A group of women from different parts, during a dinner in Montreal, came up with an idea for a feminist action against the FTAA to be held during the Summit of the Americas in April 2001. This is an invitation to participate!

Weaving a Web of Solidarity
A feminist action against globalisation
Summit of the Americas on the FTAA
Quebec City, April 2001

On the weekend of April 20-22, leaders of thirty four countries will come to Quebec to tie a new strand in the web of corporate globalisation: the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), the regional accord that will expand NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) throughout the hemisphere. In response, thousands of us will come to Quebec City to resist them. From Canada to Argentina, women and men will take action to express our opposition to the extension of the corporate web.
Women bear the brunt of the violence of globalisation, yet despite all the oppression, repression and exploitation, women continue to rise up. This is a call to rise up as we join together in a Women's Action, to take place alongside the many actions and events of the weekend.
We are taking action because we will no longer tolerate the web of corporate control that binds us down and constricts our lives. We will not allow this system to continue. We have taken its measure: its time is done. Instead, we will become spiders, spinning a new web of connection, of solidarity out of our rage, out of our love.
We will, as women, weave together our hopes and dreams, our aspirations, our indictments, our testimony, our witnessing, our demands, our visions. We will write on ribbons, on strips of cloth, on rags. We will draw, paint, knot cords, braid yarn, whisper into pieces of string. And from these materials we will weave our web.
If they ignore our voices and continue their deliberations, the cries of women will haunt them and undo all their plans. Though they erect a fence to stop us, we will twine our web through its mesh to be the visible symbol of the power of women, of the revolution we weave. When they try to wall us out of their meetings, they will only wall themselves in. We claim all of the world beyond their wall.
We ask our brothers to support us, to honor our women's space so that we who have so often been invisible can stand forth and be seen. We ask you to support us by looking honestly at the ways that, even within our own movements, women are ignored, suppressed, or discounted. And when you support us in this action, where we stand together as women, it will spark actions where we fight side by side. For we know that you too, are weavers of this web.
We ask the ancestors to stand with us. For the web of life links the living and the dead. We ask the generations of the future to stand with us, for we fight for the world you will inherit. We ask the spirits of the earth to support us and be our ground, for we fight for the continuance of life.
We are invincible, for life itself weaves with us.

AN INVITATION TO THE WOMEN OF THE WORLD TO…

Form an affinity group…
An affinity group is a group of 10-20 people with whom you have "affinity"; that is, a common bond (family, friends, common issue, work colleagues, etc.), that meets regularly to discuss common issues and to act. Choose one or two members to represent your group at the Council of representatives. The Council of representatives will "meet" in virtual space until the week before the Summit of the Americas, at which point meetings will take place in Quebec. The Council of representatives meetings will be the forum to decide on strategy for the action. Keep your eye on the CMAQ (Quebec Centre for Independent Media) website (www.cmaq.net) for a Women's web of solidarity action link.

Initiate (or continue), in your affinity group, a dialogue on the impacts of globalisation on women in your home area…
Women around the world bear the brunt of globalisation… our voices together will allow us to add to the feminist analysis of globalisation, and to strengthen our cause (see article, and fact sheet).

Weave your part of the web of solidarity…
Take what comes out of your dialogue on women and globalisation, and, as a group, weave a section of the web of solidarity to represent your consensus. Use your imagination… use yarn, materials, photos, newspaper clippings. The sky is the limit.

Add your section of the web to the web of solidarity in Quebec City in April 2001…
Here are some suggestions on the many ways to join your section of the web to the larger web of solidarity:
· Come as an affinity group to Quebec City in April 2001, to participate in the collective weaving of the web of solidarity…
A fence is being erected around the buildings where the Summit is being held in order to keep protesters out - residents inside the perimeter are required to have identity cards in order to gain access to their own homes during the Summit. This fence symbolises, for us, the anti-democratic process of the FTAA - we want to reclaim that fence, that space. Those wanting to weave (literally or symbolically and non-violently) their parts of the web into the fence are invited to do so on the 19th of April (the day preceding the opening of the meeting). Affinity groups not wanting to approach the fence are invited to plan other kinds of actions using the web parts (blocking an intersection to catch Summit negotiators in the web, or decorating a park with parts of the web, etc.). Creativity and imagination are key! The sky is the limit!
· Send your section of the web to the address below and the women present in Quebec will ensure that your section is woven into the larger web.
· Send a photograph of your section of the web to the address below, and the women present in Quebec will enlarge it and add it to the larger web.
· Get together with other affinity groups in your area and weave your sections together closer to your home.

Québec contact information:
E-mail address: toil...@moncourrier.com
Mailing address: Toile femme Québec 2001, C.P. 70021, Québec, Québec (Canada) G1R 6B1