Are Democratic leaders sleeping with the enemy?ÂÂ
THE NATION – “DEMS SELL OUT ON TRADE”: In a scathing editorial, The Nation magazine tears apart the handful of senior Democrats who negotiated the trade deal with the Bush administration in secret. “When Democratic and Republican leaders announce they have fashioned a ‘historic’ bipartisan compromise on trade, put your hand over your wallet,” the editors write. “It probably means somebody has been sold out. In this case, we think it’s the broad coalition of citizens–labor and environmental advocates and others–who want to reform corporate-led globalization. That includes all those voters who, last fall, elected new Democrats who promised to confront the multinational establishment.” The editorial goes on to look at different pieces of the deal and urges populist Democrats in Congress “to push back–hard–and defeat the agreement if they can.”
Here is an interview with David Sirota on Lou Dobbs Tonight from May 16th on the topic.[ev type=”youtube” data=”wXxIqklh7P0″][/ev]The media has largely not even touched this issue, but labor unions are pissed that 1) they were left out of the process and 2) that the Democratic leaders have caved so easily. Teamsters President Hoffa made his position clear when the deal was quietly announced: “We will fight like hell to oppose this shortsighted agreement.”
WorkingAssetsBlog has a series of entries on this ‘deal’ and ‘free trade’ in general here.