-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: "Linda Muller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dear Brigade, "A trade bill sponsored by Graham, whose stated intent is to spur economic growth in the Caribbean and Central America, instead is likely to funnel hundreds of millions into the pockets of corporations such as Cayman Islands-based Fruit of the Loom and major retailers such as The Gap Stores. ... The bill's supporters argue that this $1 billion somehow will end up back in the Caribbean -- creating prosperity and building factories in the 24 countries to which it would apply...The truth is, however, that it's highly unlikely that a single cent will reach the Caribbean and Central American populations for which it is intended. Some simple math demonstrates that the vast majority of this huge sum will go to a handful of huge American corporations whose lobbyists have spent three years and hundreds of thousands of ``soft money'' campaign contributions promoting the measure..." That was from a column in the Miami Herald by our friend Seth Bodner (attached below). I've also included a column by Pat Buchanan written in 1997 entitled, "Sweatshop Conservatives". It is as timely today as it was the day he wrote it. As always, feel free to forward across the Planet. GO PAT GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Linda ---------------------------------- The Sweatshop Conservatives by Patrick J. Buchanan July 22, 1997 Patting themselves on the back for having passed a tax cut, House Republicans were stunned and distraught to learn of a poll showing that voters believe the GOP tailored the bill to benefit the rich. They blame the "class-warfare" rhetoric of Bill Clinton. But there is another reason the Republican caucus is viewed as the caddy shack of corporate America. It often behaves that way. Last month, as the House Ways and Means Committee was marking up the tax bill, a "submarine amendment" was slipped in to extend the textile and apparel benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement to two dozen nations of the Caribbean Basin. The night work of free-trade fanatic Rep. Phil Crane, the CBI-NAFTA amendment throws open the U.S. market to the products of Caribbean and Central American sweatshops. In many of these countries, wages are below what they are in Mexico, where the minimum wage has sunk to 38 cents an hour. Americans earning $9 an hour cannot compete with the sweatshop labor of the Caribbean. Nor should they! That is not what America is supposed to be all about or what the GOP used to be about. In 1911, Theodore Roosevelt put the Republican philosophy of protecting American workers in what he called a "nutshell": "I believe in such measure of protection as will equalize the cost of production here and abroad; that is, will equalize the cost of labor here and abroad. I believe in such supervision of the workings of the law as to make it certain that protection is given to the man we are most anxious to protect -- the laboring man." In 1997, the laboring man's conservatives have given way to the sweatshop conservatives. If Crane's amendment is not cut out by the Senate, thousands of textile and apparel plants across the American South will go under, and scores of thousands of U.S. workers will lose their jobs. In the 28 months since NAFTA began biting into the industry, 231,000 textile and apparel jobs have been wiped out. Eight thousand more are lost every month. With shipments from the Caribbean already double those from Mexico -- whose post-NAFTA exports have also exploded -- the industry will be next to have its throat cut on the sacrificial altar of "global free trade." But what is most disgusting is not what was done but how it was done. Whatever one may think of the NAFTA deal with Mexico, opponents must concede that in 1993 they were given an opportunity to make their case. >From late summer until late fall of '93, editorials and op-ed pages debated NAFTA. TV and radio talk shows echoed the arguments in the cloakrooms of Congress. The debate was open, robust, fair and free. And, though the opponents of NAFTA lost the congressional vote, they won the nation. And that is exactly why this back-room NAFTA extension is being done in such a shabby way, slipped in without hearings, without an opportunity for people to speak up for those whose jobs will be lost. No wonder Americans are fed up with politicians. Crane's sneak amendment, attached in committee in the final hours of mark- up, is a disgrace to the democratic process, a blot on the integrity of the House and an admission by NAFTAites that they have lost confidence in their power to persuade. This thing was done in the dark because they were afraid to do it in the daylight. And for whose benefit? The big mover and prime beneficiary is John Bryan of Sara Lee, a $2-million-a-year Clintonite corporatist whose trade association has rented lobbyist Kenneth Duberstein to make sure Trent Lott does not cut CBI-NAFTA out of the budget sent to the White House. Who is Duberstein? He began in Washington as a Jacob Javits liberal but maneuvered his way into Reagan's White House, where he learned to do a passable imitation of a conservative. Last seen throwing palm fronds in the path of Colin Powell, Duberstein is a man of infinite