The twenty-first century is the century of women.

Report on the 'Council of Wise Women on the Impact of Free Trade Agreements and Globalization upon Women'
of the Second Peoples' Summit of the Americas
Caserne Ex-Machina,
Quebec City, 18-04-2001, 7:30 pm

Report on the 'Council of Wise Women on the Impact of Free Trade Agreements and Globalization upon Women'
of the Second Peoples' Summit of the Americas
Caserne Ex-Machina,
Quebec City, 18-04-2001, 7:30 pm

by Adrian H Boss
adri...@hotmail.com

The event had promised to be emotional, and did not fail. The impressively dark-lit hall at the modern Ex-Machina centre in Quebec City's Old Port was presided over by a 'jury' of a dozen women from across the Americas. Above them hung black-and-white panels bearing 'headlines' printed in several languages, such as "Women own 1% of the world's wealth". It was a tableau whose symbolism was underscored by the haunting contrast between the sombre setting and the vibrancy of the council itself - women of every skin-tone, some young, some less, some in regional dress, others not, addressing us in Spanish, French, English, Portuguese and one of the indigenous languages of Guatemala. First, each panellist would testify to the conditions and occurrences in her life which compelled her to speak out as a woman against globalization. In the second part, the audience would have a chance to discuss parallel issues and share experiences around the common theme of being a woman in our world.

The theatrical impression created by the décor turned out to be deceptive. What we in fact witnessed were real testimonies by victims of violence, of systemic abuse, of chronic disenfranchisement, victims of the lack of decent jobs, living conditions, health care, education. These women from across the hemisphere had each struggled through different facets of globalization - and spoke eloquently and movingly in its condemnation.

One woman from the Mexican maquiladora region on the U.S. border described the appalling social and working conditions exacerbated, since NAFTA came into affect, by free trade. While the region 's garment industries run by foreign investors have garnered some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, the women migrate there enter a world where conjugal violence, rape and even murder pass unnoticed by the authorities: staggering figures, gruesome disappearances, for whom no one is held responsible. It is also an area where the average salary is 4$ a day, which represents barely enough to live on. Though women constitute 70% of the workforce, promotion for the fair sex is impossible. Of 350 factories in the area, employing over 150 000 women, who have on average 2-3 children each, only one factory has a day-care facility and the services provided by the state are woefully inadequate with demand. These breed a climate of violence and crime, of which women are again, more often than not, the principal victims. In the midst of this gripping testimony, Beatriz Lujar could no longer contain her tears of rage.

Yet she was not the only woman whose testimony elicited deep sympathy- mingled-with-outrage - they all did. From the Colombian woman whose two sons fell prey to the international drugs war and arms racket -- on opposite sides of the law - to the American single mother of four unable to raise her family on her part-time wages, from the Quebec union leader to the Philippino asylum-seeker, to the Argentinian "Madre de la Plaza de Mayo", these women were convincing and confident that globalisation works against the interests of the world's poor, the world's worker, the world's woman.

A long-serving worker at the relatively recently-privatized Brazilian aeronautics company Embraer denounced the trade war with the Canadian giant Bombardier as "una chicana de los capitalistas" - a petty dispute between capitalists. She described how in the 1970's the government committed to bolstering the national aeronautics industry. Then, in the 1990's when the state-owned company was privatized, there were thousands of layoffs. Next, the government invested again in the company in a roundabout way - via the National Bank, thus bypassing the anti-subsidy policy it had itself ratified. The workforce grew again by exactly the same number as had been previously laid off. But this time around the salary was lower, there were no benefits, no job security, no maternity leave. The same effects are felt across the Americas, whether in Quebec or in Brazil, when governments buy and sell our livelihoods.

After the intermission, consensus emerged, from the floor and panellists alike: "We must work to make the Invisible Visible". Amidst the familiar litanies about education and health care, there also emerged the will to take creative measures to end sexist injustice. Among these was the suggestion to write individually to the wives and daughters of the powerful -- those present on the other side of the Perimeter of Shame, as well as those further off -- in the hope that, if anyone, perhaps they can influence their men. Through education, we would sue, they too can become stronger, independent more confident. Indeed, though it was difficult to reconcile the diametric tensions of the evening, optimism vs. despair, this rollercoaster of an evening ended on a hopeful note. Amidst mutual encouragement and applause, the message is clear. The twenty-first century is the century of women.