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MAKING CONTACT Transcript: #24-00 Grassroots Organizing in the Global South Lisa Rudman: This week on Making Contact: Beverly Bell: Globalization is a new concept for many of us in the States, however in different forms. This is what grass roots movements have been battling for centuries. Gustavo Castro Soto: The political option being sought by the indigenous, is not simply an electoral one. But it is to build a very strong relationship in a civil society. And this is where the government is at a complete loss. Because they see the strengthening of this relationship and they don't know what to do. Lisa Rudman: Before the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the concept of globalization was not widely recognized in the United States. Now, people are forming networks with others around the world in a common fight against global economic integration, with people from the Global South leading the way. On this program, we take a look at the international grassroots response to globalization. I'm Lisa Rudman, your host this week on Making Contact, an international radio program seeking to create connections between people, vital ideas, and important information. In the United States, the word "globalization" has now become part of the common political parlance. The term was initially introduced by corporations in their push for so-called free trade and a single global economy. But anti-globalization efforts by activists and grassroots groups around the world have brought details of the corporate-driven plan to the public eye. Though it's argued that there has always been a world economy, the current integration process has mainly focused on the extraordinary removal of barriers for capital around the globe, and the deregulation of financial markets. People living in Haiti are very familiar with results of globalization. Camille Chalmers is the executive director of the Haitian Advocacy Platform for Alternative Development, based in Port au Prince. He says globalization started with the era of slavery. Camille Chalmers: We could say that globalization started with the history of Haiti itself, because it began with slavery which was a process of globalization that involved three continents, and we have continued to endure the consequences of that globalization. More recently we have gone, under this globalization experience, through the structural adjustment programs imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Lisa Rudman: Global institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, have maintained a low profile in the past. But they're in the spotlight more than ever as people around the world demand accountability. Critics cite, for example, the many conditions imposed by the IMF on countries receiving loans. These include the privatization of industries and public services such as health care and education. In El Salvador, there is a push for privatization of a great deal of the public sector, according to Francisco Soldaño, coordinator of the Advocacy Committee for Agricultural and Rural Development, a coalition of farm groups. Francisco Soldaño: For us in El Salvador, globalization means a transnational economic model where the large fish eat the smaller ones. In El Salvador we're dealing with a very tough crisis, particularly for the campesino sector. The banks have been privatized and most of us campesinos don't have any access to credit. Part of our electricity service in the country has also been privatized and they're looking to privatize healthcare and education. They're also talking about privatizing water services and other public services, which are necessary for our development. Lisa Rudman: Soldaño says that the effects on the agricultural sector are very clear to the campesinos in El Salvador Francisco Soldaño: We don't have any credits to work. No technical assistance nor supports needed to have sustainable agriculture. The free market economic policies have triggered unfair and unjust competition in El Salvador, allowing in foreign food products which don't have to pay any tariffs, generates losses for local producers. Lisa Rudman: Haiti is experiencing similar problems with free market policies. Camille Chalmers says that along with the negative effects on Haitian production, these measures are directly affecting the ability of the Haitian people to obtain adequate nutrition. Camille Chalmers: The reduction of tariffs has had a direct impact on the prices of things produced in Haiti. And the imports, goods, have really displaced many of those food products and in certain cases eliminated them completely. That has had also a direct effect on actual food consumption in Haiti. The consumption of calories has really lowered considerably from 1900 than it was, to 1600 which is, in any case, way below the normal consumption in the intake of calories for Haitians. Lisa Rudman: Chalmers adds that another consequence is the increase of credits given by the government to the private sector, in contrast to the reduction of credit to the public sector. This, he says, has hurt social services. Camille Chalmers: The majority of the population has no access to healthcare, no access to water, no access to public services. And the State has less capacity to finance these services because the money generated is directed toward financing the private sector. Lisa Rudman: Advocates of globalization admit that there will be economic winners and losers. Francisco Soldaño says that the losses are not only economic. Francisco Soldaño: Globalization is not only affecting our production and our education but it is also effecting our culture, our traditions. And we're slowly losing our sovereignty. Also, our natural environment is being deteriorated by a number of foreign made products. So in