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FTAA in Ecuador

by X2
A call for action is going out for solidarity events to take place in support of the Ecuadorian people against the FTAA which is meeting in Quito on October 31st.
****Continental Days of Resistance Against the FTAA: A Call to Action****

Hyderabad...Seattle...Washington, D.C....Gothenburg...Prague...Quebec City...Genoa...QUITO

On October 31st, the seventh summit of the Free Trade Area of the Americas will take place in Quito, Ecuador, home turf for what are perhaps the strongest social movements in the Americas. Ecuador´s indigenous, campesino, labor, womens´, environmental, and youth organizations have vowed to shut the summit down, and are calling for solidarity actions across the continent. This message contains:

1) An update on the mobilization in Ecuador.
2) A call for continental days of action, put out by the National Campaign Against the FTAA (Ecuador).
3) Different ways you can get involved.

1. TRICK OR TREAT: Context and Update on the Quito mobilization

Ecuador`s indigenous people, peasant’farmers, labor unions, womens` groups, students, environmentalists, and neighborhood organizations have already deposed two presidents who tried to implement neoliberal reforms. Again and again, when faced with privatizations and cutbacks in social services, people here have blocked highways across the country, filled the streets of Quito and the provincial capitals, seized radio stations and airports, and generally responded with a resounding NO. On January 21, 2000, when the President announced a plan to dollarize the economy, they took over the Congress and set up a new government presided over by the indigenous movement and other social sectors (which lasted until the military seized control). In short, groups here are fiercely committed to the struggle against neoliberalism, and have a very impressive capacity to mobilize.

Incredibly, it is the very site of these mobilizations that 34 commerce ministers from North and South America have chosen for their negotiations, on October 31st and November 1st. And they are being joined by America´s greatest corporate crooks, who have organized the 7th Americas Business Forum in Quito at the same time, to ensure that their 34 ghostwriters stick to the plan. They hope key pieces of the FTAA will be finalized in Quito, so it can take effect within a few years. And they want to show that the countries of Latin America, already devastated by 20 years of “free-market” reforms, are nonetheless lining up to sign on for more of the same.

Ecuador`s social movements have other ideas. They say the FTAA represents a death sentence for small farmers, indigenous cultures, local food systems, and endangered forests, that it will create a whole new set of rights for transnational corporations at the expense of local communities, that it will deal a devastating blow to the productive capacity of small countries like Ecuador. They also plan to use the summit to protest against the militarization of the region under ths auspices of Plan Colombia, which they view as the military arm of the economic domination strategy encoded in the FTAA.

For months they have been preparing a welcoming committee of sorts. The National Campaign Against the FTAA, a coalition that includes most of the nation´s social movements, is bringing tens of thousands of people to Quito. They plan to surround the summit with a “ring of diversity” and, they say, to shut it down. There is another, smaller coalition that is talking about bringing about 10,000 more, with the same goal. The World Social Forum and the Hemispheric Social Alliance are also planning a counter-summit social forum to explore alternatives to the FTAA.

One way or another, the groups here vow, the negotiators will not accomplish what they set out to do. And the world will see that the people of Ecuador have unequivocally rejected the FTAA. Judging from recent mobilizations, the potential for severe repression is very real, as is the possibility that the meetings will be dramatically disrupted. It may well turn out that locating the FTAA summit here was the greatest miscalculation since the WTO decided that Seattle would be a nice place to meet.

The coalitions here are calling on people throughout the continent to join in. They have declared October 27 through November 1 to be Continental Days of Resistance Against the FTAA (see below for their call to action). Of course, anyone who can make it here is welcome. Groups are planning on coming from Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, the U.S., Canada, and Europe, among other places.

But most people cannot and will not make it to Quito. Ecuador`s social movements are calling on their counterparts throughout the continent to take local actions in solidarity with the mobilization in Ecuador, and to support it in various ways. Already, groups are planning actions in San Francisco, Massachusetts, Portland, and on campuses across Canada, in India, Europe, and the other Andean countries. (There are undoubtedly more actions we have not heard about).

But, by and large, organization is still lacking. The end of October could see marches, lock-downs, student strikes, social forums, blockades, teach-ins, die-ins, puppet processions, and work stoppages from Anchorage to Ashville. The end of October could see groups in North and South America coordinating actions, applying international pressure if there is serious repression in Ecuador, providing resources that are desperately needed for the mobilization in Quito, and laying the groundwork for even stronger cooperation in the future. There is still time to make this happen. But time is running out.

This is global capital`s most important meeting of the year, and a powerful coalition of indigenous people, campesinos, and workers are mobilizing to shut it down. Now they are asking norteamericanos to join in. People in the North American “global justice movement” have been talking for several years about the need to take leadership from frontline communities in both the North and South. October could be an unprecedented opportunity to do just that, by organizing local actions that strengthen continental networks of resistance at the same time as they build connections to union locals, community groups, immigrants rights organizations, etc.

We just need to make it happen.

See Section 3, below, for a list of concrete ways you can plug in.


