The WiscoTrader
Providing Fair Trade News and Views You Won't Find In Mainstream Media
May 3rd, 2005 ~ Issue 9 ~ Puppies for Sale: The Humane Society Sells Out
More at www.wiscotrader.org
*The Good: A Broad & Deep Coalition Derails CAFTA . . . For Now.
When Jim Hightower and Patrick Buchanan are on the same side -with the
Sierra Club and John Birch Society singing kumbaya together in the
background - there is real hope we will actually change the way trade
agreements work in this world. A broad coalition including labor groups,
business, farmers, environmentalists, political activists and the
interfaith
community are continuing the rally to derail CAFTA.
The battle by big business to secure CAFTA votes - often below the radar -
goes on, with CAFTA sup****ters still said to be 30-40 votes short. A House
Ways and Means Committee mock markup was planned for the second week of
May,
but then promptly "postponed." The House Republican Whip, Roy Blunt (MO)
has set up a "lobbyist whip" operation with more than 200 cor****ate
lobbyists pressuring for passage. And the White House is apparently
planning
to hold an event with President Bush and the presidents of the other six
CAFTA countries in the second week of May.
To do your part to stop CAFTA, visit http://www.wiscotrader.org/action
*The Bad: Puppies for Sale -- The Humane Society Sells Out on CAFTA
The Humane Society Has Sister Groups Fuming. A letter sent by 14 members
of
Congress attributes the Humane Society's position on CAFTA to the $500,000
grant the organization received from the U.S. Agency for International
Development to do work in Central America. Led by Rep. Sherrod Brown
(D-Ohio), the signers point out that, before receiving the grant, the
Humane
Society "was a strong opponent of Congressional passage of all major trade
legislation over the past decade," including the North American Free Trade
Agreement and the establishment of permanent normal trade relations with
China. The letter also alleges that the Humane Society illegally used some
of its grant money to lobby in favor of CAFTA, and it asks the Government
Accountability Office to investigate. (Wa****ngton Post)
*The Ugly: Offshoring by ****pping US Jobs . . . To a ****p Offshore
"Offshoring" now means just three miles off our shores. SeaCode Inc.'s
proposal to house 600 foreign software engineers on a cruise ****p moored
three miles off the California coast, thus undercutting U.S. wage rates
and
circumventing local labor rules, has led to an appropriate response: The
technology columnist John Dvorak described the vessel as a "slave ****p."
Other critics preferred the label "sweatshop." The words "exploitative"
and
"inhumane" caromed around the Web. (LA Times)
Related: Offshoring is "Psychologically Disturbing"
Indian call centers try deception to deflect customer anger. Rahail
Manzoor,
for example, is told to call himself "Jim" on the phone, and he has
undergone lessons in how to speak "American." Some call centers have giant
TV screens showing the current weather in U.S. cities, the latest s****ts
scores, and such, so workers can make small talk and pretend to be in the
U.S. (Jim Hightower)
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