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CommentaryWar and Globalization: Two Faces of EmpireIf you've never attended a protest organized by the anti-globalization movement because you thought the antiwar movement was more important, think again! Economic domination and war go hand in hand. Both are tools of the deadly empire-building strategy pursued by the Bush regime, as exemplified in Latin America.
Economic tactics like the blockade or sanctions (Cuba, Iraq) are virtually acts of war in themselves. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), imposed ten years ago, increased U.S. economic domination in the name of so-called free trade. This deceptive phrase meant removing trade barriers established by Canada and Mexico that prevented U.S. corporate interests from acquiring new markets in those countries. It meant "freeing" them from having to respect local laws protecting the environment. The result: new poverty and suffering. In Mexico, for example, the price farmers receive for their corn has dropped 45 percent in three years because U.S. agribusiness can now push its subsidized corn onto the Mexican market. Increased rates of hepatitis and birth defects in the maquiladora (sweatshop) zones have resulted from pollution and improper disposal of chemical wastes. In 2003, economic assaults on people and the land continue. Bush is pressing for passage of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement, which would impose the NAFTA model onto the whole Western Hemisphere. He is also trying to impose the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). CAFTA will increase the suffering already plaguing countries like El Salvador and Guatemala after decades of U.S.-supported oppression. With "free trade" comes privatization, the process of converting publicly owned resources--ranging from a nation's oil to its schools and hospitals--into private property for private profit. Corporate "globalization," with big transnationals pushing small companies out of business further extends economic imperialism. PEOPLE ARE RISING UPSince 1994, when indigenous people in Chiapas, Mexico, deliberately launched their uprising the day NAFTA was to take effect, people around the world have been resisting the U.S. strategy. Protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 wrecked its meeting in Seattle, as happened again this year in Cancún. Leading a fierce insurgency, the people of Bolivia recently ousted their president. He had been imposing on indigenous people--with strong U.S. support--a merciless agenda of "free trade." In Argentina and Brazil, rising opposition threatens passage of the FTAA. In El Salvador last September, health care workers went on a nine-month strike against privatization of the health care system, with massive support. They returned to work out of concern for the sick, but this struggle continues. The strike stirred many Salvadorans to protest "free trade" and the war, for they recognized that economic exploitation and war are rotten fruits from the same tree. In the March 2004 Salvadoran elections, it seems quite possible the next president will be Shafik Handal of the militant FMLN (Frente Farabundo Martí para Liberación Nacional) party. Handal has voiced strong opposition to CAFTA and the war on Iraq, which led his party to be labeled "terrorists." As Handal said recently in San Francisco, "The rightwing media manipulates the information with brutal campaigns, propaganda, lies…" Organizations across the hemisphere are mobilizing to oppose FTAA negotiations in Miami Nov. 19-21. In the U.S., unity between our antiwar and anti-globalization forces is urgent, as it is throughout the world. No war, no globalization, no empire. We say, Rise Up! Kaira Espinoza is an activist and a student at California State University at San Francisco. |
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