Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 12: Congress to vote on FTAs

It's time to make one more call. Jobs and justice are on the line!

If you have not spoken out against these trade agreements, now must be the time. If you have called, speak out again. Please contact your senators and representative at 1-800-718-1008 and tell them NO Colombia, Panama, or South Korean FTAs.

These three undemocratic and job-killing free trade agreements will be voted on tomorrow by Congress.

We've sent out several alerts as these agreements have worked their way closer to a vote, and we thank you for speaking out against them.

All of these FTAs allow corporate attacks on democratic laws, and will result in the loss of US jobs and the further abuse of communities overseas. And each of the three agreements undermines the democratic process and the common wealth in its own way, whether it's the Panama FTA making it tougher for our government to go after money launderers and tax evaders, to the South Korea FTA creating trade protections for sweatshop-made goods in other countries, to the Colombia FTA "rewarding" those in power for their poor protection of labor rights. For more background information, see these posts on our blog.

Congress needs to hear that the big-budget corporate backers behind these agreements, like the US Chamber of Commerce, don't speak for the majority of Americans. Call Congress at 1-800-718-1008 and demand fair trade policies that promote workplace rights, environmental justice, and democratic governance, create good jobs, and build sustainable local economies. Thank you.

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Tuesday, October 4: A national call-in to Congress may be our last chance to make our voices heard on FTAs

Right after we sent this out to our email list, we learned that all three FTAs have been sent to Congress. It's time to call now!

Tell your representative and senators that you’ve had enough of "free trade" deals. Now is the time to say “NO” to the Colombia, Panama and South Korea FTAs. Call 1-800-718-1008 today!

• Don’t give corporations more power to attack US federal and state labor, health and environmental laws. Technical Barriers to Trade clauses are undemocratic and favor corporate profits over people and nature. All three FTAs contain investor protection clauses that allow corporations to sue to overturn democratically-enacted laws.

• With 25 million Americans searching for full-time jobs, we can’t afford trade agreements that off-shore jobs, out-source services and manufacturing, and hurt workers and working families. We need jobs here at home.

There's a lot wrong with these FTAs:

• The South Korea FTA is the biggest deal since NAFTA and will displace an estimated 159,000 jobs. In every state, manufacturing, high tech, and green sector jobs will be at risk. The South Korea FTA allows goods to be protected as "Made in South Korea,” even if most of the manufacturing takes place in other countries, for instance, sweatshops in Burma or North Korea—countries notorious for their human rights abuses.

• Colombia is the trade unionist murder capitol of the world, including 55 murdered in 2010. In 2011, 22 have been killed to date, despite promises from the Colombian government to stop these killings.

• Panama has become a haven for foreign tax evaders and money-laundering, but the Panama FTA would make it tougher for the US government to investigate and prosecute those who hide their money there. Don't we need these lost tax dollars to support job creation and to rebuild our failing infrastructure?

Don't believe the hype coming from big business lobbyists like the US Chamber of Commerce, or from Congress members ready to vote for the corporations who fund their campaigns rather than the people of their districts or states.

These agreements won't create jobs or rebuild the economy—but they will benefit the well-off and well-connected few at the expense of communities, democracy and working people here and overseas.

We need fair trade policies that promote workplace rights and safety and build sustainable local economies. The first step toward those goals is to stop these bad deals now. Make the calls and speak out. And thanks for all you do for democracy!

In Alliance,
Nancy Price, David e. Delk, Ruth Caplan and Barbara Clancy

Need contact info?

See this page for Senate contact information, and this page for House members. A phone call carries much more weight than an on-line comment, so we ask you to please take a few minutes on Tuesday, October 4 – National Call-In Day and contact these offices directly. Let us know what response you receive! Email afd@thealliancefordemocracy, or call 781-894-1179.

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Don't give corporations more power to attack US laws

Technical Barriers to Trade clauses are another reason to oppose the South Korean, Colombian and Panamanian FTAs

by David e. Delk, co-chair, Alliance for Democracy
President Obama has recently promoted three Bush regime-negotiated bilateral "Free Trade Agreements" (FTA's) with South Korea, Panama and Columbia. He claims these agreements are essential to creating jobs here in the U.S. In fact, he advocated for these agreements in his job creation address to Congress last week.

From the history of other trade agreements, we know that in fact trade agreements have resulted in a net loss of U.S. jobs. This will be particularly true for South Korea. The economies of Panama and Colombia are so small that very few jobs could possibly result.

Equally important, these bilateral agreements, just like CAFTA and NAFTA, empower corporations to sue our government directly in undemocratic trade tribunals whenever they believe that government regulation or law represents a barrier to trade, especially if future profits are alleged to be threatened!

This means that environmental protection, public health, or laws and regulations in any other area where human needs come into conflict with the corporate bottom line could be challenged and overturned by secret trade tribunals.

I offer the examples below to show the importance of strongly opposing these agreements.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has reached two new decisions this month which further empower corporations, overriding local decision making in favor of decisions made at the international level by privately empowered WTO trade tribunals. A third decision is expected within days.

