What will you do if the U.S.-Colombia FTA is passed?

Stop the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Take action at: http://bit.ly/iLIHEA

As Washington debates the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, there are stories left untold, questions unasked. So speak out!

To email your members of congress in one easy step, go to: http://bit.ly/iLIHEA

Or give them a call and ask:

What will you do if the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia is passed
And it devastates Colombia's rural poor?
What will you do
When those who have been most affected by Colombia's cruel war
When the Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities who are struggling to survive
When many of Colombia's 5 million internally displaced persons
In Cauca
In Putumayo
In Córdoba
Who are bravely returning to their stolen lands
Are displaced once again
Forced to flee their homes and leave everything behind?
What will you say
When U.S. companies invest in projects on these stolen lands
Where illegal armed groups still hold sway?
What will you do when U.S. companies with interests in gold mining
Oil exploration
Banana and African palm oil cultivation
Pay these illegal armed groups for "protection"
And these groups threaten and murder more poor farmers
To get hold of their profitable lands?
What will you say when the alternative development projects our nation funded, fail
When desperate farmers are unable to compete with subsidized U.S. agricultural exports
And start growing more coca than ever before?
What will you do when there is more cocaine on our streets?
What will you say when the right to organize in Colombia
Is not respected or protected?
When trade unionists
Community leaders
And human rights defenders
Are still attacked, threatened and killed?
If the Free Trade Agreement comes to pass
What will you do?
You who voted or lobbied for this harmful trade agreement
With a country still in the midst of a devastating conflict?
What will you do?
What will you say?
How will you make amends?

For more information, visit: http://www.lawg.org/ftaresources

Video by Vanessa Kritzer and Alex Gordon, Latin America Working Group

• Category

  Nonprofits & Activism

[locomoco2012]

Why just Colombia Usa agreetment act. CHINA is our freaking problem. WE are no longer the wolrds economy CHina is.

[MJ4ever911]

I don't agree with the FTA. But don't talk for our country imbeciles.

[mbmart2005]

ANOTHER NAFTA!!!! MONEY FOR CORPORATIONS, MORE JOBS LOSS IN THE USA. NO TAXES PAID, SLAVES IN COLOMBIA,NO EPA LAWS,SAVING $ IN HEALTHCARE,WAGES,401K WHICH IS JUNK ACTUALLY, AS ALWAYS MORE $ FOR CORPORATIONS, LESS JOBS FOR AMERICANS AND MORE OPPORTUNITY FOR THE RICH TO DESTROY THE MIDDLE CLASS.

[David Rubenstein]

"Imbeciles" is a pretty weak argument. If you know better, please explain what impact the trade agreement would have on poor farmers and on labor and human rights organizers.

[54683NS]

We understand very well what's going in Colombia because we're not indoctrinated by the massive corporate propaganda campaigns that are promoting this "Free" "Trade" "Agreement."

[travischristal]

care to elaborate?

[Ramblingdreamz]

This is a beautiful poem that definitely expresses the concerns and sentiments of the brave communities all over Colombia that I work with. FTA's help the rich get richer at the expense of the oppressed. In Colombia many multi-national corporations use threats, violence, murder and displacement against economically marginalized communities that stand in the way of their profits. Chiquita banana paid paramilitary death squads $1.7 million to provide them with security, which often

[Ramblingdreamz]

times means killing small-scale farmers. The US coal company Drummand is facing similar charges. I’ve listened to GM plant workers with tears running down their face talk about how they once ran and played soccer, how they used to play with their kids, and now how they can hardly walk after suffering life changing injuries because of the labor practices in Colombia’s GM. They once thought that the jobs created by multinationals meant a way out of their poverty—now without health or

[Ramblingdreamz]

the ability to work to sustain their families they implore people to question what are the conditions of the jobs created by FTA’s. Miners in Colombia suffer chronic medical conditions, life threatening injuries and dealth because of the lack of safety standards in the mines. Sugar cane cutters work in modern day slavery conditions in Colombia. FTA’s perpetuate poverty and oppression. Learn more about how you are supporting justice when you support Fair Trade.