GABNET/MA-AL ECHOES THE CRY FROM 1999 TO 2009; FROM SEATTLE TO LONDON: LA LUCHA CONTINUA!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 2009
Jollene Levid, Gabnet Secretary-General
secgen@gabnet.org
Tel: 323-356-4748

LOS ANGELES: There can be no better commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Battle of Seattle than the current rolling battle in the streets of London as the people of Europe confront the G-20 and their profit-accumulating system, capitalism.

We remember the Battle of Seattle, which took place the same year GABNet, now of the Mariposa Alliance, celebrated its tenth anniversary. Time passes but the act of speaking truth to both power and the masses remains a crucial part of our struggle for a viable, just and equitable society. They, the "lords of the universe" and their mistresses lie; we don't.

We warned then as we do now of the catastrophic impact of untrammeled capitalist plunder of the world on human beings, on the environment and most particularly, on women who would be transformed, as they have been, into a singular commodity, absent women’s liberation.

In the ten years between then and now, we have witnessed the truth that the 700 plus organizations and nearly 60,000 people shouted to the world in the streets of Seattle. It is the same truth now being shouted in the streets of London, as the angered masses of humanity demand the dismantling of capitalism, that most advanced system of hierarchical exploitation. This truth has simply become more and more palpable, as the massive and unprecedented transfer -- through a rigged finance system that rapidly grew from 15% to 40% of the US GDP -- of wealth or social surplus from the people to the cabal of capitalists triggered a global economic meltdown: capitalism sucked in 1999; it sucks absolutely in 2009.

In the ten years between then and now, we witnessed the intense commoditization of poor and working women under imperialist globalization, its policy and practice of forced migration that threw poor working women helter-skelter into Japan, the Middle East, North America and Europe; we witnessed the nobility by which such women claimed their own selves as transnational women, anchoring families and communities on both sides of the globe, and launching the global women's movement, likely the most profound transformative movement of the historic time.

Women were at the Battle of Seattle in 1999; women are in the Battle of London in 2009. GABNet of the Mariposa Alliance salutes the organizations and individuals, especially the women, who pour into the streets to confront the G-20 powers with the power of the people. We salute our transnational friends and relatives who are starting to flutter their butterfly wings in London, to create a hurricane in the Pacific! We echo their anger and their demands. Get organized! Tear it down! Onward to women's liberation! Onward to humanity's liberation! La lucha continua!