-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- .............................................................. >From the New Paradigms Project [Not Necessarily Endorsed]: Conspiracy Shopping Cart: http://a-albionic.com/shopping.html From: John Turmel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [turmel] TURMEL: WTO-Gates LETS Report #2 Date: Tuesday, December 21, 1999 1:45 PM JCT: Typical press gives us an idea of what those who had the chance to speak had to say: Seattle Times Nov. 27 WTO opponents sound battle cry at forum By Patrick Harrington What is the world Trade Organization and why are people so upset about it? Answering that question was the purpose of what was part lecture, part battle cry last night at Benaroya Hall. Sponsored by the San Francisco-based International Forum on Globalisation, it couldn't have been held in a more perfect setting: The swank center usually reserved for well=dressed residents was packed with the rainwear-clad masses. Jerry Mander, chairman of the forum, was the first speaker. He began by mentioning upset people around the world. Farmers in India were upset, he said, because international companies wanted to make them pay for seeds that they now plant free. Then he mentioned indigenous people of the Amazon who are upset because companies are running pipelines through their back yard. "Why am I upset?" he asked the audience as it grew more excited. "Economic globalisation and free trade are unnatural systems," he said, mocking those who he said claimed it to be natural and inevitable. Those who support global capitalism say that it will bring greater prosperity for all. He explained that it started after World War II, when world leaders gathered to discuss how to bring the world back to prosperity. At first, he said, it was the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and now, in what he called the "ultimate draconian power," the WTO. "It shifts power from national states to corporations," he said. "Adam Smith would have been abhorred. "In the end, corporations are gaining freedom. Individuals are losing freedom." To cheers and shouts, he called out: "No expansion. No more powers. No millennium round." From there, he turned the floor over to speakers from around the world who gave their reasons for stopping the WTO. The event continues through tomorrow. JCT: They all know what they don't want, the WTO running things but ask them what they do want to take its place and they have no ready alternatives. You can't have a more negative message than that. And yet, the sheeple cheered. Michel Chossudovsky, one of the anti-poverty economists, said: >The citizens' platform in Seattle and around the World must be geared >towards disarming this economic system and dismantling its >institutions. JCT: With no alternatives to suggest, it's a typicaly silly proposition you'd expect from the economists leading such a futile anti-poverty crusade. >We must question the legitimacy of a system which ultimately destroys >people's lives. We must challenge politicians and international >officials, we must unmask their insidious links to powerful financial >interests and eventually we must overhaul and transform State >institutions removing them from the clutch of the finacial >establishment. In turn, we must "democratise" the economic system and >its management structure, challenge the blatant concentration of >ownership and private wealth, disarm financial markets, freeze >speculative trade, arrest the laundering of dirty money, dismantle >the system of offshore banking, redistribute income and wealth, >restore the rights of direct producers, rebuild the Welfare State. >Concurrently, we must also build the conditions for a lasting World >peace. JCT: All laudable goals but not an inkling of how to do it. This is just so typical of the economists misleading the anti-poverty movement. Knowing what needs to be done is useless when you don't know how to get it done but unfortunately, most people don't realize the difference between the two. I heard one of the best lines ever from the new TV show "West Wing" when the Chief of Staff, commenting on economists predictions, said "Economists were put on the planet to make astrologers look good." The economists who do all the speaking at these conferences make the point amply. >The military-industrial and security apparatus which sustains these >financial interests must eventually be dismantled, which also means >that we must abolish NATO and phase out the arms industry. We must >combat the "media lies" and "global falsehoods" which uphold the WTO >and the powerful business interests which it supports. We must combat >the "false consensus" of Washington and Wall Street which ordains the >"free market system " as the only possible choice on the fated road >to a "global prosperity". This consensus is now shared by all >political parties including Social Democrats. To achieve these >objectives we must restore a meaningful