After this week’s campaign finance debate is done and after
the coming battles over George W. Bush’s tax plan, Congress
will gear up for 2001’s most serious policy fight.
Working in conjunction with the corporate interests that so generously
funded his presidential campaign, Bush will seek "fast-track" authority
to negotiate the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas — a sweeping
expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement designed to
create a corporate free-trade zone from Tierra del Fuego to the
Arctic.
The product of business and government collusion to limit the ability
of citizens to protect workers and the environment through regulation
of multinational firms, this is classic globalization from above.
Corporate public relations machines will spend millions to convince
Congress that free trade opens markets for goods produced by American
workers and farmers, while at the same time raising the standard
of living for the farmers and workers of developing countries.
If that argument is to be exposed for the lie that it is, the authentic
voice of the working poor in the United States and Latin America
will have to be heard. That’s an uncommon phenomenon in any
debate, but it may just happen this year — thanks to the remarkable
cross-border solidarity work of the U.S./El Salvador Sister Cities
network, of which the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project is a member
and prime mover.
The network has for many years worked closely with the Association
of Rural Communities for the Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES),
one of Latin America’s most effective grass-roots organizations.
CRIPDES has long been in the forefront of battles against privatization
of public services, dislocation of farmers, development of a sweatshop
economy and other manifestations of corporate globalization, and
the group’s president, Lorena Martinez, is a highly articulate
critic of free-trade agreements.
Over the weekend, the U.S./El Salvador Sister Cities brought Martinez
together in Chicago with Cheri Honkala, executive director of Philadelphia’s
Kensington Welfare Rights Union. Honkala has been in the forefront
of campaigns to prevent the factory closures, privatizations and
evictions that have been the manifestations of corporate globalization
in U.S. cities.
Martinez and Honkala have decided to link their groups in a sistering
relationship. And, though their resources are few, they plan to
work with U.S./El Salvador Sister Cities and other activist groups
to deliver the message that globalization from above is no good
for poor people in the United States or Salvador.
"We call it globalization from below," says Honkala.
"Usually, they try to play poor people against one another," adds
Martinez. "But when poor people in the United States and the people
in El Salvador both say, ‘This is no good for us,’ then
it leads people to ask, ‘Who is the Free Trade Agreement of
the Americas good for?’ The answer, of course, is that it is
good only for those who would exploit us."
Salvadoran leader Lorena Martinez will join Madison Arcatao Sister City Project members at a public forum at 7 p.m. today at St. Rafael Cathedral, 222 W. Main, Madison. The event is free and open to the public.
Copyright 2001 The Capital Times
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