Last week in Miami, tens of thousands protested the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement. Trade ministers from 34 countries in the Western hemisphere assembled to discuss the proposed extension of NAFTA into the Caribbean and Central and Southern America. The demonstrators believe the agreement would mean the further destruction and annexation of a Latin America already devastated by the neo-liberal, neo-colonial development model imposed by the IMF, World Bank and outlined in trade agreements. I, along with twelve other students from Georgetown, went to Miami to stand with the union members and other groups dedicated to taking back the Americas from the profit before people maxims of structural adjustment reforms and transnational corporations.
2,500 police officers met us in the streets, a law-enforcement army resembling a paramilitary unit. The indiscriminate, excessive force the police used, not only represented a profound assault on our First Amendment rights, but also on the deceptive truism (in this era of Ashcroft and the Patriot Act) that our government protects the right to free speech. The police attacked non-threatening demonstrators with batons, tear gas, pepper spray, concussion grenades and rubber bullets. To borrow the terminology of James Scott, we were subject to the legal enforcement of our unfreedom.
The lexicon of our imperial narrative serves as both the pretext and script of action for the United States’ remodeling of the world. Profane euphemisms masquerading as non-negotiable truths support our government’s fervent assertion of its imperial ambitions. At home, repression is freedom. The false rhetoric is not confined to our own borders. In Iraq, occupation is liberation. Throughout the world, the undemocratic idea of laissez-faire capitalism is democracy. Social and economic disempowerment and confinement are dubbed the “free market.” But perhaps the most insidious euphemistic conflation equates the globalization of war and capitalism (violence of the state and market) with justice and peace. In Miami, all of these odd equations were on full display. Not surprisingly, $8.5 million from the Iraq war bill helped fund the police effort.
Police were equipped with full body armor, and carried weapons designed with the express purpose of harming people. One woman, with her back to the police, had her ear partially shot off. Our oppression at home, although less severe, is related to the oppression of Iraqis by an occupying foreign power. In both cases, the American government is utilizing force to quell dissent. Just as Saddam Hussein outlawed dissent in Iraq, so have we. Real bullets await unarmed resistance to American empire in the streets of Baghdad.
Miami forces us to question the unmitigated, dehumanizing control of the state. The militarized police presence proves that capitalist expansion needs the military today, as it always has. In Iraq, one of the first measures taken by our military in the “reconstruction” of the country was our illegal privatization of over 200 Iraqi industries, which, despite its predictability, is absolutely appalling. U.S. military aggression to make the world safe for capitalism did not die with the Cold War.
The protests ended with scores of people wounded and over 250 jailed, both categories including Georgetown students. One of our members, locked arm and arm with other demonstrators was pushed to the ground by police batons and subsequently arrested. Another found herself surrounded by police on all sides, leaving no avenue of escape from the tear gas and rubber bullets. She walked away from Miami with large, painful welts covering her midsection. We left Miami discouraged, carrying with us a feeling of helplessness that comes from seeing our democratic voices violently silenced. We press on though, inspired by the fact that opposition to neo-liberalism is growing. The collapse of the WTO meetings in Cancun last month-due to the walkout of 21 developing nations-is proof that the struggle for more equitable economic communities is gaining in strength. The popular revolution which occurred last month in Bolivia (most directly inspired by opposition to neo-liberalism) and the election last year in Brazil of the leftist leader Lula, are two victories that add to our hope and strengthen our resolve.
The terms agreed upon at the FTAA meetings themselves inspire us most. Largely due to the formidable opposition of Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia, the FTAA decided upon stipulates that each country will decide which parts of the agreement to abide by. With the dilution of the FTAA, the U.S. will now try to coerce individual nations into bilateral agreements. We will resist these agreements as we did the FTAA. The struggle for a more just, egalitarian and sustainable world continues, but we remember Miami and look to the future with the faith that we will win.
