We are at that point where we can lose focus.
Things are slow (and yet not). We are months from the first votes in the Presidential Primaries. We are arguing with ourselves.
We are already in Magical September where everybody (who is beltway-serious) will pretend the Bush Administration has a plan—or even a clue—about Iraq (or anything else). We will be drawn into dozens of legislative conflicts without meaning, purpose or function.
The Washington scribes, pundits and consultants have created their storyboards for the next 18 months. (Guess what? We lose).
The tyranny of narrative will take over. We’ve seen it before. We will see it again.
We need to break the cycle.
We need a Victory!
And we need one quick.
We need to prove that the Netroots can force a new story onto the stage and turn the prescribed narrative inside out.
Fortunately, there is a victory at hand.
It is near and worth fighting for. It highlights the extreme corruption of the Republican Party and why Democrats are different.
It protects families, workers and justice.
It fights neo-slavery
We can win this one.
Jump for Victory...
This fall, Legislation to end labor abuse and injustice on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) will be before Congress.
Senate Bill 1634 and H.R. 3079 will end much of the abuse and finally give the workers some measure or rights, dignity and justice.
It is not perfect legislation (more on that in a moment), but passing and signing into law these Bills will be a major Victory in the long fight for Justice.
It will also help us shine a light on systematic Republican corruption and help end a system of sweatshops, human trafficking, forced prostitution, money laundering, trans-shipments and graft that the GOP has protected since 1995.
This will help us tie the millstone of corruption around their collective necks for yet another well-deserved cycle.
In addition to supporting legislation we can also help the workers on the CNMI as they organize for justice.
They need your support. They need legal aid. They need to amplify their voices. For many, it is a question of life and death. You can read more about what is happening in the Diaries of human Rights worker Wendy Doromal.
If you can help with a donation, please send it to The Dekada Movement. This is a movement of long-time foreign contract workers on the CNMI who have organized and are fighting for justice. They are facing hardships, kangaroo courts, illegal deportations and punitive measures for daring to assert that in America we all have rights.
Support for these workers during their time of need and passing legislative to reform the corrupt economic system of the CNMI will be a great victory.
It is way past time for the arrival of long-DeLayed justice.
As those who have been following my Diaries know, I have mostly written about the growing Jack Abramoff Scandal and the Republican Culture of Corruption.
I have been digging into this cesspool of greed since 1999.
What drew me in, was the organized abuse of Guest Workers (aka Foreign Contract Workers) on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a US Territory in the Western Pacific some 40 miles North of Guam.
Almost 25 years ago, an economic system was created on the CNMI based on stolen labor, human trafficking and a weak local government that would always bend the law to the benefit of the powerful.
Twenty years ago the stories of abuse began to filter out of the darkness. A modern "underground railroad" was created to smuggle victims of abuse away from harm. It was created by average people—like you, like me—call by their circumstances to do something extraordinary. Their belief in justice moved them to risk fortune, family and life to help people—people invisible to most of us.
One of these people was a school teacher, Wendy Doromal. I never met Dr. King or Mahatma Ghandi, but I sense their spirit when I am around Wendy. In an age without heroes, she stands out.
In 1993 she sent her first report to Congress detailing the abuse. It got some attention as it came just as the largest fine in the history of the US Labor Department—$9.2 million—was handed out to the Hong Kong based Tan Family who owned most of the sweatshops (and just about everything else—including politicians) on the CNMI. (The family control is still so tight that many call the main island SaiTan and the current Governor BenTan Fitial).
By 1994 the abuse was so bad that a real-life bi-partisan effort was underway in the US Congress to extend US labor, immigration and custom laws to the wayward US Territory is the far Western Pacific. The horror stories of abuse, rape and even murder were so bad that the Government of the Philippines put a halt on issuing any more work visas. It was judge to be way too dangerous to send Filipinos to this part of the United States.
Even in the wake of the 1994 Gingrich takeover of Congress, the abuse was so bad that it looked like a bi-partisan solution was inevitable. On January 20, 1995 the new Chairman of the House Resources Committee, Rep. Gallegly, introduced H.R. 602, the Omnibus Territories Act—a bill designed to end the abuse and extend US minimum wage laws to the CNMI and on January 31, 1995 he held a Hearing where strong bi-partisan support to end the abuse was clear and unmistakable.
Then, the Tan Family and the politicians they controlled hired Jack Abramoff and the Republican Party to protect the system of abuse. You can read what happened here:
After the Pirates of Saipan hired Jack Abramoff and the Republican Party to block reform. Job #1 was attacking Wendy Doromal. Teams were sent to the Philippines to remove the ban on sending more workers into the maw of abuse. It was removed. A great effort was spent tracking Wendy’s movements and communications. An even greater effort was spent attacking her and any story of abuse on the CNMI she tried to tell. When she testified before Congress it was Wendy, by herself, against Abramoff, the Pirates and a team of dozens of flunkies all trying to keep her silent.
By 1996, Team Abramoff learned that Readers Digest was working on a profile about Wendy and her work on the CNMI. The story would go on to detail horrific cases of abuse, forced prostitution and human trafficking. By May of 1997 Abramoff had his hands on an advance copy of the story and he emailed it to his contact on the CNMI (you can download a copy of that email here). Jack and his Team spent hundreds of hours pushing back on this story. Jack even had Congressman Ralph Hall of Texas enter an attack on a rape victim into the Congressional Record. The goal was to keep Wendy and the voice of the workers silent.
