----- Original Message ----- From: John Hermann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: John Hermann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, 27 December 1999 9:45 AM Subject: The WTO and Globaloney > Economic Reform Australia > ERA EMAIL NETWORK > > Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 > From: Michael Givel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: The WTO and Globaloney > > > The WTO and Globaloney > by Jim Hightower > (Former Texas Agriculture Commissioner) > > [Editor's Note: This is the text of Jim Hightower's remarks at an > anti-World Trade Organization rally in Austin on October 18, 1999] > > > This is one of those arcane sort of matters that are usually dealt with > on the mid-level of the business pages of the newspapers, if they deal > with it at all. But [globalization] is an issue that is not about > business. It's not about trade. It's about the fundamentals of our > lives. About basically who's going to have power in this country and > around the world, whether "We the People" are going to rule or these > creatures called corporations are going to be our sovereigns. > > In my last book, There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road But Yellow > Stripes and Dead Armadillos, you're allowed an epigram page in which you > can kill several trees just to put a single quote on this page and I > chose an old cowboy saying out of West Texas that said "Speak the truth > but ride a fast horse." And that is, I think, our job, to get out to the > American people because we are pretty much the last to know. The media > has deliberately, I believe, tried to hide this issue from we the folks > because they are conglomerates. Elsewhere around the world ... the WTO, > the MAI, the NAFTA and so on are at the center of a major political > discussion and we've got a phenomenon in this country where, entering > the 2000 elections ... the candidates of the two parties will not > address this issue. You're not going to hear George W, you're not going > to hear Al Gore, you're not going to hear Bill Bradley get into any > conflict at all about this process of globalization. > > A global corporate coup against We the People is what we're really > talking about here -- a coup to seize power so that they might reign as > sovereigns. You say "Hightower, how is it that you come to such a > conclusion as that." I say, well, no less a light than Renato Ruggiero > has said so. You all know Renato, don't you, a high public official? "We > are writing the constitution of a single global economy," said Renato. > > Who is Renato Ruggiero? Did you vote for Renato? Who is "we"? "We are > writing a new constitution" -- that's kind of big, isn't it? Will we get > to vote on it? Will there be yard signs? What is our role in the writing > of a new global constitution? > > Renato Ruggiero was, until recently, the head of the World Trade > Organization and he spoke the truth when he said that, because yes, > indeed, the powers that be had gathered to try to write a new > constitution that undermines our very own Constitution, by which I mean > our right to be self-governing. And this is well underway. NAFTA, now > trying to extend that [with] NAFTA for Africa, the Caribbean Basin > Initiative, that extends NAFTA to 23 Central American and Caribbean > nations, the World Trade Organization, already in place, thanks to a > lame duck session of Congress in 1994, the MAI, Multilateral Agreement > on Investments -- all of these acronyms really spell "Gotcha!" in all > seven of the Romance languages, so you don't have to worry about the > acronyms, but in every case the point is that it takes power from us and > it extends power to corporate interests and speculator interests, indeed > putting their power above all others. > > The point about this is that people pay the price for this, and I mean > real folks, because this amounts to class war. I was two years ago > outside of Atlanta, Georgia, at a Lucent Technologies plant with some > stalwart members of Congress who were daring to take this issue of the > World Trade Organization globalization on the road, and at this Lucent > Technologies plant we met a woman named Anna Harris, who has worked for > Lucent Technologies, a $26-billion-a-year conglomerate that makes > telephones and other high-tech products. > > She had worked there 25 years and worked her way up to $15.59 an hour. > That's not bad. That's about 31,000 bucks a year. You're not going to > summer in France on that but you can get a little slice of the American > middle class out of that. She got that high because she was skilled, she > was efficient, she was hard working, she was loyal, she was a quality > employee producing a quality product. > > Despite Anna Harris and some 1,000 others who worked with her at that > Lucent Technologies plant in Atlanta, the company kept messing with them > and said Mexico beckoned, and they needed to speed up production. And > that if they didn't that they were going to haul off to Mexico. And > indeed they said at one point that you've got to take a pay cut. > > So Anna Harris and her co-workers did. She went from $15.59 an hour to > $13 an hour. That took about a $5,000-a-year slice out of Anna Harris' > life. Now if you're Bill Gates, $5,000 doesn't matter, but if you're > Anna Harris $5,000 is a real piece of change. She's a single parent. > > Well the company kept messing with them, talking this talk, and they > took the pay cut, and then along came NAFTA in 1993 and within a couple > weeks of the passage of NAFTA, Lucent Technologies backed up U-Hauls to > the Atlanta plant and hauled off the equipment and hauled off the jobs > of Anna Harris and 1,000 other people. They went to Reynosa, Mexico, > right down here at the tip of Texas, where they can pay a buck an hour > plus a taco -- literally, in the morning they hand out a breakfast taco > as the workers come in. > > A buck an hour they're paying to Anna Harris' replacement down there. > That is a poverty wage in Mexico. You can't make a living on a buck an > hour in Mexico. Then, thanks to NAFTA, as pretty as they please, they > ship