Latin Americans protest ‘free trade,’ Bush

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Monterrey, Mexico last week to demonstrate against “free trade” and the US government during the International Conference on Financing for Development.

Compiled by Eamon Martin

Mar. 26— This past week, US president George W. Bush conducted a fast-paced tour of Latin American countries to hold a series of high profile press conferences. The cameras flashed as the leaders of Peru, El Salvador, and Mexico beamed approvingly at Bush’s tough promotion of “free trade” as a solution to cure the region’s devastating escalation of poverty. Every step of the way, the US president was dogged by thousands of demonstrators offended by what many of them see as the latest move by the “US empire” to jockey for influence over the poorest regions in the Western hemisphere.

Bush’s visit south of the border began with his participation in the United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Financing for Development held in Monterrey, Mexico. Representatives of 171 countries, including 52 heads of state; the World Trade Organization; the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the World Bank; and dozens of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) met to discuss how to meet the United Nations’ stated goal of cutting global poverty in half by 2015. Acknowledging that the trade policies that were supposedly designed to bring economic development to poorer countries have failed to do so, the meeting ended with participating nations signing the “Monterrey Consensus,” committing them to double development aid to reach the UN goal.

According to some, Bush’s presence was upstaged by the dramatic, dissenting remarks of Latin America’s two most “populist” leaders.

Presidents Hugo Chávez, of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro, of Cuba, urged the international community to straighten out the path of the global economy and harshly criticized the multilateral financial organizations, such as the IMF and the World Bank.

“The current world order constitutes a system of plunder and exploitation like never before in history. The people believe less and less in declarations and promises. The prestige of the international financial institutions has fallen below zero,” said Castro.

Chavez demanded that the role of the IMF be revised, because its “recipes” for development have been “venom” for poor countries.

According to Castro, the Monterrey agreement is “a project of consensus that has been imposed upon us by the masters of the world... in which we resign ourselves to humiliating, conditional, and interventionist handouts.”

About the two Latin American leaders, “Finally someone stated the truth to the powerful,” commented one activist.

The “Monterrey Consensus” will not alleviate the problems related to poverty as it proposes to do, because it prescribes the same free-market strategy that created them, according to NGO delegates. Many activists pointed at the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) itself as evidence. A growing trade deficit has led to the loss of 766,030 jobs in the United States since NAFTA’s implementation. NAFTA has also not delivered many of its promised benefits to Mexican workers. By 1998, the incomes of salaried workers had fallen by 25 percent since 1991, while incomes of the self-employed had fallen 40 percent. The minimum wage in Mexico has since lost nearly 50 percent of its purchasing power.

The Cuban president commented that “the world economy today is a gigantic casino.”

The world is living “a true genocide” and one cannot blame “this strategy on the poor countries. They are not the ones who conquered and pillaged entire continents over the centuries, nor did they establish colonialism, implant slavery, or create modern-day imperialism,” said Castro in a speech that won enthusiastic applause from NGO delegates at the conference.

Protesters march in Monterrey, Mexico on Mar. 20.
Photo courtesy Indymedia Mexico

Outside the conference, 10–13,000 demonstrators marched peacefully to denounce the free trade proposals of the US as an exploitation of cheap labor. Following a huge banner reading: “Let’s Globalize Hope,” protesters included farmers from Atenco and Texcoco near Mexico City who oppose plans to build a new international airport on their land; supporters of the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN); anarchists from Mexico City; a contingent from the Mexican Electrical Workers Union and several other groups.

One farming collective brought two dead goats they said had been killed by drinking water polluted by Residuos Industriales Multiquim (RIMSA), an industrial waste disposal company. The farmers tossed the carcasses at a large line of advancing riot police.

Hooded protesters spray-painted numerous slogans on several business’ windows. Variations of “Revolution is the solution” and “Bush murderer” were common.

Children from various organizations in the Monterrey area held a protest against child labor while other protesters burned an effigy of Mexican President Vicente Fox.

NGOs taking part in the conference staged a small protest on Tuesday inside the conference center, putting tape over their mouths.