philosophical flexibility who has reportedly been given $1 million to keep Lott on Sara Lee's reservation. But why would a baker of cupcakes be a NAFTA backer? Because, like many companies with good old American names, Sara Lee is now a transnational corporation. Nearly half of its income comes from the sale of apparel. Bryan's factories have been moving out of the United States as fast as they can build plants in Mexico and the Caribbean to be run by managers who would get jail time were they to operate with the same pay and conditions in the United States. Meet the sweatshop conservatives. ----------------------------------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date sent: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 10:08:18 EDT Subject: Miami Herald Editorial Hi Linda, I found the attached Editorial very apropos to Mr. Buchanans policies. Hope you do too, Jorge Published Wednesday, October 6, 1999, in the Miami Herald http://www.herald.com/content/today/opinion/digdocs/037681.htm SETH BODNER Trade bill would benefit only major companies Seth Bodner is executive director of the National Knitwear and Sportswear Association in New York City. Small and mid-sized apparel companies are questioning the $1 billion bonanza that Florida Sen. Bob Graham, a Democrat, proposes for big companies that have sent thousands of jobs overseas. A trade bill sponsored by Graham, whose stated intent is to spur economic growth in the Caribbean and Central America, instead is likely to funnel hundreds of millions into the pockets of corporations such as Cayman Islands-based Fruit of the Loom and major retailers such as The Gap Stores. By eliminating import tariffs on apparel and certain other goods imported to the United States, the Caribbean free-trade bill, S 1387, will take approximately $1 billion out of the federal Treasury over the next five years. `SOFT MONEY' AT WORK The bill's supporters argue that this $1 billion somehow will end up back in the Caribbean -- creating prosperity and building factories in the 24 countries to which it would apply. If that were indeed true, this would be a bill deserving of our overwhelming support. The truth is, however, that it's highly unlikely that a single cent will reach the Caribbean and Central American populations for which it is intended. Some simple math demonstrates that the vast majority of this huge sum will go to a handful of huge American corporations whose lobbyists have spent three years and hundreds of thousands of ``soft money'' campaign contributions promoting the measure. According to one published report, as much as $200 million of this $1 billion is likely to go to Fruit of the Loom over the next five years. Fruit of the Loom was once a large employer in the United States; it is now the single largest employer in Honduras and El Salvador, with more than 20,000 employees. The company already has saved about $80 million a year by moving its U.S. factories to these cheap-labor nations. Fruit of the Loom recently reincorporated itself in the Cayman Islands in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes. On any level, it's hard to see why Congress should be offering financial aid to this corporation. A trade journal has reported that a second $200 million is likely to go to Sara Lee Corp., a major America clothing company that has sold or abandoned its domestic producers and now imports its goods, many under the Hanes brand, from overseas. Additional benefits will be seen by retail giants such as Wal-Mart and The Gap Stores, which already buy millions of dollars of goods from the region. Left out of this discussion is the alarming fact that, as trade with the region has flourished, wages paid to Caribbean and Central American workers have fallen dramatically. Since 1989, trade with Honduras and El Salvador has increased by more than 2,500 percent -- but wages in those countries have dropped by 59 percent and 27 percent, respectively. In some of these 24 countries, 60 percent to 90 percent of the manufacturing base is made up of transplanted American apparel companies. The theory behind free trade with the Caribbean has always been that we will create a prosperous middle class in these countries, which then will buy Apple Computers, Pepsodent and Big Macs. But under the current system -- where exports skyrocket and wages tumble -- workers in these countries will never be able to afford American products. Instead of supporting this highly deceptive proposal, Congress should set aside this $1 billion to implement a targeted economic policy that creates prosperity for Caribbean and Central American workers and promotes democracy for its people. If Congress does not, and if the wages and standards of living in the Caribbean and Central America continue to slide, Miami, with its Fruit of the Loom Pro Player Stadium, soon may be the only city in the nation with a stadium named for a product created in low-wage sweatshops. It will be a daily reminder of a billion-dollar opportunity to do good that America had -- but that it lost through corporate greed. ------------------ end ---------------- Spread the word -- forward this email across the USA! ********************************************** Don't Miss Out - Join the BRIGADE Email List! 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