People's Economic Summit in New York City




Another world is urgently necessary - but we must fight for it.

Sunday May 31--11 a.m.

Inside tents in DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD PLAZA, 47th St. & 1st Ave.

(in conjunction with the UN Summit on the World Economic Crisis, June 1-3 in NYC)


Two meetings on the world economic crisis are taking place in NYC in less than a month.

One of the meetings is the June 1 - 3 UN General Assembly's International Conference on the Global Economic and Financial Crisis. On Sunday, May 31, the day before the UN meeting, the People's Economic Summit will take place directly across the street from the UN building, under tents in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza. The theme of the Peoples Economic Summit is "A NEW WORLD IS URGENTLY NECESSARY–BUT WE MUST FIGHT FOR IT."

It remains to be seen whether these important meetings will get the same kind of attention that the U.S. and world corporate media give to a meeting of the G20--the Group of Twenty finance ministers and central bank governors. This is because in different ways, these meetings are a challenge to the domination of the world economy by the economic system and governments of the G20, especially the U.S. and the other longstanding imperialist powers that still comprise the so-called G7 nations. World events have forced these imperialist powers to incorporate the major developing countries into a broader framework that is now the G20.

The UN conference on the economic crisis, which some are referring to as the G192 Summit--for the 192 member nations of the UN--is, at its most elementary level, a response to exclusionary character of the G20 meetings. On another level, the UN meeting is an attempt by some of the more progressive governments to challenge both the hegemony of the major imperialist powers over the world economy, as well as the capitalist system.

After recently meeting in Cumaná in the Venezuelan state of Sucre, representatives of several governments including Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua issued the April 21 Declaration of Cumaná. Wasting no time to get to its central point, the Cumaná statement begins: "Capitalism is leading humanity and the planet to extinction. What we are experiencing is a global economic crisis of a systemic and structural nature, not another cyclic crisis."

The statement asserts: "It is necessary to develop and model an alternative to the capitalist system. A system based on: solidarity and complementarity, not competition; a system in harmony with our mother earth and not plundering of human resources; a system of cultural diversity and not cultural destruction and imposition of cultural values and lifestyles alien to the realities of our countries; a system of peace based on social justice and not on imperialist policies and wars; in summary, a system that recovers the human condition of our societies and peoples and does not reduce them to mere consumers or merchandise."

In anticipation of the UN meeting, the statement affirms: "The solutions to the global economic crisis and the definition of a new international financial scheme should be adopted with the participation of the 192 countries that will meet in the United Nations Conference on the International Financial Crisis to be held on June 1-3 to propose the creation of a new international economic order."

Because of the unique nature of the June UN conference, a broad coalition of forces is coming together to hold a Peoples Economic Summit in conjunction with the UN General Assembly Conference on the World Financial and Economic crisis. The goal of the one-day People's Economic Summit is to bring together activists, organizers and leaders from the various movements and struggles most impacted by the devastating global crisis around the region, the country, and some from around the world--the people who are loosing their homes, livelihoods, healthcare, education and futures. These are the voices that must be heard by all the governments.

The biggest worldwide economic crisis since the 1930 has re-raised, with even greater urgency, the need for people in the U.S. and people everywhere to liberate them selves from the grasp of the capitalist system, for the sake of self-defense and self-preservation.

One of the panels during the People's Economic Summit, entitled "Another World is Urgently Necessary," will examine the roots of the financial and economic crisis, as well as the case for alternatives to capitalism and imperialism. Another panel, entitled "But We Must Fight For It," will take up the critical discussion of building the mass movement/s and formulating a program and strategy essential to the task of bringing into being a serious mass struggle for jobs, an end to foreclosures and evictions, and new rights for working and poor people.

Along with these and other panels there will be workshops on "Resisting Imperialist War and Occupation," including the central importance of the Palestinian liberation struggle. A major session of the People's Economic Summit will be dedicated to planning major protest at the Next G20 Summit, which is being planned for NYC in late September.

Representatives of progressive governments participating in the UN conference are being invited to participate in the People's Economic Summit.

The views of the governments that signed the Cumaná statement represent the interests of the overwhelming population of the planet, but it may not represent many of the 192 member governments of the UN. Some governments want to limit the UN conference to a discussion of merely reforming the world financial system. A few imperialist super-powers are threatened by any challenge to their global domination. It is not clear whether the U.S. government will attend the UN economic crisis conference, or boycott it as they did the recent UN conference on racism in Geneva.

The main importance of this UN conference is that it is a forum for widening the political struggle against imperialist global hegemony. Our hope is that the May 31 People's Economic Summit will amplify the struggle inside the UN, strengthen it and make it relevant to the struggle in the streets.

