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The meeting has failed to reach an agreement, and that's a good thing. The talks are over, and the televisions inside the convention centre that showed the open proceedings all week are now running nature documentaries on flamingos.
It is chaotic inside the convention centre, as delegates have left the main meeting room and are speaking with the media and NGOs. Many people have put their "explicit consent" lanyards back on, and some NGO delegates are chanting "No means No" to reinforce the failure of the talks.
The talks ended when the Kenyan delegation, frustrated on the lack of progress on agriculture issues, walked out of the meeting.
Many on our team are inside the convention centre, speaking to the press and other NGOs. They are saying the WTO process created so many problems for the non-corporate world (the rest of us) that it was bound to fail. Now there needs to be an international effort to create a more accountable process for coming up with trade rules that respect environmental and social concerns.
The rest of the team are back at the office, calling media and translating statements. The European Union is preparing to hold a press conference to explain their role in the failure of the talks.
We were planning on holding a low key demonstration near the end of the meeting this afternoon, but it has now been cancelled. We have two large eyeball balloons that we were going to inflate with helium and fly from outside our office, to remind the delegates (who could see them from the building) that the world was watching what kind of deals they reached.
The EU Agriculture Commissioner, Franz Fischler, has said that the meeting is over. When the EU walks out, the talks collapse. It is official, not a rumour: the talks have collapsed without agreements being reached by the delegates.
The WTO meeting process is very secretive, so all we have right now is rumours. The meeting is either about to fall apart, or the European Union is getting ready for hard bargaining, or there is a comet about to impact the convention centre.
Okay, I made that last one up.
Several countries are threatening to leave the process (it was supposed to end at 3 today) mainly through unsubstantiated rumours.
Another rumour has the EU is reorganizing so that it can continue negotiating on the new issues it wants the WTO to start discussing.
After five days of meeting and very little sleep, rumours are running rampant.
Feelings and facts
The feelings: every day the sadness, the anger and the impotence grow and grow. It seems that no NGOs, no countries, no protesters have the power, the talent, the capability to challenge, to stop, to change the one-way route that the WTO has decided to take. Even, with the arguments, the numbers, the faces, the facts that prove neoliberal policies are not working in the benefit of the people. So it goes.
The facts: the final text of WTO is going to be worse for poor countries and for their citizens that what everybody was expecting. This means, again, nothing for the majority, everything for the minority. There is surprise and disappointment all around this hot and wet Cancun, all around this little and connected planet with the release of the draft of the WTO ministerial meeting.
Nobody knows how this draft was obtained, given the fact that dozens of NGOs were there, in the Convention Center, every day saying that WTO policies were not fair, were forced. Given the fact that around 80 countries -poor countries, of course- have said clearly and loudly 'NO' to several things, like new issues and subsidies to agriculture and have demanded clearly to go ahead on decisions just when they were agreed by EXPLICIT CONSENSUS. This is not happening. So it goes.
More feelings: Every day I think of Mr. Lee Kyung. Nothing is the same but nothing has changed.
Cecilia Navarro is a press officer with the Greenpeace office in Mexico City.
No, not the rooms where celebrities get their makeup done, but a nasty WTO negotiating procedure that puts rich country pressure on poorer nations that are holding out.
Green rooms are a peculiar negotiating procedure at the WTO. At first, negotiations take place in the main room, with all delegates (but not the press or NGOs) given access to the negotiations. If there is a particularly sticky set of negotiations, the 'green rooms' come into effect. WTO officials decide that a few select delegations will sequester themselves in a room, and secretly hammer out a negotiation.
Delegates who can attend these sessions are hand-picked, and are forbidden from reporting on what goes on in these secret negotiations. This is a way for rich countries to isolate and put pressure on smaller countries that may be standing up for themselves. WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi had said earlier this year to stop this pressure negotiating practice.
Yesterday evening, a green room session was initiated in the Director General Panitchpakdi's office. Delegates from the US, EU, India, China, Brazil, Malaysia,Kenya, South Africa and Mexico met for two hours. The heads of the delegations met, without their aides.
The aim was to pressure these countries into coming up with an 'agreement' on , and to stop holding up the steamroller of 'free trade.' Sounds like forced trade to me.
A closing ceremony has been scheduled for three o'clock this afternoon, but no one really knows how long this meeting will last.
The closing plenary is scheduled for 3 pm, but it may be canceleed to allow negotiations to continue. Yesterday Pascal Lamy, the head of the EU delegation, said that negotiations could continue for two more days, until Tuesday.
It might be a good sign if the negotiations wrap up at three this afternoon. That would most likely mean that agreement has not been reached, that negotiations broke down over adding new issues to negotiate in the next year. The power of the WTO would not have expanded, and it would be some measure of success.
Negotiations inside the 'green rooms' of the WTO meeting continued all night, while outside our team worked to try to influence those negotiations.
Members of our team had a long night, meeting with other NGOs and journalists to put our assessment out there.
We have also been meeting with delegates from smaller delegations, to offer what support and analysis we can. These smaller delegations, often from poorer countries, are our best chance at influencing the outcome of the negotiations. While the larger delegations from the U.S. and the EU can keep negotiating around the clock with their dozens of delegates, the smaller delegations cannot effectively negotiate for days without sleep. We can work with other NGOs to support them with our team, to make sure they do not cave in to bad deals.
At this point, they can use our support. They are having their arms twisted to agree to talk about investment rules over the next year. We are opposed to these "new issues" being added to the negotiations, as it adds to the power of the WTO. In particular, the rich countries want to create binding investment rules which amount to a global bill of rights for corporations, with no corresponding set of responsibilities on environmental and social rules. A nasty set of discussions indeed.
A large number of poorer countries are opposed to adding issues to the WTO negotiations. But the EU is trying to get four new issues added to the discussions. They are putting pressure on poorer countries to agree to this by stating that there will not be an agreement on agriculture (which poorer countries desperately want) until they agree to start negotiations on these new issues. Arm twisting indeed.
A personal account of marching in a peaceful protest on September 13, at the WTO here in Cancun, Mexico.
I was walking along the roadside on my way to the 'big march’ of September 13 when I saw the great god Chac get his head stuck in a low hanging power line. Grey as the rain, taller than 3 people, and made to be able to twist in the wind, the god Chac was a puppet built on a rolling wooden base. I asked a paint bespattered ‘activista’ what he was doing here. He explained that the indigenous god Chac is the god of rain, and he is unhappy at the move at the WTO to privatise water, which Chac gave to everyone. It was really quite an ingenious puppet, and a very creative and eye catching tool to focus a message. Mighty Chac rolled back a bit, the activists with him lifted the power line above his head using poles, and then all of us proceeded towards the march route, like a troupe of strange gypsies. I loved the fact that the outflung hands of the god bounced just a little, looking for all the world like he was saying “You want some? Come get some! Come on, I’ll have you!”
As we neared the start of the march we went past a highly guarded and very important institution, which was surrounded by riot police in full uniform. It was a Burger King. I sat there and the thought crossed my mind that we need no greater indication that the WTO protects the interests of the corporations and multinationals than a Burger King being protected by 20 riot police. “Protecting a better burger”. This particular Burger King had been the < href="http://images.indymedia.org/imc/cancun/video/2/aire_video.mov">scene of a bit of a ruckus the day before. I understand that was supposed to be a symbolic action was misinterpreted and that a window was broken. Everyone I talked to about it said that that was a mistake. As they always do, the local media has been painting the protestors here as violent thugs , and incidents like this just confirm those kind of portraits in the minds of the local shop owners. Everyone I talked too regretted deeply that this had happened.
And then the march itself came through,. What a noise! What a display of colour! The soundsfrom the march were overwhelming and varied, ranging from Zapatista songs, to African songs of protest, to traditional South Korean songs from the trade unions. Something very human in me loved to see all the movement and the life, which in no way detracted from the seriousness of the issues that brought all these people together; farmers, trade unions, environmentalists, human rights workers, the black bloc, the green bloc, animal rights lobbyists, aid workers, and indigenous people. I joined in the march and we all proceeded towards point zero. Point zero was the place where the police had erected a barricade on September10,and it has been transformed by the suicide of Lee Kyueng Hae. Arriving there I saw a spot commemorating Lee, set that to show how profoundly his actions have touched the people he protested with.
When I got to point zero I found that the police had drawn back about another kilometre, then had erected a much stronger barricade across the street. As I walked I ran into Starhawk, and Vandana Shiva. A whisper had run up and down the line asking all the women who wanted to to go to the front – it would be the women who were on the frontlines to take the barricades down. I walked forward with a lady who was walking with the RANT (Root activists and network trainers) collective. The plan was that the women would get up and cut through the fence, then the Korean delegation would pull down the barricades. It was only when I got to the fence I realised what that idea really involved.
The fence was probably about 300 meters wide. It was a series of tall boxes made of metal, one next to the other, constructed to be very hard to pull down. Behind the fence were the riot cops. Behind them were the armour plated trucks with the water canons trained on the crowd.
As the main crowd got to the fence I took the time to interview Starhawk. She said that we can’t forget how serious what is happening here is. The significance of Lee’s tragic action must be understood as a reflection of the growing feeling of desperation that many many small farmers are feeling. His death has struck the people here hard. Said that right now is a crucial time not just for the globalisation movement, but for the citizens of the world whose lives will be touched by the decisions reached here at the WTO. These decisions range from issues such as access to water, to the right to say no to genetically modified organisms, to the right to regulate against child labour. One positive note is that the coming together of the civil society, especially now, is strengthening international networks, and collectively developing skills to meet challenges such as the barricades the WTO erects to keep the voices of the people out.
Walking around a little I saw the red cross, and the activist street medics. I also saw some people physically reclaiming the streets, by dipping theirs hands in flour and putting their hand prints right onto the road. I also saw some marvellous improvised tools to get through the barricades – it was a huge wheely bin, a big dumpster on wheels, on top of which a whole log was tied – it was a modern day battering ram. The mood of the crowd was very different As the rest of the march got to the barricades I saw that the women were up the front, then the Korean delegation and then the black bloc. The Koreans had brought huge ropes, at least 30 meters long. The plan was to cut through the wire, then use the ropes to literally pull the barricades down. A huge cheer went up as the first women scaled the fence, sitting ontop with bolt cutters, to start cutting through barricades.
After what could be cut away from the barricades was cut away, the job remained to take the heavier pieces of it down. The Koreans had brought 30 meter ropes, which took some time to properly attach to the barricades. Then it took successive waves of pulling to bring the barricades down, because they had to rip it up in pieces. This rope technique is actually a traditional Korean celebration held on the same day that many people celebrate Thanksgiving day. The black bloc actually formed a circle around the Koreans, holding people back from the ropes. Then when the signal came down to pull, the crowd around starting yelling wildly “Tira Tira!!”
As each wave surged backwards, the broken pieces of the barricades were moved out from the front of the crowd. When the final pull surged backwards, the crowd screamed madly, and the pieces were moved rapidly away. I think that was a dangerous moment, because the police stepped up to fill the breach in the wall. But this is the moment that some people had been training for for the last few weeks. The women and the Koreans turned around away from the police and asked people to sit down.
First the people at the front sat down and then the people in the middle and towards the back. Then the people at the front got on the megaphone and asked the people not immediately at the barricades to site down. “Sit down”, “Sit down” came cries from the those seated. As more and more people sat down, the crowd started calling for the press to sit down, and it was an amazing sight to see the normally distant press sit down.
After everybody sat down a deep and lasting silence descended, in memory of Lee. What could have been a very confrontational situation was turned around, using a tactic first brought to public attention at mass rallies by Ghandi, almost half a century ago. Breaking the silence, a member of the Korean delegation spoke, and someone translated this into English and Spanish. These speeches went on for some time.
After the speeches, the Koreans burned two effigies. Afterwards, the Korean delegation handed out white flowersand the protest body tried to move peacefully towards the WTO. When the police continued to block the way, the protest body moved away, back up the road.to party.
I walked away from the protest frankly starving. The feeling that I was left with was one of inspiration. It was estimated that 10 000 people were at that protest. And it was peaceful. Not only was it a fitting tribute to the memory of Lee Kyung Hae, but it was a of how strong the civil society can be when we work and plan together.
Earlier today, we got a copy of the document that sets out the new trade rules that the WTO is trying to come up with. We really don't like this first glimpse at what the WTO is trying to agree on here in Cancun. In fact Sebastian, a member of our political team, says this is the worst possible scenario.
We don't like it because it will increase environmental degradation by decreasing the power of governments to pass their own environmental regulations. If this draft is adopted, there will be a further relaxation of energy rules, for instance.
We don't like it because it starts negotiations on new issues that it's poorer members have not agreed to bargain on. They did this by tying negotiations on agriculture, which the developing countries want, to expanding negotiations in areas poorer countries don't want to bargain on, like investment. This is the very definition of "forced trade".
We don't like it because it strengthens the ties between the WTO, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, without strengthening the corresponding United Nations organizations. This means that the main tools for pushing for neo-liberal economic policies are growing stronger, and the multilateral UN which can balance that power, grows weaker.
Now that we have an idea of how bad the situation is, we can get working with our allies to influence the final decisions. This includes supporting poorer countries in any way we can, to ensure that they are not steamrolled by the demands of the richer countries. Different members of our team will be meeting throughout the night with our allies, and again tomorrow morning, to come up with plans.
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| Three Argentinian protestors send their message directly to all the WTO delegates: Que Se Vayan Todos! (Kick them all out!) |
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| About a dozen students from Mexico City held a dancing and singing protest that brought this phalanx of riot police out in from of the convention centre. |
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| Members of the Our World is Not For Sale network outside the convention centre today. Read the article |
The ship that we had prevented from unloading 40 000 tons of genetically engineered maize at the Mexican port of Veracruz has returned, and is now unloading it's cargo. Unfortunately, we can't do all the work of the Mexican government, which is why we are taking them to court to make sure they do their job.
I did not want to have to write this weblog entry. A few hours ago we heard a rumour that the ship Ikan Altamira had snuck back into the port of Veracruz to unload it's cargo. We had this story confirmed about an hour ago.
Apparently, the less-than-honest captain had communicated with the port authorities and had received an escort into the port from the Mexican navy. They chose a route that we could not see from the Arctic Sunrise, and kept off the radio so we would not know that they were returning.
I can't say that we are happy with the return of the ship, but we never thought that we could blockade all ships carrying genetically engineered maize into Mexico. That is the job of the Mexican government, and with this action we gave them notice that they had better do their job.
That is why we are launching legal action against a number of Mexican government officials, including the Ministers of Health, Environment, Economy and Agriculture, to make sure that they fulfill their obligations under the Biosafety Protocol.
The legal complaint was announced at a press conference we had in Veracruz a few minutes ago.
Despite the tight security around the meeting is being held, the last 24 hours has seen a number of protests in the shadow of the convention centre.
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| Three Argentinian protestors send their message directly to all the WTO delegates: Que Se Vayan Todos! (Kick them all out!) |
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| About a dozen students from Mexico City held a dancing and singing protest that brought this phalanx of riot police out in from of the convention centre. |
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| Members of the Our World is Not For Sale network outside the convention centre today. |
The three activists from Argentina made quite an impact on the meeting.
Later that same day, a number of students held up traffic on the street outside the meeting, singing and dancing in the face of a huge mob of police in riot gear. They were bringing attention to political prisoners held in Mexican jails, in particular their colleagues who had been arrested in order to break up a long student strike in Mexico City last year. They had a particularly playful chant that mocked the police for not being able to stop them from getting hear the meeting.
Finally, a few minutes ago, some of our allies from the Our World is Not For Sale network held a banner from the bridge that lets delegates into the meeting. They shredded copies of the draft ministerial text that was distributed this afternoon. They were not arrested by police.
Civil society groups of all types are actively protesting the power of the WTO, and slipping through the oppressive security to do it. (I still think our stopping a shipment of GE maize is still the coolest, though)
Maize has been used throughout the WTO meeting as a symbol. What exactly is the maize message?. Find out here
We have used maize to make our point throughout this meeting: we have presented it to the U.S. delegation, stopped a 40 000 ton shipment of genetically engineered maize from entering Mexico and handed out small sacks containing maize kernels to delegates. What is the maize message?
Maize is the main staple of the Mexican diet - almost half the calories consumed by people in the country are from maize. It is a powerful symbol in Mexican culture - as much or more than rice in Asia or wheat in Europe. The WTO and the decisions it makes have a direct impact on the long-term health of the maize crop in Mexico and around the world.
