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War, and the cycle of violence and oppression

Commentary by Ernie Schibli

Almost a month has passed since the tragic events of September 11^th - a day none of us will forget. Where we were and what we were doing when we first learned of what was happening will forever be engraved in our memory. For hours, days even, our eyes remained glued to TV screens even as we wanted to turn them away from the horror. We wept at the carnage even as we marveled at the courage of so many people trying to help, often at the expense of their own lives.

Clearly, the world, or, to be more precise, our part of it, will never be quite the same again. These attacks did not take place in some far off land. They were in New York and Washington, the very center of the western world. The killed and maimed could well have been us; in fact, some of them were.

This was “murder”. No other word can replace it. The attackers deliberately targeted and killed unarmed men, women and children and in large numbers. If we North Americans ever questioned the reality of evil, we can’t any more. Evil has looked us right in the eye. And so, we condemn, with all our hearts and minds, this monstrous crime against humanity. The victims were not only those killed and injured, their families, friends and communities but all of us who lost part of our being on that day. If this is what the perpetrators of this crime intended, then they have succeeded.

War

Whenever someone is assaulted the natural reaction is to strike back at the attacker. If, as was the case, action is momentarily impossible or very difficult, then words must do. We cry out, we condemn, we accuse, and we threaten. We say all sorts of things, so great is the pain. So it came as no surprise to hear President Bush, Congressional leaders, the news media, and, even the average citizen, cry out in pain and anger and make all sorts of threats. We ourselves, living in another country, joined in the desire to strike back, so great was the hurt.

I can’t remember who it was to first use the word “war” but within hours that word was on the lips of so many of us. The terrorists had not committed a “crime”, monstrous as it was; they had declared “war” on the United States and the West. And so the early headlines, “The U.S. is at war!” and “The first war of the new millennium” were flashed across our screens and daily newspapers.

Unfortunately, now almost a month after the horror began, these words have not given way to more moderate language. Instead, they are now daily accompanied by reports of preparations for war. Not only is it the U.S. that is to be engaged in this war but any country that would be its friend. “If you are not with us in this war on terrorism, then you are against us and must be ready to pay the cost.” So speaks Washington and London where Prime Minister Tony Blair sounds even more American than the President. Nor is this to be an ordinary war. Rather it will be a holy war where the forces of good will triumph against those of evil. After all, God is on our side.” And on it goes.

Here in Canada, it is not much different. Our federal government wavers between stridency and caution. One moment it is “We will do our duty;” the next, “we’ll see.” The private mainline news media parrots over and over, “we will go all the way with our American friends.” Columnists in Montreal’s Gazette and elsewhere ridicule and almost label as treasonous those who would raise questions. Only the CBC among the mainline media permits a different point of view. Where are the saner heads? Didn’t we learn anything during the last century, the bloodiest in world history?

Perhaps the terrorists have won; perhaps they have demonstrated that the West is really no different than they. Violence and more violence rule the day. Not so many years ago, Dom Helder Camara, the RC bishop of Recife in northeastern Brazil, spoke of the “spiral of violence” - someone oppresses someone else, the second party strikes back, the first responds with even greater violence, and on it goes. Who will be the next victims?

Punishing the Criminals

Do not get me wrong. This was a horrendous crime and the criminals must be apprehended and punished. As I write this, they are generally assumed to be the group led by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. It is vitally important that we are sure as to who committed this terrible crime and who did not. Otherwise we run the risk of lashing out at other innocent about-to-be victims. If only to prevent this from happening, cooler heads are required.

But is it “war”? Bush, Blair and Prime Minister Chrétien tell us that it will be a war unlike any other, yet ships, planes and troops are being rushed overseas. That sounds like a prescription for old-fashioned warfare to me. Wouldn’t a truly effective World Court be a wonderful tool to have now? Unfortunately,… On the other hand, I want to welcome the call for all countries to unite in the fight against global terrorism but somehow I worry that it is not to be a fight against all terrorism. Terrorism did not begin on September 11^th. Ask the people of the Middle East, Africa, East Timor, Cambodia and Viet Nam, Latin America.

