DEMS, GOP READING SAME POLL

House Democrats gathered on yesterday to discuss the results of a national survey on the deficit and manufacturing that House Republicans were passing around late last week. Digging into the survey, which was paid for by the Alliance for American Manufacturing and done by Dem Mark Mellman and GOPer Whit Ayers, hints at an answer to why people are so passionate about the deficit: It’s about jobs. Asking whether Congress should address the deficit or the jobless crisis, therefore, is the wrong question. Create jobs and the deficit concern goes away. Reading into the survey, you find that people relate the deficit to indebtedness to China and indebtedness to China is a proxy for American decline and the collapse of manufacturing, a huge concern among voters. About 45% of respondents said the biggest problem is that “we are too deep in debt to China,” the highest-ranking concern, 58% of folks said the U.S. is no longer the strongest economy, with China being the overwhelming alternative people identified. Three-quarters had an unfavorable view of goods made in China and 83% felt the same toward companies that set up shop there. The number one objection people had to China was the $2 trillion the country holds in U.S. debt. Asked how to improve the economy, the number one solution provided by voters was to “crack down on foreign countries who violate their trade agreements with us.” The survey: http://bit.ly/d4gv1F

From Maurice Morales

July 6, 2010 at 8:30am

Subject: Alliance for American Manufacturing Video by Baltimore Music Happenings

- MySpace Video http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=101605682

from a rally i videotaped resently.please share www.youtube/maurice11 for more of my work

Free Trade Agreement with Korea will cost U.S. jobs
Robert E. Scott
July 1, 2010

The Obama administration has announced that it intends to finalize a new free trade agreement with South Korea (KORUS FTA) in time for the next G-20 summit in November. Although the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) projects this will have a small positive impact on the U.S. trade balance, and “minimal or negligible “ impact on U.S. employment, history shows that such trade deals lead to rapidly growing trade deficits and job loss in the United States.

The Charts below compare USITC’s estimates of the impact of the forthcoming free trade agreement with Korea to EPI’s own calculation. Unlike USITC’s forecast of a small positive impact, EPI’s research shows it will increase the U.S. trade deficit with Korea by about $16.7 billion, and displace about 159,000 American jobs within the first seven years after it takes effect…..

Click on this link to see charts mentioned above EPI link

Dems Could Win Tea Party Voters Over With America-First Trade Message

By Mike Elk

In These Times article link/

A new poll contradicts the widely held belief that the the tea party movement is opposed to government action to help the economy. It shows that self-described Tea Party supporters are very much in favor of government action to revitalize America’s manufacturing base.

Seventy-four percent of self-described Tea Party Supporters would support a “national manufacturing strategy to make sure that government that economic, tax, labor, and trade policies in this country work together to help support manufacturing in the United States,” according to the poll, put out by the Mellman Group and the Alliance for American Manufacturing. Likewise, 56 percent of self-described Tea Party Supporters “favor a tariff on products imported from other countries that are cheaper because they came from a country that does not have to comply with any climate change regulations in the country where the products were made.”

The poll also shows that President Obama’s approval rating are 11 points lower among households were a family member is employed in manufacturing than a household where no one is employed in manufacturing. That underscores a trend already noted: those most affected by the Democrats’ failure to deliver on their promises of trade reform are turning against the Democratic Party.

Why? The reason is that many feel betrayed by Democrats. Government inaction during the last thirty years has destroyed the core of the American economy: manufacturing.

Such is the case in my own hometown of Westmoreland County, Pa., where the loss of manufacturing jobs turned the county from a heavily white, heavily union, heavily Democratic county into a heavily white, heavily Fox New watching, heavily Republican County.

In 1988, card-carrying ACLU member Michael Dukakis carried my home county by an 11-point margin in a year in which he won only nine states nationally. Yet in 2008 my home county voted for Republican Sen. John McCain by a 17-point margin. It turned Republicans because Democrats sold out on NAFTA, the North American Free-Trade Agreement, and thousands of manufacturing jobs disappeared.

The Republican Party has been able to keep these voters in their ranks despite the fact that Republican party is doing nothing on the trade front either. Infact, there is absolutely no mention of trade reform in the Tea Party’s official “Contract From America.” (See Roger Bybee’s great Working ITT piece on this problem for the Tea Party Movement). The Tea Party get its momentum not from an overall hatred of government, but from a hatred of government doing things that so often hurt people like unfair trade deals.

This new poll shows that the top concerns of all Americans, including Tea Party supporters, is not the federal budget deficit but that we are too deep of debt to China in terms of our trade imbalance. No major political party is championing this issue. The surprise victory of Democrat Mark Critz in John Murtha’s old district which was expected to go Republican showed that Democrats can win over Republican voters when they campaign tough on trade issues.

If President Obama really wanted to heal the words of divided nation and away from demagogues like Glenn Beck, he could do it be taking real action on trade. He could do it by fufilling his campaign pledge to renegotiate NAFTA (a pledge now considered “laughable” within the administration). Then Obama could fulfill another campaign promise by slapping tariffs on illegal Chinese currency manipulation which make Chinese goods 25-40% cheaper than American goods.

The great thing about renegotiating NAFTA and slapping tariffs on China is that by law Obama doesn’t need congressional approval to do it. He could do it unilaterally and send a huge signal to voters that he, along with those who support this policy, on the side of American workers. The president could use these steps to lay out a bold vision for an industrial policy to rebuild America.

The choice is President Obama’s - reform trade and heal the countries’ wounds or see a divided, unemployed white working class turn to voices of hate.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a non-partisan partnership of leading U.S. manufacturers and the United Steelworkers.

