Granny D says Free trade ain't free at all. And I agree.

[JohnyCanuck]

A Small Group of Dedicated People Might Actually Do Something

By Doris 'Granny D' Haddock


This struggle is real. A very close friend of mine, a college student, spent this summer in Guatemala to help small communities prosper in ways that support their local environments. Those villagers and their environments are under siege by international big business, using a captured U.S. government to push through damaging treaties such as the proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement and the hemisphere-wide Free Trade Area of the Americas. The villagers of Guatemala want global fair trade, but the corporations and their captive governments want free trade. If fair trade wins, a global middle class will rise, as farmers and craftsmen are paid fairly for their work, and as they gain a voice in their governance and their environments are protected for their future generations. If free trade wins, it is colonial exploitation, torture and murder written in blood across another century.

Or do you wonder if it is really an honest difference of opinion as to which policies are best for the people? On July 24, three armed gunmen broke into the home where my young friend was staying in Guatemala, dragging her and another young woman to the ground, covering their heads with blankets. These young women began to count their lives in seconds. For three-quarters of an hour, the gunmen went through the biodiversity files in the home. Big business interests in Guatemala, in league with elements of the military, are trying to push through the passage of free trade agreements and to do it they must supress all dissent. Their partner and blood brother is the U.S. government. Not the U.S. government that we see, but the U.S. government that much of the rest of the world sees: a world of CIA treachery, the training of death squad leaders in our own Army facilities within the U.S., and a big business-friendly White House that winks and nods as great injustices continue.

The two women survived, but tens of thousands have not, because they are in the way of big business. It is not an honest difference of opinion; it is a global struggle of people versus a global crime syndicate that counts taken-over governments and multinational corporations among its members.

There is a term now in common use in Latin America that is confusing to us Americans. It is called neoliberalism and it is a very dirty word indeed among the brave pro-democracy and fair trade groups throughout the Americas. "Neoliberal" sounds like the happy return of the Kennedys, but it is not. Nor is it about some resurgence of the liberal values of the Square Deal or the New Deal or the War on Poverty or any of those great moments when we called upon our best instincts to cooperatively address our largest needs as a free and self-governing people. The liberation that we meant then when we used the word "liberal" was the liberation from poverty, despair and ignorance, the liberation of the mind through public education, the liberation of the citizen through universal voting, equal rights and equal opportunity, and the freedom to prosper from the fruits of our labors. But that is not the liberal that is meant by neoliberal. It means newly free to rampage. It means free of government constraint. It means free trade over fair trade.

More at http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16643

Granny D is the inspirational and dedicated 90 yr old lady who recently staged a walk across the continental US to publicize the need for campaign finance reform.

Her website is. www.grannyd.com

[Karenina]

1. She tells it like it is.

:kick:

[DoctorMyEyes]

2. I love granny d!

We saw her in DC when we were protesting the shrubs inauguration.

Have you read Greg Palast's "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"? It's a real eye opener about 'neoliberlism' and the shit we're doing all over the world.

[DemBones DemBones]

3. Granny D.: "I am proud to endorse Dennis Kucinich for President."

Granny D. speaks out for Dennis Kucinich:

"I am proud to endorse Dennis Kucinich for President.

When I walked 3,200 miles across the United States for campaign reform and inquired of people why they were not voting, they said: 'Find us someone who understands us, who cares about us.' I'm talking about people living in trailers, people living in small towns with boarded-up windows on Main Street, with drugstores, grocery stores, hardware stores all eaten up by Wal-Mart, Costco, CVS Drugs, Home Depot, and other monsters several miles beyond the town. People coming out of farmhouses in Iowa, squeezed out of their livelihood by stinking agri-hog farms, people coming out of tobacco fields, cotton fields, wheat fields, people living in cities who have been out of work for over a year, people whose well-paid jobs have been shipped overseas, people desperate for relief from the oppressions of our corporatized and disempowered lives.

I promised to look for someone who would understand them, that had a vision of the future for them, that believed in Peace, Love, Justice. Well, here he is: Dennis Kucinich.

I believe he is the candidate who can bring new voters and disgruntled voters into the political process.

To those people I met on my walk across America: 'Now keep your promise to me and come out and vote for him! Hugs.'"

[revcarol]

4. Farmers in Mexico are fighting "free trade."

They are organizing in cooperatives to fight U. S. takeover of their farms by turning them into 'cash crop' producers, that can only produce for export, while the people suffer and have to buy imported food.

KUCINICH: Fair trade through bi-lateral negotiated agreements, NOT CAFTA, NAFTA, SAFTA, or WTO!!

[JohnyCanuck]

5. Glad someone is talking about it

This supposed Free Trade that is being ramed down our throats is designed to enhance the power and wealth of multinational coporations and the wealthy elites that run them and to reduce the ability of smaller, weaker nations to act against coporate interests in defense of their own citizens.

The greedy sons of bitches are so short sighted, they'll think nothing of stripping the world clean and leaving it a barren, lifeless rock floating in space if it means they can enhance their short term profits and and drive the competition into the ground.

I hope everyone takes the opportunity to get a good look at Mars now that it is so close to the earth. It's just a preview of what Earth will be like in a couple hundred years if we keep going on the path we are currently following. Of course the religious winger wackos don't give a sh*t 'cause Jesus will have raptured them away by then anyhow.

[stevedeshazer]

6. My Granny is right

But others want to talk of Oui magazine, the size of Arnold's dick, a rock with the ten commandments on it, football, and a baby in Baghdad named George Bush.

I wish more people would listen to Granny and forget the media diversions we are being spoon-fed.

[CHIMO]

7. Depends on the Angle

Haven't heard of Granny D before. But have heard of someone called Maude.
The "Free Trade" must agree with the US laws. Thus it is something that can be called free. However, if the other partner(s) to the agreement has different laws it is obviously simple. Change the laws to conform with the US laws and it will then be free trade! Seems simple to me.
The agrivation and resentment that this brings about with the other partner(s) is something that others will have to deal with. Who knows, it may even go away.

[stevedeshazer]

9. Inform yourself

Start here:

http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=169&row=1

Then come back. We'll start over.

[CHIMO]

10. Not Willing to Start Over

Only have one life to live. Not about to give in to a different empire.
If you don't understand my post then don't get on your high heels!
There is one law right now and it is Might is Right. The world is afraid of this as it always has been.
Don't think that you own the only view on the world.
Other people have their views and fears about the way things are going.

[JanMichael]

8. She nailed it!

Too bad so many other Dems can't see the forest for the loggers.

[JohnKleeb]

11. this kind old woman endorsed my guy

good for her and she seems like a real great lady too.