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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	62
Proposal	International Resolution of the Green Party of the United States Calling for Fair Trade and Opposing
Presenter	International Committee
Floor Manager	Greg Gerritt
Phase	Closed
Discussion	11/09/2003 - 11/09/2003
Voting	11/10/2003 - 11/12/2003
Result	Adopted
Presens Quorum	28 0.6666
Consens Quorum	37 A Majority of Yes and No Votes

Background

The proposed policy statement declares
and explains the Green Partys support for Fair Trade policies,
and opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
The International Committee expects this statement to serve as
the basis for national and state party organizing, coalition-
building with kindred organizations, electoral campaign materials,
and press statements, and it will be submitted to the Platform
Committee for inclusion in the 2004 Green Party Platform.
The original statement was drafted by IC members Jim Polk
of the Green Party of Virginia, and Tony Affigne of the
Green Party of Rhode Island. The proposed resolution was
approved by the International Committee on Friday,
November 7, by CONSENSUS.

Proposal

------------------------------------------------------------
INTERNATIONAL RESOLUTION of the GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED
STATES, CALLING FOR FAIR TRADE AND OPPOSING FTAA - FREE
TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS
NOVEMBER 2003
------------------------------------------------------------

A Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would be an
expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) to every country in Central America, South
America, and the Caribbean, except Cuba. It would
dramatically impact over 800 million people, challenging
national sovereignty and devastating local economies,
cultures, and natural environments. NAFTAs advocates
promised more jobs in the U.S., but instead more than
700,000 U.S. jobs were lost. FTAAs impact will be even
greater.

FTAA isnt just bad for workers and communities in the
U.S., its bad for workers everywhere.
In Mexico, for example, the destruction caused by NAFTA
shows what all of the Americas could expect. In 1994,
Mexico was forced to devalue the peso to attract foreign
investment for a free-trade, export oriented economy. As a
result, 8 million Mexican families were forced from the
middle class into poverty, over 28,000 small businesses
have been shuttered, and more than one million more
Mexicans now work for less than minimum wage ($3.40 per
day) than before NAFTA.

As presently drafted, the FTAA would increase economic
inequality between and within countries, concentrating
wealth while privatizing essential services, including
fresh water and healthcare. It would weaken legal
protections for small farmers and businesses, while giving
large transnational corporations the power to block
government standards for public health, workplace safety,
collective bargaining, and environmental pollution. It
would force governments -- both local and national -- to
surrender any remaining legal authority to regulate
corporations.

The Green Party of the United States declares
unequivocally its opposition to FTAA. We reaffirm our
determination to speak out against government and
corporate power, turned against the freedom and economic
security of the hemispheres people. Secret FTAA
negotiations, closed to the people most affected by their
outcomes, will never produce an acceptable result.

FAIR TRADE IS A BETTER WAY: DEMOCRATIZING THE GLOBAL
ECONOMY

Only a completely restructured trading system, based on
the principles of Fair Trade, can meet the needs, and
protect the rights, of every person in the Americas. Our
concept of Fair Trade is simple, and just. Trade rules
must always comply with higher laws of human rights, as
well as economic and labor rights established by the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When granted trade
privileges, here or abroad, private corporations must
serve the needs of the communities they work in, or face
revocation of their corporate charters, and the loss of
legal status.

A Green-inspired U.S. trade policy would be dramatically
different, from the corporate laissez-faire approach,
promoted by Democrats as well as Republicans in the U.S.
government. In a Fair Trade regime, the U.S. would again
link most favored status to trading partners human
rights records. All U.S. trade agreements, whether
bilateral or multilateral, would acknowledge the
protection of human rights, ecological systems, and local
cultures, as an essential first principle.

U.S. trade and investment rules would be instruments to
achieve equitable development, promoting ecological
sustainability, democratic governance, sovereignty, and
food security. Anti-sweatshop and workers rights laws
would be enforced, with stiff fines in all cases, and
criminal charges when necessary.

Finally, the Fair Trade we call for would be negotiated by
elected officials, accountable to the people, and not in
secret meetings of corporate bureaucrats. Unlike those of
the FTAA, NAFTA, IMF, World Bank, and WTO, truly fair
trade negotiations would be open to the public, with full
representation by NGOs and civil sector representatives.

