<nettime> The Weekender 069a

[andreas hagenbach <aah@thing.ch>]

   . The Weekender ...................................................
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01 . Robin Green   .   A CALL TO ACTION
02 . Gerbrand Oudenaarden   .   Challenge: How Low Can You Go?
03 . Pit Schultz   .   Atonal Festival Berlin 14-17 Jan 99
04 . Caravan  .   PEOPLES' GLOBAL ACTION




   ................................................................... 01

Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999
From: Robin Green <r.d.green@lancaster.ac.uk>

>Although this message is focused on the US, it applies just as well to
>Britain. Please copy widely, print out and use in leaflets, etc. etc.

Address is:
<http://www.zmag.org/callaction.htm>http://www.zmag.org/callaction.htm


A CALL TO ACTION ON SANCTIONS AND THE U.S. WAR AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ

by Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Edward Said, and Howard Zinn

At the end of 1998, the United States once again rained bombs on the
people of Iraq. But evenwhen the bombs stop falling, the U.S. war against
the people of Iraq continues through the harsh economic sanctions. This
is a call to action to end all the war.

This month U.S. policy will kill 4,500 children under the age of 5
in Iraq, according to UN studies, just as it did last month and the month
before that, all the way back to 1991. Since the end of the Gulf War, at
least hundreds of thousands -- maybe more than 1 million -- Iraqis have
died as a direct result of the UN sanctions on Iraq, which are a direct
result of U.S. policy.

This is not foreign policy -- it is sanctioned mass-murder that is
nearing holocaust proportions. If we remain silent, we are condoning a
genocide that is being perpetrated in the name of peace in the Middle
East, a mass slaughter that is being perpetrated in our name.

The time has come for a call to action to people of conscience. We are
past the point where silence is passive consent -- when a crime reaches
these proportions, silence is complicity. There are several tasks ahead
of us.

First, we must organize and make this issue a priority, just as Americans
organized to stop the war in Vietnam, and to protest U.S. policies in Central
America and South Africa. We need a national campaign to lift the sanctions.

This kind of work has already begun, and those efforts need our
help. For the past several years, individuals and groups have been
delivering medicine and other supplies to Iraq in defiance of the U.S.
blockade. Now, members of one of those groups, Voices in the
Wilderness in Chicago, have been threatened with massive fines by
the federal government for "exportation of donated goods, including
medical supplies and toys, to Iraq absent specific prior authorization."
Our government is harassing a peace group that takes medicine and
toys to dying children; we owe these courageous activists our support.

Such a campaign is not equivalent to support for the regime of Saddam
Hussein. To oppose the sanctions is to support the Iraqi people. The people
are suffering because of the actions of both the Iraqi and U.S. governments,
but our moral responsibility lies here in the United States, to counter the
hypocrisy and inhumanity of our leaders.

Also, there has been a virtual embargo on news of the effects of the
sanctions in the mainstream media. For the most part, the American people
do not know what evil is being carried out in our name. We must continue to
apply pressure on journalists at all levels -- from our local papers to the
network news -- to cover this tragedy. We should overwhelm the major press
with letters to the editor and put pressure on journalists to cover the story.

And we must realize this could be a long struggle. Preparations>should begin
for all the possible strategies, including civil disobedience once a
sufficient
number of people are committed. Direct action that forces a moral accounting
likely is going to be
necessary.

Whatever else we are doing, we should treat this as an emergency and put it
at the top of our agenda. Existing groups can work on the issue, new groups
may need to be formed, and national networks need to be built. A good central
source of information exists on the web at

 <http://leb.net/IAC/>http://leb.net/IAC/.

Without action by us, the horrors will go on, the children will continue to
die. We must appeal to the natural sympathies of the American people, who
will respond if they know what is happening. We must therefore bring this
issue, in every way we can, to national attention. The only way to avoid
complicity in this crime is to do everything we can, and much more than we
have been doing, to end the sanctions on Iraq. This issue must be discussed
in every household and every public forum across the country.



   ................................................................... 02

Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999
From: "Gerbrand Oudenaarden" <gerbrand@oudenaarden.nl>
Organization: The Next 5 Minutes - http://www.dds.nl/n5m


*** Challenge: How Low Can You Go? ***
*** call for participation in the show ***

The Next 5 Minutes 3 Conference (De Balie and Paradiso, Amsterdam,
12-14 March 1999) is an international working conference on tactical
media. One of the four main themes is The Tactical and the Technical.

