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Grassroots Alliance Gears Up to Fight Unfair Trade
More than 50 activists from labor unions, family farms, Jobs with Justice, environmental causes and other groups met at CWA headquarters the first weekend in March to join forces to fight “fast track” trade negotiating authority and other trade deals that cater to corporations at the expense of workers.
Called the Citizens Trade Campaign, the project is a 10-year-old alliance of activist groups that was originally formed to fight the North American Free Trade Agreement.
CWA joined CTC recently when the group reemerged to fight fast track and the pending Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement, which would lift trade barriers throughout Central America, South America and the Caribbean — every Western Hemisphere country except Cuba.
“We don’t need a crystal ball to know what FTAA will do to working families here, to workers in developing countries and to impoverished communities because we’ve had seven years to watch NAFTA do its damage,” said Carrie Biggs-Adams, CWA international representative. “NAFTA has cost more than 1 million American jobs while paving the way for companies to set up shop in Mexico, where they exploit a cheap labor market and enjoy a virtual absence of laws protecting workers and the environment.”
Fast track, which would let President George W. Bush negotiate trade pacts with no amendments from Congress, passed the U.S. House by a single vote in December. It is now in the hands of the U.S. Senate. If the Senate alters the bill enough, it would go to a conference committee and then back to the House. If fast track passes, Biggs-Adams said almost nothing can stop FTAA, which has no meaningful language on workers’ rights, wages, pollution standards or related issues.
Biggs-Adams, who arranged for the CTC to hold its meeting at CWA headquarters, said activists reviewed the details of trade pacts, learned how to organize coalitions in their own communities, lobbied on Capitol Hill and dined on food donated and prepared by a local organic farm.
Vickie Fouts, a retired member of CWA Local 9408 in Fresno, attended the meeting after CTC approached her about being a local organizer. “It was so well organized,” she said. “I got so much information about what we as grassroots organizations can do to try to stop Fast Track and FTAA and learned more about why they’re harmful.”
Fouts, who worked as a Pacific Bell service representative for 22 years, said talking with congressional staff members was empowering. “What a wonderful feeling of democracy when you as a citizen can meet with someone from your representative’s office,” she said. “Lobbying isn’t just for professional lobbyists and corporate America.”
Each member of the CTC group was given two copies of a recent Bill Moyers report on PBS about a little-known provision of NAFTA that lets corporations sue when laws protecting people’s welfare interfere with profit. For instance, when a town council in Mexico stopped the American company Metalclad from reopening a toxic waste dump, the NAFTA tribunal — whose proceedings are secret — awarded the firm $16 million. The same provision is in FTAA.
The CTC activists are taking the videos back to their communities to show to any interested group. Under an agreement with PBS, CWA has copies of the one-hour video available for purchase for $7. “This is an excellent program for union locals, church groups, PTA meetings, book clubs, for any gathering,” Biggs-Adams said.
Called the Citizens Trade Campaign, the project is a 10-year-old alliance of activist groups that was originally formed to fight the North American Free Trade Agreement.
CWA joined CTC recently when the group reemerged to fight fast track and the pending Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement, which would lift trade barriers throughout Central America, South America and the Caribbean — every Western Hemisphere country except Cuba.
“We don’t need a crystal ball to know what FTAA will do to working families here, to workers in developing countries and to impoverished communities because we’ve had seven years to watch NAFTA do its damage,” said Carrie Biggs-Adams, CWA international representative. “NAFTA has cost more than 1 million American jobs while paving the way for companies to set up shop in Mexico, where they exploit a cheap labor market and enjoy a virtual absence of laws protecting workers and the environment.”
Fast track, which would let President George W. Bush negotiate trade pacts with no amendments from Congress, passed the U.S. House by a single vote in December. It is now in the hands of the U.S. Senate. If the Senate alters the bill enough, it would go to a conference committee and then back to the House. If fast track passes, Biggs-Adams said almost nothing can stop FTAA, which has no meaningful language on workers’ rights, wages, pollution standards or related issues.
Biggs-Adams, who arranged for the CTC to hold its meeting at CWA headquarters, said activists reviewed the details of trade pacts, learned how to organize coalitions in their own communities, lobbied on Capitol Hill and dined on food donated and prepared by a local organic farm.
Vickie Fouts, a retired member of CWA Local 9408 in Fresno, attended the meeting after CTC approached her about being a local organizer. “It was so well organized,” she said. “I got so much information about what we as grassroots organizations can do to try to stop Fast Track and FTAA and learned more about why they’re harmful.”
Fouts, who worked as a Pacific Bell service representative for 22 years, said talking with congressional staff members was empowering. “What a wonderful feeling of democracy when you as a citizen can meet with someone from your representative’s office,” she said. “Lobbying isn’t just for professional lobbyists and corporate America.”
Each member of the CTC group was given two copies of a recent Bill Moyers report on PBS about a little-known provision of NAFTA that lets corporations sue when laws protecting people’s welfare interfere with profit. For instance, when a town council in Mexico stopped the American company Metalclad from reopening a toxic waste dump, the NAFTA tribunal — whose proceedings are secret — awarded the firm $16 million. The same provision is in FTAA.
The CTC activists are taking the videos back to their communities to show to any interested group. Under an agreement with PBS, CWA has copies of the one-hour video available for purchase for $7. “This is an excellent program for union locals, church groups, PTA meetings, book clubs, for any gathering,” Biggs-Adams said.