"The people who govern the country want to change the
future of Mexico. Well, we also want to change our future--and
there are a lot more of us. We belong to our land. We don't
belong to the foreigners that want to fuck us over. Even though
the government attacks us, even though they wage low- intensity
wars that affect our people, we will resist."
"They want to ransack everything, but we're not going to
let them. We will fight to the end."
Two campesinos from Chiapas at
the anti- WTO protest in Cancun
Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico --Greetings from Cancun,
the latest battle zone against the World Trade Organization
(WTO) and global capitalism!
The WTO came here to conduct its 5th ministerial meeting,
locked in isolation behind metal fences and protected by
thousands of Mexican federal police. But on every front, the
WTO was sharply opposed by determined protests.
The Mexican government put up the police barricades at the
entrance to the hotel/tourist zone, miles away from the WTO
meeting site. Daily actions confronted police at those
barricades. A major high point was the march of 15,000 peasant
farmers and supporters from around the world on Wednesday,
September 10. In the midst of an intense face-off with the
police on that day, a Korean farmer stabbed himself to death in
protest of the WTO policies.
There is a stark contrast between the wealthy hotel zone and
the part of Cancun where ordinary poor and working people live
(see the box "Apartheid Cancun"). In the city of Cancun itself,
various protests, encampments, forums, and cultural events
filled the streets and public spaces. A headline in a local
paper said "Protests are Overflowing."
Thousands from around the world came together to resist the
WTO: campesinos from Mexico and Central America; small farmers
from South Korea and other countries; students from Mexico;
international anti-globalization activists from the U.S.,
Europe, Canada, and Australia; Filipino anti-imperialists;
environmentalists, trade unionists, anarchists, and
revolutionary forces from Mexico and the U.S.; and others.
Representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who
oppose the WTO and capitalist globalization also voiced their
dissent.
Through the days of protest and resistance, a beautiful,
invigorating sense of commonality grew among people from
different countries--overcoming separation by geography as well
as national and cultural differences.
The March of Campesinos and Small Farmers
The Sept. 10 farmers march began at La Casa de Cultura, a
large area where the farmers encampment and forums were being
held. When we arrived, the Korean delegation, led by drummers,
was marching around with colorful flags. The delegation was
made up of people from the Korean Farmers League, Korean
Council of Trade Unions, teachers organizations, and social
movements groups. The delegation said it represented more than
700,000 people in their organizations.
A representative of the delegation linked the devastating
effects of global capitalism with U.S. wars in Iraq and threats
against North Korea. She told me, "We think that the WTO and
free trade agreements and also militarization is the same
process, the so-called globalization. We believe that this
process is militarized globalization."
Making up the main part of the march were contingents of
campesinos from Chiapas, Veracruz, Quintana Roo, Oaxaca,
Puebla, and other Mexican states. Many people wore the bright
green scarves of Via Campesina, one of the main groups
organizing the protest. Written on the scarves were the words
"Globalize the struggle. Globalize hope."
One campesino from Chiapas told us they were there to
manifest their opposition because the WTO was threatening to
destroy their natural food crops and seeds and also causing the
expansion of the use of toxic chemicals. He said of the WTO,
"They poison the earth and the people."
Some folks wore dolphin outfits to protest the way the
resorts are capturing and confining dolphins for use as a
tourist attraction.
The march flowed into the street with colored flags of all
kinds in the air. Korean drummers pounded out a beat and others
sang with fists in the air. People chanted, "Zapata vive vive,
la lucha sigue, sigue!" ("Zapata lives, lives, the struggle
continues, continues!")
We arrived at the ten-foot-tall metal fences barring
entrance to the hotel zone. Towering above were giant
billboards saying, "Bienvenidos todos a Cancun." ("Welcome
everyone to Cancun.") Behind the barricades stood lines of riot
police stretched over several hundred yards.
The Korean delegation headed to the front. A banner saying
"NO to WTO, Resist Imperialist Globalization" and other banners
went up on the fence. The Koreans chanted, "Down, down, WTO.
Down, down USA."
According to reports we heard, the campesinos demanded
access through the barricades--and the police refused. The
anger of the people at the WTO came together with the sentiment
that the authorities wouldn't even allow the protesters a
hearing and that the working people living in Cancun were
always prevented from the beach area. People began climbing and
rocking the fence. A colorful float on a wooden pallet made by
the Koreans was repeatedly rammed into the fence to try to
batter it open. Banners and sticks were lit on fire on the
fence.
As drum corps beat out a rhythm, the fence came under siege
by Korean farmers and workers, Mexican campesinos and youth,
anarchists, Mexican Maoists, and youth from other countries.
