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Outsourcing and International Trade Pacts Cause of Current 'Jobless Recovery'. |
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Wednesday, March 17, 2004 Contacts: WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Leaders of the Green Party of the United States held both Democrats and Republicans responsible for the increasing pattern of job outsourcing, blaming the enactment of international trade pacts and authorities such as NAFTA and the WTO and other policies that favor corporate elites rather than working people. The resulting globalization of corporate power over the past decade has severely damaged labor rights, as well as other human rights, democracy, and the environment, throughout the world, said Greens. "Outsourcing jobs across U.S. borders to the lowest bidder has reduced the ability of the global economy to consume what it produces, which, in the long run has resulted in lower prices, lower wages, unemployment, and less consumption," said Reed Dunlea, New York Green who recently visited sweatshops in Mexic along the Texas Border as part of a delegation with the New York State Labor Religion Coalition. "The ideology of globalization coincides with the agenda of Republicans and mainstream Democrats: transfer more and more public services and resources to corporate ownership; weakening of working people's rights and the power of unions." "We haven't seen the kind of economic disasters suffered by Argentina and Mexico, but U.S. citizens are increasingly seeing their jobs disappear, especially high-wage, high-skill jobs," added Dunlea. "The Bus Administration boasts of an economic recovery, but the only people celebrating are the corporate benefactors of both of the established political parties. Over two million American jobs have disappeared since Mr. Bush moved into the White House." Greens note that the supposed recovery should have created about eight million new private-sector jobs. But according to Stephen S. Roach of Morgan Stanley, employment is even 2.4 million jobs lower than the level predicted by the economy's performance during the 1991-92 recession. "Outsourcing has disproportionately affected people depending on race, with African Americans and Latinos suffering the highest rates of unemployment -- 12.9 and 9.6%, respectively," said Nathalie Paravacini, co-chair of Harris County (Texas) Green Party, citing a New York Times article on New York City rates published on February 28. Greens support a number of decisive measures to reverse the current economic direction: public works projects to create living-wage jobs; community-based economic policies, with an emphasis on local democratic control; dismantling the power that corporations have over our democracy, especially over trade policy; maintenance of public control over resources; strengthening labor rights and protections, including repeal of Taft-Hartley restrictions on union organizing at home and support for workers' rights and democratic unions around the world. "We need to globalize democracy, not corporate
power," said Holly Hart, Iowa Green and co-chair of the national
party's Platform Committee. "But we'll only get global
democracy when we have a non-corporate political force active at local,
national, and global levels." The Green Party of the United States search: gbl, ecpol, cpr |