Stand by Colombia's Victims of Violence

We’re up against some big forces in our struggle against the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA): major corporations, the Chamber of Commerce, stubborn Republicans, free trade-loving Democrats, and even the President. They have money, power, and connections. But we have conviction.

We have hardworking partners in the United States. We have incredibly brave community leaders and human rights defenders on the ground in Colombia telling us every day about why this trade deal will be so devastating for those already hit hardest by Colombia’s conflict. And we have something better than a slingshot to fight this Goliath—YOU.

Will you chip in $50 or more today to make sure we can do everything in our power to stop this harmful trade agreement?

Congress will vote on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement TOMORROW, Wednesday, October 12th. So, even if you’ve called once, twice, or more before, your members of Congress need to hear from you NOW. Follow the simple instructions below to make your call today!

Call Instructions

Step 1—Call the capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your representative or one of your senators. (They all need to hear from you!) If you don't know who represents you, click here to look it up by entering your zip code. Then pick up the phone and dial!

Step 2—Ask to speak to the senator or representative. If you can't speak to him/her, ask for the aide that works on trade and labor issues. Keep your message simple. Just say:

“My name is ____. I am a constituent calling to urge Representative/Senator ____ to take a stand for human and labor rights by publicly opposing the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.”

If you would like to say more, click here to check out our talking points.

Step 3—If you have time once you're done with your first call, get on the line with your other members of Congress too. 

Congrats! You've done it. Now send the link to this page to 10 friends asking that they make the call too!

Only together can we defeat this harmful trade agreement. Thanks for doing your part!

If you have any questions, give us a call at 202-546-7010 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

“And the worst of all is when the things happen to you and you can’t do anything,” said María, a displaced woman in Colombia who has endured abuses by guerrillas, paramilitaries and the army.  “And you have to just watch and simply be silent. If you say something, it will happen all the same. That’s when I saw that the only real right we have as people is to be silent. Maybe that’s the real right I’ve exercised here, in Colombia.  It’s watch and be silent, if you want to survive.”

LAWGEF is pleased to publish this selection from a book coming out in 2012 from McSweeney’s Voice of Witness, by editors Max Schoening and Sibylla Brodzinsky.  This will be a powerful collection of oral histories, compiling the life stories of a selection of Colombia’s over 5 million internally displaced people. In their own words, narrators recount their lives before displacement, the reasons for their flight, their personal tragedies and struggles to rebuild their lives. By amplifying these unheard voices through the intimacy of first person narrative, this Voice of Witness book aims to increase awareness of Colombia’s human rights catastrophe and illuminate the human impact of the country’s ongoing war.

The August recess is always a crucial time for people to connect with their members of Congress.  Elected officials meet with corporate lobbyists multiple times every day.  August is the time of the year when they spend the longest chunk of time back home, in-district, talking with constituents.  It's when they get their best sense of what people really think. Given that the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and other FTAs are expected to be voted upon this fall, this August recess takes on added significance.  It very well could be our last opportunity to see our Members of Congress face-to-face before the votes. For those of us who have been working to defeat the Colombia FTA for years now, it's exciting and energizing, and perhaps even a little scary, to know that what we do over the next three weeks is likely to determine whether we win or lose on this crucial issue.

Tactics

1. Lobby Visits:  Requesting a face-to-face meeting with your members of Congress is the best way to ensure that they actually receive the info you're trying to give them and that you get an opportunity to identify and rebut any misperceptions they may have. Obviously, lots of people are trying to meet with their Members this August, so it is crucial that you get a request in now.  You do that by calling the district office and asking to speak with the scheduler. Click here to look up their office numbers by searching either by name of the member of Congress or your zip code.
   
