Dear Friends,
We Encourage You to Read This Memo
From the Leadership Staff of the International Forum
on Globalization and
Join the Summer Fund Drive for the IFG!

MEMORANDUM FROM: Victor Menotti, Jerry Mander, Claire Greensfelder, Yeshica Weerasekera
RE: Updates, Opportunities, Emergencies

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We write you today for two purposes: to update you on IFG activities and opportunities for the rest of this year---in direct response to the global emergencies we now face, both ecological and financial. And, alas, to seek your help with our own economic emergency!

Odd Times

These are surely the oddest of times. Despite oncoming global crises of potentially catastrophic scale, there's a tremendous sense of movement, renewal and change. Seismic political shifts are upon us; the opportunity to break out into new directions. In some ways these crises are overdue, as it's certainly time to reset the compass.

As many of you may recall, the IFG started predicting major global ecological and financial breakdowns even before Seattle in 1999. The fundamental flaws of the economic system were already in clear view. The idea of a global economy utterly dependent on never-ending, always expanding resource consumption and growth, on a finite planet with limited resources, is absurd; preposterous on its face. Now we are up against reality. The three huge ecological crises of climate change, energy shortages, and global resource depletion, including such basic needs as fresh water, arable soils, forests, life in the seas, key industrial minerals like coltan, phosphorous, et al, have all, in turn, accelerated the economic crisis.

But, here's the good news: the doors are open. It's an exquisite time for bold new steps, and we're working hard to seize the moment. The snake is changing its skin.

Please donate generously to the International Forum on Globalization so that we may continue to actively participate in negotiations and help shape the framework for a strong international climate agreement in Copenhagen this December. Your donation will also help us champion the rights of indigenous peoples; address the intersection of climate change and growing global population; and continue to raise the question "Is Capitalism Over?"

We want to keep working hard to reach tens of thousands of people around the world on issues of trade, economics, capitalism and sustainability within the global justice framework.

The financial crises of the moment do not only affect banks and megacorporations; lots of NGOs are on the ropes, and the IFG is far from immune. But this is not the moment for any of us to back off, downsize, or slow down our activities. We're living in crisis times, but as we said, these are also exciting times. Everything is shifting; great change is possible. We have the chance, working together, to shape a different kind of sustainable future.

Let's do it. Please help us seize the opportunity that is at hand.

Read our full fundraising appeal letter from IFG Executive Director, Victor Menotti, Distinguished Fellow Jerry Mander, and Deputy Directors Claire Greensfelder and Yeshica Weeresakeera.

Donate ($50 or more) and receive one of our most recent IFG publications on energy, agriculture, indigenous rights, the global economy and more.

IFG Executive Director, Victor Menotti, and Board Member, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, in The Guardian

"We are fighting for our lives and our dignity"
Amazonwatch.org

Across the globe, as mining and oil firms race for dwindling resources, indigenous peoples are battling to defend their lands – often paying the ultimate price...

Read more...

Shell to Pay $15.5 Million to Settle Nigerian Case
Reuters

June 8, 2009, NYTimes.com: Royal Dutch Shell, the big oil company, agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle a case accusing it of taking part in human rights abuses in the Niger Delta in the early 1990s, a striking sum given that the company has denied any wrongdoing.

Read more...