<nettime> June 18 Global action

[artactivism@gn.apc.org (reclaim the streets)]

Second J18 Bulletin

June 18th - International Day of Protest, Action and Carnival in Financial
Centres Around the World.  What's happening and where…

 With weeks to go till June 18th the list of actions is looking pretty
impressive, with events being organised in 41 countries and more movements
around the world taking up the call all the time.
Of course, the process of building links globally between movements is just
as important as the events on the day itself, as a strong international
network is needed to counter the globalisation of misery under capitalism.
The groups involved are incredibly diverse, from environmentalists in
Zimbabwe, Poland, Israel and Portugal, to Unions incuding the Bangladesh
National Garment Workers' Confederation, Indian Fisherfolk Union and
Austria's Independent Unionists, to the unemployed in France and indigenous
people in Nigeria fighting oil companies, to peasant groups in Indonesia
and Senegal......

The Internet is a powerful tool: electronic communications will allow us to
know what is happening everywhere on the day though the main site
www.j18.org. This site will have a continuous feed of text reports, photos,
video and audio from as many places as possible. It will also be an
invaluable tool for media work, prisoner support and a future archive for
inspiration as well as a breakthrough in setting up our own direct
communication channels.  Send in what you want to say about your group or
action to the June 18th website - www.j18.org - it belongs to all of us!
Links to other J18 web-pages are
http://www.nodo50.org/reclaim   (Madrid, Spain)
http://utopiaverde.org/foros-huelva/actividades/18-junio   (Huelva, Spain)
www.j18.org/glasgow/html   (Glasgow, Scotland)
www.june18.freeuk.com    (Lancaster, England)
http://junio18.8m.com      (Montivideo, Uruguay)
http://xinet.com/rts/      (San Francisco, USA)
Sydney will be doing a webcast through the day,  at
http://www.j18.cat.org.au/   with real video, audio, photos and  text
updated all day.

So what is happening on June 18th and where?  Obviously this is not the
complete picture, but here we go...
On June 18th the sun will come up first (after New Zealand) in Australia,
where political activists in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane are
organising a day of festive protests.
The Sydney J18 Collective say: "The J-One-Eight Public Holiday will
definitely be 1999's biggest anti-globalization event - a carnival, a
direct action, a street festival"
 "Mobile and bold squads of activists will be able to create a sense of
mass agitation and excitement. There will be banner hangs on main arterial
roads to Central Business District, street theatre on expressways to the
city, autonomous actions targetting individual corporations, a lunchtime
mass action "Anti-Business Lunch", and a  "Scumbags Tour" of corporate HQ.
Also planned are a mass "Friday Night Office Party" street procession at
peak hour and a special J18 Critical Mass bike ride through the business
district.
By this time activities should be in full swing in the South Korea in the
Far East, and beginning in  South East Asia: there are J18 contacts in
Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia (where the North Sumatra Peasant Union /
NSPU are organising for J18).
The sun rises next on South Asia, with actions in Nepal and Bangladesh
(where action is being taken by the1.5 million strong Bangladesh National
Garments Workers Federation).  In India, the National Alliance of Peoples
Movements (NAPM). say:

"There will be protests across 25 states in India, involving hundreds of
thousands of people who have been marginalised by the market economy and
World Trade Organisation policies. Many capital developments are coming to
India but they benefit only the rich."