Nor is it always waged by some terrorist organization. Governments have leveled it against their own people. Western governments too have contributed to the slaughter of millions. Contrary to the rhetoric coming out of Washington and London, this “war” is not between “those” devils and us “angels”. I have spent too many occasions listening to Chilean, Guatemalan, Salvadoran and other victims of similar terror - people whose homes were bombed, wives and sisters raped, brothers, fathers and children tortured and killed. The West, our west, was often behind these crimes. So, if the intent is to search out and punish all terrorists, then that means our own terrorists as well.

Economic Oppression

When we get around to asking questions about what led up to September 11^th we will have to go beyond terrorism, the violent attack upon innocent people to achieve a desired result. We in the West must take a serious look at the way we have structured the world. Can we live in a peaceful world when 20% of the population (most living in the West) consumes 80% of the world’s wealth and leaves only a pittance for the rest? For years people in the South and their friends in the North have struggled to get the western-dominated banks, institutions and countries to lift the burden of debt from the backs of so many people and so give them a chance to live decently, to no avail. Perhaps this is not “terrorism” as some would define it but it leaves people just as dead. Economic oppression shares the same lack of respect for people and their right to live in security and peace.

Too many Americans, Canadians, Britons and other westerners, out of ignorance, greed or apathy, have turned our eyes away from the suffering of the world’s poor; a suffering in which we are heavily implicated. When we sit back and do nothing to relieve the misery of others and even contribute to it, can we be surprised if some people should adopt violent, even horrendous means, to strike back? I believe it was John Kennedy who said something like “those who deny peaceful means to change make violent ones inevitable.”

Solidarity

The polls tell us that 90% of Americans are in favor of war. The Canadian news media would lead us to believe that it is not much different in our country. I do not think either is true. Yes, the media is clearly in favor of war but there are other voices out there but they are not being heard. When only one option is offered there is a very real danger that a mass hysteria will take over and we will be swept into the morass by our own rhetoric. Those of us who fear the direction in which we appear to be heading must speak out strongly. It is not a time for apathy or timidity.

The vast majority of Canadians see themselves and our country as friends of the United States. Since we are friends, we can be afraid of doing something that might offend them, especially at a time when there is so much pain. Fearing that we might be misunderstood, that our comments not be appreciated, we might prefer to remain silent. Yet, real friends do not acquiesce to everything the other party says or does. Real friends try to protect us from the follies of our actions. Moreover, despite being a minority, there are millions of Americans who do not agree with the direction their country is headed. We owe something to them. It is called solidarity.

SJC responds to new needs in Central America and Mexico, 

will put new emphasis on struggle to protect economic and social rights

In recent years, our urgent action requests from Central America and Mexico , and what we have heard from visitors from the region, have made us more aware of the importance of protecting economic and social rights.

Examples of Urgent Action alerts:

El Salvador : the introduction of dollarization; the lowering of the minimum wage, privatization, etc.;

Guatemala : the raising of the IVA tax (a regressive tax), privatization, lack of land reform, the labour situation is a bad as ever, etc.;

Nicaragua : suffering tremendously as a result of the neo-liberal model of development and adherence to SAPs, not to mention the problems caused by the mining industry.

Drought and an international drop in the price of coffee have caused the firing of many campesinos, and the families face famine. People have already died of starvation.

Examples of what visitors to the SJC have had to say:

Juan Garrido of Mexico spoke about big development projects in his country which are adversely affecting his people;

Berta Caceres informed us of the El Tigre hydroelectric project in Honduras that is uprooting thousands of indigenous people. The Energisa hydro project that was the subject of an urgent action is another example of what this development model is doing to the people of that country. Added to this is the impact of SAPs on Honduras , particularly the demand for privatization.

While local and state authorities are heavily implicated in most of these cases, foreign governments, international financial institutions like the IMF, World Bank and Inter American Development Bank, and trans-national corporations are playing a significant role in what is happening.

A damaging development strategy is being put into place for the whole of the Americas and especially for Central America and southern Mexico , our traditional areas of work, through programs like the Plan Puebla-Panamá, Plan Colombia , Plan Andino and the FTAA. The re-introduction of American armed forces into the region also presents a disturbing factor.