It didn’t work.
In 1998, Wendy returned to the CNMI leading a Team for President Clinton’s Department of the Interior. They arrived just weeks after Tom DeLay’s New Year’s trip. They interview hundreds of workers. They wrote a damning report and by 1999 Wendy was testifying once again before Congress.
The 1998 report and her 1999 Hearing testimony was when I first came across Wendy. Over time the Abramoff scandal would break. It was through my Diaries here at Daily Kos that Wendy and I connected. Since then we have become friends.
We were very glad when Democrats took control of the 110th Congress, because it seemed that ending the abuse on the CNMI would be a no-brainer for them.
So far, some good things have happen. The Minimum Wage was extended (finally) to the CNMI. It is a great victory, but only a start.
Real reform is needed.
This summer, Wendy returned to the CNMI. As I mentioned, she is a school teacher (and a Union member). For three years she saved her money, so that she could afford to return to the CNMI and—on her own dime—update her reports on the current conditions for the workers on the CNMI. You can read her 2007 Report and watch taped testimony here.
Change is needed and justice is long overdue.
We can fix this mess.
This is a small place—less than 90,000 people, including all the guest workers. Estimate range that there are 20,000 to 50,000 guest workers waiting for justice on the CNMI. The range is large because a long-term intentional effort is underway NOT to count them.
Compared to most of the problems created by Bush and the Republican Party, this one should be easy to fix.
It is low hanging fruit ripe for a quick Democratic victory.
A victory that will shine a light on some of the worst crimes of Republican corruption—this should be a no-brainer.
And yet, nothing will happen if we are not involved.
Legislation has been introduced House, H.R. 3079 and in the Senate, S. 1634.
Both Bills are similar and both share common flaws. Perhaps the most glaring is that these invited workers in the CNMI—who are there legally and have been there for years and years—do not have any pathway to US Citizenship.
While these Bills have some problems, it is important to remember that the goal of the Pirates of Saipan and their allies is to delay legislation, slow it down and once again kill reform. We can not let them run that same game plan again.
We have to use this Legislation as the vehicle for Reform and work to strengthen them. Adding these changes would greatly improve the legislation:
- Create a pathway to Citizenship for Guest Workers who have been on the CNMI for more than five years—and a Green Card for all workers with children who are US Citizens.
- Outline a clear appeals process for any worker denied Immigration Status and/or other rights by the local CNMI Government through new or existing Federal systems of appeals.
- Mandate that all CNMI entry visa programs—both work and tourist—are run by the Federal Government. (To allow the local CNMI Government to run a tourist visa program is to allow human trafficking.)
- Mandate random, spot check interviews of guest workers and tourists as they arrive and leave the CNMI to ensure that they were not (and are not) victims of abuse.
One of the most bizarre recent developments has come from Senator Akaka of Hawaii:
Akaka asked him if the CNMI government or business sector would support federalization if S.1634 would prohibit the qualified alien workers from relocating to the U.S until after five years in the commonwealth.
Did you get that?
A Democratic Senator is willing to let the Pirates of Saipan decide whether or not people who have been working for 5, 10, 15, 20 or even 25 years should be forced to work another five years before Congress will grant them the limited rights of a citizen of the Freely Associated States.
It explodes my head to think that some Democrats are advocating indentured servitude for the long-abused workers of the CNMI. We need to fight this.
For years and years, justice and reform was blocked by Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay and the Republican Party. Tom and Jack are otherwise engaged.
If we fail now it will be on our watch.
We can not fail.
Let’s prove that we can get something done.
- Call your Member of Congress and Senators and urge them to Sponsor H.R. 3079 and in the Senate, S. 1634. Urge them to read Wendy’s 2007 report. Urge them to schedule a meeting with Wendy and invite her to Washington to present her findings to House and Senate Committees.
- And call you favorite Presidential Candidate’s campaign. Urge them to take a stand on H.R. 3079 and S. 1634. Most are in the 110th Congress and any of the Senators could lead this fight—easily.
The economic system on the CNMI is vile. It is an economic failure and an embarrassment. It is a warning sign of the damage caused when a class of workers is created and denied rights.
A Guest Worker program always devolves into a system of forced labor.
And forced labor is on the march. It has been used in build the US embassy in Iraq and in the USA. The upcoming book, Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the Global Economy by John Bowe, is an important work that focuses on the Modern Slave Trade in America. Please order a copy—it will challenge and shock you. It should also move you to action.
The CNMI is a small place, but it will be our future if we ignore it. To turn a blind eye to the plight of the workers on the CNMI is look the other way as neo-slavery establishes new roots in America.
I can not look away, can you?
It is way past time for justice.
Lend a hand.
Make a call in support of Justice. Talk about this issue. Ask questions.
Make a donation to the Dekada Movement and help the workers as they wait for long DeLayed justice.
This is low hanging fruit.
Tom and Jack are gone.
Let’s get the law they have been blocking since 1995 finally passed.
In this Autumn of confusion, a Victory will feel great.
Cheers
Abramoff Update
I should mention that Jack and his indicted and convicted co-conspirators are talking, talking and talking.
The Hill has a nice round-up of the chatter.
This is more bad news for Republicans who thought they could leave the Culture of Corruption albatross back in the 2006 cycle.
And as every Abramoff related guilty plea has included references to crimes committed on the CNMI, passing reform legislation will help to highlight to differences between Democrats and Republicans—especially when the next round of indictments come down.
Cheers