---------- From: Bob Olsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 01 Jan 2001 16:37:52 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Canadians organize against globalization, April 2000 Canadians are organizing to welcome the -- _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________ Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, April 20-22, 2001. "What is FTAA"? (at the bottom) explains why. Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 00:13:54 -0500 (EST) From: "la C.L.A.C." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: stopftaa: Quebec 2001: Update --- CLAC UPDATE -- December 2000 --- CONTENTS: - What's happening next April 2001? - What is the FTAA? (see also WHAT IS FTAA? at bottom) - What is the CLAC? - What is CASA? - April 20th Day of Action - Carnival Against Capitalism - Other Key Dates and Events - Quebec City Consulta - January 27-28 - Caravans and Visits - Affinity Groups - Peoples' Global Action (PGA) - Other Groups - Logistical Information: Food, Housing & Transport - Legal Committee - The Border - Medical Committee - CLAC Committee and Working Group Contacts - Getting More Information - How to Help and Get Involved - Basic Contact Information - plus What is "FTAA"? WHAT'S HAPPENING NEXT APRIL 2001?: Next April 20-22, 2001, the Summit of the Americas meeting will be taking place in Quebec City (the previous two Summits were held in Miami (1994) and Santiago (1998)). The Summit brings together all the 34 leaders of North, South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean (except Cuba). The Summit intends to talk about issues like hemispheric integration and migration, security and terrorism, democracy and human rights, as well as the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement. The Summit of the Americas is in many ways a pre-packaged media spectacle for the leaders of the hemisphere, in a controlled atmosphere of gala dinners, cocktail parties and photo ops. Thousands of delegates and media representatives are to attend the gathering, as well as thousands of police in what will be the largest security and police operation in Canadian history. WHAT IS THE FTAA?: In simple terms, the FTAA is the planned extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the entire hemisphere (except Cuba). It's not just a geographic extension, but also an extension of the reach of big business into vast areas of public policy. The FTAA is to be fully WTO-compatible, as well as include investment sections that are identical to the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). The FTAA was first launched at the Miami Summit (1994) and nine negotiating groups have been actively meeting and negotiating since the Santiago Summit (1998). The proposed deadline to sign and implement the FTAA is 2005. According to Canada's Trade Minister, "The FTAA is inextricably linked to the Summit of the Americas process." Together, the Summit and the FTAA are two key ways to promote American imperialism and Canadian paternalism in Latin America. The actual negotiating of the FTAA occurs within the working groups who have most recently been meeting in Miami. These working groups in turn report to the trade ministers of their respective countries. The trade ministers meet once a year. This year's meeting is to take place in Argentina in early April, a few weeks before the Quebec City Summit. (see also WHAT IS FTAA? at bottom) WHAT IS THE CLAC?: Partially in response to the upcoming Summit of the Americas meeting, and partially to reinforce existing local networks of resistance, the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (la Convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes, or CLAC) came together last April in Montreal, one full year before the Summit. The CLAC basis of unity (attached below) asserts clear opposition to capitalism, imperialism, neo-liberalism and patriarchy while asserting values of mutual aid, solidarity and genuine democracy. It is autonomous, decentralized and non-hierarchical, and rejects bureaucratic, top-down models of organizing. Respecting a diversity of tactics, the CLAC supports the use of a variety of creative initiatives, ranging from popular education to direct action. With regards to the Summit of the Americas, and the FTAA, the CLAC adopts a confrontational attitude, and rejects reformist alternatives like lobbying which cannot have a major impact on inherently anti-democratic processes. For more info about CLAC's "Projects and Initiatives", please e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] WHAT IS CASA?: The CLAC will be collaborating closely with the recently formed Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee (le Comite d'Accueil du Sommet des Ameriques, or CASA). CASA is a Quebec City-based group, comprised of activists and organizers who are involved in local grassroots struggles. Their basis of unity includes anti-capitalism, anti-patriarchy, a refusal of hierarchies, autonomy, non-reformism and a respect for a diversity of tactics. CASA, like CLAC, meet in open, decisional, general assemblies. CLAC will be collaborating with CASA on logistics, awareness raising and other actions. CASA can be reached at their temporary e-mail address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] APRIL 