For Immediate Release Sept 24, 2003

Contact: Dan Leahy, 360-709-9324/402-0441

Blue-Green Alliance Links Seattle to Miami in Fight Against New Free Trade Agreement

SEATTLE - The unlikely alliance of trade unionists and environmentalists who took Seattle by storm at the World Trade Organization ministerial in 1999 is on the march again. Starting at 10 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 27, marchers will leave the Seattle Labor Temple for Pier 62 where they will hold a rally at 11 a.m. to oppose the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

The Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment (ASJE), along with United Steelworkers District 11 and District 7, are using the Seattle march and rally as a send-off for a 15-state "March-to-Miami" tour aboard the biodiesel bus "The Blue-Green Machine." U.S. trade officials are meeting in Miami Nov. 20-21 to propose rules for the creation of the FTAA. As proposed, the FTAA would be the world's largest free trade area.

"The March-to-Miami begins in Seattle because the WTO protests in 1999 revealed a new political power arising from creative young environmentalists and rank-and-file union members acting together," said Dan Leahy, director of the Alliance.

Events on the "March-to-Miami" bus tour include classes, teach-ins, marches, rallies, signature-gathering, demonstrations, press briefings and visits to state legislators. The bus will link communities on the route with music and a Reality Road Show. The itinerary calls for reaching Florida in time for a final 60-mile walk into Miami and a mass rally against FTAA during the trade officials' meeting.

As part of the opposition effort, the Washington Education Association, SPEEA-IFPTE Local 2001, Steelworkers, the Sierra Club, Seattle Audubon and others are sponsoring an educational forum at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept 26 at the King County Labor Temple.

The March to Miami continues a collaboration begun during WTO in Seattle. The coalition of local and regional organizations putting on events includes the Washington Education Association, SEIU and OPEIU locals, Sierra Club chapters, Northern Plains Resource Council, Montana Community Labor Alliance, North Dakota Farmers Union, Minnesota Clean Water Action, Greater Kansas City Fair Trade Coalition, Nebraskans for Peace, Humane Society of the US, and the Progressive Student Alliance of South Bend, Ind., among many others.

"Unity is our winning strategy," said Bill Carey, United Steelworkers staff member and co-chair of the alliance. "We beat Fast Track trade negotiating authority in 1997 and 1998 and stopped the expansion of NAFTA. Together, we can defeat the FTAA."

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