For Release: Film and Panel Discussion: "MAQUILAPOLIS" and Fair Trade Initiatives
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Catherine Mendonca
Aug 16, 2012, 1:50:12 AM8/16/12
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Film and Panel Discussion: "MAQUILAPOLIS" and Fair Trade Initiatives
March 27, 2012
Contacts: Marla Laguardia, Amelia Ortega and Cathy Mendonça
Email: cmen...@riseup.net
Tel: 401-580-7791
Film and Panel Discussion: "MAQUILAPOLIS" and Fair Trade Initiatives
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN DIEGO: As a continued effort against Free Trade Agreements,
Af3irm San Diego
in collaboration with The Centro Cultural de la Raza will be
presenting the film MAQUILAPOLIS [city of factories] by Vicky Funari
and Sergio De La Torre. Following the film is a panel discussion with
local groups on how to continue the efforts against Free Trade
Agreements (old and new) in our bordering communities.
About the film
"To create MAQUILAPOLIS, the filmmakers brought together factory
workers in Tijuana and community organiza...tions in Mexico and the
U.S. to collaborate on a film that depicts globalization through the
eyes of the women who live on its leading edge. The factory workers
who appear in the film have been involved in every stage of
production, from planning to shooting, from scripting to outreach.
This collaborative process breaks with the traditional documentary
practice of dropping into a location, shooting and leaving with the
"goods," which would only repeat the pattern of the maquiladora
itself. The process embraces subjectivity as a value and a goal. It
merges artmaking with community development to ensure that the film's
voice will be truly that of its subjects."
http://www.maquilapolis.com/project_eng.htm
DATE: Friday, August 24, 2012
TIME: 6:00pm until 9:00PM
LOCATION: Centro Cultural de la Raza 2004 Park Blvd., San Diego
Facebook event
https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/190207297776903/?notif_t=plan_user_invited
Af3irm San Diego's official statement against Free Trade Agreements
Af3irm San Diego hereby stands in opposition to the Trans-Pacific
Partnership Free Trade Agreement or TPP in negotiations right now. Our
position is based on facts on how harmful –and many times-deadly
impact trade agreements, such as NAFTA, CAFTA and others the TPP is
modeled on, had on womyn- disproportionately womyn of color.
As workers worldwide, womyn make up the majority of small farmers and
more than half the work force in the light manufacturing industries
which provide most of the world’s household goods.
Trade related job loss has a devastating impact for womyn in the
United States because a womyn’s employment is concentrated in areas
often affected by trade, such as textile and apparel industries.
In addition, when U.S. companies shut down or move abroad, the same
womyn once employed by those companies lose their jobs with little
chance of being re-employed in good-paying union jobs comparable to
those in manufacturing. Jobs in this service and in the informal
sector are less secure and offer little or no benefits.
For womyn in Mexico, the effects of NAFTA liberalization have been
particularly severe. Since the poorest of farmers in Mexico are womyn,
many have been forced off their land as NAFTA has placed them in
fierce competition with big agribusiness firms and driven down
commodity prices.
This has caused many womyn to move from rural to urban areas in order
to find employment. Many were-and will be-left with no option but to
seek work in maquiladoras factories that are notorious for poor
working conditions and exploitative and sexist working environments.
These factories seek out young womyn workers who can be paid very
little (up to 30 percent less than men) and given few benefits for
working long hours under inhumane conditions such as no running water
and exposure to harmful chemicals.
Womyn workers in many factories in Mexico have reported rampant
physical abuse and sexual harassment. In addition, mandatory pregnancy
testing and administering of birth control is a condition for
employment and often a standard practice. Trade liberalization has
also severely limited the access to vital services such as healthcare
and education. This has a disproportional impact on womyn due to the
fact that womyn are usually responsible for providing healthcare and
education for their families.
Since the signing of NAFTA in 1994, more than 400 womyn and girls have
been found brutally murdered at the Mexican border town of Ciduad
Juarez. Most of the murdered womyn worked in the maquiladoras.
Corporations and governments have created super-highways, railroad
tracks and terminals, and airports to aid in their importing and
exporting of goods, yet they let their workers live in shacks made of
mud and in a city where most streets are unpaved, dusty, without
running water, sewers, or electricity.
After paying female laborers on average of four dollars a day for
their tedious and hard work, corporations do not provide any secure
transportation home, forcing womyn to choose between spending their
low wages on a bus fare or walking home through the dangerous streets.
As a result, they are at a high risk to be raped, trafficked across
the border, or murdered. Consequently, they are collateral damage in
the pursuit of corporate profit.
Af3rm San Diego restates our position against the TPP as it is evident
that Globalization/ Trade liberalization profits rely on the exploited
labor of womyn-largely womyn of color- as well as violating a womyn’s
own personal autonomy.
Today we stand in solidarity with the coalition to stop the
Transpacific Partnership “Free Trade Agreement” for it, like free
trade agreements in the past, will jeopardize the sovereignty of all
womyn of all nations involved.
