Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
No Free Trade Unless It's Fair Trade': Thousands Protest FTAA
Thousands of protesters, including CWA members from several states, rallied Nov. 20 in Miami as trade ministers from 34 Western Hemisphere countries met to create the world's largest free-trade zone - the Free Trade Area of the Americas - unhindered by language to protect workers, their communities or the environment.
"It was a rebirth of the anti-globalization alliance in the United States between labor and the youth, environment, faith-based and other social movements," said IUE-CWA Local 81201 President Jeff Crosby, who marched with a half-dozen members of his local and others from the Lynn, Mass., labor council who made the trip.
While Miami was the hot spot for FTAA activities, other cities also staged events. About 50 IUE and other CWA members turned out for a demonstration in Cleveland, where several hundred activists called attention to the 185,000 jobs that Ohio alone has lost over the last two years as companies have moved jobs offshore.
"We have to define patriotism to include a corporate commitment to American jobs," CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, one of the Cleveland speakers, said. "First it was manufacturing, now customer service and IT in a race to the bottom based on the cheapest pay and lowest standards. Now is the time to turn this around with a national campaign for fair trade."
Often called "NAFTA on steroids," the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement would eliminate trade barriers for all North American, South American and Caribbean countries except Cuba. The North American Free Trade Agreement applies only to the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Plans for the Miami march and rally had been in the works for months, with a route mapped along Biscayne Boulevard to go to and from an amphitheater the AFL-CIO rented for speeches.
But an overwhelming and heavily armed police presence, with armored vehicles, water cannons and helicopters, shut down the bayside boulevard to marchers and kept about half the crowd out of the theater, even though it wasn't nearly full.
"For months we've been meeting with the city of Miami and the police and we'd agreed on the route that would be walked," said Don LaRotonda, a CWA District 3 representative and member of the Broward County Central Labor Council. But in spite of the labor community's advance work, marchers were met with "rows of police in riot gear four deep" who cut them off.
The Steelworkers, who brought 2,000 members to Miami, are calling for a congressional investigation of what President Leo Gerard described as "massive police state" tactics he said were largely paid for with federal dollars earmarked for Iraq.
"It is condemnable enough that a massive police state was created to prevent American citizens from directly petitioning FTAA negotiators for redress of their grievances," Gerard said in a letter to Congressional leaders. "It is doubly condemnable that $9 million of federal funds designated for the reconstruction of Iraq were used toward this despicable purpose. How can we hope to build democracy in Iraq while using massive force to dismantle it here at home?"
While some activists reported incidents of police brutality, media coverage and CWA members involved indicated it was a peaceful protest with lots of positive energy.
LaRotonda was a "peacekeeper" at the event, one of 15 or 20 among the CWA crowd that included members from southern Florida's locals, as well as a smattering of members from states that included Texas, Minnesota and Massachusetts. Activists traveled from across the country and throughout the world to attend.
Crosby said protests in Miami and the ongoing campaign against FTAA have been successful in that the trade talks are behind schedule, with serious disagreement among trade ministers. Their work is supposed to be done by 2005 but "that schedule is in jeopardy; it's really unraveling," he said. "You look around and there're too many countries that won't play."
"It was a rebirth of the anti-globalization alliance in the United States between labor and the youth, environment, faith-based and other social movements," said IUE-CWA Local 81201 President Jeff Crosby, who marched with a half-dozen members of his local and others from the Lynn, Mass., labor council who made the trip.
While Miami was the hot spot for FTAA activities, other cities also staged events. About 50 IUE and other CWA members turned out for a demonstration in Cleveland, where several hundred activists called attention to the 185,000 jobs that Ohio alone has lost over the last two years as companies have moved jobs offshore.
"We have to define patriotism to include a corporate commitment to American jobs," CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, one of the Cleveland speakers, said. "First it was manufacturing, now customer service and IT in a race to the bottom based on the cheapest pay and lowest standards. Now is the time to turn this around with a national campaign for fair trade."
Often called "NAFTA on steroids," the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement would eliminate trade barriers for all North American, South American and Caribbean countries except Cuba. The North American Free Trade Agreement applies only to the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Plans for the Miami march and rally had been in the works for months, with a route mapped along Biscayne Boulevard to go to and from an amphitheater the AFL-CIO rented for speeches.
But an overwhelming and heavily armed police presence, with armored vehicles, water cannons and helicopters, shut down the bayside boulevard to marchers and kept about half the crowd out of the theater, even though it wasn't nearly full.
"For months we've been meeting with the city of Miami and the police and we'd agreed on the route that would be walked," said Don LaRotonda, a CWA District 3 representative and member of the Broward County Central Labor Council. But in spite of the labor community's advance work, marchers were met with "rows of police in riot gear four deep" who cut them off.
The Steelworkers, who brought 2,000 members to Miami, are calling for a congressional investigation of what President Leo Gerard described as "massive police state" tactics he said were largely paid for with federal dollars earmarked for Iraq.
"It is condemnable enough that a massive police state was created to prevent American citizens from directly petitioning FTAA negotiators for redress of their grievances," Gerard said in a letter to Congressional leaders. "It is doubly condemnable that $9 million of federal funds designated for the reconstruction of Iraq were used toward this despicable purpose. How can we hope to build democracy in Iraq while using massive force to dismantle it here at home?"
While some activists reported incidents of police brutality, media coverage and CWA members involved indicated it was a peaceful protest with lots of positive energy.
LaRotonda was a "peacekeeper" at the event, one of 15 or 20 among the CWA crowd that included members from southern Florida's locals, as well as a smattering of members from states that included Texas, Minnesota and Massachusetts. Activists traveled from across the country and throughout the world to attend.
Crosby said protests in Miami and the ongoing campaign against FTAA have been successful in that the trade talks are behind schedule, with serious disagreement among trade ministers. Their work is supposed to be done by 2005 but "that schedule is in jeopardy; it's really unraveling," he said. "You look around and there're too many countries that won't play."