Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
Appeal for a Western Hemisphere Workers Conference Against the FTAA!
1)
Introduction: Please Endorse & Support the Western Hemisphere
Workers Conference Against the FTAA (Sao Paulo, Brazil - July 2003)!
2) Cover Letter from Julio
Turra to OWC Co-Coordinators
3) Call For a Western
Hemisphere Workers Conference Against the FTAA -- Sao Paulo, Brazil
(July 2003)
4) Response
by U.S. Trade Unionists and Activists to the Appeal from Brazil
5) First List
of Endorsers from the United States and Brazil
1)
Introduction: Please Endorse & Support the Western Hemisphere
Workers Conference Against the FTAA (Sao Paulo, Brazil - July 2003)!
December 11, 2002
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
Three weeks ago, the OWC Continuations Committee received from leading
trade unionists in Brazil a Call to convene a Western Hemisphere Workers
Conference Against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) next July in
Sao Paulo, Brazil.
In a cover letter sent to us November 18, Julio Turra, National Executive
Director of the Unified Trade Union Confederation of Brazil (CUT),
explained the origin and purpose of this conference call.
We are including herewith the cover letter and proposed Conference Appeal,
together with a response we have prepared to this initiative and which we
would like you to endorse along with the Conference Appeal.
Please read these materials and add your name -- and if possible that of
your union and organization -- both to the Conference Appeal and to Letter
of Response from U.S. Trade Unionists and Activists. (If you are already
an endorser, please help us distribute this packet as widely as possible
for new endorsements and support.)
You will also find below the first list of endorsers from the United
States and Brazil. Please sign on to this endorser list by filling out and
returning the Endorsement Coupon immediately below to us at the OWC, see
address below, at your earliest possible convenience.
Also, please send us a financial contribution, large or small, to help us
build this conference as widely as possible across the United States and
the entire Western Hemisphere. We will need funds for translators,
mailings, conference bulletins, phone calls, etc.
We thank you in advance for your endorsement of these two important
statements.
In solidarity,
Ed Rosario and Alan Benjamin,
Co-Coordinators,
OWC Continuations Committee
----------
ENDORSEMENT COUPON
[ ] Please add my name both to the Call for the Western Hemisphere
Workers' Conference Against the FTAA and to the Response by U.S. Trade
Unionists and Activists to the Appeal from Brazil
[ ] I will send a financial contribution of $ ___ to help defray the
expenses for organizing this conference. My check, payable to OWC, will be
sent to OWC, c/o S.F. Labor Council, at 1188 Franklin St. #203, San
Francisco, CA 94109.
NAME
UNION/ORG (list if for id. only)
TITLE (list if for id. only)
CITY
STATE
COUNTRY
EMAIL
(please fill out ASAP and return to ilcinfo@earthlink.net
)
********************
2) Cover Letter from Julio Turra to OWC Co-Coordinators
Attention:
Alan Benjamin and Ed Rosario,
Co-coordinators,
Continuations Committee
Open World Conference
San Francisco,
Dear Union Brothers and Sisters of the United States,
Please find below an Appeal for a Western Hemisphere Workers Conference
Against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). In the name of dozens
of union officials and leading activists in the Brazilian labor movement,
I would like to propose to you that this Conference Appeal be issued
publicly with an initial list of signatories from the labor movement in
Brazil and the United States.
The reason for this proposal is that the co-presidency for the final stage
of negotiations of the FTAA was entrusted to the governments of our two
countries -- Brazil and the United States -- at the recent FTAA
ministerial meeting held in Quito, Ecuador.
As you can see, we are proposing that this continental conference against
the FTAA be held in Brazil. Why are we making this proposal? On October
27th, as you may know, the Brazilian people voted massively for change,
giving an overwhelming majority to Luis Inacio (Lula) da Silva, the
Workers Party candidate for president of the republic.