Given the implications for the region where we focus our work, we will pay special attention to the developments concerning the Plan Puebla-Panama. This development plan, officially launched in June this year, is a project of transportation and final assembly of products coming from Pacific-rim countries and destined for areas of highest consumption in the world such as the East Coast of the US and Western Europe. This implies a great increase in the governments-subsidized system of maquiladoras (sweat-shops). The Plan authors have not consulted the people that will be mostly affected, and NGOs and popular organizations of the area are rejecting it.

Our response to this situation is to develop a new program at the SJC for the Central America - southern Mexico region that will focus on respect for socio-economic rights, with the attention to the natural environment as a sub-theme.

There will be two major components to our program:

(1) responding to the human rights violations that are brought to our attention by partners in the region; and

(2) going upstream, placing these violations in the context of the hemispheric socio-politico-economic system and confronting the system itself. We strongly suspect that many of the socio-economic human rights violations are not caused solely by aberrant forces within the country involved but are also the product of policies formulated by forces in the North. There is a fundamental flaw in the hemispheric socio-economic system itself.

Since we are an education/advocacy organization, we will endeavour to concentrate our efforts on areas where we have some leverage in working effectively for positive change. We intend to concentrate our efforts on:

the activities of Canadian corporations (e.g. mining companies) in the Central American and Southern Mexico region;

the activities of non-Canadian corporations (e.g. Nike) that also operate in Canada ;

the activities of Canadian government (e.g. CIDA or DFAIT) or quasi-government groups (e.g. EDC) operating in the region;

the activities of those international financial institutions (e.g. IMF, WB, Inter American Development Bank) and trade organizations (e.g. WTO) in which the Canadian government plays a role.

Observation

With respect to social and economic rights, our observation will come from several sources:

· immediate - we will work on one or two cases from each country of the region that involve the violation of these rights as they are brought to our attention by organizations in the region. These organizations will provide us with the details surrounding the case in question.

· indirect – we will do our own research in Montreal and contact Canadian and American organizations with an expertise in the area.

· on the ground – we will send a team or teams to the region to meet with our present partners and to seek new partners.

B. Judgment

On the micro level, the actions we receive from the region invariably ask for particular responses on our part and we will do our best to respond to those actions. In addition, however, we will judge the situation using the following tools:

international covenants and laws pertaining to socio-economic rights and the natural environment;

national legislation in the country in question (and sometimes to the lack of such legislation, as in the case of mining in Mexico );

prevailing regulations and practice in Canada when more progressive than that of the country in question.

On the macro level, we will undertake to make a good analysis of the hemispheric socio-politico-economic system and hold foreign nations and corporations as well as international trade and financial institutions accountable to:

· national and international human rights and environmental laws and covenants;

· codes of conduct;

C. Action

On the micro level, we will attempt to rectify the human rights violations directly, by contacting the governments and institutions to:

(1) point out the transgression;

(2) indicate how it violates national or international human rights laws or covenants;

(3) call upon them to rectify the situation.

We will also inform and educate others through

(1) activating the Urgent Action Network;

(2) contacting Canadian individuals and organizations that share experiences similar to the victims of the human rights violations;

issuing press releases and writing op-ed articles

On the macro level, we will meet with other like-minded organizations in Canada , the United States and in the region to develop a common analysis and joint campaigns. This might well mean attending conferences or even organizing one ourselves to be held in Montreal or in the region.

The forest is also a place where people live

SJC leads delegation from eastern Canada to conference on land use in Mexico

Karen Rothschild, coordinator of the SJC's Mexico programs, attended the AForum on the Temperate and Tropical Forests and the Arid Regions of North America@ in Sisoguichi, Chichuahua, Mexico September 8 B 14. Part of an eastern Canadian delegation, she joined William McKay, a professional forester who has worked for twenty-four years with Mi=kmaq communities in Nova Scotia, and David Toro Iguarán, an environmental advisor to the Innu communities of the Mamuitun Tribal Council based in Betsiamites, Québec. (A small project grant from Development and Peace made Mr. Toro=s participation possible, and helped defray the travel costs of the SJC representative.)

