ricardo dominguez on 19 Apr 2001 10:39:02 -0000


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[Nettime-bold] On-line Actions Against the FTAA


From: the electrohippie collective <ehippies@gn.apc.org>

18th April, 2001, 06.00BST (UK)

NO EMBARGO

http://thehacktivist.com/a20/

http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/quebec.html


THE FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS (FTAA)
CONFERENCE, QUEBEC, APRIL 20TH TO 22ND 2001

As part of the organisation of protests to mark the FTAA's conference in
Quebec, the electrohippie collective are organising a number of online
actions for the public to participate. This is in order that people may
communicate their dissatisfaction about the issues being decided in their
names at the FTAA conference.

The actions will begin late on the 19th of April, and will mostly be over
by the 23rd of April. Some actions, involving online lobbying during the
week following the conference, will take place on a smaller scale.

Twenty-eight Internet sites have been selected as part of this action.
These sites have been selected because:

* They are involved with the operation of the FTAA conference; or

* They are corporate sponsors of the FTAA conference; or

* They are involved in the extremely excessive security measures being
arranged at the conference to restrict the ability of the public to access
the conference.

The purpose of this action is purely symbolic. It will have no serious or
damaging impact of the internet servers selected for inclusion. But those
operating the servers, from their own usage logs, will be able to measure
for themselves the level of public involvement in the Quebec online
protests. We also challenge the operators of these servers to release,
when available, the information from their server logs to show the level
of traffic to their sites in the week before, the week during, and the
week after the FTAA conference.

the electrohippie collective is not a formal or organised group. It is a
collection of computer and IT specialist, and professional campaigners,
who have been working together for over two years to develop 'online
community activism'. The Internet has opened up a new public arena which
governments, corporations and regulators are using as part of their work.
It is important that the public are able to use this new public arena to
communicate their views to these groups. Assisting in this process is the
aim of the collective.

Although predominantly a European-based group, the electrohippies view the
Quebec conference as important for two reasons:

* Firstly, the process in Quebec will set the scene for the coming
negotiations at the World Trade Organisation's November meeting in Qatar.
The auxiliary purpose of the FTAA is to provide a large block to apply
pressure to global trade negotiations. Concentrating on the processes that
contribute to the formation of the FTAA is therefore important.

* Secondly, the security measures being taken to ensure that the public
and protestors at Quebec are segregated from the conference proceedings
marks a new departure in previous conferences - such as those in Prague or
Seattle. The measures taken at Quebec could conceivably set the future
standards for how public objections to globalisation agreements will be
handled.

In our view, the events at Quebec, and our organising of events on the
Internet, are simply a rehearsal for 'the main event' that takes place in
November - the next World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Qatar. Given
the nature of the Qatar state, as detailed extensively by human Rights
Watch, it is unlikely that any realistic protest action could take place
around the next WTO conference. Online action will therefore be the
primary means by which people can express their dissatisfaction. The tools
we are currently developing, some of which are being tested as part of the
FTAA/Quebec protests, are all aiming to ensure that the public have the
online capacity to appropriately mark the next WTO conference online.

In the view of the electrohippies, providing an area for corporations to
do business without the 'interference' of the wider society offends one of
the key democratic principles that underpins civil society - it
disenfranchises society from corporate governance. In essence, many
governments are seeking to define a 'virtual corporate free state' on the
Internet, akin to the economic colonies of Africa and Asia established
during the Nineteenth Century, where corporation can do business free of
public pressure. The motivation for this is a perceived benefit to the
economy. In fact, it merely concedes to the wishes of corporations who
want be able to 'do business' without having people protest about
environmental impacts, sweatshop labour or quality and safety standards.

Note that if further detailed background information and quotes are
required, then there are a number of reports and technical papers
available in the 'Archive' section of the electrohippie collective's
website.

In the past the electrohippie collective have been described as
'terrorists' by representatives of the IT security industry. This is not
the case. All those sites that are the subject of the online event have
been notified already that they are included in the event, and have been
given an opportunity to provide a statement - that we are willing to
display on our own website - in response to our actions. also, the
specially designed tools we have made available to the public have built
within there design a 'democratic guarantee'. They bear no relation to the
tools used to 'hack' corporate sites. They are fully distributed onto
individuals cown computers, rather than being server based, and hence
require many thousands of individuals using them to have any impact. In
any case, the large number of sites selected for this event means that the
traffic will be distributed across many sites, and is unlikely to cause
serious disruption unless a few hundred thousand people take part
simultaneously.


If you wish to review details of the event the electrohippie collective
are organising please go to our special event website:

http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/quebec.html



SCHEDULE OF SITES SELECTED FOR INCLUSION IN THE E'HIPPIES QUEBEC ONLINE
PROTEST:
* Candian Government Official Conference Website -
http://www.americascanada.org/
* Prime Minister of Quebec's Website -
http://www.premier.gouv.qc.ca/premier_ministre/
* Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Website -
http://www.ftaa-alca.org/
* Goverment of Quebec - http://www.gouv.qc.ca/
* Canadian Prime Minister's Website - http://pm.gc.ca/
* Organization of American States - http://www.oas.org
* Inter-American Development Bank - http://www.iadb.org
* Conf. of the Americas Security Website - http://www.securitesommet.ca/
* Royal Canadian Mounted Police Website - http://www.grcquebecrcmp.com/
* Quebec City Police Website - http://www.ville.quebec.qc.ca/
* Sûreté du Québec Website - http://www.suretequebec.gouv.qc.ca
* The Summit of the Americas Website - http://www.summit-americas.org/
* Ernst & Young Canada - http://www.ey.com/
* Barrick Gold Corporation - http://www.barrick.com/
* Cisco Systems - http://www.cisco.com/ca/
* Scotiabank Group - http://www.scotiabank.com/
* Alcan - http://www.alcan.com/
* Bombadier - http://www.bombardier.com/
* CGI - http://www.cgi.ca/
* TD Bank Financial Group - http://www.tdbank.com/
* Canadian Pacific - http://www.cp.ca/
* CIBC - http://www.cibc.com/
* SNC Lavalin - http://www.snc-lavalin.com/
* Telus - http://www.telus.com/
* Doimtar - http://www.domtar.com/
* Sun Microsystems - http://www.sun.com/canada/
* Noranda - http://www.noranda.com/
* KPMG - http://www.kpmg.ca/


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