The 5th Ministerial of the FTAA will occur in Miami November 20-21 and thousands are converging to voice their opposition to global corporate rule. The Free Trade Area of the Americas is described as "NAFTA on steroids" by
critics of globalization
Indymedia has posted a website on the issue: FTAA IMC
The FTAA will enhance and expand on the failures of NAFTA to encompass the entire Western Hemisphere and the Caribbean (excluding only Cuba). It would impact directly, the lives of 800 million people. Opposition to the FTAA is based on the fact that business interests are given powers to sweep away public interests such as human rights, labor laws, and environmental regulations in favor of the corportions' ''right to profit". Unacountable tribunals can put great pressure on individuals and entire governments to submit to their greedy and arrogant rulings or face criminal charges or exceedingly prohibitive fines. Thus enforcement of health, environmental, and labor codes are swept aside as "barriers to trade."
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT TAKING PART IN MIAMI, CHECK OUT STOP THE FTAA
and/or take part locally in an action against THE GAP.
Around 300 people in Santa Monica participated on November 9th at the International Day Against the Israeli Apartheid Wall to protest the construction of a 400 mile long wall that would enclose the Palestinian areas of the West Bank behind a 25 foot tall wall. The demonstration educated people about the largely unknown wall. Reports from the event are: a photo essay by a, and a photo set from Marcus.
After decades when people witnessed the end of South African apartheid, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Israel has embarked on a project to build a wall around Palestinian areas, in a kind of reverse-gated-community. It's eerily reminiscent of Jewish ghettos enclosed by walls, like Terezin and Warsaw. Within these ghettos, Jews lived oppressed lives apart from the rest of society, under a curfew, and with limited political clout.
A short history of the 'ghetto' as a tool of segregation and oppression.
IMC Palestine has complete details on the construction of the wall.