There are many things I could write about from the Equal Exchange staff trip to Chiapas, Mexico back in January of ’08, so finding a place to start can be a little intimidating.  As someone who has a deep-seated passion for coffee, my initial excitement about this trip was geared mostly around what I wanted to learn from our farmer-partners in terms of the intense work that goes into the coffee harvest, processing, and export.  As I hope consumers know, the work is back-breaking, labor intensive, and to top it all off, highly dependent on swift and exact timing.  But besides what I learned about coffee harvesting, I walked away from that trip with far more.

I left Chiapas with a deeper understanding of the real consequences of NAFTA, and the negative effects of free trade on small farmers and their communities.  While massive factory farms in the United States enjoy the benefits of government subsidies, small, rural farmers all over Mexico and Central America find the gap between their food supply and their means of controlling it growing further and further apart.  While genetically modified and state subsidized American corn hits Mexican markets at prices lower than it costs for Mexicans to sell their own, you have to ask yourself “what’s wrong with this picture?”  “How did we get here?”

As a musician, I felt it important to write something about the experiences of those in Mexico for whom the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement was the last straw.  That’s the focus of the song “1994″, which I wrote with my band about a year after I returned from the trip to Chiapas to visit with one of our small farmer co-operative trading partners: Las Comunidades Indígenas de La Región de Simojovel de Allende; or CIRSA, for short.  The song focuses on the struggles of small farmers in Mexico, and the indigenous rebellion which exploded on January 1st, 1994 following the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

We hope that you enjoy the song.

Please feel free to share it with friends or family.

About The Stress:

The Stress is a four piece traditional ska, rocksteady and reggae band from Providence, RI and Boston, MA.  We take influence from a range of musicians; from traditional Jamaican music to 1960′s British Invasion rock.  If you’d like to hear more of The Stress, please feel free to check out our website.

Click here to see a web version of this alert or access background materials

TAKE ACTION: Change the future of trade policy!

Last year, with your support, over 80 members of the U.S. House and Senate cosponsored landmark legislation setting forth a progressive vision for future trade agreements.  The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act is a positive bill that outlines a trade agenda that will support livelihoods and development in both rich and poor countries.

Your help is needed now to urge your congressional members to once again cosponsor the 2009 TRADE Act.  This groundbreaking initiative will likely be reintroduced next week and it needs as many original cosponsors as possible.  The bill has already won the support of hundreds of faith, farm, labor and environmental groups.  The more cosponsors the TRADE Act has when reintroduced, the more momentum we will gain for a fair trade agenda. 

Background: 

The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act was first put forward in the 110^th session by Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Mike Michaud.  AFSC together with other faith-based organizations requested changes to that bill that reflect our values and Mr. Michaud’s office incorporated almost all of them!

With your help, the future of trade policy can be shaped today.

A Balanced Way to Expand Trade

• The TRADE Act maps out a fair path forward, explaining what we care about in a good agreement. 
  
• It lays out the blueprint for how we can fix the existing model, showing what a responsible pacts would look like, and the procedures needed to get us there.
  
• The bill shifts the debate towards discussing a new and improved globalization model.
  
• It moves beyond repeatedly fighting against expansions of failed policies, and sets a marker for where new discussion should start later this year.
  

Answering Failed Policies of the Past

• Pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the Peru Free Trade Agreement have not met up to their basic promises. 
  
• These agreements should be serving a majority of people on issues such as wages, public health, the environment, human rights, food and consumer safety and access to essential services. 
  
• Instead, these “free trade” policies have come at great costs.  The price we’ve paid in offshoring of jobs, downward pressure on wages, and damage to our environment and loss of family farms is far too great. 
  

The Purpose of the Trade Act

• This initiative sets forth what we are for – shutting down the bogus claim that we oppose trade or have no alternative vision because we oppose these old failed agreements of the past.
  
• This bill sets forth concrete ways to push our shared conviction that trade and investment are not ends unto themselves, but must also serve as a means for achieving greater societal goals.
  
• This bill also serves as a litmus test.  By seeing who cosponsors — and who does not — we know who our trade champions are in the future.
  

