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United States/Nafta Superhighway

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United States/Nafta Superhighway RESISTANCEunited TO states/ THE I-69 “NAFTAn.a.f.t.a. SUPERHIGHWAY” superhighway by Indiana Eco-Anarchists and dor highway associated with Plan Puebla been dubbed the “biggest engineering Collectivo Incendio Panama (PPP), an even more notorious and construction project in the history of ‘development project’ in Central Ameri- the U.S.”[1] It’s planned to be 1,200 feet A New Road ca. Throughout its route, I-69 will wide and consume 146 acres (almost 1/4 mean the destruction of thou- of a square mile) per mile. Because the The U.S. government sands of acres of vitally important corridors will contain high-speed passenger is currently poised to roll out forests and wetlands, the eviction and freight rails and underground water, a new strip of asphalt all the of thousands of farmers from their gas, and petroleum pipelines, as well as way from Laredo, Texas up to family farms and the elimination of multiple high-speed truck and passenger Port Huron, Michigan. Currently, hundreds of rural communities. vehicle lanes, they will be constructed at the I-69 exists as a stretch of highway Resistance to the highway has grade level and permanently divide the connecting Port Huron, Michigan (where existed since NAFTA’s passage. I-69 has areas through which they pass. To make nearly half of all the North American Free been on the drawing boards for more matters worse, the extensive grading and Trade Agreement (NAFTA) traffic crosses than 15 years. While its Michigan segment construction of barriers to protect the the U.S.-Canada border) to Indianapolis, has long been completed, construction in high-speed traffic will alter air currents Indiana. Interstate-69, if completed, will Indiana and Texas has been obstructed by and watersheds and prevent the movement stretch over 2000 miles, through the massive grassroots opposition. Farmers, of wildlife. states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, residents and environmentalists continue Various environmental protection Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. to band together for one simple reason: I- groups are campaigning against the project, The main purpose of this 69 is a disaster for everyone and everything and the powerful Texas Farm Bureau, interstate is to provide a channel for in its way. citing the concerns listed above among trading goods between Mexico, the U.S. In Indiana alone, some 5,000 others, has asked the Texas legislature to and Canada. It would act as a piece of the acres of farmland and 1,500 acres of “scrap” the whole corridor project. Many life-support system for the NAFTA and, forests and 300 wetlands are to be paved local communities, including 35 counties if enacted, the Free Trade Area of the over by I-69. If the Indiana Department of in Texas, have passed resolutions against Americas (FTAA). Some are calling it the Transportation and the private companies having the NAFTA corridors in their “NAFTA Superhighway.” involved in assessing and developing backyards. Ranchers in Grimes County, From Indiana, it is scheduled to the highway are successful, I-69 will be Texas, which will be divided by the I-69 end at Matamoros, Mexico, on the border similarly destructive within each of the corridor, have organized what they call a with Texas. It is in Matamoros that I-69 states that it passes through. “direct action” network against the project. would connect with the Atlantic corri- The NAFTA Superhighway, has When one rancher was asked what “direct Roadless Summer 2005 and Prehistory, rally, organized by Buffalo Trace Earth First!, the Indiana Forest Action Chronology Alliance, and Education for a Sustainable Future, a modified I- 69 sign is burned. The crowd chants “Burn the WTO” and “One struggle, one fight: ecology and workers’ rights”. Here is a chronology of actions, some of which Roadblock Earth First! (rbef!) organized or facilitated, some of September 9, 2000 - Communique sent by the Earth Liberation which were done by other folks doing organizing locally, and Front and received by the North American Earth Liberation some of which rbef! had nothing to do with (i.e. illegal actions). Front Press Office - This is far from being a comprehensive list in a lot of ways; there “Greetings, were several meeting disruptions, office/home demonstrations, Late Friday night, the Earth Liberation Front paid a visit to the office invasions and other actions that occurred but weren’t GOP headquarters in Bloomington, Indiana leaving it in flames reported or kept track of. as we left. The fire was set as a reminder to politicians such as John Hostettler that we are watching and that we will not sit Some Pre-history idly by as they push for plans like I-69. The construction would fill the coffers of Multinational Corporations at the expense of Novermber 4, 1999 - Police disperse a Bloomington rally the environment and