The core of this theme will be the grand "How Low Can You
Go?" show on Friday night. The show will bring together a host of
ironic, artistic, subversive attempts to ditch the tech barrier.
The show will present work of international groups who explore
the aesthetics and charm of low-tech, and the amazing power of
forgotten media. The large theatre of Paradiso will for one night offer
space for installations. Every half an hour or so, time and space will be
taken for a visual presentation or a performance.

*** CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ***

We call on you to submit your ideas for participating in the "How Low
Can You Go Show". We welcome ideas for presentations, installations
and performances.

Get in touch with the show organiser, gerbrand@waag.org, if you feel
challenged and inspired. Deadline for submissions is January 25!

*** Technology in The Next 5 Minutes ***

Next 5 Minutes 3 will counter the obsession with high technology
that has been fashionable in media circles for quite some years.
Instead of glitching the high-tech fantasies of many of the
international art&tech events, N5M3 will make a vigorous effort
to go low-tech.

Most media, and certainly common media, heavily depend on
technology. "Media", actually is a term which is very hard to
define; in many meanings of the word "media", technology is
already implied. N5M3 will focus not only on the tactical
potential of (new) media, it also wishes to reflect on the
developments of media and media technology. The choice of media
that we use, and the way we use these media is not completely
self-evident or coincidental. Nor is it fully our own conscious
decision. The construction of media technology instead is deeply
political and political-economical.

The current technohype, propagating the consumption of computer
technology with increasing speed, is an example of technology
development that is hardly questioned. Even in 'leftist'
environments it is taken for granted that every few years all
computers must be replaced by brand new ones in order to be able
to run the latest Windows or Mac version.

Showing long-forgotten media, redundant computers or
provocatively silly machines, N5M3 will ironically glamorise
obsolete technology, and thus create some historic awareness and
maybe form some kind of antidote to the hype. We will attempt to
rewrite media history, perhaps to learn that the technology that
survives is not necessarily the best.

Our high-tech hype is not just temporarily bound, but also
spatially. What can high-tech computers do in countries where
villages hardly have water or food, let alone electricity and
phone connections? Which media are most effective in rural mainly
illiterate areas in India? How to develop media strategies if
high-tech is for economic or political reasons completely absent?

------------------------------


| The Next 5 Minutes 3 - Conference & Festival on Tactical Media
| New address: Kleine Gartmanplatsoen 10, 1017 RR Amsterdam, NL
| phone: +31-20-5535188, fax +31-20-5535194, http://www.dds.nl/n5m




   ................................................................... 03


Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 20:34:13 +0100
From: Pit Schultz <pit@icf.de>

Atonal Festival Berlin 14-17 Jan 99

The last Atonal festival happened in 1990, during the
80ies it covered experimental electronic music and
defined a certain 'berlin sound'. This year it will
be interesting to hear how this sound changed over
the last 10 years - listen in!


Do., 14. Januar 99 - 22.00 h - Ocean Club Nacht

  Gudrun Gut (Berlin)
  Thomas Fehlmann (Berlin)
  Sun Electric (Berlin)
  Wunder (Koeln)

	PLAY NOW
	http://orang.orang.org/perl/RIS/ris-simstream?user=atonal


Fr., 15. Januar 99 - arena 20.00 h - Electricity Hamburg
  Granular Synthesis (Wien)
  DJ Craze (Miami)
  The Scratch Perverts (London)
  Barry Schwartz (Oklahoma)
  Corvin [Dalek] (Budapest)
  Frieder Butzmann (Berlin)
  Naut Humon (San Francisco)
  Techno Animal (London)

	PLAY NOW
	http://orang.orang.org/perl/RIS/ris-simstream?user=atonal


Fr., 15. Januar 99 - Glashaus 23.00 h - # re - mix #

  Relais
  Groenland Orchester
  Jetzmann
  Felix Kubin
  Asmus Tietchens
  Die Patinnen
  DJ Harre

	PLAY NOW
	http://orang.orang.org/perl/RIS/ris-simstream?user=atonal


Sa., 16. Januar 99 - arena 20.00 h - Ende Neu

  Einstuerzende Neubauten (Berlin)
  Alboth! (Schweiz)
  Bob Ruthmann's Styropor Orchestra (Berlin)


	PLAY NOW
	http://orang.orang.org/perl/RIS/ris-simstream?user=atonal



Sa., 16. Januar 99 - Glashaus 23.00 h - Electro D

  Kerosene (Frankfurt)
  Air Liquide (Koeln / Berlin)
  Atom Heart (Santiago de Chile)
  Ohm Square (Prag)
  DJs Pacou & Hendrix ( Tresor Berlin)

	PLAY NOW
	http://orang.orang.org/perl/RIS/ris-simstream?user=atonal



So., 17. Januar 99 - Glashaus 21.00 h - Gespraechskonzert mit Trautonium

  Oskar Sala (Berlin)
  Pole (Berlin)

