Alternatives International

Project Briefings - December 2011

Hiba Zayadin, Lili Eskinazi — 2011-11-30T21:23:43Z

Each of the nine member organizations of the Alternatives International federation is constantly at work on a variety of projects to improve social, economic and environmental justice in their respective countries and to create international solidarity. Every month, the AIJ publishes the Project Briefing which features a summary of interesting projects from various members. Read on to stay connected!

Initiative pour un autre monde (IPAM) – Paris, France

IPAM is supporting the demonstration for the International Day Against AIDS to take place on Thursday, December 1st at 6:30 at la Bastille, Paris. Their message concerns everyone: people living with HIV, lesbian, gay, bi-, trans, women, sex workers, foreigners, drug users, prisoners, etc. They pronounce that our lives, our rights, and our health should be prioritized above profits for banks and laboratories, above an atmosphere of repression and security. Anyone interested in supporting this initiative should visit the website.

Alternatives Montreal — Montreal, Canada

Alternatives is supporting the Voices-Voix coalition. This is comprised of Canadian organizations working together to advance participatory democracy through the promotion of free speech, active citizenship, and responsible government. The Voices-Voix coalition is open to all Canadian organizations. Different organizations propose different actions. The Voices-Voix Declaration was the coalition's first collective act in the summer of 2010. Alternatives encourages all its members to get involved with the Voices campaign by signing their Declaration.

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Forum des Alternatives Maroc (FMAS) – Rabat, Morocco

The Forum des Alternatives Maroc held its 5th meeting on “Community Media for Citizen Information” that took place September 24-25. This meeting, organized by the civil society portal Maghreb-Machrek E-JOUSSOUR of the FMAS, hosted a series of debates around the promotion and development of community media in Morocco. As a six-part series of conferences, the discussions focused on the reform of the communications sector to guarantee freedom of expression and to put into place a legislative framework to guarantee the existence of community media. Participants also discussed challenges and hopes around information and communication as it relates to civil society.

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Teacher Creativity Center - Ramallah, Palestine

In preparation for the Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN, The Arab Campaign for Education for All and the Arab Network for Education on Human Rights and Citizenship (ANHUR) launched the one million educator's signature for full recognition of State of Palestine petition.

This campaign comes as an initiative by the Teacher Creativity Center, a member in the Arab Campaign for Education and the Arab Network for Education on Human Rights and Citizenship (ANHUR), which are two local Arab networks containing hundreds of educational institutions in the Arab world.

The statement of the campaign considered the decision of the Palestinian leadership to approach the United Nations will provide the State of Palestine with a legal status and new international legitimacy; in addition to ending the despicable occupation over the Palestinian people.

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Institut Terrazul - Fortaleza, Brazil

Brazil will host the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in 2012. The conference aims to secure renewed political commitment to sustainable development, to assess progress in implementation of previously agreed commitments, and to address new issues. Its themes are “a green economy within the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication,” and “the institutional framework for sustainable development.” Policy suggestions put forth include public procurement contracts and the need to include specifications for labour and environmental sustainability standards; generating new funds through a financial transaction tax (with such funds being earmarked for environmental goods and services, social protection, poverty eradication and climate change mitigation and adaptation); recognition of the monetary value of ecosystem services within their national accounting systems; developing ways of measuring national welfare, going beyond Gross Domestic Product; and catalyzing a transformation in the poorest countries.

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Alternatives Espaces Citoyens – Niamey, Niger

As a follow-up to the October 2010 Thematic Forum on the right to food and food sovereignty in the Sahel, Alternatives Espaces Citoyens (AEC) recently released a comprehensive report on the subject. The publication “Combattre la faim au Sahel” is a summary of the forum's conclusions and key recommendations to improve food security in the region. After facing two major food crises in the past decade, Niger's food supply and agriculture industry are at their most vulnerable. Rather than adopt this pessimistic point of view in the report, AEC seeks to highlight the enormous potential for agricultural and pastoral activities in the Sahel. As such, properly managing the region's human and natural resources can improve food security over the long term. Today, raising awareness about food insecurity and engaging political actors and social activists in the fight against hunger are both fundamental to achieving the long run improvements that Nigeriens are demanding. Ultimately, through the Thematic Forum and the report, AEC demonstrates the immediate need for legislation on the right to food in Niger.

