***STOP CAFTA!*** House vote tentatively scheduled for Wed., July 27

[Sapphire Blue]

Call your Representative now! Capitol toll-free numbers:

1-877-SOB-U-SOB

1-866-340-9281

1-800-718-1008

An email from AFL-CIO's Working Families...

No CAFTA

The U.S. House must vote on CAFTA by July 28. CAFTA, the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement, is another job-killing trade deal patterned after its “twin brother,” NAFTA. Like NAFTA, CAFTA would hurt workers in the United States and fail to lift our Central American and Dominican brothers and sisters out of poverty.


Please tell your representative to stop CAFTA @ http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/NOCAFTA

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 Global Exchange email...

Administration Trying to Build CAFTA Majority Vote by Vote
Clash in House With Democrats Takes On Added Status

By 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

Another email from AFL-CIO's Working Families...

Call Right Now to Stop CAFTA

If we don't stop CAFTA this week, we will be stuck with a
job-killing trade deal just like NAFTA. President George W. Bush
is lobbying hard for the House to pass CAFTA this week.

CAFTA--the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade
Agreement--would extend NAFTA's disastrous job loss, workers'
rights abuses and environmental damage throughout Central
America.

Your U.S. representative needs to hear from you NOW. Urge him or
her to oppose CAFTA by calling this number toll-free:

1-800-718-1008

Tell your representative:

"I strongly urge you to oppose CAFTA. CAFTA is based on the
failed NAFTA and will expand NAFTA's legacy of lost jobs, low
wages and trampled workers' rights to six more countries."

Just like NAFTA, CAFTA does not include meaningful protections
of workers' rights--but it gives trade breaks to countries that
violate workers' rights. Highlight these points when you call
your representative's office:

* CAFTA is based on the failed NAFTA, and it will expand NAFTA's
legacy of lost jobs, low wages and trampled workers' rights to
six more countries.

* Under NAFTA and other failed U.S. trade policies, the U.S.
trade deficit reached a record $600 billion last year as
American companies relocated to take advantage of lower wages,
weaker worker and environmental protections and improved access
to the U.S. market. Even companies that didn't destroy jobs used
the threat of leaving the United States to break union
organizing drives and win concessions at the bargaining table.

* The NAFTA-related trade deficit cost U.S. workers nearly
900,000 net jobs through 2002--and the trade deficit only has
grown since then, despite predictions by NAFTA supporters in the
1990s that the agreement would generate trade surpluses for
another 15 years.

We can't afford another NAFTA. Please call your representative
now and urge him or her to oppose CAFTA.

Your U.S. representative needs to hear from you NOW. Urge him or
her to oppose CAFTA by calling this toll-free number:

1-800-718-1008

Tell your representative:

"I strongly urge you to oppose CAFTA. CAFTA is based on the
failed NAFTA and will expand NAFTA's legacy of lost jobs, low
wages and trampled workers' rights to six more countries."

Thank you for working to stop another job-killing trade deal.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
July 25, 2005

[Lindsay]

1. Repug reps are not beyond hope on this.

Supposedly there about 25 of 'em who are against CAFTA for various reasons. Here's one from Mr. Otter, during a special order speech in the House last week, paraphrased:

CAFTA takes away American sovereignty. If there is a business dispute with an American company, it will be heard by a panel consisting of an American representative, a representative of the country where the entity having the dispute is located, and a representative of a third CAFTA country. In other words, two furriners against one American.

Repugs, for the most part, don't care about lost American jobs. But this one might get 'em.

[Sapphire Blue]

2. We have a chance on this one... bombard them w/calls & emails!

[jojo54]

3. Done.

My rep; Robert Andrews of N.J. I called and left message with his secretary to vote a resounding NO!! Added that my hub is in manufacturing and hasn't had a permenant job since '00 and this country will sink if this gets voted in.

[Sapphire Blue]

4. Thank you!

Good personal message! :toast:

[sadiesworld]

5. kick

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

6. ... and another kick

:hi:

[sadiesworld]

7. kick

:kick:

[eagler]

8. check this out

http://www.stoptheftaa.org/artman/publish/article_447.shtml

[Sapphire Blue]

10. That website links to the John Birch Society & 'Get the US out of the UN'

:yoiks:

[converted_democrat]

9. Just called my Repub rep, and her rep said she would not be voting for it.

She's a Repub, though, so I don't trust her.

[Sapphire Blue]

12. My rep's intern said the House vote is undecided at this time...

... they need to hear from us!

[AzDar]

11. kick.

[Sapphire Blue]

13. ... and another kick!