Report from Havana conference
U.S. trade pact chokes Latin American economies
By Gloria La Riva
Havana
Osvaldo de Leon, Indigenous leader from Panama, was one of
almost 800 delegates who met in Havana, Cuba, on Nov. 13-16 for
the Hemispheric Conference Against the Free Trade Area of the
Americas. The delegates discussed the effects of capitalist
globalization on the region's peoples, their sovereignty and
environment.
"With FTAA and Plan Colombia, our peoples will be more
discriminated against, more exploited, our rivers contaminated,
our forests devastated," predicted de Leon. And, he added,
"Biogenetic pirates are appropriating our traditional medicine
for the benefit of the big transnational pharmaceuticals."
The participants, representing more than 230 labor,
community, Indigenous and social organizations from 34
countries of the hemisphere, met to analyze the FTAA pact now
being negotiated. As importantly, they discussed action plans
to fight and defeat it.
FTAA is virtually unknown to the U.S. public, but it is the
linchpin of U.S. corporations' strategy to more fully dominate
Latin American and Caribbean economies through a sweeping "free
trade" agreement.
The term "free trade" belies another reality. Like its
principal precursor, the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), it gives U.S. agribusiness and industry the ability to
overwhelm the national economy of any country that is less
developed and unable to withstand the onslaught of monopoly
capital. In the case of Latin America, that is every
country.
One delegate characterized FTAA as the new Monroe Doctrine,
because U.S. corporations can effectively annex any economy in
the region through the sheer power of monopoly control and
productive advantage.
Like other trade-liberalization accords, the FTAA means the
elimination of tariffs and barriers to foreign investment,
including worker-rights laws and environmental protections that
are seen as obstacles to the maximization of profits.
It is an "equalizing" of terms between potential trading
partners, a formal equality between huge U.S. conglomerates and
the economies of less developed countries. Or, as Cuban
economist Osvaldo Martinez Martinez described it in his opening
talk, "the integration between a shark and sardines."
Opposition to the FTAA broke onto the world stage last April
when tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated in Quebec,
where the FTAA summit was taking place. Cuba, the only country
excluded from the U.S.-led conference, is helping lead the
struggle against this latest annexationist scheme of U.S.
imperialism.
Each conference session opened with analyses of legal and
economic aspects of FTAA and their effect on social and
community issues.
Martinez, director of the Research Center on the World
Economy in Cuba, presented a panorama of the unfolding world
economic crisis in the main opening talk.
Why the hurry by the U.S. to get FTAA implemented, Martinez
asked. "Their haste is explained by the great destructive
potential of the economic crisis that is coming upon them. They
want Latin America to be a shock absorber for them, a form of
certain trade relief.
"Thanks to the preferential circulation of U.S.
transnational capital," he continued, "they can take advantage
of a labor force that is many times cheaper than in the U.S.
and exceptional conditions of investment that are tolerated by
submissive governments."
Martinez reviewed how the U.S. economic crisis came in the
wake of economic collapses from Japan to Mexico, South Korea,
Russia and Argentina in the 1990s.
"Now the situation is more grave than all the previous ones.
The global recession has arrived and never in the post-war
situation has there been such a recession of this magnitude in
the three great centers of economic power.
"The crisis did not break out with the terrorist acts of
Sept. 11. It already existed by that date after a long
incubation in the belly of globalized capitalism ....
"In the current crisis, besides the drop in the NASDAQ and
other losses on the stock market, we need to take into account
the real economic indicators ... and show the gravity of what
has happened.
"World trade grew 12 percent in 2000. This year it is
expected to rise by 2 percent at best and it could be zero
percent. The sale of computers will fall this year for the
first time in their history of almost three decades.
"Direct foreign investments in the year 2000 reached an
all-time high of $1.3 trillion. This year it is estimated they
will reach only half that, which would be the greatest drop in
30 years."
He continued, "Lowering the interest rate in the U.S. 10
times in the year 2001, three times after Sept. 11, has not
been able to either stop the recession or bring the U.S.
economy out of recession. The interest rate is now virtually on
the floor and there seems to be no margin for further
lowering."
He urged that it is imperative to unite all progressive
forces in Latin America and the Caribbean to defeat the FTAA
while there is still time.
Speaker after speaker denounced the destruction already
wrought on their economies by globalization policies, and
shared the struggles they are engaged in to defend their
sovereignty.
Pacha Teran, 18, an Indigenous Quicha woman from Ecuador,
spoke of the level of poverty among children in that country.
She said that in 1995 the percentage of children living in
poverty was 40 percent; four years later it had grown to 63
percent. In 1999, 78 percent of the children in the countryside
lived in poverty.
