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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
November 30, 2000
Daniel Seligman, Sierra Club202-675-2387 Thea Lee, AFL-CIO, 202-637-3907
Seattle Coalition Leaders Vow to Carry on Fight for Global Fairness
WASHINGTON, DC: John J. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, and Carl
Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, today jointly declared
plans to carry on the fight for global fairness launched last year
during the Seattle Summit of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
November 30th marks the one-year anniversary of the coalition of
"turtles and teamsters" formed to protest the WTO's neglect of labor
and environmental concerns in global trade pacts.
"Together with our coalition partners in the religious, student,
consumer, and family farm organizations, we have put the issues of
workers' rights, environmental protection, sustainable development,
and democracy on the table of the globalization debate," said John
Sweeney. "The tens of thousands of people who came together
peacefully
on the streets of Seattle one year ago signaled the beginning of an
international movement that is gaining strength and momentum as it
moves forward."
"We have only just begun to fight for global fairness," said Carl
Pope. "The Sierra Club pledges to work with our labor allies to carry
the spirit of Seattle to America's main streets. In the coming year,
we will organize citizens across the country to join the effort to
make trade clean, green, and fair."
The two organizations plan to deepen their cooperation by organizing
joint town hall meetings, visits with elected officials, and other
activities over the next year.
Sweeney and Pope also celebrated concrete achievements, including
development of guidelines for environmental review of trade
agreements, negotiation of a trade pact with Jordan that includes
enforceable environmental standards and workers' rights in its core
provisions, funding of debt relief for some of the world's poorest
countries, and deepened dialogue and debate at the WTO, IMF, World
Bank, and ILO over how best to address the issues raised by the
Seattle protesters.
"During the past year, we have provided education to our own members,
taken our concerns to our government, and worked directly with trade
unions and civil society organizations from developing countries to
insist that global economic policy address the concerns of workers
and
communities, as well as those of multinational corporations," said
John Sweeney. "We are building a new consensus that trade and
investment agreements can no longer merely ignore citizens' concerns,
but we have a tremendous amount of work still to do.'
"We need to move trade off the "fast track" onto a "right track" that
puts workers' rights and the environment on a par with commercial
concerns," said Pope.
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David Orr PO Box 466 Moab, UT 84532
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