NO to the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement!
Protest Sunday, June 4th in Washington, DC!

The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition is one of many organizations across the U.S. endorsing and mobilizing for the June 4-9 Week of Protests in Washington DC opposing the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement during negotiations that will be taking place throughout the week.

It is of vital importance that the anti-war movement demonstrate its opposition to all of the tactics utilized by the U.S. government in pursuit of neocolonial domination, whether its war and occupation or economic intervention through free trade agreements and global financial institutions. All those who stand against war, occupation and globalization, and for sovereignty and self-determination should join the mass march and rally on Sunday, June 4 in Washington DC and the Week of Protests to say NO to the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement!

Join peasant, labor and community leaders from South Korea to protest the trade talks and neo-liberal globalization, and to say:

NO to the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement!

June 4 - 9, 2006
Week of Protests in Washington DC
During Korea-US Free Trade Agreement Talks

Sunday, June 4 Mass March & Rally
2:30 pm: Gather in Murrow Park (18th and H Sts. NW)
4:30 pm: Rally in Lafayette Park (16th and H Sts. NW)

During the week of June 4-9, up to one hundred labor and farmer activists from South Korea will be joined by the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and hundreds of labor and community activists from across the U.S. to protest the South Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KorUS FTA) talks. Negotiations over the KorUS FTA, the largest trade agreement since NAFTA, will start June 5 in Washington DC. The week of action will begin with a march and rally on Sunday, June 4, with buses arriving from other cities. Further events are planned throughout the week.

Background

South Korean farmers and laborers vigorously protested the neoliberal trade agreements that threaten their lives at the WTO meetings in Cancun and Hong Kong.  They are now coming to Washington to protest what will be the largest trade agreement since NAFTA - The Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. (KorUS FTA).  Broad popular sentiment in Korea is opposed to this agreement, which threatens the livelihoods of 15 million South Korean workers and 3.5 million farmers.  American labor, community and immigrant groups are joining the protests, stating that unless there are guarantees of Korean workers' rights - all workers will be "driven to the bottom". The protesters are calling on the U.S. and the South Korean government to end the KorUS FTA talks and instead protect worker's rights, build strong local economies and avoid the disaster that NAFTA created for millions of workers.

According to former U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman,

“An FTA with South Korea would be the largest for the United States since NAFTA with Canada and Mexico.”

The U.S.-South Korea FTA, if ratified, will have devastating results. It will:

• Allow the U.S. to dump cheap imports on the Korean people. Unable to compete, 3.5 million peasants stand to lose their livelihoods.
  
  
• Get rid of worker protections. Practically overnight 15 million workers will become a dispensable and highly exploitable contingent labor force.
  
  
• Create more migrant workers, forced to leave their homes and face discrimination in other countries.
  
  
• Destroy the cultural fabric of South Korea by controlling culture through the market in which potential for profit overtakes the value of human relationships and artistic expression.

Click here for additional background information.

The events are sponsored by Mobilize and Organize to Resist the FTA and Neoliberal Globalization (MORFNG), a coalition of community and labor groups.

Endorsing organizations:

- Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition)
- Addicted to War
- Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle, L.A.
- Alliance for Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines
- American Friends Service Committee, Oakland, CA
- Anakbayan, L.A.
- Andolan Organizing South Asian Workers
- Audre Lorde Project
- BAYAN USA
- BAYAN USA, L. A.
- Boston Korea Friendship Association
- CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
- Center for Constitutional Rights
- Channing and Popai Liem Education Foundation
- Chinese Progressive Association, San Francisco
- Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (Chirla)
- Colombia Action Network
- Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), L.A.
- Community Organizing Collective, PA
- Congress for Korea Reunification (CKR)
- Corea Action Network for Unification (CAN-U)
- Desis Rising Up and Moving
- Domestic Workers United (DMC)
- El Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California / Institute of Popular Education of Southern CA(IDEPSCA)
- Enlace
- Fabulous Independent Education Radicals for Community Empowerment (FIERCE)
- Filipino Community Support (FOCUS), Santa Clara County, CA
- Free Palestine Alliance
- FTA Action Task Force L.A. (FTA Action Task Force)
- Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
- Habiarts, L.A.
- Han Pan Korean American Cultural Group, Maryland
- Ignacio Martin-Baro Fund for Mental Health and Human Rights
- Immigrant Justice Solidarity Project
- International Action Center (IAC)
- Minjok-Tongshin
- Korea Truth Commission- Joint Office
- Korea Truth Commission- USA
- Korean American Cultural Center, Virginia
- Korean American for Korean Democratic Labor Party
- Korean American National Coordinating Council (KANCC)
- Korean Cultural Center-Han Pan(Maryland)
- Korean Democratic Labor Party U.S. East Coast Branch
- Koreatown Immigrant Workers Advocates(KIWA-LA)
- Left Turn Magazine
- Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
- Miami Workers Center
- Multiethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network (MIWON)
- National Association of Korean Americans (NAKA)
- National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
- National Lawyers Guild
- National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR)
- National Network of Indochina Activists
- Network in Solidarity with the People of Philippines (NISPOP)
- Nodutdol for Korean Community Development
- One Korea L.A. Forum
- Palestine Right to Return Coalition
- Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification in USA
- Partnership for Civil Justice (PCJ)
- Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)
- People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER)
- Pesante-USA
- Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California (PWC)
- Prison Moratorium Project (PMP)Project South
- Puerto Rican Alliance of L.A.
- South Asian Network
- Southeast Regional Economic Justice Network
- Southwest Workers Union
- Sweatshop Watch
- Tenants and Workers United
- Troops Out Now Coalition
- United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
- United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 1421
- VietUnity, Bay Area, California
- War Resisters League
- Workers World Party