Dispatches from Miami: Special Report

December 2003

Labor Notes asked various labor activists to send us a report of their experience protesting the Free Trade Area of the Americas talks which took place in Miami during the week of November 17. Trade ministers were meeting to try to strike a deal that will expand the current "free trade zone" (currently Canada, United States and Mexico under NAFTA) to include all the rest of the 34 countries in Central and South America.

Read here what our various authors, representing among others local Miami garment workers active in Miami Jobs with Justice, workers who build aeroplane engines in Massachusets and farmworkers in Immokalee, FL., did to educate their communities about the negative effects of free trade on workers and how they rallied, protested and marched in the streets to voice their opposition to the FTAA talks."

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Local 201 Marches Against FTAA
by Paul R. Babin
Executive Board Member, Local 201 IUE-CWA, Lynn, MA

Spending several of our remaining vacation days, as well as our own potential Christmas money, a delegation from Local 201 of the International Union of Electrical Workers - Communication Workers of America (IUE-CWA)-which represents workers at the General Electric Jet Engine Riverworks and Waste Water Treatment plants in Lynn, Massachusetts, and the AMETEK Aerospace plant in Wilmington, Massachusetts-and the North Shore Labor Council of Lynn protested at the Free Trade Area of the Americas meetings in Miami during the week of November 17th.

Our mission was to join with thousands of other labor activists from around the country, and the world, to denounce the FTAA, as we have in the past against WTO in Seattle and the FTAA in Quebec.

Under NAFTA, our Local has lost 84 jobs (1/3rd of the workforce) to Reynosa, Mexico from our AMETEK plant in Wilmington. Our local has sent delegations down to Mexico that found workers from the Reynosa plant living in squalor on a $6.00 a day wage. Women working there are fired if found to be pregnant and trying to organize workers can also get you fired and blackballed from further employment.

Our first days in Miami were spent getting settled into the hotel and learning how to get around. The local press was truly over-the-top with 24-hour coverage of how the anarchists were coming to destroy Miami and how the local police had been issued “Robocop” suits that would protect them. Still, people were friendly and helpful and didn’t inquire if we were there to burn down the city. The truth came out later when they had to report that the vast majority of Labor and Rights Groups demonstrators were peaceful. But you know who got all the press.

The violence these trade agreements inflict on workers and people, both here and abroad, gets lost on those watching TV when all the mainstream media shows them is teargas and blood. The same thing happened in Seattle and Quebec and is disappointing. But, as in Seattle and Quebec, some of the truth got out.

During the week I was invited to speak at a People’s Tribunal organized by RootCause, a local coalition of Florida labor and community groups. Beyond the mass demonstrations, workshops and speak-outs like these are so important because they give us the opportunity to inform each other of the injustices that we are struggling with, stories that we can bring back to our communities.

The workshop I participated in was called “Workers without Borders.” It included an organizer from the UFCW’S WalMart Campaign as well as representatives from the Workers Support Center in Mexico, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida, and the Restaurant Opportunities Center in New York.

The March and Rally for Global Justice took place on Thursday the 20th and the “Robocops” were out in full force. So were over 20,000 labor and coalition members that had assembled all morning at the Amphitheater for the short noontime march around the city of Miami. As the crowd moved through town, blue Steelworkers flags mixed with purple SEIU shirts, red and black UNITE hats, gray dolphin-heads worn by environmental activists, and white and blue Jobs with Justice banners.

The news that night from the trade meeting was that was that the talks had not gone well for the corporate interests behind the FTAA. Was it pressure from Brazil and Venezuela or our presence that forced a quick end to the talks, or maybe a combination of both? We all felt, that at least in a small way, we had made a difference and will continue to do so whenever and wherever we can.

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South Floridians say “No FTAA”: We Are Determined to Keep Fighting!
by Jonathan Harris Organizer
South Florida Jobs with Justice

Chants of “FTAA, No Way” and “Jobs with Justice” could be heard throughout the streets of downtown Miami on Thursday November 20. Thousands of workers, unionists, immigrants, students, clergy, and community activists marched peacefully up Biscayne Boulevard to show their disgust with the trade ministers who were quietly negotiating away our rights and dignity in the Intercontinental Hotel, only 2 blocks away.

This march was the culmination of months of preparation to educate the South Florida community about the dangers of the FTAA. Much popular education was required to combat the local corporate media’s and police’s pro-FTAA lies. Starting in June, South Florida Jobs with Justice activists held one-on-one meetings with community leaders and union officials to persuade their members and followers to protests against the FTAA. At the beginning, most had never heard of the FTAA, but come November, local leaders and activists were mobilizing their members for a week of powerful activities.

