1) If you can get to Vancouver, B.C., join us outside of the shareholders’ meeting at 2PM on Wednesday the 25th: 888 Dunsmuir St. in downtown Vancouver

2) If you can’t make it in person, call Pacific Rim on Wednesday to demand that the company respect El Salvador’s sovereign decision to deny gold mining permits. Here are the instructions:

Call Catherine McLeod-Seltzer, Chair of the Board of Directors, at (604) 689-1976

SAMPLE CALL SCRIPT:
Hello. My name is _________ and I have been following Pacific Rim’s lawsuit against the government El Salvador. I am calling with a message for the Board of Directors and all the shareholders who are meeting today.

The people of El Salvador have rejected the mine and that decision must be respected. Your lawsuit is a shameful ploy to rob the government of desperately-needed resources for your own financial gain. At today’s meeting, you have a chance to do the right thing. I call on you to make the decision to:
1. Immediately cease all efforts to mine gold in El Salvador and withdraw from the country.
2. Immediately withdraw your lawsuit against the government of El Salvador.”

Photos here.

Pacific Rim Mining executives Barbara Poisonwell and Thomas Snake are joined by shareholders for a toast to U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) as protesters look on

SEATTLE – Dozens of demonstrators marched from Westlake Plaza to the office of Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) on Thursday afternoon to protest the Congressman’s ongoing refusal to endorse a trade policy reform bill currently before the Congress, and to disrupt a press conference held by Pacific Rim Mining Corporation honoring McDermott for his support of free trade.

Representatives of several Seattle-area unions, environmental groups, churches and other community organizations lined sidewalks on both sides of 7th avenue between Olive and Stewart Streets in front of McDermott’s downtown Seattle office, chanting and holding signs in support of the “TRADE Act,” a bill that would overhaul existing free trade agreements and set standards for future pacts.

Meanwhile, before a backdrop of golden balloons, a dozen executives and shareholders of Pacific Rim, a Vancouver, B.C., gold mining company, held a press conference thanking McDermott for his refusal to support trade policy reform. Pacific Rim is currently suing the government of El Salvador for hundreds of millions of dollars under the provisions of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) after that country nixed a proposed gold mine on environmental and public health grounds. If it were to become law, the TRADE Act would eliminate provisions in U.S. trade agreements allowing corporations to challenge environmental protections with lawsuits.

Pacific Rim CEO Thomas Snake praised McDermott’s “bold inaction” on trade policy reform, and thanked him for his “bravery in standing up to keep trade policy as it is – with corporate profit as the bottom line.”

At the close of the ceremony, Pacific Rim executives and their supporters toasted McDermott with hearty gulps of “Pacific Rim Mineral Water,” which the company had unveiled just moments earlier. The water, tainted with cyanide and heavy metals that threaten to contaminate El Salvador’s rivers and ground water as a result of gold mining operations, immediately had dramatic, negative health repercussions for the well-dressed corporate crowd that ingested it.

Pacific Rim executives collapse in front of Rep. McDermott's office after ingesting their own new mineral water

With the mining CEOs’ and shareholders’ expired bodies littering the sidewalk, activists seized control of the podium and called for McDermott to support the TRADE Act, and for Pacific Rim Mining to drop its lawsuit against El Salvador.

Addressing the crowd, Kristen Beifus, Director of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition, said that the Pacific Rim CEOs had died due to “their own greed, and U.S. trade policies that encourage them to put profit over health and safety. We are here to demand respect for the environment, workers rights and human rights in US trade policies. Rep. McDermott, co-sponsor the TRADE Act now! Pacific Rim, drop your lawsuit against El Salvador now!”

Proceedings in Pacific Rim’s lawsuit against the government of El Salvador are scheduled to begin on Monday at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. It is unclear how Thursday’s self-inflicted poisoning deaths of the company’s CEO and other top leadership will affect the case.

Contact Seattle CISPES to sign up TODAY!
206.325.5494, seacispes@igc.org

CLICK HERE for an article about the Solidarity Cycle in the May issue of Momentum Magazine.

Grassroots organizing in El Salvador has stopped North American gold mining companies in their tracks. But now one company, Pacific Rim Mining (based in Vancouver, B.C.) is taking advantage of U.S. trade policy to sue the Salvadoran government for hundreds of millions of dollars, arguing that El Salvador should not be able to protect its environment and people by denying mining permits.

Join us to learn more and raise money in support of the Salvadoran people’s ongoing resistance to environmental devastation and unjust U.S. trade policies!

• A two day bike trip through east King County. Participants are protected by a county ordinance limiting law enforcement collaboration with immigration officials.

• Raise money to support grassroots organizing in El Salvador

• Enjoy the camaraderie of a fun, low-key group bike ride!

• $25 registration + $125-$300 fundraising goal per person. No one turned away for lack of funds. Contact us for more info.

For more info, and to sign up, contact Seattle CISPES: 206.325.5494, seacispes@igc.org

THURSDAY, MAY 27, 4:00 PM

@ Westlake Plaza – 4th Ave. between Pine & Pike, downtown Seattle. We will march to Rep. McDermott’s office (7th Ave. between Stewart and Olive) for a demonstration and street theater.

Click here for more info on the Day of Action: