The May Day National Strike, and Unregulated Trade as Leading Cause of Migration

As the May Day national strike approaches, it might be worth revisiting the leading cause of migration from Latin America to the U.S.: Unregulated life-destructive trade policies. These unfair trade agreements and organizations (NAFTA, FTAA, WTO, etc) exist EXCLUSIVELY to protect only the interests of huge transnational corporations against local worker and environmental protections, the agreements themselves strictly prohibiting the later as a condition of trade. This must be turned upside down. Neither congress nor the corporate media giants have yet fully acknowledged this as the root cause of migration, poverty, displacement, and a myriad of other social and economic problems worldwide. Too, it comes with some bit of disappointment that even the immigrants and progressives themselves have been content to frame this only as a immigrant rights issue, rather than the international labor, environmental, and health issue that it truly is.

Not only can migration be slowed or even halted, but the standard of living in the U.S. could also be raised, by ensuring that the same life-protective rights that are enjoyed in the U.S. are also enjoyed in Mexico and everywhere else. Instead of favoring only corporate profit, the terms of trade agreements should also impose incentives and "conditions for trade" on prospective government and corporate participants in order to ensure labor and environmental standards are comparable across borders.

Here are a couple of recent postings at TBTW, with much thanks to David Sirota, Randi Rhodes, and Mike Malloy, who more than most others, have gone to great lengths to expose the most censored issue in the U.S.--unregulated life-destructive corporate globalized trade:

Root Causes of Illegal Immigration: The Big Lie Systematically Propagated by Corporate Media Economic Reporting

The Taboo Subject at the Core of the Immigration Debate