The week of the Miami action began with a press conference on the potential effects of the FTAA on immigrants living in South Florida. Several of the Miami Immigrant Workers Freedom Riders, including Amrry Gonzalez, testified that free trade destroyed their livelihood in their native countries, forcing them to come to the US. “In Nicaragua, I was an agronomist working with cotton farmers,” said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez continued: “The $3 billion in subsidies the U.S. provides to its cotton farmers meant we could not compete and make a living. That's why I came to the United States. The U.S. has already said it will not discuss its agriculture policies, which allow big agribusiness companies to pay below-cost prices throughout the hemisphere, at the FTAA summit. When they say ‘free trade,’ we say ‘free for whom?’”

Micheline Charles told similar stories about industries in Haiti, her home country. She added, “It brings tears to my eyes to see the women who make nice clothes living in such terrible conditions. The jobs the FTAA creates are abuse.” Charles said that her factory job in Miami went overseas as part of the exodus of US jobs associated with free trade policies.

Although NAFTA caused a net loss of 28,000 jobs in Florida, FTAA proponents project an estimated 89,000 jobs created in Florida if Miami is selected as the FTAA headquarters. We know that a Miami FTAA headquarters would bring 400 new jobs to Florida-the number of staff required to operate the office. Where the other 88,600 potential jobs would come from is a mystery. It seems more likely that, since FTAA is an expansion of NAFTA, FTAA would only expand the job losses caused by NAFTA.

On Tuesday November 18, around 100 people attended the “Latinos Contra el ALCA/Latinos Against the FTAA” conference, which heard testimony of workers from throughout the Americas on the catastrophic effects that free trade agreements like the FTAA bring to their countries. The following day, the “Colombia Militarization and Free Trade” forum attracted many Colombians and their allies concerned about the growing paramilitary forces in Colombia and their ties to free trade.

The “People’s Gala,” on Wednesday November 19, saw thousands move to the revolutionary beats of the Night Watchmen, dead prez, Billy Bragg, and other groups. Despite the heavy police presence in full riot gear, this rejuvenating evening allowed for all to enjoy free music while preparing for the next day’s street heat.

Thursday’s march and rally against the FTAA proved that we could peacefully raise our voices against corporate globalization in our streets, in our city. After a peaceful 20,000+ march, police decided to begin firing on us-everything from tear gas to wooden bullets, from pepper spray to tazers and stun guns.

Despite months of negotiation and agreements that they would not use force, notorious Miami Police Chief John Timoney called for the beatings and mass arrests of 250 peaceful protesters, including retired teachers, bus drivers, students, and journalists. Indeed, Miami had become a police state, with the consent of our elected officials.

However, we are determined to fight back, with hundreds of new local activists who have been radicalized by what they saw in the streets. We will continue fighting the FTAA and all forms of corporate greed in the streets of South Florida for as long as it takes. Sigue pa’lante!

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La Justicia Global Desde la Base
por Gerardo Reyes Chávez

Soy miembro de la Coalición de Trabajadores de Immokalee (CIW en inglés) que es una organización en el suroeste de la Florida formada por trabajadores de Guatemala, México, y Haití. La Coalición esta luchando para terminar con los abusos que existen en la industria agrícola-20 años de sueldos estancados, falta de beneficios y en los casos mas extremos, hasta esclavitud moderna donde trabajadores son forzados a trabajar a punta de pistola. (Ha habido 5 casos de esclavitud en la Florida en los últimos 6 años procesados por el Departamento de Justicia.)

Taco Bell es uno de los compradores de jitomate más grandes en Florida, y tiene la responsabilidad por las condiciones inhumanas en que trabajamos porque se beneficia de ellas. Es por eso que hemos llamado a un boicot nacional contra Taco Bell, creando alianzas con estudiantes de todo el país, gente de iglesias y otros consumidores para demandar que Taco Bell tome responsabilidad para cambiar las condiciones de “sweatshop” o “fabricas de sudor” que existen en los campos donde cosechamos los jitomates que ellos usan.

El Libre Comercio y Su Relación Con Nuestra Pobreza

Por años hemos llevado una lucha global desde nuestra comunidad en Immokalee para enseñarle a las grandes corporaciones a tomar responsabilidad por la pobreza y sufrimiento que causan. Cuando supimos que el ALCA (“FTAA”) venia a Miami, empezamos a intercambiar ideas para educar a las comunidades sobre los efectos que este acuerdo podría causar en todas partes del hemisferio.

