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Hemispheric Campaign Against the FTAA
" Yes to life. No to the FTAA. Another America is possible "
What is the Hemispheric Campaign Against the FTAA?
How to Participate in the Campaign
The FTAA is the acronym for the "Free Trade Area of the Americas", an agreement being promoted by business and government sectors in the United States to increase and consolidate their domination over the populations and countries of the hemisphere while at the same time securing their hegemony at a worldwide level. The FTAA was formally launched at the First Summit of the Americas, held in Miami in December 1994. At the beginning of that year, the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA (Canada, Mexico and the United States) officially came into effect. The expansion of that accord to the rest of the hemisphere (excluding Cuba) is the goal of the FTAA.
In preparation for the FTAA negotiations, nine permanent negotiating groups have been formed covering the following areas:
Agriculture
Government Procurement (at national and local level)
Investment
Market Access
Subsidies
Services,
Intellectual Property Rights
Competition Policy,
Dispute Resolution
In general, each country designates an official representative to each negotiating group, although the United States government wields a high level of dominance over all negotiations; negotiations which until last year, were maintained under absolute secrecy. Thanks to the actions of civil-society networks throughout the Americas, culminating in the Buenos Aires and Quebec City mass demonstrations, in July of 2001for the first time it was possible to see the draft agreements under discussion. In the official timetable, the next stage will be a ministerial meeting which is to be held in Quito at the end of October.
The FTAA – A Neo-Colonial Project?
The FTAA is not just a trade agreement, as the governments have tried to promote it, it is rather a plan that responds to the United States’ economic needs. The United States and transnational corporations have entered into a financial and production crisis. To exit this crisis, they wish to impose a new form of capital accumulation based around new hegemonic centers. To achieve this goal, the war on terrorism is being used to consolidate political and economic control throughout the hemisphere. The U.S. government is also seeking to guarantee the ability of largely U.S.-based transnational corporations to enter and leave counties as they choose under the conditions they determine, without any responsibility to those countries’ peoples or environments. The FTAA will also serve to protect those corporations against competition from European or Japanese investors.
General Colin Powell, the current U.S. Secretary of State, has clearly stated "Our objective with the FTAA is to guarantee control for North American businesses over a territory which stretches from the Arctic to the Antarctic, free access, over the entire hemisphere, without any difficulty or obstacle, for our products, services, technology and capital".
If this treaty is given a green light, each country’s sovereignty and that of its people will be seriously compromised. Under the rules of the game they are trying to impose, decision-making power on economic, social and cultural policies, as well as national development plans will be transferred to transnational corporations and investors located in North America. As the rift between the technological content of exports and imports widens, Latin America and the Caribbean will be condemned to be exploited for their raw materials and semi manufactured products and an intensified exploitation of its workforce and finite resources. It is no exaggeration to say that the FTAA is equivalent to neo-colonization.
What is the Hemispheric Campaign Against the FTAA?
How the Campaign Developed
The great contradiction of the FTAA plan is that it tries to impose blanket agreements without considering the structural imbalances between each economy in the hemisphere, so for the first time in history we are facing a threat that will affect all social sectors and every country within the region. This unprecedented challenge led to the birth of the Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA), a grouping that promotes the broadest level of unity with which to obstruct the FTAA, under the slogan "another America is possible". The idea to launch the Hemispheric Campaign Against the FTAA was conceived within the Alliance, as a concrete endeavor to mobilize forces and promote action against the FTAA, as well as to promote the construction of new routes for hemispheric integration based on democracy, equality, solidarity, respect for the environment and respect for human rights. All of this implies the understanding that this struggle cannot be considered as just another activity, but as a priority within the struggles in each sector and organization.
Like all inspired ideas, this one was taken up by a series of networks and social coordinating bodies and also by events which have focused on this subject, such as the Hemispheric Meeting against the FTAA, convened in Havana, Cuba in November 2001. The hemispheric campaign against the FTAA was formally launched on 4 February 2002 at the World Social Forum in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, with a march in which around fifty thousand people participated.
Campaign Policies
The following objectives have been established for the Hemispheric Campaign against the FTAA
Obstruct the FTAA,
Defend our national sovereignty,
Change the economic model of external dependency,
Construct an alternative for social integration and sovereignty among the peoples of the Americas.
Furthermore, as general guidelines, it was agreed that to this end it is necessary to:
Give priority to the campaign – not consider it as just one more activity,
Develop all activities as permanent processes,
Stimulate mass participation,
Provide information intensively to the grassroots and the general population,
Link this struggle with other elements of the neo-colonial strategy (Debt, Plan Colombia, Plan Puebla-Panama and other related schemes).
Core Actions of the Campaign
Raise awareness and reach the hearts and minds of our grassroots movements and populations about the danger the implementation of the FTAA poses for our survival as independent peoples,
Carry out permanent grassroots work to guide and organize the population,
Create mass movements which transcend the interests of corporations and join forces against the economic model in question,
Carry out a large scale consultation in which the population will decide on the issue. The plebiscite in Brazil will be held in the week of 1st September 2002. In other countries it will be held in the period between October 2002 and March 2003,
Carry out demonstrations before and during government meetings on this issue,
Carry out economic battles against the transnational corporations that promote the FTAA,
Press for the holding of an official referendum on the FTAA in each country in the hemisphere.
Attempt to develop a variety of activities in each country and within each of its diverse regions, such as:
Monitoring the official negotiations,
Distribution of as much information as possible,
Production of as much teaching material as possible on this issue,
Carrying out debates and seminars to deepen reflection,
Campaigns using all forms of social communication available,
Construction of broad social alliances,
Taking advantage of all available events.
Hemispheric Days of Resistance
Hemispheric Days of Resistance against the FTAA
Hemispheric days of resistance against the FTAA will take place throughout the entire continent during October with the main focus being in Quito, Ecuador between 27 October and 1 November, during the Ministerial Meetings on the FTAA (31 October and 1 November).
In general, the purpose of these days will be to carry out actions to stop the negotiating process of the FTAA and obstruct the governments signing this treaty. The objective of these days is to hold the largest mobilization possible at this stage, in each country and in Quito, Ecuador.
At the Hemispheric Co-ordination meeting held in Quito on 26 and 27 May, a coalition of Andean and Ecuadorian organizations, as well as continental networks was set up, and a call to mobilize towards Quito was issued.
Activities in all Countries:
At the beginning of July, it was proposed that every country was to establish a "Week against the FTAA", during the final week of each month, to concentrate their activities. For every country, the entire month of October has been named as the "Hemispheric Month Against the FTAA" with two main focal points: the first will be around 12 October, on the occasion of the hemispheric "Cry of the excluded" whose central theme will be the struggle against the FTAA; the second will be during the events in Quito (27 October – 1 November). Before the week of 28 October, each country is to carry out protests questioning its government's participation in the negotiating process.
Activities in Quito:
The activities in Quito will combine aspects of both mobilization and of resistance through which reflections and political debate about the subject will be voiced.
Program:
Sunday, 27 October: Opening political/cultural event,
28-30 October: Continental Meeting of Reflection and Exchange: "Another America is possible"
31 October and 1 November: Public demonstrations against the ministerial meeting.
A public consultation will be held in all countries in the hemisphere between September 2002 and March 2003. Throughout this period, the time-frame and structure for each consultation are flexible and will be determined for each country by the national coordinating bodies of the Hemispheric Campaign against the FTAA.
Structure: Each Country will define the time and structure of the consultation. Possible structures include:
Plebiscite (e.g. in Brazil): Carried out over a short period (a week in this case), by method of individual votes deposited in ballot boxes (i.e., a secret ballot) placed in a variety of public places. This is the original idea and typical format with which this initiative has been launched.
General Consultation (e.g. in Mexico) To take place over a long period of time, (in this case from 12 October to 21 March), at a national level and/or at certain times and in certain regions of the Country, with specific structures (Ballots boxes and discussion tables in public places, sectional and community assemblies, all manner of events), and some central national days.
Consultation in social assemblies (e.g. Peru)
Consultation within organizations (e.g. Chile)
Opinion survey (e.g. in the United States and Canada)
Common Elements: Although the time and structure of each consultation is flexible, certain core elements have been decided upon in order to make this a truly Hemispheric Consultation.
Common Objectives. Make the preparation, organization and execution of the Campaign and Consultation effective tools to:
Fill the void of quality information, dissemination and education regarding the FTAA and its consequences for the population as a whole, starting with our own participating grassroots organizations.
Improve the conditions for the organization and mobilization of the American populations against the neoliberal project of free trade which the FTAA represents.
Create a mechanism that enables the participation of millions of people across the entire continent and lets their voices be heard, and that builds strength, legitimacy and social representation to derail the FTAA project.
Credibility. While the legitimacy of the consultation in grounded in the participation of the people, it is imperative that we increase the credibility of the consultation in public opinion, as far as our limited means and resources will allow. For example, a mechanism has been proposed for identifying the people consulted and the national and international observers in the process.
A Common Question: The following common question has been established throughout the hemisphere, which will make to possible to add up the results at a hemispheric level.
"Do you agree that your government should sign the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement?"
Even though the Summit of the Americas, which was to be held in Buenos Aires next year has been temporarily suspended, the negotiations for the FTAA continue to move forward. The Hemispheric Social Alliance is carrying out monitoring work on the negotiations, and their findings will be disseminated periodically.
To accompany the hemispheric campaign against the FTAA, a decentralized effort of information dissemination, promotion and public education [?]is being developed, based on the resources and initiatives of each country, in accordance with their needs, realities, symbols and local languages. Its main assets will be the actions being carried out, that can be utilized for communication purposes.
The Campaign has defined these common hemispheric symbols: the slogan "Yes to life. No to the FTAA. Another America is possible", a logo, in four languages, and a poster for the days of resistance, which can be reproduced in each Country.
In order to further the promotion and dissemination of the campaign, a hemisphere-wide facilitation initiative is being developed (noalca@movimientos.org), as a contribution from the HSA to the campaign. It is designed to create communications channels, as well to stimulate information flow and the exchange of documents and materials. These channels include:
This website <www.movimientos.org/noalca/>, created as an entrance portal for other sites and existing resources about the campaign and about the subject in general.
Electronic Bulletins about the progression of the campaign and the content of the information dissemination campaign.
Other products and common input: Articles, opinion pieces, radio programs, etc.
The information dissemination campaign in each country: It is suggested that each country adopt a dissemination policy that, among other things, takes advantage of: all public actions and pronouncements, taking into account their media dimension; opinion columns by sympathetic editors, as a means of breaking into the mass media; democratic commercial media; alternative and community media; support and and public statements by celebrities, etc.
Campaign Operations Secretariat
The Operations Secretariat for the Continental Campaign against the FTAA is under responsibility of:
The Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA)
Telephone: (55 11) 3272 9411 ext. 136
Address: Rua Caetano Pinto, 575 CEP 03041-000, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Co-ordination Meetings
The hemispheric networks and national campaigns that launched the Hemispheric Campaign have carried out various co-ordination meetings to reach agreements and work on proposals to move the campaign forward. The last meeting was held in Quito on 26 and 27 May 2002.
How to Participate in the Campaign
Make contact with those responsible for the National Campaign in your Country or the Secretariat of the campaign. Learn about the FTAA. Make your area and the public aware. Organize local campaign committees. Participate in the referendum. Organize events and mobilizations. Participate in the resistance days in Quito.