Student Power in the Face of Empire - G20 CALL TO ACTION!
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Nathan (Animas SDS)
Aug 21, 2009, 2:24:16 PM8/21/09
to SDS Anti-Authoritarian & Anarchist Collective
WHY DO TWENTY VOICES MATTER MORE THAN 6.7 BILLION?
The economic disaster of the recent days needs no introduction: mass
unemployment, skyrocketing inflation, and non-existent credit markets
plague the developed world, while in the global south, the rising cost
of food and fuel have led to hunger riots and increased poverty and
destitution. According to the United Nations, the number of people
currently living on the brink of starvation is nearly 1 billion, the
large majority of the hungry being women and children. At the same
time, wars for imperialism, immigration restrictions, environmental
destruction, tuition hikes, and prison populations are exploding.
And how have global leaders responded to the demands of the people, to
deadly riots for rice in the developing world and university and
factory occupations in the global north? By spending billions of
dollars buying up bad loans and bailing out transnational banks,
corporations. Thus far, nearly $8 trillion of the people’s money has
been spent supporting the global elite. Without transparency and
without a voice, the global working class has been robbed to support
the faulty investments of a privileged few.
Now, Obama has called another meeting of the twenty richest countries
in the world in Pittsburgh, a working-class city that is intensely
affected by the economic meltdown to discuss how best to continue
failed policies such as neoliberalism, privatization, deregulation,
and billion dollar bailouts. As their number one priority, this elite
“Group of Twenty” leaders and finance ministers will be increasing the
power and scope of the International Monetary Fund by trillions of
dollars, an unaccountable institution that has imposed loan
conditions, abject poverty, and environmental devastation on billions
of people in the developing world to benefit corporate profits. It is
time the G20 learned that capitalism isn’t in crisis, but capitalism
IS the crisis. It is time that the G20 disband forever in shame.
WHAT IS OUR RESPONSE?
We oppose closed-door decision-making by the capitalist elite and
their repression of dissent. We stand in solidarity with the global
south, people of color, labor unions, workers without unions, women,
queer folk, and other ultra-exploited groups that have been
systematically shut out of the neoliberal New World Order so that the
developed world can profit off their destitution. As students and
youth, we demand free, accessible, and emancipating education as a
human right, an end to the industrialization of our education. Most of
all, we demand a voice and autonomy to make our own self-determined
economic decisions on how best to provide for ourselves, our families,
our communities, and our world.
We are calling upon all peoples to join us the week of September
24-25th to take to the streets of Pittsburgh to disrupt the summit and
the institutions of capital that profit from its domination, including
the education industrial complex that trains us to except the status
quo. We will plant seeds of a better world inside the rotted shell of
capitalism with diverse tactics and respect for the creative forms of
resistance chosen by our friends. While we support the actions of all
organizations planning to resist the G20 summit, including labor
unions, the G20 Resistance Project, Bail Out the People, Three Rivers
Climate Convergence, and Thomas Merton Center, we are organizing
ourselves towards a powerful week-long student and youth resistance.
If you are unable to come to Pittsburgh to join us, plan local
actions, disrupt schools and financial institutions, and educate your
local communities on exploitive G20 policies. Also, one of the most
effective ways to resist imperialism is through culture; make music,
make art, and make trouble! The failed policies of the technocratic
elite cannot continue to go unchallenged. This is our world, and we
have the right to build it around human need instead of profit margins
and corporate greed.
SEE YOU IN PITTSBURGH!
http://studentpowerinthefaceofempire.wordpress.com/
to endorse please email studentpowerin...@gmail.com
Groups Endorsed by:
Animas SDS (Durango, CO)
The Dirty Hands Collective (Durango, CO)
Justice in Palestine- University of Pittsburgh
New School in Exile
Individuals Endorsements:
Michael D – American University
Jonathan L – University of Pittsburgh
The economic disaster of the recent days needs no introduction: mass
unemployment, skyrocketing inflation, and non-existent credit markets
plague the developed world, while in the global south, the rising cost
of food and fuel have led to hunger riots and increased poverty and
destitution. According to the United Nations, the number of people
currently living on the brink of starvation is nearly 1 billion, the
large majority of the hungry being women and children. At the same
time, wars for imperialism, immigration restrictions, environmental
destruction, tuition hikes, and prison populations are exploding.
And how have global leaders responded to the demands of the people, to
deadly riots for rice in the developing world and university and
factory occupations in the global north? By spending billions of
dollars buying up bad loans and bailing out transnational banks,
corporations. Thus far, nearly $8 trillion of the people’s money has
been spent supporting the global elite. Without transparency and
without a voice, the global working class has been robbed to support
the faulty investments of a privileged few.
Now, Obama has called another meeting of the twenty richest countries
in the world in Pittsburgh, a working-class city that is intensely
affected by the economic meltdown to discuss how best to continue
failed policies such as neoliberalism, privatization, deregulation,
and billion dollar bailouts. As their number one priority, this elite
“Group of Twenty” leaders and finance ministers will be increasing the
power and scope of the International Monetary Fund by trillions of
dollars, an unaccountable institution that has imposed loan
conditions, abject poverty, and environmental devastation on billions
of people in the developing world to benefit corporate profits. It is
time the G20 learned that capitalism isn’t in crisis, but capitalism
IS the crisis. It is time that the G20 disband forever in shame.
WHAT IS OUR RESPONSE?
We oppose closed-door decision-making by the capitalist elite and
their repression of dissent. We stand in solidarity with the global
south, people of color, labor unions, workers without unions, women,
queer folk, and other ultra-exploited groups that have been
systematically shut out of the neoliberal New World Order so that the
developed world can profit off their destitution. As students and
youth, we demand free, accessible, and emancipating education as a
human right, an end to the industrialization of our education. Most of
all, we demand a voice and autonomy to make our own self-determined
economic decisions on how best to provide for ourselves, our families,
our communities, and our world.
We are calling upon all peoples to join us the week of September
24-25th to take to the streets of Pittsburgh to disrupt the summit and
the institutions of capital that profit from its domination, including
the education industrial complex that trains us to except the status
quo. We will plant seeds of a better world inside the rotted shell of
capitalism with diverse tactics and respect for the creative forms of
resistance chosen by our friends. While we support the actions of all
organizations planning to resist the G20 summit, including labor
unions, the G20 Resistance Project, Bail Out the People, Three Rivers
Climate Convergence, and Thomas Merton Center, we are organizing
ourselves towards a powerful week-long student and youth resistance.
If you are unable to come to Pittsburgh to join us, plan local
actions, disrupt schools and financial institutions, and educate your
local communities on exploitive G20 policies. Also, one of the most
effective ways to resist imperialism is through culture; make music,
make art, and make trouble! The failed policies of the technocratic
elite cannot continue to go unchallenged. This is our world, and we
have the right to build it around human need instead of profit margins
and corporate greed.
SEE YOU IN PITTSBURGH!
http://studentpowerinthefaceofempire.wordpress.com/
to endorse please email studentpowerin...@gmail.com
Groups Endorsed by:
Animas SDS (Durango, CO)
The Dirty Hands Collective (Durango, CO)
Justice in Palestine- University of Pittsburgh
New School in Exile
Individuals Endorsements:
Michael D – American University
Jonathan L – University of Pittsburgh
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