MAJOR REGIONAL MOBILIZATION FOR APC SUMMIT PROTESTS IN SEATTLE MAY 6 - 10TH!

ASIA PACIFIC CITIES SUMMIT IN SEATTLE MAY 6 - 12TH

PROTEST WEEK SCHEDULE OF EVENTS!



Asia Pacific Cities Summit Protest Organizers

Hold Teach-In



TO ANNOUNCE PLANS FOR PROTESTS

AND MARCHES

Seattle Independent Media Center (1415 3rd Ave)

Saturday, May 5th At 4 PM

(Also New APC Sumit Protest Week Events Added To Schedule!)

A teach-in sponsored by the APC Summit Anti-Corporate Globalization Coalition will be held at 4 PM on Saturday in downtown Seattle at the Independent Media Center at 1415 3rd Ave. Speakers will include:

Ace Saturay - People's Assembly

Emily Reilly - Students For Fair Trade

Mark Taylor-Canfield - Committee For Government Accountability

A representative from the Campaign to Lable Genetically Altered Food.

At 4 PM a brief presentation will be made by protest organizers regarding planned marches and demonstrations during the Asia Pacific Cities Summit. Activists will challenge some of the inaccurate information coming from Clifford Traisman and Mayor Paul Schell's office regarding facts surrounding the goals of the APC summit and the reasons for the protests.Topics of the presentation will be a breifing on the history and agenda of the Asia Pacific Cities Summit, background on some of the Asian cities involved in the Summit - including repressive governments like Singapore and Hong Kong, and an examination of the city of Seattle's role in the summit. A discussion will take place about the real sponsors of the APC summit which are actually 15 leading multinational corporations. According to the official literature which will be available to review, sponsors of the Asian Pacific Cities Summit include Microsoft, Boeing, Weyerhauser, Preston/Ellis/Gates, Bank of America, PMI, and Immunex.

Clifford Traisman, the main organizer of the Seattle Asia Pacific Cities Summit 2001 called a representative of the anti-globalization coalition yesterday and claimed that no APEC officials would be attending the APC summit in Seattle. This is contrary to the Asian Pacific Cities Summit's own website which shows that senior officials from the World Bank and APEC are scheduled to be the main speakers at the plenary session on "how municipalities can form partnerships with the World Bank and other international globalization organizations" on May 8th at 10 AM. This is the reason that a mass convergence has been called for 10 AM on Tuesday, May 8th at the Westin Hotel.

More information about the agenda and plenary sessions can be obtained from the official APC Summit website at www.apsummit.org

Regardless of Traisman's claims that the summit is officially sponsored by the city of Seattle, in reality, Seattle is listed only as a "supporter" in the official registration packets that have been distributed to participants. The APC Sumit is actualy sponsored by a large group of multi-national corporations, according to the APC's own literature. Also, despite misleading statements currently being made by representatives of the city, a major emphasis is being put on international trade. The Port of Seattle, which gets most of it's billions of dollars of business through international trade with Asia Pacific Rim nations, is one of the major players in the APC Summit proceedings. The Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, which includes many major international trade businesses is also being promoted in the APC literature, along with a pitch to international investors and businesses to make partnerships in Seattle. In addition, the Australia Trade Coast alliance is one of the prime sponsors of the summit.

It is clear that city officials and corporate interests stand to make billions of dollars from business contacts made at these APC Summit meetings May 6 - 12th. The agenda even includes presentations by senior officials of APEC and the World Bank, two of the most infamous promoters of privatization and corporate globalization.

Ace Saturay from the People's Assembly will address one of the major goals of corporate globalization at Saturday's Teach-in. Explaining the expansion of corporate markets into the public sector, effecting public services, public utilities, education, labor rights, etc. One of the main goals of the APC Summit in Seattle is to provide opportunities for corporations to gain unprecedented access to municipal, regional and state officials who are in charge of public education and public services to promote public/private partnerships. Given the recent problems associated with the privatization of public energy utilites, and the resulting astronomical rate increases, along with the current Sound Transit scandal, these issues are very relevant to our local community.