******************************

2. CONTINENTAL CALL TO ACTION from the National Campaign Against the FTAA (Ecuador).

The following call to action was put out by the National Campaign Against the FTAA (Ecuador), a coalition of most of Ecuador´s social movement organizations and many NGO´s, including the CONAIE (the national indigenous federation), the CONFEUNASSC-CNC (the most powerful national campesino organization), the CEOSL (the largest labor federation), the Campamento Internacional Permanente Por la Justicia Social y la Dignidad de los Pueblos, Acción Ecológica, ALAI, and other groups. The original version in Spanish follows this translation.

CALL TO ACTION
Continental Days of Resistance Against the FTAA
October 27 to November 1, 2002

Quito, Ecuador, May 28, 2002

The networks, continental campaigns, and social organizations of our respective countries, committed to the campaign against the FTAA, call for continental participation and support for the Days of Resistance and Struggle against the FTAA that are planned for the city of Quito, from the 27th of October to the 1st of November of this year.

In the moment that the ministers of commerce of the 34 countries of America (with the exception of Cuba) meet in Quito, behind closed doors, to continue negotiating the so-called Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the social movements and Peoples of our continent will meet in Ecuador in order to show our complete rejection of this model of integration that our governments, committed as they are to neoliberalism, would like to impose on every one of our countries.

Under the false pretext that the FTAA will bring progress and well-being to our peoples, our governments have committed themselves to negotiating a type of integration that will consolidate the hegemony of the U.S. via political, economic, and military domination. They hope to put this plan of integration, which stretches from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, into effect by 2005.

As was demonstrated in the second Peoples Summit in Québec and in the massive mobilizations in Porto Alegre, the fight against the FTAA must continue on all fronts because:

The FTAA will bring our peoples more social exclusion, more unemployment, more poverty, more debt, including the end of the minimal social gains workers have realized through struggle.

The FTAA will also bring a greater level of militarization and control of the natural resources of the continent, through the imposition of Plan Colombia, the Andean Regional Initiative, and Plan Puebla Panamá.

The FTAA will strengthen the domination of larger economies over smaller ones. The U.S. and Canada alone represent almost 80% of the combined GDP of the continent, the other 33 countries sharing between them the remaining 20 percent. In this context, we know that a model like the FTAA, whose principal goal is to permit massive investment by transnational corporations, will only weaken further our economies, eroding the sovereignty of the nations of the Americas and impeding any development based in diversity, multiculturality, equity and social justice.

For these reasons, for our right to sovereignty, for the right of our peoples to just, democratic, environmentally-sound development, for justice, for life, against neoliberalism, against debt, for an end to militarism and the domination of the United States over our continent, we will all be united and present in Quito to STOP the FTAA. We will be in Quito so that the Ministers of Commerce and their partners hear our total rejection of this model of imperial domination with which the U.S. is hoping to consolidate its domination over all the continent.

These days in Quito will be days of struggle and resistance, as well as days of popular education, reflection, analysis, of cultural and artistic expression that represents the multicultural and multi-sectoral richness of our struggles. We will be thousands, coming from all 35 countries, making our voices heard, in order to say, loud and strong:

No to the FTAA!
Yes to Life!
Another America is Possible!


**ORIGINAL SPANISH VERSIÓN**

CONVOCATORIA
JORNADAS DE RESISTENCIA CONTINENTAL
CONTRA EL ALCA
Del 27 de octubre al 1ro de noviembre 2002
Quito - Ecuador


Quito, 28 de mayo de 2002

Las redes y campañas continentales, las organizaciones sociales de nuestros países comprometidas en la Campaña continental de lucha contra el ALCA hacemos un llamado para sumarse a las Jornadas de resistencia y de lucha contra el ALCA que se desarrollarán en la ciudad de Quito, en Ecuador, del 27 de octubre al 1ro de noviembre de este año.

En el momento en que los Ministros de comercio de 34 países de América (con excepción de Cuba) se reunirán en Quito para continuar, a espaldas de los pueblos, avanzando las negociaciones de la llamada Area de Libre Comercio para las Américas (ALCA), las organizaciones sociales y los Pueblos de nuestro continente nos reuniremos en Ecuador, para manifestar nuestro rechazo total a este modelo de integración que nuestros gobiernos sumisos y comprometidos con el neoliberalismo pretenden imponer en cada uno de nuestros países.

Bajo el falso discurso de que el ALCA traerá progreso y bienestar para nuestros pueblos, nuestros gobiernos se han comprometido en un proceso de negociación de un proyecto de integración que consolidará la hegemonía de los Estados Unidos a través de un dominio político, económico y militar. Este proyecto de integración que va desde Alaska a Tierra del Fuego, pretenden ponerlo en vigencia a partir del 2005.

