FW: Visions of Global Democracy

["mc.foto" <mc.foto at libero.it>]

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Da: Institute for Public Accuracy <instpa at pacbell.net>
Data: Mon, 04 Feb 2002 10:51:06 -0800
A: institute at igc.org
Oggetto: Visions of Global Democracy

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa at accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

         Monday, February 4, 2002

         Interviews Available, from Manhattan to Porto Alegre:
         Visions of Global Democracy

VAN JONES, van at ellabakercenter.org, http://www.ellabakercenter.org
The World Economic Forum, meeting in New York City, has named Jones as one
of the "100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow." Jones, who founded the Ella Baker
Center for Human Rights in 1996, said today: "I think it is a grudging
admission on their part that the growing movements against corporate-led
globalization and the incarceration industry must be taken seriously. I
will accept the award -- not for myself, but for the thousands of activists
and concerned community members who will be locked out. The WEF meeting is
essentially a gathering of 3,000 economic royalists, who dominate
decision-making for 6 billion people around the world. They represent the
opposite of true democracy."

CAROLA REINTJES, creintjes at comerciosolidario.com,
http://www.comerciosolidario.com
Director of the Spanish Network of Solidarity Economy, Reintjes said today:
"We are working with hundreds of groups throughout the world to build
micro-businesses, fair trade processes and other forms of economic
solidarity without centering on the profit motive."

JOHN CAVANAGH, jcavanagh at igc.org, http://www.ips-dc.org
Cavanagh is director of the Institute for Policy Studies and coauthor of
"Field Guide to the Global Economy." Returning from the World Social Forum,
which concludes today in Porto Alegre, Brazil, he said: "The term
'anti-globalization' was always a misnomer. It is a global justice
movement, and it's emerging as a global democratic movement. As the World
Social Forum shows, it is moving beyond merely protesting against
institutions like the WEF."

SWEND ROBINSON, robins at parl.gc.ca
A member of the Canadian House of Commons and of the New Democratic Party,
Robinson has just returned from Porto Alegre, where he participated in the
emerging World Parliamentary Forum.

JEFFREY RUBIN
Rubin, an associate professor of history at Boston University, is on a
MacArthur grant in Porto Alegre, writing a book on democracy and grassroots
innovation. He said today: "Since winning the elections in 1989, the
Workers Party has tried to implement a process by which people decide
exactly how to allocate the municipal service budget."

ALEJANDRO BENDANA, pedro47 at aol.com, http://www.jubileesouth.net,
http://www.ceinicaragua.org.ni
Director of the Center for International Studies based in Nicaragua and a
member of Jubilee South, Bendana said today: "A tribunal on the foreign
debt, held in Porto Alegre at the WSF, has determined that much of it is
illegitimate and possibly illegal because it was illegal regimes that
contracted it."

ORONTO DOUGLAS, doronto at hotmail.com, http://www.essential.org
Douglas is deputy director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria, which
has confronted oil giants.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167