What you can do:

1) Endorse

2) Spread the word - forward this message to friends, fellow activists, community organizers, trade unionists, and student organizations. Ask them to endorse and participate.

3) Donate to help with organizing expenses

4) Volunteer

5) Become a local organizer

Undo the Coup at WBAI!

Whose Station? Our Station!
Pacifica National Removes General Manager - Program Director Next?
Gag Rule Imposed on Programmers Who Dissent from National Takeover

* Attend a Public Forum on the WBAI Crisis - Tues., May 12, 7:00 PM at Dist. 1707, 75 Varick St. (n. of Canal St.), 14th Fl., Manhattan (A or 1 train to Canal St.) Sponsor: Ad Hoc Community Activist Coalition on WBAI - for info on this event & those below, call 212-561-7231.

* Attend CEMOTAP's Great Debate: Is the Bloomberg Administration Good for Black People? - Sun., May 17, 6 - 9 PM- Bernard White speaks re WBAI, 7:30 PM - Salem United Methodist Church, 129th & Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., Harlem

* Speak out at the WBAI Local Station Board mtg., Wed., May 20, 7 PM - place TBA.

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Fight Back! VOICE YOUR PROTEST * BECOME A WBAI VOTING MEMBER!

* Send an email to the Pacifica National Board at pnb@pacifica.org - which reaches each board member individually, including Grace Aaron. Please send a cc to info@justiceunity.org. Demand Hands Off WBAI Management! Maintain local control of programming!

* Also call Grace Aaron at (310) 286-1011 or (310) 402-4087 with the same message.

* Sign a petition to RECALL Local Station Board members Steve Brown, Mitch Cohen, James Ross, and Carolyn Birden, leaders of the attack on WBAI management.

* At this point, IT IS URGENT THAT YOU JOIN THE STATION (by donating $25 or more or 3 hours of volunteer work) so that you have the right to vote for Justice & Unity board candidates and to recall destructive board members. Call the station's pledge line at (212) 209-2950 - ask them to note on the card that you oppose removal of local management. Or pledge at www.wbai.org.

* Copy and distribute the "Undo the Coup" flyer to get the word out.


Stay updated with: THE WBAI JUSTICE & UNITY CAMPAIGN
(212) 591-2111 * www.justiceunity.org (join our email list there) * info@justiceunity.org




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BACKGROUND ON THE ISSUES AT WBAI:

WBAI is under attack from Pacifica's Interim Executive Director, Grace Aaron of Los Angeles, as well as from the Pacifica National Board majority and the WBAI Local Station Board majority. Exploiting a very real financial crisis at the station, they want to impose their own brand of programming - removing what some label "racial divisiveness and balkanization," meaning community self-determination programs, particularly those by and for the Black community.

On May 6, Aaron removed WBAI's progressive Black General Manager, Tony Riddle, and replaced him with LaVarn Williams, Pacifica's Interim Chief Financial Officer, from Berkeley, Cal. Another progressive Black manager, Program Director Bernard White, has been harshly attacked by majority board members locally and nationally; he is likely to be fired soon. The Local Station Board reportedly held an "executive session" on April 20 at which the majority did a snap "evaluation" of these 2 managers (over strong minority objections), which initiated the process of firing them. No data was collected and they were given no chance to respond. Riddle had served as manager for 13 months. White, a 30-year station veteran, has recently resumed work after major surgery.

These actions follow Riddle's and White's vocal and written protests about the recently revealed attempt by Aaron to hijack the station by changing the locks on the station's broadcast transmitter room and installing equipment for remote control of programming - all without notifying manager Riddle.

Meanwhile, Aaron has imposed a gag rule threatening any programmer who discusses matters on air that she deems a "risk" to Pacifica will be removed from the air. Already, Wakeup Call programmers Don DeBar and Errol Maitland, who have dissented on the air, have been disciplined.

All these steps are reminiscent of the Christmas Coup of December 2000, when Pacifica changed locks, fired local managers, and purged dissenting programmers & other staff, with the goal of mainstreaming BAI - until a mass movement of listeners and staff fought back and won back control of the station and network.

People's Summits & G20 protest

ATTENTION ACTIVISTS AND ORGANIZERS!
The Bail Out the People Movement is announcing three important projects:



FIRST:

PROTEST THE G20 SUMMIT IN NEW YORK CITY!
Saturday, September. 19 & Sunday, September 20, 2009
(tentative dates)
ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE–
BUT WE MUST FIGHT FOR IT!


Bail Out People - Not Banks
Money for Social Needs - Not War and Greed
Jobs, Housing, Healthcare & Education are a Right
Organize - Mobilize - Resist - Unite - Fight Back!


