Farmworkers march against free trade

Expressing those views, members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are taking on the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit in Miami, where protests are expected to rock the multicultural city. The five-day summit opens Monday.

The coalition is participating in a three-day, 34-mile "Root Cause People's" march beginning today from Pompano Beach to Miami.

The coalition, a farmworker advocacy group, says it is adamantly against the current North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA, because it only serves to hurt the impoverished in countries struggling to escape economic instability.

NAFTA is a trade partnership among Canada, Mexico and the United States established in 1994, with the intent of increasing trade and investment among the three nations.

The Miami summit is a vehicle for representatives of all participating nations to debate whether to revamp and expand NAFTA from three countries to 34 nations in the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of communist Cuba. The change could go into effect as early as 2005.

The coalition's 34-mile march from Broward County to Miami-Dade County corresponds with each of the 34 countries participating in the summit.

Lucas Benitez, a coalition leader originally from Mexico, contends NAFTA has hurt his native land.

"NAFTA was supposed to create businesses and improve the economy for Mexico," he said. "But instead of helping us Mexicans, what it did was push workers out of their country to look for new horizons in the United States."

The Collier County-based coalition is joining two other groups, The Miami Workers Center and Power U., in a quest to raise awareness about free trade agreements and to build support for grassroots struggles throughout the Americas.

Gerardo Reyes Chavez, a tomato picker from Immokalee, is among the farmworkers expected to march with the coalition.

"We are marching because the FTAA is a threat to poor communities throughout the hemisphere," he said. "Its vision is to profit from our poverty and desperation and to undermine the democracies and laws of our countries. As workers, we are calling for fair trade that respects human rights -- not free trade that exploits human beings."

Julia Perkins, a coalition member and event organizer, said the march and planned demonstration in Miami are a huge undertaking for the group.

"It's one of the first times the community is really impacted by trade agreements by corporate globalization and are actually taking the lead on an action; so it's very exciting," she said.

For years, NAFTA has been at the center of criticism by foreign government officials, though President Bush has backed the trade agreement.

Bush in the past has acknowledged disagreements by governments over whether NAFTA has enforced trade, environmental and labor laws.

This isn't the first time the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been actively involved in a cause for equal rights and protection of laborers.

For the past two years, the coalition has contended that corporate America has kept farmworkers impoverished and earning miserly wages. The group spearheaded a boycott of fast-food giant Taco Bell, which buys tomatoes from Collier County growers who employ many of Immokalee's laborers. The boycott is continuing.

While Coalition members won't be participating in the actual summit, Benitez said local farmworkers plan to send a concise message during the march.

"We have testimony from our own people," he said. "These sorts of treaties are going to impoverish all of the Americas."

For more information about the group's march and rally, log on to www.therootcause.org. To visit the coalition's Web site, log on to www.ciw-online.org.