US Labor Activists Petition to Stop Free Trade Push
NEW YORK - Labor rights activists in the United States are trying to organize a nationwide campaign to push Congress to oppose the Bush administration’s plans to promote new free trade agreements.
“U.S. trade policy is not working for the majority of Americans,” said campaigners in a petition signed by thousands of people who think that free trade agreements have failed to raise standards of living in the United States and abroad.
Calling for the Congress to place an immediate moratorium on new free trade agreements, the signers said: “It’s time to change course in our policy,” because it is causing deficit and job losses as well as eroding labor standards.
The demand for a moratorium comes as the Bush administration is trying hard to get Congressional approval for new agreements with South Korea, Panama, Colombia, and Peru.
Campaigners also want Congress to modify the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a demand that the Bush administration has already rejected, offering no indication of flexibility.
“By declaring a moratorium and not approving fast-track authority for new agreements, the Congress can heed the message of the majority of people,” said a spokesperson for Global Exchange, a rights group that organized the campaign.
The California-based group said a moratorium “will give Congress, the executive branch, and the public an opportunity to deepen democratic debate and develop a new long-term trade policy as part of a coherent economic and foreign policy.”
Critics say the current trade policy is deeply flawed because it does not enforce international labor, human rights, and environmental standards.
May also decry the agreements’ economic impacts on working people, both in the United States and elsewhere. NAFTA, for example, has resulted in the loss of 1 million manufacturing jobs in the United States, critics argue.
NAFTA, which was signed in 1994, allows free trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Last August when U.S. President George W. Bush met the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at a Quebec resort complex, scores of activists, trade unionists, and farmers took to the streets to protest the trade policy.
It seems that the massive participation of labor and rights activists in those protests has not only strengthened the current campaign, but has also brought about a shift in the views of a large section of the Democratic Party in the United States.
Currently, all the Democratic presidential candidates appear to be in opposition to the NAFTA trade deal. Some have openly said it is unfair to workers while others have expressed their strong skepticism.
“NAFTA and the way it has been implemented has hurt a lot of U.S. workers, said Hillary Clinton, the presidential front-runner on the Democratic side. “So, clearly we have to have a broad reform in how we approach trade,” she told thousands of union workers in Chicago in August.
Barack Obama, Clinton’s main rival for the Democratic nomination for president, has also issued similar statements, saying the free trade agreements had tilted against workers, because “corporate lobbyists” had too much influence.
Analysts say despite their strong rhetoric, the Democrats may not be willing to roll back NAFTA completely, but their push for its overhaul could lead to more aggressive implementation of U.S. enforcement.
Even small-scale trade deals with individual Latin American countries are in trouble, after Democrats insisted that countries that sign free trade deals with the United States must introduce tough labor laws.
“The U.S. public and policy makers deserve comprehensive studies on the results of free trade agreements before pushing blindly forward,” said Global Exchange.
The anti-poverty group said the studies should measure the impact of the free-trade model not merely by gauging growth in trade and investment, but also by its success or failure in job creation, shared development, and sustainability.
“At present there is no public consensus regarding benefits to society, and considerable evidence to the contrary.”
© 2007 One World
American and WTO policy must treat forced labor, strike-breaking and interference with workers’ right of association as unfair trade practices. We need global versions of the Wagner and Fair Labor Standards Acts.
Free trade equals loss of jobs. Period Full Stop
NAFTA, CAFTA and GATT are responsible for the degredation of the lives of workers, the loss of environmental controls, and the gains of big business. This should come as no surprise to anyone who was paying attention at the time of their passing, when it was pointed out that there were NO provisions for worker’s protections of environmental controls at all.
The thing is that they are working EXACTLY like they were envisioned to. They give the workers the shaft and allow for NO environmental regulations in any country whatsoever, all the while giving big business what it wants: Unlimited profits and complete control.
There is NO surprise here, if you were paying attention at all, or even listened to Ross Perot. Remember that “huge sucking sound”? It was just like he said, it was our jobs running off to other countries. And he was ridiculed for saying it, too. I knew at the time that he didn’t stand a chance of winning the presidency, but he was right. The jobs are gone, and we are the losers in this whole deal.
All three of these agreements need to be done away with. The tax rates need to return to Pre-Reagan rates, and the rich need to start to pay their share, again. Trickled on economics has been shown for what it is, and it’s time for that Alzheimer’s induced nightmare needs to end, and be flushed like the disaster it is.
