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Date sent: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:56:14 -0700
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From: ILC
Subject: Mexico City Anti-NAFTA Conference: Reports & Discussion
Articles
...
OWC CAMPAIGN NEWS - distributed by the Open World Conference in
Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights, c/o S.F.
Labor
Council, 1188 Franklin St., #203, San Francisco, CA 94109.
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------------------------------------------------
IN THIS MESSAGE
1) Urgent Appeal to Help Fund Delegates from Costa Rica and Colombia
to Mexico City Conference (and Pledge Coupon)
2) Report from Mexico: CND Mass Rally on March 18 Calls for National
Action
Campaign to Stop the Privatization of Mexico's Oil Resources -- by
Alan Benjamin (member Exec. Bd., San Francisco Labor Council)
3) Teamsters' Union President James P. Hoffa Calls for Support for
NAFTA Accountability Act (with presentation by Alan Benjamin and Ed
Rosario)
********************
1) Urgent Appeal to Help Fund Delegates from Costa Rica and Colombia
to Mexico City Conference
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
We are less than two weeks away from the Second Continental
Conference Against "Free Trade" and Privatizations, which will be
held in Mexico City. We are writing to ask for your financial support
to the Special Travel Fund for this important event. [For more
information, in Spanish, on the conference, please go to
www.encuentrocontinental.org.]
Our U.S. Support Committee has been approached by leaders of the anti-
CAFTA protest movement in Costa Rica with the request that we help
them with a matching fund to assist their delegation to travel to
Mexico City. We also have been asked for financial help from trade
unionists in Colombia, who daily face paramilitary death squads. Anti-
corporate-globalization student activists at UC Santa Cruz, DeAnza
College, UCLA and UC San Diego also have contacted us requesting
financial assistance so they can be part of this organizing
conference and come back with renewed energy to wage this hemispheric
struggle for labor, human and environmental rights.
We need to raise $2,500 -- a very modest sum -- in one week to enable
12 people attend the Mexico Conference -- which will be an extremely
importance gathering of unionists and activists from more than 20
countries. Thus far, many of you have responded to our for funds, and
we thank you for this. But we are still way short of our objective.
We need your help today!
The Conference itself is turning into a very significant organizing
event: The opening rally on April 4 will be addressed by a number of
powerful keynote speakers, including Claudia Sheinbaun, the Secretary
of Energy and National Patrimony of the Legitimate Government of
Mexico [see report below from March 18 rally for more information];
Cindy Sheehan, the renowned Gold Star Families for Peace; Cynthia
McKinney, former Congressperson from Georgia, and many other
prominent activists from across the continent.
We urge you and/or your organization (union locals, community groups,
coalitions, campus organizations, etc.) to contribute to this fund.
We need to hear from you before Friday, March 28, so that we can
purchase the airline tickets for these activists. Please fill out the
Pledge Coupon below and return it to us ASAP to
(or Western Hemisphere Conference) and send to WHC, San Francisco
Labor Council, 1188 Franklin St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94109.
(All funds raised beyond the $2,500 goal will go to help defray the
conference expenses.)
As co-coordinators of the OWC Continuations Committee, we are also
pleased to announce that our U.S. delegation will have close to 30
unionists and activists, including Sister Nancy Wohlforth, secretary-
treasurer of OPEIU; Brother Baldemar Velasquez, president of FLOC, a
delegation from the Hispanic Caucus of the International Brotherhood
of Teamsters; a delegation from Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior;
Brother Kali Akuno, an organizer of the Reconstruction Movement in
the Gulf Coast, among others. (The titles of the unionists above are
listed for id. purposes only.)
Thanks in advance for your support.
In solidarity,
Eduardo Rosario and Alan Benjamin
Co-Coordinators
Open World Conference Continuations Committee
----------
CONFERENCE TRAVEL FUND DRIVE PLEDGE COUPON
[ ] I pledge $ ____ toward the Conference Fund to help with
travel matching-fund scholarships for unionists and student activists
with limited funds from Costa Rica, Colombia and the United States.
NAME
CITY
STATE
TEL.
