Baltimore IMC : http://www.baltimoreimc.org
News :: [none]
NAFTA and the FTAA: Local teach-in calls for participation in the mobilizations in Miami against the FTAA
In Miami on November 19-21st, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a trade agreement to expand NAFTA to all 31 countries in the Americas and the Caribbean with the exception of Cuba, will be meeting for the first time since Quebec in 2001. Demonstrations are being called by a number of groups. In an attempt to raise awareness and garner support for those demonstrations, the Towson Anti-War Coalition held a teach-in and discussion.
On Tuesday August 5th, in an attempt to bring awareness and garner support for upcoming demonstrations against the FTAA in Miami at the end of November, the Towson Anti-War Coalition hosted a teach-in and discussion on NAFTA and the FTAA at the Towson Public Library 
The event consisted of a number of videos throughout the day with follow up discussions and an evening presentation by Timi Gerson from Global Citizen’s Public Trade Watch.
Included in the videos were “SOA: Guns and Greed”, “Trading Freedom: Secret Life of the FTAA”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “Borderline Cases: Environmental Matters at the U.S. and Mexico Boarder.” Local activist and organizer Ryan Harvey gave a presentation on ways to protect oneself against police violence, including a discussion of a call for a “padded bloc“ to participate in the mobilizations in November. Throughout the day over 70 people passed through the doors taking part in the events. In addition to videos and discussions, Pitch Black Press was on hand providing a plethora of alternative literature, books, and videos free for the taking. “Art not Ads” had a table set up showcasing local talent and providing free art as a way to draw attention to our consumer based society and presenting one based on individuality and creativity as opposed to the sanitized consumption driven culture we now have. Musical entertainment was provided by Ryan Harvey, Melissa Marquardt, and Matt Kelley.
An anti-FTAA working group has been formed in Towson to work towards the demonstrations in Miami. The working group will be meeting this Thursday August 14 at 2:00pm in front of the Towson Public Library. We are discussing ways to educate the public, fundraise to subsidize costs of getting to Miami, and organize transportation in coordination with other organizations down to Miami. All are welcome to attend our next meeting.
A brief bit on NAFTA and the FTAA:
In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into affect linking the economies of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. NAFTA was designed to get rid of “restrictions to trade” such as tariffs and local subsidies on products as a way to allow foreign investment and a free flow of goods. At the same time NAFTA mimicked structural adjustment programs like those put forward by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank (www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wbimf/facts.html) in calling for the privatization of public services in a way to restructure the economy to encourage economic growth.
Since that time higher paying and oftentimes union factory jobs with benefits and some level of security have been leaving this country at an alarming rate. According to the organization Global Exchange, over 765,000 U.S. jobs have been lost due to NAFTA. This has forced semi-skilled labor to enter into the only job sector where employment is growing, the service sector, which offers wages 23% lower than what was found within manufacturing. At the same time, service sector employment is oftentimes either temporary or part-time, leading to little to no benefits and no job security. What this means is that U.S. corporations seeking to increase their profit margin do so by moving to Mexico where the minimum wage is less than four dollars a day and union organizing is put down with physical repression. According to Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, a study conducted by Cornell University showed that two-thirds of manufacturing and communication companies faced with union organizing campaigns have threatened to relocate their jobs abroad as a way to discourage union organizing within the U.S.
In Mexico, the number of people living in poverty has increased by the millions from 51% of the population in 1994 to 58.4% in 2001. In addition, the number of people working for less than the $3.40 a day minimum wage has increased by over one million than before the signing of NAFTA. Whereas NAFTA was sold as a way to bring prosperity to the people of Mexico, in reality it has only provided increased poverty and greater hardships. NAFTA has increased the ability for the U.S. and Canada to suck Mexico of all its natural resources while taking advantage of the lack of enforcement on labor and environmental laws. In addition to human rights abuses and horrid labor conditions, NAFTA has meant an increase in the destruction of the environment. Factories relocated in Mexico are not held up to the standards of those within the U.S. There is no Environmental Protection Agency in Mexico ensuring that factories abide by the minimal environmental restrictions in place and this has led to horrible pollution of streams used for drinking, bathing, and play areas for kids.