freedom of the press. The >global media giants fabricate the news and overtly distorts the >course of World events. In turn, we must break the "false >consciousness" which pervades our societies, prevents critical >debate and masks the truth. >We must restore the truth, we must reinstate sovereignty to our >countries and to the people of our countries. The struggle must >be broad-based and democratic encompassing all sectors of society at >all levels, in all countries, uniting in a major thrust workers, >farmers, independent producers, small businesses, professionals, >artists, civil servants, members of the clergy, students and >intellectuals. People must be united across sectors, "single issue" >groups must join hands in a common and collective understanding on >how this economic system destroys and impoverishes. JCT: Just to make the point, we should call this the "we must" song. We must do this, we must do that, we must, we must, we must, without once mentioning the big engineering "H." "How?" The incompetence astounds. Monday Nov. 29 JCT: For my handout to the protesters, I used the World's Richest Pauper article from the Arizona Republic http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel/ariz97.htm and added the picture now on my web page of me up on the stage of the 1999 Jubilee 2000 Festival in Cologne Germany with my Abolish Interest on Debt sign. On the back was the World's Richest Pauper's Prayer to the World's Richest Man. That way, the article explains the poem. Some of the signs I saw: "No to WTO," "End Globalisation," "No Corporate Rule," "WTO doesn't work," "Would you want your child worked to death?" If you asked the children if they're prefer the current alternative of starving to death now, I think most would choose the few extra years at work. But as you notice, all negative, no positive ideas at all. Many of the activities started at the First United Methodist Church on 5th Ave. I attended the March to the Washington Trade Center for the Rally and passed out many copies to any of the marchers who gave the Abolish Interest Rates sign the thumbs up or who agreed. Whenever there was a video camera, I did a standard little statement: "I'll pay my debt for army and police to handle strife; I'll pay my debt for doctors, nurses who protect my life; I'll pay my debt for all engaged repairing road and sewer; I'll pay my debt for social servants helping out the poor; I'll even pay my debt for bureaucrats with no regret; But I will never pay my debt for interest on debt. I don't mind paying for what I received but I object to paying for what I didn't receive, the interest. If all my payments go against the principal, then the debt is eventually paid down and is not problem. That's why the Bible and Koran condemn the interest, not the debt and why my sign says "Abolish Interest" and not "Abolish Debt." It was amazingly effective. People who had been chanting against debt could not help but agree. What's best about the Abolish Interest Rates sign is that even the police and National Guardsmen would give us thumbs up and say "I agree with that." I could always bring a smile to anyone's face just by saying "I'm here with some good news" as I pointed to the sign. And on the other side of my placard was my favorite "Bankers Starve Third- World Babies." That also brought much approval. The first day's march was uneventful otherwise. Tuesday Nov. 30 The Big Rally and March for Fair Trade was the largest demonstration I have ever attended. Running 5 blocks by 6 blocks, every street was packed with protesters. The middle street was blocked off by police lines keeping it open. Pauline and I walked down and around to come up on the other side where a major procession of protesters were marching. We took a position at the side of the street and passed out flyers to everyone who smiled or gave the "Abolish Interest Rates" sign a thumbs up. We must have given out 800 that day. Later in the afternoon, we were having a coffee at an outdoor "Starbucks" when we heard the first percussion and tear gas bombs and going off. About a block away, we could see flames rising and guess some protesters had put fire to a trash bin. You could tell who the rowdies were. They had their gas masks and no signs and ran to toward the scene of the disturbance looking for action. This must have been the point when some of the rowdies started breaking store windows. After 10 or 15 minutes, we left for our motel to watch the rest of the altercations on TV. No need to add that it was the violence that made the news and little of what the legitimate protesters had to say. Wednesday Dec. 1 Today's march started at the United Methodist Church. We attended the rally inside the church and in the downstairs area where literature tables had been set up, I noticed that John Pozzi had set up info on his Global Resources Bank at http://www.grb.net , another interest-free banking model. He wasn't there and I left him a note