[Fwd: [a16-international-planning] URGENT MESSAGE: TEACH-IN IN DCAPRIL 1

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Hello everyone,

All this mobilizing that everyone is doing is incredibly inspiring! I've noticed though that many of the caravans going to Washington DC are planning to leave and/or arrive on April 15th. This is great EXCEPT that the International Forum on Globalization is having another large Teach-In at the Foundry United Methodist Church (coincidentally the same church the Clinton's go to) -- ON FRIDAY APRIL 14TH. This Teach-In is a great infusion of ideas, education and a chance for people to hear from some of the amazing activists that have devoted their lives to these issues for years if not decades. We want you all to come!!

Tickets are needed for the Teach-In but they're only $4 to $8. Tickets are still available by calling 1-888-629-9269. Some tickets may be available at the door, but only a limited amount (maybe 50-100). Call us if you have any questions or want to buy tickets. Below is the program schedule:

GLOBALIZATION: FOCUS ON THE
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND AND THE WORLD BANK
Friday, April 14, 10 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Foundry United Methodist Church, 1500 16th Street, NW, Washington D.C.


Advance phone ticket orders will be accepted March 1- April 13, 2000.
Please order ahead!

Please call the International Forum on Globalization Ticket Hotline
Advance Tickets and Information: 1-888-629-9269 U.S. & Canada -- 415-331-8701 Int'l

Some tickets may be available at the door, April 14. Door opens at 9:00 am.

Day session (10 am - 5 pm): General admission - $8; IFG members/students - $4
Evening session (6 - 10:30 pm): General admission - $8; IFG members/students - $4

Some scholarships and group rates available.

This Teach-In brings 30 of the world's leading critics of globalization from every continent to Washington D.C., two days before the IMF and World Bank convene in closed-door meetings. Please join us.

Co-Sponsors:
Institute for Policy Studies, Friends of the Earth, International Center for Technology Assessment, Global Exchange, Public Citizen, 50 Years is Enough

Program:

10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
I. Globalization's Triple Threat: WTO, IMF World Bank More than fifty years ago at Bretton Woods, the world's leading corporate, government, and economic figures designed a new centralized world economic system. It effectively placed global corporations in charge, via instruments like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and finally the World Trade Organization. This panel presents overviews of this global triad and its grim effects on the environment, small business, social welfare, democracy, culture, sovereignty, labor, indigenous peoples, and the global poor.

Herman Daly, University of Maryland, U.S.
Anuradha Mittal, Institute for Food & Development Policy, U.S.
Njoki Njoroge Njehu, 50 Years is Enough Network, Kenya
Susan George, Transnational Institute, France
Edward Goldsmith, The Ecologist, UK
Lori Wallach, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, U.S.
Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange, U.S.

12:30 - 2:45 p.m.
II. Reports from the planet: IMF 's and World Bank 's devastating
"Structural Adjustment Programs"
Panelists in this session will present specific reports about consequences of IMF and World Bank loans on countries that were required to restructure their economies toward corporate-based export systems. Often, the entire social, economic, and political fabric of nations is laid waste, with particularly gruesome effects on the poor, workers, and middle classes. Health care, small business assistance, environment and natural resource protections, and services to the poor are usually the first to be eliminated. In the end, the economies are not lifted, and huge debts are unpayable.

Brent Blackwelder, Friends of the Earth, U.S.
Catherine Caufield, Author: Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty
of Nations, U.S.
Emmy Hafild, Indonesian Environmental Forum (WALHI), Indonesia
Carlos Chen, Maya Achi, Guatemala
Bertha Lujan, Mexican Action Network on Free Trade, Mexico
Dennis Brutus, Jubilee 2000, South Africa
Catherine Tactaquin, National Network for Immigrant Rights, U.S.

2:45 - 5:00 p.m.
III. The Technological Dimension:
Globalization of Corporate Communications & Military Technologies Communication technologies and the Internet were supposed to enhance empowerment and democracy but have instead become the crucial infrastructure for the globalization of corporate commercial and political power. Now in the wake of merger mania (Time Warner, AOL, EMI, et. al.), "information society" is revealed to be centralized, corporatized, hegemonic, and globally homogenizing. Similar developments among military technology industries-hidden from public view, and exempted from trade rules, subsidy limits, and even WTO controls-are creating a new global military infrastructure that is designed to protect the new global corporate order.

Jerry Mander, International Forum on Globalization, U.S.
Mark Crispin Miller, Project on Media Ownership, NYU, U.S.
Robert McChesney, Author: Rich Media, Poor Democracy, U.S.
Steve Staples, Internat’l Network on Disarmament & Globalization, Canada
Randall Christine Forsberg, Inst. for Defense & Disarmament Studies, U.S.
Andrew Kimbrell, International Center for Technology Assessment, U.S.


5:00 - 6:00 p.m. - dinner break


6:00 - 8:15 p.m.
IV. The Casino Economy: The Anatomy of Global Control
The International Monetary Fund sits at the hub of an international financial system that places the interests of global investors, speculators, and corporations above all other values. It seeks to force all countries to abandon self-reliance, and open themselves to "free trade" in capital as much as in commodities. This has made Third World countries especially vulnerable to the whims of investment bankers and currency speculators and it is a direct cause of the terrible global financial crises of the last decade. This panel describes the details of how this works, who gains and who loses, and what to do about it.

John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies, U.S.
Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South, Thailand
Martin Khor, Third World Network, Malaysia
David Korten, Author: The Post Corporate World, U.S.
Michele Chan-Fishel, Friends of the Earth, U.S.
Tony Clarke, Polaris Institute, Canada

8:15 - 10:30 p.m.
V. Reports from the Planet: Effects of the IMF, World Bank, and WTO on
Environment, Energy, Agriculture, Biodiversity & Culture
This panel will focus on sectoral effects of globalization policies, as expressed by its three main institutions. We will describe effects on farmers, food and agriculture-especially from the forced introduction of biotechnology-on global fresh water supplies, on forests and the environment, and on the choice and application of energy systems, as well as the profound effects upon democracy itself.

Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians, Canada
Vandana Shiva, Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, India
Mark Ritchie, Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy, U.S.
Victor Menotti, International Forum on Globalization, U.S.
Daphne Wysham, Institute for Policy Studies, U.S.
Oronto Douglas, Environmental Rights Action, Nigeria

special guest:
Ralph Nader, Public Citizen, U.S.


(Program subject to change)

International Forum on Globalization, Bldg. 1062, Ft. Cronkhite, Sausalito, CA 94965


The International Forum on Globalization is an alliance of over sixty researchers and activists from twenty countries, joined together to do public education on the social, political, cultural, and environmental consequences of the accelerated shift to a global economy. We hold teach-ins, seminars, and publish extensively on globalization issues.

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International Forum on Globalization
1062 Fort Cronkhite
Sausalito, CA 94965 USA
Tel 415.229.9350
Fax 415.229.9340
Website: www.ifg.org
Email: shoover@ifg.org
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