With this vote, the workers and the overwhelming majority of the people
said that a sovereign Brazil wants to be the master of its own destiny.
This massive vote of 52 million people who supported the PT presidential
candidate was a concrete expression of the rejection of an "economic
model" imposed by the IMF on our country whose result has been a
brutal increase in unemployment, attacks on workers' rights, and the
plunging into poverty and hunger of millions of Brazilians!
With their vote on October 27, the landless peasants of Brazil declared
they want titles to the land so that they can produce crops to feed their
families. The workers of Brazil, victims of "restructuring"
plans that have resulted in mass layoffs and attacks on labor rights,
declared they want employment with full rights and benefits, and they want
to maintain their healthcare and social security benefits. The homeless
declared they want homes and the youth declared they want a future with
quality education and real jobs.
We believe that the results of the October 27th elections in Brazil
awakened the hopes and aspirations of the workers and peoples of the
entire continent, not just those of Brazil. And just as the Brazil's
working people affirmed their right to decide their own destiny, all the
peoples of the Americas -- from the North to the South -- must affirm this
same right.
We believe that a common appeal issued by unionists from Brazil and the
United States, who are suffering the anti-union policies of the Bush
administration, would be received with great enthusiasm by our sister and
brother trade unionists and activists in Canada, Mexico, Central America,
the Caribbean and all of South America.
The FTAA, which they want to impose on us by January of 2005, is the
opposite of the freedom of the peoples to choose their own destiny. To
start with, it is the negation of all democratic rights, beginning with
workers' rights. The FTAA is a straitjacket which the "financial
markets" want to place upon all the nations and peoples of our
continent. The FTAA points towards the destruction of our independent
union organizations. It is not an alliance among peoples; on the contrary,
it is "alliance" among the multinational corporations and banks
against the workers and peoples of the Americas.
We can say this unequivocally: Every opportunity the workers and their
organizations have had to express themselves on the subject, the FTAA has
been rejected overwhelmingly. A common appeal from Brazilian and North
American trade unionists for a Western Hemisphere Workers' Conference
Against the FTAA would be, in itself, a striking blow against all who are
tyring to sell the idea that that being against the FTAA is somehow
tantamount to being "isolationist" or "anti-American."
As you will see from the enclosed appeal -- which I should point out is a
draft and is therefore open to any amendments you see fit to make -- we
want to affirm that we are united and stand in solidarity with each
others' struggles, that we defend the same interests and are confronted
with the same aggression on the part of the multinationals and financial
and speculative groups that are pushing the nations and peoples of the
Americas and the entire world toward an abyss.
The first signatories of the Appeal in Brazil support the results of the
initiatives we have taken together -- such as the Western Hemisphere
Workers Conference against NAFTA and Privatization in November 1997, the
Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union Independence and
Democratic Rights in February 2000, both held in San Francisco, as well as
the Berlin Conference Against Deregulation and For Labor Rights For All in
February of 2002. At all three of these gathering, we were able to
exchange important information with our brothers and sisters from the
United States and position ourselves to wage a joint struggle against the
FTAA.
It is from these previous experiences that we draw our proposal for a
common appeal for a Western Hemisphere Workers' Conference Against the
FTAA, in defense of national sovereignty and workers' rights and
conquests, against war and for peace among all peoples! We propose to hold
the conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in July of the coming year 2003.
With warmest greetings and awaiting your response,
Julio Turra,
National Executive Director,
Unified Trade Union Confederation of Brazil (CUT)
Sao Paulo, November 18, 2002
********************
3) Call For a Western Hemisphere Workers Conference Against
the FTAA -- Sao Paulo, Brazil (July 2003)
We, unionists and activists from the labor movement of Brazil and the
United States, address our brother and sister trade unionists and
activists of the entire Western Hemisphere:
The governments of our two countries -- the United States and Brazil --
have been entrusted since November 1, 2002, with the task of presiding
jointly over the negotiations aimed at creating the FTAA (Free Trade Area
of the Americas) by the year 2005. This is a plan the Bush administration
seeks to impose on the whole continent.
