Beware the Miss-Leaders: 1999 Women's Conference Against APEC

Peace Movement Aotearoa

("If equality means entitlement to an equal share of the profits of economic tyranny it is irreconcilable with liberation. Freedom in an unfree world is merely licence to exploit. Lip service to feminism in the developed nations is a handy disguise for the masculinization of power and the feminization of poverty in the emerging nations". Germaine Greer 1999)

This year New Zealand hosts APEC. APEC stands for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or in our view A Patriarchal Exploiters Club.

The choice APEC gives women is to either share in the profits of economic tyranny or drown in the poverty it creates. The official APEC Women Leaders Network Meeting planned for Wellington, 20-23 June 1999 attempts to seduce women to the former; after all who would willingly choose the latter? But we believe APEC should be destroyed not feminised.

APEC is anti-women; anti-people, it epitomises the values of capitalism, patriarchy, greed and oppression. It stands for everything that feminism stands against. APEC supports the agenda of big business to make profits at any cost. It is part of the international network of treaties, forums, and institutions that seek to subjugate the many for the enrichment of the few.

The Miss-Leaders say that it is time for women from the APEC economies to get together. However women have been doing that for the last three years in Manila, Vancouver and Kuala Lumpur. What's more these women have not been meeting in order to prostitute themselves to the APEC agenda. They have been meeting to expose and resist this agenda and to build sisterhood and solidarity throughout the Asia-Pacific.

Programme
Saturday and Sunday
19-20 June 1999

Venue:
Law School, Old Government Buildings
Lambton Quay
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND

PROGRAMME

Saturday

9.00am Plenary

The First Voices: APEC, Maori and the 2nd Colonisation
Leonie Pihama, Mereana Pitman, Tanja Shutz, Tere Harrison (others to be confirmed)

The Women's Struggle Against APEC: An international perspective by Eliza Tita Lubi, from GABRIELA, Philippines, 3rd Women's Conference Against APEC

And we all live happily ever after : Fairytales from the Global Market Place:
Anne Else

Lunch (light lunch supplied)

Concurrent Thematic Sessions

1: APEC & Women Workers
Overview : Rubina Jamil
Working Women's Organisation, Pakistan

Contracting: Security of Employment
Homecare: Gender Issues & the value of work
Annie Newman and Luci Highfield

Garment Workers: The high cost of fashion
Maxine Gay

DPB Workers: Political attacks and the Poverty Trap
Caroline Hatt and Celia Briar

2: APEC, Food and Health
Overview : Christine Dann (To be confirmed)

GM Food: Consumer choice or corporate voice
Sue Kedgley

Health: Corporate colonisation of public health
(Speaker to be confirmed)

3: APEC and Education
Commercialisation and Privatisation
Macdegrees versus the public good
Jane Kelsey

Fees/Allowances and Student Debt
Tanja Shutz and Christina Rizos

Secondary School Students as Workers
Tali Williams
Exploration of issues arising from the themes (1-3)
Suggested solutions
A resolution


Nibbles and networking

SUNDAY

9.00am Plenary

Current Concerns for New Zealand Women
And how Left feminism marks out the road forward at the intersection of class and gender:
Linda Hill

10.00 Workshops
Rebuilding the feminist movement
Strategies for dealing with the Miss-leaders
Building sisterhood internationally
Others

12.00 Lunch (light lunch supplied)

12.45 Plenary

Report back from workshops (day 1 & 2)

Practical discussion on how to progress themes of the conference

Presentation of Conference Resolutions and Statement
Jane Kelsey and Tita Lubi

Adoption of Conference Resolutions and Statements

Final Speech

Close

ORGANISERS:

The Conference is sponsored by the APEC Monitoring Group. The Organising Committee members are: Leigh Cookson, Bronwyn Cross, Maxine Gay, Tere Harrison, Caroline Hatt, Prue Hyman, Tanja Shutz, Luci Highfield, Jane Kelsey, Annie Newman, Christina Rizos, Gillian Southey, Tali Williams

APEC MONITORING GROUP

Since the 1994 APEC Summit in Indonesia, the APEC Monitoring Group has been involved with ongoing research, education and media work on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, and the implications of its agenda for Aotearoa and other APEC member countries. Members of the Monitoring Group have attended alternative meetings on APEC in Jakarta (1994), Osaka/Kyoto (1995), Manila (1996), Vancouver (1997) and Kuala Lumpur (1998) as well as monitoring the official APEC meetings themselves and their impact on the cities that have hosted the events. The APEC Monitoring Group is a member of the GATT Watchdog coalition and works closely with Corso and the Trade Union Federation.

Cost: $35.00 Waged

$10.00 Low Waged

Donation Unwaged

High waged women or organisations suggested fee $50.00

REGISTRATION FORM

Name __________________________________________________

Address________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Phone:________________________________________________

Fax: ________________________________________________

E-mail:________________________________________________

PLEASE indicate the theme that you are primarily interested in:

____ Women workers

____ Food and Health

____ Education

Do you require billeting?   Yes/No

Can you provide billets?   Numbers______

Do you require Childcare   Yes/No

(Please provide details such as ages and requirements as we MAY be able to assist)

Please send to:

Conference Organising Group
Box 50 216
Porirua

Fax: (04) 237 8157
E-mail: clothing.union@clear.net.nz

(By June 10th 1999)

Return to "Resist APEC".

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