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Contact:  Shirley Osterhaus, Western Washington University’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies coordinator, (360) 650-2309 or shirley.osterhaus@wwu.edu.

BELLINGHAM – Jhon Jairo Castro, president of the Buenaventura chapter of the Portworkers Union in Colombia will present “No Longer Shackled by Chains but by our Economic Conditions: The Struggle for Trade, Labor and Racial Justice in Colombia’s Ports” from noon-1:20 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9 in the Fairhaven College auditorium on Western Washington University’s campus.

The presentation, which is a part of Western’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies’ World Issues Forum, is free and open to the public. 

Castro, who has worked as a longshoreman and labor rights organizer for more than 11 years, leading various actions in Colombia’s principle port city of Buenaventura, will discuss his experience as an Afro-Colombian labor leader in one of the deadliest countries in the world to exercise labor rights.  A voice from the port, through which 60 percent of Colombian imports and exports pass, is especially significant in the wake of the approval of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Castro will share what privatization and free trade have meant for Buenaventura’s Afro-Colombian community, who make up nearly 90 percent of the city’s population.

For more information, visit http://www.wwu.edu/depts/fairhaven or call Shirley Osterhaus (360) 650-2309.