The
production of unemployment, instability, and poverty around the world is
produced by the economic policy
known as neo-liberalism. Neo
liberalism is the current stage of capitalism. Trade agreements, like NAFTA (
North American Free Trade Agreement)
and the proposed trade agreements with Columbia and an important part of
neo-liberalism and actually
increased poverty for many. "Free Trade" agreements do not bring jobs.
So called “Free Trade” agreements, like those presently proposed for
Columbia, Panama, and South Korea produce economic winners as well as losers. The winners are the transnational
corporations. The losers are the
workers on both sides of the border.
Free trade is the
elimination and/or lowering of taxes and other trade regulations between
countries with the purpose of increasing exports . The Administrations argues that the FTA will create jobs and
economic stability for Colombians, yet experience with prior free trade
treaties, such as NAFTA, has shown
that free-market agreements lead to more poverty for the majority and increased
wealth for a few multinational corporations.
Colombia’s labor laws undermine the free exercise of fundamental labor
rights and there are no policies aimed at job creation and social protection.
As a result, fewer than 5 percent of Colombian workers today are in a union and
fewer than 2 percent of workers are covered by a collective bargaining
agreement.
Anti-union violence still remains at
alarming levels. In 2010, 52 trade unionists were murdered and 21 were the
objects of unsuccessful attempts on their lives. In 2011, another seven trade
unionists have been killed.
NAFTA, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1994, has produced massive
migrations of exploited workers, refugees, displaced farmers, and agricultural workers, as a result of an unjust global political and economic
system ( neo liberalism) that works for the benefit of transnational
corporations and at the expense of working people. Most of the jobs created in
Mexico come without benefits and without a written contract. Salaries in Mexico today are lower than
they were when NAFTA was signed.
Much
of the current wave of migration to the United States from
Mexico, Central
America, and the Caribbean can be traced to NAFTA , CAFTA, and other unjust
“free trade” agreements that enabled subsidized U.S. agribusiness to flood
these societies with cheap produce, destroying the livelihoods of millions of
small farmers and other rural workers.
NAFTA
created a loss of over 680,000 jobs in the U.S. and over a million jobs in Mexico. People
who lost their jobs moved to the cities or to the U.S. producing
immigration. NAFTA was a trade
agreement for the corporations.
U.S. owned transnational corporations, including Ford, Chrysler, Apple, and more
eliminated jobs in the U.S. and moved these jobs to other nations where labor
was cheaper.
Economic
change forced by NAFTA made a small group of people in Mexico much richer, and
a group of people in the U.S. much richer, but it made the vast majorities in
both countries poorer. A “free
trade” agreement with Columbia would repeat this process.
A goal of trade agreements is to make it
profitable for U.S. corporations
to relocate their manufacturing to
Mexico and other developing countries. This has the effect of putting U.S.
manufacturing workers in direct competition with low-paid workers in the
developing world. This eliminate
manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and it pressures U.S. workers and unions to accept
concessionary bargaining to keep jobs here.
So called “Free Trade” agreements, like those presently proposed for
Columbia, Panama, and South Korea produce economic winners as well as losers. The winners are the transnational
corporations. The losers are the
workers on both sides of the border.
The
AFL-CIO continues to oppose the proposed Free Trade Agreement with Columbia.
See the USLEAP website for
more information FTA debate. http://www.usleap.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment