King of the Hate Business
By Alexander Cockburn, co-editor of CounterPunch and a columnist for The Nation.
The sun is dipping low in the evening sky over the Republican Party as the Other Leading Brand. A mere 21 percent of the adult population identify themselves as Republicans. Sen. Arlen Specter sees the writing on the wall. He prefers to make his sixth senatorial run under the ample Democratic banner, rather than get mangled in the tiny shark tank of a Republican primary attended only by people who want to see the country run by Limbaugh and Hannity. With Franken certified, Specter crossing the aisle and Biden in reserve, the Democrats can no longer hide behind the excuse of a Republican filibuster. They’ll figure out a way, no doubt, but it could be embarrassing....
Read the full article in Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.
DECLARACIÓN DE MONTEVIDEO
III Encuentro Latinoamericano de Economía Solidaria y Comercio Justo
Las y los participantes del III Encuentro Latinoamericano de Economía Solidaria y Comercio Justo, reunidos en Montevideo, Uruguay, del 22 al 24 de octubre del 2008, provenientes de 16 países latinoamericanos y caribeños, así como invitados de Europa, Norteamérica y Oceanía, luego de un ampio intercambio de experiencias e intenso diálogo entre diversas redes y movimientos que trabajamos orientados por el enforque de economía solidaria y social en América Latina y El Caribe, nos dirigimos a los movimientos sociales, gobiernos de la región y a la ciudadanía en general para expresar:
Qué, en Latinoamérica se han instalado nuevos gobiernos que evidencian la capacidad y las ansias de cambio de la sociedad civil, dando un vuelco en el panorama y las relaciones políticas en la región. En su mayoría, estos gobiernos se han posicionado críticamente frente al modelo económico neoliberal. Sin embargo, amplios sectores de los pueblos de América Latina y El Caribe continúan sin acceder al goce efectivo de sus derechos fundamentales, y sufriendo los impactos negativos de dicho modelo, que en lo económico, social, cultural y ambiental sigue favoreciendo a una minoría en detrimento de las grandes mayorías.
Que, los tratados de libre comercio, tal como lo denunciamos desde el primer Encuentro en Cochabamba, Bolivia (2005), además de afirmar la voluntad de darle carácter irreversible al modelo económico neoliberal e impedir la formulación de políticas públicas nacionales soberanas, han debilitado los procesos de integración subregionales y han introducido nuevas condiciones desfavorables y de exclusión, en particular, a la pequeña producción del campo y la ciudad.
Que, la realidad actual del mundo presenta un panorama de peligrosa incertidumbre: las turbulencias financieras internacionales, la crisis energética y medioambiental, el calentamiento global y la inseguridad alimentaria para vastos sectores vulnerables. Todos estos elementos nos anuncian una nueva crisis sistémica de efectos aún imprevisibles, especialmente sobre las condiciones de vida y de trabajo de amplios sectores de la población de América Latina y El Caribe, la región con el más alto índice de desigualdad en el mundo, y nos confirman que el modelo económico imperante hegemónicamente desde hace décadas no sirve.
Frente a este escenario:
1) Reafirmamos, una vez más, que la Economía Social y Solidaria es una alternativa para la humanidad, pues persigue como objetivo principal el bien vivir de todas las personas, a partir de la autonomía productiva, la equidad económica, la justicia social, la sostenibilidad ambiental y la participación política. Esta forma distinta de hacer economía tiene a la organización de base como el eslabón fundamental del proceso económico y propicia el empoderamiento de hombres y mujeres para afrontar el reto de ser sujetos de su propio destino, constituyendo una estrategia que contribuye al reconocimiento de los derechos económicos, sociales, culturales y ambientales, que enfatiza los enfoques de sustentabilidad, de interculturalidad y de equidad de género, y que fortalece los procesos de desarrollo local sustentable para la proyección nacional y regional.
2) Nos comprometemos a promover una integración regional que privilegie los derechos, sabidurías e intereses de los pueblos latinoamericano-caribeños, y que tenga como principales fundamentos la cooperación, la reciprocidad y la complementariedad en la producción, el comercio y las finanzas, así como en todas las dimensiones de la vida social de los pueblos; por lo tanto, diferente al modelo de libre comercio que, por incidencia de las grandes transnacionales, hegemoniza las discusiones y acuerdos en el seno de la Organización Mundial de Comercio (OMC) y en los tratados comerciales regionales y bilaterales que se pretenden imponer en la región.
