Am I an idiot for thinking that globalism (with free trade) is the best hope for the world’s poor? Obviously the people in the streets of Mar del Plata don’t feel the same way.
The chaos reflected the often violent, worldwide debate on free trade as the United States and Mexico pushed to relaunch talks on creating a free trade area stretching from Canada to Chile. Past summits on free trade – including last year’s summit of Asian-Pacific leaders in Chile – have drawn bitter opposition and similar angry protests.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez emerged as the most strident opponent of the plan, addressing a separate crowd of more than 10,000 peaceful protesters hours before the summit convened in this normally tranquil seaside resort.
Chavez vowed to defeat the Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, once and for all. Speaking before a six-story banner of revolutionary Che Guevara, Chavez urged the throng – including soccer great Diego Maradona and Bolivian presidential hopeful Evo Morales – to help him fight free trade.
“Only united can we defeat imperialism and bring our people a better life,” he said, adding: “Here, in Mar del Plata, FTAA will be buried!”
Before Chavez’s speech, demonstrators flooded the streets, shouting “Get out Bush!” and “Fascist Bush! You are the terrorist!”
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21 Comments
1. Bostonian:By all means, guys, limit your products to as small a market as possible, because that’ll be SO good for your quality of life. Viva isolationism!!!
Nov 4, 2005 - 4:56 pm 2. mrp:Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Diego Marodana.
vs.
The United States of America
Momma, don’t let your babies grow up to be soccer players
(Check out that wristwatch. Paid right – Pose Communist.)
Nov 4, 2005 - 5:06 pm 3. Pat Curley:Maradona doesn’t believe in the invisible hand, but the hand of God (inside joke for soccer fans).
What amazes me is that the far Left and far Right in this country are opposed to free trade for the admitted reason that they think it will hurt low-skilled workers here.
But of course if you accept that you’ve gotta accept that it’s good for low-skilled workers elsewhere. Which means that Leftists in poorer countries should support free trade.
A lot of people bring up the experience with Mexico, but they always want to talk about how Mexican wages declined in dollar terms, because the Mexican peso took a battering compared to the dollar shortly after Nafta. Wages went up considerably in peso terms, which is what they’re spending at the local store.
Nov 4, 2005 - 5:26 pm 4. Terrye:For as long as I can remember the folks in South America have been blaming the anglo gringo for their problems.
I am kind of getting tired of the flag burning etc.
Maybe we should just build that wall along the border with Mexico and tell them to keep their products and their selves south of the border.
If they want to live in that world forever fine. let them.
Nov 4, 2005 - 5:34 pm 5. Lew Clark:The free trade of goods promotes the free trade of ideas. They don’t want their citizens further infected with our ideas.
Nov 4, 2005 - 5:50 pm 6. Don Miguel:Over 25 years, Diego Maradona goes from the top, being a world-class soccer player to the bottom, being a world-class ignorant dumbass.
No, forget what I said — he was always an ignorant dumbass — he’s just a famous one now.
Nov 4, 2005 - 7:30 pm 7. Mitch:We don’t want to trade with Cuba, so we are to blame for all of Cuba’s economic problems. We want to trade with Argentina and Brazil, so we are to blame for all of their economic problems as well. Similarly, we were at fault for supporting the corrupt dictatorship of Somoza in Nicaragua against the guerrillas, and also at fault for failing to support the corrupt dictatorship of Ortega in Nicaragua against a different set of guerrillas.
Does anyone else get the feeling that not enough thought has gone into these things?
Nov 4, 2005 - 7:42 pm 8. Ursus:I tried to count the hammer-and-sickles, the Maoist flags and other symbols but lost count after the first couple of seconds.
Communists have to oppose American, because they cannot spread their proven program of tyranny and poverty while the US remains as a counter example.
That’s why they blame everything on us, and oppose every policy we promote.
Nov 4, 2005 - 7:55 pm 9. jonathan riley:: Does anyone else get the feeling that not enough thought has gone into these things?
oh but plenty has! obviously you’ve never experienced the comforting joys of double think!
Nov 4, 2005 - 7:56 pm 10. Steven Den Beste:Am I an idiot for thinking that globalism (with free trade) is the best hope for the world’s poor?
It depends on what you want for them. Roger, you want them to become more prosperous and to get better, longer, happier lives, right?
The lefties don’t want that. They want the masses of the world to be poor, miserable, and angry, so that they’ll rise up in revolution against the capitalists and establish the world Socialist utopia the way Marx predicted they would.
The term for this is “global immiserization” and Lee Harris explains it in this article.
Nov 4, 2005 - 7:57 pm 11. gumshoe:i like the t-shirts of Che
wearing a propeller-beanie.
i wonder if he was dressed
for the six story banner
photo session.
