Aktionen, 20.-22.4.2001 an der Mexico-US Grenze

Das Camp ist gut dokumententiert auf www.actionla.org/border


Stop the FTAA

On Saturday, 21 April, 2001, we are proposing a multinational day of protest in the San Diego/Tijuana region in solidarity with the protests in Quebec as part of the campaign against the FTAA and for humanity. Come join us in support of worker"s rights, immigrant rights, indigenous rights and the environment.

Activists in the US and Mexico will make an historic demonstration of international solidarity at the US/Mexico border on Saturday 21 April 2001 in defense of human needs against corporate greed!

When President George W. Bush meets with the heads of state from North and South America (except Cuba) at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada to renew Washington"s push for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) this April, a treaty designed to spread the corporate agenda of free trade, privatization, and cuts in social spending to almost the whole western hemisphere will be discussed in secret meetings behind closed doors. At the same time, tens of thousands of trade unionists and activists are expected to converge in Quebec City to protest against the FTAA!
Those of us near the US/Mexico border are thousands of miles away from Quebec.

But the conditions we live in and see around us speak volumes about what"s wrong with corporate globalization and privatization. Corporations are free to move their investments across borders, but ordinary people are denied the same freedoms. Immigrants seeking work in the US face horrific violence and intimidation both at the border and while living and working in the US. Workers are forced to endure appalling conditions here, whether in the sweatshops of Los Angeles, the maquiladoras of Tijuana, or the tomato fields of San Quintin.

Californians have been made acutely aware of the miseries and chaos caused by free markets and deregulation. Schoolchildren in Oakland practice "Blackout Drills" and residents of San Diego and Inglewood face skyrocketing utility bills thanks to the deregulation of California"s electricity system.

These horrors are why we want to speak out right here at the US/Mexico border and say NO to sweatshop working conditions, NO to poverty wages, NO to racist immigrant bashing, and NO to the FTAA!

Under the FTAA, corporations would have the right to file "violation of free trade" complaints that could force governments to repeal labor and environmental laws or face economic sanctions. In other words, the right of corporations to make profits anywhere in the hemisphere is more important to the supporters of the FTAA than the rights of workers to earn a living wage or the rights of children to breathe clean air.

We don"t have to let them get away with this! The 1999 Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO)-where tens of thousands of workers and students came together to speak out against globalization - exposed the ugly reality of sweatshops, poverty, and pollution that lies beneath the sweet talk about "free trade".

Seattle inspired millions of people who want an alternative to the madness of globalization.

The April 21 border action is another exciting development of the anti-globalization movement that has taken on a life of its own since the Seattle protests. We need to organize international solidarity to fight back against the international plunder promised by the FTAA.

Please help us take this critical step in fighting corporate greed.