Drop in on the 17th to your Representative's district office, or take action any time during the Congressional Thanksgiving Recess

On Friday, November 17, your Representative returns for the Thanksgiving Congressional Recess. We are asking you to invite friends, maybe from groups you work with, to join you in a visit to your Rep's District Office that day to talk about NAFTA renegotiation. If November 17 is not convenient for you, the recess runs through November 27.

This mobilization coincides with the first day of the next round of NAFTA negotiations taking place in Mexico City, and in solidarity with the “Inter-Continental Days of Action on NAFTA.” 

Alliance for Democracy asks you to please deliver these two items
to your Representative…

● This letter with Citizen’s Trade Campaign’s NAFTA demands. Please edit the template letter to add your Congress member’s name and Washington office address, and your contact information.

● A factsheet about NAFTA’s impacts on your state. Click here for “50 Reasons Why We Need to Replace NAFTA.” On the map, click on your state and then click on the statement or statements that pop up for a link to a detailed factsheet. These well-researched handouts give you the information to talk effectively about local and state impacts that must not be repeated in NAFTA-2. 

● Here’s a general NAFTA factsheet to keep your Representative well informed.

We are at a crossroads. NAFTA renegotiation is moving rapidly. The outcome could still go in multiple directions.

We must push Congress members to support OUR DEMANDS for a NAFTA replacement, while we can make a difference. If our demands are not met, we will work to defeat a TPP-style NAFTA-2 that is worse than NAFTA-1. We want:

√  ISDS secret trade courts eliminated

√  Enforceable labor and environmental standards: TPP must not be the basis for NAFTA-2

√  Release draft chapter texts now. 

Corporate lobbyists are demanding the renegotiation deliver a TPP-style NAFTA 2.0 that would be worse for people not just in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, but across the planet. Meanwhile, there are proposals on ISDS (the secret trade courts), labor rights, environmental protections, Buy Local/Buy American, and possible sunset or 5-year review of NAFTA. Some proposals have been tabled by negotiators from one or another of the NAFTA countries. The prospect of a US NAFTA withdrawal by Trump hangs over the negotiations.

Mexico’s President wants negotiations completed by March 2018 to avoid NAFTA being a contentious topic in the country's presidential election, which takes place in July. Remember, we defeated the TPP by delaying negotiations into the 2016 election year.

Here are excellent summaries of where negotiations stand to date: “NAFTA Talks:  What’s the Deal?” and “NAFTA Talks Falter: Time to Increase Pressure,”  and a Citizen Trade Campaign’s Letter to President Trump Detailing Civil Society NAFTA Demands.

It's possible that you might be able to make an appointment with your member of Congress or with an aide, but if not don't be deterred from a quick visit on the 17th. Show up, be friendly, introduce yourself and ask if you can speak to your Representative or to the District Director. Bring the letter and relevant fact sheets, stress your demands for an end to ISDS, enforceable and strong labor and environmental standards, and a release of the text.

Here are some more office visit tips. Don't forget to take pictures—share them online if you're a social media user, and email them to us at afd *at* thealliancefordemocracy *dot* org, and to photos *at* citizenstrade *dot* org. Then let the Citizens Trade Campaign know how the meeting went by filling out this online form. Groups working nationally and in district on trade justice will use the information you report to plan next steps in the campaign.

Thank you for taking action!

Nancy Price and David Delk, Co-Chairs

It looks like the 11 remaining TPP countries may be trying to revive the deal, more or less. But if it remains a "dockable" agreement, in that other countries can sign in after the original nations ratify it, it may not be the kind of agreement that US-based corporations want.

For instance, New Zealand's new Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden, is already claiming the deal is "a damned sight better." She's an opponent of Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), a mechanism that allows foreign corporations to sue a nation in order to overturn domestic laws or regulatory decisions that infringe on the corporation's "right" to profit. ISDS was one of the aspects of the TPP that both left and right in the US and elsewhere rightfully objected to. While Arden may not be able to keep ISDS out of the CPTPP, she has said she will push for recognized side agreements between countries that will say that there will be no ISDS cases brought against either nation. 

Electronic Frontier Foundation has also taken a look at what a new-ish TPP might mean for intellectual property, if the US is in or out of a final agreement. What the US negotiators wanted was far more extreme than what other countries called for, so it's not a surprise that that chapter is now on hold. EFF rightfully notes, however, that there is still much to object to in the chapters that remain, and that any negotiations from here on need to be conducted with much more transparency than the ones for the original TPP.

