What? The Role of the State in the Redistribution of Wealth
Where? Eglise Saint Roch
When ? 17-04 / 18-04, 10 AM.
Participants: Over a hundred delegates representing trade unions, NGOs and groups from across the Americas, including Cuba.

Report on the Forum 17-04-2001: The Role of the State in the Redistribution of Wealth

Hector de la Cueva opened the Peoples' Summit Forum, 'The Role of the State in the Redistribution of Wealth' arguing for a strong Continental Social Alliance (CSA). Given the shameful principle of exclusion under which the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement (FTAA) is being negotiated, it is critical to rise to the challenge of identifying continent-wide interests and uniting these as a common voice. The FTAA is a supranational economic constitution being imposed upon governments by corporate interests to the detriment of all others. It extends the provisions present under NAFTA which, according to De la Cueva, has been "productive of a social disaster in which workers are the ones who pay". Indeed, NAFTA's infamous Chapter 11 poses an unprecedented threat to national autonomy, whether it be question of labor conditions, the environment, human rights, health, education or the freedom of indigenous peoples… Referring to the seven-year Mexican experience with 'Free Trade' he declared, "they promised us that NAFTA was Mexico's key of entry into the First World; instead, it has bred us a 'fourth world'."
Because of governments' refusal to allow public dialogue about negotiations which will affect us all, the governments of the Americas have surrendered their legitimacy as our democratically-elected representatives. And this, the media, broadly-speaking, have recognised, and are rallying in favour of popular opposition. Hence the urgent need for the Continental Social Alliance to operate as an active counter-force. Another Americas is possible.
Economic integration without any other form of integration is damaging and serves to strengthen North-South inequalities. Can the FTAA ensure a distribution of wealth, will it defend democracy, will it enable the realisation of human potential? Will the FTAA do anything other than contribute to increase poverty, debt, and Southern dependence on the North? Other panellists (Jacqueline, Graciela) answered these questions by citing some significant figures - figures which proclaim a resounding "NO!".
The FTAA will affect 800 million people. Among them, such vast disproportions exist that their interests cannot possibly be reconciled under the sole banner of market integration. The North represents 1/5 of the population yet controls 4/5 of the wealth and consumes 70% of the total energy expenditure. The average U.S. American is 26 times richer than the citizen of the poorest FTAA player, Haiti. The G.I.P. of St Kitt's is smaller than that of the Quebec municipality of Saint-Hilaire. The sum-total of the G.I.P. of the 25 poorest nations is less than 0.5% of the G.I.P. of the United States. Under NAFTA, 300 000 small businesses in Mexico were forced to close -- and their Quebec counterparts were affected in turn. Continued Free Trade, she argues, and the monetary speculation which accompanies it, will only enable the top 5% of the population to get richer.
The fact that companies have bought access to government talks here at the Quebec City Summit, while the people are kept out by a 3.8 km long 'security' fence is emblematic of government complicity in this respect. The activists detained at borders -- whether in Argentina, Mexico or Canada right now-prove that 'Free Trade' enables goods to transit but keeps out people. The so-called 'minimal' state is in fact 'maximal' -- but only in certain, self-serving, areas.
So what is the role of the State? Concretely, the State alone holds the privilege of taxation. With this privilege come certain obligations. For this, we may look to the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights which Canada signed, and which 25 of the 35 American states ratified. Article 25 guarantees the right to health and social services, education, well-being and clothing. The State should implement the Tobin Tax to limit cross-border speculation, it must redistribute the wealth that capital creates, it must help re-establish relations of power which benefit everyone. "We are opposed to the globalisation of markets in the absence of serious rectifying mechanisms."