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Alternative Information Center –Jerusalem, Israel

On September 15, AICafe held a discussion on European views regarding the Palestinian September Initiatives. The discussion also examined the issue of Water in Palestine. The event was led by Luisa Morgantini, former President of the EU-Parliament and Chairperson of the Delegation for Relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council. Morgantini was in Palestine for an initiative on the Right of Water with the Italian Committe for the World Water Contract.

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Alternatives Asia – New Delhi, India

Alternatives Asia works with Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi (BGVS), an Indian NGO focused on local literacy. Through its continuing education program, BGVS provides a platform to address people's needs regarding information, their livelihood and governance. A panchayat resource group of 8 to 10 people provides the support to integrate these efforts and aims to bridge the economic and social divide in the population. The group targets economic divides by integrating government schemes pertinent to the conditions of its region of operation. It targets the social divide by organizing cultural festivals and group activities. BGVS also provides group classes to increase local basic and computer literacy.

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Death Toll Rising: Mexico's ‘War on Drugs' An Affront to Human Rights

Lili Eskinazi — 2011-11-30T20:42:36Z

A man, identity concealed behind a black veil, opens a blank journal and begins his life's story; in front of him, a camera records. The journal serves as a physical record of his story, a focus point for the viewer who is not privy to the identity of the speaker. The speaker is a sicario, or hit man, who has worked both for the cartels and the Mexican state police. Having found religion, he is compelled to tell his story.

El Sicario, Room 164[1] is a documentary film that illustrates a Mexico where—if you know the right people—borders are illusionary, and the war on drugs a charade.

With disturbing clarity and detail, the Sicario describes the brutal acts of torture he committed while working for the cartels, sometimes enacting theatrical renditions of conversations and torture methods he used on his victims. In a matter-of-fact tone, he lays out the systematic intersections between those who work for the cartels and those who occupy various positions of state authority: From municipal and state police to politicians and military officials, according to the Sicario, many are implicated in narco-trafficking in one way or another. His experience has taught him that the cartels work together with the police on certain operations and for others, the police pull out of an area for long enough to let the Organization do its work. Of 200 people to graduate from the police academy, 50, he says, work for the Organization.

The Sicario's account points to corruption on all levels of government that blurs the lines between cartel agents and state authorities. A recent report by Human Rights Watch illuminates a version of Mexico quite in line with that described by the Sicario: Mexican military and police officials are responsible for tortures, disappearances, and extrajudicial killings and continue to live and work with complete impunity. As a close Mexican ally, the picture the U.S. presents of Mexico is, on the contrary, one of a legitimate government that is worthy of receiving billions in funding from its Northern neighbor. Despite proof of misconduct, the US continues fueling a war led by a corrupt government and the consequence is an ever-rising civilian death toll.

An Affront to Human Rights

A recent Human Rights Watch report entitled Neither Rights Nor Security: Killings, Torture and Disappearances in Mexico's ‘War on Drugs' presents an account of Mexico similar to the one described by the Sicario. This version of Mexico points to a systemic problem—one where state-condoned violence targets civilians and state actors abuse and kill in a culture of impunity.[2]

Immediately after taking office in December 2006, Mexican President Felipé Calderón launched a war on organized rime, deploying Mexico's military to combat drug cartels. With more than 50,000 soldiers involved, the official government-reported death toll by the end of 2010 was 35,000. While the Mexican government has not issued new figures, other sources put the figure at thousands more.

Through research across five Mexican states—Baja, California; Chihuahua; Guerrero; Nuevo León and Tabasco—Human Rights Watch found evidence that strongly implicates security forces in more than 170 cases of torture, 39 “disappearances,” and 24 extrajudicial killings since 2006. Soldiers who commit human rights violations continue to be tried in military courts, despite rulings by Mexico's Supreme Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that such investigations should be handled under civilian jurisdiction for reasons of conflict of interest. Between 2007 and 2011, there have 1,615 internal military investigations of crimes allegedly committed by soldiers against civilians. Of these, not a single soldier has been convicted. Thus, the Mexican military operates in a state of complete impunity.

Americas director at Human Rights Watch José Miguel Vivanco has commented on the failure of this war on drugs: “Instead of reducing violence, Mexico's ‘war on drugs' has resulted in a dramatic increase in killings, torture, and other appalling abuses by security forces, which only make the climate of lawlessness and fear worse in many parts of the country.”[3]

Mexican activists have launched a petition—now surpassing 18,000 signatures—requesting that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate President Felipé Calderon for the torture and killing of civilians in the war on drugs.

