Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK – Women for Peace was an invited guest at the the sixth conference of the Latin American alternative trade alliance known as ALBA, held in Caracas on January 25-26. She emphatizes the possibility to allow the participation of social movements throughout the hemisprere.
ALBA was founded by Cuba and Venezuela in 2004 as a fair trade alternative to US-backed free trade policies and is made possible thanks to Venezuela’s oil money. When Evo Morales was elected in Bolivia and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, they too joined ALBA, which Hugo Chavez has nicknamed the Club of “Chicos Malos”, or bad boys, because of its opposition to U.S. domination. At this weekend’s meeting, the Caribbean island of Dominica also joined, and representatives attended from Ecuador, Honduras, Uruguay, Haiti and several other Caribbean nations.
She relates that a major question about the future of ALBA is whether more countries will join to give it more clout. Ecuador and Haiti, for example, would like to join but are facing strong internal opposition. Several small Caribbean nations attending the meeting mentioned how difficult it is to counter attacks by the conservative media. “The principles of ALBA-solidarity, non-interference, respect for independence, complementarity instead of competition, fair trade-they are like motherhood. You can’t be against them,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonzalez of St. Vincent and Grenadines reasoned. “But when you start to add names-Chavez, Castro, Ortega-people get scared. So we have to educate our people before we can become full members.”
Dominica, a nation that defied elite pressure by joining ALBA, was already facing the backlash. “While we are here talking about ways to improve the lives of our people, the conservative media is talking about economic ruin, communist influence, Iranian takeovers, an end to tourism,” tourism minister Ian Douglas told Medea. “We will weather the storm, but it’s not going to be easy.”
One way to get around such government pressure is to allow the participation in ALBA of social movements throughout the hemisphere. At last year’s summit, the ALBA Council of Social Movements was formed with representatives from farmers groups, women, environmentalists, unions and other civil groups. But there were unresolved questions over how to structure the Council, so this year, only the social movements in the four member countries were invited. The Council, however, proposed expanding membership.
“The best way to strengthen ALBA is to include social movements from throughout the hemisphere,” said Joel Suarez of Cuba’s Martin Luther King Center, one of the five movement reps from Cuba to attend the Summit.
“Governments may be pressured not to join, but the social movements are anxious to be part of an alliance that promotes fair trade over free trade.” Indeed, the proposal is to even include social movements from the United States.
With ALBA countries, particularly Bolivia and Venezuela, facing strong internal opposition, improving the population’s economic well-being is critical. The future of progressive victories in Latin America rests on turning the rhetoric of fair trade and sustainable development into concrete gains. This year will be a critical test of whether Venezuela’s oil money can indeed be used to develop an alternative economic model.
Read at Common Dreams
ALBA, an Economic Alternative for Latin America, by Medea Benjamin