Mobilization for Goldsmith's Jacobins
by Arthur TicknorOne of the umbrella organizations in Teddy Goldsmith's Jacobin mob planning to disrupt the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington, D.C., the Mobilization for Global Justice (MGJ)—better called Mobilization for Goldsmith's Jacobins—provides a support network for the hard-core terrorist groups. These are the same forces involved in the riots at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank protests in Washington, D.C. in April, and the "Battle of Seattle" during the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in November 1999. A spokesman for the MGJ has said that participants at the Washington meeting, who will be staying in a number of hotels, "would be a legitimate protest target." Among the 400-plus organizations in the MGJ are the following:
Global Exchange (GX)
2017 Mission St. #303
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 255-7296
website: www.globalexchange.org
Founded in 1988 by Medea Benjamin, Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate (California) in 2000, and Kevin Danaher.
Known as a leading force behind the campaign to force Nike out of the "sweatshop business," Global Exchange is part of the "pro-democracy" human rights mafia, supporting terrorists such as the Zapatistas in Chiapas, and Brazil's Landless Movement (MST).
After the 1994 Zapatista uprising, Global Exchange organized international delegations to "monitor" the human rights situation in Chiapas. Medea Benjamin participated with San Cristóbal Bishop Samuel Ruiz—then EZLN commander—in a hunger strike for "peace" in December 1994.
The coordinator of Mexico's National Immigration Institute (INM), Alejandro Carillo Castro, said in December 1998, that so-called "revolutionary tourism" of the kind offered by Global Exchange, in which foreign visitors arrive as part of a package to visit the highlands of Chiapas and celebrate the fifth anniversary, in January 1999, of the appearance of the EZLN—in Zapatista support base communities—would not be allowed. The tour participants were asked to explain their activities in Chiapas, as INM rules forbid activities of a political nature for those travelling on tourist visas.
In the United States, GX mobilized citizens to pressure Mexican President Vicente Fox (by sending a free fax from its website) to support the San Andrés Accords, under which some 30% of Mexican territory is considered an indigenous region, and therefore to be granted autonomy—reforms which the Zapatistas made a precondition for simply opening "peace talks" with the government. Under the accords, passed on July 28, Mexican national law does not govern regions classified as "indigenous," but rather local habits and customs.
Since 1995, GX has worked to support Brazil's terrorist MST, and to support local "human rights" groups. A video documentary of Benedita da Silva, an advocate for the MST who went on a GX 12-city U.S. speaking tour, was directed by a recipient of the Open Society Institute's Soros Documentary Fund.
GX is a member of the National Mobilization on Colombia, a national coalition that calls for an end to: U.S. military aid to Colombia, the Andean region being used in the war on drugs, and U.S. funding of counter-narcotic aerial eradication in Colombia and the Andean region. The coalition will hold two days of lobbying, workshops, strategy sessions, and demonstrations on Sept. 27-28.
Alliance for Global Justice
1247 E Street, SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
(202) 544-9355
website: www.afgj.org
An umbrella organization which seeks alternatives to the "unjust interference of governments" by building "transformational grassroots organizations" such as the Zapatistas, and dedicated to genocidal "sustainable development." Members include:
Nicaragua Network
www.infoshop.org/nicanetSince 1979, Nicaragua Network has worked to carry on the Sandinista Revolution.
Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN)
www.mexicosolidarity.orgA coalition of over 80 organizations, MSN held speaking tours last year for Mexican "human rights experts," as part of a campaign to implement the San Andrés Accords, build support for human rights monitoring, demilitarize indigenous areas, and end U.S. military aid and training to Mexico. MSN also sponsored a Chiapas Solidarity U.S. campus tour, featuring the film "A Place Called Chiapas," praising the Zapatista uprising.
50 Years Is Enough Network (50YIE)
3628 12th St., NE
Washington, D.C. 20017\
(202) 463-2265
www.50years.orgEmerged in 1994 out of discussions among Oxfam America, the Development GAP, Global Exchange, International Rivers Network, Friends of the Earth, and the Environmental Defense Fund. 50YIE's platform calls for "openness" at the World Bank and IMF, and "sustainable," "resource-conserving development." At the World Social Forum in Pôrto Alegre, Brazil in January 2001, 50YIE distributed thousands of flyers inviting people to Washington for demonstrations between Sept. 28 and Oct. 4.
AFGJ members will be part of a rally on Sept. 29 demanding an end to Plan Colombia, which (supposedly) targets the narco-insurgency there, and an overall takedown of what it calls the "phony War on Drugs." Then it will join in a "symbolic encirclement" of the White House.
The Ruckus Society
4131 Shafter Ave., Suite 9
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 595-3442
www.ruckus.org
On April 6, 2001, ABC News showed members of the AFL-CIO at a boot camp established by the Ruckus Society for the MGJ April 8-17 events in Washington; the unionists were seen in near-jungle conditions on the banks of Peace River near Arcadia, Florida, training with students on spring break. The Ruckus Society's quasi-military training included how to use "pugo sticks" to combat riot police with shields and batons.
The Ruckus Society was founded in 1995 by Mike Roselle, a former national direct action coordinator for Greenpeace and founder of the Earth First! and Rainforest Action Network eco-terrorist groups, which were all active in Seattle. Director John Sellers was held on $1 million bail in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania last August, for his role in the riots against the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999.
According to several sources, one of the leading funders of the Ruckus Society is Ted Turner, who was, until recently, married to "deep ecologist" Jane Fonda. Another top funder is Elaine Broadhead, a Chicago heiress and anti-nuclear activist, who held two of the 18 Ruckus training camps at her 150-acre estate in the Northern Virginia fox-hunting country at Middleburg.
The Ruckus Society will conduct an Action Camp at Broadhead's Middleburg estate during Sept. 14-18.
More broadly, the AFL-CIO is being drawn into providing cover for the hard-core terrorists who are being used by the very people the AFL-CIO is opposing on policy, to discredit the opposition and shut down real debate. Coming out of its Executive Council meeting in August in Chicago, the AFL-CIO issued a "Call to Action" for a month of activities during the August Congressional recess, to "galvanize opposition to Fast Track" of the latest amendments to the North American Free Trade Agreement. The activities will culminate with a Global Justice Week, Sept. 26-Oct. 1 in Washington, D.C., with a massive peaceful rally and march on Sept. 30. While there is nothing wrong with such peaceful protest, the Ruckus Society is training people for terrorism—not peaceful civil disobedience.
Homes Not Jails/D.C.
(202) 737-6444
www.homesnotjails.org/dc
Founded in 1992 in San Francisco, where it has opened hundreds of abandoned buildings for squatters, Homes Not Jails created a branch in Washington, D.C. coincident with the IMF/World Bank protests last April.
HNJ plans to host a "People's Repo" squatters summit from Sept. 21-24 to "take what we need," and has been linked to the "Black Bloc" anarchist group known as the Anti-Capitalist Convergence.
Continental Direct Action Network
www.cdan.org
Begun as a coalition of activist groups to shut down the WTO meeting in Seattle on Nov. 30, 1999, using large-scale street theater and mass direct action. To coordinate future non-violent direct actions, the affinity groups created a continental network, adopting "Principles of Unity" inspired by and derived from those of People's Global Action.
