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Urgent Appeal: Call Your Senators, Tell them to Stop the Fast Track of the FTAA!	Current rating: 0
by Continuations Comm., Open World Conference (No verified email address)	01 May 2002 Modified: 11:08:18 PM
The Continuations Committee of the Open World Conference joins the national AFL-CIO, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch and countless community-based organizations across the country in urging you to call your Senators to urge them to vote NO on Fast Track!
Dear Supporters of Labor and Democratic Rights: Last December, the U.S. House of Representatives -- under intense pressure from the Bush administration, which used the Sept. 11 tragedy to advance its "free trade" agenda -- voted by a margin of one vote to support "Fast Track" authority. President Bush wants Fast Track authority to expand the failed NAFTA treaty to 31 countries in Latin America with a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Now, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) has promised his business buddies and fellow congressional "free traders" that he will have Fast Track through the Senate by May 15. Debate on this question has already started in the Senate. The Continuations Committee of the Open World Conference joins the national AFL-CIO, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch and countless community-based organizations across the country in urging you to call your Senators to urge them to vote NO on Fast Track! We ask you to read -- and distribute widely -- the Open Letter from Brazilian Unionists to the U.S. Labor Movement [see below] in which they explain some of the compelling reasons you should join the nationwide effort to Stop Fast Track. Let there be no doubt about it: Fast Track railroads democracy and promotes an agenda that targets the rights, wages and living standards of working people in the United States and across the Western Hemisphere. Thanks to millions of working people in this country, all previous attempts by the politicians to win support of Fast Track authority have failed. But now we have the battle of our lives ahead of us: We have to stop them again! Your Senators must hear from you! * Call your Senators and urge them to oppose Fast Track. Ask for a written response to your call. * Send in letters to the editor in your local papers in opposition to Fast Track. The national AFL-CIO has launched a toll-free number to call Senators on Fast Track. That number is 877-611-0063. For more information on this effort, or if you wish the local numbers of the field representatives of the U.S. Senators in your state, you can call Ken Grossinger or Bill Samuel of the national AFL-CIO. They can be reached at 202-637-5393 or 202-637-5320. Please make sure to send us copies of your letters or statements. Thanks for joining in this effort to Stop Fast Track! In Solidarity, Alan Benjamin and Ed Rosario, on behalf of the Continuations Committee of the Open World Conference ****************** Open Letter from Brazilian Unionists to Our Sisters and Brothers in the U.S. Labor Movement Dear sisters and brothers: We are writing to urge you to redouble your efforts to stop the U.S. Senate from adopting "Fast Track" of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Such "Fast Track" authority would give President Bush the go-ahead to negotiate the FTAA with all countries in Latin America. The issue has reached a critical stage given that the House of Representatives -- not long after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York -- voted by a margin of one vote to support "Fast Track." Now Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) is threatening to push "Fast Track" through the Senate by May 15. It is vital for you to send a loud message to your Senators to vote against "Fast Track." Why are we issuing this appeal from Brazil? The implementation of FTAA is of great concern to all working people -- indeed to all peoples -- throughout the Western Hemisphere. Such a treaty would negatively impact the lives of all workers. It represents a threat to our sovereignty. It is a threat to our unions. It is a threat to our rights. Thus by working to stop "Fast Track" of the FTAA, you -- unionists and activists in the United States -- are helping all working people across the Americas. FTAA -- as we all know -- is an extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the rest of Latin America. What has been the experience of workers in Canada, Mexico and the United States under eight years of NAFTA? You in the United States have felt the devastating effects of NAFTA in your own flesh. You have spoken out against this full-fledged disaster. You have denounced NAFTA in your media and in your union forums and demonstrations. You have pointed out that NAFTA has been aimed primarily at (1) increasing the profits and power of the multinational corporations, (2) limiting the power of governments to improve the lot of their citizens, and (3) pitting workers in one country against workers in other countries so as to erode the rights that workers have fought and died for. These hard-earned rights are being jeopardized in all the three signatory countries of NAFTA. There has been a tremendous loss of jobs in all three countries under NAFTA: Close to one million good-paying jobs have been lost in the United States; 270,000 have been lost in Canada -- and in Mexico the maquiladoras (or so-called "free enterprise" zones), where workers are deprived of all rights to form unions and where the sweatshop conditions are intolerable, have been extended from the border region to the rest of the country. Privatization