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LOCAL Announcement :: Globalization : Latin America
Teach-In on Free Trade Area of Americas
The World Trade Organization meets in Cancun, Mexico September 12-14. The Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting is November 20-21 in Miami, Florida. Both meetings will attempt to make decisions that benefit multinational corporations at the expense of people and the environment. The Coalition against Global Exploitation and the Student Labor Action Committee present a teach-in to educate on the issues.
In recent years, the World Trade Organization and the Free Trade Area of the Americas have become household names for many concerned citizens and activists. The WTO and the FTAA have been associated with water privatization in Bolivia and trade liberalization in Brazil, but their impact on the lives of citizens of the United States has been less obvious. Built on a foundation of free market ideology, the WTO and the FTAA actively seek to increase the ability of US corporations to benefit from 'untapped' markets around the world. While it is fairly common knowledge that this process of globalization has been disastrous for the citizens of other countries, it must be emphasized that neo-liberalism has been wreaking havoc on the lives of US workers too. For example, according to Global Exchange, over 765,000 U.S. jobs have been lost due to the North American Free Trade Agreement, the precursor of the FTAA.
A recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal tells the story of two brothers who were laid off from their jobs building railroad cars in Butler, PA almost three years ago. Brad and Jim Karenauer, despite their years of valuable experience as skilled tool and die technicians, have since been unable to find comparable work. They have been forced to float from odd job to odd job, earning a living by landscaping, shoveling snow, and stocking shelves at WalMart. Their story echoes what has become a common theme for US workers--corporations see higher profits in countries where workers lack the rights of US workers, so they pull up roots and relocate. This trend has become more worrisome for US workers in recent years. In the past, the so-called business cycle would squeeze companies' profit margins and jobs would be lost, but after a time the economy
would recover and new jobs would be created. Today, corporations like Southwest Airlines and T-Mobile Communications are seeing their profits recover and skyrocket, yet no new jobs are being created. Instead jobs continue to disappear as improved technology and institutions like the WTO and the FTAA make it easier for companies to reorganize production. Companies are able to decrease their labor costs considerably while steadily increasing their profits. Workers like the Karenbauers worry that their children might actually find themselves worse off than their parents.
Politicians, like those in the Bush administration, tell US citizens that there is no alternative to the changing economy. Yet, in the same breath they fight to immobilize organized labor, as illustrated by the current administration's recent invocation of the Taft-Hartley act against California dockworkers. The government's actions show that globalization is not a natural economic trend. It is the product of a concerted effort by corporations and politicians to reorganize the economy for their own benefit. The economy is not beyond the grasp of human intervention as evidenced by the recent reversal of the World Bank's position on privatization. It is created and recreated by the actions of individuals. It has taken the action of many individuals reacting against the horrors of resource privatization to produce the reversal of the World Bank's position. These concerted efforts illustrate that no policy is irreversible and no institution is impervious to organized opposition by concerned citizens. For this reason we must continue to fight. There are alternatives to globalization. We must not allow organizations like the FTAA and the WTO to dictate our futures and the futures of our children.
The World Trade Organization meets in Cancun, Mexico September 12-14. The Free Trade Area
of the Americas meeting is November 20-21 in Miami, Florida. Both meetings will attempt to
make decisions that benefit multinational corporations at the expense of people and the
environment. The Coalition against Global Exploitation and the Student Labor Action
Committee present a teach-in to educate on the issues and to help mobilize people to attend the
protests against the FTAA in Miami.
Saturday, September 6, 2003
12:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Featured speakers:
FRIDA BERRIGAN, Senior Research Member, Arms Trade Resource Center -- a project of the
World Policy Institute; former staff of the Baltimore Action for Justice in the Americas
STEVE KRETZMAN, Corporate Globalization and Iraq Researcher, Sustainable Energy and
Economy Network, Institute for Policy Studies
ROBERT SCOTT, International Economist and Co-director of the Research Department at the
Institute for Policy Studies
LEN SHINDEL, United Steel Workers union staff member
JACK SINNIGEN, UMBC Professor of Modern Languages and Director of the USM Maryland
in Mexico Program since 1992
WORKERS COMMITTEE MEMBER, Casa of Maryland, Workers' Rights Center.
Location:
Johns Hopkins University
Ross Jones Building SDS Room
Mattin Center
33th & N. Charles Streets
Baltimore, MD
Contact: 410-825-0883; cage-AT-mobtown.org.
A recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal tells the story of two brothers who were laid off from their jobs building railroad cars in Butler, PA almost three years ago. Brad and Jim Karenauer, despite their years of valuable experience as skilled tool and die technicians, have since been unable to find comparable work. They have been forced to float from odd job to odd job, earning a living by landscaping, shoveling snow, and stocking shelves at WalMart. Their story echoes what has become a common theme for US workers--corporations see higher profits in countries where workers lack the rights of US workers, so they pull up roots and relocate. This trend has become more worrisome for US workers in recent years. In the past, the so-called business cycle would squeeze companies' profit margins and jobs would be lost, but after a time the economy
would recover and new jobs would be created. Today, corporations like Southwest Airlines and T-Mobile Communications are seeing their profits recover and skyrocket, yet no new jobs are being created. Instead jobs continue to disappear as improved technology and institutions like the WTO and the FTAA make it easier for companies to reorganize production. Companies are able to decrease their labor costs considerably while steadily increasing their profits. Workers like the Karenbauers worry that their children might actually find themselves worse off than their parents.
Politicians, like those in the Bush administration, tell US citizens that there is no alternative to the changing economy. Yet, in the same breath they fight to immobilize organized labor, as illustrated by the current administration's recent invocation of the Taft-Hartley act against California dockworkers. The government's actions show that globalization is not a natural economic trend. It is the product of a concerted effort by corporations and politicians to reorganize the economy for their own benefit. The economy is not beyond the grasp of human intervention as evidenced by the recent reversal of the World Bank's position on privatization. It is created and recreated by the actions of individuals. It has taken the action of many individuals reacting against the horrors of resource privatization to produce the reversal of the World Bank's position. These concerted efforts illustrate that no policy is irreversible and no institution is impervious to organized opposition by concerned citizens. For this reason we must continue to fight. There are alternatives to globalization. We must not allow organizations like the FTAA and the WTO to dictate our futures and the futures of our children.
The World Trade Organization meets in Cancun, Mexico September 12-14. The Free Trade Area
of the Americas meeting is November 20-21 in Miami, Florida. Both meetings will attempt to
make decisions that benefit multinational corporations at the expense of people and the
environment. The Coalition against Global Exploitation and the Student Labor Action
Committee present a teach-in to educate on the issues and to help mobilize people to attend the
protests against the FTAA in Miami.
Saturday, September 6, 2003
12:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Featured speakers:
FRIDA BERRIGAN, Senior Research Member, Arms Trade Resource Center -- a project of the
World Policy Institute; former staff of the Baltimore Action for Justice in the Americas
STEVE KRETZMAN, Corporate Globalization and Iraq Researcher, Sustainable Energy and
Economy Network, Institute for Policy Studies
ROBERT SCOTT, International Economist and Co-director of the Research Department at the
Institute for Policy Studies
LEN SHINDEL, United Steel Workers union staff member
JACK SINNIGEN, UMBC Professor of Modern Languages and Director of the USM Maryland
in Mexico Program since 1992
WORKERS COMMITTEE MEMBER, Casa of Maryland, Workers' Rights Center.
Location:
Johns Hopkins University
Ross Jones Building SDS Room
Mattin Center
33th & N. Charles Streets
Baltimore, MD
Contact: 410-825-0883; cage-AT-mobtown.org.
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