From The WarZone
This comes from a Union Brother of mine. Mike is a great writer. Please take the time to read what he has to say. In Brotherhood & Solidarity............Scott
CAFTA—Easy Sell!
The passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement [CAFTA] was an easy task for U.S. President Karl Rove and his band of Corporate Thugs. While the US media engaged in the big sell and refused to debate the critical issues of yet another economic disaster for the majority of Americans, Rove and company maneuvered the treaty with perfect timing. The vote was forced at a time when the most stalwart opposition, the AFL-CIO, was dug in at Navy Pier in Chicago IL fending off internal attacks from members of its’ own Executive Council. While John Sweeney, President, [AFL-CIO] and Andrew Stern, President, [SEIU] Service Employees International Union fiddled, the house of labor burned. While members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council engaged in a classic business union demonstration of penile envy, labor’s enemies mounted the charge.
The vote was conspicuously moved up to coincide with the AFL-CIO convention where it was well known a split in the house of labor was in progress. With the help of 16 so-called democrats, the vote was passed by a two-vote margin. Nearly as many Republicans voted against it making rebuttal of the legislation an easy task for concerned Americans. Not to be however, with corporate America owning both sides of the aisle. Rove and his puppet, George, pulled out all the stops and cut every imaginable back-room deal to buy the votes. The result will be the loss of millions of America jobs and the loss of American sovereignty to multinational corporations. Talk about weapons of mass destruction! The greatest threat to America can be found in the halls of congress, the White House, and the corporate boardrooms.
Whether it’s CAFTA, NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] or any other agreement we have come out on the losing end of, there is No Free Trade! There is no free lunch, no free ride, and no free trade; someone always has to pay. Under these agreements it is always America’s working class and the poor. It is democracy and national sovereignty sold to the lowest bidder by those who wave our flag, send our kids to war, and deny us our portion of the American dream. Sold by the greedy elite who seek economic globalization and world government for the benefit of the corporation. Conspiracy? Heavens no! Greed and thirst for power are as old as mankind and unregulated capitalism has always been the vehicle. Ever wonder what our world would be like if we had “fair trade”? Trade where workers rights were protected; where the environment was given consideration; and trade based on the lifting up of all nations. How about trade that did not require phony wars to initiate?
In these agreements are provisions our legislators and the media do not want to discuss. Legislators depend on corporate support for re-election and our news networks are little more than corporate whores who are corporations themselves that depend on advertising dollars for revenue. Real news in America comes from the independent media or from outside the U.S. These agreements allow foreign companies to come into the U.S. and violate our labor and environmental laws. If the U.S. enforces laws that hinder profits, they can sue and the taxpayers pick up the tab. A good example is an American parcel service suing the Canadian government because the Canadian postal service delivers parcel post. U.S. employers, who move production offshore, depend on human misery to guarantee higher profits. Child slavery, human rights violations, and environmental degradation are all weapons of mass destruction for American corporations. More than 90 of one giant American retailer’s production facilities are in China’s prisons. Free Trade?
Lets apply a little working class logic to the formation and activation of so-called free trade agreements. If an ordinary citizen turned his back on his country, did business with our nation’s enemies, used child slave labor, polluted the environment and abused other humans for profit, he would be considered a criminal, a traitor;
at the least, a scumbag. Why don’t the rules apply to corporations and the politicians who sell their votes in spite of their obligation the American public? What if, as individuals, we lied about our reasons, attacked another nation and slaughtered its’ people and brought our country to war for profit and in the process caused fellow Americans to die by the thousands? How would we be dealt with? Wouldn’t it at least be a crime? What would happen if we had contracts, as ordinary people, with our government, and bilked them out of millions of dollars? Wouldn’t that be a crime and wouldn’t we be imprisoned? What if, as individuals, we conducted business that undermined our national sovereignty, broke our laws and caused harm to our economy? How would society view us if we went around the country forcing men and women off their jobs and gave them to governments that had tortured our POWs, killed tens of thousands of our fellow Americans and slaughtered millions of their own citizens? How would we be dealt with if we paid a Senator or Representative to pass legislation making us enormous profits at the expense of our own country’s well being? Would it be bribery or lobbying? Why aren’t our great media anchors asking these questions instead of misdirecting the nation’s attention to trivial matters that have little impact on society as a whole? Why are our elections focused on divisive issues rather than the takeover of our nation by the corporate elite? Why do national leaders pander to them, send our children to war for them, and shift our national economy to countries that represent a real threat to America?