Every citizen in the state of Delaware, the city of Newark and the surrounding region, no matter what their income, education, position, or political leaning should join us to put the critical need to rebuild a new manufacturing economy on the top of the policy agenda. Economists and the public agree that America must have high-quality jobs if we are to have long term prosperity and save America’s middle class. The solution is to rebuild our manufacturing jobs by seizing the opportunity to make green and sustainable products and meet our infrastructure needs. Now is the time, manufacturing is the solution, and you can help make it happen for our nation.

The United States has lost more than 5 million manufacturing jobs in the past decade, and more than 50,000 factories have closed. Manufacturing is critical to the nation’s economic growth and our lawmakers must take action to grow good American manufacturing jobs. Together we can “Keep it Made in America.”

Executive Banquet & Conference Center
205 Executive Dr.
Newark, DE 19702

Tuesday, June 29
6:00-9:00 pm

Speakers followed by a panel discussion. Written questions will be submitted from the floor.

Complimentary Dinner Will Be Served

WHO: Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) & you
WHAT: Delaware Town Hall & free dinner
WHEN: Tuesday, June 29: 6:00-9:00
WHERE: Executive Banquet & Conference Center, 205 Executive Drive, Newark, DE 19702
WHY: “Manufacturing a Solution for America’s Economic Woes” is vital for America today and in the future!

FREE EVENT!

Please RSVP to 866-365-2203
For Information Contact: Gwen Miller 302-283-1330 or Stephen Crockett 443-907-2367.

RSVP is a must. We need an accurate count for the dinner.

Alliance for American Manufacturing Town Hall in Delaware on June 29th

Time: 6-9pm

Location: Plumbers & Pipefitters (UA 74) Hall
201 Executive Drive
Newark, Delaware 19702

Contacts: Gwen Miller 302-283-1330
Stephen Crockett 443-907-2367

Speakers followed by a panel discussion. Written questions taken from the floor. Representatives from labor, business, community, government and more.

I will post the list as soon as it is finalized.

All your members are invited.

Free dinner but you will need to RSVP so we get an accurate count. This is going to be a good meal.

I will post the RSVP phone number on the Mid-Atlantic Labor.com Facebook page and on the main website.

Email me at demlabor@aol.com if you want updates and a PDF of the flyer to distribute to your membership and fellow leaders.

In solidarity,

Stephen Crockett

Unionists, Environmentalists, Progressives Need to Take Over Democratic Party

It is time to purge the corporatists from the Democratic power structure. The real work of the Democratic Party is done by grassroots activists. These activists are the Democratic Party. They should run it at every level.

This conclusion has become clear in the aftermath of tainted Blanche Lincoln primary victory in Arkansas. It took massive voter disenfranchisement and the intervention of both former President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama for Lincoln to squeak out a victory.

Obama still has not learned that the Obama Movement that put him in the White House was not really about Obama. It was about a set of progressive policies that constituted “change we can believe in.”

Former President Clinton started the process of going Republican-lite and selling out parts of the Democratic base around specific policy issues. Union members and American workers were shafted by the false promises surrounding “so-called free trade deals.” Poor Americans really suffered from some aspects of his welfare reform ideas. Deregulation helped create media consolidation that gave the corporations excessive control of public policy discussions and American politics.

Hilary Clinton was the driving force behind the most progressive policy goal of the Clinton Presidency which was the failed attempt at healthcare reform. America would have been a much better place if she had been President instead of Bill Clinton. One note of caution in her background was her position at one point on the Wal-Mart Board but her overall political history is solidly progressive.

President Clinton was not a bad on corporate issues as Reagan or both of the Bushes but he was pretty bad for a Democrat. He was not as bad as Senator Blanche Lincoln. Lincoln received more campaign money from Big Oil than any other Senator regardless of political party. She was the leading force in blocking the public option in healthcare reform.

Blanche Lincoln stopped the Employee Free Choice Act from even getting debated on the floor of the US Senate. She has a terrible record on trade policy, environmental protections, tax policy and deregulation. Blanche Lincoln has proven herself the most “corporatist” Senator in the relatively small “corporatist” wing of the Democratic Party.

Union activists, progressives and environmentalists are the majority of foot soldiers that go to battle for Democratic candidates at every level in every community of the nation. Along with civil rights leaders, civil libertarians, peace activists and the progressive Internet community, these activists give more money to elect Democrats than every corporation combined.

The corporations make the big donations and control the mainstream media but their values are really more Republican than Democratic. They value money over people. They value money over traditional American values. They value money over American patriotism. They value money over ethics, honesty and decency. Their values are directly at odds with the core values of the Democratic base.

We need to return to the values of FDR and the New Deal. We need to capture every Democratic Party office and drive out the corporatists. The Democratic Party is a much better institution because we drove out the Southern racist faction (and the northern one) and we need to do the same with the corporatists.

Obama needs to decide if he is going to the leader of this effort or an obstacle. If he elects to be an obstacle, he will not get a second term. If he joins in this populist effort, he might go down in history as an equal to our greatest American President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

With or without Obama, we need to take over every local Democratic Committee, every Democratic club and elect our “real Democrats” to public office. Government is not our enemy as long as it has not been captured by corporations. The US Constitution says we “the people” are the government. Corporations are not people despite the radical Right Wing Supreme Court rulings.

The Tea Party crowd has been captured and in some cases created by corporate forces. They cannot be the populist engine for “change you can believe in” but you and your friends can be that populist engine. Get angry, get active and fight corporatism regardless of political party.

