An email from Global Exchange...
Action Alert * Action Alert * Action Alert *
CAFTA vote tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, July 27!!!
On Wednesday, Republican House leaders tentatively scheduled a vote on the Central American-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement for Wednesday, July 27. That means that we have only one week to convince key elected officials to vote for workers, democracy and the environment.
CAFTA is the extension of the failed model of NAFTA to five countries of Central America and the D.R. This is the most important global economic justice vote in a decade – and we can win, if we mobilize enough Americans to call their legislators and urge them to say NO to CAFTA!
Please take one minute to pick up the phone, and call the Capitol Switchboard toll free at 866-340-9281. Ask for your Representative. And urge them to vote against CAFTA.
Then, send this message to all of your friends, family, and colleagues. And urge them to do the same.
Multinational corporations have spent millions shoring up support for CAFTA. President Bush is now spending taxpayer money to buy votes for CAFTA. Corporations are threatening to withhold campaign contributions if Democrats or Republicans vote against CAFTA. And the Administration is pulling out all sorts of so-called “side deals” on sugar, textiles, labor, and China, to paper over the fundamental flaws of the horrible agreement. As his polling numbers fall, support for the war in Iraq recedes, and his top advisor is embroiled in political scandal, Bush wants a “policy win” to attempt to demonstrate that he’s not a lame duck.
If we do nothing, they will win. But we can win the fight against CAFTA, and turn around the tsunami of corporate globalization that has devastated communities across the globe. But we need you to stand up for justice, for workers, for farmers, for democracy, and make this call.
Many of you have been fighting against CAFTA for months – and fighting for global justice for years.
This is the moment.
Three easy steps:
1. Call the toll free number 1-866-340-9281. Ask for your Representative. If you don’t know their name, just tell the operator your zip code and they can connect you – no problem!
2. Tell them that you are a constituent, and that you urge them to vote against CAFTA.
3. Forward this email to everyone you know. If you can, organize to get folks in your community to spend an hour or more together to call their friends and family.
You’ll be glad you did when we beat CAFTA!
Here are some easy talking points:
*I urge you to vote against CAFTA because it’s modeled on NAFTA. NAFTA has cost the US a million manufacturing jobs, and spread sweatshops across Mexico. CAFTA is more of the same – bad for workers, and it’s only great for big corporations. Please vote against CAFTA!
*CAFTA doesn’t even include core labor standards of the ILO, although Central American workers face repression, worker’s rights violations, and incredibly low wages, according to the International Labor Rights Fund (www.laborrights.org). The so-called “labor side deal” does nothing to fix the flawed agreement. Please vote no on CAFTA!
* I urge you to vote against CAFTA because, like NAFTA, CAFTA will be a disaster for family farmers. NAFTA has also caused a million and a half farmers in Mexico to lose their land. Likewise, Central American farmers will be pushed off theirs, tearing apart rural families. Meanwhile 38,000 family farmers in the US have lost their land because of NAFTA as well. The so-called “sugar deal” does nothing to address the devastating implications of CAFTA for tens of thousands of workers in the US sugar industry.
* I urge you to vote against CAFTA because the corporate patent monopolies in CAFTA will make life-saving medicines outrageously – and prohibitively - expensive. CAFTA is a death sentence for 275,000 people with HIV/AIDS in Central America.
* I urge you to vote no on CAFTA because, like NAFTA, it includes anti-democratic provisions that allows foreign corporations to sue local governments if health, safety, or environmental laws interfere with their desire to profit. Foreign corporations should not have more rights than local citizens! Vote no on CAFTA!
* I urge you to vote against CAFTA because it was negotiated without input from workers, farmers, environmentalists, women, or youth. We want a democratic trade policy with our neighbors in Central America that will bring health care, education, good jobs, and security. Send Bush a message that CAFTA is a bad deal and vote no!
Thank you, thank you so much for making that call.
Now – psst – pass it on!!
An excerpt from a WaPo article included in the above email...
Administration Trying to Build CAFTA Majority Vote by Vote
Clash in House With Democrats Takes On Added StatusBy Jonathan Weisman
At a closed-door meeting of House Republicans yesterday, Rep. Bill Thomas (Calif.) sidled up to the lectern and hinted that the leadership might look more favorably on lawmakers' requests for highways and bridges if they vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, according to three GOP witnesses.
"Just to let you know, we're having some problems with the highway bill. It probably won't be finished until after the CAFTA vote," the deadly serious chairman of the Ways and Means Committee said to knowing laughter.
In the scope of trade deals, CAFTA is a minor economic matter, extending duty-free trading privileges to six Latin American countries whose combined economies are smaller than the Czech Republic's. But as a political fight, the deal has snowballed into a major showdown ahead of the final House vote next week.
"CAFTA has been given symbolic status by both sides that is well outside its true economic importance," said Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.), who opposed the agreement in the Ways and Means Committee, then promised to support it next week after securing a promised vote on China trade legislation. "But that does not mean it does not have enormous political significance," he said.
Continued @
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/20/AR2005072002078.html 
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