that telephone equipment right back into the United States, back > onto our markets, right into our stores without paying a tariff, without > honoring any kind of quota, without saying as much as a hidy do to us. > > Anna Harris, it took her several months but she did finally get another > job, she got one of those 23 million jobs that Bill Clinton brags about > having created since he's been in office. Hers is at Target and she gets > $7 an hour, not $13 or $15.59. She gets $7 an hour, but she only gets > part-time work. They keep messing with her so they don't have to pay > benefits. > > The irony is that Anna Harris working at Target now sells the telephones > she used to make. Marcy Kaptur, a member of Congress out of Toledo, > Ohio, and a very stalwart member of Congress on this issue, asked Anna > Harris, "Well, are those telephones any cheaper now that they're paying > not $15.59 an hour but a buck an hour for the labor?" And Anna Harris' > eyes turned stone cold and she looked at Marcy Kaptur and said, "There's > no difference in the price. They're still selling them for 80 to 90 > bucks apiece. > > Welcome to the New World Order -- globalization -- globaloney, of > course, is what it really is. > > People pay the price for this, not just in this country but around the > world. There's a place called Saipan -- do folks here know where Saipan > is? It's way out in the Pacific Ocean. If you knew it at all it's from > World War II, where there was a huge fight there against the Japanese. > As a result of that battle and as a result of that war the United States > became the owner territorially of Saipan. It is a commonwealth of the > United States. It's an island 13 miles long and six miles wide, a tiny > place, but on this island is established the Saipan sweatshop system, a > system that produces clothing for The Gap, for J.C. Penney, for Tommy > Hilfiger, for Ralph Lauren Polo, etcetera, major marketers of clothing > in this country and around the world. > > They produce that clothing under a sweatshop system that has mostly > Chinese-owned, Hong Kong-owned, some Korean owned, some Japanese-owned > sewing factories, and there's not enough people on Saipan to fill these > jobs so they send what are called recruiters out to Bangladesh, to > China, to the most impoverished areas to bring mostly young girls to > make this clothing, promising them that they are going to the United > States of America and that they are going to make this big wage, such a > big wage that these girls and their families borrow money to pay the > recruiter to get them this job and send them to Saipan. > > When they get to Saipan these girls have their passports taken from them > so they cannot leave; they sign a shadow contract, which means they > cannot date or marry, they cannot practice their own religion, they > cannot speak of forming a union, they give away all of their civil > liberties upon going into these plants. > > They make a poverty wage, they live in an 8-foot by 10-foot room, eight > to a room, with razor wire around it, a dormitory situation that's set > up. > > It is indentured servitude. That is a polite way of putting it. The > uglier way of putting it of course is that it is slavery. This is part > of globalization. > > Then those products are shipped right back into the United States, not > only without paying a tariff or honoring a quota, because this is a > commonwealth of the United States, but they come in here with a "Made in > the USA" label on them. > > Globalization. Globaloney. > > The big protector of this system is our own [U.S. Rep.] Tom DeLay, down > here in Houston, the bug man. I can't help looking at Tom DeLay and > saying, "a hundred thousand sperm and you were the fastest?" Tom DeLay > protects this system in Saipan and he is so enamored of it that he seeks > to bring it to the United States. He says why should we not have a > sub-minimum wage factory system in this country and send recruiters into > Mexico and Central America to bring the workers in? Globalization, well > underway. > > The World Trade Organization exists to enforce this insanity and they > have an astonishing lineup of precepts that supposedly is the embodiment > of what globalization is all about: > > Number One: Throw open the borders of all nations so that any > corporation can control the market in any country for anything and > everything -- banking, mining, agriculture, manufacturing, etcetera. A > country has no control over its borders anymore, no control over its own > basic industries. > > Two: Rewrite the rules of investment so that any corporation or > speculator group can own the factories, own the farms, the mines, the > banks, the hospitals, all other essential and basic industries and > resources of any and every country if they want to. > > Three: Rewrite the rules of investment so that it is under foreign > ownership. You can't protect your own land. We have protections in this > country, for example, in Missouri, and South Dakota just passed a > constitutional amendment saying you cannot farm if you are a > corporation, you cannot own a livestock operation if you are a > corporation. That is against the law now under the World Trade > Organization. Delete trade and investment policies from any principal > concerns about human rights, about labor rights or working conditions, > poverty, ecological destruction, etcetera. > > Four: Do not allow any national, regional, state or local government to > impose any restrictions on any corporations exercising free trade. That > means you just gave up your sovereignty. If the city of Austin wants to > pass an ordinance saying we're going to buy Made in the USA products, or > we're going to buy Made in Austin products, we're going to buy products > that are not made in sweatshops using our tax dollars, that's against > the law, if the World Trade Organization gets its way. > > And fifth: They establish supreme tribunals, through NAFTA and the World > Trade Organization that are, in essence, star chambers. So if there are > arguments over these rules and regulations, they don't go to our court > system, they go to these trade