Written by Stephen Crockett (host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com and Editor of Mid-Atlantic Labor.com http://www.midatlanticlabor.com) . Mail: 698 Old Baltimore Pike, Newark, Delaware 19702. Email: demlabor@aol.com. Phone: 443-907-2367.

Feel free to publish without prior approval.

This Sestak job offer thing is a fake scandal. Pure BS designed to take the focus off Toomey. The corporate candidate Toomey would be really hurt considering everything corporations have been doing recently to destroy the American Dream. The Wall Street financial meltdown, oil destroying the Gulf of Mexico, bad trade deals destroying American jobs, crushing national debt created by tax breaks for corporations and corporate executives, etc., etc. Toomey supported all these policies and continues pushing more of the same.

We need to write letters to the Editor, blog and call talk shows to expose this ploy. Please do your part and share this message everywhere. The Pennsylvania Senate race is important!

Stephen Crockett

Host, Democratic Talk Radio
Editor, Mid-Atlantic Labor.com

APRIL 2010 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton edition of The Union News

Senator Specter introduces legislation that would fight against bad trade practices

BY PAUL TUCKER
THEUNIONNEWSSWB@AOL.COM

REGION, March 17th- Pennsylvania Democratic United States Senator Arlen Specter has introduced legislation that seeks to help domestic manufacturers by enforcing trade remedy laws. The legislation has been referred to the Senate Committee on Finance.

“The Unfair Foreign Competition Act of 2010″ provides a private right to action for domestic manufacturers injured by illegal subsidization or dumping of foreign products into the United States. Bob Casey, (Democrat-Pennsylvania) and Sherrod Brown (Democrat-Ohio) are cosponsors.

“Joe creation and job retention in this country depend, in large part, on our ability to enforce existing trade laws. This legislation would give an injured industry the opportunity to seek reliable enforcement in federal court so that we can stop anticompetitive, predatory trade practices which steal jobs from our workers, profits from our companies, and growth from our economy,” said Mr. Specter.

The legislation would allow petitioning parties to bring a civil action in a United States district court for an injury finding in lieu of a determination by the International Trade Commission (ITC).

The legislation comes as China continues to engage in trade and market-distorting practices in violation of WTO rules and United States laws. Counties like China have ignored international trade rules, and the nation has lost countless manufacturing jobs and has a skyrocketing trade deficit.

Lessons for Obama from the Arkansas and Pennsylvania Democratic Primaries

The Obama White House hopefully will learn something about Obama 2008 winning coalition from the 2010 Democratic Primary Elections in Arkansas and Pennsylvania. The media needs to learn this same basic lesson. The Obama Movement was never just about Obama. It was about change… real change. While Obama gives a great speech and the Obama loves to hear him talk, they want real actions that they can believe in and they want it now!

Of course, the Obama movement is not really radical. However, it does want to see fundamental reforms in our political and economic system. The Obama White House has been unwilling to get out in front of the Obama Movement on almost every issue. Conservative and corporate forces within the Obama White House have effectively held back the pace of reforms and often have completely defeated them. The Obama Movement wants more! If they do not get more and soon then Obama will no longer be the leader of the Obama Movement.

Sestak won in the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate race because labor activists and the local Democratic Party leaders did not follow Obama’s endorsement of Specter although their top leadership did. The grassroots refused. They were joined by some unions and essentially all progressive organizations at every level. Minority voters simply did not vote in large numbers. The Obama Movement effectively backed Sestak or stayed home for the most part. Obama cannot take the Obama Movement down paths outside their core values.

Specter was not the kind of leader the Obama Movement wanted. Sestak was and is a different story.

Sestak loves labor. Specter needed labor. The grassroots of the labor movement understood the difference.

Sestak wants to end needless wars and wants to curb excessive corporate power. He is certainly not anti-business but he does seem more focused on Main Street than serving Wall Street. The Republican in the race, Pat Toomey, is widely considered a complete tool of Wall Street and with good reason. Toomey effectively ran the Right Wing billionaires political entity known as the Club for Growth. He will not look good running against a tough military man with a devotion to mainstream middle class values.

I believe that Specter would have lost to Toomey. I believe Sestak will soundly defeat Toomey! Sestak is both a realist and an economic populist. He is honest and hardworking almost to a fault. The contrast with Toomey will be very clear in November.

Blanche Lincoln has voted with the Republicans often. She has blocked important legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act. Only since getting an effective Democratic challenger did she start voting more often for the kind of change desired by the Obama Movement.

Lincoln did not deserve the support of Obama based on her voting record. She still does not deserve his support in the run-off. Obama’s core supporters will hold this misplaced support against Obama for a long time to come.

Obama should have stayed out of the race in both Pennsylvania and Arkansas. The American people like and respect Obama but want Obama to act more aggressively to check excessive corporate power. Opposing progressive or reform Democratic challengers only makes Obama weaker.

The Obama Movement activists want Obama to aggressively push legislation to limit the damage from the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. Obama should push legislation requiring that all shareholders should have to approve in a vote before any money from the corporate treasury gets spent on elections or politics. Corporate executives should not be able spend corporate funds on politics if even one shareholder disagrees. The executives are spending other people’s money.

All publicly traded corporations should be required to give at least 20% of the Board of Director seats to elected representatives of their employees. Obama should push that legislation.