3) Apoyamos y acompañamos las luchas y reivindicaciones de los pueblos de América Latina y el Caribe, reclamando respeto a su carácter multicultural, multiétnico y multilingí¼istico, y sus aportes socio-económicos, basados en relaciones de solidaridad, de reciprocidad y de cooperación.
4) Nos solidarizamos con las organizaciones sociales que en diferentes países de la región se vienen movilizando en defensa de la democracia participativa e incluyente, de la paz, de las conquistas políticas y económicas, así como frente a la agresiva y violatoria penetración de las transnacionales en sus territorios.
5) Convocamos a compartir, perfeccionar e innovar instrumentos, métodos y sistemas para mejorar los actuales niveles de eficiencia económica y social de los emprendimientos solidarios, sus productos y servicios, con el ánimo de contribuir al bien vivir de sus integrantes y comunidades.
6) Adoptamos el compromiso de promover y/o fortalecer redes y movimientos nacionales de economía solidaria, consolidando espacios idóneos para la mejor articulación y el fortalecimiento de las organizaciones y sus integrantes, así como de impulsar alianzas estratégicas con otras redes y movimientos sociales para el fortalecimiento de la economía solidaria en las localidades, los países y la región.
7) Instamos a que el Banco del Sur constituya una oportunidad para favorecer la soberanía financiera en América del Sur y sea un instrumento para el desarrollo de la economía solidaria.
8) Exigimos a los gobiernos nacionales, parlamentos, y a las instancias estatales regionales y locales de América Latina y El Caribe, que abran y consoliden espacios públicos participativos para la formulación, implementación y control de leyes, políticas y programas específicos para el fomento y desarrollo de la economía solidaria.
Finalmente, agradecemos la infinita solidaridad de las hermanas y hermanos integrantes de las organizaciones uruguayas anfitrionas de este III Encuentro. Asimismo, invitamos a las organizaciones, entidades de apoyo, y académicos de la economía solidaria de la región a que contribuyan y participen en el IV Encuentro Internacional "Globalización de la Solidaridad", en abril de 2009 en Luxemburgo; así como a que se sumen nuevas fuerzas a nuestro movimiento, para consolidar y ampliar los niveles de participación y representatividad hasta ahora logrados, con miras a la realización del IV Encuentro Latinoamericano de Economía Solidaria y Comercio Justo, en Medellín, en noviembre de 2010.
Montevideo 24 de octubre de 2008
Más información del III Encuentro”¨Más información de RIPESS Latinoamérica
A Serial Job-Killer Is Stalking America
Conservatives in Congress, predictably enough, are going after the wrong suspect. In the process, CEOs are getting away with economic murder - and labor law reform stands imperiled.
A new crime has burst out onto America's political blotter. Move over drug pushing and car stealing, meet the new menace. Job killing. But fear not. We now have in Congress a dedicated army of self-selected saviors who have loudly vowed to keep us protected.
And just how are these lawmakers going to keep our jobs secure? They're going to put the kibosh on labor law reform....
Read the full article in Too Much, A Commentary on Excess and Inequality.
Montevideo Declaration on the Solidarity Economy
Montevideo Declaration
There are alternatives: the social and solidarity economy and fair trade
The III Latin American Solidarity Economy and Fair Trade Meeting was held in Montevideo, Uruguay, October 22-24, 2008. It was attended by women and men from 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries, plus guests from Europe, North America and Oceania. The various networks and movements whose work is geared to the social and solidarity economy in Latin America and the Caribbean had an extensive exchange of experiences and intense dialogue. We address the social movements, the region’s governments and the general public with the following message:
In Latin America new governments have been established which demonstrate civil society’s capacity and desire for social change, altering the panorama and political relations in the region. Most of these governments are critical of the neo-liberal economic model. However, large sectors of the populations of Latina America and the Caribbean are still unable to enjoy their fundamental rights and suffer the negative impact of the economic model, whose economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects continue to favor a minority to the detriment of the large majority.
The free trade agreements, as we reported from the first Meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia (2005), besides aiming to ensure that the neoliberal economic model is irrevocable and to hinder the formulation of sovereign national public policy, have weakened sub-regional integration and have introduced new conditions which are unfavorable and exclusive, particularly for small–scale production from the countryside and the cities.
