Halloween PICA play examines free trade’s effects

BANGOR – Halloween wasn’t all fun and games for members of PICA, Peace through Interamerican Community Action.

The organization presented “Trick or Treat America: A Halloween Story,” which organizers described as a humorous look at a serious issue, the Free Trade of the Americas.

PICA invited candidates for federal office to sign a fair trade pledge to support trade agreements “with enforceable worker rights and environmental protections and work against the passing of the FTAA.”

The group said in a statement that only candidates Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud had signed the pledge by the Oct. 31 deadline. The pledge described Maine as “the third hardest hit state in the nation with a net loss of 22,000 jobs” from effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization.