URGENT INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT Dear Asia Pacific Sisters Please find below the programme for the forthcoming 1999 Women's Conference Against APEC. It is being held immediately prior to the official APEC Women's Leaders Meeting in Wellington. You will be aware that rather than organising a big international conference at the time of the APEC Leaders meeting in Auckland New Zealand in September of this year, the New Zealand Aotearoa / NZ APEC Monitoring Group is organising a year of activity against APEC which will be more focussed on the New Zealand population. We have already organised highly successful events in February and April at the time of the APEC Senior Officials meetings in Wellington and Christchurch. The official APEC Women's Leaders Conference in June 1999 provides us with a further opportunity to confront the patriarchal and neo-liberal agenda of the APEC process. We have been in consultation with the organisers of the Kuala Lumpur Women's Conference Against APEC to ensure that the Wellington Conference continues the tradition of the previous Anti-APEC Women's Conferences. Eliza Tita Lubi from GABRIELLA has been nominated from APWLD to be our key-note speaker and provide the link from the previous conference. Our conference will be mainly aimed at New Zealand Women to help build up the opposition to APEC in this country. However we welcome any woman form the Asia Pacific who may wish to participate in our Conference. Please note: WE HAVE NO FUNDS TO PAY FOR ANY AIR TICKETS FOR WOMEN WHO MAY WISH TO COME. YOU WILL HAVE TO FIND YOUR OWN SPONSORSHIP. However we will be able to provide home-stays and waive the registration fee for any international sister that wishes to come. Please find below the programme for the Conference. Please contact us if you require any further information or return the registration form if you are able to come. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- BEWARE THE MISS-LEADERS: 1999 Women's Conference Against APEC ("If equality means entitlement to an equal share of the profits of economic tyranny it is irreconcilable with liberation. Freedom in an unfree world is merely licence to exploit. Lip service to feminism in the developed nations is a handy disguise for the masculinization of power and the feminization of poverty in the emerging nations". Germaine Greer 1999) This year New Zealand hosts APEC. APEC stands for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or in our view A Patriarchal Exploiters Club. The choice APEC gives women is to either share in the profits of economic tyranny or drown in the poverty it creates. The official APEC Women Leaders Network Meeting planned for Wellington, 20-23 June 1999 attempts to seduce women to the former; after all who would willingly choose the latter? But we believe APEC should be destroyed not feminised. APEC is anti-women; anti-people, it epitomises the values of capitalism, patriarchy, greed and oppression. It stands for everything that feminism stands against. APEC supports the agenda of big business to make profits at any cost. It is part of the international network of treaties, forums, and institutions that seek to subjugate the many for the enrichment of the few. The Miss-Leaders say that it is time for women from the APEC economies to get together. However women have been doing that for the last three years - Manila, Vancouver and Kuala Lumpur. What's more these women have not been meeting in order to prostitute themselves to the APEC agenda. They have been meeting to expose and resist this agenda and to build sisterhood and solidarity throughout the Asia-Pacific. Programme Saturday and Sunday 19-20 June 1999 Venue: Law School, Old Government Buildings Lambton Quay Wellington NEW ZEALAND PROGRAMME Saturday 9.00am Plenary The First Voices: APEC, Maori and the 2nd Colonisation Leonie Pihama, Mereana Pitman, Tanja Shutz, Tere Harrison (others to be confirmed) The Women's Struggle Against APEC An international perspective by Eliza Tita Lubi, from GABRIELA, Philippines, 3rd Women's Conference Against APEC And we all live happily ever after - Fairytales from the Global Market Place Anne Else Lunch Concurrent Thematic Sessions 1: APEC & Women Workers Overview - Rubina Jamil Working Women's Organisation, Pakistan Contracting: Security of Employment Homecare: Gender Issues & the value of work Annie Newman and Luci Highfield Garment Workers: The high cost of fashion Maxine Gay DPB Workers: Political attacks and the Poverty Trap Caroline Hatt and Celia Briar 2: APEC, Food and Health Overview - Christine Dann (To be confirmed) GM Food: Consumer choice or corporate voice Sue Kedgley Health: Corporate colonisation of public health (Speaker to be confirmed) 3: APEC and Education Commercialisation and Privatisation Macdegrees versus the public good Jane Kelsey Fees/Allowances and Student Debt Tanja Shutz and Christina Rizos Secondary School Students as Workers Tali Williams Workshops Exploration of issues arising from the themes (1-3) Suggested solutions A resolution Nibbles and networking SUNDAY Plenary Current Concerns for New Zealand Women And how Left feminism marks out the road forward at the intersection of class and gender Linda Hill 10.00 Workshops Rebuilding the feminist movement Strategies for dealing with the Miss-leaders Building sisterhood internationally Others 12.00 Lunch 12.45 Plenary Report back from workshops (day 1 & 2) Practical discussion on how to progress themes of the conference Presentation of Conference Resolutions and Statement Jane Kelsey and Tita Lubi Adoption of Conference Resolutions and Statements Final Speech Close ORGANISERS: The Conference is sponsored by the APEC Monitoring Group. The Organising Committee members are: Leigh Cookson, Bronwyn Cross, Maxine Gay, Tere Harrison, Caroline Hatt, Prue Hyman, Tanja Shutz, Luci Highfield, Jane Kelsey, Annie Newman, Christina Rizos, Gillian Southey, Tali Williams APEC MONITORING GROUP Since the 1994 APEC Summit in Indonesia, the APEC Monitoring Group has been involved with ongoing research, education and media work on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, and the implications of its agenda for Aotearoa and other APEC member countries. Members of the Monitoring Group have attended alternative meetings on APEC in Jakarta (1994), Osaka/Kyoto (1995), Manila (1996), Vancouver (1997) and Kuala Lumpur (1998) as well as monitoring the official APEC meetings themselves and their impact on the cities that have hosted the events. The APEC Monitoring Group is a member of the GATT Watchdog coalition and works closely with Corso and the Trade Union Federation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- REGISTRATION FORM Name..................... Address.................... ........................ Phone: Fax: E-mail: PLEASE indicate the theme that you are primarily interested in: ____ Women workers ____ Food and Health ____ Education Do you require home stay? Yes/No Arrival date, time and flight number:___________________________________ Departure date, time and flight number: ________________________________ Please send to: Conference Organising Group Box 50 216 Porirua Fax: 64-4-237 8157 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (By June 10th 1999) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maxine Gay Secretary Clothing & Laundry Workers Union=20 PO Box 50216 Porirua NEW ZEALAND Tel: 64 4 237 5062 Fax:64 4 237 8157 Mobile: 025 2769 225 -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink