BEHIND GROWTH & OPPORTUNITY ACT
‘Africa is not for sale’
By Pam Parker
Washington
There was no business as usual here May 4 as activists
protesting a vote on the "Africa Growth and Opportunity Act"
shut down Congress. Members of ACT UP Philadelphia and a
delegation of militant students stormed into the gallery of
Congress shouting "Africa is not for sale!" and "AIDS drugs
now!"
They chained themselves to chairs and balconies as they
unfurled banners that read the same.
The controversial trade bill, HR 1432, was initiated three
years ago in the Senate. It has since gathered widespread
support from both houses of Congress and the Clinton
administration.
The bill never really offered fair trade to southern
Africa. But the recent revisions have been especially
biased--and have ignited a firestorm from activists who
organize to improve medical care for people with AIDS.
The bill finally cleared Congress on May 12.
The South African government began manufacturing less
expensive versions of AZT, the most-used AIDS drug, and other
life-extending drugs to use for the many people with AIDS in
that country. An estimated 3.6 million people are infected
with HIV in South Africa. That is close to 8.6 percent of the
population.
Several big pharmaceutical companies that hold the patents
for these drugs threatened to sue South Africa for producing
its own less costly versions of the drugs. The U.S.
government, at the behest of these pharmaceuticals, warned
South Africa that its actions were jeopardizing passage of
the trade bill.
Nelson Mandela and many in the South African government,
including the Congress of South African Trade Unions, have
denounced the bill. They characterize it as "extreme and
unjust."
Many African nations agree. But, burdened with tremendous
debt and ravaged by years of colonization, they are forced to
do business with the imperialists. When South Africa came
under attack, many in the U.S. AIDS movement organized in
support of that nation.
Struggle won concessions
In response to widespread protests, the U.S. government
entered into an agreement with South Africa that would allow
that country to continue to manufacture the cheaper versions
of the drugs, without supporting the pharmaceutical
companies' contention that South Africa was violating
intellectual property rights. Washington never agreed that
the pharmaceuticals should not have the right to sue--only
that it would not offer U.S. tax dollars toward those
efforts.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and House Speaker Dennis
Hastert stripped even that language from the bill. This
leaves no assurance that Africa would be able to produce its
own versions of the life-extending drugs.
They also removed any language that offered to protect
human rights. There are also no binding labor agreements in
favor of the workers--most notably no provision against
violations of child labor laws.
The corporations that have endorsed the bill--Occidental
Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Caterpillar, BP Amoco--are certainly
no friends of the working class. They would not be involved
for humanitarian reasons. They are involved because of the
promise of super-profits.
With this agreement, these corporations are guaranteed
hundreds of millions of dollars. Sub-Saharan Africa is home
to over 700 million people. This is potentially one of the
largest markets in the world.
The corporations get to snap up these resources at bargain
prices. They get a 10-year moratorium on export tariffs from
the participating countries, and assurances that human rights
and labor laws will be ignored.
In exchange for their participation, the African nations
that sign on to this agreement would be required to join the
World Trade Organization, a move that many have thus far
chosen not to make. They would have to adhere to the harsh
requirements of the International Monetary Fund--including
radical economic restructuring, reducing the size of their
governments, and privatizing much of their infrastructure and
precious resources.
They would have to direct their agriculture even more
toward export and away from domestic needs. This is on a
continent where four out of 10 people are already in some way
malnourished.
At the same time, the bill would offer no debt relief, and
no provision that would allow these suffering nations to
develop medicines and resources that could help
themselves.
This bill is no solution to the development crisis in
Africa. Instead of leading to better opportunities and
growth, it will lead directly to deeper poverty, and more
deaths due to AIDS. The bill is nothing but a thinly veiled
attempt to cover up the subjugation, racism and oppression
that have been the U.S. policy toward the continent of Africa
for centuries.
In a related development, on May 11 five giant
pharmaceutical companies offered to cut prices on their AIDS
drugs in the poorer developing countries to 20 percent of the
price in the rest of the world.
While this is a big concession, it still prices these
medicines out of the reach of most people in these oppressed
countries.
At the same time, it exposes the enormous mark-up in
prices on AIDS drugs in the United States and Europe, where
the pharmaceuticals rake in enormous super-profits for their
patented medicines.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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