Roskam Turns Blind Eye to Colombian Anti-Union Violence
Illinois labor leaders and union workers should take a long, hard look at Peter Roskam.
At the behest of the Bush Administration, Roskam recently traveled to Colombia and came back singing the praises of President Alvaro Uribe and his Colombian “success story”. Roskam has chosen to totally ignore the persistent violence that is occurring against union organizers, human rights activists, journalists and indigenous people by paramilitaries with ties to Uribe’s administration and to American and other foreign corporations. Bush is agressively pushing for a free trade agreement and Roskam is staying on message.
In promoting the free trade agreement for Bush, Roskam is wholeheartedly embracing the immoral Latin American policies of the two George Bushes, Henry Hyde, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and their predecessors going back many years, men who have embraced terrorism and brutal right wing regimes to advance the interests of American corporations at the expense of the lives of countless voiceless people.
Roskam looks at Columbia and doesn’t see the plight of its people. He sees only profits for American corporations, some of whom have been actively funding paramilitary violence.
Unionists in this country should be infuriated that Roskam cares so little about the oppression and murder of their brethren and they should understand that Roskam has no more support for their cause here. And if men like Roskam are allowed to continue turning the reigns of our own government over to corporate elites, the kinds of abuses that happen in Colombia can happen here as well.
BTW: If Roskam is interested in promoting trade, perhaps he should push for normalizing relations with Cuba. My sense is that the people of Cuba would actually benefit from such an opening and Americans could benefit as well.
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Free Trade and Moral Values
By definition, trade is good for business. Trade occurs only because the traders believe that they will benefit by the transaction. Unless something goes wrong, trade is good for the traders. But the question must still be asked: is “Free Trade” (without tariffs) always good for society as a whole?
But this is not merely an economic question. It is also a moral question. Free Trade is always good for business. But then, a lot of things are good for business.
Sweatshops are good for business.
Coolie labor is good for business.
Prison labor is good for business.
Child labor is good for business.
Peonage is good for business.
Human slavery is good for business.
The fact is that cheap labor is always good for business. But it is also a fact that:
Sweatshops are immoral.
Coolie labor is immoral.
Prison labor is immoral.
Child labor is immoral.
Peonage is immoral.
Human slavery is immoral.
Every child on the planet has a right to grow up in a society that provides that child with an education, not a job. Products made by a child are made by immoral labor.
Every child-bearing woman on the planet has a right to bear her child in safety, with rest and nutrition, not with a full day of labor. Products made by wage-earning women in late pregnancy are made by immoral labor.
A worker anywhere on the planet has a right to work conditions and compensation that enables the worker to live in a decent home and raise a family and retire with a minimum of comfort and security. Anything less is immoral labor.
It is immoral to consume a product made by immoral labor.
It is immoral to import products made by immoral labor.
A trade policy that allows the importation of products made by immoral labor is an immoral policy. Those that propose such a policy are immoral.
Free Trade is good for business but bad for the Soul.
Marvin Sussman, marvinsussman@sbcglobal.net
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