US Continues Funding Despite Abuse

Directly behind Calderon's war on drugs is President Obama, throwing billions at Mexico through the Merida Initiative. According to the US Department of State, “the Merida Initiative is an unprecedented partnership between the United States and Mexico to fight organized crime and associated violence while furthering respect for human rights and the rule of law.”[4]

Since its launch in 2008, the US Congress has appropriated $1.6 billion for the so-called partnership with Mexico. Under the initiative, the funds go towards drug interdiction equipment and training, read: military and police force enhancement. According to Just the Facts, US investment in military and police aid to Mexico jumped over threefold in just five years, from approximately $56 million in 2007 to about $186 million in 2011.[5]

As a gesture of oversight, the US Congress had placed 15% of select funds under four human rights stipulations from 2008-2010. These included: Transparency and accountability in law enforcement, trial in civilian courts for military officials accused of human rights violations, consultation with human rights organizations, and prohibiting testimony obtained through torture. In a controversial move, in 2009, the US State Department released a report signing off on Mexico's compliance with the conditions and released the funds.

The 2010 Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Mexico reads: “The federal government [Mexico] or its state agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however, security forces, acting both within and outside the line of duty, killed several persons, including minors, during the year.”[6] For the Mexican and US governments, the drug war involves two distinct and opposing actors: On the one hand, the Mexican government with its functional military and police apparatus and on the other hand, the drug cartels. Thus, the aim is to separate a “legitimate” Mexican state from those state actors who commit human rights violations—the classic “few bad apples” defense.

Often referred to as Plan Mexico, the Merida Initiative takes the same hard-line approach as Plan Colombia. Since 1999, the US has invested $7 billion in military aid and fumigation of cocoa plantations in Colombia. More than a decade later, the War on Drugs appears to be a failed model. Plan Colombia has not eradicated cocoa cultivation; it has only led to increased paramilitary presence and forced displacement of civilians. Militarization has not offered a solution to drug trafficking. Instead, it has only displaced the route of drug trafficking, thereby creating new “problem” countries. The focus has shifted from Colombia to Mexico, and is now expanding from Mexico to Central America.

The Late Francisco Blake Mora

On November 4, 2011, in what would be his final post on Twitter, Mexican Minister of the Interior Francisco Blake Mora, commemorated his predecessor who was killed in a plane crash three years prior: "Today we remember Juan Camilo Mourino three years after his passing, a human being who worked towards the realization of a better Mexico.”

In what has been described by news sources such as the Los Angeles Times as an “odd coincidence,”[7] a week later, on November 11, Blake Mora met the same fate as Camilo Mourino when his helicopter crashed outside of Mexico City in foggy weather conditions.

In turn, both Camilo Mourino and Blake Mora acted as President Felipé Calderón's right hand man in Mexico's war on drugs. While the details of both events remain vague, the crashes are thus far reported to have been accidental.

Indeed, a big and odd coincidence.

In such a Mexican reality, as described respectively by the Sicario and the Human Rights Watch report, is it possible that two successive Ministers of the Interior—the figureheads of Calderón's war on drugs—were killed in successive, accidental plane crashes? The fog that is the suspected cause of Blake Mora's helicopter crash certainly lies thick over the unsettling details of this ongoing war on drugs.

[1] El Sicario, Room 164 is directed by Gianfranco Rosi and based on an article written by journalist Charles Bowden, published in Harper's magazine in April 2009.
[2] http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/11/09/mexico-widespread-rights-abuses-war-drugs
[3] http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/11/09/mexico-widespread-rights-abuses-war-drugs
[4] http://www.state.gov/r/pa/plrmo/172874.htm
[5] http://justf.org/All_Grants_Country
[6] http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/wha/154512.htm
[7]http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/11/blake-mora-mourino-tweet-mexico-helicopter.html

European Immigration: A Colonial Legacy?

Lili Eskinazi — 2011-10-31T05:57:13Z

Illegal immigrants represent the world's newest class of criminals: Locked up in detention centers that are equivalent to prisons awaiting their deportation date. And for what? Having the audacity to challenge their life circumstances.

The distinction between legal and illegal immigrant has become commonplace in both legislative and popular lexicon. This dialectic has been constructed to keep the privileged in and all others out. Far from some manifestation of justice, we do not have to dig so deep beneath the modern immigration system to arrive at its oppressive colonial roots.

Modernity redefined the movement of people in a profound way. Colonizers claimed the ultimate right to freedom of movement and the power to define and restrict the movement of the colonized. We don't have to look further than the forced displacement of indigenous peoples onto reservations in what is now the U.S. and Canada or the slave trade that forcibly relocated Africans to the Americas to be exploited for their labor. Fast-forward to today, whether it is along the Mexico-U.S. border, or the Mediterranean sea that separates Africa from Europe, Northern countries are increasingly using their dominating power to limit and define the rules of immigration: Who, how many, for what reason, when, and where.

The European model provides a striking example of the colonial legacy in that the pattern of immigration is South to North, largely from former colony to former Metropole. The modern-day European immigration system is neo-colonial in two main ways: First, the immigration apparatus is a moneymaking industry for European corporations; and second, it allows Europe to exert its control on Southern governments to restrict “illegal” immigration at their borders.

Frontex: A Lucrative Industry

The European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union—Frontex for short—was established in 2004 and became operational in 2005. Its main function is to provide a pan European model of Integrated Border Management to fortify the external borders of the Shengen zone so as to keep the zone “safe” for free movement internally.

The official Frontex website self defines its role as follows: “Within this [the Shengen zone] context, Frontex's responsibility is essentially simple, though in practice daunting: To ensure that the EU's external borders remain permeable and efficient for bona fide travelers, while being an effective barrier to cross-border crime.” The distinction is clear: legitimate traveler versus cross-border criminal, read: illegal immigrant.

Frontex controls 42,672 km of external sea borders and 8,826 km of land borders made up of the 25 member-country Schengen free-movement area (including a number of non-EU states). Since its implementation in 2005, Frontex's budget has ballooned to nearly 14 times its original figure: from 6, 280, 202 EUR in 2005 to 87,917,000 EUR in 2010. Funding for Frontex essentially comes from the so-called “community,” or Schengen member countries.

According to the Frontex Annual General Report for 2010, from the operational budget of 64.9 million EUR, 46% of the available funds were allocated for sea operations. There is a note that this expenditure is inflated due to the high cost of equipment such as offshore vessels and patrolling aircrafts. The European companies contracted by Frontex—or by extension through member countries' militaries—for the supply side of this high cost equipment must be rolling in the dough. Just as the colonial model controlled the movement and labour of the colonized for the economic gain of colonial powers, the modern-day immigration system funds a whole European industry that makes a buck on the backs of undesired migrants.

Delocalization of Control

In addition to making money for European corporations, the modern-day immigration system is an avenue for Europe to extend an arm of control over its Southern neighbors. What we see is a situation where Maghrebian governments are complicit with EU immigration policy and act as gatekeepers in the service of Europe to restrict migration at the source: their own borders. Bi-lateral agreements as well as readmission agreements between European nations and countries of origin for many migrants to Europe are legislative examples of this control.

For instance, the Treaty on Friendship, Partnership, and Cooperation between Italy and Libya is a bi-lateral agreement signed in 2008. The most significant part of the treaty for our purposes is the immigration chapter. In it is stipulated that Italy will provide Libya with boats to patrol approximately 2000 km of the Libyan coast. Under the agreement Libyan land borders are to be controlled by a satellite detection system financed jointly by Italy and the EU.[1] Under this scheme, not only does the EU patrol its own borders, but extends its power of border control to its Southern neighbors, (not) coincidentally many countries formerly colonized by EU member states. These actions call into question the EU's respect for the UN Convention on the Law of the sea, granting a country control of waters within 24 nautical miles of their own land borders.

Readmission agreements, too, force government complicity with EU immigration policy. Under these agreements, signatory states commit themselves to readmit nationals and those who transited on their soil before being apprehended in an irregular situation on the soil of another State. The European Council in its “Proposal for a comprehensive plan to combat illegal immigration and trafficking of human beings” in February 2002 sated: “…before the negotiation of any readmission agreement, the interests of the European Union and of the Member states should be taken into account.”[2] Thus, readmission agreements prioritize European interests over compliance with the rules of international law and consideration for human rights and should provoke serious concern for the well being of refugees and asylum seekers.

As one example, the bilateral agreement between Italy and Tunisia dates back to 1998, and stipulates cooperation for information sharing aimed at a speedier deportation process. The agreement also included Italian funding for the building of detention centers in Tunisia and an Italian commitment to training the Tunisian police force.

