Witness for Peace speaker tour to talk trade in NC
The difference between "fair" and so-called "free" trade
This October, Witness for Peace Southeast (WFPSE) is hosting Nicaraguan Fair Trade advocate Julia Vallejos, a founding member of Masili, a workers-owned, fair-trade, women’s cooperative operating in the Free Trade Zone in Nicaragua.
NAFTA, CAFTA, and other so-called "free trade" agreements have wrecked havoc on Latin American economies, which depend heavily on local agriculture to provide for people living in rural and small communities and have suffered by unfair competition and destructive trade, development, and manufacturing practices implemented by US-based multinational corporations.
Come to hear Julia and find out how you can make a difference in your community about trade issues. Julia will travel from the mountains through the Triad to the Triangle while she is in North Carolina. We hope you can attend one or more of her events at a place near you.
The following is the up-to-date list of WFPSE Speaker's Tour stops in North Carolina:
Near Asheville (10/13)
- Monday, Oct 13, evening (TBD)
Warren Wilson College, Social Sciences Building Lecture Hall
701 Warren Wilson Rd, Swannanoa, NC 28778
Near Burlington (10/15)
- Wednesday, Oct 15, 7:00 pm
Elon University, Johnston Hall
100 Campus Dr, Elon, NC 27244
In Durham (10/17 and 10/20)
- Friday, Oct 17, 7:00 pm
Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (ERUUF)
4907 Garrett Rd,Durham, NC 27707 - Monday, Oct 20, 8:30-10:45 am
NAFTA at 20 - (special presentation about twenty years of life under NAFTA; not a speaking engagement for Julia)
Geneen Auditorum, The Fuqua School of Business
100 Fuqua Dr, Durham, NC 27708
In Chapel Hill (10/19 and 10/20)
- Sunday, Oct 19, 10:00 am
United Church of Chapel Hill
1321 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 - Monday, Oct 20, 1:15 pm
Elders for Peace
Carol Woods Retirement Center, Main Entrance
750 Weaver Dairy Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
To find out more about the Witness for Peace Southeast's Speakers' Tour, contact WFPSE Regional Director Ron Garcia-Fogarty by email to [email protected] or call 919-951-5961.
A new "free trade" threat on the horizon
Julia Vallejos' visit to North Carolina comes as a new treaty on the horizon threatens to double-down on the mistakes of NAFTA and CAFTA - the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)).
Indeed, the TPP, now being negotiated in secret between the United States and Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam, has been called "NAFTA on steroids" for provisions that would lead to more American job loss, lower wages, more expensive prescription drugs, and - frighteningly - grant sweeping new powers to corporations.
Forget corporate personhood. The TPP will bring us corporate nationhood, elevating corporations to the status of nation states with the standing to sue governments - state or local, big or small - and their own, private judicial system to do it.