After traveling from Montreal to the capital city of Chihuahua , in northern Mexico , I joined fifty other people going to the forum by charter bus, driving up into the mountains of the Sierra Tarahumara. The forum=s only logistical mishap occurred when one of the small local buses to which the participants had been transferred for the last stage of the four-hour journey broke down. Most of the passengers decided to walk in the quiet darkness of the mountain road, and after half an hour or so they were overtaken by the now-repaired bus.

The event took place in a large residential centre, formerly a boarding school, belonging to the Catholic Church. On the second evening, organizers invited us to attend the mass in the nearby parish church in honour of Santa María, the patron saint of the community. The service began with the dance of the masked matachines to the accompaniment of music played on violins and guitars (that are made by local craftspeople). The sermon was delivered in the language of the Rarámuri indigenous people of the Sierra as well as in Spanish.

During the sermon, reference was made to the people who were absent from the community - the men who had left in search of paid work. For me, this was a forceful reminder that we were in a region struck by economic catastrophe. Years of drought, the result of both global climatic changes and local deforestation, mean that subsistence farming is becoming less and less possible. In the early 1960s, campesinos in the Sierra Tarahumara were able to grow enough corn to feed their families and to have a surplus for the next year=s seeds or to sell. By the 1980s, rainfall began to decline, agriculture was Amodernized@ (meaning that farmers had to invest in inputs for hybrid corn that is dependent on chemicals) and support for campesinos was drastically reduced as the Mexican government embarked on its structural adjustment programme. Thus, the region=s campesinos have been caught in a squeeze between higher costs and declining harvests. This year, in some areas, there has been no harvest. That is to say, many people have little or no food to eat.

The Forum concentrated upon the Forest in its social aspects B as a place where people live and work, rather than a physical location from which lumber and other plant resources are extracted for profit. This social approach reflected the fact that 80% of Mexico =s forests are owned by communities or by agricultural collectives known as ejidos. These are mainly native communities and ejidos, and so most of the Forum participants were members of Mexico =s First Nations. This meant that most people were working in their second language.

The Forum had a number of recurring themes: the over-cutting of Mexico =s forests; the importance of the non-wood resources of the forests; the lack of respect for the environment and for environmental laws; the problem of militarization; the need to safeguard and promote the culture and livelihood of native communities and to protect their traditional knowledge. However, there were important differences in the lived experiences of the participants and of the organizations and communities which they represented.

Differences in social conditions were reflected in different approaches to the Forest . In Oaxaca , there are ongoing experiences in setting up community forest enterprises that focus on alternatives to logging. After carrying out an assessment of community land use, the community of Yaresiá Ixtán in particular has embarked on an eco-tourism project. Rather than attempting to compete with low-priced lumber from Chile , Canada , and the United States , local communities are trying to derive economic benefit from their efforts to protect their forests.

In many regions, there are efforts to safeguard non-wood resources B the edible and medicinal plants and plants that are used by craftspeople. Forum participants expressed alarm at the threat of Abio-piracy@ B the arrival of outside (often foreign) botanists and anthropologists seeking to appropriate not only local plant resources but also the scientific knowledge that has been developed by local communities.

Biopiracy may involve collaboration between Mexican and foreign academic institutions and transnational companies. It may also include the participation of a spurious local NGO especially set up to coordinate the Aparticipation@ of the affected communities. It was reported that, due to community organizing and public protest, one such project has been abandoned in Chiapas . The need to recover, protect, and preserve indigenous scientific knowledge was a recurrent theme throughout the conference.

In some regions, there is clear evidence that lumbering activities must be thoroughly re-evaluated or even immediately ceased. An example of the need for an immediate halt to lumbering is the situation in the Sierra de Coyuca de Catalán y Petatlán in the state of Guerrero. In that region, at the price of several lives and with six of its members still in prisons in Iguala and Acapulco , the Organization of Campesino Environmentalists appears to have succeeded in persuading the federal Ministry of the Environment, as well as some state officials, that the region is threatened by desertification due to over-cutting.