The recent history of maize in Mexico is a strong illustration of all that is wrong with the current system of trade regulation. The Mexican government had been warned that the importation of genetically engineered maize from the United States could lead to the contamination of native species of maize, when genetic material passed from the GE species to local crops. The government established a moratorium on the planting of GE maize, and has never allowed the commercial planting of GE maize.
Nevertheless, in 2001, genetically engineered maize was found in Oaxaca state, Mexico, quite a shock to the citizens of Mexico, who made the mistake of planting the imported maize without realizing it was genetically engineered. The maize quickly established itself, and will be nearly impossible to eradicate. The genetically engineered maize has unknown impacts on the environment, including possible impacts on 'pest' and non-target species, herbicide tolerance and soil fertility.
You can read the whole story on GE contamination of Mexican maize here (PDF, 148K)
The WTO plays a role in this story of unwanted genetic contamination because it can weaken environmental rules that allow countries to determine how much genetically engineered material they want to allow into their country, and if rich countries get there way, will in fact promote this trade in GE species. That is one aspect of the maize message we and our allies are trying to deliver here in Cancun.
For more than I can ever write about genetic engineering, trade and maize check out this page
After we pulled down the barriers today, everybody sat down in the middle of the road.
The march that started this morning was a success, tearing down the barricade set up at the point where the town ends and the hotel zone begins - but remaining peaceful.
When the march got to the barricade that cordons off the downtown of Cancun from the "hotel zone" that houses the WTO meeting, it remained peaceful.
A group of women approaced the fence and began to cut the red wire fences that are about ten feet tall. The police, dressed in riot gear, did not resist, but there were hundreds of police and a large grey truck with a water cannon behind the disintegrating barricade.
Organizers circulated throught the crowd, encouraging calm. After the barricades had been cut, a long line of people attached ropes to the barricades, while some protestors held back the crowd. Then the barricades came down when dozens of people, mainly from the Korean delegation, pulled on the ropes. The police stepped into the gap in the barricades.
Instead of mayhem breaking out, the demonstration stayed peaceful and calm. The protestors were urged to sit down by the organizers, and they did so. The point was made in Spanish, Korean, Japanese and Englisgh that the barricades had been torn down, and if they wanted to, the protestors could tear down the WTO.
There was a silent vigil for the Korean farmer Lee Kyung-hae, who had taken his life at these very barricades two days before. It was quite a sight to see hundreds of protestors and the media sitting in silence in the stifling heat, paying their respects to the fallen farmer.
The protestors stayed seated at the barricades, while the police stood their ground.
It was an impressive display of civil disobedience.
The WTO has released a draft ministerial statement - a 7-page double-sided first draft of the results of negotiations so far. It is a dry, formal document written in bureaucratese, but our political team is reading every paragraph carefully to find out what decisions are being made.
We are lucky to have this document so quickly. There are enormous line-ups for the few functioning photocopiers inside the convention centre, as delegates desperately try to find out what they just agreed to.
For the uninitiated, reading the document is a little like trying to find the plot of a book by reading the index. It constantly refers to paragraphs in previously released documents, changes to said paragraphs, and reaffirmations of aforementioned paragraphs. It is not a final document, with dates often left out. But if carefully read, it gives a good indication of how the final agreement - or lack of agreement - will have been formed.
The members of our political team are going through each paragraph, sentence by sentence, getting ready to respond to the draft document. After some agreement has been reached, our delegates will disperse and talk to anyone who will listen, telling them what we think of the agreements so far.
Although we've returned from the march, one of our folks has remained in the area to observe events as they continue... The latest news is that the barricades have been torn down,
and the riot police are standing in a row futher behind where the barricades were. The barricades have been moved out of the way by the protesters, to avoid anyone being hurt on them. A group of women has arranged themselves in a row immediately in front of the riot police, and behind them, a giant puppet of the rain god is being moved in. The Korean farmers have gathered near the front of the line. Behind the riot police is an armored vehicle with a water cannon on top, aimed at the protesters.
Thus far, everything has remained peaceful and orderly. That's wonderful news. :-)
Today a major march is happening in Cancun, and Greenpeace is at the march (with our banner!)
Ruth eventually smuggled the banner out of the hotel zone and to the march. The march is peaceful at the moment, stopped near the barricades between downtown Cancun and the Convention Centre. It is an overcast day, which makes the heat easier on the thousand or so protestors who are participating.
The authorities are making some bizarre decisions about what can be written here in Cancun. From what you can wear to banners you can carry, the security here has final say.
Today there is a large march planned for downtown Cancun, outside the 'hotel zone', and security is extremely tight. Ruth Ramos, from the Mexico City office, had a banner in her bag that said "Free People from Forced Trade" for the march when she was stopped at a checkpoint.
The policemen felt that this expression was too dangerous to allow to be shown on the streets of Cancun, and confiscated the banner. It appears that the right to free speech is suspended when the WTO is meeting.
Marcelo Furtado, the head of our delegation in Cancun, was subjected to another form of censorship this morning, when he tried to enter the security zone where our office is located.
Our allies at Friends of the Earth have made lanyards for accreditation badges that say "explicit consensus" in several languages. The lanyards were a reference to a principle of the WTO, that all decisions be based on consensus, that one 'no' vote could derail a decision. Of course, poorer countries are bullied into giving their 'consent' to rich country demands over the course of the 'negotiations', so explicit consensus is a nice idea, but never used. FOE wanted to remind countries that they do technically have the right to be heard, and encouraged people at the meeting to wear their lanyards in order to show support for poorer countries.
The security forces here decided that that wouldn't do. When Marcelo tried to enter the convention centre with his 'explicit consensus' lanyard, the police at the front gate asked him to remove it.
While the WTO may try to appear to be open and accountable, it seems that some ideas, like 'explicit consensus' and 'free people from forced trade' are too dangerous to be voiced anywhere near WTO meetings.
Two ideas that are too dangerous for the WTO: "explicit consensus" and "Free People from Forced Trade"More
After 24 hours of constant radio watch and 12 hours of action 40,000 tonnes of contaminated maize is on its way back to the USA.
No violence, no arrests but a very calm and peaceful action. We even managed to get some smiles from the crew as they left the port of Veracruz with all the GE maize still on board.
What a success not just for Greenpeace but for the people of Mexico. We did it for the campesinos. For the future of the children of Mexico. There is a wonderful feeling on board. Many people are tired after spending the day bobbing around in the boats or attached to the anchor chain. It is hard to unwind when your dream has just come true, but we have been playing some international football in the hold to get rid of any remaining energy.
In comparison to the violence that often mars the WTO meetings we were able to illustrate that another way is possible. There was no piracy involved - simply pure professionalism. I am proud of the crew and our behaviour. If violence begets violence then peace fosters peace. This is a day to remember for me in years to come. Non violent direct action against dangerous cargo which worked out. I have been on many an action where this was not the case and people were arrested or hurt, worse the cargo went to land. I am so happy that today no one was hurt, no one arrested and no criminal cargo reached the shores of Mexico's largest port.
Time to smile. One small victory in an ocean of actions, here's to many more to come. Now it is your turn WTO to take some brave action of your own and change your behaviour to consider the little people in the world for we are the ones that make the world go round and round.
"We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children" so lets make it the best we can.
The ship Ikanu Altamira has turned around and headed back to the United States with its cargo of 40 000 tons of genetically engineered maize.
We had sent a group to meet with the captain of the cargo ship, and videotaped him agreeing to leave Mexico with his cargo. He did not agree to sign an agreement.
It was getting dark as the activists left their perch on the anchor chain. Greenpeace activists had spent twelve hours on the anchor chain, in two shifts. With the activists gone, the anchor was pulled up and the ship sailed out to sea. Three Greenpeace inflatables escorted the ship twelve miles offshore, out of Mexican waters and into international waters.
Truth be told, we don't know where the cargo is going. They have said that it will return to the United States, but some of the crew on board thought they might try to dump the maize in Asia. We will be watching this particular ship over the next weeks.
The crew is tired but happy with our success, both on the Arctic Sunrise and here in the office in Cancun. The Biosafety Protocol went into effect yesterday, giving countries the right to refuse to accept genetically engineered organisms in order to protect their countries biodiversity. Maize is an extremely important crop in Mexico, and this action will help protect the biodiversity of this key crop.
We are close to victory on this action. The captain of the Arctic Sunrise received a call from the captain of the ship we are blockading, saying he has orders to return the cargo of genetically engineered maize to the United States.