	PLAY NOW
	http://orang.orang.org/perl/RIS/ris-simstream?user=atonal


Mo., 18. Januar 99 - Roter Salon 20.00 h
  R-tmark Corporatecultureterrorists

	PLAY NOW
	http://orang.orang.org/perl/RIS/ris-simstream?user=atonal


more info:
http://www.atonal.de

livestreams provided by radio internationale stadt
http://orang.orang.org
time is GMT + 1



   ................................................................... 04


Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 09:46:33 +0200
From: Caravan <caravan@stad.dsl.nl


>PEOPLES' GLOBAL ACTION AGAINST "FREE" TRADE
>AND THE WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION (WTO)

>INTER CONTINENTAL CARAVAN (ICC)

>NEWSLETTER 1, JANUARY 1999

>This is the first Newsletter of the Inter Continental Caravan (ICC). It
>is hoped that there will be a newsletter produced regularly, at 6
>weekly  intervals, between now and May, when the ICC starts. This
>newsletter will be translated into several languages, and can also be
>read on the web site <http://stad.dsl.nl/~caravan>. To receive this
>Newsletter regurlary, please send an e-mail to: <caravan@stad.dsl.nl>
>
>CONTENTS:
>1. Brief Introduction to the Inter Continental Caravan
>2. Organisational Process
>3. Pretour
>4. Country Reports
>5. International Participation
>6. Transport During the ICC
>7. Food During the ICC
>8. Media and Informational Tools (Media, Webpage, General Publicity, and
>Analysis Pack)
>9. Money
>10. Finalised Route
>11. List of Endorsers
>12. Report of June 18th International Action in Financial Districts
>13. Appeals For Donations
>14. Overview of Political Events Connected to the ICC in May and June
>
>*************************************
>
>1. INTRODUCTION TO THE INTER-CONTINENTAL CARAVAN
>
>Several hundred activists from all over the world will come to Europe in
>May-June 1999, to participate in non-violent actions against the most
>important centres of power of the continent (like headquarters of TNCs,
>banks, institutions, corporate lobby groups, parliaments, etc), and meet
>groups from different countries.
>
>The timing of their visit will coincide with two major political events:
>the summit of heads of state of the European Union and the summit of
>heads of state of the G8 (USA, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Canada, Italy
>and Russia). The G8 meeting, which marks the end of the visit, will be
>the highest point of the ICC, and will coincide with other initiatives
>going on at the same time, such as non-violent actions in financial
>centres all over the world. Some of these are briefly listed in section
>13 below.
>
>Since this project was originally conceived in India (by KRRS, the
>biggest farmers' movement of that country), a large share of the
>activists coming will be Indian farmers, but the programme is open for
>activists from all over the world and different social sectors to join
>it. It is anticipated that there will be about 500 activists from India,
>and about 100 from other countries.
>
>The ICC is a project initiated and co-ordinated through the PGA (Peoples
>Global Action against "free" trade and WTO) -network, which was set up
>at a conference in February 1998 In Geneva, Switzerland, and
>co-ordinated actions against the WTO Ministerial Conference in May 1998
>In Gevena, also. The political position of the ICC is based on the PGA
>philosophy on non-violence, non-hierarcical strugtures, and will
>maintain a confrontational attitude and practicnon-violent civil
>disobedience and direct action as tools for political change rather than
>lobbying. For more information about the PGA, see Homepage:
><http://www.agp.org>.
>
>The name Inter Continental Caravan shares it's initials (ICC) with the
>large corporate lobby group, the International Chamber of Commerce,
>which was instrumental in drafting the MAI. We would like to apologise
>for any inconvenience this may cause the International Chamber of
>Commerce!
>
>CONTACT:
> European Co-ordination office c/o PO BOX 2228, 2301 CE Leiden, Holland
>Tel/fax: 00 31 71 517 3094, e-mail: <caravan@stad.dsl.nl>
>
>PGA Secretariat: <pga@agp.org>
>
>**************************************
>
>2. ORGANISATIONAL PROCESS
>
>The ICC is based on non hierarchical and decentralised organisational
>structures, which are also hall- marks of the PGA network as a whole.
>There is a European coordination group, based in Leiden, Holland, which
>currently is made up of an environmental activist from Finland, an
>activist from the unemployed movement in France, and one  from the UK
>who has been working on globalisation related issues. This is for
>coordination purposes only, and is not a headquarters of the ICC as
>such. In each county there are local Welcoming groups which comprise of
>people from the different organisations in that country who have decided
>to work on the ICC.  Since November, there has been a European wide
>meeting about every 6 weeks, where people from all the different
>Welcoming groups, and the European coordination group meet for a
>planning weekend. The European coordination group was selected at the