In 2005 the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is set to go into effect thus expanding the rules of NAFTA to all 31 countries within the Americas and the Caribbean with the exception of Cuba. What this means is that not only will workers in the U.S. be put in competition with workers in Canada and Mexico, but against the rest of the Americas as well. This will be devastating for jobs within all countries currently under NAFTA including Mexico. Countries such as Guatemala or Haiti where conditions are even worse and more desperate than in Mexico will provide even cheaper labor thus driving down standards further. In what has been properly labeled the “race to the bottom,” corporations are only looking for the cheapest possible way to produce their product in order to turn a high profit. The implementation of the FTAA will be devastating to working people across the board. The FTAA will expand all of the proven disasters of NAFTA across a broader landscape thus increasing its negative affects.
Another aspect to look out for within NAFTA and the FTAA is Chapter 11, which gives corporations the opportunity to sue governments for any action that may decrease the corporation’s future profits. These lawsuits are not worked out within courts as we would imagine them, but within secret non-public tribunals where three trade lawyers picked at random decide on the outcome of the case. One such case includes a Canadian firm METHANEX which is suing California for banning a chemical it produced as an additive to gasoline that was leaking into ground water. The chemical, MTBE, was designed to make gasoline burn cleaner but was determined by the EPA to be a carcinogen. The lawsuit filed under NAFTA’s chapter 11 claimed that the ban on MTBE by California was politically motivated to favor a U.S. companies product. The lawsuit is for a compensation of over $970 million in profits that will be lost by the ban. Another such lawsuits under Chapter 11 is UPS's suit against Canada for unfairly providing for their public postal service and not providing the same for UPS. METALCLAD, a U.S. based company, sued Mexico and won $15.6 million for not being allowed to build a toxic-waste plant over a water treatment facility.
The FTAA ministerial is set to meet from November 19-21st in Miami, Florida. The target date for its implementation is January 1st, 2005. That means we have little time left to get this debate out in the public. It is important that we take a stand against this trade agreement NOW! Go to Miami from November 19-21st and let your voices be heard. Call to action from the AFL-CIO: www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/globaleconomy/loader.cfm
To get in touch with the Towson anti-FTAA working group email shame-AT-gofairtrade.net. To get in touch with a group in Baltimore organizing against the FTAA, email Baltimore CAGE at cage-AT-mobtown.org or see www.baltimorecage.org.
For more information see:
www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/ftaa
www.aflcio.org/stopftaa
www.tradewatch.org
www.flfairtrade.org
www.ips-dc.org/downloads/NAFTA%20at%207.pdf
www.lists.essential.org/pipermail/mai-not/2002-March/000158.html
www.commondreams.org/views01/0422-01.htm
www.infoshop.org/octo/ftaa_miami.php
Included in the videos were “SOA: Guns and Greed”, “Trading Freedom: Secret Life of the FTAA”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “Borderline Cases: Environmental Matters at the U.S. and Mexico Boarder.” Local activist and organizer Ryan Harvey gave a presentation on ways to protect oneself against police violence, including a discussion of a call for a “padded bloc“ to participate in the mobilizations in November. Throughout the day over 70 people passed through the doors taking part in the events. In addition to videos and discussions, Pitch Black Press was on hand providing a plethora of alternative literature, books, and videos free for the taking. “Art not Ads” had a table set up showcasing local talent and providing free art as a way to draw attention to our consumer based society and presenting one based on individuality and creativity as opposed to the sanitized consumption driven culture we now have. Musical entertainment was provided by Ryan Harvey, Melissa Marquardt, and Matt Kelley.
An anti-FTAA working group has been formed in Towson to work towards the demonstrations in Miami. The working group will be meeting this Thursday August 14 at 2:00pm in front of the Towson Public Library. We are discussing ways to educate the public, fundraise to subsidize costs of getting to Miami, and organize transportation in coordination with other organizations down to Miami. All are welcome to attend our next meeting.
A brief bit on NAFTA and the FTAA:
In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into affect linking the economies of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. NAFTA was designed to get rid of “restrictions to trade” such as tariffs and local subsidies on products as a way to allow foreign investment and a free flow of goods. At the same time NAFTA mimicked structural adjustment programs like those put forward by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank (www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wbimf/facts.html) in calling for the privatization of public services in a way to restructure the economy to encourage economic growth.