Although the Organization of Campesino Environmentalists has had two meetings with the federal Minister of the Environment and has received promises of federal and state support for alternative development projects, the Guerrero state justice system has turned down the court appeals of the most famous members of the Campesino Ecologists, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, who are currently serving long prison sentences based on Aconfessions@ (to crimes related to drug production and to carrying illegal weapons) which they signed as a result of being tortured by Mexican army personnel. Forum participants were asked to sign a petition to President Fox asking him to grant a presidential pardon to Montiel and Cabrera.. (Care was taken, through the precise wording of the petition, not to suggest that the men were in any way guilty of the crimes for which they had been sentenced.)

Human rights defenders in the Sierra Tarahumara region of Chihuahua (the site of the Forum) emphasized the problem of Aenvironmental impunity@. In the period from 1996 to 1999, native communities and ejidos in the Sierra lodged 414 official complaints with the competent legal authorities regarding the illegal logging taking place the region. To date, no one has been punished for these very serious illegal activities.

There were different visions of the lumber industry - with some participants believing that their regions have already been over-logged, others calling for a moratorium until there has been a thorough evaluation of the actual state of the forest, and others feeling that there is a place for a well-regulated lumber industry. Those who espoused the latter view emphasized the need for local communities to control the lumber activities taking place in their forests. The communities themselves should hire the experts and forest technicians that are needed, so that the local people will no longer (as has all too often been the situation) be at the mercy of the corrupt collusion of technicians, politicians, and the forest industry.

Throughout the conference, there were many references to Mexico =s environmental legislation and the need for citizens= participation in strengthening and enforcing the laws protecting the environment. A number of speakers called for these laws to be made known to the public in terms that are intelligible to the average lay person.( One of the Canadian participants commented that the protection of the Mexican forest is likely to be a permanent civic responsibility .In Canada, there is on the whole respect for environmental laws and regulations. Nevertheless, many Canadians are deeply worried about the future of Canada =s forests and question the vision of the forest industry.)

The Forum=s final resolutions strongly emphasized the need for organizing and action at the community level. There was a great deal of emphasis on environmental education for children and adults, on technical training for adults(on such subjects as accounting, environmental mapping and appropriate land use) and on the exchange of information among organizations and communities. It was clear that there was a shared vision of the future, based on respect for the traditional ways of life and the traditional knowledge of native communities but with an openness to acquiring new knowledge and a readiness, when necessary, to seek expert advice from non-governmental organizations and academicians.

The Forum=s organizers are already making plans for a follow-up meeting in September, 2002. They have invited the Social Justice Committee again to be one of the convoking organizations and to co-ordinate a Canadian delegation. For the SJC, the links between environmental and human rights issues are central to ongoing work on social and economic rights.. These links are especially evident in the rural areas of Mexico and Central America , where environmental deterioration has had a clear effect on people=s lives and livelihood. Although Canadians have been slower to understand such interrelations in a Canadian context, they too are becoming increasingly aware of the social effects of environmental degradation.

“Drop the Debt; Scrap the SAPs”

SJC targets multilateral debt, will launch new campaign in Canada

On Friday, October 19^th, the Global Economic Justice (GEJ) committee of the SJC will formally launch the next phase in our campaign for the unconditional cancellation of the foreign debt of the world’s poorer countries. Our focus will be multilateral debt, the so-called debts of these countries to the International Financial Institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and the regional development banks. As in the past, our program will have a strong educational component, this time based on our videos The Silent Killer: Debt and Honduras and Voices of the South. The action component will feature the sending of postcards to our Members of Parliament and petitions to be read in the House of Commons. An added feature is that our postcards will feature the drawings from our highly-acclaimed Debt Kit.

It is over two years now since Jubilee 2000 campaigners presented their petition, with over 17 million signatures, to the leaders of the G-7 countries in Cologne , Germany . The petition, probably signed by many readers of this article, called for the cancellation of the unpayable debt of the world's poorest countries and an end to structural adjustment programs.

The G-7 leaders responded by announcing that they, at both the bilateral and multilateral level, would indeed work towards the cancellation of a substantial amount of the debt—up to $70 billion, according to some news media accounts.

