Silver
Lining to Free Trade in the Americas
By
Kathy Bougher
If
there is any good news about free trade in the Americas, it is that
the grassroots resistance movements are strong. I spent June and
July in Mexico and Central America meeting people involved in the
multiple resistance movements against free trade agreements: NAFTA,
the Plan Puebla Panamá (PPP), and the Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA), just for starters. I met organizers in Mexico
City, indigenous organizations in Oaxaca and Chiapas in southern
Mexico, as well as human rights workers on the Mexico-Guatemala
border, feminist organizers in El Salvador, and dozens of groups
from several countries who came together at two regional forums
in Honduras at the end of July. In this immense diversity I found
some common threads. Although the task of fighting the almost limitless
economic and political power of transnational corporations and the
governments of the North is enormous, the level of energy for resistance
is enormous, too. This is a fight focussed on survival, not only
of the region, but of humanity. Who will control how we live our
lives? A silver lining in a thunderous cloud is that the free trade
assault has brought together diverse groups who must forge complementary
strategies to confront the monster many referred to as "free
investment" rather than free trade.
The issues raised by these
economic issues force people in the South and people of conscience
in the North to address the complex interconnections among concerns
such as economic power, political power, the environment, gender,
race, indigenous rights, human rights, migration, scientific research,
biodiversity, genetically modified organisms, consumerism, and labor
rights and practices. It really does involve re-thinking how we
want our planet and the relationships among people on the planet
to be structured.
I'd like to share a few snapshots of these two months. In Mexico
City I met with Gabriela Rangel from RMALC, the Mexican Network
Against Free Trade and with Leonor Aída, a long-time feminist
organizer who works with Women in Dialogue and Women Working Toward
Cancún. These groups are building on their work with highly
politicized grassroots women to build campaigns against free trade.
In Mexico City, I walked through the Zócalo, the historic
city center, filled with tents and banners from the teachers' protest
against government proposals for privatization of education, one
of the cornerstones of free trade.
In the southern Mexico city of Oaxaca, I met with Carlos Beas of
UCIZONI, an umbrella organization for indigenous groups in the region
fighting for their soveignty and survival. Oaxaca, in the isthmus
of Tehuantepec, is one of the biologically diverse sites on the
planet, and as such, a battleground in the free trade war. Indigenous
groups are fighting to protect their land from North American and
European pharmaceutical companies who want to research, control
and patent animal and plant life in the region. Many believe they
also want to controlthe human genetic resources of the region, too.
Projects are already underway on the isthmus to build a "dry
canal" which will facilitate high-speed transport of goods
between the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico.
The southeastern
state of Chiapas is where the Zapatistas made themselves known to
the world on January 1, 1994, the day NAFTA went into effect, thus
alerting the world to the dangers of free trade. I studied the Tzotzil
language in the Zapatista community of Oventic, an Aguascalientes,
or political and cultural center. Oventic is also home to the Zapatista
secondary school where students study themes such as exploitation,
work and capital, and power and violence. I met three fourteen-year-old
girls who sang protest songs against the PPP that they composed
for their communications class. Resistance to oppression is also
evident when young men and women share equally all of the tasks
of daily life such as mopping floors, making tortillas, and washing
clothes.
During a bus ride through the mountains of Chiapas I passed through
the small town of Comalapa, unremarkable except for dozens of storefront
"tourist agencies" advertising daily departures for northern
border cities such as Juarez, Agua Prieta, Altar, and Tijuana. This
massive migration to the north provides proof of the failure of
NAFTA.
In El Salvador feminist groups such as Las Dignas and Las Mélidas
have addressed economic justice for women for years. They are now
key players in that country's resistance. They have led direct action
protests as well as strategy sessions in preparation for the Fourth
Forum for Resistance. They organize women who work in maquilas,
the export assembly factories that the transnationals and the Salvadoran
elites tout as the solution to unemployment. Part of the PPP in
El Salvador is to construct massive superhighways along which the
maquilas will be located. Maquilas are not new in El Salvador and
neither is their exploitation of women. Last October 12 Salvadorans
blocked the construction of a superhighway around the capital city
and shut down international border crossings for a day.
COPINH, an indigenous group, hosted the forums on biodiversity and
on dams from July 18-20, in the town of La Esperanza, Honduras.
These combined forums were a regional response to the massive sale
of peoples' lives, land and resources to the highest bidders on
the transnational market, regardless of the social, economic, political
or environmental consequences. The forums included plenary sessions,
cultural events and thematic workshops. The 800 participants included
indigenous, campesino, and Afro-Honduran representatives from Central
America, Mexico, and Colombia.
The Fourth Forum of Resistance to Free Trade followed in Tegucigalpa,
Honduras from July 22-24, with a day of marches in Tegucigalpa in
between. The fourth forum in two years took a strong stand against
any sort of free trade agreement. Another theme significant especially
for the North was educate ourselves and our communities. We cannot
fight these economic powers if we don't understand what they are
doing. At the third forum in Managua last year there was considerable
debate and disagreement over whether or not grassroots groups should
attempt to demand participation in the negotiations and try to make
what seemed to be inevitable a little more humane. This year the
stance of the forum was a resounding NO to the FTAA and all similar
agreements. The existing economic, social, and political model must
change radically. Slight amendments to the proposals from the World
Trade Organization, the Interamerican Development Bank, the World
Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and others are not acceptable.
At both sites banners covering walls told stories
of resistance and determination:
NUESTRO FUTURO NO
ESTA EN VENTA
(OUR FUTURE IS NOT FOR SALE)
OTRA AMERICA ES POSIBLE
(ANOTHER AMERICA IS POSSIBLE)
NO
AL TLC CON USA
(NO TO THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH THE USA)
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