20th DAY OF ACTION: The CLAC and CASA will be working together closely in raising awareness, as well as helping to reinforce and build existing networks of resistance to capitalist globalization. We are also looking beyond April, focusing on continuing mobilizing efforts after the Quebec Summit. As well, we want to avoid the dynamic of "summit-hopping", and are encouraging local actions as much as mobilizing specifically for Quebec City. However, one major focal point will clearly be the Summit itself, particularly a Day of Action scheduled for Friday, April 20, when the Summit of the Americas is due to commence in Quebec City. The Day of Action will respect a diversity of tactics, and aims to disrupt, to the maximum extent possible, the holding of the Summit of the Americas meeting. We are encouraging as many people as possible to mobilize for direct action, in Quebec City and elsewhere, on April 20, 2001. CARNIVAL AGAINST CAPITALISM: The CLAC is also organizing a Carnival against Capitalism that is to include events in Quebec City and Montreal over the month of April, and which culminates with the Day of Action on April 20. The Carnival will include conferences, teach-ins, concerts, cabarets, workshops, street theatre, protests and direct action. The exact event schedule will be announced in the upcoming weeks and months. OTHER KEY DATES AND EVENTS: The Summit of the Americas starts in Quebec City on Friday April 20 and is due to end on the evening of Sunday, April 22. There will probably be some bilateral meetings between countries just before and after those dates. The main Summit of the Americas meeting will take place at the Quebec City Convention Center (Centre des Congres de Quebec), and country delegations will occupy practically every major hotel in downtown Quebec City. There is a scheduled photo-op for the leaders at Quebec's Citadel sometime during the weekend. The Ministers of Trade for the Americas are meeting in Buenos Aires in early April, as is the Americas Business Forum. There is also talk of a Finance Ministers meeting in Toronto some time before the Summit, perhaps in March. The mainstream NGOs and major unions are planning a legally permitted demonstration on April 21, as well as a "People's Summit" that is to take place from April 17-20. The entire week before the Summit is sure to be busy with various workshops, teach-ins, conferences, protests, marches and actions. QUEBEC CITY CONSULTA - JANUARY 27-28: Both CLAC and CASA are facilitating a consulta, or consultation, with like-minded groups and individuals in Quebec City on the weekend of January 27-28. The purpose of the consulta is to share information about the Summit, the FTAA and capitalist globalization, build networks of resistance, discuss action plans, and to familiarize out-of-towners with Quebec City as well as local groups, organizers and issues. If you are interested in participating in the consulta, please send an e-mail saying so to [EMAIL PROTECTED] CARAVANS ANDS VISITS: If you can't come to Quebec City for the consulta, members of the CLAC can come to you, if that would be useful for your own local organizing efforts. The CLAC has already organized a caravan to Ontario, and to cities and towns around Quebec and the Northeast US. These visits encompassed public presentations, workshops, alternative media interventions, as well as meetings with local groups. There are two more caravans planned in February, in collaboration with CASA, for the Maritimes and the Northeast USA. Visits can also be organized on an ad hoc basis. If you'd like to organize a visit, or a caravan stop in February in the Maritimes and USA, please e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] ASAP. AFFINITY GROUPS: CLAC and CASA are anti-authoritarian groups that are organizing based on a respect for direct democracy and autonomy. Therefore, actions and protests in Quebec City and elsewhere will be most effective if like-minded individuals organize themselves into affinity groups that share similar perspectives and goals. It is crucial that these affinity groups be organized well in advance of April to ensure effective communications, as well as democratic decision-making. If you are part of an affinity group, don't hesitate to get in touch with the CLAC at [EMAIL PROTECTED] PEOPLES' GLOBAL ACTION (PGA): The CLAC, along with the Tampa Bay Action Group in Florida, are currently the temporary co-convenors of the Peoples' Global Action (PGA) network in North America (Canada and the USA). More info on the PGA network, which is a non-reformist international network against capitalist globalization, is available at www.agp.org. The North America network of PGA is not well developed, but there is a potential North American conference that will be held in the spring. The next international PGA meeting will take place just after the Summit of the Americas, in Bolivia between April 27-May 1. For more info about PGA, contact the CLAC at [EMAIL PROTECTED] OTHER GROUPS?: Clearly, CLAC and CASA are not the only groups organizing against the Quebec Summit, nor do they claim to embody the resistance activities against the FTAA. Other groups include OQP2001 (Occupation Quebec Printemps), which is based in Quebec City and comprised of representatives of local activist and NGO groups. It