Anti-Free Trade movement in Costa Rica

Social movement against the Free Trade Agreement

Tags: Central America & Mexico , Civil Society Building
Additional tags: TLC free trade movement costa rica

The case of Costa Rica showed a remarkable mobilisation of people - from a variety of sectors and backgrounds - against thye Free Trade Agreement with the US. Although the mobilisation was not successful in blocking the Agreeement, it was very successful in raising awareness and organising civic action.

Context
In recent years, Costa Rica has undergone an erosion of its democratic system. This system has worn-out due to the political class’s mismanagement of public resources, a rising discontent on the part of the population due to the loss of credibility of democratic institutions and the neo-liberal poli-cies which have been applied. The struggle against the FTA takes place in this context.

The anti-free trade movement has been characterised by an anti-neo-liberal sentiment that upholds values such solidarity, the protection of natural resources and the rights of communities who makes use of these resources. These shared values brought together diverse groups to demonstrate their opposition to this treaty in a variety of ways. The rise of this organisation and social protest led the government, in alliance with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (SET), to call for a referendum.

On July 12, 2007 the SET convened the Costa Rican electorate for a referendum process on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, a measure which sought to end a discussion which had divided and confronted Costa Rican citizens since 2004. The call for a referendum gen-erated different reactions within society. Labour unions were against it because they believed that the Government was going to commit fraud during this process. On the other hand, civil organisa-tions celebrated the referendum as a triumph and organised themselves through patriotic commit-tees and other organisational expressions, with the aim of convincing the population to vote against the FTA.

In the wake of the referendum process, a mobilisation and organisation structure was left behind that had previously not existed in Costa Rica. In addition, different social organisations claimed a voice in the process (labour unions, peasant organisations, high school and university students, environmentalists, academics, teachers, women’s organisations, intellectuals, among others). Vari-ous social visionaries and political parties also joined the struggle. As a result, the movement was socially pluralistic and enabled many people to experience a different way of feeling Costa Rican. Besides the bringing together of diverse sectors, the movement “NO FTA” was characterised by its inventiveness, initiative, citizen’s engagement, expressions of solidarity, and high levels of citizen awareness.

Initially, the movement was small but it quickly snow-balled into a strong information campaign that joined labour unions, students, professors, women’s movements, peasants through co-ordinators for a common fight and coordinated activities. Finally on October 7, the YES movement won the refer-endum using fraudulent and anti-democratic tactics such as buying votes, governmental clientalism, threats and direct manipulation of workers as well as a campaign of terror carried out by communi-cations media.

The experience and lessons learned during this movement were numerous, many sectors played a an active role throughout the campaign and they have managed to remain organised by supporting groups with a similar agenda that are willing to fight against the FTA treaty once it is implemented.

Objectives:
a) To understand the dynamics of the Costa Rican social movement developed around the Referendum process on the signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States.
b) To analyse the role played by external actors to the social movement created for the Refer-endum.
c) To identify achievements, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges to the social movement that was generated by the Referendum process.
d) To foster spaces of dialogue and knowledge-exchange amongst the different social actors involved in the referendum process around issues of strategies and future actions to be taken to face the consequences of the FTA’s approval

Key research questions:
• What factors enabled the emergence and growth of a social movement as a response to the Referendum process?
• How has the social movement evolved after the Referendum process?
• What was the contribution of actors such as NGS, Donor Agencies, and the academic sector, among others in the referendum process?
• To what degree did the referendum process represent a change in the functioning of Costa Rica’s political system?