Since that time higher paying and oftentimes union factory jobs with benefits and some level of security have been leaving this country at an alarming rate. According to the organization Global Exchange, over 765,000 U.S. jobs have been lost due to NAFTA. This has forced semi-skilled labor to enter into the only job sector where employment is growing, the service sector, which offers wages 23% lower than what was found within manufacturing. At the same time, service sector employment is oftentimes either temporary or part-time, leading to little to no benefits and no job security. What this means is that U.S. corporations seeking to increase their profit margin do so by moving to Mexico where the minimum wage is less than four dollars a day and union organizing is put down with physical repression. According to Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, a study conducted by Cornell University showed that two-thirds of manufacturing and communication companies faced with union organizing campaigns have threatened to relocate their jobs abroad as a way to discourage union organizing within the U.S.
In Mexico, the number of people living in poverty has increased by the millions from 51% of the population in 1994 to 58.4% in 2001. In addition, the number of people working for less than the $3.40 a day minimum wage has increased by over one million than before the signing of NAFTA. Whereas NAFTA was sold as a way to bring prosperity to the people of Mexico, in reality it has only provided increased poverty and greater hardships. NAFTA has increased the ability for the U.S. and Canada to suck Mexico of all its natural resources while taking advantage of the lack of enforcement on labor and environmental laws. In addition to human rights abuses and horrid labor conditions, NAFTA has meant an increase in the destruction of the environment. Factories relocated in Mexico are not held up to the standards of those within the U.S. There is no Environmental Protection Agency in Mexico ensuring that factories abide by the minimal environmental restrictions in place and this has led to horrible pollution of streams used for drinking, bathing, and play areas for kids.
In 2005 the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is set to go into effect thus expanding the rules of NAFTA to all 31 countries within the Americas and the Caribbean with the exception of Cuba. What this means is that not only will workers in the U.S. be put in competition with workers in Canada and Mexico, but against the rest of the Americas as well. This will be devastating for jobs within all countries currently under NAFTA including Mexico. Countries such as Guatemala or Haiti where conditions are even worse and more desperate than in Mexico will provide even cheaper labor thus driving down standards further. In what has been properly labeled the “race to the bottom,” corporations are only looking for the cheapest possible way to produce their product in order to turn a high profit. The implementation of the FTAA will be devastating to working people across the board. The FTAA will expand all of the proven disasters of NAFTA across a broader landscape thus increasing its negative affects.
Another aspect to look out for within NAFTA and the FTAA is Chapter 11, which gives corporations the opportunity to sue governments for any action that may decrease the corporation’s future profits. These lawsuits are not worked out within courts as we would imagine them, but within secret non-public tribunals where three trade lawyers picked at random decide on the outcome of the case. One such case includes a Canadian firm METHANEX which is suing California for banning a chemical it produced as an additive to gasoline that was leaking into ground water. The chemical, MTBE, was designed to make gasoline burn cleaner but was determined by the EPA to be a carcinogen. The lawsuit filed under NAFTA’s chapter 11 claimed that the ban on MTBE by California was politically motivated to favor a U.S. companies product. The lawsuit is for a compensation of over $970 million in profits that will be lost by the ban. Another such lawsuits under Chapter 11 is UPS's suit against Canada for unfairly providing for their public postal service and not providing the same for UPS. METALCLAD, a U.S. based company, sued Mexico and won $15.6 million for not being allowed to build a toxic-waste plant over a water treatment facility.
The FTAA ministerial is set to meet from November 19-21st in Miami, Florida. The target date for its implementation is January 1st, 2005. That means we have little time left to get this debate out in the public. It is important that we take a stand against this trade agreement NOW! Go to Miami from November 19-21st and let your voices be heard. Call to action from the AFL-CIO: www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/globaleconomy/loader.cfm
To get in touch with the Towson anti-FTAA working group email shame-AT-gofairtrade.net. To get in touch with a group in Baltimore organizing against the FTAA, email Baltimore CAGE at cage-AT-mobtown.org or see www.baltimorecage.org.
For more information see:
www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/ftaa
www.aflcio.org/stopftaa
www.tradewatch.org
www.flfairtrade.org
www.ips-dc.org/downloads/NAFTA%20at%207.pdf
www.lists.essential.org/pipermail/mai-not/2002-March/000158.html
www.commondreams.org/views01/0422-01.htm
www.infoshop.org/octo/ftaa_miami.php
Views
Information
Search
This site made manifest by dadaIMC software