CAFTA Passes, Workers Screwed Once Again
David Sirota says what needs to be said about the 15 Dems who broke ranks to support Bush and the Republicans in passing the latest pro-corporate/anti-worker and peasant trade deal. Sirota's links are also worth reading on his post on this subject.
Personal notes:
My local congressman, Duncan Hunter (R-San Diego, CA), is one of the few Republicans who mostly (and properly) opposes these trade deals. He voted against the CAFTA as well. What I don't get about Hunter, though, is that, while he connects the dots to opposing Chinese exploitation of workers (he is a trade hawk with China), he fails to connect the same dots to exploitation of workers here in America. Pat Buchanan, for example, has sometimes supported labor law reform--at least when he was running for president--while Hunter continues to be hositle to labor law reform and pushes anti-labor union legislation with other Republicans.
I also think the fix was in politically in terms of who was going to vote for or against. Does anyone really think Jane Harman (D-CA) has changed her pro-corporate stripes in voting against the CAFTA this time? See here (scroll down to "Free Trade"--you can tell this is a libertarian or pro-Republican site with that phrasing of the issue).
UPDATE: Some intrigue has arisen from the Republican side in terms of the voting on CAFTA. Apparently, the two Reeps who did not vote were anti-CAFTA and their reasoning for not voting is quite transparently ridiculous. See here. I also read somewhere--can't find link right now--that Jo Ann Davis, the other Republican, went to the Boy Scout Jamboree for an event, found out it was canceled due to weather, and --lordy, lordy--just could not get back in time. "Damn that traffic!" On the CAFTA vote, which was one of the big votes this year. She should be fired for incompetence by her constituents. And if anyone thinks this is all coincidental, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you...Thanks to Kevin Drum and Josh Marshall (check on my links portion of page) for their reporting.
posted by Mitchell J. Freedman @ 6:59 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Congratulations. This posting has been added to Independent Sources top headlines list (LAFTA at CAPTA).
http://independentsources.com/2005/07/28/lafta-at-cafta-independent-sources-top-blog-headlines/
Dear Mitchell . . .
I continue to be baffled. With all the clamor over American jobs lost, thanks to NAFTA, the passing of CAFTA fascinates me. Americans are quite contrary. They love and hate Central America and the people within the area.
I believe United States citizens are rarely united; they hold polarizing views on much. People in this country seem to be unaware; the majority often ignores the long-term effects of their decisions. Possibly, they do not decide at all. Might too many be apathetic and allow others to decide for them.
Betsy L. Angert
Be-Think, http://be-think.typepad.com
Betsy,
The majority of Americans, year after year, oppose these trade deals. The working class Republicans and working class Democrats are united on this. Why then the passing of these monstrosities and why so little retribution at the polls?
The sex and death issues, and horse race/image is reality discussions that dominate the discourse on television and radio undermine any lasting effect in most instances.
This may be changing, but as long as the Dems are taking too much money from K Street and corporate lobbyists, the differentiation among the parties' leadership will continue to be difficult to discern on this issue.
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"Who will turn the lights off? El Salvador's youth exodus."
CAFTA Casualties: Free trade deals like CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) have had a devastating impact on El Salvador’s small farmers and have helped push 100,000 Salvadorans per year to immigrate to the United States.Photo by Judy Walgren, FAACA.NET
USULUTÁN, El Salvador—El Salvador is a poor country whose major export is people. From recently living there, I’ve seen firsthand what’s driving people north — and why conventional political solutions aren’t going to deter desperate Salvadorans and others like them from coming to the United States. Largely missing from this year’s presidential campaign is any serious reappraisal of our foreign, military, and trade policies that have forced millions of Latin Americans to uproot themselves and seek opportunities for a better life far from home.
On the presidential campaign trail earlier this year, free trade critics failed to link corporate globalization, trade deregulation and the forced relocation of people throughout the hemisphere. While courting blue-collar workers in farm states and the Rust Belt in the United States, former Democratic senator John Edwards frequently denounced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — and its new Central American counterpart, CAFTA — as “trade laws that send American jobs overseas.”
To view the rest of this article, see http://www.indypendent.org/2008/07/20/who-will-turn-off-the-lights/
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