While the candidate wars go on endlessly and the front pagers hype upcoming races and elections, a CRITICAL vote today on the Peru Free Trade Agreement goes unnoticed.
I did a search for diaries to see if anyone else had done an alert, but did not see one. Apologies if I missed it.
Democrats keep wondering why working class, rural voters, farmers keep voting "against their economic interests" when they also vote for Bush's and corporate America's slimy trade deals. Despite the fact that many Democrats like Tester, Brown, Schuler, Boyda were elected in tough races BECAUSE of their populist trade stances.
David Bacon writes about the possible electoral consequences of the Dems capitulating on such a potent issue:
What a Free Trade Vote Means for Democrats
"Party strategists think Democrats can accept big contributions to support the Bush free trade program. They calculate that unions, workers, displaced immigrants and those hurt by the treaties have nowhere else to go in 2008. They're wrong. They could stay home - the Democrats certainly won't be giving them much reason to get out and vote."
The House already passed this piece of turd agreement last month. Now the Senate is poised to today.
Kudos to the majority of House Dems who rejected the Peru FTA. And Kudos to senators like Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders and Dorgan and others for continuing to lead opposition to these unfair trade deals.
But speaking from the farmer perspective, it really sucks to have Clinton and Obama both supporting this turkey. I already had taken Obama to task for this:
Obama Supports Peru FTA: Farmers to Starve
Big cherries to Edwards and Dodds for opposing this FTA.
You all want to know why Ron Paul is running the most grassroots amazing campaign this cycle? Because a lot of the farmers I know love him. They love his isolationist-leave-them-alone foreign policy as well as his rejection of free trade agreements, the WTO and the National Animal ID system and NAFTA Superhighway. Paul rejects free trade agreements on sovereignty grounds, and this resonates strongly with rural folks, esp farmers suffering from the dumping of unregulated foreign food imports. IN their eyes, the two parties are both captive to corporate power and special interests and selling their livelihoods out. However, many farmers have expressed their liking for John Edwards and would vote for him too (One farmer i talked to today said she really liked Edwards and could see he cared about family farmers, but that she might vote for Ron Paul "to send a message that our political system is broken.") So don't dismiss the Ron Paul phenomenon. lots of those folks WOULD be our voters if they felt the Democratic party was standing up for their interests. Today's vote won't help matters.
So please call your Senator TODAY if you can to express your opposition. The vote is expected at 2:15 today, so tune into CSPAN and see Democrats argue over what is one of the central issues of our time and the most divisive issue we have in the party.
For more info:
http://www.citizenstrade.org/...
60% of GOP voters oppose free trade according to the Wall Street Journal! NAFTA is the root cause of our illegal immigration crisis as it drove 1 million Mexican farmers off the land as we dumped our cheap corn into their market. The Peru FTA promises to do more of the same!
A great editoral linking our trade policies to immigration:
How NAFTA Worsened Immigration
A letter to Senators on behalf of family farm and ranch groups from across the country (as opposed to the Farm Bureau and other corporate agribiz groups). Congress keeps bitching about how little we regulate foreign food imports, yet then they keep passing more FTAs to let in more untested crap!
Farmers Oppose Peru FTA
An Action Alert by the Citizens Trade Campaign:
Peru FTA Senate Vote Approaching: This is the Thanks We Get?
Call Your Senator during their Thanksgiving recess and tell them the American people want real, not cosmetic changes, to the free trade model.
In last November’s elections, Congress was sent a strong message that the American people want a change in trade policy. The Wall Street journal reported that six in 10 Republicans in a recent poll agreed with a statement that free trade has been bad for the U.S.
On November 8th the House of Representatives ignored this mandate and voted 285 to 135 to pass the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement, a NAFTA-style free trade deal which will be devastating to family farmers, indigenous people, workers, the environment and people with AIDS. A vote in the Senate is likely to take place just after the return from recess on December 3rd.
Call the Senate Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Tell them what state you are from, and they will connect you with one of your Senator's offices. Ask to speak with the Legislative Assistant that deals with trade. If they are not available leave a message, and be sure to say that you live in their state.
Stop the US-Peru FTA vote call script:
Hello, my name is _______, and I live in ____ (your state). May I speak with the staffer that deals with trade issues?
I am calling to find out if Senator’s ____________ position on the upcoming U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement. Can you tell me how he/she plans to vote?
It is very important that Senator ___________ come out publicly to oppose this FTA.
Despite changes to the Peru FTA it will still (select one or two of the below talking points):
* THREATEN SMALL FARMERS: The agreement will favor only a small sector of Peruvian farmers who export to the US. By lowering Peru’s tariffs on agricultural products, the vast majority of farmers will be vulnerable to cheap subsidized imports from the U.S. This will wipe out local farmers, exactly like what has happened to the 1.3 million who have been displaced in Mexico since NAFTA passed 12 years ago.
* THREATEN ACCESS TO LIFE-SAVING MEDICINES. While the amended text of the Peru FTA removes the most egregious, CAFTA-based, provisions limiting the access to affordable medicines, it still includes NAFTA provisions that undermine the right to affordable medicines for poorer countries.
* THREATEN WORKERS AND ENVIRONMENT. Changes to the labor and environment provisions are insufficient. The Peru FTA allows discretion for FTA dispute settlement panels to interpret and apply the terms of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work differently than the Declaration has been interpreted and applied by the ILO itself. Enforcement of the new changes will be dependent on Peruvian President Garcia who has a consistent record of undermining domestic labor and environmental law enforcement.
* THREATEN WOMEN, CHILDREN, AND THE POOR. Provisions promoting the privatization and deregulation of essential services such as water, healthcare and education are written into this trade agreement. Price rises, which always accompany privatizations, will make these services even less accessible to women and the poor, further increasing their vulnerability.
* THREATEN U.S. AND PERUVIAN SOVEREIGNTY. The Peru FTA contains a NAFTA-style foreign investor chapter that allows corporations to bring actions against governments that pass environmental and public health laws that might reduce corporate profits.
* THREATEN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES by opening the way for large pharmaceutical and agribusiness corporations to patent traditional knowledge, seeds, and life forms. This opens the door to bio-piracy of the Andean-Amazon region and threatens the ecological, medicinal and cultural heritage of indigenous peoples.