Contents
What
is the FTAA? | Who is resisting? | What
will Quebec City look like in April? | Who is organizing
in Canada? | What is being planned in Eastern
Canada? | What is being planned elsewhere?
| International Organizing Resources | Quality
Information on the FTAA |
What is the FTAA?
The Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA) is an unabashedly neoliberal hemispheric trade agreement
that would effectively integrate the nations of North and South America
into a single free trade bloc. It is being negotiated under the auspices
of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes trade representatives
from all 34 countries of the Americas (excluding Cuba). With the aim
of being fully operative by 2005, the FTAA would encompass 800 million
people in a potential market of $19 trillion.
Mimicking the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and reputedly copying key features of the
failed Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), the FTAA promises
more deregulation and privatization while affording global capital ever-greater
power and profit-making potential. This means further consolidation
of corporate power, erosion of popular gains, exploitation of resources
and labor in the global South, and dismantlement of already insufficient
environmental protections--all in the name of "free trade." In other
words, it's the same old story of colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism.
The US launched the FTAA
in 1994 at the Miami Summit under the Clinton Administration. The Santiago
Summit in 1998 initiated nine issue-specific negotiating groups (Agriculture,
Intellectual Property Rights, Services, etc.) that have since undertaken
the bulk of the negotiations for implementation of the FTAA. These groups
periodically report to trade ministers of all 34 countries who, in turn,
meet once a year. This year's trade minister meeting will be in early
April in Argentina. And this year's Summit of the Americas will be April
20-22 in Quebec City.
Who is resisting?
In 1999, thousands of people
took to the streets of Seattle to resist the World Trade Organization
as a symbol of capitalist globalization. These demonstrations didn't
come from nowhere, but were the result of many years of struggles against
colonialism, poverty, police brutality and injustices of all kinds.
Workers in Bolivia, students in Mexico, farmers in India, indigenous
people in Nigeria, and welfare recipients in the US have resisted neoliberalism
and its disastrous effects for decades. And from Manila in 1996 to Vancouver
in 1997, Geneva in 1998 to Melbourne in 2000, people have militantly
protested international trade summits.
More recently, Canadians
and others have imaginatively challenged OAS meetings in Toronto (1999)
and Windsor (2000) with human blockades, educational forums, and even
stink bombs. When it meets from April 20-22 in Quebec City to hammer
out the FTAA, activists will again converge to confront, criticize,
and disrupt its summit. Some of us will journey to join them. The rest
of us can work from where we are to support them through our own creative
protests and educational efforts.
We certainly have plenty
to confront in the US. President George Bush is a shameless spokesman
for capitalist globalization (no surprise, of course). He has already
promised that he'll oppose even ineffectual environmental or labor clauses
written into free trade agreements, and his cabinet appointees read
like a laundry list of elite representatives. In the next Congressional
session, Bush will also be seeking fast track authority to pass the
FTAA with little or no debate in Congress, much less input from the
rest of us.
The WTO protests in Seattle
showed that capitalist globalization isn't set in stone. With determination,
creativity, and solidarity, we can derail the plans of the wealthy
and the powerful. As radicals in Quebec say, "It didn't start in Seattle…and
it sure as hell isn't going to stop with Quebec." In short, we determine
the nature and scope of our resistance.
What will Quebec City
look like in April?
Snowy and scenic, Quebec City is relatively small (pop. 500,000), 98%
francophone (French-speaking), and overwhelmingly white. For the last
few decades it has been undergoing a concerted campaign of "revitalization"
which really means gentrification. Hardest hit has been the Saint Jean
Baptiste neighborhood, a low-income area with a many longtime local
businesses. In fact, organizers in Quebec City are working with residents
of this neighborhood to contest the Summit of the Americas and its accompanying
police occupation.
"Occupation" is no exaggeration.
Protestors arriving in April will be greeted by the largest security
operation in the history of Canada. Police are promising a 3.8-kilometer
security perimeter around meeting facilities and downtown hotels. (Local
activists suggest it will probably be half as large in reality.) The
perimeter will be fortified with a 3-meter fence fixed in concrete barriers
and tipped with barbed wire. In preparation, authorities are also emptying
out the local prison in order to "make room" for protestors.