of the publicly owned enterprises and services has been fueled by NAFTA. This, in turn, has promoted further policies of deregulation and the total destruction of hard-won workers' rights. In addition to accelerating the processes of austerity and disenfranchisement inherent in a globalized economy, the FTAA would exert further pressures toward dismantling the nation-states in Latin America and the Caribbean, thereby reducing the countries of Latin America to simple appendages, or colonies, of the hemisphere-wide "free trade" market controlled by the multinationals and the governments and institutions in their service. We want you to know that we across the Americas are in open opposition to this "free trade" and privatization agenda -- and we are against the adoption of the FTAA! We in Brazil are developing a mass campaign against the FTAA among the unions and community-based organizations. We have collected more than 1 million signatures and sent them to Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso demanding that the government withdraw from further participation in FTAA negotiations and discussions. Mass actions have been organized to say "NO to the FTAA!" In fact our campaign has had such a wide appeal -- with such powerful repercussions -- that the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies -- the equivalent of your House of Representatives -- adopted a motion last December demanding that the Brazilian president no longer participate in the FTAA negotiations process! That is why we say that it is time to reaffirm the independence of our working class organizations -- primarily our trade unions. We need such independent unions to fight uncompromisingly for our rights and gains and to defeat the corporate "free trade" agenda. It is time to give a strong voice and support for our demands for democracy, sovereignty of our peoples, and workers' rights. We must join together -- working people and their unions from all the Americas, North and South -- to resist and beat back NAFTA and to stop the FTAA! We can and we must reach out across borders to build this worker resistance and solidarity! *** This Open Letter was adopted at the Report Back Meeting of the Brazilian delegates who participated in the International Conference Against Deregulation and For Labor Rights for All, held in Berlin at the end of February 2002. The Report Back Meeting took place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on April 5, 2002. Signatories of the Open Letter: - Maz� Favar�o, City Council member for the Workers Party (PT) of Osasco, Sao Paulo, and Member of the Continuations Committee of the Berlin Conference - Julio Turra, Member of the National Executive Board of the United Workers Federation of Brazil (CUT) - Demerson Dias, Director, FENAJUFE union federation - Jefferson Oliveira, Director, SINDAGUA union federation, Federal District - Luiz Bicalho, Director, SINDSEP union federation, Federal District - Misa Boito, Committee in Defense of the Rights of Working Women - Markus Sokol, Member, National Directorate, Workers Party (PT)
See also: www.owcinfo.org

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League of Women Voters: TPA Is Bad Policy
by League of Women Voters (No verified email address)	Current rating: 0 01 May 2002
Opposes Senate Bill After Adopting Pro-Trade Position WASHINGTON - May 1 - The League of Women Voters today announced its opposition to the Bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority Act or "fast track" legislation currently moving forward in the U.S. Senate. "As a long-time supporter of enhanced international trade, we are disappointed that the Senate legislation fails to take the steps that are needed to bring U.S. trade policy into the 21st Century. The legislation, like that passed in the House, is backward-looking rather than future oriented," stated Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins, president of the League of Women Voters of the United States. A recently completed 18-month review of the League's trade position reinforced the organization's strong support for a U.S. trade policy that reduces trade barriers and expands international trade. "The League has long believed that U.S. trade policy should be based on the long-term public interest, not on special interests. Such a policy helps foster international cooperation, democratic values, and economic prosperity at home and abroad," Jefferson-Jenkins stated. The organizational position was also updated to address the importance of social goals, including human rights, the environment and labor protections. "Our nation's trade policies must fully support practices that advance internationally recognized social goals," emphasized Jefferson-Jenkins. "The pending Senate legislation falls short in two areas," Jefferson-Jenkins noted. "First, it includes a protectionist measure for U.S. textiles that will undermine the growth of economies and social structures in developing countries. We believe that the benefits of international trade should be fairly shared, and that U.S. protectionism against developing countries is a mistake," said Jefferson-Jenkins. "Second, the legislation fails to effectively encourage U.S. negotiators to achieve basic international standards to protect the environment, enhance basic human rights and improve labor conditions," Jefferson-Jenkins added. "The future of international trade must be built around a recognition that economic issues do not exist in a vacuum. We must make progress across the board on these social goals. The future of international trade agreements depends on it," concluded Jefferson-Jenkins.
See also: http://www.lwv.org