We, the undersigned, affirm that in all the countries of the Americas --
from the North to the South -- millions of workers from the countryside
and the cities have mobilized alongside the youth and all the oppressed to
say "No to the FTAA!" In all countries, massive demonstrations
have taken place against the FTAA. Everywhere, working people have
denounced the fact that the FTAA seeks to accelerate all the ongoing
attacks workers' rights and social rights -- be it in the United States
and Canada or Latin America and the Caribbean. Everywhere, working people
have slammed the FTAA for its quest to reduce the nations of our region to
mere appendices of a continental "free market" controlled by the
multinationals under the aegis of the United States.
In Brazil, on September 1-7, 2002, a nationwide referendum was organized
by trade union and popular organizations. The result was more than 10
million people who said "No to the FTAA" and who demanded that
Brazil withdraw from the FTAA negotiations process and that it reject an
accord that would concede a military base to the United States in the
region of Alcantra (Maranhao). This referendum vote was extended further
on October 27th, when 52 million people voted for Luis Inacio (Lula) da
Silva, thus signifying their rejection of eight years of IMF structural
adjustment and "free trade."
In the United States, working people, who have already suffered the bitter
consequences of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), also reject
the FTAA, which would bring even more unemployment, more attacks on union
and workers' rights, and more elimination of good-paying jobs.
The workers and people of Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, and
the entire continent suffer daily the consequences of the policies imposed
by the IMF -- policies that have paved the way for the creation of the
FTAA. If our common struggle does not succeed in stopping the FTAA, we can
be sure that the attacks on our peoples and nations will be even more
brutal in the years to come.
Many times we've heard it said that opposing the FTAA, in addition to be
"unrealistic," is proof of "anti-North American" or
"isolationist" sentiment.
We, workers and activists of the United States and Brazil, with this joint
initiative, categorically deny these absurd accusations!
We, Brazilian workers, do not see the working class in the United States
as our enemies or competitors. We are united and stand in solidarity with
them in the common struggle against exploitation, for freedom and against
war!
We, North American workers, likewise see ourselves as sisters and brothers
to the exploited and oppressed workers and peoples of Latin America and
the Caribbean. We defend the same interests, confront the same attacks by
multinationals and by the financial groups and speculators, all of whom
are pushing the nations and peoples of our continent and of the entire
world toward an abyss, toward disaster. We've already witnessed such a
spectacle in Argentina!
We proclaim together: The FTAA is not an alliance among the people to
serve the people. To the contrary, the FTAA is an "alliance" of
multinationals and major banks against the workers and the peoples of the
American continent.
In Quito (Ecuador), the Trade Ministers of the 34 countries that are
discussing the FTAA reaffirmed that these negotiations should be concluded
"at the latest in January 2005," and that the FTAA should take
effect "the sooner the better, and no later than December 2005."
What will the creation of the FTAA mean?
With NAFTA, in Canada and the U.S. alone, more than 1 million good-paying
jobs were eliminated, while in Mexico, after eight years of this treaty,
today there are 8.5% fewer jobs than before. What then can we expect from
the FTAA?
With the FTAA, privatizations will increase even more. Public services,
health and education will be transformed into commodities available only
to those who have money to pay for them. Access to the services will no
longer be a citizen's right, and providing these services will no longer
be a duty of the State.
The total opening up of the borders to the gigantic appetites of the
multinational corporations, usually based in the United States, will
destroy entire sectors of production in the countries of the continent!
National sovereignty will be destroyed in the name of
"guarantees" offered to investors. Rump "supranational
courts" such as exist under NAFTA will be called upon to issue
verdicts in case of "trade" disputes. The record of these courts
is in: Any measure that challenges the iron grip of the multinational
corporations, any law or regulation that limits corporate profits --
whether a Labor code that protects labor or social rights, or an
environmental regulation -- will be thrown out the window.
