Good News!

by Polly Mann, WAMM

Israeli Officers and Soldiers Refuse to Fight Against Palestinians

On January 28, 2002, an advertisement signed by 53 Israel Defense Forces soldiers and officers appeared in Ha'aretz, a leading Israeli newspaper published in Tel Aviv. The advertisement read as follows:

"We, combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), raised on the values of Zionism, sacrifice, and giving to the Jewish people and the State of Israel, who have always served on the front line and were the first to fulfill every mission, regardless of how difficult, in order to defend and strengthen the State of Israel;

"We, combat officers and soldiers, who serve the State of Israel for long weeks every year, despite the high personal price we pay, who have performed reserve duty throughout the territories and have been issued orders and instructions that have nothing to do with the security of our country, orders whose sole purpose was to perpetuate domination over the Palestinian people;

"We, who have personally witnessed the terrible bloodshed on both sides of the conflict; who have seen that the orders we were issued undermine all the values we were taught in this country; who understand today that the price of occupation is the loss of humanity of the IDF, and corruption of Israeli society in general; who know that the territories are not Israel, and that ultimately the settlements will be evacuated; we hereby declare that we will not go on fighting a war for the peace of the settlements.

"We will not go on fighting beyond the "green line" for the purposes of domination, expulsion, starvation, and humiliation of an entire people. We hereby declare that we shall continue to serve the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves the defense of the State of Israel. The mission of occupation and repression does not serve this goal and we refuse to participate in it."

Since this advertisement was published, the number of officers and soldiers refusing similar service has grown to 196.

World Social Forum Plots Alternatives to Corporate Globalization

The second World Social Forum (held in Pôrto Alegre, Brazil this past February) has been hailed as an overwhelming success. Attending were 60,000 people--ten times more than the 6,000 who attended the first World Social Forum in Pôrto Alegre in 2001. Participants included representatives from grassroots movements and non-governmental organizations with support bases numbering in the millions. They focused on the changes needed to make the present economic system responsive to the needs of all the peoples of the world and recommended strategies to implement these changes.

Speaking at the forum, Professor Noam Chomsky, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said, "Every progressive popular movement's goal throughout history has been to create a movement which is global." He stated that the Pôrto Alegre forum was a truly global movement as compared with a simultaneous meeting that was being held by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The Davos meeting included only 2,700 participants who were representatives from international corporations and governments, or who were invited guests. The World Economic Forum is funded by 1,000 of the world's "foremost" corporations.

There is a myth about global movements like the World Social Forum that opposition to corporate globalization comes from the rich. Not so; it is a myth promulgated by the opposition. In fact, it is corporate globalization that results in greater concentration of wealth and power in fewer and fewer people. Opposition to corporate globalization comes from the grassroots. Among the people meeting in Pôrto Alegre were some already hurt by global economic policies: township dwellers from South Africa, Thai rice farmers, Indian women made homeless by the Narmada dam, Bangladeshi farmers, Palestinian torture victims, Afghani women, and landless people from across Latin America.

The World Social Forum indicates the strength of a movement promoting economic freedom and equality as opposed to an international corporate model based on the consolidation of wealth and power. One area of broad agreement was the need to protect "global commons": the world's genetic and biological heritage, water, the atmosphere, public services (especially health and education), the airwaves, and land.

Another theme was the need for a restructured UN that would rein in the power of the corporations. David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World, argued for the abolition of capitalism. Also discussed was the unconditional abolition of Third World debt, the abolition of trade related intellectual property rights, and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

WAMM should be represented at future World Social Forums!