Cry out with Argentina! December 20 2002

http://www.wombles.org.uk/actions/argentina2.php

castellano | deutsch | dutch | english | english (america) | greek | italiano | norwegian | português | russian | swedish

Alternative call to action from America

On this anniversary of the Argentine cacerolazo uprising against the IMF and their own corrupt government, affirm the power of the people to change their own fate by tying a local action to the struggle in Argentina!

On Friday, December 20, people and social movements from all around the world will take part in actions to demand justice and freedom. Last December 20, 2001, millions of Argentines overthrew a cowardly overnment that was putting the interests of international banks above those of its own people. While the government and economy continue to flounder, the unemployed workers, women, consumers and savers of Argentina have built the power of the people by building local barter markets, direct action cells, and neighborhood assemblies.

At the same time, the IMF and the Bush administration are still trying to bleed the Argentine people dry, by demanding an increase in charges for public services, cuts in social programs and reforms to make it easier for banks to steal the nation's wealth. In November, Argentina defaulted on its payments to the World Bank, but it looks like neither the administrations in Washington or Buenos Aires are ready to give up on their quest to destroy all hope in Argentina for independence.

Celebrate the Argentine spirit of survival and resistance by educating your neighbors, co-workers and friends about the situation there. Demand that the IMF and Washington leave Argentina alone, while supporting a fight for justice in your own community.

Other actions >>>

www.wombles.org.uk

Here are just a few ideas:

1. Plan a massive bike ride to draw attention to a local privatization of a water or public health system or other social service, to pay homage to the children that have starved to death in Argentina due to privatization there!
2. Have a cacerolazo outside of your local Citibank or Fleet Bank (or any international bank, for that matter!), where you disrupt business as usual by banging pots and pans and educating the customers, workers and each other about redlining locally and in the global economy!
3. Set up a community garden outside a Monsanto Headquarters to protest the multinational's Frankenfood take-over of local farms and crops from Patagonia to Washington State! The US-based company is one of the biggest foreign investors in Argentina, and is making a killing off of exporting genetically-modified foods and the lack of social regulation due to the current crisis.
4. Join your local World Bank Bonds Boycott campaign, and pressure your school, union, church or city council to stop profiting from death money! We can help make it easier for countries like Argentina to not pay back the international banks if we can keep our local institutions from giving them money in the first place.
5. Set up Tango Instruction classes outside of your local Argentine Consulate, and complement it with a grill-out and a photo exhibit from Argentina. Remind the diplomatic core of some of what they're sacrificing if they reach an uneccesary and harmful agreement with the fund.
6. Educate consumers about the wave of US companies, like Brach Candy, that are displacing production to Argentina to beenfit from the crisis. Ten years ago, Brach's candy factory (you've probably eaten their candy) employed about 4,000 people on the West-side of Chicago, a low-income neighborhood. Only 1,200 jobs remain, and management is considering moving production to ARCOR, an Argentine factory operation.
7. Write a holiday card to your Congressperson asking them to get the IMF to cancel the illegitimate debt of Argentina and all other Third World country.
8. Help United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) spread Holiday cheer by joining their campaign to educate consumers about the Gap's labor practices! You can set up a booth outside of Gap to sell goods from Argentina's worker-controlled factories, and help raise money to go to USAS's national conference in Los Angeles, January 31st to February 2nd, 2003.

WE WANT TO HEAR WHAT YOU'RE PLANNING!

For more information about events in your area, or for help with educational materials, call 202-302-2817, write argentinasolidarityeconjustice.net, or visit the Argentina link at http://www.worldbankboycott.org.

For analysis of the Argentine economic crisis, go to the Center for Economic and Policy Research's website: http://www.cepr.net, or call 202-293-5380, ext. 213.