with my phone number. I've never met John and hoped I would but we never connected. Upstairs, some older ladies were doing a song aimed at the WTO which everyone enjoyed. And their speakers led them in condemnation of the WTO. The police had requested that people march in single file which made it easier to hand out our flyers. Nothing much happened while we were downtown and the rowdies only came out later once the sun had gone down. Some of the protesters had grievances against Starbucks and Pepsi. Here I was decrying the bankers for genocide of the poor by usury and they were decrying Pepsi! It gives an idea of the divergence of protesters' opinions of the causes of world decay. Thursday Dec. 2 The market square meeting had speakers including Ralph Nader. He'd spoken the previous evening. Though it was sold out and I didn't get to attend, I can imagine what he spoke about. http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel/nader99.htm details a speech I attended at the University of Mississippi in Biloxi where his presentation was pure doom and gloom and was going to end on that note until I asked him a question about a US National LETS which prompted him to tell some Timedollar success stories. The greatest was the story of the quadriplegic on the Phil Donohue show who explained how he paid for his rides with Hours he earned organizing their library. They were great crowd-pleasers and instead of people people leaving the meeting with a feeling of hopeless dread at the globalisation of corporate control, they were perked up with a feeling of hope at employment liberation. His subsequent reference to Brooklyn Greenbacks, Ithaca and El Paso Hours cinched the upbeat tone so that Pauline Morrissette noted 28 names on his LETS info sheet at the end of the meeting. I think any other politician who could walk into a meeting of 100 people and end up with 28 signatures to join a database would consider that quite a score. I doubt his other interest sheets scored so well and it's sad it didn't make more of an impression on him. And he wasn't even trying. Imagine how many names he could have had on a Nader L.E.T.S. financial database if he were trying to sign them up at every meeting. That no anti-poverty in Seattle ever raised the hopeful note of how L.E.T.S. was helping around the world is the saddest part of it all. I didn't get a chance to prod him to speak on L.E.T.S. this time so it was simply another diatribe against what was wrong with the world and he, like all the other speakers, offered nothing on what could be done right. Ralph is again running for the president and I'd bet that he once again restricts himself to a pure negative campaign of complaints with no positive solutions offered. He could get the vote of every L.E.T.S. Timedollar system member in the US but I guess my joke about the Canadian Greens might apply to the US Greens too. Though they endorse L.E.T.S., they don't realize the power of this financial rocket engine because they've got it installed in their lawnmowers. Pauline and I then bused over to Redmond, across Lake Washington, to picket Bill Gates at the Microsoft campus, a grouping of about a dozen buildings. I had sent a mailer to 133 media and reporters announcing we would be picketing Microsoft but none came. We marched around the streets for about an hour before going home. Not much reaction. Friday Dec. 3 For our last day of demonstration, Pauline broke out a sign she had made on a large white sheet. It had the huge letters L.E.T.S. with a red "stop" sign underneath and "poverty" at the bottom. For the periods, she used some pictures of Bill Gates head with two more larger heads on both sides of the stop sign. We were lucky enough to find the sticks from two discarded signs from other protesters to staple to the edges so she could hold one side and me the other. This was another large demonstration starting from the Labor Temple and parading around the downtown. We started near the front but then stopped and turned so we could let the protesters see it as they passed and as we passed out flyers. A few people came up and congratulated us for promoting L.E.T.S. as they belonged to the L.E.T.S. systems in their own towns. One point is the criticism of the police. People who were not rowdies were also affected by the tear gas or hit with rubber bullets. But when you consider that no one was killed, no bones were broken, I think the police acted with commendable reservation. If people couldn't control their curiosity and stay away from the more violent- looking protesters, then they have as much right to complain as someone who attends a hockey game and gets hit with a puck. The tear gas and rubber bullets weren't hard to avoid unless you were looking to watch the trouble. Again, I think the police acted with restraint considering that many hooligans were looking for trouble. Tuesday Dec. 7 I again went out to Microsoft around 1p.m. and found out that Bill Gates works