The People's Strike

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday July 23, 2002 23:18 by Paul Kinsella - Various paulkinsella53 at yahoo dot com 53 Lorcan Grove, Santry, Dublin 9, Eire 087-9748511

The People's Strike

Here's something that's a bit different and might give some people over here some ideas.

The People's Strike
A Day of Non-Compliance and Resistance
September 27th

Convergence: Skillshares, Meetings and Preperation
September 25 and 26th

Date Change!

The IMF and World Bank have moved their meetings in
fear of the planned
People's Strike that was to occur on October 1st. They
have changed the
meeting dates to September 28 and 29 to try to avoid
the toll the Strike
would take on their ability to effectivly hold their
meetings in DC on the
1st of October.

We recognize this as a victory in our organizing for
the People's Strike
because we have effectively disrupted the IMF and
World Bank's plans to
start the meetings on October 1st.

The Anti-Capitalist Convergence has now changed the
date of The People's
Strike in order to hold it the day before the meetings
to extend the
protests of the meetings into the work week and to
Shut Down the City the
day before their fall meetings. We are moving the day
of non-compliance
and resistance and now are calling for the strike on
September 27. The
convergence with meetings, trainings and other
preperation will be on
September 25 and 26.

The ACC is tentativly planning a general assembly on
the People's Strike
the last weekend in August. We encourage spokespeople
from affinity groups
and organizations as well as intersted individuals
from anywhere who will
be in DC for the People's Strike to come take part in
this meeting, get an
update on how organizing is coming along in DC, and
consult and discuss
direct action plans. In Washington DC - August 31 and
September 1.

Call to Action:

Shut Down the City! Take Back the Freedom to Control
our Lives!

In the city where George Bush rules from the lap of
luxury...where over
12,000 people sleep on the streets just outside the
White House doors
while 29,000 units of housing remain abandoned yet are
still private
property...where 40% of children live in poverty while
a dinner with the
elite can cost over a thousand dollars a head...where
immigrants have few
rights and resources ... where the powerful launch
wars, bombings and
sanctions ...where more people per capita have HIV
than any other US
city... where the World Bank and IMF dictate policies
to developing
countries forcing millions to live and die in
poverty…in the city where
citizens do not have voting rights and live under
taxation without
representation…in the city hailed as the capital of
the free world we call
for a People's Strike to shut down this machine and
take back our freedom
on September 27, 2002!

In direct opposition to the International Monetary
Fund, the World Bank
and all they represent we will shut down Washington DC
on the day before
their Fall Meetings. These institutions exemplify how
global capitalism
promotes poverty, racism, sexism, environmental
destruction, and the
concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a
few. We are calling
for creative, confrontational opposition to capitalism
and the crippling
effects it has here in DC and around the world. This
time around we are
not just shutting down the meetings but extending our
protests to disrupt
all of the institutions headquartered in DC that play
a part in this
system.

The US Treasury with the backing of the White House,
Congress and other
bodies of government are the primary decision-makers
in the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund. In turn, the government
is influenced by
multinational corporations with powerful lobbies, many
headquartered on K
St in downtown DC. To exploited people around the
world the capital of the
US is a symbol of global domination, and all that is
wrong in the world.
Taking back this city for one day in a spirit of
resistance, defiance and
love will be an act of self-determination to bring
hope to ourselves and
express solidarity to those struggling for freedom
across the world - from
Afghanistan to Argentina, South Africa to Iraq,
Palestine to the
Philippines.

We are calling for NON-COMPLIANCE with the system in
the tradition of
strikes -a stoppage of normal activity to protest
objectionable
conditions, a halting of our participation in the
system. We are calling
for RESISTANCE to force the system to shut down.
Refuse to go to work or
school on September 27, or stay on the job and give
everything out for
free, slow down production, stick a wrench in the
gears! Be in the
streets, reclaim public space, discuss your ideas!
Businesses,
governmental institutions, schools and streets, will
be shut down, and in
many senses reopened to new uses. Through these
actions we will take back
and express our freedom, creativity and autonomy! The
ideas and
possibilities are virtually endless if we refuse to
live in fear. What
does Shut Down mean to you? What will you take back?

We demand a change in the miserable conditions and
exploitation enforced
by these institutions and demand a world based on
freedom and compassion.
We demand:

That the World Bank and IMF be abolished! We don't
want a seat at the
table to discuss reform; they are not reformable.
An end to privatization and structural adjustment
everywhere.
An end to all debt! From debt owed by developing
countries to personal debt.
Housing and food for everyone.
Freedom for everyone - Immigrant Rights, Civil
Liberties, Women's liberation.
An end to the racist prison industrial system.
An end to imperialism and terrorism by the US
government and all states.
An end to the colonial status of DC and developing
countries.
We are striving toward the abolition of capitalism! No
longer should ones
survival and access to human needs be determined by
ones economic means.

Our resistance must be visible and confrontational to
the powers that we
oppose. The last two mass demonstrations in Washington
DC have been almost
completely void of direct action. We cannot allow the
state to dictate our
protests against them or simply use our legitimate
resistance as a P.R.
building tool. The state allows a place for "protest
as usual" within
"business as usual" and we must move outside the box,
do the unexpected
and truly challenge the system. Believe in what you
can create and the
strength of your actions…

We hope to organize an action that is accessible to
everyone who wants to
participate, at many risk and experience levels. We
will help however we
can to provide information and a framework for actions
to affect the
overall plan of shutting down the city. But we will
depend on individuals
and affinity groups preparation and encourage everyone
to come with their
own ideas, supplies, and plans. This will not be a
standard march and
rally! Don't wait till the last minute to prepare.

In order to pull this off it will take a massive
organizing effort from
every city, town and person who believes in a better
world free from
capitalism. Almost all of the organizing that can be
done in Washington,
DC can be done from anywhere so we are encouraging and
depending on broad
involvement in the organizing.

Here are some of the many things you can do NOW to
prepare for October:

-Form a group in your area to be the local contact for
organizing The
People's Strike or take on this task as a project of
your existing group
or collective.
-Organize an affinity group and be prepared for a
large decentralized
direct action.
-Organize road shows, teach ins, or workshops in your
region.
-Bring outreach materials to bookstores, colleges,
community spaces, local
organizations or anywhere else.
-Organize buses, caravans or other transportation to
DC from your area.
-Find housing in DC for people from your area.
-Fundraise for materials, travel and logistics. Donate
to the DC ACC.
-Do artwork - make posters, and public art for the
protest.
-Do direct action, legal, medical and other trainings
in your area.
-Incorporate into your local organizing for The
People's Strike how the
problems created by capitalism and institutions like
the IMF and World
Bank manifest themselves in your town.

Contact us for more ideas and information.
www.abolishthebank.org - 703-276-9768
thepeoplesstrike@mutualaid.org