This was good news, or, so it appeared. A number of countries, including Canada , quickly canceled the bilateral debt of some of the poorest countries. However, when it came to the multilateral debt, a scrutiny of what has happened since Cologne quickly reveals that the news was not nearly as good as it first appeared. On the positive side, the IMF did increase the number of countries eligible for participation in their Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and it reduced the time period between the moment a country entered the HIPC process and when it actually receives some debt relief.

On the other hand, much of the debt cancelled has been what poor countries would never have been able to be pay anyway. This means that country's in the HIPC initiative, even after debt relief, can find themselves paying as much as before. In fact, there have been instances when they have had to pay more.

Official Intransigence

More important is the refusal of the G-7 and the IMF to remove structural adjustment programs. In fact, they have gone as far as introducing new conditionalities for debt relief. High on the list of the traditional conditions is the requirement that governments privatize their service industries (e.g., communications, hydro-electricity, water delivery.) Now these countries must also provide the IMF with a poverty reduction strategy, showing how cancelled debts will benefit the poor. What might seem good at first glance quickly becomes a liability when one takes into consideration that it is the IMF, with its strong neo-liberal stance, that determines whether the strategy is good for the poor or not.

Underlying the position adopted by the G-7 and the international financial institutions is the strong belief (at least as presented in public) that the borrowing countries are solely responsible for their plight. There is complete denial of any culpability on the part of lending agencies. Therefore, it is up to the debtor countries to change their ways, not the creditors. This writer is firmly convinced that we will not make any substantial progress in the cancellation of these debts until the creditors admit that at least a part of the cause were their own policies and creditor country actions.

Southern Response

Reaction to Cologne has not been limited to creditor countries and their institutions. Those working for debt cancellation have also been busy, both in the North and in the South. A fairly large number of southern organizations, gathered under the banner of Jubilee South, have been meeting to lay plans for the continuation of the struggle. They argue that much of the so-called debt was never legitimate in the first place and what was legitimate has actually been repaid many times over. They go further in stating that whatever debt does exist is that of the North to the South. They cite historical activities such as the slave trade and colonialism that plundered so much from the South and the terrible destruction on the planet's natural environment, overwhelmingly inflicted by the North.

Southern groups have also expressed a fear that, just as they are becoming better organized, Northern groups are tiring of the issue and turning their attention elsewhere. Their fears are well-grounded as we in the North have a history of running from one issue to another without staying the course with any. Years ago, in an insightful piece published by Ten Days for Development, in a take-off of The Screwtape Letters, the chief devil instructs one of his minions to keep introducing new issues to activists so that they will be so busy jumping on new bandwagons that they will not respond adequately to any of them. Since the appearance of that publication, there have been a myriad of causes to attract our attention.

The SJC heard and acknowledged this fear many years ago and we have doggedly stuck to a few issues. When the eyes of the world turned away from Central America towards other regions, we continued our solidarity with Central Americans because the basic injustices remain, even if some of the symptoms have changed. Subsequent events (cf article on CAM ) have proved us right.

Debt remains a serious problem for much of the world, contributing to the misery of billions of people. It is not the only problem but, as long as it exists, peoples and their governments will find it exceedingly difficult to climb out of poverty. Not only does the “debt” force countries to divert their extremely limited resources to the North but it has become a tool in the hands of the North for inflicting its will on the South.

And so, as the Southern groups organize and strategize with northern solidarity groups, we are doing our best to keep this issue before the Canadian public. We invite all our members to play an active part in this work. Join us on Friday, Oct. 19^th. If you can't, then give us a call at the office. We cannot remain silent.

- Ernie Schibli on the behalf of GEJ

The Global Economic Justice (GEJ) is one of the two program committees of the SJC. We meet once a month from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The GEJ is currently working on the debt campaign and our new trade kit. We particularly require people to help with presentations and translation into French.

Paul Martin tells SJC he agrees with us on privatization in impoverished countries, but...

The SJC has been arguing against World Bank and IMF insistence on privatization of public services, like electricity, telecommunications and even water. Natural resources, like oil, gas and mining, also have to be put up for sale if countries want foreign aid or debt cancellation.

