In 1998, Sunbelt Water Inc. of California sued the Canadian government for $10.5 billion in lost future profits after the British Columbia government became concerned about its water being shipped out of the province and into California, and subsequently canceled the company’s permit. The North American Free Trade Agreement was designed to make interactions between different countries and companies — like Sunbelt’s dispute with Canada — an easier task. But opponents are saying NAFTA
has backfired.
Tonight, one opponent, San Francisco-based nonprofit Global Exchange, will present its case against NAFTA at 7 p.m. in 180 PLC. The event, part of a North American tour called “The Economy is Killing Us: The Newest Battle Against Corporate Globalization,” will feature specialists on the negative affects of NAFTA from the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“Canada has been sued for $18 million under NAFTA,” Canadian activist, writer and speaker Jamie Dunn said. “We’re having to buy back our democracy. It’s a corporate ransom.”
Dunn said the goal of the tour, which started in El Paso, Texas, and runs through to Vancouver, British Columbia, is to tell people how NAFTA affects them directly and start a debate in different communities.
“People don’t know the reality,” Dunn said. “People did not know NAFTA would work like that. Where is all that added value to Canada, the United States and even Mexico?”
Cheri Honkala, another speaker on the tour who is founder of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and spokeswoman for the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, said Americans are not talking enough about people who have lost jobs, such as farmers, and how industrial companies have left the United States.
“Corporate America is taking control and the American people are losing opportunities to live in a democracy,” she said. “We need to demand that we have some kind of voice.”
The speakers will present a slideshow of poor and homeless people in the United States, and share first-hand experience of poverty in their home countries.
“Basically, we want to show people what they are not seeing now,” Honkala said. “Mexico used to be self-sufficient, but now they can’t even feed themselves.”
Honkala said the group, which also includes Jose Delores Lopez, a spokesman for the Independent Center for Agricultural Workers and Peasants in Mexico, has received positive responses throughout their tour.
The tour’s stop in Eugene is sponsored by University’s Multicultural Center, Survival Center and MEChA, as well as Eugene PeaceWorks and Committee In Solidarity with the Central American People.
“It’s going to be interesting and heartening to see speakers from all these countries affected by NAFTA and hear how their communities are trying to turn back this damaging free-trade agreement,” Global Exchange spokesman David Edeli said.
The event is free and open to the public. Spanish translation and childcare will be provided. For more information, call 485-8633.