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Canadian, U.S., Mexican Officials: Protect Middle Class from NAFTA
By Mark Anderson
In a follow-up story to one that ran in AFP’s May 12, 2008 edition, the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) is actively opposing the Security and Prosperity Partnership, which its members see as a prelude to the construction of the North American Union on the ruins of once-independent nations.
According to Steve Fought, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), at least three national legislators from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have a formal plan to call more attention to the proposed integration of the three nations.
NDP international trade critic Peter Julian announced that he had “successful discussions” with partners in the U.S. Congress and the Mexican congress.
“These elected representatives have agreed to file motions to stop further implementation of the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership process imposed undemocratically on our three nations, and to open up the process that has taken place behind closed doors, to instead have a transparent review and scrutiny within their respective legislatures,” Julian said in a NDP news release.
Rep. Kaptur and Yeidckol Polevnsky Gurwitz (senator for Mexico State and vice president of the Mexican Senate) are the legislators diligently working with Julian on this project.
“This is an important step forward for the middle class in North America,” Julian said. “The NDP has been campaigning across Canada to expose and to stop the SPP. We’ve held over 20 public forums in more than 20 cities and a dozen more are being planned for the spring of 2008.”
The NDP also reports: “The legislators from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico also agreed to launch a task force to push for renegotiating NAFTA with support from their respective political parties. Members of the task force promote the renegotiation of NAFTA within their respective legislatures.”
Fought said the North American Summit in New Orleans looked like a transparent attempt to praise NAFTA and promise more of the same—undermining the U.S. economy and national sovereignty. He called
the summit “completely one-sided in favor of the corporations while putting the public interest in the streets.”
As for NAFTA, Fought said that his state of Ohio, and Michigan, are “ground zero” for witnessing NAFTA’s destruction of the manufacturing sector. He said he recently saw parts of Detroit that reminded him of distant Third World zones stricken by poverty. “The idea of defending and extending NAFTA is untenable,” he said.
(Issue # 21, May 26, 2008)
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