For more information, click here.

Press Release

For Immediate Release
January 5, 2009

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Nearly 60 organizations and networks sent a letter to President-elect Obama  urging him to follow through on his campaign pledge to renegotiate NAFTA as a first step towards crafting an alternative trade model that puts people and the environment first over the profits of global corporations. 

“Our letter outlines the areas we think need the most urgent attention,” said Tom Loudon of the Quixote Center. “Based on many years of work, we have identified ten priority areas: agriculture, energy, foreign investment, financial services, the role of the State in the provision of services, employment, migration, environment, intellectual property rights and dispute settlement provisions.”

“To be effective, any new approach to trade must take into account that agriculture and food are unique and should not fall under the same trade rules as TV sets,” said Dennis Olson of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). “Countries must have the policy flexibility to address the current global food crisis.”

Earlier this year, many of us were part of a three country effort which drafted a policy proposal entitled “NAFTA Must be Renegotiated; A Proposal from North America Civil Society Networks,” Loudon continued.  “We envision new relationships between our countries that establish economic relations based on social justice within a paradigm of sustainable development.”

“We have also worked closely with our allies in Canada and Mexico to halt the undemocratic and corporate – led Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), because it excludes Congressional oversight, lacks any consultation with civil society, leads to further deregulation that benefits only corporations and has increased militarization and violation of civil liberties,” said Manuel Pérez Rocha, an associate fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.  “We seek the active and open involvement of citizens, labor, the private sector and non-governmental organizations in setting the agenda and planning our future.”

“We  hope that the Obama Administration will view the recently introduced Trade Reform Accountability, Development and Employment  (TRADE)  Act, as a constructive starting point for a renewed dialogue on alternative approaches to a fairer and more sustainable trade policy,” said Dennis Olson of the IATP. “It is critical that trade place the enhancement of human rights and equitable development ahead of corporate profits.”

Click here to read the full letter below in Spanish.

For more information, contact:  Tom Loudon- 301-699-0042; toml@quixote.org

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Civil Society Organizations Ask President-Elect Obama to Re-negotiate NAFTA

January 5, 2008

Dear President Elect Barack Obama,                                      

We wish to congratulate you on your recent electoral victory.

Throughout the electoral campaign we, the undersigned, followed with great interest your repeated commitments to fair trade and the renegotiation of poorly designed trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

After the election we visited your web site and were pleased to see the quote: “Obama and Biden believe that NAFTA and its potential were oversold to the American people. They will work with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to fix NAFTA so that it works for American workers.” It also states that you “will use trade agreements to spread good labor and environmental standards around the world and stand firm against agreements like the Central American Free Trade Agreement that fail to live up to those important benchmarks.”.  

We think this is a good start at revisiting U.S. trade policy, but feel that other areas must be addressed. We firmly believe that future agreements between our countries must work for the people of every country. Hence, a new model for trade that supports widely recognized international development, human rights and environmental goals is greatly needed.  

Additionally, in light of deepening food crisis, we strongly urge you to include a thorough reassessment of agricultural market and trade deregulation that has unleashed damaging price volatility which threatens food security in all countries, but which poses the greatest threat to the poorest citizens in developing countries who are the most susceptible to food price spikes.  Agricultural trade deregulation has allowed multinational agribusiness cartels to dump commodities into local markets, forcing farmers to migrate from the countryside to urban centers and north across the border. Therefore, renegotiating the Agricultural chapter on NAFTA with the full participation of small and family farmers’ associations would be a tremendous step forward.

In 2008, we launched a policy proposal entitled “NAFTA Must be Renegotiated; A Proposal from North America Civil Society Networks” prepared jointly by Canadian, Mexican and U.S. organizations that calls for a revision and renegotiation of NAFTA so as to establish economic relations based on social justice within a paradigm of sustainable development.”  In this proposal, we synthesize ten priorities for the renegotiation of NAFTA based on our work of many years, namely: agriculture, energy, foreign investment, financial services, the role of the State in the provision of services, employment, migration, environment, intellectual property rights and dispute settlement provisions.

