| |
|
Resist the Americas Business Forum and the 7th Summit of the FTAA
An update on the mobilization in Quito, Ecuador
by Indymedia Ecuador
|
|
Prepared by Indymedia Ecuador
September 9, 2002
The mobilizations actually began months ago, with the formation of
various anti-FTAA spaces, among them the National Campaign Against the
FTAA, the the World Social Forum – Ecuador Chapter, RADAK, and a
coalition formed by the FENOCIN (see below for more info). In
preparation for the actions, dozens of forums, workshops, and meetings
have been organized across the country. Between the 13th and 14th of September, this process will
accelerate with the Second National Convention Against the FTAA, in the
city of Cuenca.
For its part, the Indymedia Ecuador collective plans to add its grain of
rice from here forward with permanent coverage and analysis of the
preparations, the difficulties that the various campaigns encounter, and
general information on October and November. How do we plan to do it?
By being the media ourselves, by being Indymedia, every one of us.
To begin, we present various documents we hope will help explain the state of the mobilizations. We have included:
- a list of organizations in the mobilization and their plans
- a timeline (we hope everyone will help us fill in whatever is missing!)
- a brief summary of the international context, including mobilizations around the world
¡ALCA NO PASARÁ! ¡The FTAA will never be!
The National Campaign Against the FTAA
Under the slogan “Yes to Life, No to the FTAA – Another America is
Possible” ("Sí a la vida, No al ALCA- Otra América es posible") the
majority of indigenous, campesino and other social movements, along with
various NGO´s, have come together to form the National Campaign Against
the FTAA. Within the campaign, they have created several committees
which are preparing for the continental mobilizations against the FTAA.
Right now, the National Campaign is making preparations for the 2nd
National Convention Against the FTAA in Cuanca, on September 13th and
14th. The convention will take place in the Facultad de Ciencias
Económicas of the Universidad Estatal de Cuenca, and the public portion
will be in the Salón de la Ciudad. The goal of the convention is to hammer out concrete proposals for the
Continental Days of Resistance, which have been called for October 27th
to November 1st.
On the 29th and 30th of October, the political coalition Pachakutik, and
the National Campaign are planning a continental gathering of
legislators and congresspeople from across the Americas, in order to
hammer out a common position against the FTAA.
The Campaign´s logistics and organization committee is made up of the
Women´s Political Coordinating Body (la Coordinadora Política de
Mujeres, CPM), the Latin American Network of Women Transforming the
Economy (la Red Latinoamericana de Mujeres Transformando la Economía,
RMTE), The Federation of Kichwa Nationality and Peoples of the Sierra
(la Confederación de la Nacionalidad y los Pueblos Kichwas de la Sierra, ECUARUNARI), The
National Federation for Campesino Social Security (la Confederación
Nacional del Seguro Campesino, CONFEUNASSC-CNC) and the Ecuadorian
Federation of Free Trade Unions (la Confederación Ecuatoriana de
Organizaciones Sindicales Libres, CEOSL). The commission meets
frequently.
The National Campaign Against the FTAA is part of the Continental Campaign Against the FTAA. On the web page of the Campaign you can download the poster of the
Continental Days of Resistance (in Spanish), ready to be printed and
distributed in every country.
Beginning in the first week of September, the Continental Campaign
against the FTAA will begin a new phase of intinsified activity. The
process of “popular consultation” will begin with a plebiscite in Brazil, which
will take place between the 1st and 7th of September. The consultations
will continue in other countries, until March of 2003.
October has been declared a month of mobilization, with two important
events. The first will be the 12th of October, a day of action declared
by Grito de los Excluid@s (Cry of the Excluded) which will have as a
central theme the struggle against the FTAA. The other, from October
27th to November 1, will be the Continental Days of Resistance, whose
epicenter will be in Quito, along side the Americas Business Forum and
the FTAA Ministerial Meeting.
From November 25th to 28th, the second Hemispheric Gathering of the Struggle Against the FTAA will take place in Cuba.
As of now, certain logistical questions regarding foreign volunteers
have still not been solved. However, the various committees meet
frequently and the campaign meets every Wednesday in the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana de Quito (UPS), at 4 PM.
World Social Forum – Ecuador Chapter
As an organization committed to the Continental Days of Resistance
Against the FTAA, the WSF– Ecuador is coordinating the Continental
Gathering for Reflection and Change: “Another America is Possible”. It
will take place in Quito from the 27th to the 30th of October, 2002, and
will feature participation by representatives of the widest possible
range of social sectors and citizens of the continent, in order to:
- Raise awareness about the true goals of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and its consequences.
- Enrich the range of proposals for an alternative integration.
- Make visible continental resistance to the FTAA.