is a strictly regional coalition. OQP2001, along with CASA, are two groups that will be responsible for much of the logistical organizing in Quebec City proper. OQP2001 can be reached by e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Most NGOs and mainstream unions will be participating and mobilizing around the People's Summit, which is a "civil society" conference organized parallel to the actual Summit of the Americas, and receives a certain amount of government funding. They are also organizing a legally permitted mass demonstration during the Summit of the Americas. The Quebec contact for the People's Summit (which is part of the Hemispheric Social Alliance) is the Reseau Quebecois sur l'integration continentale (RQIC). They can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] The contact for the People's Summit and the Hemispheric Social Alliance in the rest of Canada is Common Frontiers -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- that is headquartered in Toronto. Other mobilizing groups include Operation SalAMI, student efforts at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), McGill and Concordia, and more. All efforts generally complement each other, and there is so far minimal duplication of work and focus. LOGISTICS: There have been many questions about logistical matters next April, particularly housing, food and transportation. In Quebec City, both OQP2001 and CASA are the main groups that will facilitate logistics. CLAC will be collaborating with CASA. It's also worth contacting OQP2001 at [EMAIL PROTECTED] if you have logistical inquiries. From CLAC's end, the e-mail contacts for the logistics committees are: Housing: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Food: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED]; and Transport: [EMAIL PROTECTED] LEGAL: A CLAC legal committee has formed, which aims to provide legal and jail support on all levels next April and beyond. The e-mail contact is [EMAIL PROTECTED] or by phone at the CLAC number at 514-409-2049. There will be a lot more info forthcoming from this committee in the future. THE BORDER: There have been many questions from US-based activists about getting across the border, or alternatively, actions at the border. At present, the CLAC has no definitive advice to offer, beyond saying that the border does present a potential, but not insurmountable, problem. As well, there have been several potential border actions proposed. More info is forthcoming in the upcoming weeks, including advice about getting across. MEDICAL: A medical committee, which aims to provide basic first aid during actions, as well as trainings for affinity groups, has been formed within the CLAC. The English-speaking e-mail contact is out of the city until mid-January, so for now e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] or phone 514-409-2049 for more info. COMMITTEE AND WORKING GROUP CONTACTS: It is often more efficient to send an e-mail along to a contact for the specific working group or committee you want to reach. For all the contacts below, if you prefer to use the phone, leave a specific message (identifying the working group or committee) on the CLAC telephone mailbox at 514-409-2049. Contacts include: General Inquiries: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Research Collective: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Housing: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Food: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED] Transportation: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Agitprop: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cultural/Artistic Committee: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peoples' Global Action: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Legal: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Medical: [EMAIL PROTECTED] External Liaison/Caravans: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Media: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Latin America Contacts/Spanish: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web Page: [EMAIL PROTECTED] E-mail Lists: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Consulta (January 27-28): [EMAIL PROTECTED] GETTING MORE INFORMATION: If you want to receive regular e-mail updates from the CLAC, please send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "subscribe CLAC external updates" in the main text. If you are from the Montreal-area, or you would like to get the more frequent updates from the various working groups of the CLAC (predominantly in French, but often translated into English and Spanish), send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "subscribe CLAC internal updates". If you want to be part of a moderated e-mail list that shares information about the FTAA, send an e-mail with a blank subject line to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "subscribe ftaa-l" as the main text. HOW TO HELP AND GET INVOLVED: There are various ways to help or get involved. If you live in Montreal, or you're planning on visiting sometime, the CLAC organizes regular general assemblies that are open to the public (especially people who are in accord with the CLAC basis of unity). The assemblies (until April) will be held on the evenings of