Palo Alto and San Jose Activists Can Stop CAFTA

The Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is being voted on TONIGHT, and two South Bay Democrats, Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo, are important swing votes. Neither of them has taken a position yet on CAFTA, because the tech industry supports CAFTA and both of them depend on tech industry campaign contributions.

George Bush and Condoleeza Rice are lobbying Republicans on CAFTA at this very moment. We could actually defeat CAFTA, but Lofgren and Eshoo need to hear from us NOW. Please take a moment RIGHT NOW to call your Representative, and urge them to vote against CAFTA. Here's the toll free number: 1-866-340-9281. Tell them that you are a constituent, and that you urge them to vote against CAFTA.

Below are some CAFTA talking points:

*I urge you to vote against CAFTA because it’s modeled on NAFTA. NAFTA has cost the US a million manufacturing jobs, and spread sweatshops across Mexico. CAFTA is more of the same – bad for workers, and it’s only great for big corporations. Please vote against CAFTA!

*CAFTA doesn’t even include core labor standards of the ILO, although Central American workers face repression, worker’s rights violations, and incredibly low wages, according to the International Labor Rights Fund (http://www.laborrights.org). The so-called “labor side deal” does nothing to fix the flawed agreement. Please vote no on CAFTA!

* I urge you to vote against CAFTA because, like NAFTA, CAFTA will be a disaster for family farmers. NAFTA has also caused a million and a half farmers in Mexico to lose their land. Likewise, Central American farmers will be pushed off theirs, tearing apart rural families. Meanwhile 38,000 family farmers in the US have lost their land because of NAFTA as well. The so-called “sugar deal” does nothing to address the devastating implications of CAFTA for tens of thousands of workers in the US sugar industry.

* I urge you to vote against CAFTA because the corporate patent monopolies in CAFTA will make life-saving medicines outrageously – and prohibitively - expensive. CAFTA is a death sentence for 275,000 people with HIV/AIDS in Central America.