The Libyan and Tunisian examples point to a phenomenon that Claire Rodier, coordinator of the Euro-African network, Migreurop, refers to as “delocalization” of control. This strategy, too, was born out of a certain brand of colonialism—for instance, that of French colonization in Algeria. With relatively few French settlers present in Algeria, the colonizing strategy relied in large part on the assimilation of Algerians to propagate French domination. Such is the current immigration strategy of Europe unto its Southern neighbors.

Sail up, Fight back: Boats4People

In the wake of the Arab spring, the death toll is rising: According to Fortress Europe, a blog maintained by Italian journalist Gabriele del Grande, 1,931 immigrants have lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea in the first 7 months of 2011. Of these, 1,674 of have died in the Strait of Sicily, attempting to reach European shores, most notably the Italian island of Lampedusa. For its part, the UNHCR estimates that more than 2,000 people are missing at sea since February 2011.

While appalling numbers of migrants are dying at sea, Italy's southern island of Lampedusa—the primary entry point for African migrants to Europe—is overcapacity in its Centers for Identification and Expulsion (CIEs). Through joint operation Hermes, Frontex has increased deployment of its agents to the central Mediterranean region, at Italy's request.

The European Union's reaction is criminal: Rushing to aid Italy, which is drowning in immigrants, rather than mobilizing to save migrants who are drowning at sea. The European coastguard, Frontex agents, and the military coalition engaged in operations in Libya under NATO command are all at fault for turning a blind eye to boats in peril.

In May 2011, the Guardian reported that a boat carrying 72 passengers trying to reach Lampedusa was left adrift for 16 days in the Mediterranean Sea, despite contact being made with the Italian coastguard, a military helicopter, and a warship. All but 11 of those on board died of thirst and hunger due to the inaction of European and NATO authorities.

This is a blatant violation of international maritime law, which compels all vessels, including military units to assist those in distress at sea.

In reaction to the dire situation in the Mediterranean, migrants' rights activists from all over Europe have come together to propose a direct action project in solidarity with migrants. The Boats4People project aims to organize a flotilla that will leave from Rome in the Spring of 2012, and will travel towards the south of Tunisia via Sicily, Malta, Lampedusa, Tunis, Sfax and Ben Guardane.
According to the Migreurop website, the project's goal is to denounce the tragic and unnecessary deaths that are taking place in the Mediterranean. Organizers wish to exercise their right to access the maritime regions in which these shipwrecks are taking place as well as the Italian detention centers where migrants are being detained.

By inviting journalists, activists, artists, and politicians to take part, the main aim of the project is to raise awareness of the tragic situation and pressure governments to act.

Boats4People directly accuses state actors (border guards, Frontex, NATO) for failing to assist migrants, as they are compelled to do by the UN convention on the Law of the Sea and the Geneva Convention. The project is part of a movement that envisions a Europe that is in solidarity with migrants, rather than one that criminalizes and excludes them.

A Case for Migrants: Status for All

In a 2006 speech, EU commissioner Ferrero-Waldner described Europe's position on migration: “People planning to emigrate need to be encouraged to come legally… We are also tackling illegal immigration head-on by assisting our neighbours to improve their migration management.”[3]

What is perhaps not evident in this diplomatic speech is that Europe's gracious “neighborhood” policy, while seemingly encouraging of immigration, in fact serves as a tactic to limit and define migration by European standards of desirability. By legislating an extremely selective and inaccessible immigration process, European countries have crafted a legal framework to justify the inhumane exclusion of a majority of migrants.

People immigrate or migrate by force or by choice, and the distinction between the two is not so clear. Unlivable and violent situations of war, lack of economic opportunity, hopes for a better life, reuniting with family, or adventure (a motivation typically reserved for citizens of developed countries). People are often so desperate to migrate that they are willing to risk their lives and fall into debt to embark on a journey for which the outcome is far less than certain. The reasons for which many migrants are forced to leave their homes today (e.g., poverty) stem from histories of colonization and legacies of the neoliberal development model.

A ‘status for all' perspective calls for the freedom of circulation—for the recognition and respect of a person's human right to travel. An immigration system that privileges certain humans over others based on where they are born is a racist one that perpetuates the injustices of colonization rather than challenging them.

This dichotomy must be challenged, both on a theoretical level and through direct action. Denouncing the current state of injustice is necessary, but we need to simultaneously direct our energies to imagining and organizing creative alternatives to the normalized violence of the status quo.

