PROJECT NEWS

March 7 & 8, 2007

WINGS OF THE BUTTERFLY JOINS
FEMINIST INTERNATIONAL RADIO ENDEAVOUR (FIRE)
AND THE OBSERVATORY OF FEMINIST TRANSFORMATIONAL POLITICS
(1)

FIRE organized a “fact finding” meeting where Costa Rican feminists talked about women's resistance to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in their country with women from Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the United States.  They gathered in the Hotel Marañon in San José in a JASS   (Just Associates) follow up meeting about the Feminist Observatory (Observatorio de la Transgresi ó n Feminista).

CAFTA is being challenged by women's organizations in Costa Rica because of its impact on women and their communities. Reports from Estado de la Nacion, and on Human Development from the UNDP (UN Development Program) show women's growing impoverishment as a result of neo-liberal policies.

Voices of women from the feminist and women's movements have expressed similar views on FIRE.  For example, the Consejo de Mujeres de los 12 Puntos back in March 2004 was already warning that  "When health, education, water, energy, communications and other services that cover basic human needs are privatized, the consequences on the population with fewer financial resources go well beyond a detriment to the quality of their lives. For women it means that they will have to compensate with their additional personal efforts, more work hours and also taking responsibility for that which was previously supplied by the government for their families such as health and education. When the market dictates policy, and does away with the principle of solidarity, each family is left to get by through their own means.”  The Consejo de Mujeres report also noted that the burden then falls upon women who shoulder the responsibility to make ends meet with dwindling financial resources, and to keep the family afloat.

FIRE has reported that “the CAFTA treaty inevitably will deepen, and take advantage of, two conditions: One, the general situation of greater disadvantage that women face compared with that of men, due to the current gender division of work; and two, the greater disadvantage that Costa Rica faces compared with the USA, due to the existing international divisions of work and commerce".

"The CAFTA treaty goes far beyond a simple exchange of merchandises and goods," according to FIRE.  "On the contrary, it intervenes into key areas such as national self-determination, and the safety and security of basic life conditions for all Costa Ricans. Women will pay the consequences of this change in the development model when in the name of efficiency, key services get transferred to the private sector. It will be we who will have to face the greatest negative impact and offset the lack of resources,” concluded FIRE.  Mesoamerican delegates at the JASS meeting confirmed this consensus analysis about CAFTA, explaining how in their own countries they were not able to resist on time, due to the closed negotiations and immediate adoption of CAFTA by their governments and legislatures. ”If Costa Ricans resist, we will be able to challenge the treaty in our own countries. We stand with the ‘Tica' women on this struggle, as is our struggle also,” said Gilda Parduchi of El Salvador.

At the March 7 gathering, Wings of the Butterfly sponsored a concert with Guadalupe Urbina and Larissa Coto. Both form part of the Wings Quartet in the musical theatre show, which is scheduled to be produced on stage in 2007 in Costa Rica and later worldwide.