Rocks, sticks, and metal traffic barricades were hurled over
the fence at the police as youth climbed to the top. Concrete
blocks were broken up and thrown at the police. Police fired
off tear gas and threw rocks back, injuring a number of
protesters.
Finally the protesters succeeded in tearing the fence down
in one spot and turning it upside down across a hundred-yard
front. Lines of riot cops filled the breach. People fought them
with sticks and projectiles, and the police pounded on
activists with heavy batons. According to one local newspaper,
19 police were injured.
Some of the campesino organizations encouraged people to
withdraw, and numbers of people left the area. Others stayed.
One campesino from Puebla state told the RW , "It makes
me crazy to see the police be able to take away anything we
have.... If they are hitting us, how the hell can we let them?
Whatever they do to us, we're going to do right back to them.
Yes, because they beat us as if we were animals."
After some time a stalemate developed, and the protest
turned even more celebratory. People clapped in time as a
Mexican mariachi band marched up to the front and began
playing. Indigneous people in traditional dress danced together
to the music with drummers from the Infernal Noise Brigade in
their orange, brown, and silver uniforms. To the side a Korean
delegation member addressed a crowd of Mexican campesinos. As
his speech was translated into Spanish, the campesinos chanted,
"Ko-re-a! Ko-re-a!"
After the clash, youth proudly displayed shields and batons
they had claimed from police in the fight. We asked one man how
he had come to get his shield. A friend answered with a laugh,
"There's a store up there selling them cheap!" A young man from
Cancun told us that many local people from Cancun had joined
the protests. He said that life for the poor people in Cancun
is "una porquerÃa" (filth). He told us, "What
happens today is very simple... No matter what happens, we're
going to get there. We're not tourists, we came to fight."
"Todos Somos Lee"
Soon after the farmers march arrived at the police
barricade, a Korean farmer in his 50s, Lee Kyung Hae, climbed
the fence and thrust a dagger into his heart. He wore a sign
around his neck saying "WTO kills farmers." Lee was carried
through the large protest crowd and later died from his
injuries. Shocked and saddened by the death of
"compañero Lee," the anti- WTO protesters held
memorials in his honor on the following days and vowed to
continue the resistance.
On Sept. 11, farmers and others marched back to the spot of
Lee's death. Mexican campesinos from the group Via Campesina
and Korean farmers marched arm in arm at the front, carrying
flowers to set up a memorial. The people chanted "Todos somos
Lee" (We are all Lee). Strong bonds between the small farmers
from Korea and Mexican campesinos developed in the course of
fighting side by side. A wake for Lee, held at the campesino
encampment, was attended by a thousand people.
The South Korean delegation held the WTO and global capital
responsible for Lee's death. WTO decisions and trade
liberalization are causing the ruin of Korean rice farmers due
to flooding of the Korean market with cheap rice from foreign
agribusiness. The delegation held a press conference to declare
their intention to carry forward their plans to oppose the WTO
meeting. They also demanded that the South Korean government
delegation withdraw from the meeting and that the WTO meeting
be suspended.
Other Actions
There were many other actions over the week. On Sept. 9, the
day of global action vs. the WTO, 1,500 marched to the police
fence. Among the marchers were Mexican students who had come on
a caravan from Mexico City and youth from around the world.
Mexican Maoists inspired by the Revolutionary Internationalist
Movement led chants at the fence saying "Long live the people's
war in Nepal! Long Live the People's War in Peru!" One Maoist
youth climbed up on a fountain and waved a red hammer and
sickle flag. Another youth with the group told me, "Revolution
is the only solution in this world. There is no other way.
There is no peace. The masses gotta take over the power.
Without power, all is illusion."
On Thursday, Sept. 11, thousands of youth jumped off into
the streets after a cultural event at the Palapas Park in
downtown Cancun. A militant march followed, and some windows at
Pizza Hut were broken. Also on the 11th, activists from a group
called Health Gap bound themselves together with red tape and
stood up to denounce the WTO policies that prevent life-saving
medicines from reaching millions in the poor countries. They
chanted, "Medicine for people of every nation!" Other actions
took place inside the hotel zone on Sept. 12.
Marching Against Globalization and War
On Saturday, Sept. 13, protesters again seized the streets
to speak with one voice against globalization and war. Ten
thousand people marched to the barricades--Mexican labor union
members, representatives of NGOs, tons of Mexican youth and
students, and "internationals." Some Mexican youth had a banner
painted with an image of a fist breaking through the U.S. flag.
The park area at the entrance to the hotel zone was covered
with signs declaring it as "Plaza Lee"--for Lee Kyung Hae.
Among the marchers was a Not In Our Name (NION) contingent
from the U.S. West Coast. Contingent members told me that they
had come to Cancun to stand in solidarity with the struggle
against WTO and globalization, and to spread their message
about the need to build resistance against U.S. wars of
aggression around the world.
