Let's hope we never get there. Certainly, Santa Cruz is an impacted county, and our plan will come from the state. So, next time you're sitting in the gridlock on 17 heading for San Jose, look out for a bunch of oak trees whose leaves are the color of a paper bag. And instead of cursing the traffic, consider praying that the remaining trees do not SOD off. The Santa Cruz City Council voted at its last meeting to pass a resolution against the Free Trade Area of the Americas , a corporate-backed trade proposal modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization .
Global change has to start at the local level.
The vote was 6-1 in favor. Activists explained how the FTAA would affect people in Santa Cruz. Coalition member Sandino Gomez argued that free trade has already caused thousands of workers in Watsonville to lose their jobs. When the peso was devalued in the 1980s, Gomez explained, American companies moved production to a valley in Irapuato, Mexico, where labor standards are weaker. Several coalition members plan to join demonstrators outside the Summit of the Americas meeting in Quebec City, April 20-22, in an effort to prevent delegates from passing the Free Trade Area of the Americas proposal.