Altogether, some 12,000
people--both delegates and media--will officially attend the Summit.
Outside, 5,000 police officers will "protect" them. Protestors, meanwhile,
won't be protected from rampant police violence as security forces have
advised they're not going to use pepper spray; this, according to Quebec
activists, means that they'll be using less sophisticated means of force,
like truncheons.
Who is organizing in Canada?
- Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) is based in Montreal and works
closely with CASA. Together, they represent the anti-authoritarian,
anti-capitalist opposition to the FTAA. www.quebec2001.net
- Center for Media Alternatives Quebec functions as the Quebec Independent
Media Center and will have an office in Quebec City during the Summit.
www.cmaq.net
- Citizens on the Web is a Toronto-based mobilization. www.interlog.com/~cjazz
- Common Frontiers is a coalition of labor unions and non-governmental
organizations in English-speaking Canada. Partnered with the Quebec
Network on Continental Integration, it represents the Hemispheric
Social Alliance, an organization bringing together progressive NGOs
from North and South America, and is sponsoring the Peoples' Summit.
www.web.net/comfront
- Mobilization for Global Justice (mob4glob) is a Toronto-based group
organizing for the FTAA protests. www.mob4glob.ca
- Occupation Spring Quebec 2001 (OQP2001) is a coalition of progressive
activists and organizations in Quebec City organizing for the protests.
They are overseeing many of the logistics for out-of-towners. www.oqp2001.org
- Operation SALAMI is a Montreal-based direct action group that spearheaded
protests and actions against the MAI. www.alternatives.ca/salami
- Quebec Network on Continental Integration (RQIC) is a coalition
of labor unions and non-governmental organizations in French-speaking
Canada. Partnered with Common Frontiers, it represents the Hemispheric
Social Alliance, an organization bringing together progressive NGOs
from North and South America, and is sponsoring the Peoples' Summit.
www.alternatives.ca/rqic
- Queen's Coalition is a mobilization of individuals from both the
Queen's University and Kingston communities. www.web.net/~opirgkin/qcacg/main.html
- Smash the FTAA Border Caravan is an action/caravan being organized
by activists from Peterborough, Belleville, and Toronto. www.tao.ca/~kdawg/smashftaa.html
- Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee (CASA) is based in Quebec
City and works closely with the CLAC. Together, they represent the
anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist opposition to the FTAA. www.tao.ca/~clac/links.html#casa
What is being planned
in Eastern Canada?
- All of April - Carnival Against Capitalism in Quebec City and Montreal.
According to the CLAC, "The Carnival Against Capitalism is meant to
articulate a clear opposition to the Summit of the Americas, the FTAA
and capitalism, while providing a diverse series of events ranging
from popular education to protests."
- April 1 - Protest planned in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, coinciding
with the Meeting of the Ministers of Finance of the Americas in Buenos
Aires.
- April 2 - Civil disobedience being proposed in Ottawa if the FTAA
text is not released.
- April 10-16 - Students opposed to privatization meeting.
- April 17-21 - The People's Summit, bringing together a broad cross-section
of unions, NGOs, and activists to educate, build alliances, and discuss
an alternative vision to the FTAA. www.peoplessummit.org
- April 19 - Kingston Caravan, organized by activists from Peterborough,
Belleville, and Toronto. They will leave Kingston driving at 40km/hr
down Highway 401 (a "NAFTA superhighway"), stop at border points to
aid US activists attempting to cross (opening or shutting down border
as need be), and potentially blockade shipping on the St. Lawrence
Seaway. www.tao.ca/~kdawg/smashftaa
- April 20 - Day of Action called by CLAC and CASA with respect for
a diversity of tactics. This action will be tentatively organized
into three "blocks": one being a "festive demonstration"--low-risk
and non-arrestable; one being "obstruction"--nonviolent civil disobedience;
and one being "disruption"--potentially engaging with the police.
- April 21 - Day of Action called by a progressive coalition of groups
with nonviolence guidelines. As of yet, there is no action plan.
What is being planned
elsewhere?
International Organizing
Resources
Quality Information on
the FTAA
I wrote this in preparation
for the 2001 protests against the Organization of American States in Quebec
City. At this point, it functions more as an historic document.
