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| March, rally to voice concer ns over free
trade |
by Anna
Oakes
Intern Writer |
The Appalachian State University
Fair Trade Club and the Rise Up! Community Collective of
Boone are sponsoring a Fair Trade March and Rally Thursday,
Nov. 20, beginning at 11 a.m. on Sanford Mall.
The march and rally is part of a worldwide event to raise
awareness about free and fair trade and to stop North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) expansion.
“One of the major purposes of this event is to raise
awareness about free trade, and more importantly, fair trade.”
Judy Tincher said.
Tincher, a junior and a member of the Appalachian Fair Trade
Club, is head organizer of the event.
“We also
want to emphasize the impact that free trade and the Free
Trade Area of the Americas has on local farmers, local textile
workers and North Carolinians,” said Evan Moody, a
senior political science major and president of the Appalachian
State University Fair Trade Club.
According to www.globalexchange.org, the FTAA is the expansion
of the NAFTA to every country in the western hemisphere except
Cuba.
“Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs
over this,” Moody said. “So we think it’s
not just a student issue but also a community issue.”
“Free trade is an economic system in which markets
are not regulated and corporations are allowed to have their
capital flow freely across national borders,” Moody
said.
“Fair trade is a viable alternative to free trade,”
Tincher said.
Elizabeth West, a professor in the department of English,
is a member of the Rise Up! Community Collective.
“Fair trade is the exchange of items and services for
living wages,” West said. “No one is exploited
for their labor or their product.”
“I think a major goal is to stem the expansion of free
trade agreements throughout the hemisphere,” Tincher
said.
“We thought, this isn’t just us, this isn’t
just a small group of people – this affects students,
this affects their parents, they could lose their jobs,”
Moody said.
"When we know what fair trade is and the source of what
we buy, that’s when things begin to change,”
he said.
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