The threats and blackmail by the bosses to close up their plants and
relocate to areas with a cheaper labor force and fewer regulations -- what
has become known as whipsawing -- will only increase in number and scope
with the FTAA.
To try and derail the continental mobilization of working people against
the FTAA, there have been no lack of attempts to tie workers'
organizations to its implementation. This is done with false declarations
of "good intentions" on the part of the bosses and governments,
who claim that if the workers grant them the FTAA, they pledge to
"respect" labor and environmental rights.
Such claims are a sham. The very purpose of the FTAA, just like that of
NAFTA before it, is to remove all national, labor, social and
environmental rights and regulations that stand in the way of unfettered
corporate profitmaking. All such rights are deemed "barriers to
trade" by the IMF and its ilk.
If the United States, to take just one example, were really serious about
respecting labor rights, shouldn't it begin by ratifying all the core ILO
Conventions codifying basic labor rights? To date, though, the United
States has not ratified any of these core ILO Conventions.
No, the FTAA -- under whatever guise -- cannot result in anything positive
for the workers and the peoples of the Americas!
Whenever the workers and the peoples of the Western Hemisphere, together
with their organizations, have had the possibility to express their
rejection of the FTAA, spokespersons for the Bush administration and the
international financial institutions have immediately gone to the public
to deny them this right!
This is what occurred, for example, in Brazil in the aftermath of the
October 27, 2002, presidential election, when more than 52 million workers
and youth elected Lula, the candidate of the Workers Party, thereby
rejecting the economic model represented by the FTAA and in the process
affirming the right of the Brazilian people to be the masters of their own
destiny. What was the reaction of the Bush administration? U.S. Trade
Representative Robert Zoellick, declared with unbridled arrogance and
contempt that "If Brazil does not want the FTAA it can go trade with
Antarctica!"
We, the endorsers of this appeal, declare our solidarity and fraternal
unity with the workers and people of Brazil and with all the workers and
people of the continent against all those who seek to deny us the right to
life, to our land, to decent jobs, to a roof over our heads, to peace --
and to national sovereignty!
It is not our aim to substitute ourselves for, or otherwise compete with,
the trade unions and organizations that are fighting against the FTAA
throughout the continent. We declare here that our only interest is to
help in the struggle to defend and advance workers' rights and to preserve
the independence of our unions, which is the very foundation of a
democratic society.
We call upon all of our brother and sister trade unionists and activists
from across the Americas to gather in July 2003, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for
a Western Hemisphere Workers Conference of Workers:
* Against the FTAA
* In defense of social and labor rights
* Against Bush's war, and for peace among peoples!
* In defense of trade union and democratic freedoms!
Endorsers:
[Note: See list of initial signatories from the United States and
Brazil below. Please add your names to this appeal by filling out the
endorsement coupon above.]
********************
4) Response by U.S. Trade Unionists and Activists to the
Appeal from Brazil
To the Organizers of the Western Hemisphere Workers Conference Against the
Free Trade Area of the Americas, Sao Paulo, Brazil -- July 2003
Dear Brother Julio Turra and Conference Organizers:
We -- the undersigned trade unionists and activists from across the United
States -- wholeheartedly support your call to convene a Western Hemisphere
Workers Conference Against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Please list us as endorsers of the Joint Conference Appeal from Brazilian
and U.S. trade unionists and activists.
We agree with you when you state that the FTAA, which the Bush
administration seeks to impose on the entire continent by 2005, would
accelerate the attacks on working people and their social and democratic
rights from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Indeed, the FTAA would create one
giant "free trade/sweatshop zone" controlled by the
multinational corporations and all the financial institutions (WTO, IMF,
World Bank) in their service.
