Second Hemispheric Gathering of Struggle Against the FTAA
Havana, Cuba
November 27, 2002

Remarks by Cheri Honkala
Director, Kensington Welfare Rights Union
National Spokesperson, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign

Good afternoon.

I bring you greetings from poor & homeless people of the U.S. We currently have over 80 million people living in poverty and 44 million people without any health insurance. Factories have left the country and are never coming back. Instead they are going south or wherever in the world they can to exploit the poor of other countries. This is all taking place at a time when trade union numbers are dwindling. And this year marks the 5 year life time limit for needy families to receive social welfare in our country, which means millions more will live on the streets.

We also have the highest number of people in prisons of any place in the world; Many of those are there for economic crimes. We have a corrupt political system in which elections are bought and sold to the highest bidder. Yet when you turn on your television sets all over the world, the Empire-controlled media will spit images that have nothing to do with our reality. You will never hear the story of us building encampments, taking over houses to live, holding sit-ins in hospitals that have been privatized or the stories of us getting arrested over and over again in the fight for our basic survival.

You will also never hear about our petition against the U.S. government brought to the Organization of the American States charging the U.S. government and transnational corporations with economic human rights violations. I left a bus of poor and homeless people who are going to the poorest areas of our country and documenting more economic human rights violations for an entire month that have resulted as a result of the FTAA, our government and the greed of transnational corporations. We will end up in front of the United Nations for a Truth Commission this December 10th.

Our heart goes out to the families who this last year lost their loved ones on September 11th. But those of us who live in poor communities have been living in terror for years as we try to organize in the belly of the beast, as we watch loved ones get locked up, drugged up, or become hungry or homeless in our rich country.

Comrade Fidel, people of Cuba and all other struggling against the empire - we who are living in the belly of the beast are starting to get organized. Those of us who sleep in the streets, outside high rises and mansions are starting to stand up and reach our arms out to you. For the empire isn’t just killing your children and your futures- our children are dying too. In the fight against the empire- the poor of the U.S. have an important role to play for we are willing to fight to the end to put and end to a system that continues to have us bury our children.

In August of next year, the poor of the U.S. will continue the march of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 35th anniversary of the Poor People’s Campaign by marching again from Mississippi to the seat of power in Washington DC. We will march against the FTAA and we will march for a new world- because we know it is possible! Free from unemployment, hunger, homelessness, and want.

Long live Fidel Castro and Cuba, a country that has been a symbol of hope to the poor in the U.S. I would like to present this video and book from the poor in the U.S.