There are several logistical needs for which volunteers may be helpful,
including helping with and documenting workshops, debates, panels and
committees of convergence; providing information and assistance to forum
participants, including workshop locations, directions to hotels,
telephones, etc.; coordination of cultural activities, network
gatherings, etc.; translation of transcripts and other materials, for
distribution and documentation.
CONAIE
Over the last 12 years, the federation of Indigenous Nationalities of
Ecuador (La Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador,
CONAIE) has been a primary organization in the struggles and
mobilizations against neoliberal policies and for indigenous rights, in
particular the popular and indigenous uprising in 1990 and the toppling of corrupt president Abdalá Bucarám in 1997.
In the context of the National and Continental Campaigns Against the
FTAA, the CONAIE is organizing and/or participating in a range of
activities, including an encounter with Mapuche indigenous people in Chile, which
will take place from September 6 to 10, as well as “Alternatives to the
FTAA,” a continent-wide gathering in Colombia from September 9th to 12th. With
regards to the National Campaign, the CONAIE is organizing various
activities in indigenous communities, for example, workshops on the
impacts of, and alternatives to, the FTAA. These activites are all
designed to strengthen the CONAIE’s participation in the counter-summit
mobilization on October 31 and November 1.
CEOSL
CEOSL, the Confederacion Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones Sindicales Libres
(Ecuadorian Federation of Free Trade Unions), is Ecuador´s largest
labor federation. CEOSL played a lead role in pushing ORIT, the Latin
American labor federation, and the International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions (ICFTU) to take positions against the FTAA.
During the FTAA summit, they are planning on mobilizing 3000 public and
private sector employees, informal sector workers, and campesinos, with
financial assistance from the AFL-CIO. They are also organizing a forum
on October 28 with roughly 50 national labor leaders from across the
Americas, in order to produce a labor statement in opposition to the
FTAA and to plan strategy for a three-year campaign to defeat it.
INEL, the Instituto Nacional de Educación Laboral, which is affiliated
with CEOSL, is planning a program of popular education workshops
designed to educate and activate the CEOSL rank and file. CEOLS is also
an active member of the Campaña Nacional en Contra del ALCA.
CEOSL would welcome the participation of volunteers, who could help with
everything from giving workshops to making fact sheets, signs, banners,
and other materials.
Acción Ecológica
Acción Ecológica is an environmental NGO that works on genetic
engineering, food sovereignty, forest protection, urban pollution, oil
drilling, the new OCP pipeline, and other issues, using tools like
direct action, education, international pressure campaigns and media
outreach. They are members of the Campaña Nacional en Contra del ALCA
and are actively engaged in building international resistance to
neoliberalism and the FTAA.
Acción Ecológica is planning a number of campaigns and encuentros around
the FTAA mobilization, and for several months they have been have been
organizing workshops across the country on the FTAA, food sovereignty,
and other topics, for a wide range of audiences.
On October 27 and 28, they are organizing a meeting of the continental
Friends of the Earth network and the groups that make up the regional
project Cono Sur Sonstentable (Sustainable Southern Cone), in order to
stake out a common position on regional sustainability in the face of
globalization and the FTAA.
They are also considering convening a meeting of the Pesticide Action
Network – Latin America (RAPAL) and another forum on Plan Colombia and
the the effects of the fumigations on the border between Ecuador and
Colombia.
The Institute for Third World Ecological Studies, which is afiliated
with Acción Ecológica, is also organizing two events focusing on water
issues. The first is a national meeting on September 26-28 entitled “El
Agua: ¿Derecho o Negocio?” (Water: A business or a right?). This will be
followed by a continental forum on water in the face of neoliberalism
and the FTAA, which will take place on October 26-27.
Acción Ecológica would welcome the support of volunteers on any of these
projects, provided they have a good grasp of Spanish. Volunteers are
also strongly encourage to bring a laptop if at all possible, since Acción Ecológica have a limited number of computers.
FENOCIN
The FENOCIN, the Federación Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas,
Indígenas, y Negras, is a national campesino federation that is actively
mobilizing against the FTAA summit in October and November. They have
convened an anti-FTAA coalition that includes one of the two
Coordinadoras de Movimientos Sociales (national social movement
coordinating bodies), a number of unions, and other campesino and
indigenous organizations, including the la Federación Ecuatoriana de
Indígenas (FEI), la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indígenas Evangélicas
(FEINE) y la Federación Nacional de Campesinos Libres del Ecuador
(FENACLE). They launched their campaign with a 1000 person forum in
Guayaquil, during the Summit of the Presidents of South America. They
are currently organizing FTAA workshops across the county for community
leaders, in addition to participating in forums at various universities.
