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News and Views from the Global South
TRADE-LATAM: Activists Outline Future Anti-FTAA Strategy
Patricia Grogg
- Activists opposed to the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreed in Havana to hold simultaneous protests throughout the Americas in September 2003, and to carry out regional coordination of the struggle against the continent-wide free trade agreement.
“Fighting against the FTAA means fighting against annexation and poverty,” states the final declaration signed by the nearly 1,000 delegates from more than 40 countries in the Americas and other regions who took part in the “Second Hemispheric Meeting of Struggle against the FTAA”.
The FTAA is a U.S.-backed trade deal negotiated by all of the countries in the Americas — a total of 34 — with the exception of Cuba.
The action plan agreed on by the activists who gathered Monday through Thursday in the Cuban capital includes simultaneous marches, strikes, roadblocks, demonstrations and other forms of protest across the Americas on Sep 10, 2003.
That is also the date set for the start of the fifth ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), in Mexico.
The schedule of anti-FTAA activities over the next few months will also include informal popular plebiscites on the continent- wide free trade deal, greater dissemination of anti-FTAA activities, and efforts to “unmask” the ties between the foreign debt, military build-up, and free trade.
Participants agreed to work harder to get the debate on the FTAA incorporated in the agendas of national parliaments, and to monitor, as closely as possible, the closed-door negotiations of the FTAA and the WTO, both of which pose a “threat” to the people of Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the activists.
In addition, the delegates agreed to work hard at fomenting higher-than-ever levels of attendance at the third annual edition of the World Social Forum, to be held Jan 23-28 in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.
The only country not taking part in the FTAA is Cuba, whose government has serious reserves about an integration process that it believes is designed “to devour” national economies in the region and exclusively benefit the United States.
“We have no interest or desire whatsoever to receive the distinction of being annexed by the United States,” said Osvaldo Martínez, the director of the governmental Centre for Research on the Global Economy.
Martínez maintained that Washington’s real interest was in “penetrating the markets of Latin America, and squashing national producers to compensate for its gigantic and growing trade deficit,” which amounted to 346 billion dollars last year.
Participating in the meeting were representatives of progressive social and political organisations, trade unionists, peasant farmers, indigenous people, church activists, environmentalists, human rights advocates, journalists, parliamentarians, artists and academics from throughout the region.
President Fidel Castro, who attended part of the sessions, said the movement against the FTAA showed a higher level of awareness this year than last, when Havana hosted the “First Hemispheric Meeting of Struggle Against the FTAA”.
Castro urged the activists not to “ignore” leftist parties in the region in their fight against the free trade initiative.
“It is very important to join forces,” said Castro. “Everyone who can contribute to this battle must be brought together,” he added, while recommending that the region’s small and medium-sized businesses should also be drawn into the struggle.
Cuban sociologist Aurelio Alonso told IPS that the movement against the FTAA has grown and become stronger over the past year. “There is a greater level of clarity in the proposals, and stronger agreement about what should be done.”
The final declaration signed late Thursday underlined that in the year that has gone by since the first meeting, resistance against the “threat” posed by the FTAA has grown in strength.
“The first meeting mainly focused on explanations and analyses of what the FTAA consists of…But the most important and substantial part of this year’s event is the action plan,” said Argentine social researcher and activist Isabel Raubber.
The timeframe pushed by the United States establishes that the FTAA is to go into effect in January 2005. But several Latin American countries believe it is improbable that everything will be ready by that time, due to the discrepancies that have yet to be worked out.
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TRADE-LATAM: Activists Outline Future Anti-FTAA Strategy
Patricia Grogg
- Activists opposed to the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreed in Havana to hold simultaneous protests throughout the Americas in September 2003, and to carry out regional coordination of the struggle against the continent-wide free trade agreement.
(more…)
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