Farmworkers, other activists begin free trade protests

A peaceful yet spirited crowd of anti-trade supporters arrived here today after a 12-mile, 80-plus degree weather march that started in Oakland Park in Broward County, where opponents of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTTA, summit that convened to express their disdain for the proposal.

The FTTA summit begins today in downtown Miami.

Summit critics charge the agreement pushes for corporate globalization, while neglecting social services and labor standards.

Root Cause The People's March, a coalition of grassroots organizations including the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, took to the streets of Broward cities such as Fort Lauderdale and Dania to demonstrate against FTAA. Two Miami organizations, Miami Workers Center and Power U., also were part of the Root Cause march.

Toting signs, dancing, or chanting, march participants vowed to send a strong message to the Bush administration, one that is often criticized for its connections to special interest groups, big corporations and developers.

Clad in a yellow T-shirt representing the Root Cause coalition, Immokalee farmworker Gerardo Reyes Chavez took to a megaphone to share his views on, what he said, is the current exploitation of laborers at the expense of greedy corporations.

"We're here because we as workers understand and live what free trade agreements bring to our lives," said Chavez, 25.

FTTA would replace the current North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA, that fosters trade agreements among the United States, Canada and Mexico. The FTTA would expand NAFTA to 34 countries in the western hemisphere, with the exception of communist Cuba.

The coalition's three-day march to Miami, which ends Tuesday, is 34 miles to represent each of the 34 nations under the proposed FTAA.

Sunday's kickoff drew heavy policing by deputies from the Broward County Sheriff's Office and officers from the Fort Lauderdale police department, who kept the marchers safe from traffic.

At one point during the eight-hour march, about four dozen officers patrolled U.S. 1, a South Florida main thoroughfare that the marchers chose as their route because the road leads straight to Miami. On horseback, bikes, and in marked and unmarked patrol cars, officers flooded U.S. 1 with sirens and flashing lights to escort the marchers. Greg Asbed, an Immokalee coalition leader, said the group had obtained a permit to demonstrate. Police, he said, were being "very cooperative."

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is among the groups that criticize NAFTA's role in Mexico, saying the impoverished in that Spanish-speaking country have been negatively affected by NAFTA.

"What these agreements have done is create a lot of poverty for other countries," said Romeo Ramirez, a coalition member originally from Guatemala. "A lot of us arrive here to work, but we are controlled by the large corporations."

Coalition members said the two-year boycott they have been waging against fast-food giant Taco Bell is one example of how companies are "merely interested in profits and not in fair treatment of human beings," Ramirez said.

"The poor people in this country have had to resort to sweatshop-like conditions in the fields," he added. "There has to be a solution for this; FTTA is not a solution."

Ramirez and two other Immokalee coalition members, Lucas Benitez and Julia Gabriel, were named this year's recipients of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, for which a ceremony in Washington, D.C., is scheduled this week.

Immokalee coalition member Mateo Aguilar, a Guatemalan-born tomato picker, said he is fed up with the "continued exploitation of human beings."

Root Cause maintains that FTAA's planned corporate globalization would not only infringe on the rights of the poor, it would have a negative impact on poor communities and inner-city areas throughout the country because social services are among those governmental roles that would become privatized.

Marchers took plenty of shots at the Bush administration during the march. A rhyming chant about the president was exactly what some needed to stay motivated throughout the long march.

"Hey Bush, you can't hide; We can see your greedy side" and "Bush says FTAA; we say no way" were among the most popular rhymes demonstrators chanted.

Benitez, an Immokalee coalition leader, said he was pleased with the turnout of support and friendship that march participants displayed.

Benitez, who is originally from Mexico, said NAFTA did nothing to help Mexico. Instead, it created a system where huge companies line their pockets while the farmworker in America remains impoverished, he said.

Free trade agreements "force us out of our country and when we come here, they exploit us," said Benitez, 28. "It's all a big chain."

Root Cause contends Mexico's experience with NAFTA has been disastrous for the Latin American nation. The group says some of the most obvious and detrimental effects of NAFTA with relation to Mexico include:

-- It has plunged 4 million people into severe poverty, surviving on less than $2 a day;

-- It has forced more than 600 family farmers off their lands every day as a result of unfair competition.

-- From 1993 to 1999, the average manufacturing wages fell more than 20 percent, while minimum wage fell 18 percent.

Proponents of free trade argue that FTAA will establish more jobs and higher living standards, in addition to a better relationship with the 34 countries who would become free trade partners.

Among the stops marchers made Sunday was to Point Blank, an Oakland Park-based company that specializes in military clothing.

There, a group of company workers, composed of Hispanics and Haitians, waited to join the march and spoke out against their employer.

"There are too many people working without getting paid," said Victoria Venegas, 42, who was born in Nicaragua. "People work so much and they are not even allowed to get a sip of water in there."

Her co-worker, Jorge Ramos, who is Cuban, concurred.

"We had a hunger strike recently because things are just so bad at Point Blank," he said. "They violate the federal labor laws, which are already weak enough."

Officials from Point Blank could not be reached for comment.

Sunday's 12-mile march culminated at about 6 p.m. at Frost Park in Dania, where farmworkers and their supporters would eat, relax and get ready for today's continued march through Broward County before entering Miami-Dade County.

Despite the heat and exhaustion and the energy required to keep on marching today, coalition members pledged their commitment to the cause.

Jean-Claude Jean, a Haitian from Immokalee who picks watermelons, assured he knew all about the proposed FTAA. Free trade agreements also have hurt his homeland, he said.

"We know the realities of free trade from our home in Haiti," said Jean, 36. "We already live in a deep enough misery; we don't need more by the FTAA."

Exhaustion would not stop his plight, Jean assured.

"We could walk another 30 miles right now," he said, following the 12-mile walk that ended in Dania. "We're defending ourselves; we've got to do this."