Shut down the CEO summit! APEC Needs to Hear from Us—A Lot of Us
During the week of November 11 – 18, San Francisco will play host to an estimated thirty thousand visitors from around the world, attending a meeting of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC. The twenty-one APEC member countries account for nearly 40 percent of the global population, or nearly three billion people, and nearly 50 percent of global trade.
Among the participants will be heads of nations (e.g., Joe Biden and Xi Jinping will be there) and CEOs of many giant corporations. Their purpose: to cut trade deals outside of official international channels and accelerate the planet’s economic inequality and path to climate disaster.
That’s not how they are describing it, of course. Visit APEC’s website and you might be persuaded that it is advancing the very best goals for humanity. Women’s economic empowerment! Protecting forests from illegal activity! Universal health care! Drill down not very far into the fine print and discover that all this can happen within the framework of global capitalist development; and why not? It’s worked out pretty well so far, hasn’t it?
Plans for protest: Shut it down!
In response a broad coalition is being assembled to build protests to APEC and the economic elites who are coming to strategize how to advance their interests over ours. California DSA has passed a resolution pledging to join the anti-APEC coalition, along with San Francisco DSA, East Bay DSA, San Francisco State University YDSA, the San Francisco Labor Council, Alameda Labor Council, and many climate justice, anti-imperialist and other progressive community groups.
Plans are evolving as we write, but two of the biggest protest days are shaping up to be Sunday November 12 and Wednesday November 15.
November 12 is a mass march. This will be a permitted march and we are expecting thousands.
On November 15 the plan is to engage in large scale, non-violent direct action to shut down the CEO summit. Meet up at the corner of Powell and Market at 7 am.
Whose security?
To accommodate the meetings an intense security regime is being put in place. The San Francisco mayor’s office is thoughtfully contributing $10 million that could perhaps, do you think? be put to better use on behalf of its population. (The SF Board of Supervisors agrees; it has unanimously passed a resolution calling on the mayor to redirect some of that money to addressing the impact of APEC on the city.) The city authorities are cordoning off many blocks south of Market around the Moscone convention center complex. Police have been told to expect no time off during the week, and thousands of homeland security officers are being brought in and housed in San Francisco hotels.
According to SF Gate, “The Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service are leading security preparations for the event and announced this week that APEC is a National Special Security Event. … it’s on par with an event like a presidential inauguration.” Or, as the US Secret Service website proclaims, “Designating an event an NSSE allows for significant resources from the federal government, as well as state and local partners, to be used to ensure a robust security plan is in place.”
A robust security plan deserves a robust protest plan, especially since it’s our tax dollars paying for the security. How about the security of the planet and the people who do the work in it? Come on out and join your comrades in shining a light on APEC to let them know that they can’t make their plans for us in the dark. See you in the streets of San Francisco November 12 and 15.
For more info, bonnie@bonnielockhart.com.