Details of Alternatives To The APEC Agenda

AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND APEC MONITORING GROUP

PO Box 106 233, Auckland. Email: notoapec@clear.net.nz

MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE

5 September 1999

Details of Alternatives To The APEC Agenda conference – APEC Monitoring Group

The September Leaders Summit won’t be the only conference in Auckland to focus on APEC. The APEC Monitoring Group’s Alternatives to The APEC Agenda will be held from September 10-12 in Auckland.

Alternatives to The APEC Agenda will bring together a range of prominent local and international critics of the global free market economic model. It will focus on concrete strategies and genuine alternatives to APEC’s free trade and investment agenda. The conference is supported by GATT Watchdog, the NZ Trade Union Federation, Corso, and the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa.

“This forum is the culmination of a year-long programme of education and action to expose and oppose APEC’s failed free market, free trade and investment approach,” said spokesperson Aziz Choudry.

Since it was founded at the 1994 Jakarta APEC Summit, members of the APEC Monitoring Group have participated in parallel NGO and union forums opposed to APEC in Kyoto/Osaka (1995), Manila (1996), Vancouver (1997) and Kuala Lumpur (1998).

The APEC Monitoring Group has held a series of alternative public meetings, forums, rallies and workshops throughout the country to coincide with all the major New Zealand APEC meetings during 1999.

“Unlike the APEC meetings, our forum will not be an extravagant and vacuous gabfest and its main achievements will not be measured in taxpayer-funded pre-election photo opportunities”, said Mr Choudry.

“APEC is in a state of virtual paralysis and will struggle to limp on into the new millennium. But the economic policy package it promotes needs to be taken seriously, especially as it leads into the WTO. One of our primary goals is to help people understand the link between APEC’s goals and the destructive economic policies which have devastated this country and peoples’ lives over the past 15 years, and to promote discussion on alternative policies and strategies to achieve economic, social and Treaty justice.”

The forum ends with a rally against APEC at 4.00 on 12 September, the first day of the Leaders Summit. (Meet Albert Park Band Rotunda)

Further details are available on the APEC Monitoring Group’s Website –

Alternatives To The APEC Agenda starts with a public meeting at the Methodist Mission, 370 Queen St Auckland, 7.30 pm, Friday 10 September

The Conference itself takes place from 9am at the University of Auckland Conference Centre, 26 Symonds St, Auckland

A media conference has been arranged for 3pm, Friday 10 September at 370 Queen St (Methodist Mission). Speakers and organisers will be available for media interviews.

Speakers include:

Professor Jane Kelsey, Auckland University; author of “Reclaiming the Future”;

Moses Havini, representative of the Bougainville Interim Government;

Moana Jackson, Ngati Kahungunu, Director of Nga Kaiwhakamarama I Nga Ture (Maori Legal Service);

Annette Sykes, Ngati Pikiao, Maori nationalist, lawyer and Treaty educator;

Dr Alejandro Villamar Calderon, RMALC (Mexican Action Network on Free Trade)

Antonio Tujan, Executive Director of IBON Databank, Philippines;

Reiko Inoue, Co-President, PARC, Japan

Changgeun Lee, Policy and Information Centre for Solidarity, Korea

Jaggi Singh, Organiser, APEC Alert and No-To-APEC Coalition, Canada

Bien Molina, Coordinator, Organising and Reintegration Programme, Asian Migrant Centre, Hong Kong;

Crispin Beltran, Chairman of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) unions, Philippines;

Mereana Pitman, Ngati Kahungunu, Treaty educator;

Dr Peter Wills, biologist and GE activist;

Dr Prue Hyman, Associate Professor of Economics, Victoria University, Wellington;

Saul Landau, award-winning independent documentary filmmaker, USA

Aziz Choudry, GATT Watchdog; APEC Monitoring Group organiser

Radha D’Souza, Asia-Pacific Workers Solidarity Links;

Bill Rosenberg, researcher for Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA);

Leonie Pihama, Ngati Mahanga/Te Atiawa, Maori educationalist;

Robert Reid, NZ Trade Union Federation International Officer

For further comment, ph: Aziz Choudry or Leigh Cookson ph (09) 3025390 (ext 833) or (021) 2173039

Or Jane Kelsey (09) 3737599 xtn 8006

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