[1] Ronzitti, Natalino. The Treaty on Friendship, Partnership, and Cooperation between Italy and Libya: New Prospects for Cooperation in the Mediterranean? Instituto Affari Internazionali, 2009.
[2] Charles, Claudia. Readmission Agreements of Blackmail to Deportations? Migreurop, 2009.
[3] Migration, External Relations and the European Neighbourhood Policy - Speech by EU Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner available at: http://www.europa-eu-un.org/articles/en/article_5604_en.htm

Photo courtesy of noborder network

Police Brutality in Canada: No Justice, No Peace!

Lili Eskinazi — 2011-10-31T05:53:16Z

This is a podcast about the October 22nd, 2011 March and Vigil for the Victims of Police Killings held in Montreal.

To listen, click here .

Photo courtesy of Lili Eskinazi

Alternatives International Project Briefing – October 2011

Lili Eskinazi, Tamkinat Mirza — 2011-10-03T01:24:36Z

Institut Terrazul - Fortaleza, Brazil

Alternatives Espaces Citoyens – Niamey, Niger

Alternative Information Center –Jerusalem, Israel

Alternatives Asia – New Delhi, India

Initiative pour un autre monde (IPAM) – Paris, France

IPAM is advertising for the Human Rights Film Festival of the Quartier Latin, to take place September 29th-Octiber 4th. This event is organized by Amnesty Paris, the Parisian branch of Amnesty International, which aims to put Human Rights on screen for one week in Paris. The festival aims to draw focus on the interactions between cinematography and human rights through both full-length and short films.

Also advertised by IPAM is the conference entitled “La France en situation postcoloniale?” This is a two day conference organized in reaction to the release of the article “La France en situation Postcoloniale?” which was censured in May of 2010 by the Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration and its journal Hommes et migrations. The conference will be held from September 30th to October 1st, at the École Normale Supérieure.
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Alternatives Montreal — Montreal, Canada

Alternatives is collaborating the Council of Canadians and a number of Québec and First Nations organizations, student and labour groups, to organize a major conference in Montréal, October 21-22, 2011. INDIGNEZ-VOUS! HOPE IN RESISTANCE. This initiative was inspired by the title of Stephane Hessel's recent book “Indignez-vous! Mr. Hessel has been invited (not confirmed) to talk about the “Indignant” movement his book has sparked in Europe. The movement is an expression of outrage, particularly on the part of youth, against the growing gap between the very rich and the very poor. People are coming together to defend democratic rights and to protect the environment in the face of the complicity of politicians and the economic elite.

The conference will explore how we can work together as civil society movements in Canada, Québec, and the First Nations to create positive alternatives to a system that makes profits more important than people and the planet.
On the agenda is a public forum Friday evening, October 21, and a full day of plenary panels on Saturday, October 22. The opening panel on Saturday will explore how social movements will work with progressive politicians in Québec and the rest of Canada. Other panels will focus on the protection of our water and environment, strengthening our public health care system, and the threats posed by new trade and security agreements to democracy, public services and civil liberties. The closing panel will feature movement-building campaigns and concrete ways we can work in solidarity.
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Forum des Alternatives Maroc (FMAS) – Rabat, Morocco

The Forum des Alternatives Maroc held its 5th meeting on “Community Media for Citizen Information” that took place September 24-25. This meeting, organized by the civil society portal Maghreb-Machrek E-JOUSSOUR of the FMAS, hosted a series of debates around the promotion and development of community media in Morocco. As a six-part series of conferences, the discussions focused on the reform of the communications sector to guarantee freedom of expression and to put into place a legislative framework to guarantee the existence of community media. Participants also discussed challenges and hopes around information and communication as it relates to civil society.
Read More...

Teacher Creativity Center - Ramallah, Palestine

In preparation for the Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN, The Arab Campaign for Education for All and the Arab Network for Education on Human Rights and Citizenship (ANHUR) launched the one million educator's signature for full recognition of State of Palestine petition.

This campaign comes as an initiative by the Teacher Creativity Center, a member in the Arab Campaign for Education and the Arab Network for Education on Human Rights and Citizenship (ANHUR), which are two local Arab networks containing hundreds of educational institutions in the Arab world.

