There is a saying in Latin America that “the is the work of the ants.” It is the everyday work we do together, moving obstacles that are bigger than ourselves, that succeeds The Beehive Design Collective’s in crumbling the big, overwhelming nightmare that sometimes FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS makes us feel powerless as individuals. Ants accomplish amazingly large tasks by working together, and are a powerful symbol of collective power in the face of corporate control NARRATIVE of air, land, water, culture, public services, and life itself. the First Poster in a GRAPHIC TRILOGY...

FREE TRADE and the global resistance to corporate colonialism

cross-pollinating the

The Beehive Design Collective is a wildly-motivated, all-volunteer, activist art collective dedicated to “cross-pollinating the grassroots” by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images for use as educational and organizing tools. We work anonymously as word-to-image translators of complex global stories, gathered through conversations with affected communities.

Since 2000, we have disseminated more than 150,000 posters throughout the Americas, entirely by grassroots, hand-to- hand distribution! Our graphics have tackled issues from globalization, trade, and resource extraction, to energy, biotechnology, and climate change.

We strive to create holistic and accessible images that inspire critical thought and strategic action.

The Beehive Design Collective 1 Elm St MACHIAS, MAINE o4654 USA 207 669 4117

[email protected] www.beehivecollective.org

www.beehivecollective.org A narrative tour through the Beehive’s first large scale The Ants of the Resistance are busy mobilizing to fight graphics campaign, the beginning of a trilogy of graphics the situation and speak truth to the power of the spiders, about corporate globalization in the Americas that was followed judges, and worker bees. Above and below ground, on the front lines and behind the scenes, the ants are organizing by Plan Colombia (2002) and Mesoamérica Resiste (2013)... and tapping into creative traditions to fuel their resistance. The above-ground resistance has swelled to an The uprising, as harvester ants approach from the North and South of the Americas in an attempt to regain Free Trade the resources that have been stolen from them. Area of the Ants marching in from the left are the ants from the Global AmericaS South, symbolizing the ...never heard of it? inspiring and powerful struggles of groups The heavily contested, and now such as the Landless collapsed, Free Trade Area of Workers Movement in the Americas was a proposed Brazil (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or international trade agreement that the MST) and the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico. With babies aimed to eliminate the remaining on their backs, carrying farm tools and musical instruments “barriers” to the free flow of (including pots and pans), these ants are making themselves money, goods, and services heard. They are documenting their across borders in the entire own realities through movements Western Hemisphere (excluding like the Chiapas Media Project and Cuba) in an attempt to create also communicating with ants from ONE huge, integrated web of “open markets.” It was first the North. Meanwhile, a surly little introduced at the 1994 Summit of the Americas, soon after ant spray-paints “Autogestión” the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement on the symbolic wall, meaning (NAFTA), and was negotiated in private for a decade. “self-management” or “self-birth.”

We made the FTAA poster as a mobilizing tool in the lead Rushing in from the right side is the Northern resistance, up to mass demonstrations against the negotiations of the armed with some of the tactics of the youth involved in FTAA that happened in Quebec City in 2001. We reprinted the North American anti- the poster for the protests against the next round of talks in globalization movement. They Miami in 2003. The FTAA finally reached an impasse and are catapulting a pie as the stalled out after the last attempt at negotiations that took place Biotic Baking Brigade, a tactic in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 2005, also amidst large protests. to identify specific people whose greed is causing immense suffering and symbolically “assassinate” them, clown-style! The radical cheerleaders are gearing up for a pissed pep-rally with political rhymes...making space for a little “” tactics in their march (well, most ants are always dressed in black)... In our most recent reprint of the poster, we changed the Some ants are making music and banner at the bottom to read “la lucha sigue contra todos los parading on stilts, others are doing TLCs” (the fight continues against all free trade agreements). Capoiera and plotting for a Critical Since the collapse of the FTAA negotiations, the US has Mass bike ride. One ant has just continued to push forward bilateral trade agreements (which finished a puppet and is taking it to means between the US and one other country, like Colombia, the streets for some guerilla theater. Panama, and Korea) and regional trade agreements (like in Central America). Most recently, a new, sweeping free trade In the underground, ants carve the words “Global agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has resistance to corporate colonialism” in the anthill tunnels been in the works, that would include at least 12 countries, below the city. The industrial grid of the spider’s web including the US and Asian and Latin American countries. (power lines, water mains, and fiber optic internet cables) Like the FTAA, the TPP is being negotiated in private have replaced the roots of what was once healthy soil. and the US is pushing for fast-track approval of the plan. The ants are hacking into this grid to power their organizing networks and This is a map of interconnections, which allows the viewer create their own independent media, a moment to find oneself in the bigger picture of the time in broadcasting their struggle for truth which we are all now living. By literally putting everything on on pirated airwaves in defiance of the same page, we strive to break down the mindset that these the dominant paradigm. Many of the are “single issues.” You can use this poster as an introduction ants are working to undermine the to the many different issues that come up in discussions about web’s power structure by dismantling free trade, and to talk about how social, political, economic, the system with its own tools. and environmental issues are all connected and impact each The underground resistance is also other. This graphic is also a celebration of global resistance tirelessly reclaiming the soil and to the neoliberal model water and saving and planting seeds. of development behind These agents of compost understand free trade agreements, that to build a new world from the and can be used to spark ashes of the old, we must create storytelling and sharing sustainable technologies and of strategies and tactics. tools to carry us into the future society we are working to create. 2 7 As the spiders feverishly weave their webs and extract Planet Earth is in the center of this map, surrounded by resources for the sake of profit and short-sighted economies, three giant spiders of development, militarization, and they are using up and contaminating the Earth’s water corporate media who have taken control of the web of supplies. While drought and extreme weather are getting life around us. They are spinning out mega-infrastructure worse due to climate change, and many people around the projects for trade, taking over the land and paving the way world don’t have access to clean drinking water, the spiders for implementing the free trade agreements. A few of the are draining the oceans and rivers through two giant spigots. details on the map are the NAFTA and Pan-American Superhighways as well as dry canals (freight rail lines connecting deep-water ports on both coasts) that are part of a regional development plan for southern Mexico and Central America formerly called Plan Puebla Panama (PPP).