Privatization is a central component of structural adjustment programs in countries that have to go to the IMF or World Bank for assistance. The results can be disastrous.

In South Africa about a year ago, soon after the water system in rural areas near Durban was sold to a corporation, users who failed to pay promptly were cut off. Some started to use unsafe local water, which sparked an outbreak of cholera. The disease raged for months, infecting thousands. Almost two hundred people died.

In Colombia , trade unionists are the target of right-wing para-military groups. Over two hundred were assassinated last year, more than fifty so far this year. Some were killed because they had spoken out in opposition to the privatization of the electrical services, a demand of the World bank and IMF.

Countries all over the world are facing the same demands to sign their resources over to the corporations.

Finance Minister Paul Martin says he agrees with the SJC position that privatization should not be forced on impoverished countries. Meeting with him and the new Canadian Executive Director at the IMF, along with people from the Department of finance’s international division, we asked for a stronger sign of Canadian government support for the fight against privatization. He said that if we could show cases where countries are having these forced on them, Canada would fight them at the IMF and World Bank.

So the ball is in our court, and we will respond.

Cracking down on dissent— the need for renewed democratic process

Dorothy Hennessey, an 88-year-old Sister of St. Francis, is one of twenty-six people serving six months in a US prison for protesting her country’s military oppression in Latin America . With several others, mostly educators and religious over fifty years old, she trespassed by crossing a white line at the entrance to the military training base at Fort Benning, Georgia, commonly known as the “School of the Assassins”.

Insolent rapping at the gates of power can bring a hefty response, even for the elderly, religious and pacifist (or all three put together). In Genoa , police responded to younger protesters with vicious beatings and the mass arrests that have become part of the standard ‘security’ policy at international summits.

Here in Canada , we have our own recent reminders that governments and their agents - police officers and the courts - will come down hard on people who engage in civil disobedience.

The report on police misdeeds during the APEC meetings in Vancouver in 1997 that has just been submitted concludes that police didn’t live up to “professional standards”, and were out of line dealing with protesters, with federal officials playing an “improper role”. Police actions at APEC were quite mild compared with their response to the Quebec Summit protests, with its wholesale arrests and use of tear gas and rubber bullets. One young man, Eric Laferriere, was shot in the throat when he was near the security fence. His thorax and larynx crushed by the plastic bullet, he now has a steel six-inch stainless steel pipe in his throat.

Nobody claimed that Mr. Laferrier was a violent threat. He wasn’t about to hurl a fire extinguisher at trapped policemen, for example, when he was shot. He was a protester, and that’s enough. Several Quebec City protesters were beaten, and some spent weeks in jail, but there will be no inquiry into police behaviour.

World leaders are agreeing to deal with dissent by cracking down. In the wake of Genoa , the German government is proposing that Europe create a special police team to deal with anti-globalization protests. Prime Minister Chretien, our defender of tyrants at APEC, has been clear in his position that he will not tolerate people getting out of line next year when Canada hosts the next G-7 summit.

The crackdown response to anti-globalization protest fails to deal with two major issues. One is the value that democratic societies accord protest of injustice. The other is the failure of the governments of democratic societies to address the concerns of the anti-globalization movement.

We recognize the right to dissent most clearly when it comes to a country like China . For example, Wei Jingsheng is an activist who served fourteen years in Chinese jails for publishing “counter-revolutionary” material. On his release, he was forbidden to take part in political activities. He ignored the order, and a few months later was back in prison to serve another couple of years.

Now living in the United States , he says that dissent is often a necessity: “Dissent may not always be pleasant to listen to, and it is inevitable that it will sometimes be misguided. But it is everyone's sovereign right. Indeed when government is seen as defective or unreasonable, criticizing it is an unshirkable duty.”

This doesn’t mean we should accept or condone actions of violence by some people that have attached themselves to the anti-globalization protests, any more than we should accept violent actions by police. Both deserve our condemnation.

The ability of our country to deal with dissent is an indication of its strength as a democracy. We should be able to accept dissent, even to embrace it, as a true indication that we are capable of coping with opposing viewpoints and emerging strengthened by the process.

