NAFTA = Death: Artists Mark NAFTA's 20th Anniversary With Silent Border Protest

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NAFTA = Death: Artists Mark NAFTA's 20th Anniversary With Silent Border Protest

Saturday, 04 January 2014 09:10
By Mike Ludwig, Truthout | Report


[font size="1"](Photo: NAFTAmemorial.info)[/font]


A group of artists marked the 20th anniversary of the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on New Year's Day with an art installation at the US-Mexico border that separates San Diego from Tijuana.

The installation, which involves 20 black flags - one for each year that NAFTA has been in effect - falls into a long tradition of actions and art pieces that protest US immigration and border policies.

The inauguration of NAFTA coincided with a dramatic increase in border patrol agents and the construction of a 600-mile border fence on the southern US border. As the artists point out on their website, free trade agreements like NAFTA allow capital to cross borders, but not people.

NAFTA intertwined the Canadian, Mexican and American economies, increasing inequality between the global North and South and adding incentives for migrants to enter the United States illegally. Since NAFTA was signed, the number of migrant deaths in the United States - Mexico borderlands has increased dramatically, and 463 migrants died in US borderlands in 2012 alone. ............................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/20985-nafta-death-artists-mark-naftas-20th-anniversary-with-silent-border-protest