The Development Spider is extracting natural resources as it decimates the land, consuming forests with Between the spigots, two spider cops in riot gear are chainsaw teeth. One arm is hanging a banner quoting the World Bank that reads, drilling oil in the Arctic and the “THE NEXT WORLD WAR WILL BE ABOUT WATER.” other is drilling oil offshore to On the Arctic poles, icebergs are being dragged away in chains power the concrete spinning by barge in reference to several corporations’ interest in buying machine that weaves roads, up icebergs in order to access precious fresh water for thirsty power lines, and pipelines. computer manufacturing. A pile of discarded computers, the technology obsolete after only a year, points to startling facts about how much water is used by the computer industry. As the Earth’s water is being drained into the grid of The Militarization Spider, the metropolis, it is pumped through the machines of with a bandolero of hypodermic resource intensive industries that keep the system running. needles and an American flag bandana, has machine Throughout the city, and around guns trained on Central and the clock, the office worker bees South America. Imperialist are busy earning away, each one intervention in the region has of them locked into a cubicle in gone by different names over the hi-rise hives. Addicted to the years: anti-, the coffee and Coca-Cola, the worker drug war, and anti-terrorism, bees are glued to their computers, to name a few. Plan Colombia the engines of globalization. was the name of a US-backed Lightning-speed technology allows billion dollar investments military operation under the to enter and leave a country in a matter of hours. guise of the Drug War, using US tax dollars to arm the notoriously brutal and corrupt Two Monsanto bees are Colombian armed forces. This multi-billion dollar operation depicted on either side of the (ultimately considered a failure) involved massive aerial city in their ivory towers of spraying to destroy coca crops, with toxic herbicides created science brewing up another by the corporation who brought us Agent Orange... Monsanto. batch of NutraSweet, instead of honey, to And just to distract you and make keep the bees buzzing you think everything is okay, in their production cells. there is the Corporate Media Spider, “Johnny Q Big Guy”.... Presiding over the entire system from the center of He’s clutching onto the earth with the hive are the Tribunal Bees, the unaccountable Nike teeth and hooks, as television decisionmakers of secret courts in which, under free and the NASDAQ blind his eyes. trade agreements, corporations are able to sue national Sprouting from his well-funded governments for any resistance they encounter to free trade. back is a media tower with a Disney courts have sided with corporate satellite dish radiating signals, interests in every environmental forming yet another invisible web case which has come before them. that constantly surrounds us. At NAFTA courts have forced countries exponential rates, this king of spin to pay “damages” to multi-billion is churning out a web of generic, dollar corporations to “compensate” corporate-controlled culture, with them for imaginary future profits copyright signs and UPC codes for they might have made, were it not music notes... pop culture produced for laws safe-guarding labor rights, for commerce, not community. public services, and the environment. The three spiders collaborate and depend on each The metropolis and its inhabitants other, driven by their shortsighted urgency to control are encased in a thick concrete and resources and expand markets. Meanwhile, they are razor wire wall, like the barriers busy polluting and privatizing things that we absolutely that are erected wherever the CAN’T live without - like the air, land, and water. FTAA, WTO, World Bank or IMF meet. Walls are built to keep Caught in the web of globalization, which glistens with dissident voices from being heard droplets of precious water, are the cocooned victims of so- in the proximity of these secretive trade meetings held in the called “free” trade. These animals represent specific struggles name of the people of the Americas. Protestors are detained at the against the corporate control of life and appear as constellations very same borders that free trade open for corporate interests. against the night sky, telling the stories of today’s global economy. The physical dismantling and breach of these boundaries during protests is a powerful example of collective . 6 3 On the far left, a howler monkey The crow is trapped behind the spun in the thread of sewing bars of the rapidly growing prison machines represents the plight industrial complex. Racial profiling, of maquiladora (assembly plant) inadequate legal representation, and sweatshop workers, who suffer racist drug sentencing laws conspire inhumane working conditions, to create a shameful scenario meager pay, and a climate of in which the US incarcerates a violence against labor organizers. greater percentage of black men After NAFTA was signed, “free than South Africa did under trade” between the US and Mexico apartheid. Privatization of schools, (combined with militarization healthcare, land, and water lead to of borders) resulted in massive job loss in the US and the displacement and impoverishment creation of pools of cheap labor in Mexico. Free trade law of people throughout the Americas. Prisons end up being endangers workers’ rights, calling them “barriers to trade.” holding cells for those denied sovereignty and equal access to resources and opportunities. Meanwhile, these populations The sheep, tempted by the serve as free labor to the corporate owners of prisons. carrot on a stick, and now bound by the chains of The mouse is a symbol of debt, has been forced into the many ways that “free the system of privatized trade” disproportionately education. Another aspect of impacts women. One the free trade model is selling example is violations of off all types of public services, workers’ rights when the including education, to the focus is on cheap labor highest bidder. The result is and fast production: a system which views students as customers, future discrimination such as employees, and captive markets for advertisements. Such pregnancy tests being a a system has no interest in giving the non-wealthy access pre-condition for employment as well as physical and sexual to education, teaching creativity or critical analysis, or harrasment and abuse. This mouse, bound up in her own placing long-term social goals ahead of short-term profits. umbilical cord, also represents biotechnology labs and the patriarchal aspects of taking over the means of creating life. Above the sheep, a sick frog is caught up in the system of The rabbit, a campesino with privatized health care and patented GMO seeds falling patented medicine. Corporate from his hand, is up against the healthcare companies deny life- pressures of big agribusiness. saving drugs and treatments He is tangled in the pesticide to those who can’t pay, while hose from his backpack drug companies are stealing sprayer, which he is forced and patenting traditional to use in order to compete in indigenous medicines. Frogs the free market. Ironically, have permeable skin and are the same rich nations that are a sensitive indicator species. pushing to eliminate all barriers This sick frog is telling us about what’s in store for all life to trade also heavily subsidize their agricultural sectors. on the planet due to pollution, habitat loss, and climate After NAFTA, subsidized corn from the US flooded the change. The frog here is also a reference to vivisection Mexican market at below the cost of production, causing and testing on animals in the pharmaceutical industry. local markets to crash and forcing small farmers off their land.