Como fue demostrado en la Segunda Cumbre de los Pueblos en Québec y en las masivas movilizaciones en Porto Alegre, ratificamos que la lucha contra el ALCA debe continuar en todos los frentes porque:

El ALCA significará para nuestros pueblos más exclusión social, más desempleo, más pobreza, más endeudamiento, incluso el fin de las mínimas conquistas sociales que los trabajadores han conquistado a través de luchas sociales.

El ALCA también pretende una mayor militarización y control de los recursos naturales del continente a través de la imposición del Plan Colombia, de la Iniciativa Regional Andina y del Plan Puebla Panamá.

EL ALCA fortalecerá el dominio de las grandes economías sobre las más pequeñas. Los Estados Unidos y El Canadá representan ellos solos casi el 80% del PIB del Continente, los 33 países restantes se reparten el 20 % del PIB del continente. En este contexto sabemos que un modelo como el ALCA cuyo principal objetivo es permitir las masivas inversiones de las transnacionales, sólo debilitará aún más nuestras economías, atentando contra la soberanía de los países del continente e impidiendo todo modelo de desarrollo basado en la diversidad, en la multiculturalidad, en la equidad y en la justicia social.

Por esta razones, por el derecho a la soberanía, por el derecho de nuestros pueblos a un desarrollo justo, democrático, protector del medio ambiente, por la justicia, por la vida, contra el neoliberalismo, contra la deuda, por el fin del militarismo y del dominio de los Estados Unidos sobre nuestro continente, todos y todas estaremos unidos y presentes en Quito para PARAR el ALCA. Para que los Ministros de Comercio y sus socios escuchen nuestra voz de rechazo total a este nuevo modelo de dominación imperial con el cual los Estados Unidos pretenden consolidar su dominio en todo el continente.

Las jornadas de Quito serán jornadas de lucha y resistencia, serán también jornadas de educación popular, de reflexión, de análisis, de manifestaciones culturales y artísticas que representan la riqueza multicultural y multisectorial de nuestras luchas. Seremos miles, provenientes de nuestros 35 países para hacer oír nuestras voces, para decir alto y fuerte:

¡No al ALCA!
¡Sí a la vida!
¡Otra América es posible!


*********************

3. HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED

There are any number of ways you can participate in the continental days of action, including:

· Plan a solidarity action in your community.
· Organize public education efforts, and spread the word about the Quito meeting and the continental days of action.
· Help provide desperately needed resources for the mobilization in Quito.
· Prepare for an emergency response if there is repression against the protests in Quito (this might include sending faxes, phone calls, e-mails, vigils/actions at appropriate targets, media and publicity work, etc.).
· Come to Quito as early as you can, to help with the mobilization.


ALCA-NUNCA

CONFEUNASSC-CNC, the largest campesino federation in Ecuador, is launching ALCA-NUNCA, a program that is designed to link up grassroots groups in Ecuador and North America, and provide a mechanism to coordinate all of the elements listed above. We encourage North American groups that want to participate in the continental days of action to join in ALCA-NUNCA, (see below for ways of plugging in outside of this program).

CONFEUNASSC-CNC views October as a key opportunity to create new mechanisms of solidarity and build networks of resistance that span the continent. They are looking for global justice networks, student groups, community organizations, union locals, collectives, environmentalists, environmental justice activists, small and/or organic farmers, food coops, and anyone else who would like to join ALCA-NUNCA (which means “FTAA-Never” in Spanish, and stands for Americas Linked, Cooperating Against Neoliberalism and for Unity, Community, and Autonomy).

Each North American group participating in ALCA-NUNCA will be linked up with an Ecuadorian “sister group,” a local campesino organization that is mobilizing around the FTAA. The idea is to learn from each other, strengthen the mobilization in October, and build a foundation for future coordinated action.

Sister groups will begin by exchanging messages/photos/posters/videos describing what´s at stake for their community in the struggle against the FTAA, and how they are fighting back.

The next element is coordinated action. North American groups are encouraged to organize solidarity actions in their community. Sister groups will swap statements of solidarity to be read during actions, and, later, video or photo journals of the actions themselves. North American groups should also be ready to apply pressure if the mobilization in Quito is met by severe repression, and the ALCA-NUNCA network will help to facilitate a rapid and coordinated response.

U.S. and Canadian groups will also, if possible, provide resources that are critically needed to strengthen the mobilization in Ecuador. Funds will help pay for transportation to the Quito protest, and to support four “caravans” that will visit hundreds communities in September and October. These caravans will reach thousands of people with popular education workshops on the FTAA, Plan Colombia, art and resistance, and nonviolent direct action. Participating North American groups are invited to send volunteers to join the caravans and help with the mobilization.

Finally, the struggle against neoliberalism and for a just world is not likely to be won in October. The kind of concerted international mass action that will be necessary to stop “corporate globalization” and neoliberalism remains a long way off. CONFEUNASSC-CNC´s goal is to build relationships that will allow for the coordinated resistance. For this reason, sister groups will continue exchanging experiences and information, and building connections. CONFEUNASSC-CNC hopes to use the ALCA-NUNCA network as a basis for coordinated continental campaigns after the October mobilization.
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