Posted on 7-11-2002
Outside
Ecuador FTAA Summit
by Ellen O'Shea*
I don't know whether I feel like crying because I am so moved
by what I
saw today, because my mucous membranes are all shot to hell
from too much
tear gas, or out of sheer exhaustion. But I want to get this
out while it
is still fresh in my mind, and tomorrow will be another insane
day.
Tonight I watched some of the most oppressed people in this
world
confront some of the most influential. Tonight I watched a group
of poor
farmers, indigenous people, and workers speak, shout, sing truth
to
power. Tonight, I think, I think, although we will not know
for a few
days, I watched the terrain of hemispheric politics shift before
my eyes.
I feel so inspired, and so humbled.
When the day started, I was 20km south of Quito with maybe 300
indigenas,
one of two protest caravans that had crossed the country spreading
the
word about the protest against the Free Trade Area of the Americas
summit
in Quito. As we crowded into buses to head north, I called the
other
caravan, who reported that they had 80 people. And this is how
it ends, I
thought. 4 months of work, promising reporters, funders, countless
activists in North America that thousands of people would come
to disrupt
the FTAA ministerial meeting. And we were going to end up with
500 people
rallying in a park. But soon after we got down off the buses
and began a
15km trek to Quito, the number of people seemed to mysteriously
increase,
as buses from the South caught up with us and disgorged fresh
groups of
protesters.
The procession was a riot of color, filled with red and blue
ponchos and
hundreds of rainbow flags (the symbol of the Andean indigenous
and
campesino movements). People lined the street to watch as it
passed by.
One shopkeeper explained to me that the indigenous people were
like
burros, dragging along the rest of the country, who were also
opposed to
the FTAA because it would devastate the Ecuadorian economy,
but who let
the indigenous movement carry the torch for their opposition.
Old women
chanted ceaselessly for four hours, No queremos, y no nos da
la gana, ser
una colonia, norteamericana, (We dont want, and it doesn't do
us any
good, to be a North American colony). One group of Bolivians,
led by Evo
Morales, the coca-grower who almost became president there,
marched with
coca leaves taped to their foreheads.
When we finally reached our destination in Quito, we rounded
the corner
and found not 80 but somewhere between 2 and 6,000 people waiting.
As the
two groups approached each other, people on each side were visibly
stirred, and some began to run. At this point, I realized that
after 4
months of frantic organizing, the mobilization was a reality,
that
whatever happened we had already won, that thousands of campesinos
and
indigenas had come to Quito to unequivocally reject U.S.-style
free
trade. And I simply began to bawl.
Our group didn't even pause, but continued straight toward the
Marriott
Hotel, where the 34 trade ministers from North and South America
were
arriving to negotiate a treaty that promises to wipe out small
farmers,
to hand corporations a sweeping new set of tools to evade nvironmental,
consumer and labor laws, to force the privatization of water,
health
care, education, culture, and biodiversity. In other words,
a really
crappy treaty. As we headed north we were joined by large groups
of
campesinos, students, trade unionists, and international activists
who
had already been fighting running battles with the police, who
were
attempting to turn everyone back several kilometers from the
Summit.
The march was led by a line of campesino and indigenous leaders
(dirigentes), walking arm-in-arm, preceded by a Shaman conducting
rites
to improve the success of our efforts. Soon we were stopped
by several
hundred riot police. The dirigentes asked to send a elegation
of civil
society groups in to the summit to present a giant letter made
up of the
proposals and demands of thousands of people who had joined
the caravans
along their route. They were soundly refused. So the dirigentes
deliberated and decided to head west toward the Volcan Pichincha.
As we
rounded the corner we saw a thousand or more people ahead of
us. More
groups drifted in from the sides, and soon la Avenida Colon,
one of
Quitos widest streets, was packed for perhaps 8 or 10 blocks,
with more
people out of sight. There must have been between 8 and 15,000
people.
There were giant puppets, a smattering of black-clad anarchists,
a
surprising number of international activists and lots and lots
of
campesinos: 75 year-old women, small children, 20 year olds
who wanted
nothing to do with traditional dress, mothers and teenage sons
marching
together. And they were all psyched.
As the most important social movement dirigentes approached
the Avenida
Amazonas, the police opened fire with a LOT of tear gas. They
shot it at
the crowd and over the crowd, so that as people ran away, they
ran into
more gas. I walked until I couldnt see or breathe, then began
to run,
then someone grabbed my hand and led me away (Why do I never
carry
goggles to these things?) The president of the National Judicial
Workers
Union was hit with three tear gas cannisters and taken to the
hospital.
Several young kids passed out and almost asphyxiated. One woman
fell on
her baby, who was injured and taken to the hospital. A reminder
that free
trade can only proceed via brutal repression, which is now so
commonplace
at trade summits that it hardly elicits comment.
And so people retreated to the south to regroup, and I retreated
to the
communications center to try to get the word out about the success
of the
mobilization, and its repression.
At 6 PM, folks decided to try once more to deliver their giant
letter,
this time at the Suissotel, where the trade ministers were meeting
with
assorted CEOs and trade lobbyists at the 7th Americas Business
Forum. As
a strategy to boost legitimacy and head off disruptive protests,
the
government had already made offered to allow a couple civil
society
representatives to address the ministers. On these terms, the
indigenous
and campesino groups had refused. But tonight, 2000 people marched
up to
police barricades, where they demanded that a much larger delegation
be
allowed in to deliver the letter. Clearly hoping to avoid the
kind of
confrontations that have occurred in past uprisings here, the
government
allowed 40 people from across the hemisphere to come in and
meet with the
ministers.
