A Canadian response

Thank you, Virginia, for raising this. I've done my best to get the Canadian papers to pay some attention but unfortunately they are all owned by the same kind of slumlords that own the US media.

SPP is pretty much a done deal. American troops are already at work in Canada. The US army are preventing demonstrations at the Montebello meeting by refusing to rent a conference room in an adjacent building where the Council for Canadians had planned to meet simultaneous with the NAU conference.  I guess the building must be among all those foreign holdings that the Pentagon includes in its annual report of military bases abroad.

If you think Americans are asleep at the wheel of democracy, compare yourselves to us Canadians, who are in a coma.

by delia (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 112 comments) on Sunday, August 5, 2007 at 6:44:46 PM
 

It really is time to wake up ...

I am so glad OpEd took the article!  A rigt relief as so much blatant propoganda is being released in the run up days to the "summit" making it sound like those of us who are concerned are "right wing nutcases", paranoids, conspiracy theorrists and so on.  The truth is - we are concerned citizens. Even the staid members of the Council of Canadians are under attack.  And things are moving so swiftly to establish the elistist agenda, there really isn't a whole lot of time to wake people up.

This IS NAFTA plus Homeland Security.  And someone like me is right to be very very concerned what will happen when all the security laws are "harmonized".

 Also, I simply refuse to watch the elite of Canada take to giving away Canada's resources away to the US and the transnationals to keep the industry of WAR going which is what this is.  Even the Mexicans are smart enough (thus far) to keep that from happening.

Thanks for the comment .. this isn't JUST a Canadian issue, but due to the amount of material that we produce, compared to nothing at all from te Americans YET, it is very hard to put something together on this. This was the best I could do!!  Only Lou Dobbs talks about this in the American MSM, and I don't like his take on immigration.  What to do?

by ladybroadoak (38 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 390 comments) on Sunday, August 5, 2007 at 7:46:40 PM
 

Wages

What's Up?

The coming megolithic ‘NAFTA’ highway, one quarter of a mile wide, is already being built in Texas, where private land is being expropriated, and will eventually reach the Manitoba border and go on from there ... it allows the west coast shipping ports to be circumvented, instead relying on huge Mexican port, in the name of facilitating "free trade" . but free trade of what ..? Asian drugs ..? And how is that port to be defended


This will not only circumvent the long shoremen union but will effect many, many more people who are not even mentioned. Why isn't anyone speaking to these people?

The largest union in the country is the Teamsters Union, d once those trucks start rolling along the super highway and they're inside the country, no one will need high priced Am. union nor non-union Am. truck drivers. If the Teamsters wages fall, everyone else will follow suit as more and more unemployed Am. drivers compete for less and less work. this will bust the back of the largest blue collar union in the country and drive wages down for everyone.

How does Jimmy Hoffa feel about this? How do non-union Am. truck drivers feel about this? How do all those retired people who relie on union dues to help pay for their pension checks feel about this? How do all those small business owners who sell things to all these people feel about this? who's writing about this? This thing is a lot bigger then just the long shoremen union.

by Stephen W (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments) on Monday, August 6, 2007 at 11:15:03 PM
 

CONTACT EVERY UNION MEMBER YOU KNOW!!

The Canadian Labor Congress is contacting American unions very energetically.  It remains to be seen how quickly something can be done in the short term.  Which is why this article suggests contacting any union people YOU know.  I have provided tons of sites for you to get flyers from and you can xerox them and hand them out. It is my PERSONAL view that the CLC is being reactive and waffling on about national sovereignty on their website when in fact there should be downloadable materials for unionists to pass out NOW.  I do know that that is coming.

 Now that said, I must point that due to the LACK OF TRANSPARENCY and lack of open public debate, there is no media coverage going on.  I think the declaration of a week-long anti SPP action with a focus on those who do not know, is going to pay off. That is where the focus is NOW.  Canadians have been buffalo-ed into hearing this same old "we must save NAFTA" trick once again.  The regulatory changes necessary to stick it to the unions have ALREADY TAKEN PLACE! and everyone is being "HARMonized" into the lower US standards for things like work place safety, job security, health care, etc.

So we are left with three things to do:

l.  identify the problems, the things the SPP shills have already done

2. bring it to a PUBLIC debate and

3. Prioritize the work that needs to be done.

 I can do another OpEd on JUST the labor issues that is longer than what was posted already .... on things like migrant labor, the documenting of workers and border controls, visas, health and safey, the racism, passe labor legislation, how this affects various industries besides shipping, and so on . there are literally 100s of new regulations coming into affect, but we don't even know what they ARE!!  I just handpicked a number of very TROUBLING insinuations to make my point. The highway and one huge Mexican port coming being ONE of them.

 But the main thing to be aware of is that employers have larger discretion than every before and total control of the work force -- that was one of the major impetuses in getting SPP instituted, was it not? and that is why it truly frightening to see the list of corporate "consultants"!  There are projects to identify who we can boycott going on right now, and I believe that the trade unions will jump on board and get these GOING.  I'd like to see the US List, we have a Canadian list already done (thank God!)

