AFL-CIO Call to Globalize Justice

Global Justice Week of Action

Sept. 26 - Oct. 1, 2001

Washington, DC

This fall, Americas unions will unite with a broad range of activists from
around the world to insist on transforming the rules and institutions of
the global economy to ensure that they work for working people.

The international union movement, student organizations, womens groups,
human rights advocates, faith-based activists, solidarity groups,
immigrants, environmentalists, unemployed people, small farmers and
business people will come together in a week of action to reject the
global economic system that values profits over people.

As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank hold their annual
joint meetings in Washington, D.C., during the week of Sept. 26-Oct. 2,
2001, we will come together for a massive march and rally and related
events in the nations capital. As we approach the November meeting of the
World Trade Organization in Qatar, we also will be joining together with
unions from around the world in global solidarity actions being planned by
the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). And, also in
Washington, D.C., from Sept. 24-25, the National Council of Women's
Organizations will hold its Women's Equality Summit, Congressional Action
Day with a focus on Social Security privatizationanother item on the World
Bank's agenda.

The fall meetings of the IMF and World Bank will be among the most
significant gatherings of the proponents and decision makers of
corporate-led globalization in 2001. We cannot stand by as these
institutions continue to structure global economic rules for the benefit
of corporations and the wealthy and deny basic justice to the majority of
the worlds people.

The IMF/World Bank are forcing national structural adjustments that
include privatizing, downsizing and slashing spending by governments;
recklessly opening trade doors to exploitative foreign investment; and
promotion of so-called labor flexibility moves, such as reducing the
minimum wage and weakening workers protections. Some countries are
spending more each year trying to repay loan debts to these institutions
than they are able to spend to meet the basic health, sanitation and
education needs of their people. Both domestically and abroad, the World
Bank continues to promote privatization of our public systems with
dangerous consequences for the well-being of workers.

The struggle against the IMF and World Bank is about much more than trade.
It is the struggle to address the inequalities of the global economy
through the institutions that perpetuate them.

Global justice activists are making three demands:

Opposition to the granting by the U.S. Congress of "Fast Track" trade
negotiating authority to President George W. Bush. Fast Track would bar
Congress from more than a minimal review of trade agreements Bush
negotiates, and would not require protections for workers rights and the
environment in the core provisions of the trade agreementsdespite
extensive protections for business interests.

Support for the call to unconditionally cancel the debts owed by the
poorest countries to the IMF and the World Bank, using the institutions
own resources.

Opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement aimed
at extending the terms of the disastrous North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) throughout the Western Hemisphere.

We call on people of conscience and good will to Be There for a Global
Justice Week of Action:

• Women's Equality Summit, Congressional Action Day: Sept. 24-25
  
• March in defense of the rights of immigrants: Wednesday, Sept. 26
  
• Teach-in on the World Bank, IMF and the Global Economy: Thursday
  evening, Sept. 27 through Saturday, Sept. 29
  
• Forum on the impacts of international financial institution policies on
  women in the global economy
  
• Behind the Label retailer actions with UNITE, protesting sweatshop
  conditions: Friday, Sept. 28
  
• Interfaith Service for debt cancellation and global justice: Saturday,
  Sept. 29
  
• Massive rally and march Sunday, Sept. 30, demanding:
  
• IMF/World Bank debt cancellation
  
• A fair trade agenda and no Fast Track/FTAA
  
• Priority treatment for combating HIV/AIDS
  
• Support for local labor struggles (including parking lot attendants
  fight for the right to organize with Hotel Employees & Restaurant
  Employees Local 27)
  
• Preparation for the ICFTUs Global Unions Day of Action by the
  Workplaces of the World to be held Nov. 9 around the meeting of the WTO in
  Qatar.

http://www.aflcio.org/globaleconomy/global_justice.htm

• 110 Trade Justice
• 194 World Financial Institutions