I asked many of the above questions of the legislative aide to Congressman, Tim Johnson, Republican, of Champaign IL, but was told Johnson supported the CAFTA treaty. I knew that before I called but I felt it was important to voice my disapproval. The young aide assured me they had combed through the entire document, but when I challenged him on labor and environmental issues, it was clear he didn’t have a clue to its contents nor could he care less. After twenty minutes of bobbing and weaving around my pointed questions he finally declared, “at least we’ll be raising the income of workers in Central America. I suppose I should have been feeling warm and fuzzy. But that tired old line to justify destroying the lives of American families, American jobs, and our economy angered me. That lie has been exposed in Mexico on every single issue. We have exploited their labor, their environment, and their human rights. American corporations are doing the same thing here in the U.S. after they are smuggled in illegally. As a result of American manufacturing relocating to Mexico, Mexican workers have been shot at the gates by corrupt government forces.
If you want to believe America can survive as a nation of service jobs, CAFTA and NAFTA are for you. If you think the next generation can work four hours a day at Hardees, three at McDonalds, and four at Burger King and still have a piece of the American Dream, then “free Trade” is for you. If the next generation can work six hours at Wal-Mart, and six in a nursing home, buy a home, insurance, a car, have medical coverage, pay bills and still have enough to eat, “free trade” is for you. Maybe they’ll be lucky enough to snag a seven-dollar an hour job in the new import businesses that will magically spring up all over America. But if like me, you know many of those who have lost good jobs that left America and veterans who have returned from our corporate war in Iraq to find their jobs gone, you’ll look a little closer at who is undermining our beloved country. Who really has the weapons of mass destruction! Tune out Ted Koppel, John Stossel, Barbara Wa Wa, and Rush Limbaugh. The only difference is in their delivery. Line your birdcage with the Chicago Trib, put the Post in your neighbor’s outhouse, and use the Times to light your charcoal. Look for independent media outlets, tune in to Democracy Now, and use the Internet to follow the Guardian in the United Kingdom. Subscribe to Jim Hightower’s newsletters. When you find the truth, pass it on and use it to ask all the wrong questions in every public forum you can attend. Become that activist and agitator; you know, the kind that gave birth to this nation.
Mike Griffin
Decatur IL
CAFTA—Easy Sell!
The passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement [CAFTA] was an easy task for U.S. President Karl Rove and his band of Corporate Thugs. While the US media engaged in the big sell and refused to debate the critical issues of yet another economic disaster for the majority of Americans, Rove and company maneuvered the treaty with perfect timing. The vote was forced at a time when the most stalwart opposition, the AFL-CIO, was dug in at Navy Pier in Chicago IL fending off internal attacks from members of its’ own Executive Council. While John Sweeney, President, [AFL-CIO] and Andrew Stern, President, [SEIU] Service Employees International Union fiddled, the house of labor burned. While members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council engaged in a classic business union demonstration of penile envy, labor’s enemies mounted the charge.
The vote was conspicuously moved up to coincide with the AFL-CIO convention where it was well known a split in the house of labor was in progress. With the help of 16 so-called democrats, the vote was passed by a two-vote margin. Nearly as many Republicans voted against it making rebuttal of the legislation an easy task for concerned Americans. Not to be however, with corporate America owning both sides of the aisle. Rove and his puppet, George, pulled out all the stops and cut every imaginable back-room deal to buy the votes. The result will be the loss of millions of America jobs and the loss of American sovereignty to multinational corporations. Talk about weapons of mass destruction! The greatest threat to America can be found in the halls of congress, the White House, and the corporate boardrooms.
Whether it’s CAFTA, NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] or any other agreement we have come out on the losing end of, there is No Free Trade! There is no free lunch, no free ride, and no free trade; someone always has to pay. Under these agreements it is always America’s working class and the poor. It is democracy and national sovereignty sold to the lowest bidder by those who wave our flag, send our kids to war, and deny us our portion of the American dream. Sold by the greedy elite who seek economic globalization and world government for the benefit of the corporation. Conspiracy? Heavens no! Greed and thirst for power are as old as mankind and unregulated capitalism has always been the vehicle. Ever wonder what our world would be like if we had “fair trade”? Trade where workers rights were protected; where the environment was given consideration; and trade based on the lifting up of all nations. How about trade that did not require phony wars to initiate?
