Expanding NAFTA exploits workers in Latin America

  Mitra Ebadolahi Ebadolahi is a
third-year international development studies and history student
who believes that the forces of good will kiss evil on the lips.
She encourages comments at [email protected].

Click Here for more articles by Mitra Ebadolahi

On April 21, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernán
Cortéz arrived in Mexico, catalyzing the colonization of the
Western hemisphere by European nation-states. Before indigenous
Americans could react, the process of colonization had decimated
their populations and entrenched a new global economy based upon
the stolen wealth and labor of the “New World.”

Two days ago, on April 21, tens of thousands of human rights
activists congregated along the militarized U.S./Mexico border in
an attempt to prevent history from repeating. Through protests,
teach-ins and debates, these activists called for an end to the
continuing exploitation of the impoverished masses by the wealthy
few. Their target? The Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Since 1998, representatives from 34 nations have been meeting in
secret to develop the FTAA. Last weekend, they met once more in
Quebec City, Canada, to finally present a working draft of the
treaty to the world’s citizens.

If implemented, the FTAA will expand the North American Free
Trade Agreement, which will establish a free trade zone stretching
from the tip of Chile to the point of Alaska, generate massive
profits for a few elite corporations, and undermine environmental
regulations and fundamental human rights.

In 1994, NAFTA eliminated trade restrictions and tariffs,
allowing multi-national corporations to take advantage of
Mexico’s weak economy and cheap labor supply. Union drives
and campaigns for workers’ rights have since become obsolete,
as corporations faced with worker demands for improved labor
standards have simply packed up shop and moved south of the border,
where poverty creates desperate employees.

Over the past seven years, the number of
“maquiladora” factories along the U.S./Mexico border
has increased exponentially. These factories, built by MNCs, pay
laborers virtually nothing for grueling work in polluted settings
with no safety or labor regulations.

  Illustration by RACHEL REILICH/Daily Bruin The FTAA would
expand this system to all of Latin America, pitting Mexican factory
workers against even poorer Haitians and Guatemalans and trapping
workers within the vicious cycles of mounting poverty and
competition.

From the start, the negotiation process for the FTAA has been
elitist and undemocratic, unabashedly prioritizing the interests of
a select few over the lives of millions.

Since negotiations commenced, only a small number of individuals
have had access to the FTAA text. Among the privileged are
representatives from more than 500 U.S. corporations, who have
ensured the FTAA will promote their special interests.
Organizations representing less important concerns, such as
universal human rights, have been excluded.

The agreement undermines democracy through a provision
sanctioning “investor-to-state” lawsuits. In such
suits, MNCs can sue the government of a FTAA nation for upholding
laws that are detrimental to corporate profits, even if such laws
protect labor or the environment. It makes no difference whether or
not the law in question was enacted democratically with popular
support. If it is contrary to big business, it can be overruled.
Using lawsuits, corporations like Monsanto can force governments to
sell genetically-modified foodstuffs, which may increase
consumers’ risk of cancer and harm the human reproductive
system.

Despite the claim that the FTAA will balance trade among North
and South American countries, 70 percent of the hemisphere’s
wealth is generated by the U.S. economy. This gives the U.S.
government and its corporate sponsors an enormously
disproportionate share of the region’s economic power.
Instead of creating a structure that might redistribute this wealth
and power, the treaty reinforces the hegemony of the United
States.

The FTAA will also intensify environmental destruction in
regions that are home to the world’s most biodiversity. Free
trade agreements are generally based on export-growth models, in
which poorer nations export raw materials that are processed and
then sold back to them by more industrialized nations. In this
model, poor countries never attain economic independence or
sustained development.

Consequently, many developing countries cut down precious
rainforests, overfish their waters, and commodify natural resources
to earn hard currency (i.e., dollars) to survive within the global
economy. Of course, governments no longer uphold environmental
regulations, as they clearly violate “free trade” and
other essential big business freedoms.

The FTAA promotes intellectual property rights and the
privatization of basic human necessities, such as water,
electricity, education and health care. Thus, the economic
“development” promised by the FTAA will compromise
fundamental human rights throughout the hemisphere, and may set a
dangerous precedent for similar regional agreements in other parts
of the world.

The FTAA is the most recent manifestation of neoliberalism and
the culmination of 500 years of unequal trade relations between the
working poor and the corporate wealthy. But there is hope: the
agreement has yet to be ratified, and the momentum of recent
resistance movements may stop the FTAA altogether.

In 1999, activists converged in Seattle to protest the World
Trade Organization, whose policies promote the same brand of free
trade embodied by NAFTA and the FTAA. For many, the Seattle
protests marked the beginning of a new movement against corporate
globalization. In actuality, however, the Battle in Seattle was
possible due to the resistance traditions of indigenous and
grassroots communities, which have been fighting for
self-determination and human rights for generations.

Since Seattle, activists around the world have successfully
demonstrated against unfair economic policies in Washington, D.C.,
Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Prague. While protesters have raised
a great deal of awareness for the issues surrounding corporate
globalization, demonstrations alone are no longer enough. If we are
truly concerned with social justice and an equitable redistribution
of the world’s riches, we must take a proactive stance
against free trade and its consequences.

To do so, it is imperative that we talk not only about what we
stand against, but also what we stand for. We are not part of an
anti-globalization movement. Rather, as writer Alejandro Reuss
explains, we are in favor of a new “globalization from
below” in which opportunity, dignity and hope are made
available to every human being.

Over the past three years, representatives from community
coalitions, progressive policy institutes and indigenous
organizations have come together to formulate an “Alternative
Agreement for the Americas” “”mdash; a detailed document which
sets forth the guiding principles of “globalization from
below” while providing a concrete plan for its
implementation.

In addition to direct actions such as protesting, we must
attempt to cause a paradigm shift among the world’s citizens
by establishing new coalitions and educating one another through
critical discussions. As members of an international community, we
must not only agitate against agreements such as the FTAA, but also
for international institutions and treaties that truly prioritize
human lives over corporate profits. 500 years is more than enough
time of unjust subjugation.