The People's Summit - Parallel to SPP Meeting in New Orleans

Check out the response to the "three amigos" meeting next week in New Orleans. Behind closed doors they will make decisions about the future of North America, while the people's summit will take place both April 21st and 22nd, where there will be workshops in the morning and afternoon on Tuesday the 22nd. The three hour workshops will speak to the ways in which free trade and security policy affect everyday people, especially in relation to increased militarism, privatization, forced immigration and migration, and abuse of the environment.

For more information on the people's summit, check: www.summitneworleans.org

Background on the Security and Prosperity Partnership:
Extending NAFTA's Reach
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4497

April 17 is International Day of Peasant's Struggle

60 actions for Via Campesina's International Day of Peasant's Strugglee

International Peasant’s Struggle Day was established after the massacre of 19 landless peasants belonging to the Landless Movement (MST) in Brazil on April 17, 1996 during the second conference of La Via Campesina in Tlaxcala Mexico.

For more information on specific events today, see their site at http://www.viacampesina.org/main_en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=502&Itemid=33

This video, also available in Spanish, does a good job of documenting the history of Via Campesina, a truly global organization:

Damnation in Patagonia

The New York Times writes a surprisingly damning editorial on plans for a series of major hydroelectric dams in Patagonia today. The editorial goes beyond criticizing the damming of "one of the wildest and most beautiful places on earth" in defense of the Chilean Patagonia region. It also asserts that these giant hydroelectric plants, promoted and defended by the international development banks, should have become a thing of the past by now.

"Building large-scale hydroelectric dams is an old-world way of obtaining energy. It is too late in the environmental life of this planet to accept such ecologically destructive energy solutions or the model of unfettered growth they are meant to fuel. "

Hear, hear. Americas Policy Program partner on issues of biodiversity and sustainable development, the International Rivers Network (http://internationalrivers.org/), is working with local groups to develop an international campaign to save the Patagonia . The hydroelectric project is funded by two private companies--the Italian energy conglomerate Enel and the Chilean wood products firm Matte. It would dam two rivers, the Baker and the Pascua. These rivers run through 14 protected areas and provide habitat for endangered species like the huemul deer. The proposed dams would flood over 10,000 acres of farmland and forests, irreparably destroying the landscape, flora and fauna of a unique region of the planet. Watch for a report on the Patagonia project and how to get involved, soon to be posted on the Americas site. You might also want to check out our series "Re-mapping Latin America's Future."

Patagonia isn't the only place threatened by huge and destructive dam projects and happily it isn't the only place where local people have united with international networks to reject them.

Here in Mexico, indigenous and campesino communities of the southern state of Guerrero have been opposing the construction of the La Parota dam for years. This white elephant has been the darling of successive administrations, financiers and businesses salivating over construction contracts.

But the communities' resistance has so far prevented construction of the over $1 billion-dollar project. Designed to provide energy to Acapulco and local industries, the La Parota dam has been held up by a federal injunction and a constitutional challenge filed by the communities and public-interest lawyers. If built, it would flood 17,000 hectares including communities and archeological sites, and displace 25,000 farmers and their families.

National and regional networks have formed throughout Latin America to oppose damming our rivers and flooding out forests and small farmers. For more information, check out MAPDER and REDLAR.

Anti-Free Trade Agreement Summit in Mexico City

April 4-6 the "Segundo Encuentro Continental en contra de los TLC" (2nd Continental Summit Against Free Trade Agreements) will be held in Mexico City. Details about the event can be found at www.encuentrocontinental.org or segundoencuentrocontinental@gmail.com.

Delegations of youth, workers, unions and other representatives from Mexico, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and other countries will attend.

Working groups include:

- FTAs and the countryside
- FTAs and sovereignty, war and peace
- FTAs and immigration
- FTAs, energy and public services

There will be a press conference on April 1 to announce the events as well. Let us know if youll be attending and maybe we can meet there.

In case it passed you by, World Water Day was March 22nd. However, there's never a bad day to appreciate water and do something to improve our use of it.

Here are some important water facts to help you appreciate this resource:

• A single tree will give off 265 liters (70 gallons) of water per day in evaporation.
• An acre of corn will give off 15,000 litres (4,000 gallons) of water per day in evaporation.
• A small drip from a faucet can waste as much as 75 litres of water a day.
  
• Of all the water on the earth (about 326 million cubic miles), humans can used only about three tenths of a percent of this water. Such usable water is found in groundwater aquifers, rivers, and freshwater lakes.
• The United States uses about 346,000 million gallons of fresh water every day.
• The United States uses nearly 80% of its water for irrigation and thermoelectric power.
• The average person in the United States uses anywhere from 80-100 gallons of water per day. Flushing the toilet actually takes up the largest amount of this water.
• More than 2 billion people on earth do not have a safe supply of water.
  

• Bottled water can be up to 1000 times more expensive than tap water and it may not be as safe.
• Today, at least 400 million people live in regions with severe water shortages.

