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mexico border ftaa protest
As tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Quebec City, about a thousand people protested against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) at the US-Mexico border in San Ysidro, Calif.
Most of them were students, bused in from various schools around the state. Activists at the Southern California campuses of UCLA and UC Irvine both organized buses to bring people to the protest, and some came from as far away as the San Francisco Bay Area.
The highlight of the event was a march to the border, where an impromptu rally was held at the entrance. Although hundreds of cops in riot gear lined the streets and helicopters circled overhead, we were able to avoid any major confrontations with the police.
Before the march there was a rally in a nearby park, where numerous activists spoke about the negative effects of the FTAA on the people of the Americas. Tom Morello, from the group Rage Against the Machine, was a featured speaker.
A theme for many who spoke was the globalization of resistance. The borders erected by capitalist governments to keep us separated were repeatedly denounced, and protesters chanted, "las luchas obreras no tienen fronteras" ("the workers' struggles have no borders").
The demonstration was coordinated with Mexican activists who held a simultaneous rally across the border in Tijuana. Many from the American protest later crossed the border to participate in activities on the other side. The following day there was a bi-national solidarity conference held in Baja California.
The only break in the spirit of international solidarity came from the secretary treasurer of the San Diego Central Labor Council, who defended the position of the Teamsters Union officialdom that Mexican truckers should be stopped from entering the United States. "We are going to raise standards for workers on that side of the border by enforcing the laws on this side," he said. Unfortunately, this argument is just a cover to those in the labor movement who target Mexican workers as the problem rather than the bosses in this country.
But the vast majority of protesters in San Ysidro were young people who have become fed up with a system run for the profits of the few rather than the interests of the great majority. They see the FTAA as another step towards the further domination of corporations over our lives, which it is.
But trade agreements like this one will continue to be made as long as capitalism exists. The current organization of our societies cannot benefit the majority of people no matter what trade agreements are in place.
The laws they pass to restrict or free the flow of capital across borders only benefit the rich. We need to build a society in which the majority of people democratically control every aspect of our lives, a society based upon, as one popular slogan put it, "human need not corporate greed." This requires a socialist transformation of society.
This article was written by Paul McKim. It first appeared in the May 2001 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.
