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Join us in MiamiNovember 10, 2003 Dear CLR activist and supporter, I am writing to inform you of CLR's activities in Miami where trade ministers from 34 countries are meeting to negotiate the Free Trade Areas of the Americas--dubbed "NAFTA on steroids" or "NAFTA on crack", the latter according to Sen. Mark Dayton. Come join us help give voice to sweatshop workers, union leaders and frontline resistance as CLR carries the fight against the global sweatshop economy to Miami this November 18-22! If you can't go to Miami--please lend your support by donating generously to pay for CLR's activities which I describe below. Under the theme "End sweatshops and the global sweatshop economy, " CLR will feature a sweatshop union leader who speaks about how trade pacts such as NAFTA and the FTAA create a global sweatshop economy. Josefina Ponce Hernandez, president of the Kukdong union (SITEMEX), an historic and the sole existing garment union born out of a fierce organizing campaign in Mexico, is here in the U.S. on a speaking tour and to participate in Miami. Josefina; the secretary general of a large Venezuelan trade confederation; a UFCW representative on the Wal-Mart campaign and a Salvadoran are some of the speakers in at least 2 events that CLR is coordinating. 1) On the evening of Nov. 20, a joint CLR/ American Friends Service Committee event will be held at the Ft. Lauderdale home of Dr. Diana Galindo, a CLR donor. I hope you can come and meet these wonderful workers and activists and some of us from the CLR office. Email me for the address. 2) On November 21, a CLR workshop to be held at the Doubletree Hotel, "FTAA and its Corporate Pushers" will feature workers, union leaders, economists and social justice activists from the FTAA countries who will speak of concrete ways that corporations have seized control of trade agendas. It will also discuss the impact of globalization in our own backyard (the Wal-mart campaign). Our co-sponsors for this workshop are Global Exchange and the Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network. Other CLR events are in the final planning stages. 3) Finally, in Miami, CLR will be also be launching an exciting new project we call the roots and resistance project. Its objective is to help Josefina's fledgling union, SITEMEX, consolidate its gains against growing corporate and Mexican government backlash and is a new approach to CLR's work. In building toward Miami, CLR also held two briefings in Capitol Hill, sponsored by the International Workers Rights Caucus and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, that featured Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Prof. Huberto Juarez, an economist and lead advisor to SITEMEX. I hope you will be able to attend some or all of these events in Miami. If you can't, please show your support to the workers in struggle against the global sweatshop economy by donating generously! In Solidarity, Severina Rivera
P.S. Please feel free to contact me at Severina.rivera@CLRlabor.org or call 202 232 5002 for more information on the Miami events. If you cannot come to Miami, please send us a generous donation. |
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