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In this Issue:
Tell your elected officials and other noteworthy actors in your region to say "No More CAFTA's"Click here to find out more about The Stop CAFTA Coalition's Pledge for Trade Justice. This is a useful tool to help get global economic justice on the agenda this election season and beyond.
Trick or Treat? For Campesinos, the Sugar Industry is anything but Sweet
Based on an article by
Guadalupe Cortes, SHARE Advocacy Program
Officer,
El
Salvador
This week, Halloween candy reminds us of the sweetness of sugar. Unfortunately, the sugar industry is not always as sweet as its product, at least not for small producers in rural El Salvador. Despite the highest year for sugar exports in the history of El Salvador, the profits from this success have melted to pennies by the time they arrived to sugar producers. Now Salvadoran civil society is wondering - is this a "trick" that CAFTA helped facilitate? Until 1996 sugar refineries were the property of the Salvadoran government. However, that year the Legislative Assembly passed a law which allowed for the privatization of the refineries. According to this law, the earnings of the refineries should be distributed between the sugar producers (55%), the refinery workers (15%) and the private corporation owning the refinery (30%). However, as has happened with so many other privatizatized companies in the country, the large private corporations have been controlling the refineries and excluding the refinery workers and the sugarcane producers. The sugar refineries are being immersed in a process of concentration towards the hands of the Regalado Dueñas family, who is also buying up large sugarcane fields and creating a monopoly in the Salvadoran sugar sector. Since its implementation earlier this year, CAFTA has made it all too easy to consolidate this industry. According to a mainstream newspaper, the Prensa Gráfica, El Salvador exported more sugar during this year's harvest than any other time in its history. 69,323 tons of sugar were sent to the United States. 24,000 tons of which took place after the entrance of CAFTA on March 1, 2006. The designation of the US market as "preferential" as well as the increase in the international sugar price has created a favorable environment for the Salvadoran sugar sector. 54% of the sugar from the last harvesting period has sold on the international market while 46% has sold on the national market. These percentages contrast with the information given to farmers by the association of refinery owners, which asserts that only 30% of the sugar production was sold on the national market where the price is higher than on the international market. It would seem as if the refinery owners wanted to hide some of the benefits obtained by the sugar sector in order to prevent the producers from getting what was due to them. In effect, according to the law, the earnings from the sale of the sugar should be distributed to the refineries (45%) and to the producers (55%). It appears that the association of refinery owners can't escape the phenomenon of corruption, ever-present in the Salvadoran state. What benefits have the sugar producers of El Salvador obtained from this favorable market? The refinery owner's association has announced that the refineries are going to add approximately $0.0025 (or about 1/4 of 1 cent) to the price per pound of sugar paid to the producers at the close of the agricultural cycle (September 2006). This means that instead of about 8.3 cents, the refineries are going to pay each producer or cooperative about 8.6 cents for each pound of sugar produced. This is only quarter of a penny increase in the price for a pound of sugar!
In conclusion, those most favored by CAFTA in the Salvadoran sugarcane sector are the owners of the refineries, especially the Regalado Dueñas family, while the sugarcane producers, both individuals and cooperatives, continue surviving in precarious conditions. CONFRAS, with the support of the SHARE Foundation and of other agencies, is trying to change this reality so that the sugarcane producers better their situation in the market and also better the living conditions of their impoverished families. Reflection: What are people of faith to do about unjust trade policies?The role of a citizen and a person of faith if very important. For those Israelites who lost their land and fell into indebtedness and for some, slavery, the solution was not simply individualized charity but involved changing the laws and institutions of the human community. The Law of Moses called for debts to be canceled and slaves to be freed every seven years (Deuteronomy 15). Every 50th year the Israelites were to carry out an equitable redistribution of land (Leviticus 25). Reapers were to leave sufficient produce in the fields for the poor (Deuteronomy 24.21). As citizens, we are thus encouraged to use our vote in order to bring justice to our impoverished brothers and sisters around the world.
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The Confederation of Federations for
Salvadoran Agrarian Reform (CONFRAS) supports sugarcane cooperatives
so that they can advocate together for legislative reform that would
benefit smaller producers. One goal is to create regulations
for the national sugar sector law and to push the refinery
plant owner's association to represent the interests of
all producers.The sugar cooperatives of CONFRAS are
demanding an increase of about 1.5 US cents in the price for a pound
of sugar.
Contribute Today! | Your donation will help SHARE go the extra mile to support communities as they stand up to the economic models that keep them poor. Please contribute today. |
The Hitchhiker’s
Guide to Grassroots Lobbying
By John Curley, St. Andrew’s By the Bay Church,
Annapolis, MD
I
had the occasion to attend the SHARE Foundation’s 25th
Anniversary Celebration in Washington, DC during the weekend of Sep.
29-30-Oct. 1, 2006. In addition to the fun and
celebration at the Fiesta on Saturday and the opportunity to hear
Dr. Beatrice de Carrillo, Human Rights Ombudswoman and many other
interesting speakers from El Salvador on Sunday, we planned to visit
our members of Congress on Monday, Oct. 1st to speak
about the effects of CAFTA on the El Salvador and United States
societies.
Fortunately, before leaving the Sunday seminar,
SHARE’s Washington DC’s staff suggested that Leslie Bilchick, who
was fresh from El Salvador would be able to translate for Lorena and
Mercedes. We were to meet at 7:30 on Monday
morning for a light breakfast and some lobbying tips from SHARE to
send us off to visit our representatives; however, we did not have
any appointments set up. Instead of rushing to
see our representatives, we decided to strategize on what our
message should be.
While our Baltimore friends went to visit Congressman
Ruppersberger, I put in a few calls to some of our representatives
to see if there was any way they would be able to meet with our
group from St. Andrew By the Bay and our El Salvadoran sister
parishioners. After several offers to drop off
literature for the representative’s aides, I was told that Sen.
Mikulski’s aide in charge of trade issues would return my call
shortly. Well, as you can imagine, I assumed that
was an opening… so, we got down to what would our message be,
assuming that we were going to actually speak to the
aide.Leslie, Lorena, Mercedes, and I focused on the effects of DR-CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which in its present form includes the Dominican Republic.
From Sunday’s seminar, we learned that since CAFTA’s implementation in El Salvador in January of 2006, there have been significant drop in exports and a rise in imports, most notably from the United States. The promise of CAFTA was to produce more exports for the Central American countries, but this has already proven to be false. Of course, with fewer exports leaving these countries, the loss of jobs and job security are a certainty. Less jobs mean more poverty, which leads to more violence, more emigration to the United States and other countries. These were the effects that Lorena and Mercedes could validate so that it was not just economic theory.
We arranged to meet the Baltimore group at Sen. Mikulski’s office. Now, there were ten of us. The Baltimore group had the pastor of Maria Madres de Los Pobres, Padre Luis Salazar with them who could also add first-hand experience of the effects of the trade act on their society. When we arrived in the Senator’s office, we were pleased to find that the Senator’s aide, Aaron Kearsley was expecting us. Boy, was I shocked! Aaron invited us into the conference room – all ten of us – and was very receptive to everything we had to say. When we talked about CAFTA, Aaron reminded us that Sen. Mikulski voted against CAFTA. When we talked about the effects of CAFTA upon Salvadoran society, Aaron was not surprised of the effects, although he did admit that he was surprised that the statistics bore this out in such a short period of time. We talked about the government of El Salvador opening up the countryside for mining exploration and the damage that strip-mining could cause to the countryside and the river systems that supply San Salvador with 30% of its drinking water. This was related to the President Bush’s Millennium Challenge Accounts. Aaron was less familiar with this program, so we made notes to get him more information.We left a list of our names and contact information of all the attendees. We also left a number of white papers we had used as information on these subjects of trade, immigration, and violence with Aaron that were supplied by SHARE.
Although, we all contributed to the meeting with Aaron, it was especially helpful to have the Salvadorans speak from their first-hand knowledge of the situation in El Salvador.
We were very fortunate to be given so much of Aaron’s time this day. This, as it turned out was due to the Congress being in recess for the election campaigns.
So, here’s what I would suggest to anyone wanting to meet with a representative from your elected official’s office:
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Make your appointments at least 2 to 3 weeks in advance. (Not on the morning that you arrive in Washington.)
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Be sure to have plenty of handouts in case anything should happen that would prevent you from meeting with your representative’s aide.
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You will probably not be given 45 minutes to speak, as we did receive, so plan your time wisely and prioritize your points.
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Have several persons who are with you address each of your major points.
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Always follow-up your visit with a thank you. Once you have established a relationship, keep in touch frequently. Ask what the Senator (or Representative) thinks about an issue of importance to you.
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E-mails with appropriate, targeted subject-lines get read, especially when addressed to someone, which you have a relationship.
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