On April 20th, heads-of-state from every country in
South and North America and the Caribbean (except for
Cuba), along with delegates from many of the world's
wealthiest corporations, will meet in Quebec City,
Canada in an attempt to finish negotiations regarding
a trade pact called the Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA). Accompanying them will be over 5,000
riot police, secret service agents, undercover agents,
private cops, and other armed personnel-- amounting to
the largest police mobilization in Canadian history.
Additionally, a ten-foot fence, topped with barbed
wire, is being erected around the periphery of
downtown Quebec. Officials think this will aid the
police in their attempt to enable the representatives
of the wealthy elite to carry out a successful
meeting, undisturbed (or so they hope) by the tens of
thousands of activists and concerned individuals who
plan to go to Quebec to protest the hideous
implications of the FTAA. The corporate media will be
there too, of course, to distort the opinions of the
activists (especially anarchists) as well as the truth
on how the FTAA's policies will affect the majority of
the Western Hemisphere's population-- while presenting
the public with the lies told to them by their
powerful corporate bosses.
The FTAA is the latest attempt by the rich and
powerful to extend capitalist relations to literally
every corner of the globe. Like other trade
agreements (World Trade Organization, European Union,
etc.) the FTAA, with its emphasis on unrestrained
economic growth, will lead to an increase in poverty,
militarization, and ecological destruction. The
objective of the FTAA is to extend an existing treaty,
called the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA-- which has already lead to an increase in
poverty, militarization, and ecological destruction in
North America, particularly Mexico), to all countries
in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba. Doing so will
open all included borders to economic liberalization--
forcing the nation-states involved to forego
environmental protection and labor laws that may be
viewed by the corporate elite as barriers to such
"free trade." International borders will not, of
course, be open to the flood of Latin American
immigrants who will eventually head north to escape
the utter poverty that the FTAA, if enacted, will
inevitably create in southern countries.
We oppose the FTAA and all so-called "free-trade"
agreements because they are an extension of
capitalism-- an economic system based on ruthless
competition, which creates hierarchical social
relationships of rich/poor, exploiter/exploited, and
have/have-nots. It is a system so entrenched in our
daily lives and interpersonal relationships that we
cannot escape it without demolishing it completely.
Most of us experience it's cruel reality every day at
work-- where we are forced to slave away, under
degrading and humiliating conditions, just so that we
may be able to afford the basic necessities of food,
clothing, and shelter needed to keep us and our
families alive. Others of us experience it at school,
where we can only hope to enjoy a few moments of
youthful bliss before succumbing to a similar fate of
utter boredom and meaninglessness. Still others are
not even so lucky. Victims of poverty and often
institutionalized racism, they languish in the
concrete hell of America's growing prison system. Let
us also not forget the others: the homeless, the
illegal aliens, the forgotten seniors quietly
withering away in nursing homes, and the hundreds of
thousands internationally who die each year in wars
for capitalist lust.
Inherent in the maddening logic of capitalism is a
"grow or die" imperative that urges it to expand
relentlessly-- constantly seeking new markets to
exploit, ever cheaper sources of labor, and new
ecosystems to destroy in its quest for more raw
materials. We therefore reject the calls of
"Anti-Globalization" liberals who denounce "global
capitalism" and "corporate capitalism" as if a return
to locally based capitalism would be any sort of a
desirable or plausible alternative. We reject the
insane, exploitative capitalist system as a whole, in
both its global and local forms. We also reject
reformist and nationalist calls for "green" politics
and stronger state sovereignty. Support for such
efforts will only continue the reign of capital or
create new forms of tyranny and authority. The state,
like capital, is an institutionalized form of violence
and oppression that must be destroyed.
Capitalism, backed by government and the patriarchal,
racist, ecocidal worldview of Western Civilization, is
the root source of the vast misery currently
inflicting the majority of the Earth's inhabitants.
The gross expansion of capitalism into its present
phase has created a situation in which the very future
of life on Earth is under threat. The precious
ecosystems of the Earth are being destroyed
irreparably, an our very humanity is becoming lost to
the artificial, computerized, genetically-engineered
future of capitalist progress. Time is running out.
The days of pleading to the consciences of those in
power are over. We have learned from history and
experience that this rotten order cannot be reformed.
So let us go to Quebec City on April 20th to shut down
the FTAA-- but let's do so with a larger goal to shut
down capitalism and the state. Let us fight every
day, in our workplaces, schools, communities, and
autonomous cells, by daylight and by the darkness of
night, for a world in which human beings, collectively
and individually, may have the freedom and autonomy to
make their own decisions regarding the issues directly
affecting their lives. Settling for anything less is
a compromise to our liberty and our humanity.
***
for a copy of Black Star North zine, send $2 and a
couple stamps to:
Mutual Aid Portland
PO Box 7328
Portland, ME 04112