in Building 8 so I concentrated on it walking back and forth around its perimeter. Then I decided to go closer but a security man in a Microsoft van pulled up and told me to stay on the sidewalk and not come onto their property. No problem. I continued walking in front of and along the side of the building giving out flyers and could see many people inside who were curious about my picket. Many people tooted their horns and gave me the thumbs up. Finally I crossed over to the bus stop an block away. There, the van came up and stopped in the middle of the street and three guys got out to check me out. As they approached, I told them I was a happy protester and gave them some prayers saying I was looking for Bill to do me a favor and wasn't trying to make him mad. Then two more guys showed up. The head guy asked me a few questions, took my name and asked where I was staying. He seemed quite satisfied when he found that my flyer had my web site which explained everything. The other asked if I was Mr. Turmel and then shook my hand. I could hear the first guy on his radio telling whoever "there's no problem, he's being cool about it." As they were leaving, the guy who knew my name mentioned "Leader of the Abolitionist Party" and I asked how he knew. He just smiled and walked away. I told them I'd be back the next two days before leaving for home. Wednesday Dec. 8 I arrived again around 1p.m. and walked around the sidewalk of building #8 for a while and then decided I deliver Bill a gift of one of my "Adventures of John "The Engineer" Turmel" books to help explain my mission. I folded up my sign, took off my hat and then walked up to the building. Inside, I went to the counter, asked if I could leave the book as a gift for Bill and then endorsed it. As I was leaving, another security man suggested I wait for security and I told him I'd be back out on the street for the next half hour. Five minutes later, yesterday's head guy came out to me. He had a file folder, presumably mine, in one hand and camera in the other. I said I was sorry for spooking them by going into the building but I only wanted to leave Bill with a gift. He said there was no problem and showed me that he had the book and would take care of it. Then he asked if he could take my picture in case the higher-ups wanted to know what it was about. Sure. So he took three pictures while I mentioned that I'd be back one more time if Bill wanted to meet another unique character from the Guinness book of records. I sure would like a copy of the picture of my me and my picket sign at Microsoft. Thursday Dec. 9 My last visit to Microsoft was uneventful. I wonder if my message about L.E.T.S. got through to Bill. Considering how many people saw me picketing the building, I doubt he could have failed to hear the scuttlebutt about an odd-looking character outside with a picket sign wearing a white hard hat and passing out poems to Bill Gates. I rushed back to my motel to pick up my bags and got to the train station for the trip home. I had come on the cross-Canada route with Via rail and decided to return by the Northern US route from Seattle through Chicago, Detroit, Toronto to Ottawa. So it wasn't a great success. No speakers had anything positive to say to the crowds and it was a purely negative experience for most. Still, one never knows what could come out of it. I must say I'm disappointed that so few people have informed me that they wrote to Bill Gates. The problem is that the K-slab of people who could have been saved by a world-wide L.E.T.S. but who were not saved because of Bill Gates' inaction is now growing at a rate of 100k per day. In the two months since Bill could have extended interest-free credit so the poor masses of the world could have purchased life support, over 6 million people have died needlessly. I also wonder how L.E.T.S.ers will someday answer their children when asked "Why didn't you help promote a world-wide L.E.T.S. that could have saved 100,000 people a day when you had the chance?" The numbers we are gambling are frighteningly high. -- John C. "The Engineer" Turmel, Founder, Abolitionist Party of Canada 915-2045 Carling Ave., Ottawa, K2A 1G5, Tel/Fax: 613-728-2196 LETS Abolish Interest Rates http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel For TURMEL topics http://www.egroups.com/group/turmel -- John C. "The Engineer" Turmel, Founder, Abolitionist Party of Canada 915-2045 Carling Ave., Ottawa, K2A 1G5, Tel/Fax: 613-728-2196 LETS Abolish Interest Rates http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel For TURMEL topics http://www.egroups.com/group/turmel ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Amen to Jubilee in 2000 with L.E.T.S. interest-free bank accounts for all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The only fruitcake at overstock.com is our manager. He’s giving away a $20 coupon, plus our everyday Free Shipping. 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