AFSCME | American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
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Resolution No. 52
38th International Convention
Moscone West

July 28 - August 1, 2008

Washington DC, June 16, 2011

A delegation of brave Colombian trade unionists held a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on 6/16/2011 to outline their opposition to the Columbia Free Trade Agreemen

Coordinador Nacional Agrario de Colombia CNA

Colombia 12 de abril del 2011

En reciente reunión entre los presidentes de Colombia y Estados Unidos, llegaron al acuerdo de un plan de acción para dar impulso a la firma del TLC entre los dos países. Ante esto:

May 12, 2011

The Mingas Network expresses its grave concern over the White House announcement of a plan to clear the way for approval of the U.S.-Colombia FTA. The proposal is limited to an inadequate "Labor Action Plan:" It provides no remedy for the destructive effects of the FTA on Colombian agriculture and food sovereignty nor to the extensive, labor and non-labor related human rights violations. It ignores the impact of the FTA on the situation of indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombians, health care, and environmental protection.

May 10, 2011

The proposed "free trade" agreement with Colombia is a clone of NAFTA. This agreement would have a terrible impact on the average Colombian and the average American.

We ask that you contact your congressional representative asap via letter, fax or phone to ask her/him to oppose this FTA. Below are some summary points which reveal why this treaty would be a disaster for the people in both countries:

UNITED FEDERATION OF COLOMBIAN WORKERS (CUT)

May 5, 2011

Various declarations by government officials, and by the Colombian president himself, invite the labor movement to establish a labor agreement that accepts the content of the Colombian Action Plan Related to Labor Rights, worked out between Presidents Juan Manuel Santos and Barack Obama, in the long and troubled road toward ratification of the FTA, which will obviously cause greater unemployment and poverty for Colombians and will increase our already critical economic dependence on the superpower.

Colombian Action Network in Response to Free Trade
(Red Colombiana de Acción Frente al Libre Comercio, Recalca)

Website: http://www.recalca.org.co E-mail: recalca@etb.net.co

[en español a continuación]

Por Raúl Fernández

Uno: En el primer discurso sobre el Estado de la Unión en enero de 2010, el presidente Obama prometió doblar las exportaciones de Estados Unidos durante los próximos cinco años.

Raul Fernandez

One: In his first State of the Union message in January, 2010, President Obama vowed to double U.S. exports over the next 5 years.

Two: A few weeks later on March 11 he inaugurated by Executive Order the National Export Initiative (NEI) The NEI is designed “to enhance and coordinate Federal efforts to facilitate the creation of jobs in the United States through the promotion of exports and to ensure the effective use of Federal resources in support of these goals…” The NEI will receive funding for export promotion and will make exporting US-made products a government wide objective.

Raul Fernandez

[Texto en español a continuación]

The President of the United States has announced a push to sign “free trade” treaties, South Korea being first in line. Two things to note about the announcement: first, that Obama put it in the context of doubling American exports in the next five years; second, that he described it as the United States coming to the defense of South Korea from military threats from North Korea.