Free-Trade Pacts Kill jobs and Labor Rights

This article by David Bacon, appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle:

President Obama broke one of his campaign commitments last week and put up three free-trade agreements for a vote in Congress. Business interests promise they'll bring us jobs. Experience tells us those promises are worthless.

Nineteen years ago, when the North American Free Trade Agreement was before Congress, supporters said it too would create jobs and protect labor rights. Before agreeing to new free-trade treaties with Colombia, South Korea and Panama, Congress should look at the dismal record.

Obama Push for Free Trade Deals "Shows Contempt for Occupy Wall Street"

This commentator gets it right. The article appears in the Huffington Post:

If you thought President Obama's expressions of sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street movement meant he was suddenly going to stand up for "the 99%," think again. Obama has just submitted to Congress the Chamber of Commerce-backed Colombia, Panama, and Korea Free Trade Agreements. And now, thanks to maneuvering by Obama and his business-friendly Chief of Staff William Daley and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, they're on an accelerated schedule in Congress. According to a report in The Hill, they will be voted on Wednesday, where they're expected to pass.

Obama's move is a brazen display of contempt for the Occupy Wall Street movement's calls for jobs, economic, and environmental justice as well as human rights. These trade agreements achieve a rare trifecta of progressive punching: it's hard to imagine a single initiative that at one time could so infuriate anti-corporate activists, labor unions, and environmentalists at the very moment that these disparate movements are finally finding solidarity and support in the streets.