Nettime: Intercontinental Caravan 99
From: caravan at stalk.net
Date: Wed, 26 May 1999

This monumental project has been made possible purely through the
perseverance of activists in the North and South working together without
the help of (and often in spite of) governmental agencies.
The caravan may be seen as the ultimate post-media / post-institution
project conceived through sheer necessity and carried through on a
monumental scale; through the globalisation of the Spirit, not of the
Market or the Culture Industry.
Its mission is direct communication between peoples. It will offer us an
unprecedented opportunity to communicate directly with people normally
represented only as statistics, and to forge a closer relationship of the
North and the South to the resistance to the growing grip of Multinationals
on the entire food chain - from patenting genes to distributing food.
And through its improbable realisation, the caravan may perhaps engender a
new belief in forms of cultural production based on fundamentally different
circuits of communication.

The Inter Continental Caravan was initiated by the KRRS (the largest
farmers movement in Karnataka, India), and has spread to the far reaches of
Brazil, Nepal and the rest of India, drawing participants from those areas.
The KRRS are widely known for having participated in undertaking direct
action against Monsanto in December 1998, when local farmers staged a
seizure of field trial land being used for genetically modified crops.

On Thursday 27th May, 120 Indian farmers and activists from the Caravan
will arrive in the UK. However, as of yesterday (24th May), as the group
embarked upon the first step of their 9000 km journey through Europe in
Dusseldorf, Germany, 39 members of the delegation were still without
British visas. The farmers, all from Karnataka, had been refused clearance
at the UK Deputy High Commission in Madras, even though they had fulfilled
all the relevant criteria.

We are everywhere: Together we start a struggle:  http://artactivism.members.gn.apc.org/stories/together.htm

Cologne Demonstration Report:
 http://www.labournet.net/unemployed/9906/cologne0599.html

Telepolis: Ashley Benigno, 01.06.1999 : Indian farmers march on London stock-exchange against free market economy.
 http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/2900/1.html

Torino, Italy:  http://www.rfb.it/icc99/
pictures:  http://www.rfb.it/icc99/immagini_dalla_carovana.htm

Schnews Friday June 18th roundup:  http://www.urban75.com/Action/j18_r11.html

Breite Aktivitäten gegen WWG
Die Gegenaktivitäten gegen den Weltwirtschaftgipfel in Köln umfaßten ein breites Spektrum. Am 19.Juni veranstalteten rund 35.000 Menschen eine vorwiegend von kirchlichen Gruppen organisierte Menschenkette mit der Forderung nach Schuldenerlaß. 10.000 Leute beteiligten sich an der Demonstration gegen Armut, Rassismus und Krieg. Die 350 indischen Bäuerinnen und Bauern der Intercontinental Caravan wurden von der Polizei an der Durchführung einer "Laugh Parade" unter dem Motto "Auslachen statt Mitmachen" auf der Domplatte gehindert. Teilnehmer des "Alternativen Weltwirtschaftsgipfels" wurden von der Polizei ohne Ankündigung vom Hof ihres Veranstaltungsgebäudes geprügelt, weil in der angrenzenden Kunsthalle die Gattinnen der WW-Gipfelteilnehmer unterhalten werden sollten.

Gamma Flyer Antifa Leipzig:  http://www.free.de/infotelefon/gamma16_99.html

Demonstration gegen Abschiebestopp am Frankfurter Flughafen:  http://www.humanrights.de/doc_en/archiv/caravan/strike/press/0706fraflugh.htm

FriedensForum 4/1999: Gipfelsturm: Zu viele Aktionen für zu wenig Menschen (Werner Rätz):  http://www.friedenskooperative.de/ff/ff99/4-02.htm

Widerstand im Narmada-Tal: junge Welt: 21.7.2000:  http://www.kverlagundmultimedia.de/Archiv/Chronolog_2000/Indien2/indien2.html


see also:  http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/icc/