When you're planning a rally as big as the WTO Rally and March will be on Tuesday, Nov. 30 in Seattle... you better have a Rally to Get Ready for the Rally.

At 6 p.m. this Sunday, Nov. 14 at the University of Washington's Kane Hall, grassroots networks from all over the Pacific Northwest will join together to proclaim their support for fair trade policies and to share what their groups are doing to mobilize for the massive march on Nov. 30.  All are invited and admission is free (but $2 donations will be accepted to defray costs.)

Special guests include former Congresswoman Jolene Unsoeld, the only member of Washington state's congressional delegation to vote against NAFTA; State Rep. Velma Veloria, Co-Chair of the House Trade Committee; and the Seattle Labor Chorus.

Organizations scheduled to be represented at Sunday night's Rally for the Rally will include: People for Fair Trade, Network Opposed to the WTO, Washington Association of Churches, King County Labor Council, Sierra Club, Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund, Humane Society, Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office, People's Assembly, Direct Action Network. and many more.

These groups may have different opinions about reforming/eliminating the World Trade Organization, but they all share one goal: to bring worldwide attention to the erosion of labor, environmental and human right protections under our current system of international trade by mobilizing a massive demonstration on Nov. 30, the day the WTO begins its ministerial meetings in Seattle.

For more information about the Nov. 30 WTO Rally and March, click here.  For more information about Sunday's event at the UW, call 206-770-9044 or 1-877-STOP-WTO.

The Austin City Council unanimously passed a resolution last week opposing provisions of the World Trade Organization and the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment, joining cities such as Seattle, Toronto, San Francisco, Berkeley and Boulder which have passed similar measures.

The Austin City Council resolution cited concerns about WTO policies and the proposed MAI that would undermine the City of Austin's authority to regulate within its jurisdiction and to decide how to use its public procurement dollars.  WTO provisions and the proposed MAI may also limit a city's ability to maintain laws regarding environmental protection, that ensure fair labor practices, or ensure that tax dollars are spent in a manner consistent with decent ethical and labor standards.

For example, the Canadian people passed a law to outlaw MMT, an additive to gasoline that was a known carcinogen.  However, the American corporation that made this additive challenged the law under NAFTA because it "expropriated" future profits and damaged Ethyl's "good reputation."  The Canadian people were forced to pay the company $20 million for lost business, forced to rescind the law and forced to continue breathing the cancer-causing additive.

Now, the people of California have passed a law outlawing MTBE in their gasoline.  A Canadian company that makes this additive is challenging the law under NAFTA and asking for $970 million in lost profits and for the law to be rescinded.   Given that the trade bureaucrats are likely to support the company, it's likely the people of California will continue to breathe the additive and it will continue to contaminate their ground water.

Loss of sovereignty has been widely cited by those opposed to the WTO's current rules and practices, but the threat is not just that existing laws could be repealed.  If companies "harmed" by laws designed to protect labor and environmental standards are awarded damages, it would almost certainly have a chilling effect on the consideration and adoption of future laws to protect workers and the environment.

For more information about the WTO and the massive People's Rally and March coinciding with the opening of WTO meetings in Seattle on Nov. 30, click here.

A new music video (which is currently in heavy rotation on MTV) for an anti-sweatshop song by the top-selling rock band Rage Against the Machine stars UNITE Justice Center members from Los Angeles. 

Rage Against the Machine, which plays a mix of punk and hip-hop and is described on the cover of the latest Rolling Stone magazine as the "Mightiest Band in Rock," is rare among its peers for using its fame and fortune to promote progressive causes and social justice, including international and domestic labor rights.  

"I'm in this band to give volume to various struggles throughout the world," says Rage frontman Zack de la Rocha.  Guitarist Tom Morello is often spotted wearing the UNITE cap he earned when he was arrested at a Guess protest.  The band's new record, due out next week, will publicize UNITE's web site (http://www.uniteunion.org).

Read more about the many causes, from privatization to sweatshops, Rage Against the Machine members are involved in at the band's web site, http://www.ratm.com/news/index.html.

Late last week, King County Executive Ron Sims proposed the first of public transit cuts required now that voters have approved Initiative 695, the $30 Car Tab measure.  Some 28 of 272 routes could be eliminated initially, and it is not immediately clear how many workers will be laid off.