An international from the San Francisco Bay Area said he had
been part of an action the day before of 100 people that
blocked the road inside the hotel zone near the convention
center.
At one point in the march, a contingent of women rushed to
the front. As others joined in, the women used hammers, pry
bars, bolt cutters, and their hands to tear the fence apart bit
by bit. As they ripped holes in the outer part, they would
begin work on another section inside. Then the police would
slam the fence back in place and chain sections of traffic
barricades to the fence. But people kept cutting up the
fence.
Protesters worked together to tie long ropes to sections of
the fence. Lines of people formed up to pull on the ropes, and
pieces of the fence were ripped off as the crowd cheered,
chanted, and drummed. Big sections were carried off by youth.
Many youth had come ready for battle. They wore masks and
padding and had shopping carts loaded with rocks, bricks,
sticks, poles, and even a long palm tree to use as a battering
ram.
Eventually the whole front gate section of the fence was
ripped away and tossed aside. Then the people in the front of
the action, several hundred strong, sat down in the street. A
big effigy of the WTO and a huge U.S. flag were burned as
everyone cheered and celebrated. The organizers then decided to
lead people on a march away from the fence.
Struggle Continues
Life under the rule of global capitalism means misery,
poverty, ruin, and death for billions of people on this planet.
And the global capitalists of the WTO came to Cancun to discuss
how they could even more thoroughly exploit the people and
resources of the world.
These global oppressors are pushing to intensify the
imperialist control of agriculture in the poor countries. They
are trying to further "privatize" services such as health,
water, education, and transportation in the poor nations so
their capitalist corporations can gobble them up. And they are
seeking to push forward with "new issues" in investment and
government procurement, allowing the transnationals from the
U.S. and European Union to gain more control over and profit
from industry in the oppressed nations.
Inside the WTO itself, various contradictions--especially
between the rich and poor countries-- surfaced more,
threatening the possibility of reaching agreements. But no
matter what comes out of the WTO's Cancun meeting, the WTO once
again had been clearly indicted in front of the world's
people.
Since 1999 the WTO has been trying to overcome the defeat at
the "Battle of Seattle," when massive protests stopped its
meeting in that city. In Cancun, the WTO was again rocked by
the determination and creative protests of the people's
representatives in the streets. Powerful resistance ripped at
and exposed the WTO and the system. New strands of unity were
built between people from many countries. And the struggles
against the WTO, capitalist globalization, and imperialist war
will continue.
It's been a special honor to work together with
compañeros from Mexico, the S.F. Bay Area,
Seattle, and Los Angeles in this coverage. Special thanks to
Zara, Luciente, Nikolai, and all the NIONistas!
*****
Apartheid and Cancun
Cancun is known worldwide as a tourist paradise where people
from wealthy countries come to bask in the sun, swim with the
dolphins, and party. But there is a starkly different reality
for the Mexican people who live in Cancun, a sprawling city of
750,000 people.
The city is separated from "la zone hotelera" (the hotel
zone) where the WTO meeting was held--and not just by
geography. As noted by activists with the Cancun Welcoming
Committee (who helped coordinate the anti-WTO protests and
forums), Cancun is a city that concentrates the inequality,
corruption, and poverty brought by capitalist globalization. A
comfortable, wealthy lifestyle for a few. A life of
back-breaking labor and desperate poverty for the many.
The authorities have made it clear that the hotel zone is
for the tourists. For most of the local population, the zone is
off-limits unless they're wearing their work badges. Otherwise,
they're subject to police harassment just for stepping into the
area. The people who live and work here can't even walk on the
beautiful beaches of Cancun.
Large hotels and businesses began to be built in Cancun
about 30 years ago. Tourism corporations sought to take
advantage of the area's natural beauty to make big profits.
Poor people from Quintana Roo state and elsewhere began pouring
in to the area to find work. But no thought or attention has
been paid to their needs. Tens of thousands try to scrape out a
living by working in the tourist hotels for low wages and tips.
After laboring in the posh resorts and hotels, the workers must
go home miles away to the tenements and colonias of Cancun.
Many live in even deeper levels of poverty. A recent
Nation magazine titled "Beyond Globalization's Glitz"
reports that up to 40,000 people of Mayan ancestry live in tiny
rooms called "palapas" behind the tenements.
According to the Welcoming Committee activists, basic
services such as water, sewer, and garbage removal are poor or
non-existent for the majority of people living in Cancun.
Because of the lack of a decent sewer system, the tap water is
basically undrinkable. People must buy their water, paying more
for a liter of drinking water than a liter of gas.
This article is posted in English and Spanish on
Revolutionary Worker Online rwor.org
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