TLC of Free Trade Agreement: an overwhelmingly unjust struggle.

Recently, the Costa Rican press has been spreading the news that the US government, through The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Costa Rican-American Chamber of Commerce (AmCHAM), has invested the astronomical sum of $700,000 into our country to promote the Free Trade Agreement between Costa Rica and the US.

The aim of this massive investment is to "convince" the Costa Ricans of how good the proposals for the FTA are and finance a massive publicity campaign to drown out the voices of those of us who oppose this inauspicious agreement; voices which come not only from the trade union movement but also from a wide variety of other sectors.

A Struggle which has been maintained through massive popular struggle

The undeniable high esteem and respect in which the Costa Rican people hold the public institutions, has allowed us, as popular social organisations and trade unions, as well as the pro-Costa Rican political forces, to resist, for some time successfully, the implementation of this dehumanizing Neo-liberal model of privatisation which Washington is selling us.

The respect ordinary Costa Ricans have for their essential public services is universal and this has permitted us, those of us who represent the progressive democratic force in Costa Rica, to organise massive popular social mobilisations, at a national level; marches and social actions which have served to stop, momentarily, the right wing, neo-liberal groups in Costa Rica in their plans to privatise our public services. Today these right wing groups are characterised by the Ex- president of Costa Rica, Dr. Oscar Arias Sánchez, who would like to return to power in 2006.

However, these massive popular demonstrations repudiating Neo-liberal intentions have not contained the drive of these right wing factions to impose their so called "models of development".

The Neo-liberal groups at the top the political and economical interests of the traditional Costa Rican two party system, a system now totally discredited by scandals which have reached international level (everyone now knows that we have ex-presidents detained in prison), have never backed down from their intention to bury the social development model which the Costa Rican people have been promoting for the last 40 years and to impose their own project: the privatisation, (through the Free Trade Agreement), of our public institutions and services (Telecommunications, Electricity, Water, Fuel, Banks, Ports, Health and Social Security).

We should note that the social development model which has been enjoyed by Costa Rican families for the past 60-70 years has been sustained by the vigour of their national institutions y and public industries, which have formed the backbone of social development, the distribution of wealth and social investment. This achievement has brought recognition from around the world, for our political system of respect for democracy, human development and peace.

The Free Trade Agreement with USA: an opportunity for the most backward/regressive forces in our society

Now the regressive Neo-liberals, the most recalcitrant right wingers in our county, have politically regrouped, as we've already mentioned, behind ex-president of Costa Rica and former Nobel Peace prize winner, Dr. Oscar Arias Sánchez, (standard bearer of the Neo-liberal policies) and are using the signing of the Free Trade Agreement to carry out their political and economic will: the implementation of the Neo-liberal model in our county -- an implementation that precisely requires the transfer of institutions and public services into the hands of the private sector resulting in the death of the social development model built by the Costa Rican people over the past decades.

It speaks volumes that, two ex-presidents of Costa Rica, the driving forces of neo-liberal policies, are now in prison, accused of allegedly receiving "gifts" from multinational companies who are waiting to take advantage of the privatisation of Costa Rican institutions. Another connoted ex-president refuses to return to Costa Rica to answer similar charges.

It's obvious that the right wing need the approval of the Free Trade Agreement to give legal credence to businesses which are trying to get their hands on public property. At the same time, with the FTA we'll see the collapse the national system of production, which will kill off the little that remains of national agriculture; a key sector in the promotion of a more inclusive and socially mobile society, as has been borne out by past experience.

It's clear that we, the Costa Rican people and our legitimate social organisations, find ourselves in an overwhelming and unequal struggle against the FTA and all that it represents, which is effectively the selling off of the rights of civil society in Costa Rica.

Appeal for International Solidarity

However, with the financial support and solidarity of the international trade union movement, social and political movements of the world who resist and are opposed to dehumanising globalisation which promotes the neo liberal model, we can defeat this new Goliath.

We urge you to create networks of solidarity and international communication linking with trade unions and social organisations here in Costa Rica.

The struggle is overwhelming and unfair; but we have one advantage, the people, our people, who love and defend their democratic institutions because it is these very institutions and services which have served our well being and have given us peace.

If solidarity and support arrives in time then these sinister plans can be halted; if not Latin America will have lost its position as the showcase of social resistance, maintained by the people of Costa Rica throughout the last 20 years.

Long live the solidarity of the people. With solidarity the Costa Rican People can go forward.

San José, Costa Rica, 23 de noviembre del 2004.

Albino Vargas Barrantes Secretary General.

Edgar Morales Quesada Deputy Secretariy General

ASOCIACIÓN NACIONAL DE EMPLEADOS PÚBLICOS Y PRIVADOS, ANEP (The Nacional Association of Public and Private Sector Employees)

San José, Costa Rica, Casa Sindical "Lic. Mario Alberto Blanco Vado" Calle 20 (Norte), 300 N. Hospital Nacional de Niños, frente a Coopeservidores, R. L.

Teléfonos 257 82 33 - 257 99 24 - 257 99 32 - 257 99 51 - 257 99 59 - 257 83 43 - Fax 257 88 59

Apartado Postal 5152-1000 San José - Correo electrónico: info@anep.or.cr -

Visite: www.anep.or.cr

Translation: Jan Nimmo