In the weeks before the Summit, the FENOCIN will organize two marches
that will make their way to Quito from the Colombian and Peruvian
borders, gathering people as they go. They say that by the 31st of
October, they hope to have thousands of campesinos in Quito, where they
will surround the summit with a “wall of humanity” (cerco humano) and
disrupt or shut it down.
The FENOCIN is also coordinating logistics for a continental summit of
campesino organizations under the auspices of the CLOC (the Coordinadora
Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo) on October 27 and 28 (see
below).
The FENOCIN would welcome volunteers to work on logistics, materials, document production, and other areas.
CONFEUNASSC-CNC
CONFEUNASSC-CNC (the National Federation for Campesino Social Security),
the most powerful national campesino federation in Ecuador, represents
over a million indigenous, mestizo, and afro-Ecuadorian small farmers.
They plan to bring thousands of campesinos to Quito for the
mobilizations. They are proposing that the masses of people who come
during the days of action surround the summit and shut it down with an
Anillo de la Diversidad (“Ring of Diversity”), which would include many
different social sectors and forms of action.
In order to prepare for the mobilization, the CONFEUNASSC-CNC has begun a
series of dozens of workshops on the FTAA for local campesino leaders,
as well as for rural women and campesino youth.
This will be followed in by four “caravans” which will visit hundreds
communities in September and October, giving popular education workshops
on the FTAA, Plan Colombia, art and resistance, and nonviolent direct
action. Each caravan will represent a collaboration between the
CONFEUNASSC-CNC and local leaders in the area through which they travel.
The caravans will also build a process of popular dialogue aimed at
constructing alternatives to the FTAA, and will recruit for the
mobilization at the end of October. The Caravans will also strengthen
the internal organization of the CONFEUNASSC-CNC and help build a
national network of resistance to the FTAA.
In late September or early October, CONFEUNASSC-CNC, along with Acción
Ecológica and other groups, is planning to convene a forum or forums to
elaborate a “mandato campesino” (campesino mandate). This will consist
of a series of proposals for alternatives to the FTAA in specific areas
like water, food sovereignty, democracy, and the environment.
CONFEUNASSC-CNC is also working on several projects that will use the
Quito mobilization to build international networks of resistance to the
FTAA and neoliberalism. One of these projects, ALCA-NUNCA, will create a
network of North American groups that are supporting the mobilization,
organizing solidarity actions, and swapping information with local
campesino organizations in Ecuador.
CONFEUNASSC-CNC is also working to build teams in the U.S. and other
countries who will work with reporters in those countries to get the
word out about the Quito mobilization.
Finally, during the days before the mobilization, they are planning to
organize a meeting of global networks of resistance, in order to
elaborate concrete plans for international campaigns and coordinated
actions.
CONFEUNASSC-CNC will actively welcome volunteers to help with the
caravans, to coordinate international solidarity activities, to prepare
for the protests, and/or to travel to rural areas and help mobilize
folks there.
La CLOC
In May of this year, various networks gathered in Quito in order to plan
the October anti-FTAA mobilization. This included a meeting between
campesino organizations from México, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Bolivia
and other countries, all of whom are part of the CLOC (the Latin
American Coordinating Body of Campesino Organizations, La Coordinadora
Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo). Ecuador was represented by
the CONFEUNASSC-CNC and the FENOCIN.
They agreed to convene a continental gathering of the CLOC in Quito on
October 28 and 29, to be called "The impact and consequences of the FTAA
in rural communities," (el Impacto y Las Consecuencies del ALCA en el
Campo) as part of the Continental Days of Resistance against the FTAA
summit. They also agreed to participate actively in the mobilization.
The continental gathering is intended to strengthen the CLOC´s areas of
action, consolidate its regional groups (the Andes, the Southern Cone,
and Central America) and to build a foundation for the continent-wide
campesino-indigenous struggle.
RADAK- Red Autónoma Desobediente Anti-Kapitalista
La RADAK (the Autonomous Disobedient Anti-Capitalist Network) is a
network of collectives. It was formed only a few months ago in order to
create an alternative space that is within the anti-FTAA mobilization
but beyond NGO spaces and various “counter-summit” forums. RADAK members
have yet to define their strategy and role in October/November. But
they have agreed, together with the Campamento Permanente Internacional,
to form a Welcoming Committee (Comité de Bienvenidos) in order to
receive activists from various coutries and help orient them relative to
what`s happening with the mobilizations.
El Campamento Internacional Permanente por la Justicia Social y la Dignidad de los Pueblos
The International Permanent Encampment for Social Justice and the
Dignity of the People was born in April of 2001 as a collective effort
to construct resistance to the FTAA and Plan Colombia. In March of 2002,
they organized an international gathering with the participation of
more than 1,500 people from 20 countries (to learn more, check out
www.camp-ecuador.de.vu). The Campamento Internacional continues to hold
open meetings.
