CAFTA might pass, here is AFL-CIO action letter

[Robert Oak]

I just read that the stinker CAFTA, yet another outsourcing trade agreement, might pass. I'm reposting the AFL-CIO newsletter, which I think gives at least some things to think about but also an easy way to email your representatives to vote no.

Dear Working Families e-Activist,

Tell Congress: Stop CAFTA—
Save Jobs

Act now--send these 10 reasons on why CAFTA is bad for America's workers to Congress and urge them to
stop CAFTA.


Thanks for all that you do for working families.

If we’re going to save jobs and stop CAFTA—the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement—we’ve got to act now. President George W. Bush has moved CAFTA (also called “NAFTA’s twin brother) to Congress, and our senators and representatives need to hear from us now.

There probably are 1,000 good reasons to stop CAFTA. They all boil down to jobs. Let’s look at 10 good ones.

1. CAFTA would give new protections to U.S. multinational companies for operating outside the country. Like companies need more incentives to move jobs!
2. At the same time, CAFTA would reduce protections for workers—here and in Central America.
3. That one-two punch combines to make goods produced in other countries cheaper and less risky for the makers—and to make it impossible for U.S. manufacturers to compete.
4. When we can’t compete with foreign goods, we import more and our trade deficit soars. It happened with NAFTA. Our trade deficit with NAFTA countries is 12 times bigger than before NAFTA—it shot up from $9 billion in 1993 to $111 billion last year.
5. When imports and our trade deficit grow, we lose jobs. We lost an estimated 900,000 net jobs to NAFTA.

Heard enough? Click the following link to tell your members of Congress to stop CAFTA, or keep reading.

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/No_CAFTA

6. You can’t believe what the trade-at-all-costs folks are saying about CAFTA. When you hear claims that CAFTA will create U.S. jobs and improve living standards in Central America, remember this: That’s what they said about NAFTA.
7. CAFTA would hurt, not help, Central American and Dominican workers. Look at NAFTA’s legacy: Displaced Mexican subsistence farmers were turned into unemployed masses, far, far outnumbering the few jobs created. Workers who find jobs manufacturing goods for export are out of luck. Overall, real wages for Mexican workers actually have fallen since NAFTA.
8. CAFTA would hurt workers who don’t lose jobs, too. It would make it easier for employers to fight workers struggling to form unions by threatening to close down. NAFTA did: By the late 1990s, employers threatened to shut down if workers formed a union in 51 percent of union representation election campaigns—and 71 percent in manufacturing. That’s a whopping increase from the 29 percent in the mid-1980s.
9. In addition—increased trade lowers wages for low-skilled U.S. workers. Real wages for most U.S. men actually have fallen since NAFTA.
10. U.S. workers already are hurting from anti-worker trade policies. Now is the time to do trade the right way—by rewarding work and respecting workers here and in other countries.

Please take a minute now to share this information with your members of Congress and urge them to stop CAFTA.

Thank you for working for working families—and for good jobs.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
June 23, 2005

[Fridays Child]

1. Done, nominated, and kicked

[arcos]

2. Don't expect many replies...

People here don't give a damn about CAFTA... but anyway, here's the list of GOP swing votes on this issue:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3917266

[Robert Oak]

4. I hear your frustration

Any issue dealing with economics, international trade, budget deficits
and taxes gets ignored.

I am also on dailykos and boomantribune and will try to post
there in the next couple of days...

but maybe we need to make this "sexy" so people will actually read it.

Something like 1M American workers tortured and abandoned or
10M guatamaleans put into Gulags.

Or how about Millions have their livihoods stolen.

Anyway, I noticed your post and attempts so some ideas to get some
attention to this. An animated gif is always good, so is a cartoon.

What drives me nuts these areas are the number one areas on how America
is being sold off piece by piece and destroyed.

They focus in on the latest torture or something that is easy to understand, not realizing how dramatically larger and damaging
trade policy is overall.

[arcos]

6. I totally agree...

It gets really frustrating... I mean, there's a big chance CAFTA will be defeated... it may be the first free trade agreement to have that fate, and it's one of the centerpieces of Bush's economic agenda. But somehow no one here seems to care even though everyone complains about outsourcing, etc... I've really tried to use interesting subject lines, but it doesn't seem to work.

I'm Costa Rican, and there's no chance in hell to stop CAFTA in Central America... it IS possible to do so in the US, but no one really gives a damn. I'm starting to think we all deserva CAFTA because of our stupidity and lack of interest on it.

This doesn't benefit ANYONE but big corporations... we, the people in both the United States and Central America should stand up to it and don't let it pass.

[Robert Oak]

7. another site

basically you gotta keep spreading the word around.

I posted this on the dailykos site and then a house rep. posted
a diary which got a huge response and he mentioned defeating CAFTA.

Getting a government official to blog on one of the major sites
really helps bring attention to things.

As well as explaining in very simple English what these treaties do.

People's eyes glaze over and they fall asleep or do not have the educational background (or the ability to google a topic either!) to
understand these issues.

I noticed one blogger on dailykos starting to get a lot of reads because
he breaks down economic issues very simply...as a way to educate on the fly.

[Theres-a]

8. Simple is good.

People are here because they're starting to "wake up" as it were.Imagine much of the readers as "haven't had their coffee yet".It needs to be simple because people are hearing about these things perhaps for the very first time.