The Canadian government is failing the test. There are almost no avenues for input into policy formation for people unhappy with various aspects of economic globalization. The Department of Finance has ad-hoc meetings with non-governmental organizations, but has no formal process for input, let alone follow-up and evaluation. When the Department of Foreign Affairs holds its annual three-day “consultation” with civil society prior to the UN Commission on Human Rights meetings, it allots twenty minutes to economic and social rights in their entirety. Of course no one takes this bit of sound bite seriously, let alone worry about the lack of feedback, follow-up or evaluative framework.

Governments have to learn how to deal with protesters properly. Stop treating them like criminals. Stop encouraging the police and the courts to come down hard. Open solid, formal channels of input, with the access to information, follow-up and evaluation needed to ensure they don’t join the desiccated corpses in the elephant’s graveyard of government commissions. The economic globalization process has got to open up to informed popular participation in decision making - in other words, to democracy.

Human rights in Mexico under the new government

Excerpts from a statement made on July 2^nd 2001 by the Miguel Agustín Pro Human Rights Centre in Mexico City .

During his presidential candidacy, Vicente Fox made a series of promises with regard to human rights. After his election and before assuming office, he reiterated these commitments. Among other things, Fox promised to safeguard and respect human rights and to create a new cultural climate in which violations of human rights would no longer be tolerated and those responsible for human rights abuses would be punished.

From the evidence of the government’s performance during the past year, it is apparent that Fox has not kept his word. Despite his rhetorical emphasis on promoting respect for human rights, Fox has taken no concrete steps to safeguard and promote human rights. Furthermore, not only are there continued violations of civil and political rights but there has also been an increase in violations of economic, social, and cultural rights.

The Fox government’s pattern of behaviour with regard to the different kinds of human rights violations is distinct from that of its PRI predecessors. Since the new government differs from the PRI governments in its social alliances and in its objectives; it also has a different outlook. Thus, the primary objective of the previous PRI governments was the maintenance of power. In order to maintain power, the PRI governments forged clientelist and populist alliances incorporating segments of the working class and of the peasantry. PRI governments tended to harass or eliminate their adversaries.

For its part, the Fox government has given political representation and strength to groups that were marginalized during the PRI regime - business people and those who advocate a return to conservative morality. These groups are not interested in eliminating their opponents but rather in creating the legal, social, political, and economic conditions that are necessary for their own plans and goals.

In the context of “the war on drugs”, and in regions like Chiapas and Guerrero where counter-insurgency strategies had been developed, the encroachment of the military into civilian areas is continuing under the Fox government. The military is beginning to become involved in areas that are more closely linked to the economic development of south-eastern Mexico and to the control of marginalized social strata. So we see the military being given a role in environmental “protection” in the enforcement of immigration policies, and in the provision of social assistance.

Repressive tactics have continued under the Fox administration, especially with regard to police abuses committed in the course of the war on drugs and to the use of torture in legal investigations. Moreover, there have been some new elements that are also linked to economic factors, such as evictions to make way for carrying out economic projects.

In making his commitments with regard to human rights, Fox limited himself to civil and political rights, making no reference to economic, social, and cultural rights. It is indeed true that PRI governments also violated economic, social, and cultural rights. Nevertheless, with Fox, the violations are more open, and they can be ascribed to the interests of the prominent businessmen (empresarios) who are part of the Fox government.

In May, the government announced budget cuts that affected anti-poverty programmes. However, the Ministry of Defence was not affected by these budget cuts.

The reform to the taxation system includes a proposed 15% GST on medicine, food, fees for higher education, public transport, and rent. This extension of, and increase in, the GST constitutes an attack on the rights to health, food, education, and housing, as well as on the rights to the enjoyment of culture and the benefits of scientific and technological progress.

Problems of land ownership and land use arising from the sale of land for economic projects are impinging upon the rights to food and to a decent standard of living.

No steps have been taken to comply with the recommendations directed to Mexico , in 1999, by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Among other matters, these recommendations called for improving the conditions of women workers in maquila factories, withdrawing army personnel from tasks that are properly the sphere of social workers, making efforts to prevent evictions, and ending reservations on labour rights.