Corporate Consolidation, from Argentina to Alaska

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Not all of the activists took to the barricades, however. The Second People’s Summit of the Americas (http:// www.peoplessummit.org)—the first was in Santiago, Chile, in 1998—drew labor, indigenous, environmental, women’s, human rights, and other citizens groups from throughout the hemisphere. At a parallel set of meetings during the days leading up to the trade talks, activists discussed ways to promote an alternative vision of global cooperation. The product of these discussions is a soon-to-be-published update of the document 'Alternatives for the Americas: Building a People’s Hemispheric Agreement.' First drafted during the 1998 summit, the document is a comprehensive plan offering 'concrete and viable alternatives, based on the interests of the peoples of our hemisphere, to the FTAA.'

As Maude Barlow is careful to point out, critics of corporate globalization do not believe that all international economic cooperation is bad. 'As long as [agreements] are based on a different set of fundamental assumptions, such as the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights and strong environmental rules,' writes Barlow, 'citizens would be prepared to enter into a process to develop closer ties with one another and around the world. However, it cannot start with the assumptions and goals of the current FTAA.'

Discuss FTAA in the Globe forum at Cafe Utne: cafe.utne.com

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