NO CAFTA ACTION — What Happens After CAFTA — Update
NO CAFTA ACTION in the Waterville Area
On November 26th, members of Waterville Area Bridges for Peace and Justice distributed eight hundred two-sided flyers at the Elm Plaza Shopping Center in Waterville, Maine. Eight WABP&J members directly contacted 1600-1800 shoppers on the biggest shopping day of the year (Black Friday).
The flyers informed shoppers of the negative consequences should CAFTA become approved by Congress. Most of those contacted had not previously heard about CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement). With few exceptions, the shoppers were sympathetic to the cause of denying legal status to CAFTA. They agreed that they would contact the Senators and Representatives listed on the back of the flyers.
It is expected that adoption of CAFTA will come up shortly after the New Year. The text of the flyers and Congressional addresses and phone numbers are shown below. Please contact those folks as soon as you can; particularly Senators Snowe and Collins, as they are on the fence on this one.
E-mails and phone calls get to them much faster due to security procedures in the US Post Office, these days. Our help is appreciated.
For more information you may contact Peter Sirois psmadme@gwi.net or (207) 696-3230.
What Happens After CAFTA?
Here are just a few of the sad events that might become reality if the Central American Free Trade Agreement is passed!
1. It will cost American sugar beet and cane growers over four billion dollars in lost revenues - at the expense of child labor in Central America.
2. CAFTA will violate human rights in all of Central America.
3. It will allow corporations to sue governments for loss of 'future' investments. Investment which may or may not be real.
4. Farmers will be prevented from saving and re-planting their seeds. They will be forced to buy seed every year from companies claiming "intellectual rights" to their GE (genetically engineered) seed.
5. Immediately 10 - 15 US textile mills will close, costing thousands of US jobs in that industry alone.
6. All local control over how goods can be produced will be given over to the corporations.
7. Laws will be weakened which protect worker's rights and the environment and natural resources.
8. Drive up the cost of medicine by extending the patent rights of drugs many years into the future (delay of generic drugs).
9. Privatization of all natural resources (i.e. - water, animals plants.) All living things will become the 'property' of corporations. www.wabpj.org psmadme@gwi.net
CAFTA is basically an extension of NAFTA, which ended up being a lose-lose situation for everyone except the large corporations. Many states, including Maine have rescinded their support for clauses pertaining to state procurement and other parts of NAFTA.
To allow CAFTA to become a reality would only further the 'race-to-the-bottom'. That is the race that eventually will erode any dignity that the worker has left. Unless CAFTA can prove that it will protect the worker, the consumer, the environment, and the governments which serve the people, it should not pass.
An excellent website to learn more about CAFTA is: www.art-us.org
Please write letters to the following and ask them to support HR - 276 or S - 69: Fair Trade for Our Future Resolution, which lays the guidelines for what a responsible international trade agreement should look like.
Senator Susan Collins Senator Olympia Snowe 172 Russell Office Building 154 Russell Office Building Washington DC 20510 Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-2523 (202) 224-5344 www.collins.senate.gov olympia@snowe.senate.gov Rep. Mike Michaud Rep. Tom Allen 437 Cannon HOB 1717 Longworth HOB Washington DC 20515 Washington DC 20515 (202) 225-2943 (202) 225-5590 rep.mikemichaud@mail.house.gov rep.tomallen@mail.house.gov
for more info - psmadme@gwi.net or 696-3230
Update:
NLC Alert 11/9/2004: U.S. Unionist Assassinated in El Salvador
Re: Urgent Action Alert/Please Help
U.S. TRADE UNIONIST ASSASSINATED IN El SALVADOR
A Friend of the National Labor Committee
Mr. Gilberto Soto was assassinated Friday evening, November 5, at 6:00 p.m., while visiting his mother in the city of Usulutan, El Salvador.
Mr. Soto received a call on his cell phone and had just stepped outside the doorway of his mother's home, searching for better reception, when he was approached by two men who shot and killed him at close range. He was shot in the upper back and on the lower side, near the kidney. It was this shot which severed his aorta, the major artery to the heart. He died immediately.
The killers fled, running to a car waiting about 100 yards away. There may also have been a third assailant on a bike.
There was absolutely no attempt to rob Mr. Soto. It was clear that the sole intent was to kill him. There were several eye witnesses.
Mr. Gilberto Soto was a long time organizer with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). Based in New Jersey, he was in charge of organizing port container drivers in the northeast of the U.S. He was currently involved in organizing drivers in Elizabeth, N.J.
Less than a year ago, Mr. Soto met in New York City with Denmark's SID Union (The Specialized Workers Union in Denmark) Central American Representative, Bjarne Larsen. The IBT and SID were interested in collaborating on a joint project documenting the systematic violations of worker rights by Maersk, one of the largest shipping companies in the world.
