by Mike Meyers April 21, 2001 Minneapolis Star and Tribune
(Note: Kristin Dawkins is the director of IATP's Global Governance Program.)
Kristin Dawkins, a Minneapolis trade activist, spent part of Friday ducking tear gas outside the Quebec summit.
"Police throw a smoke bomb every couple of minutes," she said in a telephone interview. "It's getting to be almost routine. The protesters are prepared for it and the police don't seem too excited."
There were tens of thousands of protesters in Quebec for the summit, many wearing bandanas over their faces and some donning gas masks, said Dawkins, vice president of global programs of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a Minneapolis-based public interest group.
No violence took place within her sight, Dawkins said, but police continually were pushing protesters away from sidewalk barriers.
Dawkins was joined in protests at the summit by groups of Minnesota union members, students and worker activist groups.
Minnesota businesses were active in lobbying for the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. But apparently no state government or business delegation from Minnesota is attending the Quebec talks.
According to leaders of two Minnesota business groups, the latest initiative at a trade pact is far less of a grass-roots effort than past efforts.
Steve Young, global executive director of the Caux Roundtable, a Minneapolis-based group composed of business executives from North America, Canada, Europe and Asia, sent no one to the conference but supports its goals.
"The Caux Roundtable believes free trade and economic development is the only way to end global poverty and to bring families some kind of power and decent living conditions," Young said.
Business officials haven't been included in the process of international negotiations, he said.
"The evolution of this thing has been kind of political from the beginning, heads of state trying to do stuff," Young said.
Hector Garcia, leader of Minnesotans for NAFTA eight years ago, said he's disappointed that business officials have had little say in the latest talks.
"Instead of being participatory and inclusive, it looks from the outside as very exclusive," he said. "Decisions are being made by the few."
Larry Weiss, coordinator of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, said at least a dozen union members, some students and one coalition representative were in Canada and ready to show their opposition to NAFTA expansion.
"We feel the seven years NAFTA has been in existence already has been a damaging time for working people, the environment and democracy in the three NAFTA countries," Weiss said.
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs have moved to Mexico, Weiss said, where workers have seen the buying power of their paychecks fall.
"Mexican workers still do not have basic rights to organize independent unions, which would allow them to improve their conditions," he said.
The Minnesota Trade Office sent no representatives to the conference, said Cheryl Baker, spokesperson for the agency. A Canadian Consulate spokesman said his government heard of no Minnesotans planning to attend.
Garcia said he is more concerned with fixing flaws in the current trade agreement than in expanding the free-trade zone.
"Yes, there have been negative side effects, but huge positive results as well," said Garcia, who is also executive director of the Minnesota/Dakotas Region of the National Conference for Community and Justice, a human relations organization.
Mexico's economy has grown rapidly since NAFTA, and the nation has become more democratic with the election of President Vicente Fox, Garcia said. Fox defeated the candidate of a political party that ruled Mexico for 70 years.
But the number of Mexicans living in extreme poverty has multiplied. That, Garcia said, must be addressed by Mexican government officials and the nation's free trading partners, the United States and Canada.
"The benefits of NAFTA need to be channeled to all of the sectors of society," Garcia said.
-- Mike Meyers is at meyers@startribune.com:
