ISF Press Launch is TOMORROW Thur 3rd July- 11.30 at Dail + 12.00 Earl Of Kildare Hotel

2nd Irish Social Forum All-Island Gathering, Sunday 6 July, 11.00 - 17.00

IRISH CIVIL SOCIETY PREPARES TO CONTEST DUBLIN WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM SUMMIT

GLOBAL JUSTICE GATHERING AND PHOTO-OP
Dáil Eireann, Kildare St., 11.30 - 12.00 THURSDAY, 3 JULY 2003
"Government tips the scales for corporate power" says Irish Social Forum

Photo-event featuring a 'scales of justice' with representations of Mary Harney and Peter Sutherland on one side, with Public Sector workers and participants from the Irish Social Forum on the other.

Followed by:
Press launch of Irish Social Forum
12.00, July 3, Earl of Kildare Hotel, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

Speakers to include:
Donnacha O Briain ATTAC Ireland, co-director of 'Chavez - Inside the Coup'
Colm O Cuanacháin Secretary General, Amnesty International Irish Section
Bill McCamley SIPTU activist and CIE worker-director
Ivana Bacik Feminist and law lecturer
Clare Lee Irish Anti-War Movement
Barry Finnegan Interim Convenor, Irish Social Forum

As Mary Harney and Peter Sutherland prepare to host a summit of world business leaders in Dublin in October on the theme of 'Competition', Irish civil society is mobilising to ensure that an alternative voice - the voice of ordinary people - is also heard.

"The Social Forum, from Porto Allegre to Florence, for Mumbai to Dublin, is the most positive global movement emerging in our time. It's about people pursuing their human rights through their own power, with an unstoppable passion. We need an active civil society in Ireland if human rights are to become a reality for all, and the Social Forum movement provides the vehicle to stimulate and focus this activism", said Colm Ó Cuanacháin, Secretary General, Amnesty International Irish Section

"The World Economic Forum is a private club of the biggest companies in the world. Their agenda of ruthless competition undermines democracy. Cutbacks in respite care, the axing of community employment schemes and the ideologically-driven plans to privatise CIE and the ESB are examples of the WEF's anti-social agenda" said Barry Finnegan, interim convenor of the Irish Social Forum.

"We are inviting community and voluntary organisations, trade unionists, alternative globalisation activists and concerned citizens to join in an Irish Social Forum. In October the ISF will bring people from Ireland and abroad to discuss 'Co-operation' - an alternative to the corporate agenda of the WEF. Over the days preceding the arrival of the business leaders and neoliberal economists who think that our world is theirs to despoil, a host of organisations and individuals will be showing that 'another world is possible”, said Donnacha O'Briain of ATTAC Ireland.

Quotes end. Media queries:
Barry Finnegan. 01-8741223, 085-7333044, email: john.finnegan3@mail.dcu.ie
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2nd Irish Social Forum All-Island Gathering, Sunday 6 July, 11.00 - 17.00, Teachers' Club, Parnell Square, Dublin. Organisations and activists from around Ireland are invited for a day of discussions on the issues the ISF will address and our plans for the ISF CO-OPERATION counter-summit in October, opposing the Competition summit of the World Economic Summit.