Weaving a Web of Solidarity
A feminist action against globalisation
Summit of the Americas on the FTAA
Quebec City, April 2001

On the weekend of April 20-22, leaders of thirty four countries will come
to Quebec to tie a new strand in the web of corporate globalisation: the
Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), the regional accord that will
expand NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) throughout the
hemisphere.  In response, thousands of us will come to Quebec City to
resist them.  From Canada to Argentina, women and men will take action to
express our opposition to the extension of the corporate web. Women bear
the brunt of the violence of globalisation, yet despite all the
oppression, repression and exploitation, women continue to rise up.  This
is a call to rise up as we join together in a Women s Action, to take
place alongside the many actions and events of the weekend. We are taking
action because we will no longer tolerate the web of corporate control
that binds us down and constricts our lives.  We will not allow this
system to continue.  We have taken its measure: its time is done.
Instead, we will become spiders, spinning a new web of connection, of
solidarity out of our rage, out of our love. We will, as women, weave
together our hopes and dreams, our aspirations, our indictments, our
testimony, our witnessing, our demands, our visions.  We will write on
ribbons, on strips of cloth, on rags. We will draw, paint, knot cords,
braid yarn, whisper into pieces of string.  And from these materials we
will weave our web. If they ignore our voices and continue their
deliberations, the cries of women will haunt them and undo all their
plans.  Though they erect a fence to stop us, we will twine our web
through its mesh to be the visible symbol of the power of women, of the
revolution we weave.  When they try to wall us out of their meetings, they
will only wall themselves in.  We claim all of the world beyond their
wall. We ask our brothers to support us, to honor our women's space so
that we who have so often been invisible can stand forth and be seen.  We
ask you to support us by looking honestly at the ways that, even within
our own movements, women are ignored, suppressed, or discounted.  And when
you support us in this action, where we stand together as women, it will
spark actions where we fight side by side. For we know that you too, are
weavers of this web. We ask the ancestors to stand with us. For the web of
life links the living and the dead.  We ask the generations of the future
to stand with us, for we fight for the world you will inherit.  We ask the
spirits of the earth to support us and be our ground, for we fight for the
continuance of life. We are invincible, for life itself weaves with us.

AN INVITATION TO THE WOMEN OF THE WORLD TO

Form an affinity group An affinity group is a group of 10-20 people with
whom you have "affinity"; that is, a common bond (family, friends, common
issue, work colleagues, etc.), that meets regularly to discuss common
issues and to act. Choose one or two members to represent your group at
the Council of representatives. The Council of representatives will "meet"
in virtual space until the week before the Summit of the Americas, at
which point meetings will take place in Quebec. The Council of
representatives meetings will be the forum to decide on strategy for the
action. Keep your eye on the CMAQ (Quebec Centre for Independent Media)
website (www.cmaq.net) for a Women's web of solidarity action link.

Initiate (or continue), in your affinity group, a dialogue on the impacts
of globalisation on women in your home area. Women around the world bear
the brunt of globalisation  our voices together will allow us to add to
the feminist analysis of globalisation, and to strengthen our cause.

Weave your part of the web of solidarity

Take what comes out of your dialogue on women and globalisation, and, as a
group, weave a section of the web of solidarity to represent your
consensus. Use your imagination  use yarn, materials, photos, newspaper
clippings. The sky is the limit.

Add your section of the web to the web of solidarity in Quebec City in April
2001
Here are some suggestions on the many ways to join your section of the
web to the larger web of solidarity:
*Come as an affinity group to Quebec City in April 2001, to participate in
the collective weaving of the web of solidarity

A fence is being erected around the buildings where the Summit is being
held in order to keep protesters out-- residents inside the perimeter are
required to have identity cards in order to gain access to their own homes
during the Summit. This fence symbolises, for us, the anti-democratic
process of the FTAA--we want to reclaim that fence, that space. Those
wanting to weave (literally or symbolically and non-violently) their parts
of the web into the fence are invited to do so on the 19th of April (the
day preceding the opening of the meeting). Affinity groups not wanting to
approach the fence are invited to plan other kinds of actions using the
web parts (blocking an intersection to catch Summit negotiators in the
web, or decorating a park with parts of the web, etc.). Creativity and
imagination are key! The sky is the limit! *Send your section of the web
to the address below and the women present in Quebec will ensure that your
section is woven into the larger web.  *Send a photograph of your section
of the web to the address below, and the women present in Quebec will
enlarge it and add it to the larger web. *Get together with other affinity
groups in your area and weave your sections together closer to your home.

Quibec contact information:
E-mail address: [log in to unmask]
Mailing address: Toile femme Quibec 2001, C.P. 70021, Quibec, Quibec
(Canada) G1R 6B1

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

************************************************************************************
Distributed through Cyber-Society-Live [CSL]: CSL is a moderated discussion
list made up of people who are interested in the interdisciplinary academic
study of Cyber Society in all its manifestations.To join the list please visit:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/cyber-society-live.html
*************************************************************************************