Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
1)
Letter from OWC Co-Coordinators: Support the AFL-CIO's "Virtual
Demonstration" in Miami; Support the Anti-FTAA Conference in Sao
Paulo, Brazil!
2)
Support Coupon for Western Hemisphere Workers Conference Against the FTAA
-- Sao Paulo, Brazil (December 12-14, 2003)
3)
Excerpts from Letter from Julio Turra (Brazil) and Alan Benjamin (US) to
Supporters of the Anti-FTAA Conference in Brazil on the Meaning of the
Uprising of the Bolivian People and the Fight to Stop the FTAA
********************
1) Letter from OWC Co-Coordinators: Support the AFL-CIO's "Virtual
Demonstration" in Miami; Support the Anti-FTAA Conference in Sao
Paulo, Brazil!
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
This week in Miami, negotiations will take place that will have a dramatic
effect on your life for years to come. At issue is the Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA) agreement, described as "NAFTA on steroids."
The FTAA would expand NAFTA's attacks on jobs, workers' rights, the
environment and democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere by 2005. As
the AFL-CIO's "Stop the FTAA" petition/brochure puts it:
"The FTAA is the WRONG CHOICE for democracy and public services. ...
It is the WRONG CHOICE for workers' rights, public health and the
environment. ... It is the WRONG CHOICE for immigrant workers."
And the AFL-CIO campaign statement concludes: "Make the RIGHT CHOICE
for Working Families: STOP FTAA!"
Tens of thousands will protest in Miami this Thursday and Friday. Add your
voice, and let's make it millions. Please join our "virtual
demonstration" against the FTAA.
SIGN the Stop the FTAA petition issued by the AFL-CIO. Go to http://www.aflcio.org/stopftaa
. The petition will be delivered to Congress and the Trade Representatives
from 34 countries during the FTAA meeting.
Please FORWARD this email to everyone you know who cares about labor
rights, the environment and democracy. We can only reach critical mass if
you spread the word.
We also want to remind you to support the Western Hemisphere Workers'
Conference Against the FTAA, which will be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on
Dec. 12-14, 2003. [For more info on this conference, please go to http://www.owcinfo.org
.]
We need your financial support to our $2000 Anti-FTAA Conference Travel
Fund to ensure the success of this event. Unionists from labor
organizations with scarce resources in very poor countries need our
assistance to be able to attend this Organizing Conference to Stop the
FTAA. Please send us a donation, large or small, to help defray their
travel costs. Make your check payable to OWC and mail it to OWC, c/o S.F.
Labor Council, 1188 Franklin St., #203, San Francisco, CA 94109. [See
coupon below.]
We are also sending you, for your information, major excerpts from a
letter by Julio Turra and Alan Benjamin dealing with the FTAA and the
recent uprising of the Bolivian people. You will be able to see why it is
so urgent that we Stop the FTAA in 2004!
Again, many thanks for your ongoing support to our efforts,
In solidarity,
Ed Rosario and Alan Benjamin,
Co-coordinators,
Open World Conference Continuations Committee
SF Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
********************
2) SUPPORT/PARTICIPATION COUPON
(Conference Against the FTAA, Sao Paulo, Brazil)
[ ] I plan to attend the Western Hemisphere Workers' Conference
Against the FTAA. Please send me the conference agenda and more info on
conference logistics.
[ ] My union will be able to send a representative to the Western
Hemisphere Workers' Conference Against the FTAA. Please send me the
conference agenda and more info on conference logistics.
