<nettime> Intercontinental Caravan 99

[caravan@stalk.net]

Witness the Most Improbable Project of the Decade : Intercontinental Caravan 99


Against all odds, a historic tour of a 'caravan' of over five hundred
people from the South has begun in Europe, armed with a striking message -
to present an alternative view about how 'free trade' and globalisation are
devastating the lives of many of the world's population.

This monumental project has been made possible purely through the
perseverance of activists in the North and South working together without
the help of (and often in spite of) governmental agencies.
The caravan may be seen as the ultimate post-media / post-institution
project conceived through sheer necessity and carried through on a
monumental scale; through the globalisation of the Spirit, not of the
Market or the Culture Industry.
Its mission is direct communication between peoples. It will offer us an
unprecedented opportunity to communicate directly with people normally
represented only as statistics, and to forge a closer relationship of the
North and the South to the resistance to the growing grip of Multinationals
on the entire food chain - from patenting genes to distributing food.
And through its improbable realisation, the caravan may perhaps engender a
new belief in forms of cultural production based on fundamentally different
circuits of communication.

The Inter Continental Caravan was initiated by the KRRS (the largest
farmers movement in Karnataka, India), and has spread to the far reaches of
Brazil, Nepal and the rest of India, drawing participants from those areas.
The KRRS are widely known for having participated in undertaking direct
action against Monsanto in December 1998, when local farmers staged a
seizure of field trial land being used for genetically modified crops.

On Thursday 27th May, 120 Indian farmers and activists from the Caravan
will arrive in the UK.  However, as of yesterday (24th May), as the group
embarked upon the first step of their 9000 km journey through Europe in
Dusseldorf, Germany, 39 members of the delegation were still without
British visas.  The farmers, all from Karnataka, had been refused clearance
at the UK Deputy High Commission in Madras, even though they had fulfilled
all the relevant criteria.

Further Information on web-site/ICC uk: http://www.stalk.net/caravan

To participate:
__________________________________________________
Diary

Friday 28th May :
8:30 to 10am
Public Walk from Spitalfields Market, through Brick Lane to the Bank of
England and the Stock Exchange

Friday 28th May :
12.00 - 4.30pm
HISTORIC PUBLIC HEARING: PEOPLE v CORPORATIONS
FRIENDS HOUSE, EUSTON ROAD LONDON NW1 (opposite Euston Station)

7.30pm
PUBLIC SEMINAR on WTO, World Bank & IMF
Oxford House Community Centre, Derbyshire Street, London E2 (Bethnal Green
tube)

Saturday 29th May :
12-4pm
Community Picnic at Kingsley Hall Gardens
Powis Road Bow London E3  (Bromley by Bow tube)

9:30pm to midnight
Farewell Gathering
at Strike
11-29 Fashion Street
London E1  (Aldgate East/Liverpool Street Station)


__________________________________________________

VOLUNTEERS are urgently needed for help in many ways.
Contact David Baker on 0181 981-7628

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