español - english - português

Declaration of Jubilee South/Americas, on occasion of the 5th.
Ministerial Meeting of the OMC, Cancún

No to Free Trade! No to the External Debt!
Yes to LIFE and Popular Sovereignty!

On the occasion of the 5th Ministerial Meeting of the WTO, in
Cancún, México, September 10-14, 2003, Jubilee South/Americas is
among the activists, militants from around the world and in
particular, from the South of the world (Africa, Asia, the Pacific,
Latin America, the Caribbean), who are demonstrating their rejection
of the mercantilization of all spheres of life which is at stake in
the debates to be held over these days.

It is our impression that what we are confronting is a clear
integration of the World Bank, Interamerican Development Bank, and
IMF's policies of structural adjustment, together with the talks in
the WTO and other trade negotiations such as the FTAA, with a view
to achieving a harmonization of the domestic and international
economic policies of our countries, in particular their financial
and commercial policies, in neoliberal terms. These policies are
increasingly directed towards the opening of our national economies
to foreign investment while at the same time, guaranteeing the
faithful and continuous payment of external and internal debts.

Our countries are being tied up hand and foot, in order to maintain
finances –rather than production- as the central axis of the
economy. With our finances anchored in monies such as the dollar or
the euro, national projects of sovereign development, and the
policies capable of insuring their implementation, are impossible.
The future of our countries is also being tied up by policies of
"preventive war", the imposition of U.S. military bases and
exercises, and the criminalization of social protest.

Liberal ideology preaches that free commerce leads to economic
growth. Recent history has shown, however, that free trade among
unequals favors the already developed economies, generating even
greater impoverishment, inequality and injustice.

The unquestionable dogma of paying the External Debt is contrary to
the human rights and sovereignty of persons and of peoples. The IMF
and its policies of (dis)adjustment have provoked true neocolonial
invasions, as in the cases of Argentina, Ecuador, and Brazil. Our
countries cannot subject themselves to agreements with the IMF which
tell our governments what they can and cannot spend on job-creation
policies and other social measures.

The External Debt constitutes a veto and constant strangulation of
the soveriegn socioeconomic development of the nations of the South.
Over the past two centuries, our economies have come to depend on
the foreign currency which comes from exports. Our countries have
now moved from being exporters of bananas, meat, sugar, steel,
copper, soybeans, petroleum, etc., to being exporters of money. We
pay the debts, we pay the transfer of profits from the public
enterprises that have been privatized, we pay the dividends to those
who "invest" in the financial markets of Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires,
Caracas, etc.

In reality, it is the IMF, the World Bank, the Interamerican
Development Bank, and the governments and transnational corporations
of the North that have an immense social and ecological debt to the
countries and peoples of the South – a debt which will only continue
to rise with the free trade policies being demanded by the WTO and
the FTAA. We demand an end to the pillage of the natural and
financial resources of the South by the North. We demand that these
multilateral institutions, governments and corporations be
sanctioned for their actions, that the resources be restituted and
reparations made to those who have suffered the damages.

Enough of this bloodsucking! For Sovereignty, Jobs, Housing, and
Agrarian Reform!
No to the Debt, to Militarization, to the FTAA and WTO! Yes to Life!

September 9, 2003

Jubilee South / Americas