Marx on free trade

[Michael Perelman]

Doug, while you have a point here -- Certainly JfJ was a landmark success -- the
real threat of NAFTA et al is not lowering of tariffs (i.e., conventional free
trade) but the supranational bodies that can take actions overriding national
law.  I suspect that these powers represent the real threat of trade agreements.

In short, if NAFTA were one paragraph long, just lowering tariffs, it would have
been a non-event.  Unfortunately, it was much longer.

Doug Henwood wrote:


> Campaigns like Justice for Janitors and agitation for a
> higher minimum wage would do more for most U.S. workers than blocking
> NAFTA would have.

--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901