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Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the FTAA |
| A short piece that explains why the FTAA is bad for you! | ||
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Frequently Asked Questions About the FTAA |
| All the basics you need to know about the Free Trade Area of the Americas. | ||
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Global Exchange Position on the FTAA |
| Why the Free Trade Area of the Americas is a threat to human rights in the region. | ||
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How the FTAA Affects You |
| General overview of all the issues. | ||
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The FTAA/WTO, Farming, and Food Security |
| A comprehensive analysis of the FTAA, the WTO, and their effects on agriculture, with concrete alternative plan for food security and sovereignty. | ||
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The FTAA and the Scourge of Sweatshops |
| How the FTAA would undermine labor rights in the US and around the world. | ||
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The FTAA, the WTO, and the Assault on Public Interest, Services, and our Water |
| An analysis of the threat to public health, education, and other services under the proposed FTAA. | ||
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Investor Rights or Citizen Rights |
| The dangerous expansion and threat to democracy of NAFTA investor protections through the FTAA and the WTO. | ||
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Free Trade, the Environment, and Biotech |
| An analysis of the potential effects of the FTAA on our shared environment. | ||
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Alternatives for the Americas |
| The Hemispheric Social Alliance has created an alternative document to the Free Trade Area of the Americas. (pdf) | ||
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Ten Ways to Democratize the Global Economy |
| Concrete ways to build a global economy for people and the environment. | ||
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FTAA Resources |
| A detailed directory of resources available from other organizations. | ||
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Negotiated behind closed doors, with little citizen input but plenty of suggestions from corporations, the FTAA was yet another example of the kind of free-market fundamentalism that has created a global race to the bottom that erodes environmental protection, workers' livelihoods, and human rights. If you think NAFTA has been a disaster for working families and the environment in the US, Canada, and Mexico, this would be far worse.
But the world has changed significantly since the FTAA was launched on the footsteps of NAFTA ten years ago.
- We now have the experience of ten years of job loss, ecological devastation, and increased poverty from NAFTA - on all three countries.
- Economic crises across Latin America have created political space in which progressive forces have been able to elect governments that are agains the 'neoliberal' model, such as in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.
- And most importantly, the social movements of the hemisphere have gotten organized and united like never before.
At the same time, new challenges and pro-corporate assaults have recently arisen. Since the Bush Administration was unable to get strong countries to agree to a complete FTAA, it is employing divide-and-conquer tactics to pursue Free Trade agreements with the smaller, poorer nations. Negotiations are underway for a Free Trade Agreement with the Andean nations of Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia. But the biggest threat facing us today is the expansion of NAFTA to Central America through the Central America Free Trade Agreement.
CAFTA, negotiated between the U.S. with El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Honduras, with the newest addition of the Dominican Republic, was supposed to have been sent to Congress for approval in 2004 - but the Republicans did not have the votes necessary to win. They are gearing up for a knock-down, drag-out fight in 2005 on CAFTA - and it is a fight that we must win!!!
Add your support to the thousands of people who are organizing to show that NAFTA should not be expanded but should be replaced with an international system of cooperation that fosters social equality, human rights, cultural diversity, environmental sustainability, and community well being. We've stopped the FTAA - for now. And now we MUST STOP CAFTA!!