Your decision to convene this Conference Against the FTAA in Sao Paulo,
Brazil, is fully warranted. As you point out in your cover letter and
call, this past October 27th, a new situation was opened for working
people across the Western Hemisphere -- one full of promise for working
people in all the countries of the continent -- when 52 million Brazilians
voted for Luis Inacio (Lula) da Silva, the presidential candidate of the
Workers Party (PT), to express their heartfelt demands for basic rights
and their hope that with a PT victory things will finally change for the
better.
Your call notes that on October 27, the Brazilian people reaffirmed with
full force their determination to be masters of their own destiny, free
from all interference and dictates coming from the United States or
anywhere else.
We -- unionists and activists from the United States -- say to you:
Nothing and no one should be allowed to trample upon the right to
self-determination of the Brazilian people, or any other peoples of the
Americas.
Your cover letter and call note that the landless peasants want titles to
the land so that they can produce crops to feed their families. This
demand -- echoing under different circumstances the plight of the
undocumented farmworkers in the United States -- is legitimate and must be
heeded.
You note that workers, victims of "restructuring" plans that
have resulted in mass layoffs and attacks on labor rights, want employment
with full rights and benefits. They want to maintain their healthcare and
social security benefits, which today are on the IMF's chopping block.
They are right -- just as the autoworkers in Ohio who are fighting for
universal, single-payer healthcare are right -- to fight for these
demands.
You note that the homeless want homes and the youth want a future with
quality education and real jobs. These are also the demands of the
homeless and the youth in our country.
Again, we say to you: Nothing and no one -- no "free trade"
agreement emanating from Washington, no IMF structural adjustment plan, no
clamor from international bankers demanding repayment of the debt --
should be allowed to stand in the way of addressing these legitimate
demands, these crying needs of the Brazilian people.
Just like the workers in the Brazilian city of Caxias, where eight years
of IMF structural adjustment plans have closed down all the textile
plants, working people in the United States -- from the steel mills in the
rust belt of the Midwest, to the textile mills of the Deep South -- know
all too well the pain of seeing our plants closed down and our jobs
destroyed. As a result of NAFTA, more than 1 million good-paying jobs with
benefits have been lost in the United States, transferred south of the
border and beyond to sweatshops where workers are exploited mercilessly
and have no rights.
In their drive for maximum profits, global corporations pit working
people, our communities, and entire nations against one another in a
downward spiral of takebacks, concessions and direct assaults -- what has
become known appropriately as the "race to the bottom." Key to
this effort are the disastrous practices of racial discrimination and
segregation against people of color.
With the FTAA -- an agreement many have called NAFTA on steroids -- the
hemorrhage of our jobs and the attacks on our environment and communities
will deepen. With the FTAA, employers and governments will be emboldened
in their drive to remove or cripple all institutions -- particularly
independent trade unions -- that provide working people the capacity to
resist their insatiable drive for ever-greater profits.
Turning a deaf ear to the plight of working people in Brazil, the United
States and the rest of the continent, the Bush administration -- catering
to its corporate allies -- has succeeded in pushing through Fast Track and
is now embarked full steam ahead to put the FTAA process into place by
2005, with the United States and Brazil now co-chairing this final phase
of FTAA preparation.
To our sisters and brothers in Brazil and across the Americas, we say:
Those in our country who are promoting this destructive corporate agenda
do not speak in our name. We -- working people, activists and youth of the
United States -- are at your side in the fight to defeat the FTAA so that
the landless peasants can finally have the right to the land, so that the
children can get an education and a future without hunger, so that workers
can have jobs and security, with unions that represent their interests --
so that our families and communities are not sacrificed on the altar of
corporate profit.
There is still time to stop and turn back the FTAA steamroller. Millions
of working people across the continent have mobilized against the FTAA,
demanding that their governments withdraw from the FTAA negotiations, or,
as in the case of the United States, demanding that their representatives
oppose Fast Track. Their voices -- strengthened by this new fighting force
of 52 million Brazilians who voted on October 27 for the Workers Party --
can and must be heeded.
We in the United States applaud your effort to convene this Western
Hemisphere Workers Conference Against the FTAA next year in Sao Paulo. You
are pointing the way forward. We will build this conference actively among
working people and youth across our country. You can count on our
unflinching support.
Yours is a call for justice and democracy, for workers' and peoples'
rights, for the rights of women, youth, children, and all the oppressed --
for a militant campaign to stem the tide of these vicious assaults against
our unions, our jobs, our standards of living, our rights, and all the
gains we have won in struggle.
Let's join hands across borders to organize the fightback to stop the FTAA.
The time is now!
Initial Signatories,
[Note: See initial list of signatories below; please add your names
to this reply by filling out the endorsement coupon above.]
********************
5) First List of Endorsers from the United States and Brazil
FIRST LIST OF U.S. ENDORSERS
ORGANIZATIONAL:
San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
East Bay Chapter, Pride At Work (Oakland, CA)
Continuations Committee, Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union
Independence and Democratic Rights
---
INDIVIDUALS:
(organizations and titles listed for id. only; listed in order
received)
Alan Benjamin, Co-coordinator, OWC Continuations Committee (San
Francisco, CA);
Ed Rosario, Co-coordinator, OWC Continuations Committee (San
Francisco, CA);
Nancy Wohlforth, Business Manager, OPEIU Local 3 (San Francisco,
CA);
John O'Connor, Secretary-Treasurer, American Federation of
Musicians Local 1000 (New York, NY);
Dan Kaplan, Executive Secretary, AFT 1493 (San Mateo, CA);
Helen A. Spalding, Retiree, Sub-Chapter 146 Treasurer, AFSCME Local
1184, Sub-Chapter (Port Clinton, OH);
Marta Ames, Executive director, Pride at Work/AFL-CIO (Washington,
D.C.)
Ray Quan, Vice-President, BART Chapter, SEIU Local 790 (Oakland,
CA) ;
Mario Santos, Secretary, Filipino Workers' Association (FWA)
(Fremont, CA);
Chloe Osmer, OWC Webmaster, OWC Continuations Committee (San
Francisco, CA);
Howard Wallace, Community Rep./Organizer, Health Care Workers Local
250, SEIU (San Francisco, CA);
Larry Duncan, Co-producer, Labor Beat (Chicago, IL);
Larry Small, Chair, Labor Support Committee, No. Calif. Media
Workers, CWA #39521 (San Francisco, CA);
Denise D'Anne, Secretary, Pride at Work, SEIU-Local790 (San
Francisco, CA);
Fred Lonidier, President, University Council/AFT Local 2034 (San
Diego, CA);
Mark Demming, National Lawyers Guild (Oakland, CA);
John O'Connor, Secretary-Treasurer, American Federation of
Musicians Local 1000 (New York, NY);
Krista Husar, OWC, (San Francisco, CA);
Tucker Pamella Farley, Associate Prof., Professional Staff Congress
(Brooklyn, NY);
Rebecca Kaplan, (Elected government official), Alameda-Contra Costa
Transit District Board of Directors (Oakland, CA);
Mark D. Stansbery, Recreation Supervisor, Union Representative, CWA
Local 4502 (Columbus, OH);
Fred Pecker, Secretary-Treasurer, Warehouse Union Local 6, ILWU
(San Francisco, CA);
Richard Lochner, Officer and Steward, American Postal Workers
Union, (APWU) Portland Area Local 128 (Portland, OR);
Arthur B. Persyko, IBT Local 85 Political Coordinator SF &
Labor Council Delegate, IBT Local 85 (San Francisco, CA);
