Tag Archives: NAFTA

Political Rants

Sucking sound +20.

We are approaching the grim milestone of twenty years after the passage of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement – a pact that is described even by bland media outlets like NPR as having benefited only corporations in the 3 countries affected. Twenty years after its passage and signing by President Clinton, the evidence is in and it seems clear that many if not all of the criticisms were justified. And now that it is well-established and that we have entered into numerous other trade deals modeled on NAFTA, mainstream news organizations can report the obvious, namely:

  • NAFTA has fueled immigration to the U.S. from Mexico. By forcing Mexican corn farmers, for instance, to compete with Cargill, the agreement effectively destroyed large segments of rural livelihood in Mexico, sending economic refugees streaming into their cities and ultimately across the U.S. border in a desperate bid to find gainful employment. (I might add that, coupled with the high demand from the U.S. for illicit drugs, this destruction of legitimate crop farming has likely led to greater resort to illegal agriculture, marijuana production, etc., in the Mexican countryside.)
  • NAFTA has undermined employment and wages in all three countries. This is the sad truth behind Ross Perot’s “giant sucking sound” – the allure of moving production to Mexico has emptied factory towns in the United States, leaving us with the miserable husk of an economy we’ve been living through these past five years in particular.
  • NAFTA has provided a pernicious model for other agreements. The Trans Pacific Partnership is just the latest in a series of NAFTA like “free-trade” – actually, investor rights – agreement that have popped up since 1994. Some have failed, like the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which was dropped after news of its consideration became widely distributed. But generally, these pacts have contributed to a neo-imperial system of enormous corporate wealth unattached to any nation or government, pushing labor back on its heels.

The thing is, we are grappling with something more serious than a recession, and NAFTA is one manifestation of the deeper problem we face. Our basic right to earning a livelihood is under attack, and we have to be more determined in our efforts to not only defend against this attack, but to push back and press forward.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Stuff and … more stuff.

Once again, a bit pressed for times. Projects, projects, projects – you know the tune. Here’s what’s chewing on my nerves this week:

In search of a problem. The G.O.P. is obsessed with the notion of voter fraud, a phenomenon so rare that it makes injuries from lightning strikes seem frequent by comparison. Can we just stop pretending, for five minutes, that this is a sincere concern about the integrity of our elections? It’s pretty obvious what they’re up to – they are fighting a rear-guard action against demographic trends, long acknowledged, that do not favor a virtually all-white party such as themselves. The only way to do that is through the usual methods they have employed over the years: voter suppression. Voter I.D. laws, in particular, are meant to place significant hurdles of time, expense, and logistics between individuals and the ballot. Let’s call it what it is – a direct attack on voting rights. Time to push back … hard.

Crime and punishment. As was clear when he was in the White House, leaking the name of a CIA agent and pressing Federal Attorneys to prosecute non-existent voter fraud (see above), Karl Rove is a very nasty piece of work. Now he’s a major force in our electoral process, thanks in part to the Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court. Rove’s 501(c)4 “social welfare organization” Crossroads GPS has been sluicing corporate money into campaigns by the millions of dollars. In 2010 his group was instrumental in swamping Syracuse area congressman Dan Maffei with negative ads in the last two weeks of the campaign, electing tea party challenger Ann Marie Buerkle by a handful of votes – one of many such interventions. He’s doing the same this year. With regard to Rove, I agree with George W. Bush: criminals should know there are consequences to their actions. Should have put him in jail when they had the chance.

Stop TPP. The Obama administration’s trade representative is in the midst of very quiet negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement – basically a global NAFTA on steroids. The reason it’s being discussed behind closed doors is that the moment the provisions of these investor rights agreements become public, public outrage brings them down. (See the Multilateral Agreement on Investment and other similar pacts.) I suggest you take a look at this and do what you can to make others aware of it before they slip it in under the radar. This agreement would be a disaster for labor, for environmental regulations, for trade policy, you name it.  Go to http://stoptpp.org/ to find out how.

Spread the word, friends. That is all.

luv u,

jp