[stickdog]

3. Stop CAFTA, dammit! (nt)

[idlisambar]

5. message sent n/t

[Robert Oak]

9. Vitamin users, read this action alert, attached to CAFTA

IAHF List:


I just called the Senate Finance Committee office in
Washington DC and its very important we intensify our
opposition to CAFTA due to the harmonization language
it contains which forces harmonization of our dietary
supplement laws to restrictive Codex standards.

All they did today was they had opening remarks- then
they adjourned. Tomorrow will be the bigger day, so
there is still time for us to lob in our 2 cents
worth.

Please take the following actions and urge everyone
you know to "pile on"- we need to hear the sounds of
bones breaking on this one folks cause its EAT or be
EATEN & its way better to be PISSED OFF than to be
PISSED ON, so speak up NOW while you still have the
CHANCE to be heard because these PAC $$ addicted
Senators need to be reminded that we even EXIST out
here:

WHAT TO TELL 'EM WHEN YOU CALL:

"I'm a dietary supplement consumer, and I am very
concerned about language buried inside of CAFTA and
FTAA which broadens and deepens the scope of the WTO's
SPS (Sanitary Phytosanitary Measures) Agreement.

Article 3 of the SPS in the WTO Agreement reads "To
harmonize sanitary and phytosanitary measures on as
wide a basis as possible, Members SHALL base their
food safety measures on international standards,
guidelines or recommendations."

This threatens to force harmonization of the Dietary
Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 to
mindlessly restrictive UN Codex standards which would
block my access to vitamins and minerals within the
therapeutic range, for starters, then other dietary
supplements as Codex expands.

It is evident to me from the book INTEGRATING THE
AMERICAS- THE FTAA & BEYOND by the Rockefeller
Foundation that this effort to expand NAFTA throughout
our hemisphere poses as much of a threat to our
national sovereignty as the EU currently does to the
sovereignty of each of its member countries.

>From a fiscal standpoint, it makes no sense to
continue the failed policies of NAFTA which have
caused our $617 Billion trade deficit unless you have
abandoned your oath of office completely and are
trying to crush the doller to usher in a hemispheric
wide currency. I don't want to live under a world
government, I want to live in the America that used to
exist but which Congress is clearly attempting to
destroy on behalf of multinational corporate interests
who have no use for our constitution or Bill of
Rights.

Congressman Paul wrote an article correctly
identifying CAFTA as an unconstitutional threat to our
sovereignty.
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2005/tst060605.htm
The Constitution clearly grants Congress alone the
authority to regulate international trade. The plain
text of Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 is
incontrovertible.

Neither Congress nor the President can give this
authority away by treaty, any more than they can
repeal the First Amendment by treaty. This
fundamental point, based on the plain meaning of the
Constitution, cannot be overstated. Every member of
Congress who votes for CAFTA is voting to abdicate
power to an international body in direct violation of
the Constitution.

Unless you vote AGAINST CAFTA and also oppose FTAA
with every fiber of your being, you can rest assured I
will oppose your political career as long as there is
a breath left in my body, because if you vote for
CAFTA, I will consider you to be threatening MY
LIFE!!!"

WHO TO CALL TO TELL THIS TO:
(Call the Capital Switchboard # 202-225-3121 and ask
to be connected to each of these people, and after
you're done talking with each one ask to be
reconnected to the switchboard so you can be connected
to the next one):

REPUBLICANS:

Charles Grassley, IA
Orrin Hatch, UT
Trentt Lott, MS
Olympia Snowe, ME
Jon Kyl, AZ
Craig Thomas, WY
Rick Santorum, PA
Bill Frist, TN
Gordon Smith, OR
Jim Bunning, KY
Mike Crapo, (pronounced "CRAY-PO") ID

DEMOCRATS
Max Baucus, MT
John D. Rockefeller,IV, WV
Kent Conrad, ND
Jeff Bingaman, NM
John Kerry, MA
Blanche Lincoln, AR
Ron Wyden, OR
Charles Schumer, NY

ALSO- Keep sending in this form letter where you can
also add your own comments
http://capwiz.com/lef/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=7739691

SNOWBALL THIS ALERT- IF CAFTA MAKES IT OUT OF
COMMITTEE TOMORROW (WEDNESDAY JUNE 29th) they're going
to bring it to the Floor of the Senate on FRIDAY, then
it goes before the House Ways and Means Committee and
to the Floor of the House after the week long July 4th
recess)

Donations Needed:
Donations are needed to Send John Hammell back to
Capital Hill for more lobbying on this issue.
See address below or donate via paypal at
http://www.iahf.com (paypal button on top of scrollbar
inside the site)

We have no leverage with the unelected bureaucrats at
CODEX, but we DO have leverage with members of our
congress and we CAN keep Codex from coming here, IF we
work together and OVERCOME the challenges of
organizing people during the summer when folks are on
vacation.
The elements of coersion ALWAYS make moves like this
against us during the summer, we just have to work
that much HARDER to stop them!

PLEASE SNOWBALL THIS ALERT!!

[redqueen]

10. KICK

:kick:

[Robert Oak]

11. up for vote, WRITE NOW PLEASE!

Up for vote means they might have gotten enough votes to pass this turd.

Latest BS from Bush corporation is saying "if you pass CAFTA, we might attempt to do something about China's unfair trade practices".

What BS...another vague promise and they will sell us down the river.

If the white house wanted to do something about China, they would do it separately.

There is absolutely no reason to pass this enslaving/outsourcing
agreement that will only make the workers in all nations more repressed.