The afternoon workshops took place across Mexico City in 5 major culture venues. The session organized by the Women's International Democratic Federation was in Templo Corpus Christi.
Leticia Montes hosted the session. She said that she was substituting for Marcia Campos the head of the WIDF.
Ms Montes is also with the Mexican Womens Union.
She introduced the first speaker, Professor Esmeralda Morales. Dr. Morales talked about the international agreements between Mexico, U.S. and Canada that had very lofty sounding goals, but in fact worked to the detriment of Mexico. Vicente Fox, George Bush and Paul Martin of Canada were the signers and by the political affiliations of the three now wonder the treaty of March 23,2005 was a disaster: "Alliance for Security Advancement in Latin America." She said that this treaty, in fact, opened the way for the armament industry to sell arms throughout Latin America under the guise of increasing security. The opposite happened.
She said that the effort is to make Mexico defend the U.S. when U.S. is attacked was the purpose of the agreement. Mexico has no enemies like the U.S. has, she said.
Ms. Montez, before introducing the next speaker said that 44 % of arms companies are from the U.S. and 32% companies are from Europe; 61% and 31% of sales, respectively. The other countries make up the remaining 8%: Japan, Russia, Israel and India.
Frank Goldsmith then spoke representing the World Federation of Trade Unions. He is the permanent reprsentative for the WFTU at the United Nations in NYC. He spoke of the WFTU commitment to arms control, development and peace. He pointed the the world capitalist economic and financial crisis as the most important event of our time. "History tells us that when there are massive international capitalist economic and finanical crises, the threat of war, and in this case, nuclear war, is significantly heightened."
Dr. Goldsmith explained that since it founding in 1945, the WFTU has continually supported and promoted world peace and anti-nuclear war activity. The WFTU supports the strong role of the United Nations in promoting a unified struggle against nuclear proliferation.
Marlene Acousta Jimenez, as student from the University of Mexico, spoke of the interrelatedness of struggle for peace and development. She spoke about the concept of Sustainable Human Development.
Professor Delia Selene de Dios Vallejo then spoke about the importance of the U.S. General Assembly and concern that the Security Council members are among the worse violators of nuclear armaments production. While this NGO workshop was organized by the WIDF, the importance of both men and women uniting is crucial.
The session was very well attended with well over 100 participants. Had there been more time, the session could have lasted a few more hours.
The conference continues for the next two days.
Stay Tuned.
