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Indybay Feature

Who Will Stop CAFTA Contest

by Quixote Center (caftaactivist [at] yahoo.com)
Quest for Peace of the Quixote Center will run a full-page, New York Times signature ad in opposition to CAFTA- the Central American Free Trade Agreement. The 44,000 dollars and 2,500 signatures it takes is being raised from engaged citizens like you, who wish to proudly and publicly say "No" to CAFTA. <b>The state with the highest number of signers</b> (as a percentage of the state's total population) <b>will be specifically acknowledged in the New York Times Ad.</b> Show the country and Mr. Bush that your state will not tolerate CAFTA! See ad text below.
What would you trade
to save 50 cents on a tee-shirt?


Democracy?
The environment?
Human Rights?
Family farmers?

10 years ago a new kind of trade agreement was created: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) granted new rights to corporations in exchange for weakened labor and environmental protections. Since 1994 the track record is clear. In the United States, Mexico and Canada:
  • More people live in poverty….
  • More farmers have lost their lands….
  • More workers have lost their jobs….
  • More environmental laws have been overturned….
Yet the bottom line for big business has improved.

Based on this track record, the Bush administration is moving quickly and quietly to secure an expansion of NAFTA to Central America. The Central America Free Trade Agreement is another NAFTA disaster.

CAFTA
  • Expands corporate rights to sue governments over environmental laws if they lessen profit, while denying individual citizens the right to effectively petition for environmental and labor rights concerns.
  • Expands failed agricultural policies that feed biotech firms and agribusinesses at the expense of family farmers in the U.S. and Latin America.
  • Expands the race to the bottom, for lower wages and lower environmental standards.
Cosponsored by: Campaign for Labor Rights, Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA), Nicaragua Network, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), U.S. / El Salvador Sister Cities, Nicaragua/U.S. Friendship Office, Witness for Peace, Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America, U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project (U.S. LEAP), The Share Foundation, Oxfam America, Resource Center of the Americas, International Labor Rights Fund.

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