Medea Benjamin, Founding Director, Global Exchange (San Francisco,
CA)
Al Sandine, Steering Committee Secretary, Oakland, National Writers
Union, Local 3 (Kensington, CA);
Millie Phillips, Editorial Board, The Organizer Newspaper (San
Francisco, CA);
Conny Ford, Union Representative, OPEIU Local 3 (San Francisco,
CA);
Ron Jacobs, University of Vermont (Burlington, Vermont);
Eric Mar, Commissioner SF Board of Education, San Francisco Board
of Education/CFA/CTA San Francisco State University (San Francisco, CA);
Timothy Stinson, Socialist Organizer (San Francisco, CA);
Harry Kershner, Activist, (San Francisco, CA);
Marlene Santoyo, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (Philadelphia,
PA);
Riva Enteen, Progam director, National Lawyers Guild, SF/Bay Area
Chapter (San Francisco, CA);
Brian Garry, Member, IWW (Cincinnati, OH);
Zev Kvitky, President, United Stanford Workers &
Vice-President, SEIU Local 715 (Palo Alto, CA);
Julian Kunnie, Professor, Africana Studies, University of Arizona
(Tucson, AZ);
Karl Kramer, Campaign co-director, San Francisco Living Wage
Coalition (San Francisco, CA);
Heidi Durham, U.S. Labor Coordinator for Freedom Socialist Party
& member, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 77
(Seattle, WA);
Asher & Ruth Harer, ILWU, retired and OPEIU, retired (San
Francisco, CA);
Hal Sutton, Trustee, UAW Local 1268 (Belvidere, IL);
Marc Rich, Member, House of Representatives & Interim Chapter
Organizer, UTLA (or UTLP) (Los Angeles, CA);
Maria Elena Guillen, Recording Secretary, SEIU 790 (San Francisco,
CA);
Juliette Beck, Senior Organizer, Public Citizen (Oakland, CA);
Jack Heyman, Business Agent, ILWU Local 10 (San Francisco, CA);
Katharine Harer, Co-President, AFT 1493 - San Mateo Community
College District (San Mateo, CA);
Claude Piller, Attorney at Law (Portland, OR);
Gary Olson, Labor Party (Moravian, PA);
Grant Corley, Shop Steward. GCIU 4-N (San Francisco, CA);
Dorothy Gilles, Organizer, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO
(Edwardsville, IL);
Ron Dicks, Vice President Political Action, IFPTE #21 (San
Francisco, CA);
Marc Wutschke, Board of Directors, United Teachers Los Angeles/UTLA
(Los Angeles, CA);
Jim Hamilton, Vice President for Political Action, AFT Local 420
(St. Louis, MO);
Louie Rocha, President, CWA Local 9423 (San Jose, CA)
*****
FIRST LIST OF BRAZILIAN ENDORSERS
(organizations and titles listed for id. only)
Julio Turra - Member of the National Executive Committee, CUT;
Demerson Dias - Director, National Federation of Federal Judicial
Workers (FENAJUFE);
Ismael Cesar - Director, National Confederation of Federal Workers
(CONDSEF);
Roque Jose Ferreira - Director, National Confederation of Transport
Workers (CNTT-CUT);
Maze Favarao - PT City Councilwoman, Osasco (SP), and Director,
Federation of Professors of the State of Sao Paulo (FEPESP) and
representative to the Brazilian Continuations Committee for the Berlin
Conference;
Carlos Gianazzi - PT City Councilman, Sao Paulo (SP);
Tereza Lajolo - ex- PT City Councilwoman, Sao Paulo (SP), Member of
the International Liaison Committee;
Jorge dos Santos Buchabqui - Labor Lawyer (RS);
Mauricio Rosa - Secretary General, National Federation of Postal
Workers (FENTECT) and Member of the Executive Committee, CUT-SC;
