No Room for Business as Usual at the Summit of the Americas
April 21, 2015
Time for Populist Demands to Take Center Stage
No Room for Business as Usual at the Summit of the Americas
by MEDEA BENJAMIN
While all eyes during the Summit of the Americas in Panama were on the hemisphere’s presidents and political intrigues, such as the meeting between President Obama and Cuban President Castro or the hostilities between the United States and Venezuela, far more substantial was the separate meeting taking place at the “side forum” of business leaders. A parade of pro-business presidents, including President Obama, flocked to the Hotel Riu to address the Business Forum and greet the CEOs of major banks, oil companies, agribusiness, and other transnationals. While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wooed the crowd with his plan to provide internet access to everyone in Latin America, more traditional speakers included the CEOs of Coca-Cola, Cargill, Boeing, Associated Petroleum Investors, AES Corporation, Citigroup Latin America and Walmart Latin America.
There was much talk about public-private partnerships, and “eco-systems” that promote business friendly environments. Even social programs, such as President Obama’s signature education initiative in the Western Hemisphere, has heavy corporate influence. Called 100,000 Strong in the Americas, the program Obama touted at the Summit is designed to increase the number of U.S. students studying in the Latin America to 100,000, and the number of Latin America students studying in the United States to 100,000 by the year 2020. With the goal of better preparing “a globally aware and culturally competent workforce,” this is a public-private partnership whose main business partners are Exxon Mobil, the mining company Freeport McMoran, Coca-Cola and Santander Bank. Certainly the students financed by these corporate titans will not be schooled in the art of building a vibrant civil society that fights for workers’ rights and challenges corporate polluters.
A comic moment in the business summit was the obligatory panel on “Women’s Economic Empowerment.” The single woman speaker, Marriott Senior Vice President Brenda Durham, was outnumbered by three male panelists—the CEOs of Coca-Cola, Walmart Latin America and McLarty Associates—all “mansplaining” why promoting women to key positions made good business sense. Adding to the irony, the room was half empty as a sea of black-suited men streamed outside into the hallway to wheel and deal.
The Summits have always focused on trade. The very first Summit was held in Miami in 1994 on the heels of the passage of NAFTA (the North Americans Free Trade Agreement). Hosted by President Bill Clinton, one of its key goals was to get the continents’ leaders to agree to the FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas) that would extend the corporate-friendly NAFTA agreement to every country in North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, except Cuba.
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http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/21/no-room-for-business-as-usual-at-the-summit-of-the-americas/