The Independent Research Collective presents a series of workshops looking critically at the NAFTA, FTAA and the Summit of the Americas. Part of an ongoing workshop series.

--- The NAFTA, FTAA and the Summit of the Americas ---

A workshop critically looking at the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the Summit of the Americas. In the lead-up to next year's Summit of the Americas meeting in Quebec City (April 2001), this workshop aims to collectively share knowledge about the FTAA and capitalist globalization, while encouraging an accessible counter-discourse to propaganda of governments, corporations and the mainstream media. Presented by members of the Independent Research Collective/le Collectif de recherche autonome et critique (CRAC). The workshop is free and open to all.

=== Tuesday, November 14 at 5:30pm
McGill University
3480 McTavish, 4th floor clubs room
(elevator available if needed)
metro McGill
in conjunction with FTAA Alert at McGill

=== Thursday, November 16 at 7pm
Concordia University
location tba
(room location will be posted at 2130 Mackay street before workshop)
metro Guy-Concordia

The workshops will also be presented in French on Monday, November 13 at 7pm, and on Tuesday, November 21 at 4pm. Both of these workshops will occur at L'X (182, Ste-Catherine est, metro Berri-UQAM).

To get in touch with the Independent Research Collective, e-mail c...@tao.ca or phone 514-526-8946.

About the research collective:

The Independent Research Collective (IRC, or le Collectif de recherche autonome et critique (CRAC)) is a Montreal-area affinity group of activists, writers, independent journalists and researchers. In anticipation of the upcoming Summit of the Americas meeting in Quebec City (April 2001), we have come together to provide well-researched, well-written analyses of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), as well as the larger context of capitalist globalization. The IRC undertakes its work with a critical spirit, seeking to articulate an accessible counter-discourse to free market fundamentalism.

Some of our areas of research include: the FTAA and NAFTA, the WTO, IMF and World Bank, corporations, neo-liberalism, resistance and solidarity movements, organizing tactics and strategies, impacts on women, the environment, indigenous resistance, human rights, labour, education, culture, patriarchy, imperialism in the Americas, as well as an emphasis on alternative visions to capitalist-style globalization.

The IRC aims to share our research widely and publicly, in English, French and Spanish, through pamphlets, articles, op-eds, factsheets, workshops, presentations, debates and conferences, as well as by intervening in both the independent and corporate-mainstream media. We stress popular education, skill-sharing and mutual aid, as well as combining research and analysis with grassroots activism and action. In order to maintain our independence, the IRC rejects all government and corporate funding, and refuses any funding that compromises our principles.