click here for some suggested actions

On January 1, 2006, the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is scheduled to go into effect. Together with our partner social movements in Central America, members groups of the STOP CAFTA Coalition and our allied networks are planning to protest the implementation of CAFTA through a series of nationally and internationally coordinated local actions.

Please consider joining us by planning an action during the month of January, 2006 - the month of resistance to the implementation of CAFTA!

Get Connected:
Actions are already being planned in Chicago, Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, North Carolina and DC... but we need more! Please let us know if you will be able to plan an activity to mark the CAFTA's unwelcome arrival. Contact Burke Stansbury at 212-465-8115 ext 205, or burke@cispes.org to let us know, so we can include that information in any press announcements.

To connect with existing activities, or for more information, visit www.stopcafta.org. We'll be putting information about the actions up soon on the STOP CAFTA website www.stopcafta.org in mid-December to help folks coordinate.

Ideas for Actions:
Members of Congress will be back in their home districts for the holidays, not returning to Washington DC until later in January, so this is a good time to remind those members who voted for CAFTA that their vote will cost them - but also to engage members who voted against CAFTA on the importance of monitoring what happens in Central America, and not letting the Bush Administration extend CAFTA rules to the rest of the world.

Accordingly suggested actions include everything from protesting at a scheduled event or fundraiser at which your representative will be speaking or in front of their office, or the offices of a corporation that lobbied to support CAFTA - to a candlelight vigil or press conference urging legislators to prepare for the worst and work to change our broken economic, trade and foreign policies. More ideas at www.stopcafta.org.

REMINDER: Join the December WTO Mobilizations:
Here in the U.S., our allies at Grassroots Global Justice, the National Network of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and Jobs with Justice have called a Week of Action for December 10th - 18th to protest the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong. To get connected with the WTO Week of Action, send an email to Carlos Fernandez from Jobs with Justice at carlos@jwj.org.

CAFTA-Talk is a good, open and not too high-traffic listserve for sharing information about resistance to and monitoring of CAFTA, and we'll be using it to discuss some of the action planning. You can join it at www.riseup.net.