In late April there will be a meeting called the Summit of the Americas. It will feature the leaders of the 34 members of the Organization of American States - all the heads of state of the countries of the Western Hemisphere except Cuba.

I too will be there.

On the agenda at the Summit is the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), a "free" trade deal that will basically extend NAFTA to the entire hemisphere except with modifications that will make it resemble the MAI and be WTO compatible. Aside from being more crucially concerned with the movement of capital - and not trade as the dominant hype suggests - the FTAA will seriously affect the Internet.

Ever since the forces of capital concluded that they could profit from publicly built and funded infrastructure THEY have sought to monopolize such ingenuity. Radio, telephone, television, and now the Internet have been subjected to such "privatization" - the transfer of publicly funded invention to private hands once they've determined that it could be profitable. Privatization is really about LEECHING - not innovation.

Back to the story.

While doing research I stumbled upon some key themes prevalent in the FTAA - well the parts that they've deemed to be worthy of distribution to the public. Part of their "transparency" campaign - really a situation where state and business leaders hide behind fences, walls, and armed police officers (who beat down any opposition) and secretly talk about secret things that they want to be more open about. So they throw us a few bones form time to time.

These "bones", while not providing specific details, do show trends of thought.

You see, E-commerce is now a big deal. The "new" information economy relies on it, or so they tell us. The Internet is about making money. Fuck freedom of speech - Fuck freedom of information - Fuck privacy - and most importantly fucking privatize public spaces - privatize from the root - to Deprive!

So the FTAA wants to "harmonize" (usually conforming to the US position) Internet regulation. Do they've set-up a committee: The Joint Government-Private Sector Committee of Experts on Electronic Commerce. They've released some public and "Derestricted Documents". * bone *

Let's have a look:
The FTAA deals with Internet privacy - well for consumers - but only if it does not "inhibit the growth of electronic commerce." They want the private sector to develop their own standards.

The FTAA deals with encryption - for business and consumers - but "governments are concerned about the implications that the widespread use of cryptography may have for law enforcement and national security since these technologies may also be used for illegal activities, which can affect public safety, business and consumer interests." Ironically the FTAA - despite the free trade rhetoric - may impose "restrictions on the export of encryption technology."

The FTAA also deals with intellectual property rights - we've already seen the trend. Corporations are becoming increasingly bold - why? Because the vast majority of the rulings of WIPO are in their favor. We have all heard of the way kids with Harry Potter sites are being bullied - on an alarmist note Wired reported that Nintendo has been threatening a site for including the TM'd word "Pokemon" in META tags! 2600 Magazine has register fuckgeneralmotors.com and has been threatened with legal action. You can't eve register a misspelling of a corporate TM'd word (eg. Yaho.com) with being threatened.

These are just a few of the issues facing internet users however hackers, as demonized as they are, in particular will be targeted by the FTAA. Why? Its not to hard to figure out. Do the headlines "HACKERS STEAL CREDIT CARD NUMBERS", "HACKERS ATTACK EBAY" scream loud enough themselves? The FUD is abundant. The witch-hunt is on!

These issue are just some of many - other affected areas include labour issues, human rights, the environment, the ability of elected (well that's what THEY call it anyway) officials to created legislation. Anyone familiar with Chapter 11 of NAFTA (and similar policies will be implement in the FTAA --- only more extreme) will know about how environmental regulations have bee struck down and tax payers forced to foot the bill and pay companies "damages" for not allowing harmful products into the country.

Here's the crux of the issue - using the Internet as an example but applicable to other issue areas as well - all of the negotiations, paperwork, and agreements, are conducted in private, in secret! We, the people of these 34 countries, have no say in the matter - elected reps are either collaborators, apologists or impotent. There is such a level of delegation that any semblance of democracy has been eliminated. The inclusion of business leaders further erodes democracy. The FTAA is being negotiated undemocratically, behind closed doors, and aloof from public input, discourse of criticism. In the end, the FTAA, if it goes through, will subvert the ability of people's ability to have any semblance of democratic control over major issues that affect their lives. Criticism of our impotent "democracies" as they are unfortunately called aside, the FTAA will shift power from somewhat elected officials (our congressional or parliamentary reps) to unelected dispute settling committees and the business leaders that influence them and who have crafted and financed the creation of the FTAA.

As I said. I will also be in Quebec this April. Here's my predicament:

The OAS meeting will be held in the old Quebec City, an historic old walled portion of Quebec City. Originally an area inhabited by native First Nations peoples it became, by virtue of the devastation of the native people, a permanent French settlement and Fort which was later to be captured by the British. Quebec City has and will continue to be a site of great struggle.

But the old fortifications are not enough to protect the 34 heads of state of the western hemisphere from "protestors" so police are erecting a 10-foot metal fence around the Old City and placing between 2000-5000 police and security personnel behind the walls. An entire jail has been evacuated so that protestors may be arrested.

Some protestors may re-enact the British strategy of climbing the cliffs along the St. Lawrence River but police say they'll be ready for that.

Quite related to this are preparations for concurrent electronic resistance to the OAS via Electronic Civil Disobedience and hacktivism - thus neutralizing the physical barriers being erected to prevent democractic participation. Additionally, efforts are being taken to open-source the FTAA by any means necessary as was done with the MAI - causing the defeat of the MAI.

But my challenge is of a physical nature:

I am looking for creative solutions to this problem - particularly that of the fence. I want to create the biggest impact possible (whatever that might be). All suggestions will be evaluated and a winner chosen.

I have:

• 1 bottle Cuban Rum
• 1 gas mask
• 2 boxing gloves
• Assorted tools (Hammer, screw driver etc.)
• 1 hockey helmet
• Assorted Magic markers
• 1 Backpack
• 1 Large crowd of protestors
• 4 years of training in Muay Thai Kickboxing and submission grapling
• 1 Fear of arrest and imprisonment (subject to change dependent upon tear gas inhalation and baton beatings)
• A lukewarm commitment to non-violence

They have:

• A 10-foot metal fence
• 2000- 5000 police officers
• A willingness to use force
• Tear gas
• Rubber bullets
• Riot Gear/Body armor/helmets
• The Secret Service
• The corporate media
• Atrocious human rights records
• Weak and corrupt politicians

Now I have no reward for the winner except the pleasure of possibly seeing the suggestion being carried out on world television broadcasts. Please be creative.

Thanks.
metac0m@hushmail.com