[mgj-announce] Join us TODAY for an evening panel on CAFTA and a peace vigil in Washington DC

[Jessica Walker Beaumont]

Sorry for cross posting - Please circulate to your lists! Go to http://www.stopcafta.org/article.php?list=type&type=19 <http://owa.afsc.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.stopcafta.org/article.php?list=type%26type=19>  to download graphic PDF flyer

 

Be a Part of the Global Week of Action from April 10-16 and join us for an evening panel discussion and peace vigil

 

CAFTA: A Fork in the Road

How international trade and debt are shaping the path to development

 

Date:  Wednesday, April 13

Time:  6:30-8:00 p.m.

Location: United Church on the corner of 20th and G St. NW

Metro: Farragut West Metro (18th & I) or Foggy Bottom - GWU 

         

After the panel discussion, join us for an interfaith and people of conscience peace vigil procession from the church to Murrow Park (18th and H) for an 8:30 p.m. service

 

SPEAKERS

- Guatemalan Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini Imeri(confirmed)
- Lori Wallach, Public Citizen  
- Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research 
- Otton Solis, Citizen's Action Party Costa Rican Presidential candidate 

 

Co-sponsored by: Alliance for Responsible Trade, Interfaith Working Group on Trade and Investment, Jubilee USA Network, Mobilization for Global Justice, Stop CAFTA Coalition, Student Trade Justice Campaign, United Students for Fair Trade, and the US Gender and Trade Network 

 

SPEAKER BIOS

 

Bishop Alvaro Leonel Ramazzini Imeri is the Bishop of San Marcos, Guatemala. Born in Guatemala City in 1947, he was ordained in 1971 and became bishop in 1989.  As President of SEDAC (Secretariado Episcopal de América Central y Panamá), the organization of all the bishops of the region,  Bishop Ramazzini is an outstanding defender of human rights in Guatemala, and is a recipient, among other honors, of the Letelier-Moffitt human rights award. 

 

Lori Wallach is the Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch (GTW). Launched by Wallach in 1995, GTW is a leader in the global citizen movement for fair trade and investment policy.  Wallach has represented the progressive critique of corporate globalization before Congressional committees, foreign parliaments, government agencies, national and international conferences and in frequent media appearances. Wallach has contributed to numerous anthologies on globalization and in 2004 co-authored Whose Trade Organization: A Comprehensive Guide to the WTO, released by The New Press and distributed by Norton Books. A graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School, Wallach is also a founding board member of the Citizens Trade Campaign and the International Forum on Globalization. 

 

Mark Weisbrot received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.  He is co-author, with Dean Baker, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2000), and has written numerous research papers on international and domestic economic policy. He is currently Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C. He writes a weekly column on economic and policy issues that is distributed to over 550 newspapers by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services. His opinion pieces have appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and most other U.S. newspapers. He appears regularly on national and local television and radio programs, and has been a guest on ABC World News Tonight; CNN, C-SPAN Washington Journal; Fox News; NPR's Morning Edition, Diane Rehm Show and Kojo Nnamdi Show; Newshour with Jim Lehrer; BBC-TV World News and other programs.

 

Otton Solis is an economist and has been a frequent and constructive critic of Costa Rica's participation in the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Solis served as Minister of Planning and the Economy under the Oscar Arias administration and founded the Citizen's Action Party as a third party movement in Costa Rica with a platform emphasizing social and environmental equity. In the last presidential election Solis garnered 17% of the vote and his party took seats in the legislative Assembly. He has announced his intention to run again, and will again promote a "green" agenda. Mr. Solis also teaches at the University of Costa Rica and has a postgraduate degree in economics from the University of Manchester (UK).  Mr. Solis served as the President of the Interamerican Economic and Social Council, of the Organization of American States from 1987 to 1988. He is currently a member of the Committee of Experts on Public Administration of the United Nations and of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment team.