3. Resolution Addressed to the National Convention of LCLAA

August 4 to 8, 2008, -- Orlando, Florida

Based on the campaign for the Right Not to Migrate

Whereas, for more than three decades the countries of Latin America have been subjected to capital extortion

through the Structural Adjustment Plans and the onerous payments on the foreign debt;

Whereas, with the objective of maximizing profits for North American corporations, the countries of Latin

America have suffered the invasion of maquiladora companies that operate in "free trade" zones (free from

tariffs and exempt from paying taxes) where they can hire cheap labor, without benefits or labor rights;

Whereas, the corporate agenda has promoted privatization of state enterprises and services in Latin America --

in health, education, communication, public transportation and energy, in particular -- which in turn has fueled

the deterioration of the quality of life of the people;

Whereas, the privatization of strategic natural resources, particularly petroleum and gas, represent a fatal blow

to the functioning of the State, whose national budgets are fed in large part by the profits from oil and gas (in

the case of Mexico, the revenues of the Mexican oil company PEMEX represent 40% of the national budget);

Whereas, with the objective of placing funds from the public social security, pension and retirement systems

into the financial markets, privatization has particularly threatened current and future retirees throughout the

working classes of the continent;

Whereas, "free trade" agreements implemented over the past 15 years have dismantled entire sections of the

economies south of the border -- from manufacturing production to agricultural production -- causing

unemployment for millions of workers, tearing apart the social fabric and finally pushing the workers of Latin

America into an arduous migration to the United States in a quest to sustain their families;

Whereas, the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) -- an offspring of NAFTA -- has increased the

militarization of Mexico, under the direct control of the United States, in the name of fighting "narco-terrorism,"

while its real function is to repress the growing movement of resistance across Mexico in opposition to NAFTA

and privatization;

Whereas, in the United States the administration of President George W. Bush has been incapable of

establishing immigration reform that recognizes immigrant workers as a legitimate component of the U.S.

working class and, on the contrary, has unleashed a flood of unconstitutional legislation in both state and local

government that reduces the capacity for survival of Latino workers in the United States;

Whereas, since 2006 the administration of President George W. Bush has, through the Immigration and

Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, increased the execution of raids and then deportations of undocumented

workers, causing untold strife to tens of thousands of immigrant workers and their families;

Whereas, over the past 10 years more than 5,000 deaths of undocumented immigrants have been registered in

the border region of the United States as a result of the implementation, in the aftermath of NAFTA, of

Operation Gatekeeper -- with greater numbers of deaths expected as a result of the extension of the Wall of

Shame along the border and the heightened corporate-led attacks against the national economies south of the

border, which will only fuel new waves of migrants fleeing to the United States;

Whereas, the only open channel for an immigrant to find legal work in the United States is the Guest Worker

Program, a program for contracting indentured labor exclusively for agricultural production, with workers

deprived of basic labor rights and protections and with contracts limited to seasonal employment and under

rigorous control of the immigration authorities of Mexico and the United States;