POPULAR SUMMITS PLANNED TO PARALLEL OFFICIAL EFFORTS

 
As the leaders of the hemisphere come together for the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City next April, delegates will assemble for a parallel People's Summit. The first People's Summit of the Americas in 1998 brought together nearly 1,000 delegates during the Santiago Summit. Planning for the second People's Summit began in April under the leadership of Reseau Quebequois Sur L'integration Continentale (RQIC) and Common Frontiers of Canada. Their efforts were furthered by the late April meeting of the Steering Committee of the Continental Social Alliance in Quebec. The RQIC recently published a booklet on this meeting and the development of the agenda for the People's Summit. The program will include working groups and plenary meetings to consider alternatives to current integration models. The organizers also seek to increase the pressure on the region's governments at both the local and hemispheric levels to adopt alternative policies to the FTAA. The People's Summit will culminate in a large public demonstration in Quebec City on April 21.

Also in April, the first Latin America Solidarity Conference met in Washington, D.C. as part of the "Break the Bank Protests" during the World Bank/International Monetary Fund meeting. This preliminary effort will be followed by a more strategically focused encounter at the Chicago International Conference Center on March 17 and 18, 2001. The conference will bring together mostly US-based NGOs with the goal of increasing contact and coordination among diverse groups. The common thread is to create solidarity with popular movements and grass-roots organizations in Latin America on such subjects as labor, sustainable development, human rights, immigration and indigenous issues. The groups will also work to influence US trade and economic policy in the region. For more information, see: [email protected]