From: Montyneill-AT-aol.com
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 21:07:25 EST
Subject: AUT: anti-ftaa in Ecuador



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Just got this and thought it deserved to be forwarded - Monty

October 31, 2002, Quito Ecuador
From: Justin Ruben <swampjew-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: joy, repression, possibilities

Friends and Colleagues

Please accept this [unedited] bulletin from the edge
of consciousness. =A0I 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. =A0But 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. =A0I feel so inspired,
and so humbled.

When the day started, I was 20km south of Quito with
maybe 300 ind?genas, 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. =A0As 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. =A04 months of work, promising reporters,
funders, countless activists in North America that
thousands of people would come to disrupt the FTAA
ministerial meeting. =A0And we were going to end up with
500 people rallying in a park. =A0But 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). =A0People lined the street to watch as it
passed by. =A0One 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. =A0Old women chanted ceaselessly for
four hours, ?No queremos, y no nos da la gana, ser una
colonia, norteamericana,? (We don?t want, and it
doesn?t do us any good, to be a North American
colony). =A0One 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. =A0As the two groups
approached each other, people on each side were
visibly stirred, and some began to run. =A0At 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. =A0And 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 environmental, consumer and labor laws,
to force the privatization of water, health care,
education, culture, and biodiversity. =A0In 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. =A0Soon we were stopped by
several hundred riot police. =A0The 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. =A0They were
soundly refused

So the dirigentes deliberated and decided to head west
toward the Volcan Pichincha. =A0As we rounded the corner
we saw a thousand or more people ahead of us. =A0More
groups drifted in from the sides, and soon la Avenida
Colon, one of Quito?s 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. =A0They shot it at the
crowd and over the crowd, so that as people ran away,
they ran into more gas. =A0I walked until I couldn?t 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?) =A0The president of the National Judicial
Workers Union was hit with three tear gas cannisters
and taken to the hospital. =A0Several young kids passed
out and almost asphyxiated. =A0One woman fell on her
baby, who was injured and taken to the hospital. =A0A
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 CEO?s
and trade lobbyists at the 7th Americas Business
Forum. =A0As 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. =A0On these
terms, the indigenous and campesino groups had
refused. =A0But 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. =A0

Hearing this was going on, I ran to the hotel, easily
passing through several police lines because I have
press credentials for the summit. =A0In 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. =A0Peter Rossett of Food First stood up,
his arm in a rainbow colored sling thanks to a protest
injury. =A0He 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. =A0Zoellick stared
fixedly at his shoe. =A0It was a scene that is, I think,
pretty much unprecedented in the history of trade
negotiations.

Soon the civil society presentations began. =A0A line of
people fanned out in front of the ministers (and TV
cameras) holding signs that said ?S? 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 Integraci?n
Solidaria Con Respeco a la Soberan?a 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. =A0They 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 NGO?s
with close ties to the government. =A0Their proposals
were generally tepid, but they were for the most part
drowned out by the crowd. =A0(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. =A0?We are in desperate
shape,? he told the ministers. =A0?You couldn?t possibly
understand, you who were born in golden cradles and
have never suffered? (at this the ministers looked
even more uncomfortable). =A0?But we don?t have food to
feed our children. =A0Our markets are flooded with cheap
imports. =A0Imported 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. =A0When we complain, the U.S. government calls
us terrorists. =A0We 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. =A0?Don?t think you can simply
take your picture with us and push forward,? she told
the ministers. =A0We 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. =A0There
were loud cheers, and the moderator hurriedly
announced that the ministers were leaving and could we
please sit down so they could leave. =A0?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. =A0I
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. =A0Like the WTO before
it, the FTAA has become the treaty that has to be sold
to an America that doesn?t want it. =A0Or so I hope. =A0I
hope I hope I hope. =A0This is how it feels here. =A0But
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. =A0Tonight?s 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. =A0=A0In any case, it was a beautiful day for
some of the nation?s 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. =A0Then the partying began,
and it is still going 5 hours later (these folks are
not lightweights when it comes to cane liquor). =A0I
just said goodbye to a compa?era from one of the rural
provinces of the Sierra, a woman I met when I was
giving workshops on the FTAA several months ago. =A0I
asked her what she thought of the day?s events, and
she said, ?I am happy. =A0Very happy. =A0This was the
first time I have ever done this, and I think today we
achieved something important, something that will
improve our lives. =A0And 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. =A0I 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 =A0and natural diversity =A0And I?m so happy to be
going to sleep.

In solidarity,

Justin



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