[1591] in peace2
Re: FTAA event tomorrow in Boston
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Devon Sean McCullough)
Sat Mar 23 21:06:47 2002
From: Devon Sean McCullough <Devon@ai.mit.edu>
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 21:05:24 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <200203240205.VAA24232@horsepower.ai.mit.edu>
To: jdu@mit.edu
CC: peace-announce@mit.edu, greens-announce@mit.edu
In-reply-to: <200203230426.XAA10254@duspcom5.mit.edu> (message from Jeff
Duritz on Fri, 22 Mar 2002 23:26:16 -0500)
When I read your announcement the conference had already started
but I went anyway, read my abbrev & sketchy notes or skip to the end...
2002 Mar 23 Sat 16:57 EST Boston Conference - St. Anthony's basement
2002 Apr 02 Tue 18:00 EST Strategy Meeting - To Be Announced
[arrive about 90 minutes into the event]
Tom "5 values" [went by too fast for me to write]
#5 Concentration of Power vs. Grassroots Democracy
Alda? Alia?
Porto Alegre? Brazil; 10k's of people marching, maybe 70k in stadium
PT? PD? worker's party
MSE? MSP? MST? agrarian movement; 250k families settled; visited a settled town, nice school, clinic, houses...
Seminars 100's
Workshops ~50 people
a 1st world city; not diesel nor gasoline but gas-powered public transport; clean city gov't; open city budget; k's of neighborhood-level budget makers...
IMF & WB's "neo-liberal economics" -> downsizing, etc.
She's with Service Employee's Union; low turnout from US Labor Movement; only single AFL-CIO rep; ~400 people from here
World Solidarity is key; next time let's send k's of people.
Linda Setchell of Clean Water Action
[formerly of Indy Media Center Boston, ball of fire, wish I could take a Linda pill and be that hi-energy]
Genetic Engineering activist, Shaws, etc
We don't have to take getting beat up
Enviro Laws in US
policy is "Safe until proven otherwise" -> PCB's by Monsanto in Hudson
DDT still made in US for export
Folks assume FDA/EPA/DoA are watching - nope.
policy is "no dead bodies, no action"
80k mostly untested chemicals are allowed; rising breast cancer, brain disabilities, ...
NAFTA chap 11 allows corporations to sue governments; FTAA allows no anti-profit laws
[Allows US exec to trump leg & jud -> full-blown USA constitutional crisis]
CWA => Alliance ...?
1 Early Warning
2 Safest Alternatives; e.g. need more elec; do risk assess on coal plant but fail to assess gas/solar/wind so coal is picked, risks and all.
3 Prove Safety - do NOT assume safety as we do now
4 Science, Democracy should prevail - NOT profits; citizen input; euro-style "citizen juries" to study alternatives for the communities where they live; need real science, not paid-off science; Big-Money Corporate control of Academia is near total now.
David Dee? Gee?
2002 April 9
1896-2000 Author eueNEU
17:16 man from Haiti [wife in audience had to quiet baby]
Neo Liberal Plan
US 60's image of Voodoo & Duvalier
Trade Tariffs
~ 50% 1970's
~ 30% end 1980's
~ 8% coup d'etat 1994
~ 3% Quebec?
IMF now says Haiti is one of most liberal Carib economies,
fail to mention economy is in shambles and falling
nor harsh living conditions
keeps squeezing harder
"structural adjustment"
Tons Rice Produced
180k 1980's
105k 1999 down more than 40%
Tons Rice Imported
5k 1980's
115k now
Trade Deficit with US
$6M 1985
$380M now all Haiti's money is transferred to US
Foreign Aid
$955M 1986-1993
$1000M 1994-1995 but effect is, life is harder
People of Haiti would welcome solidarity based on progressive ...
17:24 Martina ???
Mexican gov't promised during campaign for NAFTA
Mexico would eradicate poverty and join the 1st world.
1994 NAFTA implemented in Mexico
poverty 58.9% => 79%
Neoliberal Model; Maquilas; 2M jobs lost
big chains drove 1M negocio's out of biz
state of ... near Mex City Cosco store wreck enviro,
Agri ???
Three ways to hold land
1 Private Ownership
2 ahido? communal small farms
3 ??? communal ???
Mex Pres ... 1998?-1994 reforms
revoked law protecting ahido? from sale
small farmers sold their ahido? lands to rich landlords
under pressure from revoked subsidies
over 1M ahido? farmers abandoned their fields
++US corn imports; devastating socially and economically
++ emigration to US; even from areas that had not emigrated before
++ Human Rights violations; assasinated Marcello? ... HR lawyer
We in Mexico do not want NAFTA
a few have been enriched
many have been impoverished
17:35 Womens' Groups
Free Trade Models
Vision of Sustainable Free Trade
Women are poorest 70%; less access to Ed, Land, Loans; M/F 75c/$1 USA
1960-2002 Men increased housework by 4h/week
Subsidies cut; Haiti women walk longer for food; plant cardens; see herbalists
"Services Agreements" corporate takeover of Health/Ed/Water/Elec
flush subsidies; poor lose; rich pay
childbirth at home because can no longer afford hospitals
Bolivians families forced to choose between food/water;
privatized water $5 => $20 a weeks' worth of food for a family
"Intellectual Property Rights"
17:49
FTAA prime target is Brazil
>170M people
political leader of Latin America
Brazil Gov't reluctant, maybe Venezualan more so.
Especially critical of FTAA in light of recent
* US Steel Tariffs -- historically US ignores own rules
* Fast Track -- 300 specific exceptions require US Congress input
World Social Forum launched anti-FTAA campaign
>50k people marched in Porto? Puerto? Alegre? against FTAA
2002 Sep Brazil plebiscite
Oct 12 traditional date for "protests of the excluded"
2003 meeting of American Presidents (sans Fidel)
2005 vote of FTAA
Brazil has Water and Biodiversity; 30% world fresh water sources
US is surrounding Brazil with ring of military bases
Questions
"Can you describe the way the FTAA will affect public servies in the USA"
* flush USPS in favor of cherry-pickers who will ditch rural areas
* current US bad health system exported to the rest of the world via FTAA
* Education dismantled
Many of the question sheets contained suggestions,
please bring those to the Strategy Meeting Tue 2 Apr!
17:44 What do do?
Act now to stop Pronlen? Corp of CT suing pesticide ban.
1985 EPA restricted Lindane in US (still used for head lice)
$100M suit vs Canada under FTAA "barrier to trade"
FTAA considers only profits, no social, safety or other concerns.
NAFTA chap 11 reverses rights and laws that took us generations to win
"FTAA is like Dracula" more light -> less power
-- Roy Wa... of Pub Cit
Globalization -> Poverty
Talk to your church, show 'em Bill Moyers' _Trade & Democracy_
When people find out about FTAA they are outraged,
they say "We can't let this happen"
17:59 Rite of Commitment
18:03 candles for Msgr. Romero
Hemispheric Social Alliance http://www.asc-hsa.org
[I got _Competing Visions for the Hemisphere_ in hard copy]
Alliance for ... Trade
2002 Apr 02 Tue 18:00 EDT Strategy Meeting