The statement of the campaign considered the decision of the Palestinian leadership to approach the United Nations will provide the State of Palestine with a legal status and new international legitimacy; in addition to ending the despicable occupation over the Palestinian people.
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Free Trade and Military Aid: Is Colombia the Israel of the Andes?

Lili Eskinazi — 2011-10-03T00:42:41Z

Canada beat the U.S. to it—the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) entered into force on August 15, 2011 despite widespread concerns over the morality and transparency of the agreement. A nearly identical trade agreement between the United States and Colombia remains halted in the U.S. congress due to the controversy over Colombia's record of human rights abuses. Contrary to the common myth of Canada as a peacekeeping nation, the Conservative government's current relations with Colombia exemplify an intimate connection between free trade and military aid. Together, these imperialist tactics act to transform Colombia into a so-called Israel of the Andes.

The CCFTA: Trampling on Human Rights

Shrouded in secrecy during a year and a half of negotiations, the terms of the CCFTA were decided behind closed doors and the text released only in November 2008. Without proper parliamentary involvement, and despite outright opposition to the deal on the part of many Canadian and Colombian civil society organizations, Canada and Colombia have pushed full force ahead with the deal.

According to Making A Bad Situation Worse: An Analysis of the text of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, the deal presents cause for grave concern over development and humanitarian issues, namely in the areas of labour rights abuses, extractive industry investment, agriculture, and the environment.

Colombia is the world's most dangerous country for trade unionists. According to Colombia's National Labor School, as of October 2010, 2,860 trade unionists had been murdered since 1986; this is more in one country alone than in the rest of the world combined. Of these, only six per cent of cases have resulted in convictions, suggesting a 94 per cent rate of impunity. (1)

The government is intimately linked to the paramilitary activity related to these and countless other murders. Seventy-eight current and former members of the Colombian congress have been identified by the Colombian Supreme Court as having ties to paramilitary groups (2). As just one example, ex-intelligence officer, Jorge Noguera, has recently been convicted of collaborating with paramilitary death squads; he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his implication in the murder of a prominent sociologist (3).

Canadian oil and mining companies are well established in Colombia, especially in conflict zones where paramilitaries have gained control and people have been forcibly displaced. One of the biggest, Enbridge, owns a quarter of the OCENSA oil pipeline which spans over 800 kilometers and is guarded by over 1,400 members of various military units, with ties to paramilitary groups (4). Despite the evidence of such links, the investment chapter of the CCFTA gives the green light to extractive industries—in greater numbers and with fewer legally-binding restrictions—to set up shop in conflict regions.

The CCFTA replicates a typical neo-colonial North/South relationship: overall, Canada is a net importer of agricultural and extractive industry products and a net exporter of manufactured goods. The exception to this is Canadian government-subsidized agricultural products such as wheat. As barriers to trade are removed under the CCFTA, cheap Canadian agricultural products are likely to be sold in Colombia at unbeatable prices. As NAFTA's has demonstrated with corn in Mexico, free trade of Canadian wheat will have a devastating effect on local agriculture, jeopardizing food security and the livelihoods of approximately 12 million country-dwellers (5).

The free trade model will also encourage mono-crop production of agricultural products desired for export. The fastest growing agricultural sector is the African Palm, used to satisfy growing market demand for biodiesel. African Palm is cultivated in areas controlled by paramilitaries who have committed massacres and led forced displacements of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous populations.

While investor rights are enforceable, the Environmental Side Agreement (ESA) to the CCFTA has no mechanism to require compliance with environmental regulation. Under the CCFTA's preference of investor rights over environmental protection, Colombia's biodiversity will likely be hard-hit by extractive industries such as logging, mining, and energy development that are largely responsible for rapidly growing deforestation in the country.

A Likely Pair: Trade and Military Aid

“We are a free and democratic society. We are not an imperial power-we never have been… Canada will provide leadership and assistance in the Americas. You can count on Canada and Canadians to work with our neighbours to help improve the lives of people and families throughout the hemisphere." (6)

This was the promise made by Minister of International Trade David Emerson, at a 2008 conference entitled “Re-Engaging the Americas through Trade and Investment.”

The quintessential Canadian myth: “We are not an imperial power-we never have been.” What, if not imperialist, is a free trade deal coupled with military aid? While the CCFTA has received some media attention, what has slipped discretely under the radar is Canada's strengthening military ties with Colombia.

