admin August 4th, 2008
At Small Planet we love to hear about co-travelers of Living Democracy. Accounts of their origins and recent triumphs are always inspiring. We call these “Stories from the Edge,” and we will be sharing them here with you.
Here is the fifth, from our friends at the Listening Project.
Listening Project & RSVP
In Carasque, El Salvador, it costs people more to grow corn than to buy it in the market. The influx of heavily-subsidized, cheap U.S. corn, aided by free trade policies, has made it impossible for this rural farming community to survive economically. Young people have to leave the community to find work. Many make the dangerous journey to the U.S., looking for a way to support themselves and their families.
In Maine, small farmers face many of the same problems. Many Mainers now understand how “free trade” has devastated Maine’s economy – our state lost more than 20% of its manufacturing jobs in just the 2001-2004 period — a higher proportion than any other state. The job losses, now in the tens of thousands, still continue. Yet few Mainers see the ways in which international economic forces and trade policies connect their own lives with what is happening in Central America.
PICA (Peace through Inter-American Community Action), is based in Bangor Maine. We have been in existence for over 20 years. We have close ties to the Salvadoran rural popular movement, experience working for labor rights and fair trade, and a record of creating local efforts with global connections. This puts us in a unique position to broaden past fair trade education and organizing efforts. By connecting the closely-related challenges of agriculture, trade, immigration, and the survival of rural communities, we have an opportunity to extend understanding of the many ways global economic forces affect us and our communities North and South.
We are now working with others to develop a Listening Project and a Facilitated Dialogue program that will help us build a deeper alliance among farmers, native-born and immigrant farm workers, displaced and low income workers, faith based organizations, and other Mainers and Salvadorans who may not yet realize that they have common concerns and interests. This alliance will advocate for:
o The rights of immigrants, farmworkers, and other low-wage and marginalized workers
o Changes in policies concerning immigrant and immigration (local, state, national)
o Changes in trade, agricultural and other policies that benefit non-industrial farmers and rural communities.
To learn more about PICA: www.pica.ws