Nov 4, 2005 - 8:29 pm 12. Fausta:I’m all for the US to completely abolish farm subsidies, and agree with Roger that globalism (with free trade) is the best hope for the world’s poor, and with Larry Kramer, who believes that abolishing farm subsidies will do more to relieve world poverty than any amount of foreign aid.
Vicente Fox was saying that a trade accord in the Americas will boost growth and should go ahead even if some countries refuse to join, but he doesn’t get as much publicity as Hugo’s stunts.
As for the people in the streets of Mar del Plata, I’m willing to bet that many of them come from afar, like Cindy Sheehan. And the TV cameras were poised ahead of time at the riot locale. What a coincidence.
Nov 5, 2005 - 4:45 am 13. Fausta:I’m all for the US to completely abolish farm subsidies, and agree with Roger that globalism (with free trade) is the best hope for the world’s poor, and with Larry Kramer, who believes that abolishing farm subsidies will do more to relieve world poverty than any amount of foreign aid.
Vicente Fox was saying that a trade accord in the Americas will boost growth and should go ahead even if some countries refuse to join, but he doesn’t get as much publicity as Hugo’s stunts.
As for the people in the streets of Mar del Plata, I’m willing to bet that many of them come from afar, like Cindy Sheehan. And the TV cameras were poised ahead of time at the riot locale. What a coincidence.
Nov 5, 2005 - 4:49 am 14. xj:Argentina is famous for its rentamobs. Demonstrating is the second national sport (after handball^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H soccer), and the government tacitly encourages big demonstrations on the grounds that it gives the unemployed a way of working off their frustrations. I don’t think you can read too much into any given Argentinian demonstration.
I wonder why it is that the anti-globalisation soapdodgers never take their arguments to their logical conclusion: if the USA needs to “protect” itself from China (or Argentina from the USA, or whatever they’re on about this time), then why doesn’t California need to “protect” its economy from the impoverished drudges of North Dakota? Maybe Orange County should enact tarriffs against Fresno to “protect” its peoples’ lifestyles from “dumping” of cheap goods?
Oh, and mrp: I thought Castro used to be a baseball player?
Nov 5, 2005 - 5:35 am 15. syn:Isn’t Chavez basically stating the Socialist mantra ‘Death to Poor People” by keeping them poverty-stricken, ignorant and helpless?
Nov 5, 2005 - 5:38 am 16. mrp:xj types:
Oh, and mrp: I thought Castro used to be a baseball player?
The Bearded One wishes!
Castro is to baseball what Maradona is to economics
Nov 5, 2005 - 6:19 am 17. Pat Curley:mrp, thanks for that link. I have read tons of baseball historians and most have uncritically mentioned the Castro as pitching prospect story as legitimate.
Nov 5, 2005 - 8:19 am 18. Cynic:“Isn’t Chavez basically stating the Socialist mantra ‘Death to Poor People” by keeping them poverty-stricken, ignorant and helpless?’
That way he keeps them dependent!
If many had paid attention to the Israeli/Palestinian situation they would have noticed that Hamas and Islamic Jihad did their damndest to prevent Palestinians from working.
They bombed the industrial centres Israel had set up on the border and through terrorist actions forced the reduction of workers permitted into Israel proper.
The ordinary guy on the street becomes totally dependent on extremist largesse.
“The free trade of goods promotes the free trade of ideas. They don’t want their citizens further infected with our ideas.”
The last thing they want is the American liberty to choose and do without political interference.
They would lose power.
One is not dealing with humanitarians here but thugs, mafia style.
Just look at what is being exposed in Brazil right now; how the present “worker’s party” government took money (monies budgeted for the Bank of Brazil’s publicity) to pay for votes in Congress.
Nov 5, 2005 - 9:27 am 19. Mark_Belt:Anyone who’s ever seen Fidel throw a baseball knows the legend about him getting a Major League tryout is false.
Nov 5, 2005 - 1:51 pm 20. Mitch:Mark, remember – the tryout was supposedly with the Cubs. In some of their worse years, Eddie Gaedel could have been their cleanup hitter.
Nov 5, 2005 - 7:40 pm 21. Barrett:“Isn’t Chavez basically stating the Socialist mantra ‘Death to Poor People” by keeping them poverty-stricken, ignorant and helpless?”
Cynic is right. Folks of the ilk like Chavez, Arafat, the Hamas leadership and the Taliban can never solve the plights of their people. They act to create dependencies to keep themselves in power. To solve real problems and advance their societies would be to make themselves expendable and irrelavant. The ideas that such people have are so shallow and flawed, they would become extinct upon any relization of their cause. Consequently, they rule by fear, intimidation, murder and by keeping the majority of the population living at subsistence levels where they are less threatening.
Nov 5, 2005 - 9:44 pm