The collectives and organizations that are the driving force in the
Campamento are preparing a film series from Septmber 9 to September 11,
with the goal of raising awareness and bringing more people into the
mobilization. The plan is to move from three days of film showings
directly into an action that rejects state terrorism, on the part of the
U.S. as well as governments nearby (e.g. Colombia). Each night of the
film series will end with an open forum. The film series will take place
in the Sala Jorge Carrera Andrade (Museos) of the Casa de la Cultura
Ecuatoriana (CCE).
The program is as follows:
Monday: The Panama Deception (E.E.U.U.)
Tuesday: La Memoria Obstinada (Chile-Francia)
Wednesday: 3 documentaries on the protests in Genoa, Seattle and the Campamento Internacional in Quito.
The Campamento supports the "Anillo de la Diversidad" proposed by the
CONFEUNASSC, which will surround the FTAA summit. The Campamento also
works closely with RADAK.
The Ecuador Indymedia Collective
Indymedia is relatively new to Ecuador (at the moment, it exists only in
Quito), and is currently working out how best to cover the days of
resistance against the FTAA. Part of this work includes making sure that
people know what indymedia is, and how it functions.
The collective is also discussing the possibility of establishing an
information center that will operate during the mobilization.
Timeline of the Mobilization Against the FTAA
September 9-11: Film Series Against Militarization, as it relates to
Plan Colombia and the FTAA (Campamento Internacional). Casa de la
Cultura Ecuatoriana, Quito.
September 13-14: Second National Convention Against the FTAA in Cuenca,
to elaborate concrete plans for the Continental Days of Resistance
(National Campaign Against the FTAA).
September 26-28: National Gathering "El Agua: ¿Derecho o Negocio?"
(Water: A business or a right?; Institute for Third World Ecological
Studies).
September and October: Four caravans, passing through hundreds of
communities, giving workshops on the FTAA, Plan Colombia, art and
resistance, and non-violent direct action (CONFEUNASSC-CNC).
October: FENOCIN will organize two marches that will bring people from
the Colombian and Peruvian borders to Quito for the days of resistance.
October 12: Grito de los Excluid@s (Cry of the Excluded) day of action, which will have the FTAA as a central theme.
October 26-27: National forum on water issues in the face of
neoliberalism and the FTAA (Institute for Third World Ecological
Studies).
October 27-28: Continental gathering of campesino organizations under
the auspices of the CLOC (Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones
del Campo): "The impact and consequences of the FTAA in rural
communities."
October 27-28: Continental gathering of Friends of the Earth and the
Cono Sur Sustentable network, in order to stake out a common position
for regional sustainability in the face of globalization and the FTAA
(Acción Ecológica).
October 28: Forum with 50 labor leaders from accross the Americas (CEOSL).
October 27-30: Continental gathering for reflection and exchange:
“Another America is Possible” (World Social Forum – Ecuador Chapter).
October 29-30: Forum for anti-FTAA legislators and members of congress
from across the continent (National Campaign Against the FTAA,
Pachakutik).
October 27 to November 1: Continental Days of Resistance Against the
FTAA in Quito (National and Continental Campaigns Against the FTAA).
October 31 and November 1: Direct action against the FTAA in Quito.
International Context of the Mobilizations
September, October, and November will see various actions of global character, including:
Direct action against the FTAA in Quito, October 31 and November 1;
Actions against the NATO summit that will take place November 21 and
22 (groups in Prague suffered greatly after the actions against the
World Bank and the IMF, and prefer that these actions remain
decentralized);
Actions against the annual meeting of the World Bank and the IMF in
Washington, DC, on September 29;
Decentralized actions against the International Organization of
Migration (IOM), the U.N. agency charged with “regulating” flows of
migration in order to meet the needs of of global capitalism, promoting
entry restrictions, deportations, control and classification of human
beings as “desireable” or “disposable” (the main actions have been
called for October 10 and 11 but this could change, and firm dates will
be set soon);
Decentralized actions around the globe for Media Democracy Day
(October 17), in opposition to global monopolies of disinformation and
in favor of the diversity of alternative media;
The hearing against Coca Cola in Brussels (October 10), which is part
of the international campaign to bring Coca Cola to justice for its
support of paramilitary groups in Colombia;
The end of the Caravan of Refugees and Immigrants in Germany on
September 21 (the biggest ever mobilization of self-organized immigrant
organizations that country has ever seen);
A campesinos´ and workers´ strike planned for September 16 in Colombia.
A massive rally and nonviolent direct actions in Fort Benning, GA, home of the School of Assassins (SOA) November 15-17 |
|
|