Leo Aldrich, a youth activist from Puerto Rico, talked of
the military aspects of free trade, shown by the U.S. bombing
exercises on Vieques island. "FTAA is not just an economic
question, it is also military and sociopolitical. ... When they
put the absurd question to our people of whether they wanted
the bombing to continue, the overwhelming majority, 68 percent,
said no. The following day, the U.S. carried out the heaviest
bombing since 1941, the year the U.S. began its war exercises
on Vieques."
But he assured the crowd that resistance continues on the
island. "The role of youth has been vital in the struggle to
liberate Vieques. We youth are not passing through life without
a purpose!"
Mexican agriculture devastated
by NAFTA
Over 120 Mexican delegates attended, from universities,
rural organizations and labor unions. Gerardo Fernandez
Cazanova, president of a Mexican corn producers' association,
spoke of the vital importance that corn holds for Mexico's
economy. But, he said, that substantive element has been wiped
out by U.S. agribusiness.
"The peasant is seeing all his hopes for well-being
cancelled. Now we see only Continental-brand grain or Cargill
corn. Because of the agreements set by the World Trade
Organization, we see the disappearance of state intervention
that earlier benefited our national interests.
"In theory it is horrible, but for the family, for the
stomach, for the pocket, for the health care, for education for
our children, it is criminal."
NAFTA took effect in 1994 and has dealt a crushing blow to
Mexican agriculture. Giant U.S. agribusiness firms have flooded
Mexico with U.S. goods, selling corn to a country that used to
feed its own population and export the surplus corn.
José Naro, a member of Mexico's national parliament,
said, "The Mexican government stopped subsidies to Mexican
farmers at the demand of international banks, but the U.S.
continues to give massive subsidies to its agribusiness.
"This year U.S. companies will introduce close to 5,500,000
tons of corn [into Mexico]. We used to export it; now the
northern states are practically bankrupt."
The mass exodus of emigres from Latin America was raised by
Rocio Mejia, an Ecuadoran activist. The crisis comes from the
inability of nationally grown products to compete with U.S. and
other foreign-owned goods.
Mejia said, "Potatoes, rice, soy, corn, cocoa, coffee--not
even 45 percent of the costs of production are covered by the
prices we receive. Some 15,000 to 25,000 Ecuadorans have to
leave the country each month. In the first half of 2000 alone,
more than 600,000 Ecuadorans had to emigrate, mostly to
Spain."
Almost 50 people attended the conference from the United
States, as well as dozens of labor and social activists from
Canada, with a large contingent of youth.
U.S. autoworker Martha Grevatt spoke on behalf of the
U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange. "We join with all of you in
condemning the annexation scheme known as the FTAA," said
Grevatt. "It is a massive transfer of wealth created by all the
workers into the pockets of the U.S. ruling class. The gains of
the labor movement are under attack with these trade agreements
... from letting a woman take off work because she's pregnant,
or equal health benefits for people in same-sex
relationships."
She got strong applause when she condemned the U.S. war on
Afghanistan, as did other delegates. "We are part of a
worldwide growing anti-war movement. On Sept. 29, before the
bombing even started, tens of thousands protested in Washington
and throughout the U.S. to say no to racism and war. ... During
these difficult but necessary struggles, we will draw strength
from the revolutionary example of Cuba."
Cuban President Fidel Castro attended every session,
listening carefully to all the speeches. A few times he
intervened with insightful commentary on the issues of
globalization, the dilemma of the U.S. dollar dominating the
currency of oppressed countries, and Cuba's impressive social
gains in recent years despite the economic crisis imposed from
outside and the 43-year-long U.S. blockade.
During each recess, as the hundreds of delegates streamed
out of the hall to take a break, Castro took the time to talk
to dozens of youth and other delegates who sought to chat with
him, ask a question, or take a picture of the great
revolutionary leader.
President Castro gave the closing speech. He remarked on the
preparedness of the conference attendees, the depth of their
analysis, and how the four days of deliberations allowed him to
see how serious the crisis is in the continent.
"I had thought that FTAA was something bad, very bad, and
here I've seen that it is twice as bad as I had thought."
He reviewed the country's newest plans for elevating Cuba's
already impressive education system by introducing some 44,000
computers in the schools. Even in the most remote corners of
the island, children will have access to a computer, because
solar panels will provide their power.
Just days before the conference opened, Cuba was slammed
hard by Hurricane Michelle. As the country digs out, workers
are constructing housing materials night and day and volunteers
are working to save the crops. Because of the evacuation of
750,000 Cuban citizens, only five lives were lost in the
storm.
That the conference even took place is testament to Cuba's
spirited example of leadership for workers and oppressed
peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
A representative of Guatemala's revolutionary movement
thanked Cuba for hosting the conference. "We express our
recognition and admiration of Cuba, its people, its Communist
Party, its leaders and Comandante Fidel Castro. They have
constructed and are the symbol of hope, struggle and a
revolutionary, democratic and socialist perspective for our
peoples."
Reprinted from the Dec. 6, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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