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Wa Congressional Delegation Has Not Taken a Stand on Colombia FTA!

Recent news from Colombia has been troubling. An assassination plot was discovered that threatens a witness who claims Colombian government officials are linked to death squads. President Uribe's cousin was arrested for allegedly supporting right-wing paramilitaries. Even President Uribe himself is under investigation for connection to a massacre. Meanwhile, 17 union organizers have been murdered so far this year, continuing the disturbing pattern in which 2,500 unionists have been killed since 1986.

And yet, despite these abhorrent circumstances, not one member of Congress from Washington State has taken a stand against this violence and corruption by declaring opposition to the pending US-Colombia free trade agreement (FTA).

Read our full press release here, and then please call your representative to demand they declare their opposition to this dreadful deal.

What's Trade Got to Do With It??

Check out this great short video of Lori Wallach explaining just what's so nutty about our current NAFTA-style approach to trade policy - and why trade doesn't have much to do with what's inserted into trade deals.

WFTC Campaign Goals 2008

With the expiration of Fast Track, more members of Congress identifying as fair trade advocates, and even presidential candidates talking about the need to reform trade policy, we have a unique opening in 2008 for real progress on fair trade policy.  Our campaign goals for this year include:

• Educational Outreach:  We will put a special emphasis on educating the public on the basic issues related to “free trade,” through our Fair Trade Road Show, media outreach, and support for our member organizations' efforts and events. Our efforts here will seek to give ordinary people a better context to understand the problems with “free trade” and to know what they can do about it.
   
• Making Trade Impacts Real: We will document and publicize the stories of individual Washingtonians - workers, small business owners, immigrants, and others - hurt by our nation’s trade policy. We will also document the misguided globalization projects of Boeing (home of the “disappearing American airplane”) and other WA corporations.
   
• New Model for Trade Policy: We will work with our allies both nationally and locally to help define and promote a new model for trade agreements, one that emphasizes the values of workers, communities, and the planet.
   
• Hold the Line: We will actively oppose the last remaining NAFTA-expansion trade agreements negotiated by Bush: Colombia, Panama, and South Korea.
   
• Washington State Autonomy Campaign: We will initiate an effort to ensure that Washington State recovers autonomy in procurement and trade policy. The WTO and most new free trade agreements ask states to give up their autonomy on procurement and other trade issues, liming our ability to support such policies as sweat-free or “buy local”. We will meet with the Governor and key legislators to explore ways to fix this problem.

Our "Beautiful" Trade Deficit

Think our trade policy is taking us in the right direction?  Then you'll probably think the following picture is "beautiful.”   For the rest of us - this is SCARY!  (Click on the picture for a bigger version.)

Sunrise
By Mary Oliver

You can
die for it –
an idea,
or the world. People

have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound
to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But

this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought

of China,
and India,
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun

blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.

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Phone: (206) 227-3079   •   Fax: (206) 405-4602
Email [convert to standard format when using]:  info \at/ washingtonfairtrade \dot/ org
 
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