Obama should get out and start a nationwide voter education effort to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. It is time to make unionization elections truly democratic instead of jokes rigged in favor of corporations. Workers need a much bigger say in the economy and a bigger slice of the economic pie. Obama should support legislative limits on corporate executive salaries. Corporate executives should be removed completely from the election process for members of the Board of Directors.

Obama should push legislation to break up the largest banks, modify or repeal unfair “so-called free trade deals”, hold oil companies fully responsible for economic damages from oil spills without financial limits, appoint more aggressive regulators and judges, tax imports and start repealing decades of tax breaks for international corporations.

Every hint of going “corporate Republican-lite” upsets the Obama Movement. Obama needs to remember his base. Obama should look hard at making some staff changes and policy shifts in a more Democratic reform direction. He should compromise less with his enemies and remember his real friends.

The media should stop drinking the Republican Right “tea” kool-aid! The Tea Party Republicans are not economic populists nor anti-corporate. If Obama learns the lesson of these two elections, he can lead the Democratic Party in a real economic populist reform direction. This is what the Obama Movement wants and is the key to victory in 2010.

Written by Stephen Crockett (host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com and Editor of Mid-Atlantic Labor.com http://www.midatlanticlabor.com) . Mail: 698 Old Baltimore Pike, Newark, Delaware 19702. Phone: 443-907-2367. Email: demlabor@aol.com.

Feel free to publish or reprint at no charge without prior approval.

APRIL 2010, Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton edition of The Union News

Senator Specter introduces legislation that would fight against bad trade practices

BY PAUL TUCKER
THEUNIONNEWSABE@AOL.COM

REGION, March 15th- Pennsylvania Democratic United States Senator Arlen Specter has introduced legislation that seeks to help domestic manufacturers by enforcing trade remedy laws. The legislation has been referred to the Senate Committee on Finance.

“The Unfair Foreign Competition Act of 2010″ provides a private right to action for domestic manufacturers injured by illegal subsidization or dumping of foreign products into the United States. Bob Casey, (Democrat-Pennsylvania) and Sherrod Brown (Democrat-Ohio) are cosponsors.

“Joe creation and job retention in this country depend, in large part, on our ability to enforce existing trade laws. This legislation would give an injured industry the opportunity to seek reliable enforcement in federal court so that we can stop anticompetitive, predatory trade practices which steal jobs from our workers, profits from our companies, and growth from our economy,” said Mr. Specter.

The legislation would allow petitioning parties to bring a civil action in a United States district court for an injury finding in lieu of a determination by the International Trade Commission (ITC).

The legislation comes as China continues to engage in trade and market-distorting practices in violation of WTO rules and United States laws. Counties like China have ignored international trade rules, and the nation has lost countless manufacturing jobs and has a skyrocketing trade deficit.

Currency Imbalances: China’s Problem or Ours?

By Susan Ozawa

Leading economists gathered at an EPI event today to discuss our trade deficit and labor problems caused by our imbalance with China. The conversation centered around how this imbalance can be solved by compelling China to appreciate its currency. Leo Gerard, the President of the United Steelworkers, did address domestic strategies to approach these problems, however, the central perspective of the panel appeared to view structural imbalances as a bilateral problem to be addressed through foreign policy.

I would broaden the conversation to consider this problem a historically multilateral problem of currency coordination, exacerbated by the neoliberal model of development and highlight our role in addressing these long-standing issues in both foreign and domestic policy. The dollar has fallen significantly since the recession began however, there are different domestic strategies we should pursue to address our structural trade deficit and lack of competitiveness. Looking forward, a new Bretton Woods, particularly the establishment of an International Clearing Union should be reconsidered alongside the neoliberal model of growth and development to address the international issues underlying these imbalances.

Post continues here: http://www.ourfuture.org/stories/2010031012/currency-imbalances-china-s-problem-or-ours

Contrary to Claims, Skilled Visa Programs are Used as Source of Cheap Foreign Labor, Says New EPI Study

Despite claims from employers that they use skilled guest worker visa programs to attract talented foreign workers and help them remain permanently in the U.S., new evidence shows the visa programs to be mainly a means to help outsource U.S. jobs or recruit cheap temporary labor.

A new Economic Policy Institute report examines the 20 U.S. employers receiving the most H-1B skilled worker visas and estimates that, on average, these employers apply for permanent residence status on behalf of just 13% of their H-1B workers. The report also examines the 20 employers receiving the most L-1 worker visas and estimates that, on average, they apply for permanent residency on behalf of just 7% of their L-1 workers. (In both visa programs, it is generally the sponsoring employer – not the worker – who is permitted to file for permanent residency on behalf of the worker).

“Proponents of expanding these visa programs argue that it’s in our national interest to attract the best and the brightest workers from around the world and to keep them here permanently,” said Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the report’s author. “But these employers are saying one thing and doing quite another. They are spinning these workers through a revolving door in order to drive down wages and help send more jobs overseas.”

For example, according to U.S. Department of Labor records, Tata Consultancy Services, ranking 4th in H-1B use in 2008, applied for permanent residence for none of the workers it brought to the U.S. on H-1B visas. IBM India, ranking 10th in H-1B use and 14th in L-1 use in 2008, applied for permanent residence for none of its H-1B or L-1 workers.

The report, Path to Skilled Permanent Immigrants or Cheap Temporary Labor?, shows how the skilled guest worker visa programs are being used as a strategy for reducing labor costs. In some cases, foreign workers are brought to the U.S. for job training by American workers. After the training, foreign workers return home and do the same work for less pay, while the American workers may be laid off. In other cases, foreign workers are brought to the U.S. temporarily to coordinate operations between the U.S. and workers in their home countries, often because they can be hired to do the job more cheaply.

