Invitation
janice
Invitation to an international meeting in Paris,
11-12 December 1998
Dear friends,
You should already have received an email from
us, introducing the ATTAC association, which
was created in France at the end of last June to
campaign against the "dictatorship of the financial
markets".
The aim of this current message is to invite you to
attend an international congress to be held in
Paris on the 11th and 12th December, 1998.
Before outlining the object of this congress in
detail, a few words on the development of
ATTAC. In France, the association has already
inspired very significant interest. Although it was
originally launched by various associations,
newspapers and trade unions, it is now citizens
and activists who are taking the initiative. We
have almost 5,000 full members, dozens of local
committees are being created each week and
more than a thousand individuals attending our
first general meeting in La Ciotat. The
association's success has exceeded our wildest
hopes. ATTAC's membership is made up, not
only of individual citizens who wish to participate
in the campaign, but also of many trade unions
and organisations which have taken out collective
membership.
Outside France - in Brazil, Belgium, Italy, Spain,
Switzerland, etc. - associations like ATTAC are
being formed. However we cannot pretend that
ATTAC's rapid development, in France and
elsewhere, is the answer to all the questions that
face us.
The contacts we have made in various countries
have made us acutely aware of the sheer
multiplicity of preoccupations and questions that
need to be addressed. In Asia and Latin
America, the plans imposed by the IMF have
caused social disaster and have inspired
significant and widespread opposition. In other
countries and among other interest groups, it is
the campaign against the MAI that has inspired
them to combine their energies. Elsewhere, it is
the campaign against third world debt that is
mobilising activists.
The multiplicity of the subjects being addressed
and the scale of the mobilisations now taking
place seem especially significant to us, coming, as
they do, at a time when the world is facing a crisis
that is not only structural, economic and financial,
but also political.
The time has come to organise on practical and
concrete grounds: the taxation of capital,
rejection of IMF schemes, opposition to the MAI
or any other accord of the same kind, etc. It is
time to put forward social alternatives to
neoliberalism.
As a first step, we believe that it is vital to open
the way to the widest possible convergence of
networks and social and activist forces.
We are working on two initiatives:
1. A "contra-Davos", to be held at the end of
January 1999 in Switzerland. We shall assemble
in this temple of ultra-liberalism to demonstrate
that there are alternative voices - voices that can
bring about effective resistance.
This scheme for a "contra-Davos" is under way,
organised by various independent networks and
organisations. The idea is that each initiative
should be a step towards a common goal, coming
together on an international scale.
2. A global conference, to be held during the
summer of 1999, bringing together activists from
all backgrounds. This assembly of several
thousand participants, where associations, trade
unions, intellectuals and leading journalists will
mix with "ordinary citizens", could have
considerable impact.
Such a meeting, which could be held in Paris in
late June or early July 1999, would allow
experiences to be shared and common
campaigns to be agreed.
It would be open to anyone who wanted to
participate and would be supported by
sponsorship at all levels. Participants from the
richer countries (Europe, North America, etc.)
would pay their own way. Invitations to others
would be sent out, not by any central
organisation, but by local activist groups,
associations and trade unions in Europe. These
decentralised invitations would allow for the
widest possible cross-fertilisation, encounters
based upon common interests and meetings in the
towns from where the invitations originated.
The main purpose of the conference of 11-12
December in Paris would be to discuss this
project. The first item on the agenda would be a
general discussion directed towards the adoption
of an agreed text that we could all use in further
initiatives, at international and local scale. (You
should have received, in our earlier email, the text
of the ATTAC charter, which could provide a
possible starting point for this discussion.)
The conference would go on to discuss what
initiatives should be taken, including concrete
proposals regarding the IMF, the MAI and the
taxation of capital, as well as long-term aims,
further meetings, the establishment of international
links, etc.
Hoping to see you on the 11th and 12th
December...
--
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janice
The invitation sent out earlier today
did not have the ATTAC signatories
or organisation for some reason.
I do apologise.
Regds
J.
Dear friends,
On behalf of the ATTAC Committee,
The Chairman
Bernard Cassen
The General Secretary
Christophe Aguiton
ATTAC, 9 bis, rue de Valence, 75005 Paris - France.
email at...@attac.org
http://attac.org/ang/index.html
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:For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and
:links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/
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