March puts focus on fair global economy

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4267

By Barb Kucera
6 December 2009

ST. PAUL - While the recession, health care and the war in Afghanistan dominate the headlines, Minnesotans gathered Saturday to put the focus on the movement for a fair and just global economy.

Carrying signs and banners that read “Fair Trade Now!” more than 100 people crossed the Ford Bridge between Minneapolis and St. Paul and marched to a rally at the United Auto Workers Local 879 hall. They called on Congress to pass the TRADE Act, legislation that would require trade agreements to protect workers, the environment, consumers and others.


Marchers crossed the Ford Bridge over the Mississippi River connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul.


“We understand that American workers are part of a global economy,” Congressman Keith Ellison told marchers. “But we can’t participate in a global economy that destroys human rights, that depends on child labor and destruction of the environment.”

The march and rally, organized by the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, ended a “Seattle +10 Week of Action” that included teach-ins and discussions to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the protests that shut down the 1999 World Trade Organization talks in Seattle.

In the past decade, environmentalists, union members, family farmers and faith and social justice activists have built a movement “to establish a just global economy that would raise living standards everywhere,” said Larry Weiss, keynote speaker at the rally.

FULL story and more photos at link.

[demosincebirth]

1. It would much fairer if we treated China and Japan like they treat us

with all their unfair trade practices against (U.S) foreign products