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What You Can Do

Subscribe for Trade Matters Email Updates

Sign up for AFSC’s Trade Matters email updates. We provide no more than twice a month summarized updates and links to useful resources.

Take Action: Stop the Colombia FTA

The Bush Administration continues to use “national security” arguments to try and persuade Congress to vote on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) before the 110th Congress Adjourns. Call your members of Congress, ask them to publicly oppose the FTA and tell Congressional leadership not to consent to a vote.  More >  

Fight for Democracy and the Right to Protect Public Goods

• View your state’s profile to find out if your governor signed away your state’s right to meet community development and other goals through government purchasing practices
• Call your governor’s office to urge her/him to either withdraw the state from the list or turn over the request to the legislature for their consideration
• Visit the Trade Matters site to see examples of how AFSC New Hampshire staff worked with the AFL-CIO to succeed in getting the new governor to reverse the state’s commitment to abide by state purchasing rules set in CAFTA and future trade pacts

Fight for Improved Worker Rights

• Visit our Look to our web site to learn more about AFSC's Mexico-U.S. Border project that works closely with workers and shareholders to promote sustainable living wages and improved working conditions in maquiladoras owned by Alcoa, Delphi Automotive, and other corporations. This effort serves as an example for ways workers, consumers, shareholders, and pension plan owners can hold multinational corporations accountable.
• Be part of AFSC's quarterly delegation to the Mexico-U.S. border through the Austin-Tan Cerca de la Frontera program. These trips bring you face to face with maquiladora workers. More information >
• Support immigrant worker rights campaigns in your community. Visit AFSC's Project Voice website to learn more >
• The AFSC Cambridge office co-hosts Colombian trade union activists who are confronting the FTAA and AFTA and are targeted by the paramilitaries. Help organize a speaking tour in your area or join a delegation to Colombia. Email Gabriel Camacho for more information.

Uncover the Root Causes of Migration

• Attend workshops or leadership training's on trade and migration issues organized by AFSC's Cambridge and Austin offices (see contact info)  
• Support initiatives like AFSC's Migration and Human Mobility Project Voice program that works to strengthen the voices of immigrant-led organizations in setting the national agenda for immigration policy and immigrants' rights.
• Share information and coordinate action on the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights web site: www.nnirr.org

Join Campaigns and Attend Forums

• Contact local AFSC Trade Matters staff or use your web-browser to search for a fair trade coalition in your community and get involved. One excellent example is the AFSC Austin Office with the Texas Fair Trade Coalition and its success in getting the Austin City Council to unanimously approve a sweatfree ordinance.
• Get a religious office/organization in your community to join the U.S. Interfaith Trade Justice Campaign endorsed by more than 40 religious institutions www.tradejusticeusa.org.