A-Infos (en) US, Miami, Anti-Capitalist Bloc of the Americas (ACBA), November 2003

[Worker <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>]

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In 1994, the Organization of American States (OAS) met in Miami to discuss
the prospect for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). In 1994, we
missed them, and so they held their meetings uninterrupted. On November
17th through the 21st, the corporate elite will return to Miami to pursue
that which they have not finished…and we will be waiting for them. The
FTAA was born in Miami, and so it will be buried in Miami.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas is an expansion of the failed policies
of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), and the latest attempt by
the rich and powerful to establish their dominance over the entire world.
It is an institution to create a free trade zone over all of North,
Central, and South America (except for Cuba), which will incorporate the
largest free trade zone in the world. The FTAA will encompass 34 countries,
800 million people, and an unfathomable amount of GDP. In doing so, the
FTAA will give an
egregious amount of wealth and power to the upper capitalist echelon, while
the common masses are left with little or no say in the very relevant
issues that concern them. The corporate elite will use it to surpass any
and all obstacles in their quest for total and complete hegemony. These
obstacles, called ‘barriers to free trade’, will include labor
protection
laws, environmental regulation, and basic social services. The FTAA will
turn the Americas into a single market regulated by free trade, thereby
undermining workers’ integrity, diminishing natural preservation, and the
privatization
of necessary social infrastructure.

Miami is the main contender in acquiring the headquarters of the FTAA
administration, and the city that likes to portray itself as the “Gateway
to the Americas” certainly has a vision of where that “gateway” will
lead.
Beyond the Miami image of the indulgences of celebrities and holidays of
the affluent, are destitute people living in poverty-stricken communities.
One only has to look around Miami to observe the opulence and wealth of the
privileged few presiding over extreme poverty and misery of the toiling
masses. As the FTAA delegates meet in the luxurious high rise that is the
Intercontinental Hotel, they will have a beautiful view of the impoverished
neighborhoods just a few city blocks away. The corresponding conference
occurring right before the Summit is the Americas Business Forum, which
reveals the true interests of the elite. Where is the workers forum, the
peasant forum, or even the concerned citizen’s forum? That is their
agenda, and that is their end.

   >From November 19 through the 21st, a convergence of people and
organizations will come to Miami in defiance against the FTAA. Many in the
anti-globalization milieu would like to repeat the œsuccess of
Cancun's
WTO meeting, where several delegates from the poorer countries walked out
against the attempted manipulations of the US and EU. In reality though,
these delegates are merely representatives of the entrenched abusive order,
and are only interested in getting the best possible deal for the upper echelon of
their respective countries. They are still capitalist countries using
police states to enforce the inequality and disparity that they claim the
FTAA will alleviate. We share no affinity for these governments regardless
of what leanings they may profess to have. We seek to create a new world,
one based upon the tenets of cooperation, participation, and autonomy in all aspects of
life. We stand in solidarity with our brother and sister workers, peasants,
and laborers throughout the Americas in bringing about that world, using
mutual aid, solidarity, and direct action.

November 20th is the day of direct action in which all those who oppose the
predatory policies of the capitalist elite will come together to not just
voice opposition to the FTAA, but to engage in direct action to shut down
the conference. Nothing short of total and absolute dissolution of the FTAA
and neo-liberal capitalism will dissuade us. We are calling upon all
anti-capitalist revolutionaries to converge on Miami, the birth-site of the
FTAA, and turn it into the deathbed of the FTAA. We will form a black bloc,
the Anti-Capitalist Bloc of the Americas, and use any methods necessary and

all means appropriate. We must form our groups, we must raise our fists,
and inscribe in our banners “Internationalism: YES! Globalization: NO!”

Because Capitalism Cannot Be Reformed!

All relevant information (Contacts, Meeting Times and Places, etc.) will be
provided as it becomes appropriate.

Sponsors:
Great Plains Anarchist Cluster
-Prairie Breaker Collective (Omaha, NE)
-Kansans Against Capitalism (Lawrence, KS)
-Kirksville Anarchist Collective (Kirksville, MO)
(pending)

For information and endorsement, contact*:
Miamionmymind@s-mail.com
*please use s-mail (www.s-mail.com)

Endorsers:
New Jersey NEFAC
(pending)


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