   Be prepared to tell them who, beyond yourself, is requesting the meeting and what the topic is.  If you have a small group going, it makes sense to have the most powerful person in that group ask for the meeting—someone who represents a constituency the Member cares about.  A minister, a union leader, a campaign donor, whomever.  Try to have a sense of the best meeting time that works for the group, and know that you'll need to be flexible.  You may not find a time that works for everyone in your party.  The scheduler is also likely to suggest a meeting with staff rather than with the Member.  It's worth pushing a bit to request a meeting with the Member directly.  You can talk about how many years you've been working on this, and how a vote is expected shortly after Labor Day.  If it looks like there's no way you'll get the meeting, obviously meeting with staff is better than no meeting at all.  If possible, try to meet with the District Director or staff from Washington, DC if they're in town, rather than just some intern who takes notes and has no idea what you're talking about.  To find resources to prepare for and bring to your meeting, click here.
   
   

2. Call-in Days:  We will have multiple call-in days throughout the summer, in which we'll centralize our efforts by having activists across the country make calls on the same day to make sure our legislators know the large scale of opposition to this harmful trade agreement. The first will happen on Wednesday, August 17th. Click here to get instructions on how to make an effective call.
   
   Beyond just making phonecalls yourself, you can encourage others to do so by forwarding around the email about it.  Posting it to Facebook. Tweeting it. You could organize a call-in lunch party at your work where you buy a pizza and give folks a slice once they've called. You can do something at your home where you gather folks to watch on of the great YouTube videos about the FTA, lead a discussion group about it, and then have people call and leave messages—and hopefully then discuss what more people want to do together. It's a lot easier to make a call when you see everyone around you doing it. And if you have an extra moment, click here to follow your phone calls up with an email to your members of Congress too.

3. Speaking Out and Bird-Dogging at Public Events:  Most Members of Congress do town halls and other public events throughout the August recess.  You want to ensure that they're hearing opposition to the Colombia FTA at each and every one of those appearances.  The first trick is finding out when and where they're going to be.  Some Members will publish their schedule for the entire month on their website.  Others only post events a couple days before they happen.  Make sure to check the website often.  Sign up for their email lists and Facebook pages.  When in doubt, you can also call the office and say you're a constituent looking wondering if there are any public events where you can see the Member.
   
   Then you need to be prepared with what I call a question-statement.  Give three or four lines of info before posing a very pointed question like:  "I was disappointed to hear that Congress may be voting upon the Colombia Free Trade Agreement when you return from recess this September.  As you know, Colombia is the deadliest country in the world to be a union member.  President Obama and Colombian President Santos recently offered up a side agreement that is supposed to help address the murders there, but its not binding in the FTA, and Colombian and American unions have called it inadequate.  How can we have so-called "free trade" with a country where workers' basic freedoms aren't protected?"  You can work on the wording and choose which issue you're going to focus on, but try to get enough info in there and make the question pointed enough that it really puts them on the spot.
   
   And the third trick, of course, is recruiting friends and colleagues to go with you.  It increases the opportunity one of you will get to ask a question—or that the member will receive multiple questions.

4. Get Your Message in the Media: What is published in your local papers and widely-read blogs during the recess can also help to keep the pressure up.  You can write Letters to the Editor or if you've got some sort of title or were recently in Colombia, you could try submitting an op-ed. Click here to use Witness for Peace's letter to the editor writing tool online. 

5. Creative Demonstrations: Creativity also helps grab the attention of both your legislators and the media. If you've got a critical mass, you could organize a vigil or a picket or a die-in outside a Member's office. Get everyone in your town to sign a petition against the FTA, make copies, and then have everyone drop by your legislators' offices to deliver the petition one after another along with a verbal message. The sky is the limit!  

The important thing is to do what you can. Anyone who is still undecided on the Colombia FTA at this point in time is only going to be swayed by constituent pressure. Our brothers and sisters in Colombia have been risking a lot to fight this thing; but they can't stop it at this point. We can. It's up to us to make it happen.

Note: This text was written by Citizens Trade Campaign with only a few edits from the Latin America Working Group. For more information from CTC, please go to http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/