🚀 go-pugleaf

 
June 9, 1995
 
Dear Friends:
 
As many of you know, amidst the media hype for the 50th
anniversary of the United Nations in San Francisco, one of the
most interesting events for those who care about global grass-
roots citizen action is receiving little media attention.
 
WE THE PEOPLES is a convocation of citizens groups from around
the country and the world.  It happens June 21-24 at the ANA
Hotel, 50 3rd Street between Mission and Market in San Francisco. 
The conference is NOW affordable, with daily rates starting at
$35 and scholarships fully available.
    
What is remarkable about WE THE PEOPLES is that the key leaders
of the United Nations have accepted invitations -- and often
actively asked -- to speak.  This represents significant
recognition of the growing power of the global citizen movement.
 
Some background:  The global citizen movement of NGOs [non-
governmental organizations] has been emerging around the UN mega-
conference series that started with the Earth Summit in Rio. It
grew with the Human Rights Conference in Vienna, the Population
and Development Conference in Cairo, the Social Summit in
Copenhagen, and the upcoming Women's Conference in Beijing and
Habitat Conference in Istanbul.  Linked primarily by e-mail and
fax, thousands of grass-roots and regional groups around the
world are coordinating policies and actions.
 
This global NGO movement reflects a rare hopeful, perhaps
historic, development in international politics.  Organizations
that represent the peoples of the world directly are making their
voices heard in international affairs and actually effecting
outcomes, as they did most notably in Cairo.  The women's
movement has emerged as the most consistent, best organized, and
most powerful coalition within the broader NGO movement.
 
It is not just the U.N. leaders like Secretary General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali who will be at WE THE PEOPLES. Participants will
also hear from activist Bella Abzug of the Women's Environment
and Development Organization (WEDO) and U.S. Undersecretary for
Global Affairs Tim Wirth, who both played critical roles in the
historic victories for women at the International Conference on
Population and Development in Cairo, and who are now both
preparing for the Women's Conference in Beijing.
 
The conference begins at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 21, at Herbst
Theater at 401 Van Ness Avenue (the rest of the conference is at
the ANA Hotel), with talks by and about the founders of the UN. 
Sessions on the early history of the UN continue Thursday
morning, with talks by luminaries such as early women's and human
rights leader Margaret Bruce and Louis Sohn, a key advisor to the
US delegation at the founding of the UN.
 
In one extraordinary session at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 22,
the Secretaries General of the Earth Summit (Maurice Strong), the
International Conference on Population and Development (Nafis
Sadik), the World Conference on Social Development (Juan
Somavia), and the upcoming Habitat II Conference (Wally N'Dow)
will compare notes on the mega-conferences that Barbara Crossette
of The New York Times suggests has replaced the General Assembly
as the way the world focuses attention on critical global
problems. 
 
Friday morning, June 23, four outstanding NGO activists will
speak on "From Rhetoric to Reality: How NGOs Shape U.N. Policy." 
They include the brilliant young Englishwoman Rachel Kyte of the
International Women's Health Coalition in New York, a key
strategist at the Cairo Population Conference and one of the most
knowledgeable UN NGO operatives; Hillary French from Worldwatch
Institute, who is writing all the Worldwatch publications on
global governance; Kathy Sessions, a leading strategist for the
United Nations Association-USA, and Maximo Kalaw of the Green
Forum in the Philippines and the Earth Council in Costa Rica, one
of the most thoughtful of the emerging global NGO leaders.
 
Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. finds the leadership of the major U.N.
organizations in two stunning panels: Gus Speth, the founding
president of World Resources Institute who now heads the UN
Development Program; Elizabeth Dowdeswell of the UN Environment
Program; Fawzi Al-Sultan of the International Fund for
Agricultural Development; Nafis Sadik of the UN Population Fund;
Norleen Heyzer of the UN Development Fund for Women; and Wally
N'Dow of the UN Centre for Human Settlements.
 
Saturday starts off with what should be an amazing discussion
with Tim Wirth, Bella Abzug, and the widely influential
progressive theoretician and strategist Martin Khor from the
Third World Network in Malaysia.  The luncheon session, for deep
thinkers on global governance, features Shridath Ramphal, Co-
Chair of the Commission on Global Governance, which recently
published its report Our Global Neighborhood [Oxford, 1995], and
Ambassador Richard Butler, a first-rate Australian diplomat who
actually cares about NGO participation in the global system.  At
5 p.m. the conference ends with a keynote talk by UN Secretary
General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.  These are simply highlights. 
There are many other sessions.
 
Here's the money deal.  The daily rate without meals is $35. With
meals, you pay $50.  Scrounge for food and you can go to all four
days for $100, or pay $150 with meals. Please let friends know
that SCHOLARSHIPS ARE VERY MUCH AVAILABLE!  For a full schedule,
scholarship information and pre-registration, which is
recommended, call the UN 50th Committee at 989-1995 and ask to
speak to Mark Valentine or Jamila Suzanne.
 
WE THE PEOPLES is a rare opportunity to participate in a truly
historic event in the evolution of the global NGO movement for a
just and sustainable future as it intersects with the UN nation-
state system. We can all contribute by making sure those who
would want to be there know about it. Because of the relatively
small size of the conference, you are likely to be able to talk
face-to-face with people you may find important for your work.
 
We hope to see you there.
 
Michael Lerner
Sharyle Patton
Commonweal