Antes del TLC (Tratado de Libre Comercio - NAFTA en inglés), México era uno de los mayores exportadores de maíz y otros granos básicos. Cuando se firmó el TLC, se abrió una competencia desigual entre industrias agrícolas corporativas de los Estados Unidos y pequeños productores de México. Esto desplazó a millones de campesinos de sus tierras debido a la pobreza. Ahora, muchos miembros de la Coalición vivimos el resultado del TLC. Dejamos de exportar maíz para exportar mano de obra barata para la industria agrícola de los Estados Unidos y la industria de comida rápida, como Taco Bell. Rigoberto Almanza, miembro de la Coalición, explicó “El ALCA es una amenaza para la autonomía de las comunidades pobres de las Américas, y sus promesas encierran la mas profunda miseria.”

Por todo eso, decidimos unirnos con otros grupos de base en el sur de Florida: Miami Workers Center, LIFFT (“Low-Income Families Fighting Together”) y Power U para crear “Root Cause” (“Raíz de La Lucha”) y luchar juntos contra el ALCA. Nos reunimos cada semana en los meses antes de la junta del ALCA para planear una marcha de 3 días, un “Tribunal del Pueblo” y para hacer un reporte sobre el impacto que el libre comercio crea en las comunidades pobres y de color. En el reporte, escribimos, “...Nosotros nos hemos unido para expresar nuestra creencia que todos, no importando la raza, lugar de nacimiento, género o identidad sexual, tiene el derecho a:

* Cuidado médico * Un sueldo justo * Mejores condiciones de trabajo * Vivienda decente * Igual acceso a la educación * Un ambiente limpio para vivir y trabajar * Una voz en las decisiones que afectan nuestras vidas.

No al ALCA-Sí a la vida. ¡OTRA AMERICA ES POSIBLE!

En Immokalee, para animar la participación de mas miembros en los eventos contra el ALCA, usamos las juntas que hacemos cada miércoles para comunicar el mensaje sobre el ALCA por medio de teatro y folletos. También mostramos videos en las juntas y en los campos de casas rodantes (“trailers”), pusimos anuncios en la radio local, y repartimos café gratis mientras pasábamos información en las madrugadas.

Más que 40 miembros de la Coalición participaron en el “Root Cause People’s March” (del 16-18 de noviembre) que era una marcha de 34 millas (una milla por cada país que el ALCA quiere incluir en el acuerdo). Llegamos a Miami el día 18 de noviembre marchando con más de mil aliados. Fue todo un éxito por que logramos unir nuestras luchas locales en una lucha globalizada que afecta a todos por igual, y llevamos nuestro mensaje a miles de personas en Miami y a millones más por medio de la prensa y los medios independientes. Después de la marcha, Francisca Cortéz, miembro de la Coalición, dijo, “Treinta y cuatro millas fueron un camino largo, pero nada comparado con vivir y trabajar en la miseria que el TLC ha creado y que ahora el ALCA quiere extender por las Américas. Es por eso que lucharemos hasta que las voces de los trabajadores sean escuchadas e incluidas.”

Al día siguiente (el 19 de noviembre), hicimos el “Tribunal del Pueblo” donde usamos el teatro como una manera creativa de enseñar las luchas de cada organización. Representantes de varios movimientos sociales dieron su testimonio y al final los jueces encontraron culpable al ALCA de negociar un futuro obscuro para todos. La sentencia fue que lucharemos más unidos que nunca para no dejar que se firmen más acuerdos de libre comercio.

Durante el proceso organizativo de “Root Cause” aprendimos mucho sobre las luchas de nuestros compañeros en Miami y construimos lazos con organizaciones de todo el país y otras partes del hemisferio.

Las organizaciones de base del sur de Florida seguiremos luchando siempre en nuestras comunidades, y estaremos unidos siempre que la dignidad de nosotros y de nuestros hermanos del mundo este en juego. Como dicen todos los miembros de Root Cause, “¡Nosotros queremos comercio justo que respete a los derechos humanos y no comercio libre que explote a los seres humanos!”

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Report On The FTAA Week Of Action In Miami
by Claire Beyer
Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality (SOLE)

The week of action against the FTAA in Miami was my first large-scale protest, and it was incredible.

Myself and fourteen other members of Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality (SOLE), the University of Michigan’s United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) affiliate, made the trip down.

