CAJA Event

Public Service Announcement

The Failures of NAFTA and New Ways to Move Forward

Community Action for Justice in the Americas will host an international panel of experts who will discuss free trade, immigration, and security.

Wednesday, April 9

6:00pm—Reception at the Badlander

7:00 pm—Panel at Palace Hotel (formerly Casa Pablo’s). All ages

Event sponsored by: Global Exchange, Central Labor Council, Forward Montana, Jeanette Rankin Peace Center, Students for Economic and Social Justice, UM Environmental Studies Dept, Helena Peaceseekers, IWW Montana

On April 15, Community Action for Justice in the Americas will gather together a panel of experts from the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and Colombia to discuss how NAFTA and other free trade agreements have failed, and how citizens can forge a new way forward in the arenas of trade, immigration, and security in the Americas.

This panel of speakers from Global Exchange, Council of Canadians, Mexican Action Network on Free Trade, and the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Colombia will come together to sound a call to arms to the citizens of these countries to raise their voices in the fight for global integrity.

NAFTA is approaching its fifteenth birthday. Even with the human rights violations and economic failures attributed to this fair trade agreement, major corporations and executive branches of Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. are meeting behind closed doors to forge further agreements known as the Security and Prosperity Partnership. This subverts the democratic process by excluding public input and consultation with national legislatures.

Panelists

Carleen Pickard: Regional Organizer for the Council of Canadians, which is Canada's largest citizens' organization with members and chapters across the country. Carleen works with communities to protect Canadian independence by promoting progressive policies on fair trade, clean water, safe food, public health care, and other issues of social and economic concern to Canadians.

Hector Sanchez: Policy Education Coordinator for Global Exchange's Mexico Program. He represents the program in Washington, D.C., where he coordinates efforts to inform and organize legislators and key organizations in support of new priorities on trade and immigration.

Manuel Perez Rocha: Associate Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C., Manuel directs an advocacy and research project on "the Security and Prosperity Partnership and the NAFTA Plus Agenda." Manuel works in coordination with the Alliance for Responsible Trade in the United States and is a member of the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC). He has worked for more than a decade with Mexican and international civil society organizations and networks including the Hemispheric Social Alliance and Oxfam International doing advocacy work for fair economic relations among countries, particularly for trade with justice.