World’s people need bailout

In solidarity with an international conference called by formerly colonized countries at the United Nations here in New York, the Bail Out the People Movement has called for a People’s Economic Summit on May 31.

BULLETIN: The U.N. has reported that the U.N. Conference on the World Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development will likely be postponed until June 24-26. Organizers of the BOPM People’s Economic Summit, however, have said that the Peoples' Economic Summit will go on as scheduled on May 31.

BOPM organizers say that because it comes on the eve of an international conference, the People’s Summit provides a unique opportunity to project a working-class agenda on an international arena. It is an equally important opportunity to express international solidarity with the most oppressed of the world.

President of the General Assembly Miguel D’Escoto Brockman of Nicaragua first issued the call for a June 1-3 U.N. Conference on the World Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development. This conference is also known as the G-192 because it is meant to represent all countries, not just the imperialist countries of the G-7 or the economic powers called the G-20.

Since all U.N. members have been invited, this conference could for the first time give an opportunity for those who represent the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people—those who are suffering the most but who are least responsible for the crisis—to express their peoples’ needs to the world.

Hostility from the big imperialist countries to such an inclusive conference has made it necessary to mobilize public support worldwide to assure it is a success.

Representing progressive organizations in the U.S., BOPM has organized workshops and rallies at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza at 47th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan for May 31, starting at 11 a.m. Activists will present ways for workers and other poor people to confront the challenges of the capitalist economic crisis.

BOPM is a national network of labor and community activists who have challenged the Wall Street banks in the streets and stopped evictions in neighborhoods in Detroit, Baltimore, Boston and Southern California.

BOPM’s Larry Holmes, one of the coordinators of the People’s Summit, told Workers World: “It will give an opportunity for workers and oppressed peoples here to make their voices heard and their demands against banks and international financial institutions known around the world. The administration has pledged $12 trillion to the banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions, yet there is no bailout for working people in the U.S. Two million people are expected to lose homes here this year, and there have already been about six million layoffs since the downturn began.

“That’s bad enough, but conditions are far worse through what the politicians call ‘the developing world,’ meaning the former colonies that are still economically subject to the decisions of the big powers,” Holmes continued. “The International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s policies have pushed privatizing, ending subsidies for food and other basic necessities in these countries, stopping funding of public health and opening their economies to the world market, which can impoverish them.”

Plan to confront G-20 in September

“The word now is that the G-20 plans its next meeting in New York around Sept. 19 and 20 to coincide with the U.N. opening meetings,” said Holmes. “One thing we’ll take up May 31 is our plan for reacting to this G-20. We will go over different strategies and tactics for this. We plan a fightback. As we say in our literature, ‘A new world is urgently needed, but we must fight for it.’”

Sara Flounders, a co-coordinator of the International Action Center, one of the supporting organizations for the People’s Summit, said the big powers—the U.S. and the European Union especially—were trying to obstruct the U.N. meeting and boycott it. “They don’t want any input or control over their banking system,” she said. “They already know their system works against the interests of the overwhelming majority of the world’s population, but they don’t like to hear it at the U.N.

“The crisis means disaster for hundreds of millions of people globally,” said Flounders. “We want to prevent the world’s powers from dividing the workers here from their sisters and brothers around the globe. Our movement here in the U.S. is in full solidarity with the June 1-3 conference and we are making demands upon the same powerful forces inside the U.S.,” she added.

“We are circulating a petition to support the U.N. conference, drafted by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark,” said Flounders. “People can sign onto it and get more information about the People’s Summit at the IAC website at www.iacenter.org.”

Along with the May 31 Summit and planning for the September G-20 protest, BOPM is supporting a People’s Summit & Tent City in Detroit on June 14-17 at the Grand Circus Park to protest the “National Big Business Summit” of the big corporation heads set at that time.

The brochure calling for the People’s Summit lists discussions on “Defending Immigrant/Worker Rights,” “Building a Struggle of Youth and Students,” “Communities of Faith for Peace and Justice,” and “Capitalist Crisis, Racism, Political Repression and the Prisons.” Organizations that focus on one or another of these issues will be joining the panels to discuss them, making up panels of activists from labor, community, women’s, lesbian/gay/bi/trans, immigrant, religious, anti-imperialist and anti-war struggles, among others.

In addition, there will be a “People’s Speakout” in two parts that involves a discussion of strategy and tactics from those who have lost jobs, homes, healthcare and their future. One part is on “Workers’ Struggles in U.S.—The fight for jobs; the EFCA and against layoffs; growing unemployment; foreclosures; evictions.” The other is on “Struggles Against U.S. Corporate Power Around the World—Impact of capitalist crisis, militarism, environmental destruction and imperialist policies in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Caribbean and Latin America.”

Among the invited speakers—besides the U.N. delegates—are Cynthia McKinney, Ramsey Clark, Howard Zinn, Nawal El Saadawi, Medea Benjamin, Ajamu Sankofa, Vinie Burrows, Nellie Bailey, City Councilperson Charles Barron, Chris Silvera, Brenda Stokely, Larry Hamm, Lynne Stewart, Rev. Lucius Walker, Sonny Africa, Paul Quintos, Dulphing Ogan and Curtis Doebbler.

For more information on the schedule and the organizations involved, visit bailoutpeople.org.