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Letter from the IRC Staff
Dear IRC Supporter: The past month has been very busy for IRC staff. Laura Carlsen, Americas Program director, and Tom Barry, policy director, attended the Fifth Ministerial of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Cancún, where they spoke at forums, distributed IRC’s position paper to hundreds of participants, and were instrumental in getting important news out to key media, both in Mexico and the United States. (See WTO in Focus below and www.irc-online.org for more information.) John Gershman, director of Foreign Policy in Focus, has just completed one of the most comprehensive analyses of the Bush administration’s counter-terrorism agenda available, carefully pointing out vulnerabilities and offering intelligent and viable alternatives. Gershman’s analysis will help inform policymakers, as well as the media and the broad spectrum of Democratic presidential candidates. (See CounterTerrorism report below.) The IRC is also gearing up for the 2004 presidential elections with the launch of a new project, RightWeb, which profiles dozens of the leading neoconservatives within and behind the Bush administration. RightWeb helps progressive activists connect the dots between these individuals, their corporate and political connections, and their impact on U.S. policy decisions. Stay tuned for more information! Through our Southwest Swing Project IRC staff are educating New Mexicans about what’s at stake in 2004. Given that the Land of Enchantment is a swing state, there will be plenty of opportunities for activists to highlight the discrepancies between the Bush rhetoric and reality. IRC Staff
WTO Breaks Down
In advance of the WTO talks in Cancún, Americas Program director Laura Carlsen developed a comprehensive package of information for activists and observers alike. Throughout the meeting, she and Tom Barry posted a flurry of commentaries and analyses, keeping IRC and Americas Program supporters up-to-date on the latest developments. In Bringing Down the Walls—A Partial Victory in Cancún, Carlsen celebrates the breakdown of talks as a result of developing nations coming together and holding firm against the divide and conquer tactics of the U.S. and the EU. Though talks broke down around discussions of the “new issues”—including the addition of trade facilitation, competition, and transparency in government procurement—the real deal breaker was agriculture. “Even dyed-in-the-wool free-traders like host government Mexico, demanded major concessions on agriculture,” Carlsen writes. But the WTO victory is a double-edged sword. Without international trade agreements, the U.S. continues to negotiate regional trade agreements. The next hurdle is the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meeting to be held Nov. 20-21 in Miami... “A fate even worse than a bad multilateral WTO agreement may await the Americas,” says Carlsen in Bringing Down the Walls. In the aftermath of the collapse of the WTO negotiations, the U.S. will continue seeking to advance its economic liberalization agenda through bilateral (like the recent trade deal with Chile) and subregional (the proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement) agreements on trade and investment. Capping off these separate agreements is the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Cancún is only a partial victory. The development of fair multilateral trade rules and the defeat of the FTAA will be formidable walls yet to scale ... “ Bringing Down the Walls and each of the following WTO synopses can be read in their entirety at www.americaspolicy.org: IRC Position Paper: To address the global economic crisis and to foster broad development, the WTO should be overhauled and reoriented. That message came out of Seattle in 1999, and remains the message four years later. The Americas Program offered readers the complete translated texts of the messages from Sub-Comandante Marcos, Comandante David, and Comandante Esther, of the EZLN, read at the mobilizations against the WTO in Cancún. After Korean farmer Lee Kyung Hae took his life, violently illustrating the desperation WTO policies instill in farmers in developing countries, Carlsen was the first to translate his statement into Spanish for Mexican media, and to disseminate his words worldwide via IRC’s extensive internet outreach network.
News from the IRC
Join Us! One of our major goals for the next year is to make foreign policy an important issue in the upcoming presidential and congressional elections. IRC supporters who would like to work with us on that effort should please contact John Gershman at <john@irc-online.org>. The Bush Administration’s Failed Counterterrorism Agenda Note: The following is excerpted from John Gershman’s forthcoming Foreign Policy in Focus Task Force on Terrorism: A Secure America in a Secure World to be released later this month. The Bush administration’s “war on terrorism” reflects a major failure of leadership and has made Americans more vulnerable rather than more secure. The administration has chosen a path to combat terrorism that has weakened multilateral institutions and squandered international support. Its war and occupation in Iraq has made the U.S. more vulnerable and potentially opened a new front for jihadists, while diverting resources from essential homeland security efforts. Its approach to homeland security fails to address key vulnerabilities, undermines civil liberties, and misallocates resources. The administration has taken some successful steps to counter terrorism, such as improved airline and border security. But these successes threaten to be overwhelmed by the policy choices that have made us more rather than less vulnerable. IRC in the News The IRC continues to garner wide-ranging press coverage. Gershman was quoted extensively in the Sunday, Sept. 21, edition of The Albuquerque Journal regarding U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson’s proposal to expand the U.S. Army by some 100,000 troops, “Wilson Calls for Bigger Military.” Excerpted from the article: “...Gershman, in a telephone interview Friday, questioned devoting more dollars to the Defense Department. He suggested a heavier reliance on foreign aid, diplomatic efforts and international cooperation. ‘The Bush administration would find ways to use an additional 100,000 troops if they existed,’ Gershman said. ‘If the answer is, we need another 100,000 troops because we’re going to be increasingly involved in adventures like Iraq, then I think that is a real serious problem.’” In a forthcoming commentary by Laura Carlsen appearing soon in Left Turn magazine, “Save the World, Dump Bush,” she deftly outlines the global destabilization resulting from the Bush administration’s unilateralist foreign policy: “The National Security Strategy of George W. Bush, his cabinet, and right-wing advisers has shaken the foundations of the global polity. The U.S. has long been an interventionist and domineering power, but this is the first administration to build an ideological framework for actions most countries consider globally destabilizing, to say the least ...” Gershman also appeared on Counterpoint, a progressive weekly radio talk show produced by Between the Lines, affiliated with a number of media organizations, non-profit institutions, and universities.
Office Contact Information
Albuquerque Box 4506 Albuquerque, NM 87196-4506 Voice: (505) 842-8288 Fax: (505) 842-8288	Silver City Box 2178 Silver City, NM 88062-2178 Voice: (505) 388-0208 Fax: (505) 388-0619 Email: irc@irc-online.org