International Anarchist Communist Anti-FTAA Declaration, Québec 2001

AGAINST CAPITALIST GLOBALIZATION !
FOR FREEDOM, SELF-MANAGEMENT AND SOCIALISM !

In April 2001, the thirty-four heads of state from the countries of the Americas, with the exception of Cuba, will meet in Quebec for the third Summit of the Americas. Negotiations at the summit will raise the stakes for the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by 2005. This free trade agreement extends accords that have already been adopted (FTA and NAFTA) from the extreme North of Canada to Tierra del Fuego. NAFTA has had deadly consequences for Mexico, not to mention the wounds it inflicted on workers in Canada and the United States. So we can already see by this example several of the disastrous effects FTAA will have on Latin America.

Free trade accords are the masterpieces of globalization. In effect, they permit the deregulation and opening of markets by eliminating "barriers to trade" such as environmental protection and worker rights. Moreover, these accords contribute to the privatization and commodification of all things, even essential services like health care and education. The phenomenon of globalization clearly doesn't take the interests of the vast majority of humans into account, it aims to enrich the handful of new "masters of the world," namely the financiers and big capitalists. This globalization of exploitation and pillage is as ecological as it is economical. Unemployment, precarious working conditions, poverty and injustice are all being globalized!

And they want us to believe that all this is inevitable! Well, we refuse to accept the fatality of capitalist logic. In Seattle, Prague and Nice we refused to accept it. In Quebec, in April 2001, we will again refuse to accept it.

We fight for an egalitarian society without borders, without classes, without sexism, without racism--a self-managed society where people contribute according to their abilities and receive according to their needs. This stateless society will be free and rooted in solidarity, it will be built on a foundation of direct democracy. Freedom, justice and dignity are possible!

FOR AN ANARCHIST-COMMUNIST SOCIETY!

signed;

Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists / Federation des Anarcho-Communistes du Nord-Est (United States, Canada);
Al Badil alchooii al Taharouri (Lebanon);
Alternative Libertaire (France);
Ceskoslovenska Anarchisticka Federace (Czech Republic, Slovakia);
Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland);
Congreso de Unificación Anarco-Comunista (Chile);
Francophone Anarchist Federation (France, Belgium);
Federacja Anarchistyczna Bialystok (Poland);
Priamej Akcie - Anarchokomunistickej Organizácie Práce (Slovakia);
Bikisha Media Collective & Zabalaza Books (South Africa);
Solidarita - Organization of Revolutionary Anarchists (Czech Republic);
Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchichi (Italy);
Organisation Communiste Libertaire (France);
Autonomist Action (Russia);
Federation of Social Anarchists - IWA (Czech Republic);
Siberian Confederation of Labor (Russia);
Organizacion Socialista Libertaria (Argentina); Rézo Maloka (France);
Anarchist Federation (Britain)