Activists in Peru and the United States are mobilizing against the pending US-Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The US-Peru FTA has passed both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, but there is still time to stop this legislation before it comes to the full House and Senate for a vote.
On September 24th, four activists were in arrested in Portland, Oregon after occupying Representative Earl Blumenauer’s office in protest against an FTA with Peru.
Working people in the United States and Peru have a lot to lose from neoliberal trade deals. Portland Central America Solidarity Committee (www.pcasc.net) activist and Radio Libre Negro Primero volunteer Megan Hise interviewed Peruvian labor and campesino leaders for a short documentary, looking at the damage the Peru FTA will cause on both sides of the border. Two months ago, four million Peruvian campesinos went on strike against the agreement, which will allow highly-subsidized and artificially cheap U.S. agricultural products to be dumped on the Peruvian market . Tens of thousands, if not millions, of campesinos will be driven off their land if they are undercut by US agribusiness.