The world currently faces a panorama of perilous uncertainty: international financial turbulence, the energy and environmental crisis, global warming and food insecurity for vast sectors of the most vulnerable. These phenomena all herald a new crisis in the system, whose effects we cannot yet foresee, especially those on the standard of living and employment of large sectors of the population of Latin America, the region with the highest rate of inequality in the world, and they confirm that the prevailing hegemonic economic model is of no use and has not been for decades.
Mindful of this:
1) We affirm once again, that the Solidarity and Social Economy is an alternative for humanity, since its chief objective is the well being of all, on the basis of productive autonomy, economic equality, social justice, environmental sustainability and political participation. This different manner of running the economy has local organization as its fundamental link in the economic process and provides the empowerment of men and women to tackle the challenge of being subjects of their own destiny, and is a strategy which contributes to the recognition of economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, which stresses sustainable, cross-cultural and gender equality approaches, and strengthens local sustainable development to be projected nationally and regionally.
2) We are committed to promoting regional integration which gives priority to rights, knowledge and interests of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples, and whose main foundations are cooperation, reciprocity and complementary action in production, trade and finance, as in all dimensions of the social life of peoples; hence unlike the free trade model which, owing to the pressure of the big transnational companies, monopolizes discussions and agreements in the World trade Organization (WTO) and in the regional and bilateral trade agreements which they wish to impose on the region.
3) We support and accompany the struggles and demands of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean who ask for respect for their multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual character and their socio-economic contributions, based on relations of solidarity, reciprocity and cooperation.
4) We express solidarity with the community organizations which in various countries of the region are mobilizing to defend participatory and inclusive democracy, peace, political and economic achievements, and to face the aggressive trespassing of their territory by the transnationals.
5) We have come together to share, perfect and innovate instruments, methods and systems to improve the current levels of economic and social efficiency of the solidarity ventures, their products and services, in order to contribute to the welfare of their members and communities.
6) We adopt the commitment to promote and/or strengthen national solidarity economy networks and movements, consolidating the opportunities for improving liaison and strengthening the organizations and their members, and for promoting strategic alliances with other social networks and movements to strengthen the solidarity economy in communities, countries and the region.
7) We urge that the Bank of the South be an opportunity to benefit financial sovereignty in South America and an instrument for developing the solidarity economy.
8) We demand that national governments, parliaments and local, regional and state entities in Latina America and the Caribbean open and consolidate public and participatory opportunities for formulating, implementing and monitoring specific laws, policies and programs for fostering and developing the solidarity economy.
Finally, we express our thanks for the infinite solidarity of the sisters and brothers of the Uruguayan organizations which have hosted this III Meeting. Similarly, we invite the organizations, aid agencies and academics working for the region’s solidarity economy to contribute to and participate in the IV International Meeting “The Globalization of Solidarity”� in April, 2009 in Luxembourg; and to redouble their efforts for our movement, to consolidate and extend the levels of participation and representativity achieved to date, bearing in mind the IV Latin American Meeting of the Solidarity Economy and Fair Trade, in Medellin in 2010.
Montevideo, October 24, 2008
REPESS-LAC
Red Internacional de Promoción de la Economía Social Solidaria-Latinoamerica y Caribe (Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Solidarity Social Economy- Latin America and the Caribbean.
Tax Fairness Campaign Victories
Tax Fairness Action News (TFAN)
The annual publication of the Tax
Fairness Organizing Collaborative (TFOC), showcases the critical
organizing experiences and victories of TFOC's members.
TFAN Spring 2009
TFAN Spring 2008
TFAN Spring 2007
Analysis: Obama Tax Proposals Could be More Progressive
By Ed Cutlip
United for a Fair Economy has released a new report analyzing President Barack Obama's tax proposals. In the report, the progressive organization argues that Obama's tax proposals fall short of what is needed to implement a progressive tax structure and to reduce incentives for the kind of financial risk-taking that led to the current economic crisis.
The report compares Obama's tax proposals--unveiled in his 2010 budget--with recommendedations from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). The report finds that the IPS proposals would generate significantly more revenue and curtail many of the practices that led to the financial crisis. Their proposals would increase the tax rates on the richest Americans to bring them closer to what the average taxpayer pays.
Read the full post on Media Mouse.
Racial Justice Communications in Obama’s America (Podcast)
On Febuary 25th, the Boston Chapter of the Progressive Communicators Network convened a panel discussion called “Talking About Racial & Economic Justice in Obama’s America.”�
Amaad Rivera [LISTEN] is the director of the Racial Wealth Divide program at United for a Fair Economy, and lead author of their "2009 State of the Dream Report: The Silent Depression." He discusses Racism without Racists, patterns of school segregation in Boston, and building racial justice frameworks.
