Raleigh to host GGJA Congress Aug 26-28

Via e-mail from one of the organizers:

In the wake of the debt-ceiling debacle of the last few weeks, working people
and the poor are facing what could be a decade of increased hardship. Members of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance are gathering to redouble
their efforts to defend the public sector, and to push back against the conservative myths of scarcity and austerity.

These folks were booted out of the Cancun climate conference for protesting the lack of interest in protecting indigenous peoples and the poor, who will be the first and most adversely affected victims of global climate change. So it should be somewhat spicy. For those who are unsure of the benefits of direct action, here are some notes from one of the founders of GGJ on educating the masses:

Globalization and neoliberalism were not common terms or centers of public debate. The WTO was relatively unknown at the time. Its meetings were secret, the levers of decision making and the connections between nation-states and corporate leaders were blurry and deliberately non-transparent. We believed everyone had a stake in refusing to let them meet quietly, especially in our town. We knew that any major action would not be spontaneous - it would need massive buy-in and involvement from many sectors of the community.

There had been a successful campaign to pass an ordinance banning the MAI (Mulitlateral Agreement on Investment) in Olympia, and we knew there was a hook into our community on the issues of corporate control and local power. We studied the mechanisms of the WTO in order to describe it and educate about its relationship to our work, our food, our health, our governance, and our economies. I facilitated countless popular education-style workshops in classes, at unions, in prisons, and in the community. A team of us produced the broadsheet that went out that summer to over 25,000 people engaged in environmental, labor, peace, and social justice work. The articles exposed the WTO as an illegitimate and undemocratic institution, and we called for a Shut Down on November 30, 1999.

For those whose ingrained fear of "Socialism!" causes their neck hairs to stand up when seeing this, fear not. While I'm sure there are a few bonafide S's in the mix here, you're only vulnerable if you're vulnerable. And there's a hell of a lot of good information and perspective to be had, stuff you'll likely never get via your normal social interactions.