At the same time of the passing of the FTA, Canada admitted Colombia into the 2011-2014 cycle of the Canada Military Training and Cooperation Program (MTCP) (7). This program trains approximately 1,000 military personnel annually from more than 62 member states. The program runs on an annual budget of approximately $17 million. This budget can be compared with the $5 million annual budget for Canada's Global Peace and Security Fund (GPSF). Investing more than three times in military training than it does in peace-building, it is clear where Canada's priorities lie. It should be noted, though, that this comparison by no means suggests that Canadian initiatives for peace and security in Colombia should not also be challenged.

Another indication of tightening military ties includes the increase in the value of Canadian military goods exported to Colombia in recent years. According to the government-published Report on Exports of Military Goods From Canada, in 2003, Canadian military goods exported to Colombia were valued at $629,400. In just six years, this figure jumped to more than 12 times its value, or to $7,615,748 (8).

Canada is providing military support—in the form of military training and military goods exports—to a corrupt and criminal government. History has shown that there is no guarantee that these resources will not be used against Colombian civilians.

A pertinent example of such abuse is the ongoing “False Positives” scandal. As early as 1994, the CIA produced an intelligence report stating that Colombian security forces “employ death squad tactics in their counterinsurgency campaign” and had “a history of assassinating leftwing civilians in guerrilla areas, cooperating with narcotics-related paramilitary groups in attacks against suspected guerrilla sympathizers, and killing captured combatants” (9). In an effort to inflate the “body count” as a measure of progress, the Colombian army extra-judicially murdered civilians and then tried to pass them off as guerrillas killed in combat. For a job well done, army officers were granted promotions. The investigations around these “False Positives” cases have been conducted internally, with few legal consequences for perpetrators (10).

As if Canada was not already at a considerable advantage, providing military aid to Colombia will further reinforce Canada's interests in the CCFTA and deepen Canada's implication and responsibility for the human rights abuses in the Andean country.

Colombia: The Israel of the Andes

In response to the 2008 illegal Colombian attack on FARC guerrillas in Ecuador, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Colombia the ‘Israel of Latin America.' This parallel is a useful one that points to similarities between Canadian and American political, economic, and military influence in both countries.

Canada and the U.S. maintain Colombia and Israel as “allies” in regions of interest where allies are scarce. Surrounded by left-leaning socialist governments, Colombia serves as a puppet state to pressure American and Canadian interests in Latin America. In parallel, Canada and the U.S. strategically maintain their presence in the Middle East, surrounded by oil-rich Arab neighbors unsympathetic to American imperialism. The Israeli lobby is extremely powerful in Canada and the U.S., and serves to push for Zionist foreign policy in both North American countries.

Military aid from the North American team fortifies these strongholds of Western “democracy” and free market economics. Furthermore, it provides political backing for governments with ongoing track records of human rights abuses.

Drawing connections between similar patterns of political and economic control is an effective tool for naming imperialism. Often, though, where there is domination and exploitation, there are also currents of resistance. The Arab Spring and indigenous and socialist movements sweeping Latin America are two examples of resistance gaining power as part of a global challenge to imperialism.

Endnotes:
(1) U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project Fact Sheet, based on ENS data “Violence Against Colombian Trade Unionists, Fact v. Myth 2010.
(2) “Parapolitica en el Congreso” available at: http://www.indepaz.org.co/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=332:nuevo-cuadro-de-parapolitica&catid=59:paras&Itemid=74
(3) Romero, Simon. “Ex-Spy Chief of Colombia is sentenced to Prison.” NY Time 14 September 2011. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/world/americas/jorge-noguera-convicted-in-colombia-spy-scandal.html
(4) Making A Bad Situation Worse: An Analysis of the text of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. A Briefing note prepared by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation 2009, 19.
(5) Ibid, 4.
(6) Notes for an address by David Emerson, “Re-Engaging the Americas through Trade and Investment,” February 2008, Vancouver, British Columbia. Available at: http://international.gc.ca/media_commerce/comm/speeches-discours/2008/385883.aspx?lang=eng&view=d
(7) “Support for Peace and Security Projects in Colombia,” 10 August 2011. Available at: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=4245
(8) Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada, 2003-2005 and 2007-2009. Export Controls Division. Available at: www.exportcontrols.gc.ca.
(9) “Body Count Mentalities: Colombia's ‘False Positives' Scandal, Declassified.” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 266, 7 January, 2009. Available at: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB266/index.htm
(10) Ibid.

Photos taken by Brandon Wu, courtesy of Public Citizen