Early in 2011, Kim Kyung-Ran of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions met with staff members of Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Representatives Adam Smith, Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott. She advised them that in Korea hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in opposition to the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement.
Over the months that followed, members of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition, including PSARA members and trade justice allies, met with our elected leaders in Washington State and in the District of Columbia, wrote letters as individuals and organizations, made numerous phone calls, attended cyber-town hall meetings, called into radio programs, attended coffees and events with our elected leaders, held rallies, bannered and circulated self-produced educational media.
We worked to educate and activate. We know they heard us. They said as much.
And then on October 12, with the single exception of McDermott's vote against the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, the entire Congressional delegation voted for Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.
We appreciate Rep. McDermott's lone “No” vote. However his “Yes” votes on South Korea and Panama indicates his support for Free Trade.
So-called “Free Trade” is opposed by organized labor and environmental and human rights activists, as well as by millions of people around the world. It makes little sense that elected leaders who are progressive on such issues as health care and Social Security, continue to vote in favor of trade policy that hurts their constituents.
At the moment the views on trade policy of the majority in our state are unrepresented.. With big money dominating politics and an election year on the horizon, it is clear that our state elected leaders are at the mercy of corporate lobbyists when it comes to trade. Campaign finance reform is urgently needed to level the debate on trade policy.
This year, both nationally and in our State, unions have begun to withhold endorsements and contributions from elected officials who do not represent them. In our State, Machinists Local 751 un-invited Senator Cantwell and Rep. Inslee to their political gala after their support of trade deals with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, which directly threaten jobs of their members. IBEW locals, hurt by the reduction in manufacturing jobs, are also withholding contributions because of trade votes.
As Greg Paulson of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper explains: 'It doesn't matter if it is a Republican or a Democrat off-shoring jobs. It is still a lost job and an unemployed worker. Actually it hurts more when it is Democrat because we elected them into office to represent us.'
A 2012 goal for the Washington Fair Trade Coalition is to make is to make fair trade an election year issue.
We are also monitoring the emerging Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement (TP-FTA), involving the US and 8 other countries: Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Vietnam.
As this complex agreement moves through rounds of negotiations with the potential for many more countries to join, one concern is access to generic drugs. Many pharmaceutical corporations are demanding strong investor protections in the TP-FTA. That threatens the public health systems of countries and communities that rely on generics.
The fight for fair trade is an important opportunity to defend our values: the health of our communities, the rights of workers, protection of our natural resources and the rights of indigenous communities. Until those values are incorporated in our trade agreements, those agreements will enable corporations to win while many of us will continue to lose.
(Kristen Beifus is executive director of the Washington Fair Trade Council and a member of PSARA.)
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