From: Florence Steele <fs%uva.pcmail.Virginia.EDU@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Subject: Free Trade Conference of Governors
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 19:27:16 GMT

Please post the following message to ACTIV-L.  Thank you.

On Tuesday, July 28th Governor Douglas Wilder of Virginia will be hosting a
conference to discuss issues of "free trade" at the University of Virginia in
Charlottesville.  Attendees will include the governors of southeastern states
and presidents of most of the Central American countries.

A group of community residents of Charlottesville and employees of the
University of Virginia would like to call attention to the lack of concern
with human rights and economic rights of workers inherent in these "free
trade" discussions.  We are planning to mobilize across the street from the
Rotunda at 12:00 noon in order to let our governor know that we are concerned
with poverty and economic exploitation of workers north and south of the
border.  Please join us.

The following letter is being sent to the Charlottesville Daily Progress:

                                                  July 22, 1992

Dear Editor,

The Central American presidents will be attending a trade summit with
Southeastern state governors hosted by Governor Wilder in Charlottesville at
the University of Virginia on Tuesday, July 28.  The purpose of the meeting
requested by the Central American presidents is to encourage business
investment into their respective economies.

We understand that the governors and presidents will be meeting and dining at
the Rotunda and Monticello, symbolic sites of American democracy.

We would like to take this opportunity to call attention to human rights and
worker rights violations in these so-called "fledgling democracies", with
which Governor Wilder plans to sign a "statement of cooperation".  We want to
point out the ongoing environmental destruction inherent in the
expert-oriented model of development dictated by the U.S. Agency for
International Development since WWII.  It is clear that the recent
International Monetary Fund-imposed austerity programs have increased the
already severe poverty of the region and reduced already deficient public
spending on education, healthcare, and other social services.

Since the invasion of Panama, the defeat of the Sandinistas, and the signing
of the Peace Accords in El Salvador, U.S. foreign policy is unchallenged in
Central America.

The war-weary, environmentally-despoiled, poverty-stricken region has been
once again subdued for a new phase of exploitation by foreign capital.  The
unorganized and repressed labor force in Central America is attractive to
U.S. corporate investment.  However, the easy transfer of transnational
capital south of the border facilitated by the current move toward
hemispheric Free Trade means loss of jobs, lower paying jobs, and decreased
safety & environmental standards here in Virginia and throughout the United
States.

Human rights, worker rights and the elimination of poverty everywhere should
be the focus of negotiations with the Central American presidents, not the
promotion of the free flow of capital "south of the border".  We call on
Governor Wilder, as the respresentative of all citizens of the Commonwealth,
not merely the business interests, to bear this in mind as he enters into
closed door meetings with the Central American presidents.

                              Sincerely,


                              Elena Day
                              Florence Steele
                              Dona Hildebrand
                              John Chapman
                              Nancy Cook
                              Tom Joseph


As citizens of Virginia and employees of the University (some of us) we feel
responsible for the actions of our governmental representatives and the use
of our public resources.  It is our inherent responsibility to develop truly
democratic institutions in our local community.  Come and help us express
support for the people of Central America and of the United States who will
not be represented at the conference.

For more information:

Florence Steele
804 982 4630 (W)
804 979 1781 (h)
fs@UVA.PCMAIL.VIRGINIA.EDU
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive