Democrats seek changes in Colombia, Peru pacts

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post

Democrats seek changes in Colombia, Peru pacts
Reuters
Tuesday, March 27, 2007; 4:53 PM


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration needs to change free trade agreements with Colombia, Peru and Panama in order to win their approval in Congress, senior Democrats said on Tuesday.

House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, told reporters he believed Democrats and the Bush administration were close to a deal on a long list of trade concerns his party had raised.

"We are on the brink of restoring bipartisanship to trade policies," Rangel said.

That will require changing labor provisions of the Peru and Colombia agreements to include an enforceable commitment to abide by core international labor standards, said Rep. Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Ways and Means trade subcommittee.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032701476.html

[BayCityProgressive]

1. interesting

the Democrats are catching on that the USA is a sinking ship. All of these countries are rejecting our trade pacts and moving towards socialism or social democracy. The Democrats are probably betting that if they offer a better deal they can head off any further revolutions...i think it may be too late for that though.

[ProudDad]

2. Damn, I hope so

The Earth needs more capitalism like a diabetic needs a sugar fix...

On Edit: some interesting reading:

Capitalism's Three Oscillations and the US Today

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/wolff270307.html

Strong Medicine: Toxic Capitalism and the Socialist Cure

http://www.socialism.com/whatsocialism.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. AFL-CIO fights free-trade agreement with Colombia

AFL-CIO fights free-trade agreement with Colombia
By Ian Swanson
March 27, 2007

Organized labor is pressing the House Democratic Caucus to reject a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Colombia no matter what changes the Bush administration agrees to make, and the message is resonating with senior Democrats.

Citing reports that in 2006, 72 trade unionists were murdered in the South American country for exercising basic labor rights such as striking, AFL-CIO leaders charge the situation for labor in Colombia is so hazardous that no renegotiation would be acceptable.

“I think the killing, if you will, of civil society in Colombia is a major problem,” Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) said after a March 26 hearing on what impact trade policies have on U.S. workers. “The question is who do you have the trade agreement with? The government, or thugs, or who?”

Miller, who is considered a trusted adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said there would need to be an “awful lot of work” done to the Colombia FTA before he would support it, and declined to say whether there was a possibility it could be changed enough to earn his support.
(snip/...)

http://thehill.com/business--lobby/afl-cio-fights-free-trade-agreement-with-colombia-2007-03-27.html

[BayCityProgressive]

4. I hope the new Bank of The South

AND the Democrats in congress refuse to make any trade pacts with Columbia and force the collapse fo the right-wing government there.

[Judi Lynn]

5. They are a scummy bunch, alright. How many times would you expect to hear that Congressmen

have given lists of people they want slaughtered to right-wing paramilitaries, just as if they were handing them grocery lists?

Ungoddamned believable. What a bunch of maggots.

It's going to be very good reading material when they finally get the whole story illuminated and put into record.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Native Guatemalan Nobel Prize winner remarks on Bush FTA with Guatemala:

Menchu Slams US on Guatemala

Paris, Mar 27 (Prensa Latina) 1992 Nobel Peace Prizewinner indigenous leader Rigoberta Menchu said at an interview published in this capital on Tuesday that US President George W. Bush "is not interested in Guatemalan problems."

Menchu, presidential candidate for the November elections in her country, stressed that US statesmen "do not descend from their thrones," and when they were interested in Guatemala in the 50s was only to organize a coup d etat.

Interviewed by French newspaper "Le Figaro," the indigenous leader talked of the absurdity that 90 percent of her country's people do not even know the content of the Free Trade Agreement with the US.

As to her perspectives to be the president, Menchu recalled how media make fun of her as an indigenous person, saying Rigoberta Menchu is an ugly woman, and a woman cannot govern Guatemala.
(snip/...)

~~~~ link ~~~~

[Judi Lynn]

7. Union Organizing Can Be Deadly in Colombia

Union Organizing Can Be Deadly in Colombia
Associated Press
March 7, 2007
By Sergio De Leon

BOGOTA, Colombia -- More than 800 trade unionists have been killed in Colombia over the past six years, by government count, yet the number of those murders solved can be counted on one hand.

Union organizing can be a deadly activity anywhere but is particularly dangerous in Colombia, where decades of political violence and lawlessness compel some unscrupulous employers to hire assassins.

"There's almost total impunity," claims Flavio Arias, vice president of the CUT labor umbrella organization, which represents Colombia's 530,000 unionized workers.

Now Colombia's reputation as the deadliest place in the world to be a labor organizer threatens to sink one of President Alvaro Uribe's proudest achievements: a free trade agreement with U.S. President George W. Bush, who is expected to use his visit to Colombia on March 11 to press for congressional approval.

The union-friendly Democrats who now control the U.S. Congress are so concerned about the unsolved labor murders that they are threatening to derail the trade pact entirely unless Uribe makes clear progress.
(snip/...)

http://www.laborrights.org/press/Colombia/drummond_ap_030707.htm

[Judi Lynn]

8. House Democrats Take Their Time On Trade Deals

House Democrats Take Their Time On Trade Deals

By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 30, 2007; Page D03



"Reestablishing a bipartisan foundation" is more important than a procedural deadline, said Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.)
(By Dennis Cook -- Associated Press)

As Democratic leaders negotiated with the Bush administration yesterday on pending trade deals with Peru, Colombia and Panama, it seemed increasingly unlikely that an agreement smoothing passage would be secured before Congress breaks for recess today.

Both sides appeared to be hardening their positions, with the administration reluctant to embrace labor rules demanded by Democrats that could boost the power of unions, and House leaders intent on denying an embattled president any sort of political victory.

"There's a lot of pushback," said Nicole Venable, a lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been pushing the deals. "A lot of Democrats are asking, 'Why are we doing this now?' "

A deadline looms: Saturday is the last day the Bush administration can notify Congress of its intent to seek approval for trade pacts negotiated under the president's existing authority to submit them for a simple up-or-down vote. But late Thursday, with no deal in hand, House leaders said the deadline was not firm.
(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/29/AR2007032902042.html