Mr. Soto was just about to begin his organizing work in Central America when he was assassinated. He was going to meet with port workers in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. However, his real interest was to meet with and assist the drivers who hauled Maersk containers. In El Salvador, the working conditions are horrible, with excessive shifts and low wages. The drivers have absolutely no right to organize, and any hint of workers trying to exercise their legal right to Freedom of Association would be met with mass firings. The drivers are paid for only the hours they are on the road. A trip from a free trade zone in El Salvador to Puerto Cortez in Honduras could take seven-to-nine hours. Then there would be all the down time for which they are not paid, followed by another long haul back to El Salvador.
In Honduras, about 700 of the container drivers are organized, and a much smaller group was just newly organized in Nicaragua.
Weeks had gone into preparing for Mr. Soto's trip. Many emails had gone back and forth, and many drivers had been approached and spoken with. It is possible that word leaked out.
Mr. Gilberto Soto's family in El Salvador will not be frightened. They are calling for a full investigation.
Mr. Soto's sister told us: "We need an investigation. This murder did not just happen. There is something behind this. We demand justice in this country (El Salvador), where there is so little justice."
Mr Gilberto Soto would have been 50 years old on Saturday, November 6, the day after he was assassinated. He leaves behind a 25 year old son. His mother and sister are accompanying his body from El Salvador to the U.S. this Thursday.
Mr. Soto was born in El Salvador and immigrated to the U.S. in 1975. His family says that Gilberto had no enemies in Usulatan. It was quite the opposite, he was loved and respected.
Starting in the mid 1980's, Mr. Gilberto Soto was a long term collaborator with the National Labor Committee, participating in several of our campaigns. While we were on the road for the last five weeks with a tour of young Bangladesh workers, Gilberto called us. He asked us to help the exploited containers drivers in El Salvador, and we said we would. We were to speak later this week.
More than ever, the NLC intends to go ahead with that solidarity, and we ask your help.
If they can assassinate a U.S. citizen and trade union leader in El Salvador, we can only imagine the repression the Salvadoran workers are facing on a daily basis. This is another tragic example of how CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) will continue to fail the workers in Central America and the U.S. While CAFTA goes out of its way to provide all sorts legal protection to the product, there are no similar enforceable laws backed up by sanctions to defend the rights of the human being and workers who made the product.
We need to continue the struggle for worker rights protections in Central America and in the U.S. But first we need an immediate and thorough investigation to get to the truth of why and who killed Mr. Soto. As a first step, please write to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell demanding a full investigation. # Download a model letter. (.doc)
© 1995-2004 The National Labor Committee 540 West 48th Street; 3rd Floor New York, NY 10036 (212) 242-3002
Some of the activities WABP&J have been involved with since the beginning in May of 2003.
Updated - June 2004
Waterville Area Bridges for Peace & Justice has been meeting since May 2003 after standing on the bridge throughout the prior winter months in our efforts to stop our government from invading Iraq.
Over the last year, we:
Held monthly meetings on the 2nd Tuesday of every month
at The Center in Waterville from 6:30 - 8:30 to plan our actions,
share ideas and build on our organization. We also hosted Bjorn
Claeson of PICA (www.pica.org) who spoke on the anti-sweatshop
work being done in Maine and throughout the world.
Co-sponsored movie-discussion nights with the Waterville
Public Library on the 3rd Tuesday of every month from 6:30 - 8:30
at the library. These nights have been well attended and most
of them were videotaped and aired on public cable access channels
in the Madison-Skowhegan and Waterville-Fairfield areas. We also
hosted filmmaker Tom Jackson at the showing of his latest movie,
"Attacking the Commons" (www.joepublicfilms.com)
Joined the Maine Coalition for Peace and Justice (www.mepj.org) and participated in several statewide peace demonstrations in Augusta and Bath.
Marched in the Father Rasle Madison-Anson Days Parade in August 2003, and were awarded first place for marching units. A dozen people carried three large doves that we borrowed from Peace Action Maine and two banners created by Pete & Joy Sirois.
Were awarded a grant to create a website from PACE (Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International) which should be up and running by June 2004.
Distributed "War is Not the Answer" yard signs
from the American Friends Service Committee and Veteran's for
Peace book covers.
Helped to pass an anti-Patriot's Act resolution in Waterville
to protect the rights and freedoms of all residents.
Distributed over 1,000 informational flyers about Disney and Wal-mart's connections to sweatshops at Waterville shopping centers to people who expressed their appreciation for the info.
Shared Peace & Justice news about actions, events,
information on Iraq, Afghanistan, our soldiers, government policies
etc. through our e-mail network (132 people), regular mail (30
people) and in the local newspaper.
Currently, in addition to continuing many of the efforts above, we are:
- Sponsoring a non-partisan voter registration drive;
- Organizing a voter education campaign; and
- Planning a Peace Garden in Costonguay Square in Waterville.
Exploring the possibilities of:
Initiating an "Alternative to the Military" project
for local high schools; and
Hosting a "community dialogue" - an opportunity
for all to share their views on military solutions.
We hope the actions and activities listed above will bring you
hope in these often despairing times.
We find that in working together, we are stronger, more hopeful
and know we can make a difference!
Please join us in these efforts, and bring your own ideas for
new projects!