Daily papers and news programs are filling with information and commentary about the Summit of the Americas to take place in Quebec City, April 21-22.  More often than not one finds simplistic or unfounded statements as to why thousands of citizens from across North America are making their way to Quebec City to protest the “Free” Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), and the unjust global economic-political order that the FTAA will further entrench.

It is a shame -- and wrong -- that for all their words about democracy, much of the press, and certainly our political institutions are taking steps not to openly debate the state of the global economic and political order.  No government will even release a draft of the proposed FTAA agreement.

Though I can’t afford $500,000, to host a gala dinner for the invited “leaders” of the Americas, and though I can’t even afford $75,000, to have them pop by for coffee between working sessions, nevertheless I am going to Quebec.  I reject the term “anti-globalization” that is repeated unquestioningly, casting in a negative (“anti”) light who we are and why we will gather outside their chain-linked fences, in front of their heavily armed security forces.

“Globalization” is not new, or even recent.  The world is extremely inter-connected, and the roots of this political, economic, military and cultural integration – much of it based on brutal conquest and racist exploitation -- go back at least 500 years.

Furthermore, while many of us are critical of the role (and increasing rule) of certain huge corporations, banks and inter-governmental economic institutions in this unjust global order, our concerns are much broader and complex than saying that we are against the homogenization of culture, as if we would approve of the present global order if only we didn’t see golden arches everywhere.

What we are against is a political and economic model that exploits people, often ruthlessly, that indirectly and directly violates economic, political, social, civil and cultural rights, and that abuses the planet’s resources and environment.

Regularly, I read of the 34 “elected” leaders of the Americas invited to Quebec.  This is superficial and insulting to many millions of people in the Americas whose lives are marked by varying degrees of poverty and repression, imposed by pseudo-democratic regimes.  Misleading references to “elected” governments ignores that these governments (that range from the formally democratic through to the openly repressive and corrupt) are kept in place in part due to their political, economic and military ties with the dominant nations from the north, with certain corporations and banks, and with a host of inter-governmental economic institutions, such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the IMF, etc.

Is this just some “anti-globalization” rant?  Why won’t the dominant media companies, let alone our governments, send qualified investigators to visit the impoverished shanty-towns and dispossessed rural areas of the Americas, and report fully on the endemic poverty (kept in place by repression) that characterizes the lives of so many citizens of the Americas?

Why is this repression and deadly poverty not front-page news, everyday?  Why are “elected” officials not decrying global poverty and repression in parliamentary and congressional sessions, every day?  Why do our leaders not question, everyday, the policies and programs of global economic institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF, that deepen poverty at the same time that more wealth is being accumulated by a smaller and smaller group of countries, individuals and corporations?

Is there some other “western hemisphere” where democracy flourishes – except in Cuba, of course! -- and poverty has disappeared?  No.  Until discussion about the global order honestly addresses the environmental destruction, poverty and accompanying repression, and until serious changes are implemented, then more and more people are going to travel to Quebec City, Seattle, Prague, Washington, Davos, etc, to protest how our global political and economic systems work.

And we go not simply to protest.  In Quebec City, as was the case at other gatherings, there are educational forums about any and everything related to the global political and economic order.  Rights Action, the organization I work for, is bringing a Honduran woman and a Mexican man on month-long speaking tours, to dialogue with North American audiences about how the “free” trade economic model contributes to and even worsens poverty (and indeed repression) in their countries.

“Foreign” affairs used to be the exclusive domain of political, economic and media elites.  This is no longer the case.  More and more citizens have traveled to and lived in the “developing” countries of Asia, Africa and the Americas, or in the impoverished slums and native reserves of the “developed” north.  Ever increasing numbers of school and universities are teaching an unvarnished version of history and global affairs, looking closely at the causes of the poverty, environmental destruction and repression that are common fare for many of our global co-citizens.

We know that “the north” (from our governments, to companies and banks, to inter-governmental institutions dominated by the north) often contributes to this poverty, environmental destruction and repression.  We know what changes are needed to the reigning political-economic model.  Eradicating poverty (not “alleviating” it) and living in harmony with the earth’s environment, are not difficult to conceive of.  As the expression goes, this is not rocket science.  The obstacles are not lack of know-how, but rather lack of political and moral will, from the local to the national and international levels.

Missing, at the highest levels of government, economic institutions and the media, is a sense of shame and anger about endemic poverty and related repression.  Missing is a sense of urgency about the need to end poverty now, for the deaths and devastation it wreaks on the lives of people across the planet.

Thousands are traveling to Quebec City to protest the lack of sincerity and political will of our political “leaders” and dominant economic sectors, and to advocate for serious political and economic change.  We do so through a sense of solidarity with people across the Americas, through a sense of responsibility that the “north” is contributing to repression and impoverishment of people across the Americas, and a sense of urgency that transforming the dominant political-economic model, eradicating poverty and ending repression cannot wait.

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Grahame Russell is with Rights Action.  416-654-2074.  info@rightsaction.org.  www.rightsaction.org.  Feel free to copy, publish and re-distribute this article.

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