*******SPREAD FAR AND WIDE***********

Everyone in the greater DC area! The Central American Free Trade Agreement
(CAFTA) is Coming To Washington DC December 8th-16th! Below you will find
a list of all the actions planned during the week by various local groups. For more background on CAFTA see the bottom of this post.

First…the logistics: The CAFTA negotiations are happening at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington DC. The address is 1127 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC,
at the corner of Connecticut and L.

Sign Making party at Malcolm X Park
Sunday Dec. 7th 10:30am
16th and Euclid NW
(Columbia Heights Metro Station Green Line)
Bring supplies if you have them to donate!

Central America is Not For Sale!
Rally against the FTAA and CAFTA
SAVE THE DATE: Washington, DC December 7, 12-2:00 Malcolm X (Meridian)
Park, 16th and Euclid NW
The rally is at 12:00 and the march starts at 2:00!
(Columbia Heights Metro Station Green Line)

Get involved - help with outreach - e-mail Dave Johnson at Share
Foundation - dave-AT-share-foundation.org, or Tom Ricker with the Quixote
Center, tomr-AT-quixote.org

ANTI-CAFTA AIR FORCE AND NOISE ACTION
When: Tuesday, December 9th, 9AM
What: Protest CAFTA talks
Where: Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington
DC, at the corner of Connecticut and L.

Bring your noisemakers and your paper airplanes! Come on out and let
‘em know loud and clear how you feel about CAFTA!
More info: dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/85946/index.php

ALL WEEK LONG! DAILY PICKETS OUTSIDE THE HOTEL FROM 12-1

Each day of the week a different group will be coordinating a picket in front of the Mayflower. What do you need to do to participate? Just show up! It’s that easy. Come with signs, songs, banners, puppets and spirit.

Meet everyday in front of the hotel on the Connecticut side at Noon. For more info, if you have ideas, or want to offer to help: e-mail Dave Johnson at Share Foundation - dave-AT-share-foundation.org, or Tom Ricker with the Quixote Center, tomr-AT-quixote.org

Monday: Mobilize for Global Justice will have puppets and banners. If you would like to help get in touch with morriganp-AT-riseup.net

Tuesday: Noise action (see above)

Wednesday: Nicaragua Network
There is also an official CAFTA press conference at noon at
the hotel!

Thursday: Everyone!

Friday: Witness for Peace

Saturday: Quixote Center


BASIC INFORMATION ON CAFTA

CAFTA is a trade agreement being negotiated by government representatives from the United States, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. It is modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). U.S. President Bush initiated CAFTA in 2002 and hopes to have an agreement sealed as quickly as possible, in part to move the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations forward faster. CAFTA negotiators intend this meeting in D.C. to be the final one before it goes before congress. CAFTA is NAFTA extended to Central America. All the same issues human and labor rights organizations have with NAFTA (and FTAA) are present in CAFTA, including:

*Secrecy Instead of Transparency: There has been no formal public input or oversight in
the negotiations. Drafts of the negotiations have not been made available to the public.

*Corporate Domination Over Democracy: Like NAFTA, CAFTA will likely include investment provisions that allow corporations to sue governments when laws passed in the public interest hinder their potential profits. NAFTA's investment provision, Chapter 11, has been employed 27 times by companies since NAFTA went into effect in 1994.

*Increased Inequality: A minority of rich companies and wealthy stockholders will benefit from reduced costs. The poor will get poorer and more people will move into poverty: workers will get lower pay or lose their jobs while shouldering higher costs of living as more services are privatized.

*Disappearing Public Services: Resources such as education, health care, energy, and water utilities owned by everyone in a community will more likely become owned by corporations. This could put essential public services out of the hands of many people. For example, when the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia privatized its water utility in 2000, water rates increased 200 percent, leading to riots that resulted in six deaths - and reversal of the privatization.

*Reduced Labor Rights: CAFTA includes no labor protections. In fact, labor laws such as those that protect workers' safety can be challenged. A "race to the bottom" for pay will hurt workers in all countries involved in CAFTA.

*Negative Agricultural Impact: CAFTA would force Central American countries to remove agriculture protections, allowing for an influx of subsidized US grain. The beneficiaries would be US agribusiness, the losers would be small farmers in the US and Central America. (1.5 million small farms in Mexico have shut down since the implementation of NAFTA)

*Environmental Destruction: CAFTA, like NAFTA would not contain substantive environmental protections. In fact, existing environmental laws could be seen as "barriers to trade." Furthermore, corporations would be drawn to countries with the worst environmental protections, keeping their costs down but increasing the costs to local communities which suffer more health problems as a result of pollution.