>first such meeting in November, in Germany.  Each European wide meeting
>is in a different country. The next one will be at the end of February
>in Switzerland.  In between such meetings there is regular email
>discussion between groups involved.  Unfortunately, this is only in
>English, since this is the common language we have decided to work in.
>Activists in each country are translating regular summaries of the
>discussion into their own language for local use. All work related to
>the ICC, at both the local level, and European level is unpaid. Funding
>will be done in a decentralised manner also (see also section 9).
>
>**************************************
>
>3. PRETOUR: 21 st January - 9 th February
>
>Between the end of January and the beginning of February there will be a
>"pretour" of 3 activists from India, and one person from the European
>coordination group, travelling around Europe to hold meetings with
>different organisations. From India there will be the president of the
>Karnataka State Farmers Association, the president of Shetkari
>Sanghatana (a  farmers organisation in the state of  Maharasthra) who is
>also the president of the All-India Inter-State Coordination Committee
>of Farmers' Movements, and an Adivasi indigenous landrights activist
>from the state of Kerala.
>
>The aims of the pretour will be to consolidate and legitimise the
>political process here in Europe, to broaden the political participation
>from different organisations and sectors, to facilitate the fundraising
>process, and to enable hosting activists and some activists from India
>to get to know each other prior to the ICC actually starts.
>
>A tight two week programme of meetings has been arranged for France,
>Italy, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. There will be
>meetings with all local welcoming groups, many major European farmer's
>movements (including the Confederation Paysanne from France, and the
>Coordination Paysanne Europeene in Brussels, both of which are members
>of the international coordination Via Campesina), many large
>foundations, public information meetings, meetings with politicians, and
>also with journalists. There will also be meetings with those involved
>in campaigning against biotechnology (such as GenetiX Snowball from the
>UK, activists involved in the global protests against the G8 summit,
>anti third world debt organisations (such as the Coalition pour la
>Annulation du Dette de Tiers Monde, in Belgium), and anti nuclear
>activists (such as For Mother Earth in Belgium). It is hoped also that
>there can be meetings with people from the international anti MAI
>networks.
>
>In addition to these meetings, the pretour will join two major meetings
>which are occuring independently of the pretour. The first is the
>Reclaim Europe meeting in Cologne, where groups from across Europe
>(including the Euromarches) are meeting to prepare coordinated activity
>around the EU summit, which will take place in Cologne during the ICC.
>This is an important part of the pretour, since it will give an
>opportunity to meet many movements from across Europe, including from
>Spain, where the pretour is unfortunately not going. The second event
>the pretour will participate in is the demonstration against the
>corporate lobby group, the World Economic Forum, at their annual meeting
>of the in Davos, Switzerland. It is also hoped, but as yet unconfirmed,
>that there can some possibility of participation in the international
>press conference which will take place in Davos, "the Other Davos",
>since this an important process to cooperate with.
>
>CONTACT: <caravan@stad.dsl.nl>
>
>*******************************
>
>4. COUNTRY REPORTS
>
>The ICC will travel throughout most of Western Europe, and also a small
>part of Eastern Europe. There are currently Welcoming groups preparing
>to receive all, or part, of the ICC in the Netherlands, Belgium, UK,
>France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, and Poland. There
>is also the possibility of Spanish involvement in the project, though it
>is unlikely that the ICC can actually go there, due to large travel
>distance. There are also possibilities of a small delegation of
>individuals from the ICC going to Scandinavia.
>
>**************************
>
>
>NETHERLANDS: 22nd - 27th May
>
>The organisational process for the ICC began very rapidly right from the
>beginning. There are several different organisations involved, and a lot
>of other groups and organisations have expressed their interest (among
>them the NAV, Dutch Agriculture Association.). There is a mediagroup
>information is being spread very widely, there is a leaflet (over 6.000
>copies already spread around !) and different plans for publicity and
>documentation of the ICC. Information evenings will be held in squats
>and other places, and a studygroup will start to develop the analytical
>and educational aspects of the ICC.
>
>For fundraising efforts several funds and other places have been
>contacted.
>
>For accommodation, there is an offer of a very political farmers
>organisation in the middle of the Netherlands to camp in their grounds.
