Two important summits take place at the end of 2009 in Europe: the 7th conference of ministers of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva and the UN climate summit in Copenhagen (COP15). With a week between them, 60 activists from the global South will travel across Europe through Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and Denmark. They will draw attention to the consequences neoliberal globalization and climate change have on their lives and show how to fight against them. Together with local activists, they look for alternatives to free trade and the privatisation of resources, and unite the North and South in their fights for another world.

http://www.climatecaravan.org/

The European Union is currently rushing through secret negotiations on a trade deal with a group of Central American countries. This trade deal could increase poverty and inequality in a region where 40% of the population live off less than US $2 a day.

There is a crucial opportunity to put the brakes on the proposed trade deal. Several Central American governments are expressing reservations about the deal and we need to take action to demand European negotiators change their approach.

• Take action : http://www.wdm.org.uk

The Colombian government is threatening to reject Plan Colombia II funding if they don’t get the FTA - let’s make sure this threat is realized!

Congress is gearing up for a vote on the U.S. Colombia Free Trade Agreement while the House drafts its version of the foreign aid bill. The bill will determine the make-up of "Plan Colombia II," which plans to extend more than $600 million to fund the War on Drugs that has failed to reduce production and trafficking of cocaine. You can sway their vote.

What’s at stake

U.S. policy is on the path towards making the conflict in Colombia worse if military aid continues and the FTA is ratified. In Mexico NAFTA caused 1.7 million peasants to be displaced it will likely do the same in Colombia. Let’s not carry on policies that will add to the 3.8 million people who have fled their homes from violence over the last two decades.

Call today to tell Congress to change direction on trade and war in Colombia!

• More information :Trade and War in Colombia

Make Trade Fair is a global movement calling for an end to unfair trade rules. It is organised by Oxfam International and its 12 affiliates and is part of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. It calls on governments, institutions, and multinational companies to change the rules so that trade can become part of the solution to poverty, not part of the problem. Make Trade Fair brings together The Big Noise (a global petition to Make Trade Fair) as well as other campaigns, such as the Vote for Trade Justice campaign, Tescopoly campaign and many other campaigning tools and ideas. It organises campaigns directed at specific groups, either by lobbying appropriate political figures, or targeting specific companies.

• Website: http://www.oxfam.org/en/campaigns/trade