CAFTA Anti-Capitalist Bloc Call to Action, New Orleans, July 25-August 1 : NOLA Indymedia

CAFTA Anti-Capitalist Bloc Call to Action, New Orleans, July 25-August 1

Converge on New Orleans this summer to stop the free trade vampires in their latest attempt to destroy peoples’ lives. Put a wrench in the capitalist death machine!

The sixth round of negotiations for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) will take place in New Orleans, from Monday, July 28 to Friday, August 1, 2003. The talks began January, 2003 and nine rounds of negotiations are expected to conclude around December, 2003.

CAFTA is a trade agreement being negotiated by government representatives from United States and Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. It is modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

President Bush has voiced his support for CAFTA and hopes to have an agreement sealed as quickly as possible, in part to move the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations forward faster. Stopping CAFTA is an important step in defeating the FTAA.

CAFTA contains all of the same destructive policies as NAFTA and the FTAA, including secrecy, corporate domination, increased inequality, disappearing public services, reduced labor rights, extension of monocrop agribusiness, the patenting of life and medicines, and environmental devastation.

We’ve seen this before. CAFTA represents a further entrenchment of the logic of free-market capitalism. All human needs are subordinated to the profit motives of a select few, while anything that gets in the way is steamrolled and labeled by the capitalists as a barrier to trade. We are organizing to stop capitalism, and we recognize CAFTA as the latest tool to further extend the logic of capitalism over every sector of human life.
After the diversion of September 11th, things are heating up in North America again, with upcoming actions against the WTO summit in Cancun in September and the FTAA summit in Miami in November. We hope these actions against CAFTA in New Orleans will spur renewed momentum for the movement against so-called “free trade” and capitalism.

Events kick off in New Orleans on Saturday, July 26th, with a march against the arrival of CAFTA delegates, which will include an anti-capitalist contingent. Other events planned include an anti-capitalist snake march during the summit itself, teach-ins and discussions, a concert benefiting potential legal fees, and affinity-group actions. So bring your friends and come organized! Most actions will be centered around the weekend before, and the first days of the summit, from the 25th to the 28th. A convergence space is being secured along with housing and other logistics.

More info on CAFTA and all organizing updates can be found at: www.stopcafta.org (the Stop CAFTA Coalition’s website)
Anti-capitalists, email NOACB with your plans or questions: noacb@ziplip.com

We hope you’ll join us in New Orleans as we continue the struggle against capitalist oppression!

- New Orleans Anti-Capitalist Bloc