Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

VIDEO: When Art meets Real Life (via TCM)

This is Saturday night at the movies meets real life.

For me, the
best movies encompass real life within them. “On the Waterfront” has special
meaning today for us all as we look forward to doing new trade deals that have
important implications for the American family, the American worker, as well
as the American middle class in the age of globalization.

As regular readers know, I'm a union gal. That said, I
also appreciate private companies that take care of their workers without a
union. However, it should be noted that these companies are rare and likely would not make the effort if
unions did not exist.

I joined my first performance union in my teens (AFTRA), then went on to join
Equity, AGVA and SAG. But this isn't about performance unions, which are
important. It's about the trade deal, which obviously has far wider ramifications. No, let me be clearer. The secret trade deal, it appears, something that should concern us all. Via Matt Stoller:

Here's what concerns me. There was a big press conference on Thursday designed to create a certain type of message around the trade pact. The Democrats won labor and environmental standards, but corporate America is happy as well. You can see the reporting coming out with this messaging. The problem is that the details of the deal are still secret. I have talked to Congressman Michaud's office, to the USBIC, and to various trade groups, and none of them have seen the specifics of the deal. This is extremely problematic and dishonest of the people negotiating and announcing the details. Pelosi, Rangel, Baucus, Bush, and the New Democrats knew that they could generate a huge raft of headlines on the trade deal without actually revealing the meat of the deal, so they did so. This is pretty much how the war in Iraq was sold, how the Bankruptcy bill was sold, and how NAFTA was sold. In fact, we have only three pieces of real information about the deal. One, we know that it was negotiated by New Democrats, Pelosi, Baucus, and Bush, and that labor unions and fair traders were excluded. And two, we know that the announcement was made to generate headlines without giving us the details to actually know whether the proponents of the deal were telling the truth. And we know the deal is still secret. The question is, why? Open the Trade Deal

Other posts on the subject include Sirota,
the Teamsters and
the AFL-CIO,
among others that are cheerleading the secret trade efforts. One comes from the NDL: “Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) terming it “exactly the kind of forward-thinking trade policy we need.” Tauscher endorsing the deal scares the crap out of me. So color me very skeptical about what I've read so far. Via Sirota's updates comes news
that greatly alarms me and should you as well:

But a half-dozen House Democrats with strong labor ties, watching the news conference from the back of the room, later expressed strong dissatisfaction with the process. “The strongest voices for workers and the environment were not included” in the negotiations and were not informed of the deal, said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio. “I'm very disappointed that Speaker Pelosi held a press conference before meeting with the caucus,” said Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine. “In a democratic process Democrats ought to know.”

Stoller has also put up two documents I encourage you to read: New
Trade Policy Outline and New
Trade Policy Details (both pdfs).

Today was just going to be a post about a Saturday night at the movies. However,
when you see the video you will see this actually is about the way we live and
work in America, as well as how we make sure the middle class has the jobs so
that regular families don't end up having to spend all of their time working
and no time together, because one job doesn't make ends meet. James
Webb said it well, but there are many progressive populists talking about
it today. John
Edwards is another one, as he holds very strong
for unions, working families and the middle class. Edwards may be rich today,
but it's not where he began.

“On the Waterfront” tells a the tail of middle class struggle and unions on the docks, with quite a bit of violence,
coercion and dirty politics mixed in. For me, movies are America, because the
best ones don't just offer an escape, but tell a story that holds a lesson.
We would be wise to learn it, which we did in good part when it came to unions back in those days. But it remains to be seen what will happen to the American worker in the age of globalization. Trade deals matter, especially when the negotiations and deal making are secret.