The three decisions involve the WTO...

Banning the voluntary labeling of canned tuna as "Dolphin Safe"—these labels are illegal because they're restrictive of trade, says the WTO. Mexico won this case against the U.S.

Hindering efforts to reduce teen smoking—the US had, among other actions, banned the sale of clove and other types of flavored cigarettes as being "trainers" by cigarette companies to get youth addicted to smoking. Can't be banned, says the WTO. Indonesia won this case against the U.S.

Banning country of origin labeling of beef and other meat products--the US required country of origin labels after the mad cow and e.coli scares of the 1990s. The WTO is expected to say no dice. Our neighbors Canada and Mexico brought this case against the U.S.

These decisions are based on trade language called "technical barriers to trade" which is part of just about all trade agreements. Health provisions, environmental protection, worker safety—all are technical barriers to trade in the world of "free trade" promoted by these agreements.

Under the WTO, countries have to sue on behalf of their corporations. With bilateral agreements allowing for corporations to sue governments directly, we can expect even more harmful decisions.

Prior to the advent of these trade agreements, American states or the U.S. Congress were able to decide on these types of rules and laws. Now an international trade tribunal decides with no recourse to the American court or legislative systems. With every such decision, our ability to be a sovereign people is diminished. Sovereignty indicates who gets to decide. It is clearly not "We, the People" any more.

Take action now!
Move now to stop the web of corporate power from further attacks on democratic decision making. Call your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators and demand that they vote against the U.S.-Korea, U.S.-Colombia, and U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreements.

David e. Delk,
Co-chair, Alliance for Democracy

Need contact info?
You can call the White House at 202-456-1111. See this page for Senate contact information, and this page for House members. A phone call carries much more weight than an on-line comment, so we ask you to please take a few minutes and contact these offices directly. Let us know what response you receive! Email afd@thealliancefordemocracy, or call 781-894-1179.

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Alliance Alert: South Korean, Colombian and Panama "Free Trade" Agreements are bad for the economy, environment, and democracy!

Like bad pennies, these trade agreements keep turning up! And while President Obama and the US Trade Representative say that our concerns about labor rights and financial regulation have been addressed, all three of these agreements still contain anti-democratic investor protection clauses that threaten the ability of national, state and local governments to protect rights, health, and ecosystems.

There's a push to pass these FTAs by the summer. Now is the time to contact your US Representative and US Senators to express your outrage that these corporate driven, anti-democratic agreements are being considered. State your opposition to all three and let them know that you will remember how they vote.

Want to learn more? Watch video of this US Korea Free Trade Teach-in, featuring Arthur Stamoulis of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, David Delk of Alliance for Democracy; and Barbara Dudley, former head of Greenpeace USA and current head of the Oregon Working Families Party.

Contact your US Representative here and US Senators here.
We're together on this one!
Labor unions like the AFL-CIO, Communication Workers of America and United Steelworkers, environmental groups like the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth, and democracy organizations like Alliance for Democracy and Public Citizen are united in their opposition to the South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS).

The Sierra Club says:
"Mexico and Canada have lost NAFTA challenges to environmental protections and the United States has spent millions defending itself against suits.”

Communication Workers of America said:
“This agreement gives investment and legal protections to large multi-national corporations ...”

We say:
The South Korea Free Trade Agreement is basically a Bush-era giveaway to corporations and Wall Street. It contains the same investor protection provisions that have led to offshoring of jobs and international challenges to democratically-instituted labor, safety, and environmental law. We can't build a sustainable economy, preserve ecosystems, or provide decent jobs on the same old models of unfair "free trade."

The investor protection clauses in KORUS and other FTAs empower foreign corporations to challenge law and regulations passed by national, state, and local governments whenever the corporation feels those laws threaten future profits. These cases are heard before non-democratic trade tribunals. And if the tribunal says so, the law or regulation must be changed or the corporation must be paid.

But wait... there's more!
President Obama will present not only the Korea agreement, but also re-introduce trade agreements that President Bush had negotiated with Colombia and Panama as well.

Colombia has a vicious record of suppression of labor unions and execution of labor leaders. Panama has been a haven for tax evaders. While President Obama and the US Trade Representative have reported progress on both issues, any progress on worker rights, environmental protection, financial regulation or public health will be threatened by the continued presence of investor protection clauses in all three agreements.

It's a bipartisan issue
Republicans want all three of these trade agreements to pass quickly, too. The Republican chair of the House Trade subcommittee has urged President Obama to move quickly on resolution of any remaining issues so that Congress can act on all three agreements by July 1, 2011. After all, they represent potential gains for the for-profit entities that fund both parties re-election campaigns.

Time for action
It's time to start speaking out--early and often! Forward this alert to friends and family in your district or state and get them involved too. We can stop these agreements and end the domination of trade policy by big corporations, but only with your help!

Thanks for all you do!

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