Kid Rock:
Democracy today is not possible without a politics that can control global economic forces, because without such control it won't matter who people vote for -- corporations will rule." -- Michael Sandel, Harvard University
"...if you're uncomfortable with the new role of the environmental community in the trade debate, my only advise is: Get used to it.And figure out how to work together." -- Senator Max Baucus,"Trade and the Environment in an Era of Globalization," August 2,1999
"Each Member [ie, country] shall [ie, a legal requirement] ensure the conformity of its laws, regulations and administrative procedures with its obligations as provided in the annexed Agreements [ie, all of the Agreements enforced by the WTO]. -- Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Article XVI.3
"The global revolution in markets has taken away the power of political leaders to deliver on their most important promises to the voters." -- Michael Burda, Humboldt University, Berlin on the Social Democratic/Green Party Alliance in Germany Washington Post, March13, 1999
"Nothing in the doctrine of free trade requires that we ride roughshod, at breakneck speed and with reckless disregard, over the economies of the small and poor nations." -- Jagdish Bhagwati, Arthur Lehman professor of economics, Colombia University, New York, NY. Quoted in The Financial Times (London), March 9, 1999.
"...we must do more to ensure that spirited economic competition among nations never becomes a race to the bottom -- in environmental protection, consumer protections, or labor standards. We should be leveling up, not leveling down. Without such a stratey, we cannot build the necessary public support for continued expansion of trade." -- President Clinton, Remarks at the Commemmoration of the 50th Anniversary of the World Trade Organization, Geneva, May 18, 1998
"...international trade rules must permit sovereign nations to exercise their rights to set protective standards for health and safety, the environment and biodiversity. Nations have a right to pursue those protections, even when they are stronger than international norms." -- President Clinton, Remarks at the Commemmoration of the 50th Anniversary of the World Trade Organization, Geneva, May 18, 1998
"[T]he first order of business is to try to reform the WTO." -- Editors, The New York Times, April 10, 1998
"In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy and the market economy. For those of us who grew up believing that capitalism is the foundation of democracy and market freedom, it has been a rude awakening to realize that under capitalism, democracy is for sale to the highest bidder and the market is centrally planned by global megacorporations larger than most states." -- David C. Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World. Excerpt from the prologue of The Post-Corporate World.
"It will also be increasingly important to incorporate standards of environmental responsibility into the laws and treaties dealing with international trade. Just as government subsidies of a particular industry are sometimes considered unfair under the trade laws, weak and ineffectual enforcement of pollution control measures should also be included in the definition of unfair trading practices.... The mixture of environmental protection with trade negotiations is volatile, but so is the mixture of any other consideration with trade talks." -- Al Gore, Earth in the Balance, 1992
...and my favorite:
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." -- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins) The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)
Furthermore,
"Free trade" agreements like NAFTA have cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs since 1993 and have eroded the bargaining power of workers.
The assets of the world's three richest people exceed the total incomes of the 600 million people living in the world's poorest 48 countries.
The U.S. trade deficit in goods—an astonishing $250 billion in 1998—threatens the economic future of every American family.
Each day, some 250 million children around the world go to work rather than to school.
Tens of thousands of people are enslaved in forced labor.
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