Congress, NAFTA, & WTO

[snoochie]

Saturday, October 11 2003 10:21 PM PDT

This blog entry originally appeared in Lawrence Lessig's blog where Dennis was guest blogging:


Yesterday, Rob asked several questions:
1) It is almost certain that you will be working with a Republican-controlled Congress at least initially during your tenure. Given that, do you believe it likely that you will be able to get the Congress to pass bills authorizing programs for national health care, withdrawal from NAFTA and WTO, reversal of the Bush tax cuts (which will probably be permanent by then), and dealing with other hot-button issues that the Republicans have been so steadfastly against. You can't just declare these things by executive order; and I don't see how you can get such "radical liberal" programs passed. That makes many of your 10 key issues non-starters.

My nomination will set the stage for a Democratic Congress. In 1932, when president Franklin Roosevelt was nominated, he ran on a platform of broad economic reform, which excited people to come out in vote in their own enlightened self-interest. As a result, FDR led a Democratic sweep, which resulted in a pickup of 90 House seats and 13 Senate seats. This was accomplished because he represented profound change. He represented jobs, he represented rebuilding America, he represented a hope for popular control over predatory corporations. My nomination will reverse the results of the 1994 election when the Democrats were unable to regain the House and lost the Senate principally because the parties' ties to corporate interests muted the differences between the parties and discouraged the Democratic base. My nomination will excite the Democratic base, will broaden the reach of the party, and will engage third party activists to join us in a mighty effort to reclaim our government.

2) You state that one of your first acts as President will be to unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from NAFTA and the WTO and institute a regime of "fair trade agreements." Do you believe that our global trade partners will be receptive to such a regime, given that almost by definition those agreements will be fairer to us than to them? Or will we instead see a return to the bad old days of preferential tariffs and trade wars, which the WTO was created to try to prevent? Or even worse, would withdrawal merely accelerate the migration of trade from our country to other countries with more open trade practices? Would we not then be hoist by our own petard?

We are now being hoisted on the petard of NAFTA and the WTO. America's trade policies have been dictated by powerful multinational corporations whose flag is not red white and blue, but green with a dollar sign. Our nation is approaching a $500 billion trade deficit, which represents a genuine threat, not only to our economy, but to our Democracy. Global corporations have used the United States to help create a multinational trading arrangement which denies both American workers and workers of other nations the protections of basic labor law. NAFTA and the WTO were written specifically to preclude the enforcement of rights to organize, collective bargaining, strike, rights to safe work place, and right to a secure retirement. This enabled corporations to move jobs out of America to places where workers have no protections. NAFTA and the WTO have facilitated a race to the bottom in terms of wages and workers rights generally. The WTO essentially locked in the NAFTA trading regime by making any attempts to modify the basis of trade WTO-illegal.

The question is not whether or not America trades with the world, the questions are what are the rules of the game. And America is claimed by rules which are rigged against us. I have said that I will cancel NAFTA and the WTO in order to return to bilateral trade, conditioned on workers rights, human rights, and environmental quality principles being written into our trade agreements with other nations. The is the only way that we can stop corporations from coercing wage concessions or breaking United States unions. This is the only way that we can re-empower the hopes of people of all nations for a better standard of living and for control of the institutions of their own governments.

This issue reflects not mere differences of opinion within our party but a great divide. On one side of the divide stands global corporations and their political supporters. On the other side stands workers and their supporters. I stand resolutely with America's workers and with those peoples of the world who are also striving for human dignity. I will continue to challenge all other Democratic candidates on this issue to see whose side they stand on so that the American people can clearly see whose side they're on. It's not enough to say you're going to fix NAFTA and the WTO, the only way to fix it to exercise the withdrawal provisions of both laws and return to bilateral trade, conditioned on workers rights, human rights and environmental quality principles.

Dennis J. Kucinich
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

[srpantalonas]

1. Crystle For Senate: I'm with you, Dennis!

I'm sitting outside of Pittsburgh at the moment, taking a break from the trail. This weekend I visited a number of towns in Northwest Pennsylvania, all with unemployment rates between 10 and 15%. I met with manufacturers in the area; all but one are shedding jobs, all expressed hope things will turn around, and all recognize our trade policies are working against them.

I support withdrawing from the WTO and NAFTA, killing Fast Track trade status, and adopting bi-lateral trade agreements where regular people and small businesses have a seat at the table. Our trade agreements should be informed by democratic principles of economic and social justice, instead of the cynical principle the morally vacant "center" and neo-con global capitalists advocate--the principle that the cheapest price trumps all other considerations. We've seen the results the Free Traders --like my opponents in the US Senate race here in PA-- have brought us: 200 manufacturing jobs lost every day in my state, the rise of Wal-Mart as the leading employer, record levels of foreclosures, decline in local economies, and substantially lower tax receipts at all levels of governments.

It's time to stop the policies made for the few at the expense of the many and get back to economic and social justice.

Dennis Kucinich, if you don't win the nomination, I sure hope you are asked to join the new President's cabinet, because we need princples-based leaders in the next administration!

