Zephyrites with a plan for an action . . .

On September 27th, 2002, the World Bank will be meeting in Washington DC to
determine global financial policy for the next year. Unfortunately, many of
us won't be able to make it to Washington to protest. However, we can still
cause chaos in the financial institutions of our countries on September
27th. The Zephyrites, a group of student activists, are encouraging people
everywhere to take the 27th off and to call the public phonelines of your country's
banking system to tie them up and cause confusion in the public offices. Our goal is to shut down the communication systems of the United States Treasury Department and the Bank of Canada.

The Treasury Department's switchboard can be reached at (202) 622-1260.

In Canada, you can call the Bank of Canada toll free at 1-800-303-1282 and
email the Finance Minister, John Manley, at jmanley [at] fin.gc.ca

If you get through to an operator or an answering machine, ask why the Treasury Department or the Bank of Canada continues to be involved with the World Bank, an organisation that uses its money to bribe countries into privatising industuries and allowing American investors to run their economies - an organisation which has destroyed Argentina's economy and made millions of people poor.

Be creative. Talk very slowly or speak in a foreign language to cause maximum confusion - anything that will keep the operator on the phone and tie up the phone line as long as possible.

If you can't get through to an operator, simply hang up and press redial. If the action works, it will
eventually become impossible to reach an operator. Keep calling for an hour or more if you can. If you get a machine, leave the longest possible message. Then call back and leave another one.

We encourage Canadians to email the Finance Minister as well. Send him the biggest emails possible. This can be done by attaching pictures, files or even entire programs to your
messages. Send him ICQ. Or Word. Or maybe some pictures of the police gunning
down protestors in Argentina. If we send him enough crap, the server will crash and we could possibly paralyse the government computer system. It has worked before with various city administrations. We could make it work with the administration of an entire country.

While our friends march in Washington DC, we can cause chaos within the government,
using our telephones and computers, and prove to the authorities that we can
use technology in the most creative ways.

NB - If you are in a country other than Canada or the United States and would
like information on the phone numbers or email addresses of the financial institutions
of your country, email us at thezephyrites [at] email.com