THE NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

NAFTA--CHIAPAS

"They don't care that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads, no land, no work, no health care, no food nor education," reads the Zapatista Army of National Liberation's (EZLIN) declaration of war.

The Zapatistas are a group of Mexico's dispossessed poor, led by and comprised mainly of indigenous people. In an armed conflict with the Mexican government on January 1, 1994, the Zapatistas gained control of eight towns in the mostly native area of Chiapas.

The conditions in which Mexico's indigenous people live is appalling. In the past ten years, more than 150,000 native people have died of curable diseases. Mexican peasants can expect to make only two to three dollars a day in a land rich with oil and coffee. In December of 1993, the passing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was the final blow to the Mayan people of Mexico. Under the NAFTA, environmental or human rights issues can be overridden and ignored if it inhibits free trade between Canada and Mexico. Indigenous people of Mexico now find themselves with less than nothing. The EZLN declaration of war states, "The war that we have declared is a last resort, but a just one".

One June 12, 1994, 10,000 Zapatistas marched into the state capitol of Chiapas, some armed only with sticks carved to look like guns. 40,000 government troops entered the area of conflict and killed hundreds of people using weapons supplied by US trained officers.

The NAFTA, authored by the US, is written only in French, Spanish and English, making it impossible for most indigenous Mexicans, the people most directly affected by the document, to read. In the US, the NAFTA was presented under the "Fast Track" policy to Congress, allowing passage before most US citizens understood what it was and what its implications would be, nationally and worldwide. Not only is the NAFTA a death warrant for peasants in Mexico, it is a threat to American and Canadians as well. Anything is "fair game" under the NAFTA, if it can be considered a threat to free trade.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement acknowledge only governments and trans-national corporations and disregard completely human beings and Mother Earth.

WE URGE THAT A GROUP OF US CONGRESS PERSONS AND SENATORS, AS WELL AS REPRESENTATIVES FROM HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS GO IMMEDIATELY TO CHIAPAS ON A FACT FINDING MISSION INVESTIGATING THE CONDITIONS IN WHICH THE PEASANTS ARE PRESENTLY LIVING.

WE URGE THAT THE US SUSPEND ALL MILITARY AID TO MEXICO AND CONSIDER WITHDRAWAL OF "MOST FAVORED NATION" STATUS TO MEXICO UNTIL SUCH TIME AS THE ABUSE AND OPPRESSION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF MEXICO IS HALTED.

WE URGE THAT THE US REVOKE THE NAFTA AND SUSPEND DISCUSSION ON THE GATT PENDING OPEN NEGOTIATIONS WHICH INCLUDE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF ALL INVOLVED COUNTRIES IMMEDIATELY.

NAFTA--FIRST NATIONS
BY INILA--WAKAN

The North American Free Trade Agreements between the United States, Canadian, and Mexican Governments are yet another attempt to plunder and exploit resources at the expense of the indigenous First Nations of North America. The needless expansion/consumption of the Earth's vital resources via the NAFTA will inevitably undermine the indigenous First Nations' quests for sovereignty and self-determination.

History has taught us that the trans-national corporate empires have repeatedly stripped the First Nations' treaty rights and denied us the basic freedom to protect the land that has nurtured our lives --Sacred Mother Earth.

Everywhere in the world conscious people have reaffirmed their support for First Nation peoples' Five-Hundred Years of Resistance With Dignity. Yet, everywhere our ceremony of innocence is drowned and the encroachment into our lives by greedy aristocrats continues.

In Canada, Mexico, and the United States; indigenous people have been on the receiving end of meaningless exchanges of correspondence and federalist double-speak. And in all three countries First Nation populations suffer from deprivational policies that render us literally helpless in the industrialized world of laisse-faire.

The onslaught of the European races on our land and culture is a story of infamous nature and barely noteworthy. However, the morbid policy of genocide employed by the governments of the Americas' cost the lives of more than fifty-million First Nation people. And federal indoctrination acts as conservator for the ongoing paternalistic relationship that the governments have with the tribes of all continents.

We all live on land occupied by Europeans and we need to begin to heal the pain and suffering of the last 500-plus years of genocide, domination and exploitation of the First Nation people of the Northwest Hemisphere.

We oppose all efforts by Congress, Parliament, Camera de Deputados, or any other political forces to abrogate treaties, and stand in full support of North American land and treaty rights.

First Nation land claims and treaty rights are often at the frontline against government and multinational corporate attempts to plunder energy, minerals, timber, fish and game resources. Continued disrespect for water, air and land in the service of greed and mindless economic expansion/consumption, must not go unbridled. Thus, we support legal, political and grassroots efforts of indigenous First Nations to preserve and protect their rights, livelihoods, sacred spaces, sovereignty and the precious living resources of our common Mother Earth.

