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FTAA Talking Points for demonstration last year in Quebec City
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Q: Who is demonstrating against the FTAA at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City?
A: A broad, international coalition of concerned citizens from across the political and income spectrums.
Q: What are you protesting? Do the protestors have any shared agenda?
A: Yes. The most immediate concern for most of the protestors is the
threat posed to democracy by the FTAA, WTO, and the talks to
establish them. In recent elections in Canada and the US, plans
for the FTAA or the next round of WTO talks were not addressed by
the parties elected to govern these countries. The topic was
effectively blacked out of media coverage. So governments have
never been given any mandate to negotiate radical new trade
legislation which will have a profound impact on our societies and
the environment. In fact, they have done their best to keep
ongoing trade negotiations as much out of the the people's eye as
possible. The people are not given the chance to express their
feeling on this issue; their right to determine their future is
ignored. The FTAA talks are well underway, yet citizens have no
access to the negotiating text, and we are robbed of any
opportunity to contribute to the debate, or to influence the
course of talks. By the time the deals are signed, even
legislators are unable influence the text.
In the end, only a highly exclusive coterie of technocrats and
business leaders is given any say in drafting important
legislation that affects ALL of us citizens. Top business leaders
have had access to NAFTA negotiators in exclusive annual meetings
for the last few years; and here in Quebec City access to the
hemisphere's leaders has been sold off by the Canadian government
at C$500,000 per corporate suitor. No such access has been given to
the moms and pops of our countries, or to those who disagree with
what the FTAA means. Those people are shut out. Why do those who
are behind the FTAA fear the judgment of the people?
National sovereignty and the ability of local governments to act
have already been eroded under NAFTA. Now the transfer of power
from the people to corporate interests is accelerating, and we
have no say in the matter. This Brave New World is the
important thing we are protesting here during the Summit of the
Americas.
Of course, the coalition of protestors here represents a diversity
of viewpoints. Many people do not see eye to eye on important
issues. But almost everyone is agreed that the issues must be
brought out into the open air for ALL citizens to discuss and
influence. Slowly, this hemisphere's governments are frittering
away their precious legitimacy. Is there any better proof than the
wall the organizers have built here in Quebec that though
democracy loves capitalism, capitalism abhors democracy?
Q: Are the protestors "against free trade?"
A: Some of them are, some of them are not. Everyone is against the
erosion of people's democratic right to determine their own
destiny. Some protestors are against implementing any free trade
agreement at the present time, while others are not opposed to
free trade in principle, but believe that free trade must above
all be fair and democratic, and must serve the interests of
society as a whole. It should not trump, but should be trumped by, our
social and enviromental values, and the priority of the environment
and social concerns should be hard-wired into the FTAA.
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