As a USAS affiliate, SOLE is interested in improving working conditions abroad, especially in sweatshops. For example, since NAFTA began, 100,000 Mexican corn farmers have had to leave their land in search of wage labor because their crop prices were undercut by subsidized corn from the United States. FTAA will force farmers from across the Western Hemisphere to leave their jobs, move to cities, and take sweatshop jobs.

Currently, SOLE is working on a campaign with the striking workers of Borders bookstore in Ann Arbor. It may seem like a local Borders campaign has little to do with an international trade agreement, but they are absolutely connected.

The strike at this particular store represents the larger issue of the Borders corporation engaging in union busting tactics at Borders stores across the nation, and more importantly, the lack of unions in this country’s growing retail sector. This is a problem that will become even more serious as more manufacturing jobs are lost-some to factories relocating to the third world to take advantage of lower wages and weaker safety regulations-and few unionized jobs are left in the U.S.

The FTAA negotiations have excluded labor organizations from the decision-making process. Like Borders Inc., the FTAA supports corporate control over workers through the creation of barriers to worker solidarity.

Leading up to November, SOLE held several educational events related to the FTAA on campus. There was a film screening of “Tear Gas Holiday”, a documentary of the anti-FTAA protests in Quebec City in 2001, and an anti-violence activism training session facilitated by the Michigan Peace Team was held for those of us going to Miami and other interested groups, such as the workers from the Borders picket line.

At our weekly meetings, we set aside time for planning these events and for general discussion about the effects of globalization and present and future trade laws and agreements. We discussed how to talk to the media without being misrepresented, about direct action survival techniques, and about what to expect once we got to the protests.

During our stay in Miami, SOLE had the opportunity to talk and have dinner with members of the Steelworkers Union. I learned that the police threat varied considerably with my proximity to the union members and other “low-risk” protestors.

I experienced this firsthand during the pre-march rally on November 20. Speakers from the AFL-CIO had gathered to speak at the Bayfront Park Amphitheater. As the police ushered retirees and union members into the amphitheater, an uneasy feeling came over me as the crowd outside became a more homogenous sea of young dread-locked demonstrators with vinegar-soaked bandanas tied around their necks. Suddenly I was aware that I was arrestable, tear-gassable, rubber-bulletable.

When telling people I had bought a plane ticket for Miami and I was going down to protest the FTAA, I was surprised at the number of people who didn't know what I was talking about. I have explained the framework and consequences of this agreement so many times that it's becoming almost automatic. After I've explained it people usually agree with me that something must be done to stop the FTAA-some even have resolved to take action themselves.

However, I still sometimes feel like thousands of activists shouting in the streets won't do much to change the minds of those writing the draft. Trying to be heard through more diplomatic means (emails, letters, telephone calls) also seems a little naive-citizen input isn't exactly welcome in the negotiations.

But I remember how I felt when I was marching and chanting “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido” (The people united will never be defeated). I believed those words the day I was marching along with tens of thousands of others. And I believe it now.

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PROTESTING THE NEXT STEP IN FREE TRADE: NAFTA WAS BAD ENOUGH
by Jason Wallach Mexico
Solidarity Network

The Mexico Solidarity Network-an organization that connects students, community-based organizations, rank and file workers, and other grassroots activists struggling for economic justice on both sides of the US/Mexico border-did a lot of work to prepare preparation for the FTAA meeting and protests in Miami.

We organized tours and workshops throughout the US to inform folks about the effects of NAFTA on Mexico and the US.

At every event, we encouraged people to mobilize for Miami. We also encouraged folks to voice their opposition to the FTAA by signing and distributing the anti-FTAA ballots we brought along with us.

A number of different groups in the US, including the AFL-CIO, Jobs With Justice, and the People’s Consulta, have been using ballots as a way to educate large numbers of people about the FTAA and what it would mean for workers and small farmers everywhere.

All of the groups were inspired by the 60 member coalition in Brazil that collected over 10 million ballots; 98 percent of them opposed the FTAA/ALCA (the acronym in Spanish and Portuguese).

A THREE-DAY MARCH

While in Miami, MSN activists participated in a number of events. We started off by joining the three-day, 34-mile march put together by Root Cause, the coalition formed by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Miami Workers Center, and POWER U, whose members are low-wage workers of color in south Florida.

We also supported the direct actionists at the convergence center-a meeting, strategizing, cultural, and education space for groups and individuals seeking creative ways to build resistance to free trade and pro-corporate politics-and in the streets.

And we proudly marched with our brothers and sisters at the 10,000 strong labor march that took place on November 20.

