Presidential candidate Kucinich vows to leave WTO
Originally published in the Tacoma News Tribune
Presidential candidate Kucinich vows to leave WTO
ADAM LYNN; The News Tribune
Playing to a pro-labor crowd Sunday, Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich vowed to get the United States out of the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement if he's elected to the White House.
The congressman from Ohio told a standing room-only crowd at the International Longshore & Warehouse Union hall in Fife that NAFTA and WTO are hurting working people across the country and the world.
The treaty makes it far too easy for corporations to move their businesses out of the United States to countries with lower wages and lax environmental laws, he said. The WTO assures that nothing will happen to erode NAFTA, he added.
"NAFTA has been used to break workers,'' Kucinich said. "It's hurting workers' rights. It's hurting human rights. It's hurting the environment.''
That message resonated with the members of ILWU Local 23, who last year were locked out of work by the Pacific Maritime Association, which controls shipping on the West Coast. They gave Kucinich a standing ovation.
Kucinich prompted more applause when he promised to institute a national health care system where every citizen receives medical coverage.
"No more health care for profit in America,'' he said. His system, which would include a prescription drug benefit along with dental coverage, could be funded through dollars already being paid into the current system, Kucinich said.
"The money's there,'' he said. "Right now, though, it's going to pay for executive bonuses, for advertising and lobbying and for corporate profit.''
Kucinich also said he would fight to return the age when American workers can retire with full Social Security benefits to 65. He also said he would oppose any efforts to privatize Social Security.
"That money belongs to Main Street, not Wall Street,'' he said.
Class warfare has broken out in America, Kucinich said, and the poor and middle classes are losing out to corporate greed.
"The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer,'' he said.
He then broke into song, belting out a few bars of the Tennessee Ernie Ford song, "16 Tons,'' in which the narrator tells St. Peter he can't die because he owes his soul to the company store.
"We can't go back, in this country, to 16 tons,'' Kucinich said. "When I'm elected, we're going to have a workers' White House.''
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Congressman Dennis Kucinich is the only Presidential Democrat Candidate who is for recinding NAFTA, GATT, WTO and more regarding the betrayal of the American workers and workers everywhere.
The WTO controls the flow of wealth outside any real democratic process and without the consent of workers who are the core of all economic trade. The workers have had no voice in the matter. For more information see Tapart Real News and Art that Talks at http://yestapart.bizland.com/tapartnews or shorter url address at http://tapartnews.filetap.com and see background top newspaper story titled Power to the People art featuring the American Dream is Burning artwork by Ray Tapajna. View also the Cross 9-11 Tangle of Terror artwork asking who will now untangle the terror Globalism and Free Trade have bred; Locked out workers bearing their Cross and the Clinton Years-The American Dream Reversed artwork at http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/a/arklineart
Posted by: Tapart News Advocate | January 2, 2004 12:21 PM