RESIST CAFTA! from the Bay Area to Costa Rica!!!

RESIST CAFTA! from the Bay Area to Costa Rica!!!

an event in solidarity with the resistance to CAFTA in Costa Rica
facilitated by Francisco Jimenez

Sunday, September 30th
6pm
Station 40
3030b 16th Street. (& Mission)

On October 7th, Costa Ricans will go to the polls for a referendum on whether to accept the Central American Free Trade Agreement. CAFTA has been the focus of the U.S. government in advancing its neoliberal policies south of the border, but has met widespread resistance in Costa Rica. We will watch exerpts of two documentaries from Costa Rica and engage in a discussion about the resistance to CAFTA in Costa Rica. Francisco Jimenez is an immigrant rights activist from Costa Rica who has been active in struggles there.. He will talk about the social and economical achievements in Costa Rica in the past 20 years and present the ways in which people are resisting globalization and capitalism embodied in CAFTA.

A Brief Political History of CAFTA in Costa Rica: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/910/1/

Videos:

Costa Rica S.A.
by Pablo Ortega
The film explores with satirical black-humour a series of polemical aspects of the The Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement, such as the inclusion of war weapons as objects of commerce for Costa Rica, a country without an army, or the incorporation of Central American undersea resources as part of the United States’ definition of territory.

The film led to a free-speech controversy in February 2006, when five members of the Costa Rican CAFTA delegation menaced channel 15, part of the University of Costa Rica, with severe legal actions if the channel re-aired the documentary. The University has since aired regularly the film without legal consequences.

Oro Por cuentas de Vidrio (Gold Exchanged for Pieces of Glass)
by Pablo Cardenas
Exposes the politics behind CAFTA

Important: Both of these films, from which excerpts will be shown, are in spanish with no english subtitles. We will do our best to provide translation between english and spanish throughout the event.