jim submits:

Emergency Update on WTO Cancun Mobilization



URGENT APPEAL-- DONATE NOW ON-LINE TO HELP PEASANT FARMERS GET TO CANCUN FOR WTO PROTESTS (instructions at end)



Dear Friend of Farmer and Peasant Organizations:

Dear Opponents of the WTO and Free Trade Policies:



ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE!



Mexican farmers and peasants URGENTLY need your financial support now to organize against the World Trade Organization (WTO). Any amount large or small that you can give, will help (see below for how to give on-line or how to send funds).The next WTO meeting is in Cancun, Mexico, this September. This is the meeting after Doha, Qatar, and after Seattle. As you know, free trade policies, like those being negotiated in the WTO, are driving family farmers, peasants and indigenous people off the land, around the world, North and South, East and West. As a result, farmers, peasants, the landless, farm workers, women, forest people and indigenous people around the world have come together in the Via Campesina (http://www.viacampesina.org), and are demanding "WTO Out of Agriculture" and have put forth the alternative of "peoples food sovereignty."



The Mexican National Union of Autonomous Regional Farmer Organizations, UNORCA (http://www.unorca.org.mx/omc/ingles/index.html) -- one of the Mexican members of Via Campesina - has the responsibility to organize and host an INTERNATIONAL FARMERS' FORUM and Farmers' Encampment in Cancun, on behalf of Via Campesina. This Forum is a very important opportunity for farmer organizations worldwide to come together to work on alternatives to free trade policies, and to protest the WTO.



It is critical for all people who are concerned about the undemocratic nature and very negative impact of the WTO and other neo-liberal "free" trade agreements like FTAA and NAFTA on our lives, that as many Mexican peasants delegates as want to protest in Cancun can actually get there (internal travel by bus in Mexico is not cheap, and Cancun is in a remote location, more than 20 hours from the capital). Our minimum aim is to bring 10,000 delegates! It is critical that the INTERNATIONAL FARMERS' FORUM be a success.



We need your support for the transportation costs of people to the remote Cancun location. Cancun is the most expensive location in Mexico, and UNORCA cannot pull this off without financial support.



If you want to help Mexican rural social movements get to Cancun, please sponsor delegates to the INTERNATIONAL FARMERS' FORUM, Farmers' Encampment and WTO protests.



Average estimated costs for each delegate are:

transport US $48 (chartered buses)

food (3 meals) US 10 per day

lodging (encampment) US 12



Support for the Farmer Support Center: US 25 per day



You will receive a special thank you from the community your support goes to when you sponsor a whole bus for $500 from nearby states



HOW TO DONATE:



The easiest way to donate is to go to our web site at http://www.unorca.org.mx/omc/ingles/index.html and give using your credit card at our secure server now, or send a U.S. check or dollar-denominated international money order to Food First, who is receiving the money and transferring it to UNORCA in Mexico. Make the check or money order out to:



"FOOD FIRST, Unorca project"



and mail it to Food First/UNORCA, 398 60th Street. Oakland, California, 94618, USA. Donations are tax deductible in the U.S.



SO FAR:



We need to raise another U.S. $21,720 THIS WEEK in order to assure enough busses so Mexican peasants and indigenous people can get to Cancun for the WTO ministerial, International Farmers' and Indigenous Peoples' Forum, and the marches and protests. We thank everyone who has donated money so far, enabling us to reach about 3/4 of the goal:



 



TOTALS AS OF 2 September 2003


Because transport is so expensive in Mexico, and Cancun is so remote, we are concentrating on making it possible for peasants and indigenous people who live in the Cancun region to get there. Because people are much too poor to pay their own transport, we must rent busses. As you can see, we need to VERY QUICKLY raise another $21,720.



This is just for buses from nearby locations. More money is needed for food and a number of other logical expenses, plus getting smaller, symbolic numbers of delegates to Cancun from the rest of Mexico.



PLEASE help. Please give whatever you can as an individual or family, and please ask your organization to give too. Also, please circulate this note, adding any words you can, suggesting that others give as well. For $15 one person can go, for $500, 44 people can go (a chartered bus). make your opposition to the WTO and free trade be felt on the ground!



You can also give by check or wire. Instructions are at:

http://www.unorca.org.mx/omc/ingles/donate.html



Thank you so much!

Via Campesina (http://www.viacampesina.org)

UNORCA (http://www.unorca.org.mx)

Food First (http://www.foodfirst.org)



QUESTIONS:



If you have questions, contact UNORCA at forocampesino@laneta.apc.org and/or Food First at foodfirst@foodfirst.org.



Thank for your support to make ANOTHER WORLD POSSIBLE!



The farmers, peasants and indigenous people of UNORCA



Alberto Gomez Flores, National Coordinator

National Union of Autonomous Regional Farmer Organizations (UNORCA)

Juan de Dios Arias 48

Vista Alegre, Mexico DF, MEXICO

Tel/Fax +52 55 5740-0486

Tel/Fax +52 55 5741-5065

omcfueradeagricultura@unorca.org.mx

http://www.unorca.org.mx"