At this point, we really don't know if this is a trick or not. If our activists untie themselves from the anchor chain of the Ikan Altamira and it pulls anchor and sails into port, that would be a sneaky way of defeating us. We are asking the captain to sign a letter stating that he will return the cargo to the US. While this would not be legally binding in any way, it would be better than a handshake and a wink.
We are not sure who the order came from to return the contaminated maize to the port of origin. We do know it came from the captain's boss, but we are not sure if that is the shipping company or the owner of the maize. We do know that the Mexican government did not make the call directly.
There were 12 protests inside the conference centre yesterday, held by a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Now the WTO has banned NGOs from the press briefings, their only opportunity to be in the same room with delegates to the meeting.
The U.S. delegation lodged a complaint with the WTO over our peaceful action during their press conference yesterday. The WTO jumped when the U.S. spoke, and banned all NGOs from the press briefings.
At first, the WTO cited our protest at the U.S. press conference as a reason for banning all NGOs from the press briefings. Somehow, the WTO was told that we had thrown the maize used in our protest at the delegates. This was not true - we placed it in front of the delegates, while Alejandro Calvillo, from Greenpeace Mexico, read our statement. Then the action was over and we left the room.
We met with the WTO this morning and offered to hand in our accreditation badges if they would grant the other NGOs access to the press briefings. The WTO did not accept our offer.
So the WTO process becomes even more secretive and inaccessible. Negotiations are held behind closed doors - doors that are closed to both the press and NGOs. Now NGOs have been shut out of the only opportunity they have to present their views to delegates. With the slightest public protest being shut down in the hotel zone around the conference, the WTO continues to become more unaccountable and secretive.
Activists on the anchor chain of the Ikan Altamira, preventing the ship from delivering 40 000 tons of genetically engineered maize to the Mexican port of Veracruz.
Find out more
We just had a very cordial meeting with the harbormaster of Veracruz, the top authority at the port we are blocking 40 000 tons of genetically engineered maize from entering.
The harbormaster came out to visit the Arctic Sunrise, about 6 miles offshore from Veracruz, to speak with the captain of the ship, Daniel. The harbourmaster had visited the ship last week, when the Arctic Sunrise invited the people of Vera Cruz aboard to see what Greenpeace is about. When the harbourmaster came aboard, Daniel and he were already old friends.
They held a cordial meeting in the mess room of the ship. Daniel explained that this was a peaceful action, intended to uphold the Biosafety protocol by preventing genetically engineered maize from entering Mexico. The harbormaster pointed out that the activists were still breaking some of the laws of Mexico. Daniel replied that he had a moral obligation to uphold the Biosafety protocol, and to protect the Mexican environment from genetic contamination.
That was that. The harbormaster prepared to leave the ship. As he was leaving, a Mexican journalist asked him if the Ikana Altamira would be allowed to enter the port to unload its cargo.
"Not if the Arctic Sunrise won't let them" he replied.
The crew on board the ship was a little unnerved by a police helicopter buzzing overhead, until they realized it was full of journalists getting better camera angles on the action.
Listen to audio updates from activists on the ship here
The two activists chained to the anchor of the contaminated ship are in for the long haul. A boat from the Mexican navy is slowly circling, observing the action.
The two activists, one from Argentina and one from Mexico, are set to stay where they are for quite a while. They have set up a makeshift hammock to sleep if necessary, and are otherwise using something called a 'bosun's chair' - a little seat suspended from the chain.
The crew is relaxed, and chatting from the deck with the two, who are about four metres above the water. We have told them repeatedly that this is a non-violent action - we pose no threat to their safety, or the safety of the ship. We have delivered some background documents to the crew, to make sure they understand why we are stopping their shipment.
We have requested that the ship return to the United States with the cargo. The captain has kept with his previous statements: his opinion is that there is nothing wrong with the shipment, and to speak to the shipping agent.
A small (~20 foot) boat from the Mexican navy is currently circling the Ikan Altamira and the Arctic Sunrise, to observe the action. They have not contacted us yet.
Listen to audio updates from activists on the ship here
All the latest breaking audio from the action. Check back for new updates...
17:45 We have received word that the captain of the Ikan Altamira has been ordered by his company to return to the US with his cargo of genetically modified maize. The Arctic Sunrise will continue to monitor it's progress until it is out of Mexican waters.
English
16:30 The cook for the Arctic Sunrise talked to the crew from the Ikan Altamira, which is carrying 40 000 tonnes of genetically modified maize. Two Greenpeace activists are currently locked onto the chain, preventing the Ikan Altamira from moving. The crew apparently respects Greenpeace highly.
English
09:30 Navy ships are circling the Arctic Sunrise and the Ikan Altamira
English
Spanish
07:00 We are chained to the anchor chain of the ship the Alta Mira off Veracruz. The Alta Mira is carrying genetically modified maize - this is the sound clip from the bridge.
Mpg, 00:01:32 mins.
English
Spanish
Early this morning we took action against a ship delivering an illegal shipment of genetically engineered maize to the Mexican port of Veracruz. Activists are currently on the anchor chain, preventing the offloading of the contaminated shipment.
It is usually pretty quiet at this hour in the Mexican port of Veracruz, but not this morning. At 6:30 this morning the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise gave a call to the bulk carrier Ikan Altamira, a bulk carrier registered in Singapore.
We told them that since the Biosafety Protocol went into effect yesterday, their 40 000 tonne load of genetically engineered yellow maize from New Orleans could not legally enter a Mexican port without the informed consent of the Mexican authorities. We then told them that we were going to prevent the shipment from unloading, and stressed that this was a non-violent action.
The captain was asleep when we called. He was woken up. He said that he thought there was nothing wrong with his cargo, that he didn't want to speak with us, and to call his agent (shipping agent, not Hollywood) He would take no responsibility for the Greenpeace activists.
We put three inflatables in the water, and two activists climbed onto the anchor chain to prevent the ship from pulling up the anchor. The shipment has been stopped.
Apparently it is illegal to make photocopies or distribute information in the hotel zone of Cancun. Ruth Ramos reports on how the police stopped and searched her bag, and then told her she could not distribute information near the conference.
Today was a photocopying day, that means first thing in the morning: go and make photocopies, last thing at night: go and make photocopies. So, this morning around 7.45 am i was outside the place where the solar truck team sleeps to meet Pepe and Arturo who were going to downtown.
We had a bunch of papers ready to be copied but on the way to our car a policeman approached us wanting to check our bags, so we opened them and he found the papers. (download the document here (PDF, 14K ) if you are outside the hotel zone of Cancun) We started to asked him what was happening andd that we were in a hurry so kindly asked him to let us leave. Maybe he just didn`t listen to us or was still sleeping, but he stared at us and said no, you cannot leave with this, so he called other policemen who quickly moved to where we were standing. One of them had a videocamera and started to film all that was going on (which was a shame, because we all had just woken up and had sleepy faces with a inappropriate hair styles).
We started to talk with the policeman (the first one), who hid the id card hanging from his neck and said we could not leave and had to remain there until he got a different order. I just couldn`t believe it, being stopped at 7.45 am because of carrying a paper which was defined as “propaganda” by a policeman who didn`t want to identify himself and was calling someone on the radio. So i phoned Mr. Pliego, who is one of the important men in charge of the security around this “restricted area” in the hotel zone, explained him what was happening and the answer was that nobody is allowed to distribute this kind of papers around that area and that he would come in a minute. After three minutes he appeared, we talked with him and he knew who we were because we have been having problems at our office as it is in a very restricted area and have contacted him several times.
He asked for a copy of our papers, read it all while the rest of the policemen stared at him and the one with videocamera was filming our faces while waiting for his decision. When he finished reading, he called someone else who would give the final and decisive order, he stared at us as he made the phone call - he explained the whole document to the person. In the end he let us go and made clear that it is not allowed to distribute propaganda (he kept calling it that although several times i told him it was just a document with information) in the hotel zone, only in downtown.
So i guess i just left my rights to express myself in mexico city.
(Here is the document that the police were concerned about: "How does the WTO affect you, and why should you care about it?" (PDF, 14K ) It has been on our website for weeks.