According to the report, India became the source of 48% of all L-1B visas (a subset of L-1 visas) issued in 2005, up from 10% in 2002, indicating that “it is quite likely that a sizeable share, perhaps even a majority of L-1 visas, are being used to send work previously performed in America to low cost countries.”

The report found different uses of the visa programs depending on employers’ business models: businesses with a significant offshore presence in low-cost countries and those with a more modest offshore presence rely on the visa programs primarily for temporary labor, while those with a traditional business model (with most operations still in the U.S.) are more likely to sponsor temporary workers for permanent U.S. residence.

The report calls for reforms to the visa programs to ensure that they benefit U.S. and foreign workers and the U.S. economy overall. “When skilled foreign workers are needed we should rely primarily on permanent immigration to supply them,” the report says.

Background on the H-1B and L-1 Programs

The H-1B is a three year, non-immigrant visa created under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which can be renewed once for an additional three years. The visa provides employers with the opportunity to temporarily employ foreign workers who possess a bachelor’s degree. Employers must sponsor applications for permanent residence, leaving H-1B workers in a severely weakened bargaining position. The L-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows for intra-company transfers within multinational corporations. Unlike the H-1B, L-1 workers must only possess specialized knowledge regarding the general company operations; no higher educational degree is necessary.

About EPI

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute – or think tank – that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States and around the world.

Economic Policy Institute
Communications Department
1333 H Street, NW
Suite 300, East Tower
Washington, D.C. 20005

Hyperlinks

If the hyperlinks (above) don’t work, copy and paste these addresses into your browser:

Briefing Paper: http://www.epi.org/page/-/pdf/bp257.pdf

EPI Newsroom: http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/newsroom_index

Describing EPI: http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/newsroom_describing_epi

Toward A Progressive Tea Party Movement

Most progressives have little respect for the Fox News generated “Tea Party” movement. However, it has tapped into a very real populist anger with the direction the country is headed in at this point in our history.

Progressives should see a real opportunity in the emergence of the “Tea Party” movement to educate the public and re-direct the anger to the real villains whose actions and policies created the many problems faced by the citizens of the United States of America. Our government has failed the American public by serving corporate interests and private profit instead of the public good.

The Republican Right has been somewhat successful in twisting this legitimate anger and aiming it against those who have been fighting this corporate takeover and corruption instead of themselves. They do this by lying to the public and twisting reality.

Of course, Fox News has been the leading force in this evil propaganda campaign. However, a few corporatist Democrats like Senator Ben Nelson, independents like Joe Lieberman and almost every elected Republican in the nation have helped advance the corporatist agenda by deceiving the reformist elements in the Tea Party movement.

Tea Party activists should realize that Fox News was formed by corporatists to advance the corporatist agenda. The corporatists have captured the “conservative” movement. They are playing their followers for suckers. A few Tea Party leaders know they are being used as a tool of the Republican Right and corporatists but most do not.

The American government is not the enemy if it is actually controlled by the American public instead of by the rich and powerful elite who make up the corporatists power structure. The American government needs to provide a check and balance against corporate power. We must recapture our government from corporate interests. This will never be done by Republicans. It will never be done by the small corporatist faction of the Democratic Party. It can be done with an alliance of progressives, real Tea Party reformers, economic populists and grassroots Democrats.

The Scott Browns and Sarah Palins of the nation only play at being populists. They act in support of the corporatist agenda while talking like reformers. Scott Brown was financed by corporatist forces. He was heavily financed by the debt collection industry, banking interests, health insurance companies and the like just like Sarah Palin. Brown opposes Wall Street reforms and regulation. He wants corporate power to go unchecked. These ideas are clearly enemies of the American public and real functional democracy. Folksy talk is just more hot air. It is actions that count.

Fox News seems designed to act as a financial and political backer of Republican Right corporatist politicians. They spin everything to defeat real reforms and undermine real reformers.

Labor unions act as a check and balance on corporate power. Fox News and the Republican Right corporatists demonize them at every opportunity. Union leaders are always elected by the membership. They are the only truly democratically-elected populist element in our economic system. The Fox News crowd calls these elected leaders “union bosses.” You do not get to elect your “boss.” Try suggesting free elections for all the management positions at your place of employment and you will probably be joining the ranks of the unemployed. Corporations are basically organized in a top down dictatorial manner. It is their nature and mindset to be dictatorial with very, very few exceptions.

Suing corporations act as a check and balance to corporate power. Fox News and the Republican Right corporatists are trying to eliminate the effectiveness of this check and balance under the disguise of “tort reform.”

Campaign finance laws slightly reduced the ability of corporations to buy elections, smear reformers and defeat reforms. While in power, the Republican Right corporatists packed all our federal courts with corporatists. This is why the Republican Right corporatists on the Supreme Court have recently overturned over 60 years of established law to give corporations unlimited power to spend shareholders’ money to advance their corporatist political goals.

Most corporations are not loyal American citizens like the recent Supreme Court ruling implies. Almost all the large corporations operating in America are international in nature. International corporations should not be controlling the American economy, the American political system or the American government. American citizens should be. No matter what the Supreme Court says, international corporations are neither people nor American citizens.

The percentage of the American economy going toward debt is growing rapidly. Why? The answer is corporate power and corporatist government policy. So-called “free trade” has failed the American public while enriching the corporatists. Tax revenue has gone in the toilet because we do not tax imports and tens of millions of former taxpayers have lost their jobs. Without good-paying jobs, these workers/taxpayers are not paying nearly as much in taxes.

