Fair Trade, Immigrant Rights, Free Labor

[Omaha Steve]

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/05/14/fair_trade_immigrant_rights_fr/

By Nathan Newman - May 14, 2008, 6:47AM

Following up on last week's post, what's odd is that folks like myself who promote tighter fair trade rules can be accused of trying to help American workers by focusing "on finding ways to keep the Chinese population trapped in crushing poverty," while when we talk about immigration, a person like Michael Lind refers to progressives as "dupes and allies on the fringe left" that help foreign immigrants at the expense of American workers.

When you see these kinds of completely opposite accusations, you can usually bet that the DC/mainstream media paradigm is not really making room for understanding a pretty basic dissent from its politics. Right now, we have a recognized rightwing policy position that supports free trade combined with xenophobic anti-immigrant politics versus a liberal free trade position that promotes a bit more immigration, but in highly controlled guest worker conditions serving corporate interests combined with trade deals with token labor provisions that still are designed based on corporate interests.

What's missing is a basic debate on why we have international policies that give corporate capital the right to cross borders at will, make contracts freely without government interference, then pull investments out when governments demand corporate accountability, yet labor is denied similar freedom on a global basis. The fair trade-immigrant rights position actually boils down to a simple demand: give labor at least the same rights as corporate capital in the global economy.

A global "free labor" policy recognizes that people trapped in economic desperation should have the opportunity to migrate to other countries where economic opportunities are greater, combined with trade rules that encourage better wages and conditions that would discourage the need for emigration in the first place. The more global labor rules concentrate gains from global growth in the hands of workers around the world, the less need or desire they will have to migrate away from their homes.

NAFTA is a poster child to the problem of present trade rules. "Free trade" enriched corporate interests on both sides of the Rio Grande, yet many of the poorest Mexicans saw little gain and the displacement caused by these trade deals drove much of the emigration to the United States. The progressive fair trade position sees promoting global labor rights, not a militarization of the border, as the key to deterring immigration, based on the voluntary decision of individuals to not want to leave their homes rather than coercive force.

FULL story at link.