Organizer

A major global trade summit is taking place in Detroit this Spring, and Public Citizen is looking to hire a temporary, part-time organizer in the area to help plan protests and educational events around it.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, a forum involving 21 Pacific Rim countries including the United States, is hosting a major trade policy meeting in Detroit in May (exact dates TBA).

A major agenda item for this ministerial will be the Info-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), a secretive, U.S.-led trade deal with 13 Asian nations that is expected to be the most consequential trade initiative of the Biden administration.

The administration says it wants to create a new model for U.S. trade policy that prioritizes the interests of working people and the planet - not just big corporations. But the secretive process currently taking place around IPEF only gives big corporations more power to dominate the substance of these talks, while shutting civil society out.

Groups throughout the Pacific are organizing to ensure IPEF truly is a new type of trade policy that uplifts workers across borders and tackles climate change head-on. APEC's Detroit summit is our biggest opportunity to play a role in this effort from the U.S.

The organizer will work under our National Field Director, and will be the primary point-of-contact for local and regional groups planning to attend a series of events spanning the length of the summit.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Deep familiarity and/or existing network with social, economic and political justice movements in the Detroit metro-area and region at-large.
• Experience organizing events, especially press events, educational teach-ins, planning meetings and protests.
• Experience in renting/booking space for events, doing outreach and publicity, booking speakers and working with city offices to obtain permits when necessary.
• A personal connection to trade deals like NAFTA and the WTO and the impacts they have had on working people and the planet locally as well as throughout the world.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Assist with general planning for a 3-day mobilization involving protests, educational events, art-builds and press conferences.
• Outreach and networking with local organizations including unions and environmental, human rights, faith, feminist, and other progressive groups in Detroit and nearby cities and towns to build turnout for the events.
• Outreach and networking with similar organizations in neighboring states including Indiana, Ohio and Illinois.
• Mobilizing individuals in the region to attend events during the summit.

SALARY:

Compensation: $16.50 - $40.00 per hour

Part-Time: 20 hours per week

Duration: January or ASAP through May 2023

TO APPLY:

Send a letter of interest, resume, and writing sample to GTWapplicants@citizen.org.

Public Citizen is an equal opportunity employer. People of color, women, LGBT candidates are encouraged to apply. Public Citizen employees are proud members of SEIU Local 500.

About Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch:

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent the public interest in Congress, the executive branch and the courts. We fight for openness and democratic accountability in government; for social and economic justice in globalization and trade policies; for clean, safe and sustainable energy; for strong health, safety and environmental protections; for safe, effective and affordable medicines and health care and for the right of consumers to seek redress in the courts. We have six divisions based in our Washington, D.C. offices and an office in Texas.

The mission of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch division is to ensure that in this era of globalization, a majority have the opportunity to enjoy America's promises: economic security, a clean environment, safe food, medicines and products, access to quality affordable services such as health care and the exercise of democratic decision-making about the matters that affect their lives.

Public Citizen started working on globalization and 'trade' issues in 1991 when we recognized that this was necessary simply to remain effective advocates for the public health, consumer safety, environmental and economic justice goals Public Citizen had promoted over decades. Motivating this strategic initiative was our realization that today's international commercial agreements, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), were no longer mainly about trade per se. Rather, these far-reaching agreements were backdoor delivery mechanisms to implement an expansive, enforceable package of non-trade policies - limits on financial regulation and food safety, new monopoly patent rights over medicines and seeds that limit access, new investor rights that promote job-offshoring and subject public interest policies to attack and more. This corporate-led version of globalization is designed to limit governments' role in regulating the economy and to eliminate many of the public interest safeguards Public Citizen and like-minded organizations and activists had won over decades. And, it shifts decision-making on matters previously determined in national, state and local venues to international bodies where those affected by the decisions have no meaningful role.

Since its inception in 1995, GTW has been a leader in popularizing the globalization and trade debate by connecting these seemingly arcane policies to peoples' everyday experiences - and helping people make a difference in the future of globalization by giving them the tools they need to educate their communities, hold Congress accountable for policy choices, and hit the streets to protest. GTW works with diverse national and international coalitions. For more information, please see our website: www.tradewatch.org