Participants in the Free Trade Area of the Americas protest in Miami planned to discuss police brutality Wednesday night in Gordon Commons, but due to miscommunication and weather conditions, the discussion will be moved to a different time.
The discussion was to focus on the Nov. 20 protest where 1,200 to 1,500 University of Wisconsin students gathered in Miami to voice dissent against the FTAA, according to Mike Moon of the Madison Fair Trade Action Alliance.
Several hundred Madison residents also joined more than 22,000 protesters in Miami to speak out against the actions of the FTAA, The Capital Times reported.
These residents and students went the meeting to voice dissent against the FTAA for the negative effects free trade has had on farmers and poverty in all the Americas, said Moon.
“Agriculture is really important, and it is being destroyed systematically by these non-democratic institutions,” Moon said about the FTAA.
According to the FTAA official website, the coalition founds itself on “the effort to unite the economies of the Americas into a single free trade area.”
Thirty-four countries from North and South America sent trade representatives or economic ministers to discuss the third draft to the FTAA.
According to the third draft of the FTAA, free trade is “raising living standards, increasing employment, improving the working conditions of all people in the Americas, strengthening social dialogue and social protection, improving the levels of health and education and better protecting the environment.”
Yet, Moon argued that free trade actually appeals more to agricultural businesses and the corporate classes.
“The practice (of the FTAA) says that corporate profit is more important and that free trade is about secrecy,” said Moon.
Opponents of the FTAA argue that some negative effects that free trade has on the Americas include the increase in poverty level in large cities because of underpaid farmers seeking employment.
The meetings were scheduled to take two days. However, participants in the FTAA draft revision concluded all discussions after the first day.
Those involved in the protest continued peacefully, Moon said. Participants who took place in the city march and demonstrations were soon met with apparent police brutality, according to The Capital Times. Protesters were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray and concussion grenades.
“Miami was militarized against dissidents with unnecessary behavior from police,” Moon said.
Protesters were led through the streets of Miami by police in order to control the crowds. Six Madison residents were arrested on accounts of failing to comply and resisting arrest. According to Moon, several Madison protesters who were arrested at the demonstration will be taking up legal cases against the FTAA.
Moon and others at the Madison Fair Trade Action Alliance have several solutions to remedying the trade situation. They believe that fair trade is the answer because it will allow democracy and free choice to be integrated into agriculture and will allow countries in the Americas to choose what to produce instead of dealing with surplus crops and government subsidies.