October 2003

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

A Cancún Chorus of Resistance

The World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun (September 10-15, 2003) was met by a cacophonous collection of activists from around the world, including Mexican college students, environmentalists, and campesinos, and a wide variety of anti-corporate globalization protesters. At a march sponsored by Via Campesina on September 10th, 15,000 peasants and supporters wore scarves with slogans such as, "Globalize the struggle. Globalize hope," but the confrontations with police turned violent, with stones, metal poles, and concrete blocks being hurled back and forth. Lee Kyung-hae, a farmer and former leader of South Korea's Confederation of Farmers and Fisherfolk, climbed onto the barrier separating the protestors from the official meeting, proclaimed, "The WTO kills farmers," and took his own life. Lee's action sounded a grim counter-note to the rest of the week's events, both inside and outside the meeting. Despite, or perhaps partially because of, Lee's action, protestors found a way to dramatize the exploitation promoted by the WTO throughout the week, culminating in the streets of Cancún on Saturday, September 15th.

Peter Rosset of Food First sets the scene for Saturday's demonstrations, and a variety of eyewitnesses chime in.

Early Saturday, one of the official negotiators told us that the talks were on the verge of collapse because of agriculture and the so-called "new issues" (trade in services, governmental privatization, etc.) and that it was all but over. He told us that the massive protests in the streets and the death of Mr. Lee had been key factors in creating a climate in which Third World countries felt they could once again stand up to pressure from the US and the European Union, just like in Seattle.

Everyone feared the worst sort of confrontation, and the police brought in massive reinforcements. They tripled the size of the metal barriers, and people who appeared to be provocateurs showed up in greater numbers, with shopping carts filled with stones and huge metal bars.

Just when large-scale violence seemed most likely to erupt, the collective "we" created a show of unity and power that left even paid rock-throwers with no recourse but to stand down. All day and night Friday the Via Campesina (a Mexican peasant organization) and the Korean delegation led and participated in numerous internal and external meetings, using the moral authority of the farmer/indigenous peoples' cause and the sacrifice of Mr. Lee to forge a collective unity with students, black bloc [anarchist] participants, trade unionists, NGOs, you name it. Saturday showed our strength when we work together.

Andrew Kennis, reporting on indymedia.org, explains the process, and the transnational wealth of diverse activist experience, used to plan the action:

First, a group of women activists began to cut off the barbed wire that lined the top of the enormous barricade. The fact that the activists were all women was not a coincidence, as it was decided upon by all groups attending the morning meeting that only women would partake in the action.

The all-woman act was an inspiration. "To see all women and no men undertake an action like that, made us inspired to then help out all the guys here with pulling the fence down," said Diana Cortaza, shortly after having tugged with all her force on a large rope that was attached to the fence.The rope was in fact donated by local fishermen and was attached to the fence by activists from the Korean Farmers League amidst supportive cheers.

Cancún, Korean demonstrators carrying ropes. Photo: Arnie Alpert

Collapsing the fence was no easy task, for the welded chain-link structure was approximately 8 feet high, at least 50 yards long, and quite intimidating. However, the Koreans' method of attaching the rope to the fence impressed many. After many attempts at pulling down the fence, including several where one of the ropes from one of the three rope lines broke several times, the gigantic fence structure finally did collapse.

"We have a lot of experience with these types of actions," said Jung Kwang Hoon, the President of the Korean People's Solidarity network. "If we had been in Korea," added Mr. Jung, "this fence would have been down in an hour or less, quite easily." When asked why that was, Mr. Jung explained that it would have been easy to recruit up to 100,000 people for the task. Indeed, while not well known to most Western activists, South Korea has a rich tradition of labor, student, and agricultural activism. Huge general strikes, mass direct actions, and large marches organized with little notice is old hat to many South Korean activists.

Lisa Fithian, a veteran anti-corporate-globalization organizer from Los Angeles, explained how a series of meetings after Mr. Lee's death resulted in the well-organized action, "From Thursday on, representatives from diverse sectors and constituencies, including unions, various groups from Korea, and campesino groups, met to coordinate the plans for today's action." Fithian also explained the motivations behind the female-only action, a decision reached Saturday morning during a meeting at the Casa de la Cultura. "The women basically wanted a chance at doing a direct action without dealing with macho guys or police. So this was the best way to do it."

Peter Rosset provides his perspective on the toppling of the fence:

With members of the black bloc contingent providing security from provocation, and cordoning off the first 10 meters in front of the wire walls, more than a hundred women went forward with bolt cutters and began dismantling the walls, bit by bit. What a panoply of women it was: Indigenous women, punks, students, old women, young women, Mexican women, US and European women, African women.

Once the wall was weakened, the Koreans supervised the attachment of 50-meter-long, 10-centimeter-in-circumference ropes to the top of the walls. Then, thousands of people of all nations, races and cultures, punks, black blocs, peasants, etc., together pulled the walls down. Quite literally, the power of the people, united, pulled down the walls of the WTO.

Arnie Alpert describes the tense moments after the fence came down:

I was nervous about what would happen next. Would the police come rushing through the breach, followed by their armored truck? Would they use tear gas or water cannons to force back the crowd? Would demonstrators rush through the fence?
Instead, a woman with a megaphone, speaking in Spanish and English, announced that the Koreans wanted everyone to move back a few steps. The crowd complied. Then she asked us all to sit down and asked for a period of silence. If it weren't for the metal poles, masks, and slingshots, the demonstration could have been confused for a giant Quaker meeting. In any case, the mood of the crowd changed from confrontational militancy to engaged radicalism, proudly but quietly defiant of the WTO and the global system it both symbolizes and governs.

After perhaps ten minutes of silence, Korean and Mexican speakers addressed the seated crowd, with translation into Spanish and English. A Korean trade unionist shouted, "We took down the barrier together. We have the power to destroy the WTO. We will continue struggling together." Then, in English, he led the group in chanting, "No, No, WTO."

A Mexican campesino leader gave a similar message. "Today we have shown the power we have when we are united." His call for peaceful struggle against the WTO, but also against poverty and hunger, was met by resounding cheers. Another speaker announced that the G-21, the group of developing countries that have opposed the United States and European Union positions on agriculture, had rejected the draft declaration released early that afternoon. Another round of cheers went up.
(for further reports from Arnie Alpert, see AFSC's Trade site.)

Rosset again:

Photo, right: Police, Cancún, with flowers placed by demonstrators © Andrew Stern/Indymedia (www.WeAreEverywhere.org)

When the walls finally fell, there stood thousands of riot police clearly spoiling for a fight. Just when they thought we would attack them, however, the Koreans who were on the front line turned their backs, everyone else sat down, hundreds of flowers appeared, and we had a mass memorial service for Mr. Lee. Marcial of the Brazilian MST (Movement of Farmers Without Land) then sang John Lennon's Imagine for the crowd, the WTO was burned in effigy, and we got up and marched away. The police were left with their mouths hanging open in shock, with nobody to fight with, flowers at their feet. We marveled at our collective ability to do the unexpected, to turn promised violence into moving peace, and to make a statement so powerful that the WTO could not hope to resist.

--compiled by Sam Diener

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