Alternatives for the Americas

The document addresses the major topics on the official agenda of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiators (investment, finance, intellectual property rights, agriculture, market access and dispute resolution), as well as topics that are of extreme social importance but which governments have ignored (human rights, environment, labour, immigration, the role of the state, and energy). The topics and chapters are complementary. Issues concerning two other important groups—women and indigenous peoples—have been incorporated throughout the document.

The first draft of this paper was prepared for the Summit of the Peoples of the Americas, held in April 1998 in Santiago, Chile, in the days preceding the Summit for heads of state (see preface for more details). Six national organizations took on the responsibility of organizing a Forum on Social and Economic Alternatives within the Peoples' Summit. The paper begins with a chapter on the general principles underlying an alternative vision, followed by chapters that lay out more concrete proposals.[author]