[Fill out and mail this Pledge Coupon to
Make your checks payable to WHC (or Western Hemisphere Conference)
and send to WHC, San Francisco Labor Council, 1188 Franklin St. #203,
San Francisco, CA 94109.
*********************
2) CND Mass Rally on March 18 Calls for National Action
Campaign to Stop the Privatization of Mexico's Oil Resources
By ALAN BENJAMIN
MEXICO CITY -- March 18 marked the 70th anniversary of the
nationalization of Mexico's oil resources by then-President Lázaro
Cárdenas.
To mark this anniversary and, more important, to launch a national
fightback campaign against the imminent plans by the illegitimate
government of Felipe Calderón to begin the privatization of Pemex,
Mexico's national oil corporation, the National Democratic Convention
(CND) organized a mass rally on March 18 in Mexico City's downtown
plaza: the Zócalo.
One of the two rally keynote speakers was Andrés Manuel López
Obrador, the legitimate president of Mexico (having clearly won the
June 2006 presidential election, only to have it stolen by Calderón
and Bush). López Obrador is also the main spokesperson of the CND, a
mass resistance movement that was born after this massive voter fraud
and the ensuing protest marches of millions of Mexicans who demanded
a vote recount -- a demand that was never met.
The other rally keynote was Claudia Sheinbaum, the Secretary of
Energy and National Patrimony of the Legitimate Government of Mexico.
Sheinbaum laid out the action plan proposed by the CND to defend
Mexico's oil against Calderón and his paymasters: Bush and his oil
cronies, who are champing at the bit to take back the oil resources
expropriated by Cárdenas in 1938.
The International Liaison Committee -- which was invited to attend
the first mass rally organized by the CND on September 16, 2006 --
was again invited by the CND coordinators to participate in this
March 18 assembly. I was fortunate to be able to represent the ILC on
the podium of this spirited event.
An Escalating Plan of Actions
Both López Obrador and Sheinbaum exposed and denounced the public-
relations campaign by Calderón and the media aimed at casting the
proposed "reforms" to Mexico's secondary statutes as nothing but a
step toward "modernizing" Mexico's oil drilling capacities in the
deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Calderón has insisted repeatedly,
including in his own "official" 70th anniversary celebration in the
southern state of Tabasco, that the "reforms," slated to be presented
to Mexico's Congress on March 25, have absolutely nothing to do with
privatization or relinquishing Mexico's sovereign control over its
oil resources.
"Not so," replied López Obrador. "Theirs is simply a ploy to win
public acceptance for something that is unacceptable to all Mexicans.
We will not allow them to take even one step in the direction of
privatizing our oil."
López Obrador continued, "We must not be duped: They have a plan, one
small step at a time, to take us back to the days of the Porfirio
Diaz dictatorship, when we were enslaved by the foreign oil
corporations. But we will not take one step back!"
In her speech, Sheinbaum gave a detailed explanation of the deception
campaign deployed by Calderón and his Energy Secretary, Georgina
Kessel, to modify the secondary laws governing Pemex. But the bulk of
her presentation was devoted to the National Campaign of Peaceful
Civil Resistance proposed by the CND coordinators to stop the
privatization assault on Pemex.
"We not going to permit Calderón and his U.S. bosses to take control
of even one oil rig," Sheinbaum said. "On March 25, we are told,
their assault is to begin. Well, we will be prepared and ready to
act."
Sheinbaum went on to lay out a comprehensive Action Plan that would
escalate in intensity and scope if the "reform" measures are not
withdrawn by Calderón. The campaign would be structured on Local
Committees to Defend Pemex and highly disciplined Action Brigades.
The campaign, Sheinbaum said, would begin with mass picketing and
occupations of targeted buildings. If that did not work, Sheinbaum
continued, the resistance movement, led by women, would occupy and
shut down roads and highways. If the "reforms" were still not
withdrawn, the resistance movement would then call on all the Mexican
people and their organizations to mobilize in a National Strike.
Sheinbaum put these proposals to a vote, by acclamation, to the tens
of thousands of people assembled in the Zócalo. (According to some
media estimates, there were more than 100,000 people, a very
significant number given the Semana Santa [Holy Week] holidays, when
most public-sector workers leave the city for their annual paid
vacation.)
