Globalization, Corporatism, and the "Free Market"

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) with the World Trade Organization. This eliminating protective tariffs on imported goods on the nations who signed, and enabled corporations to move to the country with the lowest production costs, and still enabled them to ship the goods back into any nation with low cost. Thus, corporations look for the lowest bidder in terms of lowest wages, lack of environmental or labor laws, and moves to the country with the cheapest production costs. This has caused a massive increase, in fact a flood of cheap good into the U.S. from China, Mexico, and elsewhere, hurting U.S. owned competition. In the third world nations, these factories and goods displace local sustainable economies. We all get hurt when corporations, aided by state intervention with our tax-dollars, create artificial monopolies and oligopolies in this way.

One good example is how Congress continually passes an agricultural bill each year, giving Archer-Daniels Midland, General Mills, and other big corporations tax breaks and billions of dollars in free aid - from us the taxpayers. This creates artificially cheaper food prices. Then these corporations ship their food to Mexico or India and put the local farmers out of business. Left with no where else to go, the impoverished move to the mega-cities and work in sweatshop factories.

The United States taxpayers spend billions of dollars in corporate giveaways called "subsidies" to agribusiness, energy companies, pharmaceuticals, and many other corporations that are destroying the planet. This creates oligopolies and artificial false markets - restricting competition. If we lived in a true free market, we would have no subsidies, more competition, and more choices for the consumer.

Since NAFTA we are seeing record illegal immigration into the U.S. as Mexican farmers have been put out of business and wages have fallen. The Mexican elite allow and encourage their masses to immigrate into the U.S., as a steamvalve to twart revolution at home.

Our National Sovereignty and Constitutional Rights are compromised with these agreements. The WTO agreement has been used [Chapter 11] to overturn existing U.S. laws because they are barriers to "free trade." If the U.S. passed an environmental regulation to keep our water clean from carcinogens, a corporation can use the WTO tribunal to either get the law overturned, or to force the U.S. taxpayers to pay a huge fine - say $100 billion per year - to Exxon Mobil or some other corporation who sees our law as a "barrier" to free trade. They can overturn labor, anti-animal cruelty, women's rights, or other equality laws as well. When did the American people agree to give up their rights?

There is now a move to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), to expand NAFTA to all of the Americas, and a North American Union, further accelerating the corporate exploitation of the globe. One must think - if these agreements were really in the best interests of the people, wouldn't they be instigated and pushed by grassroots citizen organizations? But they are not - they are being pushed by globalist kingpins like David Rockefeller and corporate interests who attend secret gatherings like the Bilderberg Group, which are completely sealed off from public input.

It is clear that in a North American Union court, much like the European Constitution and Court being implemented right now - opposed by 90% of Europe - our Bill of Rights and Constitution will be compromised. We may not have a trial by jury, right to free speech, to bear arms, or to not incriminate ourselves. This is the ultimate threat to our rights and freedoms and must be opposed.



In 2005, President Bush signed a series of then-secretive agreements called the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America - starting to merge regulatory, transportation, agricultural, environmental, and military policies of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Judicial Watch has used Freedom of Information Act Requests to find out what is being implemented. This agreement threatens DSHEA, a law ensuring Americans free access to vitamin and supplement doses without a prescription. In much of Europe today, one must get a prescription for vitamins - in Germany, for example, one needs a prescription for Vitamin C over 200 mg, and many other beneficial nutrients are banned or severely regulated - much to the glee of Big Pharma, who seeks to destroy competitive health strategies.

Despite massive citizen opposition and protest, in 2006 our Congress passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) extending NAFTA into further Latin American countries.

We must seek a goal to reverse the damage done by NAFTA, by considering re-instituting the protective tariffs, as well as giving tax-relief and other incentives for new entrepreneurs in America. Big companies provide many jobs and goods and services, but our economy doesn't need to be based and dependent on a few corporations. When corporations run amuck and are clearly committing illegal acts in order to squash competition, exploit economies, people, or the environment, we must use the one tool that we have as citizens to punish them. We remind you that "corporations" unlike normal businesses, whose owners are personally liable for the companies' activities, exist by permission of the state in which it is chartered. The people have the authority to revoke the charter of any corporation.

We propose that any corporation that breaks the law and commits three felonies in any ten year period shall have its charter revoked.

We propose an end of subsidies from these big corporations, meaning less money for wealthy executives and more money in the pockets of American taxpayers.

We recommend watching the movie "The Corporation" and research information of the World Trade Organization by various citizen organizations.

Global Economy 101

Revoking Corporate Charters

Citizens Committee for Restructured Government
www.CCRG.info