GREEN PARTIES IN THE FAIR TRADE MOVEMENT

Achieving these goals will not be easy, but it is
possible. Green parties bring the politics of fair trade
to national electorates, more often and more consistently
than any other parties in the world. Through the media and
in electoral campaigns, we have consistently challenged
corporate greed, advocating instead a trading system based
on fair treaties between sovereign nations, balancing the
needs of all participants, with fundamental protection of
workers rights, local democracy, and the environment.

In fact, Green parties across the Americas are committed
to Fair Trade, and our numbers are growing, as more
citizens vote Green in local, state, and national
elections, sending Greens to government in Mexico, Brasil,
Colombia, Peru, Canada -- and the United States. In U.S.
cities as diverse as San Francisco, Santa Monica, Madison,
New Haven, Providence, and others, Green elected officials
work closely with trade unions, the peace movement, and
fair trade activists. They have sponsored Fair Trade
purchasing policies, sister city arrangements, and public
events.

At the same time, whenever hundreds of thousands have
rallied for fair trade, here and abroad, the large crowds
always include many thousands of Greens. In fact, Green
parties in every region of the world are opposed to
corporate globalization and its destruction of local
economies, cultures, and democratic political systems. The
anti-globalization movement is worldwide, and so are the
Green parties, whose commitment to the movement is
resolute.

Finally, the Green Party continues to support local and
international networks for grassroots trade, and trade in
environmentally sustainable goods. We will promote Fair
Trade labeling of goods, and as individuals, we will
continue to purchase locally made goods and locally grown
foods, to support local economies as well as cooperative
forms of production and trade.

THE CHOICE IS CLEAR

The Green Party calls for democratic and transparent trade
negotiations that include broadly based citizen
consultation. The Democratic and Republican parties call
for minor changes, or no changes at all, to the secretive,
corporate negotiations of NAFTA, FTAA, and the WTO.

The Green Party calls for Fair Trade policies that reduce
poverty, create living wage jobs with rights and security,
respect environmental laws, protect food security, and
promote sustainable development. The Democratic and
Republican parties want more corporate globalization,
stripping citizens everywhere of their rights, destroying
environments, and privatizing public services.

The Green Party sees health care, water, energy, and
education, as essential human needs, to be protected from
private greed. The Democratic and Republican parties see
only markets, where the rights and freedoms of human
beings are bought and sold by the rules of profit.

The Green Partys absolute opposition to FTAA, springs
from our absolute commitment to a livable future. A better
world is possible, for all people of the Americas, but
FTAA brings us no closer to a sane, peaceful, and
civilized future.

The Green Party says: Stop the FTAA!

Resources

None

References

Green Party Mobilization Against FTAA
http://www.gp.org/ftaa2003.html

Miami-Dade Green Party, WTO, NAFTA, FTAA, etc.
http://www.miamidadegreenparty.org/Issues/WTO/wto.html

Green Party Stop FTAA Registration - Miami - November 2003
http://www.gp.org/ftaa_register.html

Official FTAA/ALCA/ZLEA Website
http://www.ftaa-alca.org/

Stop the FTAA!
http://www.stopftaa.com/

Global Exchange
http://www.globalexchange.org/ftaa/

Public Citizen
http://www.publiccitizen.org/trade/ftaa/index.cfm

AFL-CIO Stop FTAA - Its the Wrong Choice!
http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/globaleconomy/ftaamain.cfm

Alianza Social Continental (in Spanish)
http://www.asc-hsa.org/

About.com Background on Free Trade
http://humanrights.about.com/library/bltpa.htm

Univ. of Florida, Center for Latin American Studies
http://www.latam.ufl.edu/publications/ftaa_paper.html

American Lands Alliance
http://www.americanlands.org/IMF/free_trade.htm

Common Frontiers - FTAA Information Kit
http://www.web.net/comfront/freekit.htm

Harbinger Online, Tricks of Free Trade
http://www.harbingerproject.com/issue34/trade.htm

Le Monde Diplomatique
http://mondediplo.com/2001/04/05americassummit

San Francisco IndyMedia
http://www.sf.indymedia.org/features/ftaa/

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