"Get up, stand up; stand up for your rights."
Bob Marley wrote these words to chronicle the story of how Jamaican leader Michael Manley fought multi-national corporations to get a fair price for Jamaican bauxite. Bauxite is the material from which aluminum is made, and international corporations paid Jamaica pennies for bauxite that made them millions.
Contracts had been signed when Jamaica was still a British colony and Jamaica suffered from dreadful poverty while the mining companies made their money. Manley was determined to get a fair price for bauxite, and rather than acquiescing fate, he fought so the Jamaican people could determine their own destiny.
This is the very definition of freedom; and if a people do not have the power to decide their fate, they are not free. This is relevant now because of a vote taken in the U.S. House of Representatives during finals week last semester.
The House voted to grant the president fast-track trade authority, and this is odd because the Senate is the chamber charged with the responsibility to oversee the president's conduct of foreign affairs. The issue, however, is not how the bill passed, but rather why fast-track authority and "free" trade is harmful to our country.
Fast track allows the president to get around the constitutional safeguards on the ability of the Senate to block treaties with foreign nations. With fast track, the president doesn't need the approval of Congress to open trade with other countries, and allows questionable regimes like China to trade with United States. The whole idea is that you and I should trust the wisdom of the president, and that we are undeserving of the transparent process preserved in the constitution.
Apparently the House does not believe the American people have the right to determine their own destiny, and presentations that free trade is done for the benefit of workers do not pan out either.
Free trade allows corporations to abandon countries that have abolished quaint institutions, such as slavery and child labor, and set up shop in countries where human life and dignity have been devalued for the pursuit of dollars.
American workers aren't the beneficiaries of this process either, because they lose their jobs as plants move. Corporations, able to use the leverage granted by globalization, try to cut costs at their American plants by paying their workers less; and, worse, they put workers' safety at risk so they can increase their own profit margins. The sad truth is that a man can lose an arm or a leg on the factory floor because the company is more concerned with its bottom line than that man's life.
This tragic story is playing out today at Indiana Glass in Dunkirk. Glassmaking is extremely hard and dangerous work, yet the workers at this factory have had to go on strike so they can earn a decent wage and work in safe conditions. These brave men and women stood up for their rights, and the company responded by hiring armed thugs and threatening to bring in scabs - permanent replacement workers. Because they demanded what they rightfully deserve, they face the threat of losing their livelihoods. This is the end result of free trade.
Who gains from free trade then? Multi-national corporations make their millions by exploiting workers, American or otherwise, and as was the case in Jamaica, they threaten the ability of the American people to choose their own destiny. These multi-nationals owe no loyalty to this country or its people, because the only thing they are able to pledge allegiance to is the almighty dollar. Americans have given to ensure this nation will be forever free, but all you have to do is vote.
We need to send a message to the House. We need to tell them free trade is an illusion constructed for the gain of multi-national corporations that don't care about this country. We lost on fast track in the House, but don't get discouraged. Manley got new contracts from the mining corporations, and Jamaica got a fair price for bauxite. Remember the next part of the song: "Don't give up the fight."
Write to Courtney at cjsturgeon@bsu.edu
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