At noon the rolling sunlight arrived at the Oxfam fair trade fair, held in Playa Tortugas (Turtles beach, but the name doesn`t mean that there are actually turtles on the beach). A good day starts with a good coffee, so people from the fair plugged some coffeemakers to the truck and started to make coffee –fair trade and organic of course-, raspados (which are something made of crushed ice with coffee or other flavors) and give info about theWTO –by the way, they were giving the copies of the document that was supposed to be propaganda and the reason why we were stopped by policemen for 25 minutes.
A man approached the truck and tried to take one banner that explained information about the truck off, and finally he did it. So people started to go the bus and see what was happening. Arturo and Pepe, who are driving the truck, tried to talk to this guy but he refused. He was trying to take off all the banners, so a couple of policemen arrived to keep the public order.
Pepe thinks this guy was a policemen dressed as a civilian, because the policemen men treated him as someone they already knew. Nash started to tell other people what was going on, and many people from other NGOs were also there to see what was happening. After a while Pepe got the banner back with the help of a policemen. Things seemed to be fine, until two trucks with red fences arrived, the team thought they would be used to surround the truck and keep people away, but the policemen just
stayed there waiting for orders.
Tomorrow the sun will shine again.
Ruth Ramos, the logistics person for the Greenpeace delegation in Cancun, works for Greenpeace Mexico
Radio from Greenpeace in Cancun
The underbelly of Cancun
Friends of the Earth organised a tour to take journalists out to see what is going on beyond the boundaries of the rich hotel zone, in which the WTO is taking place. Cancun is one of the areas with the greatest gaps in social and economic status; the poverty level is extremely high, and in this interview Helen talks about what she saw on the tour.
765 kb
1:36 mins
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/343
reading_from_paper.mp3
We were sitting around one afternoon in the offices of the Greenpeace delegation, and Eric, who is doing our blog here at the WTO, asked Cecilia the Spanish speaking press officer to read us the interesting bits out of the paper. So I just grabbed my mike, hit record, and so we now bring you "Cecilia reads the paper!",
06.09.2003
5.45 min
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
steet_medic_interview.mp3
This is an interview with Aoewen at the Indymedia centre here in Cancun. She and a few others have been training people to be street medics. As I walked past, she was training a young activist on how to rinse the eyes of a person blinded by teargas. I got this interview afterwards, asked her about what it's like to be a street medic, what kind of situations they are preparing for, and what the general feeling on the street is.
2.41 mins
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
gerard_filtered.mp3
Gerard Greenfield went to a meeting of the Via Campesina, (the International Farmers forum) today. About 3000 farmers attended this meeting from indigenous communities from around the world. Gerard describes how the main issue of the meeting today is very much about food sovereignty and free trade. What was very interesting was that there were people from small farming communities from around the world, including South Africa and Thailand. Gerard says “The common theme that is coming out here that is very strong, in statements that are repeated throughout the meetings, especially from the campesina from the indigenous communities whose livelihoods are threatened, is the position: WTO out of agriculture, no patents on life, and yes on food sovereignty.”
2.22 mins
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/151
Consumers Association
At the Via Campesina march today I interviewed two people from the organic consumers association. They are very concerned about genetically engineered food, and how this food, which is untested although corporations say it is, is making its way into food.
"I'm also concerned about how the WTO is concerned about corporations and profit, and not concerned about the people of the earth, or the air, the water, the land. It’s a process that destroys our beautiful planet, and I think it behoves the people to come together to say no to the WTO"
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
Political analysis
Sebastion Risso, a Greenpeace delegate at Cancun with experience in political meetings, talks about trying to get ministers to recognise the priority of sustainable development.
00:03:34
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/436
Commentary from the Farmers march
This longer piece has a few interviews with people from on the march, asking them why they are here and describing the march itself. It ends with a statement on Lee Kyung-hae. In English.
00:24:26
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/441
Preparing for the WTO
We cover what it's like to be here on the eve of the WTO, and what Cancun is all about, touching a little on the reality of life for the Mexican people. We talk to some people here, some NGO's here. Then we talk to people from the Indymedia centre, the convergence center and the ecovillage.
00:48:50
ftp://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/first_one_hour_piece_final.mp3
http://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/first_one_hour_piece_final.mp3
Greenpeace interrupts US delegation on first day of Biosafety protocol
As the US delegation tried to give a press briefing today, Alehandro Cavillo of Greenpeace interrupted to say that that todaythe Biosafety protocol comes into effect. If the US pushes it's agenda, this protocol may be overridden by the WTO. One point that Alehandro made was that under this protocol governments have the right to protest their producers, consumers and biodiversity. This right is currently denied to Mexico, which suffers from the dumping of genetically modified grains from the US. The practices of ‘dumping' subsidized exports on the Mexican market has made sure that local farmers can't compete. 600 farmers a day are leaving the land and heading towards the city.
English. 00:04:25
http://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/action_us_delegation.mp3
Food first interrupts US delegation
While some of the press cried "GET OUT! GET OUT!" counter voices from the press corps cried out "STAY HERE! STAY HERE!". The representatives from Food First struggled hard to yell above the abuse from the floor, to say "If the WTO listened to farmers we wouldn't have to be here. The WTO should listen to farmers instead of killing them."
English 00:00:59
http://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/action_us_delegation_food_first.mp3
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A Greenpeace activist delivers maize to the U.S. delegation as they try to hold a press conference September 11. More photo courtesy of cancun.mediosindependientes.org |
Our people are back from the action at the US press conference. It was a success - our action, not the press conference.
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A Greenpeace activist delivers maize to the U.S. delegation as they try to hold a press conference September 11. photo courtesy of cancun.mediosindependientes.org |
Security did not stop our three activists, and they moved outside to speak to the press.
Later in the conference, another NGO stood up in support of farmers. Then things got weird. One journalist started shouting at the top of his lungs "GET OUT!" at the woman standing silently at the front of the room, holding a sign.
"GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT! " he bellowed. "STAY!" shouted another.
Then the large individual urging exit from the room turned around and enquired if the other gentleman would like to continue negotiations outside. "Sure", replied the second "let's go. Two old men." At this point, I suspect the ridiculousness of the situation dawned on the first gentleman, who relaxed visibly. You can see the whole bizarre situation on tape at cancun.mediosindependientes.org
Statement at U.S. press conference by Alejandro Calvillo,
Executive Director of Greenpeace Mexico
"I´m Alejandro Calvillo, Executive director of Greenpeace Mexico.
I would like to announce to the United States Government that today the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety enters into legal force. This is a tool that all the governments should use to protect their consumers, producers and biodiversity.
In Mexico we want to protect our corn, our fields, our livelihood from the transgenic contamination imposed by GMO corn from the US, from Monsanto. We are the center of origin of maize. This is the maize we want, mexican maize, a commmon good for mexicans."
The US delegation held a press conference a few minutes ago on their agricultural policy. We went to send a message to the 900 pound gorilla to stop protecting the interests of the GE seed companies and start protecting the environment from genetic contamination.
As the press conference started, three of our delegates stood up and approached the speaker. Two of them offered him small bags of Mexican maize, a crop that has been contaminated by genetically engineered strains in several areas of Mexico.
Shortly after our protest ended, another group of NGOs held a short protest against the US as well. Under other circumstances, we might feel sorry for their press people...
More in a minute, as the press conference is still going on...
Here in Cancun, we came up with a statement that expresses our feelings on the death of Lee Kyung-hae.
We share in the sadness at the death of Mr. Lee Kyung-hae, the former president of the Korean Advanced Farmers Federation, who took his life in Cancun, Mexico, during protests against the Fifth WTO Ministerial. Lee Kyung-hae ended his own life on a barricade that prevented thousands of campesinos and small farmers from around the world from delivering their message to the WTO negotiators.
For Lee Kyung-hae, this was part of a long struggle. When he held a lone protest outside the WTO Secretariat in Geneva in February, he declared “Reaching to my conclusion now here in Geneva, at the front gate at the WTO, I am crying out the words to you that have been boiling for so long a time in my body: For whom do you negotiate now? For the people or for yourselves?”*
His death in Cancun is a reminder that the negotiations taking place on the other side of the barricades are not simply about texts and technical issues, but involve matters of life and death that impact on the livelihoods of millions of people around the world. Greenpeace joined the march in solidarity with Via Campesina, an organisation with whom we have worked for years promoting sustainable agriculture.
*This quote is from a paper that Mr. Lee was distributing here in Cancun before his death.
Lee Kyung-hae, a 56-year old Korean farmer, took his life today during a protest against the WTO here in Cancun. He took his life in frustration at being ignored by the WTO.
He had come to the WTO meeting in Cancun as part of a large delegation of Korean farmers who were protesting against the WTO. I was at the campesinos forum to talk to people and get their pictures for this Greenpeace weblog.
I spoke briefly with him - his English was slightly better than my Korean, so the conversation was short. He handed me an article he had written (and had translated) about his hunger strike against the WTO earlier in the year. I photographed him in front of a ceremonial coffin that was to be used in the protest. Two hours after the picture was taken, he was dead.
I was not there when he stabbed himself in the heart at the barricades keeping him and his colleagues away from the WTO meeting. People who were there tell me that it was the barricade, and his frustration at the fact that he and his delegation would not get their message to the WTO, that caused him to decide to take his life.
At first, when I heard of the death, I did not realize that this was the same farmer I had met and spoke with hours before. When I heard the name from Gerard, a campaigner with our delegation, I realized who he was.
I had a rush of different feelings at that point. After sadness, the overwhelming feeling I was left with was that here was a man who, after years of struggle and frustration to be heard, had not become violent and lashed out at others, but had expressed his frustration in a much more personal and ultimately sacrificial way. This gave me a profound sense of the gravity of the issues at stake here in Cancun - that the decisions being made by bureaucratic negotiators have powerful repercussions on real and often desperate people in the real world, not just within the air-conditioned corridors of the Convention Centre or the op-ed pages of the international press.
The banner reads "Welcome visiting friends" from the state government. Welcome to the real Cancun.
(photo from cancun.mediosindependientes.org)
The Via Campesino invited thousands of farmers and indigenous people to come to Cancun and have their voices heard. Thousands did show up from around the world, including a few hundred showed from Korea.
The Korean group put together a traditional coffin with which to stage the "funeral" of the WTO. They have had it on display for two days and marched with it through the streets of Cancun this afternoon, as part of the huge campesinos march against the WTO.
While I was writing this blog entry, we heard that one member of the group had stabbed himself in the chest in protest against the policies of the WTO. That is a pretty strong statement to make. We have yet to find out if he is going to live - it has been reported that he is in critical condition in hospital.
The situation is tense at the fence separating downtown Cancun and the hotel zone, where the meeting is being held.
About 8 kilometres, several fence barricades and thousands of police officers separate the campesinos march from the luxury hotels and conference centre where the meeting is being held.
The march is now stopped at the fence barricades a few kilometres down the road from where it began. We have several delegates participating in the march, remaining peaceful along with the vast majority of the marchers. They have called on cell phones to tell us that some protestors are trying to topple the barricades, while the police stand by.
The situation is very tense. From time to time, people near the fence panic, and run from the fence. From our office near the convention centre we can see truckloads of troops and armoured trucks with water cannons heading toward the barricade, as well as hear the sirens from downtown.
The march began today in downtown Cancun, with a few thousand people from around the world gathered to make their voices heard. The gathering was organized by Via Campesina, a global network of farmers, the landless and indigenous people. Their march was declred to be a peaceful delivery of their demands to the WTO. An important part of their message was the delivery of some maize, an important - in fact sacred - crop in Mexico. The aim was to have the WTO recognize the importance of their crops, their land and their way of life, and the threat posed to it by the WTO-imposed trade rules.
Non-governmental organizations inside the opening ceremonies of the WTO meeting held a peaceful protest against the undemocratic nature of the organization.
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Peaceful protesters from NGOs inside the opening ceremonies of the WTO meeting. |
The television cameras, trained on Panitchpakdi, quickly refocussed on the peaceful protest. The security staff inside the room didn't do anything, to avoid creating a scene of repression of dissent inside the meeting.
The NGO delegates began to chant "shame!" in English and Spanish. Then they slowly left the room. The security guards did not take away the badges of the delegates, which was a good start.
Today is the first day of the WTO ministerial meeting here in Cancun. It is also the first day we have menacing clouds in the sky, evidence of the hurricane offshore.
Overly dramatic, I suppose, with the pathetic fallacy, but I had to use it because the clouds are so dramatic. And the change in the town from the previous week is also quite dramatic.
For one thing, the police presence is even more intense. We were stopped and asked for our badges three times on the walk to the office, with one cursory search of my bag en route. When we got to the office, we found police with ladders climbing on our roof, and the roofs of neighbouring buildings. President Fox of Mexico is coming in a few hours for the opening of the meeting, so security is tightening.
Many of us are leaving for the opening delegation meeting in a few minutes, which promises to be interesting.
Friends of the Earth organised a tour to take journalists out to see what is going on beyond the boundaries of the rich hotel zone, in which the WTO is taking place. Cancun is one of the areas with the greatest gaps in social and economic status; the poverty level is extremely high, and in this interview Helen talks about what she saw on the tour.
Ruth Ramos, our hyper-effective logistics person here in Cancun, reports that it is getting more difficult to make photocopies. At the copy place they told her that the machines were running out of toner, because legions of "long haired" people were running off political pamphlets. The protests are starting.
We began our journey from Veracruz to Cancun yesterday morning knowing that a hurricane now named Isabel could intercept us on our way or hit us after we arrive.
We are really eager to get to Cancun and send a strong message to the WTO and the world’s governments that people and the environment must be freed from the effects of forced trade.
Last night onboard we watched a brand new documentary film on the genetic contamination of maize in Mexico and the social impacts on campesinos of the dumping of genetically engineered (GE) maize from the US. The film, made by Eréndira Valle Padilla from the film school in Mexico City, made a huge impact on all of us. Not only is GE maize threatening the incredible diversity of maize races and varieties in Mexico, but millions of Mexican farmers have had to give up farming due to dumping of cheap US maize in Mexico.
Among the scientists and farmers featured in the film is Professor Ignacio Chapela from the University of California at Berkeley who was the first to document (in the respected science journal Nature) that native maize in the Oaxaca state of Mexico has been contaminated with genetically engineered maize genes.
For a long time the US and Mexican governments denied the contamination and later sought to downplay its importance. We won’t let them get away with ignoring this very serious and growing problem, just as we won’t let agribusiness corporations such as Monsanto and Cargill get away with profiting at the expense of both biodiversity and Mexican subsistence farmers.
When doing non-violent direct action at sea, Greenpeace always puts safety first, so on today’s program was boat training for crew, volunteers and campaigners. Regular boat training is needed in order to be able to use the boats safety and effectively, and the training exercise went really well.
Despite our eagerness to get to Cancun and our begging -- and sometimes cursing -- Isabel to please, please change direction away from our route and destination, it seems our wishes and prayers are not being heard. Isabel with its 115-140 knots winds is now east of Cuba and is still heading west towards Cancun -- I wonder if there’s a hidden message to the WTO here…
In any case, as safety must come first, we’re waiting in a safe area to see whether Isabel keeps moving west or curves up north along the Florida coast. Therefore we still don’t know when we will make it to Cancun. In our frustration over this uncertainty, we take note that we cannot change the weather -- only governments and big oil companies that continue to promote use of climate changing fossil fuels can do that!
Dan Hindsgaul is a Greenpeace campaigner on board MV Arctic Sunrise
We held a press conference in Cozumel last night to encourage environment ministers meeting there to go on record with their positions in the lead up to the WTO.
The meeting was before the opening of the High Level Roundtable on Trade and Environment, organized by the Mexican Minister of the Environment.
High level, indeed. It was held at a five star hotel on the island of Cozumel, off the coast of Cancun. Ministers and their representatives arrived by helicopter last night for a series of discussions today on how to preserve environmental regulations in the face of WTO decisions.
We had the environment ministers from Germany, the UK, and Sweden and Mexico, as well as representatives from Brazil and the United Nations Environment Program give short speeches on one of our most important issues here in Cancun; the relationship between Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and the WTO. MEAs include the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which is scheduled to come into force on September 11. These agreements could be threatened by the WTO process, if new trade rules begin to undermine the agreements already reached. It was important for us to get the environment ministers meeting in Cozumel to agree that the WTO must not weaken these MEAs.
While the final declarations of the ministers were not as strong as we might have wished, by the end of the meeting we had sent a signal to the WTO conference that the trade rules they come up with should not take priority over agreements reached to support sustainable development.