The third G20 summit is going to be in NYC on or around September 20, 2009. The G20 summits are taking place in response to the greatest worldwide economic crisis since the 1930s. However, the purpose of these high-level meetings of governments and bankers is not to rescue the people of the world from depression level unemployment, evictions, homelessness, poverty, social and economic inequality and war. These summits are about fixing the economic and financial order that puts profits before people-and fixing that system by creating more poverty, misery and suffering.

The last G20 Summit held in London in early April was met with massive protests both in London and throughout Europe.
Now that the G20 is coming to the U.S., it is up to activists and organizations here to take up the challenge of uniting and working together to organize the widest protests possible. BOPM urges activists and organizations to endorse the call for protest at the G20 Summit in the fall, and to begin organizing for it. The potential for mass mobilization in September is truly infinite. So let’s begin the work required to realize that powerful potential.



SECOND:

THE BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE MOVEMENT INVITES YOU TO A

PEOPLE’S ECONOMIC SUMMIT IN NEW YORK CITY - SUNDAY MAY 31

(In conjunction with the UN Summit on the World Economic Crisis, June 1-3 in New York City)

People's Economic Summit
Starting Time - 11:00 am (tentative)
Inside the People's Summit Tent
in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 47th St. & 1st Ave.

>From June 1–3, The General Assembly of the UN will hold a summit on the world economic crisis in NYC. The UN is holding its own economic summit out of the concern that the 192 member nations of the UN are being marginalized by the G20 summit meetings.

In conjunction with this meeting, on Sunday May 31, the Bail Out the People Movement will hold a people’s summit on
the world economic crisis in NYC outside the UN under a large tent in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.

Come to the PEOPLE’S ECONOMIC SUMMIT–Share information and insight on how the economic is affecting poor and working people all over the U.S. and all over the world. Participate in panels and workshops. Help formulate a vision for a future free of social and economic inequality and injustice. Help plan the fight to make that vision a reality.

Planning for the G20 summit meeting in NYC in September, and forming the structures that will make organizing for the G20 inclusive and effective, will be high on the list of priorities at the People’s Economic Summit.



THIRD:

Come to the:
PEOPLE’S SUMMIT & TENT CITY:
PROTEST THE “NATIONAL BIG BUSINESS SUMMIT”

JUNE 14-17, 2009
GRAND CIRCUS PARK, DETROIT, MICHIGAN


Four Days of Active Resistance, Political Discussion and Strategizing for a “People's Stimulus Plans” and an “Economic Bill of Rights” for Working People and the Poor

On June 15-17, 2009, the National Business Summit, sponsored by the Detroit Economic Club, will take place at Ford Field. Millionaire capitalists like the heads of Conoco-Phillips, Dow Chemical, General Motors, Chrysler, Humana Inc., Ascension Health, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, BNSF Railway Co., and PVS Chemicals, as well as the presidents of the National Council on Competitiveness and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, will gather at this summit. President Barack Obama and cabinet members have been invited.

These wealthy businessmen (yes, almost all of them are rich white men) will put their greedy heads together to discuss “innovation and policy ideas in technology, energy, environment and manufacturing.” In other words, they will be strategizing on how to further increase their profits at the expense of the ever-shrinking middle class, the vast working class and the growing millions living in utter poverty.

The National Business Summit will be held in a city with record-high unemployment and poverty rates, lay-offs, budget cuts, school closings, utility rate hikes and shut-offs and massive home foreclosures. With a registration fee of $1,495, it is unlikely that any victims of foreclosures and evictions, let alone laid-off workers, will be able to attend the National Business Summit. No one at this event will be speaking in the interests of those most affected by the economic collapse.

The People’s Summit will be a dynamic event. During the People’s Summit, organizers will implement a moratorium on
foreclosure evictions by going into the neighborhoods and supporting homeowners who are willing to confront the bailiffs. If there is a strike, demonstration or sit-in, the People’s Summit will join it. The People’s Summit will confront the big-business CEOs and politicians gathering next door. Join us!

RAISE YOUR VOICES TO DEMAND:
• Bail out the people!
• Jobs, healthcare, housing and education for all
• Moratorium on foreclosures, evictions and utility
shutoffs; housing is a right!
• Stop budget cuts and restore social services funding
• Stop tuition hikes and school closings
• Moratorium on layoffs, plant closings, pension thefts and union-busting; A job at a living wage is a right!
• End racism, sexism and anti-LGBT attacks
• Stop attacks on immigrants
. Bail out youth and students
• No more police brutality
• U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan
• Money for jobs and human needs, not war

Here's how you can help:

1) Endorse the call to action: http://www.bailoutpeople.org/peoplessummitendorse.shtml

2) Become an organizer: http://www.bailoutpeople.org/g20-peoplessummitsvolorgcents.shtml

3) Donate to help with organizing: http://bailoutpeople.org/donate.shtml

4) Spread the word!