Tax cuts for over 30 years have been focused on enriching the corporatists and screwing the middle classes. The Fox News and the Republican Right corporatists want you to place the blame on the poor for government debt. This is pure nonsense. Unfair tax cuts are the real villains along with corporatist “free trade” policies. Additionally, the corporatists start unnecessary wars financed by public debt that enrich the international corporations while killing and maiming American soldiers.

So-called “free trade” is undermining our national security by crushing our industrial manufacturing base and crippling our national finances.

Government spending as a percentage of our economy is excessively large mostly because our economy has not really grown the way it should because of so-called “free trade.” Free trade has not been free for American citizens. Our public and personal debts have exploded. Our wages have not grown as quickly as our cost of living. Our jobs are disappearing or have already disappeared.

Government debt to enrich international corporations instead of improving the lives of American citizens is nearly criminal. Why does Medicare money get paid to drug companies without bargaining down the price of drugs? Corporate power is the only answer.

Why do Americans pay twice as much for medical care than any industrialized nation but have worse results? Why are medical costs exploding here at the same time as millions of citizens are being kicked out of their health insurance plans? Why are our companies paying the cost of health insurance while all our foreign competitors get subsidized by government payment of healthcare costs? The answers are corporate power.

The real reformers of the Tea Party movement need to look at corporate power instead of government as the villains threatening the future of America. The Republican Right, corporatists and Fox News are threatening your civil liberties and Constitutional Right not the ACLU, Obama or the Democratic Party. Republican Right, corporatists and Fox News are those who support the “national security state”, torture, jailing citizens without trial, wiretapping without court orders, etc.

International corporate interests have much more control over the lives of the average American citizen than our government does. When the government gets captured by these corporations, like it did under George W. Bush and his allies who are still in office, the American public gets hammered!

You are not ignorant or out of touch with reality just because you watch Fox News or listen to right wing talk radio but prolonged exposure will eventually get you there. Watching only Fox News will likely stop reform supporters of the Tea Party movement from realizing that they have much more in common with progressives than they ever realized. The real reformers in the Tea Party movement and progressives should unite in a Progressive Tea Party movement. Fox News and the Republican Right corporatists should not control or define the Tea Party. Both progressives and the real reform elements in Tea Party movement should reach out to each other and make common cause on many issues.

It is time for a Progressive Tea Party movement.

Written by Stephen Crockett (Host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com and Editor of Mid-Atlantic Labor.com http://www.midatlanticlabor.com).

In Trade, Too Often, the Victim is Blamed

by Leo W. Gerard
President, United Steelworkers International

A screwy thing happened after the United Steelworkers and eight domestic steel producers won their trade case late in December against Chinese manufacturers of the steel pipe used for oil and gas drilling.

Instead of describing it as an important victory for U.S. industry and workers, one in which they proved to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that China violated international trade rules, the media characterized it as Americans unnecessarily picking a fight with the Chinese.

What else is new? It’s exactly what happened in September when the United Steelworkers won tariffs in a trade case regarding imported Chinese tires.

What’s particularly disturbing about this stance from the media is that it occurs only when a trade case involves manufactured goods. The media strongly supports protections for copyrighted material - movies, music etc. The media have made clear they oppose Chinese piracy of intellectual property - you know, like the written and filmed products that media members produce.

But their reaction is completely different when the Chinese violate international rules regarding manufactured goods. Then, the media blame the victims — the U.S. industries and workers - the same way defense attorneys accuse rape victims.

Here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/03/AR2010010301961.html , for example, is the Washington Post contending that the ITC decision to impose duties of between 10.4 and 15.8 percent on Chinese pipe heightened trade hostilities between the U.S. and China:

“The current tensions began in September, when the United States imposed a staggering 35 percent import fee on tires from China.”

The Dow Jones Newswire in a story by Henry J. Pulizzi also charged the U.S. with provoking the Chinese by imposing duties, beginning with a reference to the steel pipe decision:

“The ruling adds more tension to the U.S.-China trade relationship. Ties between Washington and Beijing are already frayed by the Obama administration’s imposition of duties on Chinese tire imports and China’s criticism of U.S. moves as protectionist.”

These reporters act like the decisions themselves initiated animosity between the U.S. and China over trade. That completely disregards how the process starts - with China violating international trade rules it had agreed to obey in ways that cause U.S. businesses to collapse, factories to close, thousands of U.S. paper workers, tire workers, steelworkers and others to lose their jobs, and their communities to suffer.

We could sit back and just take it and allow U.S. industries to die, one after another, while China keeps its citizens employed by providing subsidies and supports forbidden under international law to its industries and then selling the goods in the U.S. at prices below production costs.

But that doesn’t sit well with most Americans. They believe their country should enforce trade rules. That is what U.S. industry and unions are demanding. That is what occurred in the tire and steel cases. That is what the United Steelworkers and paper manufacturers are seeking in a trade case to be heard later this year.

Demanding adherence to the rules isn’t protectionism. And the media need to stop saying it is. Here’s how Dan DiMicco, chief executive officer of Nucor, the nation’s second largest steelmaker, explained it, “It is not protectionism when countries are held accountable for the agreements and obligations they freely entered into to have access to the USA and world’s markets.”

In addition to falsely making this a protectionist fight, the media wrongly contend the tariffs were political. Dow Jones, for example, tried to make the unanimous ITC decision in the steel case political, writing:

“The ITC is an independent federal agency tasked with investigating the impact of alleged ‘dumping’ of foreign products on U.S. industries. While its six commissioners are split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, the decision fits with the Obama administration’s push to address U.S. manufacturers’ concerns about Chinese competition.”