More on the relationship between the Biosafety Protocol and the WTO
The International Parliamentary Network, representing elected members of parliaments from around the world, met here yesterday and agreed on a series of demands to reform the World Trade Organization. It probably seems strange to you (it certainly does to us) that our elected representatives do not have any direct representation at the WTO meeting, and thus have to organize their own conference to have their (your) concerns heard.
It's just one more example of how far removed the World Trade Organization process is from the world of democracy.
About 100 elected representatives from every continent met at the Americana Condesa hotel in Cancun from noon yesterday until late in the evening. They assembled to put together a series of demands for reform of the WTO, to make it more accountable, open and beneficial to people all over the world, not just corporate interests.
Their statement and ten demands are included below: .
International Parliamentary Network: Declaration on the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Cancún/México, 10- 14 September 2003
We, members of the International Parliamentary Network (IPN), founded on occasion of the World Parliamentary Forum in Porto Alegre/Brazil, are deeply committed to the idea that another economic and trade paradigm is possible, which benefits the majorities of the populations all over the world.
We believe that the present economic world order, with the Bretton Woods organisations as the leading institutions on economic and financial questions on the one hand, and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on the other, does not lead to this aim. Since the creation of the WTO, in 1995, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened dramatically. The Doha Development Agenda, agreed upon at the Fourth Ministerial in November 2001 in the capital of Qatar, is not worthy of its title.
In the run up to the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO, which is going to take place in Cancún/México, on September 10-14, 2003, we as parliamentarians, propose the following minimum set of demands to be covered by the conference agenda. We engage ourselves to support these demands in all parliamentarian debates and resolutions before the Ministerial and to lobby for them during the Conference itself.
10 Demands in the run up to Cancún
1. Ensure Democratic Scrutiny
The WTO process of negotiating, concluding and implementing binding agreements cannot only be an intergovernmental affair. We believe that elected bodies should play their role in the whole process of the negotiating and implementing WTO agreements. Governments' positions on trade issues should be discussed beforehand in parliaments and be co-decided by elected bodies in all WTO member states.
2. Settle pending issues first and build consensus
The time is not ripe for the negotiation of new WTO treaties on investment, competition, public procurement or customs regulations (the so-called "Singapore Issues" or "New Issues"). It is not acceptable to enlarge the WTO's competencies in this way whilst at the same time side-stepping the settlement of issues that promote the aim of sustainable development. A large number of issues pending since the creation of the WTO are still not being sufficiently negotiated, concluded and implemented. The WTO has missed the deadlines on Implementation issues, Special and Differential Treatment, TRIPS and Public Health and Modalities on agriculture, amongst others. The launch of negotiations on the "Singapore Issues" would unduly enlarge the competencies of the WTO and serve the interests of corporations in the EU and the US, against the interests of the developing world.
3. Maintain and strengthen core public services
The present negotiations on GATS (General Agreements in Trade of Services) put into danger affordable access to public services. No demands should be imposed on WTO members, particularly developing countries, to privatise their public services, especially water collection, treatment and distribution, energy, education and health. Certain service sectors, such as water and sanitation, have a special status in developing and least developed countries, impacting directly and dramatically on people’s daily lives, and therefore require special treatment.
4. Access to Medicines must be guaranteed - public health comes first
At the WTO Ministerial in Doha in November 2001 an agreement was reached on the issue of access to essential medicines. We call on all WTO members to stick to the Doha commitment concerning the outstanding question of compulsory licences for imports (paragraph 6 of the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health). In this context we remind them that to impose new constraints as part of the solution to the paragraph 6 problem would violate the spirit of that Declaration and be justifiably seen by developing countries as evidence of bad faith. Each country must have the ability to produce or import generic medicines if needed to protect public health.
5. No patents on life
Patenting of life forms must be prohibited in order to preserve biodiversity, food security and indigenous peoples' rights and protect them from corporate control of genetic resources. At present, patenting is governed by the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Its Article 27.3b however, allows a revision of provisions dealing with patents on life forms. We support the developing countries in their demand to implement Article 27.3b and particularly the position taken by the Africa group. This calls for a clarification that plants, animals and micro-organisms should not be patentable; that a "sui generis" system of plant varieties protection can include systems that protect the intellectual rights of indigenous and farming communities; that TRIPS be made to harmonise with the Biodiversity Convention and the FAO Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources.
6. Protect the independence of Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs)
The WTO is the only international set of rules with sanctioning power. This, however, does not mean that it is superior to any other internationally agreed set of rules. Environmental concerns, for instance, should not be subject to the WTO. The protection of the environment is not a trade distorting measure to be sanctioned by the WTO, but a necessary means to guarantee our common future. Therefore we object to any moves/wording towards WTO-compliance for MEAs, as proposed by US and EU, but rejected by the majority of the participants of the WSSD in Johannesburg.
7. Uphold perspective on "multifunctionality" in agriculture worldwide
Consumers and producers worldwide are interested in rural development, environmental protection and animal welfare. The right of peoples to nourish themselves, as well as the issues of food and water security are fundamental for our common future. Trade rules can and should be consistent with these objectives.
8. Meet the needs of Developing Countries - abolish export subsidies
Subsidies and other export support mechanisms distort the agricultural supply chain. They mainly serve the profit aims of big agroindustrial exporters, putting into danger the survival of small peasants everywhere, in the North as in the South. Only a sustainable practice and fair trade are able to guarantee the existence of agriculture and food security for the future. We ask for the suppression of agricultural export subsidies of all countries, especially industrialised countries.
9. Improve workers rights
We call on WTO members to respect the ILO Convention and its core labour standards especially freedom of association for workers. International regulations on labour standards must remain a competence of the ILO and cannot be used as a projectionist or trade barriers mechanism. We ask for the WTO to respect ILO decisions and to grant observatory status for the ILO in the WTO.
10. Apply precaution and sustainability principles systematically
The one size-fits all approach cannot be applied to unequal partners. Trade is a means, not an end in itself. In order to avoid adverse effects - market access often turns into market displacement - impact studies concerning the sustainability of trade measures in its three aspects (social, environmental and economic) should be carried out, before negotiations start. Each country shall be free to make its own determination of risks to the health and well-being of its citizens and its environment and to take precautionary measures accordingly.
Greenpeace and a number of our allied NGOs in Cancun have written a letter to the people of Mexico, explaining why we are here and that we are committed to non-violence.
The letter below was published as an advertisement (in Spanish, naturellemente) in a number of local newspapers. We are trying to counter some of the fear-mongering statements made by several officials, saying that 'globalfobicos', as we are called, are up to no good.
TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO
Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez,Aung San Suu Kyi, and the man in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square were all considered troublemakers at the time; but they were all struggling for peace, equity and justice.
This month, more than a hundred governments will come to the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun to discuss Global Trade and Investment and decide your future. They will negotiate documents in technical language which may seem far from your everyday life, but the consequences of these agreements will affect the food you eat, the water you drink, the quality of the air you breathe, what jobs are available and what kind of schools are available for your kids.
People from all over the world will also come to Cancun with alternatives and solutions that can make trade work for people and not for big business or rich nations only. People will come to monitor their governments and ensure the bottom line on this negotiation is not simply about profit but about making global trade work for all to create a healthier, safer and more equitable world.
We all come in peace committed to non-violence. We hope to find opportunities to share our views, present our alternatives and expose the wrongdoings of the current trade system. We do not make trouble for the sake of it. We are people like you that come from near or far away, united by a common commitment to promote peace, equity and justice. If this is troublesome to government negotiators, multinational corporations, and the rich, then so be it.
signed,
GREENPEACE,OXFAM,PUBLIC CITIZEN,HEINRICH BOELL FOUNDATION,AMIGOS DE LA TIERRA,FOCUS ON THE GLOBAL SOUTH,GLOBAL EXCHANGE,THIRD WORLD NETWORK,COUNCIL OF CANADIANS,WEED (World Economy Ecology Development), CENTER FOR ENCOUNTER AND ACTIVE NON-VIOLENCE,INITIATIVE COLIBRI, CORPWATCH, ASIA PACIFIC FORUM ON WOMAN, LAW AND DEVELOPMENT, ACTION AID
There was some negotiating to do, but we have been given permission to bring the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise to Cancun.
It will have to sail it's way past the two Mexican navy warships off the coast and sail under skies cleared of all commercial flights to reach our berth in Porto Juarez, a few kilometres from Cancun.
Originally, we were not going to be granted permission to come near Cancun, but would have to anchor many miles away.
Now we have to overcome the little matter of a hurricane, called Isabelle, that is off the coast and is approaching fast.