Tarso Luís Ramos [LISTEN] is the director of research at the right-wing watchdog group Political Research Associates. He discusses the work of Ian F. Haney Lopez’s on “colorblind white dominance,”� Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s work on White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era, and the “Color Blind Ideology.”�
Doyle Canning [LISTEN] of smart/MEME, discusses some of the stories in the popular culture on racism and “post racism,”� and how story-based strategies can work to challenge some of the underlying assumptions of white supremacy in the dominant culture.
Read the full blog post on smart/MEME.
Obama’s Budget Moves in Right Direction, Needs to Go Further
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President Obama's fiscal year 2010 budget proposes an ambitious and exciting agenda that invests in our nation's future. His budget substantially invests in the long-deferred and vital areas of health care reform, clean energy, and education. The President partially pays for these investments though a mixture of progressive tax changes and other revenue measures.
United for a Fair Economy applauds the new direction President Obama appears to be taking our nation and supports a number of his proposals. Overall, the Obama budget takes steps that reduce economic inequality, but does little to reduce the racial wealth divide. We also believe there are some critical improvements needed in the budget in the areas of military spending, racial justice and federal tax policy. UFE is working to improve the budget with organizational allies who share our values.
While the general proposals were accepted by both Houses of Congress, much is left to be defined in the details stil be to hashed out. Please let your US Representative and both Senators know your opinions. Find your legislators here.
Military Spending
While President Obama's budget makes significant strides in social spending, the budget also makes a disappointing choice to increase, not decrease, both Department of Defense and Homeland Security spending. (See chart: US Military Spending vs. The World, 2008.)
Obama is proposing that the Defense Department receive $533.7 billion as a baseline budget for fiscal year 2010, with another $130 billion in supplemental funding to bring the total to almost $664 billion, a 1.4 percent ($9 billion) increase over FY 09. These figures do not include roughly $7 billion in personnel, health care and military construction spending recently appropriated under the economic stimulus law.
The President's budget seeks $42.7 billion for the Department of Homeland Security in fiscal 2010, up 1.2 % from $40.1 billion in FY 09. That's in addition to $2.8 billion for homeland security included in the stimulus bill.
We applaud the long awaited investment to improve the medical treatment of wounded service members and veterans and the President's commitment to pursue a reform of the acquisition process to make sure that funds are not being wasted on expensive and outdated weapon systems. Yet, we believe the President's decision to expand the Army and Marines neither supports desperately needed economic recovery nor responds to the desires of a majority of Americans to reduce our reliance on the military as a means of achieving security, stability, and peace among nations.
If the Obama administration is serious about a shift in how we relate to other nations and how the US engages in global affairs, then we must move away from policies and budget decisions that serve to maintain global US military hegemony. From experience, the world sees the Marine Corps as the invasion and intervention military outfit of choice, and the US army as its occupying counter part.
A large portion of the homeland security budget goes to border security and immigration. It includes $1.4 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to ensure that illegal aliens who commit crimes "are expeditiously identified and removed" from the United States. This investment is problematic as we have seen time and time again how ICE, under the guise of rounding up and deporting "illegal aliens who commit crimes", has indiscriminately rounded up and deported thousands of non-criminal undocumented workers and separated families. If the Obama administration is serious about controlling the influx of undocumented workers into our country, then it should consider redesigning US foreign and trade policies instead of implementing para-military persecution and building walls. (See UFE's policy recommendations on Latin America.)
President Obama's budget proposal forecasts a roughly $50 billion yearly savings in war costs over time. But this doesn't really address the concern about spending billions of dollars to maintain and expand a neo-colonialist war machine instead of investing in the creation of a more just and sustainable national and international economic structure grounded in solidarity and social economy principles.
The price we pay for being a military superpower with an interventionist agenda is unsustainable, both economically and politically. That needs to change. We want even greater increases in spending on public education, affordable housing and job creation, community-led economic development and fair global trade policies, rather than improved weapons systems and a bigger military force to keep the world in fear of us. We want a major step up in healthcare and renewable energy, rather than the build-up of fences on our borders.
Racial Justice
As this country experiences an economic recession, people of color are experiencing an economic depression, with unemployment, stagnant wages and asset poverty that would be considered an epidemic if the country as a whole were experiencing similar dismal economic realities.