To this end, we urge you to consider the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, Employment (TRADE Act) as a starting point for a new dialogue on developing an alternative fair trade model based on a democratic, participatory and transparent process that puts enhancing human rights and equitable development ahead of the current approach of trade for trade’s sake that puts corporate profits of a few above human rights, public health, the environment and prosperous local communities. The TRADE Act was introduced earlier this year by Sen. Sherrod Brown, Rep. Mike Michaud and eighty of their Congressional and Senate colleagues who worked closely with a broad range of civil society constituencies who provided input for this important legislation.   

Finally, we have also worked closely with our allies in Canada and Mexico for a halt to the undemocratic and corporate – led Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), because it excludes Congressional oversight, lacks any consultation with civil society, it leads to further deregulation that benefits only corporations and has led to an increase of militarization and violation of civil liberties. We support the statement you made earlier this year that:  “Starting my first year in office, I will convene annual meetings with Mr. Calderon and the prime minister of Canada. Unlike similar summits under President Bush, these will be conducted with a level of transparency that represents the close ties among our three countries. We will seek the active and open involvement of citizens, labor, the private sector and non-governmental organizations in setting the agenda and making progress.”

Please count on us to work with you to create a new model for economic, political and social relations in the North American region that will have implications for the United States and the entire Americas ‘ hemisphere.  

Sincerely,

Across the Americas

Agribusiness Accountability Initiative

Alliance for Democracy

Americas Policy Program

Association for the Sovereignty of Colombia  (ASOCOL)

California Food and Justice Coalition

Carolina Interfaith Task Force on Central America

Center of Concern

Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

Connie Hogarth Center for Social Action

Cumberland Countians for Peace & Justice

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)

Ecumenical Committee of US Church Personnel in Nicaragua

Equal Exchange

Family Farm Defenders

Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy

Friends of the Earth U.S.

Global Exchange

Grassroots International

Holy Cross International/ Justice Office

Howard County Friends of Latin America

Hudson Valley Community Coalition

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Institute for Policy Studies, Global Economy Project

International Labor Rights Forum

INTERCONNECT

Jobs with Justice of East Tennessee

Labor Council for Latin American Advancement Massachusetts Chapter

Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice

Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution

Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Movement for Peace in Colombia

National Catholic Rural Life Conference

National Family Farm Coalition

 National Lawyers Guild

Network for Environmental & Economic Responsibility, United Church of Christ

NETWORK:  A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

Nicaragua Network

NY Citizens Trade Coalition

NYC Mennonite Immigration Program

Orange County Peace and Justice Coalition

Pesticide Action Network North America

Philipstown for Democracy

Quixote Center

Rockland Immigration Coalition in New City NY

Rural Coalition

Solidarity Committee of the Capital District

Student Trade Justice Campaign (STJC)

The Oakland Institute

Trade Justice NY Metro

U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP)

U. S. Nicaragua Friendship Committee

United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)

United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1500

United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society

Washington Office on Latin America

Witness for Peace

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section

World Hunger Year (WHY)

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(Some Sources for drafting this document) 

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/

Barack Obama “I Will Repair Our Relationship with Mexico “. The Dallas Morning News, November 10, 2008.  http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-obama_20edi.ART.State.Edition1.464da8e.html

“NAFTA Must be Renegotiated; A Proposal from North America Civil Society Networks”

 http://art-us.org/node/334.

House version of TRADE Act: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c110:./temp/~c110ZM3OdH.

“You can build the Berlin Wall. You can build the China Wall. The U.S. can build a wall any size it wants. But they will never be able to stem the migration north as long as farmers are hungry and have no way to support their families.” -Gabriela Soriano, CIEPAC, the Center for Economic & Political Research for Community Action.

In January, I took a group of Equal Exchange staff to visit our trading partners in Chiapas. We also met with local organizations in San Cristobal to learn about the current political and economic realities of the region. Our first meeting was with CIEPAC, a very active organization devoted to research, analysis, education and action. We have been very impressed with CIEPAC’s work and last year Equal Exchange was able to facilitate a portion of our profits to support their educational programs. Unfortunately, others find their work with indigenous farmers threatening; CIEPAC’s offices have been raided on numerous occasions and individual staff members have received multiple death threats. 