Dow Jones implies here that somehow Obama managed to strong-arm all three Republican ITC members to vote his way in this case. None of the stories suggesting politics were involved in the tariff decisions note that Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama and nine Republican Congressmen joined dozens of Democrats in signing letters to the ITC supporting the duties.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has written that failure to enforce trade laws and compel China to stop manipulating its currency could cost the U.S. 1.4 million jobs over the next couple of years. He describes China’s behavior as mercantilist - supporting industry for export of goods to maintain high employment and trade surpluses.

He quoted economist Paul Samuelson:

“With employment less than full. . . all the debunked mercantilist arguments” - that is, claims that nations who subsidize their exports effectively steal jobs from other countries - “turn out to be valid.”

That is what China is doing to the U.S. - stealing jobs.

The U.S. doesn’t have to let it happen. America can enforce international trade laws. It works. Shortly after President Obama imposed the tire tariffs, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. announced plans to add capacity to its Findlay, Ohio plant and hire up to 100 workers. Other U.S. tire plants began recalling laid off workers.

American manufacturers, workers and communities are the victims of unfairly traded Chinese exports. They’re fed up with the media blaming them when all they’re asking for is justice.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-w-gerard/in-trade-too-often-the-vi_b_418424.html?view=print

Manufacturing Jobs Continue to Decline

by Dustin Ensinger
E-mail - editor@economyincisis.org

http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/3601

Most of the millions of manufacturing jobs lost during the recession will never return as companies find ways to continue increasing production with a scaled-down workforce, according to the USA Today.

Over two million manufacturing jobs have been lost since the current recession began in December 2007. Pressure to cut costs in the midst of an economic crisis coupled with the need to meet the demands of competing in a globalized economy, has led to factories across the country to adopt leaner operations.

According to a study by RSM McGladrey, 61 percent of manufacturers said that they already have or were considering adopting cost-cutting measures in order to maintain profits. In most cases, those cost-cutting measures involve less human labor and more technology.

The trend is nothing new, however. Manufacturers have been scaling back on workforces while increasing production for decades.

Since 1979, manufacturing employment has fallen by 7.8 million, or 40 percent. Over that same time, output has actually risen by $1.1 trillion.

Those facts have led some to speculate that the true culprit behind manufacturing job loss has been technological advancements rather than fatally flawed free trade agreements.

“Because of productivity growth, we have been able to produce more output with fewer workers,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Bloomberg News. “That’s the source of higher standards of living. If employment was moving up exactly in line with output, it would mean that productivity and standards of living had stalled.”

While the standard of living for the average American worker may have indeed risen steeply over the past few decades, those manufacturing workers forced to compete directly with Third World laborers have not seen the benefits.

From 2001 to 2007, workers displaced due to increased trade with China lost an average of $8,146 annually - a total of $19.4 billion - as they moved into lower paying jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The one million Americans whose jobs were displaced by NAFTA were forced to take a pay cut of about 18 percent. Because of NAFTA, U.S. workers lost wages totaling about $7.6 billion in 2004 alone, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

In addition, many economists contend that increased productivity and technological advancements play only a minor role in the massive job losses in the manufacturing sector. Instead, the find America’s exploding trade deficit to be a much greater factor.

“Productivity growth has played the most important role in manufacturing job loss in the recent past, but this growth is to be welcomed over the long-run, as productivity provides the ceiling on how quickly living standards can rise,” the Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens wrote. “Productivity growth, in short, is not a problem. What is a problem, however, is slow demand growth for manufactured goods. Demand for manufactured goods can come from domestic use or net exports. In recent years in the United States, these combined sources of demand have been far too weak to generate employment in manufacturing.”

November 2009, Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton edition of The Union News

Representative Mann supports American made Resolution

BY PAUL TUCKER
THEUNIONNEWSABE@AOL.COM

ALLENTOWN, October 15th- Democratic Pennsylvania House of Representative Jennifer Mann (132nd Legislative District), stated she is proud to join colleagues of the General Assembly in Harrisburg in supporting House Resolution 164, which calls for projects funded by the stimulus plan to give perferential treatment to United States based firms in procuring services and manufacturing goods. Representative Mann is Majority Caucus Secretary.

“Pennsylvania has received a windfall of federal dollars through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRAct). This has put America on the road to recovery from the national recession,” said Ms. Mann who serves on the Pennsylvania Stimulus Oversight Commission, which was established to ensure that ARRA funds is documented.

She stated as a result of the stimulus plan, more commonly known as the federal economic stimulus plan, Pennsylvania is paving roads, fixing bridges and building schools. “Not only has this made our Commonwealth a better place to live, invest and raise a family, but it has also helped create and retain thousands of family-sustaining jobs for men and women across our state,” added Ms. Mann. The 132nd District includes most of Lehigh County.

“Democrats and Republicans put their ideological differences aside and voted unanimously in favor of the resolution in order to help American businesses survive and thrive,” Ms. Mann added.

In her opinion, for the most part the ARRAct has been successful for Pennsylvanians, but there is still more opportunities to create even more jobs by maximizing the purchasing power of the dollars the state is receiving from the federal government. In addition to continuing public construction products, domestically manufactured materials should be used as often as possible.

“When it is not possible to get a specific material or product from a United States producer, ARRA project managers can apply for a ‘procurement prioity waiver,’ which allows them to acquire the material or product from a foreign source. The waiver requests are public information; however, that information has not been easily accessible until recently,” stated Ms. Mann.

