
11:00 a.m., through the streets of DC to the
State Department in Foggy Bottom through the
campus of George Washington University to the
doorstep of the US Trade Representative at 17th
and Penn.  (Route subject to change.)

SHOUT OUT!
12:30 p.m. until 1:30 p.m. at the U.S. Trade
Representative's Office, 17th and Pennsylvania
(one block from the White House)
Remind Free Trade Zealot Zoellick (US Trade
Representative) what we're there for--let them
hear it in Qatar.

ACTION against global kneejerk corporate
capitalism
ACTION against the US Trade Representative
ACTION against the World Trade Organization

SOLIDARITY with other resisters against corporate
hegemony worldwide 
SOLIDARITY with the unrepresented citizens of the
Global South (and Washington, DC!)
SOLIDARITY with victims of unchecked corporate
greed everywhere

BRING signs, banners, incriminating facts and
figures, drums, copies of the US Constitution and
the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
other instruments of musical resistance,
amplification 
BRING someone who has never demonstrated before
BRING recording devices (photo, audio, video)
BRING proposed alternatives to the status quo,
and the courage of your convictions.

On November 9 through 13th, the World Trade
Organization will be meeting in the country of
Qatar to open a new round of agreements aimed
ostensibly at reducing trade barriers between
countries.  Don?t be fooled, this organization,
along with its sinister sister organizations, the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,
is hell bent on pushing the agenda of the
corporate lobbyists that ply its hallways day in
day out.  

Dozens upon dozens of impoverished countries are
forced to accept the dismantling of welfare state
protections in exchange for loans and grudging --
and limited -- access to wealthy countries?
markets.  It?s a lopsided battle at the
bargaining table that impoverished countries are
likely to lose. And, not surprisingly, human
rights activists, labor unionists and
environmentalists will definitely lose because
civil society (unlike the multinational
corporations) is not even at the bargaining
table.  If these talks are successful, the rich
will get richer, the poor will get poorer and
sicker, and the environment will be raped and
pillaged at an even faster rate.

Two years after the surging crowds of
demonstrators against the WTO in Seattle, this
meeting will take place in Qatar, a country that
does not allow public dissent.  The WTO
intentionally chose this venue so that it could
avoid the embarassment of having the American
people rise up against it for all the world to
see.  In any country that allows public
demonstrations, it would have been faced with
public embarassment.  But it has learned its
lesson and has become an even more secretive and
undemocratic organization than it already was.
Now, not only will all decisions be made behind
closed  doors, but there will be no crowds
banging on those doors to be let in.

Congratulations to the WTO: it has ruled that
dissent is an illegal barrier to trade.

The U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick
has engaged in a full court press for the past
three weeks to persuade Congress that free trade
is a crucial weapon in the fight against
terrorism.  (We?re not making this up.)  He wants
Congress to pass ?Fast Track? legislation now so
that he can negotiate at the WTO with the
knowledge that Congress will not meddle with the
final agreement.  He has been leading opposition
to a document on patent protection and drug
access issued by 60 poor WTO member countries who
are seeking relief from the AIDS epidemic, among
other things. Zoellick the Zealot is the number
one free trade pusher in this country and
deserves to hear the voice of the people rather
than whispered instructions from the corporations
for once.

Please join the Mobilization of Global Justice
and friends in confronting the purveyors of
corporate hegemony and global hypocrisy.

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT!
FAIR TRADE NOT FREE TRADE!
PROTECT LABOR RIGHTS, HUMAN RIGHTS, THE
ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC HEALTH!

For more information, visit
www.globalizethis.org, or email to
<info at globalizethis.org>

###



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