We call upon all people of conscience to pressure the Canadian, Mexican and United States Governments to begin serious talks in resolving indigenous claims, based on their sovereignty as it is outlined in the many treaties.

It is our resolve that a continent-wide effort aimed at the abrogation of the North American Free Trade Agreement be undertaken to ensure that the indigenous First Nations rights shall no longer be disparaged.

STATEMENT OF PARTIDO VERDE ECOLOGIST DE MEXICO, THE GREENS/GREENPARTY USA, THE NATIONAL GREEN PARTY OF CANADA; IN SOLIDARITY WITH FIRST NATION PEOPLE OF MEXICO TO U.S. CONGRESS 9/26/93

To the Members of the U.S. Congress: Because we know you will be dealing with the NAFTA issue in the next few months, we would like you to know that we, the PartidoVerde Ecologist de Mexico (Green Ecology Party of Mexico) are completely opposed to the North American Free Trade Agreement for the following reasons:
1. There has not been responsible enforcement of the laws (environmental and labor) which we have presently and we are certain that whatever agreements are made regarding these laws, they will also not be enforced. For example, because of the lack of responsible enforcement of existing laws, the one million acre area of intensely beautiful and diverse bioregions of the Cameche and Tabasco coasts have been totally destroyed.

2. Please take a good look at the 2000 miles of environmental contamination and labor violations along the maquiladora zone. This region, particularly along the Rio Grande, was especially beautiful and rich in biodiversity, that is now lost forever.

3.This agreement was made only for industrial consortiums. It was negotiated in secret by them and will benefit only them.

In closing, you may wish to note that there are 200,000 members in the Partido Verde Ecologist de Mexico. We are all strongly opposed to the NAFTA. We are also in contact with many of our fellow citizens and have found a vast majority are also in opposition to the NAFTA. Furthermore, the US and Canadian Greens are solidly in alignment with us on this most important issue.

This letter is also endorsed by CANAMEX, which is composed of the Green Parties of the USA, Canada and Mexico. It includes representation of numerous indigenous peoples.

Jorge Gonzalez Torres, President, PVEM
*delivered by Inila-Wakan to Congress October 17-18, 1993

NAFTA: BAD FOR MEXICO, BAD FOR CANADA, BAD FOR THE U.S.

During the past few decades, many states passed laws to protect themselves from the increasing number of poisons in the environment. But transnational corporations want unlimited expansion. Largely due to corporate pressure, the Presidents of the US, Canada, and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on September 6, 1992. NAFTA reduced many tariffs and lead people throughout the continent to compete with each other to accept low wages and poisonous environments. NAFTA has already overturned many local and national laws intended to protect citizens. In short, the Democratic and Republican Parties have caved-in to transnational corporations, placing our health, jobs and our democratic right to govern ourselves in serious peril.

We must all work to abrogate the NAFTA agreement and send a strong message to those on Capitol Hill to vote against any trade agreements negotiated in secret. International trade agreements must permit consideration of not only how products are manufactured, they must also improve levels of worker, community and consumer safety.

Trade agreements should include guarantees of workers rights, including the right to organize, and any new trade agreement should include the establishment of a continental minimum wage equal to the difference between U.S. and Mexican workers. Plus, trade agreements should be based on "zero risk" rather than "risk assessment." The corporations which have poisoned Mexican towns must be forced to clean them up at their own expense before any trade is allowed to continue.

To ensure that communities, workers and environments are recognized through the practices and policies of corporations; we must advocate the removal of subsidies from fossil fuels and nuclear industries and institute "move bates" to apply strict forfeiture laws which relinquish the corporations' resources to democratically controlled and worker-owned workplaces. This will effectively prevent corporations from coming into a particular resource-rich region, setting up shop, then moving along once those resources are depleted, leaving behind huge numbers of unemployed workers and destroyed environments.

WHEREAS; AFRICAN AMERICANS, NATIVE "FIRST" NATIONS, LATINOS, ASIAN PACIFIC ISLANDERS, AND ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE LONG ENDURED THE DANGERS OF TOXIC AND NUCLEAR WASTE DUMPS, CHEMICAL PLANTS, PULP AND PAPER MILLS, MILITARY FACILITIES AND LANDFILLS THAT HAVE BEEN DELIBERATELY SITED IN OUR COMMUNITIES;

WE URGE THE ABROGATION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND MEXICO.

Proposition One (Next) | School of the Americas (Back)