Strangechord

I am sitting here in shock at the amount/degree of brutality being leveled by the police against FTAA protestors in Miami today. This site has a lot of coverage of the FTAA protest and its photos show the violence.

In case you’re not familiar with the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), it’s an effort to expand the policies of NAFTA into all of Latin and South America by the year 2005. As with NAFTA, we can expect worker exploitation, privatization of vital natural resources (like water), massive environmental destruction, loss of jobs for Americans, this time on a much larger scale. The FTAA is being constructed by government and corporate leaders, behind closed doors, with no input from any of the people whose lives will be severely negatively impacted by its measures. To learn more, you can read my short (2 page) paper I wrote on the FTAA last year.

As usual, I see little in the mainstream press about what’s going on in Miami today. CNN.com’s front-page story is about bringing in Michael Jackson. The site did have a small story with the following gem: 2500 police in full riot gear for ? Guh! My heart is with those in Miami standing up against this anti-democratic corruption and control.