Drop Nafta/Cafta!

by Nestor Castillo/CISPES

Thursday the 15th, President Barack Obama will be visiting San Francisco for a private fundraising event, at the St. Francis Hotel. With tickets starting at $500 just to sit in the reception, the vast majority of the working class who voted him in, will be barred from attending.

That same day at Union Square Plaza, directly across from the St. Francis Hotel, a coalition of community organizations under the banner of Stop NAFTA/CAFTA will be demonstrating their opposition to neoliberal trade policies such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement as part of a International Week of Action campaign taking place from October 12th- 17th.

The coalition will be holding Pres. Obama accountable to keep his campaign pledge of renegotiating such policies that have further increased poverty and inequality. At the Cleveland Democratic Debate, Obama said, “I will make sure that we renegotiate [NAFTA]…I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced.” Since then, however, Pres. Obama has done nothing to change such agreements.

The facts are that these trade agreements have been the root of forced migration and loss of land rights in Mexico and Central America. In the first eight years of NAFTA the annual number of immigrants from Mexico increased by more than 61 percent (read more at: globalexchange.org) 2/3 of Mexican people living in the US have come after the passage of NAFTA (read more at: witnessforpeace.org).

Another example of just how unjust trade agreements are, is the way in which federally-subsidized U.S. corn is dumped on their markets therefore small farmers are forced off their land because they cannot compete with massive amounts of crops at a cheaper price. With no way to make a living, hundreds of people are forced to leave their homes and families every day to make the treacherous journey to the U.S.

The latest news of the injurious effects of CAFTA/NAFTA agreements come from San Isidro, Cabanas in El Salvador where gold mining companies, Pacific Rim Mining Corp. and Commerce Group, are suing the Salvadoran government for $177 million under CAFTA for loss of potential profits. The lawsuits come despite strong opposition of local communities to mining and reports showing devastating effects to the environment and water contamination of the country’s main source of clean water, the Lempa River.

Meanwhile, many anti-mining activists in El Salvador are being death threatened or being killed. There is strong evidence suggesting that Pacific Rim is involved in such atrocious crimes as a mean to intimidate those opposing the mining project. "We believe that the results of CAFTA demonstrate the failure of 'free' trade and justify a definitive split with this model by the incoming Obama Administration," said Burke Stansbury of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), a member of the coalition. "Not only should the Democratic Congress reject pending agreements such as the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, but the party in power should take this opportunity to introduce a new trade policy based on human rights, and economic, social and environmental sustainability."

The rally will have key-note speakers addressing the effects of NAFTA and CAFTA on its signatory countries, issues of privatization, sweatshops, the Honduran coup, the displacement of indigenous people, among other topics. It will begin at 5pm at Union Square Plaza on Powell St. in between Geary and Post.

This is only one of the events taking place during the International Week of Action against NAFTA and CAFTA. There will be various demonstrations in Vancouver and Milwaukee where Pacific Rim and Commerce Group headquarters are located.