From: Patricia Lay-Dorsey
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 16:11:53 -0400
Subject: Good news!!

Dear friends of peace with justice

I can't stop smiling over the news from Cancun. The fact that a coalition of nations that represent more than half the world's population and some two-thirds of its farmers--now known as the G-21--did not allow the rich and powerful 20% of the WTO member nations to pursue their agenda to control all the world's resources is a stunning victory!

What a model for all of us here in the U.S. who have felt powerless in the face of the Bush administration's carefully-crafted (and now unraveling) plans to divest us of our civil liberties, reward corporate backers by destroying the environment and our economy, raise the military budget to astronomical levels at the expense of education and social programs, and threaten other nations into kowtowing to their demands OR ELSE.

I found Anuradha Mittal's article in today's Globe And Mail/Canada--"Cancun: Why It's Good That the Trade Talks Broke Down"--helpful in understanding how it all happened:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0915-01.htm

And that's not the only good news! Today (Sept. 16) at 11:30am EDT, the U.S. Senate voted 55-40 to roll back the entire FCC rule change. A lot of credit for this victory goes to a coalition of internet advocacy groups like MoveOn.org, Vote4Change.org and CommonCause.org, who put together a petition and phone call campaign to let our senators know how the people felt about 45% of their local news sources being controlled by one company. Thanks to tireless efforts by coalitions made up of as diverse groups as the internet advocacy groups mentioned above, the National Rifle Association and the Consumers Union, two million Americans let the senators know that their constituents were not going to take this lying down.

You can read about today's historic vote at:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0916-11.htm

Perhaps the message to be taken from these two victories is that when we set aside our differences and focus on what values we hold in common, we can move mountains.

in peace & solidarity
Patricia