Meanwhile Vox offered this extremely shallow look at what's happening. Granted, Vox is an opinion site and not a news site, but jeez louise, guys! There is a much better story that needs to be covered, instead of this "Twilight of the Meritocracy/I Should Have Gone to B-School in Berlin" twaddle, and it's this: What kind of trade does the rest of the world think it needs? What kind of trade is fairer and are these countries turning to their people more and to multinationals less in an attempt to deliver? What kind of trade policy is more in line with the continued economic and social health of developed democracies--a type of nation that the US just isn't, despite having so many noisy gazillionaires. With US mainstream media both partisan and unable to see past pro-corporate business as usual, we'll have to count even more on international and alternative media to follow what's going on, and to figure out what this all might mean for our own trade justice work.

​If July 4th left you hankering after some real democracy, come make the connections, hear the ideas, and share the skills that will invigorate your movement-building at the Democracy Convention III, August 2 – 6, at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. 

The Alliance for Democracy will be there, organizing the Earth Rights and Global Democracy Conference linking global work to defend Mother Earth and the rights of communities and ecosystems to thrive and survive to the issues important to us in the US, such as: fair trade, water, food and agriculture, climate.

Read the Earth Rights and Global Democracy statement here. AfD’s Co-chair, Nancy Price is organizing a series of panels. Here’s a partial list of Convention presenters; the full program will be posted soon. 

Here’s just a taste of the Earth Rights & Global Democracy panels: the Renegotiating NAFTA panel will add a gender and racial justice analysis; and panels on the false solutions to global warming of cap and trade and carbon tax, stopping GE Eucalyptus forests slated for our southeastern states responsible for the terrible fires in Chile and Portugal, on bottled water,  frac-sand mining and more. 

Ronnie Cummins, International Director of the Organic Consumers Association, will speak on “Connecting the Dots: Bringing the Food, Climate, Natural Health and Democracy Movements Together in a Powerful Force for Revolution.” The great line-up of Convention Plenary speakers will be posted soon. 

Earth Rights and Global Democracy is one of eight distinct, yet interrelated conferences at this third Democracy Convention. You can also connect with Representative Democracy, Racial Justice for Democracy, Peace and Democracy, Media Democracy, Education United for Democracy, Democracy and the Constitution, and Community and Economic Democracy. In addition, two tracks, on Overcoming Oppression, Building an Inclusive Movement, and Skills and Arts provide a toolkit for activists seeking to broaden their allies and impact. 

Register Now: The Democracy Convention website has all the information you need on registration, lodging and meals (including affordable options on campus), and getting to and from Minneapolis. You can also donate or sponsor the convention. 

As conference organizers at the 2013 and 2015 conventions, we are excited to be working again with so many sharp and committed people. Previous conventions were a tremendous coming-together of activists across the issues and the miles. 

We look forward to seeing you again – this time in Minneapolis, August 2 – 6. Look for our table! 

The clock is ticking on NAFTA renegotiation, and as with the TPP, grassroots pressure on Congress is essential if we are going to have a trade agreement that improves on the original text. 

There are a lot of ways that a new NAFTA could be made worse, but for the purposes of asking for your Congress members' support for a better deal, there are four items that we must all demand:

● No Investor-State-Dispute-Settlement provisions (ISDS),
● Protect important “Buy American” and “Buy Local” public procurement preferences,
● Include much stronger and enforceable labor, environmental, and public health standards in the agreement itself, and
● Be negotiated in a democratic, accountable and transparent process.

Now is the time to start getting allies together for a visit with your member of Congress during the August recess. Start with three easy steps:

1) Think about local allies whom you can reach out to. Some constituents groups will be on the right side of this issue already, and already active. Those groups will include labor unions and labor councils, and some national groups that were actively opposed to the Trans Pacific Partnership, such as Electronic Frontier Foundation or the Sierra Club. Other, newer, post-election grassroots groups might need you to provide some background on the trade justice fights of the last few years but would likely be your allies. You might also make local contacts through the National Farmers Union or your local organic farming association. Local peace groups and immigrant rights organizations are also good prospects. Make contact and invite them to join in a constituent visit. 

2) Let your Representative's district office know that you'd like an appointment. You will probably want to ask for a half-hour of time for your group to state your case, drop off relevant materials, and answer any questions that your Representative or his/her staff might have. If your Representative was a strong opponent of the TPP and can be trusted to advocate for workers and the environment in a new NAFTA agreement, you may only need time to say "thanks for your good work—please make this issue a priority this term!" 

3) Show that you represent a broad constituency. Signatures on these postcards emphasize that trade is an issue for voters in your Representative's district. Print some out from this file for tabling and canvassing, and keep a few with you at all times to get signatures from friends. Don't be shy. Trade is a transpartisan issue and you will find Democrats, Republicans, and independent voters all supportive of good trade policy, though sometimes for different reasons, including jobs, the environment, and the threat ISDS poses to national sovereignty and local decision-making.

Outreach, setting a date, and showing support will put you in good shape for a Congressional visit during the recess. Start now to make an impact!