labor

It Is Rigged…and We Must Revolt

Guy Standing Working-Class Perspectives
The system is rigged — by an evolving form of capitalism that undermines genuine ‘free trade’. Rising inequality is fomenting anger and desperation. A revolt is coming, but its direction is uncertain. Some fall prey to neo-fascist appeals of Donald Trump or Marine Le Pen. They will not be stopped by scorn alone. We need a progressive alternative focused on building a new income distribution system for the citizenry, not for the oligarchy.

El Salvador Lessons for the TPP Fight

Robin Broad and John Cavanagh Inequality.org
Although the people of El Salvador won a victory when a ruling denied a company compensation for a mine that popular opposition preventing a mine from operating on their land, they should never had to go through this seven-year legal battle in the first place. Such “investor rights” are the most extreme example of excessive power granted to corporations through trade agreements and are the reason the TPP must be defeated.

labor

Free Trade Winners and Losers

Gary Herman Union Solidarity International
The Canada-European Union "Free" Trade Pact, due to be signed on October 27, like other such agreements, favors corporate power and profits at the expense of working people. Dock workers action last July shows resistance is possible.

labor

Being a Mexican Migrant Worker and Female: A Recipe for Double Discrimination

Emilio Godoy Equal Times
The Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM – Migrant Rights Centre), accuses Canada of discrimination in hiring and the allocation of work, the general exclusion of women from the temporary work programmes and the failure to ensure compliance with laws against discrimination in employment.

Tidbits - July 14, 2016 - Reader Comments: U.S. "Inequality Trap"; Police Brutality and Racial Terror; Sanders and Democratic Party; Brexit; Tair Kaminer; and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: U.S. Stuck in an "Inequality Trap"; New Wave of Police Brutality and Racial Terror; Photo That Should Be Seen Around the World; Sanders Delivered Most Progressive Platform for Democrats, Ever - Yet Still a Long Way to Go on War and Military Policy, and Trade Policy Still Needs to be Changed; About Demonstrations at GOP Convention; Brexit; James Green; Tair Kaminer; Austrian elections; Remembering Donald Jelinek; Save the Georg Lukacs Archive...

From Brexit to the Future

Joseph E. Stiglitz Project Syndicate
On both sides of the Atlantic, citizens are seizing upon trade agreements as a source of their woes. While this is an over-simplification, it is understandable. Today's trade agreements are negotiated in secret, with corporate interests well represented, but ordinary citizens or workers completely shut out. Not surprisingly, the results have been one-sided: workers' bargaining position has been weakened further, compounding the effects of legislation undermining unions.

Are Sanders and Fair Trade a Threat to the Global Poor?

David L. Wilson Monthly Review
The argument against Sanders is that the one "comparative advantage" poorer countries have is their supply of low-wage workers, so use of sweatshop labor to produce for export is the best way for these countries to expand their economies. And it works, global trade has been "the driving force behind historic declines in poverty," in Weissmann's words. Sanders' call for higher wages and better environmental standards stymies progress for these countries.

What I Didn't Read in the TTIP Reading Room

Katja Kipping War on Want
The secrecy surrounding the text of TTIP is revealing. Anyone who wants to enhance environmental protection, consumer protection and labor standards would have nothing to fear from transparency. Anyone who’s engaged in selling out democracy, on the other hand, is obviously going to want to avoid public scrutiny.

Dangerous Regulatory Duet

Corporate Europe Observatory
How transatlantic regulatory cooperation under TTIP will allow bureaucrats and big business to attack the public interest.
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