Alliance for Responsible Trade

With mobilizations, forums, days of reflection and cultural events, peasants, workers, unionists, NGO activists, defenders of gender and reproductive rights, thousands of women celebrated this international day of rights the 8th of March. On this day, women made visible the impacts of the neoliberal model on their rights, emphasized their diverse agendas and specific focuses, while at the same time reaffirming the role of the entire movement of women's struggles against war, injustice and discrimination. They announced that this day would be the beginning of a year of actions stemming from agreements made at the most recent World Social Forum.

Agribusiness and its effects on food sovereignty, violence against women in the domestic sphere and in military contexts, the legalization of abortion, the persistence of machismo and the retrograde movement in the rights of women caused by the economic model and patriarchal culture were central themes on the agenda this 8th of March.

-Women from Vía Campesina occupy the port of exports and the Agriculture Ministry: http://www.univision.com/contentroot/wirefeeds/50noticias/7904074.html
http://actualidad.terra.es/nacional/articulo/mujeres-lula-campesinas-protestan-politicas-3113584.htm

-Special Coverage by Agencia Púlsar: http://www.agenciapulsar.org/coberturas_det2.php?id=53
-Women's Page in the Minga de Social Movements: http://www.movimientos.org/mujeres/
-Illegal abortions are not diminishing: http://www.eltiempo.com/vidadehoy/salud/no-disminuyen-los-abortos-ilegales-e
-Plan for Women in Bolivia: http://www.prensa-latina.cu/article.asp?ID=%7BF4013EAD-1791-4830-B2F0-5807EED70C0E%7D)

2. Study reveals impacts of Intellectual Property agreements in developing countries

The unequal exchange between developed countries and developing countries (that is to say, between exporters of patented medicine exporter and those who import it at elevated cost, respectively) has had a negative impact in access to medicines that worsens when the demands of developed countries are reflected in bilateral free trade agreements, as demonstrated in a recent study of the investigators Richard Smith, Carlos Correa and Cecilia Oh. They analyzed the possibilities of developing countries to confront ADPIC and ADPIC-Plus agreements, and to try to reverse or at least reduce the imbalance that these have generated in the health sector, particularly in pharmaceuticals.

Document in English:

hhtp://www.thelancet.com/search/results?searchTerm=carlos+correa&fieldName=AllFields&year=&volume=&page=&journalFromWhichSearchStarted=. (free registration required)

3. Activists request international support for the Referendum on Water in Colombia

On March18th, activists will meet in the Plaza of Bolivar in Bogotá to demonstrate in favor of the Referendum for Water. The initiative, which is being considered in the first commission of the House of Representatives, has already completed the two first stages, including the gathering of two million thirty nine thousand signatures, certified by the National Registry of the Civil State. It is anticipated that the corresponding debates will continue from March 16th, when the activities in the corporation are restarted.

To support this initiative, we invite you to read the letter that will be sent to the Congress of Colombia and to send a support letter to:  

4. Parliament votes to abolish the Amnesty Law in Uruguay

With the return to a democratic regime in 1985, Uruguay passed a controversial Law of Amnesty that protected the military involved in violations of human rights during the period of dictatorship between 1973 and 1985. The Uruguayan Parliament has just declared this law unconstitutional, with 69 of 73 votes in favor that came almost entirely from members of the Broad Front governmental parties. The final decision on the constitutionality of this law is in the hands of the Supreme Court of Justice.

More information in Spanish:
http://spanish.peopledaily.com.cn/31617/6601482.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_7911000/7911578.stm

5. Economic crisis, threats and purchasing power on the union agenda in the hemisphere

In Martinique and Guadalupe, departments of  French Guayana since 1946, a strike by the CGTM, CDMT, UGTM, CFE/CGC, UNSA, CGTM SOEM, FSU, CFDT, SMBEF, that lasted ten days to protest against the high cost of the living and the effects of the neoliberal policy of the Government of Nicolas Sarkozy in Martinique peaked. An agreement on an increase in the low wages was signed during Monday night, but the strikers continued the mobilization initiated the February 5th, until prices are lowered.

Eight powerful unions in the USA demanded that the government of Colombia lower the tone of its declarations against trade unionists and defenders of human rights, in the face of threats received by the leader of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, an organization that supports the work of trade unionists.  Paramilitary groups in the country. admitted that they had assassinated about 164 trade unionists in the last 15 years.

