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S AA Philippine-US Women's Solidarity Mass Organization, est. 1989
KAWOMENAN WINTER 1997
NO TO APEC!
So what is APEC anyway?
The 1997 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaderÿs Summit in Vancouver brought business leaders, heads of state and dictators from 18 countries; thousands of journalists and other international visitors; and the militarization of downtown Vancouver, particularly the low-income Downtown Eastside, which was ¬cleaned upÿ for the event.
It was also accompanied by the Network Opposed to Anti-People Control (No! to APEC) - a grassroots coalition of women, youth and students, migrant workers, and solidarity and anti-imperialist organizations opposed to the imperialist globalization symbolized by APEC. The coalition has been organizing since 1996 to raise consciousness among Canadians to the darker side of ¬free trade.ÿ
Continuing the tradition of the Peopleÿs Conference Against Imperialist Globalization at the 1996 APEC Summit in Manila, this yearÿs Peopleÿs Summit, attended by more than 400 delegates from around the globe, focused on the corporate agenda behind APEC, and examined the ramifications of free trade on the majority of the population. Panels and workshops covered such themes as:
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the strategic interests of transnational corporations (TNCs) and their client states in the Asia Pacific
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how the mechanisms of APEC are designed to enhance the strategic interests of TNCs
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how APEC relates to other trade regimes (e.g. the WTO, NAFTA) as new forms of corporate rule
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how APEC affects various sectors (including Finance, Mining, Forestry, Health, Education, Media, Food/Agriculture and others) and provides opportunities for citizen-based campaigns.
APEC, in a nutshell
Proposed by Japan and Australia, APEC was inaugurated in 1989. At the heart of its agenda is the creation of a region-wide, liberal trading and investment regime. In the name of ¬free trade,ÿ APEC threatens to dismantle regulations which protect the rights of workers, small farmers and peasants, women and other disadvantaged sectors, as well as legislation that protects the environment and small-scale local industries. As ¬barriers to trade,ÿ these protective frameworks will be cast aside in favor of ¬free competition,ÿ effectively licensing the dominance of transnational corporations in the Asia-Pacific. APEC represents a neo-liberal ideology which is both dangerous and discredited. The specters of ¬liberalizationÿ and ¬structural adjustmentÿ are already haunting the world. We must not let APEC entrench the madness of neo-liberalism in the Asia-Pacific.
KAWOMENAN WINTER 1997
Contents:
NO to APEC! The People's Conference Against Imperialist Globalization: Continuing the Resistance
Regulating the Mail-Order Bride Industry
PUBLICATIONS & RESOURCES