Hearing this was going on, I ran to the hotel, easily passing
through
several police lines because I have press credentials for the
summit. In
the lobby I simply asked Where are they? and several people
pointed down.
Once in the basement, I followed the shouting until I reached
an
auditorium where 25 or so trade ministers sat uncomfortably
on stage
while 40 campesinos chanted that they had no desire to be a
U.S. colony.
Peter Rossett of Food First stood up, his arm in a rainbow colored
sling
thanks to a protest injury. He yelled to Bob Zoellick, the U.S.
Trade
Representative, that he should be ashamed for pushing an agreement
that
would impoverish Latin Americans, not to mention many U.S. citizens.
Zoellick stared fixedly at his shoe. It was a scene that is,
I think,
pretty much unprecedented in the history of trade negotiations.
Soon the civil society presentations began. A line of people
fanned out
in front of the ministers (and TV cameras) holding signs that
said Si a
la vida, No al ALCA (Yes to life, No to the FTAA) Behind the
podium stood
an indigenous representative holding a beautifully painted inca
sun with
North America and South America, and the words Si Una Integracion
Solidaria Con Respeco a la Soberania de los Naciones (Yes to
an
integration based on solidarity, with respect for the sovereignty
of
nations).
The first speakers were representatives of an international
meeting of
parliament and congress members from across the hemisphere.
They
condemned the FTAA process, and called for an alternative integration,
one that respects the needs and particular situations of the
people of
each country.
Next came several representatives of a civil society forum organized
by a
number of pro-neoliberal NGOs with close ties to the government.
Their
proposals were generally tepid, but they were for the most part
drowned
out by the crowd. (When one speaker asked that the FTAA process
be opened
up to include civil society observers, the whole crowd responded
by
chanting, Plebiscito, Plebiscito).
Finally, the social movement representatives spoke. Leonidas
Iza, the
President of the CONAIE (the Ecuadorian indigenous federation),
stated
the social movements clear rejection of the FTAA and of neoliberalism
in
general. We are in desperate shape, he told the ministers. You
couldnt
possibly understand, you who were born in golden cradles and
have never
suffered (at this the ministers looked even more uncomfortable).
But we
dont have food to feed our children. Our markets are flooded
with cheap
imports. Imported milk is dumped in Ecuador for half of what
it costs to
produce it, but transnationals [mostly Nestle] sell it back
to us at
$1.80 per litre. We have no way to live, and the FTAA will only
make it
worse. When we complain, the U.S. government calls us terrorists.
We are
not threatening anything, but we are hungry and tired and things
have to
change. In the wake of widening protest throughout Latin America,
the
message was not lost on anyone.
Then a woman worker from Nicaragua spoke powerfully of the details
of the
FTAA, of the privatizations and poverty and social exclusion
it would
bring, particularly for women. Don't think you can simply take
your
picture with us and push forward, she told the ministers. We
will stop
the FTAA.
The meeting ended and, unable to contain myself, I stood up
and shouted
in English and then in Spanish that never again could Bob Zoellick
claim
that the people of Latin America were clamoring for free trade,
because
today they had unequivocally rejected it. Then Peter Rossett
chimed in
that polls consistently showed that the majority of U.S citizens
oppose
free trade, and that the Bush administration had no right and
no mandate
to push forward with the FTAA. There were loud cheers, and the
moderator
hurriedly announced that the ministers were leaving and could
we please
sit down so they could leave. NO! screamed the civil society
folks in
unison, and they pushed out the door, leaving the ministers
sitting on
stage.
And, at that moment, I felt something shift. I realized that
(unless the
media bury this entirely despite our best efforts to get the
word out,
which is always possible) the FTAA has in 24 hours gone from
something
whose praises its proponents sing, to something they have to
defend. Like
the WTO before it, the FTAA has become the treaty that has to
be sold to
an America that doesnt want it. Or so I hope. I hope I hope
I hope. This
is how it feels here. But it may be different elsewhere.
If I am right, the hemispheric resistance to free trade and
the FTAA has
taken a huge step forward, even if this is but one day in a
long struggle
in which many more battles will be fought. Tonights show of
force may
also strengthen the resolve of poor countries in the negotiations
that
follow here, which will piss off the U.S. and make it harder
to reach
agreement. In any case, it was a beautiful day for some of the
nations
most powerful social movements. Not to mention a shitty day
for Bob
Zoellick and his buddies in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
We marched out of the Suissotel, reached the police barricades
and were
greeted by hundreds of cheering protesters, who had been dancing
to
traditional Kichwa music while we were inside. Then the partying
began,
and it is still going 5 hours later (these folks are not lightweights
when it comes to cane liquor). I just said goodbye to a companera
from
one of the rural provinces of the Sierra, a woman I met when
I was giving
workshops on the FTAA several months ago. I asked her what she
thought of
the days events, and she said, I am happy. Very happy. This
was the first
time I have ever done this, and I think today we achieved something
important, something that will improve our lives. And now I
can go back
to my children.
I am so proud, so proud and amazed by the incredible work people
have
done here over the last few months, so moved by their commitment
to this
struggle, so humbled by the generosity, patience, tolerance,
and trust
they have shown me. I am so honored to be part of this fast-coalescing
hemispheric movement for a new economic and political order,
one based on
reciprocity and social justice, on true democracy and respect
for human
and natural diversity And Im so happy to be going to sleep.
* elleno@pdx.edu
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