A few hours later in the Middle East, Green Action is organizing for J18
together with other organizations in Israel. Simultaneously, Africa and
Europe spin into life. Students for Environmental Action are getting it
together in Harare, Zimbabwe. Chikoko, the network of indigenous groups
resisting the oil industry in Nigeria will be springing into action at the
same time as Earth First! Prague in the Czech Republic and actions against
the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development in Minsk, Belarus.  In
Malta the Moviment Graffitti is organising a J18 punk concert, while in
Italy : "we are planning in Milano, something like a street rave parade,
and a similar one in Roma: we should be able to involve in the party a
large number of squats, sound systems and common people, to create a fun
partyin' venue in both cities"
In Cologne, Germany on the 18th of June, there's a mass ‘Laugh-Parade',
where thousands of people will make a laughing stock of the G8 leaders.
There will also be a camp for activists coming from different countries
(including 400 Indian activists at the climax of their direct action tour
of Europe), and on the 19th, a mass demonstration against the G8 summit.
And a call for mass fare-dodging has gone out for activists within an
overnight train-ride to Cologne : "get together en-masse at your main train
station and get on a train for Cologne and let us turn June 19 into another
day to remember." No money. No passport. No problem.
There is a J18 street party organized in Lausanne, Switzerland. "Here, the
streets, privatized by cars, will be given back to the citizens. A huge
event with music and more"
In the Basque Country, actions are being organised in Bilbo (Bilbao) and
Iru~na, (Pamplona).
In Southern Spain, a network of environmental groups is organising for J18
in Huelva.  From Valencia : We're planning two open "critical mass" in the
afternoon, a big street party and some groups are going to do some direct
actions all over the city."   In Asturies, "feminist, autonomous,
ecologist, sindicalist groups are organizing a carnival in front of the
public savings bank CAJASTUR."
In Scotland there will be an action in Edinburgh on Sat 12th june with
10,000 £10 bank notes from the Bank of Bigotry distributed.  And on the
18th a global street party in Glasgow.
In England, Lancaster Freedom Collective have "a day of actions on local
corporate nasties".... In Newbury "hundreds of happy, smiling folk, dressed
up and armed with banners, posters, leaflets, custard pies, D-locks and
much partying paraphernalia will converge on Vodafone and show them a
better way of living!".
In London the day will begin with Critical Mass cyclists riding into the
heart of the beast in the City (the financial centre of London), followed
by pickets of Reed Employment Agency, Smithfields meat market and
McDonalds.  Meanwhile autonomous groups will be hitting targets all over
the City.  The Association of Autonomous Astronauts are calling a protest
against the militarisation of space, and International Solidarity with
Workers in Russia (ISWoR), are doing actions against Gap Clothing.  At
midday debt cancellation activists will start off a global chain reaction -
a human chain around the Treasury in Whitehall, and then thousands of
people will come together for a powerful Carnival of Resistance in the
financial Square Mile organised by London Reclaim The Streets!
In Wales the 'cymraeg dim sharid a cymraeg' collective is planning a
critical mass cycle blockade in Cardiff,.  The Irish section of the
International Workers' Association is organising for J18 in Belfast.
Meanwhile down in Dakar, Senegal, the peasant farmer group Concept is the
contact for J18 organising,
A few hours later, as we move through time and space on to Latin
America...In Brazil two networks have answered the 18th June call
In Montevideo, Uruguay, the J18 network is working on ideas such as :
        -a spoof trade fair
        -banks for the poor outside the banks, where they can deposit misery and
unemployment. Invite rubbish workers to deposit their rubbish (their
capital!) in these banks, and block the streets with their carts.
-posters and flyers, designed like cheques or dollars.
In Buenos Aires, Argentina the debt cancellation movement Dialogo 2000,
(religious and social groupings including Madres de la Plaza de Mayo and
trade unions), will hold a procession/march through the financial centre.
In front of the Central Bank/IMF building speakers will argue for
non-payment by the peoples of the indebted South, and popular artists and
musicians will perform under the banner Liberation from Debt
In Santiago, Chile a conscientious objection group, and street performers
will march in protest against the banning of street performing.
In Medellin, Colombia, autonomous groups are organising a forum on
globalisation, a carnival against multinationals with a potlatch bazaar,
traditional games and puppets and acrobats, music videos and poetry, and a
concert with local ska and punk bands.  There will also be a demonstration
at the multinational Banco Santander.

"we are conscious of the devastating capability of transnational capital
but we are also conscious of the creative capacity of imagination and
freedom.  That's why we will protest in force but we will also celebrate
with joy, the joy of making possible human contact, warmth, art and life."
Club de los Intelectuales Podridos (Decaying Intellectuals' Club)

At the same time in North America, in New York, Reclaim the Streets NYC are
organising an action in Times Square.  In Boston, at noon on June 18,
Boston Encuentro will rally near BankBoston and Fleet headquarters, "We'll
begin with a conga line, music,puppets, street theater and leaflets.
There's a rumor that Zapatistas may ride in on horses to show their
solidarity." A mock letter from ‘Fleece Boston', will send up the gigantic
merger of BankBoston and Fleet Bank, which already promises layoffs of more
than 5,000 workers..

"We plan to combine satire and entertainment with serious critique, to
shine light on the dark side of finance capital - the giant banks at the
center of the neoliberal conquest of the world." (Boston Encuentro)

Turning North to Canada, Peoples' Global Action - Ottawa (social movements
such as the cCanadian Federation of Students, coalition to stop the war
against Yugoslavia, Industrial Workers of the World, Canadian Union of
Postal Workers, and Comite des Sans Emploi -Montreal folks-, Critical Mass)
are organising actions on corporate institutions.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, (US) a J18party is being put together.. In
Regina, Canada students and trade unionists are uniting following the "Stop
Corporate Control"  action to plan a bigger and more radical action for
June 18th. In Albuquerque (US) a feminist activist collective, feminists
liberating our world (flow), are organising for June 18th,
 Meanwhile, south of the border in Mexico D.F there will be an action on
the Stock Exchange.
Back North, Eugene, Oregon will have a party and finance tours around
downtown, stopping at particularly "bad" institutions. Also planned are
music, games, and murals  Further down the coast, The San Francisco Bay
Area is bubbling with excitement as J18 draws near.  Planning is focused on
the ten worst locally-based multinational multideath corporations.
2500-5000 flyers have already been printed for SF.  They say, "ART ATTACK
HITS FINANCIAL DISTRICT" in addition to a graphic of a tripod. In Vancouver
3000 flyers and 2400 stick up posters have been printed with the meeting
point for J18 revelrous subversion:
And the sun will set on June 18th in Downtown Los Angeles where there'll be
a J18 Street Party:

"in mass we'll march, bike ride, dance, protest and party towards
destinations to be announced. Have fun. Be creative. There will be music.
There will be dancing. Remember, revolution is the festival of the
oppressed!" (LA Reclaim The Streets)

Uuf!  And don't forget to send reports of all your inspiring actions to the
rest of the global network!!

"There are no limits to creativity . There is no end to subversion."
Raoul Vaneigem - The Revolution of Everyday Life.

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