of working people everywhere. I-69 is just held in solidarity with the anti-WTO protests in Seattle. At the one example of the willingness of the rich to bleed the Earth and the working class to fulfill their money lust. We have no faith in United States action” means, he nodded towards the scoped rifle in the gun rack in his pick-up I-69, THE MID-CONTINENT HIGHWAY truck and said, “We’re ready for when they come to take our land.” WORLDS LARGEST FREE TRADE ZONE WITH 360 MILLION When the PPP was announced by “CONSUMERS” AND 6 TRILLION GNP Mexico’s President Vicente Fox in 2001, (partially as a means to excuse heightened Seamless Link Connecting: military action against the Zapatistas), the Canadian Manufacturing/Agricultural Center PPP was a development project consisting U.S. Manufacturing/Agricultural Center largely of highway construction and Major U.S. Southern Seaports electrical grid updates (to allow electricity Major U.S. Air Freight Terminals produced in Central America to be sold Mexico Manufacturing Center more directly to the US). Other aspects of Route Connects 75% Of U.S. Manufacturing Area the PPP, such as the proposed construction Producing 70%Of GNP. of huge hydroelectric dams on indigenous lands and the creation of a Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (to be administered Battle Against Capitalist Infrastructure! by Mexico’s largest biotechnology firm, Grupo Pulsar), have either been down- affinity groups in late 2004, in order to re- for companies involved in the project. played or canceled in response to the focus radical and anarchist resistance to Much of the campaign was massive indigenous resistance inspired by I-69 and its related projects. A number of structured around confrontational, though all aspects of PPP planning. different people departed on speaking tours legal, office and home demonstrations, I-69 and the PPP also share across Indiana and the U.S., in order to reflecting the fact that many people a common planner (Wilbur Smith spread the word about I-69 and argue that, involved had been inspired by recent anti- Associates) and a common impetus: that as the U.S. anti-globalization movement corporate campaigns, such as the struggle to best further the interests of capital, it continued to decline, it made more sense to to shut down the notorious vivisection firm is most efficient to embrace a project that target the infrastructure projects necessary Huntingdon Life Sciences. While these accomplishes two tasks at once: creating the for capitalist globalization, rather than tactics were successful at disrupting offices infrastructure that is absolutely essential continue to hold ever-smaller protests and reducing the efficiency of the planning to the success of the FTAA and destroying against symbolic meetings. The goal of this process, these tactics did fail to cause any existing communities that remain outside initiative was to bring to bear energy from companies to abandon the project, and also of the domination of the global economy. wider anarchist circles against the highway helped widen a divide between anarchists The PPP and I-69 will merge, literally, project during the summer of 2005. involved in the resistance and local people in Matamoros, the expected site of more Local organizers hoped that this would defending their land. The failure to force than 45 percent of all FTAA-related traffic reinvigorate resistance in Indiana, lay the companies away from I-69 planning was crossings in and out of the US. groundwork for future collaboration with a result from the secrecy adopted by the With this in mind, Roadless farmers and others resisting eviction, and state and its contractors, a factor which Summer was initiated by a handful of “create an atmosphere of un-plannability” has hindered precise targeting of pressure the present system of electoral politics where every candidate 2004 both Republican and Democrat is funded with corporate blood money. Because there are no viable options on the ballot, we July 8 - Members of the Indiana Forest Alliance begin to hold must find another means of voting. Our non-participation in a weekly vigil and demonstration at an I-69 office in downtown and active resistance against this system, controlled by the rich, Bloomington. The vigils continue for many months. is our means of voting. We are everywhere and nowhere.” October 22 - 400 people rally in Indianapolis against I-69. August 20, 2002 - 600 people pack an I-69 public meeting Farmers from southern Indiana arrive in tractors, which they at a Bloomington high school. During the meeting, police are had earlier used as a slowly-moving blockade along the roads that reportedly called in, first to extract anti-I-69 residents who will might be upgraded to interstate-status. Local anarchists carry a not remain silent and then to escort to safety pro-I-69 speakers, banner highlighting I-69’s “Imperial Design” and highlighting its who are threatened by the angry crowd.
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