In the general continental panorama, the Central Union of the Americas (CSA in Spanish) alerted the loss of 50,000 jobs every day on the continent as a result of the economic crisis and indicated that it is necessary to design tripartite emergency plans (governments, industry and working-class) to seek solutions.

The World Federation of Trade Unions (FSM in Spanish) announced the opening of endorsers for the call to the Second Union Encounter of Our America that at this date includes 17 convoking organizations for the event to be held on September 22-23 in Brazil.

More Information in Spanish:

Strike in Martinique:

News: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gZcLKQYbqSQHTHxQ9tIZqPWUr1vA
Analysis: http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=81543

Colombia

-Confession of paramilitaries: http://www.caracol.com.co/oir.aspx?id=773065
CSA Facing the Crisis: http://www.elpatagonico.net/index.php?item=viewlast&ref=ultimas&id=145903&sec=pol
To register for FSM Convocation: 

6. This Sunday  March 15th, El Salvador will elect a president

During his closing of the presidential campaign in El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, the candidate of the Front Farabundo Martí for National Liberation, FMLN, that could bring power in the country to the left for the first time, brought together on Saturday about 200,000 supporters, as opposed to the 70,000 who attended the closing rally of the candidate of the Arena party Ricardo Ávila.  Fraud is the specter that threatens the electoral process in which about 4.2 million Salvadorans will participate.

More information in Spanish:

News:http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/44484-NN/fmln-y-arena-se-mediran-en-elecciones-salvadorenas/
Analysis: http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=81780&titular=el-fraude-de-la-%E2%80%9Cpaz-y-la-democracia%E2%80%9D-en-el-salvador-

7. Venezuela expropriates Cargill and initiates state control of foods

The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, resolved to expropriate a plant processing rice belonging to the American company Cargill. The president asked the Minister of Agriculture, Elías Jaua, to initiate the process of expropriation along with a judicial investigation, since allegedly the firm failed to comply with the law requiring that the regulated price be printed on each package. Among the measures intended to move Venezuelan agrarian policy towards food sovereignty, he also decided to take over the lands on which the European Smurfit Kappa Group produces.

More information in Spanish:
News: http://www.agenciapulsar.org/nota.php?id=14566
Opinion:http://www.prensa-latina.cu/article.asp?ID=%7BDD8C0B7A-A7BB-4CA9-BE39-11D636FC22AE%7D)

8. Peruvian social organizations reject the Complementary Agreement with Chile

The Complementary Economic Agreement that came into effect on March 8th between Peru and Chile has sharpened the critiques of the Peruvian social movement because of its impacts on employment and the national industry.  Peruvian National companies that must compete will be at a disadvantage with multinationals supported by the Chilean State. The social organizations organized marches and demonstrations mainly in the south of the country, insisting that this is obviously, a Free Trade Agreement and that it is unconstitutional.

http://www.diariolaprimeraperu.com/online/politica/el-sur-rechaza-tlc-con-chile_34413.html

9. Dow Jones falls to levels of 11 years ago and the crisis strikes the ethanol industry in the United States

The Dow Jones industrial index has continued to fall since the March 3rd, when it reached levels from 11 years ago. The market lost almost a quarter of its value this year and more than half from its peak of October 2007. Today it is at 6.566 points, 20% lower when the day Obama became president. The generalized sell-off took place when the giant of the insurance industry AIG announced that it had registered a record loss of 62 billion dollars in the last three months of 2008.

In addition, the economic crisis has reached the hitherto prosperous ethanol business, interrupting the expansion of the last three years, due to the general fall in fuel prices. At least 23 plants have closed and the price of ethanol has fallen 46%

More information:
-Dow Jones: http://www.milenio.com/node/179256
-Ethanol in Portuguese: http://www.jornaldaciencia.org.br/Detalhe.jsp?id=61964

Errata: Our colleagues from Canada wrote us to clarify that Obama indeed announced the revision of NAFTA during his visit. We are reproducing Rick Arnold's clarification separately.

"While in Canada, Obama said that he would renegotiate NAFTA to assure better labor conditions in North America, as well as improving environmental policies.
.
Prime Minister Harper responded to Obama's announcement during a press conference in Ottawa on19 February, stating that it might perhaps be necessary to look at some aspects of NAFTA, but that the position of the Canadian government was that NAFTA as a whole should not be reopened."