the face of this situation we think it's time to move beyond race and religion. The people from the South, from the North should come together with a single voice and say: Enough of these damaging policies. Shereen Meraji: You're listening to Making Contact, a production of the National Radio Project. This program can now be heard across the United States, Canada, South Africa and around the world on Radio for Peace International Shortwave. You can also hear us on the Internet at www.radioproject.org. That's www.radioproject.org. If you want more information about the subject of this week's program please give us a call. It's toll free: 800-529-5736. Call that same phone number for tape and transcripts orders. That's 800-529-5736. We also welcome comments and suggestions for future programs. Lisa Rudman: When the North American Free Trade Agreement, was implemented in 1994, the indigenous-based Zapatistas in southern Mexico chose January 1st of that year to rise up in a challenge to globalization. Their appeal for a global response seems to have been answered, with movements saying no to globalization and yes to other economic models. This charge is being led by people within what is known as the Global South, which refers to the developing countries around the world. Beverly Bell is the director of the Center for Economic Justice, a group that supports work happening throughout the Global South. The Center focuses on groups that challenge economic globalization and work to construct fundamental alternatives. She says that people in the North can learn much from these struggles. Beverly Bell: The resistance that's occurring across the Global South, I believe offers many new paradigms and models for our own work at home. The actual strategies and experiences of these various movements have a lot to teach us as we explore new ways of challenging and rising up against what seems to be, so often, this monolithic monster. So, I think, learning the very specific stories that come from different countries have much to offer us in our daily struggles. Lisa Rudman: Popular education is a model being used to show the links between people's livelihoods and the larger economic picture. In India, for example, since 1977, the Society for Alternatives and Education has been working with people living in over 1,000 slums in New Delhi, and also in rural areas. Jayaji Shrirastava works with the society. She says it offers trainings that help people to understand how institutions such as the World Bank affect people on a daily basis. Jayaji Shrirastava: With one group we said, OK, let's draw how your village was three, four years back. And what has happened now. Do you think there is a change in the village? Do you think something different has happened? If it hasn't happened, it's OK. But has something happened? So this group, you know, they drew a picture of the village, two pictures. Now in the earlier pictures they have a stream, some trees. Now in the next picture they drew that there was a big, you know, spout coming into the river which was generating effluence from the nearby factory. So we asked who brought the factory. They said, "we don't know. Our chiefs in the village, they got the government to build the factory here and it is spewing this blackish-brown water into the steam. And people started falling ill." So from there you move on. From their own village you move on - who made the factory? Who got the money? Oh, government has lots of money. And we said, do you think that the government doesn't need money? Yeah they do need, they take taxes from us. Where else do they take the money from? They must be taking it from banks. So you move to World Bank. So we talked about the money lenders in the village, who are all fat men. And then they drew a huge fat man as the World Bank. The fattest money lender in the world. And so from there you can take them through this journey of how that money lender is putting pressure on our own government. To cut things short at the end of two days they were able to understand what the World Bank is, IMF is. I mean it takes a lot of, you know, time, to understand that 40 odd women, what are they thinking. What is happening to them. So that they can really internalize an issue like globalization. Lisa Rudman: Shrirastava adds that seemingly small steps can have a ripple effect as many movements pull together in a common struggle against corporate driven economic globalization. Jayaji Shrirastava: It's very difficult to say that we have produced some result. All that we have done is, you try to put those seeds inside people. We do have examples of some small successes. But I don't think that's the point. To us it's important that people pass through this process, get empowered; they form groups, then say something, articulate something which can have some effect. Because if we look back on some of the measures which have been helpful, whether it's through the peasants' movements or the tribals' movements, because the tribals are definitely being marginalized much much more today under the globalized system. But anyway, what we feel: that when people are empowered, that it will do at least stall some of the measures that the government of India is contemplating. Because we can't claim, that, you know, you can have a real success against such big monoliths like the world bank and globalization. It's very difficult. But I think lots of attempts are being made in the country and many people's movements are coming together today from the micro to the macro. Whether it's the fisher folk. Whether it's the National Alliance of People's movement and the big dam movements are there together. And the food rights campaign. So somewhere, all these battles, all these struggles from the slums, to the villages to the larger still are continuing. And we