Shut down APEC actions at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, CA - Nov 12 & 15th

At the close of our People’s Counter Summit Against APEC, we issued a unity statement to summarize the positions of the No To APEC Coalition during our 2023 campaign culminating in the 800+ person Counter Summit.  The statement is titled “People and Planet against Profit and Plunder: Towards a World Beyond Profit-Oriented Systems!”

We publish this statement as the APEC Heads of State concluded their own Summit with the so-called “Golden Gate Declaration” to lay out the rosey-sounding false solutions they spent an entire year writing while desperately-needed practical policies for reversing the global economic, political and climate crises eluded them.

They tried to fool the people of the world by claiming to be “a vanguard of global growth” that would “unleash the enormous potential and tremendous dynamism across our region,” refusing to admit that the dynamism they refer to is actually the back-breaking labor power of billions of workers who were given no say in APEC gatherings.  They once again touted the “rules-based multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core,” failing to mention the corporate CEOs who wrote the “rules” of the system to begin with.

Their declaration ended with a message of, “thanks to the people and City of San Francisco and State of California for the warm welcome extended to us.”  The corporate puppets of San Francisco leadership may have laid out the red carpet to APEC this November, but the people had a different kind of welcome - we marched 10,000 strong against their opening day, shut down the entrances of the APEC CEO Summit for a number of hours and dogged down fascist heads of state like the Philippines’ Marcos, Japan’s Kishida, South Korea’s Yoon, Peru’s illegitimate Boluarte and even Biden himself with the united message, “War Criminals Out of SF!”

In contrast to the APEC Golden Gate Declaration, the No To APEC Coalition Unity Statement demonstrates what a united movement against imperialism and all profit-oriented systems looks like.  APEC’s 2023 theme was “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All,” but our unity has shown that we are more than resilient - we are relentless!  A sustainable planet can only come about through an organized people, and our statement lays out very clearly that while we have much to fight against, we are committed to fighting for the better world we all know is possible.

When discussing the statement at the close of the Peoples’ Counter Summit, attendees shared how they saw the words of the statement playing out in the work of their organizations that they invited others to support them in, including the fight for indigenous peoples resisting colonization and neo-colonization, student campaigns to divest universities from weapons and fossil fuels, the fight to defend Palestine, Haiti and other countries facing violent intervention, the defense of the Uhuru Three and all activists facing trumped up charges, and finally the preparations to support the fight against the APEC 2024 meeting cycle in Peru.

We have a lot of work to do to win a world beyond profit-oriented systems, but we’ve done so much together this year to set our fight up for success!  While the Biden administration hoped to showcase a completed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) in its attempt to keep the US in its position of top plunderer of the world’s economy, our protests throughout the year successfully delayed IPEF’s completion for the time being!  Our movement has much to celebrate.

We hope you find as much inspiration in our No To APEC Unity Statement as we have found in our member organizations through our months-long campaign together.  Let’s keep up the fight and wield the full power of people and planet towards a world beyond profit-oriented systems!

In solidarity,

No To APEC Steering Committee

POINTS OF UNITY

1. We oppose APEC as an exclusive and elitist Country club of the rich representing the interests of big business that spends millions of dollars of the peoples’ money on a gathering that makes decisions about trade that prioritize profits over people. The ministers and heads of state meeting at APEC do not represent the interests of the vast majority of citizens they govern, making these meetings illegitimate in the eyes of the people.

2. We oppose APEC as a forum for corporations and institutions to push so-called “free trade” to exploit their workers and put the benefits of corporations over the rights of nations and peoples. APEC promotes so-called “free trade,” which in reality means driving down wages, stealing land from peasants and indigenous people, driving forced migration, destroying the environment, plundering natural resources, and pumping up corporate profits

3. We oppose the false solutions to peoples issues that APEC peddles. Their “solutions” to recovery after the pandemic, reversing the economic downturn, promoting a greener economy, empowering women in the economy, and helping youth and education, will only worsen the crisis for the people because their number one priority is profit. These rosy-sounding phrases hide the intention to secure control of an energy-efficient economy, keep commodity and housing prices high, putting people into more debt and leaving poor women and families to fend for themselves. The only true solution to the crises of our times is international workers solidarity!

4. We support the right of nations and peoples to self-determination and sovereignty. While not the only great power nation in APEC, the US still wields the most influence, and it uses it for its own means. No country has a right to intervene in or control politically, economically or militarily the nations and peoples of the Pacific Rim and the world. US intervention represents the interests of big business. We oppose APEC as an arena for the US to assert its agenda to contain and attack its global rivals, particularly China. The US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) is meant to block out the China-led economy and seize control of less powerful countries. These actions are economic coercion and bring us closer to war.

We are inviting all organizations to JOIN the No to APEC Coalition and ALL INDIVIDUALS to fight against neoliberal attacks on the people and planet at the APEC Summit and all their backroom deals!

We support all oppressed & exploited peoples as they confront corporate greed!

ORGANIZATIONS THAT SIGNED ON

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