Peru

After Mexico, Bush’s travels included a photo-op stop in Peru where police, on “red alert” after a car bomb exploded, broke up crowds with tear gas and arrested 18 people throwing stones in protest.

“Bush, Murderer! Get out of Peru!” several demonstrators chanted. Others were heard yelling “We don’t want to be a North American colony!” and “Down with Yankee imperialism!” before they were sent running.

In downtown Lima, a small group of protesters erected a series of white sheets painted with caricatures of Bush and Uncle Sam. It included a crude rendering of a tank firing a projectile and the words, “United States, leading terrorists of the world!”

“We’ve come to oppose the presence of Bush here,” said Hipolito Bolivar, a 41-year-old high school teacher who joined the small protests. “He’s persona non grata in poor countries.”

El Salvador

Leaving Peru, Bush made a five hour appearance in El Salvador. However brief Bush’s stay, the president’s critics wasted no opportunity in letting him know, as in Peru, that the US leader was not welcome.

Some 2,000 marchers blended denunciations of Bush and “free trade” with homage to assassinated Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. Backers of El Salvador’s former civil war guerrilla movement mingled with labor unions, religious activists, and leftists in a peaceful march to the capital’s cathedral.

Central America was shattered by civil wars in recent decades, and the US involvement in them still causes deep resentment. Some protesters carried signs blaming the US for the 70,000 dead in El Salvador’s 12-year civil war between leftist rebels and the US-backed government, which ended in 1992.

At a news conference in El Salvador, Bush made his interest in a Central American free-trade agreement very clear.

“We intend to push as hard as we possibly can to get the trade agreement done. I was very serious when I announced the trade agreement, and we’re going to work hard to expedite the agreement,” he said.

For the moment, Bush’s free-trade policy is at an impasse in the US Senate, which has refused so far to approve giving him absolute authority to negotiate free-trade deals due to disputes over labor and environmental standards in such agreements.

Sources: Associated Press, , Economic Policy Institute, Inter Press Service, Reuters, Weekly News Update on the Americas

Cincinnati boycott costs city millions

Compiled by Sean Marquis

Mar. 27— An economic boycott of the city of Cincinnati has gained momentum in the past two weeks. Both Whoopi Goldberg and the Progressive National Baptist Convention have pulled their events out of the embattled city.

Actress Goldberg canceled her sold-out June 12 engagement at the Aronoff Center for the Arts in support of the boycott of Cincinnati, the show’s producer announced on Mar. 22.

Goldberg was to appear at the Unique Lives & Experiences Women’s Lecture Series. She was asked in February by one of the boycott groups to cancel her appearance.

Bob Benia, Toronto-based series producer, said Goldberg requested information about the boycott after he made her aware of it. “I guess she has made up her mind that not coming to Cincinnati would be in keeping with the position she wants to take on this matter,” he said.

Goldberg joins a growing list of African-American artists who have backed out of performances in response to the boycott. Among those who have honored the request are actor-comedian Bill Cosby, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, R&B singer Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, and the O’Jays.

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens for Justice, a group led by Victoria Straughn, sent an e-mail on Feb. 7 to the production company responsible for Goldberg’s appearance. It asked the company to boycott the city until demands for racial and economic justice are met.

Straughn asked producers of the lecture series to make Goldberg aware of the tense climate in Cincinnati and that “the threat of more unrest” is possible. “Our communities can no longer stand idly by while our unarmed young black men are gunned down and choked to death by the CPD [Cincinnati Police Department], and watch the kind of Good Ole Boy network of Prosecutors, Judges, elected officials, and the local FOP [Fraternal Order of Police] reward this kind of behavior,” Straughn wrote.

Straughn accused police of “planting drugs on suspects, raping young women, verbally and physically attacking ... young African-American males.”

Straughn said Benia’s agency responded to her e-mail the next day and confirmed by phone a week later that Goldberg would not be coming. The actress-comedienne’s cancellation came a week after the Progressive National Baptist Convention pulled its 10,000-delegate annual conference from the city.

The convention would have brought an estimated $8.6 million to the city, adding to the slow crippling of Cincinnati’s economy.

To add irony to the economic slap, the 2.5 million member church was founded in Cincinnati in 1961.

In addition, the Cincinnati Jazz Festival, an annual summer event that began in the late 1960s, lost its sponsor when Coors Brewing Co. pulled out earlier this year. The Colorado brewer said its action has no ties to the boycott. City officials said the loss of sponsorship was related to sluggish attendance last year, which they attribute to the boycott.

The boycott

Several local black groups imposed the sanctions after the Apr. 7 shooting of a fleeing 19-year-old black man — the fifteenth black suspect killed by police since 1995.

The boycotters are demanding more economic inclusion for blacks, which they say must include the creation of 10,000 jobs for inner-city youth and a “living wage” requirement that would raise the minimum pay rate. They also demand amnesty for the hundreds of rioters arrested in the aftermath of the shooting. Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said such a demand was “impossible.”

The convention of the mostly black Baptist body was booked four years ago. The five-day event was expected to draw 10,000 people from out of town this summer.

Talks bogged down when the Baptist group said it would cancel unless city leaders met with boycott supporters in “unconditional negotiations.”

“We were willing to come to the table, but not willing to turn over a $1.8 billion city,” said Vice Mayor Alicia Reese, the city’s highest-ranking black elected official.

The Millennium Hotel, which was to host the convention, will be forced to lay off some of its 400 employees because of the economic blow.

“This was worth $750,000 to our hotel,” said Rob Gauthier, the hotel’s general manager. “It creates an economic gap that is almost impossible to close.”

Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Arts Association filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati, one of three boycott organizers. The association — which books national entertainment acts into the city — claims that the boycotters have contacted several scheduled performers and successfully lobbied them to cancel performances.

The suit seeks $77,000 for lost revenue and a court order prohibiting the boycotters from contacting scheduled acts. The lawsuit was expected; the coalition filed a preemptory legal strike Friday by filing a suit in US District Court that argues that the arts group’s lawsuit would violate the boycotters’ First Amendment right to free speech.

The boycott campaign is now focusing on a summer appearance by the Rev. Billy Graham, whose June 27-30 appearance at Paul Brown Stadium is expected to draw 200,000 people.

Graham says he will hold his services as scheduled and will address the racial climate in Cincinnati.

Too late, probe faults officer

Three weeks shy of one year later, the police have concluded their own investigation into the shooting that started the riots last spring.

The police internal investigation has concluded that former Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach violated several departmental policies and then lied to police investigators about why he fired at an unarmed black teen during a late-night chase in the Over-the-Rhine section of the city last April.

The Mar. 19 release of the police report brought immediate criticism about the length of time that has elapsed since the fatal shooting of Timothy Thomas on Apr. 7, 2001, and completion of the internal investigation. In an attempt at damage control, Police Chief Thomas Streicher said he would have recommended that the city manager fire Roach if the officer hadn’t already resigned in January to take a job with the Evendale, Ohio Police Department.

However, because he quit, Roach is not eligible for discipline from the police division. He does, however, still face a federal criminal investigation and civil lawsuits.

The report, which comes just a few weeks before the first anniversary of the shooting of the black teen by the white officer, says Roach shouldn’t have run into a dark alley with his finger on the trigger of his gun while chasing the teen. Roach’s actions violated two departmental policies involving the handling and discharging of firearms.

Also, Roach changed his account about how the shooting occurred after homicide detectives confronted him with a videotape recording [from a police cruiser] of the incident that disputed key details in his initial statements.

The internal investigation of Roach didn’t begin in earnest until November, Streicher said, so it wouldn’t interfere with the criminal case. Roach was acquitted of two misdemeanor charges in September.

Streicher said Mar. 19 that while he would have recommended the firing of Roach, he agreed with the acquittal in the court case, because Roach wasn’t guilty of a criminal offense even though he violated departmental policies and used bad judgment. Some critics fault the time lag between the time of the shooting and the start of the internal investigation, saying it allows officers time to seek other jobs and avoid discipline. “This report was just a rehash of what was said in court,” said the Rev. Damon Lynch III, of the Cincinnati Black United Front. “They knew Roach lied months ago.”

“This is a total failure of the police department,” said Juleana Frierson, another Black United Front leader. “It does not take four months or five months to investigate an incident that lasted a couple of hours.”