[ ] Unfortunately, I will NOT be able to attend, and my union also will
NOT be able to send a representative to the Western Hemisphere Workers'
Conference Against the FTAA
[ ] I/my union will send a financial contribution of $ ___ to help defray
the travel expenses for unionists across the Americas to be able to attend
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
TITLE
CITY
STATE
COUNTRY
EMAIL
(please fill out ASAP and return to <ilcinfo@earthlink.net>)
********************
3) Letter from Julio Turra and Alan Benjamin to Supporters of the
Western Hemisphere Conference Against the FTAA (Sao Paulo,
Brazil -- Dec. 12-14, 2003)
(Excerpts)
October 18, 2003
Dear sisters and brothers,
Dear trade union activists of the Americas:
Bolivia's workers and people have risen up against a government that was
selling off the nation to the U.S. transnational corporations and their
U.S. government sponsor. They have forced President Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozada to resign. Sanchez de Lozada had not backed off from calling on the
Army to gun down marchers protesting his country-selling policies. The
government repression left hundreds injured and 74 dead.
Bolivia's people -- primarily the workers and peasants -- have taken
action. They have expressed their determination to defend the Bolivian
nation against the disintegration and plunder promoted by a corrupt
government that has pledged to promote the Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA). They have stood up to protest IMF-imposed policies that led to the
wholesale closure of the tin and copper mines, the country's main source
of wealth, driving hundreds of thousands of miners into abject poverty.
Through their actions, the Bolivian people have voiced their deepest
aspiration: "Bolivia Belongs to Us; It Is Not For Sale! The Bolivian
Nation Must Not Be Destroyed!"
The Bolivian people expressed what workers are demanding throughout our
continent:
* End the IMF-World Bank policies that make our economies follow the
dictates of U.S. corporate and financial interests!
* End the starvation policies, the exploitation!
* End the plunder of natural resources that belong to the people!
* End privatizations!
* The land must belong to those who cultivate it!
* Uphold the defense of our nations' integrity and sovereignty!
* Stop the FTAA, the "free trade" agreement that Washington is
determined to impose on all the countries, North and South of the
continent!
Indeed, the FTAA is a treaty that seeks to pave the way for Global
Capitalism to plunder without end the wealth belonging to the people. It
seeks to ban every subsidy, every tariff and every law that protects
national industries, agricultural production and public services, as well
as the environment. It's a treaty that seeks to roll back the scarce labor
rights that have been gained in each country, and to hand the billions in
workers' funds from our pension and healthcare systems to the corporate
elite, mainly based in the United States.
The plunder of Bolivia, one of the continent's poorest countries, is the
expression in the Soutern Hemisphere of a policy that within the United
States itself -- as a result of NAFTA, an agreement endorsed by the United
States and Canada in late 1993 -- has caused the loss of nearly a million
jobs. Indeed, all the peoples of the Americas are concerned by this
corporate assault on our nations and rights.
Today, the AFL-CIO leadership has launched a major campaign around the
slogan: "Stop the FTAA!" The AFL-CIO is gathering tens of
thousands of signatures on a postcard ballot with this message. The
petitions are addressed to the Trade Ministers of the Western Hemisphere,
and will be delivered by AFL-CIO representatives to the 34 trade ministers
of the hemisphere who will be meeting in Miami on Nov. 20-21, 2003.
We who are organizing the Western Hemisphere Workers Conference Against
the FTAA in Sao Paulo. Brazil, next December 12-14, fully support this
appeal by the AFL-CIO. We are circulating this appeal for broader
endorsement and support among all trade unions and labor organizations
throughout the Americas.
It is obvious that the negotiations aimed at setting up the FTAA in
January 2005 can bring no solution to the urgent needs of the peoples of
the Americas who, just like the Bolivian people, want to survive and build
a future.
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
These are serious times. What's required now is to strengthen the
solidarity bonds linking workers and peoples of all the Americas. We call
on all those who are preparing the continental conference against FTAA to
give their support to the struggle waged by the Bolivian people for their
right to live in a sovereign country.
Today, through the mobilization of the Bolivian people, it is all the
workers and peoples of the Americas who are saying: "We want a
future, we want to survive. And for that, the FTAA must be stopped --
immediately!"
To help build this movement to Stop the FTAA, we ask each and everyone of
you to help us build support for the continental conference against FTAA,
which will be convened in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on December 12-14, 2003.
* Yes to the sovereignty of nations!
* Yes to labor and social rights!
* Stop the FTAA!
*****************