The fight against Fast Track

The fight against the Fast Track bill itself changed Dec. 6, when 215 Democrats and Republicans effectively sold a critical legislative power to the executive branch. The focus now falls on Fast Track's results. No one doubts that the Senate will give the president the authority to negotiate international trade agreements and to draft all impending legislation needed to get U.S. law in line with these agreements.\nNightmares over his incoherent expressions aside, our president and his corporate crew will secretly pen trade agreements and laws that determine labor rights, environmental practices and control over government's basic services -- education, health care, water, to name a few. And Congress will have less than 20 hours to review and vote on these crucial agreements that affect the most basic areas of our lives. The vote will be a simple yes or no, Congress having surrendered its right to add amendments to this legislation. Representative democracy at work -- too bad it's for corporate interests instead of citizens' interests.\nBut the "compassionate conservatives" and "new Democrats" rally behind the flag of opportunity at home and development abroad. So what about the most recent example of this global development -- NAFTA? According to the public interest group Global Trade Watch, the U.S. has lost an estimated 395,000 jobs with corporations diving into the Mexican pool of cheap labor and lax environmental laws, sponsored by NAFTA. How does unemployment translate into opportunity? \nI disagree with NAFTA's definition of "development." Citing a Los Angeles Times article, Global Trade Watch explains that Mexico's NAFTA-inspired woes have sent eight million Mexicans from the middle class into poverty. Mexico's economic development translates into a minimum wage below $3.40 a day and an employment boom confined to the sweatshop districts. Environmental contamination and corresponding public health risks have only increased under NAFTA.\nDumping 44 tons of hazardous waste daily along the Mexican-U.S. border also deters human development. During the first year of NAFTA, one Texas border county had fifteen babies born without brains -- certainly a handicap when trying to grasp the unprecedented development and opportunity transnational corporations have graciously heaped (or dumped) in our backyard. So who's developing here?\nMaybe the Bush administration has learned from the dismal destruction wreaked by NAFTA. Nope. The latest proposed international trade agreement, the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), takes NAFTA as its model. That's one of the few public details about the agreement, which seeks to transform the entire Western hemisphere into a free trade area. Congress set no goals for the talks held last April in Quebec City. Many members of Congress have little to no idea what the agreement entails. Not to worry. Over 500 corporate representatives -- good people with good hearts, no doubt -- are negotiating far-reaching trade agreements in place of our representative officials.\nIf economic and environmental degradation abroad doesn't bother you, agreements like FTAA will unite our global village like never before. Bringing sweatshops, toxic dumps and unaffordable utilities to a neighborhood near you -- exploitation isn't just for the "third world" any more.\nThe fight to protect the world from corporate exploitation is far from over. Laborers, environmentalists, feminists, student activists, human rights organizations, religious organizations, farmers and small-businesses will continue to protest at the locations of secret meetings and to keep us educated. Remember, Fast Track only passed the House by one vote -- hardly a mandate. And we need to stay active, as Bloomington switches over into the district now represented by Congressman Baron Hill, who helped Fast Track squeak through the House.