just hope to, you know, contribute to the processes of struggle that are going on. Lisa Rudman: Beverly Bell believes that as these international movements opposed to economic globalization become solidified, broader participation in political decision-making is helping to redefine power. Beverly Bell: What we're seeing from the resistance is a whole new definition of power. For instance, the nation-state is being redefined by globalization, such that governments have less power. Well the nation-state is also being redefined by people such as the Zapatistas who have said that the government alone cannot make these decisions. Lisa Rudman: In Chiapas, in southern Mexico, there have been ongoing discussions between the Zapatista National Liberation Army, or EZLN, and the Mexican government. The talks are addressing the autonomy desired by the indigenous population. Gustavo Castro Soto is with the Center for Economic and Policy Studies for Community Action, based in Chiapas. He believes the strength of the Zapatista resistance is their struggle for real participatory democracy. Gustavo Castro: In the case of Chiapas, especially if you look at January, 1994 with the emergence of the EZLN, the Zapatistas, what we see is an alternative, a very specific, concrete one, is proposed. And what we also find it is a very radical solution. The worst sin that was offered with it's insurrection is that they seek to be included in an economic project which is intrinsically non-democratic. It is intrinsically the cause of impoverishment. The major force that the people, especially the indigenous that Chiapas has, is not that they carry arms. It is not the force of the EZLN. But it is the fact that these indigenous have reason. They have common sense. They are trying to bring about a very important role in civil society, to offer alternatives to these policies of globalization. Lisa Rudman: Beverly Bell says that against the grain of conventional political theory, current resistance demands that the most marginalized of the world's population be taken into account as participants. Beverly Bell: In traditional political theory, the political actors are viewed as government's domestic capital and international capital primarily. But current levels of resistance are showing that the people themselves must be considered a political actor. The role of civil society is also being redefined and expanded. Traditional development schools look at civil society as various groupings of institutions and NGO's. This is now being changed so as to include sheer citizens, often with only the most marginalized organization because of their lack of resources but who are, on a daily basis, standing up and saying "no" to this new form of repression and are again shaping the future of their country. Lisa Rudman: According to Gustavo Castro Soto, the EZLN is demonstrating how mechanisms for popular input in decision-making can work. Gustavo Castro Soto: When the peace dialogue was taking place between the EZLN and the government, before signing the negotiation table that was called "justice and democracy," that was the name of it, the EZLN called for a nationwide week long period of analysis and reflection. Some one thousand five hundred people came to San Cristbol del los Casas, and they involved industrialists, business people, politicians, friends, enemies, people from the grass roots, people from all strata of society. So during this time there were agreements that were established and there was a consensus that was built during this week. It was fascinating to see the process by which those who are academic and have high educational credentials sit side by side with housewives, or business people or indigenous. And to form together a common consensus by which to respond to what was happening. And so some very specific agreements were discussed. Like how to respond to the foreign debt. How to look towards prioritizing where investment should take place in society. How to build more healthcare. How to focus on the need to have more education. How to increase the level of crop production. All of these agreements were discussed and concepts were talked about specifically how to respond. Lisa Rudman: Collective resistance has had a definite effect in Haiti, where the government has only been able to carry out the privatization of two of the nine industries for which it had plans. Camille Chalmers says that the resistance in Haiti takes many forms Camille Chalmers: Public manifestations and protests and also strikes on the part of the unions. For example, a case in point, is the APN which is the port association. And for the past few months they have made it impossible for anything to happen in that area. And another way of combating it is putting out alternative solutions, and really confronting what is being proposed by social adjustment. And on the other hand we also develop programs such as a program against hunger where we try to resist the new models of consumption that are being imposed on Haiti and there is also big resistance against the debt because as you know Haiti owes a hundred and ninety two billion and the debt service is 42 millions that Haiti had to pay last year. And this is really very important issue for us and that we are struggling against. The debt payment, represents twice as much as the budget that Haiti can spend on healthcare. Lisa Rudman: Social services suffer the most as national economies become more integrated into the global economy. Resistance often centers around protecting these sectors. In El Salvador, the threat that public healthcare would be privatized prompted coordinated actions among healthcare workers and others. Francisco Soldaño says people can't afford to pay the high costs of a private healthcare system. Francisco Soldaño: Recently the people of El Salvador, together with the healthcare workers, and doctors launched a strong fight against the privatization of health services. In November of 1999 we launched a healthcare strike that lasted four months. But the government response to that strike was simply repression against the healthcare workers, the doctors and even the patients themselves. In March of 1999 anti riot- police carried out a tear gas attack on hospitals that injured a number of healthcare workers as well as patients. After that we held a march of 20,000 people who took to the streets to repudiate, to condemn these repressive events. And this has forced the government to stop the repression. Lisa Rudman: In many social conflicts throughout the world, especially indigenous fights for autonomy and self-determination, people have little choice but to defend themselves and their livelihoods, according to Beverly Bell. Beverly Bell: I think there is a sense that people in poor countries these days have nothing to lose and everything to win by continuing to resist. The common line that is heard in Haiti when people struggle against the structural adjustment program which they call plan a morte-"the death plan" - is: we are dead already, so we have nothing to gain, but everything. Lisa Rudman: Even in the face of serious repression, Francisco Soldano contends that in El Salvador, people will continue their struggle. Francisco Soldaño: We are the people of El Salvador, have been struggling for many years now and we've even had a war to reclaim our rights and call for justice. Many of us have lost our loved ones. For example, I lost three of my brothers who are disappeared in December of 1989. But we still continue to struggle. We are looking to the future with great hope. Of course, that hope has to do with the level of struggle we have been able to develop socially, politically and on other levels. The struggle has also been a labor struggle and a social struggle. Because we see that the situation in the country has been difficult, continues to be difficult and even though the war is over we still see the need to continue the struggle. Lisa Rudman: In the case of Chiapas, many observers say the government has attempted to provoke the EZLN into a full-scale war, because troops would be able to overwhelm the Zapatistas. But instead, the EZLN is working to form solid alliances with the civil sector, leaving the government in a quandary. Gustavo Castro Soto: Gustavo Castro: The political option being sought by the indigenous is not simply an electoral one. But it is to truly form a democratic movement of and for and with the people. It is to build a very strong relationship with civil society, and this is where the government is at a complete loss - because they see the strengthening of this relationship and they don't know what to do. They have no idea. They are at absolutey wits-end because the government is familiar with combating political parties. They're very aware of how to do this. And they also know how form strategies against guerrilla forces or even narco-guerilla forces, or Marxist guerilla forces. But what they are absolutely at a loss about is the fact that this guerilla force is seeking to strengthen its relationship with civil society in such a way as to build an alliance that truly moves toward an authentic democratic process in the country. Lisa Rudman: The Zapatistas and others have inspired people internationally to join in the fight against economic globalization. New networks are coming together as people focus their attention more on corporate power and ways to reassert the grassroots power of people. Beverly Bell says the scope of these movements is unprecedented. Beverly Bell: Globalization is a process which is meant to disempower citizen's voices. And yet what we are seeing is a growth in citizen responses around the world unparalleled by anything that I know of. Globalization has brought a remarkable change in the model of resistance such that people are no longer struggling within their own boundaries. The eighties, for instance, was marked by many resistance movements which were national liberation struggles where people were fighting against their own governments and frequently, especially in Latin America, U.S. government policy. But now the role of government and the nation state itself is being supplanted by international capital flows as the be-all and end-all. And so people are getting together across national boundaries now and establishing remarkable new forms of resistance and new networks. So while globalization is intended to crush people's power, there is a level of assertion of power that has not been seen. Lisa Rudman: That's it for this edition of Making Contact: a look at grassroots responses to globalization. Thanks for listening. And, special thanks this week to Laura Livoti and Peggy Law for recorded portions, and Marie Racine and Harold Toro for voice-over translation. Laura Livoti is our managing director. Phillip Babich is managing producer. Peggy Law, executive director. Associate producer, Stephanie Welch. Senior advisor, Norman Solomon. National producer, David Barsamian. Women's desk coordinator, Lisa Rudman. Prison desk coordinator, Eli Rosenblatt. Production assistant, Shereen Meraji. Archivist, Din Abdullah. If you want more information about the subject of this weeks' program call the National Radio Project at 800-529-5736. Call that same phone number for tapes and transcripts. That's 800-529-5736. You can also go to our Web site at www.radioproject.org. That's www.radioproject.org. Making Contact is an independent production. We're committed to providing a forum for voices and opinions not often heard in the mass media. If you have suggestions for future programs we'd like to hear from you. Our theme music is by the Charlie Hunter Trio. Bye for now. |