I hope you all know that there really is no free trade. All these “free” trade scams are filled with plenty of rules and provisions designed to RIG the system in favor of the corporate/wealthy elite. Give me one “free” trade pact that doesn’t do slave labor, copyright “patents” designed to enrich Big Media, lack of environmental and product safety protection laws, etc …
WJM is correct in saying tax rates need to be revised to pre-Reagan levels, an era when US infrastructure was the envy of the world, unlike today where we see US infrastructure rapidly deteriorating to third world standards.
Don’t vote for any candidate that does not promise tax reform that results in corporations paying 29% of US income tax by 2013. That is the percentage corporations paid in 1970. Today they pay 6%.
“Campaigners also want Congress to modify the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a demand that the Bush administration has already rejected, offering no indication of flexibility.”
Do you all remember the song: “What Lola wants, Lola gets?
Do you also remember George Orwell who wrote the following in 1944?: “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
We all have to change our belief system. Globalization has created a new world (order) and this new world in the eyes of most politicians is an opportunity for them to greatly increase the holdings and profits of their financial portfolios.
We as consumers must stop consuming the THINGS we don’t need and only buy the things we NEED. Our greed to consume is the perfect rationale for the pigs in Washington to create and approve trade agreements which increase their own wealth and destroy the middle class in this country.
If you want NAFTA modified, you had better vote for Dennis Kucinich, otherwise, consider your working days numbered!
Gail—Kucinich,indeed!! Is it any wonder the “fix is in” to keep him and his “provocative” message away from the American public at large of this country? Can’t have a president promoting worker’s well-being at the expense of corporatiions’ pursuit of profit.
If the MSM didn’t have such a strangehold on the desemination of information to the “masses”, the oligarcy would be allot more worried about DK. As it is, they are confident they can keep the lid on, thinking they can maintain the sidelining, and still give the appearance of a level playing field.
Nevermind—-they aren’t even pretending it’s level because they think the American people feel so distracted and disempowered, we’ll never rise up and shake this oppressive system to the core.
“HOW WOULD YOU HAVE IT BE?”
These trade agreements are working with the opening of many career jobs in America. Gardeners, Limo drivers, window cleaners, toilet scrubbers, etc.
I have seen many 6000 to 14000 square foot mansions being built that need many servants and these are lifetime job opportunities complete with benefits (you all remember boxing day after the great feast why let the leftovers go to waist).
If you vote Republican you are voting for the great American Royalty! When people ask how much do the folks really need you are missing the point, its for their future generations of Royals that will never have to work a day in their lives.
Yes they will go to the Ivory League schools and get educated in managing us “workers” and learn all the tools of keeping us in our place with diversionary hot button issues.
Vance Packard wrote a series of books a while back that spoke to the issues of the poor countries wanting their share and the GOP is giving it to them at the American workers expense.
My family has for generations fought American wars and we have plenty of flags in Arlington but, we have no real wealth! We are paying the price to be good Americans but, if we want a living wage for a decent days work, we need to take back control of the political process and the first step is to vote out all GOP candidates.
Yes we will get the usual crowd of the wealthy elite talking about socialism and other off topic crap but, not one of them can justify the earning discrepancies between the worker and the executives. Minimum wage versus hundred of millions is not a just society. We work and fight for this country and we want a “FAIR” break. We have the right to enact laws to enable this and we need another majority like the FRD times to get this done.
It is high time for us to look forward to moving to our family home in Italy. The USA has become a haven for fascism in both parties, democracy is dead and there are no Messiah’s on the horizon. The Bushite plans for One Continental Nation, from The Antarctic to the Southern Tip of Mexico are well under way and those who call themselves Democrats are not very much less fascistic than the Bushites.
I am now very happy that we decided that we decided to maintain our home and land in Tuscany for these last 130 years. At least there the Italians have not wrecked the countryside, the food is fresh and the scum of the earth are far away.
America was a great experiment, but it’s dumbing down since the the murder of Kennedy has made is akin in stupidity to Nazi Germany in the 1930’s.
Gee…
…maybe Labor/Consumers, both here and Elsewhere, should get ORGANIZED!
[I mean, SHEESH…’what does it take’? A near-Death-Experience?]
Unions in the US should learn what a “General Strike” means, and the ’sane’ non-union should walk-out right at their side…
[I mean, SHEESH…’what does it take’? A near-Death-Experience?]