While some aspects of the President's budget attempt to address areas of concentrated poverty, isolated geographic areas, civil rights, and historically disfranchised populations, the attempts are sporadic. Virtually absent in the budget is the subject of race and its implications. If history is the litmus test of success, past federal policies that failed to systemically address the underlying racial disparities at best maintained these inequities and at worst exacerbated them nearly beyond repair. President Obama's budget inadequately addresses the issues of structural racial inequity.
This structural racism practiced during the recent economic bubble and bust - including discriminatory policies of the financial industry - led to the largest loss of wealth in modern history for people of color. The President's budget does not address the resulting economic crisis.
Further, Obama promotes "race-neutral" policies such as the increase in green technology to the tune of $34 billion, which, while important, lack a clear directive to concentrate such resources and jobs where they're needed most: struggling communities that are disproportionally the communities of color.
Understanding that Latinos are the least likely to have medical insurance, that Blacks are the most likely to live in areas of concentrated poverty, that Native Americans have some of the highest drop-out rates compared to the rest of the population and that APIA (Asian Pacific Islander Americans) are not even counted in a wide variety of disparity data, allows us to understand that not all people in this country are entering this 21st century economy equally.
This budget has the potential to both symbolize progress and address some of the persistent structural racial inequalities through adequate funding for the enforcement of anti-discriminatory policies, new initiatives on inequality and improved data collection. As of yet, President Obama has not demonstrated a clear commitment to addressing the vast and growing racial inequalities in our nation. Some have said, "if you are not using the race card, you are not playing with a full deck." As we enter a new chapter of American history, let us create a 21st economy that works for everyone. This is only possible by dealing with race, not ignoring it.
Federal Tax Policy
President Obama's budget proposes many changes in tax policy. Together, these changes make tax law somewhat more progressive, but they fail to raise greatly needed revenue. We would prefer tax changes that result in a steeply progressive tax system, and raise enough revenue to accomplish national goals.
We support the President's efforts to:
- repeal the Bush tax cuts on those earning above $250,000
- limit deductions for people in the top 5% of income
- return the tax on investment income back to 20%
- tax the compensation of hedge fund and private equity managers at the same rate as earned income
- increase international corporate taxes
- eliminate numerous oil company tax breaks, and
- establish a "cap and trade" system to limit carbon emissions and reduce pollution.
We disagree with Obama's proposal to permanently reduce the Alternative Minimum Tax, which mostly benefits the wealthiest 10%. And we believe that, given our nation's massive deficit, this is not the time to hemorrhage revenue by cutting taxes for families earning less than $250,000 and extending business tax cuts, as Obama's budget does.
A particularly big disappointment is the President's handling of the estate tax. He proposes to make permanent President Bush's reduction in the estate tax with an exemption of $3.5 million per spouse and a tax rate of 45% on the amount above the exemption, which will cost $166 billion over 10 years. This benefits only people in the top 1% of income. Instead, United for a Fair Economy proposes an estate tax with a $2 million exemption per spouse and up to 55% rate over the exemption, which would bring in billions more over 10 years.
Obama missed his chance to introduce other new taxes that primarily affect wealthy people and corporations, and which would have made the tax system more fair, raised significant revenue, and created disincentives for some of the financial speculation that contributed to the economic meltdown. We support the Institute for Policy Studies' excellent package of tax proposals, which could raise up to $422 billion per year more than Obama's proposals. In addition to a strong estate tax, the proposals include an income surtax on people earning over $5 million/year; a tax on speculative financial transactions; taxing investment income at the same rate as earned income; closing overseas tax havens; and ending subsidies for excessive executive compensation.
Here are some charts that show:
Where federal revenue comes from:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/revenue.cfm
and what it is spent on:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/expenses.cfm
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/node/6916
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/FY2008%20total%20outlays%20as%20proposed
Without strategic tax changes and policies that reduce military spending and explicitly advance racial justice, our nation's economic inequality will not be reversed, and Obama's investments in health care reform, clean energy, and education will falter.
Again, please let your US Representative and both Senators know your opinions. Find your legislators here.
If you have questions or comments about UFE's critique of President Obama's budget proposal, please contact:
Military Spending: Adrian Boutureira, [email protected]
Racial Justice: Amaad Rivera, [email protected]
Federal Tax Policy: Lee Farris, [email protected]
Necessary Economic Policy Changes Towards Latin America
Necessary economic policy changes towards Latin America
By Adrián Boutureira, United for a Fair Economy
United for Fair Economy believes the Obama administration faces great challenges as well as great opportunities inour future relationship with Latin America.
During his election campaign, candidate Obama courageously stated he would not support the Colombia Trade Agreement due to the impunity in which human rights violations and violence against labor organizers occur in that country. While we applaud Mr. Obama for bringing these sobering facts to the attention of the American people, weinvite him to go further. President Obama must not only condemn the Colombian government's complicity in the gross violation of human rights of labor and community leaders, but he must also confront and address our own nation's economic and military complicity in those violations.
Furthermore, the new administration must not only examine and rectify these inherent inconsistencies in the proposed US-Colombia trade agreement, but also those of other existing bilateral and multilateral 'free' trade agreements in the hemisphere, such as NAFTA, CAFTA, and the US-Peru Trade Agreement.
A truly new phase in US-Latin America relations calls for a rejection of many past and present US trade policies that have played a key role in the creation of social instability, lack of economic opportunity, and gross economic inequality that has led to the displacement and forced emigration of millions of human beings.
Any real change in direction inimmigration and US policy towards Latin America calls for President Obama toalso quickly distance himself from past foreign policies that have mainly supported the interests of multinational corporations and entrenched local oligarchies. He should instead develop a new comprehensive strategy that willgenerate a foreign policy that will support Latin American social movements and governments that aim to advance the rights of workers, women, the indigenous,small farmers, and other historically oppressed majority populations as they struggle for social, economic, cultural, and environmental justice.
To this end, UFE respectfully suggests the following changes in USpolicies towards Latin America and its citizens:
1. Initiate and institute changes in US foreign policy that:
- Respect the economic, political and territorial sovereignty of all Latin American nations.
- End all covert and overt military and intelligence intervention in the internal affairs of all Latin American nations.
- End the present political belligerence toward popularly elected governments throughout the region, such as Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, among others.
- Provide political, technological and financial support for those Latin American governments that pursue sustainable, locally determined, economically, socially and environmentally just development strategies, regardless of their alignment to US corporate interests.
- Close the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
- Close the International Law Enforcement Academy in San Salvador.
- Stop the funding of Plan Colombia and cut off all military aid to that country.
- Stop the funding of the Merida Initiative and the militarization of the US/Mexico border.
- Close the National Endowment for Democracy and return USAID to its original foreign aid mission.
- Help return President Aristide to Haiti's presidency and support the end of the UN occupation.
- End the embargo against Cuba and normalize relations with that nation.
2. Establish tradeagreements with Latin America that:
- Include comprehensive agreement-drafting mechanisms that allow for full transparency in all aspects of the negotiations and that are drafted by democratically elected government representatives and other major non-governmental stakeholders. (For example, civil society organizations that represent autonomous indigenous communities affected by the proposed policies);
- Ensure that corporations cannot challenge international treaties and agreements; local, state and federal public interest policies; and/or international labor, human rights, health, environmental, and safety laws and regulations;
- Promote and enforce the implementation of a common, best practices standard for the rights of workers, Indigenous Peoples, small farmers, consumers and women;
- Support the autonomy and integrity of the public sector and the full protection of the environment;
- Establish practices that focus on local economies, support fair trade and sustainable growth principles, and aim at serving the interests of working people in the US and the working people of our Latin American trading partner/s equally;
- Include alternative indicators for measurements of wealth and progress other than the GNP and GDP, such as the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), that reflect the importance of accurately measuring the adverse effects of certain economic activity on human welfare and environmental sustainability;
- Shift measuring the impact of natural resource exploitation and the introducing of potentially hazardous substances into the environment away from Risk Assessment methodology and towards the use of methods that employ the Precautionary Principle.
3. Initiate the creation of a just immigration reform that:
- Prevent the passage of anti-immigrant legislation and the criminalization of undocumented immigrant workers and their families;
- Halt the militarization of the border and the continued building of the wall separating historically culturally and economically interconnected cross-border communities;
- Cease all deportation proceedings of undocumented workers with children living and or born in the US;
- Reject the guest worker program as a viable alternative for normalizing the status of undocumented immigrant workers;
- Reject undocumented worker employer sanctions and "no match" letters;
- Develop a comprehensive path to citizenship for undocumented immigrant workers;
- Facilitate speedy family reunification;
- Protect and advance the civil rights of all immigrants and their families;
- Protect labor rights and promote a living wage for all immigrant workers.