January 10 and 23, February 7 and 20, March 7, 20 and 28, and April 4 and 11. There is also the Consulta in Quebec City on January 27&28. If your collective, group or organization agrees with the CLAC principles (attached below), please endorse them and let us know by e-mail, as we're trying to amplify the radical anti-capitalist resistance to the FTAA and capitalist globalization. If you would like to get involved with helping a particular CLAC working group or sub-committee (legal, medical, cultural, etc), please get in touch with them directly (contacts above). If you want to host a presentation on the FTAA, the Summit of the Americas or capitalist globalization, get in touch with the external liaison committee. If you want to be actively involved with organizing against the FTAA with the CLAC, get involved with one of our working groups, or form your own affinity group. Whatever you're doing, don't hesitate to get in touch. BASIC CONTACT INFORMATION: You can contact the CLAC by e-mail ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), phone (514-409-2049), web (http://www.quebec2001.net) or post (CLAC, c/o La Librairie Alternative, 2035 boulevard St-Laurent, 2nd floor, Montreal, Quebec, H2X 2T3 CANADA). We can deal with correspondence in French, English and Spanish. ========================================== CLAC BASIS OF UNITY (translation from the French) 1. The Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC in French) is opposed to capitalism. We fundamentally reject a social and economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and exchange. We reject a system driven by an exploitative logic that sees human beings as human capital, ecosystems as natural resources, and culture as simply a commodity. We reject the idea that the world is only valuable in terms of profit, competition and efficiency. 2. The CLAC also rejects the ideology of neo-liberalism, whereby corporations and investors are exempt from all political and social measures that interfere with their so-called "success". 3. The CLAC is anti-imperialist, opposed to patriarchy, and denounces all forms of exploitation and oppression. We assert a worldview based on the respect of our differences and the autonomy of groups, individuals and peoples. Our objective is to globalize our networks of resistance to corporate rule. 4. Respecting a diversity of tactics, the CLAC supports the use of a variety of creative initiatives, ranging between public education campaigns to direct action. 5. The CLAC is autonomous, decentralized and non-hierarchical. We encourage the involvement of anyone who accepts this statement of principles. We also encourage the participation of all individuals in working groups, in accord with their respective political affiliations. 6. With regards to the Summit of the Americas (April 2001) and the negotiations of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the CLAC adopts a confrontational attitude and rejects reformist alternatives such as lobbying which cannot have a major impact on anti-democratic processes. We intend to shut down the Summit of the Americas and to turn the FTAA negotiations into a non-event. e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.quebec2001.net tel: +1 514 526-8946 post: la CLAC, c/o la Librairie Alternative 2035, boulevard St-Laurent, 2nd floor Montreal, Quebec, H2X 2T3 CANADA ............................ WHAT IS FTAA? ......................... Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 12:15:18 -0800 From: Gordon Flett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: @Home Network Subject: (ftaa-l) FTAA: Unveiling NAFTA for the Americas http://www.tradewatch.org/FTAA/factsheet.htm UNVEILING "NAFTA FOR THE AMERICAS" NAFTA + WTO = FTAA What is "FTAA"? The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is the formal name given to an expansion of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) that would include nearly all of the countries in the western hemisphere. This massive NAFTA expansion is currently being negotiated in secret by trade ministers from a total of 34 nations in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. The goal of the FTAA is to impose the failed NAFTA model of increased privatization and deregulation hemisphere-wide. Imposition of these rules would empower corporations to constrain governments from setting standards for public health and safety, to safeguard their workers, and to ensure corporations do not pollute the communities in which they operate. Effectively, these rules would handcuff governments' public interest policymaking and enhance corporate control at the expense of citizens throughout the Americas. FTAA would deepen the negative effects of NAFTA we've seen in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. over the past seven years and expand NAFTA's damage to the other 31 countries involved. The FTAA would intensify NAFTA's "race to the bottom": under FTAA, exploited workers in Mexico could be leveraged against even more desperate workers in Haiti, Guatemala or Brazil by companies seeking tariff-free access back into U.S. markets. A quick look at NAFTA's legacy reveals disastrous consequences: An estimated 395,000 U.S. jobs have been lost since NAFTA as companies relocated to Mexico to take advantage of the weaker labor standards. These workers usually find jobs with less security and wages that are about 77% of what they originally had. The U.S. trade surplus with Mexico has become a deficit for the first time. Despite promises of increased economic development throughout Mexico, only the border region has seen intensified industrial activity. Yet even this small "gain" has not brought prosperity. Over one million more Mexicans work for less than the minimum wage of $3.40 per day today than before NAFTA, and during the NAFTA period, eight million Mexicans have fallen from the middle class into poverty. In addition, the increase of border industry has created worsening environmental and public health threats in the area. Every day, 44 tons of hazardous waste are disposed of improperly. In this time, birth defects have increased dramatically. In the first year of NAFTA in one Texas border county, 15 babies were born without brains - an unprecedented 36% increase from the year before! Along the border, the occurrence of some diseases, including hepatitis, is two or three times the national average, due to lack of sewage treatment and safe drinking water. Although it's hard to imagine that anyone would push for more of a failed model like this, what little we do know about FTAA is that is likely to look quite a bit like NAFTA. In fact, some FTAA texts are reported to be literally based on NAFTA, with additional countries added in. We know what results to expect! Who is involved in the FTAA negotiations, and how did it get started? High on their NAFTA victory, U.S. officials organized a Summit of the Americas in Miami in December 1994. Trade ministers from every country in the western hemisphere (except for Cuba) agreed to launch negotiations to establish a hemispheric free trade deal. After the “Miami Summit,” however, little more was done on FTAA until the “Santiago Summit” in Chile in April 1998. However, at this second summit the 34 nations set up a Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), consisting of vice ministers of trade from every country and headed by Dr. Adalberto Rodriguez Giavarini of Argentina. Negotiators also agreed on a structure of nine working groups to deal with the major areas they agreed to cover under FTAA: agriculture, services, investment, dispute settlement, intellectual property rights, subsidies and anti-dumping, competition policy, government procurement and market access. You would never know it from news reports, but since late 1999, the working groups have been meeting every few months to lay out their countries' positions on these issues and try to develop treaty language. As with the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), many Members of Congress have no idea this is even going on. Congress has set no goals for the U.S.'s participation in these talks and has not delegated to the Executive branch its Constitutional role of setting the terms of international commerce. However, a variety of corporate committees do advise the U.S. negotiators; under the trade advisory committee system, over 500 corporate representatives have security clearance and access to FTAA NAFTA expansion documents. Organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), collectively known as the "Tripartite Committee," also provide direction. Early on, non-governmental civil society organizations (NGOs) demanded working groups on democratic governance, labor and human rights, consumer safety and the environment. These were rejected, and instead a Committee of Government Representatives on Civil Society was established to represent the views of civil society to the TNC. Yet this committee is little more than a mail in-box. It has no mechanism to incorporate civil society concerns and suggestions into the actual negotiations, so these are mainly ignored. The U.S. is represented by the U.S. Trade Representative's office (USTR), headed by Charlene Barshefsky as of November 2000. The lead USTR negotiator on FTAA is Peter Allgeier. What will FTAA's practical effects be? Because negotiations are occurring in secret and no texts have been made publicly available, we cannot know the details of the draft text. However, our conversations with the USTR have given us some clues about what to expect once a final agreement is unveiled - in other words, once it's too late to change it! Essential Social Services Endangered: The FTAA will contain a series of commitments to "liberalize" services, which is much like the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) within the WTO. "Services" is a broad category that includes education, health care, environmental services (which can include access to water!), energy, postal services and anything else we pay for that isn't a physical object. Possible effects of the FTAA services agreement include: Removal of national licensing standards for medical, legal and other key professionals, allowing doctors licensed in one country to practice in any country, even if their level of training or technological sophistication is different; privatization of public schools and prisons in the U.S., opening the door to greater corporate control, corruption and the temptation to cut critical corners (such as medical care for inmates or upkeep of safe school facilities) in the interests of