In these agreements are provisions our legislators and the media do not want to discuss. Legislators depend on corporate support for re-election and our news networks are little more than corporate whores who are corporations themselves that depend on advertising dollars for revenue. Real news in America comes from the independent media or from outside the U.S. These agreements allow foreign companies to come into the U.S. and violate our labor and environmental laws. If the U.S. enforces laws that hinder profits, they can sue and the taxpayers pick up the tab. A good example is an American parcel service suing the Canadian government because the Canadian postal service delivers parcel post. U.S. employers, who move production offshore, depend on human misery to guarantee higher profits. Child slavery, human rights violations, and environmental degradation are all weapons of mass destruction for American corporations. More than 90 of one giant American retailer’s production facilities are in China’s prisons. Free Trade?
Lets apply a little working class logic to the formation and activation of so-called free trade agreements. If an ordinary citizen turned his back on his country, did business with our nation’s enemies, used child slave labor, polluted the environment and abused other humans for profit, he would be considered a criminal, a traitor;
at the least, a scumbag. Why don’t the rules apply to corporations and the politicians who sell their votes in spite of their obligation the American public? What if, as individuals, we lied about our reasons, attacked another nation and slaughtered its’ people and brought our country to war for profit and in the process caused fellow Americans to die by the thousands? How would we be dealt with? Wouldn’t it at least be a crime? What would happen if we had contracts, as ordinary people, with our government, and bilked them out of millions of dollars? Wouldn’t that be a crime and wouldn’t we be imprisoned? What if, as individuals, we conducted business that undermined our national sovereignty, broke our laws and caused harm to our economy? How would society view us if we went around the country forcing men and women off their jobs and gave them to governments that had tortured our POWs, killed tens of thousands of our fellow Americans and slaughtered millions of their own citizens? How would we be dealt with if we paid a Senator or Representative to pass legislation making us enormous profits at the expense of our own country’s well being? Would it be bribery or lobbying? Why aren’t our great media anchors asking these questions instead of misdirecting the nation’s attention to trivial matters that have little impact on society as a whole? Why are our elections focused on divisive issues rather than the takeover of our nation by the corporate elite? Why do national leaders pander to them, send our children to war for them, and shift our national economy to countries that represent a real threat to America?
I asked many of the above questions of the legislative aide to Congressman, Tim Johnson, Republican, of Champaign IL, but was told Johnson supported the CAFTA treaty. I knew that before I called but I felt it was important to voice my disapproval. The young aide assured me they had combed through the entire document, but when I challenged him on labor and environmental issues, it was clear he didn’t have a clue to its contents nor could he care less. After twenty minutes of bobbing and weaving around my pointed questions he finally declared, “at least we’ll be raising the income of workers in Central America. I suppose I should have been feeling warm and fuzzy. But that tired old line to justify destroying the lives of American families, American jobs, and our economy angered me. That lie has been exposed in Mexico on every single issue. We have exploited their labor, their environment, and their human rights. American corporations are doing the same thing here in the U.S. after they are smuggled in illegally. As a result of American manufacturing relocating to Mexico, Mexican workers have been shot at the gates by corrupt government forces.
If you want to believe America can survive as a nation of service jobs, CAFTA and NAFTA are for you. If you think the next generation can work four hours a day at Hardees, three at McDonalds, and four at Burger King and still have a piece of the American Dream, then “free Trade” is for you. If the next generation can work six hours at Wal-Mart, and six in a nursing home, buy a home, insurance, a car, have medical coverage, pay bills and still have enough to eat, “free trade” is for you. Maybe they’ll be lucky enough to snag a seven-dollar an hour job in the new import businesses that will magically spring up all over America. But if like me, you know many of those who have lost good jobs that left America and veterans who have returned from our corporate war in Iraq to find their jobs gone, you’ll look a little closer at who is undermining our beloved country. Who really has the weapons of mass destruction! Tune out Ted Koppel, John Stossel, Barbara Wa Wa, and Rush Limbaugh. The only difference is in their delivery. Line your birdcage with the Chicago Trib, put the Post in your neighbor’s outhouse, and use the Times to light your charcoal. Look for independent media outlets, tune in to Democracy Now, and use the Internet to follow the Guardian in the United Kingdom. Subscribe to Jim Hightower’s newsletters. When you find the truth, pass it on and use it to ask all the wrong questions in every public forum you can attend. Become that activist and agitator; you know, the kind that gave birth to this nation.
Mike Griffin
Decatur IL
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 8:41 AM
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