Charlie Crystle
Democrat for US Senate, Pennsylvania
http://www.CrystleForSenate.com

blog: http://www.charliecrystle.com

[JohnKleeb]

2. good luck in your race and same for Dennis

:hi:
I am a Virginian but I have connections to your state. My mom's parents were from Johnstown you see, best known as the site of the flood, and I went there and the once thriving mills and mines are gone. It appears to be like that in Dennis's Cleveland as well.

[Maple]

3. More reasons

why he will never get elected.

Makes me laugh how the US negotiates all these treaties, and then complains the rules are rigged against them.

Canada has tried to put in environmental and worker protection rules for years, and the US continually refuses them.

[diamondsoul]

4. Yes, Maple, we know.

Both you and the whole of Canada are perfect. Experts in all things related to international trade, and we ignorant Americans should just shut up and defer to your brilliance.</sarcasm>:eyes:

[w4rma]

5. Small manufacturers fight U.S. trade policy, endorse Feingold

Businesses forge alliance to save jobs
Small manufacturers fight U.S. trade policy, endorse Feingold

Washington - With its first campaign endorsement last week, a fledgling group of Wisconsin manufacturers made a statement about the politics of job loss in the industrial Midwest.

Known as Save American Manufacturing Now, the small-business coalition endorsed Senate Democrat Russ Feingold, whose voting score last year from the nation's best-known business lobby - the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - was a paltry 20%.

Why Feingold?

Simple.

The two-term Middleton senator has repeatedly opposed the big trade pacts of the last decade, from the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, to normalizing trade relations with China.
…
Formed eight months ago, "SAMNow" has embarked on an aggressive campaign to change minds in Congress, meeting with members from both parties and on both sides of the issue.

Already, there's abundant evidence that the group - and the state's stark slide in manufacturing jobs - are altering the way Wisconsin lawmakers approach trade.
…
Schuldt says her members believe the big, established business lobbies have failed to speak for them on trade and "unfair competition."

"I think they think we're a bunch of whiners," she said.

But Nick George of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce suggests that established business groups like his are also undergoing a change on trade, in response to the growing cries of smaller companies.
…
http://www.jsonline.com/bym/news/oct03/176637.asp
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=58584

[hippywife]

6. That's why we are working for Dennis, Maple!

He does want to undo the wrongs the Clinton adminstration wrought with NAFTA and the WTO. These policies were not good for anyone involved except the large corporations who are looking for cheap labor to improve their bottom line but kick the workers to the curb.

We went to a presentation at Tulsa University a few weeks back where some women from Chiapas, Mexico came to talk about the cooperatives that the women have had to develop to market their wares just to survive because NAFTA has had the result of stripping the land away from the indigenous peoples so they can't even grow food for their own sustainence. Even if they could, the subsidies and tariffs that NAFTA imposes makes it cheaper for people in their country to buy corn and other products from the U.S. so they can't even compete there if they had the land to grow anything. Their men have to leave the area and even the country to work so the women are forced to learn to weave at an extremely young age and sell as much of their wares as they can through a cooperative they themselves run yet they are unable to pay wages to the weavers for 6 to 7 months.


And, Maple, the government doesn't always represent the desires of the people. Just like it was the Bush Admin and not the people of the U.S. that bombed Iraq, we don't all agree with the free trade agreements and wish to see them abolished for fair bi-lateral trade agreements with all countries, including Canada. That's why Dennis is the logical choice for anyone who sees this as an important issue. It is illegal to change these treaties so any candidate saying that is how they would approach the issue is uninformed. The only way is to repeal participation, within the six month notice stipulated, and begin negotiating fair trade agreements that benefit all involved. We need to stop this type of trade and keep it from spreading further.

[snoochie]

7. This is my favorite part of this blog entry:

"My nomination will set the stage for a Democratic Congress. In 1932, when president Franklin Roosevelt was nominated, he ran on a platform of broad economic reform, which excited people to come out in vote in their own enlightened self-interest. As a result, FDR led a Democratic sweep, which resulted in a pickup of 90 House seats and 13 Senate seats. This was accomplished because he represented profound change. He represented jobs, he represented rebuilding America, he represented a hope for popular control over predatory corporations. My nomination will reverse the results of the 1994 election when the Democrats were unable to regain the House and lost the Senate principally because the parties' ties to corporate interests muted the differences between the parties and discouraged the Democratic base. My nomination will excite the Democratic base, will broaden the reach of the party, and will engage third party activists to join us in a mighty effort to reclaim our government."

I believe if we can get Dennis the nomination, that he will have just this same effect on the American public. The contrast of hearing him speak clearly about the public interest next to Bush's tortured doublespeak will shock people awake. The clouds of doubt and fear this misadministration have worked so hard to spread will part and the light of Dennis's logic will reach the people of this country like a ray of sunshine and give them hope again!

Talk about coattails!
:party:

[Thomas Jefferson]

8. Dennis can do it. He's the FDR of 2004

If not for the 22nd Amendment, I bet Dennis Kucinich would be another four term Democratic President.