Nicaragua Network

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

October 12: International Trade Action Day!

Replace the Failed NAFTA Model!

[The Nicaragua Network joins Witness for Peace, the Stop CAFTA Coalition and other groups in sponsoring this day of action. For more information, visit here.]

Join us in calling for trade justice between now and October 12: Host a movie night, do some street theater, or join a demonstration.

Jobs erased, farmers displaced.
Environment polluted, democracy diluted.
NAFTA has now been in effect for 15 years--15 years too many.

People throughout the Americas, including a proven majority of U.S. citizens, reject the destructive model of the North America Free Trade Agreement. Yet, it continues to profit the few at the expense of the many. On October 12--Indigenous Peoples Day--WFP will join social movements across the hemisphere in launching coordinated, eye-catching actions to call for this failed model to be replaced with trade that actually benefits the majority. (More background below) Download the October 12 flyer and packet overview.

Join us! Here's how:

(Please contact a Witness for Peace regional organizer in your area if you are interested in any of the following.)

1. Host a Corn-Based Movie Night in the weeks prior to October 12. This is a chance for you and some guests to watch the Roots of Migration video over a tasty corn-based dish (or do a roots-of-migration reader's theater), discuss local migration or trade concerns, and create paper corn-cobs to be used in public actions on the 12th.

Materials online:
• Roots of Migration video, instructions/discussion questions, and promotional flyer
• Factsheet: NAFTA At Fifteen
• Reader's theater activity: Telling It Like It Is
• Stencils/instructions for crafting paper corn
• Petition to Representatives on Immigration and Trade

You can also get a free copy of the Roots of Migration DVD sent via mail. To do so, please contact a WFP regional organizer.

2. Perform some Corn-Based Street Theater. People across the country will gather the week of Oct. 12 in public parks and outside of congressional offices to take part in a simple play that illuminates how NAFTA facilitates corn dumping and forces migration (using those paper corn cobs). Get a few friends and do some awareness-raising that's actually fun.

Materials online:
• Roots of Migration Tableau (silent theatrical display)
• Street theater play in English
• Teatro de la calle en español
• Sign/banner suggestions

3. Demonstrate for a new, justice-oriented trade model. Groups across the hemisphere are organizing rallies for the week of October 12 to call for NAFTA's replacement. You can join an existing demonstration (contact a WFP regional organizer for a current list), or join with others to plan a "Replace NAFTA" rally in your community. The more participating cities/towns, the merrier.

Materials online: Sign/banner suggestions

Background

We have now endured 15 years of a trade model that has stagnated wages at home and decimated livelihoods abroad. For the last decade and a half, the North American Free Trade Agreement and its offspring (CAFTA and the Peru free trade agreement) have consistently padded the pockets of a few while eroding workers' negotiating power, consumers' protections, and family farmers' ability to make ends meet.

We are now the majority. Most people reject models that fail most people. In Mexico, where only 10% of the population have seen a higher standard of living since NAFTA, marches and lobbying efforts have amplified a growing demand to overhaul the agreement. In the U.S., where 56% of the population wants NAFTA renegotiation, over 100 Congressional representatives recently introduced the TRADE Act-a bill that would revamp the existing agreements.

We'd like our "change" now. During his campaign, President Obama promised, "One of the first things I'll do as president will be to call the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Mexico and work with them to fix NAFTA." By contrast, when President Obama went to Mexico in August to meet with these two leaders, he stated, "Given the weakened state of the U.S., Mexican and Canadian economies, this is not the time to reopen the NAFTA treaty for negotiations." He missed the point: the very economic and financial deregulation policies enshrined in NAFTA have contributed to the present crisis. The economic crisis does not overshadow, but accentuates the need to replace NAFTA.

Now is the time for action. October 12 is for some the day that Colombus "discovered" this hemisphere. But for many in this hemisphere, October 12 marked the beginning of over 500 years of foreign domination, cultural destruction, and systematic exploitation-a history that the NAFTA model perpetuates. Social movements across the hemisphere have declared this October 12 "International Trade Action Day." On this day, hundreds of groups in over a dozen countries will launch coordinated eye-catching actions to call for the failed NAFTA model to be repealed and replaced. Join us.