Consider the plastic (aka oil!) and transportation costs used in bottled water, also. You can reduce your environmental impact by being more conscious about your water consumption. So... How to avoid the ever-present evil of bottled water?
Some tips:

• Drink tap water if you can. If you can't, get a filter for your tap water that makes it safe to drink. (Britta, PUR, Aqua-Pur are some examples. Here is a site that compares them for you: http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.net/WaterFilter_Comparison.cfm)
• Ask for a glass of water at restaurants instead of buying it. They will almost always give it to you.
  
• Carry water with you in a reusable bottle (look into New Wave, Kleen Kanteen, or SIGG) instead of having to buy it on the road.
  

Happy (?) International Women's Day

In the United States, recognizing International Women's Day would imply recognizing a long history of workers' struggle that official history books have done their best to repress--like the tragic fire in the Triangle Shirt factory and courageous marches of seamstresses and other women workers. So it's just not done. But here in Mexico City, in certain circles people greet you with a hearty "Congratulations!" on March 8 (if you're a woman) and events and articles take stock of women's gains and losses over the past year.

That's what happened today at a ten-year anniversary conference of Enlace. Enlace describes itself as "a strategic alliance of low-wage worker organizations in Mexio and the U.S. engaged in campaigns for economic and social justice." Through a network of allied organizations on both sides of the order, they do training sessions on labor rights and organization, alliances and strategizing.

On the panel for International Women's Day, Bertha Lujan, a longtime labor activist in Mexico City and currently Secretary of Labor for the "legitimate government" of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, outlined the accomplishments of Mexican women in representation in unions, the legislature and other leadership positions. Although there have been real gains, the rightwing government of President Felipe Calderón and the National Action Party (the PAN, by its Spanish intials) poses a threat to those gains. She went on to mention the major challenges in four actions: encouraging affirmative action programs to mandate percentages of women in leadership positions, increasing the visibility of women leaders, offering training programs for women leaders and activists and developing policies for gender equity and publicizing them.

After the panel a professional theater group called "Costureras de sueños" of "Seamstresses of Dreams" presented a play called the "Maquila Monologues" (A great play on the "Vagina Monologues"). It began with a steamy dance number parodying the sexy ads that major brands like GAP, Tommy and Levi's use to sell their clothes on the U.S. market.

In the next act, the four actresses transformed from models to factory workers (see above picture). In expertly choreographed movements against a factual narrative, they portrayed conditions within the factories where the clothes are made: the pressure of production quotas, tyrannical floor bosses, pulmonary diseases and other sicknesses, weekly wages of less than $50 for 12-hour days, black lists for workers who protest or attempt to organize, toxic substances, and sexual harassment.

The play is based on extensive interviews with women workers, especially in Tehuacan, Puebla--the "jeans capital of the world" where young, often indigenous women are trapped by poverty and necessity into working in sub-human conditions that deny them their basic rights and dignity. Through the deft combination of personal testimonies and professional staging, the troupe conveyed the reality in offshore plants. Globalization for these women workers is summed up in the line: "The world is as large as the rage I feel."

Women workers in one factory in Tehuacan, Vaqueros Navarra, finally overcame harassment and intimidation to vote in favor of an independent union with the "Sept. 19 Seamstresses Union" last November 23rd. When they came back to work after an unpaid holiday, they were told that the factory had been closed permanently. This is a common tactic of plants that can move freely in search of a cheap, submissive labor force. Labor battles for basic rights too often end in joblessness, indeer a system where the contractors act with impunity. Women workers who dare to speak up are punished for their bravery.

International Women's Day cannot be a celebration until conditions like those described above become merely a reminder of a dark past. Women workers need broad and active solidarity from global justice activists and consumers to make that happen. Think about the real story behind the jeans you put on this morning, and the lives of the women who stitched the fashionable label on the pocket.

This year, as every year, International Women's Day is an opportunity to celebrate the courage of the women who fought for their rights and those who continue to do so, while at the same time recognizing that we have a long way to go. We can only get there together, making the cause of the women who suffer the brunt of the inequities of this system into our own.

To read more and find out more about what you can do, see:

Maquila Solidarity Network www.maquilasolidarity.org

Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras www.coalitionforjustice.net

Frente Auténtico de Trabajo http://www.fatmexico.org/

To contact the women of the Maquila Monologues for a possible showing, email Inti Barrios at xindeku@yahoo.com.

You can view a clip of the play (in Spanish) at http://videos.eluniversal.com.mx/paginas/videosdet2491.html.

Related article from the Americas Policy Program:

Mexico City Seamstresses Remember: Two Decades of Aftershocks from Mexico's 1985 Earthquake at http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2875

NAFTA Conference in DC -Today

Today kicks off the Linking Agriculture, Development and Migration: A Critical Look at NAFTA Past, Present and Future conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC. Laura is presenting and you'll be able to contact her for interviews if you would like to talk to her about her presentation on NAFTA and Migration and other issues.

Topics include: The links between NAFTA, Development and Migration, Impacts of NAFTA on food, agricultural production and small and medium producers, A positive U.S. agenda on trade, agriculture and migration, and How is NAFTA being expanded (the SPP)?

Related Americas Policy Program Articles:

Fourteen Years of NAFTA and the Tortilla Crisis
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4879

Standing Up to NAFTA
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4830

NAFTA Free Trade Myths Lead to Farm Failure in Mexico
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4794