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News :: Miscellaneous |
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World Economic Forum background info |
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by radical librarian
Email: librarians (nospam) lists.tao.ca (unverified!) |
28 Nov 2001
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Just a little background information on the World Economic Forum. |
The WEF is an exclusive, un-elected, invite-only organization, a 'think tank' and a driving force behind the global economy.
Incorporated since 1971 as a foundation, the WEF claims to be "independent, impartial and not-for-profit, tied to no political, partisan or national interests."
It has a consultative status with the United Nations.
Members include: 1000 CEOs from the worlds top (sic) multi-national corporations. Academics, trade-ministers, heads of state, and elite media also attend as guests.
According to the WEF their meeting is considered the global summit that defines the political, economic and business agenda for the year.
The WEF's summits allow the richest and most powerful corporations in the world to mingle with trade representatives from nations, and with each other, to make business deals and determine global political and
economic policies.
According to the WEF, it initiated the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Its 1982 annual meeting in Davos brought together cabinet members of major countries with heads of international organizations, such as the World Bank, IMF, and GATT. This special Informal Gathering of Trade Ministers from
17 countries organized the launch of the Uruguay Round, which is where the WTO was founded.
This is just one significant example of how the WEF, driven by its corporate agenda, shapes the political, economic and social landscape.
The World Economic Forum is an extremely powerful and unaccountable body who are making major decisions about what we will read in the media, what food we will eat, what we will study in school, where, when and in what conditions we will work; almost every aspect of our everyday life.
The planned actions against the WEF from Jan 31 – Feb 4 in NYC are the continuation of communicating our struggles, learning to co-operate, and working towards an alternative to the violent world order that depends on repressive institutions like the School of the Americas (SOA) and the
Prison Industrial Complex to enforces exploitation and inequality throughout the hemisphere.
Pictures of the Direct Action Contingent at Protest against the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Cancun, Mexico in February 2001:
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=361
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=357
S29 Zapatista Block
www.geocities.com/zapatistablock |
