During the week of November 17-21st tens of thousands of workers, unions, environmental groups, youth and student organizations, global justice groups and civil and human rights organizations throughout North and South America and the Caribbean will be participating in a week of educational activities, protests, marches, speak-outs and forums focused on defeating the ratification and implementation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA; ALCA in Spanish) agreement. The fight against FTAA is part of the struggle to defeat the right wing attack on our civil and labor rights, democracy and our environment. We demand truly democratic trade agreements that include the participation of the people and respect workers rights and the environment, putting the needs and rights of the people before the interests of multinational monopoly corporations. In Miami thousands will gather to protest the anti-worker, anti-environment, anti-democratic and anti-human rights FTAA agreement and demand that a trade policy be developed which encourages true and equal sustainable economic and social development and democracy. The Miami demonstrations are shaping up to be the largest anti-globalization mobilization since Seattle in 2001.
NAFTA on Steroids
The Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement will basically turn the entire American hemisphere into the world’s largest “free trade zone.� The trading block covered by FTAA will include a population of over 800 million people and its rules will affect every country in our hemisphere with the exception of Cuba. FTAA threatens workers rights, environmental protection standards, national sovereignty, human rights, public health and safety protections, real sustainable economic and social development, public services and democracy.
We know that FTAA will not meet the needs of the people, encourage democracy or protect our workers and environment. Need proof? It has been 10 years since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented and its effects have been devastating. In the United States, Canada and Mexico, workers and the people have lost with NAFTA. In Mexico poverty levels have risen dramatically due to NAFTA. Since its implementation it is estimated that 8 million people have been pushed into poverty. In Canada and the United States the effects of NAFTA have also been felt sharply. It is estimated that over 1 million jobs have been lost in the US because of NAFTA.
The FTAA has been called NAFTA on steroids. Under FTAA the provisions and regulations are even more undemocratic and hurtful to the people and the environment. FTAA would extend its authority to cover rules and regulations over industries and public service sectors not covered under NAFTA including, health care, education, construction, transportation and energy. FTAA will include a race to the bottom that will put in jeopardy the millions of jobs in the public sector and open up these sectors for huge privatization campaigns. First and foremost FTAA will benefit US monopolies at the expense of everyone else.
What Does FTAA Mean for Youth and Students?
Not only is FTAA bad for workers, farmers, civil and democratic rights and the environment it also directly attacks the rights of youth and students. FTAA is bad news for public education systems. It threatens to limit access to and lower the quality of public schooling for millions of youth throughout the Americas. FTAA poses a serious threat to public education by guaranteeing corporations the right to challenge any accreditation requirements or professional standards that inhibit their access to privatize or participate in public schooling system. This is especially dangerous for those countries that are still struggling to establish accessible public service systems.
It is estimated that the total world expenditures for education reach $2 trillion (US) and many predict that public education will be hit by a wave of privatization in the next decade just as we have experienced with public health care. Corporations such as Merrill Lynch and the Lehman Brothers are well aware of this and are already planning their bids to privatize public schools throughout the FTAA-covered region. FTAA rules and regulations encourage these ventures and make it illegal for governments to protect their public school systems from privatization, even when that privatization leads to greater inequality, poorer educational standards and increased class sizes. (See accompanying article on FTAA and public education)
What happened to Democracy?
While advocates of FTAA claim that it will promote and “spread� democracy, the truth is that FTAA is inherently undemocratic. FTAA has, since the beginning, been negotiated behind closed doors. Labor, environmental groups and popular organizations have been shut out of negotiations while over 500 giant corporations have been granted special rights to participate in the drafting and implementation planning of FTAA. Furthermore, “fast track� legislation gives the right to President Bush to negotiate trade agreements without the input of Congress, which will only have 60 days to vote on the agreement and has no ability to amend or change any part of the agreement. This of course further limits our democratic rights and restricts public participation.
The FTAA also threatens countries’ autonomy and sovereignty by extending NAFTA’s dangerous Chapter 11 clause to the entire continent. If amended to the FTAA, the clause would allow private corporations to sue governments whose laws and policies conflict with FTAA trade policies and principles; namely the “rights� of corporations to make a profit. Chapter 11 of NAFTA has been the center of much controversy as it prioritizes the rights of corporations to have “equal access� to markets over the rights of people. One example of this abrogation of rights is the case of a US chemical corporation suing the Canadian government on the grounds that its ban on a dangerous carcinogen found in gasoline violated NAFTA. The corporation won and the Canadian government had to pay a fine of $13 million dollars, write a letter of apology and retract the law that protected the Canadian people from the dangerous effects of this particular carcinogen.
FTAA will further restrict the autonomy of member countries to enact laws that protect its people and environment. An appointed board of arbitrators will be the body empowered to decide and enforce FTAA rules and be able to impose sanctions and fines on countries whose laws or public service systems are deemed restrictive to “free trade.� This means that a country could be fined or sanctioned for maintaining a public education system that resists privatization efforts.
Only a small sector can actually claim that they have benefited from NAFTA and will continue to do so under FTAA. Those who stand to win with FTAA are the large multinational corporations—US corporations first and foremost—who use FTAA to strangle local businesses and use this power to manipulate prices and control markets. The FTAA will only open the door wider to exploitation and economic domination of US monopoly corporate interests at the cost of centuries of struggle throughout the Americas for the labor, civil and democratic rights of our people. The FTAA will make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
The Resistance Builds
Despite efforts to squash or hide opposition to the FTAA, today the movement for fair trade and global justice is stronger than ever. Countries like Brazil have held popular plebiscites against FTAA and received mass support. Trade Ministers from a number of nations, including Venezuela, have publicly stated that they will not affiliate with FTAA as is. Cuba has been an outspoken opponent of FTAA, hosting the SĂŁo Paulo Forum and other public conferences and debates to critique the FTAA and condemn its dangerous consequences for the people of Latin America and the Caribbean.
In the US, the AFL-CIO has spearheaded a “No To FTAA� campaign which has included the collection of tens of thousands of Vote No “ballots� which will be presented by local unions and labor councils to the trade ministers meeting in Miami. A large “Stop FTAA� campaign has been endorsed by over 60 organizations ranging from major labor unions such as the United Steelworkers of America to the Sierra Club and includes local coalitions, anti-war groups, global justice organizations and international solidarity organizations.
Of course youth and students are an important part of this coalition and during the week of November 17-21, young people will play a key part in what looks to be the broadest coalition against FTAA and globalization to date. As the movement develops and builds, the movement against the FTAA and against the capitalist globalization of the world is taking an increasingly anti-capitalist and internationalist stance. The real test of the movement and its student wing will be whether it will become decidedly pro-worker and pro-socialist while maintaining a broad and diverse movement.
The fight against FTAA has captured the heart and imagination of hundreds of thousands of youth throughout our hemisphere. Young people and students will be a major force in Miami and throughout the Americas as the battle against FTAA heats up — and the YCL will be there with them in the streets to show what real democracy looks like. We demand that another world is possible!
Jessica Marshall is one of the National
Co-coordinators of the YCL.
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