An organizing meeting took place this afternoon in downtown Cancun for the Our World is Not For Sale coalition of groups. It was inspiring.
| A few of the people at the Our World is Not For Sale meeting today in Cancun. They were asked their reasons for coming to the meeting. |
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| Anuradha Mittal, Food First, USA. "To ensure that the voice of people is heard, in this forum that normally excludes farmers, indigenous people and the landless." |
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| Karl Flecker, Polaris Institute, Canada "To join with thousands of other people and thousands of communities to say no to corporate rule and the WTO." |
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| Meenakshi Raman, Third World Network/Friends of the Earth, Malaysia "To lobby as much as possible to make sure no further damage takes place." |
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| Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South, Phillipines "This is the most important meeting of all for civil society to coordinate, and achieve some sort of consensus on coordination." |
In a downtown Cancun hotel this afternoon, about a hundred representatives from organizations all around the world had the first organizing meeting to decide how to work together over the next week.
The OWINFS network is made up of activists and groups from around the world working to make the global trading system more accountable, sustainable and socially just.
This WTO meeting in Cancun is a momentous one for civil society groups, as the last WTO meeting in Doha, Qatar, could not be attended by many NGOs because of the repressiveness of the host country. This meeting is different, with better attendance by a wide range civil society groups and a realization that creating alliances between groups is necessary if we are to affect the outcome of the meeting.
One of the founding principles of the meeting was that different groups can agree to disagree on the specifics of what they want from the WTO - what we cannot afford to do is continue working in isolation. This meeting was called to strengthen links between organizations, and it is off to a good start.
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| The European Union delegation was presented with something to prevent the pain and embarassment of making bad deals while in Cancun.More |
Welcome to the WTO meeting in Cancun! Well, actually, we can't allow you to go anywhere beyond the floor containing the cafeteria, free propaganda, and Telmex / Telcel vendors. Everything else is blocked in this way:
Note the advertisements for Telmex and Xerox on the sign itself! Amazing. Yes, the WTO is all about big business, and they're none too apologetic about that.
There are four floors to the Cancun Convention Center, where the WTO meeting will commence in just 1.5 days. We who have been so lucky as to gain accreditation as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to attend the meeting, are allowed into the ground floor. Of course, no actual meeting will occur there. We may as well be out in the street -- at least the food would be better and cheaper. :-)
People from NGOs are separated from others attending the WTO. We must all wear bright orange badges, and we are only allowed in through certain bridges and doors into the Convention Center. Looking at the arrangements, it appears to me as if other entrances allow the ministers to entirely avoid the ground floor to which we are restricted.
It never ceases to amaze me the lengths to which the WTO has gone to avoid any contact whatsoever with the people whom they control. What planet are these folks on, anyway?
That's okay, the people are warmer and friendlier downtown, and the food and music are much better! We're enjoying our time here, even though the heavy police presence may not fully approve.
Smile! It's fun!
After a busy weekend of open boats - welcoming people aboard - we left the port of Veracruz this morning and are out on the ocean. It is a fantastic feeling to be away from land and immersed in blue skies and sea.
It was flat calm when we left and some dolphins gave us a good send off; frolicking in the water. With our new crew members informed of all the safety issues on board we can relax a little and get in to the rhythm of life at sea.
Everything needs to be 'made fast' so that it does not move around the ship and become hazardous to those on board. The Arctic Sunrise is an icebreaker: she has a sharp shape at the bow and a thin keel to slip over the ice with. This means she can roll from side to side at the slightest breath of wind and the sight of hurricane Isobel on the weather fax is a bit scary. We are actually sailing towards the hurricane as we make way to Cancun. The forecast is for winds of 145 knots within 150 nautical miles of the eye of the storm. We won't be anywhere near that close to her but it seems a bit bonkers to sail towards it. You would not know this from the ship as we gently glide through the calm waters. The radio room, from where I am writing this, is all humming gently and there are some pretty sea birds flying past the porthole. The best part is that we are now out of mobile telephone range so there is some peace and quiet before the satellite phone starts.
We are a bit isolated from the events in Cancun when we are at sea. We don't have television on board and the newspaper is no longer delivered by carrier pigeon so we rely on updates from our fellow activists and the BBC world service. It seems that there is a military feel to Cancun with fences and exclusion zones. Unbelievable that protest could cause such an aggressive reaction from the security services in the WTO. We are talking about human beings, individuals, upset about the arrogance of the WTO - not an army wanting to kill people. Is this really necessary? What a waste of money to spend all this on 'security' when there is so much poverty in the world and here in Mexico too.
We are campaigning for global food security, not anarchy, but the WTO will try to continue to ignore us and hold its secret meetings and we will continue to protest peacefully. Meanwhile people the world over could be using the money spent at these meetings to feed real, safe, food to their children.
Wake up To Our future, WTO, before it is too late.
Emily is a radio operator on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise
As a kick-off to this week’s demonstration activities, approximately 40 activists took to the beach, prepared to expose both their bums and beliefs concerning the WTO. More >>
I actually made it into the Convention Center yesterday afternoon, the first time anyone from our group has seen the "inside" of the WTO meeting here in Cancun. We were re-directed three times by the police, and finally found the right door.
There has been a lot of noise coming from the Convention Center for the past few days, and we've all been wondering what is going on in there. Another Greenpeace media-type and myself thought we would try our luck in gaining entry to the Convention Center, and after walking around the building a few times and being told we were in the wrong place, finally: SUCCESS!
How can you describe the Convention Center? Shiny. White. Imposing. There is still a lot of construction going on, and we were able to see where all of the journalists would be sitting and working and reporting to all corners of the world all of the unfair trade decisions being made during the WTO meeting.
Since we don't work for major oil companies, we are only allowed on the first floor, and there were metal barricades blocking us from all of the areas where the deals will be made. It's a real shame.
There was virtually no one inside: maybe all of the delegates were on the beach sipping margaritas, or maybe they were being led in circles around the Convention Center. We spoke with a few people who were there, and we got invited to our first press conference that was going on at a hotel across the street. Unfortunately, we had to decline. After collecting WTO documents and fact sheets that are heaped on tables waiting to be read and dissected, we walked around for a little while, and, not surprisingly, the place is covered with WTO logos. I'm not sure why the WTO is doing self-promotion on the inside, it seems to me that some external PR work would be much more sensible, and greatly needed... after some serious reforms, of course.
I'm here with Greenpeace from our office in the USA, and it's quite frustrating to know that my government is here to advance its own agenda and to repress the rights of other countries and communities to demand fair trade policies. It's important to let people know that many people in the USA stand united against the WTO, against unfair globalization, and in favor of sustainability and putting people's rights over corporate profit. It's also important to let people know that should they come to Cancun, be sure to bring sunblock. The sun here is almost as oppressive as the WTO trade rules.
Steve Smith is a Media Officer with Greenpeace USA. He likes sunsets, long walks on the beach, and is a Scorpio.
Noticed something weird today.
It seems beer companies here have no qualms about having their products associated with the massive police presence. In fact, it seems some aspects of this mini-police state are being brought to us by those beer companies.
On the bus today, I rode past a few police stationed by the side of the road, sweating it out in their thick grey uniforms and looking impassive. All under a bright beer promotion tent.
Then, at the end of the same trip, a truck full of police drove up with what looked like a beer cooler installed between them in the bed of the truck. Check the photo.
Now that's product placement.
Wendel Trio, our campaigner from Belgium, came with a unique product to soothe the upset caused by bad trade deals.
The Belgian Greenpeace office came up with a product that was presented to the EU and Belgian government delegations as they checked in for their flight to the WTO meeting here.
It's called Cancunnine, and it's meant to help the delegates avoid making bad deals while at the meeting.
On the package it says:
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| A box of Cancunnine at the Greenpeace office in Cancun. |
"Cancunnine helps you in an ecologically sound way to prevent bad deals which harm the environment, threaten sustainable development, neglect workers' rights and work against the poor. It should prevent the delegates of broadening the mandate of the WTO at the meeting in Cancun."
On the other side of the box:
"Cancunnine prevents government delegates cutting bad deals for the environment in Cancun.
Use: take one tablet a day and every time you feel the onset of a bad deal. Please take with a glass of non-privatised water. Patent free - keep away from pharmaceuticals.
Store outside of green rooms."
Inside the box was a shortened version of our