 In Mexico, there has long been a disregard for and open aggression against the indigenous peoples which dates back to the arrival of Columbus. In recent times, however, no other event has done more to destroy indigenous farming communities, deprive small farmers of their livelihoods, and force hundreds of thousands of Mexicans to risk their lives crossing the U.S. border to look for work than the 1994 signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Supporters of NAFTA claimed that by eliminating tariffs on Mexican products, they would be cheaper to U.S. and Canadian consumers. This would help Mexican manufacturers, and in turn would create jobs and strengthen the Mexican economy. Opponents of NAFTA argued that the effect on small scale farmers would be devastating. Eliminating agricultural tariffs would force small subsistence farmers to compete with U.S. farmers who receive enormous government subsidies and whose technology is far superior.

In our meeting at CIEPAC, Gabriela talked about the impact NAFTA has had on rural and indigenous communities throughout the country: “If you take 1,000 U.S. corn farmers, you can imagine that they probably have 1,500 tractors amongst them. Now take 1,000 Mexican corn farmers – maybe they have 10, possibly 15 tractors. How can they compete?” Not only do U.S. producers have technological superiority but they are heavily subsidized by the U.S. government – at around $50 billion annually, while their Mexican counterparts receive approximately $5 billion annually.

Fourteen years after NAFTA went into effect, the critics have unfortunately been proven right. Small-scale corn farmers, unable to compete with subsidized U.S. corn entering the country have indeed been losing their businesses. According to the Inter-hemispheric Resource Center, from 1994 – 2004, 1.3 million small farmers went bankrupt. And Mexico went from a country producing almost all its own corn (in 1993), to one which was 42% dependent on foreign corn (2004).

Even more sadly, while corn producers are losing their businesses, Mexican consumers are paying even higher prices for corn products such as tortillas – an important staple of the Mexican diet. This is because the corn manufacturing sector is becoming increasingly concentrated by a few transnational corporations that are strong enough to control prices. When I visited Mexico in January 2007, the newspapers were full of stories about riots and demonstrations following yet another rise in tortilla prices. The price of tortillas had climbed 60% since January of the previous year. Altogether, from 2000 to 2006, prices rose somewhere between 180% and 200%.

In addition to agricultural and trade policies which favor agribusiness over small-scale farmers, NAFTA also forced the Mexican government to make changes to the country’s constitution (Article 27) that allow the selling off of communal lands or ejidos. For the first time since the Mexican Revolution, land that has been held communally can be parceled off and sold to the highest bidder. This privatization of communal land has dealt a huge blow to indigenous communities. Land which was held communally for generations is being lost – as is an entire culture and traditional way of life for many indigenous communities. Poor farmers, faced with rising food costs, and with no way to make a living, are now offered the “opportunity” to sell their few acres.

The small amount of money farmers earn is often what helps them pay a coyote to take them across the border where they face physical danger, psychological trauma, and open hostility in the United States.According to CIEPAC, it has been estimated that before NAFTA, roughly 30% of Mexicans lived in poverty. Today, that amount has risen to 50%. Migration to the U.S has tripled since 1994, as more and more farmers find it impossible to make a living. Each year, approximately half a million Mexicans migrate to the U.S. Last year, that number reached close to 600,000 with all evidence pointing upward.

On our side of the border, immigration reform has become a hot topic. Plans for the construction of a 700-mile wall to keep Mexicans out of the U.S will cost approximately $6 billion. There hasn’t been this much open hostility to immigrants in our country for many years. Yet, when we discuss how high to build the wall or how to keep undocumented immigrants from obtaining drivers’ licenses or taking our jobs, how is it possible that public discourse rarely mentions how our trade agreements and agricultural policies are pushing small farmers off the land, away from their families and out of their communities? What do we expect? If you take away someone’s livelihood, and stack the deck heavily against them, take their land and erode their culture, what choices do they have?