Even though the anti-FTAA forces in Miami were unable to stop the FTAA from going forward, MSN is clear that we will continue to actively oppose the FTAA until workers rights are honored and respected.

GLOBALIZED RESISTANCE

The massive demonstration of police force in Miami underlined a not-so-subtle message that the Bush administration and their Republican cronies want us all to believe: resistance to corporate globalization is futile. But $8.5 million of new body armor and crowd control paraphernalia-paid for through a rider in the Iraq/Afghanistan spending bill-could not silence the message that thousands of rank and file workers, community activists, students, and retirees brought to Miami: globalized resistance is inevitable.

Inside the fenced perimeter, trade ministers scrapped the original FTAA draft.

Now member nations need only sign on to only the sections of the agreement they like. Ministers set no timetable for new negotiations. Public Citizen’s Lori Wallach dubbed the outcome a "punt strategy" because it pushes negotiated decisions into an undefined future. The all-encompassing agreement that Bush Sr. envisioned in Miami in 1991 is, for now, dead.

HARD TO ORGANIZE UNDER NAFTA

However, for Mexican workers and campesinos, the news of a toned-down FTAA did not have an impact. Workers in Mexico continue to suffer the daily effects of ten years of NAFTA, which did not bring the jobs and wage increases its proponents promised.

A number of progressive and left activists had hoped that NAFTA would open up space for workers to build democratic unions which were independent of the government-dominated unions so famous for their sweetheart deals with the bosses and strong-arm tactics toward rank and file efforts to change them.

This hope was fleeting. Since 1994, organizing conditions have deteriorated as repression against union activists increased.

According to labor journalist David Bacon, "...the historical labour protections built into Mexico's legal system have been systematically undermined and eliminated as obstacles to investment. Even when Mexican judges held that strikes were legal, their decisions were defied with impunity by government authorities. Under NAFTA, breaking strikes and unions has become an integral part of economic development, and legal protections for workers have been swept away."

CAMPAIGN AGAINST TARRANT MAKES GAINS

Ongoing organizing struggles in Mexico speak for themselves. Since August 2003 workers at the Tarrant Apparel sweatshop in Puebla, Mexico have struggled for an independent, democratic union. They formed an organization called SUITTAR, a Spanish acronym for "the Independent Union of Tarrant México Company Workers."

In October, Puebla’s labor arbitration board denied the SUITTAR legal recognition based on a number of arbitrary technicalities. In its denial, the board said that SUITTAR’s biggest violations was that it had failed to deliver "duplicate copies" of their application (the union delivered only one copy with the application) and had misspelled a single name on a list of 750.

Tarrant Apparel, which produces clothes for Tommy Hilfiger and Abercrombie and Fitch, has fired any worker it suspects has ties to the organizing effort. More than 400 workers have been laid off or fired since the organizing drive began. Workers lucky enough to maintain their positions earn between $40-70 per 48-hour work week.

Workers demands at Tarrant are straight forward: Reinstate illegally fired workers. Grant legal recognition to the democratic and independent SUITTAR union and throw out the company union. Negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with SUITTAR.

Maintaining the struggle has been difficult. Many fired workers, feeling the pressures of grinding poverty, have signed termination agreements and accepted severance pay packages.

However, there are positive signs on the horizon. In September, the Workers Rights Consorsium (WRC), which monitors working condition in sweatshops, issued a report exposing Tarrant's attack on the right to organize.

As part of their on-going campaign to support Tarrant workers, United Students Against Sweatshops picketed during the FTAA ministerial a Miami store of the huge nationwide “Federated” department store chain, which carry Tarrant-made clothes. Pressure on Tarrant’s major clients resulted in Levi’s pulling all contracts. At the writing of this article, pressure from international solidarity continues on Limited Brands, Charming Shoppes, Abercrombie & Fitch, Candie’s and Tommy Hilfiger.

Protesters of the FTAA ministerial in Miami represented a sample of the globalized resistance to free trade and privatization. They were backed up by the hundreds of thousands of Mexican, Latin American and US workers who live the daily devastation of the free trade model.

NAFTA led to declines in wages, jobs, benefits and a deterioration of the right to organize in all three signatory nations. Workers at Tarrant Apparell in Puebla, Mexico won’t see immediate benefits of Miami's stalled march to ratify the FTAA.

However, if activists continue building international support for Tarrant workers in their courageous struggle for union recognition, we can create another monument to the power of international solidarity. And that's a message that will permeate whatever fence the CEOs and trade ministers construct at their next meeting.

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For more information: Sweatshop Watch | U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project | Mexico Solidarity Network | American Lands Alliance