--
Ambitiously yours,
Catherine (Cat) Mendonça
Af3irm San Diego; an anti-imperialist, transnational feminist women’s
organization, evolving from the organization formerly known as GABNet,
and 20 years of women’s organizing, activism, and struggle. af3irm.org
401-580-7791
cmen...@riseup.net
Keep connected
http://www.facebook.com/phoenonimalcat
March 27, 2012
Contacts: Marla Laguardia, Amelia Ortega and Cathy Mendonça
Email: cmen...@riseup.net
Tel: 401-580-7791
Film and Panel Discussion: "MAQUILAPOLIS" and Fair Trade Initiatives
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN DIEGO: As a continued effort against Free Trade Agreements,
Af3irm San Diego
in collaboration with The Centro Cultural de la Raza will be
presenting the film MAQUILAPOLIS [city of factories] by Vicky Funari
and Sergio De La Torre. Following the film is a panel discussion with
local groups on how to continue the efforts against Free Trade
Agreements (old and new) in our bordering communities.
About the film
"To create MAQUILAPOLIS, the filmmakers brought together factory
workers in Tijuana and community organiza...tions in Mexico and the
U.S. to collaborate on a film that depicts globalization through the
eyes of the women who live on its leading edge. The factory workers
who appear in the film have been involved in every stage of
production, from planning to shooting, from scripting to outreach.
This collaborative process breaks with the traditional documentary
practice of dropping into a location, shooting and leaving with the
"goods," which would only repeat the pattern of the maquiladora
itself. The process embraces subjectivity as a value and a goal. It
merges artmaking with community development to ensure that the film's
voice will be truly that of its subjects."
http://www.maquilapolis.com/project_eng.htm
DATE: Friday, August 24, 2012
TIME: 6:00pm until 9:00PM
LOCATION: Centro Cultural de la Raza 2004 Park Blvd., San Diego
Facebook event
https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/190207297776903/?notif_t=plan_user_invited
Af3irm San Diego's official statement against Free Trade Agreements
Af3irm San Diego hereby stands in opposition to the Trans-Pacific
Partnership Free Trade Agreement or TPP in negotiations right now. Our
position is based on facts on how harmful –and many times-deadly
impact trade agreements, such as NAFTA, CAFTA and others the TPP is
modeled on, had on womyn- disproportionately womyn of color.
As workers worldwide, womyn make up the majority of small farmers and
more than half the work force in the light manufacturing industries
which provide most of the world’s household goods.
Trade related job loss has a devastating impact for womyn in the
United States because a womyn’s employment is concentrated in areas
often affected by trade, such as textile and apparel industries.
In addition, when U.S. companies shut down or move abroad, the same
womyn once employed by those companies lose their jobs with little
chance of being re-employed in good-paying union jobs comparable to
those in manufacturing. Jobs in this service and in the informal
sector are less secure and offer little or no benefits.
For womyn in Mexico, the effects of NAFTA liberalization have been
particularly severe. Since the poorest of farmers in Mexico are womyn,
many have been forced off their land as NAFTA has placed them in
fierce competition with big agribusiness firms and driven down
commodity prices.
This has caused many womyn to move from rural to urban areas in order
to find employment. Many were-and will be-left with no option but to
seek work in maquiladoras factories that are notorious for poor
working conditions and exploitative and sexist working environments.
These factories seek out young womyn workers who can be paid very
little (up to 30 percent less than men) and given few benefits for
working long hours under inhumane conditions such as no running water
and exposure to harmful chemicals.
Womyn workers in many factories in Mexico have reported rampant
physical abuse and sexual harassment. In addition, mandatory pregnancy
testing and administering of birth control is a condition for
employment and often a standard practice. Trade liberalization has
also severely limited the access to vital services such as healthcare
and education. This has a disproportional impact on womyn due to the
fact that womyn are usually responsible for providing healthcare and
education for their families.
Since the signing of NAFTA in 1994, more than 400 womyn and girls have
been found brutally murdered at the Mexican border town of Ciduad
Juarez. Most of the murdered womyn worked in the maquiladoras.
Corporations and governments have created super-highways, railroad
tracks and terminals, and airports to aid in their importing and
exporting of goods, yet they let their workers live in shacks made of
mud and in a city where most streets are unpaved, dusty, without
running water, sewers, or electricity.
After paying female laborers on average of four dollars a day for
their tedious and hard work, corporations do not provide any secure
transportation home, forcing womyn to choose between spending their
low wages on a bus fare or walking home through the dangerous streets.
As a result, they are at a high risk to be raped, trafficked across
the border, or murdered. Consequently, they are collateral damage in
the pursuit of corporate profit.
Af3rm San Diego restates our position against the TPP as it is evident
that Globalization/ Trade liberalization profits rely on the exploited
labor of womyn-largely womyn of color- as well as violating a womyn’s
own personal autonomy.
Today we stand in solidarity with the coalition to stop the
Transpacific Partnership “Free Trade Agreement” for it, like free
trade agreements in the past, will jeopardize the sovereignty of all
womyn of all nations involved.
--
Ambitiously yours,
Catherine (Cat) Mendonça
Af3irm San Diego; an anti-imperialist, transnational feminist women’s
organization, evolving from the organization formerly known as GABNet,
and 20 years of women’s organizing, activism, and struggle. af3irm.org
401-580-7791
cmen...@riseup.net
Keep connected
http://www.facebook.com/phoenonimalcat
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