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Reflection on CAFTA
From the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN)
Call to Prayer:
We who are weaving justice cannot rest.
We who are weaving justice cannot rest until it comes.
Reader 1: The Central American Free Trade Agreement, a trade agreement between the U.S. and Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua was negotiated in secret without the voices of the majorities. Now in its completion, CAFTA represents a significant step backwards for workers and women, farmers and indigenous peoples, the poor majorities and our mother earth. In this, as in other so-called “free” trade agreements, the many bear the burden for the few. The poor and those who struggle to survive, bear the burden for the economic elite of today- the new conquistadors.
Reader 2: But Jesus bore the weight of the cross as a reminder of his life and his teachings, his work to overturn unjust social structures that place the many at the service of the few. Standing with our Central American brothers and sisters today, as well as with workers, farmers, and immigrants here in the United States, means we must join the movement to resist a hemispheric Free Trade agenda that threatens the lives and livelihoods of our brothers and sisters. This agenda, masked in the rhetoric of increased jobs and the development of struggling economies, in reality, promises to promote a U.S. corporate agenda at the expense of self-determination, just working conditions, the livelihood of small family farms, access to basic services, and the promotion of international human rights; an agenda which promises burden for the many and profit for the few. But Jesus said, “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest.”
Reader 3: Today Jesus says, “Come to me all you workers who are burdened with job loss and low wages, unsafe working conditions and lack of basic human rights so that multinational corporations can profit. Come to me all you farmers who can no longer feed your families, who are being forced from your land so that large agribusiness can profit. Come to me all you who are poor and in search of clean water and education, electricity and health care but cannot afford it because public services are being privatized for profit, not community well-being. Come to me, Mother Earth. You are burdened by our culture’s overconsumption, materialism, and waste, and by corporate disregard for the needs of the planet.”
All: Another World is Possible! We call for dignified work for all, living wages for all workers, and full and effective enforcement of international labor law. We call for protections for the livelihood of small farmers everywhere, a safe and healthy food supply for all, and sustainable use of the land. We call for the protections of access to basic services such as water, health care, and education over the protections of private corporations seeking profit from these services. We call for the protection of the environment, renewable energy, and communal reverence for our shared planet. Another World is Possible!
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Finding hope as women face harsh challenges under free trade
Core research and writing by Celeste Tinari, SHARE Summer Intern
Since the 1992 Peace Accords, international trade has impacted
El Salvador and Salvadoran women in particular. Although the routinely concealed negotiation processes for trade agreements have failed to take into account their voices, the women of Central America are among those who bear most of the brunt when globalization forces their economic system to “modernize.” Given the recent approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), there are real concerns that the economic and social reality for poor Salvadoran women will steadily deteriorate.
One reason for this concern is that due to firmly established gender roles in Salvadoran society, which task women with unpaid household duties such as care, nutrition, and education of children and families, women are poorer than their male counterparts. Whereas rural men can find work in paid agricultural jobs, studies show that rural women generally are a secondary labor pool used primarily during the harvest. Furthermore, dominant attitudes consider women unfit for mechanized agricultural jobs; for this reason, women are more likely to lose any paid work they may have had when industrialization replaces human labor with machines.
Relative to men, women also have lower rates of literacy and education, which may partially account for the greater presence of women in the informal sector of the economy. Informal sector jobs are notoriously poorly paid and insecure. The most popular work in this sector includes childcare, the preparation and sale of food, and house cleaning, none of which has a set minimum wage and all of which fall outside the jurisdiction of labor codes. As CAFTA is implemented and money is allowed to flow in and out of the region in search of inexpensive labor, the number of workers in the Salvadoran informal sector is projected to grow, which will impact women as they then face less opportunities in the informal economy. Women will then be pushed either into more dangerous positions in the informal economy or forced to immigrate north.
As the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has demonstrated, drug patent laws under CAFTA would negatively impact women since they function as the primary service providers in their families and communities. For instance, in the absence of financial resources, society delegates the provision of health care to women. Given CAFTA’s intellectual property and patent rules, which limit access to generic medications, CAFTA countries will struggle to obtain inexpensive drugs to meet their citizens’ health needs; moreover, access to and use of native plants as traditional remedies may be banned as corporate entities patent plants. Since women have generally overseen clinic visits and prepared home remedies to treat illnesses, the agreement will directly affect them in terms of their responsibilities and the health of their communities.
Given the international movement to promote more “free trade” agreements, Salvadoran women are increasingly impacted by immigration too. As free trade agreements promote the priorities of large corporations, local markets disappear and small family farms close, unable to compete. Rural men migrate to cities and to the U.S. to seek employment, while women are left to maintain their homes and generate income through the manufacture of textiles, subsistence farming, or the informal economy. In the past decade, however, women have also migrated, a shift that has disrupted the community and family networks women have traditionally maintained. In the wake of CAFTA and its projected devastating effects on the Salvadoran agricultural sector, economists and civil society groups predict continued migration of both men and women.
NAFTA provides a preview of CAFTA. Ten years of experience with NAFTA have demonstrated the hardships that free trade places upon rural Mexican women. Because NAFTA favors U.S.-owned agribusinesses, it has radically changed the way food is produced, and has driven small farmers out of business and to urban centers. The jobs NAFTA has created are largely in the maquila industry, whose workforce is 70% female. Although the economic growth generated by the maquila sector may look positive, it is complicated by the fact that women face unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, gender and age discrimination, and low wages in the maquilas. Significantly, nothing in the text of CAFTA will strengthen labor regulations in maquilas or prohibit companies from closing up shop when employing cheaper labor elsewhere becomes an option. Furthermore, if only a small percentage of jobs will be created in the maquila sector under CAFTA in the first place. One can only imagine what the long-term effects of CAFTA will be on rural Salvadoran women if they are first displaced to work in the maquilas and then displaced to find employment after the maquilas have left.
Anticipating the impact of CAFTA and responding to the challenges created by 21st century globalization, the SHARE Foundation seeks to empower Salvadoran women impacted by international trade, particularly those in the rural sector. SHARE supports local development projects that provide economic alternatives for women as CAFTA restructures the economy. These projects include women’s cooperatives that invest in labor-saving and productive tools (such as corn mills and local stores) to lighten the work load of women and to free up time for income-generation projects, such as cooperative bakeries. These projects help women develop self-esteem and decision-making skills, generate income from their collective labor, obtain healthy and affordable food, and encourage citizen participation in municipal matters. Successful past projects, such as the Marta Gonzalez Cattlewoman’s Cooperative (MUGAN) of Zamoran, are now sharing the lessons they have learned with women’s groups in the Chalchuapa and Atiquizaya municipal areas where SHARE focuses its support today.
Thanks to the International Gender and Trade Network and Kelley Ready (“It’s a Hard Life: Women in El Salvador’s Economic History”) for research background.
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