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Strategies From the Global South: The alliances and alternatives that aim to defeat corporate-
driven trade
Author(s): Deborah James
Source: Race, Poverty & the Environment, Vol. 11, No. 1, Reclaiming our Resources:
Imperialism & Environmental Justice (Summer 2004), pp. 63-66
Published by: Reimagine!
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41554434 .
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 From the Global South
Strategies

The alliances and alternatives that aim to

defeat corporate-driven trade

By Deborah James

September2003, theWorldTradeOrganization(WTO) summitin Cancun,Mexicocame to a screeching halt

In aftera largebloc of theworld'sdevelopingcountriesrefusedto expandtheWTO unlessthewealthiernations
made existingtraderules fairer.The "Group of 21" developingnationsemergedas a powerfulSouth-South
alliance. Led byIndia,SouthAfricaand Brazil,theGroupincludes13 LatinAmericanand Caribbeancountries.

That November, governmenttrade ministers tionswithColombia,Ecuador,Bolivia and Peru,in

meetingin Miami to createthe Free Trade Area of
the Americas(FTAA)- an expansionof the failed
North AmericanFree Trade Agreement(NAFTA)
model- barelyreachedconsensusformovingahead
withtalks.Anotherdevelopingcountry bloc beganto
in
emerge opposition to the FTAA. This stalemate
revealeda cleardividebetweenthepro-FTAA"Group
of 13" (the United States,Canada, Mexico, Chile,
Peru,Colombia,Ecuador,and theCentralAmerican
countries)and the otherprimaryregionalalliances:
Mercosur(Brazil,Argentina, Uruguayand Paraguay);
Caricom (the 14 members of the Caribbean
Community);and thegovernments ofVenezuelaand
Bolivia.
In responseto Latin Americanand Caribbean
regionalism,the United States has mounted a
It has employeddivide-and-
politicalcounterassault.
conquerstrategies on severalfronts,
and used aid and
diplomatic pressure with a number of FTAA
countriesas levers to pry apart the coalition of
countries.For example,the CentralAmericaFree
TradeAgreement(CAFTA)- includingGuatemala,
El Salvador,Nicaragua,Honduras,Costa Rica, and
theDominicanRepublic- would bind thesenations
evenmorecloselyto U.S. economicdomination,sur-
passingevenNAFTA in itsenshrinement ofcorporate
rightsoverthe rightsof communities,workersand
thesovereigncitizenry. CAFTA could be sentto the
U.S. Congressforratificationsoon.The UnitedStates
has also launcheda seriesof bilateraltradenegotia-
an attemptto isolateVenezuelafromthe restof the
AndeanCommunity.
Post-Miami,theFTAA has beendividedintotwo
distincttiers,thecontentsofwhicharestillundergo-
ing highlychargednegotiations.Tier 1 requiresa
minimumlevelofcommitment thatwouldbe accept-
able to all ofthecountries;Tier2 aimsforfull,com- 63
prehensive trade liberalization. This two-tiered
systemacknowledgesthat the United States is not
going to get its prize- a full comprehensive
agreementforthe hemisphere - and is a victoryfor
thesocialmovements workingagainsttheFTAA. But
it also containsa dangeroustrapthatcould still be
damagingformanycountries.
Turningthe Tide on FreeTrade
The stallingof the FTAA, originallyscheduledfor
completionby the beginningof 2005, is due to
various factors.The political scenario in Latin
America has changed significantly in the last 10
years. Social movements in some countries have
recentlyelectedgovernments thatrepresent,
or areat
least sympatheticto, the perspectiveof the poor
majority.In additionto progressive
governments, the
strength of the social movementsin the hemisphere
havebroughtwithinreachtheopportunity to defeat
the FTAA. Campesino groups, labor unions,
Indigenousnetworks,youthand women'sorganiza-
tions, and advocacygroups across the hemisphere
have built strengththroughinternational coordina-