Yes, the highway was devised as an end run around the Teamsters and the Longshoremen Unions, but I only have so much "space" I can use to cover all the points . believe me! there are plenty of omitted points: I've obviously had to figure long and hard which ones to put into this article.  I realize that this is going to be a very, very long term battle.  Every single labor union  in North America should be up here in August screaming at Buzh, Calderone and Fox, but we're not going to be seeing that. We will see tons of CANADIAN trade unionists, however, of that I am certain.

One problem is that so many citizens have been trained to NOT identify as working class, which is a hurdle that must be overcome.   So many "service sector" jobs are seen as "student" jobs or "seasonal" jobs which are truly neither - they are just JOBS people NEED.  And many are not unionized, as you are well aware.  So how do we get those people to see that they must fight back as well?  How do we get them to see that everyone in N. America's  job security just got 1000X worse? Progressives have a real task ahead of them.  The whole "sisters" and "brothers" thing must make a real comeback or they'll be starving people everywhere, that is for sure.

 Just the lack of comments on this article should give everyone a clue how hard this is all going to be ...  THIS should be THE Article on OpED! The ONE everyone reads just now.  There is plenty to talk about.  Please do pass this on, I've worked hard to make it accessible to ALL and to give people some current resources I've seen.  Send it to 10 people and see what replies you get!!

 And as the CLG spokesperson puts it; What kind of country do YOU want ..?

 Ps. Jimmy Hoffa feels nothing. However, I am sure there are some Teamsters and Longshoreman, both rank and file and officials, who are STEAMING at this point!!

by ladybroadoak (38 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 390 comments) on Tuesday, August 7, 2007 at 4:01:19 AM
 

AND ..

please encourage people to keep DIGGING it, it can make a difference!

V 

by ladybroadoak (38 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 390 comments) on Tuesday, August 7, 2007 at 4:02:26 AM
 

Hoffa and Teamster power

I was a Teamster Local 396 (shop steward) for UPS when Hoffa got the news that NAFTA passed, at the same time, an unknown-well financed challenger gave a very hot challenge to become the new president of the Teamsters (I forgot his name though, sorry). Under the "rank and file" leader, this perpertraitor/infiltraitor used propaganda and false support poll numbers to try to overthrow the Union.

by John Q Citizen (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Tuesday, August 7, 2007 at 6:01:55 AM
 

I am so glad you posted.

Any homework you do on the labor provisions (can you please take the time to get them?) goes into the "pool" from which we can draw! You are the Leader, too, now.

Yes, I tire really fast with timelines that suggest the SPP is ONLY an afterthought to 9/11 .. it goes WAY back. They have been "chipping away" at job security and health regulations a long time - and this new "you are a terrorist" kind of doublespeak is too much! as we try to get out the word. Hoffa sure as shit had his work cut out for him, as a high profile person.

Soon the Canadian Labor Congress will have those needed materials on line. When it does I will post that url.

Folks are really going to have to get serious about handing this material around, imho. It is a laugh to think the highly concentrated ownership of media outlets is going to do anything! Interestingly up here, Chapters/Indigo President/owner Heather Reisman is one of the 10 corporate members of the "advisory committee"/Competitive Counsel member and those bookstores are NOT going to carry the anti SPP books! The boycott of her corporate chain has already begun. She is also an ardent supporter of Isreali "defense".   A media owner and a warmonger.  Not just labels, it is SO.

I do not mind, per se, Mexican truck drivers getting jobs, what I do mind, is that as we will all be pushed in poverty as wages plummet as effective unions are dismantled, the safety and security of everyone gets compromised as sloppy work habits are the result! These trucks coming up the corridor will have nasty things in them that I don't care to see spread all over the environment! Along with the highway comes a new pipeline, running on either side? Everybody should CARE enough about their own self interest enough to want to halt this madness. But as progressives, we should really band together to halt this "progress". Security and Prosperity for WHOM? indeed! The first link I provided is the Canadian Action Party's explanation of just what is entailed in them getting the labor standards reduced ... just how it (doen't) work.

We can only really start with where we are "at" today .. and that is at the crossroads of the Big Biz/government allied with the militarist agenda and what WE are willing to do about it. The more we see the clamp down on public speech and public assembly (as up here in Canada and Mexico's Oaxaca province in particular - there the teacher's union is totally under assault) the more I realize we must really get to work COME WHAT MAY. They have a real jump on everybody.

The time for us to speak out and began to assume the power that is ours is now.  I think many, many people are going to be "radicalized" very very soon.

by ladybroadoak (38 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 390 comments) on Tuesday, August 7, 2007 at 8:48:21 AM
 

GREAT GREAT LINK

Here's the best article about WHY to resist the SPP that I have found thus far.

HIGHLY recommended ... from the Daily Scare .....

by ladybroadoak (38 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 390 comments) on Saturday, August 11, 2007 at 2:44:00 AM