>They have been working for years on issues like contacts hence and forth
>with f.e. Costa Rica, ethical ways to run a farm, biological farming
>etc.
>
>The ICC will start in Amsterdam on the 22nd May. There will be a big
>welcoming press conference at the Schipol-airport with a picnic
>afterwards. On the following days there will be a very varied programme
>including visits with farmers' organisations, meetings at different
>universities, visits to farms, organisations working on food and fair
>trade. On the 26th May there will be an action day, one possible theme
>being biotechnology.
>
>Both the collectives which offered to work on transportation
>(Theaterstraat) and food (Rampenplan) are from the Netherlands and also
>involved in the Dutch co-ordination.
>
>CONTACT: <infocent@wnet.bos.nl>
>
>***************************
>
>BELGIUM: 27th May - 30th May
>
>In Belgium there are plans to receive about half of the ICC (about 300
>people), whilst the rest of the ICC travels to the UK. There is
>involvement from international solidarity organisations, squatters, anti
>nuclear organisations, development NGOs,  the Coalition pour la
>Annulation du Dette Tiers Monde (CADTM, Coalition for the Cancellation
>of Third World Debt). The ICC will participate in the final stage of the
>international 2000 Walk for Nuclear Disarmament, which will go from the
>International Court of Justice in Den Haag, to the NATO headquarters in
>Brussels, joining with this protest as it approaches NATO. The
>accomodation will be provided by the walk's Peace Camp, which will be
>organised by the anti nuclear organisation For Mother Earth. Other sites
>for possible actions include the headquarters of the biotechnology giant
>Monsanto, and hopefully also the European Commission, and various
>corporate lobby groups in Brussels. Fundraising is still at an early
>stage here, but several fundraising and „food raising" events are
>planned for February and March. In March the CADTM are organising a very
>major international meeting against Third World Debt in Brussels. It
>will be important that organisers of the ICC link up with this meeting,
>since there will be representatives of very major social movements from
>around the world participating.
>
>CONTACT: <icc99belgique@altern.org>
>
>*******************************
>
>UK: 27th May - 30th May
>
>About half of the ICC will come to London between 27th and 30th of May,
>while the rest of the ICC is in Belgium.
>
>There is already a lot of support in the ICC on UK, amongst them, Third
>World solidarity groups, strikers against casualisation (Hillingdon
>Health workers), Corporate Watch, Reclaim the Streets, Undercurrents,
>Earth first! -activists, Anti-MAI -campaigners and anti-militarist
>organisations, and MEPs. Media interest already is stepping up and there
>is a very well known journalist interested in visiting India to report
>on the KRRS and the preparations for the tour.
>
>Action plans include an 'surround the Dome' action (the Dome is a strong
>symbol of Tony Blair's new corporate Britain), something around Genetic
>engineering (with Genetix and the accountable 'Snowball' campaign) and
>Global Financial Markets, and cancelling the Third World Debt. There may
>also be actions related to nuclear and militarist issues.
>
>CONTACT: <icc99uk@hotmail.com>
>
>*********************************
>
>FRANCE: 30th May - 2nd June, 5th June - 8th June, 10th - 14th June
>
>The situation in France began quite slowly, but now things are moving
>faster. There are groups constituted in Lyon, Lille, Dijon, Nantes and
>Toulouse. The ICC will visit several places in France, with the whole
>Caravan going to Paris, and later in 2 different parts to the North and
>South parts of France.
>
>In Paris the squat movements are beginning be involved, as is the
>National Co-ordination of the Autonomous Unemployed Group, and the
>Benghali community, who will organise a food donations. There is also
>the support of the Confederation Paysanne, the biggest small farmers
>organisation of Europe, and a member of the European wide Coordination
>Paysanne Europeene, which is a member of the international peasant
>co-ordination Via Campesina. An important organisation working on
>migration issues, Droits Devant! is also backing the ICC. There have
>been efforts to try to involve some politicians.
>
>On the 6th of March, a concert will be held in Dijon, and a couscous
>party in Lyon as fund raising efforts.
>
>There are plans for actions at  the OECD, and of course at the ICC (we
>won't loose the opportunity for  the ICC to confront with the ICC !),
>both of which are in Paris. In Lyon there's the idea of actions at Rhune
>Poulenc, a big biotech transnational that just merged with Hoechst.
>
CONTACTS:
Lyon: <ybon@worldnet.fr>, tel: 04.78.39.98.40, fax: 04.78.22.71.02
Lille: <lbhoyez@easynet.fr>, tel/fax: 03.27.57.45.14
Paris: <vespa@globenet.org>, tel: 01.42.58.82.28
Nantes: tel: 02.40.41.65.21/22 fax: 02.40.14.31.73
Dijon: <maloka@chez.com>, tel: 03.80.66.81.49, fax: 03.80.30.60.72
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