Everyone in the Zócalo raised their hands and their fists in unison
in approval of the proposals from their legitimate government. This
was accompanied by thunderous chants proclaiming, "Ni Un Paso Atrás!"
-- not one step backward -- and "La Patria No Se Vende, El Petróleo
Se Defiende!" -- the country is not for sale, our oil must be
defended.
López Obrador returned to this Action Plan in his speech, stressing
the point made by Sheinbaum on the need for discipline in the
resistance movement. "We must be disciplined and peaceful, and not
allow ourselves to be provoked by government infiltrators," he said.
"I realize we will be called troublemakers, proponents of violence,
and people who are a danger to Mexico," López Obrador continued. "But
they are the ones who represent a real-and-present danger to our
nation, privatizing our oil and thereby preventing us from financing
our public schools, our healthcare systems, our transportation [note:
oil revenue accounts for 40% of the federal budget-Ed.]. They are
ones destroying our industries, our hopes, our future. S"
"What we are doing is noble, responsible and efficient," he
concluded. "But to meet our objectives we must avoid confrontation
and violence at all costs. We must not be provoked."
Unionists and activists of the Democratic and Independent Workers
Party (PTDI) mobilized for the rally and distributed thousands of
leaflets inviting people to attend the opening public rally on April
4 of the Second Continental Conference Against NAFTA and
Privatizations (at which Claudia Sheinbaum will be one of the keynote
speakers).
Leaving the Zócalo after the rally, a contingent of PTDI peasant and
teacher activists from the state of Chiapas told this writer that
they were proud to have participated in this historic rally and
energized by the Action Plan put forth by their legitimate president
and his cabinet.
"We're going back home tonight to build the Action Brigades and
Committees in our workplaces, our unions, and our communities," said
a teacher from a peasant community. "We have to begin preparing the
National Strike. It's going to take shutting down the country to stop
the usurper [Calderón] and his business cronies from privatizing our
oil and dismantling our nation. We are ready!"
********************
3) Teamsters' Union Urges Support for NAFTA Accountability Act
Presentation by WHC Coordinators
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
We are less than two weeks away from the Second Continental
Conference Against "Free Trade" Agreements and Privatization, which
will be held in Mexico City on April 4-6.
We are submitting below to the Conference Preparatory Bulletin an
important statement by James P. Hoffa, president of the Teamsters'
union, in which he urges the U.S. trade union and activist movements
to support the NAFTA Accountability Act, or H.R. 4329.
We believe it is positive to demand -- as Brother Hoffa does in his
statement below -- that the U.S. government should withdraw from
NAFTA. For many years now, we in the Continuations Committee of the
Western Hemisphere Conference, which was held in San Francisco in
November 1997, have been calling for the repeal of NAFTA. In our
view, this agreement is the institutional framework through which a
major offensive has been waged by Corporate America againsty working
people in all three signatory countries: the United States, Canada
and Mexico.
The evidence is unmistakable: NAFTA has destroyed jobs, labor rights
and standards, democratic rights, environmental and health standards -
- and democracy itself -- in all three signatory countries.
There is no need to wait till 2008 to make the case that NAFTA is bad
for working people on both sides of the borders. But if there is
still the need to prove this point to the American public, let's do
it. We are certain that any serious and impartial body will be
compelled to acknowledge what we have just said.
Nor do we see any changes for the better in store in the coming
months. The situation has only continued to worsen. The new NAFTA
chapter on agricultural commodities just went into effect January 1
of this year. It will further destroy Mexico's native crops, its
countryside and its farm population. Already there has been a huge
increase in Mexican peasants fleeing the barbarism of NAFTA into the
United States to seek a way to feed their families.
At the same time, we don't think there is any real re-negotiation
possible that could "improve" this "free trade" agreement -- as some
people are proposing. George W. Bush is now willing to include labor
and environmental language into the body of all new "free trade"
agreements (such as the U.S.-Peru Trade Agreement or the upcoming
U.S.-Colombia Trade Agreement) -- as opposed to the labor and
environmental side-agreements that we were given under NAFTA.