Gardinia Baima - Member of the Executive Committee, CUT-CE;
Walter Matos - Member of the Executive Committee, CUT-AM and
Director, CONDSEF;
Marelia Penna - Member of the Executive Committee, CUT-SP;
Luiz Gomes - Member of the Executive Committee, CUT-AL;
G. Faustao - Director, Chemical Workers Union (SINDIQUIMICA) and
CUT-PE;
Josenildo Vieira - Director, Union of Professors (SINPRO) and
Member of the Executive Committee, CUT-PE;
Monica Giovanetti - Member of the Executive Committee of the
CUT-PR;
Luiz Carlos Alencar - Director, CONDSEF (CE);
Claudio Santana - Director, CONDSEF (DF);
Denise Goulart - Director, State Professors Union (CPERS) RS;
Jesualdo Campos - Director, National Confederation of Workers in
Educational Establishments (CONTEE) and CUT-PE;
Cely Taffarel - Secretary General, National Union of University
Workers (ANDES);
Jaqueline Albuquerque - Director, FENAJUFE (PE);
Joao Batista Gomes - Secretary General, Union of Municipal Workers
of Sao Paulo (SINDSEP) - SP;
Luis Bicalho - Director of the SINDSEP (Federal) in the Federal
District of Brasilia
Verivaldo Mota - Director, Glassworkers Union - SP;
Nilton de Martins - Director, Radio Workers Union - SP;
Roberto Luque - Director, Federal Workers Union (SINTSEF) - CE;
Baptista Gariglio Filho - Director, Metro Workers Union of Belo
Horizonte, Contagem and Betim (MG);
Raimundo Bartolomeu - Director, Metro Workers Union of Belo
Horizonte, Contagem and Betim (MG);
Arnaldo Fernandes - Director, Railroad Workers Union of Bahia and
Sergipe;;
Jose Carlos Rodrigues - President, Machinists Union of Parana and
Santa Catarina;
Jeronimo Miranda Neto - President, Railroad Workers Union of
Tubar_o (SC);
Alex Adriano Alcazar Fernandes - Director, Metro Workers Union of
Sao Paulo (SP);
Alexandre Gaucho - Director, Union of Graphics Workers of S_o Paulo
(SP);
Roberto Machini - Director, Bankers Union of Bauru and Regi_o (SP);
Maurino Silva - President, State Public Workers Union (SINTESPE)-
SC;
Lauro Jorge Alves Cavalcanti - Director, Judicial Workers Union (SINDJUS)
-AL;
Katia Rosangela Saraiva de Albuquerque - Director, Judicial Workers
Union (SINTRAJUF) -PE;
Adelson Paz Lira - Director, Judicial Workers Union (SINTRAJUF) -PE
Roosenvald Lucena - Director, Telephone Workers Union (Sinttel)- PB;
Gilberto Paulino - Director, Textile Workers Union (Sindtextil) of
Joao Pessoa (PB);
George Antonio G. Leal - Director, Textile Workers Union (Sindtextil)
of Joao Pessoa (PB);
Ivan Oliveira de Jesus - President, Fiscal Workers Union (SINDIFISCO)
of Sergipe (SE);
Manoel Nogueira Nascimento - Vice-President, SINDIFISCO- SE;
Marcelo Alves Nishimata - Director, Municipal Professors Union (SINPEEM)
Manuel Romao de Souza - Director, SINPEEM;
Lourival Lopes - Director, SINDPEC (Credit Workers Union) da BA;
Lourival Pereira - President, Union of Warehouse Workers (SAGERS) -
RS;
Jose Jorge Maggio - Director, Professors Union (SINPRO) ABC and
FEPESP - SP;
Renato Goncalves - Director, State Professors Union (SEPE) - RJ;
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Abbreviations for Brazilian states:
AL - Alagoas; AM - Amazonas; BA - Bahia; CE - Ceara; DF - Distrito Federal
(Brasilia); MG - Minas Gerais; PB - Paraiba; PE - Pernambuco; PR - Parana;
RJ - Rio de Janeiro; RS - Rio Grande do Sul; SE - Sergipe; SC - Santa
Catarina; SP - Sao Paulo