improving profit margins; and privatization of postal services transferring U.S. Postal Service functions to a few delivery companies like FedEx, which could then send postal rates through the roof. Investment and a Backdoor MAI: FTAA NAFTA expansion provides a potential "back door" for the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), through negotiations focused on investments and in the financial services sector. We didn't call the MAI "NAFTA on steroids" for nothing! MAI is based on NAFTA and direct NAFTA expansion is just another way to impose these rules. Like in NAFTA's Chapter 11, the USTR says that FTAA will include "investor-to-state" suits. These allow corporations to sue governments directly for the removal of standards or laws designed to protect public health and safety, which may cost the corporations a little more in operating costs. In other words, the FTAA would provide a hemispheric "regulatory takings" clause that explicitly values corporate profits over human costs. NAFTA cases that set a likely precedent for FTAA actions under this provision include: The Canadian funeral home chain Loewen Group used NAFTA investor protections to sue the U.S. government for $750 million in cash damages after a Mississippi court found Loewen guilty of malicious and fraudulent practices that unfairly targeted a local small business. (NAFTA permits companies to sue governments over rulings or regulations that may potentially limit their profits.) Loewen argues that the very existence of the state court system violates its NAFTA rights. The U.S.-based Ethyl Corporation forced Canada to pay $13 million in damages and drop its ban on the dangerous gasoline additive MMT, a known toxin that attacks the human nervous system. Other regulations protecting public health and the environment remain open for attack under NAFTA and FTAA. In a similar case, U.S.-based Metalclad Corp. sued a Mexican state to allow a toxic waste disposal site, claiming that the environmental zoning law forbidding the dump constituted an effective seizure of the company's property a seizure that, under the property rights extended by NAFTA (and to be perpetuated in FTAA), requires that the offending government compensate the company. Food, Agriculture & GMOs: The U.S. is trying to force all countries to accept biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) foods in which unregulated U.S.-based corporations have taken a lead. Yet food security organizations all over the world agree that these technologies will increase hunger in poor nations. Being forced to buy expensive patented seeds every season, rather than saving and planting their own, will force traditional subsistence farmers in the developing world into dependency on transnational corporations and closer to the brink of starvation. If the U.S. position wins out, FTAA will promote the interests of biotech and agribusiness giants like Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Cargill and Monsanto over the interests of hungry people in developing nations. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR): The U.S. is trying to expand NAFTA's corporate protectionism rules on patents to the whole hemisphere. These rules give a company with a patent in one country the monopoly marketing rights to the item throughout the region. These rules are enforced with cash fines and criminal penalties, making these rules even harsher than the WTO IPR rules. These rules have been used as justification for pharmaceutical companies to quash compulsory licensing mechanisms to allow competitor companies to manufacture a drug in exchange for a fee for "renting" the patent. This monopoly control allows pharmaceutical corporations to keep drug prices high and block production of generic versions of life-saving drugs, which spells disaster for the ill and impoverished, especially in developing nations. These rules also allow companies to "bioprospect" and lock down patents for traditional medicines that are considered "traditional knowledge," effectively robbing indigenous people of their cultural heritage to fatten corporate wallets. What is the current status of the FTAA negotiations? All the negotiating groups have held meetings at two to three month intervals throughout 2000. Negotiators have laid out the positions of their governments on the nine core issues. As of fall 2000, they are in the process of consolidating proposed text to find points of agreement among the governments. A complete "bracketed" (draft) text will be ready in December 2000. Vice ministerial level meetings on FTAA NAFTA expansion will begin in early 2001. The next ministerial-level Summit of the Americas is planned for Quebec City, Canada on April 20-22, 2001, at which negotiators will start building a whole text. The agreement is to be complete and implemented in 2005. ---------------------------- ftaa-l ----------------------------- resisting the FTAA and capitalist globalization mobilizing for Quebec City, April 2001 creating alternatives ----- to subscribe to this list, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with the following text only: subscribe zlea-l is the corresponding French language list, while alca-l is both the Spanish and Portuguese list. ---------------------------- ftaa-l -----------------------------