Those who call for renegotiating these "bad" treaties generally call
for including such standards in the body of a new NAFTA agreement.
But people across the continent are no longer being bought off by the
promise of labor or environmental language in the trade deals -- in
whatever form. The agreement with Peru has such language built into
the body of the agreement. But this language is meaningless. It has
no power of implementation.
No sooner had the Peru trade agreement been signed than the Peruvian
government began suppressing a mineworkers' strike. There is nothing
in that agreement that would bind the government to respect labor's
right to organize and have a fair contract. Indeed, the very reason
for these "free trade" agreements is to remove all "barriers to
trade" - by which the bosses mean labor protections, unions, and
regulations.
Labor journalist David Bacon wrote:
"To get the Peru treaty through Congress, its supporters claimed it
would protect labor rights. Peruvian unions don't believe this
promise any more than they believe it will bring them jobs."
After describing the mineworkers' strike in Peru, Bacon concluded:
"Toothless labor rights protections never stopped union-busting and
job elimination in Mexico. They won't in Peru, either." (San
Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 20, 2007)
It is our view that the promise of labor and environmental clauses in
the body of the agreements is nothing more than a sweetener to get
working people to swallow the deadly pill of "free trade."
This is the reason for this Second Continental Conference in Mexico
City. It will be a place for U.S. unionists and activists to
coordinate the resistance and fight-back against this destructive
corporate agenda -- so that we can begin turning back the "free
trade" steamroller.
We believe that pushing for a NAFTA Accountability Act that leads to
the U.S. withdrawal from this agreement -- without being seduced by
the promise of a better, re-negotiated pact with improved labor and
environmental standards -- is an urgent task today.
The only real "renegotiation" possible is to ditch these "free trade"
deals to permit trade that respects the sovereignty and self-
determination of the oppressed nations of the continent.
In solidarity,
Eduardo Rosario and Alan Benjamin
Co-Coordinators
Western Hemisphere Conference
Continuations Committee
----------
Statement by James P, Hoffa, President of the
Teamsters' Union on the NAFTA Accountability Act
(December 11, 2007)
The 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters
supports the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Accountability Act, H.R. 4329, introduced by Congresspersons Marcy
Kaptur and Nancy Boyda.
This legislation requires that action be taken to ensure that workers
benefit from NAFTA by the end of 2008, or the U.S. must withdraw from
NAFTA.
Under NAFTA, the trade deficit with Mexico and Canada has increased
by more than $919 billion. The United States has seen more than 1
million living-wage jobs lost under NAFTA. The Teamsters have seen
directly the negative impact of NAFTA. Many Teamster jobs have been
lost due to U.S. companies closing and setting up shop in Mexico to
take advantage of NAFTA and Mexico's lower wages and lax labor laws.
Not only have the U.S. workers been hurt by NAFTA but workers in
Canada and Mexico as well. Canadian workers have seen their wages
stagnate and a significant increase in the growing inequality amongst
the richest 1 percent and the rest of the workforce since NAFTA. In
Mexico, more than 1 million agricultural jobs have disappeared while
wages stagnate around $ per day.
Since the inception of NAFTA, the United States has seen immigration
increase from Mexico, as families are desperate and feel they must
leave their country in order to provide for their families. Also,
NAFTA was touted as promoting the expansion of political freedoms and
human rights. Citizens and union workers continue to experience great
infringement of such basic rights and freedoms.
The "NAFTA Accountability Act" would require the Executive Branch to
renegotiate NAFTA and/or certify that the three countries have met
certain benchmarks, or the President would be required to withdraw
from NAFTA.
The benchmarks include gains in U.S. jobs and living standards,
increased U.S. domestic manufacturing, stronger health and
environmental standards, especially with respect to food imports,
decreased flow of illegal drugs from Mexico and Canada, and the
guarantee of Mexican democracy and human freedoms.
Passage of such legislation is long overdue. Workers in the United
States, Canada and Mexico have had enough of the damage that NAFTA
has caused.
Stumble It!