Emily Reilly from Students For Fair Trade will give a presentation on the privatization of public education and the current trend for corporate control of the nation's colleges, universities and high schools. Since business contacts with officials in charge of public education are also a part of the APC Summit, students and faculty from the Pacific Northwest from Vancouver BC to Portland, Oregon are apposed to such close ties between businesses and public education. Recently major demonstrations took place in Olympia at the state capitol because of large tuition increases. The student groups are afraid that if corporations create public/private partnerships with public education insitutions, the schools will eventually become a profit driven system and the result will

be even higher tution rates.

Mark Taylor-Canfield of the Committee For Government Accountability will review the WTO protests and the resulting investigation by the city into police misconduct and civil rights violations. His group sat on the WTO Accountability Review Committee meetings sponsored by the city council and many of the members gave testimony during the investigation. He will address the many civil and class action lawsuits filed against the City of Seattle for abuses during the 1999 WTO Ministerial Conference and how it relates to proper crowd management by police and the APC Summit demonstrations.He will also give current information on the large sums of money being paid out to claimants by the city of Seattle. He'll talk about First Amendment rights and the importance of protests in historic movements for social change - the civil rights movement, voting rights for women, the environmental movement, etc.

A representative from the Campaign to Lable Genetically Altered Food will address the topic of APC Summit plenary session scheduled for May 7th at 10 AM which promotes biotechnolgy. He will present information about the dangers of genetically modified organisms(GMO's) and the recent efforts to stop genetic contamination of the natural environment caused by biotechnology projects. His group has fought a long battle to require labling of gentecally altered food. The campagin maintains that the consumer's right to know what they are eating is being violated by major supermarket chains and biotech companies.

Updates on protest activites can be obtained by going to the Seattle Independent Media website at http://www.seattleindymedia.org Studio X at www.microradio.net and the Seattle Community Networks's activist calendar at www.scn.org

SCHEDULE OF APC SUMMIT PROTEST EVENTS:

Events have been added to the week of events surrounding the summit, including:

Sunday May 6th 4 PM - Activist Party and Open House at Community Action Network(10th & Prospect on Capitol Hill) 632-1656.



Sunday May 6th 6:30 PM - Protest March Against Corporate Globalization sponsored by Students For Fair Trade from Westlake Center(4th and Pine) to the Westin Hotel(1900 5th Ave) where demonstrators will gather for the opening session of the summit for their own "People's Summit" outside the hotel where the summit is being held. There will be speakers addressing corporate globalization and privatization of public services and other issues. There will be music and free food.



Monday May 7th 1 PM - Demonstration Against Biotechnology- GMO's, genetically altered food and environmental degredation will not be the topic of discussion during the pleanery session on promoting biotechnology in your local community. Outside the Westin Hotel groups will be discussing this issue at a grassroots rally.

Monday May 7th 7:00 PM - Organizing Party and Meeting for building a coalition to oppose Mark Sidran in his run for Mayor of Seattle at the Community Action Network(10th and Prospect) at 5 PM on May 7th (632-1656) at 7:30 PM. This will be

Their website can be found at http;//www.iherns.com/dc/

Tuesday May 8th 10 AM - March and Convergence on the Westin Hotel during the plenary session on "partnerships with the World Bank and APEC". Marchers will be meeting at Westlake Center. This is also a solidarity protest with major demonstrators in Honolulu against the APEC Asian Development Bank conference.

Tuesday May 8th 6 PM - A "Progressive Community Potluck" will be held in Ballard at the Trinity United Church at 6 PM on 6May 8th (632-7828) Accessible by metro buses # 18 & 75. seattlepotluck@yahoo.com

For More Information:

Ace Saturay

People's Assembly

passembly@yahoo.com

206-763-9611

Emily Reilly

Students For Fair Trade

206-955-6037

Mark Taylor-Canfield

Committee For Government Accountability

mtc2000_usa@yahoo.com

206-329-7413

The Campaign To Lable Genetically Altered Food

craig@thecampaign.org

425-771-4049

Seattle Independent Media Center

1415 3 rd Ave

Seattle, WA

206-262-0721