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tion,mountingthe ContinentalCampaignAgainst
theFTAA. This campaignincludesregionalnetworks
such as the HemisphericSocial Alliance(HSA); the
Jubileecampaignsagainst the illegitimateforeign
debt; theConvergence ofPeople'sMovementsofthe
Americas(COMPA); Gritode los Excluidos(Cryof
theExcluded);FriendsoftheEarthLatinAmerica;as
wellas country-basedcampaigns.
A strikingaspect of these effortshas been the
relativeunityof the social movementsacrossgeo-
graphic,ethnic,age and occupationaldifferences.
For
example, the Peruvian No!! FTAA campaign is
composedof the nationaltradeunion,fournational
64
family farm organizations,small and medium
artisans'groups, human rightsorganizations,fair
tradegroups,feminist alliances,anti-debtcampaign-
ers and consumerorganizations.In Uruguay,the
Anti-FTAACampaignSecretariat includesthecentral
workers'federation, the universitystudents'federa-
tion,the nationalfederationof housingcooperatives,
small businessowners,and environmental groups,
amongothers.An Assemblyof CaribbeanPeople in
August 2003 broughttogethermore than 1,000
people from 100 organizationsin 11 different
Caribbean nationsand severaldifferent languages
againstmilitarismand theFTAA.
Oftentimes theIndigenousand farmers' organiza-
tionsformthebackboneofthepopularmobilization
capacityof thesealliancesbecausecorporateglobal-
izationthreatensnotonlytheirwagesor theirhealth
care but theirentireway of life. For that reason,
■ regionalfarmers and Indigenouscoalitionslike Via
and theCoordinadora Latinoamericanade
Ananti-FTAACampesina
declares
poster Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC), and the various
"UnMundoMejor nationalfarmers haveplayedkeyrolesin
federations,
EsPossible"
(a
better
world
is educating their populationsand mobilizingin the
possible). streets.
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HoldingLeadersAccountable
But the relativesuccessof the social movementsin
changingthe negotiatingpositionof theirgovern-
mentshas dependedon theirabilityto move from
"resistance"to "takingpower"- and then holding
those governmentsaccountable to the people's
demands. For example, the social movementsin
Ecuador,particularly Indigenousgroupsand family
farmers, have mobilized strongpopularresistanceto
the FTAA, includinga massiverallyand marchof
morethan 10,000 peasantsduringa previousFTAA
Ministerial meetingin thefallof2002. Citizensthere
recently elected Indigenous rights leader Lucio
Gutierrezto the presidency, but have not been suc-
cessful in holding him accountableto the social
movement's demands.Activesocialmovements in El
Salvadorfoughtveryhardlastyearagainstprivatiza-
tion of the national health care system - an issue
intrinsically linkedwiththeFTAA agendaofprivati-
zationof basic services - and yettheirgovernment's
position is stillalignedwithU.S. interests.
On the otherhand, ArgentinePresidentNéstor
Kirchnerrode into officeon a wave of sentiment
againstthe InternationalMonetaryFund's enforce-
ment of privatizationand structuraladjustment
policies.Social movements haveformedthousandsof
cooperativesthereto meetthe basic needsofpeople
who have been plunged fromrelativeprosperity to
abysmal poverty. Groups allied with the
AutoConvocatoria en Contrael ALCA (Call to Action
AgainsttheFTAA),forinstance,continueto pressure
Kirchnerto side withthepoorinsteadoftheUnited
Statesby linkingtheircampaignsagainstmilitariza-
tion, debt and freetrade. In Bolivia, strongand
strategic socialmovements havelinkedmassiveresist-
ance to naturalgas and waterprivatizationto the
struggleagainsttheFTAA and bilateralagreements.
Aftersuccessfully unseatinga pro-business president
lastyear,theyhaveachievedpositivechangesin their
country's negotiating positionin recentmonths.
Similar sentimentsare roiling Brazil, where
PresidentLula da Silva headsthefirstWorkersParty
government in the country's history.Braziliansocial
movements including theCUT (thenationallaborfed-
eration),the Landless Peasant's
Movement and religious
groupsorganizeda people'splebisciteon theFTAA in
whichover 10 millioncitizensvoted;morethan98
percentrejectedthe FTAA. Though manybusiness
in Braziladvocatefora comprehensive
interests FTAA,
and some sectorswantthe minimumFTAA to earn
enough moneythroughexportsto pay back their
foreigndebt,theanti-FTAAforces haveso farmanaged
to keepBrazilfromgivingin to U.S. demands.
View FromVenezuela
The staunchest oppositionto theFTAA at thenegoti-
ating table comes fromVenezuela,wherePresident
Hugo Chávez has become a heroamongthecountry's
poormajority.In 1998,Venezuelans electedthisAfro-
Indian son of schoolteachers who has resistedU.S.
economicdominationand strivesto redistribute oil
wealth. They then voted to elect a Constituent
Assemblyto writea new Constitution,which was
approvedin 1999 bymorethan71 percent ofthevote.
Venezuelas negotiatingposition in the FTAA,
basedon thisConstitution, mostcloselyresembles the
prioritiesof the hemispheressocial movements.It
mirrorsseveralkeyaspectsof civil societycritiques,
whichassertthatthenegotiating processis undemoc-
raticand non-transparent; thattheagreementwould
giverightsto corporations at theexpenseofsovereign-
tyanddemocracy; and thattheprivatizationofservices
is a deathknellforpoorpeopleacrosstheregion.
Becauseofits anti-FTAAposition,Venezuelahas
called for an extensionof the January1, 2005
deadline.Accordingto article73 oftheConstitution,
thegovernment would haveto hold a popularrefer-
endum on the FTAA so that citizenscould decide
whetherto approveit or not. This commitmentto
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citizensdirectlyvotingon theFTAA is theprimary
strategyofthesocialmovements in thehemisphere.
In addition, Venezuela has argued that the
proposedFTAA cannottrulybe fairuntilthemember
countriesare more equal economically.Its leaders
haveput forward a detailedproposalforthecreation
of Funds for StructuralConvergence.This fund,
which has now gained the supportof 24 nations,
would involvea massiveshiftingofwealthfromthe
65
richcountries to thesmaller,morevulnerable nations,
to ensure that inequalities among countriesare
reduced.
These policieshaveraisedtheireoftheU.S. gov-
ernment,which has been supportingopposition
elementsthatwereresponsible forthefailedmilitary-
businesscoup ofApril2002 againstthedemocratical-
ly electedgovernment. That failedcoup, whichwas
outrightpraisedby Washington,was reversedby a
massive outpouringof hundredsof thousandsof
citizensin the streets.[As of this writing,a recall
electionis pending.}As achievinga comprehensive
FTAA remainstheBushadministration's numberone
goal in Latin America, the lack of cooperationfrom
Venezuelain pursuingthe FTAA has ruffledmany
feathers- from the Trade Ministry,to the State
Department, and all thewayto theWhiteHouse.
■
Envisioningthe Alternatives
Social movementsin the hemispherehave learned Ayoung carries
girl
thatwe mustpromoteour own visionofan alterna- water
ata Landless
Workers
Movement
tiveto theproposedFTAA. To thatend,anti-FTAA innortheastern
camp
Brazil.
organizations, working together through the ©Douglas
HemisphericSocial Alliance(HS A), havedeveloped Engle/GlobalAware
 theAlternative Agreement fortheAmericas.It starts elitein theNorth.ALBA is theonlynationalproposal
withthepremisethatthepeopleshouldhavea voice thatcloselymirrors thevisionofthesocialmovements
in determining thefutureofregionalintegration. It in the hemisphere.It includescounter-proposals to
also assertsthatthefirststeptowardmoreequalityin everynegotiating area ofthe FTAA,including market
the hemisphere would be debt reduction. access,investment, services, government procurement,
Enforcement ofcorelaborand environmental rights agriculture, intellectualproperty, competition policy,
and standardsshouldalso be at thecenterofanynew subsidies,disputesettlement, and specialand differen-
agreements.Governments should be encouragedto tial treatment. But it also includessectionsto ensure
adopt new local, national and global rulesto discour- that anyagreement addressingregionalintegration is
age harmfulspeculativeactivity,and to encourage also compatiblewith previous commitmentsand
66
lasting investmentsin productiveand sustainable social justice goals relating to the environment,
local economicactivities.Accessforforeignproducts human rights and women's rights. The ALBA
and investments shouldbe negotiatedwithadequate proposalis availablein SpanishthroughtheVenezuela
concernfornationaldevelopment plansand priorities. Information Office, at (202) 737-6637,x27.
Protection ofcriticalsectors,suchas foodproduction, If global justiceadvocatesare to achieveourgoal
mustbe therightofeach countryso as to ensurethe of stopping the FTAA, we must strengthenour
rights and well-being of all people. This document, alliances across the continent. We must work
collectivelyendorsedand producedby hundredsof togetherwith our partnersin Latin America,and
social movements and organizations in the shareinformation and organizing We must
strategies.
Hemispheric Social Alliance, is available in its integrate the movements againstcorporate globaliza-
entirety at www.art-us.org. tionwithdomesticstrugglesforeconomicjusticeand
Venezuelahasalso produceda modelvisionofhow community empowerment.We must envision,
nationsin the regioncould work towardsregional develop, and promotealternativeswith the same
integration, based on shared concern for theenviron- fervor thatwe opposethecurrent model.And as U.S.
ment,health,education,food securityand human citizens, we must defend democracy in those
rights.The BolivarianAlternative fortheAmericas - countries,suchas Venezuela,whereourowngovern-
ALBA, in Spanish - was drafted as a counterweight to mentseeksto destabilizeit- preciselybecauseofthe
■ the that the towards socialand economicjusticepolicies. ■
argument only path regional government's
Latin
Americans, integration is economic subservience to thecorporate
suchasthesepro-
inBolivia,
testers
leadthefight
against
corporate Deborah James istheglobaleconomy director
atGlobal where
Exchange, shehasbeenpromoting fairtrade,
demandingcorporate
of
privatization and
services. accountability,
public organizingagainstcorporate for
ten
globalization years. Sheiscurrently
onsabbatical todirect
theVenezuela
©Thomas Kruse Information Office.

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