The Next Seattle--Why Activists Are Headed for Quebec April 21-22

"Why I am Going to Quebec City"
-- By Grahame Russell, March 20, 2001

Daily papers and news programs are filling up with information and
commentary about the Summit of the Americas to take place in Quebec
City, April 21-22. More often than not they are filling up with
simplistic or unfounded statements as to why thousands of citizens from
across North America are making their way to Quebec City to protest the
"Free" Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), and the unjust global
economic and political order that the FTAA will further entrench.

It is a shame -- and wrong -- that for all their words about democracy,
much of the press, and our political institutions are taking steps not
to debate openly the state of the global economic and political order.
The Canadian government will not even release a draft of the proposed
FTAA agreement.

Though I can't afford $500,000 to host a dinner for the invited
"leaders" of the Americas, and though I can't afford $75,000 to have
them pop by for coffee between working sessions, nevertheless I am going
to Quebec. I reject the term "anti-globalization" that is repeated
unquestioningly, to cast in a negative ("anti") light who we are and why
we will gather outside their chain-linked fences, in front of their
heavily armed security forces.

"Globalization" is not new, or even recent. The world is extremely
inter-connected, and the roots of this political, economic, military and
cultural integration - much of it based on brutal conquest and racist
exploitation -- go back at least 500 years.

Furthermore, while many of us are critical of the role (and increasing
rule) of certain huge corporations, banks and inter-governmental
economic institutions in this unjust global order, our concerns are more
complex than simply saying that we are against the homogenization of
culture, as if we would approve of the present global order if only we
didn't see golden arches everywhere.

What we are against is a political and economic model that exploits
people, often ruthlessly, that indirectly and directly violates
economic, political, social, civil and cultural rights, and that abuses
the planet's resources and environment.

Regularly, I read of the 34 "elected" leaders of the Americas who are
coming to Quebec. This is superficial and insulting to many millions of
people in the Americas whose lives are marked by varying degrees of
poverty and repression imposed by pseudo-democratic regimes. Misleading
references to "elected" governments ignores that these governments (that
range from the formally democratic through to the openly repressive and
corrupt) are kept in place in part due to their political, economic and
military ties with the dominant nations from the north, with certain
corporations and banks, and with a host of inter-governmental economic
institutions, such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development
Bank, the IMF, etc.

Is this just some "anti-globalization" rant? Why won't the dominant
media companies, let alone our governments, send qualified investigators
to visit the impoverished shanty-towns and dispossessed rural areas of
the Americas, and report fully on the endemic poverty (kept in place by
repression) that characterizes the lives of so many citizens of the
Americas?

Why is this repression and deadly poverty not front-page news,
everyday? Why are our "elected" officials not decrying poverty and
repression in parliamentary and congressional sessions, every day? Why
do our political "leaders" not question, everyday, many of the policies
and programs of global economic institutions, such as the World Bank and
the IMF, that deepen poverty at the same time that more wealth is being
accumulated by a smaller and smaller group of countries, individuals and
corporations?

Is there some other "western hemisphere" out there where democracy
flourishes - except in Cuba, of course! -- and poverty has all but
disappeared? No. Until discussion about the global order honestly
addresses the environmental destruction, poverty and accompanying
repression, and until serious changes are implemented, then more and
more people are going to travel to Quebec City, Seattle, Prague,
Washington, Davos, etc, to protest how our global political and economic
systems work.

And we go not simply to protest. In Quebec City, as was the case at
other gatherings, there are educational forums about any and everything
related to the global political and economic order. Rights Action, the
organization I work for, is bringing a Honduran woman and a Mexican man
on month-long speaking tours, to dialogue with North American audiences
about how the "free" trade economic model perpetuates and worsens
poverty (and indeed repression) in their countries.

"Foreign" affairs used to be the exclusive domain of political, economic
and media elites. This is no longer the case. More and more citizens
have traveled to and lived in the "developing" countries of Asia, Africa
and the Americas, or in the impoverished slums and native reserves of
the "developed" north. Ever increasing numbers of school and
universities are teaching an unvarnished version of history and global
affairs, looking closely at the causes of the poverty, environmental
destruction and repression that are common fare for many of our global
co-citizens.

We know that "the north" (from our governments, to companies and banks,
to inter-governmental institutions dominated by the north) often
contributes to this poverty, environmental destruction and repression.
We know what changes are needed to the reigning political-economic
model. Eradicating poverty (not "alleviating" it) and living in harmony
with the earth's environment, are not difficult to conceive of, or to
bring about. As the expression goes, this is not rocket science. The
obstacles are not lack of know-how, but rather political and moral will,
from the local to the national and international levels.

Missing, at the highest levels of government, economic institutions and
the media, is a sense of shame and anger about endemic poverty and
related repression. Missing is a sense of urgency about the need to end
poverty now, for the deaths and devastation it wreaks on the lives of
people across the planet.

Thousands are traveling to Quebec City to protest the lack of sincerity
and political will of our political "leaders" and dominant economic
sectors, and to advocate for serious political and economic change. We
do so through a sense of solidarity with people across the Americas,
through a sense of responsibility that the "north" is contributing to
repression and impoverishment of people across the Americas, and a sense
of urgency that transforming the dominant political-economic model,
eradicating poverty and ending repression cannot wait.

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Grahame Russell is with Rights Action. www.rightsaction.org. Feel free
to copy, publish and re-distribute this article.

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