SF FTAA teach-in

March 4, SF: A full house came out to Cell Space on a drizzly Sunday afternoon to learn more about the proposed, but undisclosed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). After three acts of participatory theater, the session got under way.

Antonia Juhasz, Program Director of the International Forum on Globalization, talked about the nuts and bolts of the FTAA - who is pushing for it, how they hope to "fast-track" the treaty through Congress, and how only senior officials and select corporations have been permitted to read the full text of the FTAA or sit on advisory boards. She also discussed potential environmental impacts.

Xiomara Castro, with the California Human Rights Program at Global Exchange, explained that the FTAA, if signed, will affect immigration issues on a larger scale than NAFTA. The FTAA is intended to make it easier for televisions, not people, to cross borders.

Carol Brouillet, co-founder of the International Media Project and also with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, discussed implications of the FTAA for health, particularly for public health systems in Latin America.

The FTAA will be on the table at the Summit of the Americas, April 20-22 in Quebec. The next bay area FTAA teach-in is scheduled for Tuesday March 20, 7pm, at La Pena in Berkeley.