Unions in the US should learn what a “General Strike” means, and the ’sane’ non-union should walk-out right at their side…
““NAFTA and the way it has been implemented has hurt a lot of U.S. workers, said Hillary Clinton, the presidential front-runner on the Democratic side.”
Remember when Bill Clinton was elected in 1992? He and Hillary crowed that we got a two-fer, implying that they would be co-presidents.
Okay, that’s the set-up. Now, Hillary is saying how NAFTA, which was ramrodded through by Bill, her co-president, hurt a lot of workers.
And, she want’s people to vote for her…why? So she and her co-president, Bill can hurt us some more?
To the Democratic Party cheerleaders: Go to Hell! You’ve hurt us enough!
“I have seen many 6000 to 14000 square foot mansions being built that need many servants and these are lifetime job opportunities complete with benefits (you all remember boxing day after the great feast why let the leftovers go to waist).”
Don’t count on it. These jobs are taken by illegals who are paid off of the books and not given benefits. They get these free courtesy of the taxpayer at the local welfare office.
I bet 2 major department stores will tank after Christmas. The consumer has had it with the corporations selling unrefundable junk that breaks within a week.
People can see their lot is not improved by the profits of the corporations that go right into ceos pockets.
Any Democratic representative who backs “free trade”
agreements should be voted against in the upcoming
Democratic primaries. We need to really get the message
out the America”s working people.
We need The wagoner Act instituted here in America, along with the elimination of the Taft- Hartley act.most of all we need a international workers union.
How does all the free traded CRAP get to the USA in time for Christians?
Ships. what runs ships? bunker oil. More trade is good for who?
Golddogs mentions oil, which of course leads the mind [or mine anyway] to global warming. Free trade agreements are as obsolete as the mega horsepower gasoline engine with dual hemmy carbs.
Already, here in Hawaii, Matson has added yet another ‘fuel surcharge’ to the cost of transporting goods to, and between, the islands. My latest power bill was up another $25 for less power, and the total fuel surcharges and enviro add-ons added up to more then twice the cost of the actual kilowatts used.
The financial news is bad and getting worse. Construction, tourism, and retail sales are all down - and those are the jobs that replaced the high-paying manufacturing jobs of the 80’s
What I am trying to say is that the corporations and their mega rich owners have killed all the little goslings that laid the golden eggs and ensured their prosperity.
I really think we are about to experience what Cuba went thru during the ‘Special Period’ after the USSR tanked. Mechanics that can repair broken ’stuff’ are going to be the new gods, and the rest of us will be re-learning the skills involved in raising chickens and vegetables to barter with the neighbors and put a bit of dinner on the table.
Not that I think we should have more free-trade agreements - why add to the misery of the people already displaced by corporate monopolies and getting hammered by the erratic climate changes that have become the norm rather then the exception.
Hawaii’s Government is worried about funding State highways beyond 2030 - forecasting huge deficits in road funds [todays headlines].
I’m wondering what kind of vehicles they envision on all those roads in an Island State that has to import every drop of oil, and every vehicle, on ships that use huge quantities of fuel. Who will provide the fuel for all the ‘Free-Trade’ generated by corrupt governments and slave labor? Iraq?
Rather then trade agreements pushed thru by a corrupt politician, we should be working on strengthening the ties between communities and exchanging knowledge and seeds in an effort to do what we can to ease the impact of the environmental disasters that are charging full steam ahead while we watch ‘reality’ TV and ignore what’s going on outside.
Free trade without free labor is little more than modern day national serfdom.
OldYellowDog November 21st, 2007 5:31 pm
“These trade agreements are working with the opening of many career jobs in America. Gardeners, Limo drivers, window cleaners, toilet scrubbers, etc.”
Those jobs have already been taken by the millions of illegal aliens that cross our southern border every year and come here willing to work for cash under the table at less than minimum wage.
Maybe we can all stand on the street corner holding signs that proclaim we will work for food.
Lobo Gris
Google the ‘Plan Puebla Panama’. You will get an idea of what the avaricious criminals are craving to have next.
Folks, as gail and starof the sea have said above, IT’S KUCINICH OR BULLSHIT AS USUAL! (O.K. NOT their EXACT words.)
The primaries are sneaking up and although it has been a long, drawn out affair, I believe that it has helped Dennis.
NO MORE NAFTA/WTO! NO MORE WAR IN “OUR NAME”! NO MORE CORPORATIONS TAKING THEIR JOBS AND TAX DOLLARS OVERSEAS!
NO MORE CHILD LABOR IN THE NAME OF PROFIT FOR A FEW IN THE U.S.!
If you walk into your polling place and mark a vote for ANYONE besides D.K. then YOU are partly responsible for business as usual…YOU! Not the media. Not a “rigged system”. YOU!
WOW people, I used the “career service jobs” as an example of the failing policy, not to be taken seriously!
Yes I know illegals are taking below minimum wage to get any work they can but, the real issue is that these free trade politicians keep promising “better jobs” well, where are they?
Some free trade politicians say; go to collage become a computer programmer - oops sorry, we outsourced those jobs to India and China.
Manufacturing creates wealth for America not money shuffling!
It’s a shame that the one candidate, Dennis Kucinich, who is thinking exactly right on this issue isn’t even mentioned in the article. All the others are hedging their speech so much that they are hardly expected to make major changes when in office.
thinkerman: For what it’s worth, I sent the writer a note about his omission. Hope you will also.
maxpayne - you are exactly right. The name Free Trade sounds good. After all a trade can help both parties and free is always good. The image of the name passed it.
The NAFTA agreement specifically avoided each area that makes trade good like good wages, environmental protection, energy efficiency, and stability. In my personal experience a good trade provides some or all of the benefits I listed.
But we may have survived NAFTA with little harm if they hadn’t opened up even more extreme trade with China. That change crushed the efforts to unionize or petition the government in each country for improvements in the agreement.The final nails in the coffin were the regressive tax structure and the war culture enforced and renewed with each post Carter president.
The next and more desperate move is to continue to devalue our currency and enslave the people of the US with debt supported by the taxpayer rather than based on the assets of the nation. The assets have been mostly handed to private investors at fire sale prices.
I still hear people vocally supporting Reagan and right wing nut propaganda like opposition to universal single payer medical care.
My take on this is to actually avoid ever having a job for a corporation at all. I teach privately and live a rather frugal existence. I know other people who do this also. They don’t even pay taxes, why, because they don’t support funding wars and corporate handouts. I won’t particpate anymore. I am going to find a way around it in any way I can. Even if it means being poor.
Good comments by all of you. Too many of our working-class brethren still don’t understand the master-plan the ruling-class has in store for us ‘naive’ peons. We must continue speaking to and educating with facts, the un-informed amongst us. You’ll be surprised how people will listen and began to THINK for themselves and question the ‘establishment’ (remember that word?) and how unequal things are in this country. What is it…2% own 80% of the wealth in the United States.
I was a shop steward for many years and fought hard for the employees and encouraged them to attend meetings, study labor issues, understand the political process, and be informed on real current events that effects our lives and affairs, not the sensationalism and titilation called ‘news’ by MSM. But, sports and entertainment have priority, and we see the results of apathy, lethargy, and ennui by the general public.
I’m “preachin’ to the choir” on Common Dreams, but we must continue on.
MeAlsoTo; Right on, brother, (or sister?). I’ve said many times on CD that we need to encourage all working people to take part in the ‘GENERAL STRIKE’ to shut down America in order to take it back and make it a better place again. That means ALL folks who work for a living. Union, non-union, blue-collar, white-collar, no-collar, skilled, un-skilled, professional, and even military members who have violated their oath by taking part in un-lawful crimes against humanity by this criminal government. You all see what they are doing to our ‘troops’, don’t you?
ProfessorEmeritusPeteB; Sounds like a good idea. Europeans are way ahead of us in so many ways. Of course, they, as nations have been around a lot longer, but more importantly, have seen the devastation of ‘war’ firsthand, and realized the value of conflict resolution and co-operation. Maybe I’ll take a trip to Italy next year.
Approximately 5,000,000 Germans (military and civillian) died in WW11 for fascism out of a population of 60,000,000 or so. For what?
IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS! KEEP SPREADING THE WORD, BROTHERS AND SISTERS. And like Reverand Billy says, NO SHOPPING TODAY!
Please post my comment.
could we agree to never say anything about Dennis doesn’t have a chance? it’s only true if you keep saying it. let’s start treating him like the winner he is. think about it. 75% of our fellow citizens agree with Dennis and nobody else. he’s the people’s choice. now let’s go!
Buy American made products and you support the American economy.
We should get out of these free trade agreements: there is no way US manufacturers can compete with countries who don’t pay their workers a fair wage, use forced labor, use child labor, etc.