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In
August the World Summit on Sustainable Development takes place in
Johannesburg,
South Africa. Ten years have passed since the last big conference
in Rio de Janeiro
and not much has been achieved. Our climate is changing, our natural
environment is
dying and poverty has increased. Meanwhile, corporations have become
bigger and more
powerful, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank have tightened their
grip on society,
and environmental and social conventions have proved useless in
tackling what they
set out to do. Our governments pander to the whims of corporate
lobby groups whose
neo-liberal agenda is slowly privatising everything on our planet
to the detriment
of the many and to the benefit of the few. Moreover, corporations
and industrial
lobby groups have set out to portray themselves as 'part of the
solution and not the
problem' by greenwashing themselves through powerful public relation
campaigns. The
World Summit on Sustainable Development is becoming the biggest
greenwash event of them all and the UN is leading the way.
August
the 31st is the Global Day of Action against the corporate influence
on our
lives. On this day people all over the world will take action to
raise awareness
about the neo-liberal take over of social and environmental issues.
60.000 people
are expected to attend the summit in Johannesburg but this is also
an opportunity to
spread our messages locally and globally.
The
social movement in South Africa will also on this day hold a mass
action to
denounce the new neo-liberal program which confronts all of Africa.
The
Anti-Privatisation Forum, Jubilee South Africa, Environmental Justice
Networking
Forum, Palestinian Solidarity Committee, Rural Development Services
Network, the
Landless movements and the Indigenous People have agreed on a common
platform to
hold the biggest independent political gathering since apartheid
ended in 1994.
Join
us and organise an action locally or see if there are actions already
organised
in your area. Go out and protest against the neo-liberal paradigm,
the privatisation
of our lives and our future.
contact
uncorp@aseed.antenna.nl
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