The procurement priority waiver requests is listed at the state’s official federal stimulus project website: www.recovery.pa.gov. Because of the site local manufacturers can quickly see what is being requested and adjusted their production lines accordingly to meet demands.

“The posting will help our companies retain and create jobs instead of losing business to outsourcing. Commonwealth businesses will be able to take advantage of a simple, easy-to-use tool that will allow entrepreneurs, plant managers, investors and laborers to discover in-demand products and secure the contracts for these goods and services, maximizing the valuable economic development dollars we are receiving from the federal government,” added Ms. Mann.

November 2009 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton edition of The Union News

Department of Labor expands Trade Assistance to workers

BY PAUL LEESON
THEUNIONNEWSSWB@AOL.COM

REGION, October 18th- The United States Department of Labor (DOL) announced that approximately 7,200 workers from companies in 17 states including Pennsylvania are eligible to apply for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA). DOL announces almost monthly that more workers are eligible under TAA.

Workers 50 years of age and older may elect to receive Re-employment Trade Adjusted Assistance RTAA under the program. If a worker obtains new employment at wages less than $55,000 and less than those earned in adversely affected employment, the RTAA program will pay 50 percent of the difference between the old wage and the new wage, up to $12,000 over a two-year period. RTAA participants may also be eligible for retraining and the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC).

“United States workers deserve our full support, especially when they are negatively impacted by trade in the midst of a challenging job market. I am pleased that this program will help prepare displaced workers for new opportunities in emerging sectors,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.

Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin are the other 16 states receiving Trade Adjustment Assistance.

Workers covered by these latest TAA certifications will be contacted by their respective states with instructions on how to apply for individual benefits and services. Those who apply may receive case management and re-employment services, training in new occupational skills and trade readjustment allowances that provide income support for workers enrolled in the training.

Some workers may also receive job search and relocation allowances, and the Health Coverage Tax Credit.

TAA provides training and employment services for workers who have lost their jobs due to competitive foreign trade. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 expanded the pool of eligible Trade Adjustment Assitance recipients.

“American workers within a number of industries are being impacted by direct foreign competition. Trade Adjustment Assistance is one way we can help these individuals re-enter the workforce in promising industries that pay good wages,” said Ms. Solis.

In September, the Department of Labor announced from specific companies were eligible to apply for TAA in 14 states including Pennsylvania.

For more information on Trade Adjustment Assistance and the range of DOL employment and training services visit the agencies web-site at: http://www.doleta.gov.

October 2009, Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton edition of The Union News

Department of Labor gives Trade Assistance to state workers

BY PAUL LEESON
THEUNIONNEWSABE@AOL.COM

REGION, August 30th- The United States Department of Labor announced that approximately 3,200 workers from specific companies in 14 states including Pennsylvania are eligible to apply for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA).

The other states that received Trade Adjustment Assistance are: Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Winconsin.

Workers covered by the lastest Trade Adjustment Assistance certifications will be contacted by their respective states with instructions on how to apply for individual benefits and services. Those who apply may receive case management and re-employment services, training in new occupational skills and trade readjustment allowances that provide income support for workers enrolled in training. Some workers may also receive job search and relocation allowances, and the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC).

TAA provides training and employment services for workers who have lost their jobs due to competitive foreign trade. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 expanded the pool of eligible TAA recipients.

“American workers within a number of industries are being impacted by direct foreign competition. Trade Adjustment Assistance is one way we can help these individuals re-enter the workforce in promising industries that pay good wages,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis on the Department of Labor (DOL) web-site.

Under the program, workers 50 years old and older may elect to receive Re-employment Trade Adjustment Assistance (RTAA). If a worker obtains new employment at wages less than $55,000 and less than those earned in adversely affected employment, the RTAA program will pay 50 percent of the difference between the old wage and the new wage, up to $12,000 over a two-year period. Re-employment Trade Adjustment Assistance participants may also be eligible for retraining and the HCTC.

For more information on Trade Adjustment Assistance and the range of DOL employment and training services visit the agencies web-site at: http://www.doleta.gov.

Department of Labor (DOL) announces Tama employees are one of twenty to receive new TAA program certification

BY PAUL LEESON
THEUNIONNEWSABE@AOL.COM

LEHIGH VALLEY, July 3rd- The United States Department of Labor announced the certification of 20 petitions for benefit eligibility for workers under the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, which provides training and employment services for workers who have lost their jobs due to competitive foreign trade. The 20 are the first certifications under the new TAA law that took effect on May 18th, 2009, which among other changes, expanded program access to previously ineligible service industry workers. One of the 20 includes a employer in the Lehigh Valley.

Tama Manufacturing in Allentown received TAA certification. The employers workers are represented by Workers United (SEIU), formerly UNITE HERE Union, located on Hamilton Street in Allentown.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 expanded the pool of eligible TAA recipients to include; workers in companies that supply services; workers whose companies have shifted production to any foreign country; workers in public agencies; workers whose companies produce component parts of a finished product; workers in companies that supply testing, packaging, maintenance and transportation services to companies with TAA-certified workers; and workers whose companies are indentified in an International Trade Commission “injury” determination listed in the Trade Act of 1974.

Workers experiencing a loss or decrease in employment due to trade may submit a petition to the DOL for certification. Workers certified as eligible have access to a variety of resources such as re-employment services, job search allowances, relocation allowances and various types of income support. The expanded TAA has resulted in more than 1,200 petitions filed since May.