tribunals that are set up in Geneva > [Switzerland], and even if you wanted to participate, you're not allowed > to, even if you could get to Geneva to participate, because you're not a > party, even though it's your life that's affected by it. > > This is the embodiment of globalization and it's not theory, it's > practice and it's happening today. > > Other folks on this panel can talk about these stories -- Chiquita > Bananas? We're in a trade war with Europe over Chiquita Bananas because > some guy named Carl Lindner in Cincinnati, Ohio, bought out Chiquita and > he's a banana baron of the world now -- the largest banana producer. We > are involved in a trade war for Carl Lindner even though we have no jobs > at stake in America. We don't grow and export bananas from the United > States but we are in a trade war with Europe over them. > > Why is this? Because Carl Lindner got cozy with the White House. He had > coffee with the president. Had a sleepover in the Lincoln bedroom and on > April 11, 1996, Mickey Kantor, the head of the U.S. Trade Office, filed > a complaint for Carl Lindner with the World Trade Organization. The next > day Carl Lindner and his associates moved $500,000 into the Democratic > Party's 1996 presidential election. That's why it happened. > > Well ... there are plenty of stories, the court in Mississippi [was] > completely overruled by an outfit called Loewen out of Canada, under > Chapter 11 of NAFTA [after a jury awarded damages against the Loewen > Group in a fraud lawsuit (see Dispatches, 8/99 PP).]. ... Massachusetts' > state legislature passed sanctions saying they would buy no products for > the state of Massachusetts from companies that did business in Burma, > where the thugs have stolen democracy and oppressed the people there. > The World Trade Organization has entered that fight, saying > Massachusetts cannot pass an ordinance like that. > > Water. We're in a huge battle over water that we've got to begin to pay > attention to. Claude Barlow out of Canada has a wonderful report ... > called "Blue Gold" about Canadian water. We've got a huge water shortage > developing around the world. You think, well, 70 percent of the globe is > covered with water; well, yes, but only one half of 1 percent of that is > fresh water and drinkable water. And 20 percent of that is in > Canada, so corporations have very strong designs on Canadian water, and > I'm not talking about Perrier. I'm not talking about bottling the water. > I'm talking about massive wholesale moving of that water out of Canada > to the highest bidders around the world, which is mostly going to go to > the agribusiness corporations, suburban developments and the golf > courses. > > The point of all this is, this is very serious business. It's about our > jobs, it's about our environment, it's about our communities; > fundamentally it's about our democracy: Whether we are going to rule or > these corporations are going to rule. > > The good news ... is that the people are fighting back on this. As that > old rock and roll song of Patti Smith said, people have the power to > wrestle the world from fools. That's our challenge, to take the world > back from the corporate fools and their puppets in Washington and other > capitals around the world. We've been winning these fights; we won on > MAI, we won on Fast Track, we won earlier on NAFTA for Africa, we won > earlier on the Caribbean Basin Initiative, but they're coming back with > all of them. But ... we will be there in Seattle when the World Trade > Organization gathers for its ministerial meeting. The meeting is usually > behind closed doors and this will be behind closed doors, but we're > going to be right outside the doors, at least 50,000 people are > gathering there in Seattle, to the shock and amazement of Bill Clinton > and the rest. They're trying to find ways to dodge this but they can't > dodge it. > > Susan DeMarco and our producer and I will be broadcasting from Seattle > all five days of the World Trade Organization meeting. We're going to be > there in their faces and the streets are going to be shut down. [To find > radio stations that broadcast Hightower's daily "Chat 'N Chew" talk > show, see his web site at (www.jimhightower.com).] > > We cannot lose sight of this fact: Corporations do not exist except for > us. We allow corporations to exist. It is a privilege, it is not a > right. No corporation has a right to exist, except for the people allow > it, and the people can set the terms for that existence. The Founders > set very strong terms, very harsh terms, and did not want corporations > to exist. > > Let me tell you this: The original Constitution of the State of Texas > outlawed banks. You could not create a bank in the state of Texas. I > think they were on to something. And to get a corporation formed you had > to go to the Legislature and get a two-thirds vote of both houses of the > Legislature, a very high hurdle, and very few corporations were created, > and that's because the Founders in those days knew of the dangers of > this corporate power, because it separates ownership from the > responsibilities of ownership. And that's a privilege we grant them and > a privilege that we can take back. > > We've got to get that message across to the people of this country and > elsewhere around the world, that we are the folks that are in charge, > that the corporations are not in charge, that we are in charge. > > I'll leave you with this final thought: I know it's going to be a tough > task. Things are always hard, always difficult. But just remember this: > No building is too tall for even a small dog to lift his leg on. > > Copyright (C) 1999 The Progressive Populist > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is the Neither public email list, open for the public and general discussion. To unsubscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=unsubscribe To subscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=subscribe For information on [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.neither.org/lists/public-list.htm For archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
