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Peru Trade Agreement Action at Obama HQ Dec. 15th!

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Where are our Senate and Congressional leaders when it is time to oppose unfair trade? Press conference to be held outside Obama for America HQ.

Labor activists, fair trade advocates, Latin American solidarity activists, environmentalists, immigrant rights organizers, people of faith, and others are concerned with the recent lack of interest of our U.S. Congressional and Senate leaders when it comes to stopping un-fair trade deals - as evidenced by the recent House and Senate votes on the US-Peru “Free Trade” Agreement. We find it very troubling that one of our Illinois Senators, Barack Obama, a current candidate for President of the United States, skipped the vote on the Peru trade pact, missing an important opportunity to stand up for working people and the environment both here and in Peru. We are even more concerned that Obama, along with Sen Hillary Clinton, made public statements supporting the Peru Trade deal and that our other Senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin voted in favor of the trade pact. At a time when Democratic candidates for president, including Sen. Obama, are making stump speeches about the disaster wrought by NAFTA, it is surprising and distributing that these same candidates are not ready to take a stand against future NAFTAs. The Chicago “Free Trade” Working Group, a recently formed network of activists from the labor, religious, immigrant rights, environmental, Latin American solidarity and peace movements is delivering a letter asking Sen. Obama for an explanation of his position on the U.S.-Peru “Free Trade” Agreement. A press conference will be held outside Obama’s campaign HQ at 300 W. Adams at 1:30 PM.


WHEN: Saturday, December 15th – 1:30 P.M.

WHERE: Obama for America - 300 W. Adams St., Chicago, IL.

WHO: Members of the recently formed Chicago "Free Trade" Working Group




















For more info on the U.S.-Peru "Free Trade" Agreement, check out the following links...

Statement of Lori M. Wallach, Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch Division, following the Senate’s passage of the U.S.-Peru “Free Trade” Agreement. Wallach has been one of the most knowledge and consistent critics of the neo-liberal “free trade” agenda…
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2558

Here is an excellent analysis of the U.S.-Peru “Free Trade” Agreement from United for a Fair Economy (UFE). Note the fact that this analysis points out the weakness of the much touted improvements in labor and environmental protections that many Democrats used as political cover when they voted yes on the deal. Also note the broad range of organizations that signed on to this statement…
http://www.faireconomy.org/activist/fair_trade/vote_on_peru_open_letter.html

Excellent article on the dangers of the U.S.-Peru "Free Trade" Agreement...
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/05/the_hidden_costs_of_free_trade/

Article in the The Nation about the Democrats unprincipaled about face on the U.S.-Peru "Free Trade" Agreement and the reasons for it...
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=250042

Article from Peruvian newspaper about protest organized by the CGTP, Peru's largest union federation, opposing the U.S.-Peru "Free Trade" Agreement. Unions in Peru have been vehment in their rejection of the trade pact...
http://www1.elcomercio.com.pe/ediciononline/HTML/2007-12-05/la-cgtp-anuncia-protestas-contra-tlc-estados-unidos.html

International Trade Union Confederation (ITCU) statement on the poor state of labor law in Peru...
http://www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?article1499

10 Reasons to oppose the U.S.-Peru "Free Trade" Agreement from Peruvian civil society leading the fight against the trade deal in Peru...
http://www.perufrentealtlc.com/10razones

OXFAM America's statement opposing the U.S.-Peru "Free Trade" Agreement. Note OXFAM's concerns over the effect of the trade deal on poor farmers in Peru is not resolved by the supposed improvements in the labor and environmental protections in the agreement...
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/press_releases/archive2006/press_release.2006-07-27.6089858017

Change to Win, the U.S. trade union federation's statement opposing the U.S.-Peru "Free Trade" Agreement...
http://www.changetowin.org/no_cache/issues/trade-and-globalization/change-to-win-letter-to-the-us-senate-opposing-the-oman-and-peru-free-trade-agreements.html?sword_list%5B%5D=peru

AFL-CIO statement on the U.S.-Peru "Free Trade" Agreement. Note that even though the AFL-CIO recognized some improvements in the agreement's labor and environmental protections in October, these relatively minor changes did not change the agreement's central character. In particular, note that the investor-to-state dispute resolution mechanisms in the agreement continue to be a real threat to democracy in the U.S. and Peru...
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/legislativealert/alerts/upload/us_peruftaSenate1007.pdf

Statement from the President of the AFL-CIO, John Sweeney. Though much was made by the Democrats and others in regards to the AFL-CIO's lack of effort to defeat the U.S.-Peru "Free Trade" Agreement, the following statement makes it clear that the union federation still opposed the neo-liberal principals upon which the agreement is based...
http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/pr11082007b.cfm
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