The sea turtle is a symbol of The polar bear, surrounded ecology and environmental by pipelines, speaks to crises. A casualty of industry, the environmental racism the turtle is tangled in the in oil extraction on binds of a fishing net. She indigenous lands in the is also caught in the ironic Arctic and throughout trap of the “six-pack ring,” a the Americas. Once oil symbol of how the horror of and other resources have ecological devastation can be been extracted from the land, oil companies move reduced to campaigns about on, leaving a wake of environmental devastation. “doing your part” to ease the guilt of being a consumer on a dying planet. Today we are in The bison, confined by the barbed the midst of the 6th mass extinction of species this planet has wire of borders, represents the seen - this one caused by humans. Scientists say we are on track hypocrisy of the free trade model to lose up to 50% of all plant and animals species by the end of which advocates for the free flow this century. If we want to protect biodiversity on this planet, of investment capital but strict we need to do more than just clip borders for people. At the same the rings on our plastic trash. time NAFTA was being put into place in 1994, Proposition 187 The monarch butterfly is a was threatening to take away victim of the genetic pollution health care and education from caused by biotechnology. the children of undocumented Cocooned in manipulated DNA workers in California. Hundreds strands, she is wearing a gas of people die each year attempting to cross the increasingly mask to avoid the genetically militarized border into the US. Post-9/11 “” engineered corn pollen that is continues to target and persecute immigrants, while citizens deadly to monarch caterpillars. of rich nations and personnel from multinational corporations are given unlimited freedom to pass through borders. 4 5