Please foward this to anyone who you think could help...


>To whom it may concern - an urgent appeal,
>
>Dear recipients,
>
>In May and June 600 Southern activists tour around Europe together with
>European activists to demon-strate against ìfree tradeî and the institutions
>pressing for it (the World Trade Organisation, the Interna-tional Chamber of
>Commerce, the European Commission etc.), against dodgy multinationals,
>espe-cially those involved in biotechnology (Monsanto, Novartis...) and to
>meet and network with different groups across the Continent. We are going to
>meet with the Geld oder Leben (Money or Life) Bicycle Caravan and the Caravan
>of Refugees and Migrants in Germany, the Euromarches, Farmers movements in
>Eastern Europe... The Inter Continental Caravan will join in the
>demonstrations against the NATO and Nuclear Weapons organised by For Mother
>Earth and join the actions against the EU-Summit and the G8-Summit in Cologne,
>and will coincide with the International Day of Action at Financial Cen-ters
>on the June 18th, which will end the Caravan.
>
>The Inter Continental Caravan for Solidarity and Resistance is an initiative
>of the Peopleís Global Ac-tion against ìfreeî trade and the WTO (PGA), a
>network of different peopleís movements and organisa-tions around the world.
>The Caravan will consist mainly of Indian peasants, since thatís where idea
>originally came from. There will be activists from all biggest farmers
>movements from India, and also anti-nuclear activists, indigenous people,
>landless, and people fighting against the Narmada Dam proj-ect. From other
>parts of the World, there will be people from Moviemento dos Sem Terra
>(Landless movement in Brazil), Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the
>disappeared from Argentina), womenís peasant movement from Bangladesh, and
>there has been interest in Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Columbia, Ecuador,
>Russia, Thailand, South Korea...
>
>This project is not about bringing Southern activists for an exhibition tour
>to Europe. It is about join-ing ours and theirs struggles, about solidarity
>and common resistance. With this project we hope to be able to built up
>stronger links within different European movements, and between European and
>South-ern Movements.
>
>But this project needs everybodyís involvement to become true !
>
>Although there have already been extensive fundraising efforts, and much money
>has already come in, there is still an URGENT NEED FOR 50 000 US DOLLARS IN
>ONE WEEK (BY THE 20th FEBRUARY), otherwise we will loose the contracts with
>the busses we are planning to use.
>
>This seems to be a very big amount of money, but if we have 500-1000 people
>each donating 50-100 dollars (also bigger or smaller donations are of course
>very welcome !!!), we will have it ! If we con-sider that all the Indian
>participants are each paying their own airfare to participate in the Inter
>Conti-nental Caravan, then such donations of 50-100 dollars really are not so
>huge as they may seem, in rela-tion to a project of such magnitude.
>
>Please spread this appeal around, publicise it in different newsletters and
>magazines, call your relatives and people who symphatize radical political
>activism.... With the EU having the Agenda 2000, the WTOís Milennium round
>starting, this Caravan really has to take place now - with a little bit of
>effort from everyone we can make it !
>
>Bank details:
>Account number: 3701010441
>Bank number: 50090100, Okobank Berlin
>Please specify all the money as ìBusses for the Caravanî AND notify us when
>putting money into the account.
>
>For more information:
>
>Inter Continental Caravan
>PO Box 2228, 2301 CE Leiden, Holland
>tel/fax +31-71-517 3094
>e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>web-site: http://stad.dsl.nl/~caravan, http://www.agp.org
>

David Wood
PhD Student ('The Rural Peace Dividend')
Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU

Tel: 0191 222 5305




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