Investigations into two officers involved in another controversial incident, the November 2000 choking death of Roger Owensby Jr., will be lengthened 30 to 60 days, Streicher said, because one of the officers involved has quit the force.

Officer Robert Jorg, resigned from the CPD on Mar. 20 — the very day he was to submit to an interview he had scheduled with the Office of Municipal Investigation and the day before a second conversation he had set up with the department’s Internal Investigations Section (IIS). Now, just like Roach, Jorg does not have to submit to such interviews and cannot be disciplined by a police department by which he is no employed. In the 16 months since Owensby’s death, Officer Jorg had yet to speak with anyone from IIS.

Jorg has since been hired as a police officer by Pierce Township in Clermont County, Ohio.

Sources: Cincinnati Inquirer, Cincinnati Post,
Washington Post

Free Radio Asheville back on the air

By Eamon Martin

Asheville, North Carolina, Mar. 27 (AGR)— On Monday night, a local landlord contacted the Asheville Police Department because he was concerned about a mysterious van parked in the garage of his Murdock St. apartment building. The landlord, David Williamson, was made aware of several people entering and exiting the vehicle and thought that perhaps his garage was being used for drug deals or squatting by the homeless. The van did in fact turn out to be occupied by the homeless — homeless pirate radio station, Free Radio Asheville (FRA).

Asheville police arrested Stephanie Finneran, a.k.a. DJ Not Quite Lucy, while the 17-year-old was broadcasting her regular program. Finneran refused to talk to the police or Williamson, stalling long enough for fellow DJs Furious George, Koolwip, and Dita to arrive.

Furious George spoke with the ranking officer and explained that FRA had been running the station for four years and that they’d been given notice last November from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to shut down. Since then, he said that they’d been moving around from place to place, hoping that things would cool down with the FCC.

The FCC notice, the second received in the station’s history, threatened Free Radio with criminal prosecution, potentially resulting in thousands of dollars in fines or possibly over a year in jail for those convicted.

The FCC was not present at the scene, but on Tuesday the police notified the federal agency about the situation and the possession of the van. Later, the police indicated that the FCC is sending a compliance expert to deal with the matter.

In order to protect a tenant from eviction, Finneran chose not to reveal the identity of Free Radio’s “host” who had invited the station into the basement. As a consequence, the young disc jockey was arrested and brought to the Buncombe County jail.

The van and radio equipment was impounded and searched by forensic experts.

According to Furious George, Williamson and the arresting officer appeared to be under pressure from the police commander and magistrate to press felony charges. Instead, Finneran was charged with three misdemeanors: breaking & entering; misdemeanor larceny (for stolen electricity) and property damage (for the installation of the transmitter’s antenna on Williamson’s roof).

Finneran was held on a $900 secure bond until Dita and Furious George posted bail. Finneran was released less than an hour later. Her first court appearance is April 8th.

On Tuesday, some of the FRA disc jockeys spoke with Williamson. The DJs said that they would tell the landlord who had given them permission to operate in his garage if he promised to drop the charges and not evict the unidentified tenant.

Furious George says Williamson remarked that the landlord “didn’t want to go to court,” and “wasn’t intending to evict anyone.” As of this writing though, the legal dispute has yet to be resolved.

On Tuesday night, Asheville police decided to release the van.

On Wednesday, Free Radio Asheville told the Asheville Global Report that their normally covert crew picked up the van and began broadcasting as soon as their equipment was tested.

Commenting on the debacle, Furious George said: “After this misunderstanding with the local police and the landlord — neither of which we have qualms with — Free Radio Asheville has retrieved the van and begun broadcasting Wednesday in order to get back on track with our microradio, free-speech project. We’ve known from the beginning there would be bumps in the road, and we intend to stay on the airwaves and exercise our First Amendment rights until a permanent place on the dial is established for genuine non-commercial public radio.”

The FCC has refused to comment, saying in no uncertain terms that they “never discuss information about an investigation…ever.”

When operating, FRA can be found locally on the radio dial at 107.5FM. The station, which is illegal according to Federal Communication Commission guidelines, offers a diverse, often free-form variety of musical styles and political commentary.