Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 38 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 4/20/15

No Room for Business as Usual at the Summit of the Americas

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   No comments
Message Medea Benjamin
Become a Fan
  (36 fans)

Reprinted from www.telesurtv.net

While all eyes during the Summit of the Americas in Panama were on the hemisphere's presidents and political intrigues, such as the meeting between President Obama and Cuban President Castro or the hostilities between the United States and Venezuela, far more substantial was the separate meeting taking place at the "side forum" of business leaders. A parade of pro-business presidents, including President Obama, flocked to the Hotel Riu to address the Business Forum and greet the CEOs of major banks, oil companies, agribusiness, and other transnationals. While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wooed the crowd with his plan to provide internet access to everyone in Latin America, more traditional speakers included the CEOs of Coca-Cola, Cargill, Boeing, Associated Petroleum Investors, AES Corporation, Citigroup Latin America and Walmart Latin America.

There was much talk about public-private partnerships, and "eco-systems" that promote business friendly environments. Even social programs, such as President Obama's signature education initiative in the Western Hemisphere, has heavy corporate influence. Called 100,000 Strong in the Americas, the program Obama touted at the Summit is designed to increase the number of U.S. students studying in the Latin America to 100,000, and the number of Latin America students studying in the United States to 100,000 by the year 2020. With the goal of better preparing "a globally aware and culturally competent workforce," this is a public-private partnership whose main business partners are Exxon Mobil, the mining company Freeport McMoran, Coca-Cola and Santander Bank. Certainly the students financed by these corporate titans will not be schooled in the art of building a vibrant civil society that fights for workers' rights and challenges corporate polluters.

A comic moment in the business summit was the obligatory panel on "Women's Economic Empowerment." The single woman speaker, Marriott Senior Vice President Brenda Durham, was outnumbered by three male panelists--the CEOs of Coca-Cola, Walmart Latin America and McLarty Associates--all "mansplaining" why promoting women to key positions made good business sense. Adding to the irony, the room was half empty as a sea of black-suited men streamed outside into the hallway to wheel and deal.

The Summits have always focused on trade. The very first Summit was held in Miami in 1994 on the heels of the passage of NAFTA (the North Americans Free Trade Agreement). Hosted by President Bill Clinton, one of its key goals was to get the continents' leaders to agree to the FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas) that would extend the corporate-friendly NAFTA agreement to every country in North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, except Cuba.

Unions, farmers and environmentalists had opposed NAFTA, insisting it would lead to a race to the bottom in terms of wages and environmental standards. The Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, shocked the world by staging an armed rebellion that day NAFTA went into effect, saying that the flood of corn from US agribusiness would destroy the livelihoods of Mexico's small farmers. Opponents of these trade agreements said they violated national sovereignty and democratic values by rewriting of national laws to favor corporations. They insisted it was undemocratic to have international bodies of trade bureaucrats and corporate representatives deciding the legality of environmental and labor regulations that many workers had fought so hard to implement.

Powerful social movements began to form "blue-green alliances" to reject these trade agreements and protest at the Summits, such as the one held in Quebec City in 2001. It wasn't just grassroots groups opposing the corporate agenda. The makeup of the region's governments was transforming, with the election of progressive leaders such as Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales. Candidates who promised greater social spending and wealth redistribution won election after election. Once in power, these leaders were determined to implement economic policies that prioritized local needs over profits, and they challenged the business agenda of the US government. Instead of US economic dominance, they promoted greater Latin American economic integration through entities such as the South America trade alliance MERCOSUR and the Union of South American Nations, UNASUR. At the height of Venezuela's oil revenues, Hugo Chavez also spearheaded an alliance of progressive nations called ALBA with the purpose of promoting economic partnerships that improved the lives of the poor, such as a deal to provide cheap oil to Cuba in exchange for thousands of Cuban doctors who went to work in poor Venezuelan communities.

With this tectonic shift in Latin America, the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas was doomed. After several rounds of negotiations greeted by civil society protests and by a clever "inside-outside strategy" between social movements and progressive Latin American governments, the FTAA was finally abandoned in November 2004. It was a huge victory against corporate-dominated globalization.

In its place, US leaders were left to promote bilateral trade agreements with the continents more conservative governments. The present free trade agreement being promoted by the United States is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade deal that President Obama is trying to get through Congress with Fast Track authority--meaning no debate. In Latin America, the TPP would connect the countries that border on the Pacific--Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile to a trans-pacific alliance. Many progressives in Latin America see this as a US-scheme to divide and weaken the Latin American alliances such as MERCOSUR and UNASUR.

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Rate It | View Ratings

Medea Benjamin Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace and author of Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the US-Saudi Connection. 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Ten Reasons to Move Cheney's Book to the Crime Section

Tom Cotton is the Worst Bully in the Senate ---- Here Are 10 Reasons Why

Hillary Clinton and Saudi Arabia

The Egyptian General and the Gladiola

Dear Jon Stewart, Sane People Protest Crazy Wars

Julian Assange: Wikileaks Has the Goods on the Deaths of Innocent Iraqis Killed by the US

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend